A Multitude of Micro-Fissures in Pipe Bowl - Fix?

[ontariopiper]

Hi all,

Today I started cleaning the estate Brigham 390 Canadian I won off eBay.

First a pic of the pipe as it was received. It looked pretty good! The seller had polished up the exterior, but must have taken the quickly & dirty route for pictures, as the stem oxidation bloomed through right after I put the bit in my mouth the first time.



That led to an Oxyclean soak for the stem and a more thorough investigation of the stummel's innards as well. Not surprisingly, the shank was less than clean, taking about a dozen pipe cleaners with alcohol to get into acceptable shape. I reamed the bowl back to the briar as I usually do with estate pipes. The rim was also a bit banged up, so I did a light topping to smooth things out.

What I uncovered was a myriad of small fissure-like cracks on the inside of the bowl. 3 or 4 of them extend onto the rim, as can be seen in the pics:







So how best to proceed on this one? My idea at the moment is to stabilize the cracks with CA glue, then apply a coating of pipe mud to the entire bowl.

Does this sound right? Anyone done this? Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[monbla256]

I've never seen that issue with a pipe before. Your idea sounds like it may work with THOSE cracks but as many as there are and the fact they are distributed around the bowl makes me wonder if others might not develop as it's smoked. Sadly, this is one aspect of a bad piece of briar that can't be discerned in the factory. Give it a try and let us know how things go !! :twisted:

 

[Ozark Wizard]

Ever think about pouring some molten pewter in and line the bowl with that?

 

[ontariopiper]

Thanks for the replies, gents. Wiz - I'm a lot more comfortable with CA glue than I am with molten pewter, so that's what I went with.

I had a bottle of Gorilla brand CA glue on hand - it's a thinker consistency, designed for staying put on vertical surfaces, so I though it might do the trick. I smeared it generously over practically the entire inner surface of the bowl, pressing it into the cracks. After it cured up, I sanded the excess off, taking the bowl back to the briar.

So far so good, I think! Next step is deciding on a bowl coating. I'm kind of intrigues by Steve Laug's charcoal and sour cream bowl coating that he's described several times on rebornpipes.com, but I've also come across several variations on a theme - different mud recipes using cigar ash, wood ash, water, honey, charcoal and sodium silicate (aka water glass).

 

[RDPipes]

You do realize that CA glue is toxic and when a tobacco chamber reaches about 700 + degrees (that's about the temp produced when you draw off the pipe) it will burn or at least put off fumes. A bowl coating will protect the chamber from burning but, will not reduce the temperatures, so the CA will react with the heat. :fpalm:

 

[ontariopiper]

You do realize that CA glue is toxic and when a tobacco chamber reaches about 700 + degrees (that's about the temp produced when you draw off the pipe) it will burn or at least put off fumes. A bowl coating will protect the chamber from burning but, will not reduce the temperatures, so the CA will react with the heat. :fpalm:  

Hey Cart. I don't wish to start an arguement, but if you're correct, I'm puzzled as to its practically universal use in pipe repair? I've seen any number of repair/restoration articles that feature CA glue, epoxies, and even furnace cement used to repair burn-outs and cracks in interior bowl surfaces. All of these products carry a warning label of one kind or another, yet crop up consistently in my research.

For CA glue specifically, my understanding is that it is inert once fully cured.

I'd love to know definitively one way or another though. If I'm wrong, I can always sand out the CA fills I've done and start over.

 

[RDPipes]

Hey, You can use any dadburn thing ya want but, ya won't find me using CA glue inside a tobacco chamber.
There's to many other things to use that won't poison ya that I choose to use instead.
Hope that'll smoke real sweet for ya.

 

[Ozark Wizard]

Could you line it with Meerschaum? Not pressing, but my concerns run with Cart on this, glue is funky.

I've seen meerschaum lined pipes before, and the clay may be less worrisome........

That's all, I'm done.........

 

[MichaelM]

I had a similar issue with an estate Savinelli and the cigar ash pipe mud did the trick. Although fissures did not extend to the rim as they do here. On the CA glue point, I'm with Cart on this, but I think a thin coat of mud will offer some protection. You are correct that the majority of nasties are depleted in the curing process, but I would still worry about the residuals given the heat. The dried mud should offer a barrier to the little that might be left.
Mike.

 

[RDPipes]

I had a similar issue with an estate Savinelli and the cigar ash pipe mud did the trick.  Although fissures did not extend to the rim as they do here.  On the CA glue point, I'm with Cart on this, but I think a thin coat of mud will offer some protection.   You are correct that the majority of nasties are depleted in the curing process, but I would still worry about the residuals given the heat.  The dried mud should offer a barrier to the little that might be left.
Mike.

Mike, On a second note that I forgot to mention is I use CA a lot and the needle I use to clear the spout gets caked so I burn it off with a lighter. Several times doing this for the first time I got the smoke from it in my eyes and nose, it burnt pretty darn good for something that is suppose to be inert.

 

[MisterE]

I'd give the bowl a coating of honey and just smoke it carefully until it cakes over.

 

[Fr_Tom]

I'd give the bowl a coating of honey and just smoke it carefully until it cakes over.

If I have spider webbing in an estate bowl, I will use honey and then shake cigar ash in the bowl to keep it from being sticky. This and some careful smoking has always given a protective layer of cake a jumpstart over some iffy areas...

 

[riff raff]

I'm just reading this.

I shared the mortar cement product I've used with good success on such a problem.

I also wouldn't use CA glue inside the bowl. The mortar cement product is sodium silicate based, so that should be non-toxic to inhale the burned fumes. BUT, I'm no scientist, so proceed with caution.

A buddy just developed a more natural bowl coating that he has used and it does an excellent job (member danielplainview on the PipesMagazine forum). I lost his recipe but just asked to have it sent. I'll post it here as well. (uses food grade activated charcoal).

 

[TwelveAMnTX]

Mike, On a second note that I forgot to mention is I use CA a lot and the needle I use to clear the spout gets caked so I burn it off with a lighter. Several times doing this for the first time I got the smoke from it in my eyes and nose, it burnt pretty darn good for something that is suppose to be inert.

I'd be on the cautious side, I was always told that the best way to tell toxicity in smoke is if it burns black. I'm not sure if that is true, but most things that burn with black smoke like rubber & plastics are toxic. Cartaphilus did the CA on the needle burn with black smoke?

 

[RDPipes]

Mike, On a second note that I forgot to mention is I use CA a lot and the needle I use to clear the spout gets caked so I burn it off with a lighter. Several times doing this for the first time I got the smoke from it in my eyes and nose, it burnt pretty darn good for something that is suppose to be inert.

I'd be on the cautious side, I was always told that the best way to tell toxicity in smoke is if it burns black. I'm not sure if that is true, but most things that burn with black smoke like rubber & plastics are toxic. Cartaphilus did the CA on the needle burn with black smoke?

No black smoke that I recall but, it burned the senses.
I don't know if I'd go with the black smoke theory be it true for rubbers and plastics, other things are toxic also that don't burn black. Like Tobacco for one, and pure nicotine is a deadly poison yet both there smokes are grey to white.

 

[Thomas Tkach]

Do a search on PMF about CA glue. It's very often used in pipe making, but I can't ever remember hearing of it being used in the bowl. You can also do a search for bowl coatings that the pros use. Sodium silicate (waterglass) is a common component.

 

[TwelveAMnTX]

Well .... ya got me on that one Cart. Come to think of it, I learned that black smoke thing from relatives who were firefighters. They would remark about fires on tv when I was a kid. I always remembered about the black smoke, because one of the guys went in w/o a mask & they were saying he could die from the black smoke.

 

[RDPipes]

Well .... ya got me on that one Cart. Come to think of it, I learned that black smoke thing from relatives who were firefighters. They would remark about fires on tv when I was a kid. I always remembered about the black smoke, because one of the guys went in w/o a mask & they were saying he could die from the black smoke.  

Oh don't get me wrong sir, I'm not disagreeing with you.
It's just that some other colors of smoke are just as bad. I remember back in the mid 80's I worked for a trucking company and a forklift driver on the dock stabbed a 55 gallon drum and what ever was in it when it hit the air gave off a greenish smoke and they had to close down everything with in a two mile radius. So just saying not only black smoke can be hazardous.

 

[TwelveAMnTX]

Well .... ya got me on that one Cart. Come to think of it, I learned that black smoke thing from relatives who were firefighters. They would remark about fires on tv when I was a kid. I always remembered about the black smoke, because one of the guys went in w/o a mask & they were saying he could die from the black smoke.  

Oh don't get me wrong sir, I'm not disagreeing with you.
It's just that some other colors of smoke are just as bad. I remember back in the mid 80's I worked for a trucking company and a forklift driver on the dock stabbed a 55 gallon drum and what ever was in it when it hit the air gave off a greenish smoke and they had to close down everything with in a two mile radius. So just saying not only black smoke can be hazardous.

I didn't think you were disagreeing, it's all good brother! I meant ya got me about the tobacco & nicotine smoke being gray/white. There are plenty of toxic things that produce smoke that's not black. Some are chemical reactions like the greenish smoke you were talking about. I was just throwing the black smoke thing out there in case he saw some while he was smoking, he'd know to put it down quick & get some fresh air.

 

[riff raff]

Here is my friends recipe and a link to a pipe he repaired, that describes the coating:
http://rebornpipes.com/2015/07/10/a-restored-lhs-certified-purex-95-squashed-tomato/