Blog by Steve Laug

This refurbishment was probably the easiest I have done in a long time. The pipe is unsmoked as far as I can tell. The shank is pristine, the stinger apparatus is unsoiled and clean, the stem inside is clean and the bowl is carbonized but unsmoked. The stem had some tooth chatter that makes me wonder if someone used it for a prop or something. The finish was in excellent shape with no nicks or dings. The bowl is flawless in terms of fills, I can find one pinhole sandpit but otherwise perfect. It is stamped on the left side of the shank The over Guildhall over London Pipe. On the right side it is stamped Made In London in a circle with the In central in the circle. Underneath the circle is stamped England. Toward the front of the shank on the right side is the shape number 159. The first series of five pictures shows the state of the pipe when I got it.

I sanded out the tooth chatter with a medium grit sanding sponge. I find that these give me a lot of flex and fit well against the button and follow the curve of the stem nicely. The medium grit works well to remove tooth chatter from the stem without removing too much of the material. The next series of three photos show the stem after sanding it with the sanding sponge.

After sanding with the medium grit sponge I used the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 polish on the stem. As usual I applied it with a finger to rub it into the stem and then removed it with a cotton pad, polishing as I removed it. The next three photos show the stem after polishing with the plastic polish.

I then used the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to finish the polishing of the stem. The next series of eight photos show the progressive shine that is achieved by the micromesh pads. The last of the eight photos is the 8000 grit pad. I continued sanding with the 12,000 grit pad to finish and then buffed the stem and pipe with White Diamond.

The pipe is finished – that did not take too long – a very easy refurbishment that is for sure. The next series of four photos show the finished pipe. After buffing with White Diamond I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring it to a shine. Now it is ready to smoke and looking pristine.