Help on De-Caking Massive Dottle Build-up

[Bwana Kiko]

Greetings friends,

I have just received a leather-wrapped, meerschaum-lined bent billiard, Kilimanjaro Kiko with extreme dottle cake.

Seriously... look at the pictures. I have never seen the like. It is caked to the point where inside it looks like a funnel with only a small hole in the center to allow smoke to pass through. Even the stem is so filled you can't pass a pipe cleaner through.

Pictures:
1 the pipe
2 top view
3 a match in the bowl to give perspective of the narrow hole through the cake
4 the match marked to show how high up the bowl the cake is before it enters the hole.

I would love to hear your advice on this. Also, note that I am in Uganda with limited supplies... (no pipe shop here.) I have searched for rubbing/isopropyl alcohol worth no luck (I think it's all being used for hand-sanitizer... covid wins again.)

The only alcohol I have is a bottle of Uganda Waragi someone me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Hello Kiko,
This is serious business
Alcohol and meer do not agree, so avoid !
Maybe fill the bowl with luke warm water, it will soften the "cake" .
I reamed out many pipes with excessive cake, starting with a Savinelli pipe knife, or a triangular scraper.
They are readily available.
A small electrician's screw driver will do fine too.
Then start working on it with the smallest size pipe reamer etc. Careful, meer is exceedingly vulnerable !
Never ream till the bare meer, sand out the last remaining cake and clean out the chamber with luke warm water.
Good luck !

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I’m not sure what adhesive holds the meer lining in, so I’d avoid any long soaks in anything for fear of loosening the liner from the pipe. I think in this case, I’d probably approach it slowly and meticulously with sandpaper. But I’ve never messed with one of these, so I’m just offering a guess here, not experienced wisdom. Best of luck getting it cleaned up, friend. I hope it turns out great.

 

[Jaylotw]

Sandpaper for the bowl. Use a finger or dowel rod and wrap the sandpaper around it and go slow. You could also use a knife or screwdriver to scrape some out, but careful of the meer lining. The stem is full of junk, too? Maybe a drill bit?

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I'm no repair expert but I'd drill 3/4 of it out making certain not to hit bottom or sides. Then I'd have a go with a knife or reamer. I'd use bristles brushes on the stem and tenon.

 

[orlandofurioso]

I’m not sure what adhesive holds the meer lining in, so I’d avoid any long soaks in anything for fear of loosening the liner from the pipe. I think in this case, I’d probably approach it slowly and meticulously with sandpaper. But I’ve never messed with one of these, so I’m just offering a guess here, not experienced wisdom. Best of luck getting it cleaned up, friend. I hope it turns out great.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Correct, I forgot about the lining . However those meer linings are most likely to come out in bits and pieces.
Better not fill the bowl, but moisten the cake with warm water. Otherwise same procedure .

 

[sablebrush52]

Do you have access to wood doweling and sandpaper on a flexible backing? Or even a Pilot marker pen?

Here's what I'd do and it won't fuck up your pipe. Get yourself a couple of thickness of doweling, one about half the radius of the width of the chamber and another closer to the width of the chamber. Round off the edges at one end so that it's quite rounded, and wrap the end with sandpaper, fixing it in place with a heavy duty rubber band. Then begin carefully sanding down the cake, watching as you go so that you don't sand into the meer lining. Start with the skinnier piece of doweling and open up the center of the cake deposit. Keep gently working at that edge until your're close to the meer lining then switch to the larger doweling so that you even out the profile of the cake until it's been removed.

If dealing with shaping a piece of doweling is more than you want to get into, just buy a Pilot marker pen, or something similar, a wide pen shape with a tapered rounded end, and wrap sandpaper around that end, and hold it in place with a heavy duty rubber band, and sand away.

Don't soak in alcohol as that will lessen the dry smoking qualities of meerschaum. Don't soak in water as that will soften the meerschaum. Do not stab, gouge, slice, or eviscerate a meer lined bowl. Do not use blasting caps, m-80s, dynamite, or thermonuclear weapons to open up the chamber.

Just carefully sand away the cake. Simple.

 

[Bwana Kiko]

Thank your all for your advice. I don't have much in the way of tools here, but I have a fried who may have some of this stuff. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Sandpaper

Yep, sandpaper puts commercial reamers and knives to shame.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Yep, sandpaper puts commercial reamers and knives to shame.

Perhaps not when in capable hands.

 

[OzPiper]

The shank will be a problem as well.
If you have access to a set of small drill bits or jeweller's screwdrivers, it will make the job so much easier.
Use a strong torch to look into the shank. You'd be horrified to see how much gunk manages to accumulate there.
The shank usually takes a lot more effort to clean than a caked bowl.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Perhaps not when in capable hands.

Even then. You can even polish the chamber with sandpaper unlike reamers. ?Seems you like to argue too. I know many that regularly wipe meer chambers with alcohol, smoke them in the cold, and have even dropped them with no damage. They're not as fragile as some claim otherwise there wouldn't be very many left that were a century or more old.

 

[mso489]

I didn't think meerschaum pipes or pipe liners were supposed to be caked. Am I missing something? Obviously, this smoker didn't know that or didn't care. But for the record, aren't meerschaum pipes or pipes with meerschaum liners supposed to be scoured out after each smoke to avoid cake? I do that with my briars, too, leaving just a thin layer of carbon. It maintains the diameter of the chamber and makes a reamer unnecessary.

 

[sablebrush52]

I didn't think meerschaum pipes or pipe liners were supposed to be caked. Am I missing something? Obviously, this smoker didn't know that or didn't care. But for the record, aren't meerschaum pipes or pipes with meerschaum liners supposed to be scoured out after each smoke to avoid cake? I do that with my briars, too, leaving just a thin layer of carbon. It maintains the diameter of the chamber and makes a reamer unnecessary.

You're correct. Meerschaums are not suppsed to be caked up. Obviously the former owner of this pipe was a slob.

 

[ofafeather]

I have an estate Chacom. Cool pipe. Smoked it for a bit. Didn’t realize it was meerschaum lined, it was so black. Reemed it as much as I could and didn’t understand why it wouldn’t go any further. ?

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I have an estate Chacom. Cool pipe. Smoked it for a bit. Didn’t realize it was meerschaum lined, it was so black. Reemed it as much as I could and didn’t understand why it wouldn’t go any further. ?

I can understand. I’ve never had one, but I’ve seen pictures of meer-lined estate purchases that were smoked and not maintained. You couldn’t even see that there was a meerschaum lining in there until a good deep cleaning had taken place.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I didn't think meerschaum pipes or pipe liners were supposed to be caked. Am I missing something? Obviously, this smoker didn't know that or didn't care. But for the record, aren't meerschaum pipes or pipes with meerschaum liners supposed to be scoured out after each smoke to avoid cake? I do that with my briars, too, leaving just a thin layer of carbon. It maintains the diameter of the chamber and makes a reamer unnecessary.

I'm starting to think not caking a meer to be myth as well. I've seen ancient ones with heavy cake build up that were colored just fine.

 

[orlandofurioso]

I was always given to understand cake is meant to protect the walls of a briar pipe from burning.
Meer is less prone to damage from burning, so imho there's no need to build up a cake.
On the contrary, I believe meer does not take flavors, or ghosts and I like to enjoy the pure taste of tobacco an immense lot. I by the way like my briars to be clean too, so I carefully clean them out after each two, or three smokes. I do not so much enjoy smoking cake.

Anyway ; to each his own and my meers are not allowed to cake. after each smoke I wipe them out
with a damp cloth, or kitchen towel. That old meers are heavily caked does no necessarily mean it is meant to be so.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I believe meer does not take flavors, or ghosts

All pipes can ghost regardless of how clean you keep them, and countless members here have proven that cake is unnecessary in any pipe. My point was just that going by estate pieces, cake doesn't prevent meerschaum coloring.