Pipe Mud Efficacy

So I've got this pipe. It's a beautiful piece of work - definitely one of my two best looking pipes, if not THE best looking pipe I've got (in my estimation of things, at any rate).

It's a Bjarne freehand with a plateau rim and shank, a nice matte burnt orange finish, nice flame grain, it sits perfectly, nice black and brown marbled acrylic stem, not too angular and not too smooth and rounded, nice big slightly conical chamber....

The only problem is the draft hole enters the bowl just a little too high. I bought it years ago from cupojoes because I thought perhaps my problem was the quality of pipes I'd been smoking rather than technique. So I was disappointed when I spent 80 or 90 or however many dollars on a "marked down" pipe which should have cost over 100 bucks only to find I still couldnt get a good smoke. Damn.

Well, I didn't know that it wasn't entirely my fault. I can smoke now. Only this thing still gurgles and needs to be cleaned at least once during a smoke almost as a rule. I don't want to give up on it, but it simply isn't a wonderful smoker despite being just about my favorite pipe.

Now I just have been reading about pipe mud, and I'm a little bit interested. I figured other people here woud have plenty to say on the subject. Please offer me your anecdotes, knowledge and wisdom regarding using the stuff to raise the bottom of the pipe to be more level with the draft hole. If this might possibly improve this pipes performance, I may fall in love with the pipe all over again.

Some questions:
-How hard does pipe mud become when it dries?
-Will it likely come up accidentally when cleaning the pipe?
-What have you found to be the best means for mixing it?
-Some people suggest using saliva...how could this be a better idea than using water? Couldn't it promote a bad taste in the pipe?

Cigar ash and water...mix to a fairly stiff mud consistency. Place a pipe cleaner in the shank, just barely poking into the bowl. Slightly dampen the bottom of the chamber and carefully dribble mud into the bottom of the bowl, tapping on the bottom to settle the mud...go slow, and bring the mud to the level of the bottom of the pipe cleaner.
Let this sit for a couple of days, then CAREFULLY fill to 1/4 or 1/3 and smoke to ash. Dump the ash, let sit for 24 hours and repeat. Once you've got a decent cake on the patch, smoke as you normally would.

And it should help my pipe smoke better, right? I can't find a ton of info on this stuff, but a lot of people recommend "pipe mud" for various maladies, this being one of them as far as I can tell. I love this pipe, want it to smoke as well as my Stanwell, but it just doesn't. About halfway down the bowl it stops getting all wet and gurgly, but I usually need two cleaners during the first half of the bowl, and theres almost always a very small but distinct soggy wet mess in the bottom....

I think I'm gonna try it...besides, it will give me an excuse to smoke a cigar or two tomorrow. Thanks for the reply

Water and cigar ash. Spit is disgusting

Any little container works great. Maybe a small paper cup. I use little plastic cups (1 inch dia.) that the wife's drink mix comes in and a Popsicle stick..

It's easy to use too much much water and, as a result, run out of cigar ash.

It sets up very hard. I mixed some mud in a crystal ashtray once and it stuck to it like concrete. Thank goodness it's soluble in water or I would never have gotten it clean. I have no idea how well it works in a pipe that smokes wet and gets a soggy dottle. You might try drying your tobacco a bit.

Good luck.

WyoBob

Lol, trust me I've tried drying the tobacco more than I do for my other pipes. I've tried smoking slower, drying the tobacco more, packing it differently, different tobacco cuts and varieties...I'm certain its the pipe.

...and twirl the cleaner now and then as it sets up...hell to get loose after that.

Right on guys! Now I'm glad I dipped into my cigar stash and fired up one of my two remaining Cubans! I figure if I'm gonna be cementing cigar ash into the bottom of a nice pipe, it might as well be from a good cigar

Only cigars produce deceptive amounts of ash...large clumps, but very low density....maybe when I'm done I'll set the ash aside and fire up a less pricey one later just in case I need backup ash

Well, now I have some of this mud stuff in the bottom of my best looking pipe....

Now I'm nervous!

It's a little wetter than I'd hoped, but it's so hot out that putting it outside with a fan on it should get the extra moisture out of it relatively quickly, then take it indoors where it's less humid to finish the real drying. Hopefully all goes well. I better smoke a bowl just to stop worrying

Hey, this worry-relieving-smoke is quite helpful! PS Proper English, first time trying it.

Also, the hot climate outside quickly got rid of a lot of the extra moisture. Not a bad deal, I suppose it should take long, considering how little water is actually in there anyway

Yeah, thats about how mine looked today, except its just a patch in the very bottom of the bowl to fill it in and raise the bottom a little bit. I'm pretty certain it's totally dry, but I'll wait until probably Saturday or Sunday to find out for sure if this is any good. I figure a few days in a row of 1/4 bowls of PA or CH or something once every 24 hours or so will help further dry it (baking it on there, as it were, with a short enough smoke time to prevent any significant incidental moisture from accumulating) while also adding a layer of cake, plus some sticky tarry goodness to sort of mix in with the top layer of the mud a bit and really sort of cement it in more. I think this is going to be a good fix as long as the stuff doesn't simply crumble out of my bowl when I clean it

Well....just fired up a tiny bit of PA in the bottom of the bowl. Smoked wet as anything, and for just a pinch of leaf too. I know new bowls sometimes smoke a little wet, maybe bowls with a new bottom can too? IDK. But it moistened the mud. I cleaned the shank and will let this dry until Monday before trying some more tobacco in it. Maybe this stuff will dry out and further harden the mud....or maybe it will ruin it. Oh well, I guess at least I tried.

Will do. I'm thinking even if it does get wet....the tars and stuff in the tobacco wetness (whatever you wanna call that stuff) might make it more tightly bound together, right? Here's hoping anyway

Hopefully Nesta listened and he is still waiting. I kid, I kid. I too am curious.

Yeah, I'm waiting until at least Friday to try smoking it again. Luckily I should have a new pipe arriving to divert my attention on Thursday

Wow, you too have a serious case of PAD.