I have a pair of older Bewlay Billiards, a 160 and a 169, in my work box. Both have chewed and ruined stems so both need restemming. Tonight I took on the smaller of the two pipes. It is stamped Bewlay over Olde 49 over London, England on the left side of the shank. The right side is stamped 169. In pictures 1 -4 below you can see the state of the pipe. Picture 1 shows that the underside of the stem has deep dents and a large chip that has been chewed out of the button and stem. Picture 2 and 3 show the grime and deep dirt ground into the finish of the pipe. Underneath it is some beautiful birdseye. On the front and back of the bowl are great cross grain patterns. Picture 4 shows the top of the bowl. It has a thick coat of tars and oils built up on the edges and the bowl was badly caked. This one took me about 3 hours to rework.

The next photo below shows a possible stem that I had in my box. I fit the tenon to the mortise by hand sanding it to fit. Once it was on the pipe it was a bit too small on one side of the shank. One of the challenges in restemming these older pipes is that the shanks are never truly round. This one was off by quite a bit and left a ridge between the shank and the stem. I had to dig through my stems to find one that gave me room to work with an out of round shank. To do that the stem needs to be a bit bigger than the shank and then must be sanded to fit properly. It is never simple but once it is finished the reward is great in my opinion. With the stem in place the shank and stem look round.

I fit the tenon on the new stem and fit the stem to the shank. I needed to sand it to make it fit properly on the right side of the shank. I also lightly sanded the top of the bowl and rim to clean it up. I washed down the whole pipe with acetone (finger nail polish remover) on cotton pads several times to remove the finish and clean up the grit and grime that was embedded in the finish. I bent the stem a little less than the one on the original as the bend made the pipe hang down when it was in the mouth. The new bend on the stem is essentially vertical with the top of the bowl and when it is in the mouth it is level.

Once it was clean I restained the bowl with dark brown aniline stain that I thinned down with isopropyl alcohol until it was the colour I wanted to use on this one. I flamed it and put on a second coat of the stain. The pictures below show the newly stained pipe. Once it was dry I took it to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli to remove the surface coat of stain. I looked it over and brought it back to my work table. It was just too dark to show the birdseye and cross grain so I would need to wipe it down to get the effect I was looking for.

The next four photos show the pipe after I wiped it down with acetone on the cotton pads. You can see the amount of the stain removed from the pipe by the stain on the pads.

I sanded the stem with micromesh pads from 1500-12,000 grit before I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to polish and shine the surface of the bowl and the stem. You can see that after the wash and the buff the stain is more translucent and the grain shows through the finish. It actually matches the brown on the other Bewlay pipe that I have to restem. I gave the entirety several coats of carnauba wax and buffed with a soft flannel buff to bring up the sheen. The photos below show the finished pipe – it is ready to load up and smoke. The new stem fits well and it looks good on the pipe.