General Questions - Storage, Alcohol, Stems ...

Hi all,
I've searched Australia wide can cannot locate any "grain alcohol". Will Methylated Spirits suffice do you think? (as in for cleaning, dripped on pipe cleaners & threaded through stems). I know it will damage the bowl finish.
Is it ok to store old/estate pipes without their stems in place? I have some glass lid boxes with divisions but sadly they won't accommodate most pipes if I leave the stems in. Was thinking of using these but adding some of those little crystal bags of silicone you get that absorb moisture (usually packed with vinyl shoes, bags etc). Hint: Save all the ones you can find, shove your wet iPhone in a bag of rice & as many of those as you can muster for a few days/week and, voila, phone as good as new again - speaking from traumatic experience).
What would you guys expect to pay a non-professional workshop to replace stinking rotten old oxidized stems with quality Lucite stems, just a very rough guide please. I don't want a job befitting a Dunhill, but by the same token, I don't want those crappy little cheap Meerschaum ticky tacky placcy type the Turks throw on either.
Last one - how many bleedin' bowls do I have to smoke before a cake at least starts to form, none of my pipes seem to be getting any coating whatsoever! Should I dampen the bowl with spit or water each time, or is that only the first light-up?
Many thanks in anticipation of your help, Di

"Metho" aka Methylated Spirits is tragically drunk by many of our Indigenous & homeless old alcoholics. It takes years and many gallons to kill them - the chems they add are just to make it taste foul & some brands to make a drinker vomit it back up. It's fantastic for sanding wood as it doesn't open the grain, thins shellac (well it's actually the base you mix with the flakes to make up a batch)and it evaporates very, very quickly. I've used it for 3+ decades in furniture restoration. I'll give it a go on a scrappy, daggy pipe & see if there's any residual taste - it costs about $2 a litre (2 pints?)so is the cheapest available and I will be using it to remove old pipe finishes before refinishing.
Only alcohol I have here is Gin and if I went anywhere near the Ex's whiskey, he'd burn my dang pipes. It should be noted that drinking alcohol costs like our baccy - $50 for the cheapest shittiest bottle.
So Jury's out on storing with/without stems it seems.
Bootleg, I could always send you over some of my not-so-specials to practice your technique on (wink), if Uncle A doesn't return to his art soon'ish'.

Ah ha, I can ascertain that they're ALL ethanol - called "grain alcohol" in USA, "Surgical Spirits" in UK and "Methylated Spirits" in Australia.
So you woodworkers out there, when shellacing or French Polishing etc is it "grain alcohol" you use to get rid of old finish, make up new shellac liquid etc?
I just went to a crappy little private supermarket & they charged $6 for something the big markets charge $2 for.
Going to soak some old stems in liquid bleach, have magic sponges as opposed to sandpaper and have ordered Obsidian oil so we'll see how I go.
I had a gut feeling too that leaving stems off could creat problems regardless of how old pipes are. Reckon it's a better idea to strip the little partitions out and store with stems in.

Great article by Chuck, thanks - I reckon threads like that should be stickies and people add to them as they find/experience stuff. It would be wonderful to have all the tips, hints and procedures in one big thread.
I have a stem currently soaking in pure bleach with the shank not in solution just to be safe. Strangely enough tiny little bubbles started fizzing at the very end near the shank rather than further up towards the mouth which is the worst affected area for oxidizing.
FFS seems the only thing we're big on in this backwater must be ruddy great spiders & snakes - virtually ALL of our alcoholic spirits, be they gin, scotch, rum etc are virtually all 40% alcohol or less.
I just checked the bottle of Methylated spirits and it says "95% Ethanol" so that'll do me fine & dandy - perfect for rubbing down daggy old finishes such as wax, varnish (shellac) etc as well as the inside of bits. Checked the "rubbing alcohol" I have, and besides the fact it stinks to high heaven and evaporates a lot slower, it's 98% Isoprol (Sp?)