Blog by Al Jones

Yesterday I reluctantly escorted Mrs. Jones into our new “Hobby Lobby” store. After overcoming the fright of a giant floral area near the entrance, I have to admit there was some interesting items for sale.

I made my way to the model making section and found some products made by Alpha Abrasives that appear to be identical in design and grade sizes as Micromesh. But, these products were significantly cheaper. Later, I found their entire line on their website. Hobby Lobby carried the sheet and pad sets detailed below at the online pricing.

Micro Cloth Finishing Products
http://www.alphaabrasives.com/alpha/micro-cloth-finishing-products.php
– 2″ x 2″ pads @ $8.99/set
– 3″ x 4″ cloths @ $14.99/set (my preference)
– Foam block for holding the cloth (I bought one of these)

Sanding Files
http://www.alphaabrasives.com/alpha/sanding-files.php

Plastic Sanding Needles
http://www.alphaabrasives.com/alpha/plastic-sanding-needles.php

Sanding Pads & Sanding Foam Blocks
http://www.alphaabrasives.com/alpha/sanding-pads-foam-blocks.php

I find that I don’t use the full line of the micromesh and typically only use the last four grades. Alpha does not sell individual grades, but I will inquire about that option

Back in September, I documented the restoration of two pipes in a four pipe set belonging to a friend in Ohio.  (Charatan Shape 44 and London Billiard)  Steve reminded me that I hadn’t submitted the final two pipes of that group.

The third pipe was this lovely Savinelli Autograph.  To this point, I had never seen an Autograph model in person and I was very impressed with the pipe.  As with the others in my friends group, this was also a very large pipe.

Here is the pipe as it was delivered to me.

This one definitely felt like a hand-made pipe.  The stem is wonderful and feels good in the hand, so I bet she’s a wonderful smoker.  In this group of pipes, this Autograph was the one least abused. The finish was a little grimy.  Removing the tar build up on the bowl top took some rubbing with first isopropyl  alcohol on a rag.  But, once removed, a beautiful birdseye top was revealed.  The bowl was buffed lightly with Tripoli, than white diamond and finished with several coats of carnuba

The stem took the usual steps and was deeply oxidized with some teeth chatter. I soaked the stem in an oxyclean solution for several hours with a dab of grease over the logo. I was able to preserve Gincarlo Savinelli’s stamp nicely. I sanded the stem (on the pipe) first with 1500 grit and then 2000 grit wet paper.  Next I buffed the stem with the final two grades of micromesh (8000 and 12000).  The stem was then polished on the buffer, with white diamond and then plastic polish.

I learned that Savinelli used vulcanite for the Autograph stem prior to 1982, when they switched to acrylic and 6 mm filters. I believe these pipes came from Smokers Haven in Ohio in the mid 70’s as my friends father lived in this area.

I didn’t weigh the pipe, but estimate it was approximately 90 grams.

Here is the finished pipe.  After handling this pipe, I would one day love to add a vulcanite stemmed Autograph to my collection.

The last pipe in the group was another large pipe, stamped simply “Sherlock”and “Made in Italy”. This one had a perspex stem, that had some stubborn staining but no teeth chatter. I removed a good bit but not all of the stain in the perspex. I use a bristle cleaner soaked in 90% isopropyl alcohol.  You must run a dry cleaner thru the perspex next to remove the alcohol which could fog the clear plastic.  The briar has a lovely golden glow with some faceted features on the bowl (ala Willmer?). I’m not familiar with this brand, but the briar is beautiful. The tars on top came off, just leaving a light scorch mark on the inner bowl rim.   I estimated this pipe weighed approximately 80 grams.

Here is a shot of all four finished pipes.

I also add pictures of these two GBD pipes, both Colossus models as they came from this estate and were gifted to me by this gentleman.  Both are treasured and enjoyed pipes in my collection and I was very happy to restore these other four for my friend.

GBD Seventy-Six Colossus, Shape 9676.

Prehistoric Oom-Paul Colossus:

As you can see, the gentleman who owned all six of these pipes had an affinity for large briar pipes!

As you no doubt have learned, the pre-Cadogan era GBD 9438 is one of my favorite shapes. I have this model in several finishes (Tapestry, Fantasy, Seventy-Six Collossus) but was lacking a smooth finish. This one, found on Ebay, went unnoticed until the last few minutes of the auction. It is only a New Standard grade, but looked in good shape with no bite marks, etc. on the stem. I thought from the pictures that it would only require a simple clean up.

Here is the pipe as it was delivered.

The bowl had a very thin cake, which I reamed slightly revealing a very nicely maintained bowl and bowl top. There was a little stain lightening on one side, but I think with use, it should blend in. The stain is an interesting reddish-brown color, GBD called a “tobacco brown” finish in their 1976 catalog. The bowl was polished with tripoli, white diamond and finally several coats of carnuba wax.

The stem was soaked in oxyclean, with a dab of grease on the brass rondell. I sanded it with 1000, 1500 and then 2000 grades wet sandpaper. Then, the last two grades of micromesh were used (8000, 12000). The stem was then polished on the buffer with tripoli, white diamond and final top coat of plastic polish. There were no bite marks to lift or sand out, so it was a relatively simple clean-up.

Here is the finished pipe.

Al Jones

Al Jones

Well, I fell prey to yet another GBD 9438 in Tapestry finish on Ebay. Yes, another chair leg stem, my fourth this year. However, this time I made a somewhat foolish offer on this particular pipe using my Ebay Android phone app. Using the phone, I completely missed that the seller stated a piece was missing from the stem and the large detailed photograph of the damaged area.

When the pipe arrived, the briar looked in great shape but the damage loomed large. In the ad, the seller offers that he could do the repair for an additional $15. I was skeptical, but curious as to how he might accomplish this feat. The seller replied that Walker Briarworks did his repair work. I did contacted Dave Wolfe at Walker and was not surprised to learn a $15 repair was not an option. Unfortunately, neither was getting a new stem made and transferring the brass rondell. Dave told me that vulcanite stock in that diameter (22 mm) was no longer available.

So, it appeared the repair was left to my own hands. I considered trying to patch it with Superglue, but as you can see, the missing piece was quite large. I didn’t think it could be done nor be durable enough.

I decided the best way to repair the pipe was to cut off the broken button and reshape a new one. I made the cut with a hobby saw and there was no turning back.

Using a small, flat blade needle file, I made a cut on both sides of the stem for the crease. Than, using a heavier metal file I carefully carved out a new button. I went back to the flat needle file to remove some of the heavier file marks. I used both files to shape the button into a “football” shape. additional flat, tapered shape needle files were used to open up the stem hole.

Using some 600 grit wet paper, I sanded out the file marks from the stem. Next the stem was polished with increasingly finer grades of wet sand paper, advancing from 800>1000>1500 and 2000 grit papers. I then polished the stem on the buffer with some Tripoli rouge. I used the final two grades of micro-mesh (8000 and 12000) to bring up the shine. The last steps were to buff the stem with White Diamond rouge followed with a final polish using automotive plastic polish.

The bowl was soaked with Everclear and sea salt and the shank cleaned with alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. I buffed the bowl with Tripoli, White Diamond and then several coats of carnuba wax. The briar was also polished by hand with Paragon wax.

The finished pipe came looks great and should offer many more years of service.

This is the third of the four pipes I recently refurbished for a friend in Ohio.  This is another very large pipe and a  bit of a mystery.  The pipe is just under 7″ long and weighs approximately 95 grams.  Another hefty hunk of briar from this four pipe estate.  It is stamped simply, “Made In London England”.  The rest of the polished nomenclature area is left blank.  It sure does have a Charatan feel and I wonder if it was a reject or a second?  The detail of the stem tip is almost identical to the Charatan.  Someone on the SmokersForums.uk once told me to “read the pipe, not the stamping”, but this is just a hunch.

The bowl top was pretty beat up and had a heavy tar buildup.

The tenon has the same features as the Charatan Select pipe from the four pipe estate.

When I removed the heavy layer of tar, it lightened the stain a bit.   So it became necessary to restain the bowl.  I soaked it for several hours in an alcohol bath and using a brass bristle brush to get stain out of the blast.  With  the stain removed, the bowl top was so rough, I decided to sand it smooth.  I’m glad that I did and think it looks smashing with a smooth, polished top.  I used a series of 800-1500-2000 than the last two Micromesh grades for sanding with the paper on a flat workbench surface.

I used a very light mixture Fieberlings “Medium Brown” stain, thinned with alcohol.  I put on two coats of stain, with each one set with a flame (I’ve perfected this process, so it no longer frightens me).  I use a 6″ socket extension to hold the bowl during application of the stain and the flame setting.  This shows the bowl stripped of finish and ready for the first coat of stain.

The bowl then was buffed lightly with white diamond and finally several applications of carnuba wax.

The stem was soaked in oxyclean during the briar work and was polished with 1500>2000 grit wet paper, than the last three grades of micromesh (up to 12,000).  I then buffed the stem with White Diamond and a final buff with automotive plastic polish.

Thanks for reading, smoke safe!

Al Jones