A cheap Savinelli 623 and Wild Honey Pipe

[aquadoc]

I won this Savinelli 623 for a few dollars and the main issue is char on the rim. Is it worth sanding the char down to wood (I have already cleaned it as much as I can with spit and paper towels) and refinishing? No fills that I can find. A few tiny pits and wear from use. I need to remove oxidation from stem although it is minor. I have already salt treated and removed the stinger. Nice grain. The entry point of the draft hole is a little above the bottom of the bowl and it looks like whomever owned the pipe jammed pipe cleaners in so hard that it formed a small round shallowing on the opposite side of the draft hole...very small but there...so I may use pipe mud to shore the bottom up and fill the shallow area.

The other is the cheapo Wild Honey it took forever to get clean. A beater for sure. But learning the tricks of pipe rehabilitation, slowly, with these cheaper pipes.

 

[ashdigger]

Those are nice pipes AND you want beaters to learn how to do restoration. I still smoke my first two restorations in a dark closet where no one can see them. They are ruined as far as the exteriors go, but their internals are clean and they are lightweight, so they stay on the rack, in my drawer.....

 

[aquadoc]

I don't know if you would smoke this Wild Honey. The amount of chemicals flowing out of it with the alcohol was awe inspiring. I wondered why the inner bowl was so black. It stunk too. The Savinelli, on the other hand, was a steal. A cheap steal with some char on the rim that I cannot remove without sand paper. Not that I really care, honestly...as long as it smokes as well as folks say they smoke.

 

[aquadoc]

Ok, so I shored up the bottom of the bowl with a small amount of pipe mud and filled in shallow area. I heated the oven to 180F and let it cool to 120F. I put the pipe in oven and let it stay for the cool down since the rel. hum. in the house is high. The mud is hard but has one tiny hairline fissure. Otherwise, it looks like I hoped. Will the fissure fill in with cake as the pipe is smoked?

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yes, it should, if you smoke down to the bottom. To be sure, you could do a bunch of 1/4 bowls to seal the deal. You could also coat with plain sugar, then smoke on top of it.

 

[aquadoc]

Liquid sugar or honey?