opening old gourd

[DrT999]

I was recently able to rescue about half my old pipes from storage. One was a gourd calabash. The meershaum insert hasn't been taken off in about 15 years, and seems pretty well stuck. Obviously, I don't want to use too much force, risking cracking the gourd.

Any suggestions? The only one so far would be to put it in the freezer for 10 minutes, hoping the meershaum would contract enough to pull it off, hopefully without damaging anything. . . .
Suggestions welcome!

 

[NeroWolfe]

Agree, try the freezer.

 

[loneredtree]

If the freezer does not work, try using a hair drier or heat gun to expand the gourd and not the mer insert. The heat may soften the matter that has is gluing the insert. Good luck I do enjoy smoking my calabash.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

...being careful, of course, to not take it directly out of the freezer and then apply intense heat to said meerschaum... gradual heating and cooling of brittle things keeps them intact. 8)

 

[RDPipes]

Not being an expert but, if freezing it doesn't work I'd just leave it alone unless your willing to replace the cork seal between the gourd and the meer bowl. Its most likely whats stopping its removal. If it draws just fine I'd just leave it alone because there's really no way to clean the inside of the gourde out real good because of its rough and porce interior.
I use the freezing method all the time on stuck stems in briar and Meerschaum pipes and it works without the need of extreme pressure being used.

 

[DrT999]

No luck with the freezer method, although I shall retry it on and off. Alas, no heat gun/hair drier available to try that :shock:

Thanks for the suggestions!

Cartaphilus: agreed; I didn't open it all that often in any event, and it does draw nicely

 

[Richard Burley]

As Cartaphilus above said, I think I would leave it alone. Wise words, ones I seldom heed. But if I got ticked off enough and nothing else worked I might try soaking it in warm water. No? Pipes get wet all the time inside. Just sayin'. Come to think of it, I wonder if just smoking it a while might loosen things up a bit?

 

[DrT999]

As Cartaphilus above said, I think I would leave it alone. Wise words, ones I seldom heed. But if I got ticked off enough and nothing else worked I might try soaking it in warm water. No? Pipes get wet all the time inside. Just sayin'. Come to think of it, I wonder if just smoking it a while might loosen things up a bit?

I'll probably do that, but I do hope nothing too toxic has been growing inside it for the last 15 years. . . . Maybe the fumes from the bacardi 151 I used to clean the inside of the stem & shank neutralized such things :affraid: