Pipe Cleaning

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Question for Piet and Slow Puffs and Kap....

I am expecting an ebay Dunhill estate in a day or two here. How would you go about getting the chamber nice and clean? It is in remarkable shape with almost no cake and some slight discoloration on the rim. What interests me most is to get rid of as much of the former owners tobacco "ghost".

I have seen a process with kosher salt and isopropyl alcohol that was for that purpose. Filling with Kosher salt then adding alcohol to help soak out the oils and juices. I am a little reticent to try it on a Dunhill- lest I screw it up....

Any suggestions, or is this a proprietary process know only to professionals??

Mega thanks....
 
That's out of my league... But I recall having a pipe a year or two ago that I was dismayed with because the Mac Baren Cube I smoked in it left a ghost. Pipemaker jumped in and said simply clean the shank and stem with alcohol and swab the cake or bowl with a pipe cleaner soaked in alcohol. Lo and and behold it worked :D .

It wasn't a Dunhill so I would wait for some more knowledgeable responses here.
 
It wasn't Pipemaker, sorry:

Here's the post:

"Hi Paul,
Before taking any drastic measures with this new pipe, I would suggest cleaning with pure grain alcohol or as close as you can get. Primarily the stem and shank area and a light swish with soaked pipe cleaner in the bowl. I have found that a lot of the ghosts reside in the residue of past smokes in the shank area where they find some moisture present to combine with and adhere to the wood. Try it, may not remove all of the ghost but I bet it knocks him down a bunch. Regards,
Alan Stevenson
Wausau, WI
Stevenson pipes at www.mrcspiperoom.com"

 
In most cases, the ghosts will gradually fade and disappear with nothing more radical than smoking the pipe a number of times. Eau de Perique can take longer, and crap stuff like 1Q and the floral shampoos can require professional help. But I'd give it a half dozen trips around the block to see before doing anything.

FWIW, the ghosts do tend to mostly haunt the shank area, but alcohol there, IMHO, is usually overkill. Simply smoking the pipe will deposit enough moisture there to soften the gunk, and twisting in a rolled-up kleenex like a giant pipe cleaner will pull a lot of it out. Repeat each time until the problem (hopefully) becomes un-noticeable.

My 2 cents' worth

:face:
 
What about Q-tips, with or without a bit of Everclear, for cleaning the shank?

Asking for feedback on an idea here, not presuming to give advice.
 
Yak, I used to do the the kleenex thingy and thought I was getting the job done. But experimenting lately, I can smoke the pipe apply the kleenex and then test the "cleanliness" of the shank with a Q-tip with alcohol and I am amazed at the filth on the Q-tip. Granted with some pipes, the kleenex seems to be sufficient.

In fact today, I was wondering if the tobacco blend makes a difference. It was wondering if some blends do not leave as much residue in the shank as some others do.

I prefer my shanks to be as pure as virgins... No longer am I going to screw my stem into a shank that ain't pure or least cleaned up as best I can.
 
MisterE":9mghdxp6 said:
Question for Piet and Slow Puffs and Kap....

I am expecting an ebay Dunhill estate in a day or two here. How would you go about getting the chamber nice and clean? It is in remarkable shape with almost no cake and some slight discoloration on the rim. What interests me most is to get rid of as much of the former owners tobacco "ghost".

I have seen a process with kosher salt and isopropyl alcohol that was for that purpose. Filling with Kosher salt then adding alcohol to help soak out the oils and juices. I am a little reticent to try it on a Dunhill- lest I screw it up....

Any suggestions, or is this a proprietary process know only to professionals??

Mega thanks....
Click to expand...
PM SENT!
 
Your Puffitude :

We're both referencing older pipes and less carefully made ones -- both with excessive headspace. (Which can also be from since-removed stingers or, with some Peterson standard shapes, incorporating moisture sumps by design).

We aren't conflicting here. I'm patient enough to let successive smokings gradually moisten/soften the crustage in the mortise into glop for removal after each smoking until it's eventually clean ; you want it all out of there, and out now.

LL's procedure with this is to ream the accumulated crust down to wood with tools custom-made for the job. It's not unlike reaming a caked bowl, only more claustrophobic.

Alcohol will, it's true, dissolve it for removal, but it will, at the same time, soak it into the briar -- stain the interior with it, as it were. You can chase it with alcohol literally forever and still be pulling cleaners out brown.

:face:



 
Top