New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart

[BigFrank]

Originally Posted by Benwoo

So anything with out a plain black stem kind of gets my attention these days. I almost picked up an estate pipe with a clear acrylic stem. Has anyone seen any odd things happen using the salt/alcohol treatments with acrylic or lucite? Lucite I figure is no big deal but it would kind of suck to melt or cloud a clear acrylic stem.

I have a Boswell pipe with a acrylic stem that is anything but black. As others said, no salt treatment on the stem. I just take a bristled pipe cleaner, soak it in some rum and scrub that SOB till theres no gunk. I run a pipe cleaner through it, let it dry then give it a practice sip and if there is still a funky taste I just run a few more booze soaked cleaners through the stem...