Pipe smoking myths about cleaning

[huffelpuff]

Well things have gotten a bit quiet here as of late so I'm gonna stir things up! How often do you really have to clean your pipe? Must you actually rest it between smokes?

I recall from many years ago when books ruled the world of information that the general consensus among them was if you smoke more than a bowl a day using the same pipe was perfectly acceptable. Now days if you ask anyone about this you get horror stories about the dire consequences experienced by a friend of a friends Uncle Schmo. Funny no firsthand accounts! So in the interest of furthering "science" I decided to do an experiment. Grab 1 briar pipe,( I ended up with a StirlingHall billiard from the 40's. ) and smoke the living hell out of it without cleaning it! I know, I know I'm a heretic. Get the tar and feathers! So anyway, I'm at bowl 42 and just over 3 weeks in with no ill effects to the quality of the smoke. Point of fact is that the smoke has actually improved! It's sweeter than when I began. The downside is that the pipe is smoking hotter and a bit wetter. However, there has been no marked decline in quality of the smoke. I suppose I should elaborate as to my normal cleaning practices and what I'm doing right now. So Normally when I finish a bowl I knock out the ash and dottle, use the tamper part of my Czech tool to scrape the walls of the chamber clean, blow through the stem, put a pipe cleaner in it while it cools. After about a half hour to an hour I'll pull the pipe cleaner and load it up and go again. Repeat all day. End of the day clean some more( high proof spirits both through the stem and a good scrubbing of the bowl). Set it aside to rest for at least a week. Right now all I'm doing is scraping out the bowl at the end of the smoke in an effort to keep the cake down. I do pull the stem and blow out the accumulated moisture, but no pipe cleaners. I also stick the poker of the Czech tool through the draft hole to keep it open.

So let the fun begin!

 

[Bullwinkle]

not sure what constitutes a cleaning but I smoke the same pipe all day and multiple days with nothing more then running a cleaner down the stem.

 

[Growley]

It's not uncommon for me to run a cleaner or two after each smoke, knock out the ash, wipe down the inside of the bowl, rebuff the stem and wax the bowl after each smoke. ...but that's probably because I like my pipes shiny clean and I have the tools readily available. I have no idea how it affects the smoking, other than to say they always seem to smoke about the same.

 

[leacha]

I actually smoke and clean my cobs the same way. Smoke, empty, pipe cleaner, repeat. And once in a while it'll get a cleaner with everclear run through. Last month I was smoking my maples and cobs without a care in the world about tobacco choices. I'd start with a burley move on to an aero and then maybe a Vaper and another aero and even a Lat blend here and there. I wanted to see if it would affect anything. The big answer is NOPE! Though I have to admit I do not have a refined sense of taste to pick up the "hint of elderberry" or the "background of passion fruit".

Smoke what you got and what you like!

On a side note, if the pipes I smoked were $1000+ pieces of art, I'd be more fastidious about cleaning.

 

[RDPipes]

As everybody knows I'm just an anal clean freak and like my pipes to sparkle all the time.
After each smoke I run a cleaner through them and wipe out the bowl with a paper towel, no scrubbing just insert it and a twist, then I wipe it done with a soft cotton rag and I'm done. Although I only smoke one bowl out of each pipe a day for two days, then I go to the next 3 pipes in rotation (I have 3 bowls a day). When I come to the end of my 14 pipes I start all over again. Confused yet, I'm not. At the end of the month all 14 get a thorough cleaning, ISO, wax and buff and anything else they might need like rim cleaning and maybe a ream depending. I don't do this because some old timer told me to and, I don't do this because I read it somewhere, I do it because I want to do it this way and don't really give a hoot in hell about what's suppose to or not suppose to be done. It works for me!

 

[MisterE]

If you remove the stem, maybe dry the tenon off with a paper towel and sop up the goop in the mortise while you're at it. If you habitually put the stem back in with moisture at the contact points, it can eventually cause the tolerances to loosen.

Take it from someone who had a lot of loose stems years ago.

 

[monbla256]

Being fortunate to now have 90+ pipes in my possession, I put 24 in a loose sort of monthly rotation and this allows me to smoke 5 to 6 different pipes each day without repeating in a days 5 to 6 bowls I smoke. I do this as I smoke a lot of red Va flakes and they can smoke a bit "wetter" than many English/Balkan blends do and when I've smoked 'em in the same pipe more than once a day, the seconds smoke seems a bit hotter and wetter than the first smoke . My usual procedure is to finish my smoke, scrape out any ash/dottle ( I don't knock the bowl on anything as I've had a tenon snap one time knocking on my palm !! ) blow out any ash, run a cleaner in , wipe on some mineral oil if needed on the bit, set it down to cool off then about 20 mins or so, pull out the cnr., wipe off the bit and put it in my "rotation rack" till it's turn comes around again, About once a month I go thru the last months rotation, see if any pipe might need some reaming ( I like about a dimes worth) wipe all bowl interiors with a rolled paper towel, wipe the interiors with some "Ream-n-Clean" give the exteriors a wipe with my old flannel wax impregnated cloth and put 'rm away in their rack or drawer till their turn comes up again. Been doin' this way for over 40 years now and haven't had a smelly/sour pipe one! ( I know Ron , you could smell my pipes I'm sure :twisted:  :twisted: ) My pipes aren't all bright and shiney new looking, rather a nice soft patina from age and use that I prefer!! :twisted:  :twisted:

 

[RDPipes]

Patina, a lazy mans definition of dirt and crud.   

 

[monbla256]

Patina, a lazy mans definition of dirt and crud.   

Glad you're NOT opinionated !!

 

[flyguy]

I must admit to being a bit more anal (like Cart) about a clean pipe.
I might smoke a pipe twice but at the end the pipe will get a thorough cleaning. The cleaning includes Everclear, several pipe cleaners and sanitizing the stem. In my opinion, a clean pipe is a tasty pipe!  

 

[Wayne_Teipen]

I prefer my pipes "dirty." I call them well seasoned. My pipes are lucky to get a pipe cleaner passed through them after each smoke. I typically smoke two bowls a day out of the same pipe then rest it for several days. I only clean with spirits when they need it which in my opinion is maybe once a year or so. I very rarely take the stems apart. I ream them every few months as necessary. I've yet to have a pipe sour in the seven years I've been smoking them. If you looked at my collection, you wouldn't know that I "neglect" them so badly.

Religious and rigorous cleaning has it's benefits but isn't a necessity. Some folks like the process of keeping their pipes "like new" and prefer the taste of a "clean" pipe. Others don't enjoy the cleaning process and prefer the taste of a "dirty" pipe. Do what makes YOU happy.

 

[RDPipes]

Patina, a lazy mans definition of dirt and crud.   

Glad you're NOT opinionated !!

So am I.

 

[huffelpuff]

This is what I'm talking about guys! I know I personally like a clean pipe but the whole point of this was to push my limits. See just how hard a briar can be smoked. I know that it really is just a matter of preference. It's nice though to be able to say with certainty that smoking one pipe repeatedly during the day isn't going to hurt anything. That's what I'm after. Hard facts for the new guys to make their lives a little easier coming into this.

Glad to know that there's as many ways to do this as there are folks that have bothered to post.

Excellent point MrE! That was one reason I chose the pipe I did it doesn't have the original stem and has a make shift military bit in it for now. So getting lose isn't going to be an issue. When I'm done with this little experiment I will probably send her in to be fitted with a proper stem that takes the silly 6mm paper filters. After all that's what she was built to take.

Jim

 

[RDPipes]

This is what I'm talking about guys! I know I personally like a clean pipe but the whole point of this was to push my limits. See just how hard a briar can be smoked. I know that it really is just a matter of preference. It's nice though to be able to say with certainty that smoking one pipe repeatedly during the day isn't going to hurt anything. That's what I'm after. Hard facts for the new guys to make their lives a little easier coming into this.

Glad to know that there's as many ways to do this as there are folks that have bothered to post.

Excellent point MrE! That was one reason I chose the pipe I did it doesn't have the original stem and has a make shift military bit in it for now. So getting lose isn't going to be an issue. When I'm done with this little experiment I will probably send her in to be fitted with a proper stem that takes the silly 6mm paper filters. After all that's what she was built to take.

Jim

Jim, I think it also depends where you live and the season depending on the humidity.
I find I'm lucky if I can smoke more then one bowl in a pipe because I know next one is going to be a bit wet this time of year ( I smoke outside) and they take longer to dry out, even with the A/C on.
Fall and Winter is much drier here and I can get away with more bowls in one but, I just keep it K.I.S.S. and do the same year round. And I agree there's all ways of doing it and I think it's just best for each to do what works for them and what there comfortable with.
After awhile time will tell you if your doing it right (experience shows the way).

 

[Richard Burley]

Very much like Mr. Teipen above, I'm not very rigorous in my cleaning, mostly because it takes about ten seconds to make a clean pipe dirty, but there are several things I have noticed in 50 years of smoking pipes.  The mortise loads up with muck, the stem loads up with something bitter, and the draft hole will get smaller and smaller as it loads up with calcified something or other.  And resting a pipe will sweeten and dry it.  That's all I know.

And patina is character, man!

 

[RDPipes]

Very much like Mr. Teipen above, I'm not very rigorous in my cleaning, mostly because it takes about ten seconds to make a clean pipe dirty, but there are several things I have noticed in 50 years of smoking pipes.  The mortise loads up with muck, the stem loads up with something bitter, and the draft hole will get smaller and smaller as it loads up with calcified something or other.  And resting a pipe will sweeten and dry it.  That's all I know.

And patina is character, man!

This is a Character! What do your pipes look like?

 

[Richard Burley]

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[RDPipes]

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I seriously doubt that!

BTW, where does the pipe start and the hand begin? :scratch: 

 

[i.keenum]

I'm extremely lazy pretty often. A lot of times I get through about half a bowl and get interrupted, so they go back on the rack half full of tobacco and will sit there till I want to smoke them again. I'll scrape them out and depending on the amount of ash left in the bowl after dumping out the old tobacco I may wipe down the inside with a cleaner. I'll do an alcohol soaked pipe cleaner wipe out when they start to taste funny and then they'll be good for another few months of abuse. I also normally choose one pipe for the day and do several half bowls out that one pipe. irat: 

 

[desertpiper]

Generally I just run a pipe cleaner through, then wipe the bowl with a paper towel. Maybe once a month I'll take them apart and give them a thorough cleaning with spirits. One bad habit I have is that I have a tendency to use the same pipe cleaner more than once.