Notes on Stem Cleaning

There are other methods for cleaning the stems other than the bleach method I outlined earlier.

Some guys will use Oxyclean over bleach as it will not eat into sensitive parts. I have not tried this, but some guys swear by it.

Other ways to clean stems involve sanding away the oxidation by hand. Other methods use Mr. Clean Magic Erasers or Bar Keeper's Friend, Soft Scrub, or other such cleaning products.

Some methods will take more time than others. A lot of it depends on how much oxidation is on the stem. If the stem is really dirty, you may find yourself spending several hours of cleaning by hand to remove the grime and restore a shine.

Try some various methods and settle on the one that suits you best.

Time to Polish the Briar

After a couple treatments with salt and alcohol, the pipes are starting to clean up nicely. These things had been the victim of some serious neglect in years gone by. One is completely blocked with gunk and no air at all will pass through it. It took me a lot of pipe cleaners dipped in rum to finally get the inside of the pipe clean and ready for use. Now to focus on the outside of the pipe.

I am starting with the pipe at the top of the photo above. Notice how dark the bowl is. Over the years, dirt and oils from the owners hand and heat from smoking had darkened the coloring of the pipe. I wanted to remove some of this build up on the polish without harming the finish of the pipe itself.

I returned to my trusty Bar Keeper's Friend and gave it a try. I added some to the pipe and gently cleaned it with a cloth. Years of neglect came off the pipe and after a few careful sessions the pipe is several shades lighter than it was and the grain is much more visible now.

I did not want to make it too light so I stopped here and started with the polish. The Bar Keeper's Friend removed the grime, but it left the pipe dull looking. That is where the pipe polish comes into play. I use Paragon wax from Fine Pipes. It is great stuff and best of all, there is no need for a buffer wheel which is great for guys like me who do not have one.

I applied a small amount of wax and worked it into the pipe. Then you let it sit and harden to a dull haze. All you do after that is take a polishing cloth and work it to a shine.


As you can see, the pipe is coming back to it's former glory and will be ready to smoke very soon.

Stem Cleaning Time...

Now is time to move on to the stem of the pipe.

There are a number of methods out there for cleaning up an old stem. The one I am going to use today is the bleach method.

For starters, you will need the following:

Bleach
Petroleum Jelly
Water
Q-tips
Small container
Fine grit sand paper
Polish of your choice

Take some bleach and make a solution in the small container. I use one part bleach to three parts water. Some guys will use a weaker or stronger solution, the jury is still out on what is best.

Next you will take some Petroleum Jelly and use the Q-tip to apply a layer over any logos or metal parts on the stem. Bleach will eat away a number of logos out there and the jelly will protect them from harm.




After you have the sensitive parts covered, it is bath time!

You will let this soak until the oxidation is removed from the stem. Some highly discolored stems will take quite awhile, while others like this one only take a few minutes before they are done. If you start to see black streaks in the bleach solution, REMOVE THE STEM! The goal is to remove the oxidation while leaving the good stuff intact.

After you remove the stem, rinse under water to halt the bleach action. You will notice that the stem is dull and rough feeling. To fix this, you will need sand it smooth and polish it.

I use fine grit sand paper until I have a nice smooth surface. Start with 400 or so paper and work down to 100 for best results. For polish, there are a number of products that guys use from furniture polish to auto wax. Today I am using what I happen to have on hand. It is finishing polish from 3M. I had never used it before and was unsure what it would do to the stem, but it cleaned up nicely and has a good shine to it.


For cleaning the metal stinger, I used some Barkeepers Friend and some elbow grease. The stem cleaned up well and in all, the stem looks great!

If the bleach method is not something you would want to try, I have had good luck with Bar Keeper's Friend alone. It takes some time and lots of work, but you will remove the oxidation and bring a nice shine to the stem.

24 hours later...

Well it has been a day and this is what the pipes look like. The pipes are still very dirty, so I will give them another treatment.

Will check back in a day or two and see how they are doing. The kids are wanting to play games tonight, so I will work on the stems tomorrow...

The Salt and Alcohol Treatment

One of the steps in restoring an estate pipe is the salt and alcohol treatment. What this does is remove any tars, oils, and other yucky stuff from the inside of the pipe. Yucky is a technical term, isn't it?

Here is how I do it. First I remove the stem and insert a cotton swab into the shank. This acts as both a plug and an absorbent.


Then I take some Kosher salt and fill the bowl with it. Next step is to pour in a little alcohol. Some use Everclear, I tend to use Whiskey or Rum. The higher proof the better is a good rule of thumb. You want just enough alcohol to moisten the salt without soaking it. The alcohol will pull the bad stuff from the walls of the pipe and the salt will absorb it and keep the stuff from going back into the pipe wall.


Place the pipe in a safe place and let it sit for a day or so. You will notice that the salt goes from white to brown as it sits. After a day, you can dump the salt out (it will be crusty by this time) and either repeat if the pipe is really dirty or clean it up with some pipe cleaners. The key here is to get all the salt out of the pipe when you are done. I use pipe cleaners dipped in whiskey to do this.

Next we will work on the stem!

Linkman's Dr. Grabow

Here are three Linkman's Dr Grabow pipes I got off Ebay for $10 (including shipping).

These are rather old and I would guess that they date from the late 1930's to the early 1940's. The famous spade logo does not appear on these pipes. Instead, they have the Linkman's 'propeller' logo on the top of the stem and the shield logo on the shank of the pipe.

From what I have been able to discover, the Spade logo was first used in 1944. That would suggest that these pipes date from between 1933, when the patent number on them was registered to 1944 when the Spade logo was introduced.

These pipes are filthy! Looks like someone really liked to smoke these, but did little to no cleaning of them. The cake is heavy and there is even cake on the top of the bowl. The stingers are all intact, but very dirty. It is going to take some time to clean these up.