OK, so I purchased the stuff I need to restore, and have started on the project. Nothing like getting hands on to discover questions:

1. Should I wear gloves while doing this? I notice that I get brown crud all over my hands when cleaning stems/bowls with the Everclear- it does wash off, but don't want to be absorbing nicotine thru my skin if possible. Is this a concern, or will washing my hands an hour or so later negate any potential problems?

2. I notice that when I run a wet cleaner thru the stem, it keeps coming out brown, even after ten or so cleaners.( Although less and less so) Is there a point where this becomes overkill, or do I need to get every last bit of brown outta there? I even soak the stems in Everclear, but the result is the same. I'd like to avoid the bleach soak if possible.

3. How can I get rid of the tiny circle of crud right at the tip/nub of the stem? Nothing seems to get rid of this. Or is this really not necessary?

4. Some of the pipes have the metal filters. I get these pretty clean, but not spotless like new. Is this good enough?

5. Are bite/teeth marks purely cosmetic, or do I need to sand these away for sanitary reasons?

I'm pretty happy with the results, maybe I'm being too anal about recovering a spotless pipe. Hopefully close will work here as well as it does in hand grenades, cause getting 'em close involves a lot of work- don't really know what else I could do to make 'em "new!"

Thanks for your help!
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Comments in red, above.
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I've done a more than a few myself, but Mr. Moo is the sage -

I also have some with metal filters and, like you, never got them "spotless". Pretty darn clean is good enough for me.

With the teethmarks, I was a little grossed out but after soaking them in pure alcohol for that long I highly doubt any germs or microbes would still be alive.

Plan on running many, and I mean many, pipe cleaners through before they start coming out clear. Any gunk that is left in there is going to color the flavor of the tobacco.

For the little but of crud at the end of the stem - if you mean the end that goes into the shaft I used a little bit of light grit sandpaper. If you mean the mouthpiece end I just used a hard-bristled pipe cleaner and a lot of vodka (I used some vodka on the stem too.:-))

Try these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bundles-Pipe-C.../dp/B000W5R6UA

They have little metal hard bristles and cut/grind through the gunk very well.
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Thanks. I'll get some micromesh and run some more cleaners through the stems until they come out clean.
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I just started a similar project with 5 pipes I inherited this week. I ended up doing the bleach soak and will be sanding them back tomorrow. I wish I had taken some before photos b/c these have turned out really well.
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I've been working on a few estate restores myself. So far I've been doing this method.

-Soak stem in Oxy Clean
-rinse
-Use booze soaked bristle cleaners until no brown gunk
-rinse
-Scrub with Magic Erasor
-rinse
-Use Walker Briar Works Stem restore Kit http://www.walkerbriarworks.com/html...store_kit.html

For the pipe itself, the stem restore kit comes with a polish which is nice. I use spit and q-tips to remove rim build up / charring and ream the bowl back to bare wood.

Have yet to try and remove any teeth marks from stems yet. I use the soft pipe bits for my stems and they usually cover up any teeth marks.
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:-) Totally right on, the oxyclean and magic eraser method works great and the Walker Briar works stuff is great too.
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I have the stem restore kit. I'll try the Oxy Clean as well, as after still getting light brown pipe cleaners at #50, this is not only lengthy, but a pain in the arse. Do you use the powder mixed in water, or a liquid form thereof?

The pipe bits might be the way to go as well. I have a couple of these, will get some more. Will look into the "Magic Eraser." Not familiar with this, alto I do remember it being mentioned in some of the articles I've read. Sometimes one gets info overload, which I think I did!

Found this, which has good info:

http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Try_this_at_Home

I finished about five pipes, the stems of which still have light brown pipe cleaners traveling through them. I just got fed up!

The pipes themselves I cleaned with the salt/Everclear treatment. Again, there was still some residual brown in the bowl, but hopefully that won't be a problem. I also used baking soda as described in the article sited above.

Don't really care about the top of the bowl.

I keep wondering if it's worth the effort and expense to try and restore these Grabow pipes!:-)

I have one that is like a Falcon with the metal bottom bowl. Again, I was unable to get this spotless- but maybe with the Oxy Clean the remaining bit of brown would be removed. Or maybe it's good enough!

Thanks all for contributing!
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Try soaking the stems in a oxyclean/water solution. Then try making a thicker, oxyclean-water paste and use a pipe cleaner through the stem with that.
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I just dump maybe a table spoon of oxyclean into a glass with some warm water and let it soak for awhile.
They also sell brushes for stems etc.
here
http://www.4noggins.com/shankbrush-612.aspx
http://www.pipesandcigars.com/pipetools.html
http://www.smokingpipes.com/accessor...oduct_id=70546
and these cleaners come with a free brush
http://www.smokingpipes.com/accessor...oduct_id=61988

that is what I bust out if after a few bristled cleaners come out gunky.
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Some good info here as well:
http://www.virtualsmokinglounge.com/...d_peterson.pdf

Covers a lot of what has been said already.
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