Anyone have a good recommendation for polishing a stem? I bought a few estate pipes and bleached them, and gave them a good scrub with a magic eraser, but they are a little gray still. I ordered some pipe stem polish and Pipes and cigars but it is back ordered. I was curious if anyone had a good home remedy I could use?
thanks guys
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No idea. Have you looked up the videos, some people use jewelers rouge
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I had a new/custom stem made by the repair dept. here and they did gorgeous work! I've never tried their restoration kit, but as good as their repair service is, I'd roll the dice on them. I have no other connection with them.

http://www.walkerbriarworks.com/
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thanks for the info guys. I actually picked up a dremel kit at lunch today, and some jewelers rouge polish. Going to give this a try this weekend. I'll post up some pics if it comes out halfway decent.
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That should get you going Kevin. I use Halcyon II on the stem, shank, and bowl, which I purchase from here:

http://www.finepipes.com/accessories/halcyon-ii-wax

What did you purchase from P&C for your pipe stem Kevin?
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Thanks Mark I may give that a try also.
I just ordered the pipe stem cleaner from P&C
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I remember watching a video a while back and he used olive oil to preserve the stem. I don't know that it will be useful to restore or polish, but it makes sense as far as keeping it nice!
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Brian, I actually saw that and tried it, it worked pretty well.
And left a better taste on it than the polish.
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Does this take the orange/brown stain off of the stem too? I have an estate that I can't seem to get that off of.
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The answer is no. You may want to post up a "close up" photo in the "Ask an old Fart" thread of the issue on your stem Pete.

It sounds like you may be speaking of oxidation on the stem. In that case, you can try some Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, or some OxiClean and a tooth brush on that stem (some elbow grease and time doesn't hurt either).
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I've used the bleaching process on it as well as a magic eraser. Thinking about sending it in and and just having a new one put on.
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I bought all the Decatur stuff from pipesandcigars.com and it works great. Not crazy expensive either.
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Wish I had seen this before. :-) Pete, if you have not sent in your pipe for a new stem, I can polish it for you N/C. :-)
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I just purchased the Decatur No Ox this week. It wasn't a product when I originally bought my set. Put a drop of it on a microfiber cloth and rub on your stem. Like magic in a bottle. Makes those stems shiny and black. Not sure how it works from a full on bleach bath or other method. Mine were cleaned up but still lacking something and this stuff did the trick. I highly recommend checking it out.
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If the oxidation is that bad and you don't have a buffing wheel setup, you might wish to look into micromesh mads; the finer grit the better.
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For me the answer is, "It depends."

If it's in the brown to green category and there's no nomenclature on the stem, or none you want to preserve, 30-minutes in straight bleach (which kinda furs up vulcanite) then rinse with water and wet sand with MicroMesh fabric 4,000 through 12,000 for a glasslike finish.

If lightly oxidized then a soak in water with a tablespoon or two of OxyClean, rinnse and sand as needed.

If just a bit discolored it's pretty easy to wet sand a MicroMesh sequence from 6,000 to 12,000

If nomenclature is in-situ and you want to preserve it, same as above but cover the nomenclature with a glop of Vaseline before soaking and beware sanding or oversanding inked-on details.

Nothing wrong with a low speed buffer if you have one, cotton wheels and proper use of an emery, tripoli and white diamond sequence but lower speeds are important - you can overheat and mess up some vulcanite in a heartbeat.

IMO. :-)
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