Haze in Carnauba Wax?

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ontariopiper

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Hi folks,

I was finishing up a pipe refurb this morning and took the pipe out to the garage where my buffer is set up. One way or another, the bowl ended up with a hazy finish, not the clear, deep Carnauba shine I'm used to seeing.

Could this be temperature related? It was pretty chilly out there this morning - about 10C/50F. I'm guessing it's time to move things indoors? Or could there be another reason for the haze?

Thanks

 
Buffing wheel contamination?

Wax contamination?

Buffing pressure too heavy?

Buffing pressure too light?

Change in wheel speed?

Just guesses.

Does anyone else have access to the buffing wheel?
 
It's very likely temperature-and-dewpoint related, the haze being microscopic bubbles of encapsulated condensed moisture.
 
Sloth - I bow to your obvious experience re 'haze'...I mean, residing in LA we should automatically declare you the reigning expert. :lol:

Honestly though, haze on the finish of a pipe could be due to any number of causes, might not be moisture (water) at all. For condensation to occur, the pipe would have to be colder than the surrounding moisture laden air. It sounded like the air was cold and via buffing the surface of the pipe would have been warm by comparison. So...wrong physics.

Unless...the pipe had been outside long enough for it to be AS cold as the air. Then when you buffed it the surface was heated via friction from the wheel to melt on the carnuba...so the surface was hot but the overall body was cold...and the difference...oh I don't know. The whole trapped water vapor thing sounds weird to me.

Carnuba is so hard it has to literally be melted onto the briar's surface via friction heat from the buffing wheel. If it was quite cold out perhaps your normal buffing protocol didn't quite get to the proper temp.

I still think contamination on the wheel seems to most likely. I'd dress that wheel down til it was totally clean...recharge it with carnuba you knew to be fresh and after polishing the pipe with some final compound (Rouge or whatever you use) to polish off the haze to a clean surface...rewax it with the newly cleaned carnuba wheel.
 
A haze or cloudiness can also be from apply too much wax, loading the wheel up shall we say.
Caranuba should be applied sparingly and in several coats as apposed to one thick coat.
You'll also get unevenness and smearing in your application if your apply too much at one time.
Buffing take practice, it's not as easy as it looks to do it correctly. Light even pressure with the corresponding passes on the wheel will give a much better finish then one so hard to remove finger prints ever will. ;)
 
Thanks, Gents. Great info all around. Much appreciated. I will dress off my wheels and go easy on the bar when loading.
 
Cartaphilus":b4mv9dsc said:
A haze or cloudiness can also be from apply too much wax, loading the wheel up shall we say.
Caranuba should be applied sparingly and in several coats as apposed to one thick coat.
You'll also get unevenness and smearing in your application if your apply too much at one time.
Buffing take practice, it's not as easy as it looks to do it correctly. Light even pressure with the corresponding passes on the wheel will give a much better finish then one so hard to remove finger prints ever will. ;)
Yuppers, what he said.......
 
I have had this happen to a refurb as well, I ended up stripping off the wax with brown compound which is 500grit I think and then rebuffing with white diamond, and then wax again, you have to be real careful not to take off any finish so pay attention to how much pressure you're applying. Good luck
 
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