Pipes will not keep their original beauty unless one looks after them. All too often, the care of a pipe is neglected and it quickly becomes dirty and, occasionally, soured by tar build up. To avoid this, here are a few helpful tips for those who have recently begun smoking a pipe or just want a few pointers in the maintenance of them.

There are things available to us. Pipe cleaners, reamers, cleaning alcohol, rags and wax. I have always found a pocket knife to be good thing to have handy as well.
Stems.

This is the bit that goes in your mouth. Just as you wouldn’t want to eat with dirty cutlery, do you really want to smoke a dirty pipe? Probably not. To keep mine clean, I run a pipe cleaner through the stem after every bowl I smoke. This will remove all the loose soot and tar from the mouthpiece. Once a month, I dip a pipe cleaner in alcohol and run that through my stems, scrubbing the airways clean. (My chosen alcohol is cheap cognac. It sweetens things up when it has dried!)
The exterior of the stems get polished with a dry cloth or, if I think the lustre is disappearing, with a little natural beeswax. Simply rub it on with a finger and polish it off with a soft dry rag.