A Multitude of Micro-Fissures in Pipe Bowl - Fix?

[Richard Burley]

I'd give the bowl a coating of honey and just smoke it carefully until it cakes over.

If I have spider webbing in an estate bowl, I will use honey and then shake cigar ash in the bowl to keep it from being sticky. This and some careful smoking has always given a protective layer of cake a jumpstart over some iffy areas...

My vote would go to this recommendation. Minimalist, no weird stuff, and if it should fail, just eBay the pipe for some moron to purchase. :rabbit:

 

[RDPipes]

if it should fail, just eBay the pipe for some moron to purchase.  :rabbit:

Ouch!

 

[riff raff]

I gave up on the pipe mud (ash & water), it's OK for bowl bottoms to build up some height but it will not stay on a vertical bowl wall.

 

[ontariopiper]

Thanks for all the input, gents. I appreciate the input, and the bowl coating recipes - thanks Riff Raff. I happen to have both ingredients ready at hand, so I'll go that route.

I did sand out the CA glue I had originally used - amazing how quickly 80-grit sandpaper around a dowel clean a bowl right back to bare wood! I should be good to go! I will report back with some pics of the finished pipe when I get there.

 

[ontariopiper]

As promised, here's my update/follow-up post. I am happy to report that this beautiful pipe is back in action!

I used the maple syrup and charcoal recipe posted above to apply a bowl coating, covering up and (hopefully) protecting the stressed-out bowl from further cracks and/or widening of the existing fissures.

As a reminder here are the "Before" shots:

I applied the coating and let it sit longer than the 5-7 days stipulated in the instructions. I didn't necessarily mean to do this, but a week of vacation overlapped the 5-day mark, so the coating cured for almost 14 days.

And here's the pipe now:



.





I had the opportunity to test the pipe this afternoon and all went swimmingly. The pipes smoked very well indeed, and the large bowl and long shank produced a long, cool smoke that lasted nearly an hour while I sat in the shade with a crossword. I detected no sourness or other changes to the tobacco's flavour due to the coating, nor are there any indications of movement in the briar underneath.

I'm declaring this one a success!  :cheers:

Thanks to everyone for their comments, encouragement and practical wisdom. I'm still very much a pipe refurb noob, and as such am very grateful for places like BoB where I can learn from some great people.

 

[riff raff]

Nice work. On pipes like that (actually every pipe I break-in, new or restored estate), after the first few bowls, I work the ash as fine as possible with my tamper, swirl it all around the bowl, dump excess, blow lightly to clear the draft hole and run a cleaner thru the stem. I think that helps start building protective cake right away. Later, I do the bowl wipe with a paper towel after every smoke.