I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this before, as I’ve never seen talk of it, and wanted to share my experience with this, in regards to Briar pipes.
Meerschaum would be fine doing this, just go real light with Cobs and you should be fine. I do this mainly on briar and meerschaum, haven’t had a need for my cobs.
I like to wipe down the chambers of my pipes after smoking, to maintain a clean chamber, with a nice thin carbon layer.
But in this journey, I’ve had a lot of pipes sit for long periods of time, or overnight that I never finished the bowl, and I’m sure many of us are aware how that can lead to a bit of tobacco gunk build up.
So...
For pipes I had left over night, wiping down later with a paper towel certainly helped, but the vast majority of times, there would be bits and pieces of tobacco buried in the carbon.
I originally started out with a toothpick picking out the pieces, but quite a bit of effort was involved, and for whatever reasons, I stumbled onto a different process.
Water and the finger...
So, if you are like me and want a squeaky clean chamber, after wiping down the chamber with a paper towel, but still left with tobacco bits and pieces stuck all over the place, try this.
Put a little water on your index finger, and I certainly recommend purified water, and then lightly spin/rub it around inside the chamber. This also works great just after smoking, while the chamber is still warm, which the carbon should also be a little more pliable to work with.
Then when you are done with wiping the water around, wipe again lightly with a paper towel, basically just to dry it up a little, then, use your index finger, spinning around and up/down, you will find with some fiddling like this, now the small tobacco pieces, also uneven carbon lumps of build up, will all rub out and you can make the chamber carbon smoother and more even too.
Most of the the time, doing it like this, the chamber is almost 100% clean, on occasion only a few specks here and there, that need a gentle picking out with a toothpick.
Have fun!
Meerschaum would be fine doing this, just go real light with Cobs and you should be fine. I do this mainly on briar and meerschaum, haven’t had a need for my cobs.
I like to wipe down the chambers of my pipes after smoking, to maintain a clean chamber, with a nice thin carbon layer.
But in this journey, I’ve had a lot of pipes sit for long periods of time, or overnight that I never finished the bowl, and I’m sure many of us are aware how that can lead to a bit of tobacco gunk build up.
So...
For pipes I had left over night, wiping down later with a paper towel certainly helped, but the vast majority of times, there would be bits and pieces of tobacco buried in the carbon.
I originally started out with a toothpick picking out the pieces, but quite a bit of effort was involved, and for whatever reasons, I stumbled onto a different process.
Water and the finger...
So, if you are like me and want a squeaky clean chamber, after wiping down the chamber with a paper towel, but still left with tobacco bits and pieces stuck all over the place, try this.
Put a little water on your index finger, and I certainly recommend purified water, and then lightly spin/rub it around inside the chamber. This also works great just after smoking, while the chamber is still warm, which the carbon should also be a little more pliable to work with.
Then when you are done with wiping the water around, wipe again lightly with a paper towel, basically just to dry it up a little, then, use your index finger, spinning around and up/down, you will find with some fiddling like this, now the small tobacco pieces, also uneven carbon lumps of build up, will all rub out and you can make the chamber carbon smoother and more even too.
Most of the the time, doing it like this, the chamber is almost 100% clean, on occasion only a few specks here and there, that need a gentle picking out with a toothpick.
Have fun!
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