Hi all!
I'm experienced enough to know what the problem isn't, but still beginner enough not to know what it is, and more importantly how to fix it. It started when I picked up a briar pipe I hadn't smoked for about 6 months. The last time I had smoked it I must have left in a rush and forgotten about it, because there was nearly a full bowl of Peterson's Univerity Flake sitting in it, from 6 months ago. Of course, the tobacco was dry and brittle as could be, so I emptied it, did a basic alcohol-soaked-pipe-cleaner cleaning, gave the bowl a quick sniff, which rendered no unusual odors, and proceeded to fill it with more Uni Flake from the same tin as the one I had smoked 6 months ago (more on this later). A strange ashy feeling and taste struck my tongue immediately.
I am familiar with tongue bite, with ashy tastes associated with burning too hot, and with normal over-gunked icky flavors. This was not any of those. This is also not stem oxidation because the stem is acrylic. The sensation was of tiny particles of ash and/or dust hitting my tongue. It had a slight ashy taste, but more noticeable was the feeling of thousands of presumably microscopic particles landing on and sticking to my tongue. I removed the tobacco from the pipe, did a slightly more vigorous cleaning. After that, I found that even without any tobacco in the bowl these little mystery particles still seemed to be landing on my tongue if I drew through the empty pipe. I then reamed the cake out of the bowl and performed the salt and alcohol treatment for about 36 hours. All to no avail. Granted, I used 80 proof whiskey as the alcohol, so perhaps a stronger alcohol and more time would do the trick. I assumed this was just stubborn, nearly microscopic residue from the tobacco that had been left to dry for such a long time.
It does not end here, however. Yesterday, I received a brand-new block meerschaum pipe. The first blend I tried in it was from that same tin of Uni Flake. Big mistake. Immediately, the same feel/taste. I will note that in my excitement over my new pipe, I did puff too hard and experienced some tongue bite, but this feeling was markedly separate from the feeling I am concerned about here. I had taken some preliminary empty-bowl puff of my new meer, so I can be sure that this taste was not present from the start.
Now about this particular tin of University Flake. I purchased this tin about the same time I initially stopped smoking the briar pipe. I opened it at this time, smoked a couple of flakes worth, accidentally left some in the bowl of said briar, and didn't touch it for 6 months. The tobacco remained inside its original tin, the lid was tight, but not airtight, because when I opened again recently it was drier than when new, in fact it seemed to have dried just a bit to what I expected would be an optimal moisture level.
The conclusion that I have drawn so far is that the tin of tobacco went bad, and that is what caused the pipes to have this stubborn feeling and taste. There are no visible signs of mold that I can see, but perhaps there is some growing. The tobacco in the tin smells as it should. For a second I thought I picked up a slight musty smell, but it was so faint that it may have been my nose playing tricks on me.
So here are my questions from least important to most important:
1. Has anyone experienced something like this from a batch of tobacco that wasn't sealed properly for a while?
2. How can I remove this from the briar pipe? Should I continue to salt and alcohol clean, perhaps for a longer time and with stronger alcohol? I saw some old articles about using a retort for deep cleaning; a valid possibility, or too far?
3. How do I remove this from the meer? I have heard it's not a good idea to salt and alcohol meer. Here and there on the internet, I'll see something about placing it in an oven, but there is so much variability in both the recommended temperature and the duration that I wouldn't know where to start. Further, there is a plastic insert in the mortise for the stem to stick into and I'm not sure if that would melt in the heat. I could probably remove it, but only want to do so as a last resort.
Some final notes:
-I did once experience a taste and feel similar to or the same as this in an estate pipe that hadn't been cleaned for perhaps 30 years. That pipe I set aside after one smoke and never touched again.
-It is not only the stummels that are affected, the taste is present in both stems (both acrylic) when drawn on, separated from the stummels. At this point, I have probably run fifty pipe cleaners through each. There is no visible residue coming out anymore. Sometimes it seems as though running the cleaners through the stems makes the taste worse. Both stems have also sat under running warm water for 10 minutes each.
-The bowl of the meer has a distinctly bad smell coming from it. It smells like a pipe that has been smoked many times and never cleaned. It is certainly much worse than the typical smell of a pipe after its first bowl of tobacco. Granted, I have not tried as hard to clean the bowl. All I have done is scrub some water-dampened paper towels inside the bowl, followed by dry ones, and given the walls a light, gentle scraping with a pipe tool.
-I am not worried about getting a little experimental with the briar pipe, I'm not too worried about it getting damaged at this point, because as it is, I can't smoke it anyway. The meer on the other hand, I really would like to save, given that it is brand new.
-I apologize for the length of this post. I just wanted to be as clear as possible. I have scoured the web for the last week and haven't come across anything mentioning this particular issue. Once the problem occured in my new pipe, decided I should reach out and make an inquiry specific to the problems I'm experiencing. Thank you for your patience!
Best Regards,
H.F.
I'm experienced enough to know what the problem isn't, but still beginner enough not to know what it is, and more importantly how to fix it. It started when I picked up a briar pipe I hadn't smoked for about 6 months. The last time I had smoked it I must have left in a rush and forgotten about it, because there was nearly a full bowl of Peterson's Univerity Flake sitting in it, from 6 months ago. Of course, the tobacco was dry and brittle as could be, so I emptied it, did a basic alcohol-soaked-pipe-cleaner cleaning, gave the bowl a quick sniff, which rendered no unusual odors, and proceeded to fill it with more Uni Flake from the same tin as the one I had smoked 6 months ago (more on this later). A strange ashy feeling and taste struck my tongue immediately.
I am familiar with tongue bite, with ashy tastes associated with burning too hot, and with normal over-gunked icky flavors. This was not any of those. This is also not stem oxidation because the stem is acrylic. The sensation was of tiny particles of ash and/or dust hitting my tongue. It had a slight ashy taste, but more noticeable was the feeling of thousands of presumably microscopic particles landing on and sticking to my tongue. I removed the tobacco from the pipe, did a slightly more vigorous cleaning. After that, I found that even without any tobacco in the bowl these little mystery particles still seemed to be landing on my tongue if I drew through the empty pipe. I then reamed the cake out of the bowl and performed the salt and alcohol treatment for about 36 hours. All to no avail. Granted, I used 80 proof whiskey as the alcohol, so perhaps a stronger alcohol and more time would do the trick. I assumed this was just stubborn, nearly microscopic residue from the tobacco that had been left to dry for such a long time.
It does not end here, however. Yesterday, I received a brand-new block meerschaum pipe. The first blend I tried in it was from that same tin of Uni Flake. Big mistake. Immediately, the same feel/taste. I will note that in my excitement over my new pipe, I did puff too hard and experienced some tongue bite, but this feeling was markedly separate from the feeling I am concerned about here. I had taken some preliminary empty-bowl puff of my new meer, so I can be sure that this taste was not present from the start.
Now about this particular tin of University Flake. I purchased this tin about the same time I initially stopped smoking the briar pipe. I opened it at this time, smoked a couple of flakes worth, accidentally left some in the bowl of said briar, and didn't touch it for 6 months. The tobacco remained inside its original tin, the lid was tight, but not airtight, because when I opened again recently it was drier than when new, in fact it seemed to have dried just a bit to what I expected would be an optimal moisture level.
The conclusion that I have drawn so far is that the tin of tobacco went bad, and that is what caused the pipes to have this stubborn feeling and taste. There are no visible signs of mold that I can see, but perhaps there is some growing. The tobacco in the tin smells as it should. For a second I thought I picked up a slight musty smell, but it was so faint that it may have been my nose playing tricks on me.
So here are my questions from least important to most important:
1. Has anyone experienced something like this from a batch of tobacco that wasn't sealed properly for a while?
2. How can I remove this from the briar pipe? Should I continue to salt and alcohol clean, perhaps for a longer time and with stronger alcohol? I saw some old articles about using a retort for deep cleaning; a valid possibility, or too far?
3. How do I remove this from the meer? I have heard it's not a good idea to salt and alcohol meer. Here and there on the internet, I'll see something about placing it in an oven, but there is so much variability in both the recommended temperature and the duration that I wouldn't know where to start. Further, there is a plastic insert in the mortise for the stem to stick into and I'm not sure if that would melt in the heat. I could probably remove it, but only want to do so as a last resort.
Some final notes:
-I did once experience a taste and feel similar to or the same as this in an estate pipe that hadn't been cleaned for perhaps 30 years. That pipe I set aside after one smoke and never touched again.
-It is not only the stummels that are affected, the taste is present in both stems (both acrylic) when drawn on, separated from the stummels. At this point, I have probably run fifty pipe cleaners through each. There is no visible residue coming out anymore. Sometimes it seems as though running the cleaners through the stems makes the taste worse. Both stems have also sat under running warm water for 10 minutes each.
-The bowl of the meer has a distinctly bad smell coming from it. It smells like a pipe that has been smoked many times and never cleaned. It is certainly much worse than the typical smell of a pipe after its first bowl of tobacco. Granted, I have not tried as hard to clean the bowl. All I have done is scrub some water-dampened paper towels inside the bowl, followed by dry ones, and given the walls a light, gentle scraping with a pipe tool.
-I am not worried about getting a little experimental with the briar pipe, I'm not too worried about it getting damaged at this point, because as it is, I can't smoke it anyway. The meer on the other hand, I really would like to save, given that it is brand new.
-I apologize for the length of this post. I just wanted to be as clear as possible. I have scoured the web for the last week and haven't come across anything mentioning this particular issue. Once the problem occured in my new pipe, decided I should reach out and make an inquiry specific to the problems I'm experiencing. Thank you for your patience!
Best Regards,
H.F.
Last edited by a moderator:
