Cleaning A Gourd Calabash Pipe - Questions???

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Apr 26, 2012
3,345
5,136
Washington State
Just bought an estate gourd calabash and need some suggestions on how to clean the gourd. I'm still waiting for it to arrive in the mail, so I'm not sure how dirty the gourd chamber is, but from the pictures the meerschaum bowl needs some cleaning so I'm guessing the gourd will as well. As far as cleaning the meerschaum bowl and the stem; that's the easy part, but I'm not sure of the best process for cleaning/sanitizing the gourd. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
From Carl Ehwa's The Book Of Pipes & Tobacco pg. 102

gourdclean-593x600.jpg
[wear away when the smoker runs cleaners through the draft hole.]

 

shanegreen

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 17, 2018
147
0
I have that book Cortez. I am going to have to get it out now for some entertaining reading.
Thats the way to do it Metalhead. It's fairly easy. I have to do one myself sometime this week and have a good long smoke after ripping out 1400 square feet of flooring.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
Most of the crud will have accumulated on the wall of the gourd opposite the bottom of the cup. You should probably try to manually scrape away the heaviest part of it before using alcohol.
With the cup removed and inverted, you're supposed to burn off the goop that has accumulated around the cup's draft hole. This also hardens the meer around the draft hole.
You can re-condition the cork with lanolin, used sparingly. You can buy pure lanolin at Walgreen's. It's marketed to nursing mothers to keep their nipples soft, so look for it in the maternity or baby's section of the store.

 
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