My First Falcon... A Lost Cause?

[blueeyedogre]

So I picked up a old smoked Falcon at the local antique shop this weekend and it's in pretty rough shape but little did I know how rough.

After some cleaning on the bowl I noticed some cracks smeared with what I thought was years of cake. On further inspection I know believe the past owner tried fixing the cracks with JBWeld or some other epoxy and I'm thinking the bowl is a lost cause. I think the stem is in pretty good shape once I clean it and scrape all the dried crap out of the bowl. I can pass a cleaner, thought a very dirty one, down the stem but I think it's salvageable.

 

[pipebaum81]

Not so sure if a heated epoxy is a good thing to draw into ones mouth. It is probably years old but the heat exchange may off gas something less than savory. I hope I am wrong though.

 

[blueeyedogre]

Just toss the bowl and hit a site sponsor to nab a new one.

I'm sure I'll be adding a few bowls to my New Years 4noggins order, maybe a meer bowl. lol

Anyone have suggestions on what I should soak the stem in to help get rid og the years of tobacco juice built up? Oxyclean? Bleach? Beer? lol

 

[darwin]

Plain old alcohol should, eventually, do the trick although the mouthpiece might become discolored. If it does hit it with a little Obsidian oil, or mineral oil. DON'T try to pull the mouthpiece out.

 

[blueeyedogre]

DON'T try to pull the mouthpiece out.

Yeah, I read that doing that would end in tears, anger, and heartbreak and that would remind me to much of when I asked the head cheerleader to the prom. lol

 

[CherokeeBilly]

Soak it in Everclear then scrub it clean, hit the mouthpiece with a magic eraser then dry it off and rub some olive oil on the mouthpiece and you will be as good as new

 

[blueeyedogre]

Soak it in Everclear then scrub it clean,

Sadly no everclear up here, they used to sell it but to many cases of alcohol poisoning so they pulled it from the shelf. I have regular Isopropyl alcohol or some strong rum. lol

 

[darwin]

The isopropyl will do fine. The stem can't absorb anything, alcohol or otherwise.

 

[owen]

While its wise not to remove the mouthpiece, I cleaned mine from mouthpiece towards bowl till it sparkled, did get the mouthpiece out and cleaning it from the other direction it was filthy.

 

[huntertrw]

blueeyedogre:
I quickly and effectively cleaned a similarly gunky Falcon frame by immersing the bowl-end in a cup of water which I had previously heated to the boiling point in the microwave oven. After letting it soak in the water for a few minutes, I then went to work on it with a retired toothbrush wetted with some liquid dish-soap. The aluminum material is an excellent conductor of heat - the fact of which I was promptly (and painfully) reminded as soon as I first attempted to remove mine from the cup - so handle it with a hot-mitt!
As for the bowl, as others have recommended above, I would bag it and buy a new one. I am certain that the "B" in "JB Weld" does not stand for briar.

 

[wyfbane]

I have never heard of someone getting a stem off of a falcon. Owen above is the first one. You will not need to do that. Just follow the examples above to clean and get a new bowl. A meer bowl would be quite awesome!
Good luck with your project!

 

[darwin]

Meer bowls indeed have some awe. Here's my rather techno-flashy setup.

 

[blueeyedogre]

Darwin........ damn! I'm assuming you replaced the stem but did you paint it as well or is that one of the black ones you can get?

 

[darwin]

I managed to snag the black stem and white mouthpiece combo new as shown on the 'Bay a while back. Pure luck.

 

[plateauguy]

I have several used Falcons, none were as filthy as yours, but one was close. Soak the stem/mouthpiece in oxyclean and hot water, scrub with an old toothbrush, change the oxyclean water and soak it again. Repeat it until you have the worst filth gone, then soak it in ISO. Don't stop until it's clean, and I mean clean! I polished mine with Mother's aluminum cleaner. Frankly, I' d toss the bowl. Good luck!

 

[mephistopheles]

I've never thought that Falcon pipes were very nice to look at... But that black and white meer set-up is kickin'!

 

[mrenglish]

The stems are actually crimped in to the inner tube so not sure how tight it would be if you did manage to get it out.
Darwin, that is an awesome set up!
I have a couple all black (straight) Hunter stems in rotation and the black does offset the white meer bowls nicely.

 

[darwin]

The meer bowl has very little color as of yet so I decided to render the image in B&W (in PShop) for a little extra impact. I shot it on top of one of my gallon size mylar bags and it turned out pretty slick. Monochrome imagery ain't dead yet.