Ghosting, a myth?

TaylorJDutton

Maybe its not a myth, but i tend to enjoy any of my blends in any of my pipes (except one, which i still reserve for english blends, for possibly no reason other than tradition).  does anyone else fail to see/taste ghosting in their pipes? ive slowly gravitated toward using all but one of my pipes for whatever i feel like smoking that day, and i still dont get ghosting, not any that is noticeable or negative.  thoughts?

daveinlax

Just wait until you get a pipe that has had a strong aro or something you don't like smoked in it for years and you'll know. I don't care what you do to get rid of it, lakeland essence will never leave a pipe.

motie2

Just wait until you get a pipe that has had a strong Latakia or something you don't like smoked in it for years and you'll know.

I had a pipe with a Latakia ghost; it took me three different chemical exorcisms to banish it.

thebadgerpiper

Oh just give it time, I can assure you the specters of tobaccos past are real entities, but with research and preparedness you can minimize the frustrations.

I was gifted a C&D blend called Captain Bob's Blend, which is... a grape aromatic. I had never tried a grape tobacco before, so I loaded a bowl in my corncob pipe and gave it a try.

I quickly learned that grape tobacco is an abomination, and the aroma is cloying and sickly sweet.

Now, corncob pipes are lauded for their ability to take any blends without the fear of ghosting. The very next blend I smoked in my cob had remnants of Captain Bob, and it soured my smoke. Thankfully, one bowl of a different tobacco was enough to erase the terrible tobacco from my poor cob. I'd hate to think what would've happened had it been in one of my briars.

mseddon

A specter is haunting us. The specter of Lakeland. -I think Karl Marx said something like this. Maybe Engels edited it.

motie2

Lakelands will immediately ghost your pipe. Which can be a problem, if you want to taste anything but essence in that pipe. So it's good to dedicate a pipe to your Lakeland blend(s).  If you smoke a meerschaum pipe and clean it after every smoke it will generally handle Lakelands without ghosting.

I smoked a Lakeland blend in a briar, back in the day, and it ghosted the pipe like a Latakia blend might, but smelling like dead grandmother, rather than aromatic brush fire. It took several cleanings to exorcise the Lakeland ghost, just like it took several tries to kill a Latakia ghost in a large eBay Carey billiard.

Again, you should either dedicate a pipe or smoke Lakeland blends in a cob.

ghostsofpompeii

I agree, Lakeland blends can ghost a pipe as well as Latakia. For the average smoker a Latakia ghost might not be a problem, but for the aromatic smoker it can be especially pleasurable. Estate pipes I've picked up at resale shops that had a Latakia ghost required several alcohol  treatments as well as @Pappyoe coffee treatment. And I'm still struggling to exorcise the last remnants of the ghost of Sutliff Mixture 79 from a pipe I bought last year at an antique shop. It is the most stubborn pipe yet. The pipe has under gone five salt and alcohol treatments, coffee treatments, and as a last resort I'm currently soaking the bowl in Decatur Briar-Fresh Airway Cleaner. If that fails I'll simply use the pipe to smoke Mixture 79 on the odd occasion I smoke a bowl.    

judandhispipe

You mentioned that you have one pipe for lat blends. So what are you smoking in the rest of them? Not everything ghosts pipes.

Jayhawk422

@judandhispipe I agree with you. I know for me at least there are certain blends that I have to dedicate. 

motie2

Nothing in this realm can kill a Mixture 79 ghost. It must be exorcised.

judandhispipe

I keep a lat rotation, an aro rotation - pretty small - and a Virginia/burley rotation. I have some dedicated pipes, but because I love the way they smoke one blend.

PappyJoe

@motie2 - I would posit that anyone who smokes Mixture 79 is haunted by the taste for the rest of their lives. That being said, I have smoked other Lakeland blends in the past two years and maybe because of the cake in the pipe, the ghosting was minimal. 

Mostly I keep my pipes fairly clean and with a minimum of cake so I don't seem to have a problem with ghosting. However, I do have a couple of pipes that I just smoke non-aromatics in.

Charles

@motie2 is correct, nothing will ever get rid of the Mixture 79 Spector!  I still have a pipe that has not been smoked for nearly two years and nothing has been able to remove that spector.  The horror!  A heavy latakia  blend can ghost a pipe as well but since I have pipes dedicated to those blends, it's not an issue for me.    

TaylorJDutton

@judandhispipe to start, i used a different pipe for each type of blend, i had an aro pipe, a virginias pipe, and a latakia blend pipe.  now ive moved to just the latakia blend pipe being set aside for one blend.  i would never try a grape, my tastes tend to gravitate toward latakia, vanilla, maple, nutty.  perhaps all of these things go well together, and thats why i dont have a ghosting problem.  if i was smoking an aro and i got hints of latakia from a previous smoke, id be happy haha

TaylorJDutton

also, i tend to like lighter aros, i just steer clear of cherries/grapes and the like.  ive never tried them before, and i dont see myself trying them ever.

Jayhawk422

@TaylorJDutton for years I steered clear of aros, but found myself in the last few months of wanting to try certain ones. I suffered through cherry blends, but do like cult blood red moon. I tend to add burley, and honestly add Five Brothers to aros to make them where I would like them.
I’m a VaPer and a English smoker and now have a new appreciation for some burley blends.

xDutchx

It just really depends on the blend. I enjoy collecting leather clad pipes, which are actually pipes with flaws that have putty added, and covered in leather. It seems over 50% of the time when I buy a leather clad, it has the ghost of a blend that smells like an amalgamation of gingerbread, pumpkin pie, and carrot cake. I am guessing one of the mail order establishments back in the 60's or 70's sold a pipe and tobacco combo.

Even when it is evident that the pipe was barely smoked, it is almost impossible to get the stench out without an exorcism. That stuff could make 10 Russians crawl under a table and hide in fear.

motie2

@PappyJoe's coffee cure is the highest level of exorcism we've found, thus far.....

Kmhartle

I'll have to dig around the forum for this coffee cure. I'm not familiar with it. 

motie2

@kmhartle -- The words of @PappyJoe follow.....

<< It's not something I invented but something I was learned from some older than me pipe smokers 20 or 30 years ago. Its an alternative to packing your bowl with rock salt and filling it with grain alcohol. Instead, you pack the bowl of the pipe you are cleaning with damp used coffee grounds and let it sit for 24 hours..... I found that a used K-cup of unflavored coffee will fill most bowls with just a little left over.) 

Not sure about the science behind it, but the theory is that the acid in the coffee ground will soften the cake and then the coffee will absorb the ghost of the old tobacco. It is double effective at sweetening a pipe if you do the salt/alcohol treatment first and then the coffee treatment. After 24 hours, you dump the grounds and wipe out the bowl. I also rinse out the bowl with running tap water and then let it dry for 24 hours. (Briar is wood. It won't absorb the running water and it won't hurt the pipe as long as you are not soaking the pipe in it.) 

I have used the coffee grounds in meerschaum pipes also but skip the water rinse.>>

Amen and Amen

xDutchx

@motie2, I haven't tried the coffee cure, but I have sent more than 1 pipe to Mike Myers, for an ozone treatment. The cost is only $5 for the first pipe, and $2 each for any additional pipes you send in for rehab.

Kmhartle

Thank you @motie2!

Jayhawk422

I’ve tried the coffee treatment, it works well for me. Plus, it’s another excuse to drink more coffee.

Woodsman

I used Pappy Joe's coffee grounds method when the Alchol/Salt didn't work. It was successful.

motie2

@Jayhawk422 -- No excuse needed.... especially if the coffee is good, and especially with a pipe.

I have about five cups a day.

Jayhawk422

@motie2 life is too short to drink bad coffee 

motie2

Amen, brother, Amen. And especially if you take your coffee black.

ghostsofpompeii

What @motie2 said may sound like a joke but it's absolutely true. Can anyone explain why a blend like Mixture 79 can ghost a pipe so badly? I've never had it happen with any other blend. What makes Mixture 79 so potent?