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I just bought a pipe while I wait on my kit...I notice that the last time I smoked it it sounded kind of like a bong. Am I getting to much moisture in the pipe? Could I be slobbering in the stem?

uhh... you *could* be slobbering in it. If that's the case keep you tongue off of it while it's in your mouth.

Most likely it's just your typical cheap pipe problem. I cut open a basket pipe of mine about a month ago because my brother's dog got to it. I figured it'd be interesting to see the inside of a machine manufactured yellow bole... It's mortise went right past the draught hole and underneath it for about 1 cm... it was just this little pool down there of crap. Anyway any sort of interuption in the diameter of the airway from chamber to mouth can cause moisture. The gurgle problem could be wet tobacco or a draught hole too high in the chamber.

Beautiful! just what I wanted to hear. I bought a basket briar pipe from Italy. It is a beautiful bent pipe but notice this problem last time I smoked it. How long will it take to dry out?

That's just the thing, it might never "dry out".

It might get better as cake builds up, wood dries, or if you smoke drier tobacco. However, some (most?) cheap pipes never turn into good smokers because the engineering is so poor on them. Narrow airways, tenons too deep, strange changes in airway diameter, etc.

Truth be told, it's possible that it *could* be fixed. If you can straighten the stem and bore out the airway in both the stem and the stummel to 5/32, that will go a long way towards making it smoke better. You may also want to see if you can get the mortis depth just so that the tenon bottoms out. This may involve inserting a spacer at the bottom of the mortis.

All of this stuff could be done with a minimum of tooling. Even a simple hand drill can be used if you take it slow and use good, sharp bits. I have to warn you though, it is *very* easy to screw things up, and then you're out a basket pipe - but considering that fact that it smokes like a mini-bong, I don't supppose it would be all that big a loss.

KurtHuhn...I let my pipe sit a little longer between smokes. It smoked a lot better yesterday...not sure what happened but the water bong effect is gone. Smoked pretty good...sure it still is nothing compaired to a quality pipe though.

I finally got my kit...wish me luck on my first pipe. Hopefully it will be a good smoker.

This pipe was the "Marion Barry" brand was it?

I am not sure what brand it is...I know it was made in Italy. The guy that sold it to me was not sure what brand it was...he said the owner typically gets pretty decent basket pipes. One of the regulars thought maybe it was a off brand by Savinelli.

How about running a pipe cleaner into the pipe to absorb the excess moisture while smoking?

If it won't pass a cleaner, you may be able to fix that issue by taking a needle file and elongating the draft hole so you can get a cleaner through it while smoking.

I did this on a couple of pipes for a friend, and his smoking pleasure was greatly enhanced.

Hehehehe. I may just be dating myself. Marion Barry was the former mayor of Washington DC who was sent to jail while in office for smoking crack. They used to have this great radio spot on with Marrion Barry making a speech followed by this aweful gurgling bong sound. Of course, maybe I'm the only guy who remembers that.