Blog by Al Jones

I found this large, Charatan After Hours Bent Billiard at Wingenroths shop in Lebanon, PA.  The owner, Mel, is a fine gentleman and if you are in the area, his shop shouldn’t be missed. I always find something interesting in his estate dresser or downstairs on his work bench.

The After Hours line was a clever move by Charatan to use a strummel that had some sort of flaw.  The flawed area was cut off and an acrylic piece was screwed to the shortened shank.  Early pipes had horn extensions and later acrylic was used.  This pipe uses an acrylic piece.  The wood for After Hours is reported to be of a “Selected” quality grain.  At the time, I had another After Hours pipe, a straight billiard.  I enjoy bent pipes much more than straights and this one looked worthy of restoration.  The “After Hours” stamp was still legible as was the CP on the double-comfort stem while badly oxidized was free of any bite marks.  The stem on my first After Hours pipe was one of the most comfortable as the rubber is quite soft and pliable.  I bet is that it is difficult to find one free of tooth indention’s.    This large billiard looked similar to a Charatan shape 44, a favorite of mine.

The bowl was in decent shape and showed the florid “L” of a Lane era pipe.  Unfortunately the bowl has some strange striation like marks on the bowl and it has a very rough texture.  It’s as of someone made an attempt to rusticate the bowl.  The bowl was so large I thought it would have plenty of wood to sand smooth and restain.

I started sanding the bowl with 320 grit paper than moved up thru the grades to 1500.  The striation marks came off, but unfortunately so did the “L”.  But, the bowl looked great with a smooth finish.

This was my first attempt to restain a pipe and I was a little apprehensive in lighting the stain.  I decided to wrap masking tape around the acrylic extension to protect it.   I chose medium brown Fieblings stain which I thought was lightened significantly.  Later, I learned it was still too dark.  Unfortunately I had used too much stain and when it was lit to set the stain, I was horrified to find the masking tape also caught on fire!  I snuffed that out quickly and was relived to find no damage was done too the extension.  A valuable lesson was learned there.  The bowl was darker than I had desired, but I decided to let well enough alone.

While working on the bowl, I had soaked the stem in a mild solution of Oxyclean. I put a dab of grease on the CP stamp to protect it.  I used 1500 and then 2000 grit wet paper to remove the heavy layer of oxidation.  Getting the oxidation out of a stepped double-comfort bit is always an added challenge.  I then used the final three grades of micromesh (6000>8000>12000) to finish the stem. It was then buffed lightly by machine and pad with white diamond and a plastic polish.

I had intended to resell this pipe, but after smoking it a few times, it earned a permanent spot on my rack.  The Double-Comfort stem didn’t disappoint.  A few months ago, after chatting reading about some of Steve’s stain jobs, I decided to lighten the stain with an alcohol wipe and then rebuff.  That worked well and I’m pleased with the present finish.   The pipe smokes very well with a nice, open draft and easily passes a cleaner.  My only issue with this pipe is that it is so large, it doesn’t easily fit into my racks.