My progress so far and a question about buffing.

[pruss]

I have never used the blue multipurpose compound. I understand that it isn't great for use on plastics with a low melting point, but beyond that, I've never seen it referenced with regards to use in the pipe restoration hobby. Which is not to say it won't work... I just have no experience with it.
The three compounds used most universally in our hobby are tripoli (for sanding out deep scratches, gouges, oxidation or significant stains), white diamond for final polishing, and carnauba wax for preserving shine and luster. As I understand it, jewellers rouge is for use on soft metals like gold, silver, brass and copper. These materials are all softer than briar, and I wonder whether the rouge would be enough to bring up the shine you're looking for. Again, no experience here with that particular compound.
One option for you if you're struggling with Carnauba wax on your drill would be to invest in a Dunhill Pipe Wipe. These come impregnated with a silcone based wax and can be used to bring up a nice shine on cleaned pipes through hand polishing.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
-- Pat

 

[coty]

I've got my buffing wheel chucked in a drill press now. So I have plenty of power and I can adjust it to whatever speed I want. I'm just wondering if jewelers rouge would work because I happen to have a tube on hand already. I've actually never seen white diamond compound in a hardware store and don't feel like waiting on anymore stuff in the mail to finish up this pipe.

 

[pruss]

I'm just wondering if jewelers rouge would work because I happen to have a tube on hand already

Hopefully one of the other folks who does resto work on pipes will chime in with some experience, but I think that briar might be too hard for jeweler's rouge to have much effect. As to speed, if you could get your drill press to 1725rpm you'll be in a happy space with a six inch or a 4 inch wheel. Just be careful as you turn the speed up, flying briar is a scary thing.
Have fun, and good luck!
-- Pat

 

[coty]

One of the setting on my press is 1720 RPM, so I should be golden. I'll just have to go check all the hardware stores in town for white diamond compound.
I'm still not clear on the buffing wheels though. It seems I should start with a more firm dense wheel for the abrasive compound and then use a soft fluffy one for the waxing. But I'm tempted to do it the other way around. I don't want extra heat and friction when using the white diamond but I seem to need it in order to apply wax.

 

[pruss]

I'd be inclined to stick to the common recommendation on buffing here, Coty. You'll find that loading wax onto your softer wheel at the new speed from your bench grinder won't be an issue. Further, I think you're, maybe, overly concerned with the abrasive power of white diamond. Do you have a beater pipe, or old basket pipe, that you can experiment on? This would help you experiment with your set up and determine what works best for you.
For what it's worth, here is a link to the Beall Buffing System instructions, you'll note that they recommend progressively softer material in their buffs as they move from Tripoli, through White Diamond, and finally to Carnauba Wax.
http://www.bealltool.com/pdfs/woodbuff.pdf
Cheers,
-- Pat

 

[tobyducote]

Coty..if your in a pinch, I've seen white diamond sold at Ace Hardware and Harbor Freight.....but I prefer to order from JH Lowe or Pimos

 

[ejames]

Red Jewelers rouge will put a little extra sparkle on your stems.Do the white diamond first. Doesn't really do a lot on briar. It works great on metals also provided they have been properly prepared. It will not remove dings or heavy scratches from anything.
I like to use the red rouge on softer stem materials--nylon (Medico and others) ABS (post 1981 Grabows). I wet sand sand them to 1000-1200 then buff with the red. With white diamond I usually sand to 800. I don't use tripoli for anything.

 

[coty]

All my pipes are beater pipes. I've been buying junky pipes and learning how to fix them up. The only "good" pipe I have is a Sav Oscar and it smokes terribly. My junky looking basket pipes are far superior XD.
I'll head out to the hardware store and pick up a different wheel and some white diamond and see how this turns out.

 

[coty]

Update: So I stripped the wax off and re-sanded, starting at around 3,600 grit and going back up to 12,000 grit. I then buffed it on my drill press using a medium stiffness cotton wheel and "White Rouge". Here is a nice big picture of it so you can see the fine details. http://i.imgur.com/fbJooKD.jpg
Its definitely nice and shiny, but the grain still looks washed out and some fills are showing since I have now removed the olive oil. Should I dye it with alcohol based leather dye to fix this? I know the dye will hide the fills, but wont the grain still look washed out?

 

[pruss]

I think the grain is looking great, you're absolutely right that fills are going to become more obvious after sanding (you're pulling off old stain and grime that was masking the fills). I think that the pipe looks fresh, and clean, and also think that the flat look you don't like will pop more once you get wax on the pipe.
If you are considering staining the pipe, then alcohol based leather dyes are the way to go. I'd heartily recommend cutting your dye with isopropyl alcohol. Especialy if you only want to tint the pipe, and don't want to dye it a deep colour.
I hope that all this playing around is fun.
Cheers,
-- Pat

 

[coty]

I had the pipe dyed, had it buffed up pretty well and was just about to switch over to the wax wheel and I bumped into the chuck of the drill press while it was still in motion and made a pretty mess of the rim of the pipe.....
Anyway, I now have a pipe with a nicely finished bowl and a natural rim. I've already resanded and I'm about to dye the rim again, but before I do, I would like to know if there are there any other neat option for rim finish? I've seen some charred rims and some rims dyed different colors. Just wondering what things I might be able to try since I'm redoing the rim anyway.

 

[coty]

Eh. I got impatient. Here it is in all its glory! My $50 basket pipe. Sure looks good though.

 

[ssjones]

Looks good from my chair! Watch the white diamond around faint nomenclature, but you won't hurt anything else (buff stems mounted on the pipe so you don't round the stem junction). My Lowes carries White Diamond.
For a pipe with fills, I'll restain with black (after stripping the old stain in alcohol), buff that off with Tripoli, then restain a lighter brown. That will leave the black stain in the grain and covers the fills nicely most of the time.

 

[coty]

I've actually been wondering about that. How to you keep from sanding off stampings and makers marks without leaving dull poorly finished spots all around them?

 

[ssjones]

It is always a compromise - between cleaning the briar or stem and not removing material, logo's etc. You just learn to work around them. Sometimes that means the nomenclature area is a little more dull than the rest of the briar.

 

[pruss]

How to you keep from sanding off stampings and makers marks without leaving dull poorly finished spots all around them?

This is also one of the reasons that I like to wipe down estates with either a little acetone on a cotton ball, or a little iso alcohol. It pulls the grime (and, yes, a little stain), and lets me really get a feel for the condition of the briar. This is a no brainer step for me if I'm going to be doing any sanding of the actual briar itself, which will likely result in a restain or tint job anyway.
But Al's right, cleaning up estate pipes often does come down to compromises. Charred rims, dents, scratches and scrapes, tooth marks, overturned stems, loose mortise-tenon connections... all these issues (and more) will have the restorer making choices about optimum cleanliness/aesthetic vs. least harm to the original form/nomenclature of the pipe.
Coty, I think you did really well. That's a lovely clean-up job.
-- Pat

 

[tobyducote]

Coty...nice job on that pipe....