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laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
in Pipes
Ok, so I have been doing tons of reading and there are a few things which I haven't got fully figured out yet. One of them is that I have read that you should rest a pipe for at least 24 hours after using it. My question then would be, does that mean everytime I smoke a bowl full from my pipe that I have to rest it for a whole 24 hour period? I seem to remember that people who smoke pipes use and refill and reuse several times a day. Should I have multple pipes, so I can use a new one for each time I light up?

I do have several pipes coming and I was going to devote one for each type of tobacco that I try until I find some favorites. Now this information leads me to think I may need a couple or few pipes for each type. I'm confused.

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 239 ✭
    Rule of thumb is that you do want more than one pipe in your rotation. Resting your is for the best, it will certainly prolong the life of the pipe. Now, I don't rest them for 24 hours in some cases and I have not noticed any issues, then again I am not a habitual pipe smoker and have quite a few on hand so it's rare that I do smoke more than one bowl a day out of the same pipe...but I have. To be safe, I would say keep a few pipes on hand if you want to smoke more than one per day or...get a Meerschaum. Here's a pretty good post and some folks do have some decent incite. Rotation is a pretty new concept, but it’s a 50/50 amongst smokers.
    http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/rotation#post-112672
  • J.S.J.S. Posts: 754 ✭
    I have only been smoking pipes for about 2 1/2 years now so I am still new too. I have found that you can smoke the same pipe all day. I do wait until it is cooled and clean it before reuse. However, if I smoke a 2nd bowl I make sure that I don't use it again for a full day. If it is just one bowl then the next day I may smoke it again. I have smoked the same pipe at one bowl a day for several days without issue but I will say that when I do I find that a complete cleaning will need to be done a little more frequently then letting it rest properly. Smoking more than 1 bowl I find the pipe must rest. Just my .02.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,835 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's OK. How to put this without being confusing? Mmmm

    It has a lot to do with the wetness, of the tobacco and how wet your pipe gets, so it varies. I usually only smoke once or twice a day, so it's rarely an issue. There are times, however, when I'll smoke one pipe two or three times in a day, or as J.S. does, a few days in a row with just one pipe. Doing so, eventually the briar gets wetter, and doing so too much eventually becomes dank and foul, and will require a more thorough cleaning and longer rest.

    During the break-in period, I'll often smoke the same pipe a few times in a day, beginning by loading only about 1/3 of a bowlful a couple times, moving up to 1/2, 3/4 , probably a few times each. Takes time to break a pipe in, sometimes a lot of time.

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  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There used to be a pipe named The Pipe. It was plastic, with a graphite lined bowl. It would always smoke dry and never needed rest. Clean dry ash shook out of it, swab the stem, and you were done. Great pipe.

    But wooden pipes, and even meerschaum pipes to a lesser extent, will sog up if you don't rotate them.

    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • mgk2020mgk2020 Posts: 97
    There were several listed on eBay the other day (as well as several The Smoke pipes). May still be there. My next pipe will be a meerschaum I'm thinking. Mason
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Some pipers have put this kind of advice to the test, and run their pipes hard - day in and day out, no rest, for as long as they could

    From what few experiments that have been done, it seems that smoking a pipe without resting it will eventually produce some bitterness and a wet smoke with lots of gurgling, as the pipe hasn't dried out (assuming it's a briar - meerschaums and plastic pipes don't have this problem since they don't absorb the wetness or expand with wetness)

    If you abuse the hell out of a pipe, it might crack from absorbing the water and then having that water expand when it's heated with another bowl - but the only instance I've ever heard of someone actually managing to do this was on purpose, after many days/weeks of not resting the bowl at all . . . and the pipe was a cheap POS, nowhere near quality briar.

    So, is it possible to crack your bowl if you don't rest it? yeah, but you'd have to be purposefully brutal and the pipe would likely have to be cheaply made. If you managed to crack a quality briar pipe through over smoking, I'd wager every pipe forum on the internet would be interested in how you managed it.

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