Increasing Cloudiness on Half of Amber Stem

[Brig]

Here's an odd one. Bought an antique 1914 meer to restore and smoke a couple months ago. When I got it, the stem was pretty clear:


I washed the pipe and stem in soap and water, and it got a little cloudy:


Today, I cleaned with some Everclear to get the gunk out of it, and the cloudiness has gotten worse:



But here's the real kicker...it's only doing it on one half, perfectly defined by the halfway mark of the case it came in. I mean perfectly:



Any ideas? It looks like I definitely need to sand this down to fix the problem, but I'm stumped what would fog half of it so quickly so perfectly.

 

[greeneyes]

I don't touch amber with organic solvents to save my life. Soapy water is all I use. The first and only time I used solvent on an amber stem, I watched it crumble into dust in a matter of hours.

 

[greeneyes]

Put another way, amber is an amalgam of organic resins that are soluble in organic solvents to various extents.

Here is an analysis performed by various German scientists one hundred years ago, putting the solubility of the relevant amber types at up to approximately 20%. These guys took notes in Gothic German script, so you know they're right, but even more conservative solubilities can destroy Amber.

https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/viewFile/11401/4147#:~:text=His%20Rumanian%20sample%20was%20too%20small%20for,10%2D12%20%%20by%20Heyer%2C24%2017%2D25%20%%20by

 

[greeneyes]

But! On a positive note, yes you can buff amber to a shine with fine grit sandpaper discs, if the crazing hasn't pitted it too deeply. And it smells good.

 

[Brig]

Soapy water started this fogging and Everclear liquid exacerbated it. Super weird that it's only on a perfect 1/2 or the stem, though.

What's the best polish for amber stems after they're buffed out?

 

[georged]

Something to keep in mind is that amber has five chemical makeup sub-types. It's a broad term the same way "vulcanite" or "acrylic" is.

What someone swears works regarding it might have been true for them, but won't be for you.

Except for boiling in a vat of heated fluoroantimonic acid, of course. That'll clean it up reeel good.

 

[xrundog]

Soapy water started this fogging and Everclear liquid exacerbated it. Super weird that it's only on a perfect 1/2 or the stem, though.

What's the best polish for amber stems after they're buffed out?

Brebbia stem polish works great.

 

[Waning Embers]

Olive oil or obsidian oil.

 

[ashdigger]

I have plenty of amber stemmed pipes. I clean them one way, and one way only.

Warm water with standard pipe cleaners.

Why don’t I use solvents, soap, alcohol or some other type of whatever?

Why only standard pipe cleaners and not bristle pipe cleaners?

Sad experience. I had stems and pipes, yes pipes come apart in my hands.

When you’re holding a pipe 125 years old and you go ham and OCD on, then it disintegrates in your hands you’ll learn.

Oh have I learned.

Oh, final tip. I NEVER TAKE MY ANCIENT PIPES APART. EVER.

The tenons and shanks on these pipes are tricky. Bone tenons into wood or Meer come apart, the threads get janky.

Old pipes need some care and management.

If you want a pipe to beat the shit out get an old Grabow or Kaywoodie.

Okay, having gone on way too long, I don’t baby my pipes. They get abused; however, just not while being cleaned.

 

[Pypkė]

Read up on how to care for amber jewelry, and please put away the solvents!

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

How or why the soap started the reaction in the first place is a mute point, it did. Why it only did it to the half of the stem that was exposed out of the case could be three different things. 1. it was an oxidizing reaction, the half of the stem in the case was more shielded and thus by the time the reaction had stopped the case had shielded that half.
2. it was a reaction catalyzed by ultraviolet light, same principle. the half in the case was shielded. 3. straight chemical reaction, the case absorbed enough of solution to neutralize the reaction on one side.

Dish soaps can have all sorts of additives from bleach to alcohol, none of them play well with amber. 100+ year old amber is a fickle b$tch, even under the best of conditions it can just turn to dust, snap, discolor, or any other number of things. Light sanding with 600g, 800g, then 1000g and hand polishing with a jewelry cloth will get you back in the game. Do so with a VERY light touch though.

 

[condorlover1]

Read my previous posts and blog on owning meerscheum pipes from the 19th century!

 

[jhowell]

Look at it the other way around. Is it possible that the top half of the case caused the problem? Could someone have cleaned the top half of the case with a solvent which caused the damage which was later revealed by cleaning the stem?