You can also use regular water for a steam retort. The process with alcohol is described below, just substitute water for alcohol, repeat the process a few more times, and allow for at least a week or two for the wood to return to relative condition. Also, it requires the retort apparatus, which so many have been asking about that I'm considering ordering the components and making some for the members here.
It's super easy (but slightly dangerous). It consists of a 50ml lab glass beaker with a rubber hose attached to it, which you FIRMLY affix to the end of your stem. Plug the bowl with a cotton ball. I use a test tube clamp to hold it over the alcohol lamp. The alcohol boils, the vaporized alcohol shoots into the pipe, cools instantly, then shoots back into the flask carrying all the crud and oil with it. 3-4 times and you're done. If the pipe has a cake that was too hard & thick for reaming, this will render it easy to remove; then retort once more and you have a pipe that's as fresh as the day it was made. The trickiest part is making sure that the seal is tight, as boiling alcohol vapor explodes. Thus, I have no eyebrows, but I consider them vestigial anyway.