New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart

[Zoomschwortz]

I have a question,

I'm not new to pipes, but I don't smoke them very often, so I believe that I fall under the Newbie pipe smoker title.

My question concerns a pipe I bought for my wife (her first) this past Friday. She always liked the look of the Church Warden pipes so I surprised with one and she smoked it for the first time yesterday.

Here is the question: How can I tell if there is a filter in the stem?

I tried to clean it last night and the pipe cleaner will not go through the stem. It looks like the stem is a 2 piece model, but I can't get the 2 halves to separate and I don't want to break her new pipe. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Ken