Newbie Starting Restoring.

[Tate]

How's it going, guys?! I figured with all the estates I have coming in I can do a little log of me working on em. So far I have a Marxman Mel-o and Super Briar.
Here are some befores:

I was able to make some progress on these. Here is where they are now. I don't know if it's the lighting or the rustic nature of these pipes but in person there was a bigger improvement, I think. Still waiting on a polish to come in.


I cleaned them, carved out the cake, salt and alcohol in the chamber, polished the stems and briar (waiting on the final compounds). Last steps is possibly a retort just to try it and that final polish for the briar and stem. Will probably smoke tomorrow though lol

 

[Bbailey324]

Looking good. I really enjoy tinkering with and restoring old pipes.

 

[Tate]

Looking good. I really enjoy tinkering with and restoring old pipes.

Thank man! I'm already really enjoying it! Got some more coming in the mail I'll get to start on, soon!

 

[sablebrush52]

If you do decide to try a retort, be very careful. You don't want to end up a crispy critter. I've used the alcohol retort a number of times, but only with really stubbornly ghosted estate pipes.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Good job so far
Better use cotton balls in stead of salt.
The retort thing gives me the shivers . Never practiced it, never had to.
Carry on and ask away if you feel like it.

 

[mikethompson]

It is a slippery slope when cleaning up old pipes, have fun! It's certainly rewarding to breathe life into an old pipe and watch the wood come alive again.

 

[Tate]

If you do decide to try a retort, be very careful. You don't want to end up a crispy critter. I've used the alcohol retort a number of times, but only with really stubbornly ghosted estate pipes.

Definitely! Thanks! The mel-o has some light ghost of deodorizer/incense? Idk. Going to see if a few more bowls will help.

 

[Tate]

Good job so far
Better use cotton balls in stead of salt.
The retort thing gives me the shivers . Never practiced it, never had to.
Carry on and ask away if you feel like it.

I'll give the cotton balls a right instead!! What are the advantages of the cotton ball? Thanks!

 

[Tate]

It is a slippery slope when cleaning up old pipes, have fun! It's certainly rewarding to breathe life into an old pipe and watch the wood come alive again.

It is a slippery slope my ebay activity has increased! Lol. Looking forward to more!!

 

[jpmcwjr]

For before and after photos, lighting and exposure should be consistent.

Good work!

 

[Tate]

OoOoPsS!

 

[Tate]

For before and after photos, lighting and exposure should be consistent.

Good work!

Definitely! Going to keep that in mind,

 

[orlandofurioso]

I'll give the cotton balls a right instead!! What are the advantages of the cotton ball? Thanks!

The salt needs to be uniodized, which can be hard to come by.
It always gives such a mess, cotton balls do not. According to some, salt can expand and cause cracks in the
airway and the mortise of the stummel. I never experienced such. Both are only the "carrier" and "absorbent" for the alcohol. The alcohol does the cleaning/deghosting , not the salt . So, why use the messy stuff. For the ones who object alcohol, vinegar is a good cleaner too.

 

[Tate]

The salt needs to be uniodized, which can be hard to come by.
It always gives such a mess, cotton balls do not. According to some, salt can expand and cause cracks in the
airway and the mortise of the stummel. I never experienced such. Both are only the "carrier" and "absorbent" for the alcohol. The alcohol does the cleaning/deghosting , not the salt . So, why use the messy stuff.

Awesome! I will give that a shot! On the next one!

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

The salt needs to be uniodized, which can be hard to come by.
It always gives such a mess, cotton balls do not. According to some, salt can expand and cause cracks in the
airway and the mortise of the stummel. I never experienced such. Both are only the "carrier" and "absorbent" for the alcohol. The alcohol does the cleaning/deghosting , not the salt . So, why use the messy stuff. For the ones who object alcohol, vinegar is a good cleaner too.

Not quite accurate in the case of a retort, the cotton/salt acts as a condenser. If you don't put something into the bowl alcohol steam vapor will just shoot out the bowl and not really do much except for burn the user. The idea behind a retort is to permeate alcohol vapor through the pipe and get it to turn back into tar laden alcohol and drain back into the retort. The salt/cotton acts as the condenser that turns the vapor back to liquid to allow it to drain back into the retort while allowing airflow through the pipe and preventing the retort from vapor locking and exploding.

 

[Tate]

For the retort I was planning on the cotton ball for sure.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I've cleaned a lot of estates and restored one, which to me was the usual cleaning plus all the work involved bringing the original stem back from what I thought was unfixable to wonderful. Got a lot of great advice and info on here! I wouldn't feel comfortable trying a retort and never thought it necessary, so I guess I won't comment on that other than read the above if you really think you need to. I've got a little Meer that's end of 19th century that was a generous gift from @ashdigger and it still has kind of a sour "ghost" for lack of a better word, and I love it, lol, but tailor what I smoke in it to jive with the ghost, which is English/Latakia - ish. I view it as one of the cool things about the pipe (also kept and had repaired the screw in amber stem, but also had an acrylic and yellow replacement made which is the one I use).

Do you sand the chamber at all? Patient and careful fine sanding seems to do wonders, IMO, but chamber and shank both need the attention and I'm always amazed what still comes out black even after a salt/alcohol bath (or two, lol). I found some pretty gross stuff in the shank of an old Pete that was considered "clean" and once finished with the long process of cleaning (slowly, so slowly) that is is now a favorite pipe!

I've had good luck with the salt treatment, with the proper salt and alcohol, but be careful IMO of it expanding and removing it and make sure you have a very fine syringe to get the alcohol in there a drop at a time so as not to damage the finish around the rim.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Not quite accurate in the case of a retort, the cotton/salt acts as a condenser. If you don't put something into the bowl alcohol steam vapor will just shoot out the bowl and not really do much except for burn the user. The idea behind a retort is to permeate alcohol vapor through the pipe and get it to turn back into tar laden alcohol and drain back into the retort. The salt/cotton acts as the condenser that turns the vapor back to liquid to allow it to drain back into the retort while allowing airflow through the pipe and preventing the retort from vapor locking and exploding.

You are correc and my reply was not about a retort .
I do not have the guts for it.

 

[Tate]

I've cleaned a lot of estates and restored one, which to me was the usual cleaning plus all the work involved bringing the original stem back from what I thought was unfixable to wonderful. Got a lot of great advice and info on here! I wouldn't feel comfortable trying a retort and never thought it necessary, so I guess I won't comment on that other than read the above if you really think you need to. I've got a little Meer that's end of 19th century that was a generous gift from @ashdigger and it still has kind of a sour "ghost" for lack of a better word, and I love it, lol, but tailor what I smoke in it to jive with the ghost, which is English/Latakia - ish. I view it as one of the cool things about the pipe (also kept and had repaired the screw in amber stem, but also had an acrylic and yellow replacement made which is the one I use).

Do you sand the chamber at all? Patient and careful fine sanding seems to do wonders, IMO, but chamber and shank both need the attention and I'm always amazed what still comes out black even after a salt/alcohol bath (or two, lol). I found some pretty gross stuff in the shank of an old Pete that was considered "clean" and once finished with the long process of cleaning (slowly, so slowly) that is is now a favorite pipe!

I've had good luck with the salt treatment, with the proper salt and alcohol, but be careful IMO of it expanding and removing it and make sure you have a very fine syringe to get the alcohol in there a drop at a time so as not to damage the finish around the rim.

I did do some light sanding in the chamber after some scraping. I finished the salt and alcohol treatment on them already and I think they are both good to go now. The retort will just be for a fun experiment honestly. Not in a rush to do it. The super briar should be fine. The Mel-o might be the one to try on because there is a hint of this deodorizer or incense. I'll see tonight though. They have had a while to dry out. What's funny is before the salt treatment EMP covered up the deodorizer pretty well.

 

[orlandofurioso]

I did do some light sanding in the chamber after some scraping. I finished the salt and alcohol treatment on them already and I think they are both good to go now. The retort will just be for a fun experiment honestly. Not in a rush to do it. The super briar should be fine. The Mel-o might be the one to try on because there is a hint of this deodorizer or incense. I'll see tonight though. They have had a while to dry out. What's funny is before the salt treatment EMP covered up the deodorizer pretty well.

EMP covers up about anything. Yuck !