I Am Afraid My Pipes Are Ruined, Looking for Advice

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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
Pretty awful and hope the kid catches hell from Dad, but that's what kids do. Yeats said being young is like being chained to a monster, and this is but one example. On the other hand, many/most kids can be pretty wonderful.

 

steve66

Lurker
Apr 22, 2019
3
0
I want to genuinely thank everyone for their suggestions, and info, I’ve been a cigar guy for many years and have been enjoying pipes tremendously for a couple years so I am far from very knowledgeable on the topic. To round the story out a bit, my LT is a good dude and parent and is making the kid give me back the money I paid him to dog sit/house sit as well as pay for the pipes. I only wish to save the pipes because of the sentimental value to one in particular, the kid would be paying for replacing the other pipes, which are Peterson’s and a savinelli. Apparently the kid had a couple buddies over to play video games, my LT was at the house with them and left for a half hour to pick up food for them and that’s when they likely toked up with my pipes. The whole thing just frustrates me, a cop’s kid at a cop’s house doing that with a cop’s property. I have an infant and 3 year old and smelling weed at my house after a relaxing vacation sent me through the roof, as you can imangine at work, half the mutts I arrest or have to deal with reek of weed and smelling it in my bedroom was a personal affront. Anyway thank you all for the info, I’m going to go to work on em tonight and have a couple of makers marks to keep from getting too pissed off in the process. When I get things to where I think they’re good to go I’ll update for anyone interested.

 

elbert

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 10, 2015
604
28
Apparently the kid had a couple buddies over to play video games, my LT was at the house with them and left for a half hour to pick up food for them and that’s when they likely toked up with my pipes.
Thus proving once again that an arithmetic increase in teenagers directly correlates to a geometric increase in jackassery. :puffpipe:

 

tkcolo

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 30, 2018
240
329
51
Granby, CO
I'd try the good one first, because I think it'll will be a tough go. Take the money and start over. No way they are coming back without 100 smokes. Maybe not even at that.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,725
27,326
Carmel Valley, CA
I'm pretty sure they can be resurrected. I'd try the hot alcohol, followed by several hot water flushes. I'd also scrub the chamber with dish detergent, something I wouldn't do save for this type of ghosting. (Detergent also works on removing oils.). Dry as well as you can, smoke a few bowls of something strong that you like. Rinse and repeat. I bet you'll be ok in a few dozen smokes.
So sorry for this fiasco!

 

verporchting

Lifer
Dec 30, 2018
2,900
8,983
Send them out to a professional to have them completely refurbished including retort and ozone and make the little bastard pay for it. So what if it costs $100 each to have them professionally treated? He's going to pay, right? That's what I'd do. And if they come back less than satisfactory, the little shit can pay for four brand new and bloody expensive pipes, one of which should be an artisan or a Dunhill to make up for the loss of a sentimental item. If he has to sell a kidney to fund it, then he'll just have to live with the remaining one. Stupidity should hurt.

 

skydog

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 27, 2017
581
1,537
Yeats said being young is like being chained to a monster, and this is but one example. On the other hand, many/most kids can be pretty wonderful.
Wise words indeed. As for the pipes, I'm sure if Lakeland ghosts can be exorcised from pipes then truly any type of smell can be removed.

 

seldom

Lifer
Mar 11, 2018
1,035
940
There are a couple of problems. THC is fat soluble. I'm not sure alcohol will remove it. As a LEO you know that if the pipes retain residues of THC they can be considered drug paraphernalia, depending on which state you are in. Your drug testing is another concern because, being fat soluble, THC is detected in drug tests for an unusually long period of time.

With a thorough cleaning I doubt there will be enough weed residue to get you even a little high. However the concern is whether it would leave a trace in a drug test. There is also your enjoyment to consider. If you are worried the whole time you are smoking your pipe it hardly makes for a relaxing experience. After cleaning I would not think that the level of THC in your body, if any, would rise to a sufficient threshold to fail a test. But I don't know.
I'll echo what other wrote. Getting them professionally cleaned (letting the service know what happened) or else replacing them would set your mind at ease and allow you to enjoy pipe smoking again.

 
Yeh, I am just trying to imagine... I don't know much about drugs, but I've seen TV... the authority steps out for half an hour or so... the kids all pack 3 to 5 grams (depending on bowl sizes) of marijuana into a pipe and suck it down before the authority returns... the authority doesn't smell anything, nor notices that the kids are all stoned out of their minds. That sounds fishy to me.
My daughters had a party years back, when they were in middle school. There was a group of boys standing at the side of my house smoking it. I could smell it throughout the yard, and the boys were obviously incapacitated. I called their parents and had them come get their kids, and I explained why. The parents didn't seem like it was any big deal. The parents apathy bothered me more than the drugs themselves.

 

dukdalf

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 24, 2011
238
0
I do have some first-hand experience. Don't worry, I've quit a long time ago and it was completely legal overhere. Smoking once or twice daily but mixing with RYO, three grams would suffice for more than a week. Smoking straight marihuana is not for beginners, let alone a full bowl of a decent-sized briar. Half a gram each would have left those kids not only incapacitated as Cosmic pointed out, but green in the face and probably in need of fresh underwear. As for the pipes: I'm pretty sure they could be restored to being free of nasty smells or flavours, but to remove any trace of THC might prove more difficult. The gunk is incredibly tarry and sticky, especially once it has cooled down.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
Really hard to know about kids. Some are ultra responsible, and others are extremely polite as a ploy to cover their hell-raising. The parents either don't know or want to cover for their kid hoping they'll act responsibly. Really sad because the kids who are overtly responsible and scrupulous live as suspects nonetheless because of some of their shady peers. I guess it's the human condition, not just kids. When kids are in groups, it tends to sink to the lowest common denominator, because none of them want to play the reviled parents or teachers and be drummed out of the group. Like most young people, I spent my youth being apprehended. I was fascinated with retail and would canvas a department store to see how stuff was organized and presented -- this was while shopping with my mom no less -- and we were stopped by the store detective who thought I was casing the place. "I never forget a face," he said when he finally dismissed us. Like most young guys, I was infatuated with cars, at one point especially interior design, so I was always studying the dashboards of fine automobiles, which several times got me surveilled by the police who thought I was into car theft. Even in the military, I used to hike the beach at Long Beach, Ca., to relax while living on a cramped minesweeper, and the cops stopped me and were suspicious of my hiking on the beach. Go figure. So I do feel badly for young folks who are default suspects.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
Perpetually out of step even in groups that admire themselves for being out of step. Or as I like to think, an original thinker. I tried really hard in the military to conform, and then I'd get my medals on the wrong side of my jumper (Navy) for an inspection. I worked pretty hard, so people just shook their heads. No wonder they suspended selective service after contending with me. I showed up at an underway replenishment aboard ship in my Navy issue bathing suit, since I knew we would be soaked. I was promptly ordered to go put on my dungarees. I thought I was being practical. I think even the officers were amused, but had to keep their game faces. I wasn't being smart assed, and I think they knew that, by then, living around me.

 

steve66

Lurker
Apr 22, 2019
3
0
Just to update any interested, I bought an alcohol retort on eBay and went at the pipes with it. The retort worked brilliantly on the Peterson’s, unfortunately the pipe with sentimental value and the savinelli were damaged. I should have done a little bit more homework on the alcohol retort and the pipes I was using it on. The Peterson’s have vulcanite stems which can take the heat and the savinelli and other apparently have acrylic which melted them, when they cooled and I ran a pipe cleaner through them there was rubbery residue coming out and they taste pretty awful. Anyway, I then did a salt treatment on the bowls with course kosher salt and Bacardi 151 and the Peterson’s and actually all the bowls came out beautifully. I’m confident the Peterson’s will smoke good without weed ghosting them. I’m going to hold onto the bowls of the two others and check the stem diameter of the sentiment pipe with a micrometer, maybe someday, if I keep my ear to the ground I can find a stem that will for the pipe. Anyway thanks to everyone again, the video I watched for the salt/ alcohol treatment was from “tea and tobacco” on YouTube, here’s the link. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s8If9ml6HqI Cheers and thanks again.

 

5star

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 17, 2017
727
2,018
PacNW USA
Sorry for what happened to your pipes & the damage caused by the alcohol. I had copied another posters comment before reading your last post, and agreed that sending it out to be worked on is the course I would've followed. I'd still send it to a professional now to have the ozone treatment and other damage repaired. You can have stems made for your pipes. That damage wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the stoner kid.
http://walkerpiperepair.com

 

paulfg

Lifer
Feb 21, 2016
1,573
2,951
Corfu Greece
Steve where are you

why not get a new stem made for your sentimental pipe.

I know its not the same but at least you can smoke it and get the culprit to pay the costs

 

condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
8,056
27,222
New York
Send the pipes with the stem issues to Rik at Briarville and tell him Dave and Simon sent you and he will make you two new stems in a flash! His web site is www.briarville.com and remember he is Chicago for the pipe show this week coming. :P

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
The follow cleaning procedures as described earlier in this thread and smoke the pipe regularly with the tobacco you prefer -- a good burley blend or a good Virginia blend, etc. I don't think m.j. resin is going to ghost briar after some serious bowls of blend.

 

skeeter456

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 28, 2017
590
1,429
34
Plattsburgh NY
So your supervisor with rank could not tell his kid and friends were high? As I am in the same field, it is pretty easy to tell when someone is high.

 
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