Does Retorting Ruin an Established Curing Process?

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morescnj

Lurker
Apr 13, 2024
38
102
Northern California
Does retorting (or any use of salt and alcohol bath) to de-ghost pipes have any ill effect on estate pipes that were cured in a particular fashion? For example, Ser Jacopo pipes used a specific curing process which gave its pipes a sweet and nutty smoke.
While I want a clean pipe, I’m not interested in ruining the effect of the curing that was done.

Any thoughts?
 

xrundog

Lifer
Oct 23, 2014
1,291
9,189
Ames, IA
If anything was going to screw up a bowl it would be hot alcohol. Other than that, the pipe needs to be clean as a starting point. And if it has an off putting ghost it needs to be dealt with. Do what you need to and no more.
 
Aug 1, 2012
4,882
5,698
USA
Never found it to do so. I save the retort for the nasty ones anyway. If it's bad enough to need it, you wouldn't be getting the briar flavor at all. So, if excessive gunk and cake are your thing, skip the retort. If you'd rather hit reset on the briar, retort away.

@Groot5225 was correct for how long oil curing "lasts" as well
 

morescnj

Lurker
Apr 13, 2024
38
102
Northern California
Thanks for the replies. I don’t have a nasty or even a bad pipe. Smokes great, cleaned after every smoke, cake is kept down and pipe is dedicated to a single tobacco.

The more I get into smoking, the more you see and then you start to question whether you should be doing something too. In this case salt baths alcohol and retort cleaning.

Just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you need to do it.

That’s where the question originated.
 
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Reactions: jpmcwjr

Sigmund

Lifer
Sep 17, 2023
3,029
29,077
France
I think there is a lot of hype when it comes to the taste of a pipe. Once a pipe is broke i I so not believe the briar contributes to the taste. Now draw and all the other elements do have a say in how tobacco burns and tastes.
 

Sigmund

Lifer
Sep 17, 2023
3,029
29,077
France
Coffee grounds are magic. On one nasty pipe that tasted like old lady purfume I used coffee grounds plus alcohol instead of water saturated grounds. It was so clean I could taste a hit of alcohol on the first smoke.
 

briarblues

Can't Leave
Aug 3, 2017
457
921
I'm with jpmcwjr .... always start with the least intrusive method.

As far as the question .... IF you use a retort with an incorrect alcohol, or overdo the length you process the cleaning, you can go too far and need to re break in the pipe.

I've always used a retort as the last method and only on pipes that every other refreshing / cleaning method has failed on.