Best way to clean an Estate pipe

[billm67]

I bought a nice estate pipe from EBAY that I am expecting to be in my mailbox very soon. The pipe was "lightly smoked" which appeared to be accurate from the pictures in the auction, but it was no cleaned. I will do the dipping in whiskey to kill germs....but what else should I do to the pipe. It doesn't appear to have any real cake in the bowl...so what would be my best way to prepare this to get it in the rotation?

 

[ichbinmuede]

Well it just so happens that there is an instructable written by one of our esteemed members (ahem) that should help you out there. There are also numerous threads on this very topic and an entire page on pipedia.org dedicated to the topic.

 

[billm67]

Thanks for the link....I will take a look at it tonight. I am hoping to get to use the info VERY soon.

 

[bob1]

I am receiving an estate pipe next week and plan to clean the cake some and give the bowl a salt/alcohol bath.

Also, cleaning the stem inside and out with alcohol and buffing the stem slightly.

 

[tobakenist]

Doesn't sound like you need to do much apart from a quick clean with a bit of alcohol and a pipe cleaner, then get smoking and finish braking it in. ::

 

[matchstickman]

my question is how do go about the cleaning on the outside of the stem.

Heres what I do: Cover the tenon with a thin layer of petroleum jelly, then mix up a good Oxyclean soak. A little tub full of warm water and one whole scoop of Oxyclean is what I use. Let the stem soak in this mixture for anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how funky the stem is. Once the soak has done it's job, take it out, rinse it off, then grab a Magic Eraser cleaning pad, and go to work on the brown crud on the outside of the stem. With a little elbow grease, you should be able to get a good portion of the brown stuff off. After that, I rinse the stem again, then hit it with the lowest grit of MicroMesh Sandpaper to get any residual oxidation off. Once you have the oxidation gone, scrub at the stem with the 8,000 grit sandpaper, then the 12,000 grit sandpaper, and that bad boy will look like black glass. As a good preventative measure, I also give my stems a good rub down with some Obsidian pipe stem oil for good measure.

 

[matchstickman]

thank you sir. when you say lowest grit, what number would that be? i understand everything else. thank you.

My apologies. The lowest grit would be 1500. That grit is really good for getting out stubborn oxidation around the end where the stem fits to the shank and also for getting the oxidation out of that little corner up near the mouthpiece. MicroMesh works great, in my opinion. It is about the only thing that you can use to get really great looking results aside from a buffing wheel.

 

[matchstickman]

i hate asking you so many questions, i need this info to do the job right

.
No need to apologize. It's what we are here for. I could not find a wood working store locally in Central Illinois that stocked MicroMesh, but odds are, if you call around to your local woodworking stores or lumber yards, a good one might have a set in stock. If you can't find them locally, you can order them online. I found mine Here. It is the top set on this page, all nine grades plus a little foam block to sand with. I have never used the foam block, just wet the stem and the paper and sand away. This is about the cheapest that you will find the entire set if you want to buy online, but make sure to check locally first. You may get lucky and find some in stock near you.