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Post by Plainsman on Apr 15, 2022 8:40:29 GMT -5
I started out cleaning after every bowl. Then I decided that was overkill. I clean every three or four now. Seems to be working and sure saves on pipe cleaners.
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Post by zambini on Apr 15, 2022 9:08:19 GMT -5
I clean them when it becomes absolutely necessary. Not exactly never, but usually less often than every five bowls.
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msokeefe
Junior Member
Posts: 464
First Name: Mark
Favorite Pipe: Petersen Red 03 bent apple spigot, Savinelli 310 KS
Favorite Tobacco: Father Dempsey, Presbyterian, Wilke’s Crystal Palace, Westminster, Black House
Location:
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Post by msokeefe on Apr 15, 2022 9:19:19 GMT -5
I run pipe cleaners through after every bowl, and an alcohol based cleaner dipped pipe cleaners once a month. I rarely smoke a pipe more than once a day. Wondering if I am doing the necessary cleaning?
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Post by sperrytops on Apr 15, 2022 10:11:46 GMT -5
If it occurs to me and when I feel like it. A pipe cleaner and a light scrape only. I never do the alcohol thing.
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Post by Silver on Apr 15, 2022 10:11:49 GMT -5
After every bowl.
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Post by william on Apr 15, 2022 11:10:42 GMT -5
After every bowl. I am a bit of an obsessive-compulsive....
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msokeefe
Junior Member
Posts: 464
First Name: Mark
Favorite Pipe: Petersen Red 03 bent apple spigot, Savinelli 310 KS
Favorite Tobacco: Father Dempsey, Presbyterian, Wilke’s Crystal Palace, Westminster, Black House
Location:
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Post by msokeefe on Apr 15, 2022 12:35:44 GMT -5
After every bowl. I am a bit of an obsessive-compulsive.... Is that running pipe cleaners through it or more? |
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Post by william on Apr 15, 2022 14:22:03 GMT -5
After every bowl. I am a bit of an obsessive-compulsive.... Is that running pipe cleaners through it or more? Just a tiny bit more. I take a paper towel and wipe out (or more properly twist it) into the bowl, then run a pipe cleaner with cognac through, followed by a dry one. Every month or so I will do a deeper clean, polish any silver bands, and rub strawberry-flavored Chap-Stick on the stem and polish that off. It seems to offer some small degree of protection against oxidation. |
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Post by trailboss on Apr 15, 2022 15:28:35 GMT -5
I run pipe cleaners through after every bowl, and an alcohol based cleaner dipped pipe cleaners once a month. I rarely smoke a pipe more than once a day. Wondering if I am doing the necessary cleaning? Pretty much how I roll. |
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rastewart
Junior Member
Posts: 360
First Name: Rich
Favorite Pipe: Freehands, bent bulldogs, and the incomparable Peterson 303
Favorite Tobacco: Mac Baren's Scottish Blend (Mixture), C&D Mountain Camp, C&D Bayou Morning
Location:
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Post by rastewart on Apr 15, 2022 16:41:14 GMT -5
I'm a fanatic, a fanatic I tell you. I clean my most-used pipes once every ten years whether they need it or not. 
More realistically, I run a couple of pipe cleaners through after every bowlful or two, usually. I used to be in the habit of wiping out the bowl with a scrap of paper towel as well, and really should get back to doing that; I think it helps. Very occasionally I'll take several pipes and do a somewhat more thorough cleaning, with Everclear or bourbon on my pipe cleaners and a light bowl reaming, sometimes letting some solvent sit in the bottom of the bowl for a while. That's about all I have time for these days. The cliché is you get older and have more time on your hands, but really it seems more like nursing along an old car--the more miles you put on, the more time you spend on maintenance and repairs.
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Zach
Pro Member
If you can't send money, send tobacco.
Posts: 4,359
First Name: Zach
Favorite Pipe: Too many currently, bound to change
Favorite Tobacco: Haunted Bookshop, Big 'N' Burley, Pegasus, Habana Daydream, OJK, Rum Twist, FVF, Escudo, Orlik Golden Sliced, Kendal Flake, Ennerdale
Location:
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Post by Zach on Apr 15, 2022 17:27:05 GMT -5
Clean my pipes? Define clean. I run a pipe cleaner through thoroughly after every smoke, two pipe cleaners if it needs it. Clean my pipes out with alcohol through the shank or clean the bowl? Maybe once per year, sometimes by-yearly or so depending on how dirty the pipe gets. I scrape my bowl cake down to a dime's thickness when it gets beyond that, and that's about it. Once a pipe gets to the point where the shank and bowl transition sours and ghosts, I will clean the pipe thoroughly. On average this really is only needed about once yearly. If I'm smoking the pipe many times per week, maybe every 6 months or so for several of my pipes.
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Zach
Pro Member
If you can't send money, send tobacco.
Posts: 4,359
First Name: Zach
Favorite Pipe: Too many currently, bound to change
Favorite Tobacco: Haunted Bookshop, Big 'N' Burley, Pegasus, Habana Daydream, OJK, Rum Twist, FVF, Escudo, Orlik Golden Sliced, Kendal Flake, Ennerdale
Location:
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Post by Zach on Apr 15, 2022 17:32:13 GMT -5
Define clean? You clean out your bowls, shanks, and stems with Everclear every single bowl?
Same to william if you would, define your exacting process and definition of what cleaning a pipe, is? I only ask out of curiousity. I can't imagine cleaning a pipe after every bowl and how fast this will wear out the pipe not allowing cake to build and heat-protect the briar. ( I see that William did answer this, so disregard.) |
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Post by Silver on Apr 15, 2022 18:37:05 GMT -5
Define clean? You clean out your bowls, shanks, and stems with Everclear every single bowl?
Same to william if you would, define your exacting process and definition of what cleaning a pipe, is? I only ask out of curiousity. I can't imagine cleaning a pipe after every bowl and how fast this will wear out the pipe not allowing cake to build and heat-protect the briar. ( I see that William did answer this, so disregard.) Thoroughly clean with a couple dry pipe cleaners after every bowl I smoke and wipe out the bowl with paper towel, as necessary. Deep clean once or twice a year (alcohol-dipped cleaners, reaming...). If you run a pipe cleaner or two after each smoke, the crud doesn't build up as quickly. I also visit the buffer, if the pipe gets dull or the stem starts to oxidize. I hate the way an oxidized stem smells, feels and tastes. |
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Post by william on Apr 15, 2022 18:37:35 GMT -5
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Zach
Pro Member
If you can't send money, send tobacco.
Posts: 4,359
First Name: Zach
Favorite Pipe: Too many currently, bound to change
Favorite Tobacco: Haunted Bookshop, Big 'N' Burley, Pegasus, Habana Daydream, OJK, Rum Twist, FVF, Escudo, Orlik Golden Sliced, Kendal Flake, Ennerdale
Location:
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Post by Zach on Apr 15, 2022 19:15:21 GMT -5
Define clean? You clean out your bowls, shanks, and stems with Everclear every single bowl?
Same to william if you would, define your exacting process and definition of what cleaning a pipe, is? I only ask out of curiousity. I can't imagine cleaning a pipe after every bowl and how fast this will wear out the pipe not allowing cake to build and heat-protect the briar. ( I see that William did answer this, so disregard.) Thoroughly clean with a couple dry pipe cleaners after every bowl I smoke and wipe out the bowl with paper towel, as necessary. Deep clean once or twice a year (alcohol-dipped cleaners, reaming...). If you run a pipe cleaner or two after each smoke, the crud doesn't build up as quickly. I also visit the buffer, if the pipe gets dull or the stem starts to oxidize. I hate the way an oxidized stem smells, feels and tastes. This is what I suspected, but just running a pipe cleaner after every smoke (what I do) I would not call cleaning the pipe. Cleaning to me is reaming down the bowl cake and running alcohol thoroughly through the shank and stem with 10 pipe cleaners or until they come out clean and completely cleaning the airway.
There's a big difference between a light cake which insulates the briar bowl from direct heat and building so much cake you can't stick a finger into the bowl. If you meticulously keep a bowl cake free it always smokes hotter to bare briar, hotspots and can cause chamber carbonization, and can more quickly lead to some fissure heat cracking around the bowl. That being said, everyone has their own methods and I've tried each in many pipes and I know why I want a dime sized cake approximation in my pipes and how much better they smoke and taste being kept this way. I've never had chamber carbonization. (Where the briar actually chars and burns the briar wood)
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Post by Plainsman on Apr 15, 2022 19:50:28 GMT -5
My routine is a pipe cleaner thru the stem; same cleaner doubled and run thru the shank; a Q-tip into the bit side of the shank in the bowl; same Q-tip into the bowl, tilted so it runs a tiny bit into the bowl-side of the shank, then wiping into the bottom of the bowl. Surprising how much gunk you retrieve thataway.
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Post by exbenedict on Apr 15, 2022 21:45:49 GMT -5
Usually every few bowls. I sit down on the weekend and knock out a few cleanings all at once.
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Post by turbocat on Apr 16, 2022 1:32:07 GMT -5
For those who don't smoke pipes made out of flammable material (wood) that trap moisture, I will add my experience with meer/gourd calabash pipes, which is mostly what I smoke. I wipe the bowl out with a piece of paper towel after each smoke and I take the bowl out overnight to let the gourd dry out once every three or four days if I am smoking the pipe a lot, don't bother if it's one of my less than 10 bowls per week pipes. For one I am smoking regularly, I will run a pipe cleaner through the stem and into the gourd to dislodge any tobacco particles that may be in it every 40-60 bowls. It's been working great for me for years and they smoke fantastically! My regular meerschaum pipes get similar attention for cleaning, no need to dry or worry about moisture though.
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Post by CrustyCat on Apr 16, 2022 7:12:22 GMT -5
I just generally run a pipe cleaner through mine.
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Post by cigrmaster on Apr 16, 2022 12:28:16 GMT -5
After every bowl, I clean the piss out of my pipes with BJ Long Tapered Fluff and BJ Long Tapered Bristle cleaners. I use 2 fluffys on the stem and then fold them in half and wipe out any loose tobacco or ash. 3 bristle cleaners in the shank and one for the mortise. The shank cleaners I double over and then push and pull it till it comes out clean.
I do deep cleans with Everclear when I find it needs doing but is rare I have to do it because of my cleaning each pipe after being smoked.
I spend good money on my tobacco and I expect it to taste great every time and so far my system works for me and my anal attitude towards a dirty pipe.
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Post by johnlawitzke on Apr 16, 2022 18:30:25 GMT -5
As others have said, it depends on your definition of cleaning. To me, there is light cleaning and thorough cleaning.
Light cleaning is done every bowl and consists of letting a cleaner sit in the shank and stem while the pipe cools. Then, after it's cool, dump the ash and lightly scrub the bowl with that pipe cleaner bent in half.
Thorough cleaning is done every five bowls or so as I notice a degradation in taste after 7 or 8 bowls without doing it. Thorough cleaning consists of disassembly and cleaners dipped in Everclear. Also, light cake maintenance with a pipe knife. I find that by doing regular light cake maintenance, I rarely need to use a reamer or sandpaper around a dowel.
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