I purchased a lightly used Meer. The problem is that whoever handled it liked to bathe in Old Spice. It's going away slowly, but it's taken over a year to get the funk out.
How to Exorcise an Entrenched Ghost
- Thread starter davidsaulmarshall
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Take the pipe, drop it inside some tupperware and fill with rubbing alcohol. Let it bathe for half a day to a day. Remove the pipe and let it dry. Then, since the alcohol will have destroyed the finish, restain with Fiebings Oxblood. This may or may not ruin your nomenclature but it will leach out whatever is in there.
The Briar Blues guy has a video on this technique that I happened on the other day while killing time at an airport.
Wet coffee grounds. Fill the bowl and shank, let it soak in overnight, clean as usual and let dry for a few days.
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Just made my morning coffee and I've now paced both the shank and the bowl full of grounds. Hope this works!
It's really hard to explain what's in this pipe. It's vaguely perfumed, but it isn't rose. It's more dull than that. Definitely a woman's fragrance though.Maybe it is the one kind of ghost that has left the pipe only to benefit from being dedicated to Ennerdale for a while.
I am curious about this perfume smell. I know that some lakelands do use a lot of rose geranium, which gives the ghost a rose fragrance... ::gag::
And, maybe someone is such a "head" that they would pack a huge tobacco pipe full of dope and smoke it... but to then just spray a perfume on it? Is it like a women's or men's "perfume"? Are we talking Channel #5 or Drakkar Noir? English Leather?
I know that Rattray's Bagpipers Dream is Cognac topped, but the combined aroma of the tobacco and the liquor reminds me more of a men's cologne than Cognac. It has left a little of the fragrance behind, but I usually enjoy it.
If we are talking a fragrance has been sprayed on it, you might just use some dish soap and water to try to remove it, then use the coffee grounds and retorts all over again. Just use some small paint brushes or old toothbrushes to scrub it real good.
I’ve encountered something similar a few times. The good news for me is that I smoked my way through it and it was t that bad. Good call on the coffee grounds, it is always smart to use the most mild method first. As they dry out you can tamp them and add more
Always strange to see the coffee ground treatment. I've used to use them fairly regularly as a hand cleaner when I got greasy, dried out, cracked, hands at work. It's weird scrubbing your hands with coffee grounds, but when they are all rinsed off, your hands are clean and there seems to be some kind of moisturizer in there too.
I've got a pipe that was extremely smelly, not sure what was in it. I cleaned it and gave it three salt baths and finally coffee grounds. Now it just has a normal pipe smell and isn't bad. See the thread about the Ruff-Tone Restoration.
Just to cap off this thread, I decided after a couple coffee ground soakings that I'd bite the bullet and send this Red Bark off to Walker Pipe Repair for Ozone treatment and a full restoration rather than try a retort, which likely isn't a viable option in my college dorm room.
Did you get the pipe back? How did it work? Do you have any pictures of the restoration? I just sent mine out and am not wondering what to expect. This will be my first pipe I have ever had professionally restored.
Completed and mailed a month ago but it's still at a USPS facility in Chicago!
I got a meer that reeked of cheap perfume - tried everything - finally baked the strummel in a 250 degree oven for 24 hours and that drove out all the ghost...
There are so many things wrong with that it gives me agita!
Pack that bastard full of
and teach it a lesson on Ghosts! That will teach it! Show it what real 
tastes like...
and teach it a lesson on Ghosts! That will teach it! Show it what real tastes like...
Multiple attempts haven't yielded much progress. I just got the pipe back from Walker Pipe Repair's Ozone treatment and it's still ghosted, but better. Might have to bake it with some activated charcoal.
Have you tried washing the stummel in hot water? Basically, run hot water from the tap into the bowl and scrub the insides with a brush. I use a toothbrush and a little shank brush.
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