This is one of the pipes that came in the box of pipes I received from a friend. It is a rusticated briar with a meerschaum lining. The shank extension is vulcanite. The rim of the pipe was tarry and darkened. The bowl slightly caked. The stem was badly oxidized. There is no stamping on the pipe at all, but the stem has a logo that seems to make it a Manx pipe. The stem was in good shape other than the oxidation. There were no tooth marks or tooth chatter. The button was sharp and the edges crisp.

I cleaned out the bowl carefully with a folded paper towel and isopropyl alcohol. I was careful to not saturate or soak the meer lining of the bowl. The alcohol only wet the towel so that it could be used to wipe away the tars. I also used a soft bristled battery terminal brush to loosen the cake that had been built up and then rewiped the bowl with the towel. I used some medium grit sandpaper on the meerlining rim to remove the tars on that surface. I sanded until it was clean and then used fine grit sandpaper followed by 1500-6000 grit micromesh sanding pads. With the early grits -1500-2400 I wet sanded the rim and then dry sanded with the later grits.

I soaked the stem in an Oxyclean bath to soften the oxidation and make it easier to remove. While the stem soaked I worked on the oxidized vulcanite shank extension. I used some Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 on the extension and rubbed it in to the vulcanite and then scrub it off with a cotton pad. I also used the micromesh sanding pads 1500-12,000 grit to clean it up further. I then buffed the extension with White Diamond to polish it. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil and rub it into the finish.

I scrubbed the outside of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil soap and a soft bristle tooth brush. Doing so removed the deep seated grime in the rustication on the bowl. It also removed a little of the finish near the shank extension giving the pipe a nice contrasting band between the extension and the briar. I gave the bowl a light buff with White Diamond and hand buffed it to give it a polish.

I removed the stem from the Oxyclean soak and wet sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I then polished it with Maguiar’s and wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh. I rubbed it down with a coat of Obsidian Oil. I reinserted the stem and buffed it with White Diamond and gave the stem and shank extension several coats of carnauba wax to preserve the shine.