School me on Stem Oxidation

[Briar Lee]

Thirty some odd years ago across from Battlefield Mall in Springfield Missouri I bought my first good estate pipe, a Bari Wiking, from the owner of a very successful pipe shop.

The owner told me an old lawyer in Springfield had owned it, loved it, and babied it. But he cautioned the stem would require lots of maintenance with steel wool and toothpaste, because it was prone to oxidation. He wasn’t wrong.

All these years later that pipe is more prone to oxidation than any other in my huge stash of pipes. Lees and old Kaywoodies seem most resistant.

Why do some stems oxidize more easily than others?

You’d think if you ran a successful pipe company you’d make them of vulcanite that resisted oxidation.

Is there any reason to use oxidation prone vulcanite?

That Bari has the most elaborate stem of any of my pipes.

 

[didimauw]

Neat little pipe! I had no idea they used toothpaste for oxidized stems that long ago. I prefer acrylic cause I'm a lazy smoker, with razor teeth. But I've been trying to like vulcanite. They are comfortable, that's for sure.

 

[noobpipes]

Does it really work, toothpaste?

 

[Briar Lee]

Neat little pipe! I had no idea they used toothpaste for oxidized stems that long ago. I prefer acrylic cause I'm a lazy smoker, with razor teeth. But I've been trying to like vulcanite. They are comfortable, that's for sure.

I think that man in Springfield was the first place I heard about using toothpaste, and it does make a lot of sense.

That old Bari is an enormously high capacity pipe. Not my largest but among the biggest.

That old man mixed up a bunch of what he called American English that is maybe 95% black cavendish and 5% Latakia. I still have some, still good, in a big chest of my mementoes.

He sold a pound to my mother, to give me along with a CAO Beckler meerschaum for my 30th birthday in 1988.

It’s not bad, either.

 

[camaguey]

Does it really work, toothpaste?

Yes , but NO fluor. I use Tom's with good results.

 

[Briar Lee]

Does it really work, toothpaste?

Yes, and so does olive oil, WD-40, Everclear and spit if you use 4/0 steel wool.

The old man was as handsome as Charlie Rich, and he had a pipe shop set up next door to the most popular beauty shop in Springfield for well to do older Christian ladies like my mother.

That beauty shop even had a gay man in there who’d cut men’s hair too, but there are some things my vanity cannot abide.

You must understand that Christian Church women go to the beauty shop at least once a week starting when they are maybe 14 until they die, then their favorite beauty operator goes to the funeral home.

I used to watch that old man sell two or three high dollar meerschaums every hour to those women.

He also kept a huge meerschaum worth a thousand dollars on a bench full of his own aromatic English blend,,,,that was almost all black cavendish.

His shop catered to women, who bought their men nice things.

 

[MattRVA]

I’m interested about this too. I just got a commission pipe and the Cumberland ebonite stem stinks badly of sulfur. I’ve tried everything to remedy the stench. It’s a newly cut stem with no oxidation. I even contacted the maker to inquire. He offered to send me another stem, which seemed odd to me considering I couldn’t afford to return the pipe to the UK for a proper fitting. The replacement stem arrived with another poorly made stinking stem. Anyone ever seen an ebonite stem that stinks from the get go without oxidation, inside or out?

 

[telescopes]

I've used tooth paste for years. Discovered it for myself. Albeit, I am not a real fan of it. The pipe you have in question most likely has a high sulphur content, or higher than most. If it is of no real historical value, and if it were mine, I'd have an acrylic stem made that was an exact duplicate.

 

[telescopes]

I have had acrylic stems made for some pipes of value and I keep the original vulcanite stem for sale with the pipe if I chose to sell it.

 

[MattRVA]

I have had acrylic stems made for some pipes of value and I keep the original vulcanite stem for sale with the pipe if I chose to sell it.

Any idea who does replacement stems economically, these days? I’ll go back and search the forum but I think I heard some stopped doing business recently.

 

[telescopes]

Any idea who does replacement stems economically, these days? I’ll go back and search the forum but I think I heard some stopped doing business recently.

Briarworks makes great replacement stems.

 

[OzPiper]

Ibepens (La Belle Époque) has a great stem deoxidiser which I have been using for a couple of years and can recommend.

Mark Hoover has just uploaded a video today on “how to use”.
In a thread “Before & After Deoxidiser” started by @TheIronMonkey

It is extremely easy to use.

 

[PipeIT]

WD-40 LOL

Isn’t it a higher sulfur content in inferior grades, that cause it to oxide faster?

P.S. I always wipe my vulcanite stems down with Obsidian, right when I’m done smoking, and typically just let it soak in over night, been working great, keeping the oxidation down.

 

[woodsroad]

Yes , but NO fluor. I use Tom's with good results.

Why no fluoride?

 

[woodsroad]

Vulcanite, Cumberland, etc etc is all just some form of hard rubber. Same stuff that they've made clarinets out of you many years. Some manufacturers made that rubber in a seat-of-the-pants fashion, with a scoop of this and a shake of that into a process that only Old Skip, the one-eyed foreman knows. Some were more precise about it and may have actually consulted a chemist about the chemical ratios and vulcanization process required to produce a hard, stable product.

Today's rubber stem material is all top-grade stuff.

 

[sparker69]

I've just begun the "Vulcanite Journey" © myself and there was a bit of a learning curve. I found a page on reborn pipes particularly helpful and a video from Bare Pipe on youtube good as well. After a few different methods, I've found the one I like the best and that might do the least longterm damage, although we won't know that for a few years - micromesh pads. I tried oxyclean and toothpaste as well, but the micromesh got rid of the oxidation on a new Brebbia where it came out almost immediately. After that, it's just keeping them stored out of the light, in their bags. When I've finished a smoke and the pipe is cool, I remove the stem and after running a pipe cleaner through it, rub a thin coat of mineral oil over it. I usually leave it over night and then polish it up afterwards and store it. Been working good for me so far.

 

[bullet08]

Don't do much at all to my vulcanite stems. Smoke it, wipe it with a rag, wipe it with silver polish cloth. They are oxidizing slowly, but not to a point to bother me. Probably will polish it with toothpaste once they bother me.