Rusticated waxing. How much is too much?

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Butch_Y
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Rusticated waxing. How much is too much?

Post by Butch_Y »

I have a huge watering pot that I rusticated with a hole cutter as suggested in one of the threads. It turned out nice but now I need to finish it. I'm betting it can soak up alot of wax if I tried.

So far what I did was heat the stummel with my heatgun and grind carnuba wax on it and let it melt in. I tried to keep it minimal. I then used a nylon polishing brush on my drill press to shine it.

It doesn't seem to shine quite as nice as some others I have seen. Do I need to really lay it on thick? Will too much destroy the pleasurable smoking experience?
Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours. - Richard Bach, "Illusions"
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Tyler
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Post by Tyler »

Don't lay it on thick. It'll discolor over time if there is too much. Hard to say what's going on without seeing it though.
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marks
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Post by marks »

I did the following on the second pipe I made. This has been about four or so years ago. I made a little tray out of aluminum foil, put some carnuba in this, and then used a pot on the stove to melt the carnuba. I brushed the melted carnuba onto the stummel.

As I smoke that pipe, carnuba is pushing out of the pores and sort of refirms on the surface, still to this day. I have to periodically take off the hardened wax. That was the first and last time I melted carnuba onto the surface of a rusticated pipe. Good thing I did not stain that pipe, or I would have taken the stain off in many spots while removing the carnuba.

To help with the shine, after staining a rusticated pipe, I will brush with a nylon bristled brush prior to waxing, etc. (sort of like the brushes used to brush potatoes and such). This helps even out the color of the finish. Then I will use an unsewn buff to apply the wax, and finish off with a flannel wheel.

Other pipemakers use different techniques, some probably better than mine, and this was discussed some time ago on this bulletin board. I recommend searching through older threads to see if you can find those discussions.
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