Pipes with Thinner Walls

[DrumsAndBeer]

I have a Peterson Canadian with pretty thin walls. I smokes like a champ, the flavors I get from folded and stuffed Golden Sliced are amazing. At my regular cadence this sucker gets pretty hot, not hot enough to flunk the old press against the cheek test, but at times a bit uncomfortable to hold. Do any of you go easier on your pipes with thinner walls, should I be? Just curious what other folks thoughts/experiences were.

 

[Briar Spirit]

I have a Peterson Donegal Silverband which is a very small pipe with shockingly thin walls, this one actually:

I have to pack it very lightly and sip it most gently to avoid the bowl getting painfully hot, took me quite a while to get the hang of handling this pipe correctly but now I've got it right it smokes like a champion, it's still one of my favourites for a quick smoke.

 

[SteveS]

I think Briar Spirit has it pegged ... packing and pacing makes all the difference ... one of my very best smokers is a Ben Wade brandy bowl that has a good sized bowl with unusually thin walls ... I couldn't resist buying it when I saw it because it was absolutely calling my name, despite my usual preference for a rather heavier built pipe ... learning how to smoke that pipe opened a larger world of pipes to me that I'd previously been ruling out ...

 

[SpeedyPete]

I have a beautiful little GBD, also with quite thin walls. It's a billiard, almost a lovat with lovely saddle stem.  It really gets so hot that I can't touch the bowl.  I've often thought of just giving it away but it's such a pretty pipe, I'll just keep it on my rack.

Edit: I took out this pipe now ( it's a GBD Century) and filled it with Prairie Wind. Although I sipped it very slowly, it got hot to the point where it did not pass the "cheek test". But, despite that, the tobacco tasted very good, I really enjoyed the smoke.

I had another good look at the culprit and it's a keeper, only because it's such a neat little pipe.

 

[LordTemplar]

I have several thin walled pipes. They all smoke very well, but the drawback as everyone is suggesting is that they become a small blast furnace in my hand and I cannot hold them. I love these pipes because of their lightness and look, but I must smoke them very slowly to keep them at warm instead of "torch.” I still have not figured out a cadence. The sipping method is something I will try! Right now it is 4º outside and so I can put my pipe outside my truck (I am relegated to the truck and its heater).

 

[Briar Spirit]

I have come to the notion that one must treat a thin walled chamber as one might imagine one would go about smoking a traditional clay pipe. I have as yet to experience such a pipe myself but when ever I consider their smoking qualities I am oft' left to the conclusion they should be treated as a very gentle and short smoke, very lightly packed and sipped with much tenderness on the draw.

Flake has always been a mistake in my own Peterson Donegal, not even broken flake works, it's way too easy to pack the chamber ever so slightly too tight resulting in a red-hot bowl in my hand, not a favourable scenario for any one I can't help believing and this always ends in my emptying the pipe looooong before I am finished smoking the tobacco. Fairly well dried out fully rubbed blends work well enough but pretty dry shag cut smokes the best in it, I'm not a big fan of the shag cut myself so I stick to the dried out fully rubbed blends. Now I much prefer flake tobacco or even broken Flake so I don't tend to smoke my Pete' too often.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Hmmm, perhaps I am putting too much tobacco into the bowl? It seems to be a bit of a double-edge sword, too much tobacco it burns hot, to little and there's too much air and it burns hot. It's obvious I need to spend more time with this particular pipe. I guess my biggest concern was causing damage to the bowl in the process.

Nice Donegal, Kirk. I love the older Peterson rustication.

 

[monbla256]

Many of the older pipes particularly those smoked by Europeans had thin walls especially the grp 2 sizes prevalent in pre and post war Britain. I have two grp 2 sized billiard/lovat BBB's that I don't smoke often ( only because I want a longer smoke than they give) that no matter how carefully I smoke get very hot to hold. I just hold 'em as you see many pics of folks back then holding their pipes, by the stem. Works for me  :twisted: 

 

[Briar Spirit]

That's the rub of it, don't matter how you pack or draw on a very thin walled bowl, it is going to get pretty darn hot, aint much material between ya hand and a small fire, no matter what you do the bowl is going to get hot. Best you can hope for D&B is to get a handle on a given pipe, if you are hoping to find a way of smoking your Pete so the bowl doesn't get hot then I am sorry to have to say it is never going to happen. Yup, you can lessen the heat a tad by getting the packing and the draw just right for a particular blend but that difference will only be small, you got it right in seeking to avoid a burn-out but if you get a nice thin yet dense cake formed using a good Burley blend then burn-out will be pretty hard to achieve.

 

[flyguy]

I have a couple of thin walled pipes that initially smoked hot. They smoked much cooler after building a nice cake. As mentioned earlier, a slow and "soft" cadence is always important in keeping the bowl cool.

 

[SpeedyPete]

I've never seen a watercooled pipe in my life. Maybe we should put our heads together and watercool our thin walled pipes.  :twisted: 

 

[Dramatwist]

The smaller pipes are my preference. I... just... smoke... them... slow...

Best to All,

 

[Brewdude]

Got a couple of those thin walled pipes myself. I've pretty much shied away from them due to the heat issue. That's unfortunate, since otherwise they're great pipes.

Looks like I'll have to approach them in a whole different way.



Cheers,

RR

 

[Anonymous]

When they get hot, put them down for a while to cool.

 :face: 

 

[SpeedyPete]

Since I've read through all the posts, I've decided that I'm going to smoke my GBD Century until I can keep it at an acceptable temperature.  It is such a beautiful, neatly made little pipe and I was really sad that I could not use it.

This morning I filled it with Pete's Irish Whiskey. I tamped it down very lightly and lit up.  Tamped it again, very lightly, and then I sat and sipped it VERY softly.

I managed to keep the temp down AND enjoy the smoke. I smoked it right down to the bottom and could still hold the pipe by the bowl.

I will keep on practising with this pipe because it can only enhance my smoking manners.

I thank you, bro' DrumsAndBeer, for posting here  :cheers: