| Author | Message | ||
     Dan Bryant Member Username: Bryantm3 Post Number: 63 Registered: 03-2009 |
I bought a Stanwell featherweight lovat around two months ago, and it still seems to have not broken in correctly. There is no cake, no matter how much I smoke in it, and it always burns hot and tastes odd. When I bought it it had one of those pre-cake black layers on the inside of the bowl and I left it there. It also appears that opposite the airhole in the bowl there is a small depression in the side of the bowl, either burnout or possibly heavyhanded use of pipe cleaners. Just looking for some tips to help it start tasting better. Thanks, Dan | ||
| Todd Bannard Member Username: Sasquatch Post Number: 672 Registered: 05-2006 |
The small depression is probably an overdrill, nothing to worry about usually. I've never found stanwell's factory pre-carb to be bad tasting. So... you can ream the thing out and scrub that carb coating out, and start again. That may solve the issue. I suppose it's possible that you got badly cured briar and it will just taste foul no matter what, but that would be pretty far down the list of probable causes given the brand of the pipe. Everything else okay with the pipe? Passes a cleaner and everything? | ||
| James MacKay Member Username: Bigjim Post Number: 99 Registered: 09-2008 |
Hi Dan - It sounds similar to strange tastes I have found in several estate pipes. The taste was terrible and I thought that the smoked tobacco left a weird room aroma. I have no idea what caused it aside from a lack of maintenance. I don't have that problem anymore as I now process all estate pipes as follows. I start by thoroughly reaming / sanding the bowl back to bare wood. Once you ream / sand the bowl to bare wood you'll be able to assess the depression you noted in the bowl. Depending on the depression evaluation, you can decide how to proceed. If it isn't a burnout, give the bowl an all-day alcohol (high proof Everclear if it's available where you live) soak and repeated toothbrush scrubs. I also alcohol soak the stem at least all day and run a cleaner through it every couple of hours along with a toothbrush scrub on the outside. Follow the bowl soak and scrub with as many S&A treatments as it takes to get the salt to an even, light tan color after 3 days. Pay particular attention to getting the shank thoroughly cleaned. After that, treat the pipe as new and break it in however you usually break in your pipes. The foregoing takes a while, but has always worked for me. I haven't had any experience with burnouts, but I would imagine that there are posts on this site about dealing with them. Good luck. |