Let me preface this post by saying that I am a complete neophyte in the realm of pipes. Now that I have that disclaimer out of the way...
I have purchased several estate pipes from eBay and a few arrived in less than the pristine, ready-to-smoke condition that had been advertised
So, I figured I may as well try and learn about cake reaming on an inexpensive estate pipe rather than one of the more expensive pipes I purchased new. I found an excellent deal on a full Senior Reaming Kit and gave it a try on a Karl Erik plateau top that had a serious build up of unpleasantly aromatic cake. My theory was that even if I destroyed the pipe it wouldn't be a huge loss since the pipe smelled bad enough that I wasn't going to smoke it anyway.
Leave it to me to start my experiments on what is likely the most difficult reaming subject in my collection. You see, the Karl Erik has a deep and seriously tapered bowl. Heheheh. Oh well: live and learn.
The Senior is an adjustable reamer. As you tighten the knurled knob at the base, the blades are pushed outwards, thus creating a progressively larger cutting area while loosening it reduces that area. Anyway, I started out with the cutting area almost maxed out and just sort of touching the inner diameter of the cake. A few gentle twists of the tool in the bowl produced virtually nothing. I increased the cutting area until I got what felt was a reasonable fit and twisted again and upon tapping the bowl out was rewarded with a fine black carbon dust.
OK, I thought, I'm in business. Now, I reversed my strategy. I reduced the cutter to its tightest diameter and started gently reaming the bottom of the bowl. The Senior has a taper at the tip of the cutting area so I don't think you'd ever be able to touch the actual floor of the bowl but it does get down well into the heel. Anyway, I started gently reaming and as the resistance lessened, I'd increase the diameter slightly as I worked my way up the bowl. This being my first run, I was hesitant to put much force into the cutting so once I got near the rim, I reduced the diameter and started at the bottom again.
As I became more comfortable with the whole process I added a bit more force but still figured that it would be better to have to ream out the bowl from bottom to top several times than try to do too much at once and risk shaving into the bowl itself. I think I made four passes in total and never reached wood although I could see that I was likely getting close in the upper third of the bowl. Once I was done, I cleaned the entire pipe thoroughly, wiping out the bowl vigorously with paper towels and using quite few pipe cleaners in the shank. The cake dust is very fine - not as fine as printer toner but it is damn near as dirty so make sure you have a work surface that will not be harmed this job.
I did not give the pipe any sort of liquid cleaning for two reasons: 1) I was curious to know how much of a reduction in the unpleasant flavor the reaming alone would provide and, 2) I knew as little about that sort of maintenance as I did about the reaming so I figured I'd better not push my luck. Once I was done, I packed a bowl of Haddo's Delight (which I have been smoking quite a bit of) and fired 'er up. Much to my surprise, the pipe tasted MUCH better right from the first bowl. There was certainly still a bit of ghost left but after several more bowls I couldn't taste it anymore. In addition, there is new cake now building up and that must be replacing the ghost flavors of whatever the original owner smoked. The pipe is one of only two I own with pronounced tapers and has become one of my favorites.
So, there you go - learning by doing - and I didn't break anything! :laugh:
