Gunge On Rim Of Pipe

[Morrison Jeremiah]

I have a Tommaso Spanu pipe, a flare root, red canted briar.
I've had it for about a year, and have smoked something like 100 bowls in it.
Today I went over the park for my usual early afternoon smoke, and halfway through I noticed some kind of resin or gunge on the rim.
I managed to scrape it off with my thumb nail.
Could it be that the sap is only just starting to come out of it ?
I decided to put it on a a sunny windowsill in the hope that will sweat it out.
Has anybody got any other ideas ?
Also, does anybody know what flare root Briar is ? I googled it but came up with nothing concrete.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I call it rim creep, when the tars that make up the cake start to move upward out of the pipe, probably flowing the rise of the heat. It's not the same thing as rim char, which is the scorching of the rim, from using a lighter carelessly. It comes off easy with some spit on a rag, or coffee and a napkin.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

I call it rim creep, when the tars that make up the cake start to move upward out of the pipe, probably flowing the rise of the heat. It's not the same thing as rim char, which is the scorching of the rim, from using a lighter carelessly. It comes off easy with some spit on a rag, or coffee and a napkin.

I only allow a very small amount of cake to build up, but all the same there is cake, and your explanation make sense.

 

[anotherbob]

water and a paper towel or rag clears that up pretty quick. I personally feel the same way about that gunge (which to me sounds like a cross over musical genre grunge and easy listening, never said it sounded like a good genre) as I do about cat scratched couches. I feel a warm feeling when I see it, I feel this is a pipe that is loved and this is a home not just a house.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I only allow a very small amount of cake to build up, but all the same there is cake, and your explanation make sense.

I too hate cake, and clean my pipes to avoid it's build up. Cake is for suckers, ha ha.

 

[kcghost]

Well, it is good for birthday parties.

 

[madox07]

I call it "lava" ... my pipes tend to get that on the rear part of the rim, and little in front, it may be my smoking technique, I don't know. Any road, I am with cosmic on this one, a bit of spit takes you a long way. I always thought that it's from the smoke that comes out by the edge of the rim from retrohaling, and not the cake, but I don't really have a scientific explanation for it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yep, damp paper towel.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

water and a paper towel or rag clears that up pretty quick. I personally feel the same way about that gunge (which to me sounds like a cross over musical genre grunge and easy listening, never said it sounded like a good genre) as I do about cat scratched couches. I feel a warm feeling when I see it, I feel this is a pipe that is loved and this is a home not just a house.

From now on I shall venerate rim gunge, and sing an ode of Joy to it ?

 

[anotherbob]

From now on I shall venerate rim gunge, and sing an ode of Joy to it ?

Don't forget the tooth chatter and oxidization on the stem too.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Don't forget the tooth chatter and oxidization on the stem too.

Only you, Bobs, would venerate chatter and oxidation.

 

[Chasing Embers]

tooth chatter

 

[anotherbob]

Only you, Bobs, would venerate chatter and oxidation.

Well it's not our fault everyone else is wrong.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

Water and one of those cheap electric toothbrushes for kids. A very minimal amount of detergent if it needs it. Should come right off.

 

[unadoptedlamp]

I regularly clean all of my pipes with warm water and soap, inside and out. Stems removed, as most are vulcanite.

A shank brush and suds does an amazing job for the bowl and shank. Keeps the cake nice and thin and rock hard when dry. Never had a problem in years of that treatment.

1. They smoke as fresh as the day I bought them, which is a real bonus for me

2. They look as great as the day I bought them

The only trick I found was to give them a light coat of mineral oil or obsidian stem oil. Haven't had a finish run off or anything awful. Bamboo, meerschaum, briar... anything but vulcanite.

Probably the best routine I've ever come across for pipe smoking, but a lot of people flinch here if you say water and pipe in the same sentence. Toss in soap suds, and I don't know, maybe heads explode.

But it works great if you like a fresh pipe.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I water flush my pipes and the final step is to take a paper towel, clean of the rim and then the inside of the bowl. If you keep up with it in this manner, it's simple to keep the rim clean.

 

[sablebrush52]

Spit and a rag does it for me. Cleans it right off. Some people use cold coffee.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Hot water flush. Then, often with pipes that have years of rim lava, scrubbing with the back of a kitchen sponge. ( I wonder if it has an equivalent to "micromesh" that many use.) Other pipes that haven't been so long neglected, paper towel, water or saliva.

 

[georged]

All of the "scrub with a dampened paper towel" variations work well (the digestive enzymes in saliva actually make spit more fast-working than most, in fact), but ONLY if the crud/creep/lava is removed BEFORE the acids it contains strip the finish underneath.

How long does that take to happen? Depends on too many variables to predict, but it WILL happen eventually in every case. Once it gets through, its removal---which by then requires sanding or scraping, it is effectively insoluble---will expose raw wood.

Keeping it off preventively with a scrubby wipedown after every smoke or three is the obvious and easy solution.

 

[jewman22]

Give'er a lick, then rub until she squeaks.