If it were me, I would use flame on that stem.. but I totally understand why people shy away from it because it is sort of sketchy the first time you do it. But you could probably have that stem back to black within about 2-3 minutes of just quickly running the oxidized areas over a candle flame(and when I say quickly, I mean like back and forth or side to side, just passing through the flame and then out again). Wipe the soot off and repeat until the oxidation is gone. I'd recommend using a pipe you don't really care about for the first go to get the feel of it. You'd still need to use some sort of polish after.Fr_Tom wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 7:58 pmThe new Savinelli stem quickly oxidized as soon as it was exposed to air/moisture in the air.
Kevin Keith had suggested the Magic Eraser to me once, and I spent what seemed like 2 hours and ended up with maybe 4 of the Magic Erasers in shreds, and there was little if any change in the oxidation. It took Thelonious monkfish to finally get the Silver Duke stem looking good.
I am tempted to try something like Simichrome to polish the oxidation off, but I don't want to just end up with a dull finish instead of an oxidized one. What is my best strategy here? I don't want to invest a lot of time or buy a buffer. Is there something reasonably quick that can polish a seriously oxidized stem?
Another option would be to use bleach free Soft-scrub like you can get at the grocery store - slop it on the stem and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, and then rub down with a soft cloth thoroughly like you would with a polish. Bleach Free Soft-scrub has worked pretty well for me in the past, before I was confident enough to start sanding them.. it just takes more elbow grease.