Sour pipe?

[MartinH]

So, I think I might have a sour pipe. Every leaf I smoke tastes bitter and harsh. I've tried cleaning it and I've uses pipe sweetener. Despite this, the pipe still smokes terrible.

If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Martin

 

[Harlock999]

Could just be a stubborn spot of gunk, or old tobacco stuck in the stem. I've had what I thought was a clean pipe smoke sour, only to find it wasn't as clean as I thought it was. And one of the commercially available pipe sprays made my pipe taste terrible...

 

[MisterE]

Is it humid and raining up there? Is it only this particular pipe, or are you finding all to smoke a little sour? I find some of my pipes tend to get sour when the general humidity is high. Maybe let the pipe dry out and give it another cleaning with alcohol. Get the really high proof stuff like Everclear or the denatured Ethyl stuff. Then give it a day to dry out even more after that.

Another thing is that maybe the tobacco you're smoking in it just doesn't agree with the pipe. Kind of wierd that but it happens. Sometimes our own chemistry just doesn't agree with tobacco for whatever reason and the same can happen too.

Sometimes, you can just keep at it and see if it comes around. I have a few that started a little odd and eventually got better. In some cased the pipe just might be a "lemon" (lol-sour??) and you'll end up avoiding it.

 

[flytyer]

Maybe try a shank brush on the tenon and shank. If you dont have a brush sometimes i twist two bristle cleaners together and use that.Scrub them out good and let them dry. I usually use pipemasters clean and cure on my pipes , but was able to get some everclear on a recent trip out of state...that stuff cleans great. Just my .02 hope it helps.