wood, unless it's done right is going to be hard to clean, since if it's not treated right (durring the process of making the pipe, you need to have soaked it in water alot, sanded it back down to smooth and repeate this many times) it will more than likely ruin your pipe.... would suggest finding a way of doing it without any liquids, go to the pipe&tobacco stuff part of the store (it's not where you would find all the tobacco's, but the zippos, maybe the pipes, and all kinds of stuff people use with tobacco) and look for pipe cleaners...if you don't know what they are, i'm sure you've seen them before and just never knew it, they are used in alot of like school projects where you make something for the holidays, say as a reindeer's antlers... i just dont' know how to explain them.