Thank you for the article. My new pipe seems to have a bowl just about as deep as my pinkie is long. I'm not sure if that's considered a deep bowl, but it looks deep to me. I'm not sure how I'm suppose to pack it half way...and actually light it.
Matches work better in this regard than lighters do (just so you can light that far down in the bowl).
As far as breaking in, I usually just smoke whole bowls anyway.