I found an old estate pipe at an antique store. I blasted it with a very fine media and cleaned up the stem. I then buffed both with tripoli wax. Does this wax cause any problems with smoking the pipe?
Tripoli buffing wax
- Thread starter leparker
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Yep, you really want to avoid Tripoli, it is too aggressive for most pipe work. And unnecessary for standard pipe clean-up/restoration.
There is a big difference between polish (the Tripoli you mention) and wax. If you think of the fine surface as a mountain range that you want to "flatten out" = smooth, you need to use both polish and wax. The first part is using an abrasive like sand paper, emery paper and steel wool to cut the high peaks down to size. Then, if you want a smoother finish, you use polish to cut the peaks down to the low lands level. THEN, you use wax to fill the lower points in UP to the level of the low lands so that the surface is level and, as you are doing this all for in the first place, perfectly smooth and shiny. The down side of Tripoli is that is can leave quite the residue if you have not used an abrasive first which is both sticky and can discolor the surface. I use only use Tripoli on the rim which helps get some of the charring off. White diamond is a less abrasive polish that works well. Hope this helps.
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