Pipe cleaning beyond running a pipe cleaner

[Kentos]

So I have made it through a year of solid pipe smoking. I have maybe 15 pipes in my daily rotation, and none of them have had more than a pipe cleaner,or three, through them after each smoke. Very few of them have had the stem pulled off either.

None of them seem particularly stinky, grungy or filthy, and none have any excess cake.

At what point do they need a deep clean? What is a deep clean anyway?

What is your maintenance schedule for the pipes in your daily rotation?

 

[triplepass]

Same here. I smoke 4 to 6 bowls a day in different pipes then let them rest for several days before I smoke them again. Meers and cobs I’ll smoke multiple times a day. No funk - minimal cake. Can’t find the popcorn or I’d put some here.

 

[Mike H]

Clean out the bowl the remove excess cake. Salt and alcohol (100 proof vodka) over night with a pipe cleaner. Dump the salt and Ream the bowl again. Using a bristle pipe cleaner and vodka clean out the stem. Polish the bowl with a soft cloth, and if needed a new coat of carnuba wax. Polish the stem with Brebbia stem polish followed with plastic polish and finally obsidian oil for the vulcanite stems.


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[simon1]

That's kinda like When Do You Wash Your Car?

When it gets dirty.

Me...I usually go 4,5,6 bowls or so, unless it gets funky sooner, then remove the stem and run 3 or 4 Everclear soaked pipe cleaners through the stem and shank, then run 2 or 3 dry pipe cleaners through it until they come out clean enough for me. Then maybe use a pipe knife to scrape the bowl a little. I might double a pipe cleaner and dip it in Everclear then swab out the bowl a bit. I've only salt and alcoholed one pipe and that was Dad's that had set for decades and was funky.

I'll put some paragon wax on the bowl and clean the outside of the stem when they start getting a little dull looking.

 

[Kriton]

Same, except I have to admit that I clean after every bowl. Everclear on a bristled pipe cleaner in the stem and stummel, dry paper towl in the bowl just to get the loose soot, as I don’t want to rub off developing cake. I will buff with carnauba on a slow buffer every month or so, shine the silver when it needs it (with a soft silver polishing cloth so as not to disturb the nomenclature). Rise and repeat.

 

[Kentos]

Same, except I have to admit that I clean after every bowl. Everclear on a bristled pipe cleaner in the stem and stummel, dry paper towl in the bowl just to get the loose soot, as I don’t want to rub off developing cake. I will buff with carnauba on a slow buffer every month or so, shine the silver when it needs it (with a soft silver polishing cloth so as not to disturb the nomenclature). Rise and repeat.

I may need to be a bit more fastidious in cleaning my pipes. Planning to do a quick alcohol clean to my rotation today.

 

[Kriton]

Well the do get damned backed up; I probably have 15 I need to clean, so that sucks. But I have few others...

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I've smoked an occasional bowl on and off since around 2013. Generally they just get a pipe cleaner down them every couple of smokes, and occasionally I'll run the spoon on the Czech tool round the bowl to get rid of excess carbon. So far, I've not needed to do any more than this, although I have had to use a few pip cleaners if a pipe has been smoking wet. I'm seeing no sign of my pipes needing any additional treatment so far. Maybe if I smoked 6-10 bowls a day, I might be seeing something different, but as I smoke less than 10oz in a whole year, I think it will be a long time before I need to do anything more.

 

[Ponycarman]

I'm pretty lazy with my cleanings. I try to run a cleaner through after smoking but I forget sometimes. Particularly the filtered pipes because of the cool down before pulling the stem. If I notice the pipe tasting off or a little different thats when I swab with an alcohol damp cleaner. Only through the airway. I pretty much leave the chamber be. Haven't ever had to ream one yet other than estates. After the cleaner pass at the end of the smoke I fold the cleaner and and swab the chamber to keep the cake forming thin. Seems to be working. I don't have a full schedule for cleaning really.

 

[Hirsute]

I’m pretty fastidious each time I smoke—several pipe cleaners, well swabbed out, and then rested before being smoked again. Other than that, I really don’t do much else. Even for pipes that are heavier in my rotation and get smoked 30, 40 times, there’s no major funk to them with my daily regimen. Of course, I don’t smoke goopy weird aros, so that may have something to do with them staying relatively clean.


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[nortac]

I'm pretty negligent, but I'm only the occasional pipe smoker. This time a year it's one or two bowls a week, three at the most. In warmer months, I may go weeks between smokes. So my pipes don't get too funky and have plenty of time to rest between uses. Like others, I've only salt and alcohol treated or reamed estates. So sometimes its only a dry pipe cleaner, sometimes Everclear dipped pipe cleaners followed by dry and a few bent ones in the bowl. At the most, I'll use an Everclear moistened paper towel inside the bowl. Most of my older pipes are way past due for some wax and polish. I bought some Obsidian oil with the best intentions, but have never opened it. I have some wax from Walkers sitting about that I occasionally use on some of my duller pipes and hand buff with a soft cloth. It's been a long, long time since I power buffed anything.

 

[Kriton]

I have to hit them with a buffer every now and then, they get dull and I love to see the grain.

With a good buffing and the right briar, the multiple levels come out and make the things pop; to me the smoke, the feel, the stem, the color all add to the experience.