New pipe Break In Bitter taste!

[lawmax3]

I have been trying to break in a new Rossi pipe and man does that thing taste horrible!

It had that carbon garbage applied to the interior of the bowl. After 3 smokes I took sandpaper and removed most of it thinking that would help to fix the issue. It didn't.

Next I tried applying honey covered with pipe ash. After about 10 smokes it is improving, but the pipe still has a bitter taste.

I am starting to think there was stain under the carbon coating.

Guess my next move will be an alcohol treatment.

I was hoping to avoid any further sanding of the inside of the bowl.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Might be stain in the shank that's giving the bitter taste. Try cleaning it out with alcohol soaked pipe cleaners.

 

[pipestud]

My personal thought is to give up and chunk it. Life's too short to smoke a pipe that fails to produce. Savinelli picked up the Rossi brand not long ago and the ones that I have seen have the look and feel of a cheap pipe. And, the price point suggests my suspicions may be accurate. Savinelli makes some darned good smoking pipes at excellent value price points. Using the Rossi name and the low price point suggests that they reserve their poorest quality wood for stamping the Rossi name instead of their own on them.

 

[lawmax3]

Anthony I gave the shank cleaning a shot. There was a very slight redish color that was removed.

Stain I guess, but not much.

Pipestud you may be right. I won the pipe anyway.

I'll give the alcohol treatment a shot. If that doesn't work I will probably can it.

I wish I wasn't such a stubborn cuss.

 

[hugodrax]

Be stubborn. Pipestud knows what he's talking about: some pipes are good smokers very quickly. I don't dispute this and some people may not like the eait. But I've come to believe that almost all well-made pipes will become good smokers with perseverance.
And before you think I'm asking the impossible, ive thrown out pipes, too. But I wouldn't quit to the month of solid smoking mark.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

Since Rossi is owned by Savinelli, and I'm guessing they use the same bowl coating for both brands; the pipe should start improving for you after a few more smokes. My Savinelli 320 had a bowl coating, and it took a good 15 bowls before the bad taste went away. As I got to about 25 bowls the taste was completely gone, and now its a great smoking pipe. Not sure what's in the coating, but it was bad. Just be patient with it and that bad taste will go away. Besides by the time the bad taste of the coating is gone the pipe will be broke in.

 

[katarn07]

Neither of my Savinellis with a coating tasted bad???

 

[tmb152]

As on the other bad pipe taste thread, never ran into this myself, but then, I always look at how my bowls are coated, if at all and I've never tried a Rossi. Seems to me some of these companies DO NOT know what they are doing. If stained, you are screwed. Soak the thing in alcohol and salt, otherwise ream it out to the bare wood, apply a coating of Agave nectar, let dry. Pack with an english blend and smoke. Reapply as needed a few times until a natural char builds up. Good Luck.

 

[didimauw]

That's strange my Rossi tasted amazing from the first bowl and continues to do so

 

[hakchuma]

Check to see if there is stain in the shank and bowl. A recent thread shown a large amount of that junk in a pipe.
If that's not the problem then wiggle yourself out of that pretty little red dress of yours and smoke it while herding cows while on horseback like a real man and splash some old spice in the son of a bitch.

 

[pagan]

Most likely stain in the shank, try a retort and/or scrub the shit out of it with a pipe brush

 

[mackeson]

I've had a couple new pipes over the years that were bitter at first also. In my experience, after several bowls it goes away. Good luck

 

[lawmax3]

Ok I scrubbed the shank and gave it an alcohol/salt treatment.

The salt turned almost black. Really nasty looking.

When I smoked it this morning probably 90% of the bitter taste was gone.

I may give it another treatment for good measure.

Whatever was in the bowl was BAD, like burned tire carbon coating kind of bad.

It looks like this one will be able to be saved.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Haha Old Spice...

 

[jpmcwjr]

Wow. Yes, another treatment asap! You can also rinse out the chamber and stem with very hot water to remove even more as well as any alcohol residual. Then paper towel to dry the chamber and mortise, cleaners through the airway.