Stain Rubbing Off

[graydawn]

I have been smoking pipes for a number of years and have a collection of mostly high-grade pipes in a variety of finishes. Recently I acquired an English estate that appeared to have been restained, as the red understain did not show through the final black stain one would expect in a 60+ year old pipe. When smoking this pipe, my fingers would show an orange/brown discoloration. While my hands stay dry most of the time, this would be acerbated with some sweating. This pipe was subsequently buffed lightly with white diamond, bringing out the red undertones and markedly decreasing the problem although it still persists. Ironically, a recently acquired new and unsmoked Eltang exhibited the same tendency.

Has anyone experienced this phenomenon? I wondering if for some reason my hand moisture is acidic and chemically reacting to the pipe stain.
Richard

 

[dottiewarden]

I picked up a Sterling Silver 80s Peterson and the reddish finish stained the cloth I used to buff it up a bit. I just kept rubbing until the was little finish coming off.
What surprised me most was that this pipe had been on the shelf for about 5 years and the finish came off as if it was still wet!

 

[mso489]

That's a very bad report on any pipe, that it would still be shedding stain months or years after it was produced.

On the estate pipe, perhaps it was refinished by an amateur who didn't know a proper stain to use, especially

over another finish, and botched the job. With a new pipe, there is no excuse. Clearly, no quality control is being

exercised. The pipe maker is just rushing out volume shipments, and consumers be damned. I hope the Peterson

company is on top of this; at least the pipe in question was manufactured well in the past. All of my Petersons have

been purchased in the past five years; happily, I have not experienced the problem, but we've heard a lot of grumbling

on Forums.

 

[lonestar]

Actually stain does not readily hold in briar. There is *always* some type of finish used to fix the stain and keep this from happening. Even then it can still be an issue, as you found in your Eltang.

Black stain is notorious for not holding fast, it is basically impossible to simply put a black stain on end up with a solid color that doesn't blotch or wipe off. Other colors can be just as picky, but black is consistently problematic.

The only fix really is to properly set the stain to begin with, or add enough wax to put a barrier between you and the stain. That is basically what you did with the white diamond, removed a bit of excess stain and built a layer of wax.