Blog by Al Jones

This pipe came from the table at the recent Richmond CORPS show.  The seller, Ned Baylor, is a member of the club.  I always try and make at least one purchase from a club members table.  Ned’s daughter was helping him at the show and he was pretty enthusiastic about making his first sale.  He included a Savinelli box and a nice Mark Tinsky sock, which I needed.  One of the Christopher Morley club members grabbed the box for a Savinelli he purchased.  I already had this GBD shape but thought the pipe would make a fun restoration project.

As I mentioned the pipe was in pretty decent overall condition and this was not a challenging restoration, but with pleasing results.  The nomenclature was in very good shape as well.  The brass rondell and straight line “London,England” stamping indicate that the pipe was made before the merger in approximately 1981.

The pipe was in pretty good condition, with a little tar build-up in the bowl and a few teeth marks on the stem.  The stem was only mildly oxidized.

I removed the cake from the bowl with my Castleford reamer and found the bowl to be in very good condition.  The bowl was soaked with alcohol and sea salt.

I put a dab of grease on the brass rondell and soaked it in a mild Oxy-Clean solution for several hours to loosen the oxidation.  I started with 800 grit wet sandpaper, progressing to 1000>1500 and 2000 grades.  I then used the 8000 and 12000 grade Micromesh papers to finish polishing the stem.  There were a few teeth marks on the top and bottom of the stem.  A little heat almost removed the one on the top of  the stem and minimized the dent on the bottom.  The stem was then buffed lightly with white diamond rouge, with the stem mounted in the briar.  The stem was a little loose so I put some distilled water in the shank, which made the briar swell a bit and tighten up the stem.  I felt after smoking that the stem would tighten nicely.

I removed the tars on top of the bowl with some distilled water and a cotton cloth.  The a worn piece of 8000 grit Micromesh was used to minimize the rim darkening without lifting the stain.  The stem was already getting snug due to the water used in the shank.  It was just a little bit loose and I smoked one bowl of My Mixture 965 in the pipe during which time it snugged up nicely.  I had bought this one to restore and sell, but it smoked so nice, I almost changed my mind.  It did end up going to a member of the Allentown and Philly pipe clubs who is also on the PipesMagazine.com forums.  I hope he enjoys it for many years.

Below is the finished pipe.