I assign pipes to blends that a pipe reminds me of. I notice no difference between the smoking characteristics of pipes so if something about the aesthetics of one strikes me a certain way, those are the blend or blends that I choose for them.
Ghosting..Is it that Big of a Deal?
- Thread starter PApiper63
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You can take this question in pipe smoking in just about any form and the answer is almost always no.
Now I'm curious. What's your Devil's Holiday pipe? I don't smoke it enough to warrant it but I always wanted a meer shaped like a basket of berries.
A Bruce Weaver sandblasted strawberry wood magnum billiard. The texture resembles flesh exposed to intense heat, it's red and has a red flaming acrylic band around the ebonite stem.
Likewise my Sakura pipe follows a similar logic. Sakura trees are flowering cherries. In Japan, Sakurajima is a three peaked volcano covered with flowering cherries. Only seemed fitting for a triple volcano pipe.
As a newbie, I recently purchased an estate Falcon pipe to begin building up a small collection to regularly use.
It was advertised as 'clean, sterilised & ready to smoke' but on arrival I cleaned it (stem & shank) again just to be sure. At the moment, I am an aromatics smoker so decided to use a tobacco I'd smoked and enjoyed many times from a part used jar. Upon lighting, I got an instant hit of female perfume which lingered throughout the bowl. A couple of days later I tried again & it was still there. I'm guessing that this is ghosting from some previous tobacco (a Lakeland?) as any cleaning fluids would surely have burned off the first time round? It's been about three days now & I'm ready to give it another try, but find myself reluctant to do so. Does ghosting fade/disappear as time passes?
It was advertised as 'clean, sterilised & ready to smoke' but on arrival I cleaned it (stem & shank) again just to be sure. At the moment, I am an aromatics smoker so decided to use a tobacco I'd smoked and enjoyed many times from a part used jar. Upon lighting, I got an instant hit of female perfume which lingered throughout the bowl. A couple of days later I tried again & it was still there. I'm guessing that this is ghosting from some previous tobacco (a Lakeland?) as any cleaning fluids would surely have burned off the first time round? It's been about three days now & I'm ready to give it another try, but find myself reluctant to do so. Does ghosting fade/disappear as time passes?
Could be but I've ran across estates that were used as weed pipes and actual cologne and perfume were used to mask the odor.
You could try filling the chamber with wet coffee grounds and leaving them there for a couple of days.
Our most recent thread on removing ghosts. Works like a charm.
Removing Ghosts :: Pipe Repair and Maintenance
Thank you to all for great information. I recently removed ghosts in a couple of estates. One I suspected would be very stuborn. It tasted god awfal. It made me think I was smoking old lady purfume. I could not even get myself to finish the bowl. After reading I sanded down almost to all...
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Never ever bothered me, I come from the era that we only had one or two pipes and just shoved what ever tobacco in, now I have well over 200 pipes I still don't bother about ghosting, so what if it tastes a bit different, it soon corrects it self.
I tried Rattray's exotic passion..this is some seriously nasty ghost 
very hard to exorcise..so never again..i would try some aromatic but something with less artificials.. 
very hard to exorcise..so never again..i would try some aromatic but something with less artificials..
Minor editing.
The cake will build and act like a ghost, as it gets heated again and again and, of course release some (taste) of the cake..I don't build any cake either, Sir.
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I have gotten estate pipes that were so badly ghosted with aromatics and Lakelands that I had to throw them away. I had tried the salt treatment, a retort, coffee grounds, and even put the stummel in the oven at a low temp for several hours (Greg Pease has a blog on it), But, Lakelands and aromatics seems to seep deep into the wood of the briar.
The "Old lady perfume" describes exactly what hit me! I'll give the coffee grounds method a try. Thanks to all.
The only ghosting I've had that has bothered me is Sutliff Mint. I had to deep clean and still smoke some latakia to delete the flavor.
I’m part of the ghosting is overrated crew, over hyped, and smoke anything in anything, including strong Englishes and Lakelands. I also have decent senses and can pick out dominant single malts in blended whisky… above average.
I do wipe my inside bowl with a paper towel and use a pipe cleaner after almost each bowl, and only smoke a few a week. So I’m not reefing on the same blend all day, everyday in one pipe.
I do wipe my inside bowl with a paper towel and use a pipe cleaner after almost each bowl, and only smoke a few a week. So I’m not reefing on the same blend all day, everyday in one pipe.
