How You Clean Your Pipe After Smoking

[photoman13]

I was curious how you guys clean your pipe after your done smoking it for the day. I give it a quick wipe down inside the bowl with a dry paper towel and run a soft pipe cleaner through it. Not sure if this is a personal preference thing or there is a correct way to clean it.

 

[pstlpkr]

I give it a quick wipe down inside the bowl with a dry paper towel and run a soft pipe cleaner through it. Not sure if this is a personal preference thing or there is a correct way to clean it.

That's about it for me.

I only give my pipes a thorough cleaning about every six months, or when they seem to need it.

 

[photoman13]

I forgot to mention that I also have this carnuba wax from walker briar works (doesn't require a buffer) that says re-apply every 1 to 2 months. This is something I try to keep up with as well depending on how much I smoke a pipe.

 

[batdemon]

Sounds about right to me. Thorough cleaning every 4 to 6 months, otherwise just a pipe cleaner through shank and swab out bowl after each smoke. I also like the wax from Walker Briar Works.

 

[barkar]

that is all I do too.

 

[photoman13]

When you guys decide to do the deep clean every so often does it entail a salt and alcohol treatment?

 

[bigmike]

Always clean any estate pipe I acquire but I use "Oakheart Rum" or "Grain Alcohol" for the deep cleanings.
Mostly like everyone else, I use a pipe cleaner and usually wipe the bowl with either a paper towell or a pipe cleaner folded in half with only a deep cleaning every few months.
Never tried the salt and alcohol, just the alcohol.......

 

[grafikchaos]

When I "deep clean" I scrape the bowl down, and then use a touch of Jack Daniels' on a cotton swab and scrub out the shank and stem, then run a fluffy pipe cleaner through both to wick up the excess alcohol. If there seems to be an excessive amount of funk, I'll use a bristle pipe cleaner with Jack on it first, then do the swab, then the fluffy pipe cleaner. I wouldn't mess with the salt and alcohol treatment unless its a new to you estate pipe that needs to be sanitized, or if the pipe is ghosting on you and you want to eliminate that.

 

[topd]

Don't know if being around chemicals and jet fuel all my life has altered my taste buds or what, but I have never felt like I needed to do a so called 'deep cleaning' on any of my pipes. (I have some that I've been smoking for 40 years.) I've never had a pipe go sour either. I do as most in this string, just use a pipe cleaner or two after smoking, and wipe her down to air out. I do swab with alcohol every once in a while and use a reamer to adjust the cake thickness and that's it. I very seldom take the stem off my pipes. The less you mess with the moving parts, the less likelihood of breaking one.

 

[photoman13]

All of my pipes have had the salt and alcohol treatment at least once because they are all estate pipes. Some of them I had to repeat the process 6 or so times to get rid of the tar and ghost smells and tastes.

 

[photoman13]

Some times it is. I would say for you fellas that have 30 plus pipes it is a nightmare!

 

[spartan]

Lol Storient,
I don't think one person on here would throw away a cheap pipe instead of cleaning it.
Unless it was unusually horrid and should never be smoked by anyone. *cough* China pipes
Edit - You changed your whole post on me! lol
After my smoking if I remember or if I have time I'll run a pipe cleaner through the pipe to collect any excess moisture and speed up the drying of the pipe. I'll screw the paper towel in the bowl if I remember too as well. It's more of an every once in a while practice. Then hang up to dry.
Every couple of days I swap the stems with alcohol for sanitation. I'm pretty sure all of my stems are acrylic so no oxidation worries for me yet.

 

[waznyf]

As I have stated before in a thread I made a while back, I love to clean my pipes!

Every day before I head to bed I will take the pipe(s) that I have been smoking that day and start my cleaning routine.

Steps:
1) I clean the rim of the bowl with saliva soaked q tips.

2) I put a paper towel in the bowl wipe it out and then jam one into it.

3) Use my alcohol drenched shank and pipe cleaners to clean the stem along with dry it out.

4) I remove the stem, dry out the mortise with a q tip and then apply obsidian pipe stem oil to the stem.

5) Remove paper towel.

6) Wait half our for stem oil, wipe it off, re-attach it to the bowl.

7) Polish bowl with a pipe cloth and put on the rack.
This is what I do every night. I don't know if it is consider overkill but I like to do it and it keeps my pipes looking good.

 

[matchstickman]

Any pipe that passes the cleaner test gets 2 to 3 cleaners all the way down the stem and into the bowl, then I double over the cleaners and swab out the inside of the bowl. For pipes that cant pass a cleaner, I take the stem apart, run two cleaners down the stem, then double those cleaners over and swab out the bowl. Two other cleaners get run down the shank, then I double those cleaners over and swab out the larger shank opening. Guess I am kind of anal about my pipes being clean. :mrgreen:

 

[matchstickman]

that was cool. you made my day

I just figured that was kind of the way it was, comparing my cleaning ritual to everyone else's cleaning ritual, it seems like I get overly picky about the way I clean my pipes. Glad you found some humor in it, though. ::

 

[philip]

Like waznyf, I dip my pipe cleaners in a little alcohol. (I use Bacardi 151.)
A dry cleaner will go through the stem clean, but one dipped in alcohol will pick up something. Cleaner is better.

 

[deadwoodpete]

(+1) Philip on both cleaner & Bacardi.

 

[mluyckx]

After smoke, run pipe cleaner through it. Depending on how often I smoke that particular pipe, the first weekend of the month is "Big Pipe Cleaning weekend". It's where the estates get cleaned up and those that I have smoked a lot that month get the everclear soaked bristle treatment. No salt and alcohol treatment on anything but estates.
That's about it.

 

[photoman13]

I use 151 as well when using alcohol to clean stems also when I do the salt treatment

 

[russ]

I run a cleaner through the stem, fold a cleaner over, wet it with a little spit and wipe out the bowl, and then I rub the briar on my nose and buff with a soft towel that we used for my son when he was an infant. I do this after every smoke.I smoke 5-6 bowls a day, never use the same pipe more than once a day, nor use the same one 2 days in a row.