Pipe smoking myths about cleaning

[huffelpuff]

Ok guys I'm at 80 bowls with no real cleaning or resting to speak of.

 

[Domer]

Ok guys I'm at 80 bowls with no real cleaning or resting to speak of.

Can you even get your little finger in the bowl with the cake buildup?

 

[huffelpuff]

No real cake build up to speak of my friend. The only real cleaning I do when I dump the ash is to scrape the bowl out with the tamper of my Czech tool.

 

[Fr_Tom]

Just for laughs I included pipe cleaners in my bomb. I figure they will last a while.

 

[huffelpuff]

Well at least until I break down and clean that pipe! It'll probably take 2-300 cleaners after what I've done to it.

 

[huffelpuff]

After 100 bowls in 2 months time I'm calling it good enough. Gave the poor old girl a good cleaning. Got a fair bit more cake out of it than I expected but all in all not as bad as I was expecting. She preformed admirably with few complaints other than wanting to smoke hot and wet. Which mostly cleared up after I changed tobaccos. I think we got some good solid information out of this little experiment. I will smoke her again in a day or so and see if I notice any difference.

Jim

 

[RDPipes]

Ya know the last couple of times I cleaned mine at the end of the month, they weren't really too dirty. Maybe I'll wait two months this time and see what happens. Maybe, I must contemplate this.

 

[Thomas Tkach]

Man, some of you guys are really anal! I thought I was pretty fastidious because I use one pipe cleaner for both mopping up during and cleaning after a smoke. When you said no cleaning, I was thinking no cleaners and no bowl scraping. I have taken to using the spoon on the Czech tool to scrape out loose bits and rub down the side to keep the cake in check after a smoke. I only wipe the bowl each smoke with meers. I have no regularly scheduled deep cleaning routine, but I should probably do so more often.

I do, however, rest my pipes for at least a day (sometimes a week). I dedicate pipes and I don't often smoke the same blend back-to-back.

Also, the hotter wetter smoke you're experiencing, Jim, is exactly why I thought people rested pipes. Your experience seems to me to show that pipes should be rested. I don't like hot, wet smoke. You report no deterioration in smoking quality except hotter and wetter, so I'm curious what other sorts of deterioration you were expecting. :scratch: 

 

[huffelpuff]

Good questions Thomas! Honestly the whole reason I did this was for the new guys. I ignored hot and wet as that is standard operating procedure for new guys. Hot and wet improves with better technique which they aren't going to get anytime soon only smoking 2-3 bowls a week. Yes resting helps with hot and wet too but I see technique as what's going to keep the new guys around. As far as what I was looking for....... I was looking for off flavors, bitter, acrid, sour, anything that shouldn't be there. Bad smells or even just something funky. The whole idea was to see how far I could push 1 briar. I personally don't like a dirty pipe but I've smoked long enough to know that sometimes you go with what you've got. I'm not trying to get anyone to clean less or more for that matter. I see it as personal preference.


As for the post clean bowl after daily smoking for 2 months. No drastic changes in flavor or performance. Just a nice solid smoke.

 

[jonnylaw13]

oh man, this one should make some of you cringe! i only clean when i need to! usually my pipes only see a cleaner if the draft becomes clogged or if for an odd reason i end up with a really wet smoke and get a bad gurgle or worse, have the pipe sitting wrong go so smoke it and get a mouth full of tar! YUCK! i usually dont remove the old junk from a pipe till its cool due to most of my pipes are either new or been previously very well cleaned from brothers and need some cake, however i am slightly anal about the appearance of my pipes, i like the outside to be clean, no fingerprints whatsoever and i like my rims to be nice and pretty, some of my older pipes that dont really have any sort of "finish" on them still get an occasional light sand pappering on the rim to remove any lighter char or tar from the exiting smoke, i like the rim to look uniform

 

[huffelpuff]

I've got no problem with it brother! It works for you that's what's important. I used to smoke very heavily, 8-12 bowls a day. At that time I would smoke one or two pipes a day and worry about clean up later. So I get it. The whole point I was trying to make was these pipes are hardy, they will stand up to some really serious abuse and still deliver the goods.

 

[jonnylaw13]

It just goes to figure I end up having to clean the pipe I brought to work with me. Have some SPS Roma Vita that just came in that I am absolutely loving but apparently I should let it dry a bit, sutliff sure like to wet it down good for canning.

 

[Domer]

Thanks for the experiment.
It's also a reminder that we don't really need a dozen pipes to enjoy pipe smoking. How many lawnmowers do I need to cut my grass?
But, of course, that's part of the fun. 

 

[Dutch]

I suppose I should take time to relate my recent lifestyle change experience, and how it has affected my pipe cleaning regimen and habits.

As most of the old timing men here know, I have always been an advocate of cleaning my pipes thoroughly after each smoke. I even went so far as to keep most of the carbon cake out of my pipes with my vintage Kleen Reem, and always used either bourbon or PGA to clean my pipes after each smoking session.

Once I started driving OTR, it became apparent quickly that I would not be able to keep up my regular cleaning sessions, primarily because it is against DOT regulations to have ethyl alcohol inside the cab of any commercial truck.

Because I was not about to give up my beloved pipe smoking hobby, I simply decided to make the best of the situation and clean my pipes with alcohol when I could legally do so.

Well, the good news is, that my pipes seem to do just fine with a simple pass of the pipe cleaner, and a swabbing of the bowl with a q-tip after each smoke. I usually find time at least once a month to ream and do a more thorough job with a pipe cleaner dipped in bourbon.

However, I am not totally convinced that this situation is without any ill effects. While it may not noticeably affect the quality of each individual smoke, I feel that it may possibly shorten the quality smoking life of a particular pipe. Particularly pipes that weigh in at 40-50 grams or less.

The reason I believe this, is because briar is a porous medium. Like a sponge, it will eventually reach maximum capacity, at which time the smoking experience will most likely be severely degraded.

IMO, and YMMV, is that if you clean your pipes after every smoking session, you may experience a slightly higher quality smoke, and increase the estate value of your pipe a decade or two down the road. An added bonus, is that the pipe cleaning regimen can be somewhat therapeutic, similar to mowing the yard, or getting involved in a craft project.

Is it absolutely necessary? Absolutely not.  

 

[MisterE]

I only brought a few pipes with me for our trip to the US, so they've been working overtime. I have to say there's a marked difference between a clean, not-so-rested pipe, and a not-so-clean-or-rested pipe.

 

[Thomas Tkach]

Dutch, I think the sponge analogy is good, except that if you rest a sponge, it dries out again. I don't think there's any reason to believe that the wood gets filled with anything that doesn't come out.

http://pipesmokersforum.com/community/threads/no-finish.7967/

post #8 or 9 there shows a picture of a really old estate pipe 'smoked to DEATH' cut in half. Except for the smallest portion immediately around the chamber, the briar is completely clean. I would think a pipe could be smoked indefinitely and be fine, so long as it gets a deep clean every once in a while, but I'm not been smoking long enough to find out.

 

[Dutch]

Dutch, I think the sponge analogy is good, except that if you rest a sponge, it dries out again. I don't think there's any reason to believe that the wood gets filled with anything that doesn't come out.

http://pipesmokersforum.com/community/threads/no-finish.7967/

post #8 or 9 there shows a picture of a really old estate pipe 'smoked to DEATH' cut in half. Except for the smallest portion immediately around the chamber, the briar is completely clean. I would think a pipe could be smoked indefinitely and be fine, so long as it gets a deep clean every once in a while, but I'm not been smoking long enough to find out.

Thomas, I agree that the briar is filling up so to speak. Different methods of pulling it back out would be with regular cleaning, kosher salt, or one of those pipe retorts. Whatever the method, it would be an attempt to pull the moisture and resins back out, reversing the process.

I remember reading somewhere that one pipemaker felt that most briar pipes should be good for around 2000 bowls, before reaching the saturation point. I have an old GBD Prince meerschaum lined estate that has reached saturation point., at least the meer lining has. It is evident after smoking, because the inside of the bowl has a wetness to it, no matter which blend I smoke in it.

When considering an estate pipe, it would be nice to know how many bowls had been smoked in that particular pipe, instead of the age, but unfortunately pipes don't have odometers. Reminds me of a comment I made to my doctor once about how getting older was getting rough.

He responded by saying "It's not the age, it's the mileage."  :lol: 

 

[monbla256]

Been reading this thread for awhile and there have been some interesting "theoreys" proposed. From my experience, much of this clean/dirty aspect hinges on the TYPE of tobacco blend smoked in the pipe. I have some pipe smoker friends who are confirmed OTC discount Aro smokers ( one smokes that Smokers Pride Cherry Aro that he gets in 2 lb bags at Walgreens) and they are always complaining how "gunky" their pipes get after a few weeks of straight smoking and how they have to let them "rest" ! zmy own experience has been that smoking a good English/Balkan type blend allows a pipe to be smoked for a longer period of time WITHOUT any sort of major "cleaning" !!  :twisted: :twisted: 

 

[Jevverrett]

I smoke a bit hot most of the time. I normally just run a extra fluffy cleaner down them all the way to the bowl. If I notice a draw issue, I use a bristled one before the fluffy one. Ream as needed every 6 weeks or so. And a heavy cleaning maybe thrice a year. Yet again, my most expensive pipe was about 200$. Maybe if I had a $1000+ pipe it would be different for me.

 

[Dottleman]

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!  

I'm about the same. I've noticed that I get much more flavor from the baccy when the pipe is very clean.