I would install a new one myself. I suppose a person could carefully scrape the old one, blow it out good and blast it w/ some carb spray a few times. Any thoughts on why it is fowling the plug so often? Mix ratio or oil brand possibly?

Some years back, a friend gave me one of those air-operated spark plug cleaners, but i won't use it on plugs that are used in aluminum lawn service equipment! One missed grain of grit will play heck with an aluminum engine. It sets on the shelf, as a curio item, of what used to be! A new spark plug is cheap, compared to damage from grit!

Solvent and some scraping should renew the plug. However if it is fouled up after only a couple of months then your time would be better spent replacing the plug and correcting the cause of fouling.

Ros: In a emerg situations EG: Chainsaw or Lawnmower becomes fouled out at your camp , sure reconditioning it with a little crocas clouth or emery paper and rinsing with carb cleaner solution and regapping will get you up and running . Long term buying a new plug every few yrs is the greatest insurance of best performance from your engine and pays for its self in Time and Fuel savings.

An older man gave me some lawn mowers, an old gasoline powered cultivator, a Honda lawn mower, and some other things.
When a friend of mine heard he had given me his old cultivator, something like a Mantis tiller, but not one, he was here wanting to buy it. We pulled and pulled, but nothing, until i screwed in a new spark plug, and it started, almost making noises saying: " Whew, that is much better!" He is really happy now. his wife told me he is digging up all of the old flower beds, and other things with it!

Rusty : Yep when in doubt a few bucks for a new plug take the guess work out of the equation lol .

FWIW I throw my old plugs in a jar full of carb cleaner. Seems to work well for plugs from 2-stroke equipment which are oil-fouled. But then I'm pretty cheap.

Evd: Yep the Carb Cleaner Treatment for additional Life with 2-strokes with CDI will give you a few xtra hrs . I usually only resort to that for back up (spare) plugs whe Trail Riding (Snowmobile) . Need New Plugs for Proper Tuning , but have done the same trick Evd for my Chainsaws lol . Good Point...Not Cheap Bro just Thrifty ! :)

quick and dirty fix for gas fouled plugs is a propane torch.

Spark plug fouling can be deceptive to the naked eye. Unless you want to guess and risk the possibility of another failure the best bet is to replace the spark plug with a new one. In 2-cycle engines spark plugs generally fail because of overly rich fuel/air mixtures. (This is common with the modified Duraforce if the jets have been increased in size too much) Oil burning (contrary to popular belief)seldom fouls a spark plug. An engine burning rich on fuel quickly builds up a carbon layer on the insulator and provides a path for the spark directly to ground. This can happen in minutes. Another problem not so apparent to the naked eye, is a cracked insulator. The spark can jump through the crack straight to ground deep in the plug. Sometimes a plug with a cracked insulator will spark in the open air leading the person to believe the plug is good. That same plug may not fire at all under compression due to the increased resistance created by the compressed air. The spark will take the easiest path to ground which may be a hairline crack in the insulator. I clean plugs sometimes on mowers but I seldom clean plugs on motorcycles or cars.

I heeded your advice and installed a new spark plug and it cranked right up, but I may try the carb cleaner route if I am caught again w/o a new back-up plug.