The love for smoking good quality tobacco is universal, and one of the oldest ways of smoking tobacco is through attractive looking smoking pipes. You must have seen vintage photos of people smoking through pipes. The smoking experience through pipes can’t be matched with anything else.
From Sherlock Holmes to Gandalf, pipes have been used by many fictional and real personalities. Even in the modern era of high-tech bongs, cigarettes, and rolling paper, pipes are still one of the most classic smoking mediums for smokers.
Most people think that just buying a good smoking pipe is what they need to have an enhanced smoking experience, but that’s not true. Along with buying a good smoking pipe, you will also have to focus on keeping the pipe clean.
Just like the modern-day bongs, pipes also get blocked and filled with the residue of burnt tobacco after smoking, and that’s why you will always need to keep it clean if you want to have a smooth smoking session.
If you have no idea about how to keep your smoking pipe clean, then you don’t need to worry as in this blog post, we will address this issue in a detailed manner.
Before moving on with the cleaning of former pipes, let’s clear some of the most basic things.
Table of Contents
Separating the pipe
To clean your pipe, you will need to remove the stem from the shank completely, but this is the point where most of the newbie smokers make a mistake. You should never separate the stem from the shank when the pipe is warm. If you separate the pipe just after a smoking session and when the pipe is hot, you will end up breaking the wood of the shank.
Make a habit of always cleaning the pipe when it is cool; otherwise, you will end up with a broken pipe. Even if you succeed in taking out the shank while it’s still warm, the cleaning job will get messier because the warm pipe will absorb extra moisture.
Getting ready for the cleaning
During the cleaning process, you may need to tap the bowl to get rid of the residue, but you should never tap the bowl against a very hard surface, and with full force, otherwise, you will damage the bowl as well. You can go for a purpose-made cork knocked to clean your bowl without breaking it.
You will also need to ensure that you have a large surface area to work as just after a couple of minutes into the cleaning process, you will be surrounded by lots of things. You might even have to go through nasty smell and tar during the cleaning process, and that’s why it is better to be prepared with paper towels.
Different ways of cleaning
Using paper towels for cleaning former pipes
Using paper towels is one of the easiest yet effective ways to clean your Former pipes. In addition to being easy and effective, it is an ecological option as well. If you are going to use paper towels and cloths, then be ready to get stains on the cloth that can never be cleaned.
This is why using only spare cloth is a good choice. If you are a regular smoker, then keep a separate cloth for cleaning for your smoking pipe and make sure to clean the cloth regularly. You can use paper towels for lining the surface of your work.
Using alcohol for cleaning pipes
From Rye to rubbing alcohol, every form of alcohol can be used for cleaning smoking pipes. There is nothing like the best type of alcohol for cleaning pipes, and it all comes down to your personal preference.
You can use a shot glass for using alcohol on your smoking pipes, as this will avoid any wastage of alcohol. If you don’t want to deal with any alcoholic smell after cleaning the pipe, then vodka will be the perfect choice for you. But if you want your alcohol to leave a pleasant smell, then using rum would be a better option.
Using a pipe reamer
If you want to go professional with your smoking pipe cleaning process, then the best choice will be to use a pipe reamer. They are an economic and handy tool for cleaning your smoking pipe without any hassle. With time, the layer of cake will become thicker in your pipe, and this will hamper the smoking experience. But you can easily get rid of this cake by using a reamer.
Using a reamer for cleaning a smoking pipe is easy, and you can learn it.
If you want a consistent smoking experience, then keeping it clean becomes very easy. Pipe cleaning might become messy, but for a good smoking session, you will have to deal with it. You can make pipe cleaning easy by purchasing modern smoking pipe cleaning tools.
