Stem Restoration

[jaysin]

Ok so everyones talking about micro mesh well I live in a small town and cant get that stuff around here.

As I was talking to a friend who is a silversmith and makes custom silver jewelry about restoring stems as he is a pipe smoker too. Long story short he gave me some jewlers rouge and said try this I dont know if it will work or not. It did and did very well. + side free - side its dirty stuff.

 

[matchstickman]

I think jewlers rouge is one of the things that the guys over at the smokingpipes.com estate restoration department use for stems, and I believe possibly bowls as well. If it's good enough for them then its all the proof I need. Sadly, I dont have a buffing wheel, so its not really an option for me. Thanks for the heads up though!

 

[ssjones]

Yep, Lowes/Home Depot folks have never heard of micromesh. I think rouge would certainly have it's use in a restoration process, although best served using a buffing wheel. But, if it is not abrasive enough for jewelry, it might not make a big dent on a badly oxidized stem and perhaps better suited for maintenance. You'll have to work around stamped logos, just like the micromesh, but the micromesh won't leave a deposit. There are definitely many ways to skin a cat or restore a stem. Keep us posted on your results.

 

[mluyckx]

I have some and it works great on metal.
But I don't have a buffer that turns slow enough for the pipe stems. The lowest speed on my big buffer is over 3,000, the Dremel is 5,000. I'm afraid of burning the stems at that speed using the rouge.
Are you doing it by hand ? Or do you have a buffer ?

 

[jaysin]

I dont have a buffing wheel. I just used a piece of a old t shirt and rubed the rouge on it and did it by hand took about 5 min. no biggy

 

[jaysin]

actually worked well by hand reflects the light nice n shiny if I had a cam I would take a pic.

but heres my full process on it. soaked in everclear for cleanging and steralizion used pipe cleaners to clean inside. then hit it with a magic eraser then the rouge for final buffing and shine. It looks new now.

 

[olderthandirt]

Would be interested in some before and after pics jaysin.

The use of rouge for removal of oxidation from a stem is one of the oldest and accepted methods there is.
The short falls to it's use are when dealing with heavily oxidized stems. The ones that are brown and even white.

Successful restoration of an oxidized stem, regardless how bad it is, relies on the removal of the sulfur that has separated from the rubber/vulcanite matrix. To remove enough material to also remove this sulfur using only rouge requires use of a buffer for the bad ones.
For those without a buffer, wet sanding is the next best thing. Once the oxidation has been taken care of use of rouge as you've suggested is great for maintenance.

 

[ejames]

I use red jewelers rouge sometimes after I have wet sanded the stems and buffed with white diamond. The white diamond puts a really nice shine on them. The red rouge adds a little sparkle.