Blog by Astrid Campbell

I first talked with Morty from Ontario on Pipe Smokers Unlimited online forums (PSU). We spoke via email and private messages on the forum. She introduced herself as Astrid. For this her second post on rebornpipes she uses her real name. Astrid has the refurbishing bug for sure and continues to post pictures of her work on the PSU Pipe Restoration Forum. The amazing thing to me is that she does all of her work by hand. She does not have buffers and buffing equipment. She continues to find amazing old pipes and shares of a love of some of the same pipe shapes as I do. Many times I am afflicted with serious pipe envy when she shows the pipes she is working on. She seems indefatigable in her effort to clean and restore the old estate pipes she finds. I have enjoyed seeing her work and have asked her once more to write-up some of her work and post it on rebornpipes for others to enjoy. Thanks Astrid for being willing to do this for us. I have to tell you this is one of those pipes that cause me pipe envy! I love the lines of this old pipe and the grain. Astrid did a great job on restoring it. Without further introduction I give you Astrid’s own words regarding this refurb.

I just got my Kaywoodie Super Grain 33C pipe today, and this one needs major TLC. I have not seen a Kaywoodie like this one before. I will start cleaning this pipe up on the weekend and will follow up with the after pictures.

This is an interesting pipe shape by Kaywoodie that I have not seen before, and I am pleased with the results. I found this pipe on a 1955 Kaywoodie shape chart, thanks to pipepages.com. The only difference being this has a chunky stem and the one on the shape chart page had a saddle stem.

This pipe was extremely dirty inside the bowl and the stem, with thick rim char and took quite a bit of work to get clean. I started by reaming the bowl, I did not take it back to the walls; I wanted to leave a bit of cake inside. Next I used a pocket knife blade to remove the thick char from the rim, which removed most of it.

This was followed by using 100 grit and 220 grit sandpaper very lightly, so I could keep the shape intact, I did not want to top this bowl. Then I used a Magic Eraser to remove more of the remnants of the dark char stain on the briar. I finished with 1500 micro mesh to polish the top of the rim and smooth it out.

The shank was clogged with black gunk and needed to be opened up to be able to clean it. This required many pipe cleaners first so I could get the bottle brush in to scrub it clean (thanks (Mark Domingues) Dog Talker for this idea). I then did an alcohol and kosher salt treatment that I left overnight. After I had the bowl to this point, I turned my attention to the stem that was in equally filthy condition.

The stem was extremely dirty and clogged with black gunk. This required many pipe cleaners and a bottle brush to remove most of the gunk before I let it soak overnight in Oxy Clean. Next morning I removed the stem from its overnight soak and proceeded to scrub the inside with a bottle brush and finally pipe cleaners soaked in alcohol.

The outside of the stem had a thick grey layer of oxidation on it. I used a Magic Eraser to start removing the oxidation. This was followed by wet sanding with 1200, 2400, 3600 micro mesh. Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 was applied, let to dry and then wiped off. I then dry sanded with 6000, 8000, 12000 micro mesh. This polished the stem to a nice high gloss shine.

Now I could get back to the bowl. I removed the dark brown salt and wiped out the bowl with damp shop towels. The shank was cleaned out again. The outside of the bowl was wiped down with damp shop towels removing years of dirt and grime. Then I used 1500 micro mesh to smooth and polish the bowl. I applied a bit of Olive Oil that I rubbed in thoroughly, let it dry and wiped the excess off. I polished the pipe with Paragon Wax and buffed it by hand using a cotton cloth.