How do you ream out your pipes and do you have a favorite tool?
I confess I'm not the greatest at it: no patience.

On thing I find works very well for reaming a bowl is a mesh "sanding screen". These things are made for drywalling - they attach to a vacuum sanding rig. They are available at hardware stores.

It's a piece of screen, really, with some abrasives glued to it. I just roll it up and twist it into the bowl. They don't gunk up because the carbon can just fall through the screen, and they don't really seem to have hard or sharp enough abrasive to damage the briar inside the bowl. Takes about 1 minute to do a pipe.

Sandpaper - cut to size and rolled up on your finger or, for a small chamber, on a short length of wooden dowel. Very easy to control and manage, nearly impossible to damage the chamber or rim if done with a modicum of care, and leaves the chamber fresh and silky smooth - like black velvet.

Normally I use 400 grit so as to not chip the cake or take too much off in any one place, but that might take some time if you have a lot of thickness to remove. In such cases, I would recommend 220 and then 400 for a smooth finish. I tend to only keep a very thin layer of cake in the majority of my briars (the standard thickness of a dime is way, way too much for most of my pipes) although I allow my cobs to develop much more (the thicker the better I have found). Meers, of course, should never need to be reamed because one should not allow cake to build up in the chamber in the first place.

Enjoy!

Most of the time I use a Kleen Reem Pipe Tool and occasionally use a very fine sandpaper as suggested to fine tune the cake, so to speak.

Kleen Reems come up for auction on eBay from time to time and I think you can still get one for $20-$30. I have also seen reproductions of them called Senior Tools. They look like the same design to me.

I've got the Senior reamer and I'm not really happy with it. Even when I extend the blades to their maximum width it isn't wide enough to ream most of my pipes. I'm looking to get something else.

Natch

I use sandpaper rolled up on a dowel or my finger.

There are a few of the old W. J. Young Co. Kleen Reem Pipe Tools on eBay right now.

Kleen Reem 1
Kleen Reem 2
Kleen Reem 3
Kleen Reem 4

On my outdoor pipes I use a sharp pocket knife and occasionally one of the inexpensive Italian reamers. For my indoor pipes (the expensive ones) I use a folded bristle pipe cleaner to clean the bowl after each smoke to prevent cake build up.

Jim

Natch, I have the same problem with my Senior, but I looks nice on my shelf

On the much larger pipes that the Kleen Reem won't open up enough for I still use it and evenly and carefully run the reemer around the bowl like a knife blade. then I use a fine sand paper to fine tune it.

I gave up on reamers years ago and just use a pipe knife w/ a blunt blade tip. No problems.

Buddy

Have used a Kleen Reem tool for years without any problem. My is old--from the 70s--so maybe it was better made that current production.