Bad Taste in Estate Pipe

[byron67]

Hello all, can anybody help me, I am a new Pipe smoker,and have bought on ebay two Duncan briar estate Pipes with Meerschaum lined bowls. The Pipes are in excellent order and smoke well, however my problem is they have a bitter taste when smoked one more so than the other, its not the tobacco as it tastes fine in both my other new Pipes. Is there anything i can do to get rid of this nasty taste,and please dont recomend just smoking them till the taste goes as my Tobacconist has done. All advice welcome
Thank's Byron67

 

[warren]

I'd take a very, VERRRRRY, dull knife and scrape the inside of the bowl down, I'd scrape until I began to see the meeer instead of the build-up of tar. The bottom of the bowl will take the most time unless you have something like a "melon" knife. That's what I call the knife with a slightly bent, up turned, round tip. It may be serrated, all the better, for working on the bowl. You aren't going to get in done in an evening I suspect. You just lightly scrape, feel and peer, over and over and over . . . well, you get the idea.
I've only done this on my own pipes when they get sour. Meers do get sour now and then. To minimize this problem my meers get swab out with a paper towel after smoking.
I'm guessing that other, more professional advice will be coming along. I'll be watching as I'd like a quicker, more efficient method.

 

[mikestanley]

I would use sand paper rather than a knife on the bowl and I would get a shank brush and scrub the shank with 91% Isopropyl unless you want to use a high proof whiskey or rum. Then give the stem the same alcohol treatment with pipe cleaners. They should come around. Let them dry a couple of days, bowl down before you use them. Try and get an alcohol soaked cleaner to come out clean.
Mike S.

 

[jarit]

Good advice from Mike. I've noticed that proper cleaning the shank and draught hole is the key for sweet smokes. It doesn't help if the bowl only is clean.
I roll a napkin into high proof potable alcohol and stick it in the shank for a bit. Then I use the a small flathead screwdriver to carefully scrape the crud from the bottom corners of the shank. Often there's quite a bit of it. Then I use booze soaked Q-tips and pipe cleaners as long as they come out clean.

 

[woodsroad]

Would a trip through the Ozone Chamber at Walker's Pipe Repair help? I don't know....

 

[ejames]

Good advice from Mike. I've noticed that proper cleaning the shank and draught hole is the key for sweet smokes. It doesn't help if the bowl only is clean.
I roll a napkin into high proof potable alcohol and stick it in the shank for a bit. Then I use the a small flathead screwdriver to carefully scrape the crud from the bottom corners of the shank. Often there's quite a bit of it. Then I use booze soaked Q-tips and pipe cleaners as long as they come out clean.

That's my experience also. The shank,from the face of stem to the tobacco chamber needs to be as clean as possible, and like Jarit said sometimes you gotta scrape the crud out.

 

[captainsousie]

Most people forget the mortise area when cleaning a pipe. If you want it totally clean and tasting better, you'll need to spend some quality time with some alcohol and a box of q-tips getting that area clean.

 

[sablebrush52]

With estates, every part of the airway from the bowl to the bit, needs to be cleaned. I've never bought an estate pipe that didn't need to have this done, regardless of seller statements that the pipe has been cleaned.
Scrub the shank with nylon bristle scrubbers soaked in alcohol, wiping off the crud and repeating, until the scrubbers come out clean. Then use alcohol soaked pipe cleaners to further clean out the shank and the mortise. When these come out clean and not stained, that part of the airway is now clean. For the stem, I usually start by soaking a thin bristle pipe cleaner in alcohol, inserting it through the stem and leaving it in to soak for an hour. This give the alcohol time to soften the crud in the stem. Then scrub the stem and repeat with a new alcohol soaked bristle cleaner until the stem is clean. Don't forget to scrub out the airway at the button where it flares out. You'd be surprised how much crud builds up at the sides because previous owners neglected to clean there.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Check to make sure there are no rotting carcasses of dead furry animals in the shank. We've all had that happen before.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

All of these are great recommendations, even the furry thing, ha ha!! However, if it is an axle grease type smell, like a hint of petrol, I've found that it is oxidation inside the vulcanite stem. I used a denatured alcohol and a rolled pipe cleaner (the type that comes in rolls instead of just cut lengths), put one end of the rolled cleaner into a vice and threaded the stem onto it, and worked it back and forth really good. Then did it again using a rum to sweeten it. I have gotten one pipe that I had to do this several times to, as it was kept in a rack that got lots of sun for decades. The oxidation went very deep. It actually made me gag to try to smoke it until I worked all of that oxidation out.

 

[smokertruck]

I have been using 99% isopropyl on my own pipes - not estates - but to sweeten the pipes afterwards a bit of rum on a cleaner is probably appropriate which i have not done -
Usually high proof alcohol is 99% isopropyl alcohol - but i assume jarit means whiskey. do all the above posts mean isopropyl, denatured or whiskey when they talk of the major cleaning with "alcohol" ?
Denatured alcohol is tough to find if at all in toronto canada - i have used 99% isopropyl,instead -
should i just use whiskey instead to clean the pipes every 10 - 20 smokes aside from the normal dry cleaner after each smoke -

i assume isopropyl does a better job of cleaning but the aftertaste aint much to enjoy .
Thanks

 

[cortezattic]

Sounds like a good reason to not buy a used pipe. Big PITA.

Buy 'em new and create your own stink. :puffpipe:

 

[smokertruck]

what is PITA other than the bread for mid eastern felafel ?

 

[warren]

smokestruck: Not knowing where you live, in the US proof denotes, for all intents and purposes the percent of alcohol in the beverage. 40 proof is 20 percent alcohol. The UK uses a different standard. I use 151 proof Everclear "Grain Alcohol serious stem cleaning." Many use 151 proof Rum or some other high proof spirit. If I had a sour pipe I'd be tempted to use a high proof rum as the sugar might help combat the sourness.
Another advantage is that if the rum doesn't work, rinse and swallow with the rum and try the pip again. Four or five such applications should keep you from caring if the pipe is sour.

 

[rmason]

what is PITA other than the bread for mid eastern felafel ?

Pain in the ass.

~Ron

 

[pruss]

Check to make sure there are no rotting carcasses of dead furry animals in the shank. We've all had that happen before.

Darn it, I knew I forgot something in that last Brigham I sent you... but given those heavy cherry OTC tobaccos you smoke, I'm surprised you noticed it. :wink:
-- Pat

 

[wilson]

Before going too far, you need to try to identify the source of the bad taste. If the stems are vulcanite and if they are oxidized, they can have a bitter taste. With no tobacco, put the pipe in your mouth. If you get the nasty taste, it is probably from oxidation of the stem. Ozone or alcohol treatments won't really help if it is oxidation of the stem. Oxidized stems are a gray-ish, almost green color (when they are really bad) and this oxidized layer of vulcanite can taste nasty.
If oxidation of the stem is the culprit, then you need to remove the oxidized layer. You can use a Magic Eraser sponge as the first step. It won't leave the stem looking like new (glossy black) but it will remove the oxidation and make the pipe smoke-able. To get a nice glossy black finish on the stem, you need to polish with finer grade abrasives (micro-mesh or similar) after the Magic Eraser treatment. The inside of the stem might also be oxidized, and this is harder to deal with. Bristle pipe cleaners are about your only hope. I usually find that thorough cleaning the oxidation off of the outer surface is sufficient.

 

[byron67]

Hello again, and thanks for all the great tips. The problem appears to have been oxidation of the stems, i have taken a stronger alcohol to them this time round, instead of the glasses cleaner impregnated tissues i had originally used,and the taste has almost all gone, and dying down each time i go over them. Once again thanks to you all for the advice, and your time.
Byron :D

 

[instymp]

Cortez, I agree with you 100%

Bryon, If you are looking for a new hobby then follow everyone elses expert advise.

& if you buy a great pipe & want to bring it back to quality, follow Roths advise & send it of to someone that knows how to do it. Enjoy it!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Well, I would have to humbly disagree. There are pipe smokers who want to collect for resale value, and those that just want to feed an addiction, and then there are those of us who like to tinker. I built my first motorcycle, and I still do all of my own car repairs. There is a certain pride one can take in restoring a junk store find. I file the ends off of p-lips that I find, buff my own stems, scrape the cakes, and bring them up to a quality of my own satisfaction. In fact, one would be hard pressed to tell that my pipes weren't all professionally done or all factory specs. It's not rocket science.
However, using glass cleaner to clean your pipes is sort of give away that you may want to brush up on some basic chemistry, ha ha. That would have either ammonia or vinegar in it, and would leave an odor regardless. You want something with an alcohol base. It will make an easier task of removing the tar, and fully evaporate to leave a cleaner smoke. Some recommend a pure grain, some will recommend an isopropyl. I like to use Sailor Jerry's spiced rum, at the snarled noses of those who will say that it will gum them up (damn them all, LOL). I don't drink, so it gives me the excuse to buy the cool bottle. :wink:

Do what pleases ya, and enjoy that pipe. :D