Minimum Heel Thickness?

[autumnfog]

How thick should the heel be, to prevent burn through at the bottom of the chamber?
I've read somewhere that Sixten Ivarsson said it should be at least 5 mm thick.
Is this a concern for you?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Never gave it a thought.

 

[warren]

Me neither. As thick as it needs to be I suppose.

 

[Hillcrest]

Yes in the sense that I find pipes with 7mm or less get too\ hot to hold. My Peterson Pub has 12mm. I prefer 9mm or greater. I do have some pipes with less but I tend to add 2mm pipe mud or let cake build up.

 

[OzPiper]

I received an old estate with over-reamed walls and a thin heel which I decided to keep because I liked its looks.

Built up the walls and heel with JB Weld followed by a few layers of pipe mud. And allowed to dry for a couple of weeks

In the above photo the JB Weld is just visible inside the bowl - prior to application of pipe-mud

It has smoked fine since
I must qualify this by adding that I fill the base with a few meer chips or Nording Keystones with most smokes

 

[autumnfog]

Thanks for the input, gentlemen!

 

[ThermionicScott]

I don't have any measurements to add. But I figure that when you're close to the heel, it's the relights that pose the biggest danger to the wood. So I do very quick applications of the flame at that point, and if it doesn't relight right away, I'll empty out ash and check if there's any tobacco left before trying again. I also like to tamp in a manner to pile up the remaining material against the draft hole so it's always got a little protection.