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Will this sort of stand hurt the stems in the long run? I figure you guys would know if anyone, and I might try making an ugly one to go in my locker at school.

I've been storing my pipes on a similar stand for the past year or so and haven't had any issues yet.

Keep them away from heat and it should be fine. If they sit there for years and years untouched, I imagine you'd see some droop.

I know that after year and years I've got some droop going on... oh wait David meant pipes.

To minimize stem oxidation I store mine in a closed cabinet. It's really not good to leave them exposed to even ambient light. Does anyone disagree?

But then you can't admire their beauty! This is why I like acrylic. I also don't have space for a closed cabinet.

I made some racks a few years back that stored the pipes by the stems. I had many people say that they would never store pipes that way due to possible damage. So I did a test of my own.

I hung one of the racks behind my chair and smoke from those pipes. I moved pipes around in the rack as I smoked them. I also took a hat and hung on one of the pipes in the rack. I left the hat on that particular pipe, and smoked it on occasion while replacing the hat when done. I did this for over a year and never noticed any drooping or damage to the stem. I did however let the pipe cool after smoking before putting the hat back on it.

This was enough evidence for me. As long as you don't bump knock up against the pipe, possibly breaking a tenon, this way of storing the pipe won't cause any damage. As to the light, you may have to clean the stems more often. This is of course is just my opinion, but with my test study to back it up.

I wouldn't like to, stem droop/shape changing is a risk I just wouldn't want to take on a good pipe.

While we are discussing pipe storage. is there any negatives to storing pipe "European style", stems down? I run cleaners thru the stems and wipe the bowls before storage so they are dry, mostly. I'm not detecting any fluids in the bits when I smoke them.

Comments, folks?