Exercising the ghost from a gourd calabash.

[OzPiper]

Deep cleaned my 40 yo calabash (bought new) some months ago
Stuffed the gourd with cotton balls, then alcohol soak.
Repeated after 24 hours
Smokes sweetly since

 

[georged]

Mechanically remove as much crud from the inside of the gourd as you can with improvised scrapers and brushes, then fill to within (appx) a quarter inch of the cork with activated charcoal granules. NOT powder. Tilt and tap as necessary to assure full contact with the gourd walls.

Set the gourd in a secure stand and slowly add denatured alcohol (not the rubbing variety which contains a lot of water and perfumes) to the top of the charcoal with an eyedropper or the functional equivalent.

Do not get let the alcohol get within "wicking range" of the cork.

Wait a good while---several days---until the alcohol has entirely evaporated, and it will just pour back out. Maybe a few clinging bits but that's it. Brush them out and you're done.

Where to Buy Activated Charcoal - https://buyactivatedcharcoal.com

 

[telescopes]

Deep cleaned my 40 yo calabash (bought new) some months ago
Stuffed the gourd with cotton balls, then alcohol soak.
Repeated after 24 hours
Smokes sweetly since

My CAO is about if not actually 40 years old.

Unlike a briar, a gourd calabash is a much more organic pipe in the sense that it is much more susceptible to chemical reactions, both inside and outside the gourd's surface.

Mine is a smoker.

Smoke changes chemically the inside and the outside of the material of the gourd in that oils from the tobacco impregnate themselves into the gourd. You can feel the surface of the outside of the gourd picking up oils and coloring.

As I said, mine is a smoker that gets smoked.

Cleaning is necessary.

Gentleness is mandatory.

 

[telescopes]

Mechanically remove as much crud from the inside of the gourd as you can with improvised scrapers and brushes, then fill to within (appx) a quarter inch of the cork with activated charcoal granules. NOT powder. Tilt and tap as necessary to assure full contact with the gourd walls.

Set the gourd in a secure stand and slowly add denatured alcohol (not the rubbing variety which contains a lot of water and perfumes) to the top of the charcoal with an eyedropper or the functional equivalent.

Do not get let the alcohol get within "wicking range" of the cork.

Wait a good while---several days---until the alcohol has entirely evaporated, and it will just pour back out. Maybe a few clinging bits but that's it. Brush them out and you're done.

Where to Buy Activated Charcoal - https://buyactivatedcharcoal.com

A properly cleaned and properly dried gourd calabash is a wonderful smoke indeed.

A foul distempered neglected gourd is a hate filled mongrel that needs to be silenced and put out of its misery.

 

[sablebrush52]

Personally, I'd rather exorcise a ghost than exercise it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Personally, I'd rather exorcise a ghost than exercise it.

Glad someone else caught that!

 

[OzPiper]

I've been wary of buying estate calabashes with non-removable bowls (the beautiful ones with silver or gold rims), even though I'd been severely tempted.
There is no idea of what lurks in the bowels of the gourd beneath the bowl.

The cotton balls from the 1st alcohol soak was almost black.
Hence the repeat 24hr soak.

 

[sablebrush52]

I've been wary of buying estate calabashes with non-removable bowls (the beautiful ones with silver or gold rims), even though I'd been severely tempted.
There is no idea of what lurks in the bowels of the gourd beneath the bowl.

The cotton balls from the 1st alcohol soak was almost black.
Hence the repeat 24hr soak.

It's a problem. Unless you're going to send it to a restorer like George you're going to be having to figure out what you can do, which ain't much. My 1908 Barling Calabash has a solid sterling cap that is nailed to the gourd. When I got it there was a very musty smell.

My solution, which will probably have George rollling his eyes, was to carefully and patientlly swab out the interior from the outside using improvised "Q-Tips" made with a bendable wire stem, pipe cleaners, etc, as well as filling the interior with alcohol and letting it soak. Then more swabbing and more soaks, Letting the pipe dry out for a few days and then repeating, until the swabs came out a very faint brown. Did this over the period of a month. The smell was gone and the pipe was not, miraculously, destroyed. But I have only smoked it a few times since then.

 

[OzPiper]

It's a problem. Unless you're going to send it to a restorer like George you're going to be having to figure out what you can do, which ain't much. My 1908 Barling Calabash has a solid sterling cap that is nailed to the gourd. When I got it there was a very musty smell.

My solution, which will probably have George rollling his eyes, was to carefully and patientlly swab out the interior from the outside using improvised "Q-Tips" made with a bendable wire stem, pipe cleaners, etc, as well as filling the interior with alcohol and letting it soak. Then more swabbing and more soaks, Letting the pipe dry out for a few days and then repeating, until the swabs came out a very faint brown. Did this over the period of a month. The smell was gone and the pipe was not, miraculously, destroyed. But I have only smoked it a few times since then.

I thought it might be time consuming and requiring more patience than my short attention span can cope with.

I had wondered at the practicality of partially filling the gourd with alcohol and swishing it around endlessly before letting the alcohol to drip out the stem end.
And repeating until clear.

I have an Austrian one (presumably a Bauer) which I don't use that often, as it is unwieldy.
I had a couple more which I gifted as I didn't see me smoking them often enough.

 

[sablebrush52]

I thought it might be time consuming and requiring more patience than my short attention span can cope with.

I had wondered at the practicality of partially filling the gourd with alcohol and swishing it around endlessly before letting the alcohol to drip out the stem end.
And repeating until clear.

I have an Austrian one (presumably a Bauer) which I don't use that often, as it is unwieldy.
I had a couple more which I gifted as I didn't see me smoking them often enough.

They're a lovely idea. And like many lovely ideas, more lovely than practical.
I guess they were quite the fashion accessory at one time, since the majority of them turning up at auction date from a relatively short period, roughly 1908 to 1912

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

Mechanically remove as much crud from the inside of the gourd as you can with improvised scrapers and brushes, then fill to within (appx) a quarter inch of the cork with activated charcoal granules. NOT powder. Tilt and tap as necessary to assure full contact with the gourd walls.

Set the gourd in a secure stand and slowly add denatured alcohol (not the rubbing variety which contains a lot of water and perfumes) to the top of the charcoal with an eyedropper or the functional equivalent.

Do not get let the alcohol get within "wicking range" of the cork.

Wait a good while---several days---until the alcohol has entirely evaporated, and it will just pour back out. Maybe a few clinging bits but that's it. Brush them out and you're done.

Where to Buy Activated Charcoal - https://buyactivatedcharcoal.com

The inside of the gourd was physically pretty clean, there wasn't much gunk to speak of. It just stunk like rotten burley. So far the charcoal alone seems to be doing the trick, I smell checked it last night and it seems much better. I'll dump the charcoal this weekend and see where it stands and proceed with denatured alcohol if needed.

 

[mso489]

I think ghosts are usually exorcised, but I like the idea of 150 ghosts running in a 10K in their Nikes. I can see them stopping for a paper cup of water but having it go into their mouthes and right down on the ground.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

I think ghosts are usually exorcised, but I like the idea of 150 ghosts running in a 10K in their Nikes. I can see them stopping for a paper cup of water but having it go into their mouthes and right down on the ground.

Yeah, unfortunately I caught my mistake to late to edit it.