Post by youngdad33 on May 3, 2017 11:59:23 GMT -5
Hello all,
Need some help:
I recently won a pretty nice looking Eagle claw Meerschaum pipe from ebay. It came in it's original box (sadly damaged) and had a tiny bit of damage on one of the eagle talons, but otherwise, reasonable condition.
When I received it, the stem was clearly not the original and was so gunked up I couldn't even get a pipe cleaner in. I unscrewed the stem and tried to give a blow through the shank and nearly blew my eyes out of their sockets; it was clogged solid. I tried to thread a pipe cleaner through the shank and it was a very difficult to push through. When I pulled it out, the cotton had been stripped back from the inner wire of the pipe cleaner.
Looking inside the shank, I could see a little burr of metal I assumed came from the metal screw for the mouth piece. After a lot more investigation, it turns out that burr was actually (i think) a drill bit. Looks like a previous owner has tried to drill out the carbon, and lost their drill bit in the shank. The top of the drill bit is about 2mm inside the shank, and unreachable with pliers. The other problem is, the opening of the screw piece is about 2-2.5mm in diameter so getting anything in there is very tight.
I've tried a drill bit of my own, but the only drill bit I have is too short to reach the carbon cake at the end. I've asked elsewhere, and so far, the best I've got is trying to burn the carbon out. I've unwound a paperclip and put the tip of it in a lighter flame, but it doesn't really get hot enough. Anything else I could try? Would submerging the entire pipe in Isopropyl alcohol kill the meerschaum? Or is there anything else likely to dissolve carbon?
Failing this, I'm going to have to go back to the seller on ebay and get it returned/refunded, which is a shame because it's a really nice pipe!
Thanks for your help.
Edit:
picture of similar pipe -
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Need some help:
I recently won a pretty nice looking Eagle claw Meerschaum pipe from ebay. It came in it's original box (sadly damaged) and had a tiny bit of damage on one of the eagle talons, but otherwise, reasonable condition.
When I received it, the stem was clearly not the original and was so gunked up I couldn't even get a pipe cleaner in. I unscrewed the stem and tried to give a blow through the shank and nearly blew my eyes out of their sockets; it was clogged solid. I tried to thread a pipe cleaner through the shank and it was a very difficult to push through. When I pulled it out, the cotton had been stripped back from the inner wire of the pipe cleaner.
Looking inside the shank, I could see a little burr of metal I assumed came from the metal screw for the mouth piece. After a lot more investigation, it turns out that burr was actually (i think) a drill bit. Looks like a previous owner has tried to drill out the carbon, and lost their drill bit in the shank. The top of the drill bit is about 2mm inside the shank, and unreachable with pliers. The other problem is, the opening of the screw piece is about 2-2.5mm in diameter so getting anything in there is very tight.
I've tried a drill bit of my own, but the only drill bit I have is too short to reach the carbon cake at the end. I've asked elsewhere, and so far, the best I've got is trying to burn the carbon out. I've unwound a paperclip and put the tip of it in a lighter flame, but it doesn't really get hot enough. Anything else I could try? Would submerging the entire pipe in Isopropyl alcohol kill the meerschaum? Or is there anything else likely to dissolve carbon?
Failing this, I'm going to have to go back to the seller on ebay and get it returned/refunded, which is a shame because it's a really nice pipe!
Thanks for your help.
Edit:
picture of similar pipe -
