In my experience... a thin hard cake is all you want/need. A thicker cake can mute the flavors of a blend, unless you dedicate the pipe to a certain blend. When breaking in a pipe, I do as Fia suggested... once I get a nice thin cake, I ream the bowl after each smoke with a twisted up paper towel.

My three favorites are... Gawith Full Virginia Flake McCranie's Red Ribbon or Red Flake Rattray's Hal O' the Wynd but I'm bias because I don't like aromatics or Latakia blends.

If you are going to smoke goopy aromatic blends you may want to try them in a high quality block meerschaum pipe, or a simple corn cob. Drying them won't do much because many of these blends have a lot PG and other crap, and never really dry. I've read that gurgle is caused by turbulence in...

I would try to sample as much as possible... if you buy full tins you may waste a lot of money. Some staples to try if you can get samples... McClelland 5100 - really straight forward and solid red VA Dunhill Early Morning Pipe - good introduction to Latakias, a milder Latakia blend Escudo -...

tough to say... depending on the condition, the year, the model, the finish... anywhere from $10 to $5000 A recent vintage Dunny say 1990 to present in mint condition usually goes for 50-70% of the new price,,, but I'm talking mint... this could mean anywhere from $150-300 for a shell and...

Today I smoked a bowl of S.Gawith FVF in a small Baki army mount billiard... an excellent pairing... FVF really starts to shine with some age on it. http://www.smokersforums.co.uk/picture.php...;pictureid=4692

I'm a huge fan of Escudo and have quite a bit of it stocked in the cellar. Other popular VAPers are Fillmore by GLP and Exhausted Rooster by C&D... I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. Apparently, the ultimate VAPer of all time was the original Three Nuns, I haven't had the...

I have two Baki pipes and they are probably my two favorite smokers... Probably the best quality block and best engineering you can find in a meerschaum pipe, and Deniz Ural is a pleasure to deal with. I wouldn't hesitate for a second buying more,,, in fact I'm usually browsing Deniz's site a...

If you want to smoke multiple time per day and not worry about rotation I'd recommend you consider a Meerschaum pipe. Two brands which I smoke, and which are excellent are F.Baki and IMP. I wouldn't smoke a briar more than once a day, if you are going to smoke regularly... it will start...

St Bruno's in a group 3 Dunhill shell bulldog Red Ribbon in a Savinelli natural billiard

1. McCranie's Red Ribbon 2. St Bruno's ready rubbed 3. Orlik Golden Sliced 4. Escudo 5. A tie between Stonehaven and Hal O'the Wynd

Rochefort 10 or St Bernardus Abt 12 are delicious and only get better and better with age. I also like the Westmalle Dubbel and Tripel for a Belgian style Tripel, try the Unibroue La Fin du Monde, it`s stellar.

I`m surprised they haven`t started taxing oxygen yet... Beer you can stop drinking... ridiculous!

Now that's what I call top notch customer service!

If you are looking for the best engineered pipe and also an incredible value, give Cavicchi a try

pipe backy is a lot more home friendly... my guess is that it has something to do with the amount of oils in cigar tobacco... cigars are usually stored at 65-70% RH versus 15-20% RH for pipe tobacco and maintain a lot of oils... if you notice, the smoke stream off the end of a cigar is...

I smoke the MC5100 red virginia, it's a great bulk red VA for the price. The S. Gawith bulks are also a bargain, you may want to check those out.

McCranie's '96 red ribbon in a Cavicchi full bent barrel

I fully agree, it can be a bit frustrating until you figure out the little details... it makes it a lot easier if you can smoke with a few experienced pipesters. Enjoy!

Today I'm smoking some '96 Red Ribbon in an IMP bent acorn... I really wish I had cellared more of the 96 crop, it's marvelous! best to all.