pipemakersforum.com

I was wondering if anyone could explain the benefits/drawbacks of the different types of stem materials.

Vulcanite/Ebonite is soft and comfortable in the teeth, but needs occasional mainteneance to stay shiny as it oxidizes and turns yellow/green.

Acrylic needs no mainteneance to stay shiny, but is harder in the teeth.

Tuskanite (available soon, I hope!) is the best of both worlds. It has very close to the same Shore D hardness as vulcanite/Ebonite, but it contains no rubber and no sulfur, so it won't oxidize. It's like maintenance free vulcanite. It also drills, lathes and files almost identically to Ebonite.

I've never used Bakelite, polycarbonate, Absolux, Ultem or any other stem material, so I don't know anything about them.

Rad

I would say that ABS falls somewhere between Vulcanite and Nylon. It has a decent mouth feel, but it doesn't oxidise like Vulcanite. It's a bit more difficult to work with files and sandpaper and perhaps doesn't take quite as high a shine as Vulcanite. Unlike Acrylic, it turns easily and beautifully on the lathe.

Incidently, not all Ebonite/Vulcanite are equal. The Ebonite Kurt ordered from Germany is superior to most (possibly all) premolded vulcanite stems. There is even quite a fair amount of quality variation in premoldeds.

Cast polyester is another choice of stem materials. It has a comfortable mouthfeel similar to ebonite. According to some of what I've read, it has a similar Durometer to ebonite (a tad lower, actually) - though I have not tested it myself.

It is, however, a pain in the ass to work. If you get aggressive with it on the lathe, it will shatter and chip instead of being cut. You need razor sharp tools and a well developed feel for the material. For this reason, I only ever work it on the metal lathe anymore. It can be worked on a wood lathe, but I prefer not to.

It sands and grinds similarly to ebonite, creating a fine white powder - even if the rod is a darker color. Filing it, however, requires that you frequently clean your file as it has a tendency to load up a smooth cut file. But, in my opinion, it finishes much better than ebonite, much more shiny, and easier to get a good shine.

It has another drawback, however. Cast polyester, the kind you want to use for stems, is very expensive if you're not doing your own casting. It's on par with, or more expensive than, good German ebonite. And, it isn't completely opaque. Even black is slightly translucent.

I would have to "second" Kurt's comments on cast ployester resin. After an initial purchase of a pint with catalyst and color as a test mechanism I found it to behave quite like Ebonite except it's more britttle. Since I only have a wood turning midi-lathe to work with I've grown accustomed to using hand turning tools do all my stem work. I finally purchased a gallon of resin with the appropriate amounts of catalyst and black coloring, pvc pipe as molds and ended up with 28 Ft. of rodstock for under $50 USD. The only drawback is the temperature has to be 70F minimum to properly set off the chemical reaction. You will want to do this outdoors unless you have an extremely efficient ventilation system as the smell is beyond belief. I would have to say that after many hours of practice making CP stems, it has become my material of choice for all the reasons Kurt has already mentioned.

Kevin