<p>I tried the torch method on a 16" tavern pipe to clean it and chunks flew off the bowl cracked and with the slightest touch the stem broke
exploding clay pipe
- Thread starter malefacter
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
- Status
Never heard of the torch method. I know you can place em in a fireplace to clean, just be careful of heavy burnt wood hit it.
Sorry to hear about your bad fortune. Welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear about your bad fortune. Welcome to the forum.
This is where I found it http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/clay-pipes-6 but after reading it again he used a gass range and someone asked about using a torch. Anyhow I probably got it too hot to fast and uneven and,or had moisture traped in it
Somewhere on the forum boards are several discussions on clay pipes to which I have contributed to over time. I started off smoking clays 30+ years ago and I still do although I know it will ruin my remaining teeth as I have/had pipe 'notches' from years of smoking clays. The tavern pipe you were smoking was a modern import probably made in the US. I have seen these pipes and they are pretty porous and I am not surprised you had an exploding specimen as they are not properly made in my opinion. Go to Oi Vay (Ebay) and buy yourself a couple of clay 'cutty' pipes preferably made by John Pollock & Sons of Manchester which should cost you under $20.00. If you are unsuccessful in that endevour PM me and I will send you a couple which unless you sit on them or drop them should see you out and cure you of any interest in this niche end of the pipe world. :
:
:
I knew Mr. Pollock well back in the late 1980s. If you sent him a Ten Pound note he would send you a bloody great box of 50 or 100 clay pipes all packed in saw dust. I had lunch with him once as well. A very nice old boy who smoked his own pipes and used an old pen knife to slice up a plug of tobacco to smoke, the brand escapes me. I think some one bought him out in 1990 and then all the molds finished up in some museum if my memory serves me correctly and any pipes you see now are old 'Pollock' inventory..
"exploding clay pipe"
This sounds like something which would have been sold (together with cigarette-loads, joy buzzers, and celluloid flowers which squirted water) by the Johnson Smith Company from the back pages of comic books!
This sounds like something which would have been sold (together with cigarette-loads, joy buzzers, and celluloid flowers which squirted water) by the Johnson Smith Company from the back pages of comic books!
malefacter:
Your post did not specify what type of "torch" you used, so consider the following. According to information which I found via a quick search of the Internet, the temperature of embers in a fireplace (one of the methods which Richard Carleton Hacker recommended - reference trailboss' post above) may range from 1,200 to 1,500-degrees Fahrenheit, and that of a butane/air mixture flame (via a butane lighter - another method which Mr. Hacker recommended) is estimated from 1,472 to 1,652-degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of an oxygen/acetylene flame averages 5,972-degrees Fahrenheit. Given the drastic differences in temperatures between the first two and the last, then assuming that you used the last, it is small wonder that your pipe disintegrated.
Your post did not specify what type of "torch" you used, so consider the following. According to information which I found via a quick search of the Internet, the temperature of embers in a fireplace (one of the methods which Richard Carleton Hacker recommended - reference trailboss' post above) may range from 1,200 to 1,500-degrees Fahrenheit, and that of a butane/air mixture flame (via a butane lighter - another method which Mr. Hacker recommended) is estimated from 1,472 to 1,652-degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of an oxygen/acetylene flame averages 5,972-degrees Fahrenheit. Given the drastic differences in temperatures between the first two and the last, then assuming that you used the last, it is small wonder that your pipe disintegrated.
That may well be the case. I have a few hundred Pollock clays in the UK and if space allows I bring a half dozen or so back every time I travel. The prices shown on the website are quite reasonable compared the prices asked on Oi Vay by some sellers. Clays aren't for everyone and are more of a cultural thing in the UK as I grew up in the 'South' of England.
- Status