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I just dove into my first estate pipe. Restoration and preparation of used pipes seems to run from massive undertakings to casual scrubs. Many conditional to the shape the pipe is in.
I’m wondering what folks here do with their estate pipes? Oxyclean? Everclear? Salt baths? Nothing? 🤔Â
So many variables. If it hasn’t been smoked in a while, I just ream it out if needed, wash the stem, and run a few bristle pipe cleaners soaked in alcohol through it and start smoking. I don’t go further than that until I’ve decided I like it, if so, then full on rehab.Â
A short while ago, I gave a quick rundown of my estate pipe reconditioning process in an earlier post in a different thread
Thank you. I did a search of forums first, and came up blank on yours…
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Great post!
If the estate pipe is sold by a specialist seller, it’s possible that it can be fully conditioned and ready to smoke. If acquired from a particular seller, I reame it to the point I like, clean shank with pipe cleaners impregnated with a dedicated cleaner agent like Savinelli Nicosovol, or simply alcohol. Sanitize stem with alcohol and heavy clean with pipe cleaners, and finally I wax the bowl if needed and polish stem with a dedicated product.
Great point of consideration. Â Between yours and the recommendation of Ted, it appears that so far people start by assessing the condition and and deciding the level of work from there. Â This makes sense, of course.
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It just seems to me that so many people just sanitize and smoke, while others hit the machine shop and rebuild. Â Maybe estate pipes are a hobby of themselves. 🤔Â
You hit the nail on the head with your last point. Estate pipes are definitely a hobby for many, even a passion for some. There is something really satisfying to me about successfully restoring a pipe, the process kind of makes it new and mine in a way that’s unique. It’s almost like an aspect of making a pipe.Â
I appreciate everyone's input. Â It echoes what one finds with basic researching.
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Namely: "It depends." 😀Â
Erik, I'll throw in my two cents. If it's ghosted I just use rubbing alcohol and a packed paper towel instead of salt. It'll draw the resins and tars out into the towel. The alcohol will evaporate and won't hurt you. I've never used Everclear. This isn't a recommendation. Just sharing my experience.Â
If it's not ghosted or I don't mind the ghost I just clean up the mouth piece and run a cleaner through it.Â
Others will see things differently, but my experience is we pipe smokers tend to over complicate things. These are pieces of wood or other material we cram dried leaves into and set on fire. Not much mystery. 😂
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I subscribe to Reborn Pipes email updates.Â
This one was interesting in that it involved pipes most of us would dismiss as off brand throw aways. But the history and link to Peterson is interesting. And these pipes are a good representation of the condition of many estates available on ebay. Dirty. Uncared for. Used hard.
The restoration turned out great and seems a good restoration tutorial in general.Â
You can find some really good old wood in some of these apparently no value pipes. There's usually a reason they've been smoked hard. They're not for collectors. But can be treasures for smokers.Â
https://scimansays1787.wordpress.com/2024/05/07/a-tow-kings-billiard-restoration/
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