I went through the box of pipes for the Vancouver Pipe Club a final time and found two more that needed some cosmetic work. The first is rusticated acorn or Peewit shape with smooth “leaves” on the side of the bowl and a smooth spot on the shank and a band at the end of the shank. It is stamped on the underside of the shank M.P.S. with the P slightly higher than the M and S forming almost a triangle. Along the end of the shank it is stamped 1534. The pipe is in great shape and needed no cleaning or reworking. What was wrong with this one was the rough fit of the stem to the shank. It was clearly a replacement stem and showed the marks of the work done to fit it to the shank. There was no gap between the stem and shank and the tenon fit in the mortise snugly. The stem itself was slightly larger in diameter than the shank and was very rough. There were lots of lines and pits in the stem itself making the transition quite bumpy.

I took the following close up photos to show the gouges and scratches on the stem near the junction.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the transition and remove the scratching and gouges. It took quite a bit of sanding to smooth it out but the fit when I finished was far better. I then sanded it with the usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the surface.

When the Obsidian Oil had soaked into the vulcanite I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to polish the stem and bowl. I then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish it. The pipe is ready to go back in the box with the rest of the lot that will go to the Vancouver Pipe Club. It should provide someone with a great smoking pipe.