He says no, but if it's ghosted as bad as this thread makes it out to be... ?
Either way...
Dunhill Pipe Bowl Polish and Pipe Ghosting / Bad Smell
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Either way...
But, it’s pushed out of the leaf before it gets to the shelf. Can you imagine how much foul ammonia-ish tobacco you’d have to smoke to ghost a pipe?
No kidding I cleaned an estate piece a few years ago that smelled like someone soaked it in ammonia.
I know he says it's on the outside, but the internals should be cleaned as well. What's in the chamber and airway could be contributing to the unpleasant odor.
I used several tubes of two eras of the Dunhill Pipe Bowl Polish before I switched to Renaissance Wax. I never had an issue with the smell but I'd go very easy with the Murphy's Soap. If I need to use it I use a pin head size dab on a toothbrush. I always seem to taste it a little but it's probably just the smell I don't like.
I am not the only one that has run into this odor problem. I googled it and found this review of the Dunhill bowl polish, posted 16 years ago. Here it goes:
Discussion at Review - Dunhill Pipe Bowl Polish - https://alt.smokers.pipes.narkive.com/jH4AYvFX/review-dunhill-pipe-bowl-polish
Review - Dunhill Pipe Bowl Polish
by Casablanca
Got a tube of this a couple of weeks ago, started using it a few days ago on
a couple of my old estates and I thought I would write a review to share my
findings about this product.
General: Dunhill Pipe Bowl Polish. The product comes in a small tube that
is blue and white about the size of a poly-sporin tube. After the tip of
the tube is punctured a very pliable white wax can be easily squeezed out to
be applied to the finger tip. When they say small amount they mean it. I
started off with the equivalent of about one half of the amount of
toothpaste one might use on their toothbrush. This was about 4 times too
much.
Directions: Apply a very thin coating with tip of finger over bowl and
stem. Leave a minute or two to dry and become tacky, then rub vigorously
with a soft cloth until brilliant polish is obtained. For rough surfaced
pipes, use medium stiff brushes and finish with soft cloth.
The good: Very easy to apply, a small amount goes a long way and it does
become tacky quite quickly. Price is excellent at $3.50CAD, one tube will
probably give enough to do 30-40 pipes.
The bad: You have to rub like a son of a gun with that soft cloth for the
tacky feeling to go mostly away. I actually broke a sweat doing it by hand,
and my already sore wrist was throbbing by the time I was done. I think a
dremel with a buffing wheel on a low setting might be the way to go. For
the tacky to go completely away it takes about an hour, then another
vigorous buffing. The shine certainly isn't as good a carnauba wax, but it
is not bad either.
The ugly: I could not imagine doing this on a rusticated or a blasted pipe,
I think the buffing would pretty well kill me. It has a chemical smell that
I can't put my finger on, but might be some sort of petroleum product.
There is no list of ingredients and a google search came up empty. I think
I might call Dunhill for a MSDS sheet as I would like to know if there is
anything toxic in the wax before I put the stem in my mouth.
My thoughts: In a pinch, it is not bad and does not require any tools, but
does require a lot of effort. The chemical smell worries me a bit, so I
would probably only do the bowl and bypass the stem.
Recommend: No
John
-----
Unfortunately the original poster never said if the smell went away ! I smoked two bowls today out of 'em. Can still smell it on the outside. But the Ghosting on the inside is not noticeable when there is burning tobacco in there. So it could be worse. But after a warm bowl the outside smells even more.
After reading the review above, maybe I should just take it somewhere and have them buff the outside of the pipes?
No, you need to really strip all the wax away, as that's what's likely holding the odor. Why I suggested hot tap water, detergent, and scrubbing the outside. You can always wax it later or just give it a coating of mineral oil. A very thin coating.
Deep clean the chamber with cotton balls and vinegar !
Baking soda removes odors from almost everything. When cleaning out for example leather pipe bags that smell
like smoke I put a little open container with baking soda in them and put them them away for 24 hours in a plastic seal bag. You might consider trying this on the bowl.
I once removed a similar stench by scrubbing the exterior with saddle soap. It was kind to the finish and
also contains lanoline and beeswax which kind of feeds the briar.
As jpmcwjr says the wax needs tobe stripped entirely . I did so once on a sandblasted bowl that was clotted
with carnauba wax. First heated it over a heat gun and then scrubbed the melted wax with alcohol.
It worked out fien, only the stain needed to be perked up.
Baking soda removes odors from almost everything. When cleaning out for example leather pipe bags that smell
like smoke I put a little open container with baking soda in them and put them them away for 24 hours in a plastic seal bag. You might consider trying this on the bowl.
I once removed a similar stench by scrubbing the exterior with saddle soap. It was kind to the finish and
also contains lanoline and beeswax which kind of feeds the briar.
As jpmcwjr says the wax needs tobe stripped entirely . I did so once on a sandblasted bowl that was clotted
with carnauba wax. First heated it over a heat gun and then scrubbed the melted wax with alcohol.
It worked out fien, only the stain needed to be perked up.
Last edited:
Anything you smell is caused by volatiles... Volatiles are an outgassing of the solvent... Solvents react to heat. Put the strummel (sans stem) in an oven at 195 degrees for 24 - 48 hours... That will drive out the solvents...
Have you done exactly what you are recommending? I see some risks in desiccating a fully finished pipe.
And why do this when removing the solvents quickly and throroughly via hot water and detergent is easy?
IIRC, GL Pease described doing just that to remove chamber ghosts; filling the chamber with activated charcoal and baking the stummel in the oven for a few hours...
Yes I have - successfully. Both with briar and meerschaum. With meer I increase the temperature to 250 degrees. I place the strummel directly on the oven rack. With the oven door ajar, I then turn the oven on (to bring the strummel up to temperature slowly). I then let the strummel "bake" for 24 hours. At that time I shut the oven door and let everything cool for 8 - 20 hours. This has never failed for me. -jeff
Good luck. I really hope you can get those pipes back to where they need to be. Merry Christmas.
Unfortunately 48 hrs in a sealed plastic container with baking soda did not cure my pipes of the diesel smell from the Dunhill Bowl Polish.
I bought a horsehair shoe brush with the intention to go over the bowl until I can get the rest of the polish out from the sandblasted finish. Although I do believe the wax has absorbed the smell from the solvent and even this wont solve the issue (no pun intended). I tried a toothbrush with warm water over the outside of the bowl earlier and that did not work. But the Dunhill instructions for the polish do say to use a "medium shoe brush" to remove the polish from sandblasted finishes. I will do this as soon as my brush arrives in the mail.
If the shoe brush does not work I will have to take more extreme measures like putting the bowls in the oven and then rewaxing or finishing. And at that point I will just send it in to a pipe repair specialist bc I don't have the experience or confidence for such measures.
I bought a horsehair shoe brush with the intention to go over the bowl until I can get the rest of the polish out from the sandblasted finish. Although I do believe the wax has absorbed the smell from the solvent and even this wont solve the issue (no pun intended). I tried a toothbrush with warm water over the outside of the bowl earlier and that did not work. But the Dunhill instructions for the polish do say to use a "medium shoe brush" to remove the polish from sandblasted finishes. I will do this as soon as my brush arrives in the mail.
If the shoe brush does not work I will have to take more extreme measures like putting the bowls in the oven and then rewaxing or finishing. And at that point I will just send it in to a pipe repair specialist bc I don't have the experience or confidence for such measures.
I don't understand why you haven't used hot tap water and dish detergent to really clean every thing off the stummel and chamber. Several minutes of scrubbing. Don't wait for a shoe brush, git er done!
I thought you were joking with the dish detergent... scared to mess it up even more. Thats all I need is the smell of green apple dish washer soap on the bowl lol.
I just smoked em and the smell gets worse as they heat up. I will do another hot water rise. I bought these new and have been trying to build the lower cake by smoking half bowls all month... dont want to mess with that inner chamber and all my hard work lol.
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