A pipe cleaner or chenille stem is a type of

brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

originally intended for removing moisture and residue from

smoking pipe A smoking pipe is used to inhale the smoke of a burning substance; most common is a tobacco pipe, which can also accommodate almost any other substance. Pipes are commonly made from briar, heather, corn, meerschaum, clay, cherry, glass, porcel ...

s. They can also be used for any application that calls for cleaning out small bores or tight places. Special pipe cleaners are manufactured specifically for cleaning out medical apparatus and for engineering applications. Outside of their originally intended purpose, they are commonly used in crafts, and are also popular for winding around bottle necks to catch drips, bundling things together, as a

twist tie Twist may refer to: In arts and entertainment Film, television, and stage * ''Twist'' (2003 film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist'' * ''Twist'' (2021 film), a 2021 modern rendition of ''Olive ...

, colour-coding, and as a makeshift brush for applying paints, oils, solvents, greases, and similar substances.

Description

Smoking pipe cleaners normally use some absorbent material, usually

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

or sometimes viscose. Bristles of stiffer material, normally monofilament

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefins a ...

are sometimes added to better scrub out what is being cleaned. Microfilament

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natura ...

is used in some technical pipe cleaners because polyester wicks liquid away rather than absorbing it as cotton does. Some smoking pipe cleaners are made

conical A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines c ...

or tapered so that one end is thick and one end thin. The thin end is for cleaning the small bore of the pipe stem and then the thick end for the bowl or the wider part of the stem. When used for cleaning purposes, pipe cleaners are normally discarded after one or two uses.

History

Pipe cleaners were invented by

John Harry Stedman John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and Charles Angel in Rochester, New York in the early 1900s, later to be sold on to

BJ Long Company BJ or B. J. may refer to: Businesses and organizations * BJ Services Company, an oil and gas equipment and services company that is now a subsidiary of Baker Hughes * BJ's Restaurant & Brewery, an American restaurant chain * BJ's Wholesale Club ...

, with a possibly parallel invention by Johan Petter Johansson 1923.

Crafts

Pipe cleaners are commonly used in

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

projects. "Craft" pipe cleaners are usually made with

pile and are often longer and thicker than the "cleaning" type, and available in many different colors. Craft pipe cleaners are not very useful for cleaning purposes, because the polyester does not absorb liquids, and the thicker versions may not even fit down the stem of a normal pipe or into the usual hard-to-access area of applications that call for cleaning small bores or tight places. In Japan, crafting with pipe cleaners is known as Mogol art. Its name derived from the Portuguese word Mughal for a style of weaving. Workshops in malls and schools in Japan have been led by Atushi Kitanaka on an effort to support the pipe cleaner industry. Ikuyo Fujita (藤田育代 ''Fujita Ikuyo'') is a Japanese artist who works primarily in needle felt painting and mogol (pipe cleaner) art. Use of pipe cleaners as an art format where animals are made by twisting pipe cleaners together. They can also be used to create whiskers for an animal

mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and pra ...

or nose. Craft pipe cleaners are often used in classroom settings for a variety of reasons including creating simple models, creating complex models, or as learning aids for various topics.

Manufacture

A pipe cleaner is made of two lengths of wire, called the core, twisted together trapping short lengths of fibre between them, called the pile. Pipe cleaners are usually made two at a time, as the inner wires of each pipe cleaner have the yarn wrapped around them, making a coil, the outer wires trap the wraps of yarn, which are then cut, making the tufts. Chenille yarn is made in much the same way, which is why craft pipe cleaners are often called "chenille stems". The word chenille comes from French meaning caterpillar. Some pipe cleaner machines are actually converted chenille machines. Some machines produce very long pipe cleaners which are wound onto spools. The spools may be sold as-is or cut to length depending on the intended use. Other machines cut the pipe cleaners to length as they come off the machines. Smoking pipe cleaners are usually 15–17 cm (6–7 inches) long. Craft ones are often 30 cm (12 inches) and can be up to 50 cm (20 inches). The diameter comes in 4 mm; 6 mm; and 15 mm sizes. Jumbo pipe cleaners have a 30 mm diameter with lengths of 45 cm (18 inches) and 2 metres (6.5 feet).

References

{{Cleaning tools Cleaning tools Pipe smoking Craft materials