Karl Erik Compact

[southernbriar]

I just picked up a Karl Erik Compact pipe this afternoon. I am in the middle of Sanitizing it now. I uploaded a Pic to my Album. I am hoping to make it my pocket Pipe for Latakia Blends.

I have been scraping and cleaning and letting it soak in a Moonshine type substance for the past few hours. Now that all of the cake is gone I am going to let it soak for the next day.
This is my first for sanitizing a used pipe personally, so if anyone has any helpful tips or suggestions please let me know.
Edit: Fixed your pic, L.

 

[pstlpkr]

I like it!

Al, Mkelaw, or Lonestar can offer some excellent advice... Guys?

::

 

[tbradsim1]

Those are 3 great choices Lawrence, might I add Ejames, very knowledgable. The old cajun

 

[sjpipesmoker]

Just remember to soak the stem in bleach and re-polish It, and use pipe cleaners to get in the stem and pipe, other than that it sounds like you're on the right track!!

Unless you want to do the salt & alcohol method?

 

[shawn]

Very cool.

 

[lonestar]

It looks to be a pretty clean pipe, probably doesnt need much heavy cleaning. If you're planning to smoke Lats I wouldnt worry too much about ghosts unless its had heavy aromatics smoked through it. I think the Latakia will dominate any other flavors with a few bowls.

The stem doesnt look like it needs bleach from your picture. I use bleach to take out heavy oxidation, but I would probably soak this one in alcohol. The bleach will pit the surface somewhat so you need to follow up bleach with a complete resanding through several grits and a final buffing. To me, thats adding a lot of work thats just not necessary unless you're removing oxidation. The alcohol will sanitize it, just be sure to run several bristled pipe cleaners through the stem and shank with alcohol until they come out clean then run a few dry ones through afterward. I also scrub the outside on the mouthpiece with alcohol soaked cleaners to rub off any accumulated junk where it will go in your mouth, then let it soak some more.

Let the pipe rest for a few days or a week if you've soaked it with alcohol. I like to give it plenty of time to dry out completely before lighting up.

Its a fine looking pipe for sure, congrats.

 

[southernbriar]

Thank you all for the advice. It really did not take that much effort to get it clean. It was easier than I had expected. A couple times I drained it and re-scraped it until all the cake was removed. The stem didn't have any pits or teeth scrapes so I only soaked in in the grain and I did use the bristled pipe cleaners.