@KA9FFJ That oxidation on your last refurb pic would have made a kinda cool brindle stem color pattern🙂. I’ll bet that sucker would have been bitter as hell if someone was silly enough to smoke it that way🤢
HELP!! I foolishly tried to use lacquer on a pipe I'm working on, and the stuff made the stain run. I wiped it off quick with a polyester cloth, but it scared the heck out of me. What did I do wrong? Supposedly lots of guys use lacquer instead of caruaba wax. I'm befuddled.
@mfresa Usually pipe makers will use Shellac before wax is used or in lieu of wax. Shellac is dissolved in alcohol but you still have to be careful with the first coat depending on what kind of dye you use.
@mfresa Sorry for the late comeback. Company has left and just saw your query. I never use shellac/lacquer on pipes. I have found they will yellow with time and start peeling leaving dull and shiny areas on the stummel. For this main reason (there are more), I always remove any signs of that stuff and do traditional waxing and buffing. Unless the pipe becomes dirty from excessive handling, all that's needed is a periodic buff to bring it back. I hate to tell you this, but from my own experiences, I've found that sometimes the only way out of a mess is to back out and start over. I'm saying this because, if given the same circumstances, I would remove, resand and use carnuba wax. However, remember that's based on my personal feelings toward lacquer/shellac...
To bowl coat, or not to bowl coat... that is the question. A year or so ago I came across a good recipe for bowl coating. I found it on a YouTube channel run by Bare Pipe. It has proven to be a very easy, reliable and good recipe. I have used it on several of my pipes but was wondering what people thought about using it on pipes I'm wanting to sell? Some detest bowl coatings, while others are indifferent and actually find it aesthetically pleasing. The recipe is TOTALLY edible and food safe, has no detectable aroma and no taste. So what's your opinion?
I personally am not a fan, and here is my reasoning, Bowl coatings are a great idea But the problem is with adhesion, natural cake adheres so well you can only remove it by mechanical process.
Bowl coating vary much between makers and none of them adhere as well as natural cake; with use, a cake forms over the coating, but chunks of coating and cake can and do come off the inside of bowls.
I have been using a thin coating of honey to accelerate the formation of cake on new pipes since the 80's and it has worked for me incredibly well all these years.
I would add that just breaking in a pipe normally is just fine as well My two cents.
Please understand. I really have no preference one way or another. Your inputs and reasons are wanted, whatever they might be. Personally, I can take it or leave it...
Personally, I dislike bowl coatings. They do “spiff” up the chamber, but I am always thinking that it’s there to cover something up. I think that most, if not all bowl coatings cause a wet smoke and stem gurgle. I remove them from any pipe as soon as I get them. I have had a couple of EBay refurbs that had that ‘Water Glass” bowl coating, that stuff is just not right, it is impossible to remove. One might as well smoke a porcelain or glass pipe. Peterson recently started using a new bowl coating that is what I believe to be gum Arabic and activated charcoal. I like it a lot because it is easily removed with warm water😉. I did try smoking one of my new Peterson’s that had it, it made the pipe smoke wet, and it just kinda balled up and got sticky. I cleaned the ash and removed the coating and the pipe instantly smoked much better. Bowl coatings won’t stop me from buying a pipe that has it though🙂.
Personally I don't think they are worth much. Bowl coatings, I mean. Yes you can taste a little briar on the first bowl, but after that it is diminished. By the third bowl I don't taste briar at all. On pipes without a coating, that is.
I have almost zero cake in my bowls. Cake is resin and resin carries flavor. As you all know I rarely smoke aromatics and never anything heavily cured (like that perique crap). I want the true flavor of the tobacco (i.e., Virginias and Burley) and to get that, I need to smoke out of a 'clean' pipe, so to speak. And I agree with @mfresa 100%...the briar taste is only initially...with or without cake, for whatever reason, the briar flavor goes away after a couple of bowls.
As far as briar taste while smoking, it’s an indicator that you really need to stop puffing, quickly shake that ember around and away from wherever it’s burning your pipe and let the pipe cool. Bad juju.
I was given a Paronelli pipe by a kind soul while at the pipe show. I'll keep this very short. It was solid flat black... didn't like it, so IMHO, I gave it a little character... An easy transformation to do. Took me about 25 minutes from taping to final buff:
Comments
Love that Comoy’s Everyman! Maybe a shape #159? I love my Comoy’s pipes…..I have “a few”😬
Shape stamp all but gone. Looks like it could be 163?
🤔
Before...
It could be the larger one, #368? This is a Comoy’s “Grand Slam”. I think I will load it with some LL7….now that I have it out of the cabinet😉
That oxidation on your last refurb pic would have made a kinda cool brindle stem color pattern🙂. I’ll bet that sucker would have been bitter as hell if someone was silly enough to smoke it that way🤢
What did I do wrong? Supposedly lots of guys use lacquer instead of caruaba wax. I'm befuddled.
I like birdseye too, the only problem is that I hate cross graining lol.
Sorry, no advise here….except I think lacquer is kinda harsh and chemically. It’s not for me.
@RockyMountainBriar yes, the fumes are horrific.
Sorry for the late comeback. Company has left and just saw your query.
I never use shellac/lacquer on pipes. I have found they will yellow with time and start peeling leaving dull and shiny areas on the stummel.
For this main reason (there are more), I always remove any signs of that stuff and do traditional waxing and buffing.
Unless the pipe becomes dirty from excessive handling, all that's needed is a periodic buff to bring it back.
I hate to tell you this, but from my own experiences, I've found that sometimes the only way out of a mess is to back out and start over. I'm saying this because, if given the same circumstances, I would remove, resand and use carnuba wax.
However, remember that's based on my personal feelings toward lacquer/shellac...
Please show us the final. Would love to see it...
👍🏻
A year or so ago I came across a good recipe for bowl coating. I found it on a YouTube channel run by Bare Pipe. It has proven to be a very easy, reliable and good recipe. I have used it on several of my pipes but was wondering what people thought about using it on pipes I'm wanting to sell?
Some detest bowl coatings, while others are indifferent and actually find it aesthetically pleasing. The recipe is TOTALLY edible and food safe, has no detectable aroma and no taste.
So what's your opinion?
Your inputs and reasons are wanted, whatever they might be. Personally, I can take it or leave it...
I'll keep this very short.
It was solid flat black... didn't like it, so IMHO, I gave it a little character...
An easy transformation to do. Took me about 25 minutes from taping to final buff:
So it was a sandblasted pipe originally? It’s hard to tell if it was sandblasted or rusticated.
You are correct sir. It was sandblasted and then a flat black stain/finish was added.
Trust me, it didn't look good...
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