I cleaned the stem of an "estate" pipe with a short bleach soak. I rinsed it well, dried it, and then cleaned it with alchohol. After it was all cleaned out, I ran water through it to rinse all the chemicals off, and dried it again. Now it smells like vinyl records left in the sun, kind of a plasticy, rubbery smell. Any thoughts on what happened, how to prevent it from happening again, and how to get rid of the smell?
Stem smells like melted rubber/vinyl
- Thread starter hiyachoppy
- 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
Try smoking it OP. The sulphur aroma will very likely abate over time and occasionally diminishes when smoked. Sulphur will always present to varying degrees when you abrade a vulcanite stem. With poor quality vulcanite the aroma may be present from the very start and may never go away.
Vulcanite stems will have a slight rubber smell as they are, in a sense, just hardened rubber. As long as the smell is not transferring through to the flavor of the smoke, I would not worry about it.
I have a Chacom Royale that had a very strong rubber smell when first purchased. After a couple of smokes, that smell all but completely disappeared.
I have a Chacom Royale that had a very strong rubber smell when first purchased. After a couple of smokes, that smell all but completely disappeared.
That's just what clean and warmed from the friction of rubbing on it, vulcanite smells like. It won't hurt a thing, and it will diminish on it's own.
- Status