Sticky bowl in estate pipe. Probably some kind of coating????

[matt]

Hi, this is my first post on the forum, though the site had been a valued resource for some time now.
I’ve recently bought an estate on EBay (Georg Jensen sandblasted straight billiard with a huge bowl) and I’m really happy with it but I’m wondering what had been used to coat the bowl.
The inside of the bowl was dark grey when it arrived. I’ve smoked about three bowls in it and it’s starting to cake up quite quickly but feels really sticky. I’ve not smoked the pipe for 7 days and the inside of the bowl is still really sticky. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like pushing my finger on to a bit of sticky tape. I don’t know whether to give it time to dry or just keep puffing?
I’ve been breaking in a brand new pipe at the same time, with the same tobacco (Commonwealth Mixture), and haven’t had the same problem with this one. So I’m sure it’s not the tobacco.
I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.

 

[cortezattic]

Welcome to the forums Matt. If the tobacco tastes OK then I'd just keep smoking it.

 

[danno]

Could be Honey.

 

[markw4mms]

Welcome aboard! +1 to what Cortez and Danno said.

 

[matt]

I don’t think its honey. Looks like it’s been reamed and coated with what looks like grey paint or graphite. I’m not worried, just curious, but it does taste good. I’ll fire it up in the morning.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[tokerpipes]

Well you could always scrape a little out and check it out more on say a paper plate. My guess is honey also.

 

[jchaplick]

Probably honey, you could always do the salt alcohol if you really need to, but probably not necessary.

 

[matt]

Thanks guys, Must be honey! I'm just going to keep smoking it.

 

[adam12]

Clean it out with alcohol swab, might be some crappy bowl coating, alot of things might be used. I don't like substances inside the bowl that I don't know about. Maybe if you email the seller and say, "hey what the heck did you put in the bowl?"

 

[matt]

Emailed the seller and he got straight back to me. Here's his reply:
This is called "Black Bronze Powder", which is harmless. If you have ever bought a new pipe with a grey coating inside, this is the same but a weaker solution. For me it is purely cosmetic reason's I do this, as I dont like seeing pipes with patchy area's of carbon/cake.
Anyone heard of this before? I'm googleing it now but can't find much info as yet. As I said before, I'm not worried, just interested to know what it is.

 

[adam12]

Just a bowl coat. Sounds to me like he just recoated it after cleaning the bowl for purposes of making it look nice when he took the pictures for the auction. No big deal, it will smoke itself out eventually, or if you're worried about it, just clean it out.

 

[cortezattic]

I recall that a paste made from something like buttermilk and activated charcoal is also used to coat pipe bowls.

 

[spartan]

Now chefs are getting into the pipe bowl coating business?
What'd this world come to? :crazy:

 

[matt]

Buttermilk and charcoal coating? I'd be tempted to scrape that out and put it on a waffle. Whatever it is, at least it's not making things taste bad. Though it does seem a bit dishonest. Coating the bowl but not saying so in the listing. Oh well, smoked it twice today and it's still fine so no harm done and it is a good pipe so I'll probably bid on his stuff again.