Question About Cake Removal For The Restore Guys.

[BigR]

I purchased a pipe off the Bay, and it has a decent amount of cake as shown in pic. I have removed a minor amount of the cake, but I noticed that the cake hole is closer to the wall on one side than the other. What is the best way to get the thicker cake side removed without cutting into the wall of the bowl on the thinner side? Also, what's the best way to clean the top of the bowl? Saliva? Thanks for any help.

 

[Shore]

Hi, congratulations on the new score! Since the cake is already uneven, the best thing to do there is take a dull, pocket knife or similar (and preferably one with a single sided edge) and start to gently work on the larger area of cake. Work slow and try to stay flat and even with the blade. Sometimes, it can be helpful to work a little cake down, then dip the blade in iso alcohol and start on the cake with a drop of alcohol on the blade (or you can just use a q tip between working with the blad when you need to reposition). The key is like pipe smoking in general, go slower than you think you should... Good luck!

 

[instymp]

I would use careful knife work in the bowl. A bit at a time.
Scrape lightly what you can & use a wet paper towel on the rim.
Used to use spit but found out water & paper towel till its clean work better for ME.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Wet cake is softer, if that helps.

 

[Briarcutter]

Smoke it and ream it when it's warm, it'll flake right out. Of course empty it before you ream

 

[ssjones]

I use a worn piece of scotch brite, wet on bowl top build-up. Dulls it a bit, but doesn't cut into the stain.

 

[xrundog]

I use a dental pick to chip outbthe cake. Then I sand the chamber walls. To get rid of any old flavors, every bit of cake has to go. And the airway and mortise need to be as clean as possible.
For the rim, softening the soot is key. Lay a wet rag over it and let it soak. I use a pick to gently scrape it clean and finish with 000 steel wool.

 

[philobeddoe]

Slow, slow, slow…

 

[sablebrush52]

When cleaning old cake I'll use a couple of methods, but in the case of a noticeably uncentered cake I'll wrap glass paper around a piece of doweling, or a Pilot marker pen and work to carefully remove the cake until it's just a thin veil over the wood.

Hopefully the chamber walls will be solid, but don't be surprised if cracks show up. Those can be dealt with later. Just get the cake off and scrub out the airway with careful attention to the mortise. Dental picks can be useful for getting hardened crud out of the corners. Every bit of crud needs to go. A nylon shank brush will replace a number of pipe cleaners for the process of cleaning out the airway.

Give the pipe a S/A treatment to remove further sediment, tars, and oil.

If there's a lot of lava on the rim, softening it will definitely help with removal. To get rid of lighter amounts of lava, spit and a rag, or cold coffee and a rag, coupled with elbow grease, should do the job. With a blasted rim, a soft toothbrush can be useful for getting into crevices.

 

[jakesmokes]

I stuff the bowl with cotton balls and saturate them with Everclear using a dropper. I let it sit for a few hours, and the cake gets super soft and scrapes right out easily.

 

[BigR]

I use a dental pick to chip outbthe cake. Then I sand the chamber walls. To get rid of any old flavors, every bit of cake has to go. And the airway and mortise need to be as clean as possible.
For the rim, softening the soot is key. Lay a wet rag over it and let it soak. I use a pick to gently scrape it clean and finish with 000 steel wool.

What grit sandpaper do you use to sand the inside the bowl?

 

[xrundog]

What grit sandpaper do you use to sand the insiide?

When I use a wrapped dowel I personally like 400g. You can go coarser but check your work often.

 

[BigR]

Well, this is what I finished with. It's still rough, but it should be a good beater pipe. A lot better than when I started. Comoy's Silver Shadow 817 France. I purchased it off the bay for a total with shipping of $13.64.

 

[Briarcutter]

It looks great, fill er up!

 

[Sobrbiker]

Well, this is what I finished with. It's still rough, but it should be a good beater pipe. A lot better than when I started. Comoy's Silver Shadow 817 France. I purchased it off the bay for a total with shipping of $13.64.

View attachment 441713View attachment 441714View attachment 441715View attachment 441716View attachment 441717

For posterity, which method did you wind up using?

 

[BigR]

For posterity, which method did you wind up using?

I started out using a Kleen Reem with the pipe dry. When I noticed that the cake was uncentered I stopped with the Kleen Reem.

I currently do not have a pipe knife (but will soon), so I actually used the spoon on my Czech tool and used decent pressure going around the inside of the bowl until I got close to the wall on one side of the bowl. Then, I just kept working around the cake that was still left until it was pretty thin. This was the most work and time consuming.

Then, I used a couple q-tips and wrapped saran wrap around the heads of the Q-tips and plugged the inside of the mortise. I then put a couple wadded up cotton rounds into the bowl and used a syringe without a needle and filled up the chamber with Everclear. I let it soak for around three hours, and then drained the Everclear out and pulled the cotton rounds out of the bowl.. That left what cake that was left in the bowl wet, and I then started using the Kleen Reem again to remove the wet cake. After I removed the last of the wet cake, I took some 600 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel rod, and went around the inside of the bowl in circles until I was happy.

I then put more cotton rounds and refilled the bowl with Everclear and let it soak for another day. Drained the pipe again, pulled the saran wrap plug out of the mortise, and started cleaning the inside of the mortise and draft hole. I started with q-tips dipped in the Everclear, then moved on to pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear. I soaked some strong paper towels in water and let the top of the bowl sit on top of the wet paper towels for around an hour and started wiping the cake and crud from the bowl top. Did this probably 8 - 10 times to get it mostly off. The really stuck on stuff, I lightly scrapped with a wet scotch brite pad. Finally got it clean enough for me and started working on the stem.

Stem was not too bad, but had some light chatter and a small amount of crud. I have a set of Micro Mesh sanding pads, and just used those to polish and clean up the stem. Used 1500 thru 12000 grit. Pipe cleaners through the inside of stem with Everclear, then washed it out with water, then cleaned through the stem with pipe cleaners and Dawn powerwash dish spray. Then rinsed it out with water. Then allowed everything to dry.

Last, I use a product from Howard called "Butcher Block Conditioner". I use it to clean and shine up the bowl and wipe down the stem with it, and then just wipe it off. That's pretty much the whole process.

 

[Sobrbiker]

I started out using a Kleen Reem with the pipe dry. When I noticed that the cake was uncentered I stopped with the Kleen Reem.

I currently do not have a pipe knife (but will soon), so I actually used the spoon on my Czech tool and used decent pressure going around the inside of the bowl until I got close to the wall on one side of the bowl. Then, I just kept working around the cake that was still left until it was pretty thin. This was the most work and time consuming.

Then, I used a couple q-tips and wrapped saran wrap around the heads of the Q-tips and plugged the inside of the mortise. I then put a couple wadded up cotton rounds into the bowl and used a syringe without a needle and filled up the chamber with Everclear. I let it soak for around three hours, and then drained the Everclear out and pulled the cotton rounds out of the bowl.. That left what cake that was left in the bowl wet, and I then started using the Kleen Reem again to remove the wet cake. After I removed the last of the wet cake, I took some 600 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel rod, and went around the inside of the bowl in circles until I was happy.

I then put more cotton rounds and refilled the bowl with Everclear and let it soak for another day. Drained the pipe again, pulled the saran wrap plug out of the mortise, and started cleaning the inside of the mortise and draft hole. I started with q-tips dipped in the Everclear, then moved on to pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear. I soaked some strong paper towels in water and let the top of the bowl sit on top of the wet paper towels for around an hour and started wiping the cake and crud from the bowl top. Did this probably 8 - 10 times to get it mostly off. The really stuck on stuff, I lightly scrapped with a wet scotch brite pad. Finally got it clean enough for me and started working on the stem.

Stem was not too bad, but had some light chatter and a small amount of crud. I have a set of Micro Mesh sanding pads, and just used those to polish and clean up the stem. Used 1500 thru 12000 grit. Pipe cleaners through the inside of stem with Everclear, the washed it out with water, then cleaned through the stem with pipe cleaners and Dawn powerwash dish spray. Then rinsed it out with water. Then allowed everything to dry.

Last, I use a product from Howard called "Butcher Block Conditioner". I use it to clean and shine up the bowl and wipe down the stem with it, and then just wipe it off. That's pretty much the whole process.

That’s pretty much what I do, down to the Howard’s BBC. I’ve got one Czech tool with an elongated spoon with round tip that works great laying flat on edge in chamber.

 

[BigR]

That’s pretty much what I do, down to the Howard’s BBC. I’ve got one Czech tool with an elongated spoon with round tip that works great laying flat on edge in chamber.

I'm definitely going to invest in a pipe knife. Using my Czech tool was a pain, as it's a small spoon.