Title corrected for capitals. Rule 9.
I've purchased over a dozen pipes since I started smoking pipes back on December 11th.
It wasn't until my last two pipes that I learned what I love the most.
P-lip, and peterson system pipes. Half to full bent! So much so that ove been rotating my standard system 303 and 307 almost exclusively (with my bent savinelli when I want them to rest.
Sadly I was limited to the pipes my local shop carried, and the selection of peterson systems were very limited.
I bit the bullet and ventured online and from the states I bought a deluxe system 307 with black sand blasting. After learning what I love I had this exact pipe in my minds eye for about a month. Super excited!
It has a P-lip but it's also a vulcanite stem.
I have a peterson 999 aran that has a vulcanite stem. It was my second pipe and upon purchasing I knew nothing of oxidizing etc.
I read about maintaining it but couldn't source black obsidian oil anywhere locally and wasn't sure if I could use any vehicle carnuba wax (or synthetic wax? Lasts months longer than carnuba) or If it needs to be a pipe specific wax.
So I've been trying two things.
1.) I have a wax that was given to me when I bought a leather skin for my galaxy fold 4 cell phone. It's 95% bees wax and 5% coco butter. Its meant to re-hydrate the leather cell phone skin.
Is this okay? I wasn't sure about the coco butter part, so I started using my Burts bees chapstick. Honestly it seems to work. After every smoke I dry off the stem and lather it with chapstick.
Now I maybe lucky with a very good stem that rarely oxidizes anyhow, so I really want to do things right with my new pipe when it arrives.
How can I source obsidian oil? And is this simply for shine?
Can I use any car wax (synthetic possibly over carnuba as it lasts longer), or do I need a pipe specific carnuba wax?
Or can I continue using my Burts bees chapstick, or will the 95% bees wax for leather hydration work better?
If it's a pipe specific carnuba wax that is best, where can I source that? Are there other oils that bring out the shine?
Thanks for everyone's help. I want this pipe to stay pristine as I'll be smoking it lots!