Stem Material Question

Mike Leverette · Post by **Mike Leverette** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:19 pm

Hi - I am new to this forum so the following question may have been asked before:

Has anyone come up with a stem material with the comfort of vulcanite, less maintenance like acrylic, no plastic taste like acrylic has? I like the acrylic stems for their low upkeep, less polishing, etc but cannot stand the plastic taste. Even after twenty years of smoking an Armelini and a Comoy, I still get a taste of plastic from their acrylic stems!

flix · Post by **flix** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:12 pm

Amber!

Seriously, though. I don't know of anything.

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:38 pm

Cumberland? It's vulcanite, with some other stuff... what though? Is it acrylic-like? Anyway, it has the "tooth-feel" of vulcanite, but doesn't oxidize as quickly, cleans up easier than your run-of-the-mill vulcanite, and, to my mind, doesn't have that plastic taste.

Otherwise, guys in this forum are always looking for an alternative, but I haven't heard of the perfect material yet.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:38 am

The question has been asked before, more than once. No one has yet supplied a satisfactory answer, since there doesn't seem to be a material that completely combines the best qualities of both acrylic and vulcanite.

The majority of folks believe that the better quality of vulcanite, primarily out of Germany and called ebonite, will oxidize less quickly than the cheaper stuff. The main problem with hard rubber, is that it contains sulphur which slowly leeches to the surface giving the stem that brownish colour.

Until someone figures out how to leech/bleach most of the sulphur out of the vulcanite, there will always be oxidation of hard rubber stems.

pierredekat · Post by **pierredekat** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:10 am

Hey, Mike, welcome to the Pipemakers' Forum.

And I am hoping to post some sort of test report on Absylux (a particular brand of ABS) sometime in the next week or so, once I get a chance to make a stem for one of my personal pipes and smoke it.

I ordered some rod stock back on December 19, and after two calls to the place where I ordered it, and a UPS trace, it turns out that it was delivered on December 29 (while I was in Missouri).

And my neighbor signed for it, but for reasons I'm sure I'll never know, he's been driving around with my package propped up in the passenger seat of his pickup truck for 10 days, just waiting for me to track it down, I guess.

"Gee, thanks, neighbor."

But anyway, at first blush, it looks really good. I just want to do a few tests and see how it performs as a stem material. So keep an eye out here in the Stem Work section.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:35 pm

Robert, it looks as if you've become our resident expert on investigating alternative materials. Good for you, mate.

If this ABS has the same (or very similar) mouth feel to vulcanite and is just as workable, it should solve the problem of oxidation. Also worth mentioning, it's quite a bit cheaper than vulcanite and its variants.

sethile · Post by **sethile** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:14 am

The High Quality Vulcanite (Ebonite) or hard rubber coming out of Germany is definitely the bench mark for stem material. Cumberland (or Brindle) is the same material with colored streaks, most commonly red, making it look a lot like grained black wood, but blue and green coloring is also seen quiet often. I have very little problem with oxidation, and none with taste with German Ebonite. It feels great in the teeth too. I find that it requires very little more maintenance than acrylic with none of the drawbacks. It also works beautifully.

Any alternatives are going to need to be proven, and I think will be met with skepticism from collectors until it is. It's great to experiment around. I'm all for it, but it's going to be an uphill battle.