Need advice repairing a stem

[vasco]

Hi,

A friend sent me this to see if I could help, he did the damage himself while trying to polish the stem, I don't know exactly what he did, it looks the work of a Drevil with a felt wheel but I'm not sure.
The deep is about 1 mm but it looks that the material was burned away so I don't think that heating it will help, or am I wrong ?

Disregard the white dot, I'm 100% sure that this is _not_ from a Dunhill.



I think that the only what is to fill the holes with something, but with what ? Epoxy with ebonite dust mixed in ?

Thanks in advance.

[staffwalker]

Don't think heat will help that. Perhaps build up the cut away areas with epoxy mixed with black dye, and sand down. Freibing leather dye mixes well with T-88 epoxy. I mix the epoxy, add a couple drops of dye, mix and use. Still I suspect no matter what you do it will always be evident as a repair job. New stem time?? bob

[caskwith]

By the time you have faffed around with coloured expoxies and carefully sanding bac and blending it all in you could have made a wholw new stem.

[LexKY_Pipe]

Time to make him a new stem.

[vasco]

I'm still years away of being able to do something that loosely resembles a stem, I'm still playing with LEGO(TM) bricks ))
Yesterday I ordered the stains from PIMO, I will try to mix some black powder with epoxy, it don't have to be Frankenstein level, an Igor level repair will do.

Thanks guys

[LexKY_Pipe]

[RonniB]

Any patch will show. It's nearly impossible to match the original material in depth of color and hardness. Like putting a bow-tie on a pig - still a walking BBQ. Best thing to do is take that Dremel away from your friend...also any sharp objects!

[LexKY_Pipe]

Ronni man, good to see you are still breathing!!!! Hope all is good in the 'Ville after all the flooding. Let's hear from you!

[RonniB]

Ronni man, good to see you are still breathing!!!! Hope all is good in the 'Ville after all the flooding. Let's hear from you!

Hi Craig,

It's good here at my little spot on the planet. There's still a lot of folks in need from the flood, tho. Todd had to wear floaties for a coupla days and Jody's shop room was a kiddie wading pool for a while, but that all got fixed nicely. Bruce was unscathed, so we had to put up with listening to him about how he's so "special" that the water didn't bother him. Of course, he's in love, so his attitude can be chalked up to temporary insanity.

Otherwise, I'm up to my ass in stem work. I quit offering refurb services; need to concentrate on the work that's in demand: customizing pipes and handcuts.

Whoops! Outa coffee. gotta go.

[vasco]

Any patch will show. It's nearly impossible to match the original material in depth of color and hardness. Like putting a bow-tie on a pig - still a walking BBQ. Best thing to do is take that Dremel away from your friend...also any sharp objects!

You are quite right... He did that because he felt that the stem wasn't as shinny as it should. The real problem is that he's buying a buffing wheel soon. I can't do much to stop him, I'm in Portugal and he's in Brazil...

My initial plan based on his photos was to sand the stem to the bottom hole level, but it's too deep to do that, I'm sure it's quite close to the airway.

Thanks for the advice.

[GbpBulgaria]

I'm still years away of being able to do something that loosely resembles a stem, I'm still playing with LEGO(TM) bricks ))
Yesterday I ordered the stains from PIMO, I will try to mix some black powder with epoxy, it don't have to be Frankenstein level, an Igor level repair will do.

Thanks guys

Hi,
i am not sure if have a lathe, but if you have you can chunk it in and cut the mouthpiece off just after the white dot, face it and make a tenon to fit in the old stem. After that make a new stem from this point to the lips. The 2 parts must be faced just perfect and you can glue them together strong enough for years exploitation. Hard polishing and finish is necessary of course.

However a new stem is better option.

Best
George