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Any thoughts/suggestions about precoating or carbonizing bowl chambers?

I tend to like the precoated bowls of my briar pipes as compared to bare briar. I have read about some of the "homebrews" like mixing yogurt, cigar ash, etc and then they are painted into the bowls. Before I knew of this, I had thought carvers got that black look by scorching the inner bowl with a quick blast of a propane torch and I still think it might be a good way to "pre-dress" fresh briar.

I know some pre-coat "recipes" may be secret and I understand and respect that but for anyone who would like to share their mixtures for precoating I would be thankful.

Also any thoughts about "toasting" bowl chambers with fire? I like playing with fire. LOL.

Or any thoughts about which is better and why..in regards to precoated or "raw" inner bowl.

curious always,
Kola

I won't use that unless I find a massive pit in the smoking chamber that I had to fill it with putty...

I coat all my bowls unless a customer asked for an uncoated one. I don't use it to cover anything unless its for myself. If I have a pit in the bowl I either keep it for myself or scrap it. The coating I use is no secret. Its equal parts sour cream and butter milk mixed with enough charcoal to make it black and thicken it. I make it in small batches usally 1 tsp sour cream and 1 tsp butter milk and 3 or 4 capsuls of the charcoal that I buy at the local drug store. I have heard that you can freeze any left overs to use later but I have never tried it. I paint a thin coat in the bowl and it is dry within 24 hours. I have yet to have anyone complain about it. I find it has no taste and gives me piece of mind on the break in.

As for using fire to preburn the bowl thats not something I would do. I do know that either kaywoodie or Dr Grabow had a machine that would burn a bowl of tobacco in the pipe to presmoke it. There was an aticle some years back in P&T about the process and had picture of the machine they used. But taking a torch to the bowl is a bad idea.

There are a few different recipes around. Some are secret, some not so much. I think the bowl coating that Larry described is fairly common and could be described as "open source". I have heard rumors of folks using cigar ash and various sugary bases, but that's not something I would suggest.

tritrek wrote:I won't use that unless I find a massive pit in the smoking chamber that I had to fill it with putty...

This pains me, however. Hopefully those pipes stay with you and never make it into the public.

There is a preconception among a very large and vocal contingent of pipe smokers that pipe makers that employ the use of bowl coatings, do so to cover up flaws within the tobacco chamber. Nothing could be further from the truth where today's craftsmen and artisans are concerned. The bowl coating is there to protect the wood, not hide anything. This is especially true of pipes with thin walls and delicate details like you'll find in hi-grade offerings.

Hopefully Todd, Trever, or Jeff will chime in here, since it was Todd's suggestion from four or five years ago that got me using a bowl coating.

pipeyeti wrote:As for using fire to preburn the bowl thats not something I would do. I do know that either kaywoodie or Dr Grabow had a machine that would burn a bowl of tobacco in the pipe to presmoke it. There was an aticle some years back in P&T about the process and had picture of the machine they used. But taking a torch to the bowl is a bad idea.

I agree - a very bad idea.

The Grabow method (I recall that article) was interesting from a mechanized production standpoint. It would be fine for a manufacturer, I guess, for use as a marketing point. However, it's not something that I would ever do - simply because I don't want to taint a pipe with tobacco flavors that the owner doesn't care for. Plus, now that pipe has been "smoked". Nah, the whole idea is just disagreeable on several levels.

KurtHuhn wrote: There is a preconception among a very large and vocal contingent of pipe smokers that pipe makers that employ the use of bowl coatings, do so to cover up flaws within the tobacco chamber. Nothing could be further from the truth where today's craftsmen and artisans are concerned. The bowl coating is there to protect the wood, not hide anything. This is especially true of pipes with thin walls and delicate details like you'll find in hi-grade offerings.

Exactly what I was going to say... I think he meant in his keepers. Whats funny is that I know that people have taken out my pre-carb before and they say it was relatively simple. So why don't these vocal critics take it out of these bowls and 'prove' to the world what's being hidden!?

Ever tried to sell a pipe uncoated where the stain has bled through the briar into the bowl causing thittle spots? This bleeding is quite common especialy on blasted or rusticated pipes. I was looking at Will purdy's site yesterday and noticed that he even said in the writ up on a pipe that he coated the bowl because of some stain that bled through.

There is a preconception among a very large and vocal contingent of pipe smokers that pipe makers that employ the use of bowl coatings, do so to cover up flaws within the tobacco chamber.

I think these are the same ones that smoke out of a nice shiney rusticated pipe and tell you how bad shellac is, that it clogs up the briar.

To clear my flag: I hate all coatings in bowl except the common one from smoking. IMHO it seals the wood and that's no good. I almost always sand out any precarb coatings.
Also, I haven't made a pipe for public yet, to tell the truth, I haven't made one from block to pipe either - only refinished used ones and finished preturned blocks.
What I know is that many factory made pipes have flaws (if not all) in the bowls, e.g. Brebbias, Savinellis, Vauens, Petersons... I believe they use coating to hide the flaws (whatever they tell in the advertisements...).

tritrek wrote:I hate all coatings in bowl except the common one from smoking. IMHO it seals the wood and that's no good.

I was under the impression that "sealing" the bowl was the whole point of building up a natural carbon coating from the spent tobacco. Since the yogurt/sour cream, plus a micro thickness of the briar, are carbonized during the smoking process, where's the difference?

Maybe it's just an "in your head" thing but I just like to build up the cake from tobacco without using anything else...

tritrek wrote:Maybe it's just an "in your head" thing but I just like to build up the cake from tobacco without using anything else...

A lot of people prefer that... I'd recommend that you look into the properties of the some of the handmade pipe'ss bowl coatings so you can confidently tell people that they do not seal the bowl - whether or not you prefer it or not... Just to stop the myth- ya know?

I've tried pipes with all kinds of bowl coatings... Pete, Sav, Stanwell factory coatings, Blatter's (Honey and ash?), bare wood, some home-made concoctions.

Result is: The more tobacco I smoke, the more gunk builds up on the side of my pipes. I don't think I've noticed a difference in any of them except a stained pete with no coating. That took a half dozen smokes to burn in (and it is one of my sweetest pipes now... go figure).

I suspect the harder factory coatings and the milk-based (read: casein glue based) coatings probably offer some protection, but I have never burned a briar in smoking it no matter what, so I tend to think that coating is an aesthetic thing.