Thoughts on polishing vulcanite

I’ve posted some of these photos before, but some are new, hopefully Woody won’t mind….

These are some of my thoughts, photos, and illustrations on the mechanics of polishing vulcanite pipe stems. I am not an expert pipe restorer; people should regard the following, as my opinions/observations and not a “how to”. Hopefully people will find some of this useful, or at least entertaining. Please excuse my typos and poor grammar….
There are many ways to restore a vulcanite pipe stem. The only requirement is that you are happy with the end result. Further, every “result” has many possible paths/steps that can be followed to achieve the desired finish. I do think it’s useful to examine the mechanics of the different approaches, as an understanding of what’s happening to the surface can act as a guide to getting the desired results with the materials available.
In some ways there are two paths to getting a shiny stem. Many people use a combination. One path is purely based on polishing (removing damaged material) the surface until so few imperfections remain (like polished glass) that the surface shines. The other is to FILL some of the imperfections with a substance (oil, wax, etc.) that makes the surface appear smooth and shiny. Below are two examples of how oil and wax can alter the surface appearance.


Here very oxidized stem was treated with wax (carnauba) on the right, and oil (olive, just to the right of the shoulder). The surface appears darker even though no material was removed. The oil would probably have been more dramatic had the stem not been so heavily oxidized.


In this photo, a graph from a newspaper had a picture of a football player on the back, adding oil to the surface made the paper translucent allowing the image to be seen on the graph side of the paper. In this case, think of the actual paper as the oxidized part of the stem, and the image on the back to be the intact vulcanite.

As long as enough of the oxidized material has been removed so that no “off” tastes remain, oil and waxes can improve and possibly protect the surface. One disadvantage is that the results are often temporary and cleaning of the stem with alcohol or soap will remove the coating. Alcohol does not oxidize a stem; it only removes material that was masking the oxidation.
Mechanical approaches such as polishing accomplish two things, the first is to remove the damaged material exposing fresh material, and the second is to smooth the surface resulting in a reflective surface. Bleach does a good job at removing the oxidized material, but leaves a surface that still needs to be polished.

The top photo shows a badly oxidized stem that I soaked in bleach for two hours. The left half shows the submerged part of stem and the right half was the part the remained above the liquid. Note the green oxidation has been removed, but the surface is still rough. The photo below (B) is a thin section I made of a molded vulcanite stem. The was taken on a microscope with light shining through the thin slice of vulcanite, the colors are fairly accurate; vulcanite is not as black as I thought…. This illustration does show why the surface is left rough after treatment with bleach. It ends up that molded vulcanite is of other small bits of vulcanite (I need to do more work on this, and have another sample of high quality rod vulcanite that Todd sent me to section; it will be interesting to see how it differs). For whatever reason, the chunks of vulcanite do not oxidize at the same rate as the matrix. Because the bleach only removes the damaged material (I have soaked clean polished vulcanite in bleach and noticed no change in the surface) a surface of high relief is exposed. The line drawn in figure B is what the surface looks like in the left side of figure A.
That was part 1…. I have more photos of polishing I will post later….
-David

Remarkable work, thanks.
Fabulous fotos - very informative.
The graph is weak, sadly. A 2DApollonius is probably more revealing of vulcanite coloration.



constructive criticism, that's all

Do watch any logos, not sure how bleach effects different ones... -David

fdsg
Again, these are some observations and thoughts, not a “how to” or a suggestion as to how to proceed, but I do hope that some of the information will be useful to people. There are many ways to get the desired results!

Abrasives are needed to both remove oxidized material and to smooth the surface. The abrasives can be in a loose form like a scouring powder, used on a buffing wheel, or glued to a substrate (sandpaper). When using abrasives it is important to use them in the correct steps or “jumps” between grits, one rule of thumb is to ~double the grit size at each step (600, 1000, 2000, etc.). But it is equally important to make sure each step is done to completion before going on to the next grit. Maybe most important thing is to think about how the abrasives and their carrier, or substrate, interact with the surface contours of the stem.

Line A shows what the surface would look like in profile after bleach treatment, or if bleach was not used, it would represent the dividing line between oxidized and non-oxidized material. Starting out with a loose abrasive like Barkeeper’s Friend, or a pipe stem polish, will not create a “flat” or smooth surface, rather it will only dull or subdue the surface irregularities (see line B). This happens at all scales and is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the surface is fairly smooth to begin with such as after using fine grit sandpaper. Loose grits do have some advantages. They are especially useful for a final polish, and when larger surface features like tooth marks are present that would either take too long to remove (I’m lazy), or remove too much material. Line C shows a tooth mark on an otherwise smooth surface, by using a loose abrasive on a cloth with a high nap (towel), or a Q-tip, you can round out the edges and smooth the concave portions of the pit that sandpaper would be unable to reach (line D). This saves both time and reduces the visibility of some larger imperfection, but if used too early in the process the stem will not become smooth enough to take on a glass-like appearance (if that’s what you want).
For the generally flat areas, the paper, or stiff foam backing of the sandpaper, can conform to the larger curves on the stem, yet remain plainer on the scale of oxidation, pits, etc. This is exactly the same idea as using a sanding block on car paint, you want to remove sags, runs, and “orange peel” yet allow the block to conform to the larger curves on the body panel. Again, this concept works at all scales.
It is also important that before going to the next higher grit that all imperfections, both surface damage, and scratches from the last abrasive, have been removed. If you are trying to remove a pit, it is much faster to remove it with 600 grit than spend three times as long with 2000 grit. The caveat being that with a aggressive paper, you can wreck a button or tenon shoulder REAL fast. The best way I have found to check the quality of the surface is to wash and dry the stem, and then hold it up to the sunlight (or use a flashlight) at various angles to find the angle, which will best show the scratches. If the surface remains wet or even damp, most the imperfections with remain hidden. This is harder to do with loose abrasives because the scratches tent to be more chaotic and take on a frosted appearance, but one should remember that the surface damage is still present to the same degree for a given grit, its just not as obvious, this too can be used as an advantage…. Not always practical on small objects like pipe stems, but if you can alternate the direction the sandpaper is moving between each step, you can see when the finer grit has finally removed the larger scratches that are trending in the opposite direction. The larger starches, if left behind, will become more apparent as one gets to finer grits.
Something that I used to overlook is how quickly sandpaper gets dull, even if used wet as I like to do with pipe stems. I’ve run into this with polishing sections to examine under the microscope, abrasive papers do not last long, or at the very least loose cutting power quickly! [As a side note, when the paper gets dull and stops cutting fast, the process takes too long, which results in boredom, and at least for me, that when dumb stuff happens like the wrong bits are sanded, things go flying etc.] Abrasive grains both fall off the paper, get clogged, and the sharp corners of the grains quickly chip off resulting in loss of performance. The same rounding of grains and loss of cutting power also happens with loose abrasives.
When trying to quickly smooth the surface, I find it best to tear off small pieces of sandpaper and pitch them rather quickly as they become dull rather than trying to use a large sheet for a longer period of time. Conversely, the loss of aggressiveness can be used as an advantage when using both fixed, and especially loose abrasives. During extended use the abrasives are reduced in size and the resulting finish will become progressively smoother (somewhat). I’m told this is true with some automotive rubbing compounds….
The finer the grade of sandpaper you can finish with before moving to loose abrasives like a stem polish, the more plainer and reflective the surface will appear (generally…..). A fine polish will create a somewhat shiny surface if used on something rough, but it will not have the aggressiveness to remove the larger scratches, rather it will subdue and soften their edges (like the surface of an orange peel). As the surface becomes more “perfect” the use of oils and waxes may mask (I don’t mean that in a bad way, or imply that it’s cheating) the remaining imperfections resulting in a fairly good-looking stem. It’s also useful to remember that if the stem looks ok to you, there is no reason to go on polishing, more importantly, there is no reason why you can smoke it and work on it at some other time.
I thought I would try testing some different polishing methods to see how they compared (some of this I have posted before). To do this, I used a 1500 grit wet/dry piece of sandpaper (wet) to remove all the oxidation from one side of the stem. All the scratches were kept parallel to the length of the stem so that it remains clear they were formed during the first step, and not the result of later polishes. 3 pieces of clear tape were placed on the surface to separate the test patches and preserve the 1500 grit scratches providing a contrast between the other treatments. Care was taken that all the polishing with the test compounds was made perpendicular to the stem. After polishing the tape was removed and the surface cleaned with soap and water followed by alcohol to make sure no residues (ie. waxes or oils) remained.

Again, the point of this was not to show which treatment was the “best”, but rather to recognize what each treatment did to the surface. The surface started with the polish left from a 1500 grit paper, using 2000 or 4000 grit paper would certainly have effected the results. Also worth noting is that I took this photo with strong lighting directed at a low angle to the surface to accentuate the scratches; under normal room lighting many of the small imperfections would not be noticeable.
The Magic Eraser did the best job removing the scratches, but it left a surface that was not as smooth as the other treatments. I think this was caused by the differences in hardness of the vulcanite at a micro-scale, ie. softer bits were removed at a faster rate; sandpaper at this scale does a better job as removing only the high parts to leave a flat surface. The eraser is very good at removing stuff on tight curves like on a saddle bit that are hard to reach with sandpaper. The Barkeeps Friend was similar to the Magic Eraser. I have gotten nice results using the Barkeeps Friend or the Magic Eraser followed by the Brebbia pipe stem polish but I prefer to use sandpaper instead. The toothpaste seemed to do OK, but I think I got the best results from the Brebbia pipe stem polish. In this test, it was not able to remove all the scratched from the 1500 grit, but this is solved simply by using a finer paper before using the Brebbia.
I have only used a buffing wheel with abrasives a few times (I love the buffer for waxing the briar though) so I cannot make too many comments about their use. Many pros and pipe makers use them and they are generally fairly fast. I’ve gotten good results with an assortment of sandpapers and the pipe stem polish, so I rarely mount a buffing wheel charged with abrasives anymore, but then again polishing a few stems here and there.
I said I wasn’t going to make suggestions, but I do think its worth noting that a perfectly serviceable stem cleaning kit can be had for well under 30$. For those impatient like myself, you can run to the local auto parts store and get an assortment of sandpapers (get at least a few sheets of the finest stuff they have). I really like the pipe stem polish, but you can experiment with toothpaste (others have used metal polish; I haven’t tried it so I have no opinion other than you would want to make sure you REALLY washed away all the residue with soap and water, and then some kind of solvent followed my more soap and water….. I do that with the pipe stem polish anyway)
-David

Wow, that was too long.... -David

Thanks guys! I could have summed it up by just saying get some sandpaper and some stem polish..... -David

Thanks! -David

I didn't read it, but yeah...informative!

The only way that I could possibly find this helpful or useful would be if you could print it out on paper. At least then I could wipe my butt with it or line the birdcage. Uhhhh....... thanks or something!?