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Pipes & Tobacco
General Pipe Discussion
The Professor's Pipe-Sweetening Treatment
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<blockquote data-quote="John Offerdahl" data-source="post: 13796" data-attributes="member: 128"><p>The salt and alcohol treatment is certainly effective. However, it can lead to problems - rare problems, but avoidable problems. Salt can leech into microcracks in bowls, where it causes the cracks to expand. Again, such an issue is quite rare but does happen. Thus the adaptation of cotton balls. When using cotton balls the process is slower, as the alcohol dries more quickly, but with careful rewetting it is as effective as the treatment with salt. You might even need to remove the cotton and reapply, but it's safe.</p><p></p><p>There are also other methods of sweetening pipes. One I've used is this: remove the stem from the pipe FIRST. Preheat an oven to about 180 degrees. Fill the pipe bowl with crushed, activated charcoal (the kind used for fish tank filters), place it on a towel, then stick it in the oven to bake for about 4 hours. The charcoal will pick up the nasties. The pipe will likely need a good buffing after this process, due to the heat. Other folks also report good success using white vinegar as a solvent.</p><p></p><p>However, NONE of these treatments should ever be necessary if you just take the time to properly clean your pipes after smoking. Good maintenance keeps the nasties from ever building up and souring a pipe to begin with, and thus making these various sweetening treatments an academic exercise only.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="John Offerdahl, post: 13796, member: 128"] The salt and alcohol treatment is certainly effective. However, it can lead to problems - rare problems, but avoidable problems. Salt can leech into microcracks in bowls, where it causes the cracks to expand. Again, such an issue is quite rare but does happen. Thus the adaptation of cotton balls. When using cotton balls the process is slower, as the alcohol dries more quickly, but with careful rewetting it is as effective as the treatment with salt. You might even need to remove the cotton and reapply, but it's safe. There are also other methods of sweetening pipes. One I've used is this: remove the stem from the pipe FIRST. Preheat an oven to about 180 degrees. Fill the pipe bowl with crushed, activated charcoal (the kind used for fish tank filters), place it on a towel, then stick it in the oven to bake for about 4 hours. The charcoal will pick up the nasties. The pipe will likely need a good buffing after this process, due to the heat. Other folks also report good success using white vinegar as a solvent. However, NONE of these treatments should ever be necessary if you just take the time to properly clean your pipes after smoking. Good maintenance keeps the nasties from ever building up and souring a pipe to begin with, and thus making these various sweetening treatments an academic exercise only. [/QUOTE]
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The Professor's Pipe-Sweetening Treatment
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