A Brigham I Was Gifted. Before And After

[agnosticpipe]

torque: I've used super glue on just about everything. I probably use it more than duct tape at this point in my life! Most of the time it works very well, but some materials not so much. I see no reason not to try though. If you're using a large amount on the stem it might feel a little harder in the mouth, but you should be able to polish it to match your other material if you're careful.
pruss: I have used it on acrylic stems and it works very well, as it seem to have the same hardness to touch as acrylic. The nice thing about acrylic stems is that if they're the multi colored type, you don't need to color them if you're just filling dents. Because the glue is clear the surrounding colors show through. If they're solid color you might, or might not have to color the super glue depending on how deep they are. Only way to tell is just experimentation. I've never colored super glue other than with black though.

 

[purplemotoman]

Very nice job.

 

[torque]

@pruss - While my photo-fu skills aren't the greatest I'll try to get something up once the battery on the camera finishes charging. I'm starting the feel like I'm hi-jacking the thread though, and I don't want to do that.
This stem is definitely not vulcanized rubber and is way to soft to be acrylic. When I got the pipe it was a train wreck. Dirty, half the diameter of the bowl obscured by cake, slight rim char, and the stem was completely blocked with gunk (could be seen blocking the airway on both ends).
I chunked the stem into a oxy-clean bath (pickle jar with warm water and half a scoop) and went off to start reeming the cake out of the bowl. I came back about 4 hrs later to check on it expecting a well oxidized stem. When I pulled it out of the bath it looked exactly like it went in (just a little cleaner). That's when it hit me that I might not be dealing with vulcanite.
Since the stem was still blocked with tar I thought "what the hell" and put it in a 91% Iso bath and left it overnight. Next morning the tar was all dissolved and the stem had exactly zero discoloration. I absolutely could not get this stem to oxidize.
In 1972 SM Frank officially dissolved WDC as a company (which is what this pipe is) but continued to produce WDC pipes for a couple more years. I believe the example I have might be from that period. That same year they also, according to their website, moved into a new production facility that included molding presses to produce mouthpieces (and might have been producing them in this manner before that, I don't know). I'm pretty sure the stem I have is injection molded rubber, I'll explain further once I can post a picture.

 

[mcitinner1]

Torque you don't need to worry about over using a thread, hell we're interested in the results. I'm also

an amateur at restoration. Always learning guy.
tinner

 

[torque]

Below are a couple of pictures of the stem in question. Hopefully it's good enough to illustrate just how deep the indention is and just how right next to the button it is. The pit's identical twin is on the bottom side of the stem in the exact same position and it's only slightly less deep but a little wider. This bad boy is a prime candidate for a superglue patch and while I've never done one before I'm going to give it a shot. I have some black glue currently enroute from stewmac and should be here by the end of the week. Any advice you guys have is certainly welcomed and appreciated.
The second picture shows the "system" end. If you hold the stem close to your eye and point it toward a light source you can see every bit of the airway inside this stem. Notice the diameter of the aluminum insert and then image that the same diameter hole extends through 50% of the stem at which point it tapers down at the exact angle the outside of the stem follows until it meets the square draw hole, again exactly. This airway wasn't drilled it was formed by what is known as a core pin and the cavity is absolutely huge.

 

[goinslow]

That turned out beautiful... I love the lighter wood rim on it. So much character!