Do I clean my pipe correct?
- Thread starter geirove
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How often do you do a thorough clean, cake maintenance, mortise and tenon, etc.? In your shoes I'd use the search function on the forum. Plenty of differing opinions will be found.
I'd say your doing okay, besides the pipe will let you know when it needs a more thorough cleaning. How will you know? The tobacco taste will change and not for the better.
Just run them through the dishwasher, pots and pans setting. And, if it doesn't get all of that cake out of there, just leave it in for another go. This works with dried peanut butter on spoons also.
Nah, the thing about dried peanut butter should have been the clue. Dishwashers suck at cleaning pipes. You have to put them in the laundry washer, preferably with a load of towels. My wife loves it when I do this.
DO NOT USE NAILs, the wood is brittle and could split apart. These are delicate tools, creations, works of art. Don't pound on them like a neanderthal, use screws.
I washed a pipe in the laundry, once. I was so embarrassed I didn't even post abut it.
'Course, now I've told on myself.
It was a Grabow Duke. The little one. It wasn't all that great a pipe to begin with, but it survived just fine after it was dry.
Not that I would recommend that...
'Course, now I've told on myself.
It was a Grabow Duke. The little one. It wasn't all that great a pipe to begin with, but it survived just fine after it was dry.
Not that I would recommend that...
Having just joined, I love the seriousness of discussion here. I'd go for a large bore drill bit. Bowl will be clean as a whistle. JK 
I do the same as you for my briar, pull it apart run paper towel over tenon and pipecleaner through. let it rest till the next day. I have a cob I got a month ago and I never clean it aside from occasion pull apart to blow out moisture or debris
. it is my daily smoker and no issues yet.
I do the same as you for my briar, pull it apart run paper towel over tenon and pipecleaner through. let it rest till the next day. I have a cob I got a month ago and I never clean it aside from occasion pull apart to blow out moisture or debris. it is my daily smoker and no issues yet.
I love this place. So much. Lol. The best part of this thread, and the worst part, is that I can't find the thread I'd like to find. But then again, it's not my story to tell. Let's just say I'm pretty sure that at least some makes of pipes can take quite a rough cleaning and survive.
Actually, a gear clamp (hose clamp) works better. Easier to get apart next time.
In all seriousness:
Your note about the paper towel, for me, would depend on how much cake is in the pipe. If it's a fairly new pipe I don't use a paper towel, but use a twisted pipe cleaner to swab out the bowl. Once a nice cake is formed, or in a Meer where you don't want cake, that's when a firm cleaning with a twisted paper towel.
I've found the best way to really clean them good, and get the cake out. When you are done smoking, tap out all of the ash and dottle, grab a butane torch, and continue to smoke the cake, until you are just down to the briar. Delicious.
If it works fine for you, it is all good, but many would say smoke other bowls and rest a day.
Once every x number of smokes, pull the stem and clean out the gunk that accumulates in the bottom of the mortise. X is a number between about ten and fifty. A brandied Q tip works fine unless it has hardened.
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