Filters for pipes

What pipe filters are for

A pipe is meant to be smoked dry. There is always moisture in the chamber, however, and especially in the chambers of 9 mm pipes, where a good deal of condensation forms. One of the things pipe filters are meant to do is to hold that moisture back, absorbing it in fact, so that the smoker smokes dry.

The other role given to pipe filters is filtering the smoke. Pipe filters hold back nicotine well, for the most part at least, along with some of the tar. The other side of the coin is that the chamber is quickly covered with a layer of unwanted deposit, and the pipe has to be cleaned after every smoke. Cleaning after a smoke therefore comes with the filter rather than being optional…
This layer of deposit builds up very quickly in 9 mm pipes, for which the use of pipe filters is all but compulsory.

Smoking with a filter in your pipe

Pipe filters are made either of meerschaum (Meerschaum filters), carbon granules (bigben 9mm filters), a sheet of blotting paper (Denicotea 4mm paper filters), silica crystals (denicool) or simply of wood such as balsa ( Balsa 9mm filters). The pipe filter works as well with one material as with another. A filter is of course an obstacle to the free movement of air in the chamber, and the smoker has to draw harder on the pipe with every puff. It is a matter of habit.

Pipe filters also cut the taste of the tobacco to some extent, which can be an advantage with strong tobaccos or a drawback with mild ones. If too little of the taste of the tobacco reaches the palate, it is possible to smoke without a pipe filter. As the opening of 9 mm pipes is very wide, however, the smoker is then better off with a smaller pipe. Pipe filters really ought to be used as a matter of course in a 9 mm pipe…

The pipe filter should of course be changed after every smoke. That is why filters come in different packs: boxes of 10 pipe filters for occasional smokers, up to boxes of 200 filters for heavy smokers. When changing the filter, take care to clean the chamber thoroughly.