LAKELAND FOULED MEER

[RDPipes]

So what's the deal?

Has that ghost entirely dissipated?

Gett'en there, only 15 more bowls full ta go.:lol!:

No but, really, it is fading day by day, either that or I'm starting to enjoy it, e gad!

 

[rothnh]

So what's the deal?

Has that ghost entirely dissipated?

Gett'en there, only 15 more bowls full ta go.:lol!: 

Well hey, please keep us posted.

A Meer is tough to keep "clean."  

Absolutely no cake, etc.  Worth the effort

 

[RDPipes]

So what's the deal?

Has that ghost entirely dissipated?

Gett'en there, only 15 more bowls full ta go.:lol!: 

Well hey, please keep us posted.

A Meer is tough to keep "clean."  

Absolutely now cake, etc.  Worth the effort  

You can be sure I'll have something to hoot about when I do.

 

[MisterE]

Aside from the ozone treatment (which I don't know for sure will work well with a meer) it seems like you've done all you can do. Just smoke the ghost out of it. It'll come around eventually.

 

[rothnh]

Aside from the ozone treatment (which I don't know for sure will work well with a meer) it seems like you've done all you can do. Just smoke the ghost out of it. It'll come around eventually.

Agreed. I'd do the same thing.

 

[KevinM]

I have an estate briar pipe that had a (I think) Lakeland ghost. At least it tasted soapy, and Lat blends weren't doing the trick entirely. I recall I dipped a pipe cleaner in a bit of Powers and let it sit in the shank for half an hour or whatever.

The thing I remember is this -- when I removed the cleaner it smelled like soap, not whisky. This suggested that the ghost could be exorcised without great drama. Also, it seemed to me the ghost resided mostly in the bowl bottom and shank.

So I've continued smoking the ghosted briar and occasionally sharing just a wee drop of Powers to good effect. At this point, when I'm smoking a mild Virginia, I sometimes get a little floral waft. So I think of it as "complexity." I'll probably miss it when it leaves for good.

But if neutrality is your absolute standard, this would be but a partial solution. Besides I'm not sure if Meers enjoy Powers. Briars seem to.

 

[Brewdude]

I have an estate briar pipe that had a (I think) Lakeland ghost. At least it tasted soapy, and Lat blends weren't doing the trick entirely. I recall I dipped a pipe cleaner in a bit of Powers and let it sit in the shank for half an hour or whatever.

The thing I remember is this -- when I removed the cleaner it smelled like soap, not whisky. This suggested that the ghost could be exorcised without great drama. Also, it seemed to me the ghost resided mostly in the bowl bottom and shank.

So I've continued smoking the ghosted briar and occasionally sharing just a wee drop of Powers to good effect. At this point, when I'm smoking a mild Virginia, I sometimes get a little floral waft. So I think of it as "complexity." I'll probably miss it when it leaves for good.

But if neutrality is your absolute standard, this would be but a partial solution. Besides I'm not sure if Meers enjoy Powers.  Briars seem to.

What is this Powers? Never heard of it until now.

:?: 



Cheers,

RR

 

[rothnh]

What is this Powers? Never heard of it until now..

:?: 

Cheers,

RR

Think of Powers as a less sophisticated and rougher around the edges Irish compared to, say, Jameson's, and where Powers is actually available, it's sold at a lower price.

FWIW, I'm a Jameson's 12 fan myself.

 

[KevinM]

I have an estate briar pipe that had a (I think) Lakeland ghost. At least it tasted soapy, and Lat blends weren't doing the trick entirely. I recall I dipped a pipe cleaner in a bit of Powers and let it sit in the shank for half an hour or whatever.

The thing I remember is this -- when I removed the cleaner it smelled like soap, not whisky. This suggested that the ghost could be exorcised without great drama. Also, it seemed to me the ghost resided mostly in the bowl bottom and shank.

So I've continued smoking the ghosted briar and occasionally sharing just a wee drop of Powers to good effect. At this point, when I'm smoking a mild Virginia, I sometimes get a little floral waft. So I think of it as "complexity." I'll probably miss it when it leaves for good.

But if neutrality is your absolute standard, this would be but a partial solution. Besides I'm not sure if Meers enjoy Powers.  Briars seem to.

What is this Powers? Never heard of it until now.

:?: 



Cheers,
RR

Powers is the best selling whisky in Eire, well suited to cleansing evil spirits from the lads, the colleens and the briars. For the latter, I suspect whatever you may have on hand will do, excepting gin.

 

[KevinM]

"rough around the edges"

Easily solved, my dear friends. Powers, freshly poured, has a slight oily taste, though not at all floral Simply pour your dosage into your glass and let it rest for a few minutes. Then add just a splash of cold water.  Lovely. This only applies to the first glass. After that, the oily taste soon ceases to be an impediment to the thirsty.

 

[rothnh]

Powers is the best selling whisky in Eire, well suited to cleansing evil spirits from the lads, the colleens and the briars. For the latter, I suspect whatever you may have on hand will do, excepting gin.

Well TBH, some use and prefer gin.

The elephant in the room, of course, is that whisky, gin and many other liquors are 80 proof (40% alcohol and 60% water). That much water, IMO, is not good for pipes, on many levels. First of all, the relatively small amount of alcohol doesn't clean as well and doesn't evaporate well either. Add to that, the 60% water truly sucks as well, and is not good at all for the wood. Oh, and forget about it's antiseptic properties.

The solution? Everclear -- 190 proof. Can't find Everclear? Bacardi 151 Rum works quite well. Money an issue? Visit you pharmacy and ask your pharmacist for some 91%-95% isopropyl alcohol -- it cheap (about $3 a bottle, maybe a bit more if you live in Canada where everything costs more). Me? I prefer something potable, so I use Everclear.

 

[KevinM]

Ssshh! My briars will hear you and, to this point, there hasn't been a complaint from them in, oh, more than a decade or two of such treatment. I am not suggesting that my way is right and all others are wrong. But FWIW -- that's the way I do it, and my briars and I are content with results to date. It may well be that other ways are better given some objective standards, if such there be 

 

[rothnh]

Plenty of puffers use a wee bit o' whisky to "sweeten" their pipes. I think it's all about what works well for the gal or guy at the end of the pipe's button.   

 

[idbowman]

A bit late to the party, but in the future you might think about de-ghosting with a cigar leaf blend, especially if your tongue doesn't like burley.

I used to use Carter Hall, but it's not something I like to smoke a lot of very often and I'm not a big burley fan in general. I tried using blends with cigar leaf and I found that they chase away the lakeland or aromatic ghost pretty easily. Now, on the downside, it seems that they leave a new ghost all of their own, but that's easily solved with a few bowls of whatever tobacco you enjoy.

Cigar leaf/latakia blends recently killed a lakeland ghost in about 10 bowls, and 3 or 4 bowls of the VaPer I had opened was enough to clear out any lingering cigar leaf ghost. Just my $.02.

 

[RDPipes]

Well, after smoking about 7-8 bowls of Elizabethan and scrubbing the bowl out twice I can barely taste the Ivory soap but, I can taste it. I reckon a few more bowls and it'll be dead for good.

 

[RDPipes]

UPDATE: So far after about 5 bowls smoked all the way down to ash I scraped the bowl out clean with a sharp knife without nicking or gouging the bowl and cleaned all residue and cake 3 times counting today. Then saturated a Q-tip with 99% alcohol and scrubbed the bowl till the Q-tip came out just slightly tan. Each time the bowl became whiter and the Ivory Soap flavor decreased. Tonight it was hardly there and only seemed to be in the last 1/4 of the bowl. I think about 5 more bowls and repeat what I've done before and it will be totally gone. This seems to be much easier to do with a meer then a briar because of the method I use would not be too kindly to a briar.
And just to note, I'm only smoking Elizabethan in it. Next week I surmise the Lakeland ghost will have evacuated.

 

[rothnh]

Next week I surmise the Lakeland ghost will have evacuated.  

Quite the challenge exorcising the Lakelands ghost from a meerschaum; the Sepiolite, being as porous as it is, sucks it in like a sponge  :roll: 

WTG   

 

[RDPipes]

Well, with every bowl it's seems to leach out into the forming cake, so that's a plus.

 

[rothnh]

BTW, you probably know this, but cake, on a meer, is not a good idea.

 

[RDPipes]

BTW, you probably know this, but cake, on a meer, is not a good idea.

A minor cake of about 1/16" I don't find to be excessive, anymore and I remove it.
I also don't see any problem with smoking a meer outside in cold temps above 20 degrees for I do this all the time and have had no problems (although I'm not a clencher so the pipe is in my hand the whole time). Although others have stated the opposite.