How Much Cake to Remove? Down to Briar?

exibar · Sep 30, 2015

Hi All! quick question... I've jus been bitten by the pipe restoring bug, and I've been following many forums here and there and there and here

I have a quick question, should I remove ALL the cake from an old pipe? bring it right down to wood? or should I leave some cake there?
If I leave some there, will that instill 'bacco ghosts from the previous owner?
thanks all!

Mike B
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mso489 · Sep 30, 2015

Get some unsmokeable worn-out pipes to practice on with a reamer. You can do a lot of damage with those, so you might as well have some no-risk practice sessions. If there is someone to teach you the ropes, get that help. I wipe out my pipes after every smoke, don't own a reamer, and have 40 year old pipes I bought new that look great. But if you use a reamer, practice, practice, practice.

brudnod · Sep 30, 2015

I only use a reamer when I am restoring a heavily smoked estate pipe with a thick cake. Thereafter, I never have to use the reamer. As MSO says, wipe your pipe after use and the cake will build so incrementally slowly that you will not have to ream again.

jpmcwjr · Sep 30, 2015

I am not a professional restorer, but I'd say , no, do not remove all the cake. If, after reaming to the thickness of a couple of MM's you try it and it has a taste or smell you don't like, give it the alcohol and salt treatment.
Welcome to the forum! Stick around and introduce yourself!

exibar · Oct 1, 2015

thanks for the feedback guys! Is there any danger or downside to removing all the cake down to the wood? So far on the two pipes that I've cleaned up / minor restoration the cake has come off pretty easily using a small round file. Although I do have a reamer that I picked up on the bay, it's a senior type adjustable.

I'm really thinking that bringing it down to wood would suit me better than leaving someone's old cake in the bowl. I'm really on the fence as I'd like to make these pipes "mine", and part of that I'm thinking that building up my own cake would be part of that process... I can certainly be careful enough not to damage the Briar.
My thought is that it looks better without the old cake in the bowl, I can see if there are any cracks or any damage that I'd have to repair, and I'm thinking that the smell of the old 'bacco would be lingering as well....

Am I just being silly though? ;-)
thanks all! I've really enjoyed cleaning / restoring these couple pipes to use so far... I just want to make sure I'm striving for the high enough level of "restoration"

Chasing Embers · Oct 1, 2015

The smell of the tobacco is likely in the wood as well. The salt and alcohol treatment sounds like your best bet. I use a retort on estastes, or just several alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners to remove the old cake. Just be careful not to get the alcohol on the finish.

ejames · Oct 1, 2015

IMO cake is good,even if it was put there by someone else. It protects the wood. Removing it completely could expose some serious burning that took place before the cake built up which would most likely get worse before you get the cake rebuilt,even if you mud it.

blackbeard · Oct 3, 2015

I have brought one to the wood, when I started scraping the pencil sized hole left it chunked off. One piece actually went to the wood and surprised me. I guess it would depend on the pipe/age/condition? I've been wondering a little about this myself. I should mention, with salt/alcohol treatment it is possible to remove ghosts even with a small amount of cake.

rockymtnsmoker · Oct 5, 2015

Bump. Hoping someone can answer Tyler's question above. Recently cleaned up a Grabow Royal Duke estate pipe and left a bit of the original cake. Smoking my first bowl I discovered a ghost of the dreaded "essence". Where does the ghost live, in the cake, the wood? Any input appreciated.

brudnod · Oct 5, 2015

Tyler's question is a good one, if not frequently addressed on this forum. I have left cake and removed cake in equal numbers. I remove it when it the cake is very uneven or has rivulettes running through it. In equal parts, sometimes the underside is smooth and sometimes the briar has cracks which you need to know about. Having left the cake might have preserved the pipe, as cracks can lead to burn outs. When the cake is left in place and just thinned a bit, the ghost may remain. Then you can either use the salt-alcohol treatment (I use 2 cotton balls with Bicardi 151 and it works nearly as well) or retort which is a bit trickier. No two pipes are exactly the same when heavily used; starting from scratch (new) is the best path to a controlled cake.

rockymtnsmoker · Oct 6, 2015

Thanks Spencer. Think I'll try another salt bath and if that doesn't work, remove the remaining cake. That, or maybe just give into the ghost and dedicate the pipe to Lakeland blends, which I enjoy from time to time.

haroldt · Oct 6, 2015

I purchased this reamerand use it several times a year. It's simple to use and really helped with one of my pipes that had built a very uneven cake.

admin · Oct 6, 2015

Thanks for being a member and participating.
Thread title fixed.
Please see rule 9 here along with the rest of the forum rules
Thanks!

stvalentine · Oct 6, 2015

I am not very careful or hesitant when It comes to restoring pipes. Furthermore I only feel that a pipe is "restored" when it looks like new afterwards.

I ALWAYS remove the cake down to the wood. First with a reamer, then with two different grades of sandpaper. It´s is ok for me if some darkened wood is still visible but not any carbon deposits. After that I use a retort which boils out any ghosting or tar residue effectively. After these procedures you shouldn´t smell any tobacco in the bowl. I smoke the ones I keep like that but coat the ones I sell with a mixture of pumice and charcoal for that "new" look. At least here in Europe pipe smokers like it this way.
Don´t be scared to work on your pipes, Briar is a tough material!
YMMV of course.....

bigpond · Oct 6, 2015

Gl Please wrote and article about baking pipes loaded with activated charcoal to remove stubborn ghosts. Worth a search. Sorry, but need to run out.

bigpond · Oct 6, 2015

Ok here's the link: http://www.glpease.com/Articles/Spot.html

How Much Cake to Remove? Down to Briar?

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