What to do with an estate pipe

First I think you have to remove the stem from the shank, run pipe cleaner until it goes very clean, then proceed to alcohol and salt to remove the horible smell, destroy the cake, use saliva to clean the outer rim of the bowel, after that dip bristle cleaner in alcohol, remove the exessive alcohol from the cleaner and run it through the stem to remove the residuals inside. later you can use buffing wheel or very soft sand paper on the stem to remove scratches, and oxidization, then use rubbing wax to repolish the stem to its original shine and color.
Will you send pics of the estates, I am looking forward to see it
Hope you nice smoke and very great collection
Hany Mamdouh

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There's also a wealth of information here on the forum. But Hany is right in the overall process. Many people will do some things slightly different such as "soak the stem in oxi-clean" to bring out the oxidation, use micro mesh to clean up the stems, ream the bowl, etc.. Trial and error are the best teachers. But start with the cheap no name brand estates to get some practice. You don't want to destroy that nice Dunhill in the process.

Here's some good articles and forum posts that should get you off to a good start.
I would basically just troll the Pipe Repair and Maintenence section of the forums, plenty of good info there. Far too much knowledge to spill out in one post.
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/best-way-to-clean-an-estate-pipe
http://pipecollecting.blogspot.com/2008/02/salt-and-alcohol-treatment.html
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/just-ruined-a-few-old-pipe-stems-suggestions
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/micromesh-vendor
And Pipe Novelist has some good blogs on this site about state pipes and stem restoration.
http://pipesmagazine.com/matchstickman/

This may seem a bit long-winded, but here are a couple tips I can throw your way. I've restored a few old that were very dirty, including one that had so much cake you couldn't fit a pencil into the bowl. I kind of like the challenge.
Obviously, get the stem off first. If it's oxidized vulcanite I scrub it out with alcohol first, then cover any makers marks with vaseline and throw it into a jar of bleach for about a day. It works well, but you spend some time sanding it smooth again, particularly if its low quality vulcanite. If it has any metal like a stinger or a screw in tenon, oxy clean may be a better way to go because bleach will corrode metal. I haven't tried oxyclean myself yet
For really thick cake I start with the smallest reamer I have and work up in size until you get the cake down to a thin layer. If it smells really bad you may even want to sand the bowl almost down to bare wood, but that can be tricky and you may need to break the pipe in all over again.
A drill bit of the appropriate size for the draft hole works well to ream the big gunk out. Then I go at it with everclear and a shank brush. Once I get the worst of the gunk out that way, I switch to alcohol and bristle cleaners until they come out clean. That can take some time.
Cleaning the outside of the bowl can be tricky as well. If it's really dirty and the old spit and scrub isn't getting me anywhere, I go to 0000 steel wool to get the dirt off and see what lies beneath. Sometimes you'll spot a crack or nasty fill that was covered by grime. On a few pipes I've actually sanded the bowls down to bare wood, starting with 400 grit and going down to 1500 and the 0000 steel wool. Again, that can be tricky because its easy to sand off any brands on the shank. If you do go that far, look for good quality leather dye to re-stain them. It's alcohol based and you can find a number of colors and shades of brown.
From there I move on to the the sea salt and alcohol (or cottonball and alcohol)treatment for at least a day. If you have gone so far as to sand it down, you'll want to do this before staining, as spilled alcohol can remove or stain the dye.
Then it's all polishing and waxing.

Unfortunately I don't have before picture, but this is the one I mentioned that was so caked up. It was also black with years of dirt, so I did take this one down to naked briar.


By the way, if anyone knows who made pipes for Texaco, I'd like to know. It's great old pipe.
Yeah, this was long-winded, but I hope you found it helpful and not to much of a redundant information.

Oh, I forgot, find the one out of those eleven you like the least and start with that one. Might as well learn on one that makes you go 'meh' in case you do have a pipe restore fail.

Hitting up a big flea market type deal this weekend. Will hopefully be putting these tips to the test come Sat. THANKS!

For about 2 months I used a rounded spade on a pipe tool and a lot of patience. I read on one site that a battery terminal cleaner worked. Yeah, don't do that. I'm just glad I tested it on cracked bowl. Might be worth checking ebay for a castleford set. I think I got mine for about $15 or so. Money well spent.

Boiling water will remove entire cake in 1-3 pieces usually.

I also suggest the book Old Briar by Dave Whitney. I purchased the Kindle edition for under 8.00 and find it very helpful.

Boiling water will remove entire cake in 1-3 pieces usually.

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That's one I've never heard before. I'll definitely have to give that a try on one of the next pipe in my queue. Plus, my wife hates the sound a reamer makes.

as nfisher stated, boiling water is great, yesterday I was doing old Peterson's Emerald, and after finished with alcohol/salt treatment I spilled boiled water in the bowel for 2 mins and it helps greatly destroying the old cake.

Yet another thread that will help me tremendously. Thanks all. BTW Bailey I have used the boiling water trick recently after reading that on here, and it only took 15 minutes to clean out 4 terribly caked bowls.