Monthly Archives: February 2017

Comoy’s 185 Sandblast “Goldenbark” Restoration

By Al Jones

I’ve worked on a number of Comoy’s Sandblast pipes, but this is the first one that I’ve encountered with the “Goldenbark” stamp. A member of PipesMagazine posted one last year, but I found no online information about this finish. I assume it might have been Comoy’s answer to the Dunhill Tanshell finish? This one has the 3-part C stem logo indicating a pre-merger pipe and made before 1981.

The pipe was in very good shape. The stem was heavily oxidized but it had very little teeth damage. The bowl top had some darkening.

The bowl had a heavy cake, which was reamed. I soaked the bowl with alcohol and sea salt. While it was soaking, I put a dab of grease on the C stem logo and soaked it in a mild solution of Oxy-Clean. The shank scrubbed with a brush dipped in alcohol, but I found it surprisingly clean. The bowl interior was also in excellent shape, having been protected by the cake. I used a rag dipped in water to remove the build up on the bowl top, which came off quite nicely. The stem had some very slight teeth marks, which lifted out nicely with heat from a lighter. One tiny tooth prick on the underside was all that remained.

I mounted the stem and removed the oxidation starting with 800, then 1,000 and finally 2,000 grit paper. Next up was the 8,000 and 12,000 grade micromesh. The stem was then buffed with white diamond and Meguiars Plastic polish. I waxed the bowl by hand with Halycon wax.

Below is the finished pipe.

Checkered History and Heritage of an East German Howal Old Briar Rustified Dublin

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Blog by Dal Stanton

Finally, a ‘simple’ clean up! Or, so I hope. The Howal has been in my ‘Help Me!’ basket for some time. I bought him from a vendor in an antique market, in the shadow of Nevski Cathedral in downtown Sofia, Bulgaria. It was from the same young man I purchased, out of his bag of pipe parts, an orphaned stummel which became my maiden restoration project published on Reborn Pipes. I titled it, A Newbie Restore of a Dr. Plumb 9456 Oom Paul – only it wasn’t an Oom Paul. Al Jones’ (aka, Upshallfan) comment to my first blog observed correctly: “the 9456 is a classic GBD shape, although it is considered to be a Bent Billiard (rather than a Oom-Paul).” I’m thankful for much ‘newbie’ grace I have received! Though, the pipe’s name is still Chicho Pavel, Bulgarian for Uncle Paul! He continues to be a favorite in my rotation and a special friend. The Howal (over Old Briar) Rustified Dublin now before me is of interest to me partly because of its origins. The pictures from my work table give an overview of the pipe itself. The Howal name is of interest to me because it originated from behind the former ‘Iron Curtain’ in East Germany during a geopolitical climate rife with change and human tragedy. My wife and I have spent over two decades living behind what was formerly the Iron Curtain and this is the second Howal I’ve found in the same Antique Market here in Bulgaria. The question that comes to my mind is whether Howals are more commonly found in Eastern Europe where perhaps, they were circulated under the old USSR in an enforced socialist, command economy? Pipedia’s article was both interesting and helpful in understanding the predecessor of and origins of the Howal name:

C.S. Reich was founded by Carl Sebastian Reich in Schweina, Germany in 1887. By its 50th jubilee in 1937 C.S. Reich was the biggest pipe factory in Germany. In 1952, however, the owners of the company were imprisoned and the company itself was nationalized as Howal, an abbreviation of the German words for “wood products Liebenstein” or “Holzwaren Liebenstein”. By the 1970’s Howal, after acquiring many other smaller pipe making firms, was the sole maker of smoking pipes in East Germany. In 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of the Germanys, the company was closed.

While helpful for a broad sweep, I discovered much missing from this summary and it raises more questions. From another interesting source, Edith Raddatz’s lecture on tobacco pipe production in Schweina at the Tobacco Pipe Symposium in 2003, it describes a history of pipe production in this central German village that was reminiscent of my research into France’s pipe mecca, St. Claude. A strong development of the pipe making industry can be traced in the 1800s to the apex of the C.S. Reich Co. being Germany’s largest pipe producer in 1937, but Raddatz’s lecture reveals that other producers of pipes were also based in the German village of Schweina. Pipedia’s article above describes how the owners of the C.S. Reich Co. were arrested and imprisoned followed by the nationalization of the Reich Co. and becoming ‘Howal’, an acronym for “Wood Products Liebenstein” – Bad Liebenstein was the town that bordered and absorbed the village of Schweina. The question begs to be asked – which, unfortunately introduces the human tragedy wrapped around the name ‘Howal’ – Why were the owners arrested? In an unlikely source, the website of the ‘Small Tools Museum’ adds the names of those imprisoned: shareholders Robert Hergert and Karl Reich.

Edith Raddatz’s lecture (referenced above) brings more light to the difficult geopolitical realities these people faced (Google translated from German – brackets my clarifications):

By 1945 the company, which had meanwhile [passed to] the next generation – Kurt Reich And Walter Malsch – [had] about 100 employees. Among them were many women who mainly did the painting work. At the beginning of the 1950s, an era ended in Schweina. The first [oldest] tobacco pipe factory in Schweina closed their doors. There were several reasons for this. Kurt Reich passed away in 1941, [and] Walter Malsch [in] 1954. The political situation in the newly founded GDR made the conditions for private entrepreneurship difficult. The heirs of the company “AR Sons” [Reich family] partly moved to West Germany. The operation was nationalized and later toys were made there.

In post WWII occupied Germany, the Soviet occupied section was declared to be a sovereign state and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was established in 1949 (See link). With a rudimentary understanding of Marxism and the economic philosophy undergirding it, it is not difficult to deduce what brought the demise of the C. S. Reich Co. and the formation of Howal. Solidification of the FDR’s hold on power paralleled the necessity to nationalize private ownership and to institute a State-centered command economy. These efforts gained momentum and forced companies/workers to work more with no additional pay. In 1952, the year that the owners of C. S. Reich Co., were arrested, this edict was advanced (See link):

In July 1952 the second party conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) took place in East Berlin. In SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht‘s words, there was to be the “systematic implementation of Socialism” (planmäßiger Aufbau des Sozialismus); it was decided that the process of Sovietization should be intensified and the importance of the state expanded. The party was acting on demands made by Soviet premier Joseph Stalin.[2]

As a result, Germany remembers the Uprising of 1953 which started in East Berlin, as factory workers revolted against the repression of the GDR, and spread to all East Germany. Many lost their lives as Moscow responded to squelch the unrest with tanks on the streets. In play also, was the mass exodus of people fleeing to West Germany, which included, per Edith Radditz’s lecture, the Reich family, who would have been heirs of the family’s legacy and company – pipe making. Also in 1953, completing the State forced abolition of any Reich claim, the largest pipe making company of Germany was seized, nationalized, and changed from C. S. Reich Co. to Howal. As ‘Howal’, pipes continued to be produced, undoubtedly with the same hands and sweat of the people of Schweina, along with other wooden products, such as toys. In the Pipedia article I quoted above, it said:

By the 1970’s Howal, after acquiring many other smaller pipe making firms, was the sole maker of smoking pipes in East Germany. In 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of the Germanys, the company was closed.

My curiosity piqued, what does it mean when it says that Howal acquired many other smaller pipe making firms? Should we question whether these words can be understood in the normal free market enterprise way we are accustomed? Doubtful.

As I now look at this Howal before me, it is with a greater connection to its checkered past, the people of Germany’s pipe making heritage, and specifically, to the hands that drilled, shaped and finished the pipe. The possible dating of this Howal spans from 1953 to 1990, when the Howal factory was closed for good with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the old USSR (See link). The Howal markings on the left side of the shank are in very good shape. The rustification is very attractive in the Dublin style – definitely an ‘olde world’ feel. There are some marks on the rim. The bowl is totally free of cake – someone did some clean-up work before coming to me. The dark color of the stummel appears to be paint or a black stain – I can see brown around the nomenclature on the shank. I will clean the stummel with Murphy’s and see what happens. There is no oxidation on the stem nor teeth chatter or dents. So, could this Howal be only a simple cleaning and freshening?

I start by taking a picture of the rim and markings to take a closer look at areas of question. Then using Q-tips and pipe cleaners with isopropyl 95% I start cleaning the stummel internals. After only one plunge of a Q-tip, I see that the mortise is full of the black finish that is also on the external surface. I find no tobacco gunk in the mortise, only black dye – or whatever it is. After several Q-tips and some pipe cleaners, I decide simple to fill the mortise with isopropyl and let it soak for a few hours. This did the trick. After pouring off the dirty isopropyl the Q-tips, after the soak, started coming out clean very quickly. Stummel done. The stem required very little effort. The pictures show the progress. I take undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and scrub the stummel surface with cotton pads and a bristled brush. I want to test the finish to see how solid it is as well as clean the grime out of the rustification ridges. After a good scrub, I rinse the soap of the stummel with tap water, careful not to allow water inside. After drying, I have two impressions of the black finish. First, the splotched glossy areas left over from the Murphy’s scrub remind me of the acrylic finishes that I’ve seen on smooth briars. Secondly, the finish now is speckled where the briar is coming through. Decision time. A plan starts formulating in my mind. I like the rustification of the Howal Dublin and I very much like the feel of the Dublin in my hand – it has a good ‘meditation’ appeal, which is a good quality for a pipe J. Yet, truth be known, I’m not a fan of the black finish. To me it is plain and stark – it lacks depth and interplay with the tight, crisp rustification patterns. I decide to continue scrubbing the surface with Murphy’s Soap to remove the remaining glossy spots but to leave the black hue in place. After Murphy’s, I use some isopropyl 95% with a cotton pad and work on the glossy areas. While not 100% gloss free, the last picture shows sufficient progress. I will give more thought to the plan at this point. The pictures tell the story. With a night of rest now fueling the thoughts, I decide to use the dark stain on the stummel as a back coat for a subtle Oxblood over-coat. My goal is to create more depth in the rustification by introducing another hue. I begin preparation of the stummel by very lightly sanding the top peaks of the rustification ridges with a 1500 grade micromesh pad. I do this to create entry points for the new dye in raw briar opened by the sanding. I’m thinking of the restoration I did with the classic rustified Lorenzo Rialto for the basic approach I’m now employing. I want the surface to be clean so I follow the sanding by wiping the surface with a cotton pad and isopropyl 95%. I use a black Sharpie pen to darken the worn ring of bare briar around the rim of the Dublin for better blending. I included a picture of the Lorenzo Rialto to get an idea of where I’m hopefully heading! In preparation to apply the stain, I cover the Howal gold lettering stamping with a bit of Petroleum Jelly to protect it. Using my wife’s hair dryer, I warm the stummel to open the briar to the new dye. Using a cork inserted in the bowl as a handle, I liberally apply Fiebing’s Oxblood Leather Dye to the surface of the stummel with a doubled pipe cleaner – careful to cover the entire stummel and rim. After the initial application, I fire the aniline dye and the alcohol burns off quickly setting the hue in the briar. After a few minutes, I repeat the process to assure an ample coverage and put the stummel aside to rest. The pictures show the progress. With the newly dyed stummel resting, since the Howal’s stem came to me in good condition – no tooth chatter or dents, I start wet sanding the stem using micromesh pads 1500 to 2400. I follow the wet sanding with an application of Obsidian Oil on the hungry vulcanite. I then dry sand with micromesh pads 3200 to 4000 and then 6000 to 12000 – following each set with an application of Obsidian Oil. The stem looks great – that newly polished vulcanite pop is very nice. I put the stem aside to dry. The pictures show the progress. Time to ‘unwrap’ the fired, crusted Oxblood dye I applied to the dark stummel. I mount a new felt polishing wheel on the Dremel and set the speed to the slowest setting and utilize the fine abrasion of Tripoli compound to take the crusted layer off. Patiently, I move the wheel across the surface in a circular motion, allowing the RPMs of the Dremel and the compound to do the work – I apply little downward pressure on the briar. As the results started to appear, I see the Oxblood speckling I was hoping to see, but not as much. I decide to follow by lightly sanding the rustified surface with a 1500 micromesh pad. This resulted in the direction I wanted to go, but I wanted the Oxblood hints, beginning to peek out, to be a few shades darker, richer. Even though I had already put away the stain and cleaned up, I decide to repeat the staining as before – hopefully to realize the results I can envision in my mind. The bottom picture in the set shows the stummel after the second staining with Frieberg’s Oxblood Leather Dye – not looking much different than before but simply to chronicle my procedure. The first picture, after the Tripoli then after, the sanding show the developing motif with the Oxblood and the rustification. After several hours, admittedly, I was a bit impatient to unwrap the fired crust the second time around. In the time in between, I had some time to think about the next step. My usual approach is to use a felt polishing wheel with the application of Tripoli compound to smooth briars. A felt wheel is flatter and firmer than a cotton cloth wheel and therefore, more abrasive than the cotton cloth wheel. With use on a rustified surface, I’m thinking that the felt wheel might possibly ride more naturally on the peeks of the raised ridges and possible do its work unevenly – at least in theory. My usual approach with the Dremel is to use a cotton cloth wheel when coming to the carnauba wax polishing stage. I decide to mount a cotton cloth wheel for both compounds I employ, Tripoli and Blue Diamond, and see how it goes. With the new cotton cloth wheel mounted on the Dremel, I’m ready to put theory into practice first with the Tripoli compound. The only problem breaking in a new cotton cloth wheel is that loose fibers run amuck and I’m covered! I continue to use the slowest speed the Dremel can offer for the compound. After the Tripoli, again with a new cotton cloth wheel, I apply Blue Diamond compound. I am truly amazed at the subtle Oxblood texturing that emerges – it is working! I find that I spent more time with the Tripoli as the Tripoli was the abrasive that created the effects of the Oxblood speckles. Where there were none or few Oxblood accents, I focused the Tripoli wheel at that area and the highlights would begin to appear. With the Blue Diamond I spend much less time as it was shining what was already revealed not bringing out more. I take a picture after the compound phase. After the compounds, I hand buff the stummel with a cotton cloth, not so much as to shine the stummel but to remove residue compound powders left over. I do this before the application of carnauba wax, also with a cotton cloth wheel, but with the Dremel increased to number 2 of 5 (being the fastest). After reuniting the stummel and stem, I give both several applications of carnauba wax. The only difference in technique with the wax is that with a small, Dremel polishing wheel, I am able strategically to apply the wax so it doesn’t get gunked up in the ridges of the rustification. I keep the wheel parallel with the grain and follow the ridges/valleys as I apply the carnauba. With the compounds, you are still sanding and ‘taking off’ from the finish, even though it’s shining things. With the wax, you’re not taking but leaving something behind – the wax has the purpose of polishing and protecting the finish. After applying the carnauba, I decide to do one more thing to recommission the rustified Dublin. With Rub ‘n Buff European Gold Wax Metallic Finish, which I just acquired during my Christmas visit to the States, I spruced up the Howal nomenclature. I applied the Rub ’n Buff with a pointed Q-tip and carefully wiped the excess. After dried, again I spruced up the area with a few passes of the carnauba wax wheel. A few pictures show the before and after. To finish, I give the stummel and stem a rigorous hand buffing with a micromesh cloth to bring out and deepen the shine.

I have a deeper appreciation for the name this rustified Dublin carries. Understanding the past helps us to stay rooted in the present. I appreciate better the legacy of the Howal name and the journey of the Carl Sebastian Reich family beginning in Schweina, Germany in 1887. I’m very pleased with the results of the Oxblood finish. In the presentation pictures below, I had to take some unusually close shots to see the subtle Oxblood highlights hidden by the reflection of the light. To me, the finish adds depth and texture to the attractive rustified Dublin. If you would like to add this Howal Old Briar to your pipe collection and stories, see my blog at The Pipe Steward. Thanks for joining me!

Restoring a Patent Era Brigham Executive Statesman

Spotlight: Ladies Pipes, Part 7/7, Concerning the Summit of Diminutive

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Blog by Robert M. Boughton

Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
Member, Facebook Gentlemen’s Pipe Smoking Society
https://www.facebook.com/roadrunnerpipes/
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author except as noted

For Liz B. Smith: this one’s for you

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
— Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), 1835-1910, U.S. humorist, writer, editor and extraordinary adventurer

The word ‘American’ terminates in ‘I can,’ and ‘dough’ begins with ‘do.’
— Attributed to Alfred Carl Fuller (1885-1973), founder of the Fuller Brush Co.

INTRODUCTION

A great American rock group called The Doors summed up this blog in the most famous couplet from the 1967 song “The End.” The rest of the brilliant yet rambling lyric poetry, alas, is too morose and even sinister to cobble together a quote for the occasion, no matter how many annoying ellipsis marks might be used by, say, someone with the skill set to edit negative book reviews so they sound glowing on the dust jackets. Hence the more merry samples above, which still bely the sadness I feel at the close of my attempt to serialize various facets of the ways women enjoy the pleasures of pipes as much as do men. (Twain, I’m sure, would have despised Fuller’s aphorism and hated being associated with a salesman.) The nine months since my first installment seem more like years given the travails I’ve faced and overcome. But fret not; I won’t go there now – at least not in great detail.

I had two more conventional instruments for savoring pipe tobacco set aside for the seventh and last part of the series and was still deliberating which to use. As circumstances transpired, they were lost to the most shameful, unscrupulous and downright worthless excuse for a human I have ever encountered in a slumlord, and with whom I am still engaged, in ever-escalating legal battles. The dispute is now poised to escalate from civil to criminal for the felony property conversion perpetrated by the contemptible principal of several offenders. But I will write more about that in a future blog detailing the loss of almost every material possession I held most dear. Suffice it to say for now that the devastating event has proved to be the single most unnerving and excruciating test of my ability to come to terms in my own mind with any set of undeniable facts, to discuss the odious injustice of the whole despicable experience with family and friends and, perhaps most difficult of all, even to brooch the subject in this forum, I have ever experienced. The memories still sting and I believe will even after the full weight of the law crushes the scoundrel.

And so, after careful consideration, I decided to combine a look at salesman samples, a separate blog of which I began drafting some months ago, with the culmination of my ladies pipes series. In the span of a few years I amassed an admirable collection of these little gems of tobacciana and still have several, thanks to the fact that they were stashed in my go-bag, as I call the portable kit of rotation pipes, tobaccos, restoration tools and odds and ends. They were snug in a small box of restorations in progress or just completed when the slime ball who is now the central focus of my ever more litigious life made the premeditated decision to lock me out of my home with the purpose of converting my property to his own gain. After all, he was sued twice in the past on the same grounds and only had to pay for one of them. At any rate, in my research into female pipe enjoyers, I found a greater incidence of affinity for these tiny pipes among women compared to men, despite the frequent common ground of the two genders viewing them as impractical for loading with leaf and lighting up. I shall do my best to dispel the myth.

While I am aware of the unusual interest in salesman samples in recent contributions to this forum, all of which included good information on the peculiar items, I will give my two cents worth for those who may have missed the others six parts and, I hope, add a little more context and color. I would also like to celebrate some of the collection that was mine and those that remain.

Salesman samples were not toys – nothing like the Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars many of us collected as children. They were not knickknacks such as thimbles or figurines of people, animals, castles, super heroes and creatures from fantasy and mythology. Salesman samples came into existence as marketing tools for manufacturers of almost every mechanical and non-agricultural commodity and were most popular in the early 20^th century. Few folks nowadays remember a time when cars and airplanes were not the standards of transportation, and products could not be shipped in viable ways, often overnight, to showrooms all over the country and world.

Enter the intrepid peddlers of every type of ware – baseballs, coal stoves, violins, furniture, upright carpet cleaners and, of course, tobacco pipes, to name a fraction of the goods they offered – and who had no mode of travel better than trains, and in some more remote locales, stagecoaches and even by horseback. Think about that. How could one person carry many samples of the items he sold, which were either huge or fragile, to convince prospective buyers to purchase them?

Then some merchandising brainiac came up with the idea of exact replicas that could be conveyed in valises. Giants like Sears & Roebuck were made as much by direct salesmen as mail order catalogs, to be sure. The reality of traveling salesmen is that they covered vast and perilous territories going “door-to-door,” which in those days was farm to farm, and they were often far between. For anyone who complains about road conditions now, thank your lucky stars you weren’t around back in the day. Then again, maybe a few old curmudgeons were! True, there were also small general stores to be pitched, but most folks had few chances to make the dusty, jarring journey into town. Some salesmen even had to pay in advance for their merchandise and keep the profits. Here’s the real kicker: back then, bartering was the name of the game, and with little cash on hand, the yokels and mercantile proprietors tended to trade with eggs, butter, vegetables and other what-have-you. In short, the life of the traveling salesman was rough and grungy long before the latter word was coined in the 1960s, yet today he is remembered in popular movies and cheesy novels as a fast-talking bespectacled dandy from “sumwer back east.”

Remember, all of the following genuine salesman samples are about the size indicated in the photos with a tape measure and a ruler.Now for some pipes I’d like to own. And here was my own collection of salesman samples. William Demuth & Co. (WDC) Bent Pot with screw-in rim guard, before and after

WDC Wellington Bent Apple, before and after

Yello-Bole Straight Billiard

“Mahjong” Bent Billiard, probably made of Bakelite

Kaywoodie Straight Apple

Custombilt Porcelain (filled mouthpiece – not smokable)

No-Name Rhodesian

La Grande Bruyere Bent Apple, Czech, before and after. This was my first restore.

Only three of the diminutive but intricate works of craftsmanship in my promising and cherished sub-collection of these fading pieces of tobacciana and history survived theft by the slumlord: the Mahjong, which at an astounding length of 2½” with a chamber diameter of ⅜” x ¾” may indeed be the smallest functional tobacco pipe ever made, as the seller hinted; the WDC bent billiard, mere fractions larger in every respect, and last but by no means least, the Yello-Bole, at a whopping 3¾” long sporting a ⅜” x ½” chamber. To emphasize the point, their salvation was by the sole grace of my having them with me when the illegal lockout was executed.

The subject of this final Ladies Pipes blog is the restoration of the Yello-Bole, which, I’m sorry to report, was not all that difficult, beyond Plato’s maxim, “Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.” Steve wrote a wonderful blog concerning a no-name carved apple salesman sample (3¼” long, 1″ tall with a ⅞” outer bowl diameter and a ⁷∕₁₆” inner bowl diameter). In the first photo, my favorite, he contrasts the dinky apple with a giant KBB Yello-Bole Imperial 3068C Bent Billiard (length 10″, height 2¼” and inner bowl diameter ⅞”). See https://rebornpipes.com/2016/12/26/a-tiny-salesman-pipe-what-a-contrast-to-those-giant-house-pipes/.KBB Yello-Bole Giant vs. Tiny Carved No-Name, courtesy S. Laug

Steve also summed up the relative natures of a standard pipe restoration and that of a salesman sample when he wrote, “It takes as much work to clean and restore a tiny pipe as it does a big one and the steps and process [are] the same regardless of size.”

And so, as I begin again to practice the wonderful disorder that is pipe acquisition, with the three salesman samples and a handful of other survivors to my name, I have a strong desire and need to share. My good friend and mentor emeritus, Chuck Richards, taught me that. Therefore, in light of the kindness and encouragement she has shown me on the Smokers Forums UK, her invaluable guidance in this series and the interest I know she has in mini pipes and salesman samples, to repeat my opening dedication with a tad more emphasis: this Yello-Bole is for you, Liz – literally.

RESTORATION The Yello-Bole, to be honest, was a cleanup job. The most troublesome aspect of rejuvenating the delicate little working scale example of a pipe that would likely measure 5½” long was stripping the old stain and replacing it, and as a consequence removing a bad discoloration on the front. Confident an Everclear soak would not harm the nomenclature, I began with that and an OxiClean bath for the bit. Stripping the original stain did a fine job of revealing the rough edges, so to speak, of the briarwood. To be still more honest, after perhaps ten minutes of immersion in Everclear, the stummel might just as well have cried to me through the depth, as I recall even now the mental flash of eradicating that all-important if carbon-obscured facet of the chamber, being “CURED WITH REAL HONEY.”

With a reflexive thrust of a hand toward the Tupperware bowl in which the minuscule bit of wood had sunk to the bottom like lost treasure, I plucked it out and wrapped it in a soft cotton cloth. I wiped it. I turned and scrubbed it, inside and out. I ran an end of a cleaner through the shank and bent it in half to dry the chamber walls. I did everything short of CPR. Observing the miraculous near perfection of the coat of whatever cured honey concoction the factory applied so many years earlier, I’m here to tell you, the full comprehension of the reprieve I was granted in the nick of time was acute and profound. The bit came out of its cleaning solution some time later, a little better for the bath. I used the white end of the same cleaner as before to dispel the insignificant impurities that remained.

Super fine “0000” steel wool and 320-grit paper got rid of the unpleasant large light blotch on the bowl’s front and gave the whole spotted but rich wood a nice shine. The gamut of micro mesh from 1500-12000 elicited the highest sheen the briarwood would achieve before the final electric buffing. Several minutes after staining the stummel with Fiebing’s Brown leather dye and flaming out the alcohol with a Bic, I gave the surface a gentle buff with 8000 grade micro mesh.A retort was neither needed nor called for under the circumstances I described earlier with my nearly disastrous soaking of the stummel in Everclear. Micro meshing the bit was so simple I forgot to mention doing it until now. And so, all that remained to do was buff the wood with red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba, and the bit with white Tripoli and carnauba. The final shot I took is some sort of weird view I found by accident with a cell phone camera toggle switch marked “NG.” So far I haven’t a clue what it stands for, but it seems to show the inner pipe. I offer it for entertainment purposes more than anything else. Maybe someone can explain it to me.CONCLUSION

My ideal for the series was, in the language of college essays, to compare and contrast the primary topic of tobacco pipes and their attraction to men and women in general through some key aspects of the pastime, and to gain potential insights into what differences in tastes and interests, if any, might exist. I knew from the beginning that my hopes were overambitious, but I have at least made some headway. Perhaps a book is in order.

At times I was disheartened by the apparent lack of interest in the topic. But comparing reactions to the first six, looking at votes, comments and likes, I see they all average out to one of my typical blogs here. My primary objective was to bring the men and women of the pipe community more together. Only time will tell.

Now I just need to get Liz’ address to send her the pipe.

SOURCES

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/advertising/salesmans-samples
http://www.amiright.com/parody/90s/deepbluesomething11.shtml WARNING: SOME OFFENSIVE LYRICS
https://rebornpipes.com/2016/10/08/a-living-tiny-kbb-yello-bole-salesmans-pipe/
https://rebornpipes.com/tag/yello-bole-pipes/
http://buckcreek.tripod.com/salesman.html
http://www.sloperama.com/majexchange/id.html

THE REST OF THE SERIES

https://rebornpipes.com/2016/05/04/spotlight-ladies-pipes-part-17-a-frasa-french-bent-billiard/
https://rebornpipes.com/2016/05/07/spotlight-ladies-pipes-part-27-a-clinton-straight-oval/
https://rebornpipes.com/2016/05/14/spotlight-ladies-pipes-part-37-a-tiny-medico-acorn/
https://rebornpipes.com/2016/05/20/spotlight-ladies-pipes-part-47-a-real-briar-bounty/
https://rebornpipes.com/2016/06/17/spotlight-ladies-pipes-part-57-a-vintage-dr-grabow-carved-duke/
https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/26/spotlight-ladies-pipes-part-67-an-albertson-baby-bent-brandy/

A Gold Banded Bent Dublin Eldorado Lucite of Italy

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Blog by Dal Stanton

When I first saw this Eldorado Lucite, I believed it to be a Zulu or Woodstock, the Dublin’s smaller cousin. In the end, I settled on it being a bent Dublin because the stummel was larger than I would expect a Zulu’s to be. When I saw the Eldorado Lucite bent Dublin on the eBay auction block, two things, no, three things drew my attention motivating me to slog through the bidding and bring this pipe home to Bulgaria. First, the shape is very attractive – I like the curve of the Dublin’s natural ‘nose-forward’ stummel flowing to and through the stem; an attractive pipe, I wanted to try it out in my palm. Secondly, the briar’s potential. I love taking smooth briars and bringing out the grain to encourage a double-take. The straight grain of the Eldorado is nice. Thirdly, the band – a touch of class for any pipe, but for this pipe, also raises some questions. The following eBay photos from the seller show what I saw. When I retrieved this pipe out of the “Help Me!” basket in Sofia, I take a fresh look at the Eldorado over Lucite – stamped distinctly on the left shank. The right shank shows Imported Briar over Italy. Both stamps are obstructed/hidden somewhat by the band which immediately brings into question the possibility of the band being part of a cracked shank repair. I would not think the original design would include a band hiding part of the nomenclature, but I might be wrong! After removing the stem, I inspect the mortise and conclude that a crack may be there, but it’s not conclusive – at least to me. The band is gold and stamped with hallmarks of 1/20 14KT (ensconced in a diamond) G.F. Looking on the internet, I discover from RareGoldJewelry.com these hallmarks indicate the ratio of gold in the band is at about 1 to 20. Rated at 14 karats means that it’s approximately 58% gold and the band is ‘gold filled’ rather than ‘gold plated.’ Regarding gold filled and gold plated, eBay’s buyers’ guide jewelry describes the difference:

Gold-filled jewelry is much more valuable than gold-plated. In fact, there is almost 100 percent more gold in gold-filled items than is found in gold-plated items. Just as gold-plated jewelry is plated with gold, gold-filled jewelry is as well, but there is a big difference between the ways these products are made. Gold-filled items have a much thicker layer of gold on them, and the gold is a much higher quality. In fact, it is just a step down from solid gold when it comes to quality and value. Speaking of solid gold, pure gold is very soft and is not a good choice for jewelry; that is why an alloy is almost always used for gold jewelry items, even in jewelry pieces worth an incredible amount of money.

If this band is part of a cracked shank repair, which doesn’t appear to be the case, it seems that whoever had this pipe valued it quite a bit to add a gold band. Another question is raised regarding the name – Eldorado Lucite. According to the compilation of Herb Wilczak & Tom Colwell (3/3/97) ‘Who Made That Pipe’ (Yes, Santa brought this!) lists Eldorado as Maker or Seller as the Linkman Co./ Parker Pipe and country USA/ENGL. My subsequent research into Linkman turned up the connection to Dr. Grabow pipes – ‘Eldorado’ is a high-end pipe of Dr. Grabow – which doesn’t fit the pipe before. Dr. Grabow pipes are usually marked as such. Parker Pipe Company turned up nothing too. This pipe is also stamped, Italy, but does this mean country of manufacturer or source of the briar in this case? – as the right shank has the marking ‘IMPORTED BRIAR’ over ‘ITALY’. Would the ‘Imported Briar’ indicate a US manufacturing – the usual US marking and spelling? But this, I found is not always the case. One more question that doesn’t find answers in my research – Eldorado Lucite – does ‘Lucite’ refer to a unique pipe name or is it referring to the stem material with which it was originally outfitted? If this is the case, is the stem now with this Dublin a replacement because it certainly isn’t Lucite but vulcanite? Yet, as I look at the stem, it works VERY well with the stummel and shape – it doesn’t appear to be a replacement stem. So are the many questions this beautiful pipe creates, but now I turn to the pipe itself and take more pictures to fill in the gaps! The stummel appears to be in good condition except I detect what might be an acrylic finish with normal wear marks and scratches on top of it. I’ll want to clean the old finish off. The bowl has moderate cake build up and old dottle flakes left in the bottom. I’ll remove the cake bringing the bowl down to the briar for a fresh start. The rim looks to be in good condition structurally, but has light lava flow and possibly some scorching. I need to clean the rim to assess this fully. The stem is attractive. I’m not sure if it has a special name, but it flays out from the shank and the button is fanned – a fish tail? It has minor oxidation. There are tooth dents on the upper and lower button area and a possible crack on the slot side through the button lip pictured above. I’ll need to look closely at this. The band is in good shape – I’ll polish it simply with a clean cloth, no more!

I begin the clean-up of the Eldorado Lucite by plopping the stem into the Oxi-Clean bath to work the oxidation to the surface of the vulcanite. I take the Pipnet reaming kit out and discover that the conical chamber is too tight and angled in the Dublin’s shape to employ the reaming blades. I’ll use the Savinelli pipe knife instead to ream the bowl. With the Savinelli pipe knife I make good progress removing the cake in the tight quarters of this chamber. Following the reaming, I sand the chamber walls with 240 grit paper wrapped around a Sharpie pen and then finish by wiping the chamber with cotton pads and isopropyl 95% to remove the carbon dust. The chamber looks good. The pictures show the progress. Before continuing with cleaning the external stummel, I tackle the internals with pipe cleaners and Q-tips and isopropyl 95%. The cleaning job proves to be a bit more than I expected. I’m not positive about the internal layout and drilling of the mortise but it ‘feels’ like there is a gunk trap slightly below the air passage leading out toward the draft hole in the chamber. After building a good mountain of expended Q-tips and pipe cleaners, and after looking at the lateness of the hour, I decide to give the stummel a salt soak, and let the Kosher salt and alcohol do some of the work for me. I put the stummel in an egg crate to keep it stable, and fill the bowl with kosher salt which is not iodized – iodine can leave a taste (Thanks to Charles Lemon of Dad’s Pipes for this information). I cover the bowl with my hand and give it a bit of a shake to displace the salt. After corking the shank side, I fill the bowl with isopropyl 95% and turn out the light. The next morning I see that the salt has darkened a bit and I toss the used salt into the waste basket. I take a paper towel and wipe out the remaining salt from the bowl and use a bristle bush both in the bowl and the mortise making sure that salt residue is purged. I then return to cleaning with Q-tips, pipe cleaners and isopropyl and finish the internals very quickly. Done! The pictures show the progress. Time to retrieve the stem from the Oxi-Clean bath and I see that the oxidation has risen to the vulcanite surface which is shown very nicely in the first picture below. I attack the oxidation by wet sanding with 600 grit paper. I follow this by using 0000 steel wool to remove more oxidation and begin the smoothing process as well. Following this, I work on cleaning the internals of the stem with pipe cleaners and isopropyl. It was going so well until it wasn’t! Earlier, you recall, as I was doing the initial inspection of the stem, I identified what appeared to be a crack on the left side of the button. The pressure exerted by the pipe cleaners exacerbated this crack and now I see fissures developing in the vulcanite – not only at the original crack sighting but now also on the right side of the button. It would not be difficult to project the path of the fault line and the ultimate stem break if not addressed. Ugh! The pictures tell the story. Oh, ‘the best laid plans of mice and men’ – my plan is to apply thin CA Instant Glue to the cracks to seal them and hopefully to stop the fissure’s progress. I fold a piece of index card and cover it with tape and insert it in the slot to keep glue from possibly entering the airway. It also serves to ‘torque up’ a bit, and opening the cracks a hair to allow better glue penetration. After this, I will build up the button with a mixture of charcoal dust and super glue and redefine the bit hopefully to reinforce the area. I put the stem aside for the glue to cure. The pictures show the progress. After the initial CA glue cures, I start the button rebuild. I use 240 grit sanding paper to rough up the button area, upper and lower. Then I clean the area with a cotton pad and isopropyl to prepare for the charcoal/glue putty. While in the States for Christmas, I picked up a bottle of activated charcoal capsules. In the past, using a mortar and pestle, I had to grind up granulated charcoal which was sold for an aquarium filtration application for use with charcoal patches. Generally, I was not satisfied with the results. After the patches were applied, sanded/shaped, and polished, etc., I found a very porous and speckled result – not smooth as I wanted. I suspected the cause was that the charcoal grade was not fine enough. So, we’ll see if better results are realized with current charcoal powder. I decide to re-use the ‘slot insert’ that I earlier made from an index card. With the crack going through the lip of the button, I make sure I have sufficient ‘overage’ of charcoal putty to cover the crack. After opening a charcoal capsule, I empty it onto the index card and then add a puddle of Hot Stuff Special ‘T’ CA glue next to the charcoal. The ‘T’ stands for extra thick. Using a toothpick, I begin to draw the charcoal into the glue puddle to form the putty. I’m aiming at a honey-like viscosity for the putty – not to thin that it won’t remain where I put it and not to thick that it doesn’t shape well. When I arrive at what looks good, I use the toothpick as a trowel and apply the putty to the button – the top receiving the most attention. With charcoal putty applied to the button, I put the stem aside giving time for the curing process. The pictures show the progress. I return to the stummel to clean the externals. I’ve not worked before with a gold band and I don’t believe that any cleaning agents I use will deface the gold, but to stay on the safe side, I cover the band with a few layers of masking tape. I then take undiluted Murphy’s Soap and cotton pad and clean the stummel surface and rim. With the help of a brass brush, which will not scratch the briar, the light lava flow on the rim becomes history. I rinse the stummel with warm tap water keeping the internals dry. After the Murphy’s Soap, I still can detect the acrylic shine of the finish which is not what I like (2^nd picture below). I prefer the shine of the natural briar and not what I have referred to as a ‘candy apple’ shine finish. To remove the finish, I use acetone with a cotton pad. After a few unsuccessful rounds of this, I utilize 0000 steel wool to add a little abrasion to the acetone removal process. This does the trick, though the candy apple finish did not come off easily. The pictures show the progress. To remove nicks and some pitting in the briar I use a medium grade sanding sponge on the stummel and rim. I follow this with a light grade sanding sponge. To remove some damage in the inner rim edge and to clean it up, I use 240 grit sanding paper rolled tightly. I again follow the 240 grit paper and use the light grade sanding sponge on the rim to smooth things out. Before I move forward with sanding and finishing the stummel, I return to the stem and the shaping and repair of the button and slot. I take another close-up of both the top and bottom to mark the progress. I begin using a flat needle file and a pointed half-circle needle file to re-shape the slot and to redefine the end of the stem. I will work from stem end, having established a base line. When I finish the basic shaping with the needle files I then continue shaping the button with 240 grit paper then 0000 steel wool. The pictures show the progression. Near the completion of the button rebuild, I use K-150 Black Medium glue to fill pockets and unevenness in the upper bit area. After cured, I re-sand the area with 240 grit, then 600 grit papers then complete the process with 0000 steel wool. The last two pictures show the finished button rebuild. It took some time, but I think it looks good as well as refortifying a formerly, weak and cracked button. With button rebuild completed, I begin the micromesh sanding process first by wet sanding the stem with pads 1500 to 2400 and follow with an application of Obsidian Oil over the entire stem. I then dry sand the stem using pads 3200 to 4000 and again with pads 6000 to 12000, following each set with a fresh application of Obsidian Oil. The stem looks great and the button repair has blended well. I put the stem aside to dry. The pictures show the progress. Turning again to the stummel, I wet sand the surface with micromesh pads 1500 to 2400, then 3200 to 4000, and then 6000 to 12000, taking a picture after each set to show the progress. The micromesh pads’ work is spectacular by teasing out the beautiful briar straight grain. The briar on this Eldorado Lucite is very nicely showcased cascading down the elongated Dublin canonical stummel. A very nice choice of briar for this pipe style. As I moved through the micromesh cycles, my usual thought processing is to ponder the finish and what approach will best showcase the briar. Should I leave the natural grain color and apply carnauba wax or apply a stain? With the 14K gold band on this sleek Dublin, I decide to leverage toward a darker brown than the original. I think the black stem and the darker stummel will give the gold band an extra pop – standing out very nicely. To expand the briar and enabling the grain to be more receptive to the dye, I warm the stummel using my wife’s hair dryer. Then, using a pipe cleaner folded in two, I apply Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye liberally to the stummel and rim. I cover the surface thoroughly. When covered, I flame the wet dye using a lit candle and the alcohol in the dye immediately evaporates setting the dye hue in the grain. After a few minutes, I repeat the process including flaming the dye. I set the stummel aside for the night to rest. The picture shows the dye-crusted stummel.The next morning, I’m anxious to ‘unwrap’ the crust of the fired dye from the night before. Since I live in a flat on the 10^th floor of former Communist block apartment building, I do not have a lot of room for my work shop. The Dremel high speed rotary tool is how I solve the problem of not having regular high speed buffing wheels. To unwrap the stummel, I mount the Dremel with a felt polishing wheel and set the speed of the Dremel to the slowest speed. The felt material is abrasive and I don’t want to over-heat the wood with the higher speeds. Each polishing wheel is dedicated to a specific compound used in the buffing process. I mount the Tripoli wheel, and after purging it from old compound with the edge of the metal wrench, used to tighten the wheels on the Dremel, I apply Tripoli compound to remove the flamed residue of the light brown dye. I rotate the wheel around the surface of the stummel slowly, not applying much vertical pressure on the surface but allowing the RPMs, felt and compound to do the work. I use the sheen created on the surface of the briar (reflecting the bright overhead work lamp) to observe the compound’s behavior, which enables me to distribute the compound evenly over the surface. See my essay, ‘My Dremel Polishing Technique’ if you want more detail. I took a picture of the ‘unwrapping’ with the Tripoli compound and wheel. You can see the before and after comparison very easily which demonstrates my typical approach.I follow the Tripoli compound with Blue Diamond. Again, using a dedicated Blue Diamond wheel mounted on the Dremel, I work the compound into the surface in the same manner as Tripoli. After the Blue Diamond cycle, I hand-buff the stummel with a cotton cloth simply to remove the powdery residue of the compounds from the briar surface. I do this before applying carnauba wax. Next, I mount the cotton cloth polishing wheel onto the Dremel, increase the speed of the Dremel from 1 to 2 (5 is the fastest) and apply several coats of carnauba wax to both stummel and its reunited stem. I finish with a rigorous hand-buffing with micromesh cloth not only to deepen the shine but to distribute any pockets of unintegrated carnauba wax.

I was hoping to create a pop with the classy gold band linking a slim, gently curving stem with the rich darker brown hues of the Dublin’s cascading briar patterns. I think what I now see before me effectively does just that! This gold banded Eldorado Lucite of Italy is an elegant Dublin which feels very comfortable in the hand. It will be a great addition to some new steward’s collection.

Below, in the comments, I reposted this blog of Reborn Pipes to my new blog site, http://www.ThePipeSteward.com This site is serving not only as a ‘store front’ for pipes I’m selling, but it also describes the work we do in Bulgaria with the Daughters of Bulgaria Foundation – rescuing and restoring women and children who have been trafficked and sexually exploited. To help with this work, the profits of my sales go to the Daughters. So, if you’re interested in adding this Eldorado Lucite Bent Dublin of Italy to your collection, jump over to The Pipe Steward, and check it out! Thank you for joining me!

Savinelli Capitol Bruyere 6001

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Blog by Johan Viviers

I received an email not too long ago while I was traveling in India for work from Johan. He wrote of his love or pipe restoration and how he had come across rebornpipes. After replying to his email about his work I asked him to send me a few photos of what he had done. He promptly did so. I asked him to submit a blog for the site and what follows after his brief introduction is his first blog for rebornpipes. Welcome Johan. It is great to have you here.

Introduction

I am Johan Viviers. I was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. As a child I was surrounded by pipe smokers. All of them had a Kaiser, because a man was not a man without a Kaiser!. My one grandfather though had a rotation.

I bought my first pipe at 28 from a Belgium man who had shop in Pretoria. He sold me a Peterson and sample tobaccos at first until we discovered my preference… and then after a further twenty or so years of wandering (a bit like Parsival did), I made a home in Portugal; and a home is not a home without a pipe being smoked in it.

So, the Why and the How of getting into pipe sanitation, recovery and refurbishment… I suppose I evolved into it. Maybe there are a “few roots” to be found in my dream of opening a pipe smokers’ lounge. Then too, the rest of the “roots” may also probably be found in the creativity that is born from the curiosity and wonder that surfaces when smokes a new tobacco blend or from a new pipe.

Last summer whilst sipping a beer on the local esplanade with a fellow piper, I told him that it is time for me to plant tobacco, figure out the bit between harvesting and blending and then to explore and create a blend. All for personal consumption of course. A 78 year old friend who’s a pipe smoker too, offered some land in exchange for a share of smoking tobacco.

I then spent most of my free time reading everything I could find on tobacco. And on a day my favourite pipe broke. It happened on the same day that I discovered Dad aka Charles Lemon, which led me to rebornpipes. Well, all your stories filled me with such curiosity and excitement that I somewhat altered my priorities. As I am in the habit of recovering vintage furniture, floors in old buildings etc., it seemed that pipe refurbishing may deliver an even greater level of happiness and satisfaction.

So I set out by first buying three pipes at the local flea market and experimenting to find a “studio practise”. I had to discover for myself the materials and mechanisms of a pipe and also determine whether the natural products I work with every day is suited to briar. Well three experimental pipes later and I made my first refurbishment, the Capitol 6001. I worked on it for five days and on day six I sold it and reinvested the profit in other estates. I now own seventeen estates that are either refurbished or at various stages of recovery. And I have to confess that I do not wish to sell any of them because I am still marveling at their transformation, whether it being the sweet smell of the briar when I rendered it, or the smoothness of its surface before I finish it or its final transformation/outcome that I want to hold onto a little longer.

Even so, I will continue and grow the seventeen estates I have acquired and if I sell none of them now, I will put them to good use when I find the capital to open the Pipe Smoker’s Lounge that I am thinking of naming Maria do Purificacão: Where Ladies Without Beards Smoke Pipe.

The Restoration

Sand blasted and stamped Capitol over Bruyere with 6001 to the right on the underside of the bowl with no stem markings.

This Capitol according to both Savinelli and the young lady who sold me this pipe, is a 50’s production. The pipe belonged to her grandfather Fernando a property developer and it was his “thinking aid” she told me, hence the tooth chatter on the stem. He passed away ten years ago and since then this pipe remained in his desk drawer. Fernando’s home remained unoccupied for ten years, where this pipe remained until now.

Lisbon being a very humid city left it’s mark on both the bowl and stem. The stem was greenish yellow due to oxidation and the outside of the bowl was soft in places due to what I belief to be exposure to moisture in the air. There was no cake in the chamber, but the unevenness to the rim of the bowl made wonder whether Fernando may have been a “pipe knocker” like my friend Adam or whether it was the actual design by Savinelli. The tenon, however, was a snug fit regardless.

Given that this was my second attempt at an actual recovery of a smoking pipe I though long and hard as to how i will approach its recovery and given my fascination with “the story” an estate pipe arrives with, I decided to keep the uneven organic shape to the rim and even the tooth chatter on the stem.

To start I hung the bowl out in a an area that receives no direct sunlight and a natural flow of air until felt the bowl has expelled all the surface moisture it had collected. At the same time the stem was soaking in a solution of cider vinegar and coarse salt to loosen up oxidation.

I then filled the bowl with salt and alcohol and let it stand overnight as I have seen you guys do and the next morning I reamed the chamber a little and gave it a light sanding with 400 grit paper until I could detect the sweet smell of the briar. Once this was done I cleaned out the airway of the stummel with a dental tool to remove the oils and tars after which I passed 400 grit paper rolled into a tube through the airway to be certain it is clean. Once this was done I washed the bowl and chamber down with a lukewarm solution of natural Marseille soap (a method to raising the grain and open the pores of the wood when I restore furniture) and rinsed it down with clean lukewarm water. I then filled the chamber and airway with tissue paper to absorb the excess water and wiped the outside of the bowl dry before I hung it out to dry for a couple of days (again in an area that receives no direct sunlight with the temperature constant at between 15 to 20 degrees Celsius).

I then took to the stummel and sanded it wet with 500 grit paper. I finished the stem with 00000 steel wool and then cleaned the airway by passing pipe cleaners dipped in a clean solution of the Cider vinegar and coarse salt after which I also washed the stem down with a solution of lukewarm water and Marseilles soap flakes, finishing it with clean water.

To complete I prepared a prepared Carnauba Wax emulsion with 15% natural Green Umber pigment and entered the solution with a lint free cloth into the bowl, stummel and chamber and hung it out to dry. An hour after application, I passed a clean lint free cloth to remove any excess. Then I rubbed the Carnauba wax emulsion into the stem and hung it out to dry alongside the bowl.

Twenty-four hours later I hand rubbed both the bowl, chamber and stem to bring out its lustre and then I got so excited that I had to fill the pipe with Hal O’ The Wynd and smoke it. What a sweet smoke, so much so that I named this here pipe Fernanda

Later that day, Fernanda and I sat in a coffee shop savouring another bowl of Hal O’ The Wynd and I sold her to a fellow piper there and then. This sale financed a purchase of nine other estate pipes.

Repairing a broken Peterson stem

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Blog by Joe Mansueto

Joe Mansueto sent me this link to a helpful tutorial on how he repairs broken stems. I thought it would be helpful to post it after I just posted Dal Stanton’s stem repair piece on the blog today. Here is the original link to the Dr. Grabow Web Forum if you want to have a look at the original post and the responses there. http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/ftopic9615-0-asc-0.php. Here is Joe’s article.

A new friend snapped his Pete stem… glued it… dropped it… lost some pieces… This is what it looked like when it arrived for me to work on.I drilled some small holes into each face to create ‘roots’ for the patch material…Once the repair dried I sanded it until it was smooth. The photo below shows the stem after sanding. It came out smooth. A bit of a buff is all that’ needed…Back in service… The next photo shows the finished repair. The pipe was ready to go back to its owner for many more years of service.After completing the repair I received a lot of responses and questions about how it was done and if I would make a tutorial for the above repair. The tools/supplies I used (prior to buffing) include 91% isopropyl, a Dremel (with a scribing bit), activated charcoal, and high-quality CA (cyanoacrylate). I say ‘high-quality’ because I get it from a professional wood-turner… and after using his product… the strength and speed of adhesion seems better than anything else I’ve used.

Here is the step by step process:

‘Rough up’ the faces / areas being joined. I used the scribing tool on a Dremel. This provides a rough surface for the patch material to adhere to.
If you want to use the “roots” process that I’ve used, you simply use a tiny drill bit…or a tiny scribing tool to push some holes into the face…making sure you don’t drill in and back “out” again…lol.

Here is an image showing where I might drill holes. With these ‘roots’…the holes do NOT need to be directly across from the roots being drilled on the face of the other broken piece. If I were inserting some very thin gauge wire into these roots (which would lend even more strength)…you’d have to make sure these holes lined up perfectly across from each other…and that’s a whole ‘nother tutorial! Scrub clean the 2 faces being joined…I used the 91% iso and a toothbrush…and let it dry well.

I used a pipe cleaner as you can see, to keep the 2 faces lined up. Critical to that detail is covering the pipe cleaner in ‘shiny’ scotch / packing tape…because if the patch material gets to the pipe cleaner (and it will), it won’t stick to the shiny tape. The pipe cleaner not only kept these 2 pieces lined up, but also is essentially what “held them together” in place, while the patch dried.
The patch material is made from the CA and activated charcoal. I used medium viscosity CA. The mix is “close to” 50/50 between the 2…the consistency is more like molasses than honey…very thick.
To begin with…I used a sharp ended toothpick to jam the patch down into each root. Then covered both faces…held onto the pipe cleaner at one end…and pushed the broken tip down onto the rest of the stem. I made sure that they were sitting at the correct angle…then I smeared enough of the patch to be sure it was all filled / covered.
Once hard (I let it sit 30 min), I filed off the excess back down near the surface of the surrounding stem…and had to add a 2nd small patch to a spot where it had caved in just slightly.
Dried again…filed it down with multiple needle files.
Wet sand (360, 500, 800, 1000).
Buffed with Tripoli, followed by white diamond.

It is a bit of work just to save a stem…but it’s been a while, I needed the practice….and I preferred doing this instead of refitting the pipe with an aftermarket stem.

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