So along with the Estabrook Eaton, i just found a Yello Bole "dual lined" straight apple rusticated, a Jeanet large pot style straight that seems to be leather encased, and a small Signature pot straight. Any info on these would be great. Also the shanks are heavily oxidized any tips on getting these puppies back in black and smokeable?
Wicked oxidized shanks!! Any tips on fixing?
- Thread starter cburke111
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In my experience it will bring the oxidation to the surface. I often only need to hit the stems with 0000 steel wool and then buff following the soak.
Meguiars Plastic Polish, available at most autoparts outlets. I think Mothers may also make a similar product.
If it's the stems and they appear to be turning olive drab, this is not oxidation,...I know that's what they call it, but it's not. When rubber is vulcanized, sulfur is used in the process....over time the sulfur begins to be released due to a weak chemical bond. The yellow color is that sulfur.
Sodium hypochlorite, (good old Clorox bleach), turns sulfur black. It appears to remove it but it doesn't...it just makes it harder to see.
To do this I use a tall glass and fill it with Clorox taller than the stems that will soak in it for one hour.
This process will rough up the surface of the stem which will require light sanding and buffing to bring back to show-room new.
Before doing this one hour bleach soak…. I fill the end holes with Vaseline to keep the bleach out of the draw-hole and also apply a little Vaseline to any emblems you want to save,….they will be destroyed if you don’t. Aluminum emblems like GBD pipes will also be destroyed.
Sodium hypochlorite, (good old Clorox bleach), turns sulfur black. It appears to remove it but it doesn't...it just makes it harder to see.
To do this I use a tall glass and fill it with Clorox taller than the stems that will soak in it for one hour.
This process will rough up the surface of the stem which will require light sanding and buffing to bring back to show-room new.
Before doing this one hour bleach soak…. I fill the end holes with Vaseline to keep the bleach out of the draw-hole and also apply a little Vaseline to any emblems you want to save,….they will be destroyed if you don’t. Aluminum emblems like GBD pipes will also be destroyed.
I think most of these recommendations will work. All I'd add is if you bleach it, rise it really well for a good 15 mins. And then run some sweetener thru using pipe cleaners or you'll taste bleach. Blaaaggg.
hey guys - need to bump this up to ask a quick question
i have some old pipes i'm resotring that were my grandfathers. i'm done with the main pipe bodies, and have moved on to the stems. when i started, they were a greenish-brown, both with metal inserts where it connects to the pipe, and both still had filters in them. i removed filters and put them both in a bleach/water mix for an hour or so. it seemed to work somewhat, but even after scrubbing, they still appear to be an off-black color - not full black.
is this as good as i can expect to get them? any other methods for cleaning them to a full, nice-n-shiny black?
i have some old pipes i'm resotring that were my grandfathers. i'm done with the main pipe bodies, and have moved on to the stems. when i started, they were a greenish-brown, both with metal inserts where it connects to the pipe, and both still had filters in them. i removed filters and put them both in a bleach/water mix for an hour or so. it seemed to work somewhat, but even after scrubbing, they still appear to be an off-black color - not full black.
is this as good as i can expect to get them? any other methods for cleaning them to a full, nice-n-shiny black?
I recently went thru some very difficult stems.
I tried everything, and the most successful was:
- a gentle and meticulous sand with 400 grit.
- soak in oxyclean for 4 hours. (I used 1 teaspoon per cup of water.)
- polish with white tripoli. (I used a $5 wheel for my cordless drill from a local hardware/automotive store, white compound from PIMO.)
- rinse with alcohol to get rid of polishing compound.
- apply obsidian pipe stem oil.
I have to give a tip of the hat to uncle arthur and others (memory fails me right now) for their help in coming up with this.
I sometimes use VIM (the one with bleach) for minor touch ups. (rinse and coat with obsidian)
I hope the walker briar kit works for you, I found out the hard way it only works on about 75% of the hard cases.
Even with everything I tried, I had to replace one stem. It kept turning brown a few days after I coated it with Obsidian. I had sanded/polished it down so far I was uncomfortable doing any more.
I tried everything, and the most successful was:
- a gentle and meticulous sand with 400 grit.
- soak in oxyclean for 4 hours. (I used 1 teaspoon per cup of water.)
- polish with white tripoli. (I used a $5 wheel for my cordless drill from a local hardware/automotive store, white compound from PIMO.)
- rinse with alcohol to get rid of polishing compound.
- apply obsidian pipe stem oil.
I have to give a tip of the hat to uncle arthur and others (memory fails me right now) for their help in coming up with this.
I sometimes use VIM (the one with bleach) for minor touch ups. (rinse and coat with obsidian)
I hope the walker briar kit works for you, I found out the hard way it only works on about 75% of the hard cases.
Even with everything I tried, I had to replace one stem. It kept turning brown a few days after I coated it with Obsidian. I had sanded/polished it down so far I was uncomfortable doing any more.
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