Clean Your Briar Pipes the "New Way".

[Bowie]

I'm not superstitious at all, but when I clean my pipes, lots of chickens die.
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Well how else can you get rid of that fowl smell?

 

[captainsousie]

Yep. The last thing anyone except a total crackpot would want to do is expose briar to heated water and water vapor, like what always happens when one smokes. No more smoking your pipes or you will destroy them.

...yep, smoking temperature, pressure and sustained heat from all directions is the same as a dishwasher. This is why the argument falls a bit flat. Like I said in another thread. I've mostly learned to keep my informed opinions to myself. Today is a day I had a lapse.

I forgot that logic had no place here.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I have been a bit lazy the past few months with my water cleansing. Since being on vacation the past week, I've judiciously performed a hot water cleanse on the pipes I smoked during the day. Sometimes immediately afterwards or a batch at the end of the day. I can smell the ash and tars when I run the hot water through the bowl. I can taste how much cleaner my pipes are smoking. I can see how much cleaner the pipe cleaners are when I run them through immediately after smoking a bowl.

I've picked up tons of good info here but the advice for this procedure has been far and away the most valuable.

 

[sablebrush52]

...yep, smoking temperature, pressure and sustained heat from all directions is the same as a dishwasher

It might be if that's how I performed a warm water rinse, but it's not. In any event it's a false equivalency since the rinse is a matter of seconds, not minutes, and even if it were longer, briar takes an exposure to steam and vapor going on for 45 minutes to a couple of hours. Plus, the pipe isn't exposed to an overall bath when I do a warm water rinse.

I forgot that logic had no place here.

Really? How so? People ARE successfully using a water method to clean their pipes, time and time again, and sharing about it. That's empirical experience, not contempt prior to investigation.
I resisted for a year before giving it a try, and was glad that I decided to try it. Beats the hell out of alcohol alone. I still occasionally use alcohol, sometimes both when returning a pipe to neutral, or cleaning up an estate.

 

[BROBS]

I may try it one of these days. Like @sablebrush52 i don’t really see why it’s any worse than smoking the pipe in the rain or getting some drops of water on it.
I would worry on a few it might lighten the stain on pipes with a satin finish.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

You all think when that briar was being grown that it wasn't exposed to water? You can almost hammer a nail in with a briar pipe, its pretty tough stuff. It doesn't burn when exposed to lighting tobacco and burning tobacco. Yet some believe hot water would harm it. I find all this quite humorous.