Removing Oxidation From a Stem

[Revnatorade C.P.G.]

What's wrong with green vulcanite? I think they are fashionable.

Maybe your on to something. Lol. The taste gets me but maybe I need a more defined palate.

 

[bayareabriar]

Quick question to all you fine people. Has anyone used the Briarville Oxidation remover and if so does it work better than oxyclean? I normally soak my stems in Oxyclean overnight, then magic eraser and steel wool them for really stubborn oxidation, and if all else fails micromesh pads.

Hooverpen has some magic sauce too. If I remember right from previous posts, this stuff is good on items that don’t have much material to work with/sand down. Like certain types of pens and what not.

 

[bayareabriar]

Maybe you’re on to something. Lol. The taste gets me but maybe I need a more defined palate.

We definitely need a poll on how many of us know what an oxidized vulcanite stem taste like. lol

 

[buroak]

Thats howni normally do mien, but have found a good oxyclean soak, and a good scrubbing with a magic eraser or very fine steel wool. Then they polish up nicely with some tripoli. I was hoping Briavilles stuff was as awesome as they say.

“If that doesn’t make sense, think it through again.” - George Dibos

Oh, how many times I have wanted to say that in my classroom!

 

[Sigmund]

Of course George is right. The method you end up using on a pipe will to a large degree depend on the severity of the problem. It can require a shallow amount of removed material or quite a bit if its been badly stored for years. Sometimes people want restoration done to their woodwinds mouthpieces. Its a pain and there is more surface area than on a pipe stem.

 

[georged]

Hooverpen has some magic sauce too. If I remember right from previous posts, this stuff is good on items that don’t have much material to work with/sand down. Like certain types of pens and what not.

The gloopy/gel formulations of chlorine bleach do have a place in the world.

Often pen barrels are etched, or sometimes what's called "engine turned", in various patterns as a visual art thing.

If they oxidize/turn green, removing the surface layer by sanding or scraping would destroy the pattern.

A liquid, however, touches all exposed surface area equally, so "lowers the surface back to black" without erasing the pattern enough to matter in most cases. (Meaning it will increasingly blur the deeper it goes because raised lines get attacked from the sides as well as above, the diameter of the pen barrel gets smaller as you go inward, etc., but it's either that or nothing... there is no "C")

Where things get ugly, is when the makers and sellers of such goop-bleach market it to pipe people who DON'T have surface designs on their stems that they want to save. It's quite expensive, and while it will make a smooth stem black again, the stem will still need sanding and polishing to look right.

Which bring things back around to just starting where you're going to end up, and saving both time and money.

 

[bayareabriar]

The gloopy/gel formulations of chlorine bleach do have a place in the world.

Often pen barrels are etched, or sometimes what's called "engine turned", in various patterns as a visual art thing.

If they oxidize/turn green, removing the surface layer by sanding or scraping would destroy the pattern.

A liquid, however, touches all exposed surface area equally, so "lowers the surface back to black" without erasing the pattern enough to matter in most cases. (Meaning it will increasingly blur the deeper it goes because raised lines get attacked from the sides as well as above, the diameter of the pen barrel gets smaller as you go inward, etc., but it's either that or nothing... there is no "C")

Where things get ugly, is when the makers and sellers of such goop-bleach market it to pipe people who DON'T have surface designs on their stems that they want to save. It's quite expensive, and while it will make a smooth stem black again, the stem will still need sanding and polishing to look right.

Which bring things back around to just starting where you're going to end up, and saving both time and money.

Excellent explanation