Smoking a Clay

[restever99]

Greetings to all,

My friend just came back from England and brought me two Wilsons & Co. (I'm guessing these used to be Pollock) clays. I've never smoked a clay before and was wondering if there is a special way to pack them and smoke them. I found very little information relating to smoking clays online and was wondering if you guys could help me out. Thanks a bunch!

Justin

[TreverT]

I am the only smoker in the world that really loves clays. They otherwise seem to be one of those experiences that everyone tries one when they get into pipes, and has a couple just for the look of them, but never smokes them afterward. IMO this is mostly because everyone buys the most common kind of clays, the all-clay churchwardens, and the airholes and bits are just annoying in those, IMHO. Usually they draw poorly and I never could get accustomed to a round hard clay rod grinding on my teeth. Eventually I want on to have some custom made that I could find conventional (acrylic & ebonite) stems to, and those I love. I just finished modifying one yesterday, to improve its smoking a good bit. Must post pics of it sometime.

Clays can be really harsh. Flavor-wise, they are one of the most direct connections you will ever have to your tobacco. They go excellently with dark beers, crackling fires, and classic Universal horror movies on DVD in October. I speak from experience.

[Alan L]

I am the only smoker in the world that really loves clays.

No, you're not.

I have a few old (read "dug from the riverbank") stub-stem clays that I dearly love. One is glazed stoneware, dug from a potter's dump along the Ohio River, which smokes like a champ. I used some rivercane for a stem, works a treat.

I have another one that's unglazed red earthenware dug from a potter's dump along the Savannah river in South Carolina that I made a lucite stem for. It makes 1792 taste like river mud. I'm not that happy about that, but iot does hold two hours' worth of smoke!

I have a couple of others as well, along with the requisite crappy churchwarden with poor draft and a really nice English cutty that makes Black XX rope taste like taffy. I seriously enjoy that one...

[restever99]

Well I'm going to give them a try. I am a huge fan of alternative material in pipes. Though I must say I am completely in love with your Goblin line of pipes and hope that you will be making some more very soon.

[restever99]

One is glazed stoneware, dug from a potter's dump along the Ohio River, which smokes like a champ. I used some rivercane for a stem, works a treat.

I was wondering if you could post a picture of it with the stem. I've only ever seen the stummels.

[TreverT]

Well I'm going to give them a try. I am a huge fan of alternative material in pipes. Though I must say I am completely in love with your Goblin line of pipes and hope that you will be making some more very soon.

Thanks for the kind words. There will definitely be more Goblins, someday.

Here is a pic of a few of my favorite clays:



These are examples of clay pipes fitted with conventional stems, a combo which makes them much more enjoyable to me. The variation in clay material interests me, since two of them can be seen to be coloring beautifully with smoking, while the other is unchanged. I'd often wondered if the Holmes references to "smoking his clay pipe until it was black and oily" were a myth, as most of the clays I'd owned in the past were resolutely white and hardly showed a hint of coloring, until I picked up these in Europe. The center one with the horn stem is one of my favorite pipes, and I love the way the coloring is mirroring the coloration of the horn.

[Walle]

This one and others can be seen on

http://www.keramikpfeifen.com/pageID_4222458.html

I especially like that Andy Fiebinger has brought colour to the clay.



All pipes are handmade and have a double wall in order to keep away the heat from you fingers.



My favourite is this one:



Cheerio!
Walle

[restever99]

Very nice! Thank you very much. Those are far different from what I have seen and had in mind.

[TreverT]

Double walled.... Do those actually count as clays, or are they glazed porcelain or ceramic?

I was remiss in my post, should have posted a link too:

http://www.compartiment-fumeur.com/acha ... p?catid=18

Prungnaud clays are expensive as clays go, and unfortunately his online catalog doesn't show a fraction of the models he makes, many of which are downright stunning.

[Alan L]

I was wondering if you could post a picture of it with the stem. I've only ever seen the stummels.

Just imagine the stummel with a foot of rivercane stuck in it and you're there.

Trevor, my favorite little English cutty turned black and oily about every six months or so. Then again, XX rope will do that to anybody. I'd just put it on the coals of a dying fire overnight and in the morning it'd be good as new. Until I put it on too hot a coal and blew it to bits, that is.

[restever99]

Well I couldn't wait any longer and I ditched my usual rotation. I smoked the tavern today and I must say that I was surprised at how many nuances were in my usual tobacco. I've never tasted it so clean before! Clays rock!

[kbadkar]

I've never smoked a clay pipe. How does it compare to Meerschaum?... similar?

[Alan L]

I've never smoked a clay pipe. How does it compare to Meerschaum?... similar?

A bit, well, "earthier," if you will, than Meerschaum. It also depends on if the clay is glazed or not. Glazed clay smokes like a Venturi with the graphite liner, unglazed gives a meerschaumlike effect, but is even more absorbent. It's a very clean, slightly musty smoke. It really brings out undertones in the tobacco you'd never notice in briar, somehow.

Maybe a coffee analogy is in order. In my experince, smoking 1792 in a briar can be compared to a dark roast Columbian coffee. The same tobacco in meerschaum is more reminescent of a dark Kona, while in an unglazed clay it tastes like a very dark Sumatra coffee. That's about the best way I can explain it. Oh, and glazed clay would be a medium roast Kenya AA.

[kbadkar]

Maybe a coffee analogy is in order. In my experince, smoking 1792 in a briar can be compared to a dark roast Columbian coffee. The same tobacco in meerschaum is more reminescent of a dark Kona, while in an unglazed clay it tastes like a very dark Sumatra coffee. That's about the best way I can explain it. Oh, and glazed clay would be a medium roast Kenya AA.

That analogy worked for me! Now I understand completely. The problem with the analogy, though, is that I'd choose the Kona and not have it roasted too dark, so meerschaum is just right for me. I have a glazed porcelain pipe, which I assume smokes like a glazed clay, and I can concur with the flavor mellowing properties, similar to briar, but it mellows less of the tobacco flavor spectrum. Still, a very dark roast Sumatra is good on occasion, when I don't need the caffeine jolt. So, some day if a clay calls to me, I'll give it a chance.

[m.c.]

Hi, buddies. I've not smoked a clay but got very interested by your comments, although the coffee-babble leaves me baffled Just curious when you say "glazed" - does that mean glazed inside the bowl or outside, or both? The "earthy" quality also surpries me while at the same time you say clay brings out the real nuances of tobacco. So, does that earthy thing "intrude" on or "facilitate" the backy flavour? Yes I will try for myself, but beforehand I'd really appreciate it if you could drop some comments here.

[Alan L]

My glazed ones are glazed outside only, or at least as much as one can be with a salt glaze (vapor deposition technique). Basically, a glazed clay (if glazed inside) is inert and brings nothing to the flavor except maybe a wetter smoke since it can't absorb any moisture. Stoneware and porcelain pipes are in the same category. It's gotta be unglazed earthenware to get the true depth of flavor a clay can provide. A light "toasting" of salt glaze on earthenware seals it just a bit.

Beware of some early stub-stem glazed clays, however: If they are red or yellow with a smooth, shiny glaze inside and out that's a lead glaze. Last time I dropped a pyrometer in a pipe bowl while smoking it I got a high tempt of 725 degrees F, which is enough to allow some lead vapor to form. Salt glaze will be shiny, but will have a sort of orange-peel texture and be thicker on the outside and possiblly not at all on the inside.

Salt glazing is done by throwing salt into the kiln when the clay is at its hottest, which is around 1850 degrees F for earthenwares and 2400 degrees F for stoneware. The salt vaporizes in the heat and breaks down into free sodium and chlorine ions. The sodium combines with alumina, silica, and boron in the clay body and forms a skin of what is basically a sodium borosilicate glass, AKA pyrex. The chlorine combines with free hydrogen (from water vapor) in the kiln gasses and exits as a superheated hydrochloric acid vapor. This is why you don't see much true salt-glazing being done anymore, it tends to erode the kiln and piss off the neighbors when their plants die and the paint peels off their house...

Sorry for the attack of too much information, I'm a historical archaeologist by training with a deep interest in locally-made pottery of the early historic period in eastern North America...

[Frank]

... it tends to erode the kiln and piss off the neighbors when their plants die and the paint peels off their house...

Sorry for the attack of too much information, I'm a historical archaeologist by training with a deep interest in locally-made pottery of the early historic period in eastern North America...

Go for it Alan. I love reading/watching archaeology stuff.

[kbadkar]

Sorry for the attack of too much information, I'm a historical archaeologist by training with a deep interest in locally-made pottery of the early historic period in eastern North America...

Loving it!!!!

It never ceases to amaze me... the collective amount of specialized knowledge in this forum!

Ramble on, ya'll!

[m.c.]

...Sorry for the attack of too much information, I'm a historical archaeologist...

Not at all, sir, you can never give TOO much information in here! Great help, thanks! I love all those dazzling chemistry explanations though it takes me some dictionary storming. I'm simply proud of hanging around on such a forum where there are so many guys from all walks and trades bringing their knowledge and experiences. It once again convinces me that this site is gonna be one of the most prominent contributions in human history to bringing a serious trade out of its secretive den and further enriching it.