I searched for another example of this and could find none.
I have a meerschaum pipe that had a slightly off odor and flavor. Believing it to be related to certain aromatics I smoked heavily in it when the pipe was new, I wondered if it would be possible to release the “ghost” by boiling it out of the pipe, and determined to do just that. For those who are unaware, meerschaum blocks are saturated in water prior to carving, in order to soften it and facilitate easier carving, though not boiling water to my knowledge. “What damage could boiling water do?”, I asked myself. In my one experiment, no damage whatsoever was the case, and I was successful in removing the ghost. The chamber was cleaner as a result, as well. The only adverse affects were a fading of the coloring which had developed, remedied with a brief soak in beeswax, and a loosened shank ferrule, due to the heat softening whatever adhesive was holding it on. This was a simple fix though. I’m very happy with the result and would have no reservations doing it again if I felt it would benefit the pipe.
The method was fairly straightforward. I boiled up some water in pot on the stove, enough water to submerge the stummel. I removed the stem from the pipe and inserted a wooden chopstick in the shank to act as a handle. Into the water it goes. I boiled it somewhere between 5-10 minutes, removed it from the water and set it aside to cool off and dry out. I don’t recall now, but I didn’t wait more than 24 hours before reassembling the pipe and checking the result. The smell from the chamber was largely gone, the chamber itself was clean and dry, and the off taste was also essentially eliminated.
Any else have any experience with this?
I have a meerschaum pipe that had a slightly off odor and flavor. Believing it to be related to certain aromatics I smoked heavily in it when the pipe was new, I wondered if it would be possible to release the “ghost” by boiling it out of the pipe, and determined to do just that. For those who are unaware, meerschaum blocks are saturated in water prior to carving, in order to soften it and facilitate easier carving, though not boiling water to my knowledge. “What damage could boiling water do?”, I asked myself. In my one experiment, no damage whatsoever was the case, and I was successful in removing the ghost. The chamber was cleaner as a result, as well. The only adverse affects were a fading of the coloring which had developed, remedied with a brief soak in beeswax, and a loosened shank ferrule, due to the heat softening whatever adhesive was holding it on. This was a simple fix though. I’m very happy with the result and would have no reservations doing it again if I felt it would benefit the pipe.
The method was fairly straightforward. I boiled up some water in pot on the stove, enough water to submerge the stummel. I removed the stem from the pipe and inserted a wooden chopstick in the shank to act as a handle. Into the water it goes. I boiled it somewhere between 5-10 minutes, removed it from the water and set it aside to cool off and dry out. I don’t recall now, but I didn’t wait more than 24 hours before reassembling the pipe and checking the result. The smell from the chamber was largely gone, the chamber itself was clean and dry, and the off taste was also essentially eliminated.
Any else have any experience with this?
