Reaming Pipes

[sablebrush52]

Mostly I just use a wad of paper towel or a few doubled over pipe cleaners to wipe down the chamber walls, rather than let cake build up. But If I'm going to ream the pipe I use any or a combo of the following:

British Buttner for conical chambers, Pipnet (not the POS Castleford knock off) for cylindrical chambers, a Pilot marker pen or shaped piece of doweling, wrapped with sand paper or glass paper.

 

[bullet08]

This..

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I mostly use the Senior Reamer along with a bit of patience. Since I started using the water cleanse method, its rare to have to ream at all.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Popsicle sticks work for scraping, and will never nick or gouge the bowl like a knife blade could. BTW...stick/jam a piece of oily juicy orange peel into the bowl to soften up the cake. Leave the peel in the pipe bowl at least overnight, then scrape away the gummy cake. Repeat, if necessary until cake disappears. Your pipe will smell great,

Never tried the orange peel, but I used to buy estate pipe lots, many of which had a soft, gummy, cake from smoking a steady diet of shop jar aromatics. I would run hot water through them and use a popsicle stick. Many times, that was all that was needed. If memory serves, I found that tip from reading about it in the Ephemeris. Haven’t done that in over 20 years, but it still ought to work. Maybe even better with the orange peel.

 

[FurCoat]

I'm simple. I use sandpaper. No need for reaming. Once cake layer is sanded away, and under control -there's barely a reason to use sandpaper, again. Don't allow a thick cake layer to build up.

Even the cake in neglected estate pipes can be sanded away, or gently scraped away if first softened. Just use a square bamboo chopstick, or piece of wood, to scrape away softened, gummy, cake layer. Popsicle sticks work for scraping, and will never nick or gouge the bowl like a knife blade could. BTW...stick/jam a piece of oily juicy orange peel into the bowl to soften up the cake. Leave the peel in the pipe bowl at least overnight, then scrape away the gummy cake. Repeat, if necessary until cake disappears. Your pipe will smell great, too.

+1 200 grit sandpaper. Its also the only way I know of to get that damn garbage Peterson bowl coating off of new pipes. Once done paper towel wipe after every smoke. I do take a q tip and Everclear to my pipes every six months.

 

[edger]

A penknife carefully applied. I like a little cake.

 

[jhowell]

Where would I go for something like that? What would I ask for? Sounds great!

Very much like a "fitsall". Listed on "Fleabay" - machinists triangular scraper - General makes a good one...

 

[jpmcwjr]

Buttner reamer, and/or an Opinel. Yes, it has a sharp point, so I stay off the bottom of the chamber.
As mentioned, a hot water flush keeps cake to a minimum as well as removing ash and gunk from the airway. You're left with a thin, hard cake.

 

[ChuckMijo]

As long as you wipe out yourpipe after a smoke or two , you probably won’t have any need for a reamer. If you mess around with eBay and buy estate pipes, you will.

 

[ashdigger]

I’m not how how I forgot this reamer when posting above. Maybe I had an aneurysm, but here’s a reamer I constantly use during my standard pipe maintenance/cleaning. It does a very simple light ream.

The Pipnet is for estates since I still purchase old pre-WW2 pipes.

 

[mso489]

I'm in the no-reaming brigade. I scoop the ash out of the pipe, then I wipe out the bowl with a dry paper towel or paper napkin to keep the carbon layer very thin. I have smoked pipes since about 1977 with breaks, but I have never owned a reamer. This routine maintains the circumference of the bowl at its original size and spares any scoring of the inside of the chamber. I know maybe a majority prefer building cake ... nothing wrong with that. This mode just suits me. Beginners should be very judicious with a reamer; you can do a lot of damage before you learn how to use one properly. A friend had his whole stable of pipes ruined by a friend who over-reamed all his pipes "as a favor." It's not that hard to do, if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[bullet08]

I’m not how how I forgot this reamer when posting above. Maybe I had an aneurysm, but here’s a reamer I constantly use during my standard pipe maintenance/cleaning. It does a very simple light ream.

The Pipnet is for estates since I still purchase old pre-WW2 pipes.

View attachment 51579

That looks like a medieval torturing device.

 

[bullet08]

I only team once in awhile. Usually soon after smoking a new pipe. The carbon coating in some chambers cause very quick build up of soft cake. After few bowls, I ream them out as needed. After that it's MSO's paper towel clean up.

 

[sparrowhawk]

I’m not how how I forgot this reamer when posting above. Maybe I had an aneurysm, but here’s a reamer I constantly use during my standard pipe maintenance/cleaning. It does a very simple light ream.

The Pipnet is for estates since I still purchase old pre-WW2 pipes.

View attachment 51579

Now that's s reamer!

 

[sparrowhawk]

I'm in the no-reaming brigade. I scoop the ash out of the pipe, then I wipe out the bowl with a dry paper towel or paper napkin to keep the carbon layer very thin. I have smoked pipes since about 1977 with breaks, but I have never owned a reamer. This routine maintains the circumference of the bowl at its original size and spares any scoring of the inside of the chamber. I know maybe a majority prefer building cake ... nothing wrong with that. This mode just suits me. Beginners should be very judicious with a reamer; you can do a lot of damage before you learn how to use one properly. A friend had his whole stable of pipes ruined by a friend who over-reamed all his pipes "as a favor." It's not that hard to do, if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[sparrowhawk]

That's the method I've been using of late. But it doesn't help with pipes that already have a bit of cake build-up. Lately I also lightly apply the Decateur pipe Shield after
each smoke.

 

[anotherbob]

I'm in the no-reaming brigade. I scoop the ash out of the pipe, then I wipe out the bowl with a dry paper towel or paper napkin to keep the carbon layer very thin. I have smoked pipes since about 1977 with breaks, but I have never owned a reamer. This routine maintains the circumference of the bowl at its original size and spares any scoring of the inside of the chamber. I know maybe a majority prefer building cake ... nothing wrong with that. This mode just suits me. Beginners should be very judicious with a reamer; you can do a lot of damage before you learn how to use one properly. A friend had his whole stable of pipes ruined by a friend who over-reamed all his pipes "as a favor." It's not that hard to do, if you don't know what you're doing.

yes it is easy to ream. Just go slowly and do not force it gentle force is all you need. Even a very hard cake unless it's an ancient estate pipe will clear out from applying friction to it.

 

[GlassMan]

I just bought the set of 4 reamers on Amazon with the plastic t handle. Actually fairly impressed with them for the price. Also got the silver adjustable one with the built in drill bit attachment. That one is way less versatile in my opinion. It’s the wrong shape. It has a wide point instead of a smooth straight wall. So it’s sort of only effective at one point.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I've never had to ream a pipe purchased unsmoked, but for smoked estates, I use a Case knife and sandpaper.

 

[BarrelProof]

My Foredom with a 1/4” Saburrtooth Whisper flame bit. But that’s because I have stones of, well, stone.