Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Wright's works fine if you have it around. I've use Berbia stem polish for some time now without any harm I can see, use a soft cloth and polish the metal band at the same time as vulcanite stem.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Got a question. What is the best way to go about removing the gunk (tar I assume) left over in the very bottom of the bowl? I was just using the pick on my pipe tool, but feel like that may damage the pipe. Or maybe I'm just over concerned because it's a new pipe.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

got a question - I got a crapload of old pipes whose stems taste horrible. Plenty of ways to restore... whats the easiest?

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

If it is a briar pipe, you're good. Not a problem.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

What "GUNK" are you talking about - When do you see this gunk?

If you’re talking about the moisture in the bottom of the bowl after smoking, leave it alone, you need it to form cake in the bottom of the bowl.

Let the pipe cool after smoking before stirring the dottle and ash up from the bottom of the bowl, place your thumb over the top of the bowl and shake the pipe to coat the inside with the ash, then set it down and leave it alone for 1 or 2 days, 3 would be better.

The next time you’re going to smoke the pipe, pass a pipecleaner through the stem into the bowl, making sure there aren’t any obstructions. Use a pipecleaner to gently remove any loose ash from the chamber walls, the “GUNK” from your last smoke will have absorbed into the dottle and ash you left in the bowl, this in turn forms the cake which will help to prevent the briar from burning.
The pick is meant to be used for clearing obstructions from the draught hole. Obsessive scraping/picking at the inside of a briar pipe can ruin it, you may even pick a hole in the bottom of the bowl.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

If they're not grungy-nasty-oxydized-brown-and-green vulcanite then it's easy. Rout them out with bristle pipecleaners dipped in Everclear (or any other highproof option like 91% isopropyl or vodka). You can clean dried yuk around the buttons with toothpaste or baking soda and a soft toothbrush.

Nasty on the outside vulcanite takes a little more effort. Which is it?

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I found the gunk after I got home and gave the pipe a mild cleaning to get rid of any loose ash. The "gunk" was right after the draught hole in the very bottom of the bowl, the bottom of the bowl is rather pointed in shape so a rather good environment for that sort of build up I suppose. From what you said I now believe it was just moisture buildup and will be sure to leave it alone from now on. Thanks!

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Another noob question.

Is there a site similar to the devil site for pipe tobacco?
I want to try a big varity, and the B&M's here have a small selection of pipe tobacco around here. If there isnt, where would you suggest getting tobacco online?

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

pipesandcigars.com
smokingspipes.com
4noggins.com
marscigars.com

any of those will be a good place to find tobacco, unfortunately (by that I mean thank the Lord) there's no "pipebid" out there

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

or pipe JOE...Pipe tobacco is cheap which is good. But that still doesnt help the fact that it's easy to turn into a Hoarder when it comes to pipe tobacco tins...

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

actually, a "pipebid" wouldn't be too bad. i'd be down for a place that has a lot of pipe tobacco that goes for a lot cheaper than it does in B&Ms.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I want pipebid!
SWMBO surely does not

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Nasty on the outside, I assume its Vulcanite (they're on mid to nice briars). Some are worse than others. The really bad ones have changed colors, but most of the bad ones just have a slightly visible crystallization on the outside of them. The good ones look fine but still taste like **** when you lick the outside.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

4 great sources...I could add one more to the list...

cupojoes.com

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I heard there are people who sell used pipes and they pee (or worse) on the stems before they ship them. Never knew why. I always clean and sterilize each pipe I buy in case... you know.

Scour the inside of the stem with a bristle cleaner and alcohol, then:

I never tried this but a reliable hardcase told me a tablespoon of OxiClean in a quart of water soaks nasty vulcanite clean in 30-minutes or longer and, he said, doesn't think it'll hurt any ink or nomenclature on a stem. Do a test soak first if there's any nomenclature you care about on these pipestems. Sounds like the easy way to me.

There is the traditional soak in 100% chlorine bleach. It really works well but will damage nomenclature on a stem unless it's covered with a dab of Vaseline. Bleach takes an hour or three and it leaves vulcanite black as ink but feeling a bit furry. After a bleach soak (and water rinse) it'll need to be rubbed out with mild polishing abrasive. I never used sandpaper to clean stems - only MicroMesh polishing cloth (1500-12,000 for perfection). Depending on how furry the stems are post-bleach you may be able to skip sanding and find that a paper towel rubdown with toothpaste and/or baking soda will finish things up nicely.

Finish with a light rub of olive oil.

I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser followed by toothpaste once. I thought it worked so-so; no trick to try it - some people swear by Magic Eraser. Personally I didn't think it worked very well (but it worked so-so, right?) on bad oxidation, I hate the feel of the things in my hand and I felt it needed a lot of rubbing pressure. Try that if you have one around. Nothing ventured. Any of these processes will make vulcanite or ebonite stems look like new and render them tasteless.

http://i35.tinypic.com/2dkzne0.jpg

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Well, I would have a question, but (over the course of the preceeding few days) I read this thread all the way through and you have answered everything I can think of! Good Show! Thanks Old Farts! (and Pipe kid)

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

:wo, thanks, I'll give the oxiclean a try. :tu


PEE? :pu
fortunately all my pipes are from my grandfather's estate, no ebaying for me

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Olive Oil can turn rancid sitting on the stem of a pipe if you don't rotate it fast enough...you're better off buying a can of Briar Pipe Wipe and some Handi-Wipes and making yourself some great polishing cloths...Briar Pipe Wipe has Mink Oil, Beeswax, and Lemon Oil in it...much better than olive oil...

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

if you soak it in oxiclean, put a dab of Vaseline on any markings on the stem.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

http://www.jamster.com/storage/view/...s_spinning.gif

I must be a fast roto-tater; never experienced a rancid pipe (neither do I coat my pipestems until they're soggy).

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I've used Oxiclean an a few ULTRA nasty vulcanite stems. I was real generous and didn't measure when I did this. Stems didn't have a nomenclature, so that wasn't a worry for my particular cleaning. I can say that the Oxiclean worked great! The stem was so nasty that the soak fizzed and bubbled when I dropped it in .... as if I had added an Alka-Seltzer.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

grocery store run scheduled for tomorrow, I'll pick up some oxiclean.

WHY the olive oil or pipe oil or anything for that matter. Or rather, the real question - what happens if you do nothing?

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

The pipes end up looking dull...

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Applying oil to vulcanite stems retards oxidization. I prefer USP (food grade) mineral oil, its colorless, odorless and imparts no flavor of its own, better still it's cheap and will not go rancid.

p.s. it’s sold in supermarkets and pharmacies as a laxative.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Ahhhhh, "retards oxidation", dems is the magical words :tu, definately need that since I won't be rotating through the pipes all that much. Thanks!

*adds laxitive to grocery store list*

oxiclean and laxitive.... should look good going through the checkout. I'll just tell him the doc told me to clean out my colon but I coulfnt afford "dem fancy medicines" :tg
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Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

That rubber stuff will oxidize in time no matter how often the pipe is smoked. Prevention is better than polishing IMO.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

:r Nice Francis

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Looks more like you plan on crapping your pants!!!

Same end result, right? :r:r
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Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I just landed a sampler in the Newbie Pipe Tobacco Trade with English blends, Aromatics, and Vapers. I remember reading something about certain pipe tobacco's soaking up the aromas in the air around them.

Is it okay to keep several different blends in close proximity to each other as long as they are all in their tins or zip locked?

Would there be any reason to separate certain blends from the rest?

Could several different blends be kept together in a mason jar or other sealed container as long as they are all individually zip locked?

Thanks in advance.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I tend to keep blends separate. I've found that extremely strong tobaccos, usually aromatics tend to bleed into others. I'm still pretty newb at this, but I would just keep em separate. Main thing is plastic allows things to bleed out. Glass or tins not so much.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

:tpd: I have to agree...for a short time the baggies will be fine...I wouldn't put them altogether in a mason jar or humidor or anything like that...I got the C&D Sampler (1 oz. or so of about 10 different blends) and stuck them in a small empty humidor to keep for a few days and totally forgot about them for ages...when I opened it up again I had a pipe tobacco smell in the humi that I still am working at to get out, and all the blends smelled the same and tasted the same...here an idea...go back to the Newbie Pipe Tobacco Trade thread and you'll see a few links and pics I posted for you showing little humidifiers for pipe tobacco...they use pg solution or distilled water...the best buy and best for your purposes would be the little round button ones...buy two packs of those...10-12 or so...then go to the grocery store or wherever they have canning supplies, and get yourself a box (12) of the smallest mason jars they have...I found half-pint ones that hold what I'd guess to be 2-4 ounces of tobacco in each...use those to dump the contents of the baggies into, drop in a humidifier button and you're good to go...I think it was only a few dollars for the canning jars, and they may even have ones that are half the size of the half-pint ones but I'm not sure as I'm not a maven on canning jars...just looked at what would fit my use for some bulk tobacco I was blending and storing...

PS - or you could just buy the smallest size canning jars and stuff one baggie into each individual jar...the baggie should help keep it moist enough in the jar for a short while and the flavors wouldn't blend...

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

ok, here's a question:

had my first pipe experience recently, a MacArthur Corncob, tried Westminster, and Billy Budd, and Frog Morton Across the Pond. Tried all 3, and all had a very similar taste, the taste of a mixture of burning plastic and a BBQ pit. Weird. I did see a YouTube review saying the Westminster tasted like burning tires. The wife said it smelled like burning wood.

Wondering if I should try another tobacco, or stick with the 3 that I have?? Quite different than the cigars I've been smoking.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

if i recall, all 3 of those are "latakia" blends. i'm guessing on the "billy budd", never heard of it. but i do know that Frog and Westminster are heavy on the latakia and have some oriental as well.

they will be very, very similar in taste due to the amount of latakia in there.
if one were a light english, or a light oriental blend, where there were more Virginias present, you could then taste a little bit of difference between the light ones and the 3 you currently have.

there are other genres of pipe tobacco as well, that don't taste anything remotely close to the 3 you have (amen to that).
right now, i'd say you're smoking full english blends, heavy in latakia, generous helping of orientals, and not as much VAs.
you may want to try different blends in different genres. the problem is, if you're still smoking cigars regularly, and those heavy latakia blends, then a light VA based blend might only taste like hot air to you.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I think a full flavor VA or VAPer stands up to the amount of flavor in a cigar, sometimes more.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Billy Budd:
A heavy Latakia blend with rough-cut burly and bright Virginia flake and a good amount of rough-cut Connecticut and Wisconsin maduro cigar leaf.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I dare say this has become my favorite thread on CA. Congrats, Mr Moo, you have left me thoroughly entertained =D

I'll ask a question as soon as I van get to a proper computer.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Nice to know folks can still get service with a smile these days. And by the way, if you have read all 388 posts there is no way you have a question that isn't answered already. Go back. Read them ALL you lazy slacker.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

based on the picture that kid texted me a few days ago, I wouldnt count on it :tg

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I suppose a few things haven't been well covered yet.

Pipe with a prickly pear cactus growing out the bowl? (How did this happen?)

Pipe dangling from the empennage of a B-52 in flight? (How do I safely reach my pipe? Will 15 hours exposure to -50* damage my pipe?)

Pipe on the deck of the Titanic? (Will great-grandpaws pipe still smoke OK when Ballard brings it up?)

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Mr. Moo, you have NO idea what you've just gotten yourself into.

Prepare to laugh at me, because this is a good one:

From my very first pipe, ever.

Attachment 5617

Let's just say the match flame got a little too close to the bowl for a little too long. And it was so hot there was no safe way to extinguish the smoldering pipe with my fingers.

Needless to say, I smoked roughly an eighth of my new pipe along with the rest of the tobacco.

I've been doing much better since then :D

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

crap happens

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Did the smoke have delicate notes of corn and missouri heartland?

;s

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Amazingly, I didn't really taste any of the corn. And sadly, it was a generic corncob, not a Missouri Meerschaum. I do, however, have these on the way, which I just won from eBay!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I cannot say this is great, cause I am a newbie, but all this talk about beeswax made me go
and get an old beeswax candle kit and make a chunk out of it. I rubbed some onto the wood
and polished it with a cotton cloth. The more friction the cloth made, the easier it took to the
bowl and the more lustrous the bowl became. As the bowl would warm, the beeswax chunk applied
now and again applied much easier and smoother. Looks and feels nice.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

Top post review.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

How do you guys store your open tins of baccy? I use mason jars but it's kind of annoying having a new mason jar for every new tin I open. Maybe a cooler-dor for pipe tobacco? My other means of storage is a tupperware with baccy in zip loc bags and a humidification device. I don't really like this as it isn't very organized.

Any suggestions?

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I keep the tobacco in the ziplock pouch the store puts it in (they label what it is), then I keep those pouches in an old cigar box (an AF 858 box -- I only keep about 6oz or so on hand, about 2-3 different blends).

For what it's worth...

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

I try to keep no more tins open than what I'll smoke in a month or so - that way it may dry out a bit but, mostly, only enough to make it improve. Beyond that the plastic-bag thingie works for a few weeks but, in my experience, I leave stuff in a baggie longer than I plan to and it turns to dust. Hard to beat those little glass jam-jars with rubber seals on the lid.

If you try to keep small amounts of tobacco moist with a water-soaked clay button or a (thin-thin) slice of apple you need to be careful not to over-moisten - it's easy to generate mold if you don't sweat the H2O details.

Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart
 

In addition to what Dan has mentioned, I use the Libby type glass jars for storage. The lids generally have a soft plastic seal and snug real tight when placed on the jar. You can see an example here:

http://www.nextag.com/Libbey--2700000/glass-jar-with-lid/brand-html

Look for Libby 70995 15oz at the bottom of the page.

You can find these at a very cheap price at your local thrift shop or 99 cent store (hey, they're actually 99 cents too!). Mine will hold around 3 oz each, and the one I recently purchased at the Salvation Army store cost $2.95 and easily holds 8oz+.

Hope this helps you...