Thread: Rehydrating hard rubber

It is Gutta Percha, a hard rubber like what was used to make black telephones and pipe stems.

Just clean first with WD40, paper towel and wooden coffee stir stick, between the scales. Then some degreaser Simple Green or 409 to remove the WD40. Run a flame under it quickly. Don’t stay in one place too long or it will burn and bubble.

It will turn black and smooth immediately. Don’t over heat and burn, usually a quick passing of a flame, will do the trick. I will also remove or plump up dents, teeth marks on pipe stems.

I cleaned up a D. Peres scaled in Gutta Percha a couple days ago, one side was brown and rough, the other black and smooth. A quick pass brought back the black and smoothed out the finish.

I sanded both sides with 600 grit up to 1k and buffed with Black Magic to a high gloss.

The theory for pipe stems is the rubber oxidizes, faster because of the heat and smoke and the stem is coated in sulfur. Heating with a flame burns off the sulfur.

Well I don’t know if all that is true, but it works. A flame works better than a heat gun. Here is an interesting video where a guy restores a GBD pipe stem using this technique. In another video he tried a heat gun with less successful results.

I used the flame from a disposable lighter, not a butane lighter like he used. I did several quick passes and did not heat it up as much. Best result is where the tip of the flame kisses the rubber.

(How to repair vulcanite stems using heat)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXkBuiEaY6w