Bottomless Oxidation on Vulcanite?

[Pipke]

The issue is that no matter how much oxidation I removed (and no matter the method used) the oxidation kept presenting itself, and was not apparently diminishing. After several soaks, lots of sanding...

At this point, are you favoring just polishing up what you have the best you can and keeping it?

If it were me I'd do that. Polish, apply a protective coating, and enjoy a sparkly stem pipe. Look at all you learned just because you didn't toss the pipe in the trash

 

[Roach1]

I had a stem that gave me problems. I used the Savinelli stem paste and it got rid of over 90%. YMMV.

 

[Sigmund]

For starters stop soaking stems unless you know what you’re doing. If you are using the wrong stuff you make oxidation deeper every time you soak.

 

[Pipke]

For starters stop soaking stems unless you know what you’re doing. If you are using the wrong stuff you make oxidation deeper every time you soak.

From what I've been able to learn, especially from rebornpipes, skip the presoak. I don't believe there is a magic bullet chemical out there that will work well. Going straight to sanding and polishing is needed anyways. I've decided to take that route with the pile of old pipes I have to experiment and learn the art of reconditioning a pipe.

 

[The Novice Piper]

At this point, are you favoring just polishing up what you have the best you can and keeping it?

If it were me I'd do that. Polish, apply a protective coating, and enjoy a sparkly stem pipe.

Yes, this is what I did with that pipe. I polished it with a coat or two of carnauba wax and mineral oil and no oxidation has risen to the surface yet.

For starters stop soaking stems unless you know what you’re doing. If you are using the wrong stuff you make oxidation deeper every time you soak.

This is what I suspected after the first round of soaking. Rather than finding less oxidation when I sanded it, I found more. If oxidation begins with UV light exposure, you would expect it to be heaviest on the outside and get lighter as it works its way into the material. (I'm thinking of rust as a comparison here.)

Steve Laug mentioned that bleach will create pitting, which makes sense on such a soft and fragile material. You would keep eating the material down if you repeated bleach soaks.

But how do we explain that oxyclean (or vinegar, for example) might worsen oxidation? Is this a seepage effect, something like the oxidation becomes liquefied and can then seep further down between these vulcanite "cells?"

I understood oxyclean to loosen oxidation on the surface level so it could be sanded away more easily. It surprised me that it appeared to be "wicking" oxidation out of the stem, endlessly. If it dissolves/liquefies it and somehow then aids seepage further into the material that would make sense.

 

[The Novice Piper]

From what I've been able to learn, especially from rebornpipes, skip the presoak. I don't believe there is a magic bullet chemical out there that will work well. Going straight to sanding and polishing is needed anyways. I've decided to take that route with the pile of old pipes I have to experiment and learn the art of reconditioning a pipe.

Have you experimented at all with sanding a badly oxidized vulcanite stem all the way through? Curious what that would reveal, if anything.

 

[Pipke]

Have you experimented at all with sanding a badly oxidized vulcanite stem all the way through? Curious what that would reveal, if anything.

Not yet. I did get an old pipe with a very oxidized stem in the mail this weekend. It had raised little bits of what I guess are some kind of sulfate mineral - all over the stem. I don't know how deep they go, yet. I today ordered the fine grit polishing pads that rebornpipes uses. I first am going to sand and polish a couple old stems off of my father's pipes (not badly oxidized). That very oxidized stem will be #3. I won't be doing any sort of soaking other than hot water flushes between grits.

 

[Searock Fan]

All this is just one more reason I like a quality pipe with a lucite stem!

 

[Sigmund]

Why would you use hot water? Take a stem and out it in hot water enough and it will turn brown. That might be your source of endless brown. Throw a fresh black piece of vulcanite in boiling water and you get a fresh brown piece of vulcanite. Use cold water.

I work with vulcanite all the time. I dont make pipes. I make saxophone mouthpieces.

You can read this and get a headache:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141391018304154

Or just believe me that hot water is a bad idea. Basically you have heat as a catalyst. It accelerates the oxidation and you have a ready source if oxygen. The locked in sulfur is encouraged to escape and the piece turns brown. Your goal is to create as stable of a layer as possible, not to encourage a chemical process.

 

[Pipke]

OK... cold water it is.

 

[Sigmund]

That is part of why mineral oil and obsidian oils help prevent oxidation. They seal and thus stabilize the material.

 

[georged]

It's impossible to transform a cheap pine board into furniture-grade mahogany with lotions, treatments, scraping, sanding, heating, or cooling.

Ditto rubber pipe stems.

Anyone who wants to be a pipe flipper or hobby restorer must understand that cost accountants are the TRUE overlords of Planet Earth. The vulcanite u$ed on low-end pipe$ "matches" the low-grade briar u$ed for the bowl$.

The good stuff can still look like black glass after a hundred years.

The cheap stuff looks like shit the instant it's made.

 

[mingc]

Why would you use hot water? Take a stem and out it in hot water enough and it will turn brown. That might be your source of endless brown. Throw a fresh black piece of vulcanite in boiling water and you get a fresh brown piece of vulcanite. Use cold water.

I work with vulcanite all the time. I dont make pipes. I make saxophone mouthpieces.

You can read this and get a headache:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141391018304154

Or just believe me that hot water is a bad idea. Basically you have heat as a catalyst. It accelerates the oxidation and you have a ready source if oxygen. The locked in sulfur is encouraged to escape and the piece turns brown. Your goal is to create as stable of a layer as possible, not to encourage a chemical process.

The article is about thermo-oxidative aging of vulcanized rubber at 77°C (170°F). I doubt its relevance, even with hot tap water, which probably doesn't exceed 50°C, at short intervals. The article suggests that at 77°C (170°F) for 7 days, you get more crosslinks/vulcanization, which I gather is a good thing.