Removing oxidation from vulcanite stems.

[Dshift]

Got to be a first for everything, this ain't complaining stating the fact. I'm 71 dealing with chronic back pain so sometimes I take the easy way out. I wet sanded down nine stems and this one looked a little too complicated to try that.

Even still i am sure there are people from this forum who could have helped. Could you please show a photo of the stem, i am curious what could be a complicated oxidation for people.

 

[Chris T]

It looks to me like the old and the new stems are in the photo behind the pipe. The old one doesn't look too bad to me, honestly. But then I'm a guy who will plug a tire 5 times and keep driving it. Other people have a flat and buy a new tire. I'm curious, though weather your new stem is ebonite or acrylic?I can't tell from the photo. Please let us know after you try it out how it it smokes.

 

[xrundog]

The stem exceeded my ability to clean a stem, got a replacement stem from smoking pipes.com

View attachment 427850

Yeah man, the shapes are hard to get clean. Those stems are not particularly nice anyway. I say good call.

 

[phdaemon]

The stem exceeded my ability to clean a stem, got a replacement stem from smoking pipes.com

View attachment 427850

I had some original Preben Holm pipes and a Viggo Nielsen that came with stems like this, and they were from the 70s or so, very oxydized.

Same thing with some Charatan's, etc.


I ended up working on them until they got to where I needed them to be. It all depends on whether you want OG stems or not.

If you're ever looking for some direction on how to restore stuff, I'd be happy to help.

I did write a small tutorial on how I restore pipes a long time ago, although I think I left the stem restoration part out of it since it seemed to me that it was the most common knowledge part of restorations, but, if it's worth writing something up, I can make a post about it.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Good job !
AC for deep cleaning the bowl ?

 

[phdaemon]

Good job !
AC for deep cleaning the bowl ?

I use a combination of things, a Dremel with a brush attachment, hand sanding, and even a retort if needed.

It very much depends on how aggressive I need to get.

I started using a retort when I restored a pipe that was used for some cherry aromatic blend and the ghost would not go away no matter what. Salt + alcohol bowl soaking didn't even help. After a few runs with the retort, it finally went away.

The activated charcoal is for making pipe mud to coat the chamber when I'm done with the restoration. I mix a little with sour cream and brush it.

 

[phdaemon]

Good job !
AC for deep cleaning the bowl ?

I found the post where I broke down **some** of the steps I use when restoring:

Restoring and Repairing a Peterson's Special Horn - Republic Era :: Pipe Repair and Maintenance

Hello all. Hopefully, this post can help other people that are looking to restore and repair pipes. I've gotten pretty decent at doing so, so I'll be using this thread to document the progress of restoring this pipe I just got at an auction. This pipe has a lot of potential. The grain is...

pipesmagazine.com

And here is the specific step for the retort:

Restoring and Repairing a Peterson's Special Horn - Republic Era :: Pipe Repair and Maintenance

Hello all. Hopefully, this post can help other people that are looking to restore and repair pipes. I've gotten pretty decent at doing so, so I'll be using this thread to document the progress of restoring this pipe I just got at an auction. This pipe has a lot of potential. The grain is...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[AreBee]

Some before and after shots of some of my projects.

I start with a Oxiclean bath stirring constantly for 15-30 minutes. If you don’t stir, you’ll get pits where the crystals settle on the stems. Then it’s sanding with 400 grit micro-polishing pads for the tooth chatter working up to 12,000 grit, and then finishing shine with some rouge buffing compound on cotton Dremel pads.