Any Remedy for a Bent Pipe that Will Not Pass a Pipe Cleaner?

kane · Feb 12, 2015

Hello,

I just bough this Elliot Nachwalter Briar Workshop Bent Scoop Dublin from Smokershaven on Ebay. It is really nice, but unfortunately it will not pass a pipe cleaner past the stem as the hole in the shank is drilled too high for the cleaner to get past the stem and into the shank. Can this sort of thing be remedied by a repair person? I have not smoked the pipe, and seeing how it's bent it might gurgle a little, but there's not a way to get a pipe cleaner into the shank while smoking it. The seller has a good return policy, but it's a great looking pipe and I would like to keep it if this problem can be easily solved. I have another Nachwalter Briar Workshop bent freehand with just as deep a bend, and it passes a pipe cleaner all the way into the bowl, no problem. On that pipe the hole is center in the face of the shank.

Thank you

tarheel1 · Feb 12, 2015

I agree with the bend in the cleaner then fiddle with it nice inserted.

anthonyrosenthal74 · Feb 12, 2015

I have a couple of pipes that don't seem to want to want to pass a cleaner. A slight bend in the tip of the cleaner and twisting it a bit usually helps it find its way.
EDIT: It seems I'm just agreeing with the above posters :D

xrundog · Feb 12, 2015

Some bent pipes are drilled that way on purpose. It's easier to line up the airway. Usually the tenon hole will be really wide to compensate. Or the tenon will sit high in the mortise. It's the norm on full bent well pipes. Seems like a center drill would have been easy on that pipe. But I've seen a variety of partial bents drilled that way. I don't like it either.

ravkesef · Feb 12, 2015

And every so often you just have to do a two-part solution: remove the stem and clean each part separately. I've occasionally sanded the tenon a bit to make the stem easier to remove when the pipe is hot.

woodsroad · Feb 12, 2015

My dog passed a pipe cleaner last week.

ssjones · Feb 12, 2015

Sometimes you can carefully use a needle file to allow a cleaner to pass. Other than that, you can live with it.
I have some full bents that won't pass a cleaner, they're still good smokers (and I don't smoke wet, so no real issue). My preference is that a cleaner can be passed. A guest on one of Brian's radio podcasts mentioned that 15 years ago, no one worried much about the necessity for every pipe to pass a cleaner. The advent of internet forums apparently created that standard.

kane · Feb 12, 2015

Thanks, guys. I just heard back from the seller, smokershaven, and it happens to be Premal Chheda. Mr. Chheda claims he was able to get a cleaner to pass by doing the tricky bend and twist thing you all are describing. He also said that it is common to drill high on a pipe like this, and that he can make a channel to help if I would like. I feel much better. Now I'll go ahead and fire her up knowing that if I need to he can channel it out, but hopefully it will smoke dry and I will also get the knack for the bend and twist thing, which so far I have not been able to pull off.

Thank you!

woodsroad · Feb 12, 2015

If you are familiar with the concept of a feed ramp in a semi-auto firearm, then that is what you might want to do with this pipe. Needle files are your friends here.

sablebrush52 · Feb 12, 2015

It's a fallacy to assume that all pipes must pass the dreaded "pipe cleaner test" to be considered as properly engineered. Many bents will not pass that test and it's just part of the nature of the beast. This is less of an issue with 1/4 or 1/8 bents. But more acute bents can be less likely to easily pass a cleaner without removing the stem.

buroak · Feb 12, 2015

That looks to be a nice pipe, kane. I would not return it just because it will not pass a pipe cleaner. Some of my champion smokers are bents that will not pass a cleaner. When they cool down, I remove the stem and complete my post-smoke cleaning.

mso489 · Feb 12, 2015

sablebrush52 +1. I would say half or fewer of my full bents pass a pipe cleaner through them. That's asking

a piece of stiff wire to perform nearly a U-turn in the shank. It's pleasing and a heck of a piece of drilling when

they do, but I sure don't expect it. When the airway gets a little more resistant that usual for that pipe, just

take off the stem and clean out the stem and bowl with a pipe cleaner, usually bent in two. I do not, not, consider

this a bad judgement on the pipe; many of the full bents are excellent in every way. No demerits. Two of my

full bents that do this trick are a Benton pipe stamped by Iwan Ries, a compact bent billiard that cost about

$35, and a hand carved bent billiard by my home state carver who just tends to do pretty stuff with pipes in

briar and Mountain Laurel. I have two Peterson bent brandy B11s that don't pass pipe cleaners but are first

rate pipes.

literaryworkshop · Feb 14, 2015

To answer the original question, yes, a repair person could enlarge the beginning of the draft hole a little bit in order to get the pipe to more easily pass a cleaner. But would that make the pipe smoke better?
Premal knows his pipes. I'd go ahead and smoke this one. If it smokes fine, don't go looking for trouble.

stephenw · Feb 14, 2015

I have found the perfect remedy for every pipe that will not pass the cleaner test. I have just stopped worrying about it. If a pipe smokes well, then it is a good pipe.

allan · Feb 14, 2015

First I'd like to suggest the 'Falcon" pipe cleaner. It is extremely narrow compared to a standard cleaner, say a

Brigham or BJ Longs.
I think I'm going to disagree with several of you folks on the issue of the non importance of a pipe cleaner passing all the way through the pipe without separating the pieces.
If one owns a Rad Davis, Jerry Davis or Michael Parks pipe (I own several Davis' and one Parks pipe) even though these are really bent, the cleaner goes through with just about as much ease as any straight billiard. Certainly, at least to me, this is an engineering feet that goes on my long list of why I enjoy the modern craftsmen over the ancient makers, excellent as they many times were.
I'm not saying the my Dunhill Oom Paul is a bad pipe because the cleaner will not go through-I knew this when I bought it and accepted it because at that time I loved the shape of it. But I do realize that when a talented pipe craftsman makes a pipe, that could be one issue that should be foreseen, at least in my opinion.

literaryworkshop · Feb 15, 2015

From the perspective the the maker, yes, certainly a pipemaker should engineer a pipe as well as possible. Being able to easily pass a pipecleaner one of the many little details that allows a lot of the best makers to sell their pipes for a premium.
But from the user's end, it's not the be-all and end-all of smoking the pipe. If it smokes well, it smokes well.

zack24 · Feb 16, 2015

Most pipes with that drilling will use a angled ramp in the mortise to ease that transition from tenon to mortise draft hole. If it bugs ya, a pipe repair guy can do it in about 5 minutes…
I'll throw out something that most will consider heresy- if you have a pipe that won't pass a cleaner, yank the stem when it's hot, run a cleaner, and stick the stem back in. At that point, the stem and mortise are both moist from the condensation and no shrinkage will happen in the 10 seconds or so that they are apart. The thing you never do is pull a stem and let them cool off separately overnight- the mortise will dry and shrink and you'll never get the tenon back in….The mortise is wood and shrinks and expands with heat and moisture. the tenon which is either ebonite, acrylic, delrin, or stainless steel will expand slightly with heat, but at a different rate than the mortise. After smoking, the pipe cools and dries and the mortise shrinks back to a tight fit over the incompressible tenon.

warren · Feb 16, 2015

At the risk if injecting a bit of humor: nah! Not worth the risk!
I was going to mention a suppository or Exlax but, I suppose that's a bit too inflammatory and not soothing enough for some sensibilities.

ssjones · Feb 16, 2015

@zach24:

I'll throw out something that most will consider heresy- if you have a pipe that won't pass a cleaner, yank the stem when it's hot, run a cleaner, and stick the stem back in.

JM Boswell told me the same thing a few years ago. He said the no-no for hot stem removal was a bunch of internet malarky (well, he used a little stronger term)

warren · Feb 16, 2015

I agree. I have never experienced a problem disassembling a warm pipe when necessary. I'd never heard that to so was taboo until I first visited this site many months ago.

Any Remedy for a Bent Pipe that Will Not Pass a Pipe Cleaner?

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