dishwashing your pipes

[Zeno Marx]

I just watched Bare Pipe's youtube on a Stanwell refurbish. He uses Murphy's Oil Soap and a toothbrush to wash the pipe. I've used the same soap to soak the rim and get rid of smoke stains. Where he threw me was when in-between scrubbings, he was washing off the pipe in the sink. He also kept scrubbing until the bubbles stopped being brown, which after a couple rounds made me think he was seeing stain being removed and not any dirt or oils. We all do it differently, but the running water seemed not good. Maybe not bad, either. I don't know. I run through a similar process with paper towels and lysol I make from concentrate, but it doesn't much touch the finish. A little, but mostly not. The wood is never soaked, either. In 60 seconds, the lysol has evaporated. Then I follow up with just a couple damp towels to pull any chemical residue off the briar. I'm not saying I'm right or that he's wrong. Thoughts on running briar under water like that?

 

[Niblick]

Yep thats the same way I do it Zeno after I remove all the carbon cake in the bowl to remove wax and dirt. Gives me the best way to approach refinishing. Many times original staining is faded on a side of the pipe due to sunlight where it was stored for years. I do keep the murphy oil from getting to the inside bowl. I water rinse the bowl on all of my pipes after smoking also. It keeps pipe fresh and cake free if that is what you want.

 

[Carlos]

I just smoke 'em. Occasionally ream 'em. Sometimes I lick them and wipe on my britches.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I should have been more specific. I only do my bit when I buy an estate pipe. I don't refurbish as a hobby in itself. Mr.Bare Pipe was refurbishing a pipe for his channel to show a process.

 

[Niblick]

I should have been more specific.

What is it your asking about then?

 

[Blackhorse]

He was asking our thoughts on cleaning pipes under running water.

 

[Zeno Marx]

What is it your asking about then?

You got it. Just wanted to know if other people washed their pipes in the sink. It didn't Dawn (pun intended) on me that people did it other than during a refurbishing. I go through so little clean up post-smoke.

 

[Niblick]

I go through so little clean up post-smoke.

I think most people don't either. If I was to dedicate a pipe to each blend, I'd just run a pipe cleaner from stem to the bowl and call it good, or maybe not. Just would depend if it ever started tasting off. For me I want a clean pipe to give me the best smoke as possible because I am limited in time to how many I can have.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I think most people don't either. If I was to dedicate a pipe to each blend, I'd just run a pipe cleaner from stem to the bowl and call it good, or maybe not. Just would depend if it ever started tasting off. For me I want a clean pipe to give me the best smoke as possible because I am limited in time to how many I can have.

Have you noticed the stampings disappearing? Bare Pipe mentioned dents coming out, or at least partially coming out, from washing. Then he covered already-weak stampings with tape because he didn't want them getting too wet, the wood swelling back to it's normal position, and losing the stamping. 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. I even worry about that when I do my Lysol thing. I move the pipe around in the air to get it to evaporate even more quickly than it would on its own. 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.

 

[daveinlax]

There’s a bunch guys on Pipesmagazine.com that swear by water rinsing pipes. I never heard of it before and have never done it myself. I’ve scrubbed the outside of some grubby estate pipes with a pin head size drop of Murphy’s on a soft toothbrush with pretty good results.

 

[Niblick]

Weak stamps will get weaker as will weak dents come out. Mostly depends where they are in the grain. Strong stampings and bigger dents never fade no matter how much you try to use a red-hot butterknife to steam them out with a dampened dishrag. I do cover stampings to prevent loss on higher end pipes and weak stamps. I once had a Stacked Sandblasted Billard that showed no bottom stamp. Did my usual Murphy oil and brass brush clean under warm water and until I put the wax on it, I could then read the maker.

The Woodwright Shop on PBS, he used to do amazing things to wood with steam.
Popular wood is really absorbent. Tamarac not so much. Briar is very dense and not much of an absorber and why my bowl has moisture in the bottom when I smoke wet tobacco.

 

[Niblick]

There’s a bunch guys on Pipesmagazine.com that swear by water rinsing pipes. I never heard of it before and have never done it myself.

They are water flushing the pipe with warm water after smoking for about 25 seconds to clean the inside of the pipe out to keep it fresh. Wipe the wet bowl with a paper towel and later after cooling or when time permits break the pipe down and fully clean the pipe insides.

 

[Zeno Marx]

to keep it fresh

That seems like a whole other conversation to me. I'm a little OCD, and not usually situationally, but for me, I'm not sure "fresh" is prime for pipe smoking. Every generation of everything has to put their stamp on the thing. If anyone has links handy to these threads on that board, I'd love to read them.

 

[Niblick]

@Zeno...I was responding to Davinlax. "There’s a bunch guys on Pipesmagazine.com that swear by water rinsing pipes."

Not sure about it being generational but me saying "To keep it fresh", maybe I should have said to prevent a pipe from turning sour to prevent from having to give it a salt bath, coffee ground, pipe sweetener or ozone treatment. I apologize if it confused.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I'm not discounting it. Only because you mention it, I've never had a pipe go sour and go out of accordance. I never smoke more than two bowls in a day out of a pipe, and 99% of the time, only a single bowl out of a pipe before it rests. Maybe that's helped. Could be a regional climate thing as well? The salt bath, cotton ball alcohol, etc treatments have only been for estate pipes, and once I've done it, they haven't seen that process again. Again, I'm not saying I'm right or that the washers are wrong. Not something I'd necessarily want to add to the regiment, though.

It is funny that, if accurate, the new generation is OK with washing their pipes, but they don't wash their jeans.

 

[Niblick]

Haha. Maybe or maybe not the men are washing their pants "the new generation". After all they are in their 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. I would bet they are not playing tackle football in the park anymore.

 

[Zeno Marx]

Many, if not most, of the new salvage denim and small batch denim enthusiasts never wash their jeans. One "cleaning" hack, that has nothing to do with cleaning or hygiene, is putting them in a bag in the freezer rather than washing them. Honestly, this washing your pipes thing doesn't sound all that dissimilar to conversations I've read about denim care. I'm A LOT more okay with washing pipes than I am with never washing a piece of clothing, though. I'd give washing my pipes a try, but "don't wash your pants" receives the long bird from me, as well as a slow, dizzy-inducing eyeroll. I don't care if you sit at a cubicle all day, in the cleanest environment. There are many articles written about freezers and other options to not washing your jeans. This is just one of them.
https://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a18776/levis-jeans-in-bag/

 

[Niblick]

Great article but I'll have to pass on the jeans in the freezer trick and continue to wash. In ten years from me wearing them out from washing after use I'll buy another pair from goodwill for $5.00. I'll ask the kids at work if that's what they are doing.

 

[Fr_Tom]

I have never washed them in the sink/whatever. An estate gets a serious internal scrubbing with a bristle pipe cleaners and PGA, and stem gets a good external wipedown with the same stuff. I am not very OCD about cleaning between smokes and for sure have never resorted to water.

 

[Orb Weaver D]

I just disassemble them after each smoke, wipe the chamber with a paper towel and clean the stem, mortise, and airway with pipe cleaners and Qtips. After three decades there's never been a sour pipe or loose stem in my collection.