CAKE ADVICE FOR ROOKIES -
No cake from the get-go isn't noticed.
The right amount of cake is good - it sneaks up on you.
Too much cake is bad.
As my regular pipes gradually acquired a practically unnoticeable layer of cake I mistakenly thought I had become a better, smarter, more intelligent smoker. Heh heh. What a rube... It was only the cake.
Then, one December day, Secret Pipe Santa sent me a snappy little Senior Reamer and I thought, "Lets have a go with a couple of pipes and see what this thing does." Well, I got a little overly absorbed in the reaming process and took several pipes too, or very near too, briar - it didn't take long to denude these practically-perfect smoking pipes as I learned about the adjustment nuances of the Senior Reamer. There was more cake built up than I'd thought and, once it was gone, the pipes decidedly smoked hotter and wetter than they had the week before. I did, however, have a nice pile of carbon dust to show for my efforts. Lesson learned: cake is good and scraping it all off is not the smart move.
I've seen old guys keep their pipes just right with a dull pocketknife and a few gentle scrapes each week or two (no thanks - I love my Senior Reamer). An ebay Amphora (Netherlands) bulldog pipe I bought was so cake-jammed it was barely useable but a ream and a salt-soak turned it into a fine big-bowled smoker. It's nice it wasn't cracked; the pipe was like new under a gross layer of carbon. Whoever owned it before I did was a dangerously unaware pipe smoker who dissed his gear by not maintaining it properly.
The cake added from break-in and on probably won't make you sit up one day and say, "Woo hoo! Today this pipe suddenly smokes great!" But the sudden absence of a good cake layer will be missed.
After you smoke a pipe enough it'll become obvious when it's cake laden if you hang around this forum. If you're lucky enough to get a Senior Reamer feel free to carefully scrape the pipe back to briar in about three minutes just to see how well the device works. After you smoke the newly bare pipe you will not scape one that much again, I'll bet.
