The Pipe Log-Jam

[lestrout]

I pretty much do the PC thang after every bowl. But since I rest pipes a few days or even weeks (and months) afterwards, if one of the racks doesn't have a designated space, I pile them up randomly, most often in front of the 'puter. When I build pyramids that get too unwieldy, I know I need to shop for another pipe rack.
hp

les

 

[sablebrush52]

I clean my pipe(s) at the end of a day's use. A few cleaners through the shank airway, a fluffy or two for the mortise, a couple of cleaners or paper toweling to wipe the chamber walls, a couple of cleaners for the stem, a bit of spit for the rim and mouthpiece. Deeper cleaning one or twice a year. Every now and then I get a bit lazy or forgetful about it, but mostly it's pretty automatic. Helps keep the pipe from getting sour in the mortise, and the shank/stem fit from varying.

 

[mcitinner1]

What? You're supposed to clean these dadgum things?
Pipestud is my kind of guy. They get a pipe cleaner every two or three bowls...maybe.

 

[woodsroad]

I clean as I smoke, running up to a dozen pipe cleaners soaked in TSP through any given briar as I smoke my way through a bowl. After I've consumed the baccy down to a fine white ash, I immediately run a wire brush on a Dremel tool through the bowl, then into a vibratory tumbler, then submerse the pipe in a bath of superheated, recirculating ethanol. Once I remove the pipe from the ethanol, I promptly set fire to it. Although this does a reasonable job of burning off uncombusted tobacco as well as sanitizing the pipe, I then move the pipe into an autoclave for six and a half hours. During this time period, I either take my daily beauty nap and or take pot shots with a BB gun at neighborhood children. Upon removal from the autoclave, the pipe is sent to my shop where a small contingent of Nepalese grandmothers go to work re-staining the briar and dousing the stem with Armor All and Lemon Pledge. The pipe is then ready to re-enter the rotation.
I find this to be sufficient.

 

[mayfair70]

8O

 

[philobeddoe]

I use 3-4 pipe cleaners per bowl as I smoke, when I'm done with the bowl, I dump out the ash I then wipe out the bowl with a paper towel. I never smoke a pipe two bowls in a row and they generally will go a week or so between smokes, that's why we buy so many pipes! They get a deep cleaning with Everclear when they start to turn sour, maybe twice a year per pipe. Also, I only remove the stems of my pipes when I deep clean, so maybe two or three times a year.

 

[papipeguy]

I send my pipes to woodsroad once a week. He does a nice job.

 

[jpmcwjr]

6.5 hours in the autoclave??? Way too short. You need 24 hours of sanitization.
::

 

[mawnansmiff]

My take on it is this...take a clean pipe and smoke a full bowl then immediately pass a clean pipecleaner through the stem and take note of the colour change.
Then take another clean pipe and smoke a full bowl but only do the pipecleaner thing 24 hours later and note the colour change is barely perceptible.
This is because the moisture has dried off leaving the once suspended solid particulates to settle inside the stem which makes future cleaning that little more time consuming plus having a negative affect to the taste of subsequent smokes if allowed to build up.
Therefore at the very least I would recommend cleaning the stem immediately after every smoke.
Just my thoughts.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[didache]

I used to have a maths professor who smoked a pipe incessantly even while he lectured - Gallaher's Rich Dark Honeydew if memory serves. His cleaning ritual was:
a) pipe gurgles

b) straighten up a paperclip

c) poke around in the pipe with it until it's covered with enough tar to resurface a road

d) stick the pipe back in his mouth.
Those were real men in those days!
Mike

 

[jpmcwjr]

Jay, you are right. A good rinse with hot water through the chamber and stem will remove even more of that gunk, then a pipe cleaner will finish the job. I frequently do so right after a smoke, hot water about the same temp as the chamber. Haven't had to deep clean a pipe in six months since I started this practice. Not for the squeamish!

 

[toobfreak]

Let us say you don't clean the pipe today and it cools and dries and Jay's particles all get stuck inside. The next time you smoke, won't that stuff all come loose again suspended in the next bath of moisture, and if you run a pipe cleaner through it then, wouldn't you get most of what you accumulated from the two smokings?
Or must we feel guilty now if we don't clean every single use?

 

[kanse]

I once experimented(ran out of cleaners) and did not clean my pipes for 3 weeks, just blew through them once I was done smoking. The quality of smoke did not worsen, and I have my doubts it improved.

 

[ophiuchus]

Well ... I mostly run a cleaner right after finishing a bowl. I used to run alcohol-soaked cleaners through every month or so. Not so much now; the pipes don't seem to be suffering. If I don't have a scrap of Bounty on me, I "ream" the bowl with my bare finger to keep the cake from building beyond a minimal layer of carbon. Blow. Hang bowl-end up in the rack 'til rested.
Where the log-jam comes in is that, once in a while, I'll have one or a few unfinished bowls sitting in the ashtray. ( Most of them do get finished eventually.) If they do sit too long ... well, time to do them chores. ::

 

[ashdigger]

Kanse, watch the movie "Twelve O'Clock High" .... in it after a pipe is smoked he disassembles it and blows through it. I have done this exact thing and I've not had a problem. I prefect to use pipe cleaners, but hey, I'm not perfect.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"The next time you smoke, won't that stuff all come loose again suspended in the next bath of moisture, and if you run a pipe cleaner through it then, wouldn't you get most of what you accumulated from the two smokings?"
Toobfreak, the answer is yes but with the emphasis on "most of what you accumulated". I prefer to box clever and remove it after every smoke.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jkrug]

After each smoke I run both ends of a pipe cleaner through the stem then fold the pipe cleaner in half and swab out the bowl. I blow through the stem to shoot any loose debris out of the bowl then wipe the pipe with a soft cloth and put it back in the cabinet ready to go.