pipemakersforum.com

...so I'm putting it here on the general board.

I currently have a shop mystery. A 30-year-old, well-smoked, smooth pipe made of quality wood that keeps exuding something. When removed with solvent, it reappears after sitting for a few hours following handling. When polished off, it does exactly the same thing. When SCRAPED off, ditto.

No discernible color to the dust produced by scraping. Maybe a faint wheat color.

The thickness of the exuded layer is just enough to be felt as faintly sticky-rough, and produce matte areas.

Ideas about what it might be, or how to permanently remove it? (I'm considering a low-temp oven bake)

I've never seen anything like it before.

Thanks.

Almost sounds like uncured wood.

Although that would not fall under "quality" wood

Sure it's not tobacco oils? I've had a number of vintage pipes that seep through the briar. I did the old salt and alcohol treatment and that seemed to work.

I cut a totally abused, "smoked a million jillion times" pipe apart once, and the oils from the chamber had soaked into the briar about 1 mm.

What it sounds like (but probably isn't) is an oil cured pipe done with an oil that didn't and won't set, untreated linseed oil or something. But you'd think 30 years of smoking and set time would cure that anyhow. Very weird.

It's briar?

Question one is has it always been this way or did it just start?
If it has always been this way then I'd agree with Sas that it is a funky oil cure of some sort.
If it has just recently started it then I would agree with Bruce that perhaps it is tobacco oils that have finally migrated thru, especially if it was a soft and porous piece of briar. Try his suggestion and see what happens.