Suitable Solvents for Pipe Cleaning?

[moses]

Poor fella had "Listerine" water for years!

God that sounds awful... :rofl:
I tried some iso just today, actually. The guinea pig was a weird old Dr. Grabow I'd picked up a while back. I did a cursory cleaning on it, figured that was good enough, but there was a ghost that would NOT smoke out of that pipe. So today, I figured "Hey! I should give that old boy a thorough cleaning. We'll see if that ghost can live through THAT!"
So with a focus on stem and shank, I went through about 35 regular and a dozen or so bristle cleaners dipped in isopropanol. To clarify, that was how many I went through before they started to not come out black anymore. The ghost is faint, but still present. It may just smoke out now, but it also may be due for a trip to the ozone chamber.
Isopropanol apparently DOES do some funny stuff to vulcanite though. Fortunately, EVOO is not something I'm ever lacking, and it brought the stem back to a reasonably decent looking state. So, basically, Iso = success, just be careful around vulcanite.

 

[smokeybear]

99% ISO works great no problems

 

[ithelouniverse]

Ive had no problems with regular rubbing alcohol

 

[salewis]

I also use Everclear. I used to use 91% iso, however, even though they are about the same percent alchohol content the Everclear seems to work better. I also finish with Wild Turkey to give the pipes a sweet smell.

 

[escioe]

I've always used Everclear or 195 proof grain alcohol. In a pinch I had to use whisky once, but at 80 proof it didn't seem to evaporate quickly enough. I'd probably use the biggest ISO I had around before using anything under 100 proof again.