Blog by Steve Laug

One of the side hobbies that came with collecting pipes was the collection of pipe reamers. I love the creativity and inventiveness that went into each one in my collection. I use many different reamers in the process of refurbishing pipes. It seems like I always need one that is shaped a bit differently than the one I am using so I reach into my box of reamers and almost certainly I will have one that fits the bowl size and shape.

In the top row from left to right – a KleenReem reamer, an Atlas Rocket, A Rogers Rocket, and bristle brush on a handle. The KleenReem is one of the reamers that I use almost all of the time. It is adjustable and has a built in drill bit that work well in cleaning out the shank. The Atlas Rocket is spring loaded and work in both conical bowls and U shaped bowls. I use it on lightly caked pipes that I am cleaning. The Rogers Rocket is a bit of overkill but works well on U shaped bowls as the blades are adjustable. The steel bristle brush is very good for just knocking off lightly coated bowls and as a finish to bowls that I have reamed.

The second row from left to right – A Hedgehog Reamer, a no name folding reamer, a Dunhill T handle reamer, a spring steel blade adjustable reamer, a GBD reamer. The Hedgehog and the GBD reamer are similar – they are a steel bullet shaped end with a key top that has sharp metal spikes all around it. These two I rarely use as they just seem too brutal. The no name reamer is really nice for narrow conical bowls and reaches to the bottom of the bowl. The spring steel bald reamer is great as an initial field ream of the pipe. The Dunhill T handle reamer I have used to finish a reaming of many pipes. It seems to be sharp and is capable of smoothing out the cake and bowl walls to a nice finish. The spring steel blades adjust to fit any bowl size or shape.

The bottom row from left to right – In the red package is a British Buttner reamer and on the far right bottom is a second one. These two I generally have with me when I am travelling and on the prowl for estate pipes. They work great on pretty much any pipe bowl to give me a good cleaning before I bring them home to the shop. Care must be exercised as they can easily make a bowl lose its round shape if you do not hold it vertically when you turn it. In the centre at the bottom is my favourite reamer – a PipNet reaming set. It includes a T handle and four heads of different sizes that each has four blades embedded in the plastic. These can quickly be changed from size to size and any bowl is easily reamed. They do work best on U shaped bowls.

I think since I took this picture I have picked up several more reamers for the collection but these give the basic idea of what I use in the process of a refurbishment. Keep an eye open for reamers while you are out and about in the shops looking for estate pipes or on EBay looking for pipe lots. You never know what kind of great tool you are going to find. If you have some that are not in the picture above and want to part with them drop me a line or comment on this post. We can work something out!