Using wood bleach on pipes?

[the rev]

Can this be done?

I want to make a very white, very white pipe, I would like to start as white as possible. I work with wood everyday, but do not know if this will somehow damage the "smoking" of the pipe.

rev

btw, I tried the search and all I got was stuff about stems so forgive me if this has been covered

[KurtHuhn]

I don't recall it being discussed, but that might just mean that I wasn't paying attention.

The wood bleaches that I've seen are oxalic acid, which isn't exactly the greatest thing on earth to put near your mouth. That said, I suppose that leather dye also isn't incredibly awesome from that standpoint. I suspect that as long as you aren't dipping the pipe in the stuff, it would be fine. I don't know how effective it might be though.

[PremalChheda]

Bill Shalosky has used wood bleach on some of his wood turning and I think he tried it on some scrap briar. I will direct him to this thread and hopefully he will chime in.

[Alden]

Seems like Trever Talbert has mentioned it in the past.

[the rev]

Ok, any other thoughts on white? I want white white, gandalf white, I just don't want to use meerschaum

rev

[RadDavis]

Seems like Kurt had a white churchwarden at the Columbus show about 8 years ago.

Rad

[the rev]

I tried the two solution wood bleach we have here at the job site and it worked pretty well. But I am looking for something that will take the gloss finished bits even whiter

rev

[Sasquatch]

mix some milk paint into a top coat?

[the rev]

mix some milk paint into a top coat?

A bit more info please

[Sasquatch]

Well, it strikes me that you want something whiter than briar is likely to go. I have briar that is very neary bone white when cut. But left to sit, it oxydizes and turns brown, and if smoked, these pipes eventually turn a beautiful mahogany. So I think that seeking a treatment that makes briar really white is still going to fail if the pipe is used, and that if you want a white pipe, you are going to essentially have to paint it or '"stain it" white. There are stains like the Minwax "Pickled Oak" which have a sort of whitish, antiquey look to them, for example, but the old milk paint that farmers used to cook up would maybe do even better than that:

http://www.milkpaint.com/

It's not shiny though, so you'll wind up topcoating it.

[the rev]

Thanks

I would be happy with the color wally got on his pipe in the hat pipe

And funnily enough this pipe won't be smoked

Rev

[andrew]

I'd definitely give the milk paint a go. I've used both the pickling stain and milk paint. +1 on the milk paint.

[andrew]

Only if you really want the white look...

[the rev]

Only if you really want the white look...

did you make your own or buy some?

rev

[KurtHuhn]

As in PM, nothing it going to make a wood thing stark white like spray paint. Any leather dye is going to make it mostly white, pickle is... well.. pickle, and wood bleach only goes so far. And as was pointed out, time and smoking erase it all.

If you want a plain white pipe with no hint of grain, spray that thing.