Question: how to remove latakia ghosting

[Trout Bum]

Greetings, fellow pipesters. I have a pipe that I have been using strictly for latakia blends. Now that I have a few more pipes, I think that this particular pipe would be a great virginia/flake pipe. Any recommendations on how to transform said pipe? I tried to use pipe sweetner (on a whim) and that pretty much did nothing. I do not own a reamer (yet), but there is minimal build up, as this pipe is only a couple of months old. So, with that being said, how should I go about this? Is it even possible? Or should I just keep everything as is, not worry about it, and smoke a mellow bowl and let things be what they are? Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

 

[Muddler]

I had an estate Dunnie that was ghosted by Orientals. It was reamed & cleaned really well with ethyl alcohol. (Didn't try the salt & alcohol thing but maybe I should have). Then I just smoked it until the ghosting subsided - about 10 or so smokes.

 

[Anonymous]

From having played around with this for a while (estate pipes are my staples), I'm convinced that the great majority of the ghosts live in the shank area -- not the bowl cake. This is where it gets warm and moist, releasing the slumbering residues of pipeweeds past to rattle their chains.

With latakia, I suspect you'll find that just switching over to a steady diet of Virginias will, after a dozen or so outings, effect the change you're looking for without any need to get radical. Especially if you clean it well inside with twisted up kleenex (assuming you've got some headspace in there) while it's still moist enough to blot up and remove.

 

[Anonymous]

Pipe sweetener is a good start. I use Wild Turkey 101, but I don't mind the flavor of bourbon. Do you know about the salt treatment?

Fill bowl with salt then put a few drops of whiskey in it. This will absorb some of the flavor. Make sure you dip a cleaner in sweetener/bourbon and leave in in the shank to help remove the essence from there.

Like someone above me posted: start smoking VA in it and the ghost will be gone within a few (maybe 5) bowls.

I like latakia, so I don't mind the ghost of latakia on occasions (even though I do have pipes dedicated to VAs)

 

[Tennessee Dave]

Yep...send that pipe to LL.
www.precisionpiperepair.com

 

[john-in-kc]

Those who know me from other boards know that I advocate cotton balls vice salt as a carrier.

My experience: Unless the dreaded ERINMORE, most blends ghosts go away after about 10 bowls. In fact, 20 years or so ago, smoking the old blend out was the normal way to get rid of a ghost.

Alcohol or pipe sweetener works too. Make sure to fully dry the pipe if you're using low proof (less than 180 proof) alcohol.

 

[Islander]

The gents have it well covered above, and I agree that smoking will be the cure in time. If the pipe had been cased with a heavy aromatic, that's another story. For future reference, you might want to read this:

http://www.glpease.com/Articles/Spot.html

For now, just fire it up with virginia. I occasionally smoke a bowl of FVF or Blackwoods Flake in my latakia pipes just to enjoy the latakia/virginia combination.

Enjoy -

 

[beaupipe]

I find buying a new pipe helps immensely.

 

[piperguckert]

I find that if you ream the bowl to as close to bear wood as poosible and ream the sank tha same and cleanm out with pipe cleaners that is not quite enough. after i do therswe steps i remove my stem get a small cork to fit in the shank and fill the bowl up with 151 rum it fills the smake and all crevisesd i lean it agenst somthing so the bowl is upright and filled and leave it filled over night. then i empty drr replace stemm and let it sit and cure for a week after that there is no more goast. Almost all i smoke is Latakias so i amn uses to removign goasts. ipe:

 

[Anonymous]

I occasionally smoke a bowl of FVF or Blackwoods Flake in my latakia pipes just to enjoy the latakia/virginia combination.

Enjoy -

That's how I roll too. I am also concerned about ghosting some pipes, but I like VA in a pipe with latakia flavor in it.

For the most part, I have kept my Canadians for VAs, I just noticed that I tend to smoke VA/pers in bulldogs, not sure why. MY best one being the Tinsky Rhodesian Christmas pipe of which I have two.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

My variation on the salt technique is to remove the stem and fill the bowl with cotton balls to 1/2 of the bowl. Saturate them with Everclear and fill the rest of the bowl with cotton balls, and saturate once more. Leave this for 24 or more hours. The bottom half of an egg carton will keep the bowl in the proper position, tilted slightly toward the bowl so that the Everclear stays in the bowl.

Although I've successfully used salt, this method has the advantage of not running the risk of cracking the bowl. It has eliminated ghosting.

In any event it only takes me 3 or 4 bowls to eliminate latakia ghosting.

 

[Anonymous]

A fast easy way is to ream the bowl back to bare wood
Clean the shank and bowl with alcohol
Smoke PA in it the ghost should disappear with 4 to 5 bowls depending on how bad it is

I do this with any estate pipe and it always works