Coconut Oil for Pipe Maintenance

[Briar Lee]

My pipe smoking mentor Harry Hosterman got a new Dr Grabow pipe several times a year from his wife and daughter, and they’d throw away an old pipe of Harry’s claiming it wasn’t as sweet smelling as formerly.

Harry had a ritual for his new pipes and I watched him, and later imitated him.

He’d steal a bottle of olive oil from the kitchen (where men always entered at their own risk) and take some 4/0 steel wool from his work shed and strip all the varnish. Then he’d return to the kitchen and take one tiny dab of honey and line the bowl, fill with Prince Albert and the room would smell like the promise of heaven.

I don’t form a cake the thickness of a dime like Harry did, and I switched from olive oil to grapeseed oil because of recommendations on this forum.

But I have what appears to be an unsmoked or barely smoked Grabow Golden Duke in the mail.



I’m going to try coconut oil instead of grapeseed after I use Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean it.



Has anyone else tried coconut oil as a wood balm?

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Virgin or extra-virgin coconut oil, also called unrefined coconut oil, is made from fresh coconut meat, or copra. It has a shelf life of up to five years.

—-

 

[PaulRVA]

On wood I tend to grab Beeswax in paste form more often than not and
Buff with a microfiber.
I haven’t used coconut on wood but I have used it on stems that were in need of a buffing.
I use Obsidian Oil the most on stems as the bottle just makes the process effortless and a little goes a long way.

 

[telescopes]

Looking at the pictures it is clear that you damned well know that’s a well used pipe, LOL - but you would like us to argue with you about it. That is an El Cheapo Grabow made long after decent quality ones were made. Smoked and abused - toss it and the world will be better for it.

 

[georged]

Coconut oil is a joke.

Cooking both the stem and stummel at 400 degrees in ten gallon pot of used 90-weight gear oil (drained from a dump truck differential... it must be a dump truck), followed by tying it to a helium weather balloon that will take it to 50,0000 feet and back, then slathering it with the sludge of a dozen albino lab mice (they must be albino!) processed in a Vita-Mix blender on high for three minutes, and finally storing it for a week in a sub zero commercial freezer filled with xenon gas, is the one and ONLY way to keep pipes looking new.

 

[Briar Lee]

Looking at the pictures it is clear that you damned well know that’s a well used pipe, LOL - but you would like us to argue with you about it. That is an El Cheapo Grabow made long after decent quality ones were made. Smoked and abused - toss it and the world will be better for it.

Pre 70ish or so Dr Grabows were pre smoked, first with Edgeworth and later with Prince Albert. See the absence of any cake, sharp rim, and no lava?



It appears stored in a shed or attic, and the varnish has oxidized. These had real vulcanite stems.

It’s a geniune Golden Duke. This had the Adjustomatic stem.









These have the potential to be extraordinarily well grained.

Nona Fern and Wilda Mae and my mother would go to Katz Drug Store after they’d shopped at Herr’s on the square where they’d buy goodies like $5 pipes for Harry, and my mother would buy one for my grandfather.

The Golden Duke Adjustomatic had a sort of improved Lee screw joint.



The tenon had a clutch that, if it’s not frozen up by tars, allowed the user to clock the stem by twisting it hard.

Rescuing a Dr. Grabow Regal Ajustomatic Pat. 2461905 Dublin

The next pipe on the worktable came to me in what I have named the St. Louis Lot of 26 in December of 2018. My son Josiah was instrumental in finding this Lot in a local antique shop in St. Louis …

thepipesteward.com

I always knew when the milk price was really good. My father would come in and look at the milk check and say honey, why don’t you and Wilda Mae and Nona Fern go to Springfield and buy some pretty dresses.

The irony of the Beverly Hillbillies was that Bug Tussle was once so propersous the ladies would go shopping and spend hundreds of dollars for getting their hair done, fancy clothes, and little gifts for all the men they loved, in brand new cars.

 

[mingc]

Whether this pipe has or has not been smoked is the least of its issues!

Besides, I thought nose oil was the codger balm of choice.

 

[Briar Lee]

Whether this pipe has or has not been smoked is the least of its issues!

Besides, I thought nose oil was the codger balm of choice.

Harry and his son Alva would both squat down on their haunches outside the Grade A milk barn and visit with my father and me, and any other neighbors that would stop by.



Every eight minutes my father would go in and let two cows out, two cows in, change milkers, and put feed in the troughs, and carry two full six gallon stainless milk canisters up and dump them, wash two udders, and start the milking.

Two minutes later he’d be back.

Inside that barn you can see the slight grove he wore in the concrete floor.

Some kids at school used to say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

Actually we used Oneida heavy silver plate every day and the real silver for company and special occasions.

We were Scottish, you know?.

 

[Sobrbiker]

A lot like the unsmoked Color Duke I got last year, must have been the Prince Albert treatment era.

 

[Briar Lee]

A lot like the unsmoked Color Duke I got last year, must have been the Prince Albert treatment era.
View attachment 383279

I think Color Duke was a seventies disco era fad.

Grabow still makes the Golden Duke, but no Adjustomatics since the days of Harry Hosterman.

 

[OzPiper]

I’m going to try coconut oil instead of grapeseed after I use Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean it.

View attachment 383239


——

Virgin or extra-virgin coconut oil, also called unrefined coconut oil, is made from fresh coconut meat, or copra. It has a shelf life of up to five years.

—-

All vegetable oils will go rancid, some faster than others.

I grew up around girls and women who used coconut oil to "dress" their hair. While their hair always looked glossy and lovely, I was never tempted to ask any of those girls out as my mother would know instantly that we'd been "close" by sniffing my clothes.

 

[Briar Lee]

All vegetable oils will go rancid, some faster than others.

I grew up around girls and women who used coconut oil to "dress" their hair. While their hair always looked glossy and lovely, I was never tempted to ask any of those girls out as my mother would know instantly that we'd been "close" by sniffing my clothes.

In over fifty years, I’ve never had olive oil go rancid on a pipe, for these reasons I believe.

I wipe it all off. There’s a micro whisper layer left.

My pipes are babied.

I keep them in climate controlled rooms.

The oil seems to evaporate every six months or so, and need more.

But of all vegetable oils, coconut is one of those with longest shelf lives,

 

[mingc]

All vegetable oils will go rancid, some faster than others.

I grew up around girls and women who used coconut oil to "dress" their hair. While their hair always looked glossy and lovely, I was never tempted to ask any of those girls out as my mother would know instantly that we'd been "close" by sniffing my clothes.

And the boys and men used the coconut oil for their hair too!

 

[Chasing Embers]

And the boys and men used the coconut oil for their hair too!

I use it on my hair and facial hair.

 

[Briar Lee]

I use it on my hair and facial hair.

Why coconut oil instead of another kind of oil?

 

[JOHN72]

I have used some olive oil, argan oil, and I think coconut oil as well. But I have no idea what effect it will have on the wood. They have a beautiful shine, it's oil, hahahahahahahahahah. But I would stick with beeswax.

 

[JoburgB2]

I think Color Duke was a seventies disco era fad.

Grabow still makes the Golden Duke, but no Adjustomatics since the days of Harry Hosterman.

View attachment 383281

So why do they still deface the briar with the crude and juvenile attempt at rustication? I like texture, and grain, and sandblast, but many of the Grabows and some of those Marxmans you show are hideous. Like a deranged teenage vandal took a gouge or sixteenpenny nail and scratched and cut and dug. I have no doubt they smoke fine, but I don’t like the look of fine briar being so haphazardly abused. My preference and opinion is probably in the minority on this thread and forum, but surely I cannot be all alone in thinking like this.

 

[ssjones]

I'd opt for food grade mineral oil vs coconut oil.
Food grade mineral oil has good properties and a long shelf life. It's for safe storage of wooden cutting boards (which restaurants don't use)
My local Ace has it for $8

Bayes Mineral Oil 8 oz Liquid Mfr# 160 - Ace Hardware

Wood and bamboo are a natural and attractive choice for cutting boards and many other kitchen utensils and items. Without treatment ordinary washing can dry out and crack your possessions. Bayes Wood and Bamboo Conditioner/Protectant uses the highest quality food grade mineral oil to nourish and...

www.acehardware.com

You can also find it at drug stores, it is used as a laxative.

 

[Briarcutter]

So why do they still deface the briar with the crude and juvenile attempt at rustication?

To get rid of pits and surface imperfections. They are in business to make lots of pipes and companies that make lots of pipes can't/won't take an hour to properly rusticate each pipe. If it didn't have lots of imperfections it would be a smooth. If it had only several small ones it would be a smooth with fills.

 

[didimauw]

A lot like the unsmoked Color Duke I got last year, must have been the Prince Albert treatment era.
View attachment 383279

You are making quick work of that one! THIS is how I like em!

 

[Briar Lee]

So why do they still deface the briar with the crude and juvenile attempt at rustication? I like texture, and grain, and sandblast, but many of the Grabows and some of those Marxmans you show are hideous. Like a deranged teenage vandal took a gouge or sixteenpenny nail and scratched and cut and dug. I have no doubt they smoke fine, but I don’t like the look of fine briar being so haphazardly abused. My preference and opinion is probably in the minority on this thread and forum, but surely I cannot be all alone in thinking like this.View attachment 383307

Sandblast, rustication, and gouge and groove carving allowed use of imperfect briar.

Then people grew to like it.

Grabow, or somebody, came up with machine gouge and grooving just for the style of it.

This was done by a zillion dollar carving machine. Under that dead varnish is likely to be very nice briar.



Maybe some early, early Golden Dukes were hand gouge and grooved, but this modern Royalton was done by a machine, then maybe hand chased.



Grabow and Kaywoodie went head to toe in the sixties and Grabow won.

Grabow varnish when new, looked like a million dollars. Plus the Grabows all had a 6mm filter.

Some old bachelors would smoke a Medico or Yello-Bole Brylon, but happily married family men got showered with high grade ($5 and up) Grabows.