Pipe tool

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A pipe tool is any of a variety of small gadgets designed to aid in packing, smoking, and emptying tobacco pipes.

A "Czech tool" or "three-in-one" pipe tool consists of a pick, a reamer, and a tamper:

• The pick is a narrow rod or pin that can be used to clear the shank of debris, or to aerate tightly packed tobacco. Because it is sharp it may scratch the bowl of a pipe, and so should not be used for scraping.
• The reamer is a flat instrument shaped like a dull pen-knife blade or a flattened spoon, used to scrape ash and unburned tobacco (dottle) off the sides and bottom of a pipe.
• The tamper is a blunt instrument, either a simple dowel or shaped like the top of a nail, with a flat end for tamping down the tobacco when the bowl is being packed, and for crushing the ash together to aid relighting.

A pipe nail is a nail-shaped tool with a tamper at one end and a reamer at the other. Tampers and reamers may also be made as separate tools.

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  Three-in-one pipe tool unfolded, showing from left to right a pick, reamer, and tamper.

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  An aluminum pipe nail.

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  Early modern pipe tamper in the form of an arm.

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  Early twentieth-century pipe tamper depicting a soldier in uniform smoking.