Pipe cleaner

Pipe cleaners are a type of brush originally intended for cleaning smoking pipes, but they are useful for cleaning many other things besides pipes. A typical pipe cleaner is made of two or three lengths of wire about 6 to 12 inches long, twisted together with bristles of some absorbent material, usually cotton. This helical shape allows the pipe cleaner to translate twisting into linear force - much like an auger. Sometimes bristles of stiffer material are added to better scrub out what is being cleaned. Unlike many other brushes, pipe cleaners have no handle. They resemble thin, fuzzy pencils.

Children are quite fond of bending pipe cleaners into various shapes and for this reason, one may find pipe cleaners at craft stores. However, these are usually made with nylon bristles or some other non-absorbent material and are frequently longer, thicker, and available in many different colors.

See related smoking accessories

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Pipe cleaner.