Breaking in a new pipe that has stain inside the bowl

[tom82]

If you acquire a new pipe, do you need to remove the stain from inside the bowl, if so, how do you do this?

 

[danielplainview]

Welcome to the forum Tom. Is it a stain or bowl coating? Same color as the outside of the pipe or black?
You don't have to remove the stain, but it will taste funky until you build a layer of cake inside.
I usually wont buy a pipe if it has been dip stained.

 

[fluffie666]

Welcome to the forums! I like to at least rough up all my brand new bowls a little with 800 - 1000 grit sand paper. I believe doing this helps the cake, that forms over time, adhere to the bowl better than any precabonization process the factory puts in it. Unless of course the factory pre carb process is just putting the bowl over a bunson burner for a few seconds. I'll just smoke that right out of the box. Many will disagree with sanding the inside of the bowl because you're going down to or getting close to bare briar. It's possible and very easy to destroy the pipe if it's smoked to hot. Careful and slow smoking are keys to success and to an all around enjoyable smoke. Now you can just smoke your pipe. Whatever is in the bowl is going to burn away eventually. It might taste a bit funny at first but after a few bowls the stain will be gone. It's up to you and if you feel comfortable with sanding it out.

 

[darwin]

I'm lucky I suppose. I've never encountered a bare briar bowl I did not take to immediately. I have encountered plenty of coated bowls that sucked, at least initially. Maybe that's just a statistical fluke or perhaps I just happen to like the taste of smouldering briar. I'm agnostic on oil cured briar but that can't really be considered a coating in the normal sense.

 

[waxmojo]

Smoke it.

 

[zekest]

Use a Dremel tool with an 80 grit sanding disk to take the pipe bowl down to bare wood that the purists insist upon.

 

[warren]

Some swear the stain, if it is, affects the smoke. I've never found that, I'm not a particularly discerning smoker, and would simply break it in in the generally accepted manner.

 

[tom82]

Thanks for the replies.
I was not referring to removing the pre carb from the manufacturer, only stain, some makers stain inside the bowl, some are dip stained.

 

[foggymountain]

Just wipe it off with a strong alcoholic drink. I use a 117 proof gin.

 

[phil67]

Would this pipe by chance be a Peterson? As you said, pre-carbed bowls (which it total BS) are NOT the same as bowls having stain in them. Some manufactures dip the entire pipe in stain, which in my opinion is simply shoddy and poor workmanship. Granted, you can smoke it, or sand it off and it will eventually burn off, but if by chance I ever received a pipe that had stain in the bowl I'd have a fit as there is absolutely no excuse for it. But, that's just my opinion which doesn't mean squat. :wink:

 

[tom82]

I'm not referring to any particular maker, but I have heard / read that Peterson dip stain their pipes.

phil67 I guess you dont have any Peterson pipes then?

I'm new and have been looking at pipes and noticed some are stained inside the bowl and others are not and some came from the manufacture with pre carb.

Thank you

 

[billbearcat]

I noticed somebody said something about using a Dremel. Unless you are proficient with a Dremel I would not use one.
Just take a paper towel with some high proof alcohol and carefully wipe the inside of the bowl out. Be very careful not to get any alcohol on the outside of the bowl, as it will ruin the stain. Then take several alcohol soaked pipe cleaners and clean out the shank or the pipe. Let the pipe rest/dry for a day or three.
This should help lessen if not eliminate the bad taste from coated bowls.
If you do not have the patience to wait, then by all means just fill and smoke, keeping in mind that 5 to 8 bowls later the pipe will taste much better.

 

[menuhin]

I generally sand off most of new inner bowl coating (in your case, plus the stain) if any is present and then slowly built up a thin layer of cake by careful slowly paced smoking.

 

[andrew]

I'd give it a salt/alcohol treatment to get the stain out or cottonball/alcohol. I have one peterson that had the inside of the bowl stained and it's not worth going through that many off tasting smokes to break in a pipe.

 

[nurseman]

Not all Petersons are dip stained - the more expensive ones are free of any stain in the bowl. I would not smoke a dip stained pipe.

 

[andrew]

Not all Petersons are dip stained - the more expensive ones are free of any stain in the bowl. I would not smoke a dip stained pipe.

Those must be pricey peterson's then, because my Shackleton explorer series is dipstained and that's about 250$ new. Honestly it's not much work to clean out the inside, mine I just left as is and broke it in, it wasn't exactly like smoking poison, just if I knew that it was dip stained at the time I would of gave it an alcohol soak.

 

[dottiewarden]

I've never encountered a bare briar bowl I did not take to immediately.

The Chacoms generally come bare and to break them in I just fill and smoke. However, I tried that with a cheapy Szabo and the finish started to bubble and peel.

 

[saltedplug]

I've read enough about quality issues with Peterson that I refuse to buy them, but I know many love them, and thus there certainly is another view of this line. But dip-staining is certainly one of their worst quality issues. To me it demonstrates greed, pure and simple, and disdain for their customers. I've read accounts of guys needing 20 smokes to remove to incinerate or cover it with cake such that the pipe smokes well. I was told that Peterson stopped this because of the bad press.
As regards bowl coatings, I have been in the anti camp for a long time. I even held off smoking a new Ferndown because of its coating until I could think the issue through. I sent a pipe back to a pipe vendor when he offered to remove the coating. But I decided that in all probability, no matter my dislike, the coating doesn't affect the pipe's performance. I concluded this because in all of my time on the forums, no one has come forward with any data to support their position.
It seems to be all vehement opinion, just like mine. I think it's an issue that generates strong opinions in the absence of fact.

 

[buroak]

A Dremel and an 80 grit abrasive sounds like a recipe for destroying a pipe. If you want to remove the stain, foggymountain's advice will steer you to a safe and effective method.
Whatever route you take, I would keep in mind what Kaywoodie had to say about the surface of your tobacco chamber walls: smooth is good. Of course, Kaywoodie also appears to have dip stained their pipes, even in the early days.

 

[kola]

Peterson lost me as a customer due to their dip-staining and time saving antics. It's sloppy, lazy and shoddy craftsmanship. I read where they supposedly stopped doing it but I still see new pipes (for sale) that have been dunked in stain...and I've seen them in high end Petes as well.
I don't expect to have to sand, ream or clean out a brand new pipe and I sure as hell won't "smoke through it." Shame on Peterson...and any other folks who do the same.
I wont buy a pipe with the pre-carb stuff either. Why? Because you don't really know what they are using for their "secret mixture." Some use yogurt, charcoal, etc and some use things like glass polymers/fiberglass, etc. I don't mind sucking down some yogurt fumes but some of the glass stuff I'd like to avoid. And I don't care if it's considered "safe" by the FDA or Joe Blow from Idaho. Leave the bowl naked, like the women in my harem.