From: ???????????????????????????? (Norm Carpenter)
Subject: Tightening a stem.

When I first started smoking a pipe I was  fortunate  to  find  a
person  in a pipe shop who helped me a great deal and would spend
a lot of time answering my questions.  As much as  "Phil  of  the
Bay  Area"  hates malls, the Bruyere Shoppe at the local mall was
the best store going.  Anyway, back to the  reason  for  posting.
As  a  newcommer  to pipe smoking I tended to smoke the pipe fast
and hot (still do sometimes, but I'm  working  on  it)  and  this
would  cause the shank to expand compressing the stem.  If it did
not crack the shank eventually, the stem  would  get  loose.  The
gentleman  that  I  spoke  of  showed me how to fix this with the
statement, "The first time I'll show you  for  free,  after  that
there  is  a  charge".  This  works  for  the  vulcanized, black,
bowling ball style stems, I don't know about the acrylic.

What he did was to cram as many pipe cleaners into  the  stem  as
would  fit.  Usually  two,  but  I've found that three are needed
sometimes and in other stems only one.  Once  the  pipe  cleaners
are  in  place  and positioned so that they are right against the
opening in the tenon, you take a match or lighter and heat up the
tenon.  This makes the tenon soft.  Be sure not to hold the flame
so that it touches the stem as this might start the stem burning.

When the tenon of the stem is hot  and  becomes  soft,  push  the
tenon  against  the  side of a counter or another flat surface at
the same time keeping the tenon as perpendicular to  the  surface
as  possible.  This  will cause the tenon to bulge just a little,
the pipe cleaners keep the hole open.  As you use this  technique
often, you learn just how much pressure you  can  use  to  get  a
tight fit without giving up much tenon length.  When the stem has
cooled so that it is no longer soft, remove the pipe cleaners and
sand  the tenon down, a little at a time, checking the fit to the
pipe.  To sand, wrap the sandpaper (about 120  grit)  around  the
tenon and turn the stem so that you are removing material  evenly
around  the  tenon.  When  the  tenon  just  fits into the shank,
remove it and cover the tenon surface with  graphite  by  rubbing
with  pencil  lead (this allows the tenon to slide into the shank
easier).

You can do this three or four times, and then it is time to buy a
new stem.

Norm Carpenter

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