“FLITZ” Polish for Oxidized Pipe Stems

[Searock Fan]

A little off topic but.... It may have been mentioned here before but for those who missed it here goes. Silver fitting on a pipe look great when they're nice and shiny, but not so much when they tarnish. To polish them up you don't have to buy some fancy metal polish. Just take some fine ash from your pipe between your forefinger and thumb and rub the silver with it. Then finish if off with a clean rag. You'll be surprised how well it works.

 

[woodsroad]

It's been a while since I had any fine ash between my thumb and forefinger.

 

[mikethompson]

Mike, A lot of what people think is oxidation is simply faded dyes used in the rubber

Well its worth a shot. I'm sure I have a bottle of that dye somewhere. I redid a steering wheel and found some. Thanks for the tip Dan ?

 

[FurCoat]

I think I'll order some Flitz. I use mineral oil on my ebonite stems which seems to slow the oxidation process.

 

[weezell]

Which Flitz do you use? There's paste, polish, etc . Tube ,spray, and the list goes on...

 

[Fralphog]

Which Flitz do you use? There's paste, polish, etc . Tube ,spray, and the list goes on...

I ordered and used the semi-liquid bottle.

 

[FurCoat]

I'm a convert. Flitz came in today. I used a buffing pad on my cordless drill with a touch of Flitz and wow.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'm a convert. Flitz came in today. I used a buffing pad on my cordless drill with a touch of Flitz and wow.

Did you use it to remove oxidation or just to shine it up?

 

[FurCoat]

Did you use it to remove oxidation or just to shine it up?

Just to shine it up. I used a Mr Clean pad first which got out quite a bit of oxidation. The stems weren't very bad just neglected for about a year. Shined it up better than micro mesh pads with a lot less effort. I'm developing arthritis in my hands and this helped.

 

[Chasing Embers]

and this helped.

Awesome.? I have similar issues with arthritis and carpal tunnel. It's mainly why I used sandpaper on my chambers instead of reamers.

 

[FurCoat]

Awesome.? I have similar issues with arthritis and carpal tunnel. It's mainly why I used sandpaper on my chambers instead of reamers.

Me too. 200 grit is my friend.

 

[FurCoat]

Awesome.? I have similar issues with arthritis and carpal tunnel. It's mainly why I used sandpaper on my chambers instead of reamers.

Here are a few pics. The set up. Buffing pad has some black but it was from the brass wind cap on my Weber. Tried to get a close up of an ebonite stem on my Nob Hill and an acrylic from a WDC. I didn't use any pressure. I let the pad do the work.

 

[FurCoat]

I cleaned half of the herd this weekend. This time I took some before and after pictures. First is after a good scrubbing with a Mr. Clean magic eraser and the second after Flitz. You can actually see the reflection of the chandelier and the plant on the table.

 

[Masterblaster]

I'm a convert. Flitz came in today. I used a buffing pad on my cordless drill with a touch of Flitz and wow.

Where did you get the buffing pad?

 

[Laurent]

They look awesome!

 

[FurCoat]

Where did you get the buffing pad?

Picked them up at Amazon. Four piece set. They will shed a bit at first.

 

[mijnnif]

Here are the after pictures. I spent 35 min and some healthy elbow grease. This is the results. No other product- chap stick, obsidian oil... used.

View attachment 111185View attachment 111186

Did you use any heat at all or was this just the polish?

Ty
Jim

 

[Fralphog]

The Flitz will remove oxidation. Get an old T-shirt or rag and keep moving to clean sections. You will see the yellow, brown oxidation coming off on the cloth. It does take some elbow grease and diligence. But, the results are great. I did have a different stem that was heavily oxidized. For this one I did use an open flame from an alcohol burner to remove the heavier oxidation. This is a tricky procedure and you must ensure that you don’t expose the stem for extended periods to the close flame and you must follow it up immediately with a wet cloth to remove the oxidation.
after removing the heavy oxidation with the open flame, I went back to using the Flitz to get the polishing done. Did this answer your question?