Figured I'd share this with y'all maybe get a discussion going. I had a new smoker checking out my pipes. He was impressed, and wanted to know how I build cake in my pipes.

So i had to stop and think. Basically, when I get a new pipe, I just smoke the new out of it. He asked if I was worried about burning out a new pipe from consecutive smokes. I told him (hopefully I am right) that for new pipes, I don't worry about resting them too much.

So, I showed him my Rad Davis that I got a few days ago. It has cake build up on the bottom of the bowl and bare wood near the rim. I told him that I've been smoking it for a few days. And that I will probably give it a few days rest soon.

Am I correct here? Do y'all smoke your new pipes alot when you first get them before you start giving them the appropriate rest?

I almost hate to give advice because I am no expert, just a pipe enthusiast.

I tend to build cake about the same way. I smoke a new pipe filled to the top right from the first bowl and smoke carefully and completely to the bottom. At the end of the smoke I like to cover the top of the bowl and shake the ash to evenly distribute it on the chamber walls. I don't continually smoke a new pipe to break her in, It gets put into the rotation along with my other pipes.

TO, I'm 100% in your camp...

I smoke 'em til the new wears off.. then they go in rotation, well I really don't have a rotation but ya know what I mean.
By the time your new pipe quits being your favorite pipe because its new it will more than likely be broke in.

Aftrnoon All, This is a very important subject, in the smoking of pipes, and one of which gathers so much, Hub-bub! I do not get or allow but the thinest of cakes on ANY of my pipes, and this comes about, by having a large rotation, pipes that have been assigned certain type of bacy, the amount of times I have smoked a certain pipe, and my cleaning of these pipes, On the whole a thick cake is bad for the pipe, and in turn surrenders "tastability" of the tabac, Ken
pacem en Puffing!

Pretty much all of the above. I'm not a firm believer in the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and then full bowl camp on a new pipe. I load it up and smoke it. Sometimes three or four bowls in the day on the same pipe. (Knock on wood) I have only had one pipe (a commision) that had a blow out/hot spot and that happened on the second bowl because it was a bad piece of briar. All of my pipes have a pretty even (although thin) cake.

The 1/4, 1/3, etc works well, but sometimes I'm just to lazy to keep filling my pipe... Really this is only important IF you don't smoke all the way to the bottom.

Fill it, Burn it, Dump it, and REPEAT!
That's the way I do it........

Can you be a little more concise with your posts, please, Dover?

Hey all. I have done both. Just start smoking a new pipe like normal (full bowls), and the 1/4, 1/2, etc. method. Both are viable. I just got a couple of Petersons this summer and they´re taking a while to get the "new" out. They already have a great cake forming on them, but still I perceive a hint of "new" in them (2 months now). With these I just started smoking them as if they were a broken-in pipe. Doesn´t to seem to make much difference (IMHO) as long as you´re conciencious enough to smoke them to the bottom and not overheat in the beginning.

I tend to take a lot of time building a cake. So I smoke them and rest them for about a day.

The analogy I make is quite simple:
If you heat wood too much it will turn into coal, thus if you smoke it you'll smoke some bit of it, but if you give a little warm it will tend to get the wood harder and harder, which is I think is the purpose of the whole thing.
So I believe the right way is to let it rest sometime before heating it again.

As for the cake itself, I don't really care about the thickness of it as long as it doesn't affect smoking. But I have seen one or two pipes that cracked from having a cake too thick. And let me tell you it was not a nice thing to see!!

But, what matters is that whatever works is fine.

what works for me as well, is smoking a burley to break in the pipe... they tend to build cake faster for me and as always easier to burn to the bottom.

I normally only fill a pipe approximately 3/4's of the way most of the time anyway so I usually just use my normal smoking routine when breaking in a pipe.

Does anyone do the clover honey in the bowl to help build the cake? One of my students gave me something that her grandfather wrote where he swears by this.