Cleaning stems

[pipelover]

Any ideas how to clean the build up of nicotine around your pipe stem?
Halloween joke : I used to be a Werewolf, but I'm alright nowoooooo !

[Kevin Keith]

Werewolf in London? lol

[Dr Uhaha]

Werewolf in London? lol

[pipelover]

Hi guys, no one out there know a reply to my post ? I don't want to ruin the work I've put into my vulcanite stems.
I'm using a soft "J" cloth at the mo' . Not ideal , but it gets rid of some of the gunk.

[Kevin Keith]

I haven't had the nicotine build up problem, but I just clean off my stems with a paper towel or something if they look like they need it. Pipe cleaner down the stem for internal build up.

[Tsal]

I've never had nicotine build up around any stem so I don't have an answer, but like Kevin says run a pipe cleaner. I do this after every smoke.

[Houtenziel]

Pipe cleaner like mentioned above. Paper towel, or the end of my shirt sleeve to wipe the end of the stem off before I put it away. I used to be obsessive about cleaning, but I've stepped that way back since discovering that letting the insides get a little seasoned with funk seems to make them smoke better for me. I usually only run a pipe cleaner down the stem every 3 smokes or so, or if I am changing to a different blend in that pipe.
If I start to see some brown/green oxidation forming near the end of the bit, I will hit it with some "Flitz" polish on a paper towel and that usually takes the stem back to shiny piano black.

[pipelover]

Cheers smokers. Will persevere !

[Jlando19]

Pipe cleaner like mentioned above. Paper towel, or the end of my shirt sleeve to wipe the end of the stem off before I put it away. I used to be obsessive about cleaning, but I've stepped that way back since discovering that letting the insides get a little seasoned with funk seems to make them smoke better for me. I usually only run a pipe cleaner down the stem every 3 smokes or so, or if I am changing to a different blend in that pipe.
If I start to see some brown/green oxidation forming near the end of the bit, I will hit it with some "Flitz" polish on a paper towel and that usually takes the stem back to shiny piano black.

Flitz is a magical concoction in my opinion.

[Houtenziel]

Pipe cleaner like mentioned above. Paper towel, or the end of my shirt sleeve to wipe the end of the stem off before I put it away. I used to be obsessive about cleaning, but I've stepped that way back since discovering that letting the insides get a little seasoned with funk seems to make them smoke better for me. I usually only run a pipe cleaner down the stem every 3 smokes or so, or if I am changing to a different blend in that pipe.
If I start to see some brown/green oxidation forming near the end of the bit, I will hit it with some "Flitz" polish on a paper towel and that usually takes the stem back to shiny piano black.

Flitz is a magical concoction in my opinion.

It is. I've noticed that stems that I've done a finishing polish with Flitz tend to not oxidize nearly as fast as ones I polish traditionally with a low speed buffer setup, tripoli, white diamond, and carnauba. I use it to polish gun parts(it is one of a few polishes that won't mess with bluing), and I even used it to take a scratch out of a lens on my glasses the other day. It's like Windex, but for polishing.. put that stuff on anything.