How to pre-carbonize a bowl

[becometheunknown]

I've been doing searching and have found lots of pipe makers that say they go through the pre-carbonizing process, but have found next to nothing on how it is done. (Google translated one page for me that said you can do it with water, honey, and briar charcoal, but nothing on the process). Is the process of pre-carbonzing pipes a secret? or have i just been looking in the wrong places? I'd like to learn how to carbonize a pipe not so much for briar pipes, but for the antler pipes I make. Some antler pipes (depending on the antler) will taste like burning hair for the first several smokes, while others will smoke like meerschaum on the first smoke. I'd like to pre-carbonize the antler bowls in order to avoid this nasty taste in case it occurs, so I'd like to here the different methods you all use for pre-carbonizing the pipes you make so I can try it both on briar and antler. Thanks

(sorry i didn't know if this post belonged here or in alternative materials)

[MikeStanley]

What I've been able to desypher from tidbits of various posts on the matter is this.
Get some buttermilk, sourcream and charcol powder. I found some capsules at a pharmacy that were filled with fine powdered charcol as an antacid I guess.
Mix up a 50/50 mix of the buttermilk and sour cream. Add charcol and Viola!

Warning. Too much of the cream mix makes you use a lot of the charcol. I mix it up then transfer small amounts for the addition of the charcol. Spread it on and let it dry. It has worked for me....YMMV.

Mike Stanley

[KurtHuhn]

There's also the good old waterglass recipes. I personally like the one with pumice, activated charcoal, and waterglass. Works like a charm.

[MikeStanley]

I was never able to find any waterglass here locally so I abandoned the idea. Have to admit the fact its used for water profing concrete bothered me a little but mostly it was the inability to get the stuff that did it. It may be the way to go when trying to coat the bowl of an antler pipe though. I can't much stand the smell of it . I can't imagine what it must taste like when burning.
Mike Stanley

[LexKY_Pipe]

I buy my charcoal at this site. 16 oz for six bucks. Can't beat it:

http://www.teachservices.com/scripts/de ... k=964-FO16

[Heinz_D]

I'm using waterglass with fine, milled rests of my last smoked pipetobacco-ash... It works very well and you can repair burningholes in the tobacco chamber too! You can also use pharmaceutical activated carbon, but it's not better than ash...

For repairs I add sometimes a little bit of chamotte powder, to get a harder coating!

This mixture is also good to "lift-up" the tobacco chamber, if the hole for the smoke is too high, so that you can't smoke a pipe to the end...


Greetings,

Heinz_D

[bent-1]

carbon from a water filter (fish tank, drinking water) would also work. I would think ground up charcoal would work also.

[pipemaker]

Has anyone tried a thin coat of good old "pipe mud" to pre carb a bowl?

Mike

[jeff]

Pipe mud would work. However, it has a distinct "already smoked" flavor. If the pipe is for your own use, go for it. If you're planning on selling the pipe, don't even think about it.

Jeff

[marks]

Mike, what Jeff says is right on. I have used pipe mud in a couple of pipes I bought to bring up the bottom (and I have to say that it works spectacularly for this), and the smoke tastes like an old cigar that you relit. Yuk. However, once past the first few bowls, nothing. But those first few are something else.

I have settled on the charcoal, buttermilk, sour cream formula for several reasons. It is edible, it does not turn colors if the pipe sits for a while, it does not flavor the smoke (at least to my taste buds), and it helps prevent the majority of the burnt briar taste during the first few bowls of a new pipe. I even coat the bowls of the pipes I make for myself with this formula.