Rubbing alcohol and the bowl

jaq6q · Mar 4, 2016

Hello!

I was smoking my new "cleaned and sanitized" estate pipe. (or that is what the seller has said)

After I smoked, I was shocked to find out how much gunk this pipe had.

I had rubbing alcohol (91%) and kept on cleaning until the cleaner went out clean.
But I was wondering do you put pipe cleaner with alcohol into the draft hole, which are wood?

I was cleaning the wooden draft hole and it came out as brown.

I am not sure if this is because of gunk or the part of wood is rubbed off by the alcohol.
What do you think?

deathmetal · Mar 4, 2016

I use whisky. Although it's not my drink of choice, I don't mind imbibing it if the need arises (heh heh).
You might consider a pipe retort.

sablebrush52 · Mar 4, 2016

But I was wondering do you put pipe cleaner with alcohol into the draft hole, which are wood?

Yes. Clean out the shank airway and the mortise into which the stem is inserted with alcohol until the pipe cleaners come out clean. I use tapered bristle pipe cleaners for the airway to scrub out the crud. If the pipe is really fouled, a retort is a good idea. Once the airway is cleaned out, it's easy to keep it clean just by running a fw ipe cleaners through it after a day's use.
Also, don't neglect to clean out the interior of the stem as well.
There are dozens of threads on pipe cleaning an maintenance on this site. Just do a search using "pipesmagazine" and "cleaning" as your key search words.

oldseadog · Mar 5, 2016

<p>I use liquid stupidity in a bottle aka everclear. I just buy a small bottle and once a week dip my pipe cleaner in it run it through the stem and it is really clean. I don't know about rubbing alcohol. I would use a grain alcohol then you can sip on some as you clean

markus · Mar 5, 2016

I use Bacardi 151 rum (as do a lot of others on this forum) and find that it works really well at cutting the gunk.

music4cash · Mar 5, 2016

I wouldn't use rubbing alcohol, I use Vodka, everclear is hard to get in my area, but I wouldn't use anything that is toxic in my pipe, I'm not sure if it matters but just to be safe I wouldn't use anything that I couldn't drink in my pipe. You don't have to worry about messing up the wood, but if you get any on the outside of your pipe it will ruin the finish so be careful.

cigrmaster · Mar 5, 2016

I use everclear or 100 proof vodka, never rubbing alcohol.

sw0snuff3r · Mar 5, 2016

I use 99% rubbing alcohol and have had no problems. I can't buy high proof spirits here but I'd go with that if I could. When cleaning the airway I put a wad of paper towel in the bowl just to be safe.

cortezattic · Mar 5, 2016

:rofl: "I wouldn't use anything that is toxic [ie, rubbing alcohol] in my pipe"

You're using your pipe to smoke tobacco -- dosing yourself with nicotine, an alkaloid poison!

Maybe a molecule or two of isopropyl alcohol might get into your lungs, but millions of molecules

enter your system when you use it to disinfect a scratch.
I've used isopropyl alcohol to clean my pipes for years, and its only adverse effect has been to turn me into a jagoff. :lol:

jpmcwjr · Mar 5, 2016

Whatever you use, if the mortise is crapped up, q-tips are good for removing gunk, as well as pipe cleaners

jakegoodman · Mar 5, 2016

Everclear. I would love to use whisky or rum, but they are for my liver : puffy

:

foggymountain · Mar 7, 2016

Any strong alcohol works though rubbing leaves a bad taste. I liked a 112 proof gin.

ejames · Mar 7, 2016

91% Isopropyl alcohol is all I have ever used to clean my pipes.

frozenchurchwarden · Mar 7, 2016

Isopropyl Alcohol is naturally metabolised into sugar and Acetone, and your body is always producing Acetone.
It's listed as having toxic effects at 15ml per 70Kg of body weight, but the fatal dose is much higher. As mentioned, rubbing it on your skin is orders of magnitude more exposure than smelling it.
Since it is an unpleasant smell, just wait a few minutes between cleaning your pipe and loading the next bowl. It evaporates quickly and leaves no residue, thus people like to use it for cleaning.

ssjones · Mar 8, 2016

frozenchurchwarden summarizes it nicely. I switched from Everclear when Maryland banned it to 91% isopropyl alcohol four years ago. I never noticed any difference in smell (both evaporate) or cleaning effectiveness. Isopropyl alcohol is that and water, I figured the less water the better (70% vs 91% mixtures). It's cheap and readily available.
Some of the other ingredients in Whiskey, rum, etc. will not evaporate and I don't want those odors in my pipes.
http://www.lewisu.edu/academics/biology/pdf/isopropanol_91.pdf

cosmicfolklore · Mar 8, 2016

Yep, my state doesn't allow the high proof stuff, so I use isopropyl as well. If you let it set overnight, it all evaporates, so no big deal.

periquefreak · Mar 12, 2016

Where is everyone that doesn't allow the good booze? I thought it was only Utah that prohibited the alcohol

Rubbing alcohol and the bowl

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