Nail Clippin Pipin

[kashmir]

Just found a great tool to add to my pipe bag. A large nail clipper. Why? Well, often times during a smoke I'll pass a pipe cleaner into the smoking pipe, to mop up the dampness at the base of the bowl, clear our a new air chamber there, and clear the dratft hole and stem. Makes for a much more enjoyable smoke. Especially if your tobacco is on the damp side or an Aero. Now I'll always use both ends of a cleaner before throwing it away. So two uses per cleaner mid-smoke. But with a sturdy nail clipper, I'm now able to cleanly snip off the offending tip of the cleaner, so I can use the same end again, and again. As long as the pipe is relatively short, which most of mine are, you can get a heck of a lot more mileage out of your cleaners this way. Just thought I'd pass along the tip.

 

[dlattim]

That's a great idea Kashmir. I've thought of doing that before, but have been to lazy to round up the nail clippers and put them with my piping "stuff". I could get 4 maybe 6 uses instead of the usual 2 for each pipe cleaner. For me it's not the cost savings, but just having fewer of those darn things mussing up my smoking table. You have motivated me to follow through, grab the clippers and store them with my pipe cleaners.

 

[wnghanglow]

I love the tips and tricks and sometimes absurd ideals I find on the forum. Thanks Kashmir I'm going to the store today I will buy a dedicated clipper just for this!

 

[cortezattic]

That's a nice idea for smoking on the go. I should have thought of it earlier because I routinely trim

the dirty tips of my pipe cleaners with a small pair of wire snips when at home.

 

[smokeybear]

Nice great idea

 

[lumberjakpipester]

Haha, I do the same, I have a nice pair of victorinox nail clippers that live in my pipe bag for just that purpose.

 

[lostandfound]

Good thinkin' Kash.

 

[ghost]

Very good idea, I'm on board too. Thanks!

 

[kashmir]

Thanks. Of course if the cleaner comes out half dirty, then I just use the other end. This technique is only useful when its only the very tip of the cleaner that is fouled. I know some folks buy a long roll of cleaner, and snip off what becomes fouled. I just got tired of chucking cleaners that were fine except for their ends. As usual YMMV.

 

[matchstickman]

Well, often times during a smoke I'll pass a pipe cleaner into the smoking pipe, to mop up the dampness at the base of the bowl, clear our a new air chamber there, and clear the dratft hole and stem. Makes for a much more enjoyable smoke.

Interesting that you do this. I do that same thing on my pipes that have larger bowls because as I tamp down through the bowl, the pack tightens a bit and I often get that stubborn piece of tobacco that gets lodged in the airway 3/4 of the way through the bowl, so I run a cleaner to mop up the moisture and free up the draw a little, making that damp bit of tobacco at the bottom a little easier to light and keep lit. I wondered if other people did this and now I know Im not alone.

 

[jbbaldwin]

I know some folks buy a long roll of cleaner, and snip off what becomes fouled.

I tried that - it didn't seem to do much for me except ensure that the tips of the cleaners would more easily scratch the insides of the stems and white cotton fluff would shed everywhere. Not for me. (Maybe my wire cutters were too dull.)

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Hey that's a good idea. Gonna have to get a new pair of clippers now

 

[captainsousie]

I have a pair of wire nippers next to my chair in my smoking area for just such a purpose. Once you clip them down to where you can't use the ends, just set them aside. After the smoke is done, fold what's left of the pipe cleaner in half and use it to wipe down the inside of the bowl. When I'm out, I usually have my SOG or Gerber multi-tools that work well too. I rarely smoke when I'm out in town because of my job.

 

[pipestud]

Okay, color me totally stupid. To my way of thinking, if I use a pipe cleaner and then flip it around to use the clean end to sop up the bowl dregs, that would mean my fingers and the stem at the suckin' end would wind up with the goo the next go round. And if I snipped the gooey end after each pass, then I wouldn't have enough pipe cleaner left to go through the entire bowl unless I used really long pipe cleaners. And the idea of little snips until the pipe cleaner gets too short to go through the stem and bowl is totally beyond my grasp. I can just see my wife cleaning up around my smoking chair and picking up one of those nasty, gooey tips that got away and asking, "What the Hell is this?" I get in enough trouble with her on a daily basis as it is.
Dadgum,this pipe smoking hobby sure is complicated.
Pipestud

 

[kashmir]

Well Steve, as the cleaners get progressively shorter, I just keep on changing the length of the stem, till by the end of the smoke what started as a long stemmed billiard becomes a short nose warner. That way I'm sure to use the full length of said pipe cleaner. Beats throwing them in with the laundry to recycle them.

 

[pipestud]

LOL!
Well, thanks for clearing all that up for me, Kash. I would talk longer but I gotta go online right now to find a supplier of stems I can whittle on as I smoke. :D
Pipestud

 

[kashmir]

LOL Steve. But kidding aside this is just to remove that tiny fouled bit at the end, so you can use it a couple more times. That's all. Course it don't work on long Canadians, etc.
I used to use scissors, but that left a kink in the wire that scratched the inside of the stem. The nail clippers - those big toe nail type clippers - give a clean snip leaving the wire straight and unkinked.