Shane O'Hare
WOLVERINE!Lazy Sunday Project
May 10th 2009 18:00
So, if you've been following my blog lately you can see I'm doing a run of articles on smoking pipes and their maintenance. Well today is going to be the granddaddy of them all. TOTAL PIPE REJUVENATION!!!
There will not be any pictures with this one, since I don't have a pipe thats in need of a total scrub like this. When I get a new estate pipe ill take some pictures and put them up here.
Things you WILL need:
Very dirty pipe (estate pipe or one that has been smoked a lot and hasn't been cleaned)
Some dark drinking alcohol (cheap rum or cheap whiskey)
Light bleach
Small pipe knife or pipe reamer, pocket knife would even do.
Kosher Salt (Morton's makes a cheap kosher salt, look in the salt section or ethnic aisle)
Cotton Swabs
Briarwood polish/pipe wipe/magic polishing cloths or just some sort of polishing solvent.
Pipe cleaners smooth AND bristled
Okay so you have your pipe, its an estate pipe from ebay and its got some thick cake on it. You can't smoke it cause its gross and unsanitized.
First things first time to sanitize the stem. Get some water and put it in a bowl with some light bleach. Put a few drops in the bowl and then fill it up with water. Drop the stem in and let it sit over night.
Now take your bowl and knife and start to lightly scrape the inside of the bowl, getting cake flecks off. Don't scrape too hard or you might crack/cut the bowl. Keep doing this till you get the majority of the cake off. Now its time to use the Rum! (You can use a reamer here, just be careful and go slow with it)
Take some of that rum or whiskey (referred to as rum from here on out because its only three letters long) and put some in a small cup. Take one of the bristle pipe cleaners and dip the end into the rum. Now do a usual scrub for the inside of the bowl with the alcohol. You are going to have to rock the pipe cleaner pretty hard to get the cake off. Get a eye dropper and put a few drops in the bottom of the bowl and slosh it around. Try not to get an alcohol on the outside of the bowl because will strip the finish (you might want to do this on purpose because we will be using pipe wipes or what not to sharpen up the finish). You will go through a few pipe cleaners here, don't be shy about it. Next, do the same thing but to the entrance to the bowl, the stem hole...yeah lets call it that.
Now time to dry the inside out. Get smooth pipe cleaners and soak up any alcohol, it breaks down the carbon in the cake very nicely so it'll just latch to the pipe cleaner.
Now that its dry take a cotton swab and cut it in half and stick it in the stem hole. If it doesn't plug the hole you might need to use some tape or saran wrap, anything to make it water proof.
Now fill the bowl with kosher salt. Put just enough rum in/on the salt with an eyedropper to make it wet, not floating in the stuff just moist. The salt acts as a vacuum and sucks up the carbon thats deeply soaked into the wood pores. Leave it like this over night, in the morning you'll see that the salt is turned a brownish color.
Now empty out all the salt and use a pipe cleaner with some alcohol on it to make any touch ups on the bowl.
Take out your steam and dry it off. Reattach it to the bowl. Time to get the finish back.
Depending on how you want to do things you have a few options. If you have briar pipe wipe follow the instructions on the can for it. I use a combination of pipe wipe and "Magic Polishing Cloths". They are cotton cloths soaked with coconut oil. I use these to clean the outside of the pipe, it removes any stains or stray finish from the pipe. Getting it to almost bare wood. Wipe the whole pipe down, all the outside, stem and all. Now take the pipe wipe cloth you have and you will soon see the luster return to your pipe. The stem will have a richer deeper black color. The bowl will get its natural wood color back.
Now don't smoke it for at least two days. This will let the pores soak up the coconut oil and pipe wipe oils. The first few smokes might have a sharp rum flavor to them. Just make sure you clean it out pretty good every time after you smoke it.
This is a lot of work and a good weekend project when you get a nice estate pipe that needs to be scrubbed. If anyone has any questions just comment or message me and I'll gladly help you out.
There will not be any pictures with this one, since I don't have a pipe thats in need of a total scrub like this. When I get a new estate pipe ill take some pictures and put them up here.
Things you WILL need:
Very dirty pipe (estate pipe or one that has been smoked a lot and hasn't been cleaned)
Some dark drinking alcohol (cheap rum or cheap whiskey)
Light bleach
Small pipe knife or pipe reamer, pocket knife would even do.
Kosher Salt (Morton's makes a cheap kosher salt, look in the salt section or ethnic aisle)
Cotton Swabs
Briarwood polish/pipe wipe/magic polishing cloths or just some sort of polishing solvent.
Pipe cleaners smooth AND bristled
Okay so you have your pipe, its an estate pipe from ebay and its got some thick cake on it. You can't smoke it cause its gross and unsanitized.
First things first time to sanitize the stem. Get some water and put it in a bowl with some light bleach. Put a few drops in the bowl and then fill it up with water. Drop the stem in and let it sit over night.
Now take your bowl and knife and start to lightly scrape the inside of the bowl, getting cake flecks off. Don't scrape too hard or you might crack/cut the bowl. Keep doing this till you get the majority of the cake off. Now its time to use the Rum! (You can use a reamer here, just be careful and go slow with it)
Take some of that rum or whiskey (referred to as rum from here on out because its only three letters long) and put some in a small cup. Take one of the bristle pipe cleaners and dip the end into the rum. Now do a usual scrub for the inside of the bowl with the alcohol. You are going to have to rock the pipe cleaner pretty hard to get the cake off. Get a eye dropper and put a few drops in the bottom of the bowl and slosh it around. Try not to get an alcohol on the outside of the bowl because will strip the finish (you might want to do this on purpose because we will be using pipe wipes or what not to sharpen up the finish). You will go through a few pipe cleaners here, don't be shy about it. Next, do the same thing but to the entrance to the bowl, the stem hole...yeah lets call it that.
Now time to dry the inside out. Get smooth pipe cleaners and soak up any alcohol, it breaks down the carbon in the cake very nicely so it'll just latch to the pipe cleaner.
Now that its dry take a cotton swab and cut it in half and stick it in the stem hole. If it doesn't plug the hole you might need to use some tape or saran wrap, anything to make it water proof.
Now fill the bowl with kosher salt. Put just enough rum in/on the salt with an eyedropper to make it wet, not floating in the stuff just moist. The salt acts as a vacuum and sucks up the carbon thats deeply soaked into the wood pores. Leave it like this over night, in the morning you'll see that the salt is turned a brownish color.
Now empty out all the salt and use a pipe cleaner with some alcohol on it to make any touch ups on the bowl.
Take out your steam and dry it off. Reattach it to the bowl. Time to get the finish back.
Depending on how you want to do things you have a few options. If you have briar pipe wipe follow the instructions on the can for it. I use a combination of pipe wipe and "Magic Polishing Cloths". They are cotton cloths soaked with coconut oil. I use these to clean the outside of the pipe, it removes any stains or stray finish from the pipe. Getting it to almost bare wood. Wipe the whole pipe down, all the outside, stem and all. Now take the pipe wipe cloth you have and you will soon see the luster return to your pipe. The stem will have a richer deeper black color. The bowl will get its natural wood color back.
Now don't smoke it for at least two days. This will let the pores soak up the coconut oil and pipe wipe oils. The first few smokes might have a sharp rum flavor to them. Just make sure you clean it out pretty good every time after you smoke it.
This is a lot of work and a good weekend project when you get a nice estate pipe that needs to be scrubbed. If anyone has any questions just comment or message me and I'll gladly help you out.
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