Colonial era pipe tool

[Riff89]

I wasn't referring to the Church with my comment on confession. Although, now the Inquisition comes to mind. Sigh, never mind all that. Really interesting piece of equipment. I remember going to colonial Williamsburg in the 6th grade. Our tour stopped at a tavern, where items found in the dig were on display. They have bits of clay stems presented in a lined box. The guide explained, to us 6th graders, that the smoker would snap off a bit of the stem and toss it into the fireplace when they finished their pipe. Good information for a 6th grader in 1971.

I was just pulling your leg.

[Citizen B]

I wasn't referring to the Church with my comment on confession. Although, now the Inquisition comes to mind. Sigh, never mind all that. Really interesting piece of equipment. I remember going to colonial Williamsburg in the 6th grade. Our tour stopped at a tavern, where items found in the dig were on display. They have bits of clay stems presented in a lined box. The guide explained, to us 6th graders, that the smoker would snap off a bit of the stem and toss it into the fireplace when they finished their pipe. Good information for a 6th grader in 1971.

Good information to have during Claypril. Too bad it's May 2nd today. I'll file that useful tip for next year. Thanks.

I pulled a pipe cleaner out of my pocket one day and my nephew didn't know what a pipe cleaner was, and, he was in 6th grade.

Then, my mother showed him how she used to make pipe cleaner dolls when she was a girl. My nephew was unimpressed. Apparently they don't have a channel for that on Twitch---well, they do but I'm not going to link to what I found. None of the videos made any sense to me and they don't seem germaine to what we are talking about here.

Old outhouse sites and abandoned trash dumps out in the woods are full of broken clay pipes. Being from Connecticut, I spent a lot of time out in the woods wandering around old, long forgotten farmsteads. Clay pipes were the plastic bags of today: easily discarded but still hanging around because they don't readily decompose.

@Ruffinogold is right. This tool would be a good tool for a hookah. I don't own a hookah, but, if I did, I'd be tempted to spring the $50 for this tool. Why not? The old ways are best.