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I smoked a first bowl in a new pipe today and I got a wierd salty taste. Is that anything to be concerned with?

Could be any number of things, assuming it's a factory pipe? First bowls in any factory pipe are a dodgy proposition.

Could be something on the stem, could be something in the stem, could be something in the bowl.

Actually it's one I made. Well drilled but ugly as sin so don't expect any pictures. I wiped it down good, and hit it with the airhose and a pipe cleaner. The salty taste didn't appear until about 1/2way into the bowl. And then it was every so often I got a mouthful of it. I'm assuming it's burning briar dust or stem dust I didn't get.

Which tobacco?

It could be a latent flavor in the tobacco, the particular wood (which source?), the stem material, etc. More detail would help solve the question.

The Tobacco is Nat Sherman #307 and I've smoked many a pipe of it, from this bag, without a problem. So I doubt it's that.

The material of the pipe is briar.

The stem is ebonite.

I washed my hands.

I lit it with a lighter.

Not really sure what else I can say. All the bits and stuff I used I keep seperate for pipe making.

Possible that there was some ebonite dust in the stem?

Sasquatch wrote:Possible that there was some ebonite dust in the stem?

I'm thinking the same. When I smoke a pipe that's been on the rack for a few weeks, the stem has a salty taste from the leached sulphur.

Yup.

Sounds like the cause! Thanks guys.

Unless of course you've been being naughty with your pipes. Then it could be somthing else entirely.

You naughty boy you!