Bah, humbug!

I've found that a little gurgle when first breaking in a pipe if tolerated will help build up a bit of tar in the air passage - once that tar is there the gurgle seems to go away on all my pipes (regardless of brand). Am I doing something different than everyone else? Hell, I use pipe cleaners at the end of each smoke (or on occasion if I smoke a wet tobacco) but only disassemble the stem when I give the pipe a thorough cleaning. And no, the don't taste sooty or disgusting.

On a side note, one of my pipes that was retired from the primary rotation (today's pipe: Cavicchi 1C Bent Billiard) was never a gurgling pipe. Now that its been sitting unsmoked for what? two months?? I lit it up for the first time with that McClelland 2010 and the darn thing gurgled a bit ... I ignored the gurgle and after a few minutes it went away and hasn't come back. I'm wondering now if regularly smoked pipes smoke drier than pipes that are *completely* dried out ... hmmm. Sorry for the side journey ... but it got me wondering.

Anyway ... perhaps the tar thing is all a bunch of hooey. I dunno. I do know that most of my pipes are mid to high grade so maybe its all in the workmanship and I'm just too dumb to realise it. Anyway .... go figure.

I smoke cheap pipes and routinely take them apart mid smoke. Granted this is greatly facilitated by the superior design of a Kaywoodie (drinkless aparatus with threaded stem to shank attachment). You can take these apart and do the combat blow to get the goo out, use toilet paper or I've even employed Q-tips to mop the goo from the shank. Very user friendly. Even on my other pipes with a nonthreaded tenon, I've never had a problem cleaning mid smoke.

I suspect a more proactive approach to periodic cleaning would be the real solution but I'm just not all that meticulous. Ah hell, scratch that, I'm just too damn lazy.
When they get full of goo or start to taste raspy I clean them. If that happens to be mid smoke, then so be it.

in the car,
in the kitchen,
in the livingroom,
at the computer,
in the command center
and in the dungeon.

With the exception of my full bents which are military bits they all pass a cleaner to the bowl. So I really have no need to take them abart while I am smoking them.

Now as far as disassembling them, I wouldn' think twice about it. I don't think it would happen to a delrin tenon and a loose ebonite stem is so simple to fix that I wouldn't care anyway.

What does surprise me is the amount of tar that builds up in the shank. I recently took a 5/32 and cleared the shank on my Sav' and filled the flutes 3 times before I met the bowl. I think it would have taken 30 bristle cleaners to remove all that. Ah, I feel an experiment taking form.

I will take my pipes apart mid-smoke for the simple reason to remove a blockage or apply a cleaner to a menacing shank and air hole that for one reason or another won't take a cleaner with the pipe assembled.

Why do I dismiss the basic teachings of modern pipedom? I simply don't care. Yeah, my viking blood tells me to tell others that they can shove their teachings where the sun doesn't shine - and I'm not talking about north of the polar circle here, ladies and gentlepersons.

Incidentally, there has been no damage to my pipes, no loose stems and no cracked tenons.

Besides - pipes are a tool. If they break, they break. We've been wise enough to not throw 500+ dollars out for one single pipe .. right?

And, so, let us each adopt this wise observation for our own. I always thought that this whole smoking thing was supposed to be relaxing, low stress and, well, fun. Then, I read, with some trepidation that some of our learned brethren elsewhere have cobbled together a pipesmokers world view that explains each and every nuance of the hobby. Read the 'Foundations' website, and understand what abusive toilet training can do to one's psyche. Rules. More rules. Minutae, so detailed that there is no room for smoking, just rules; meticulous categorizations. Then, a clean wind blows out the musty room. Lars has summed up the reality. A pipe is a tool, a vehicle to self enjoyment. Do what you have to do to enjoy the smoke. Makes sense to me. Thank God for screw stems.

Conventional wisdom goes as follows:

1. Smoking a pipe means applying fire, which results in an increase in temperature.
2. We all know that when temperatures increase, materials expand, so that must also go for pipes.
3. Different materials expand at different rates
4. Different materials cool down at a different pace as well
5. If taken apart, tenon and mortise may no longer fit as a result of all of the above.

In fact:

1. The increase in temperature only happens in the bowl, if it does happen to reach the far-end of the shank, you're more likely to risk burning out your pipe rather than having to worry about fitments.
2. The increase in temperature there, if any, is negligible
3. As will be its effects on expanding/contracting of materials. The only thing that could effect that is moisture in the wood. Then again, it can't be that much, since stem materials generally do not soak up any moisture, and fitments never really seem to be effected.
4. If the expanding doesn't happen, why would you worry about shrinkage?
5. Even if accepted contemporary pipe wisdom were accurate, the time it takes to take a pipe apart, push a cleaner through, and put it together again is never long enough to cause any difference in expansion.

Personally, I rarely take my pipes apart, but that is because of my love for pencil shanks and the fact that these tend to be rather fragile. Or more than regular shanks, at least.

Pipes can take more than you'd think. Stop worrying, and start enjoying.

My shank swelled up once lasting over four hours... I always worry about shrinkage...

I doubt this is the correct forum for discussing such medical problems. In case shrinkage would persist, I advise you to consult your doctor, rather than a pipe discussion group.

Best of luck.

I get several emails every day from retailers who would be happy to supply you with various medications to remedy shrinkage. I'll forward them upon request.

Don't think it is as much the heat as the moisture that might cause wood to swell. :p

In all actuality, to carry on with Thomas' depraved thinking... heat and moisture greatly assist in the swelling process.... I will leave it at that... but I think most will agree.

We're talking about smoking a pipe here, it's not quantum physics. I have enough necessary extrenuous crap to worry about so I'm very disinclined to worry about pipe smoking/cleaning technique.

loosen from taking it out when the pipe was hot. Most of my pipes are mid to upper mid grade Peterson System pipes and I don't worry about them, but my standard push stems are a different breed. A Kinsale XL 21 comes to mind. One day it was fine and the next it would almost fall out. A little heat and a nail fixed it tho.

I assume you heated the plastic stem ... but whats the nail for?

Is to press into the tenon to make it expand... thus tightening the fit. One must be careful as to not get carried away, but it is the easy "home remedy" for a loose fit.

Why not just push the stem against the table top once you've headed the stem? The nail seems like extra baggage ... unless its to keep the air passage straight while 'mushing' the plastic.

And, it keeps the expansion of the tenon even all the way around, as well as avoiding the tenon becoming crooked, which is easy to do when just pressing against the table. As opposed to expanding the tenon by smooshing, you are actually just enlarging the diameter of the tenon, and not actually changing its length, etc.

Thanks Justin.

What little knowledge I have... I like to share, for fear that it could be lost forever ! =o)

I know nothing, I just smoke the darned things, and by golly is it good.

take my military mounts apart while warm to clean them. My standard mounts wait until they are cool. I have had stems loosen to the point of almost falling off the pipe because I didn't heed the old saw, "Never take a warm pipe apart."
I clean my pipes after each bowl by twisting a cotten swab thru the smoke hole and the mortice/well then running a fat then thin cleaner thru the stem, first from the tenon then the bit. I've seen to many pipes that have left this area unattended and almost impossible to clean without using an electric drill with all its possible hazards. I watched an experienced repairman drill thru the bottom of a Pre-Republic Peterson 309 System Premier while trying to clear a clogged smoke hole. Nuff said?