I've often been told that I tend to be a bit too argumentive, to the angst of those who I turn to for education on anything. I could argue the likelihood that Albert Einstein got that a lot as well, but this would not be the best use of what little social grace I have. It happens to be my style of sorting out questions which arise when presented with ideas for the first time, and arguing them to their logical conclusion seems the only way to resolve their validity or non-validity when it seems that nobody else sees a given piece of conventional wisdom from my angle.
Because I began experimenting on my own with the care of my pipes before I discovered pipe forums (it need not be said that I am definitely not Einstein), I began cleaning my pipes differently from the way that experts advise. They say never to remove the pipe stem, just run a pipecleaner in, and then back out. Works great when there is a filter or stinger to prevent you from entering the chamber, and then dragging a mouthful of ashes back into the stem, but my experience has not been so good with my unfiltered pipes (most of mine are). After ending up with a blocked stem or the taste of ashes a couple of times, I decided that there is only one effective way of cleaning the stem, and even the shank of a pipe without further blocking it: the stem should only move in one direction, which is away from the stem bit. This would necessitate breaking the rule of never-ever-remove-the-stem, and I did learn not to do this while the pipe is still hot (nor to ever leave it off for more than the time which it takes to push a pipecleaner through), and so far I guess I've been lucky. That a pipe tends to goop up and ghost in the shank is something I considered when I decided that a pipecleaner should only move in one direction, so later I tried, without removing my pipe stem, running a pipecleaner from bit to bowl after a smoke. In most cases, tweezers were required to continue moving the pipecleaner forward and out through the top of the bowl. Later I began to wonder if this was really a good idea, given that my cheap pipecleaners (I've never seen quality Zen pipecleaners on the market which are long enough for so much as the stem of an average churchwarden, so I've resorted to the thin, but 12" "Fuzzy Stix") had little padding around the wire, and with the force which is required to pull it through I could end up damaging my pipe by enlarging the draft hole.
If you have been patient enough thus far to read this through and consider the above thoughts, then thank you, thank you, thank you!!! What are your thoughts / counter-arguments on them?
Because I began experimenting on my own with the care of my pipes before I discovered pipe forums (it need not be said that I am definitely not Einstein), I began cleaning my pipes differently from the way that experts advise. They say never to remove the pipe stem, just run a pipecleaner in, and then back out. Works great when there is a filter or stinger to prevent you from entering the chamber, and then dragging a mouthful of ashes back into the stem, but my experience has not been so good with my unfiltered pipes (most of mine are). After ending up with a blocked stem or the taste of ashes a couple of times, I decided that there is only one effective way of cleaning the stem, and even the shank of a pipe without further blocking it: the stem should only move in one direction, which is away from the stem bit. This would necessitate breaking the rule of never-ever-remove-the-stem, and I did learn not to do this while the pipe is still hot (nor to ever leave it off for more than the time which it takes to push a pipecleaner through), and so far I guess I've been lucky. That a pipe tends to goop up and ghost in the shank is something I considered when I decided that a pipecleaner should only move in one direction, so later I tried, without removing my pipe stem, running a pipecleaner from bit to bowl after a smoke. In most cases, tweezers were required to continue moving the pipecleaner forward and out through the top of the bowl. Later I began to wonder if this was really a good idea, given that my cheap pipecleaners (I've never seen quality Zen pipecleaners on the market which are long enough for so much as the stem of an average churchwarden, so I've resorted to the thin, but 12" "Fuzzy Stix") had little padding around the wire, and with the force which is required to pull it through I could end up damaging my pipe by enlarging the draft hole.
If you have been patient enough thus far to read this through and consider the above thoughts, then thank you, thank you, thank you!!! What are your thoughts / counter-arguments on them?