Horrifically rank "estate" pipes

[Kazeryu]

I just received a nice lot of higher-end pipes (well, higher than the sort you usually find in lots, anyways) from a gentleman who had decided to quit smoking. They look quite nice and I suspect I will enjoy them quite a bit once I can use them. But first - I need to get them to a state where I'm willing to be in the same room as them.

The stench is incredible. They were wrapped and taped in paper towels, packed tightly in newspaper, and loaded into a box which was completely covered (literally 100%) in duct tape such that not even a single seam was left showing. All of that, and I could still smell them the moment I picked the box up off the mail table at work.

I unwrapped them just long enough to ascertain their condition before packing them back up, sealing the box, and putting the box inside two plastic bags. I still have a headache from my brief exposure (cigarette smoke has always caused me headaches - this seemed to be the same thing) and I definitely don't want those pipes in my house until they've been brought down by several orders of magnitude.

I can probably put them out in the garage for the Salt/Alcohol treatment, but I am wondering if there is some kind of more aggressive approach I can take to calm these boys down. Are there better and/or more powerful de-stenching tactics which can be reasonably performed at home? (Obviously I don't have an ozone chamber).

Thanks,
-R

[Commander Quan]

Walkers Briar Works does a ozone treatment. Their rates are reasonable, and probably your best/easiest method.

[morganjg]

Arango pipe spray will do a nice job of cleaning and freshening those pipes. Remove the old cake, spray it in the bowl and down the stem, let sit for a minute or two, and then clean with pipe cleaners and paper towels. Allow to bowl to dry for a bit, then wither use the S/A treatment or just smoke them like normal. Slightly mentholated, but very effective.

[jwhite]

Above are all good options if you don't want to spend the cash on Walkers you can try reaming all of the cake out you can followed by a thorough scrubbing of the interior with alcohol. Then do a few S/A treatments 24 hrs. for the first two and 48 for the last. If it still seems unpleasant after that you can let them set with the bowls filled with activated charcoal under a lamp. Beyond that there is the ozone treatment but I'd be surprised if that didn't handle most of them.

[jdto]

For that really nasty Brigham I restored, I just gritted my teeth and sanded out the cake, then did a few salt/alcohol treatments. That seemed to do the trick and that thing stank of both nasty baccy and mildew.

[byscott]

+1 on the reaming, S/A, and alcohol treatment.

I used to refurb and sell estate pipes ... some were funkier than you can imagine, inside and out. I have a carved Sasieni that, when I got it, had so much crud on it you couldn't tell that it was a carved pipe. Now it's one of the best smokers I've ever encountered.

Work on them outside until the funk is gone, and use a mask and VapoRub if you absolutely need to kill your sense of smell. Ream down the cake, do repeated S/A treatments, and work the stems and shanks with brushes and Everclear. They will come back; it's really hard to kill good vintage briar.

[Uncle Jackie]

Above are all good options if you don't want to spend the cash on Walkers you can try reaming all of the cake out you can followed by a thorough scrubbing of the interior with alcohol. Then do a few S/A treatments 24 hrs. for the first two and 48 for the last. If it still seems unpleasant after that you can let them set with the bowls filled with activated charcoal under a lamp. Beyond that there is the ozone treatment but I'd be surprised if that didn't handle most of them.

I agree, and if all else fails, smoke a few bowls of Erinmore.

[Kazeryu]

I couldn't find any magic pipe spray, so I decided to just buckle down and just work on them one at a time to keep things manageable. I've got two out of five on the go so far. I've gone directly to S/A on the bowls - once the stench is a bit more under control I'll decide if they need reaming. I know it might seem silly to "waste" time treating cake which I might ream out, but like I said before - Right now I don't even want to be in the same room as these guys.

Anyways, after filling the bowls up and setting them aside, I set to work on the stems, which were almost as gross. After half an hour of scrubbing with everclear, paper towels, and bristly pipecleaners I decided that I must be just about done. There was still a cloud of stink around me, but I figured it was just smell that had transferred to my hands... nope!

So I decided to try S/A on the stems, too. I snipped off a little crescent-shaped piece of pipe cleaner and stuck it in the button, then filled them up from the shank end. When I checked in on them just a few hours later to see if the salt was sucking up anything, I discovered to my horror that they were already the darkest colour I've ever seen while doing S/A.

At this point I'm imagining the former owner using his pipes like a straw to suck a puddle of nasty, gloopy baccy juice out of the bottom of his bowls with a maniacal grin of delight.

[jwhite]

Cake holds odor so after the first S/A ream them out you'll thank me later. Sounds like grim work, keep us updated on your progress. One set of estates I was cleaning I Kept thinking these stems have to be clean by now, but every time a put a fresh bristle cleaner in it came back dirty. Took some work and I finally just bleached 'em but they came out nice in the end.