New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart

[Mister Moo]

Conventional widsom says kosher (no added iodine) salt. I never used anything but - no idea what happens with plain table salt. Anyone know firsthand?

Briar is plenty tough if head to head with the dull edge of a butterknife or pipetool scraper. As you drag an edge along that mess (over a wastebasket or outdoors - not over a white tablecloth) and the black chunks and fine black powder sift out you will have plenty of time to see bare wood grin through the carbonization. Work slowly, carefully, under a good light - no drama. You don't need to apply much force to scrape that stuff out, by the way.

In your "bowls eye view" photo the two on the left need work for sure, the two on the right look like they were reamed recently and the one in the middle could use some evening out. The middle one, in another photo, also looks like it is burned on the outside - possibly a defect in the briar or grandpa smoked that pipe hard and fast. If you scrape it out a bit you may find a bad spot inside the bowl, through from the black mark. Go careful with that one - if there is a defect (and you love the pipe) it might be patchable with some pipe mud. Or it might have a little smudge of black paint on the outside in which case, forget what I just wrote.