Pipe restoration questions

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Originally Posted by hotreds

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!

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

Comments in red, above.

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.