estate falcon questions

[jkstewart1]

I picked up a pair of falcons with three bowls (essentially one spare) off of the auction site. I got the aluminum and stems cleaned with a soak in near boiling water with a bit of dishwashing liquid in it. Cleaned up real well.

My questions are:
1. The bowls are quite well caked up. Do I ream them alone or on the stems?
2. Can one do an alcohol treatment on them to get the tars, etc. out of them after reaming? Does it mess up the aluminum in any way?
3. What's the best way to get what looks like cake off of the rims? Spit and a cotton swab? Is there a better way?

Any suggestions or pointers are very welcome. Thanks in advance!

John

I bought one once and I reamed it without it on the stem. That way you didn't worry about stripping the screw in part.

I would say you can do the alcohol treatment with removing the bowl from the stem. I don't believe it would mess up the aluminum but when I did it I removed it.

Spit and a cotton rag or something of the like is the best way to get the junk off the top of the rims. The only other way is to sand it off but that is very risky. It takes some elbow grease but eventually the pipe will look great if you take the time to spruce it up.

Good luck!

[jkstewart1]

Thanks Tyler. That's along the lines of what I was thinking, but I wanted some input. Much appreciated!

[fid]

Nothing much to add, except that you need to be careful reaming the bowl because the draft hole exits the bowl straight down. You don't want to tear that up with over enthusiastic reaming. I believe that there was or still may be reamers made by Falcon for Falcons, kind of like what Kirsten did for their pipes.

[Mister Moo]

The vulcanite bit/stem is not removeable. Don't try to twist or pull it out.

A twisted paper towel can usually ream out the briar airhole.

Salt and aluminum don't play well together if you commence soaking.

Keep the threads clean; a toothpick can un-gom the threads - just go easy.

[jkstewart1]

I was going to substitute a cotton ball for the salt. The bowls are pretty well caked up. I'll take it slow and easy on the reaming. Thanks Moo!

[Mister Moo]

Getting/keeping the threads and the sealing pad on the underside of the bowl clean are key with a Falcon. It's easy enough to keep a Falcon clean with a tissue or two but it is a process you need to execute after each smoke.

The often mentioned issue of hot smoking is not resolved with a heavily caked bowl anyhow - most of the bowls are too small to allow much cake. A cool smoke from a Falcon was, for me at least, a matter of making slight tamp- and puffing adjustments to conventional pipe smoking techniques. Pleasurable Falcon smoking (for those not born in Britain with a silver one in your mouth) seems to evade a lot of folks; it took me several visits to the genre to figure out this light, bulletproof instrument was an all-around great smoker once I adjusted to it. Be sure it will not adjust to you.