Removing ghosted smell from Snuffbox

I have a wooden magnetic slide-top Snuffbox of the type sold by Wilson’s of Sharrow. I mistakenly used it a few time to carry some floral snuffs and the scent remains in it even though it’s been empty a number of weeks now. My question is how can I remove the “ghosted” scent from the Snuffbox? Any suggestions would be very gratefully received.

Could try filling it with baking soda, leaving it for a week or so before emptying.

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@Betty_BW thank you I have done so and will check in with it next week.

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I agree if that doesnt work I’d wipe it out with a clean white rag soaked in 90% or higher alcohol and let it sit open to air out for another week. If you are still having problems do the same thing with ashes or activated carbon dust followed with another alcohol wipe and airing. If you go with ashes though it might ghost the ash scent. Honestly you’ll probably take care of it with the baking soda.

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I have a plastic box with a living ghost of Super Kailash… Counting the third year. Despite spending a week drowned in a jar with water, cleaning with 95% alcohol, soap, baking soda and diswashing liquid, airing it for a whole summer, leaving it filled with various plain snuffs… It’s faint now, but it’s there. It’s not cross-scenting snuffs decanted into it anymore, but I can still smell it. Will try to rinse it with 10% ammonia water as a last resort.

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@volunge have you tried leaving it filled with ground coffee?

just a guess…

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@tobacco, thanks for the tip! I haven’t, but it makes sense. That is, to override the ghost with another, more pleasant smell. Thinking of it, one of the most effective means out of everything I tried was filling that box with homemade “Madras”, which was deeply roasted and had pretty intense flavour, akin to that of freshly roasted coffee beans. By the way, it was one of the very few occasions when I let my homemade to “mature” for solid 2.5 months, which was definitely worth it. It almost killed the ghost, too.

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I’ve had luck de-ghosting silver, but not wood. Now I only use non-scented snuffs in wooden boxes, except for a couple that I’ve permanently paired with one scented snuff.

…Actually, I’m reminded… for a time I intentionally took advantage of ghosting to accent flavor when I first started out.  For instance, a box that had held Grand Cairo was an excellent vehicle to add body to Tom Buck.

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@SHbickel yes I agree about your accenting flavours point. I liked to use my box purely for SPs and it worked well for Grand Cairo, Tom Buck, Best SP and others. The problem came when I used it for Royal George and Wall which took left a strong floral ghost that doesn’t work well with SPs. Another scent which really sticks around is Celtic Talisman.

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What about sea salt and alcohol? I know it is a standard for cleaning pipes, may work for a wooden snuff box.

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Reporting back on this. I tried various methods but nothing shifted the pervasive floral scent. I finally packed my box full of rolling tobacco and after a few days the smell had gone.

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