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How to Restore Antique Tobacco Pipes

To get the best smoke from a used, estate or antique tobacco pipe, you must use a great deal of care, never smoking one bowl after another or removing the stem while the pipe is still hot. You must also clean it, running a pipe cleaner through the pipe after it has cooled down. Pipes that have gone years without a cleaning may have a sour build-up of cake or may look unattractive. It takes just a few minutes to bring quality antique pipes back into good smoking order.

Things You'll Need

  • Salt
  • Alcohol (at least 90 proof)
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Pipe reamer
  • Bleach
  • Clean cloth
  • Vaseline
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Instructions

  1. Sanitization

    • 1

      Remove the mouthpiece. Scrub the inside and outside of the mouthpiece with pipe cleaners soaked in alcohol. Allow the mouthpiece to dry. Once dry, cover any logos with a light coating of Vaseline. Submerge the mouthpiece in a small bowl of bleach. Check in one hour. If the pipe appears to be losing its finish, then remove it from the bleach immediately, rinse the mouthpiece and dry. If the pipe appears fine, then leave it in the bleach overnight and rinse it off the next day. Clean once more with a pipe cleaner coated with alcohol.

    • 2

      Use the reaming tool to shave tobacco cake in the bowl if it is thicker than about 1 millimeter. Stabilize the bowl and fill with alcohol. Do not let the alcohol spill onto any finished surfaces. Allow the alcohol to sit in bowl for up to four hours. Pour it out.

    • 3

      Clean the bowl and shank thoroughly with a pipe cleaner. Reassemble the pipe after both the stem and the bowl are clean.

    Sweetening

    • 4

      Pack the pipe bowl and shank with salt. Fill with alcohol until the alcohol is at the rim of the bowl. Do not allow the alcohol to spill onto the finish.

    • 5

      Allow the pipe bowl to rest for 48 hours or until all of the alcohol evaporates. Pour out the salt and thoroughly clean the bowl with a pipe cleaner. Reassemble the pipe once the bowl and mouthpiece are completely dry.

    • 6

      Buff the mouthpiece and the bowl with a clean cloth. Do not use any wood surface cleaners. For best cleaning and shine, commercial pipe buffing products can be found at most tobacconists or online pipe retailers.

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