Any of you familiar with Steve Laug's pipe restoration blog are probably familiar with La Belle Epoque's Before & After Deoxidizer. I was getting tired of using buffing pads to remove oxidation from pipe stems, and I didn't like the fact that I was removing physical material from the stem. I decided to give this syrupy product a try. The pipes below had the most oxidized stems that needed treatment.
I snipped some pipe cleaners apart to stuff in the stem ends to minimize how much goop got into the airway.
I put on some Venom Steel Nitrile gloves and put the stems in a resealable food container (which I will use to store the used deoxidizer to use again until it's no longer effective). I poured a bottle of the deoxidizer into the container, covering the stems.
I let the stems soak for about 45 minutes. I took them out wearing the gloves and wiped them down with some microfiber cloth (I didn't have any old t-shirts or rags). The stems that still had brown oxidation, I put back for another 45 minutes. I repeated one more time for a stubborn few. After scooping as much excess deoxidizer back into the food container, I wiped down the stems with mineral oil (Mark Hoover at La Belle Epoque does not recommend using water with hard rubber). This deoxidizer is sticky and messy. You will want to cover your work area with paper. After using the mineral oil to remove the deoxidizer, I used alcohol to take off the mineral oil. Then I used pipe cleaners soaked in Everclear to clean out the airways.
I decided not to use any buffing pads on the stems. I rubbed some Obsidian Oil on them, let them sit for 30 minutes and then gave them a little wipe down. While I do appreciate the visual appeal of highly polished, shiny, black stems, I find these kinds of restorations a bit much for my taste. If you look at catalogue pictures of older pipes, many times, they're much more understated. I've seen too many "restorations" gone wrong, where nomenclature and logos have been buffed to oblivion. Coming from book collecting, my approach is more of a preservationist, a lighter touch preferable. I've seen too many retouched dust jackets of Jack Kerouac's On the Road first edition over the years. It's much more refreshing and desirable, to me, to see an unsophisticated jacket, even though the black might be lightly rubbed, than a retouched jet black jacket. So, here are the pipes with their deoxidized stems:
I'm genuinely impressed with this product. It did no damage to the gold paint on the Barling stem, and I didn't have to sand away material to get these stems cleaned up. My fingers weren't tired from endless sanding with pads. Yes, this stuff is messy, and you have to be careful not to get it in your eyes, but, it really makes cleaning up pipe stems a breeze. I highly recommend its use for cleaning up hard rubber pipe stems.
I snipped some pipe cleaners apart to stuff in the stem ends to minimize how much goop got into the airway.
I put on some Venom Steel Nitrile gloves and put the stems in a resealable food container (which I will use to store the used deoxidizer to use again until it's no longer effective). I poured a bottle of the deoxidizer into the container, covering the stems.
I let the stems soak for about 45 minutes. I took them out wearing the gloves and wiped them down with some microfiber cloth (I didn't have any old t-shirts or rags). The stems that still had brown oxidation, I put back for another 45 minutes. I repeated one more time for a stubborn few. After scooping as much excess deoxidizer back into the food container, I wiped down the stems with mineral oil (Mark Hoover at La Belle Epoque does not recommend using water with hard rubber). This deoxidizer is sticky and messy. You will want to cover your work area with paper. After using the mineral oil to remove the deoxidizer, I used alcohol to take off the mineral oil. Then I used pipe cleaners soaked in Everclear to clean out the airways.
I decided not to use any buffing pads on the stems. I rubbed some Obsidian Oil on them, let them sit for 30 minutes and then gave them a little wipe down. While I do appreciate the visual appeal of highly polished, shiny, black stems, I find these kinds of restorations a bit much for my taste. If you look at catalogue pictures of older pipes, many times, they're much more understated. I've seen too many "restorations" gone wrong, where nomenclature and logos have been buffed to oblivion. Coming from book collecting, my approach is more of a preservationist, a lighter touch preferable. I've seen too many retouched dust jackets of Jack Kerouac's On the Road first edition over the years. It's much more refreshing and desirable, to me, to see an unsophisticated jacket, even though the black might be lightly rubbed, than a retouched jet black jacket. So, here are the pipes with their deoxidized stems:
I'm genuinely impressed with this product. It did no damage to the gold paint on the Barling stem, and I didn't have to sand away material to get these stems cleaned up. My fingers weren't tired from endless sanding with pads. Yes, this stuff is messy, and you have to be careful not to get it in your eyes, but, it really makes cleaning up pipe stems a breeze. I highly recommend its use for cleaning up hard rubber pipe stems.
