Removing Ghosts
- Thread starter Sigmund
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
I thought I did. Quite a lot of time with the little brush and alcohol and then pipe cleaners and alcohol after a long soak with coffee grounds and alcohol. May I didn’t get the coffee grounds down in there sufficiently.
Again, a great thread. A few of my father's old pipes ranged from a little sour to just nasty bitter. Old Master Craft and a GBD pot needed a cleaning, and I went with the salt and alcohol method. Glad to know I can wash that salt out with hot water.
I have a Pioneer meer that I use a lot. It tends to form a gummy cake. I'll be washing that out with hot water. Can I use scent-free Dawn and/or alcohol for the insoluble stuff?
I have a Pioneer meer that I use a lot. It tends to form a gummy cake. I'll be washing that out with hot water. Can I use scent-free Dawn and/or alcohol for the insoluble stuff?
Yes, but hot water applied for a minute or so should tackle a lot of it.
Last edited:
I should have included in my first post about using a tube brush, Dawn, and warm running water...that in preparation for the wash, I cut the cake like normal, which isn't quite sanding, but it's nearly bare wood. and then use a Scotch scrub pad to wash the inside of the bowl while I'm tube brushing the airway. The Scotch pad and Dawn will take it down to bare wood. Again, not harming the wood that I've found.
I sanded down to bare wood because one of the pipes had dead bodies…not just ghosts. Ive no idea what blend did that but it was so bad I dumped my first bowl after two minutes. Typically I dont treat my pipe bowls on estates very much but this one was frightening. Whatever the case the problem is solved and the pipe is happy enough. Its the Kai bulldog I post on WAYS occasionally.
Boy, you got this one right. I remember telling a friend of mine that I love buying old Estate pipes. They asked me to define what that meant. After I did, there was silence. He then asked do you like using other peoples old toothbrushes, too?
I told him I could tell that I was "casting my pearls before swine...."
I had two pipes with ghosts that did not respond to salt and alcohol, wet coffee grounds, white vinegar, cleaning the mortise with brush and alcohol etc. I had almost given up. I then cleaned the mortise again with brush and oxyclean a few times. Rinsed very well and followed by alcohol. Then I used the granular charcoal and alcohol and let it sit for a couple days. Now the pipes no longer have the ghosting. I’m not sure if the mortise cleaning with oxyclean or the charcoal pellets did it.
Ive done that. The only issue is that if you scrape or ream the bowl later the ghosts come back. If they are annoying ghosts it just makes me not want to reach for that pipe. Ive one on the rack right now that is like this. When I get to it Im going to ream it well and hit it with the coffee.
My only Charatan pipe is an estate Belvedere Dublin, a lovely pipe which I purchased based upon the recommendation of my late friend Gene Hill. Gene preferred Charatans above all other pipes, and being a fancier of fine shotguns he once referred to the Charatan as the Purdy of the pipe world. I like that simile.
Unfortunately mine came badly ghosted and repeated salt-and-alcohol treatments did absolutely nothing to remove the stinky spirit. It was not until I filled the bowl with baking soda and let the pipe sit thus for two weeks that the awful apparition vanished.
Give this a try and see if it works for you.
Unfortunately mine came badly ghosted and repeated salt-and-alcohol treatments did absolutely nothing to remove the stinky spirit. It was not until I filled the bowl with baking soda and let the pipe sit thus for two weeks that the awful apparition vanished.
Give this a try and see if it works for you.
Last edited:
If you're worried about being thought weird, visit a local coffee shop and explain you want it for gardening compost. In the UK at lerast, this is considered quite normal. And that way - unlike your neighbours - they won't keep on helpfully bestowing more grounds on you that you don't want. Unless you do home composting as well, that is.
Banishing ghosts is simple. Place the stummel in a 200F oven, with the door slightly ajar, for 48 hours. Put the pipe in the cold oven, bring up to temperature, and leave the pipe until the oven has cooled to prevent any temperature shock. Ghost = gone!
I cracked the bowl of one of my Dunhill Shell LB pipes by warming it with a hair-dryer after waxing. Shudder to think what would happen if I were to place one of my stummels in the oven!
And yet you light a fire inside them... But that's why you bring it up to temperature slowly and cool the same way.I cracked the bowl of one of my Dunhill Shell LB pipes by warming it with a hair-dryer after waxing. Shudder to think what would happen if I were to place one of my stummels in the oven!