Alcohol Cleaning: Salt Vs. Cotton Ball

[matchstickman]

So I have a huge amount of estate pipes I need to clean up, and whenever I do this I give them a good ole' salt and alcohol treatment, but I have been digging through some old threads and read that some people use cotton balls instead of salt. Does anyone here have a more positive experience of one over the other? I would think that it would take more alcohol to get a cotton ball saturated than it would a bowl full of salt, but that is just my brain making a generalization and have no evidence to support that. It seems to me that cotton balls would be less of a pain in the butt than trying to fill a pipe with salt, but Im wondering if the cotton ball gets the pipe as clean as salt does?

 

[dervis]

I have used both. Didn't notice a difference in quality of job. So for cost reasons now use cotton balls.

 

[gwynclan]

+1 cotton balls.

 

[nsfisher]

I find it does take more alochol with cotton balls but it is worth it, as it makes the cleanup much easier

 

[rcstan]

It does take more alcohol with cotton balls, but then you don't have to dig and scrape the salt out from all the nooks and crannies. Every time i've used salt, some crystals found their way in the tenon. They don't taste so well....

 

[wildcat]

Excellent thread. I need to try the cotton ball...

 

[matchstickman]

I find it does take more alochol with cotton balls but it is worth it, as it makes the cleanup much easier

Thanks for the heads up fellas. I usually do pipes in batches two at a time, so maybe tonight I will try a pipe with each and report as to how it turns out.

 

[jchaplick]

I apparently have a different reaction, I think the cotton ball method is easier, but the salt works better, I have noticed that the salt does a better job at removing ghost, more of the time. If you think about it, its pretty hard to test this theory, if you use a cotton ball once, and then salt a second time, thats different then salt once...no two pipes will be ghosted the sam ect ect...
I have just noticed that I have to do multiple treatments more often to remove ghosts when using cotton balls, and less treatments when using salt.
Just my observation YMMV
john

 

[ssjones]

I think the salt does a little better job drawing out the tars, etc. But, probably neligible and not sure it's worth the extra cleanup effort. I do like the salt in that I can pack the stem as well. I fill with salt, than shake some into the stem and inject the Everclear with a syringe. I find getting that stem section clean is important to banish the ghosts. The cotton balls just don't work in that area. I picked up a 2 lb box of rough Kosher salt at a restaurant a few weeks ago. They had several boxes sitting in the office and I inquired why. Seems the salt was spec'd in a now, not used recipe and they were getting rid of them. Would I like a box? Yep!

 

[cortezattic]

I tried the salt once and I thought the clean-up was a big PITA. Now I use cotton.

I've recently decided not to do this unless a pipe gets really sour or bitter. I'll just ream

and wash the bowl using gin as a sweetener, and make an extra effort to keep the shank clean.

If I had a batch of estates to clean up I'd use the cotton. (Q-tips make nice shank plugs.)

 

[spyder71]

I lurk, therefor I learn :puffpipe:

 

[wildcat]

(Q-tips make nice shank plugs.)

LOL, one of my favorite shop tools! Great for so many things!

 

[nsfisher]

Neat tip; Boiling water is great for removing hardened cake from an estate pipe. Doesn't hurt it a bit and the cake comes out in 2-4 pieces.

 

[wildcat]

Neat tip for sure fisher...

 

[matchstickman]

Neat tip; Boiling water is great for removing hardened cake from an estate pipe. Doesn't hurt it a bit and the cake comes out in 2-4 pieces.

How do you go about doing this fisher? Boil water, pour it in and let it sit for a period of time? Or boil some water, pour it in, swish it around a little then pour it right back out?

 

[locopony]

cottonball and everclear. cheap and easy. very effective.

 

[matchstickman]

I have never really considered the salt treatment to be all that big a hassle, and if a cotton ball takes more alcohol to do the job and there isnt really a comparable difference in the job that they do, I think I will just stick with the salt for the time being because I have lots of salt on hand. I appreciate all the input though guys!

 

[slowpuffer]

I've done us the cotton ball treatment a couple of times. I found it didn't really do any better job than evening out the cake and thoroughly cleaning the pipe with rum and pipe cleaners. Of course, I have never purchased an estate pipe that was truly sour either.

 

[barkar]

So how is this done exactly? Fill bowls up with coarse salt and then pour alcohol over salt until bowl is full and just wait?

 

[martiniman]

I've recently decided not to do this unless a pipe gets really sour or bitter. I'll just ream

and wash the bowl using gin as a sweetener, and make an extra effort to keep the shank clean.

If I had a batch of estates to clean up I'd use the cotton. (Q-tips make nice shank plugs.)

Never thought of Gin a the sweetener :D

Just trying to learn the proper cleaning and I've see videos on salt but not cotton, how much achahol are we talking about for the cotton? wet but not dripping?