How to Clean a Smoking Pipe?

[sablebrush52]

This might be obvious but it warrants being mentioned. When you are doing the hot water flush, remove the stem. Hot water will oxidize the stem and you don't want to create more work for yourself cleaning the stem.

Yep, that's EXACTLY what I do. I use alcohol for the Vulcanite stems, water for the acrylic stems. That way I get the best of all worlds and don't need to deal with repolishing a vulcanite stem made from a lower grade because the hot water caused it to go gray. And frankly, it's a better clean for the mortise.

 

[unadoptedlamp]

I third or fourth of fifth that water on Vulcanite doesn't do much good.

I throughly clean my pipes inside (shank and bowl) with water AND dish soap, using a shank brush. Suds everywhere and lots of hot water for a short period of time. They sparkle inside the shank and the bowl carbon is rock solid.

I do this with pipes that have horn accents, silver accents, meerschaum, and bamboo. A number of my pipes are also fairly expensive (+-$600) and I don't feel the least bit squeamish about it.

Not a problem at all, and frankly, I think it is far more hygienic than most other methods, but people will differ in opinion. I just found that alcohol doesn't do near as good a job and it can cause problems with the finish if you're not careful. However, I've been doing this for years now, so I'm quite convinced for my own personal needs.

The fact is, I also wash wood salad bowls, wooden spoons, cutting boards, etc. in exactly the same way. They also look great and last a long, long time if you take a little bit of care with them (dense wood likes to be oiled).

It's wood... not some magical material. I'm not sure where all of the fear about pipes and water came from. Just irrationally built up over the years, I suppose. It doesn't make much sense and my procedure has confirmed this, at least for my pipes... which probably aren't radically different from anybody else.

My hunch is that the whole water thing has been linked to the dreaded pipe gurgle, which is completely unrelated. Pipe gurgle is bad. So water is bad. Just a theory, but it's bunkum. And I can't tolerate a pipe that gurgles.

The only thing I don't do is scrub the outside finish. Hasn't been a need. But, the outside does get quite wet in the process. After I dry them, a light wipe with mineral oil makes them all look brand new like the day I bought them.

Water and suds is also fantastic for getting rid of the rim gunk build up. No need for the alcohol hand sanitizer or whatever the latest alcohol recommendation is. Water and soap seems far more gentle than alcohol and provides a much deeper clean if you just tuck in and clean it proper like any other dense wood.

 

[mso489]

FYI, you have the option of not building cake. Some love to build cake, but if you can take it or leave it, or would prefer not to, after a smoke, scoop out the ash; wipe out the bowl with an abrasive paper towel or napkin thoroughly; run the pipe cleaner through it; and polish the whole pipe up with a soft rag. Without cake, you don't need to own a reamer. You have the thin protective carbon coating that you need. And the chamber stays generally the same size on a permanent basis.

 

[olkofri]

One issue that I haven't seen discussed. Pipe cleaners seem to leave bits behind. Those little white wisps of what I presume to be cotton can't be good to smoke nor to have imbedded in cake. This would seem to be an added benefit of a water flush.

This is particularly true with cobs, due to the unfinished, rough lux of the wooden stem. That's why I always run a shank brush through afterwards and then blow a couple of times with a can of compressed air. I actually use the compressed air with all my pipes—briar and cobs.