Originally Posted by
bicyclepost
The wedge was definitely in backwards. I've cleaned it up but the end of the stem is rough. I live in an apartment and don't have any tools to cut the stem. Do you think I could just sand this with lots of manual labour?
Looks like an alloy stem. Take it out to the concrete sidewalk and use that for the rough "sanding" then finish off with sandpaper/emery cloth for the final clean up.