I was contacted recently by a DadsPipes reader with a request to look at his favourite pipe and determine what could be done to repair a crack running up the shank. I’ve repaired quite a few cracked shanks, but this pipe would prove to be a unique challenge.

As you can see in the pics below, this is not your ordinary churchwarden pipe. This Design Berlin Shirwitz Volcano has the characteristic long stem of the genre, but there would be no fitting a standard shank band to this beautiful piece of briar.

The pipe arrived on my worktable in good, but a little grimy, condition. It is a beautiful piece, with a graceful organic flow and lovely straight grain underneath the grease. The stem was oxidized with a bit of tooth chatter and calcium buildup, but should clean up just fine.

The rim of the volcano shaped bowl, ironically, was…