| Author | Message | ||
     Cam Alan Member Username: Cam58 Post Number: 2 Registered: 11-2005 |
Purchased a couple on e-bay. Want to make sure they are clean and sterile. Any help is appreciated. | ||
| Gary R. Thomason Member Username: Phantom55 Post Number: 130 Registered: 11-2004 |
My personal procedure is easy. Clean up and ream using brushes and pipe cleaners as best you can. Buy a small cork plug at the local hardware to plug the shank, and fill with high proof alcohol, (I use denatured, but some don't). Let stand for fifteen minutes, empty, and repeat the brushing and pipe cleaners. Let dry about three days, and it usually is completely clean. Some very strong aromatics may cause you to have to repeat the process. | ||
| Bill Morris Member Username: Bluewind95356 Post Number: 4 Registered: 11-2005 |
Greetings Cam; IMHO when I buy an estate pipe it’s also a good idea to ream the pipe; this is the first step I do. I try to remove every bit of the cake I possibly can. Investing in a couple of good reamers—different sizes—to my way of thinking is not a bad idea. I also follow the afore mentioned method using denatured alcohol, however, if the pipe was a Cavendish—yuk—pipe, or just nasty, I will first fill the pipe with kosher salt, and then fill the bowl with denatured alcohol taking care not to let the alcohol touch the finish. Then I let the pipe sit over night, remove the salt and repeat the process sans the salt. I also clean the shank and stem using pipe cleaners—both soft and bristle—with alcohol and I’ll leave an alcohol soaked pipe cleaner in the stem for a while. For me the final step is to clean the bowl, shank, and stem with a pipe cleaner soaked in brandy, cognac, scotch or any sipping whisky. Often I leave a fresh pipe cleaner in the shank-stem to speed up the ‘soak up’ process. Then just let the pipe dry a few days or so—the alcohol evaporates quickly and I am ready to fire up my new estate pipe! | ||
| Charles Spencer Member Username: Charles_spencer Post Number: 258 Registered: 03-2005 |
You can find a lot of information in this thread: http://forum.pipes.org/~discus/discusdiscus/messages/25/15703.html |