Frequently Asked Questions

Please see our web page for Faire locations and dates Danny Boy Pipes will be attending. Click on the link below! ⬇️ Faire Locations & Dates (https://www.dannyboypipes.com/our-faire-locations-dates)

Danny Boy Pipes is happy to be partnered with Uhle's Tobacco in Milwaukee, WI. Liberty Tobacco in San Diego, CA. Pipes and Cigars of Bethlehem, PA. Tinder Box of Charlotte, N.C. Please check out their websites and our favorite blends sold there. Danny Boy Pipes are for tobacco use only. www.uhles.com (www.uhles.com) • Christmas Blend 2011 • Black Stoker • Par Shooter • Irish Aromatic • Wild Cherry • Big Dipper • Bishop's Move • Blend X • NOTE: "Danny Boy" blend sold at the Bristol Renaissance Faire is a propriety blend specially mixed by Uhle's, sold ONLY onsite at Bristol. www.libertytobacco.com (www.libertytobacco.com) • Black Maui • Bue Note • Proper English • Busters www.pipesandcigars.com (www.pipesandcigars.com) • 1Q (Danny Boy) • Cremé Brulé • Butter Pecan • Buttered Rum • Peaches & Cream • Very Cherry • Black Latakia • Black Raspberry • French Vanilla • Highland Whiskey • Raspberry Cobbler • Black Cherry • Cherry Cavendish • English Luxury • Match 20 www.tinderboxcigars.com (www.tinderboxcigars.com) • Tinder Box Cigars

#1 Rule = Never Bang Out Your Bowl Breaking in a new pipe is a simple process that will ensure it smokes well for its entire lifetime. First, smoke a couple of bowls only one- quarter full. Next, smoke half full bowls a couple of times. Finally, you may begin to smoke full bowls. This process ensures the proper start of a cake. This allows small parts of the wood to expand and contract, in effect, settling the wood into a comfortable place to prevent too much thermal stress on the bowl. Packing Use the 3-Layer Method! Trickle tobacco into the bowl lightly until almost full then tamp gently. Fill the tobacco loosely again to the top, then tamp it down again with a little more firmness. The tobacco should feel springy and you should easily be able to draw through the pipe as if sipping on a straw. Finally, fill it once more so it is slightly over the top of the bowl. Tamp it again so it is even with the rim of the bowl and do a test draw. You are ready to light! Light your pipe with a soft flame using matches or pipe lighter. NEVER use a torch flame! First lighting of the pipe will be the charring light, or false light. Move the flame in a circular motion around the entire surface of the tobacco. While doing this, take a series of shallow puffs (DO NOT inhale the smoke). Allow this light to go out, and gently tamp down pack even with the bowl. Now that you have charred the top of the tobacco you are ready to light again. Re-light your pipe and move the flame in a circular motion around the entire surface of the tobacco while taking smooth puffs on the pipe. Sit back and enjoy. You may need to re-light , it's ok! It takes some practice to pack and light your pipe. Cleaning your pipe is an important step in maintaining its function and beauty. Always wait for your pipe to completely cool before emptying the bowl, repacking it, or taking the pipe apart. Failure to do this could crack the stem, shank, or even harm the bowl. Never empty the bowl by knocking it against anything hard such as a bare ashtray or your shoe; use a cork knocker or your hand and gently tap it to empty the bowl. Always twist gently in one direction when removing the stem, and then run a pipe cleaner though it. Dip a clean pipe cleaner in some cleaning fluid and swipe it through the airhole in the shank. Replace the stem and allow the pipe to dry. Cleaning can be done once every three to four bowls. Cake is a carbon deposit from the combustion of the tobacco It provides protection for the bowl and it enhances the flavor of the tobacco. It increases in thickness with each bowl smoked, creating layers of carbon. The optimal thickness is for a cake is 1/16th of an inch, or the thickness of a dime. You want to maintain your cake at no more than1/16th, otherwise it can overtake the bowl and split it. If the cake is getting too thick, simply use a pipe tool to gently scrape away at the cake to get it back down to the thickness of a dime. Precarbonization is a black coating some pipe makers add to the inner wall of the bowl. It allows for a faster "break in" process than a naked bowl. There is no quality difference on the way pipes smoke if they are pre-carbonized. Special Instructions: MacQueen Pipes Company recommends that you leave a little tobacco at the bottom of your pipe and not smoke it right down to the bottom of the bowl. This will avoid burning the bottom of your bowl. It is better to waste a little tobacco than to burn your pipe. After smoking, separate the stem from the bowl and blow through the stem. Handmade Ukrainian Pipes It is recommended that once your pipe is cool, if you are not going to clean it, do not let the stem sit in the bowl after being smoked for long periods otherwise you may have stem snapping issues from the resin sticking to the wood. Keep your stem separated until you clean your pipe. ** For a list of Pipe Smoking Resources, check out this article from smoking pipes.com!(https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/top-resources-for-pipe-smokers)

• Do not take quick short puffs of the pipe. It increases the heat of the burn. • Do not let you pipe get so hot that you cannot comfortably hold it against your cheek. • Try to keep your pipe from getting wet. Many of our pipes have a Carnauba wax finish, and the wood is not sealed so it is able to breath. This wax can be damaged by water. • Clean your pipe after every smoke! Check out our tips for cleaning and care in the FAQ's!! • Wait 2 hours before separating the mouthpiece from the bowl after smoking your pipe. You can break your pipe if you remove it immediately. • When removing your stem from your bowl, grasp the stem close to the bowl and twist. Do not twist from the top of the stem. • Don’t bang out your bowl. Scoop out your ash.

A well maintained smoking pipe will last a lifetime. Cleaning your pipe is an important step in maintaining its function and beauty. Always wait for your pipe to completely cool before emptying the bowl, repacking it, or taking the pipe apart. Failure to do this could crack the stem, shank, or even harm the bowl. Never empty the bowl by knocking it against anything hard such as a bare ashtray or your shoe; use a cork knocker or your hand and gently tap it to empty the bowl. Always twist gently in one direction when removing the stem, and then run a pipe cleaner though it. Dip a clean pipe cleaner in some cleaning fluid and swipe it through the airhole in the shank. Replace the stem and allow the pipe to dry. Cleaning can be done once every three to four bowls. ** Periodic Pipe Maintenance: You will want to, on occasion, give your pipes a more thorough cleaning than just swabbing out the stem after smoking. Most smokers do this fairly regularly, some going so far as to do so after all of their pipes have been smoked once, thus providing themselves with a fresh, clean rotation of pipes. You will have to experiment a bit with how often you do this cleaning to find what works best for you. To start this cleaning, carefully remove the stem of the pipe from the bowl and lay the two pieces on a paper towel. Dip a regular pipe cleaner in alcohol and run it through the stem, from the tenon to the mouthpiece, pulling it through. It will most likely come out with a bit of black or brown gunk on it. Follow this pipe cleaner with a dry one, and repeat the process until the moist pipe cleaner comes out the same color it was when it went in. Push one final dry pipe cleaner through to remove any moisture and set the stem aside. Using bristle pipe cleaners, moistened with alcohol, vigorously swab out the airhole of the pipe, alternating with dry, regular pipe cleaners. Don't be afraid to use a lot of pipe cleaners doing this. Pipe cleaners are cheap; new pipes aren't. If the airhole of your pipe is large enough in diameter that there is little resistance when you do this, you may want to fold the cleaner in half in order to scrub the sides of the airhole properly. Once your dry pipe cleaner comes out of the airhole the same color it was when it went in, run one more dry cleaner through the airhole to absorb any residual moisture. Using a cotton swab or shank brush, clean out the mortise, the portion of the pipe where the stem attaches to the bowl. A doubled over regular pipe cleaner will do in a pinch. If your stem or bowl has a band, now is the time to polish it, using a good silver, or other metal, polish, depending on what your band is made of. Carefully reinsert the stem into the bowl, and give the pipe a good wipe with a soft cloth. Cleaning over, allow your pipe to sit for a day or so before smoking it, to allow the alcohol to completely evaporate. If you have cleaned most or all of your briar pipes at once, now is a good time to smoke your meerschaums and corncobs you have been neglecting. ** Information referenced from www.smokingpipes.com

How do I pack my pipe? Smoke half bowls for the first few smokes. This ensures you start the cake at the bottom of the bowl, and the cake will work its way up the briar walls evenly. There are 2 principals vital for any packing method to work. The tobacco at the bottom of the bowl has to allow for free airflow. The tobacco at the top has to be packed firmly enough to stay lit. The 3 layer method: Take a pinch of tobacco, drop it into the bowl and press it LIGHTLY. Take a 2nd pinch, drop it into the bowl, and press with a medium firmness. Take your 3rd pinch, drop it into the bowl, and press firmly. The old saying goes... 1. Hand of a child 2. Hand of a lady 3. Hand of a man How do I light my pipe? Once your bowl is packed, pull some air through the pipe so you know you haven't blocked the air passage. Light the bowl in a circular motion. Don’t take short quick puffs. Take long even pulls to light the tobacco evenly. Tobacco has a tendency to expand and rise after you light it. Push the lit section of tobacco down to give the unlit section a chance to catch. After doing this, you will re-light your pipe quickly. This is called tamping your pipe. You will find that it helps your pipe stay lit easily. ** For more in depth information, check out this Pipedia Article! (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Packing_and_Smoking_techniques)

The heat of the freshly smoked pipe allows for the cake to soften making it easy to scrape out what you don’t need. You want to keep your cake roughly 1/16" thick (like a dime.) If the cake is thicker than that, it can expand and crack the bowl while you are smoking it. Maintain the correct thickness by scraping out your bowl with a pipe tool or small pocket knife when you feel the cake is getting too thick. Careful not to scrape out all of your cake! Cake acts as an insulator, greatly extending the life of your pipe and guarding against burn outs. Depending on how often you smoke your pipe you may need to do this only once every couple of weeks. ** Additionally, before emptying out ash from your bowl, place one finger or the palm of your hand over the top of the bowl, shake the pipe for a few seconds to evenly distribute the ash along the inside walls of the bowl, which will greatly speed the formation of "cake," a protective layer of carbonized tobacco and ash inside your pipe. ** Information referenced from www.smokingpipes.com

This warranty is on manufacturer defects only within the first 6 months of purchase. Warranty does NOT cover Ukrainian, ceramic, clay, meerschaum, glass, brass and porcelain pipes. Proof of purchase is required. Stems snapped in half & chewed stems are not covered. SHIPPING CHARGES ARE CUSTOMER RESPONSIBILITY. NO RETURNS. Fill out the submission form below completely. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ 6 Mo. Warranty Submission Form (https://forms.wix.com/4a6e7e87-de3c-43bd-93cb-cbc1bd0a3043:972ec226-e4d8-4588-8941-c14fedc99c17) My broken pipe does not fall under warranty, but I would still like some help replacing a bowl or stem. Fill out the submission form below completely. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Replacement Part Submission Form (https://forms.wix.com/4a6e7e87-de3c-43bd-93cb-cbc1bd0a3043:d43c3894-d4f0-4b6e-815f-730f19b2326e)