What? Do I need to hire an exorcist next?

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-R.

-R.

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Right, so I'm trying to rid my Dunhill of the latakia ghosting, and...well, it's still there after three rounds of the ol' salt-&-alcohol treatments. I've reamed it pretty close to the wood before the last round of salt-&-alcohol, as well as giving it a good 20 minute session of cleaning out the shank with a brush and PGA.

Do I just need to smoke a dozen or so bowls of some Virginia to finally rid the pipe of its ghost?
 
Or walk away from the Dunhill...lord knows the british can be stubborn old mules. I'm sure a fellow brother can take him off your hands.
 
It can be difficult to make something do something it doesn't want to do. (That's a poorly worded and confusing sentence...) I wouldn't run the risk over over cleaning it. You may end up cleaning away all it's character. Maybe just let it be.
 
Obelus":ozjtpwpb said:
10 or 12 bowls of Ennerdale Flake will do the trick-- and, as an added bonus, everything you put in it thereafter will magically transform into more Ennerdale Flake. Pretty amazing really.


:clown: :face: :clown:
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I have to profess ignorance on Ennerdale Flake, as I've never had it. It's one of those Lakeland tobaccos, right? I assume one of the very floral, flavored ones, yeah?

My only experience with Lakeland tobaccoas has been GH&Co's Brown Flake and that being the unscented version.

 
They're joking with you.

Just keep smoking Virginias until it finally subsides, or send it to LL for a detox. The wait on the detox will be no short one, as he's busy as heck and has a long queue. Probably about the same time for the same result either way.

:face:
 
-R.":84w50a3v said:
Right, so I'm trying to rid my Dunhill of the latakia ghosting, and...well, it's still there after three rounds of the ol' salt-&-alcohol treatments. I've reamed it pretty close to the wood before the last round of salt-&-alcohol, as well as giving it a good 20 minute session of cleaning out the shank with a brush and PGA.

Do I just need to smoke a dozen or so bowls of some Virginia to finally rid the pipe of its ghost?
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Just smoke it. If you're a virginia fancier, the crossover smokes may turn out to be very pleasant. Latakia isn't nearly as tenacious as a typical aromatic, so you'll be rid of it soon enough, maybe even fewer than a dozen bowls, but it will depend on what you're smoking, and how you smoke.
 
I kind of enjoy those "crossover smokes" as Greg puts it. Lat ghosting with Va or Vapers is actually quite nice for me personally.

The only thing recently that was a turnoff was the ghosting from some GH Black Irish X last summer. That´s strong stuff, and I can still perceive it once in a while (8 months later) in the Sav I smoked it in.

 
With apologies in advance to those who like them, some tobaccos are just the pipe-equivalents of social diseases. They should at least come with warning labels. :roll:

:face:
 
Yak":i3qe9225 said:
With apologies in advance to those who like them, some tobaccos are just the pipe-equivalents of social diseases. They should at least come with warning labels. :roll:

:face:
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Yeah, GH Black Irish X is really the "gift that keeps on giving" in that regard... :lol!: :lol!:
 
I've had good luck using a retort I got on eBay (search for "pipe retort") for $12. You put a cotton ball inside the bowl, put some alcohol in the retort, and connect the retort to the stem, then heat the retort over a candle. The alcohol boils up into the pipe, leeching the fluids from it, and condenses back into the retort. Repeat a couple of times, refreshing the alcohol when it becomes too filthy. I do this to all my estates after the s/a treatment, and I've found its great for cleaning he shank, where the s/a is much less effective than the bowl.

Cheers!

Juan M. Villaveces
 
jvillaveces":a6gvrl42 said:
I've had good luck using a retort I got on eBay (search for "pipe retort") for $12. You put a cotton ball inside the bowl, put some alcohol in the retort, and connect the retort to the stem, then heat the retort over a candle. The alcohol boils up into the pipe, leeching the fluids from it, and condenses back into the retort. Repeat a couple of times, refreshing the alcohol when it becomes too filthy. I do this to all my estates after the s/a treatment, and I've found its great for cleaning he shank, where the s/a is much less effective than the bowl.

Cheers!

Juan M. Villaveces
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Good to know, thanks. I've been thinking about getting a retort kit myself.
 
After about three bowls of various Virginia only blends, the remaining latakia ghost is completely gone. I suspect that I was just being impatient.
 
This is news to me. A search on eBay came up with this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PIPE-CLEANING-RETORT-/270718820396?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0819602c

I still cannot picture it. Do you place the pipe bowl higher than the retort device then heat the part furthest away from the bowl? There's no danger of fire?

Doug


jvillaveces":5ghdqtyp said:
I've had good luck using a retort I got on eBay (search for "pipe retort") for $12. You put a cotton ball inside the bowl, put some alcohol in the retort, and connect the retort to the stem, then heat the retort over a candle. The alcohol boils up into the pipe, leeching the fluids from it, and condenses back into the retort. Repeat a couple of times, refreshing the alcohol when it becomes too filthy. I do this to all my estates after the s/a treatment, and I've found its great for cleaning he shank, where the s/a is much less effective than the bowl.

Cheers!

Juan M. Villaveces
Click to expand...
 
A retort is a small glass test tube with a rubber airtight stopper. Thereis a hole drilled through the stopper, through which a short length of pipe passes. To this pipe is attached a length of surgical tubing, the other end of which has a slit that allows you to attach it securely to the stem of a pipe.

The idea is to put alcohol in the glass vessel (the test tube) and heat it. The alcohol expands when heated, and becomes vaporized. The only way it can escape is through the tubing, and thus into the pipe. Once it gets there, it cools and condenses again. In the process, it absorbs oils and gunk from the inside of the stem and from the shank of the pipe. The liquid alcohol now trickles back to the glass vessel. If you heat it again, the cycle repeats. The purpose of the cotton ball in the bowl is to prevent the alcohol from erupting out of the pipe that way and damaging the finish (and staining averything around it).

The relationship between pipe and retort doesn't matter when the alcohol is being heated, as it will always escape into the pipe - it has nowhere else to go. Once the retort is empty, you simply move it away from the heat, and raise the pipe a bit to make gravity aid in the return of the re-condensed alcohol to the retort.

It is far more complicated to explain than to do. The retort comes with easy instructions anyway.

In my experience, ghosts that remain after a good s/a treatment come from the shank rather than the bowl, and this is the only way I know of to reliably clean a shank to "like-new" condition.

Juan M. Villaveces
 
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