[hotreds]

OK, so I purchased the stuff I need to restore, and have started on the project. Nothing like getting hands on to discover questions:

1. Should I wear gloves while doing this? I notice that I get brown crud all over my hands when cleaning stems/bowls with the Everclear- it does wash off, but don't want to be absorbing nicotine thru my skin if possible. Is this a concern, or will washing my hands an hour or so later negate any potential problems?

2. I notice that when I run a wet cleaner thru the stem, it keeps coming out brown, even after ten or so cleaners.( Although less and less so) Is there a point where this becomes overkill, or do I need to get every last bit of brown outta there? I even soak the stems in Everclear, but the result is the same. I'd like to avoid the bleach soak if possible.

3. How can I get rid of the tiny circle of crud right at the tip/nub of the stem? Nothing seems to get rid of this. Or is this really not necessary?

4. Some of the pipes have the metal filters. I get these pretty clean, but not spotless like new. Is this good enough?

5. Are bite/teeth marks purely cosmetic, or do I need to sand these away for sanitary reasons?

I'm pretty happy with the results, maybe I'm being too anal about recovering a spotless pipe. Hopefully close will work here as well as it does in hand grenades, cause getting 'em close involves a lot of work- don't really know what else I could do to make 'em "new!"

Thanks for your help!