I searched through the old posts, didn't see anything. Any products/methods that you all could point me towards, I'd appreciate it.
Best Way To Clean Up Rim Darkening?
- Thread starter Lyon0oq
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After each smoke with spit and a paper towel. Unless it has burnt the briar, that will come right off.
Spit'll do the trick. If it's scorched the briar they'll have to sand it and refinish.
A rim will significantly darken over many smokes from heating and cooling that's neither buildup nor charring. That's very deep and should be acceptable as the norm. Sanding to remove that sort of darkening will leave you without a pipe.
Per above, spit and a paper towel works great. Unless it’s charred not “darkened”. The best way to remove charring is to buy a new pipe and not do that anymore, lol,
Aside from spit and paper towel, elbow grease. The trifecta works wonders.
Water/mild detergent, well used Scotch Brite pad on heavier build up. Just work at it gently.
That's pretty much what I do, as I have a number of pipes that have a lot of buildup.
If it can't be removed with spit and paper towel then I leave it be.
Spit. Musuem conservators actually have a fancy name for this: "enzymatic" cleaning.
While I typically will do a "spit shine" on rims which are starting to darken with build-up -and after every smoke with rusticated or blasted rims-do have some smooth finished pipes who rims have darkened areas which are not charred that a spit polish does little for, particularly on the inner rims.
Beveled rims into the chamber are bad for it. Heat and age just eventually darkens them.
After each smoke I do a once over of the exterior of the stummel with my jet torch lighter so the rim darkening remains consistent with the rest of the finish.
One of mt friends has recommended warm coffee and a rag to remove this stuff.
I know that works. Dropped one of my pipes in a coffee mug full of coffee once. Took all the shine off the pipe. Had to polish that pipe forever to bring it back.
Spit. There was an article a while back at smokingpipes.com. Apparently professional art restorers use spit to remove grime from old painting because it's a mild cleanser that has natural enzymes that help break down grime, or in the case of pipe rims: tar.