Anyone Else Love Maintenance Day?
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I believe you when you say you break them down after every smoke but I don't have your patience for that (seriously impressed with your ability to just sit and hand polish stems as good as any one with power tools) and I know it's an unwarranted fear, but I'd be afraid of making the tenon lose. Plus, I like using my buffer on the bowls. It's amazing to me how less pressure creates more shine.
Your concern is not unwarranted. Excessive removal of the stem is not a good thing. Done carefully, as I am confident Duane does, minimizes potential for a mis-fit.
I fantasize long evenings cleaning and polishing with great music in the background or an audio book. However, most of my maintenance is done on the fly after one smoke and/or on the way to another. I'm 100% on board with the idea that a well polished old pipe is even more grand than a well-buffed new one. I like the gleam of good maintenance with the hints of rigorous use. Someone once said, he wanted to be an old man with a good face. Same idea.
I do a regular clean after each smoke and a hand buff with my magic cloth. Keeps them looking good and do a full blown waxing 2 times a year. I have been doing wood working since middle school so taking care of wooden things with wiping and waxing is ndb to me. I enjoy looking at them and dont mind the extra effort to keep them looking good.
Can’t say I enjoy it the way the OP does. Well, I enjoy being finished and I enjoy smoking out of a clean bowl & stem - but the actual dirty work... no. I’ve toyed around with offering my teens a little spending cash to take over the task, but I’m not ready to hand over some of the finer pieces, nor a bottle of 151 ? So, out of a rotation of 108 pipes, I smoke about half the collection 2-4 times each every 2 months or so, then call up a good playlist and settle in for 3-4hrs of maintenance. That said, once I’m done, walking into the pipe closet and having nearly every pipe fresh and ready is my definition of true wealth!
I can remember being 15 and front-lawn camping with a friend and a couple half-pints of 151 (it even came with a big shot-glass-sized cap. Then stalking around the neighborhood like a couple of red-assed baboons! Back then I didn't even get hangovers.
If money wasn't a concern and pipe shops with repair staff were still a thing, I'd just pay to have my pipes professionally cleaned every 50-100 smokes or so.
I don't use wax or polish on any of my pipes, though I know some do so to good advantage. I just don't want the residue, that makes it more compulsory to do it regularly. I'd rather polish with a cloth and apply anything else only if needed on a stain or char.
I usually clean my pipes every time I order new pipe cleaners. I use about 30-40 different pipes a month so I go through a bunch of cleaners. lot of pipes.....yeah. But most are early pipes I bought when I was transitioning from cigars to pipes. Very cheap and replaced as needed. I haven't bought a new pipes in ages. When I do it's usually an estate.
NO!!!!! I HATE doing maintenance. As a result I clean after every smoke, and polish whenever the pipe starts looking like it needs it.
I wish I could apply the some philosophy to picking up dog shit (cleaning after each dump that is, everyone knows you can't polish a turd), but for some reason I let it pile up, only to be unearthed as we speak by the feet and feet of melting snow. Spring in Alaska should really be called the Shit Apocalypse.
I wish I could apply the some philosophy to picking up dog shit (cleaning after each dump that is, everyone knows you can't polish a turd), but for some reason I let it pile up, only to be unearthed as we speak by the feet and feet of melting snow. Spring in Alaska should really be called the Shit Apocalypse.
Duly cleaning the pipe thoroughly after each smoke, and having no cakes means no maintenance days.
Pipes are like guns: the longer you leave the fouling in there the harder they are to clean later.
Pipes are like guns: the longer you leave the fouling in there the harder they are to clean later.
I love maintenance day! It’s only maybe once a month for me...pipes get a cleaner or three after each smoke, but once a month or so they get the treatment with alcohol of some sort, maybe a ream if they need it, and a light shining up.
I only have 8 pipes, even after 12 years of smoking...so they get a bit of a workout.
I only have 8 pipes, even after 12 years of smoking...so they get a bit of a workout.
I don't let more than 3 pipes be dirty at the same time. Once I get three, they get cleaned up. Sometimes I do them same day or sometimes the next day. I will not smoke a dirty pipe. Once I smoke a pipe,I consider it dirty and clean it. I am very meticulous in how I clean and honestly I hate cleaning my pipes. If I could find an official pipe cleaner for hire I would hire them. For a number of years both of my sons lived with me and I made them clean them. They would bitch and moan but when they wanted money for whatever, I would remind them of their cleaning duties. They have long left the house so I have to do it. I spend good money on my tobacco and I want it to taste as good as possible.
Dirty pipes will ruin a smoke faster than anything I have run into.
Dirty pipes will ruin a smoke faster than anything I have run into.
Out of boredom I did discover small dings in briar can be lifted with water and a lighter when I was cleaning last night.
Out of the 18 pipes I own, I only smoke 3-4 of them. The rest were estates that I take out my cleaning fever on. I do enjoy the maintenaince, but I don't smoke enough to need to buff all that often...thus the bringing back the dead estate pipe.
I can’t smoke a foul dirty pipe and I dislike smoking a clean pipe. Go figure.
So I try to keep it in the sweet zone for as long as possible. Light daily maintenance and very few deep cleans.
So I try to keep it in the sweet zone for as long as possible. Light daily maintenance and very few deep cleans.
An old trick for lifting dents and dings out of gunstocks and pool cues as well.
I hate cleaning them if Murphy’s oil soap is involved, which it usually is since my pipes get a bit dirty if I smoke them while working in the shop.
If Murphy’s smelled like Hoppes #9, I wouldn’t mind it too much.
I cleaned this Peterson for an aspiring young pipe smoker today. It was gifted to him by a customer of his along with some miscellaneous tobaccos, and it was in dismal shape. It had a fully oxidized stem, a silver escutcheon that had turned green-gray, a bowl rim that was covered in so much lava that I couldn’t tell if it was charred, and a gummy coating/cake inside the chamber that was encrusted with dottle and scrapped off like thick tar. He was very proud to show this pipe to me and when I saw it, I simply couldn’t let this be, so I offered to clean it for him. Two hours later, this is what the pipe looked like. Needless to say the young man was extremely happy with his refurbished pipe. I performed this service on a pipe that wasn’t my own...so yeah, pipe maintenance seems to be in my blood. Sorry, but I didn’t take any before pictures.
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