Stem interior

[Sasquatch]

Does anybody polish or wax or otherwise treat the inside of their stems(ie the airway)? I was just wondering how good the surface is inside there after I drill it, and whether it's worth dressing up or not.

[RadDavis]

Everything you can do to dress up a pipe you're going to sell is a good thing to do, as long as it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes.

I run a cotton shoestring coated with coarse buffing compound through mine. Takes about a minute and shines up the inside very nicely, especially inside the slot, which is where everyone looks to see if you've polished the airway in your stem.

It will make no difference in how the pipe smokes.

Rad

[Sasquatch]

Shoestring... good idea. I put some anti-oxydizing paste on a pipe cleaner and whipped it through a few times... but I will try the shoelace.

Cheers Rad

[ckr]

I once had made a stem from clear stock. I polished the airway with the compound that comes with the dremel buffing kits and it was very smooth. I did some tests with it. I was rather surprised to note the amount of condensation that formed inside the airway in fifteen minutes time and also that it took over forty-five minutes before it finally gurgled. What caused the gurgle to finally occur was that the smaller droplets of moisture grew. Eventually the grew enough to run and bumped into neighboring droplets and combined. When enough had run together they traveled down the bent stem and collected to the point that there was enough to cause a gurgle. I believe it took about fifty minutes before the gurgle resulted.

Your question makes me wonder if an unpolished airway would hold the droplets in place longer retarding the running. Of course boring my airways at a full half inch seems to have remedied the situation.

[Sasquatch]

Your question makes me wonder if an unpolished airway would hold the droplets in place longer retarding the running. Of course boring my airways at a full half inch seems to have remedied the situation.

I would suspect that a rough (even microscopically so) airway would produce greater condensation than smooth. But really, the fact that the airway walls are cold compared to the smoke may be the more serious factor. And as you say, drilling your airways with an electrician's auger completely averts the situation anyhow.

[LexKY_Pipe]

I chuck a pipe cleaner with some green tripoli and run it into the stem to clean it up.

[Sasquatch]

I will try that too, thanks man.