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I finally figured out why my creosote scraper was always getting stuck in those old flues in the historic district.
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grant.zara2d ago
Disagree with the idea that the tool is the main problem. Seen plenty of those old flues, and the real issue is the crazy buildup of glazed creosote over decades. That stuff is like rock. It forms these ridges and lips that will snag anything, flexible or not. Richard_anderson has a point about the shape changing, but I've found a warped flue is still passable if you can break that hard crust first. A rigid scraper with a good hammer head to chip away at it often works better than a floppy rod that just follows the problem.
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Read an article a while back about how the old brick in those historic chimneys can actually warp over time from all the heat cycles. It said the flues are rarely perfectly round after a hundred years, they get these slight oval shapes or bulges that a straight tool just catches on. Makes total sense that a modern, rigid scraper would bind up in there. You might need one of those more flexible, segmented rods that can bend a little to follow the actual shape.
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the_wren2d ago
So you're both right, it's shape and hard gunk. But what if the shape change makes the gunk worse? Like, those bulges create pockets where more creosote builds up and bakes into that rock hard glaze. Wouldn't that make the ridges grant.zara mentioned even harder to break?
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