Bent Pipe (of no particular pedigree) Tastes Horrid!

[collindow]

I purchased an estate pipe recently. I got it, and went to a local tobacconist, where I, with an employee, thoroughly cleaned the pipe with one of those pipe cleaning solutions that you need to buy if you aren't old enough to get grain alcohol (side note: damn you USA drinking laws!). We cleaned it very thoroughly. However, I haven't yet been able to get a good smoke out of it. I can't avoid tongue-bite, especially when I light up, and everything just tastes BITTER. Sort of like the Largo tobacco I started with, ha ha.

I don't have a good picture of it, and seeing as it is almost 1 AM where I am, I shall hold off on taking and posting one until the morning.

The pipe is in pretty good condition. An okay-ish cake, except for the bottom. Whoever owned it before I did never smoked a bowl all the way through (and if it always tasted like it does to me, I can see why!) It has a small crack in the stem, but I doubt this is the issue. All I know so far as creator: "Made in Italy. Italian Briar."

It's a bent...my first bent, at that. Does a bent smoke radically different from a regular straight? I wouldn't think so, but I am still pretty new.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Cheers,

Collin

 

[chuckw]

You mentioned the previous owner never smoked it all the way down. It could be the pipe is sour from him leaving wet dottle. If that is the case, a thourough cleaning is in order. I take it you aren't old enough to buy alcohol. Greg Pease has an alternative solution. It involves activated charcol and heat. I haven't tried it yet but the reports I've read say it works well. Check his site for the particulars.

As for your query about bents smoking differently than straights, the answer is no, at least not in my experience. My collection is split about 75/25 in favor of bents. As an old truckdriver, the bents kept the pipe out of my line of sight.

 

[cortezattic]

I think Chuckw's surmise and advice is spot-on. The activated charcoal is the same stuff used in aquarium filters, though it might serve the purpose better if crushed to a finer grit.

 

[collindow]

Thanks, I'll go check that out. And since you diagnosed my problem so ably, I believe I shall save myself the trouble of taking, uploading, and linking the photograph. Now to find out what to do with the surplus trouble...

Thanks!

 

[chuckw]

I got off my lazy butt and found the relative article. Here is a link to it.
http://www.glpease.com/Articles/Spot.html

 

[juni]

Great article! Bookmarked for a day when I'll need it. Thank you!

 

[dudleydipstick]

...and everything just tastes BITTER. Sort of like the Largo tobacco I started with, ha ha.

Perhaps I can offer some advice on Largo tobacco...it's really not intended for pipes.
Due to new federal tobacco tax guidelines, tobaccos that were previously labeled as cigarette tobacco saw an overnight tax increase from $1.10 per lb. to $23.68 as of April last year.
S-CHIP Tobacco Tax Table
The best solution that RYO manufacturers can presently use is labeling RYO tobacco as pipe tobacco, since the way the tax is determined is only by the labeling, not the actual properties of a tobacco. As an RYO smoker, I'll enjoy the loophole while I can.
To sum it up, unless you're interested in making cigarettes, the area of the store with similar bags of tobaccos would best be left unexplored.
Some of the brands are: 4-Aces, Gambler, Bull Durham, Largo (which I'm presently smoking), Wind River, etc.. One thing that should give it away is the style of packaging, which is a resealable type bag, and they're usually clustered in among the RYO products and tobaccos. (At least in my area.)

 

[collindow]

Thanks Chuck! I'm going to begin that process as soon as I can!

And don't worry Mr. Dipstick; I shall never again be purchasing bags of tobacco such as those. I plan on sticking to pure pipe tobacco until the day I'm too old to hold a pipe in my mouth!

Cheers,

Collin