New to the Hobby, Replacement Stems

[slobbermonster44]

What online store offers replacement stems and how to measure the diameter of the shank, I have the perfect pipe, but the stem is straight, I'm leaning towards bent/freehand. Thank you my pipe smoking friends.
Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization.

 

[mawnansmiff]

You could always try bending your straight stem with a heat gun.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Even carefully holding over a candle or dipping in hot water should allow the stem to be reshaped. But here's where some additional reading or Youtube videos will pay off.
How bout some pictures of what you have there?
Once your photos are on a photo hosting site (such as Imgur.com; Photobucket; Postimage; Dropbox, etc.), or on virtually any site, select the full image, then Control-click (Mac) or Right-click (Windows) on the image itself, then choose copy image location. Now paste that URL (the full web address, which should end in .jpg) into the IMG box in the reply window of the thread you're posting to.
And welcome to the forum!

 

[pagan]

Try this
http://vermontfreehand.com/stems/

 

[quint]

I have the perfect pipe, but the stem is straight, I'm leaning towards bent/freehand. Thank you my pipe smoking friends.

If you don't care about possibly ruining the straight stem, try bending it yourself. Just how far you can bend a straight stem though, I don't know.
I tried the candle technique on one stem, but got poor results, so I don't recommend it. Too easy to melt and damage the stem. But I did successfully make another one of my already-bent stems into a sharper bend. I boiled some water and then dipped the stem into it, holding it there for maybe 20 seconds. Then I removed it and placed the mouth-end of the stem against the counter and pushed slightly while it was still soft, bending it. This took a couple of tries until I was satisfied with the results. Just be sure not to let any hot water touch the other end of the stem (the part that connects to the shank). If that deforms, it won't fit properly.

 

[quint]

I also forgot to mention that I placed a pipe cleaner in the stem during the boiling and bending process in order to help maintain airway integrity. Not sure if it really helped, but the airway didn't noticeably change for me after bending.

 

[mso489]

Since you're new to the hobby I'll mention what may be annoyingly obvious. If you are going from straight to bent, you want only a little bend in the stem. For a full bent pipe, the shank part of the briar has to be angled up to accommodate that. Look at pipes at our online retailers to see many examples. I bought Forever stems for several of my cobs; these are acrylic and make the pipe non-filter. I have also had a replacement stem done for a nice estate pipe that had a Vulcanite stem that just wouldn't take a polish -- or I'd get it polished, and it would turn gray and gritty after one smoke. Now it has a nice tortoise shell acrylic stem that is perfect. Norwood pipe repair did that for less than $30, well worth it to me.

 

[slobbermonster44]

<p>Thank you all for the info I will see what happens.

 

[slobbermonster44]

I took a Missouri Meerschaum replacement stem, sanded the diameter of the tenon sort of litely with fine grit paper, Perfect.... If I want a bent Stem just nuke water in the mic and stick the stem holding the tenon, bend to shape, have a pipe cleaner in stem as well. Thank you YouTube and my friends here at the forums.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Post pics! We love seeing that stuff! I generally use a lighter to reshape stems, but the first couple can be terrifying!

 

[brass]

I just posted on another thread that I'm still learning after 47 years of pipe smoking. The thread confirms my observation.
Pax