dishwashing your pipes

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I had a good candidate to try this last night. Cut the cake and proceeded to toothbrush with baby shampoo. Inside. Outside. Anywhere the bristles could reach and a bristle pipe cleaner down the airway. Not against the Murphy's. I have baby shampoo for washing wools (read about it elsewhere). A very mild and safer soap. Definitely dulled the surface, but I expected that. No removal of stain/color. It's now in an alcohol/cotton ball soak. Will report back after the first smoke in a couple days.
 
I've always tried to keep the Murphy's from getting inside the bowl or shank when removing the dirt and wax. My main problem with it is how it smells and it does remove some stain on pipes that heavily stained to cover fills. I'll give the baby shampoo a shot on a Comoy's pot shape 126 made for Fader's tobacco shop that is heavily stained to hide some fills. Thanks for the tip.
 
Zeno Marx said:
Many, if not most, of the new selvage denim and small batch denim enthusiasts never wash their jeans.
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I always used to buy Levi's 501 shrink-to-fit button fly jeans. I bought the darkest denim available and never washed them in the washing machine. Turned inside out, they'd go into the bathtub with a mild soap, then into a clear rinse. Lastly, air dried, then into the freezer overnight. I'm not a big fan of buying new jeans that look well worn.
Now that I'm an old phart, I buy 501s and 505s with "stretch" in the darkest denim and wash them "cool" inside out in the washing machine and dry them in the dryer, no heat, fluff dry, inside out.

I have never washed the inside of a pipe in my life. I often will wipe out the inside with a pipe towel wetted with Everclear.
 
RSteve said:
I always used to buy Levi's 501 shrink-to-fit button fly jeans. I bought the darkest denim available and never washed them in the washing machine. Turned inside out, they'd go into the bathtub with a mild soap, then into a clear rinse. Lastly, air dried, then into the freezer overnight. I'm not a big fan of buying new jeans that look well worn.
Now that I'm an old phart, I buy 501s and 505s with "stretch" in the darkest denim and wash them "cool" inside out in the washing machine and dry them in the dryer, no heat, fluff dry, inside out.

I have never washed the inside of a pipe in my life. I often will wipe out the inside with a pipe towel wetted with Everclear.
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So, you did indeed wash them. They NEVER wash them. They NEVER touch water. They never go to a dry cleaners. All other matters aside, like hygiene and dead skin cells and body oils and scents etc, I don't understand how the jeans don't look dirty. I never liked jeans. I find denim very uncomfortable on my skin. The last time I wore them was in high school. After a couple days, the pocket corners would be visibly dirty. The worn ass areas would be visibly dirty, as in not pure white and blue in the weave. The tops of the thigh areas would be visibly different, and I don't even know what would touch that area of my jeans other than a seatbelt or the bottom of a jacket. These were hard seats, like wooden school seats and desk seats. They couldn't have been more dirty than riding the subway or on a public bus. How is it possible to sit on fabric for 2, 3, 4 years and it not look dirty? Not to mention being filthy otherwise.

It's funny how things change. My parents liked dark indigo blue jeans and then to iron the seam in the front like dress trousers. I grew up when the more faded it looked, the more it was fashionable. I don't mind stiff jackets, but I don't care for stiff trousers or starched shirts.
 
"I find denim very uncomfortable on my skin."

It's why I wear only the 501 and 505 models that have some stretch built in. They are much more loose in the thighs and seat. I think the denim may be 11-12 oz. The heavier denim is 14 oz. and that is irritating on my delicate hide.
 
RSteve said:
"I find denim very uncomfortable on my skin."

It's why I wear only the 501 and 505 models that have some stretch built in. They are much more loose in the thighs and seat. I think the denim may be 11-12 oz. The heavier denim is 14 oz. and that is irritating on my delicate hide.
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Incidentally, the only place I could locate 501s in stretch denim was Macy's. Even Levis.com doesn't carry them.
 
When it comes to pipes, I empty the ash and lightly ream the bowl when it's finished and put it in the to be cleaned rack. When I have six or so I separate the stems run a tapered pipe cleaner through them all and swab out the draft holes with the thick end. Grab a half of a paper towel clean the outside of the stems then the bottoms. Fold up the paper towel and wipe out the bowls put them back together and put them away for at least 24 hours. When the cobs look like crap into the wastebasket, when briars look like crap coconut oil on a cotton towel.

Jeans go into the washing machine nornal cycle, dry on permanent press and hang, shirts the same, all cotton, no ironing.
 
As I previously said, baby shampoo did dull the finish, ie removed the Halcyon II Wax I use to shine my pipes. Did nothing to the stain/color. I read elsewhere that Halcyon II Wax does not like water. They didn't go into detail what that means. Onward... I finished cleaning, drying, and re-waxing. Had a wonderful smoke. My lysol process also removes all the wax, and it probably doesn't do as thorough of a job of cleaning a pipe as baby shampoo, a toothbrush, and running warm water. Until proven a mistake, I think I'll use this process to clean pipes in the future. I'm satisfied with how everything turned out. I will say that I won't be doing this after every smoke, or really very often at all. Mostly reserved for acquired estate pipes and in the rare instance one of my own pipes might start to smoke funny. That's never happened in the past, but who knows?

I can't imagine having to mess with re-waxing after every smoke. That level of "meditative maintenance" is beyond my sensibilities. While washing in the sink definitely works nicely, and apparently safely, each smoke strikes me as something other than about pipe smoking. No shade. Just saying.
 
I wear blue jeans almost day. I have Levi’, carhart, wranglers and a couple old pairs of Lucky you button flys. I’ll put them in the washer in a heartbeat with a couple of gain or tide pods.

As far as cleaning pipes I usually just put them in the pockets of my jeans, pop them in the washer. It’s great when a pipe has the fresh gain scent. Hahahahaha
 
Zeno Marx said:
........... He later pulls out a dent with a wet paper towel and a clothes iron, but before that, he said a dent had swelled a bit from the running water technique....... If you remember The Woodwright Shop on PBS, he used to do amazing things to wood with steam. I, at least, never considered wood to be such a malleable solid. And now that I think about it, he did some extreme things like squeezing wet wood in a vice, then it bouncing back to original shape. Thus, worrying about losing stampings.
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When I use to restore old WWI and WWII rifles I used this method for pulling out dents in old rifle stocks. As long as there wasn't any cuts in the wood I would have some pretty good results.
 
More than happy to wash an estate when I first get it. Salt and alcohol treatment then scrape out as much cake as possible then with dishwashing liquid and a toothbrush give the outside and inside of the bowl a good scrub under warm to hot tap water. Never lost any finish and the above treatment gets rid of most ghosts. This applies to meers as well, sometimes the hot water brings out the colour in the meer too which is a nice side affect.
 
This washing of pipes brings me back to my childhood. My father was a pipe and cigar smoker. He had a double rack of about twenty pipes on a shelf in the living room. One day my mother muttered about how she wished my father would take his pipes in the basement because they smelled up the living room.

Wanting to be helpful, I took all my father's pipes down to the laundry tub and scrubbed them with Fels Naptha soap and water. I was quite proud of myself. My father was furious. I'm not quite certain what happened afterwards, but I never did it again.
 
eggman said:
As far as cleaning pipes I usually just put them in the pockets of my jeans, pop them in the washer. It’s great when a pipe has the fresh Gain scent. Hahahahaha
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I don't think I could bring myself to run water in or on my pipes. Knowing what water does to wood it just doesn't seem right. However, when I buy a new lot of pipes from ebay I ream them all, fill the bowl with kosher salt, pour enough vodka or ever clear to fill it to the rim and then let it sit overnight. In the morning the white salt will have turned dark brown to black. That is from the salt sucking all the old char, tar, and oils from the briar. Then just rinse it out with a little pipe sweetener and wipe dry by twisting a paper towel inside. Let it dry for at least 3 days to a week. You will wind up with the freshest, sweetest pipe you can imagine. I'm 64 and my dad showed me this process when I was in my 20s and I've used it ever since and it has never let me down.
Jim
 
The pipe man said:
I don't think I could bring myself to run water in or on my pipes. Knowing what water does to wood it just doesn't seem right. However, when I buy a new lot of pipes from ebay I ream them all, fill the bowl with kosher salt, pour enough vodka or ever clear to fill it to the rim and then let it sit overnight. In the morning the white salt will have turned dark brown to black. That is from the salt sucking all the old char, tar, and oils from the briar. Then just rinse it out with a little pipe sweetener and wipe dry by twisting a paper towel inside. Let it dry for at least 3 days to a week. You will wind up with the freshest, sweetest pipe you can imagine. I'm 64 and my dad showed me this process when I was in my 20s and I've used it ever since and it has never let me down.
Jim
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I hear you. I went more than 30 years doing it one way. Now, I'm going to do it another way...and it seems like a better way. I like that.
 
eggman said:
I wear blue jeans almost day. I have Levi’, carhart, wranglers and a couple old pairs of Lucky you button flys. I’ll put them in the washer in a heartbeat with a couple of gain or tide pods.

As far as cleaning pipes I usually just put them in the pockets of my jeans, pop them in the washer. It’s great when a pipe has the fresh gain scent. Hahahahaha
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Best advice ever gotten on this forum eggman. Went grocery shopping this morning smoking a Ben Wade Freehand on the way. Once inside stuffed the sucker in my front left pocket. While shopping in the Produce area 5 women gave me their phone number. :cool:
 
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Niblick said:
Best advice ever gotten on this forum eggman. Went grocery shopping this morning smoking a Ben Wade Freehand on the way. Once inside stuffed the sucker in my front left pocket. While shopping in the Produce area 5 women gave me thier phone number. :cool:
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You are also a very lucky man. Most I ever get is "that reminds me of my granddad who smoked a pipe" lol.
 
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