Anyone one else in cold climates have difficulty with stems being too tight in the winter? I’m guessing it’s the dryness. Other than humidifying the house any possible solutions? Sanding the tenon is not a good long term solution considering it may well go the opposite direction in the summer. Lubricant of some kind?
Winter Stem Fit
- Thread starter ofafeather
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Beeswax
Tighter in the winter? That's the first I've heard of that. Usually folks complain about their stems being too loose in the winter.
Thanks! I think typically that happens bc of temperature. Here in the Northeast I think it’s a dryness problem. House is at a stable temperature but during the cold snap we’ve been in, relative humidity is extremely low. Most of my stems are tight at this point and I had two pipes that I was working on that I almost couldn’t get the stems in at all after they had been off the stummel for a few days. I thought I was going to snap the tenon on one getting it off again.
I was thinking graphite. I’ll give that a try. Not sure if I have beeswax but I can probably find something similar.
If you’ve got a natural food or health food store they should sell blocks of it pretty cheap. Also can be found as candle making material.
No but I did an extensive ream and alcohol/charcoal soak so that may have done something. After that tested some others that I haven’t touched and most are tight - with varying degrees.
Same here; best solution is to get you one of those hand strengthening thingamabobs...
If you use the cooling gel it may make the tenon shrink
I've found that for pipes that are hard to place and remove the tenons, graphite works best. Wax tends to tighten up tenons more than lube them... In my experience.
It's pretty easy, just sharpen a pencil, and color the tenon with the graphite like you are drawing. Just wipe off the tenon really well first.
It's pretty easy, just sharpen a pencil, and color the tenon with the graphite like you are drawing. Just wipe off the tenon really well first.
Now with graphite...
I think he probably looked around and thought that’ll work . It works great. Doesn’t get hard, it’s safe, no odor and it Seems like it stays for awhile. I have used it countless times. No issues. It’s probably hard for most to find. It’s a sort of Mexican thing.