Blog by Steve Laug

I was gifted this old Kaywoodie Apple in an exchange recently. It is the last of the box of pipes that I have to refurbish. I left it to last as it had some serious problems. The stem was overturned and had deep tooth marks at the button. The bowl had some deep scoring on the left side of the bowl. Those issues might not seem too serious at first glance but they were more so than I had expected. I inspected the stinger apparatus and saw that it had been reglued in the stem. I heated the stinger with a heat gun and turned it back into the shank of the pipe. As I turned it carefully the stem fell off in my hand. I looked and saw that it was corroded through and the heat had softened the glue and the piece literally fell out of the stem. I tried to epoxy it back into the stem and connect the two pieces but it would not stay. Each time I put it back into the shank it fell out – no matter how much curing time I gave it. That was the first issue. In looking at the tooth marks they were repairable but with the broken stinger and threaded tenon I wondered whether it was worth fixing it. The grooves on the bowl and the dip in the rim above them could be repaired and would be a simple fix if I decided to keep the pipe. Those were the issues that caused me to lay the pipe aside for a bit and work on other pipes. That is why it is the last pipe in the bottom of the box.

Because of the extent of damage to this pipe it was unlikely that it would ever be truly collectible again. Though to some my next decisions will appear to have desecrated an older Kaywoodie I decided to use this pipe to experiment with a few repair ideas. I topped the bowl with my usual method to remove the rim damage. I removed the damaged portion of the bowl and flattened the rim against the sandpaper. When I was finished topping the bowl the rim was flat again however the inner edge of the rim needed to be repaired. It was missing a large chunk of briar.

The missing chunk matched the twin scoring marks on the outside of the bowl and made me wonder how the previous pipeman had caused that kind of damage to the bowl. The divot on the rim was not a burn mark but a divot that had been caused in the same moment the scoring occurred on the outside of the bowl. I sanded down the scored areas and cleaned the bowl with acetone. I then patched the score marks with superglue and briar dust. I also built up the top of the rim in the divot area with the same mixture. I kept the mix on the top of the rim as much as possible with very little of it on the inside edge. I did not want to use it inside the bowl.

I sanded the bowl to remove the excess of the glue and briar dust mix and then wiped the entire bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. The three photos below show the state of the bowl and the repairs down with the briar dust and superglue. The third photo shows the top patch.

Because the stem was not functional I had a decision to make. I could drill out the disintegrated end of the stinger and put a new replacement tenon in place or I could remove the metal shank insert and make a new push stem for the pipe. The faintness of the stamping on the shank and the extent of damage that I had repaired on the bowl made me take the second choice. I removed the metal shank insert from the shank. This is not as hard as it sounds. I have heard of others drilling it out and leaving it in place. I have opted to remove it. It is threaded and can be unscrewed from the shank with a small pair of needle nose pliers. The next two photos show the process. I sorted through my stem can and found a stem that could be repurposed to fit this shank and then be adapted to fit the diameter of the shank.

Before I could properly fit the tenon in the shank I needed to drill the mortise deeper. The current depth of the mortise was the same length as the threaded portion of the metal shank attachment in the photo. I wanted the tenon to be longer so I drilled out the mortise to double the length of the current depth. I would need to remove some of the tenon length on the stem to make a good fit but that is a simple task.

With the drilling done, I used the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool to remove some of the excess diameter of the tenon and also shortened the tenon slightly to get a good tight fit in the shank and clean joint at the tenon shank union. The larger diameter of the stem is visible in the photo below.

I used the Dremel with the sanding drum and carefully reduced the diameter of the stem while it was in place on the shank. I run the Dremel at a speed that allows me to carefully and steadily control it as I work close to the shank of the pipe.

Once I had it roughed in to fit with the Dremel it was time to take it back to the work table and do the hand work with sandpaper to make the fit seamless. Since I was going to restain the pipe anyway I sanded the shank as I sanded the stem to make the transition smooth. In the first two photos the stamping is visible in the light of the flash. In real life it is quite a bit fainter and shallow. I also use some superglue and briar dust to repair some of the deeper dings and marks on the bowl to ready it for staining. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface and remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

I wiped the bowl down with Everclear to remove the sanding dust and give it a last cleaning before I started giving it a new stain coat. I have also included two photos of the new stem with the older KW stem and broken parts for comparison sake. I really like the way the new stem fit the shank and the look of the pipe after the repairs.

I wanted to continue to experiment with contrast staining so I gave the pipe a first coat of stain with black aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I then heated the entire bowl by passing over it with the flame of a Bic lighter to warm the briar and set the stain.

The black aniline stain is transparent enough that the brown of the briar actually makes the stain appear to be a dark brown. It also covers the repairs on the bowl and blends them into the grain in way that makes them less visible. This was especially important with the repair I had made to the two deep scoring marks on the left side of the bowl. Once the stain dried I wiped it down with acetone to remove the top coat and leave only the grain darkened with the black. After doing that the bowl was still do dark for my liking. Though the grain patterns are very visible I wanted it to be lighter so that when I put the contrast stain coat on it would really pop to the surface.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to further remove the black stain. I finished the sanding by wet sanding the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. Sanding with the micromesh pads removed the scratching left behind by the other sandpapers and prepared it for the next coat of stain that I wanted to give it. I stained the bowl a second time with a coat of Minwax Water based stain. I chose a red mahogany stain for this coat. I like the contrast the reddish colour of the mahogany with the black undercoat. I applied the stain and then wiped it off with a soft cotton cloth.

I finished the contrast staining with a third colour – a Minwax medium walnut stain for the finish coat. I applied the stain and wiped it down using a soft cotton cloth and then hand buffed it with a shoe shine brush. The next series of four photos show the finish after the application of the three stains and a hand buffing. I really like the contrast finish that the three stains gave the pipe.

I sanded the bowl and stem with micromesh sanding pads to bring out the shine. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and then dry sanded the bowl and stem with 3200- 4,000 grit pads. At that point I made a decision that some will like and others will hate.

I took out my box of nickel bands and found one that would fit the shank. I took the photo below with the band next to the pipe to symbolize the thinking process that went into this decision. I put the band against the shank and the stem next to it to see how it looked. I looked at the faint stamping and the fact that is was a non-collectible pipe anyway due to my stem modifications and decided to give it a go.

I put the band on the end of the shank. For those banding a pipe shank pay attention to the diameter of the band – the end that goes on the shank is slightly larger than the end the faces the stem. I took the pipe and heated the band with a heat gun and then pressed it into place on the shank.

I took it back to the work table and finished sanding the stem and bowl with 6,000, 8,000 and 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. In the photo below the newly banded shank is visible. The band is solely cosmetic as the shank was not cracked and the fit of the stem was perfect. I liked the added bling on this pipe quite a bit.

I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the surface of the vulcanite and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond. I avoid buffing the band as much as possible because it discolors the stem and the shank with the black residue caused by buffing the nickel. I then buffed the pipe with multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and give a rich finish to the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below in the last four photos. The contrast stain worked well on this pipe. The flaws are there and visible but do not detract from the finish. The stem has a good glow with the lines of the pipe and the nickel band gives a nice polished look to the old pipe. Overall this experiment in repairs ended well. I like the finished look of the pipe and I learned a few new tricks along the way.