Help on De-Caking Massive Dottle Build-up
- Thread starter Bwana Kiko
- Start date
Ok friends, an update.
I started with trying to run a little Uganda Waragi liquor through the pipe and then started working on it with a Czech tool. Eventually I moved to using drill bits (just turning it with my fingers) to start dislodging the carbon. Crazy. Almost 2 grams of carbon chunks came out.
OzPiper, you called it right -- the stem was a lot of work. Air passed through, but it was so gummed up in there that I could not get a pipe cleaner through. Eventually I was able to get through the shank into the bowl using drill bits (again hand-turned.)
Slowly with alcohol I was able to get a pipe cleaner through the stem. When it came out the other end it was totally black and compressed.
After letting it dry, I went after the bowl with a dremel and a light sand paper bit. This took a long time, and initially was just black dust. When it started lightening in colour I switched out to a buffing cloth to try to clean it up. This took out another gram and a half filling a teaspoon!
It cleaned up decently, but I was a little concerned that at the rim the meerschaum seemed easy to chip. I suspect that this may be because there were cracks around the rim from lots of use and abuse, but that the cake was holding it together. I decided not to sand this.
I will clean it up more tomorrow and give another update. But for now I will just remark that it is interesting to get so close to meerschaum and see the little flaws and weaknesses that are throughout it. Check the pictures.
Thanks for all your advice.
I started with trying to run a little Uganda Waragi liquor through the pipe and then started working on it with a Czech tool. Eventually I moved to using drill bits (just turning it with my fingers) to start dislodging the carbon. Crazy. Almost 2 grams of carbon chunks came out.
OzPiper, you called it right -- the stem was a lot of work. Air passed through, but it was so gummed up in there that I could not get a pipe cleaner through. Eventually I was able to get through the shank into the bowl using drill bits (again hand-turned.)
Slowly with alcohol I was able to get a pipe cleaner through the stem. When it came out the other end it was totally black and compressed.
After letting it dry, I went after the bowl with a dremel and a light sand paper bit. This took a long time, and initially was just black dust. When it started lightening in colour I switched out to a buffing cloth to try to clean it up. This took out another gram and a half filling a teaspoon!
It cleaned up decently, but I was a little concerned that at the rim the meerschaum seemed easy to chip. I suspect that this may be because there were cracks around the rim from lots of use and abuse, but that the cake was holding it together. I decided not to sand this.
I will clean it up more tomorrow and give another update. But for now I will just remark that it is interesting to get so close to meerschaum and see the little flaws and weaknesses that are throughout it. Check the pictures.
Thanks for all your advice.
Attachments
What a bit of work!
The pipe is pretty small, no? I had a billiard with the leather that looks the same as this pipe, and the chamber was small.
The pipe is pretty small, no? I had a billiard with the leather that looks the same as this pipe, and the chamber was small.
You did a good job on the bowl.
Good luck with the stem and shank.
Good luck with the stem and shank.
A great improvement! It always pleases me to see items restored rather than chucked in the trash pile.
An update:
I worked on cleaning the stem and the mouthpiece polished up nicely. I re-weighed the pipe and found that I did indeed clean almost 4 grams of grime out of the pipe!
It looked great!
...
Now I'm supposed to add some line like, "I retired to the terrace whereupon I enjoyed a sumptuous smoke of Wessex Goldbrick whilst reading Tennyson, sipping cognac and taking in the breath-taking vista of the lake... an exquisite reward for my labor..."
But it was not too be... first of all, I don't have any of those things except the view of the lake, but I did pack my pipe with PS Navy Flake and sit down with high hopes. The first puff hit me hard. Sour. I soldiered on for a couple minutes, but it was foul, absolutely foul. Tragedy. Just to make sure it wasn't the tobacco, I pulled it out and repacked it in another pipe and it was fine... so, sadly, so far the pipe is unsmokeable. I'm not sure why this is but here are the ideas:
1. Polishing compound residue on the buffer is the source of the gross flavour.
2. The pits and imperfections in the meerschaum, or the meerschaum itself, holds the old flavors ghosting it throughout the pipe despite the cleaning.
3. The demons of this pipe cannot be exorcized by sandpaper and pipe- cleaners... maybe I should consider blasting caps...
Any ideas?
Thanks.
I worked on cleaning the stem and the mouthpiece polished up nicely. I re-weighed the pipe and found that I did indeed clean almost 4 grams of grime out of the pipe!
It looked great!
...
Now I'm supposed to add some line like, "I retired to the terrace whereupon I enjoyed a sumptuous smoke of Wessex Goldbrick whilst reading Tennyson, sipping cognac and taking in the breath-taking vista of the lake... an exquisite reward for my labor..."
But it was not too be... first of all, I don't have any of those things except the view of the lake, but I did pack my pipe with PS Navy Flake and sit down with high hopes. The first puff hit me hard. Sour. I soldiered on for a couple minutes, but it was foul, absolutely foul. Tragedy. Just to make sure it wasn't the tobacco, I pulled it out and repacked it in another pipe and it was fine... so, sadly, so far the pipe is unsmokeable. I'm not sure why this is but here are the ideas:
1. Polishing compound residue on the buffer is the source of the gross flavour.
2. The pits and imperfections in the meerschaum, or the meerschaum itself, holds the old flavors ghosting it throughout the pipe despite the cleaning.
3. The demons of this pipe cannot be exorcized by sandpaper and pipe- cleaners... maybe I should consider blasting caps...
Any ideas?
Thanks.
I would not want to encourage you to do anything dangerous like smoke a polishing compound that is somehow infused into the pipe, but I can say that I have successfully smoked out a number of tenacious old ghosts with Carter Hall. Burley blends are well-known for their usefulness in exorcising ghosts.
Yeah it is small. My unprofessional way of measuring pipe is which fiber fits in the bowl. MM cobs fits my middle finger; my Svendborg fits my thumb, but Kikos are small-- mostly pinkies. ?
Hmm... good to know. I don't have Carter Hall...I do have Half and Half which is 50% Burley... should I try that?
If you are satisfied that you aren't smoking toxic chemicals, then I would say that Half and Half is probably just as good as any other Burley in getting rid of a ghost. It might take quite a few bowls before you notice any substantial improvement.
I would generally recommend a few rounds of the alcohol and salt (or cotton ball) treatment prior to trying to smoke that ghost out, but I'm not sure whether or not that would be a good idea for the meerschaum lining.
The pipe may be ready for a good soak in ozone. You got me otherwise. I wouldn't give up though. There is something in there that needs to be exercised.
I had the same sour experience with a couple of estate pipes. In both cases the airways were still filthy, even though dry pipe cleaners were coming out reasonably clean.
Cleaning the inspissated muck out of the shank/mortise and stem solved the problem.
These days with all estates, I leave alcohol-soaked cleaners overnight in the shanks and stems, as well as doing an overnight alcohol soak of the bowls
Cleaning the inspissated muck out of the shank/mortise and stem solved the problem.
These days with all estates, I leave alcohol-soaked cleaners overnight in the shanks and stems, as well as doing an overnight alcohol soak of the bowls
Before you go to that extreme, I suggest a very hot water flush through the chamber and out the airway. The pipe will dry within hours, not days.
You deserve some sort of pipe restoration medal of valor. One look at that bowl with years of neglect would have made me toss it in the trash. Now you've invested time and effort, I'd see what can be done to exorcise the sour demon. I'd ozone it (if you can do that without buying gear) and soak it, and sand it some more. Maybe it's sour to the core. You might keep it as a conversation piece. Scour those bowls out after every smoke. Don't follow this bad example from the past, I say.
Thanks. I have an emotional connection to these old Kiko pipes. They are very basic, yet beautiful. They have meerschaum mined from Amboseli -- a wild area at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. They speak to a bygone era. Simply naming it the "Kiko", which is the Swahili word for pipe, and embossing it with an elephant, spoke of the confidence and pride that we could produce something that was truly, unabashedly African.
For sentimentality's sake I attach a picture taken from when I was camping in that area in July.
For sentimentality's sake I attach a picture taken from when I was camping in that area in July.
Attachments
Love those pachyderms. I enjoyed the news about the troupe of elephants that went touring in China and people refrained from shooting them and let them migrate back to their original preserves. I won't own ivory. I've never felt the need of it. Except George Patton needed his ivory handled 45's, because he really needed them, and had things he had to shoot. When some journalist referred to his "pearl handled revolvers," he raged, "Only a New Orleans pimp would have pearl handled revolvers; these are ivory."