New-ish to pipe smoking. Bought a Savinelli Roma #305. by accident i spilled a bottle of rubbing alcohol onto it and it got all over the beautiful briar grain on top of the bowl. Some of the stain came off but its still kind of OK just way duller than before, and when i light the bowl i can see its more susceptible to rim darkening.scorching. Is there a wax or something that I can apply to 'protect' the rim better. I know that no wax or seal or chemical wont prevent rim scorching, only better technique, but any advice would help. Thanks in Advance.
Did I Screw up my New Savinelli?
- Thread starter wayfarther
- Start date
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Rubbing alcohol will definitely take off the stain. When I had this happen I was able to successfully touch up the stain with appropriate colored furniture markers and then apply Decatur Pipe Shield wax to restore the shine. The result was so good that you can't even tell that the accident happened.
The first thing I would do is never have an open container of alcohol around my pipes.
I would go ahead and take off the rest of the stain with alcohol. And give the pipe a good polish. You didn't destroy the pipe but you probably wrecked the stain/lacquer. Not the end of the world, it'll still smoke fine. Trying to match stain can be a huge PIA and that pipe is most likely lacquered, so you have to get all the lacquer off of it.
Photos showing the extent of the damage would be very useful.
Some use saliva or water to wet the rim just before a smoke. Wax after it cools.
And none of the above will inhibit a good smoke.
Some use saliva or water to wet the rim just before a smoke. Wax after it cools.
And none of the above will inhibit a good smoke.
Just smoke the hell out of it. Toss it on the counter after you smoke it. After a hundred bowls you won’t care.
I would not recommend this with newer Savinelli pipes. Saliva/water will affect the finish in a negative way. Sadly, I learned the hard way with an Autograph pipe trying to prevent rim charring. This is less of an issue with older Savinellis.
Yep, had a similar experience with a Giubileo d'Oro.
Always preferred to drink alcohol. Sharing it with my pipes.. Not sure if they can handle it.
I keep an “airline” bottle of Everclear by my pipe rack/cleaning stuff to limit spillage potential.
Even when I do a cotton ball and alcohol soak, I use an eyedropper much better control no drip.
For what it’s worth I came across some vintage footage of a London Pipe Factory receiving briar roots from Algiers.
At around 2:20 the clip shows them finishing the pipes in Linseed Oil before polishing. Not saying do it just because they did but, in my experience, linseed oil has virtually no smell (at least the boiled kind doesn’t) and the consistency of vegetable oil. Although it darkens the wood significantly.
Maybe an easy thing to try for general pipes.
At around 2:20 the clip shows them finishing the pipes in Linseed Oil before polishing. Not saying do it just because they did but, in my experience, linseed oil has virtually no smell (at least the boiled kind doesn’t) and the consistency of vegetable oil. Although it darkens the wood significantly.
Maybe an easy thing to try for general pipes.
I had great luck with a large gauge needle on a syringe (feed/tack stores have them dirt cheap)