I recently picked up an estate pipe off ebay. It came with a thick cake, I reamed it down to tolerable levels and did my usual clean of new pipes(pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol and clean the stem). It also came with a wind cap and I noticed a dark ring around the outside where the cap touches. I thought "wow, someone got that metal cap nice and hot, weird that a wind cap would do that"(sarcasm emoji).
I packed it up, lit it and almost immediately tasted the most disgusting flavor I have ever tasted. Like sour, burnt wood. After a puff or 2 I thought nope, I need to deep clean this with salt and alcohol. Seeing as I barely got past the initial light I dumped the bowl and was going to repack it in a different pipe but all the tobacco now reeked of sour, bitter, burnt wood as well. I found this odd. Needless to say I tossed the tobacco.
After a 24 hour salt and alcohol deep clean and a 24 hour+ dry time, I tried it again. Same result just slightly less pronounced. So I reamed it back down to wood and found what I have captured in the photos below. Someone abused the piss out of this pipe. They no doubt packed it up, lit it with an acetylene torch, slapped on the wind cap and went absolutely mad puffing away like a steam train.
I have done a second deep clean after reaming, it still smells of alcohol and needs to dry more but I can still smell burnt wood(obvious as to why). As someone will no doubt point out, I have already gone a bit overboard with the reaming. My reamer isn't cone shaped, there is just that much shrinkage around mid bowl. Removing all the burnt wood will involve widening the bowl. I don't intend to sell this pipe, no one should sell one that has been abused this badly, I would like to salvage, re-cake and smoke it if I can get this horrible taste out of it.
I have never seen one this bad and I am at a loss as to what to do with it. "Throw it away and downvote the ebay seller" haha yes I know, that inevitable comment will get plenty of likes.
My question is, should I
A: continue reaming and widen the bowl until all the burnt wood is gone and clean again?
Or
B: keep the material and continue deep cleaning repeatedly until the taste is gone?
Basically, is the horrible taste coming from the burnt wood in the bowl or is it coming from a flavor of burnt wood that has been soaked into the wood and can be cleaned out without removing more material?
Sorry for the novel, thanks in advance for the advice.
I packed it up, lit it and almost immediately tasted the most disgusting flavor I have ever tasted. Like sour, burnt wood. After a puff or 2 I thought nope, I need to deep clean this with salt and alcohol. Seeing as I barely got past the initial light I dumped the bowl and was going to repack it in a different pipe but all the tobacco now reeked of sour, bitter, burnt wood as well. I found this odd. Needless to say I tossed the tobacco.
After a 24 hour salt and alcohol deep clean and a 24 hour+ dry time, I tried it again. Same result just slightly less pronounced. So I reamed it back down to wood and found what I have captured in the photos below. Someone abused the piss out of this pipe. They no doubt packed it up, lit it with an acetylene torch, slapped on the wind cap and went absolutely mad puffing away like a steam train.
I have done a second deep clean after reaming, it still smells of alcohol and needs to dry more but I can still smell burnt wood(obvious as to why). As someone will no doubt point out, I have already gone a bit overboard with the reaming. My reamer isn't cone shaped, there is just that much shrinkage around mid bowl. Removing all the burnt wood will involve widening the bowl. I don't intend to sell this pipe, no one should sell one that has been abused this badly, I would like to salvage, re-cake and smoke it if I can get this horrible taste out of it.
I have never seen one this bad and I am at a loss as to what to do with it. "Throw it away and downvote the ebay seller" haha yes I know, that inevitable comment will get plenty of likes.
My question is, should I
A: continue reaming and widen the bowl until all the burnt wood is gone and clean again?
Or
B: keep the material and continue deep cleaning repeatedly until the taste is gone?
Basically, is the horrible taste coming from the burnt wood in the bowl or is it coming from a flavor of burnt wood that has been soaked into the wood and can be cleaned out without removing more material?
Sorry for the novel, thanks in advance for the advice.
