Advanced pipe cleaning!

[jsiddle]

Ok, not really advanced lol, but I wanna know from you guys if I am doing this right, because some guy at work who is a bit older (maybe has smoked a pipe) asked who taught me how to clean a pipe...
I have bristle pipe cleaners and absorbent ones...
What I usually do is take it apart, and run the bristle through the lip all the way through the stem and pull it through, then use it to clean the shank, then toss it...
Then I take the absorbent one and do the same thing, except before I toss it i fold it in half and use it to break the lose stuff off of inside the bowl.
This is what I do after every bowl... is this good?

Also, is there a more advanced clean i need to do every week? month?

 

[rd02sir]

yup pretty much. Just keep running pipe cleaners with alchohol until they come out clean. I think i have a few pipes that are about due for a good cleaning.

 

[pipeshark]

After a smoke I will usually run a tapered cleaner gently in and out without breaking down the pipe. Them i will come back a couple hours later and take it apart and give it the business with an absorbent pipe cleaner. Stem, throat, and then fold and swipe the bowl. The real overkill in my system comes next when I smear some Chapstick stuff on my stems and let that sit for some time before polishing, reassembling and replacing in the box, cloth, or rack. Every few rotations, the alcohol, bristles, and olive oil comes out, but you get the jist.
Simply for cost reasons you may wanna go absorbent or taper for the after smoke cleanings. The only time I use bristles after a smoke is on my meers in the bowl to discourage cake. There are some GREAT articles linked through the homepage about cleaning that are worth a read. I try to read and watch all I can about this stuff, but the writers in this community are truly wonderful.
Luck to ya!

 

[philip]

Have you read Bob Tate's article?

Routine Pipe Cleaning

 

[ssjones]

DON'T let the alcohol run down the side of the bowl, it will pull the finish. I too would not take the pipe apart after every smoke. I do a deep cleaning annually, but just run a cleaner (no alcohol) thru after every bowl and wipe the bowl with a twisted paper towel to keep the cake from building.

 

[captainprophesy]

Thats pretty much what I do every night as well... and as Flyfishn said... do not take apart the pipe when it is warm, let it cool down first.

 

[kris]

I have some pipe cleaners &cotton-buds around here somewhere, and I'm not afraid to use them if my smokes start to get a little "funky"!

 

[cigrmaster]

kris, this is just my opinion, but I wouldn't wait until your pipe gets funky to clean it. Here is my method of madness when it comes to keeping my pipes clean.
I take my pipes from the day before, break them apart. I take a fluffy pipe cleaner and double it, run it around the inside of the bowl to even the cake, and then blow out through the shank to get any left over tobacco. I then take a bristle pipe cleaner and double that, and run it through the shank a few times. I keep doing that until it gets clean, it usually takes 3 or maybe 4 cleaners before I am happy. I will take one of the last bristle cleaners fold it again and jam it into the shank and run that around, it doesn't go all the way in but it cleans the space where the shank and tenon meet. Tar builds up there as well. I then take a bristle cleaner and run it through the stem, one usually does the trick. I then put the pipe back together and let it rest for a few days or longer. I always look into the bowl to see if there is any moisture at the bottom and make sure to soak that up if there is. Normally I see none but a few of my aromatics leave a residue so I make sure to get that as well. For my weekly cleanings I do what Bob does on his video, but use briar polish and obsidian stem oil for my vulcanite stems. I also use everclear for my cleaning solution. I never use rubbing alcohol on my pipes, I know many people use it but to me if I cannot drink it , I don't want it in my pipes.
In my years of smoking I have never had a pipe go sour or have a funky taste, to me a clean pipe is very important to insure that my tobacco tastes great. I don't ever want a bad smoke due to a dirty pipe, to me that is a waste of good tobacco.

 

[numbersix]

a clean pipe is very important to insure that my tobacco tastes great.

+1

 

[mkelaw]

Cigarmaster's got it pretty well down. You can't clean the airway in stummel unless you remove the stem. The diameter of the stummel airway is likely larger than that in the stem. Usually it's 4 MM or 5/32nds and a regular pipe cleaner isn't big enough to clean much of anything in that diameter. A big fluffy cleaner is good but a doubled over bristle cleaner is best. Use some hi-test alcohol once in a while on a doubled over cleaner or stem brush and you'll be amazed at how much gunk doesn't get picked up by mere friction.

 

[philip]

If you wouldn't like eating dinner on yesterday's dirty dishes, you probably won't like smoking a dirty pipe.
Clean is good.

 

[gmwolford]

+1 Phillip: love the way you put that!

 

[foggymountain]

I clean them with a dry pipecleaner when they gurgle, whether during the smoke or after. Every so often I take off the stem and clean the tenon and the mortise. I only use alcohol,if the pipe starts to taste bad. This is rare and I use strong gin.

 

[tomsmithusa]

Good to read posts.
I use alcohol-dipped Q-Tips in the larger diameters of the stem's tenon and the shank’s mortise.
Also, a good tip, is that I lightly rub the top of the bowl's horizontal surface with an alcohol dampened cotton cloth or paper table napkin. That keeps the bowl looking new.

 

[pstlpkr]

Welcome aboard Tom!

You might try saliva rather than alcohol on the rim of your pipe and in the mortis.

The alcohol will remove the wax and can damage the finish.

The build up on the rim will come off very easily, so too the mortise will clean nicely as well, and you won't run the risk of damaging your pipe's finish.
::

 

[tomsmithusa]

Lawrence . . . Thank you for your warm welcome!
I’ve not had alcohol damage briars that are simply stained ( no ‘varnish’ of any kind) – maybe if it’s heavily applied alcohol it might start to bleach out the staining, otherwise it’s fine to use. I should have made that distinction.
That saliva tip I’ve not heard before, so thank you. That’ll help on a couple legacy pipes that do have a clear-coat varnish of some sorts.
I don’t like the wood drying out too much and cracking, though, especially near the bowl’s rim as it’s wont to do, so I use peanut oil.
Someone must have mentioned it on this forum, before, but I find peanut oil a much better flavor in the pipe and unbeatable restorative aspects than olive oil with wood and acrylic stems (many types of stems).
I’d like to take credit for that, but an old pipe shop owner told me that years ago, and it was a few years after I finally tried it and was sold.

 

[nsfisher]

My pipes get a bristle cleaner only once or twice a year. I don't like em or think they are necessary for routine cleaning. I also think they are too rough inside the stem to be used regularly.

 

[smeigs]

I only used olive oil about 1 or 2 times. I brought this up at the local pipe club meeting and basically got in big trouble for doing this haha. The head guy who runs the club has been restoring, selling and smoking pipes for about 40 years. He told me to NEVER use a food grade product on any part of your pipe. He stated, that if you do use an olive oil or food grade oil on your pipe that it needs to be oil cured (which is a hell of a process and you need the right equipment). Because it is a food product, over time the oil will spoil, creating very negative affects on your pipe. He had me sit my pipe in a brown paper bag, wrapped with paper towels and place it in my car under the seat so it was able to "sweat" out the olive oil. I was amazed how well it worked. Just thought I would share what I learned about that stuff when it comes to cleaning.

 

[tomsmithusa]

He told me to NEVER use a food grade product on any part of your pipe. He stated, that if you do use an olive oil or food grade oil on your pipe that it needs to be oil cured (which is a hell of a process and you need the right equipment).

Ha! Well, if you want one argument get two experts in the room.
The fellow I was referring to is a neighbor, owned two pipe shops in the S.F. Bay Area, and has repaired and made pipes from early ‘70s to the present day. He was out walking his dogs this morning, and we chatted about it, again, as I was coming back in from an errand. He’s never had peanut oil on pipes becoming rancid or causing problems. I’ve done it under a year without any notice of it turning rancid.
Maybe other vegetable oils, or maybe it’ll go rancid if you have excess oil in addition to an unused pipe where it can sit for a long time . . . I don’t know.
I think the peanut oil evaporates off well before ever going rancid – it lasts much longer than other vegetable oils -- and store/refined peanut oil has a high flash point . . . something like 450.

 

[smeigs]

Thats great info tomsmithusa, I have never heard of the peanut oil being used. I will have to check into it and if it works I will have to give it a shot!