Cleaning Issues

Alcohol will remove the finish, but in my experience with alcohol-based cleaners, it takes a good while for the solvent to penetrate the wax and stain. Most people will just rinse the pipe out, or send a pipe cleaner soaked in it down the stem. What exactly were you doing? And, were you doing it really slow?

This is all about the pipe materials. Recently I was advised, with my first Meer, don't use alcohol. Alcohol was okay on the stem, though I only used it to clean out the airway, and this was needed. Rinsing out the bowl and scouring it with a paper towel seemed to drag out all the residual cake and leave the bowl clear and dry, with a light carbon layer. I'm not a cake builder, so I don't even own a reamer, though I would if I were regularly restoring estate pipes. Go very easy with a reamer; you can do real damage. On cleaning finishes, I'd be conservative. Some of the pipe carvers and members who restore quantities of estate pipes have experience and can be a little more assertive in sanding and using cleaners, but for most of us, the less heavy-handed the better.

That pipe master cleaner is for the airway and bowl only. The outside is usually only wiped with a damp cloth and polished/waxed if desired.

As for your dulled exterior, maybe try some wax, there is a no buff kind that is easy to use, available most likely where you got your clean master solution. Which I believe is just green mint flavored isopropyl...

Briar pipes and most others respond really well to rigorous buffing with a cloth, a stiff material with sizing, and a soft cloth after that. I resist adding much or any wax which tends to be an effort to keep especially briar pipes "looking new." I think it's good to let briar develop a patina and not try to have them look new. If you overuse wax or other cleaners, you end up with a residue that requires further cleaning. Pretty soon you are restoring your own pipes as if they were estate pipes. Different pipe people have different styles and agendas, and favorite cleaning materials and regimes, but this is mine. Don't overdo the effort to make your pipes look "just home from the pipe shop." I have my first pipe, which is over 40 years old I believe, and it looks pretty good and smokes just fine.

I agree with MSO489. Taking good care as you go is all you need to do. I've taken poorly cared for estate pipes and stripped stain and started over. It's generally visually rewarding, but it's a lot of work and it's questionable for the quality of the smoke. Soaking a briar in alcohol to strip stain can really bring out ghosts on the interior. None of the ones I have done have made it back into my regular rotation. If only I could send them to someone to smoke 50 bowls of burley through, I might change my mind.
Side note: I'd go easy on interior cleaning and bowl reaming. Too many times I have taken a great smoking pipe and reamed it back to bare wood, only to find it tasted much worse. Then I had 10 bad tasting smokes to get a decent start on a cake. I'd clean interior with alcohol and smoke it first. If it needs it, salt/alcohol bowl treatment. I may never ream a bowl back to bare wood again. Good luck.

Spit on a rag if you really need to get a bit of grime off the exterior. Warn water will probably do it. Some use a little bit of Murphy's Oil soap.

tkcolo: Trying to keep your advice in mind next time I have to clean my pipes, so far my pipet set and Senior reamer are sitting uselessly in my closet. Moreover,I suspect the aforementioned cleaning tools are no when it comes to Meerschaum pipe chamber cleaning?

Put the alcohol in a glass and drink it. Smoke your pipe while you are doing this. When your pipe is warm and your tummy is hot wipe your briar on the sides of your nose. Nice shiny pipe every time. ::

LOL Hiway!!!! ^^^^