I've been smoking pipes now I think for about two months give or take a couple weeks. At first I assumed maintenance was very straight forward, but the more I read and smoke, the more I wonder how to actually treat my new pipes. My biggest problem is managing cake. How do you guys clear all your doddle out without wiping the ash away that you just shook around to coat your bowl? How many smokes should I enjoy in that pipe before I DO clean that bowl? How many smokes should I enjoy before I get some grain alcohol or brown liquor of some sort and clean the pipe good? Everywhere I go the numbers are different...can anyone who has managed many pipes over the years just give a straight forward answer so I can stop worrying about maintenance. Thank you in advanced!
[Reply]

First let me preface this by saying that I am by no means an expert or even close to an expert.
For cleaning, after every bowl I run a pipe cleaner through the shank and stem, and store my pipes with a pipe cleaner in them. I do this to absorb moisture.

I only alcohol clean when my pipe turns sour and gets a really funky taste.

I usually can get the dottle out of my pipe after it sits and the moisture has been absorbed by the pipe cleaner or cake. I use part of my Czech tool or just turn the pipe upside down and blow through it.

Hope that helps.
[Reply]

Everyone seams to have their own routine. After i'm done smoking I use a Czech tool to cleanout all the loose pieces in the bowl, run a pipe cleaner through through the stem and shank, and then bend the cleaner in half and run it around the inside of the bowl.

I have some rotgut 151 proof vodka that I use to clean the stems on my most used pipes once a month and on the less used pipes when they taste bad. And I do a salt treatment on the pipes as it's needed then it starts to sour. How often you clean your pipes should depend on how often you smoke, and if you are smoking strong tobaccos like englishes, and lighter tobaccos in the same pipe.
[Reply]

One end of a fluffy pipecleaner to wipe out stems anytime-allthetime; and the other end, looped, to brush out what a pipe tool may have left behind after the bowl cools.

As soon as something tastes "off" (sour, ashy) I'll dip bristle pipecleaners in Everclear and scour out that stem and shank of that pipe along with any other pipe in eyeshot.

That alcohol salt/cottonball or retort thing is good to sanitize pipes, to get stain out of a new dipped bowl (most Petersons for example) or to out the ghost of that which you wish to disappear in a certain pipe. I don't think anyone routinely soaks pipe bowls this way as part of regular maintenance although some folks like to dip pipecleaners in booze and massage bowl innards. I never had any inclination to do that.

Cake appears gradually and kinda sneaks up on you if you just forget about it. It never appears if you are looking for it. I think you need to smoke a pipe a good 50-times before there's anything to consider, cakewise. Call the hotline when you think you have cake in your pipe that's thicker than a nickel and we'll figure it out then. Clan out the bowl of a cool/cold pipe and whatever cake is forming will hang on; take care not to let a tamper scrape the walls of a pipe you're smoking or it'll retard cake formation (which, at some point, isn't a bad thing).
[Reply]

Everyone has given really good information, this is what I'm wondering about most though. You say you use a pipe cleaner to remove what the tool leaves behind after you smoke. Does this mean you clean your bowl after every use? I was told that shaking your dottle around and letting the ash coat your bowl is a good thing which I'm assuming would mean I shouldn't clean my bowl after every smoke.
[Reply]

I usually coat the bowl with a thin layer of ash, then knock the dottle out. The pipe is still pretty moist so the layer of ash sticks pretty well. Any dottle left stuck to the bottom I dig out with a Czech tool after the bowl cools down and dries.
[Reply]

Good info here! :-)
[Reply]

Heads up! I clean a pipe more than some and less than others. Some guys are scouring out stems after every smoke with an alcohol soaked pipecleaner. Some clean out a pipe when it tastes rotten. Some guys worry about trimming cake to perfection and, others... well...

Image

As far as cleaning a stem and bowl I suppose I don't do anything special. After it's smoked and cool I tap (or dig) out the ash (or dottle), run a fluffy thru the stem and into the chamber, spin it around a few times and remove it; if it looks grungy I get another pipecleaner and repeat. After that, I like to loop the clean end of one of the spent ones and lightly rub out the bowl of leftover ash and whatever.

If the pipe ever tastes off, I'll swab out the stem with an alky-soaked bristle pipecleaner and that's that.

If the pipe is getting major shift in what it smokes I might treat the bowl with alcohol but, basically lazy, I'll probably try to smoke out a ghost with a few bowls first.

That ashy-shakey thing isn't going to change anything much, one way or the other. I don't prefer spent ash in my pipes and some people think it's a great idea to build cake - I have no idea why, though. Cake, my friends, happens in the same way that an unwatched pot boils. Smoke the pipe.

forgettabowdit
[Reply]

Great information man, much appreciated.
[Reply]

After every smoke I pass cleaners through the stem into the bowl. I then reverse the cleaner and run the clean side through. I do this until there is no stain on the cleaner. Remember, if you have a pipe with a big draft hole and stem, use the 60s instead of the 100s (BJ Longs).

I clean my pipes with bristle cleaners and Everclear when the spirit moves me, every 6-12 months. Once the bristle count reached 600 for 60 pipes, using the same criteria as above; that is, the bristle needs to come out clean. I should be more punctual.

I remove cake with a Senior Pipe Cleaner once I see that the pipe needs reaming, which is to say about the thickness of 2 or 3 dimes.

I should also say that a pipe needs 3-7 days rest between smokes. Some rest their pipes longer, others don't.
[Reply]

Bingo! Well said, same here for me!
[Reply]

Aw, what a poor little pipe! The only thing you can do now is top it with frosting!
[Reply]

A couple of things:

1. Leaving a cleaner in the pipe between smokes. Some do this, some don't; I don't as the purpose of resting the pipe is for the moisture from the combustion of the tobacco to evaporate. With the cleaner in the stem, shank and bowl, evaporation is hindered.

2. The salt cure can crack a bowl; on the other hand, you get the same effect from cottonballs.
[Reply]