Briar Pipes and Water

[jpmcwjr]

If it's written on the internet it must be true! If Cadogan printed it, it must be true.
I know, Mr. Igloo, that you feel very strongly about some danger of mixing water and briar. That's fine, and you can post link after link as well as copying wholesale articles to seemingly support your point.
BUT, I am asking for scientific hypotheses and/or personal experience that supports either the "Water will kill your pipes" or "There are good reasons for using water to really clean your pipes" or "Hey, it's a draw, no harm, but no plus, either".

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I store all of my pipes in an aquarium filled with water and kosher salt.

 

[jpmcwjr]

@cosmic- Now the big question is: Is it distilled water??

 

[tmb152]

JP, I've never washed with water, only wiped with wet paper towels, but I think you are on to something! I mean, the briar is a closed cell and you are not going to get any significant water penetration from a water rise. By rinsing as you do, you are mixing CLEAN water with the layer where the dirty moisture from the tobacco accumulates, loosening and helping to flush it out for a cleaner pipe. How can that be a bad thing? Water is the friend of briar, unlike meerschaum, water was necessary in its growth and it will always have a slight water content absorbed from the air. We are not soaking the damn thing, and I think alarm from said washings is greatly misplaced. I will start trying that myself--- sounds like a great idea, thanks.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Hope it is a plus for you and others!
I failed to mention, but I am sure most know: Hot water on cool pipe, fine. Cold water on hot pipe: Danger!

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Fuck it, just dunked my Chonowitsch.
Feels liberating.

 

[ashdigger]

After reading all the angst about smoking estate pipes...ALL of my pipes get rinsed with embalming fluid.
I figure I'm one step ahead that way.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Heh, Peck and Ash....
Does embalming fluid contain formaldehyde?? Either one would be a treat!
For very long term storage- here I mean centuries, as in a time capsule, would oil be the "solution"?

 

[irishearl]

Actually, there are times I reluctantly have to go so far as to pour a bit of rubbing alcohol into bowls to loosen up gunked blockages followed by some water. I have to be vary careful with the former though as it can remove stain or lighten it. Have had to as a result use stain sticks to darken some back up to baseline as a result at times. But, it was that or not smoke the pipes because nothing else was eliminating the blockage. At those times the alcohol is more effective than water alone. But then just overturn the bowls on a paper towel and let them dry over-night and no problem.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Whatever you guys say, I'm still using a coaster when I set drinks on top of my pipes. They tend to leave smoke rings. ::

 

[igloo]

I now take mine swimming as they don't get enough exercise . Damn thing are always resting on my couch if I don't .

 

[jpmcwjr]

That's funny, igloo, and cute and all, but your PMs are not. Kindly no more of your nastiness via Private Message. You want to be abusive, have the balls to do it in public, though that sort of thing is frowned on esp. by the Mods.

 

[igloo]

Why is it against the law .

 

[tmb152]

Well, earlier today before leaving for work I cleaned out the bowl of my London Billiard that I used to smoke some St. James Woods last night; this is one of my favorite best-smoking pipes. After scraping the leftovers out and running the normal cleaners through the thing, I gave it the water flush-out into the bowl and through the short stem (the thing is a long shank and almost a Canadian), then blew it out by mouth and wiped it off good.
Boy! I cannot say the pipe has ever looked, felt or smelled cleaner! Or returned to a clean-ready to smoke again state so fast! The cake in the bowl is ever-so-smooth and clean--- perfect! Even the briar looks fresher and revitalized. I am definitely a convert.

 

[thebadkitty]

Well, I guess if all these guys start droppin' dead from wet pipes in the next week or so, we'll know the naysayers were right.

 

[jefff]

I am going to start washing them just to be contrary.
Also, I am never going to read a wall of text. Paragraphs are a good thing.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Bullet points are even better.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yeah. And thank heavens for search functions! The word "water" does not appear in either of the lengthy cites, but does appear in the posts he made from one site, (repeated the posting three times)
And dear old smoking pipe's instructions: 1000 words when 100 would do.....

 

[pappap]

I had my cheaper pipes store in a box in my garage for a few years , when I brought them in the house to get ready to smoke after I retired I wipe dust and saw dust out of them then ran water through them and wipe them wit a paper towel and let them air dry for about a week they smoke great and I see no damage to them

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There was a guy at one of our first pipe club meetings who went on and on (a story that I have heard by others over and over...) about how he only ever went fishing with a cob, because he had dropped a briar pipe in the creek one time and had to throw it away.

I just stopped him and started in on, "what happened to the pipe."

"It got wet."

"Then why did you throw it away?"

"Because it got wet."

"What did the water do to the pipe?"

"It made it wet, you idiot."

"What does getting a pipe wet do to the pipe that is so bad?"

"You're an idiot."

"maybe, but you are a liar."
I have heard the "pipe in the water" story by so many different people over the years, and not one person will ever tell you what is so damned bad about getting it wet. Most people who tell this story have never even been fishing a day in their life, ha ha.