horrid last 1/3

[bscofield]

I have a pipe, a favorite actually (tho not one of mine), that has an absolutely putred taste for the last 1/3 of the bowl! It's not a rel-light thing because I've gone through to it with no relight and experienced it hitting "that spot" live and in color. It's strange... it has a real rotten taste to it. I had been thinking that it was because a lot of moisture in the bowl that I had seen in the bottom 1/3 of the pipe after a smoke. But on this last time there was next to no moisture down there and it still did it.

Could this be something along the line of what Jess Chonowitsch talks about in the Great Danes video, "the donkey that pisses on the briar bush on his way down the mountain?" The only problem I could think about this is that it didn't do it at the beginning.

Thoughts?

[achduliebe]

Ben-

I was going to respond with that exact comment from Jess Chonowitsch.

Unfortunately, I have nothing to add here.

[Tyler]

Probably the donkey did his thing many years ago, and it was deep in the briar. It took a few smokes to heat up and release the "wee-wee" for your smoking pleasure.

Sounds like a very rare thing, and we all know that rare = valuable. Sell it for big bucks, I say.

Tyler (the helpful)

[bscofield]

Probably the donkey did his thing many years ago, and it was deep in the briar. It took a few smokes to heat up and release the "wee-wee" for your smoking pleasure.

Sounds like a very rare thing, and we all know that rare = valuable. Sell it for big bucks, I say.

Tyler (the helpful)

So what's your bid?!




That's what I suspected... drat... maybe I'll just keep it as one that I never plan on smoking down to the bottom (does that even make sense?).

[obie]

Have you tried the S/A treatment? It may leech some of the nastiness out of the briar - that, or the thirty-second white vinegar treatment.

[JSPipes]

Obie is probably right. Needs a good cleaning.

[marks]

Ben, if it were my pipe, I would try the s/a treatment. It may not take all the donkey piss out of the pipe, but that combined with a little smoking should bring the pipe around.

You did not mention if this were a relatively new pipe, or one that turned on you. I have had one or two pipes over the years take longer to break in than normal, one being particularly difficult. However, with time they have turned around and are now very nice pipes.

[Nick]

I have a pipe just like that. Its great for like the first 3/4 and then bleecchh! Its like some rancid ferret meat got in there. It drives me nuts because its a nice pipe. I keep hoping the taste will go away, but damn its hard to muscle through the last bit. I've done the s/a thing...twice. I've sanded all the cake off and started with raw wood. Nothing seems to help.

[JSPipes]

Nick, in that case the problem is in the shank. Try giving the shank a good scrubbing or even open it up a tad with a slightly larger drill bit. That ought to clean all the gunk out.

[obie]

I agree with Joel - sounds like the nastiness appears once the shank starts to warm up, or once enough moisture collects there. If the bowl S/A treatment isn't doing the trick, go at the shank. Maybe an alcohol boil in a retort system would fix it?

[Karol]

There was an article on GLP website on a cleaning technique where you fill the pipe with active coal bits (same as used in aquarium filters) and put the pipe for hours into a oven (sans stem of course). Sorry I have no details on temperature and time and I wasn't able to track this article down using Google but someone else might know what I'm on about. I remember time being around 3 hours or so...

/k

[obie]

voila.

http://www.glpease.com/Articles/Spot.html