Clogged Briar Pipe

[rltiba]

Hello, everyone
I'm new to pipe smoking and I'm having an annoying problem: I've bought a briar pipe and smoked it about ten times without any cleaning. Then, the last time I tried to smoke, it was very clogged. I opened it and found that there's a very hard resin-like thing clogging my pipe. I tried everything I could find in the web to solve the problem: scrapped it, threw boiling water, tried to melt it with hot paper clip and even threw alcohol, but none seems to work.
The resin is very hard and I cannot smoke with it there.
Can someone please help me solving this terrible problem?
Thank you very much.

 

[mso489]

rltiba, you don't say where this resin build-up is located. I'm assuming it is in the shank part of the bowl,

in the briar itself, and not in the Vulcanite, lucite, or acrylic stem part. What kind of a pipe is this? Any

kind of resin melting or flowing would be rare in any briar of modest quality even in an inexpensive pipe.

This suggests some kind of inexpensive pipe made out of uncured non-briar wood, where there was a lot

of moisture and sap left, but that's just a guess. If it is a cheap pipe, I'd just discard it and start again.

For just a bit more than $30, you can get a good briar pipe at tobaccopipes.com, at the Chapuis-Comoy

page of their site. These are as good as many mid-level pipes, and they are fully cured. You won't be

having any residue problems. However, clean your pipe every time you use it. Scoop out the ash and

any unburned tobacco; blow out the pipe over an ashtray or wastebasket; wipe it out with a tissue; and

clean it thoroughly with a pipe cleaner. This sounds complicated, but you can do it in about a minute

once you have the ritual down and the materials at hand. If you must save this first pipe, you could send

it to pipe repair, or try drilling it out yourself, but with this much information, I'd doubt it is worth it.

 

[trailspike48]

Try clearing the resin with a small hand held drill bit. Do not use a drill or dremel tool. Probably a 5/32 drill bit held in a pair of pliers, gently rotated will clear the air passage. Be careful not to damage the bowl.

 

[werdna]

+1 on trailspike48's recommendation of a hand held drill bit, if it's in the shank.

 

[irwinmetro]

This is a little bit out of left field but, don't smoke anything but tobacco out of your pipe. I found an old cob of my friend's the other day (I swear it's not mine!) and thought it would be perfect for a quick 5-10 minute smoke since the bowl is so very small.
Let's just say certain plants leave behind a much more viscous resin than others.

 

[rltiba]

Thanks everybody for the help!
I finally could clean it using a heated screwdriver (I don't have a hand drill)... It cracked a little bit, but I still can smoke fine, and after all its a 35 dollars pipe...
edit: I don't know what 35 dollars mean in terms of pipe in the US, but in my country it can buy an average-quality pipe only...

 

[taerin]

You should buy pipe cleaners and run them through the pipe's stem, shank, and bowl before or after (recommended) every smoke. This keeps that problem from happening, getting the shank clogged is a sign of poor maintenance and should be a wake up call to start treating your pipes better. Welcome to the forums!

 

[bryanf]

Sounds strange. I smoke 10 bowls through my pipe without a single pipe cleaner almost every day. I only run a pipe cleaner after the last smoke of the day, or if I forget- then in the morning before the first smoke. Sometimes I've even gone 3 or 4 days, without cleaning....when on the road and forget pipe cleaners...By the way, paid $20 for this pipe 3 or 4 years ago.

 

[taerin]

Aromatics with lots of sauce might cause it to clog quicker and so could a thin airway or one located on the very bottom of the bowl.

 

[mso489]

A lot of the old pipe smokers used pipe cleaners only from time to time. Most of the Forums members are

spending a bit on better tobacco, and have fairly high expectations on flavor and draw, and don't want a

partly clogged pipe, or a limited draw, so they use a pipe cleaner every time. I've done both, but believe,

a regular pipe cleaner is better.

 

[shaintiques]

A retort will fix that problem every time.