Hot bowl .. is this bad?

[KinnScience]

I realize that having a hot bowl can foul the tobacco .. and the pipe. But I smoke some of my VA's dry and this often results in my bowl feeling pretty hot in my hand (though the smoke is still dry and sweet).

My question is: is this bad for my bowl? Should I stop smoking if I feel the heat on my hand too much while holding the bowl? Is the heat damaging to the integrity of the briar?

[Hermit]

If it gets too hot to hold against your cheek,
it's too hot. Let it cool down and relight.

[sepia5]

If the briar gets too hot it can, indeed, crack, especially if you either don't have any carbon buildup in there (this can also result in the dreaded burnout) or have too much. But keep in mind that most pipes are almost always going to get at least warm in your hand while you're smoking, especially if they aren't thick-walled. I read somewhere--maybe even on here--about an approach that one smoker took that worked for him. If the pipe ever got so hot that he couldn't hold it for a good 6 seconds straight, he put it down for a couple minutes and let it cool. As a rule of thumb, I've adopted this 6 seconds concept. I don't generally have a problem with smoking too hot, probably because I'm not quite the puffer that some may be (I'm more of a drooler). That said, I have a Dunhill group 3 billiard that I like to use as a flake pipe, and I almost always have to give it a rest because its thin walls seem to heat up so easily. Too bad, too, because otherwise it really is a perfect little pipe.