So about last month I got a concert pitch half set by Lorcan Dunne, and she’s a beauty! Ebony and silver, but when I received the pipes I found out that the bag was leakier than a sieve. I also recognized the nasty smell of seasoning. The previous owner had seasoned the bag and bellows, and it was still gunky in the bag, and partly in the bellows. I cut the bag off, and ripped the pipes apart, but there was damage done to the pipes or the reeds themselves. Paddy Keenan looked them over and made sure that the chanter reed was still good, and told me how to fix the bari drone reed.
Now on to my problem…
How the heck do I get rid of that nasty smell? The chanter still faintly smells of the seasoning, and the drones do too. I dunno what to do. I got most of the seasoning off the stocks with baking soda paste, but there is still some that I cannot get rid of. I don’t wanna get kicked out of any sessions for having smelly pipes
Thanks for any help!
P.s… the only reason I dropped PK’s name is so that you guys knew that the pipes themselves are fine (just a bit smelly)
You may have to think about getting a new bag. That might be the easiest solution.
I did have a bellows once that somebody put bag seasoning into and it resulted in the leather getting all crusty and stiff. Yuck! What ended up working for me was to plug it up and rinse it out with very hot, slightly soapy, water. I then used some neatsfoot oil on the leather. Luckily for me the bellows stayed completely airtight after the cleaning and the oil gave new life back to the hard leather.
That process might also work on the bag but I would recommend some pure lanolin rather than any oils - they would just seep through onto your clothing.
Get another bag. Uilleann pipes bags should be tight without the use of any kind of seasoning.
Seasoning of any kind rots the leather in the long run; bacteria thrive on the stuff.
Get rid of the bag and buy a new one. L&M bags seem to be held in high regard.
Avoid naugahide bags - most sessioners have strong views on animal rights
I sometimes get flutes from heavy smokers. I put them under a sheet with one of those ozone-pumping air-freshener machines. In about an hour the smoke smell is completely and permanently gone. If you could find one it might work.
That reminds me of a tale I heard years ago. A man returned from traveling abroad, and brought his piper friend a gift - a brand new set of some primitive type of pipes from the subcontinent, the bag of which had been made from some freshly killed game animal. The piper graciously accepted them, and after a few days, noticed that the pipes smelled to high heaven, so he hung them in the basement to let them air out. Unfortunately, the pipes became more pungent as the weeks and months went by, and although the rotting bag eventually became stiff, he relegated the whole set to the garage. That was still not enough to rid the home of the offensive odor, and the pipes were burned completely, and the ashes put into a plastic garbage bag and thrown away. By that time, however, the smell had permeated even the masonry walls of the cellar, forcing the piper to move to a different neighborhood entirely.
This may seem like a semi-ignorant question, but why would you NOT season an L&M bag for use with uilleann pipes? I season my L&M bag on my Great Highland pipes, I would have figured you’d treat both in the same manner…
I tossed that old bag already! I am putting in my order for a new bag from MacHarg tomorrow. The smell I am talking about is coming from the drones and mainstock themselves. That and faintly from the chanter. Also the bellows, but I can’t afford to get a new set just yet.
You wouldn’t season an L&M uilleann pipe bag, as it is a cold air system bagpipe, so therefore the moisture and bacteria from your breath is not getting in there, as your mouth isn’t supposed to get anywhere near the pipes.
but why would you NOT season an L&M bag for use with uilleann pipes? I season my L&M bag on my Great Highland pipes, I would have figured you’d treat both in the same manner
Actually, you would treat both bags in the same manner… you wouldn’t season either of them. “Elk Hide” or actually Chrome Tanned Leather, is airtight without seasoning (unless incorrectly tanned). I’ve heard a lot of highland pipers incorrectly say that seasoning absorbs moisture. Using an L&M style bag for highland pipes would require a good moisture control system, but obviously not for bellows-blown pipes. I’ve been playing highland pipes for 37 years, and over the past 7 years I’ve acquired, restored, set up, played and sold over 40 sets of vintage pipes…and I’ve tried almost every kind of bag and moisture control system you can imagine. I finally settled on what is the ideal highland pipe setup (for me)…which is a sheepskin bag, airtight seasoning, with split blowpipe stock with built in water trap and a ridged tube, which results in a very very dry and stable system. My Uilleann pipes and smallpipes are set up with Chrome Tanned Leather bags. I’ve tied in over 100 bags in my career (two more in the last two weeks). It’s an art and a science…but a great bag tie-in and setup is one of the foundations of a good piping experience.
As for the smell…I’ve used acoustic guitar polish on vintage pipes to successfully remove ancient gunk and smell without damaging the finish. You might give that a shot.
