Regular Pipe Maintenance

[Houtenziel]

Thought it'd be interesting to hear everybody's maintenance process, since I have learned some things, obvious and not, from what other people do.

I started out keeping my pipes squeaky clean. Alcohol on a pipe cleaner in the stem, and shank/airway of the bowl after every smoke. After years of doing that and spending way more than I should have on pipe cleaners, I started smoking my pipes until they tasted like they needed to be cleaned.

I'll start.

Blow hard through the stem to clear any funk out of the airway after every smoke. After 3-4 bowls things start tasting a little "pipe juicey", and I'll then break the pipe down and clean the airway on the bowl with a pipe cleaner dipped in some alcohol, and then I will fold it over and get any ash/build up out of the mortise. The stem gets a dry pipe cleaner, unless it's coming out really nasty. For deep cleans I have stopped using alcohol on my stems because it seems to really accelerate oxidation on vulcanite - particularly around the end of the button, and in the slot. Instead, I've taken to using plain Tom's toothpaste(I will credit [mention]Thelonious monkfish[/mention] for the idea of using toothpaste on stems in general) applied to the end of pipe cleaner and I use it to sort of brush the teeth of the airway, followed by a quick rinse under the sink. It leaves the airway clean, polished, and less prone to cavities. This works really well on the amber cob stems too, as alcohol does bad things to the propionate plastic they are made from.

For the bowl, I generally leave it alone unless I smoke something that leaves sludge, and then I just twist a paper towel down in there to swab it out. I'll trim the cake back with a pocket knife if it starts getting to a point where I can't get my finger in there.

[sisyphus]

pipe cleaner after every bowl. Big rotation so it takes a long time before I think about removing any cake.

[Houtenziel]

pipe cleaner after every bowl. Big rotation so it takes a long time before I think about removing any cake.

I guess I procrastinate. I smoke a bunch of pipes until they are all dirty, and they go into the dirty pile when they have reached maximum funkage. When I am on my last pipe, I just clean them all in one go.

[Thelonious monkfish]

Regular maintenance for me is real basic but I dry my tobacco and don't smoke goopers so my pipes stay fairly clean as far as sludge/funk/tar goes. I do the pile like Hout but every pipe goes in it after each bowl. Once enough accumulate I pull off stems, swab the shank and draught with a q tip, then that same q tip cleans the chamber. Usually use Churchwarden pipe cleaners, I'll run it through one stem, clip the soiled tip off it, then run it through another, clip, another... get about five or more stems per cleaner. The tenon is swirled clean on a piece of paper towel or cotton ball or whatever. Then they're all assembled and given a quick inside the shirt polish. If the stem is a little dull but not enough to trip my ocd and land it in the needs-work-pile I'll rub it on the top sides of my nose. I also have a toothbrush and polishing cloth that are charged up with microcrystalline wax for quick refreshes on the finish.

[Dr Uhaha]

My pipes fall into two categories: lookers and smokers. The lookers are pristine in every possible way and look at me from their perch above my bookshelf - forever young and clean. The smokers (~12) are run through with pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol once every two smokes or so, bowls wiped out with a tightly wound paper towel, polish be darned.

I have a T-handled reamer set for cake, but don't seem to accumulate that the way I hear other people talk about it. Probably what I am smoking and/or frequency.

Will occasionally clean the shanks of my pipes, but only when they are cold, and usually all at once with strips of paper towel dipped in alcohol and guided by a piece of stiff wire.

[Fr_Tom]

Every now and then, my pipes get a pipe cleaner between smokes. It is "as needed." Currently I smoke heck out of a set of 10 or so. They all get a pipe cleaner when they go back and I take out another set to smoke heck out of them. I seem to develop cake at a startling rate, and I oddly seem to have a problem with heel cake. This does not seem to be something people have issues with in general. I have to use a smaller reamer to get it started in the heel and get it down so it is not blocking the draft hole.

[MikeDennison]

I generally only use one pipe for an entire days smoking, so before I put it back on the rack I run a cleaner through it. Sometimes I'll use one between bowls if things get gurgly. I'll keep running through the rotation like that until they start to taste a bit funky, then I'll break out the EA Carey Professional Pipe Cleaner and swab out the stems and stummels. I generally stay ahead of cake with a pocket knife, so I rarely break out the reamer.

[Tsal]

Pipe cleaner, once in, once out, fold, swap and toss.

[Houtenziel]

Good stuff. Sort of puts " your standard of clean" in perspective.

[Tsal]

Good stuff. Sort of puts " your standard of clean" in perspective.

With pipes, yes. I don't see the need to go crazy with something that continually gets used.