I spent the afternoon today polishing pipes & stems that I had removed the oxidation from. For various reasons I did leave some flaws in both pipes & stems on occasion. I really wish I would have taken a few more "BEFORE" pictures and had better lighting. IMHO the pictures don't tell the whole story. ALL the stems that were cleaned were soaked in Oxiclean so they had to be polished.
Old cob that needed oxidation removed from the stem.
A John Sterling that I only polished the briar because it was quite dull.
I'm not even sure why I bothered with this one. I HATE this Lorenzo yet I can't get myself to part with it. I polished the briar and the stem. I had to replace the logo on the stem as well with white nail polish.
Two pocket folders I think are from the 60's, correct me if you have better info on them. BOTH of them were dull & both had oxidized stems. The Rolex shines better than the LHS In my opinion.
These next three are why I did the work on the others. I figured if I was going to put in a little time on these, the others may as well tag along for the ride. :: I dropped the ball not getting more pictures along the way. There isn't a lot difference at first glance from the before & after shots. BUT there is a lot in between.
BEFORE:
DURING: Sanded to 12000 grit so they started to shine again
AFTER:
The pipe on the left is a little pocket Yello-Bole. I had a shellac finish that was cracking & lifting. AND someone had sanded it at least once before and applied the shellac poorly & even got it on the stem. The sanding was horrid with sand marks across the stem & all over the pipe. Most of the logo on the pipe had been sanded off. Oxiclean for the stem, & ever clear to remove the shellac stripping to bare briar. Finished by replacing the yellow in the logo on the stem & polishing and using tripoli, white diamond, carnauba. I didn't take all the scratches out of the stem because I was removing too much material already. The bowl coating was chipped up when I got it, I can only imagine that it happened when the last person was trying to pretty up the pipe.
horrible finish coming off
The pipe on the right is a Sir Alfred (still no information on this origins if you can help) I soaked the stem even though at first this pipe didn't "LOOK" like it needed much help. There were only a few small spots of oxidation and I almost left it. BUT I'm glad I didn't. When placed in Oxiclean, it became evident real fast that this pipe had issues. Someone had sprayed a clear over the pipe & stem to make it shine like new. The clear coat completely lifted off and when I looked at it closer, there were some bad sanding marks. I used alcohol to strip the clear off the pipe & gave it a light sanding.
The Peterson in the middle had a few issues. It had some obvious oxidation on the stem that needed to be GONE, and it shows signs of being real hot a time or two. What shocked me was when I smoked it the first time, I found out it had a crappy finish too. A spray clear coat is the best I can guess. The pipe only got warm on me. It took me almost an hour to finish the bowl I smoked it so slow. When I went to clean it, I noticed that the finish was actually blistering off! This pipe too had had some sub-par work done to it too. Some Everclear took generic finish right off and stripped down to bare briar no problem. The Oxiclean took care of the stem, & I fill the "P" the best I could (it had been partially sanded away by the prior owner) Then came a light sanding of the briar same as the others up to 12000 grit. Then off to the polisher & tripoli, white diamond, carnauba.
blistering finish & hot spot
Old cob that needed oxidation removed from the stem.
A John Sterling that I only polished the briar because it was quite dull.
I'm not even sure why I bothered with this one. I HATE this Lorenzo yet I can't get myself to part with it. I polished the briar and the stem. I had to replace the logo on the stem as well with white nail polish.
Two pocket folders I think are from the 60's, correct me if you have better info on them. BOTH of them were dull & both had oxidized stems. The Rolex shines better than the LHS In my opinion.
These next three are why I did the work on the others. I figured if I was going to put in a little time on these, the others may as well tag along for the ride. :: I dropped the ball not getting more pictures along the way. There isn't a lot difference at first glance from the before & after shots. BUT there is a lot in between.
BEFORE:
DURING: Sanded to 12000 grit so they started to shine again
AFTER:
The pipe on the left is a little pocket Yello-Bole. I had a shellac finish that was cracking & lifting. AND someone had sanded it at least once before and applied the shellac poorly & even got it on the stem. The sanding was horrid with sand marks across the stem & all over the pipe. Most of the logo on the pipe had been sanded off. Oxiclean for the stem, & ever clear to remove the shellac stripping to bare briar. Finished by replacing the yellow in the logo on the stem & polishing and using tripoli, white diamond, carnauba. I didn't take all the scratches out of the stem because I was removing too much material already. The bowl coating was chipped up when I got it, I can only imagine that it happened when the last person was trying to pretty up the pipe.
The pipe on the right is a Sir Alfred (still no information on this origins if you can help) I soaked the stem even though at first this pipe didn't "LOOK" like it needed much help. There were only a few small spots of oxidation and I almost left it. BUT I'm glad I didn't. When placed in Oxiclean, it became evident real fast that this pipe had issues. Someone had sprayed a clear over the pipe & stem to make it shine like new. The clear coat completely lifted off and when I looked at it closer, there were some bad sanding marks. I used alcohol to strip the clear off the pipe & gave it a light sanding.
The Peterson in the middle had a few issues. It had some obvious oxidation on the stem that needed to be GONE, and it shows signs of being real hot a time or two. What shocked me was when I smoked it the first time, I found out it had a crappy finish too. A spray clear coat is the best I can guess. The pipe only got warm on me. It took me almost an hour to finish the bowl I smoked it so slow. When I went to clean it, I noticed that the finish was actually blistering off! This pipe too had had some sub-par work done to it too. Some Everclear took generic finish right off and stripped down to bare briar no problem. The Oxiclean took care of the stem, & I fill the "P" the best I could (it had been partially sanded away by the prior owner) Then came a light sanding of the briar same as the others up to 12000 grit. Then off to the polisher & tripoli, white diamond, carnauba.