Daily Archives: October 30, 2014

Kaywoodie Supergrain Churchwarden (Shape 95)

Blog by Al Jones

I’ve never owned or smoked a Churchwarden style pipe. Last year I added finding the right one to my pipe wish list. When I started investigating vintage Kaywoodie options, I learned they are somewhat rare and that I would face some fierce competition. I had just about given up hope on finding one and I did a generic search on Ebay for a Churchwarden pipe. I thought that it would be necessary to settle for Savinelli or Peterson. To my surprise, in the middle of my 100+ pipe search list, was this Kaywoodie Churchwarden, complete with box and bag. I had somehow missed this pipe on my daily Ebay search results.

The pictures show some promise, but the bowl top had seen some abuse. I didn’t know at the time if the pipe had the stinger intact. I won the auction and waited in anticipation for the pipe. When it was delivered, I was pleasantly surprised as the stem and briar looked to be in terrific condition. And the icing on the cake was an intact 4-hole “Drinkless” stamped sting with a small ball. The pipe is just under 12 inches long and weighs a svelte 32 grams. Cleaning the briar and stem was a little nerve wracking as I didn’t want to damage the fragile looking pieces.

After the pipe was delivered, I exchanged some communication with the seller. I learned that original owner was the Great uncle of the sellers wife. His name was Harvey Shue and he was from Spring Grove Pennsylvania. Harvey worked for the PH Gladfelter Paper Mill. He passed in 1971 at the age of 64. His wife Florence held on to the pipes. Florence passed away in 1996 and the family found 50 pipes in a dresser drawer from their home. It’s pretty rare to find out the history of a pipe. Now I know a little bit about this one. Harvey lived pretty close to where my brother currently lives in Pennsylvania.

This is the pipe as it was delivered. The box is in great shape and a literature piece was also included. The stem only had light oxidation and the nomenclature was like new.

I used some alcohol to remove the build up from the threads on the stem fitment. This allowed the stem to fully seat in the correct position. I reamed the bowl, which still had some remnants of tobacco inside. The bowl was then soaked with some alcohol and sea salt. A little Mag & Aluminum auto metal polish took the rest of the oxidation off the stinger. This one has the smaller ball and no Registration number, a style used by Kaywoodie after WWII.

I learned thru the Kaywoodie Forums that the side placement of the stem logo was used in the late 1940’s. The brochure included with the pipe advertises “97 Years of Pipemaking” Kaywoodie was founded in 1851, which would place the brochure as being used in 1948. Kaywoodie also placed the grade of the pipe (Supergrain) above Kaywoodie until 1955. Thanks to the forum feedback, an educated guess is that the pipe was made sometime in the late 1940’s to early 1950’s. I haven’t yet learned why this one does not have the Shape number stamped on the pipe. Below is a page from the 1947 Kaywoodie catalog, showing the Shape 95.

This picture shows the detail of the “Drinkless” 4-hole stinger. Earlier 4-hole stingers used a larger ball.

After the bowl soak was complete, I scrubbed the inside of the slender shank with some bristle cleaners soaked in alcohol. I also ran some cleaners with alcohol thru the long stem and stinger.

The scorched material on the bowl top was removed with a mild solution of Oxyclean and distilled water. The lighter used had damaged the inner portion of the bowl but a worn sheet of 8000 grit Micromesh removed most of the scorch marks without removing the stain. The rest of the bowl only required a light buff with White Diamond (staying away from the nomenclature) and some Carnuba wax.

I mounted the stem onto the shank and stared with a sheet of 800 grit wet paper to remove the oxidation. I proceeded thru 1000, 1500 and then 2000 grit paper to bring back the shine. The button was amazing like new. Finally, I used 8000 and 12000 grit sheets of Micromesh. The stem was then buffed lightly with White Diamond rouge.

I always chose a unique pipe to smoke on Christmas Eve and I’ll save this one until that special night. Here’s the finished pipe.

Restoring a Frozen Kirsten Companion K Straight Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The last pipe I picked up on my recent Alberta trip was a Kirsten style straight pipe. The metal shank is stamped on the left side Companion and on the underside it is stamped Made in U.S.A and then K. On the top of the shank the previous owner scratched in his initials FWE. The bowl was stuck on the shank. The finish on the bowl was worn and dirty. The rim of the bowl had a thick tarry buildup and had some deep dents in the surface. There was a thick cake build up on the inside of the bowl that was shaped like a cone – the bottom was very narrow and the top was wide open. Normally the bowl on Kirsten pipes are more U-shaped with the walls similarly open to the bottom of the bowl where the drilled screw goes through. The stem had a tooth mark on the top and the bottom side near the button. The stem was frozen in the metal shank and I could not twist it at all. The airflow adjustment end cap that normally twists to either open or dampen the airflow was also frozen in place. The metal barrel and end cap had scratches and marks on it. The end cap ridges were worn and looked like someone had used a pair of pliers on it to try to break it free. I was able to twist the bowl off the barrel by carefully turning it back and forth slightly to break it free. The tars in the barrel threads and on the drilled out screw in the bowl were really gummed up and dirty.I put the barrel in the freezer and left it there during dinner. After dinner I took it out and was able to twist the stem from the barrel. Once I removed the stem and the metal tube plunger it was extremely tarred and sticky. The second photo below shows the black tars of the interior of the barrel and plunger. The end cap was still frozen in the barrel. I filled the barrel with alcohol and set it in an ice-cube try to let it soak. I knew that the tars on the plunger were also what held the end cap in place binding the metal of the barrel and the cap to each other. Typically the end cap had a rubber grommet on it that held it in place with a friction fit. In this case it appeared that the rubber grommet was compressed against the metal on the inside of the barrel and bound it in place.I cleaned the plunger and sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the hard tarry build up on it. I wiped it down with alcohol and then sanded it until the plunger was shiny and clean. I cleaned out the inside of the stem and the plunger with both bristle and regular pipe cleaners. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and used all sizes of the cutting heads to ream back the carbon build up in the bowl. The bowl was badly dinged and hammered leaving some deep denting. I topped the rim with a topping board to clean up the damaged top edge. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads and then used a flat blade screwdriver to remove the screw from the bottom of the bowl and remove bottom cap on the bowl. I wiped down the inside of the cap and cleaned the screw with a brass bristle tire brush. I wiped it down with alcohol and then sanded the outside of the cap and screw with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to polish them. The rim had two rather large fills that needed to be hidden with stain. I used the stain pens to restain the rim and the bowl. I started with the lightest colour pen and finished with the darkest colour.I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I put the metal cap back in place and turned the screw into the bottom of the bowl. The end cap still did not come off after I had soaked it with alcohol. I used a Robertson head screw driver with a long shank and inserted it in the barrel. I hammered the end with a hammer and tried to drive it out of the barrel. It cam half way out but I could not budge it further. I boiled a cup of water and let the barrel and end cap sit in it to see if I could loosen the tars. I repeated this three times with the cooling of the water. I then inserted the screw driver and was able to drive out the cap. It was covered with a black tar build up and the inside of the barrel was also thickly coated. I cleaned out the inside of the end cap and the barrel with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I rubbed down the rubber grommet on the stem and the end cap with Vaseline to soften them again and then inserted them in place in the barrel.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the tooth marks and the oxidation. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I gave the stem a final buff with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. I rubbed the stem down with some Conservator’s Wax – a microcrystalline wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. I avoid using the buffer on metal as it turns the pads black and does not shine the metal. I put it back together and it is ready for its inaugural smoke. I have two other Kirstens that are great smokers and this one with be added to that number until the day I pass it on to someone along the way.