sjmiller
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First Name: Sammy
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Post by sjmiller on Oct 5, 2016 12:09:03 GMT -5
Awhile back I bought an estate pipe from a website that has been mentioned on here before. As with most established estate pipe dealers this place refurbishes the pipes before placing them up for sale.
Now if I buy something from EBay, no matter what I clean it myself, even pipes that have never been smoked. When I deal with well known individuals or trusted companies, I believe them when they say the pipe is ready to smoke. SP.com is one such place and every estate I have bought from them was great. Unfortunately this lulled me into a false sense of security.
I have been busy of late so I didn't get a chance to try the above mentioned estate pipe until this morning. One puff and I had to stop and check to make sure I had put tobacco in the pipe. It was so badly ghosted with some Lakeland blend I thought I was smoking soap. I had checked for any ghost before I lit it but didn't detect any. Was I ever fooled.
New rule for me and the bit of advice promised above: Trust no one to clean your pipes except yourself!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2016 15:03:46 GMT -5
Sage advice Sammy. I had the same experience with an older Don Carlos EBay estate. Probably not Lakeland sauce but one nasty ghost nevertheless. Salt and alcohol bath didn't do it either. Loved the pipe so I took time, had some patience, used repeated cleanings with grain alcohol, cue tips and topped it off with a sweetener from 4Noggins (something I almost never use and wouldn't recommend). Eventually I got all the remaining cake removed and the pours of the briar cleaned in the least evasive manner possible. It's one of my favorite Lat pipes now. Bruto Sordini knew how to make classic pipes and good smokers.
Believe my briar collection is pretty well set for retirement and my pipe purchasing days may be behind me except for perhaps another meerschaum; however, at a minimum any estate stem which ever went in my mouth always received a comprehensive grain alcohol bath. None of the ones I have in the rack have killed me yet so it must have worked.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2016 15:20:39 GMT -5
Sadly most pipe restores that sell there wares don't always retort a pipe unless it's really filthy or even check for ghosts before selling them.
And to tell ya the truth, unless they smoke them first it's not always easy to tell if a pipe has been ghosted if it's been
taken care of. As I've probably said before I use to restore pipes and about half of them I'd resell without even smoking them first.
So I can see how this can be done without even knowing your selling a ghosted pipe. I can't tell you how many meers I've bought from across the pond that are Lakeland ghosted and now I won't purchase any pipe from there unless it's really something special that will just go into my collection without the intention of smoking. Granted, there may be a few out there that have bought ghosted pipes and just want to get rid of them because of it but, I'm sure the numbers are low. And if your looking for an answer from a seller if a pipe has had Lakelands in it, I would not expect the truth but, that's just how much I trust people YMMV.
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sjmiller
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First Name: Sammy
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Post by sjmiller on Oct 5, 2016 15:57:54 GMT -5
I am like you 10, and think I have plenty of briar. Decided that Disney World pipes and affordable Bings would be my only purchases once I filled two spots in my collection. One is a Morta pipe and the second was a freehand. The freehand is the haunted pipe. For me at least, it seems that something always bites you in the arse when you get within sight of the finish line.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2016 20:01:49 GMT -5
I always clean with some sort of spirit before smoking an estate. I have used vodka and tequila as well as whiskey. Pipes are often advertised as clean and I still get tar and crud out of them.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2016 20:17:24 GMT -5
I always clean with some sort of spirit before smoking an estate. I have used vodka and tequila as well as whiskey. Pipes are often advertised as clean and I still get tar and crud out of them. Some people's idea of cleaned is just running a couple of cleaners through it. I had a customer that sent me many pipes that he had sent to another individual to have professionally cleaned and seriously most were so filthy I would not have wanted to put my mouth. He basically just wipe down the outside of the pipes. There's just too many out there nowadays stating there pipe restorers because they know how to push a cleaner through a pipe and ream them. I tend to never believe when one says cleaned and ready to smoke, even when I myself put that on all my pipe auctions. Don't get me wrong, I did a thorough cleaning but, many do not. There's even a guy out there that puts a bowl coating in his estate pipes and states "My customers like it" All I can say is, I would not buy a estate with a bowl coating, too many things can be hidden, that and an Estate is already broken in, what's he coating it for? |
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