The N00b-cake's pipe.. How'd I do?

[illuminatus]

Well, I got all this free tobacco, and then my roommate got 1.5lbs too.. So between us, we had 3lbs of pipe tobacco and not a pipe to be seen. His suggestion? "Let's go to the gas station, get some papers, and roll our own black & milds!" My reply? *SLAP* So we went to the B&M and each picked up a pipe for $20. I paid like $23 for a pipe, some cleaners, tax, and a free ounce of tobacco. I think I did ok, but what do you guys think of this pipe? It's just a cheapy briar, and for $20 I didn't expect anything amazing, but I like the shape, and I'm hoping it'll be a decent learner's pipe. I put a second bowl through it last night, so I'm on my way to breaking it in (only like 10 bowls left ).

Here's another quick question that I searched for, but couldn't find specifically: When breaking in a pipe, and trying to build up a cake, how thoroughly do I clean the bowl after smoking? After both bowls so far, I have let it cool completely, then removed the stem and run a few pipe cleaners down it, and used a q-tip to clean out inside the tenon. I want to clean the bowl, but I don't know if cleaning it out would completely eliminate the cake, or what?

[Mindflux]

Looks good to me Nicko.

What tobacco have you tried? I've tried a few and thus far the Rum & Maple is my favorite. Least fav is the Fox and Hound.

That being said I think I've only tried 4 of 'em..

[illuminatus]

Originally Posted by Mindflux

Looks good to me Nicko.

What tobacco have you tried? I've tried a few and thus far the Rum & Maple is my favorite. Least fav is the Fox and Hound.

That being said I think I've only tried 4 of 'em..

I actually had the rum & maple last night (last night being like 2AM, so like 8 hours ago ), I liked it. I think my favorite so far though is the cherry cordial, I highly recommend you try it. That fox and hound.. well, I opened it and made a face, and closed it again.

[Scott M]

When you're finished, put your thumb over the bowl and shale up the ashes so that they coat the bowl. You can leave that ash in the bowl until your next smoke.

That's the most popular method to build cake. Burley tobaccos tend to build cake the quickest, but it's supposed to be the weakest cake. VAs are the opposite.


My ; smoke the damn thing and it'll build up cake on its own.

[illuminatus]

Originally Posted by Scott M

My ; smoke the damn thing and it'll build up cake on its own.

That's the advice I like! I'm staying away from aromatics for now, might get a cheapy cob pipe for those. Or might just try em in my pipe, see how it goes... whatever...

[carbonbased_al]

Originally Posted by Scott M

My ; smoke the damn thing and it'll build up cake on its own.

Couldn't agree more with that statement.

[illuminatus]

Originally Posted by carbonbased_al

Couldn't agree more with that statement.

Alright.. 2 votes for smoke it and let it do its thing! So then, instead of cleaning out the bowl... just make sure to get leftover tobacco bits out, to avoid hotspots, is that correct?

[Fat Old Sun]

I'm watching this one like a hawk. After much procrastinating, I'm going out today to look for a pipe.

[Scott M]

One popular method is to smoke only 1/4, 1/3, or 1/2 bowls for the first few. The theory is to get the bottom of the bowl involved first.

One way or another doesn't appear to make a diference, but the connecting thread between all of the opinions seems to be

A) smoke the tobacco all the way until it's all ash, and

B) shake the ash in the bowl after you're done to coat the interior.