Breaking in a Virgin Pipe
Virgin pipes are pipes that don’t have any coating in their tobacco chambers. They are completely clean inside the tobacco chamber and bare wood can be seen.
There are a lot of methods how to burn in a Virgin Pipe. We will mention only few of them like:
– coat the tobacco chamber with honey before the first use
– coat the chamber with strong beverage before first use
– mix honey and ash leftovers to make a paste and cover the tobacco chamber with it before first use
– don’t cover the chamber with anything but fill it with tobacco ‘till the top and smoke it like it is a regular pipe already in usage
– fill the pipe up to the third of the height of the chamber with tobacco and smoke it for several times… then fill it two thirds and smoke it for several times and then to the last fill it ‘till the top and smoke it like a regular used pipe
– cover the pipe with a ready made paste (that can be bought at pipemakers supply stores) and smoke it like it is a regular used pipe
There are many “yes” and “no” why this or that method is good to use but personally, I don’t like to put anything inside the bowl unless the walls of the chamber are very thin (lets say if the are 5mm or less in thickness).
What I like to do, when first breaking in a new, virgin pipe, is to fill the tobacco chamber with tobacco only up to a quarter of the height (or the most up to one third of the height of the chamber) and smoke it very lightly all the way down until you have only ashes left. The pipe needs to be smoked very lightly and all the way down to form a protective coating on the bottom of the chamber as it will form later in the middle and on the top of the chamber. When I finish smoking I like to put my thumb over the mouth of the tobacco chamber and cover the whole opening completely. Then I shake the pipe so that the ashes leftovers can be distributed all around the chamber evenly. After that I just throw out the rest of the ashes and leave the pipe to dry for a day at least…
This process has to be repeated for at least 4 or 5 times and than the pipe is ready for stage 2 – to fill it with tobacco for 2/3 of the height. The rest of the process has to be repeated as in stage 1 for several times (at least 4 or 5 times) and then the pipe is ready to be filled completely to the top (although I don’t like to fill my pipes all the way to the top)… After completing this breaking in process you will have a pipe that will serve you nice for many years.
If the walls of the chamber are very thin, it might be good to mix the ash leftovers with a bit of honey to make a dry paste and to cover the walls with it from inside… Leave this to rest until dry and smoke it like a used pipe. First few times be careful not to overheat the pipe… This method is not that good for smokers that don’t like the taste of burning sugar in their mouth but might be better to use than a ready made paste for coating the chambers that pipemakers are using. Not sure about this but honey is my preferred method.