Blog by Steve Laug

I don’t know how many times I asked this question in the past as I was new to smoking a pipe. Nor do I know how many times I have read this question on the various online forums that I frequent. When I think back to the responses I got when I asked the question and when I read the responses given on the forums I have found that generally the answers that are given fall equally between yes and no. There are proponents of the “never ream” school, the “no” answers, who would argue that if a pipe is properly cared for after each smoke the necessity of reaming is removed. Just fold a pipe cleaner and swish it around the bowl to knock of remnants of tobacco and smooth out the bowl sides and you are good to go. This is the method that I have used for years and I have found that it allows a slow and steady build-up of the cake. But there are also just as many proponents of the “ream often” school, the “yes” answers, which seem to ream at the slightest build-up of cake.

As I consider the question today I have to reflect on whether or not the two schools have made things too black and white. I understand why folks would argue for never reaming. For when I think of the many pipes that have crossed my table that have suffered at the hands of the ream often folks I too want to say, “Never ream your pipe”. The pipes that come damaged are pretty close to ruined – at least when you consider that the bowls are out of round and often too deeply reamed. It takes some creative shaping and reshaping to repair the damage caused by overzealous reaming. To me the “ream often” school of thought seems too often to cause more damage than a little cake build-up would ever cause.

However, that being said there are pipes that have come across my desk over the years that could have clearly used some of the “ream often” care. They were badly caked pipes, neglected to the point that the cake over fills the bowl and the pressure from the different expansion of the cake and the briar cracked the bowls. In the photo below the five pipes on the left show these signs of neglect. The first and the third bowl were so caked that my little finger would not fit in the bowl. The second, fourth and fifth pipes in the photo have had a bit of the cake carved away to make room for more tobacco but to little was removed too late and the bowls are cracked and ruined. My old uncle could easily have owned any of these pipes. I clearly remember, from the times I road with him on his dry cleaning route, that his pipe always looked like this. In fact for years I kind of figured this is what they were supposed to look like! There were times when I would pick up the pipe off the console of the VW Bus and look at and wonder how he could get tobacco in the bowl. One day as I was holding the pipe and checking it out with my little finger, he came back to the van and chuckled at what I was doing. So I asked him about how he got tobacco in his pipe and why he didn’t clean out the hard stuff.  I still remember his response – “when it holds no more tobacco I throw it away and get a new one”. And with that he took the pipe from my hands and packed some more tobacco in the bowl and fired it up. As I look at these old cracked pipes and others I have seen, so caked that they hardly hold anything, I wonder if the previous owners shared my uncle’s view of the disposability of the pipe. They may well have been part of the “smoke it until it is dead” philosophy and then set it aside and started on the next pipe.

So that leaves me with a question that others have asked as well. What is the proper reaming method? Should you never ream or always ream? I think that like most things in life the answer to this question negates the always and never choices. It is not a black and white issue. To me I have learned that there are times that I need to ream my pipe. Mind you, some of my pipes have never been reamed. Others I have had for over 20 years and smoked a lot and have had to ream once or twice in that time. There are only a few times that I ream a pipe. I am basically a proponent of the “never ream” school – daily maintenance keeps my pipes in order and never looking like the ones above.

Here are three occasions that I have found that I ream a pipe without any hesitation. I know others may well disagree with my choices, but here they are nonetheless. I have the freedom to exercise these choices as I see fit and my opinion is just that, my opinion. Read them over and if you agree, that is fine. And if you disagree, well that is fine as well. Let’s fire up a pipe and enjoy the fellowship of the briar.

1. I only ream when the cake exceeds the thickness of a dime – a thin coin. I want to maintain that thickness as I have found that it works best for the style and process of my smoking. I use a Pipnet reamer or a Senior Reamer to keep the cake at this thickness only because I have learned that they are easy to keep vertical in the bowl and not tilt to one side and cause the bowl to become out of round. I actually have rarely had to ream my pipes.
2. I also ream when I by estate pipes. I remove all of the cake so that I can minimize the potential for ghosting tobaccos from previous owners. This is my preference and I know others who ream them back to the amount mentioned above. I like starting over and building a good hard cake of my own making.
3. I have also reamed pipes that I smoked in my early days with aromatics. I have found that they are almost impossible to get out of a bowl without removing a cake. Again this is my opinion but I have found it works for me. I like to have a clean surface to work from. I know others just load it up with the new tobacco and smoke it into submission!