Why are most pipes made of wood?

Factual Questions
1

{Note to moderator: This is a question, not a survey or observational humor, so I hope it qualifies to stay in this forum. Thanks}

There are a lot of types of pipes (for smoking tobacco) that are not wood.

The Indians prized redstone, which they transported for 100’s of miles in trade.

The colonists mainly used clay pipes, according to the woodcuts. Clay, besides being cheap (the first disposable pipe) was also easy to clean, by resting it on a rack above the cook oven, where the tars and caking would just burn off.

I personally prefer meerschaum, a rock so light it floats, hence the name: sea foam.

But why is wood now predominant?

It seems the least likely material, since it has a tendency to burn, thus creating a biting taste. It has to be “cured” by slowly breaking it in, not just the first time but after every reaming of the bowl.

The stem is also subject to burning when sparks travel up it.

2

Possibly it’s a regional thing, but in my area most pipes feature a metal or ceramic bowl and
pipe extension, frequently combined with a water filled acrylic cooling tower.

Some people in my area (folks whom I don’t associate with) exclusivly use pipes composed exclusivly of lengths of glass tubing and a simple screen of steel wool.

3

My WAG is that this is the answer. Pipe-smoking involves a lot of “business” - fiddling with matches, pipe-cleaners, lighting, re-lighting, getting the “cherry” just right. Having a pipe with which you establish the quality of your own smoke by ritualised, almost obsessive behaviour over a period of months is just the sort of thing to appeal to a pipe-smoker.

picmr

4

Ah, yes, smoking a good pipe.

First, it depends on the wood. Oak, Cherry, Maple or Hickory. Each wood infuses its own flavor into the smoke and each buffers the ‘sting’ of the smoke to a certain extent.

A good pipe, prior to using for the first time, is best dumped in a bowl of good whiskey and left to set for 24 hours. Then, it is removed, having absorbed the essence of the booze, dried outside and the breaking in process of the bowl begins. Usually by charging a small tamp in place and puffing lightly to begin the careful charring of the bowl.

Charring the bowl absorbs bitter residues of the tobacco, which forms the dottle or left over mass after each smoke. Only wood chars and each type of wood chars differently. Some smokers insist that the first dottle be left in and a fresh tamp started on top of it, which allows the bottom of the bowl to become ‘resin’ soaked and hardened against the heat. Some say that ‘sours’ the pipe by allowing the bitter juices of the dottle to soak into the wood. The dottle should be discarded. I agree with this latter group.

The dottle contains unburned, heated tobacco, ash, saliva, and resinous tobacco oils and juices. Anyone who has ever smoked the dottle knows that smoking a burning tire would be more flavorful. Pipe smokers tend to drool a little down the stem. It can’t be helped.

After the bowl has a good char built up, the tamp is increased to make a full load. Once this has been achieved, the pipe should be carefully cleaned in the stem, but the charred bowl left alone. The bowl can be filled with good whiskey and let to age over night. That mellows and flavors the char plus seeps into the heat opened wood to add texture.

Before use again, it is dumped and then smoked with a full tamp, but lightly for several days, alternating with another, well used pipe, allowing the new one to break in. Afterwards, the pipe can be smoked well, and the dottle left in between charges providing a bitterness does not enter the smoke. The first real bowl cleaning should remove the char down to the wood. Then the wood is to be soaked in whiskey overnight again. A new char is developed, but this time with a full tamp.

Then you have a ‘sweet’ pipe, aromatic, pleasant in flavor and it should not be too harsh to the tongue. To sweeten again, remove the char and soak in whisky for several hours.

5

Generally, a hard wood (such as rosewood) is used because of the rich sound quality it produces, and, like most other reed insturments, the Great Highland Bagpipes…

Oops. Sorry.

Thought you were talking about Pipes, not pipes.

Carry on.