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I was curious how often folks ran into imperfections in their stem material. I recently made a pipe with an acrylic stem and ran into a small foreign piece of material in the stem. I'm assuming it must have gotten in the mix before the extrusion process. I've run into smaller such inclusions in ebonite before but nothing as noticeable as this. Anyway, here's a photo of what I'm talking about. I circled the inclusion in the first photo so you can differentiate between lent and the flaw because it looks like a large piece of lent. It was too big, too close to final shape to remove. What do you do with a pipe with this kind of aesthetic flaw? Do you sell it discounted? If so, how much of a discount?

I would try to take it of 600 and up sanding usually works well.

Thats why I always polish the stem on rusticated pipes before I strart the rusticating progress, if I see something that wil bother me latter (a button work doesn't bother me) I will try to fix it before is too late.

As for the discount, I really don't know...

I tried to sand it out but it's too deep.

Call it an intricate inlay and jack up the price.

Depends on the size and quantity really. Generally I am quite picky about these things and anything more than a fleck bothers me (I find white and Ivory materials will often have a small black fleck here and there, this is acceptable but anything more and i just make a new stem, the flawed stem goes into a box to be fitted to a reject/shop/gift pipes later on or something, if the stem is quite chunky it can be turned down to a smaller size and used on a pipe later on with no problems. Looking at the flaw on yours I would have certainly replaced the stem but held onto it for future use as it looks like there is still plenty of usable material there.

You might try removing the offending glob of s**t with a small cutter in a Foredom or Dremel. Then fill the spot with black polyester (Inlace material or clear with a black dye). After it hardens sand off the excess and re-polish. You will most likely never make the spot completely invisible but it will be better than it was and thus perhaps cause less discount. Be careful in removing the excess patch. It is easy to create a "dip" in the surface from spot sanding. Sand over a larger area in order to make it blend better. Regardless, it will be delicate work since the stem is finished. Had it shown up early in the shaping process the patch method would be a lot easier.
Good luck!
Chas.

Wayne, I would sell it as a second with a pretty deep discount if you're going to keep that stem.

If it were me, I would make a new stem. Pain in the ass, I know, but nothing else will satisfactorily get rid of the flaw. You really don't want to try and conceal it, only to have it raise it's ugly head somehow later on.

Rad

That stem is shameful, Wayne. Like a red-headed step child, it must be castigated, shunned, and sent to a far away place. Being a generous fellow, I would be more than happy to look after your arrant pipe and raise it in a very disciplined manner with no less than 3 smokes a week with the best of English blends.


Seriously though, that spot might bother some collectors, but I think that the everyday Joe won't care. That said, perfection is a very laudable goal, and that you care so much about a minor cosmetic flaw speaks volumes about your quality of work. If making a new stem isn't something you want to do then find some poor chap that would love a high grade pipe like yours and sell it at a discount.

My personal vote is to make a new stem. Excellent bulldog by the way.

Make it a saddle instead?

I've never actually seen an inclusion like that. Guess I don't look at my pipes hard enough.

Bro, can you say SHAAAARPIE? Just kiddin', I'd remake that, and then I'd draft a threatening letter to the place you bought that acrylic from. No need to sign it, just scare them. A little.

See ya next week.

HeY bOzos

IF u seLL me CrAp I kiLl yOU

Love,
Ernie

Thanks for the advice fellas. And thanks for the anonymous letter, Sas. You mind if I cut, paste, and print that?

Sasquatch wrote:HeY bOzos

IF u seLL me CrAp I kiLl yOU

Love,
Ernie

I'm Ernie Markle, and I approve this message.

Okay, so I decided to make a new stem for this pipe. If the pipe itself hadn't turned out so well, I would just discount it. Thanks again for the advice.

Bad idea quite frankly- I'd just toss the pipe in an envelope with my address on it- I'll do my magic moves and remove the flaw presto! Then "send" it back to you good as new!

Hmmmmm....I'm thinking this pipe is just destined to be a second. The following picture is the second stem:



What are the chances? Strangely enough it's from a rod that I've used and had no problems with before. Looks like a quality control issue. Needless to say, I'm not wasting time making a third stem. I'll just cut my losses. Unfortunately, I decided to dig into the first stem to see just how deep the inclusion was and it was deep. That stem is unsalvageable. It was the least ugly of the two inclusions. I considered taking a chance and seeing if this second stem could be made into a saddle but I just don't like this pipe with a saddle stem. Oh well.

Jeez that sucks!

Ive been there before. Had some real bad luck on a couple of pipes, both material and human error. If I remember correctly one pipe was on it's 4th stem before it was suitable for sale.

Don't give up. Time for some crazy inlay to cover it and sell it at a premium!

I've had a couple of small inclusions, usually for some reason sort of like an @ Sometimes I'm lucky and get it out, sometime not. It's a bastard, but I make another if too bad.