Effective Tip for Cleaning Bent Stems to Minimize Damage

[sandollars]

I'm SORRY Mods! I have a hard time Capitalizing Conjunctive Words as it's not proper English. Even in a title! But I digress....

One thing that bugs the crap out of me when I clean my pipes (and I clean my pipes after EVERY smoke) is when I stick a pipe cleaner in my bent stems, there was a scraping sound from the metal in the pipe cleaner making contact with the inside of them stem. It drove me crazy knowing I was slowly scratching away the Ebonite or Acrylic and that eventually it might ruin the stem.

I have discovered over my short tenure of Pipe Smoking, solution to this problem: When inserting the pipe cleaner, as soon as I feel any scraping resistance I twist the pipe cleaner as I continue to insert it. It works every time, Even on the most bent of stems.

I hope some of you might find this tip useful as I have never seen it pointed out before. Maybe because it's so obvious but not to Schlubs like me.

 

[philobeddoe]

It sometimes helps to put a slight bend in the pipe cleaner, I do this by inserting the pipe cleaner in the stem about 3/4” or so and bending the pipe cleaner down a bit. You don’t need a large bend, just a small bend, this can allow you to ease the pipe cleaner through a bent stem easier, you might still need to turn it left or right, but this will usually avoid scraping. This can also help you to get into the bowl on pipes that aren’t drilled perfectly. *Also* Make sure you are buying decent pipe cleaners, as shitty pipe cleaners often have wire extending well past the fluff.

 

[stokesdale]

I'm SORRY Mods! I have a hard time Capitalizing Conjunctive Words as it's not proper English. Even in a title! But I digress....

One thing that bugs the crap out of me when I clean my pipes (and I clean my pipes after EVERY smoke) is when I stick a pipe cleaner in my bent stems, there was a scraping sound from the metal in the pipe cleaner making contact with the inside of them stem. It drove me crazy knowing I was slowly scratching away the Ebonite or Acrylic and that eventually it might ruin the stem.

I have discovered over my short tenure of Pipe Smoking, solution to this problem: When inserting the pipe cleaner, as soon as I feel any scraping resistance I twist the pipe cleaner as I continue to insert it. It works every time, Even on the most bent of stems.

I hope some of you might find this tip useful as I have never seen it pointed out before. Maybe because it's so obvious but not to Schlubs like me.

Interesting! I've never had that problem but then I use tapered cleaners and insert them backwards from the tenon to the bit with the thick end first. I think the thick end of the tapered pipe cleaners may prevent that from happening as it has more 'cushion' on that end, I don't know.

 

[Chasing Embers]

The ends of the cleaners can be slightly bent from being jostled around I tend to cut the ends off with snips and no scraping in the stem.

 

[BROBS]

I'm SORRY Mods! I have a hard time Capitalizing Conjunctive Words as it's not proper English. Even in a title! But I digress....

One thing that bugs the crap out of me when I clean my pipes (and I clean my pipes after EVERY smoke) is when I stick a pipe cleaner in my bent stems, there was a scraping sound from the metal in the pipe cleaner making contact with the inside of them stem. It drove me crazy knowing I was slowly scratching away the Ebonite or Acrylic and that eventually it might ruin the stem.

I have discovered over my short tenure of Pipe Smoking, solution to this problem: When inserting the pipe cleaner, as soon as I feel any scraping resistance I twist the pipe cleaner as I continue to insert it. It works every time, Even on the most bent of stems.

I hope some of you might find this tip useful as I have never seen it pointed out before. Maybe because it's so obvious but not to Schlubs like me.

always have done this. same way to get a pipecleaner through a plip. ?

 

[Buckler]

I'm SORRY Mods! I have a hard time Capitalizing Conjunctive Words as it's not proper English. Even in a title! But I digress....

One thing that bugs the crap out of me when I clean my pipes (and I clean my pipes after EVERY smoke) is when I stick a pipe cleaner in my bent stems, there was a scraping sound from the metal in the pipe cleaner making contact with the inside of them stem. It drove me crazy knowing I was slowly scratching away the Ebonite or Acrylic and that eventually it might ruin the stem.

I have discovered over my short tenure of Pipe Smoking, solution to this problem: When inserting the pipe cleaner, as soon as I feel any scraping resistance I twist the pipe cleaner as I continue to insert it. It works every time, Even on the most bent of stems.

I hope some of you might find this tip useful as I have never seen it pointed out before. Maybe because it's so obvious but not to Schlubs like me.

Thank you for sharing!!! This would totally bug me for the same reason too! I will remember for when I Aquire a bent stem pipe.
Cheers

 

[karam]

As already said you avoid the scraping with a slight bent, but what's the bother? If you ever get to see the scratches it'd mean the stem is broken anyway!

 

[Civil War]

Thanks for the tips?

 

[bluegrassbrian]

As already said you avoid the scraping with a slight bent, but what's the bother? If you ever get to see the scratches it'd mean the stem is broken anyway!

There are some people, respected pipe makers among them, that believe a perfectly smooth inner wall in the shank and stem make for a better smoking experience because it minimizes turbulence.
I imagine repeated scratching with the wire of pipe cleaners could lead to deeper indentions.

I doubt you’d notice it really but some people are OCD.

 

[sandollars]

[QUOTE="bluegrassbrian, post: 36144281, member: 15620"

I doubt you’d notice it really but some people are OCD.
[/QUOTE]


Yeah, That'd be me.

 

[jdb67]

I have a bore scope for guns that I inspect the inside of my pipe stems to make sure they are perfectly smooth. Ok...I don't really do that.

 

[mso489]

With pipe smokers who have many pipes, like many Forums members, they might not scratch an airway often enough to do any discernible damage, and for people who have one or only a few, they might smoke enough to cause some other wear damage before the airway became significantly damaged. Still, this is a fine point that might make people (like me) feel better about correcting for this, and it might really better preserve some pipes. But it is a fine point. I raised a similar point with my independent pipe shop owner, about whether bristle pipe cleaners damaged the airway, and he said the bristles are nylon and softer than the airway materials so do no damage. I think he's likely right.

 

[karam]

There are some people, respected pipe makers among them, that believe a perfectly smooth inner wall in the shank and stem make for a better smoking experience because it minimizes turbulence.
I imagine repeated scratching with the wire of pipe cleaners could lead to deeper indentions.

I doubt you’d notice it really but some people are OCD.

I appreciate that. I care not to scrape when running a pipe cleaner but that's just because I hate destruction caused by incompetence/laziness, not because I worry it'll affect the pipe in any way.

 

[eljimmy]

Funny that I just ran into this issue. As soon as a I heard the initial scrape the rookie in me tried to keep going. I then told myself that aint right lol. I pulled it out and put a slight bend at the tip and inched it through slowly until it went all the way through and I was good. I noticed BJ Long pipe cleaners have a tiny bit of the metal sticking out at the ends, can someone let me know which pipe cleaners don't have that, if any.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I noticed BJ Long pipe cleaners have a tiny bit of the metal sticking out at the ends, can someone let me know which pipe cleaners don't have that, if any.

I've never seen any that didn't. I always just bend them straight before I use them.

 

[eljimmy]

I've never seen any that didn't. I always just bend them straight before I use them.

I literally just read a review that White Elephant bristle pipe cleaners don't have the sharp ends. Who knows, I just know to insert slowly on nice bends now.

 

[Papamique]

I literally just read a review that White Elephant bristle pipe cleaners don't have the sharp ends. Who knows, I just know to insert slowly on nice bends now.

“Dills” brand is good on this aspect too in my experience. They also don’t shed like Longs tend to do.

 

[eljimmy]

“Dills” brand is good on this aspect too in my experience. They also don’t shed like Longs tend to do.

Thanks for that info. I just ordered some White Elephant pipe cleaners. Hoping that review is true, if not I'll get some Dills

 

[eljimmy]

The ends of the cleaners can be slightly bent from being jostled around I tend to cut the ends off with snips and no scraping in the stem.

This works very well. Thank you for that clipping tip

 

[anotherbob]

or take the stem off and go the other way