Re: Question About Lakeland Blends

On 02/27/2011 04:34 PM, scottbtdmb wrote:
Hey guys,
I posted a similar thread on another forum, but wanted to ask you
all for your advice as well. Basically, as of late, I have been
getting more and more into the wonderful offerings from Gawith&
Hoggarth. Particularly, I have gotten fond of Dark Bird's Eye and
Dark Flake Unscented. I find myself smoking these and a few other
Virginia blends almost exlusively these days and consequently, I have
been smoking less and less English/Balkan Mixtures. The problem lies
in the fact that the amount of pipes I have dedicated to English
blends is nearly double of the amount of Va pipes that I own. My
rotation has gotten out of wack and I am only giving my Va pipes a
couple days rest in between smokes. My question is what would happen
if I began to smoke these two G&H blends out of my English pipes?

That depends on your sensitivity to carry-over of taste from the English/Balkan mixtures. You may find there is no problem at all, but the taste will gradually reflect the GHC taste more fully and the English/Balkan will fade away.

If you are sensitive to the carry-over, instructions appear below.

Obviously the Lakeland "perfume" essence in Dark Bird's Eye and Dark
Flake Unscented isn't too overwhelming compared to their other
offerings, but it is still there nonetheless. If I were to start
smoking English blends again down the road and return them to their
original "dedicated" pipes, would the Lakeland topping from these two
blends pose much of a problem? Would the "ghost" be difficult to get
rid of?

This too depends on your sensitivity to the carry-over. I suspect that there will be little if any problem. Again, if a problem arises, instructions appear below.

Any advice would be appreciated before I decide to convert my
English pipes to Va/Lakeland pipes. Also, buying new pipes right now
isn't an option, as tempting as that may be :-)

First, try the pipe with the new type of tobacco. If no problem with any remnant taste, no problem.

Second, if there is a problem, remedies start with a thorough cleaning of the interior of the mouthpiece and shank with grain alcohol, or 151-proof rum, or any alcohol of your choice 80-proof/40 percent alcohol or greater. Isopropyl alcohol (70 percent or higher purity) will clean fine, but sniff first. If it has an aroma, it will flavor your pipe, and if you don't like the aroma, you will not like the taste imparted.

Third, ream the bowl, trimming the carbon cake to about the thickness of a dime.

Fourth, sit the pipe up, and fill chamber and shank with the alcohol used in the Second phase. Let that sit overnight, or maybe 4 to 8 hours and then replace with fresh alcohol and let that sit overnight. If the shank was not cleaned to bare wood in its interior, reclean and get rid of all tar residues. After dumping out the alcohol, assemble the pipe (scribble on the tenon with pencil lead to lubricate a tight fit; rub beeswax
on the tenon if the fit is loose), and let it sit for a couple of days before smoking. Grain alcohol in particular is a strong drying agent (pulls water out of the wood and evaporates with it) and a thin-walled pipe may be vulnerable to damage until it has reabsorbed a bit of moisture from the air.

If the pipe still has remnant taste, you basically have three options. Continue smoking the pipe and let the new taste drive out the old. Or, repeat the Fourth step perhaps multiple times, for longer periods, to leach out the old taste. Or, sit the pipe up as for the Fourth step, but instead of alcohol fill chamber and shank with white vinegar, the distilled vinegar found in the grocery store. Let that leach taste from the wood for multiple hours (or in extremis 2 or 3 days). Clean lightly with alcohol, assemble pipe and let it rest for 2 or 3 days, and light up.

Note that these are procedures specifically intended to address a problem with remnant taste, of possibly formidable proportion. Often, The Professor's Pipe-Sweetening Treatment will provide entirely satisfactory results, and may be worth a try before embarking on the steps described above.

There are several versions available on the Wild & Wooly, including this one posted to a.s.p. in 1997. Some of the others are prettier/html/etc.

http://www.pipes.org/Articles/PipeSweet.html

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user unfriendly; it merely
expects users to be computer-friendly.
.

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