How to Clean a Long Neglected Pipe

[rigpiggler]

Title- added caps and reworded. Original:
What to clean your pipe with after 8 years of not cleaning the bowl

I have had 1 pipe for 8 years and the only thing I have ever cleaned it with is a pipe cleaner. What should I use to clean the bowl with and how often should it be done? What should I be doing for maintenance?

 

[sablebrush52]

Here you go:

pipesmagazine forum pipe cleaning - Google Search

www.google.com

You'll find the answer to every question about cleaning and maintenance.

 

[kschatey]

I use Everclear or similar nearly 100% ethanol. If it is caked up good though, you may need to ream it first. I have no experience with that as I am in the no cake club and wipe my bowl after each smoke or water flush it. I clean each pipe with alcohol once every month or so, depending on how often a particular pipe is used. I'm not a heavy smoker though, so this isn't too much of a regular chore for me.

 

[JOHN72]

Just today I was talking to the wife. She cleans some furniture with food grade vinegar, I mean kitchen vinegar. I don't know if it will be good for the deep cleaning she mentioned. But I was curious about vinegar for furniture. Although I did a test today, and I am using vinegar for the outside, to clean and then give pure almond oil to give an external shine to the few briar pipes I have. It came out clean and very shiny. Of course I don't want to say try it, or risk trying it. Well, I wish you a great cleaning job.

 

[mso489]

A staunch minority of Forums members don't build cake, but scoop out the ash and scrape out the bowl with a pipe tool, then wipe out the bowl with an abrasive paper towel, after each smoke. This maintains a thin carbon layer on the inside of the chamber but prevents cake from forming, so the chamber diameter remains its original size and you never have to ream your pipes. Especially beginners can do real damage to pipes with a reamer, because it's fun to do and people get carried away, can damage a whole rack of pipes in one sitting by happily reaming. Also, no cake means any ghosting is reduced or eliminated. If you love your cake, go ahead and build it. I like this approach.

 

[Ahi Ka]

You sound like me until I joined the forum. Now I have more pipes than weeks in the calendar. Good luck and hold on to your hat

 

[JOHN72]

Very much in agreement with the advice of mso489.

 

[didimauw]

We would like to see pictures of said pipe.
Also, How often did you smoke it?

 

[jaytex1969]

What should I use to clean the bowl?

Just having fun....

Good advice above. Welcome to the forum.

 

[FLDRD]

A staunch minority of Forums members don't build cake...

You've observed the conversations here for far longer than I, but are you certain that "no cakers" are really a small minority? Maybe they're more vociferous but I seem to be under the impression from comments here, that there are quite a large % that don't cake it up.

 

[FLDRD]

I have had 1 pipe for 8 years and the only thing I have ever cleaned it with is a pipe cleaner. What should I use to clean the bowl with and how often should it be done? What should I be doing for maintenance?

Then you can wait another 8 years...

 

[cigrmaster]

I would toss it in a fire and buy a new pipe.

 

[hyperstar]

Wash it with clean water. Wait until it dry. Smoke it. Keep it if it has good performance.

 

[Honkytonk Man]

Title- added caps and reworded. Original:
What to clean your pipe with after 8 years of not cleaning the bowl

I have had 1 pipe for 8 years and the only thing I have ever cleaned it with is a pipe cleaner. What should I use to clean the bowl with and how often should it be done? What should I be doing for maintenance?

I work at DSME in South Korea, they have several drill ships moored in their yard. One of them might be able to drill that cake out!

I think Sablebrush has answered your question, with a sensible answer.
good luck bud!

 

[rigpiggler]

We would like to see pictures of said pipe.
Also, How often did you smoke it?

I will send a picture when I get home, currently at work in the middle east. It has not been smoked all that hard and the cake does not appear to be that bad.

 

[telescopes]

You've observed the conversations here for far longer than I, but are you certain that "no cakers" are really a small minority? Maybe they're more vociferous but I seem to be under the impression from comments here, that there are quite a large % that don't cake it up.

People who use cake as a part of the pipe system have learned it is not worth jumping in and arguing the point. Neither side will concede and in the end the thread is locked after some fowl or diminutive words are said. Building up a cake has been lore for over a century.

 

[Briar Lee]

You've observed the conversations here for far longer than I, but are you certain that "no cakers" are really a small minority? Maybe they're more vociferous but I seem to be under the impression from comments here, that there are quite a large % that don't cake it up.

I will agree that years ago pipe smokers were taught to maintain a cake “the thickness of a dime”.

I can see where somebody outside in the wind might need a cake that thick.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion about cake.

But once you quit reaming pipes and start wiping them out, you won’t go back.

You’ll be so sorry it took you as long as it did to just maintain a slight carbon coating.

 

[OzPiper]

It has not been smoked all that hard and the cake does not appear to be that bad.

If there is not much cake, then reaming is not necessary.

The shank and mortise is usually where most of the problem lie.
Examine with a strong light.
If the shank and mortise of full of tar, a set of small drill bits or jewellers screwdrivers will help get rid of most of the
Doing this will save you a heap of pipe cleaners.
If the shank/mortise is really gunked up, water flushing will not do much.
Then use cleaners dipped in alcohol (I use a clear fruit brandy), isopropyl alcohol or Everclear to clean up the rest of the muck

If the bowl is ghosted or smells stale and ashy, fill with one or two cotton balls and alcohol. Soak for 24-48 hours if necessary.
Shove a cleaner into the shank first.
The alcohol usually softens much of the cake, which can be cleaned up with a couple of scrunched up kitchen paper towels.

The stem is usually the easiest to get clean - alcohol-soaked cleaners again.

There are a lot of products you can use to beautify the bowl and stem after you have cleaned the internals.
Lots and lots of threads and advice on this, so I won't repeat what's already out there

 

[Chasing Embers]

 

[FLDRD]

People who use cake as a part of the pipe system have learned it is not worth jumping in and arguing the point. Neither side will concede and in the end the thread is locked after some fowl or diminutive words are said. Building up a cake has been lore for over a century.

I wasn't picking a side or advocating one method over another; merely stating that as an observer on these forums it appears to me that the division between "do" and "don't" is rather in the middle.