gillywalker
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Cleaning ebay winsI've always steered clear from ebay because I've been afraid to really clean a pipe. I've read about the salt and alcohol in bowls to thoroughly rid any remnants of prior smokes. But as you all may know I have some weird obsession with straight billiard Grabows and I grabbed a few on ebay. The bowls on most of these look fairly good but the stem and bit areas look a little cruddy on two of these. How would you go about cleaning these?
They aren't here yet. I can hardly wait.
Silver Duke
Golden Duke Billiard
Golden Duke Bulldog
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BWThomas
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The absolute best way would be to box 'em up and send them to OS....let Ed touch 'em! You won't be sorry.
BW
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steverino
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Here's what I do, in approximate sequence:
1. Remove stem from pipe and lay aside
2. Ream bowl if needed
3. Put pipe cleaner in shank to plug draft hole
4. Fill bowl half full with non-iodized salt
5. Squirt in half a dropper of 91% isopropyl alcohol
6. Fill bowl rest of the way with salt
7. Squirt in another half dropper of alcohol
8. Come back in 24 to 48 hours
9. Empty salt - if white, go to next step; if brown, treat again (the salt at the top of the bowl will be ugly - it may be white down in the bowl)
10. Saturate bristle pipe cleaner with alcohol, clean shank until pipe cleaner comes out as unstained as you want it to be (usually takes at least half a bag of pipe cleaners for me)
11. Set bowl aside and let dry for 24 hours minimum
12. Clean stem using same process as shank and let dry
Variations:
Use an alcohol retort instead of the salt and alcohol treatment. It is said to be very effective and I will probably try it eventually.
Use cotton balls instead of salt to absorb the alcohol - some people feel that the salt can cause a pipe bowl to crack. I'm sure it's possible but I've never seen it happen.
As Barry said, Ozark Southpaw is the real expert. I'm sure he can give you some further pointers that will be of benefit.
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ozark southpaw
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Let me get this straight,you want to clean the pipes in the pictures? Why? Seriously,those pipes do not need much cleaning. They all three, from what I see looked NEW and UNSMOKED!! The paper is still int he bowl of one and the bulldog has a price tag(looks original to me) on it! The bulldog stem does look oxidized. There are a dozen ways to remove it. I wet sand and buff them. A Mr. Clean "Magic Eraser" will take off light oxidation. Automotive rubbing compound might do it.There is a stem cleaning kit that was available on ebay. It works,takes some elbow grease. About the only way to really make them shine like glass is to buff.
Steve gave you good pointers. The only thing I would add is to get a shank brush (got mine from 4 Noggins) and Q-tips. The brush will save a bunch of pipe cleaners when cleaning the shanks and stems of nasty estate pipes.use the Q-tips to swab them out after scrubbing with the brush. The brush will not go though some stems so you will still need pipe cleaners. Pay particular attention to the funnel.
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gillywalker
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Ozark Southpaw,
I guess I'm more concerned about the oxidization on the stems. I'll try your recommendations.
Do those look like vulcanite stems? Also, the filters appear to say "Duke". Does Grabow not use those anymore? I'm assuming they are older than what's currently being sold in stores.
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ted
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GW...I read this somewhere, tried it and liked the way it removed the oxidation..
Soft Scrub....It's a white cream....and an old towel. The oxidation just melted off with little elbow grease. The bit was black again, but getting the "shine" back was more difficult, but I got it.
Don't make the same mistake I did.....Soft Scrub comes in "regular" and "lemon". Guess which one NOT to use......Had to chase the dog again...He's getting tired of my "advances".
Of the 5 pictures, #2, and #5 are vulcanite. The other is ABS plastic..ted
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gillywalker
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| ted wrote: | GW...I read this somewhere, tried it and liked the way it removed the oxidation..
Soft Scrub....It's a white cream....and an old towel. The oxidation just melted off with little elbow grease. The bit was black again, but getting the "shine" back was more difficult, but I got it.
Don't make the same mistake I did.....Soft Scrub comes in "regular" and "lemon". Guess which one NOT to use......Had to chase the dog again...He's getting tired of my "advances".
Of the 5 pictures, #2, and #5 are vulcanite. The other is ABS plastic..ted |
Thanks Ted.
When did Grabow stop making vulcanite stems?
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ted
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GW...I'm in Florida after a 9 hour drive so my "feeble" brain hasn't caught up. If David or RJ check in they'll remember.....ted
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LokoMac8
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| ted wrote: | | Soft Scrub....It's a white cream....and an old towel. The oxidation just melted off with little elbow grease. The bit was black again, but getting the "shine" back was more difficult, but I got it. |
Soft Scrub is what I use. I also sometimes use Scotch Bright pads for some work on the pipe, such as cleaning the stem or removing finishes from briar. The GREEN is like sandpaper and will remove stuff quickly -- if you aren't careful, too much stuff. The BLUE is much less abrasive and I have even used it to LIGHTLY polish both the briar and stem.
As far as the briar, unless the pipe is really bad, I gently wash it in mild soap and water, dry it off and polish it. On 80% of my pipes, this is all that was required, no matter how bad they looked when I got them.
As far as all that interior bowl cleaning -- I simply DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE! It my opinion, it was a lot of work and major waste of time. I won't even remove much caking unless it is over a dime's width. I smoke so many different tobaccos and have no specialized pipes for certain tobaccos, that it doesn't affect or bother me much if it takes a bowl or two in a new pipe to get the "ghosts" out. In most cases, I never notice them.
I'm not an expert about all this though. I do what I do and it works fine for me, which is a pretty good rule of the thumb for just about everything in the pipe world. --RJ--
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Terry292
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Gilly, I have nothing to add to what's already been said. The others have covered it better than I ever could. These look like good pipes to practice on. They're really in pretty good shape, except for the stems. Believe me, as you get more and more into pipe smoking, you'll acquire lots more estate pipes. Some of them will be in a lot worse shape than these appear to be.
Terry
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gillywalker
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I got the pipes today and they've never been smoked. They each had a piece of paper inside the bowls from Grabow saying they had been presmoked which I thought was pretty cool. The paper seems really old and brittle and all the stems appear to be vulcanite. Also the filters read "duke" instead of "Dr. Grabow".
What's the oldest you guys think these could be?
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