Meanwhile I learned by experience, mistakes. trial and error etc. to skip the Oxi cleaning.
So, I concur. It was never much appealing to me, this stuff is considered poisonous by many.
Apart from that it only extracts more and more sulfur from the stems . Mind us; ebonite
contains 20% to 80% sulfur, so this stuff is embedded in the hard rubber and all over the place
Even if you polish the stems to that much desired gloss, there is always a faint brownish
shine. Under a blue light, or a bright LED loupe light it clearly shows.
To me Mark's deoxidizer is " liquid gold " and yes the stems do come out matte, so there's still
some polishing to do. I started using it because of a hand injury and it safes a lot of sanding etc.
So , imho opinion this is the best way to deal with dirty stems; I start with a good wet glass paper sanding
till most of the green is gone, then a 24 hr. soak in the yellow drab .
It is a good idea to insert a pipe cleaner, but I do not. Reason; stems also oxidize in the airway.
You'll be surprised what dirt comes out.
Keep em shiny and be careful out there
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