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Ebonite is much nicer to use, I hate using acrylic and generally will only use high quality pre-forms if a customer insists on acrylic. Everytime I have to do a full handcut I curse it!

Interesting - guess I'm ordering some ebonite!

I just want to point out that Ernie is still wrong about this.

I am 100% willing to experiment with alternatives to ebonite. Any of my pipes I keep at this point (which is maybe 1 in 3ish) gets the absolute shit smoked out of it. For some reason I just don't feel as inclined to take great care of my ugly ducklings and will smoke them multiple times a day, every day, often while in the shop - so they get covered in dust and grime and occasionally stain. I clean them when I clean them, but I don't even always do the bare minimum of running a cleaner through there. I figure I'll be making better ones to replace any that die anyway.
So that being said - ebonite really does not hold up well to that sort of abuse. Oxidizes fast, starts holding all sorts of gross dried mouth scum, starts adding that rubber taste to everything, looks like total shit within a week. I don't love the clickity clackity feel of acrylic, but all the other positives seem to keep nudging me in that direction. Maybe it's worth trying some of the other alternatives like juma or something.

About 1/2 of what I make has acrylic stems now. I think things have changed in the pipe community because so many factory pipes are acrylic now that lots of guys actually have realized that rubber stems taste like shit under all but ideal conditions. I offer pipes for sale with acrylic stems and they get bought really quick, there's no bonepile of unsold acrylic stemmed pipes sitting here.

I've watched quite a few pipesters who smoke beat up old garage sale Kaywoodies or whatever but their first Italian midgrade, and the response is always "WOW! I can't believe how much flavor this pipe has!"

So I argue strongly that for "serious" smokers, guys who want max flavor, who want to taste tobacco and nothing else, acrylic is a better material. It sucks from the carver's point of view, and certainly I keep acrylic stems at simple tapers or simple saddles, nothing ornate because it's just too fussy to cut by hand well. But from the user's point of view? Jesus, it's close to perfect.

Juma is a great alternative. Black doesn't shine up as well as Ebonite or acrylic and is heavier than the two, but it is easy to work with. I think Chris uses a lot of polyester (correct me if I'm wrong), which is much softer than acrylic but is chippy to machine and doesn't hold a bend well.

You are correct. Polyester has it's drawbacks, just like acrylic, but it still better than ebonite. Ebonite looks lovely (for a while) and you can cut a beautiful, strong, thin stem that is comfortable and durable (for a while).

I know not everyone likes polyester, and it has a learning curve. From customers though 99.9% are really pleased. Almost every pipe I sell retail has a polyester stem and for commission work I make about 2 or 3 ebonite/cumberland stems a year, everyone else wants polyester, even in black.

Did a couple of acrylic stems today, and although they are slick and tough to cut with files, they seem easier to sand and do a little shaping while hand sanding.
I also find that the melting point is lower than ebonite while buffing., so a slower surface speed or less pressure are required to keep from turning your stem into a lumpy (but shiny) piece of carp.
DocAitch.