Estate Pipe Ghosts

I've noticed something about some estate pipes I've gotten off ebay......ghosting. I'm not just talking about tobacco ghosting, especially when gramps was not so diligent in his cleaning of said pipe(s). No, I'm talking about Perfume Ghosting. Yep, that's right, perfume. Here's how I see this in my head:
Gramps keels, granny now has 2, 5, 28 pipes of gramps that she has no idea what to do with. She sticks them in a box with this and that....say, old perfume she doesn't wear any longer (you know, the crap that comes in one gallon jugs). These pipes sit in the box for days, weeks, months, years even. All the while being subjected to the horrific onslaught of drugstore perfume. She or grandchild(ren) get around to cleaning out attic and lists pipes on ebay.

Pipes get sold and upon delivery you open them up and take one whiff and BAM! Like a wet sponge to the face....GAAAAAAAAAAAAA, that horrid old lady perfume reek!

Now, what do you do? Well, if you're me, ream them until there is bare wood and run them all though eight (8) salt and alcohol treatments. Ultimately, attempt to smoke them, gag on the offensive perfume that has a stranglehold on your estate pipe, become exceedingly pissed off at the twat that burned you on ebay. Eventually, you toss them in the trash with the agonizing realization that you spent 12 hours trying to recover them, cursing the whole time.

So why am I posting this? Well, it's a question I ask of all prospective amateur pipe sellers on ebay should I consider bidding on a decent estate or a small lot of estate pipes. It's something that absolutely no one would ever mention. If it's a respectable seller, no problem, I know their pipes aren't going to be drenched in perfume. However, if it's some average Joe on ebay, irrespective of their rating, I always ask. The reason - unless you happen to have a handy dandy ozone machine in your basement you will NOT be able to remove perfume from a briar pipe. If someone has a home remedy that actually works, and I mean WORKS, I'm all ears.

I wouldn't be posting this if this was one pipe, one time. Rather, this is something that I've personally had to deal with on two separate purchases that affected 4 pipes. I had to throw 3 of the 4 away.

So, buyer beware on ebay estate pipes.

I don't see a problem at all with that scent. IMO it just makes it really easy to decide what I am smoking in there: auto picked by default Lakeland Warrior Pipe!

If it is a pipe that you absolutely do not want to smoke delicious Lakeland snot out of for some reason, then there are some solutions. Smoking a couple ounces of PA through a pipe that you have already done a few SA treatments through usually knocks out the bulk of a ghost. Then you can convert it to a Lat pipe pretty easily. Start smoking a couple ounces of a real Lat bomb through there and much of the essence will take a back seat to the Latakia.

So in review; 2 SA treatments, 2-3 ounces of Prince Albert, and then 2-3 ounces of a heavy duty Latakia blend usually equals new English pipe.

Also, there is ozone treatments, supposedly they re guaranteed to kill any ghost every time. Spendy though.

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Originally Posted by Branzig

Also, there is ozone treatments, supposedly they re guaranteed to kill any ghost every time. Spendy though.

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I dunno if I want to send my $20 Kaywoodie in for a $50 ozone treatment. Seems like a bad investment. LOL

As for the rest of your anti-ghosting suggestions...Love it!

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Originally Posted by izkeh

I dunno if I want to send my $20 Kaywoodie in for a $50 ozone treatment. Seems like a bad investment. LOL

As for the rest of your anti-ghosting suggestions...Love it!

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Yeah, if it is a 20 buck Kaywoodie forget it. Unless it is like a rare handmade series that you luckily scored...then I would spend the $50!

It takes a lot of work to smoke all that PA and Lat through a pipe (including all the rest time that is), but if you're dead set on killing the essence, it must be done.

Who knows, maybe after tasting all those floral ghosts of puffer's past, you may finally turn into a Lakeland snot lover!

Great suggestions from Brandon.

While I've never experienced the old lady purfume ghost. I've experienced many a "mixture 79-esq" ghost in my fleabay finds.

1) Salt & Alcohol treatment. I use Scotch as the cleaning agent on my pipes, I love scotch & it overpowers most other smells.

2) Smoke a Burley (like PA), they are very good for removing ghosts. They also are good for removing Scotch.

3) Smoke something strong out of it in the category you'd like to dedicate the pipe to. Since I am primarily a VA guy, I use something like Bracken Flake. As a bonus, you could decide to dedicate this pipe to Latakia-forward blends in the future. Going the other way is not so forgiving.

Good luck!

I use 190-proof Everclear to clean, sanitize and remove any odors from my estate pipes. After this, I've not had any issues with the Everclear "smell" and any per-exsting smell or odors are gone.

It's really unfortunate because even attempting to smoke PA or some other burley (Compare to Sugar Barrel, Compare to Carter Hall) through those perfumed pipes proved to be too much. I tried many different tobaccos to see if I could smoke though it. NEIN!!!!!!

The damage was already done. I threw those pipes out. They are now in the South Berrien landfill being reduced to their constituent elements. I have far too many other pipes that don't reek of old lady to smoke tobacco through. Bear in mind, these were not exactly expensive pipes. I think all told I was out $40. Not bad in the grand scheme of things. I should have saved one that was particularly offensive so I could have bombed it to someone as a challenge.

In fact, if I happen across another one (Lord, I hope not) I'm going to refer back to this thread and potentially "gift" it to someone. LOL. If whoever gets it can actually get the smell of old lady perfume out of it then they will be rewarded in some fashion.

I must be lucky as I have yet to acquire a perfume estate pipe.

I clean them with 151 rum. If that doesn't do it then I drink enough of it so I don't care what it smells like.

There is nothing wrong with Lakeland blends. I love them.

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Originally Posted by Branzig

I don't see a problem at all with that scent. IMO it just makes it really easy to decide what I am smoking in there: auto picked by default Lakeland Warrior Pipe!

If it is a pipe that you absolutely do not want to smoke delicious Lakeland snot out of for some reason, then there are some solutions. Smoking a couple ounces of PA through a pipe that you have already done a few SA treatments through usually knocks out the bulk of a ghost. Then you can convert it to a Lat pipe pretty easily. Start smoking a couple ounces of a real Lat bomb through there and much of the essence will take a back seat to the Latakia.

So in review; 2 SA treatments, 2-3 ounces of Prince Albert, and then 2-3 ounces of a heavy duty Latakia blend usually equals new English pipe.

Also, there is ozone treatments, supposedly they re guaranteed to kill any ghost every time. Spendy though.

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One of my custombilts had that perfume scent in it for so many smokes. It's a decently large chamber so I was trying to make it an English. I thought that the Latakia would destory the scne but it almost seemed to grow stronger with every bowl. The pipe would never get rid of that flavor. I ended up making it a BurPer/VaPer pipe and the scent disappeared. Burley Flake #3, Limerick and Solani 633 showed that ghost who wears the daddy pants.

There is something that I have always wanted to try; can't because I don't have an over here in Japan. GL Pease has used activated charcoal pellets and an oven to remove ghosts. Given the abosorption properties of charcoal, I feel this might be a very effective ghost buster :p

http://pipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_care/cleaning

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Originally Posted by Mr Motoyoshi

One of my custombilts had that perfume scent in it for so many smokes. It's a decently large chamber so I was trying to make it an English. I thought that the Latakia would destory the scne but it almost seemed to grow stronger with every bowl. The pipe would never get rid of that flavor. I ended up making it a BurPer/VaPer pipe and the scent disappeared. Burley Flake #3, Limerick and Solani 633 showed that ghost who wears the daddy pants.

There is something that I have always wanted to try; can't because I don't have an over here in Japan. GL Pease has used activated charcoal pellets and an oven to remove ghosts. Given the abosorption properties of charcoal, I feel this might be a very effective ghost buster :p

http://pipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_care/cleaning

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I have heard of people doing this before....I have always been to chicken to try it out because I am worried that I would ruin my pipe. Burn it or destroy it somehow, warp the mortise, who knows :p

Thankfully I like Lakeland blends, so the ghosts don't bug me. :pipe:

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Originally Posted by Branzig

I have heard of people doing this before....I have always been to chicken to try it out because I am worried that I would ruin my pipe. Burn it or destroy it somehow, warp the mortise, who knows :p

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Yeah, like I said the only reason I haven't is because I don't have an oven here :pride: ...definitely not afriad of any arson charges... :friendly_wink:

I recently had a really bad 1792 ghost in my favorite Pete. Not perfume but a strong ghost that I couldn't smoke out with PA or anything else.

1. Ream that sucker back to briar. Be careful not to take any briar but take as much of the cake out as possible. A little rolled up sand paper will clean crud out of the shank be gentle here.
2. Salt and alcohol treat the bowl. If the shank is wide, SA treat that sucker too. If it's narrow, wad up a pipe cleaner in the shank during the SA treatment and the alcohol will travel up the pipe cleaner pulling nasty crud from the briar.
3. There's a thing called a retort which works better and faster than the SA treatment. It's not as safe as the SA treatment but the boiling alcohol and the vapors from the retort pull a LOT of gunk and smell out of the briar pores quickly.
4. You can buy a desktop ozone unit for $15 on ebay. They're small and designed for smoking rooms. Take a rubber band and strap your pipe bowl upside down to the top of the unit and turn it on for 30 mins. Amazing how fast ozone works.
5. The stem needs treatment too. Soak that SOB in some oxyclean then take a shank brush and bristle pipe cleaners to it and scrub. Once that's done, hit the inside with some everclear or 151 rum and a pipe cleaner.
6. This is a good opportunity to polish the outside of the stem. See Tobias' restoration page.
7. Your pipe needs to rest a bit now. Fill it with some activated carbon granules (available in the fish section of any pet store or wally world).
8. After a day or two of resting, dump the carbon out blow any dust out of the pipe and start with a bowl of Prince Albert or the like to start building a cake. Enjoy your clean unghosted pipe.

Very interesting. I should've just sent them to you, Tony78...:)

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Originally Posted by Tony78

I recently had a really bad 1792 ghost in my favorite Pete. Not perfume but a strong ghost that I couldn't smoke out with PA or anything else.

1. Ream that sucker back to briar. Be careful not to take any briar but take as much of the cake out as possible. A little rolled up sand paper will clean crud out of the shank be gentle here.
2. Salt and alcohol treat the bowl. If the shank is wide, SA treat that sucker too. If it's narrow, wad up a pipe cleaner in the shank during the SA treatment and the alcohol will travel up the pipe cleaner pulling nasty crud from the briar.
3. There's a thing called a retort which works better and faster than the SA treatment. It's not as safe as the SA treatment but the boiling alcohol and the vapors from the retort pull a LOT of gunk and smell out of the briar pores quickly.
4. You can buy a desktop ozone unit for $15 on ebay. They're small and designed for smoking rooms. Take a rubber band and strap your pipe bowl upside down to the top of the unit and turn it on for 30 mins. Amazing how fast ozone works.
5. The stem needs treatment too. Soak that SOB in some oxyclean then take a shank brush and bristle pipe cleaners to it and scrub. Once that's done, hit the inside with some everclear or 151 rum and a pipe cleaner.
6. This is a good opportunity to polish the outside of the stem. See Tobias' restoration page.
7. Your pipe needs to rest a bit now. Fill it with some activated carbon granules (available in the fish section of any pet store or wally world).
8. After a day or two of resting, dump the carbon out blow any dust out of the pipe and start with a bowl of Prince Albert or the like to start building a cake. Enjoy your clean unghosted pipe.

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Too much work, just smoke with the ghost living there :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony78

I recently had a really bad 1792 ghost in my favorite Pete. Not perfume but a strong ghost that I couldn't smoke out with PA or anything else.

1. Ream that sucker back to briar. Be careful not to take any briar but take as much of the cake out as possible. A little rolled up sand paper will clean crud out of the shank be gentle here.
2. Salt and alcohol treat the bowl. If the shank is wide, SA treat that sucker too. If it's narrow, wad up a pipe cleaner in the shank during the SA treatment and the alcohol will travel up the pipe cleaner pulling nasty crud from the briar.
3. There's a thing called a retort which works better and faster than the SA treatment. It's not as safe as the SA treatment but the boiling alcohol and the vapors from the retort pull a LOT of gunk and smell out of the briar pores quickly.
4. You can buy a desktop ozone unit for $15 on ebay. They're small and designed for smoking rooms. Take a rubber band and strap your pipe bowl upside down to the top of the unit and turn it on for 30 mins. Amazing how fast ozone works.
5. The stem needs treatment too. Soak that SOB in some oxyclean then take a shank brush and bristle pipe cleaners to it and scrub. Once that's done, hit the inside with some everclear or 151 rum and a pipe cleaner.
6. This is a good opportunity to polish the outside of the stem. See Tobias' restoration page.
7. Your pipe needs to rest a bit now. Fill it with some activated carbon granules (available in the fish section of any pet store or wally world).
8. After a day or two of resting, dump the carbon out blow any dust out of the pipe and start with a bowl of Prince Albert or the like to start building a cake. Enjoy your clean unghosted pipe.

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Wait, wait, wait, wait. Am I to understand that you consider a 1792 ghost to be a bad thing? <DOES NOT COMPUTE>

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Originally Posted by izkeh

Very interesting. I should've just sent them to you, Tony78...:)

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You certainly can. If you need help I'd be happy to work on them for you. Just understand my services are free and come with no guarantee.

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Originally Posted by Branzig

Too much work, just smoke with the ghost living there :p

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I tried and tried but the 1792 ghost took over EVERYTHING I tried to smoke.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by commonsenseman

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Am I to understand that you consider a 1792 ghost to be a bad thing? <DOES NOT COMPUTE>

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LMAO. Sorry 1792 has a cob dedicated to it. I'm not a big tonquin fan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony78

There's a thing called a retort which works better and faster than the SA treatment. It's not as safe as the SA treatment but the boiling alcohol and the vapors from the retort pull a LOT of gunk and smell out of the briar pores quickly.

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As a well known klutz (for those of you who remember my crockpot misadventure on the other forum) I was afraid to try a retort, but I'm just too darn lazy for the salt and alcohol thing, and some of my early Cavicchis were getting a bit...rank, so I broke down and gave it a shot. Even with my famous mechanical disabilities, I was able to use it with no problem, and the results were excellent. Until the day when I boil everything over and set fire to the cat, I'm sold.

Walker Pipe Repair will ozone them for you for $5 for the first pipe and $2 for each additional pipe.

http://www.walkerpiperepair.com/html/pipe_repairs.html