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Pipe Rest

What's your rule of thumb for allowing your pipes to rest?

Comments

  • I let mine rest for 48 hours at a minimum. 
  • 24 hours per smoke. So if I smoke the same pipe twice in a day for example, I will rest it 48 hours. 3 times in a day would be 36 hours rest, and so on
  • drac2485drac2485 Professor
    Minimum of 24 hours for briar/wood.  Meerschaums I just keep re-using but normally they rest for at least a week inbetween heavy smoke sessions.
  • about 30 minutes. Believe it or not but briar is not a delicate soft wood that you have to baby. My grandfather and his pipe smoking friends would smoke the same briar all day. I know he only had 4 pipes when he died (I was given two of them and the still smoke great). Now, he would smoke a different pipe each day so I guess that may count as resting them.

    Also consider this, no one ever says you have to rest a cob for a day before smoking it again and corncob is definitely easier to break than briar.

    I sometimes think the whole "smoke it once and rest it for a day or two" is an invention of pipe retailers and manufacturers to get us to buy more pipes. Much like jewelers telling young men that they have to spend two months salary on a diamond ring or else they aren't showing the brides how much they love them.


  • LostMasonLostMason Apprentice
    Mine rest when I'm at work,but I've been known to load three or four pipes before lighting the first.I've also smoked
    three or four bowls in the same pipe one right after the other.My rule has always been if it feels swampy I
    switch pipes,if not,smoke on.I've enough to worry about without over-thinking my pipes.
  • Because I enjoy having many different pipes and a large variety of tobacco blends to choose from I just grab a different combination each time
    I want to light up. The last pipe usually gets cleaned  before putting it away and probably won't get picked up again for a week or more anyway.
    If that's supposed to be good than so be it.
  • Topaz75Topaz75 Professor
    I'm with PappyJoe on this one. I currently have six Peterson pipes in my rotation, but I smoke only one on a particular day. At the end of the day, I clean it thoroughly and put it back in the rack. Next day, I just select the next one in the sequence. It's a simple system allowing each pipe several days rest between uses.

    When my five year-old granddaughter comes to visit, I sometimes point to the pipe rack and tell her that she needs to be extra quiet because the pipes are resting.
  • haha @topaz75 I will need to remember that the next time my nieces are over!
  • drac2485drac2485 Professor
    After coming back to this thread I don't really try and rest my pipes but my smoking habits, once or twice a week, makes sure they get rested before use.  Like @rubineby I usually just pick a pipe based on how long and what I want to smoke mixing it up on a normal basis.
  • At least 24 hrs., but I have 35 pipes that I smoke so they rest longer.
  • daveinlaxdaveinlax Connoisseur
    I rotate a groups of 3 or 4  like pipes for a week or so. I don't smoke enough that my pipes ever need a rest. Old timers smoked the same pipe all day after day till it burned out or broke it on the heel of their shoe.
  • Between my infrequent smoking habits and number of pipes I don't generally concern myself with resting time. Most recently I have been breaking in a new Sav and have been giving it 24 hours between bowls. No matter the resting time I always make sure to run a pipe cleaner through and to swab out the tobacco chamber with a second cleaner bent into a U.
  • Watchmaker61Watchmaker61 Enthusiast
    Several days rest, I only smoke one bowl a day. But I have at least a dozen pipes to choose from.
  • I'm also with @PappyJoe on this one. When I was still working I might smoke the same pipe all day long for five or six consecutive days. As time went by I added a few more to the rotation only because I found a nice basket pipe on the counter of the drug store when I picked up a pouch of OTC blend on the way to work. My work pipes took a real beating and I can't recall one ever going sour on me. If they went bad it was as a result of me dropping and breaking it. But while working in the shop I only carried cheap basket pipes or Dr. Grabows around with me. Once I transitioned from mill work to an office job I started bringing my better pipes to work - and those I treated differently. Yet I still remember smoking them non-stop throughout the week. It wasn't until I retired and actually smoked less that I began babying my pipes. Once pipe smoking morphed from the simple act of puffing a pipe to a bona fide hobby I educated myself on what was considered proper pipe maintenance, and began following certain rules which included allowing a pipe to rest for several days after using it. I did it because experts 'wise in the way of pipe smoking' said it was the proper thing to do. Now I rotate my pipes on a daily basis. And since there are about 45 pipes in my collection I seldom smoke the same pipe twice during the month - giving them more than ample time to rest. But like @PappyJoe suggests a pipe is meant to be smoked. And if you give the stem good reaming with a pipe cleaner between smokes and swab out the bowl with a paper towel if you're a wet smoker - seems to me the pipe should be ready for another day's hard work once you've jumped out of bed, pack the bowl, and face a new day.     
  • I've always felt that 48 hours is sufficient for any type pipe material to rest, with the goal of allowing moisture to leave the pipe. It also seems to me that pipes that are smoked on a regular basis, seem to taste better, but this may be completely psychological on my part. My suggestion, if you want to enjoy the process of watching your pipes expel their post smoke moisture, pick up a bottle of Ardbeg 10. Add about a teaspoon of water to 2 fingers in a Glencairn glass, and don't forget to nose as you sip. Your pipes will be dry and ready to smoke in no time.
  • Deadpool57Deadpool57 Apprentice
    Some working days there is no rest.  Other days call for a rest and another pipe off the rack.  Just depends on what you're trying to get out of your pipe.  If the pipe is too wet I normally leave it to dry for awhile.  If I can put my finger in out of the bowl and no moisture or residue comes out, I'm down to smoke again.
  • AceFourAceFour Master
    That is a sweet tray!  I use the new aquired Sutliff tray as pipe stuff and I have an antique four pipe rack with a fairly good size ashtray I dump once a week when the knocker starts smoking!

    I have enough pipes that I will do one bowl a day in them unless I am out and about
  • Work pipes I smoke every day, the rest vacation till I get around to them
  • ZouaveZouave Master
    I keep a Peterson shamrock at work and use it once a day. With the kids at home it's alot harder to devote the time for multiple smokes, so pipe rotation isn't a huge issue.  When I do get the time at home I just make sure I give it a good cleaning when I'm all done. 
  • Last century I would smoke the same pipe all day using a pipe cleaner with each bowl, 1Q all day every day. When I returned to the pipe 15 years ago 1Q just wasn't the same so on a search I went. I found a lot of recommendations for dedicating a pipe to a blend and resting it for at least 24 hours after each smoke. My pipe collection grew exponentially and I settled on Dunhill blends, EMP, London Mixture and Flake. All were discontinued, I stockpiled my cellar and began to search again. I didn't want to ghost the pipes with new blends so I broke out some old cobs and added a bunch of new as testers and tossers but still adhering to one bowl, clean and rest.

    There are times when I'll visit a fellow pipe smoker and reuse a pipe repeatedly. I've discovered that some blends lend themselves to equally  good repeat performances. I only smoke non aromatic blends and that lightly sugary cased blends with no flavor enhancers repeat better than fruit or rum cased Virginia flakes. 
  • Londy3Londy3 Master
    No issue for me. I have about 20 pipes but only smoke a bowl a couple times a week. Mostly on the weekends. They all get plenty of rest.
  • Londy3Londy3 Master
    @Balisong 😂"last century"🤣
  • That rest looks like a recipe for a broken stem/tenon/shank, but it looks cool.  I have similar issues with the wall mount type pipe racks that use two dowel pins to capture the stem.
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