Sweetening A Sour Pipe

[jpmcwjr]

Sablebrush52-
Are you referring to naughty French secrets when you mention "bending and twisting the shank for expressive purposes"? Something outside the realm of a smoking pipe?
I do find, perfumed bath or regular, that the shaft is, if not bent or twisted, in a relaxed and pliable state.
Honni Soit Qui Mal Y Pense!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Ali-
Sugar drinks will leave a thin coating of....sugar! - which will carbonize during the next smoke. But the other ingredients of colas and other soft drinks might not be so beneficial.
As to wiping the bowl with alcohol, I'd use a damp paper towel if you don't rinse with hot water. This removes most ash, and helps keep cake build up in check.

 

[sumusfumus]

Hello Forum Members:
Very first posting....joined the forum just minutes ago. Started smoking a pipe when I was 13 years old back in 1963 w/ "Mixture No. 79" which smelled good and tasted like, never mind. But, I didn't give up, alltough smoking pipes has been a mixed experience for me, ranging from enjoyment, to indifference.....and recently, I just gave up smoking a pipe. But still, the urge to start puffing on the old briars overtakes me when the brisk Autumn weather hits.
Never had a "sour" pipe problem. When I put a pipe away for any length of time, I would just thoroughly clean out the bowl and using a paper towel dipped in Rum Extract including the stem which I would NOT remove the stem from the pipe. Just run an abrasive/scrubbing pipe cleaner through the stem after dipping in the Rum Extract. The alcohol dissolves all the tars and gunky saliva deposits out of the stem and smoke hole. Then, I would take a fresh paper towel/tissue, put a few drops of Rum Extract on the towel, and force it gently into the bowl, and then store the pipe. The towel plug will just pull right out of the bowl, and the pipe will smoke fresh - and will have little or no taste of the Rum Extract. The Rum Extract can be bought in any supermarket, in the baking/spice aisle.
Hope this helps.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Hi Sumus, welcome to the forum. I wonder, might you define exactly what 'Rum Extract' is? You saying it can be bought in the baking department of a supermarket suggests (to me at least) you are referring to rum essence or flavouring. If this is the case then there is no alcohol in the product, it is purely a flavouring.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[cortezattic]

Welcome to the forums, Sumus. :clap:

Jay, I believe most baking "flavor extracts" do contain some alcohol as a vehicle for the oils or other organics in the mix. The info in this link implies that the alcohol in rum extract is reduced, not eliminated.

 

[saintpeter]

I tried 4 ounces of rum, with a three fingered "pinch" of dried spearmint leaves and let it sit for a month. I then cleaned 1 (one) pipe with it. All I can say is DON'T DO THAT! The pipe becomes ornamental only.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Most of my good ideas are followed by leaping out of perfumed water, sagging pipe in hand.

On a re-read, I see that this post, taken out of context, could be very misleading. Love it!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Welcome, Sumusfumus! Lots of things work on cleaning. The mortise is where things can get funky, but varies hugely pipe to pipe on how often or if ever.

 

[sumusfumus]

Jay, et al....
I did some checking. The brand of Rum Extract that I used, for years is McCormick's ans can be found in the USA in the baking section of most major supermarkets. I called McCormicks and was told the alcohol content varies between 21-29%...42-58 proof. I only used a few drops of the Rum extract on a paper towel/tissue when refreshing my pipe bowls, and just dipped the pipe cleaner's tip into this stuff and ran the cleaner through the pipe stem. Never had a bit of trouble when using extracts, and NEVER would use water to wash out a pipe bowl. The amount of water in the extracts evaporates very quickly and doesn't really have a chance to soak into the briar, and thus practically eliminates the potential for a cracked/checked bowl.
Hope this helps.
PS: BTW.....if you have any broken, terra cotta clay flower pots - do this: Take a hammer and break up the pot shards into small 1/4" pieces. Discard dust and very small bits. Stick a few of the flattest of these chips down in the bottom of your pipe bowl before you fill it with tobacco. The clay pieces should be a little larger than the smoke hole diameter at the bottom of the bowl. When pipe is lit, any steam/moisture/saliva will be absorbed by these porous, clay chips, and that dreaded, burnt tar flavor will not ruin your smoke. The chips will virtually eliminate gurgling when drawing smoke. The clay chips fall out with the burnt tobacco, and "wet heels" will be gone....unless you are a juicy smoker.

 

[hobie1dog]

Funny to watch different people that are staunch in their methods go back and forth with others of different ideas. Good topic though, interesting to read.

 

[cortezattic]

Thanks for the tip on using clay chips, Sumus!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Terra cotta chips, meer chips, stones, etc. are extra work and completely unnecessary. If the tobacco is dry enough and you smoke medium to slow, you'll have few if any problems with condensation, wet dottle or a wet heel when you finish a bowl.

 

[pipesmokingtom]

I certainly don't need to add even MORE apparatus to the equation in the way of chips for my pipe, but I can see the appeal if someone is a "wet" smoker.

 

[deathmetal]

Smoking a few bowls of Prince Albert, then a good vigorous rubdown of the bowl with whisky, seems to work here... that and giving it a few days to dry out.

 

[cortezattic]

The clay chips would be handy if you had an otherwise good-smoking pipe that was drilled too high. The fact that they absorb moisture is just a plus.