General Interest > Let It Bleed

How to salvage a good stone pipe

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Ganja:
Take it out of the oven and let it dry that way.. after it cools down, see if you can burn enough of it away to dislodge it.

Ursus:
My guess is that it is soapstone, which is pretty soft, although there are varying grades.  Soapstone is freguently used to make incense burner "dishes" and the like, kind of the type of stuff you'd find in a 60's smokeshop.  Usually decoratively carved, often from India.

I'd probably try to worry it out with alternate soaking and digging with an opened up paperclip.  It'll take a long time, but eventually the Q-tip will disintegrate.  Let it sit in water overnight.

Another thought is oil, but this will enter the substrate of the stone to some degree (semi-permanent) so use something inocuous and food-grade (e.g., oil used for chopping blocks).  This will reduce the friction, if the paper is kind "sticking" to the stone.  But try aqueous methods first.

starry-eyed pirate:
:tup:  It's great to see people pull together in a crisis.  I was gonna suggest burnin it out in the oven somehow too, but felt it could get tricky, with the possibility of crackin the pipe 'n' all.  I know what you mean about bein attached to your piece.  I'm pretty attached to mine too, so I am.    :skull:  ::hatter::

Hold Fast.

Anonymous:
Thank you for understanding, Pirate.  ::kiss:: I have very little in the way of material goods and less still that I'm really attached to. So it's out of the oven now. Back to the aquious method and manually grinding away at it. It didn't crack, even when it got really hot, but I fear that heating it up that much with the blockage unmoved might have made it permanent. Paper clips are made of weak stuff. Maybe I'm just not using the right tool. . .

Ursus:
Some thoughts on tools:

Large paper clips (as opposed to regular sized) are slightly less flimsy, and certainly longer.

A packet of assorted sewing needles which focuses more on tapestry and leather uses -- these are usually longer and thicker.  Some of the rug needles often have a curve near the end, but may or may not have a flattened portion that makes the overall (effective) diameter substantially larger.  Don't know how big the bore on your pipe is...

I got a really neat digging tool from a candle-making kit, the pin is shaped like this:  0-----  , with the overall length just a shade over 3 inches.  The tip is sharp, it is meant to stab through the braid of a candle wick, ultimately resting on top of the mold, holding the wick stable and in place while you pour the hot wax into the mold.  The round end is about a half inch in diameter, it facillitates in your getting a grip while you stab away at the wick with the other end.  Unbendable, a great great tool.

It occured to me that the immediately above pin looks very much like, and may in fact be the same as, one of those metal pins used to truss up turkeys once you've stuffed them.  Try your grocery store.

When I was making candles recently for the holidays, I made some of my own molds, and the pin method of holding the wick worked so well that I wanted to duplicate it, but had only that one pin.  I had a bunch of metal rods originally used to display flower tags in potted plants I had bought over the years.  These rods were about 4 inches long, and about the same diameter as the pin.  I stripped the green plastic from them by first scoring with a razor blade; they were perfect.  I still had to worm the hole into the wick with the pin before inserting, but then could thread these metal rods through the hole without problem.  More bendable than the pin, not so good for your purposes.

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