What's your Go-to Process for Estate Pipes?

[romaso]

Even new pipes I dip the stem in 99% Isopropyl Alcohol, & then rinse with water.

Never know where it's been, even if it looks nice (like a first date!)

 

[Etipton]

Get a nice shot glass of your favorite Bourbon or whiskey and soak the stem for a few minutes to sanitize it well.

 

[romaso]

My understanding is you need at least 75% alcohol (150 proof) to sanitize, so drink the bourbon and soak the stem in Isopropyl.

 

[jpmcwjr]

You'll never get a pipe, new or used to be fully sanitized with what we have in our homes.
I don't use alcohol on my pipes any more. So, yeah, enjoy the whiskey and leave the isopropyl in the cabinet.

 

[F4RM3R]

Sometimes I have a bowl or two before I deep clean and get a taste of grandpas ghost. Sometimes I don’t even deep clean(but I usually do)

 

[sablebrush52]

I recall you mentioning not using alcohol when cleaning acrylic stems with pipe cleaners - is there an issue with alcohol and acrylic?

Depending on the acrylic, alcohol will create micro fissures in the acrylic, weakening its structural integrity. The overwhelming percentage of estates that I bought that required a tenon replacement had acrylic stems. Actually, now that I think about it, the only tenons I've had to replace are acrylic tenons.

I clean acrylic stems with pipe cleaners dipped in unscented dishwashing gel.

 

[leonardbill1]

I do an Everclear clean with brushes and pipe cleaners unless I detect a ghost. Ghost requires a deeper salt cleaning.

Same here.

 

[karam]

Shank and mortise hide horrible stuff some times. Last night after finishing a bowl of FT Cut Blended Plug - a fairly clean and dry smoking blend - in a fleamarket Savinelli Grand Prix I found that twisted paper towels kept bringing up more gunk, needed 5-6 passes to come out clean while usually 2 will do. This pipe has been smoked a dozen times or so, so the smoking, heat and moisture loosened some gunk I missed previously.

 

[captpat]

The only step I add to the alcohol treatment is to start by removing most (not all) of the cake. I use 80 grit sandpaper wrapped around an appropriately sized dowel or carpenters pencil, do this step carefully as you can quickly get into the briar. It's sometimes amazing how much black gunk gets removed in a few strokes. Once that's done I do the alcohol/salt treatment (bowl and stem) for at least 24 hours.

 

[Merton]

I've been assured that these pipes have been very thoroughly sanitized and they have both been purchased from reputable dealers but I can't really shake the weird sort of feeling with smoking someone's pipe. I'm sure I will get over it but do you guys have any extra sort of things you do? I've heard of the hot water flush but is that literally just how it sounds? Running the pipe under very hot water?

Understandable, but you will get over it. If you bought from a reputable dealer you are okay. However, if it makes you feel better about it do the water flush, alcohol etc. One other question which might put it into perspective: when you go to a restaurant do you insist on brand new forks, spoons etc. Hundreds, if not thousands of people have used the very fork you are using.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

To be honest, my go to process with estate pipes is to put them on a rack simply to look at them.
Smoke them ? Not for me thanks.

 

[darkskies3]

I usually give the stem a thorough wash then soaked in barbacide. The shank will be cleaned with 70% isopropyl alcohol with a wide cleaning brush. Let dry for 48 hours, that's what i do.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

To be honest, my go to process with estate pipes is to put them on a rack simply to look at them.
Smoke them ? Not for me thanks.

Oddly enough given my general germ avoidance tendencies except for when in the great outdoors, after what I thought was a decent cleaning and knowing the procedure and how well they were cleaned before they came to me I didn't give a second thought to trying one of them recently and will be trying the other here in a few days while on a little hunting trip. My wife, "You know someone else sucked on that?", then "where is _______ and what have you done with him". LOL.

 

[trouttimes]

I understand people who have a problem with used pipes. I’m not going to try and change your mind. Not worth both our time or effort. Here’s my take…think about what briar is, where it came from. Think about all it has been thru before you. Then, think about tobacco and all it goes thru before we suck it in our mouth. Cleaning a used pipe is really a small thing to me. Nothing about this hobby is all that sanitary. Just watch some videos about tobacco blending and packaging. If you don’t like estate pipes, great. That leaves more for me.

 

[Gavrin]

You'll never get a pipe, new or used to be fully sanitized with what we have in our homes.
I don't use alcohol on my pipes any more. So, yeah, enjoy the whiskey and leave the isopropyl in the cabinet.

So are you saying always send your pipes out to get sanitized or?

 

[jpmcwjr]

So are you saying always send your pipes out to get sanitized or?

Not at all. I'm suggesting leaving the alcohol for internal consumption and getting the pipes clean and fresh with hot water.
Point was dependent on what you consider 'sanitary"—very clean is good enough for me with pipes and silverware. Extreme measures have to be done to kill every last possible germ.

 

[hauntedmyst]

Ignore these guys. Microwave them for 10 minutes. It kills all the bacteria.

 

[mikecronis]

SmokingPipes.com sets Estates up nice such that they seem new!

 

[RonB]

Any new to me estate, no matter from where it comes, gets thoroughly sanitized with alcohol. Sellers never clean them like I clean them.
After that I primarily use a warm water flush to keep them clean.

I also use alcohol even if said to be fully restored. I soak the stem in alcohol for a few hours.

 

[karam]

Going to get pedantic now, putting my old biochemist hat on: 70% ethyl alcohol - normal alcohol with 30% volume/volume water added - is a far superior disinfectant than 99%, the presence of water increases the polarity of the liquid and disrupts bacterial membranes. 99% merely dehydrates bacteria but does not necessarily kill them. Isopropyl is less polar than ethyl alcohol, it works in a similar solution - not 99% - but there's no reason to use it when plain old ethyl alcohol does an equal or better job. Unless we're talking moonshine, commercial spirits at 40% are not adequate disinfectants, old sailors didn't even know what disinfection was, they didn't get much water to drink so learnt to use booze for everything.

Troll hat /on

Hydrogen peroxide would be a better disinfectant but it will likely damage the staining, then you will have water in the pipe which, as many here claim to know, is highly damaging to the wood. UV light would do it if you can shine it in every nook and cranny of the pipe. An ultrasonic bath with 70% alcohol will both loosen gunk and disinfect, but some materials can resonate and shatter in them. Autoclaving is a great way to kill more or less anything but it will melt the stems. Gamma irradiation shouldn't touch the stem but it's hard to come by.

Troll hat /off

If covid should have drummed anything into any of us, it is that simple wash with detergent, and 70% alcohol are essentially as good as it can get in terms of disinfection outside of medical/industrial operations.