by Steve Laug

The next bowl on the table is a classic Peterson style Bent Billiard that has a sump in the mortise of the shank. It has been sitting here and I have looked at it over and over again and today I decided to restem it. I cleaned up the bowl and matched a stem with briar bowl. It is a cleanup and restore and is a break from the routine of my other work on pipes. The bowl is dirty and somewhere in its life before it came to us the stem was lost. The finish was coated with varnish that left it shiny even under the grime. It showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. It no stamping on the shank. The right side of the nickel ferrule is stamped with a triangle with an EP in the centre for Electroplating. Underneath that it had three Old English style letters in shields that look like DWF. The bowl had a thick cake and some lava overflow on the rim top. There were a few small nicks in the briar. It is a pretty pipe with some great grain and I am hoping to match a nice stem to it. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to give more of a sense of what I see and noted above. It is a dirty pipe but seems to have no damage on the rim top or edges.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the ferrule on the shank. It is hard to capture with the letters with the reflection of the light.I found a stem in my cans of stems that would work well with the pipe. It is a great looking bent horn stem. The tenon was polished horn and was threaded into the end of the stem. The look of the stem and bowl was going work very well.I sanded down the diameter of the shank end of the stem so that it would fit well inside the ferrule. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the stem surface and to reduce the size of the stem. Once finished it fit well. I set it aside and went to work on the bowl.
I began my work on this pipe by reaming the pipe. I used a PipNet Reamer with the first and second cutting heads to take back the heavy cake to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and finally sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I like to remove all the cake to examine the walls for damage and checking. Great news is that this one is free of any damage! I scraped off the rim top and edge of the bowl with the Savinelli Fitsall knife. The inner edge and the top looked to be undamaged.I used alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to clean out the internals of the shank and the new horn stem. Once finished the pipe smelled as clean as it looked.I cleaned off the shiny coat of varnish on the bowl and shank with a cotton pad and acetone. Once finished it looked better. It is a great looking bowl with some nice grain around the sides and rimtop. I sanded the bowl to blend in the remaining fills to the surface of the bowl and to continue to clean up the rim top and remove any remnants of varnish. I used 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to check on the progress. It came out looking much better. I polished the briar bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The bowl and the band took on a rich glow. I paused the polishing and stained the rim top with an Oak Stain pen to match the rest of the briar. I finished the polishing with 6000-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. But the bowl looked better and better. I rubbed down the briar Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. I used a shoe brush to work the balm into the twin rings around the cap. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention back to the horn stem. I sanded out the scratches in the horn with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started to take on a deep shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This is another pipe that I am really happy about the finished restoration. This reborn Anonymous Bent Billiard with a horn stem turned out really well. I used a horn stem I had here to fit the pipe with a new stem. After restemming I think that it really is a great looking pipe with a great shape and grain. The bowl is a classic Bent Billiard and the “new” horn stem is a great match. The polished horn stem works well with the briar and the nickel ferrule. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish make the grain really pop with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Bent Billiard with a Horn Stem really has a unique beauty and feels great in the hand. It looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 54 grams/1.90 ounces. This one will stay with me for awhile to enjoy. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!