Pipe Maintenance

#

To ensure that every smoke is a pleasure from start to finish, it is essential to regularly clean your pipe. This operation is most effective if carried out when the residues of the smoke are still moist.

Ordinary cleaning

After smoking, give two or tre blows vigorously from the mouthpiece to make the most superficial tobacco residues fly away from the bowl. Pay attention to where you point the bowl, because pieces of ash and tobacco will fly out and hit you. they will dirty your white trousers. If the pipe is blocked and blowing is not enough, postpone solving the problem until the pipe has cooled down and you can dismantle it without fear of ruining it. N.b. It is important never to disassemble a pipe while hot with the traditional connection of the mouthpiece to the stem, since the different expansion coefficients of the materials can easily cause unpleasant, sometimes irreparable breakages.

If your pipe does not have a filter, such as our Balsa System, you can first pass a pipe cleaner from the mouthpiece to the bowl and slide it a few times to free the duct from residues. If you have a filter, skip this step and postpone it until the pipe is cold.

Then fold the pipe cleaner in two and, pinching the ends between two fingers, rub the inside of the bowl until the gray of the ash has disappeared to leave only the dark layer of residues from previous smokes visible, the famous carbon jacket which, if kept at the right thickness of about 1mm/1.5mm, not only does not cause damage, but protects the briar of your pipe from burns. Normally it is more than sufficient to use normal soft pipe cleaners, occasionally you can use a pipe cleaner made rough by nylon reinforcements which increase its abrasive force.

Now place your pipe with the mouthpiece at the top and the head at the bottom, so that the remaining humidity falls towards the bowl and can therefore evaporate naturally, and let it rest at least until it has cooled down, in any case no less than an hour. We advise you to replace the balsa filter every two or tre smokes, the saturation of the filter may vary depending on the type of tobacco used and the smoking method. When you remove the mouthpiece from the stem, take the opportunity to clean the pipe with a pipe cleaner.

Periodic cleaning

As time and smoke go by, your pipe will lose the shine that fascinated you when you chose it among a thousand others.
To this we must add that the combustion of the tobacco will have left its marks such as the darkening of the edge of the head, the thickening of the carbon jacket inside the bowl, the deposit of nicotine and tar in the stem/mouthpiece duct.
If your pipe has an ebonite mouthpiece, this will tend to yellow due to the effect of sulphur, a component of the material, which tends to emerge as a result of use and exposure to light.

When (and how) to disassemble the pipe

As already underlined, never immediately after smoking and, in any case, it is an operation to be avoided whenever you suspect that any heat source has altered the proportions of the different parts of the pipe. It is usually advisable to gently rotate the mouthpiece clockwise, both to disassemble it and to reassemble it. This is because by doing so the direction of rotation of the lathe that worked the stem is supported and the latter is avoided from trauma which, in the presence of other reasons for weakness, could worsen to the point of breaking. If the mouthpiece is stuck in the stem, or simply very difficult to move, do not force it. Usually, a trick that follows the same principle that hot disassembly is not recommended works well: the freezer! Protect your pipe from humidity and food odors by closing it in a freezer bag and then leaving it in the freezer for about ten minutes. Once removed, you will magically dismantle it without difficulty.

Remove residues with Acquasol

We have already talked about the memories that each smoke leaves behind in our beloved pipe. To prevent it from becoming soaked in and releasing its flavor during subsequent smokes, it is useful to use Aquasol to dissolve tar and nicotine deposits in the stem and mouthpiece and possibly, very carefully and delicately, on the edge of the bowl with a soft cloth. For normal use it is sufficient to soak a pipe cleaner in the liquid and pass it through the torch and mouthpiece; if the ducts are particularly dirty, it is possible to leave the brush soaked inside them for a few minuto and then pass with a new brush, this time dry and clean.

Discover our products:

AQUASOL 30 ML

AQUASOL 50 ML

Savi clean - Pipe sanitizing kit

For periodic cleaning, Savinelli has designed this kit to have everything you need for correct cleaning of the pipe. Savi Clean contains a 50ml bottle of sanitizing liquid, specific pipe cleaners for cleaning the pipe head and mouthpiece and a support cloth. Assembled in a convenient transparent blister, it is simple to use and useful for keeping your pipes always clean.

Discover the product: SAVI CLEAN

Pipe Polish and Stem Polish

If use, smoke after smoke, has made the briar of your pipe opaque, it's easily done: a soft cloth and a little of pipe polish, rub and then wipe over with the clean cloth.
As for the ebonite mouthpiece of your pipe, you can instead restore its vitality with a soft cloth, a little stem polish and a little elbow grease. From time to time, go over with a clean cloth to check the result obtained. If you are not satisfied, start the operation again. Rinse the mouthpiece well and take care to remove every trace of stem polish before proceeding to smoke your pipe again.

Discover our products:

PIPE POLISH

STEM POLISH

Magic cloth

It has the same purpose as polishing wax, but it is soaked in silicone wax and carnauba wax, and works for over 1000 cleanings. The Magic Cloth has a beige, impregnated side and a blue side. With the first one, rub the head of the pipe well, then polish it finely with the other side of the cloth. Its effectiveness will surprise you.

Discover the product: MAGIC CLOTH

Pipe Scratchers

More familiarly, they are cutters. When the layer of carbon left over from many smokes has thickened too much, a hand cutter is useful to remove the excess delicately and gradually. There are different types designed specifically for pipe maintenance, more or less complex. The important thing is not to use machinery such as drills or lathes, because for those who are not in the trade they are difficult to control and the risk of damaging the pipe is far from remote.

Discover the product: STEEL PIPE SCRAPER