Category Archives: Examples of Refurbished Pipes

In this section of the blog you will find before and after pictures of pipes that I have reworked. In each of them I give a summary of the work done to them. There are tips on working with different materials in these posts as well. For instance I have posted two horn stem pipes that I did work on the horn stems to removed tooth damage.

Reparing a Cumberland Stem on a Kaywoodie Regent Bulldog 98B

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Blog by Greg Wolford

I’ve been hoping to add a Kaywoodie Regent to my collection for some time now. A month or so ago we were out-of-town on vacation when I happened upon one in an antique store. There were actually several pipes in this vendor’s case, most of which I wasn’t interested in. Other than the Regent, there were also two other Kaywoodies I was interested in: a Relief Grain and an extra long Canadian. They all looked to have pretty good bones in the dark little store so I made them mine.

When I got them back to where we were staying I eagerly opened them up to see what I had. I found that they were a lot dirtier and caked up than I thought. I also now got a really good look at the damage to the Regent’s stem; this was going to take some trail and error I knew.

When I got home I took some better photos, showing the damage to the stem. There were deep teeth marks on the top and bottom of the stem and the edge of the side where the clover logo is was almost gone completely. This was going to take a lot of time and some research to get it even close to decent again I now realized.

My first step was to try some experiments on a Medico VFQ. Although I ended up with a good looking and smoking pipe, the experiments were somewhat in vain: the stems on the VFQ turned out to be nylon. So I now turned to some fellow restorers on the PSU Forum for hints. tips and ideas – and they really came through with many ideas and several new articles posted by Joyal. Some of the best advice for this project come from JoeMan: the idea of using activated charcoal powder with Gorilla brand super glue.

This project took days to complete do to all the patching a rebuilding of the stem. So, I didn’t do a great job documenting it all with photos and because of the extended time frame of the project I may miss a step or two in this article; I apologize in advance for these things.

The fist thing I did (after thoroughly cleaning the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol) was try to raise the dents as much as I could with heat from a candle; there was little success here.

Now I began the filling and shaping process. This took many forms and layers: I used clear super glue, both “regular” and gel, mixing in some of the StewMac black glue at times, and also Gorilla brand super glue both with and without charcoal powder mixed into it. one of the challenges was to add strength and black-color in some places while not covering up too much of the red in the Cumberland stem. Another challenge was to build up that chewed up side so the end of the stem would have the proper shape again.

The StewMac glue was too thin and took so long to dry that it wasn’t much help to me on this project. The Gorilla glue, both “plain” and with the charcoal powder mixed in, was a big help; it is thicker and dries quite fast, especially when the powder is mixed in.

Another thing that added time was the way I went about this repair. There were multiple layers needed, as well as different thicknesses, so I would apply a patch, let it cure, and then shape it as I needed, and then start the whole process over again. I did this many times to get an acceptable result. This photo is after almost all of the layering and shaping was done:

I used needle files and a vulcrylic file for most of the shaping. I also used 220 grit sandpaper. After I had the final shape I was happy with I wet sanded with 320/400/600 and then micro mesh through 12000 grit; after 600 and every few grits thereafter I also polished the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0,which helps me see if I’ve missed anything along the way. The next four images are before micro mesh and after:

As you can see, this stem came out pretty nicely and is more than useable now. Then lines came out well, to my eye, and the rebuilding and patching blended rather nicely.

I didn’t do a lot to the stummel; the nomenclature is readable but very weak. There are some small “pocket” marks but I think they give the pipe an air of character so I basically left the stummel as I found it, sans, the thick cake, mess of tars and oils in the shank, and the buildup on the rim. The rim did require a very light topping and a round or two with the medium touch up marker to give it a head start on matching the patina on this rest of the wood. I only very lightly buffed the pipe with white diamond and carnauba wax and ending with a soft clean buff and hand polish with a micro fabric cloth.

I just noticed there is a bit of wax residue that I missed in the photos. Oh well, that’s easy enough to take care of after while ….

I’m very happy with how this project came out. It will soon find its way, I think, onto my rack where I can hopefully enjoy it for many years – unless my wife learns of its collectors appeal and potential value, then I might be in trouble!

You Complete Me- Finishing Touch on the Medico VFQ

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Blog by Greg Wolford

Last week I wrote about restoring an old Medico VFQ (if you missed it the article is here. I mentioned that Steve was sending me a better stem – and boy did he!

It arrived Saturday and I spent a little time polishing it with micromesh 1500-12000 over the weekend. As you can see, it was almost pristine when it arrived.

Today I touched up the stem’s stamping with white paint to make it pop and then, after the paint cured, I gave it a light buff with white diamond and then a few coats of wax to finish it off. And I must say it really does complete the project.

As you can see, there’s a big difference in the stems. I also found they seem to be made of some different material; the original left a black looking sanding dust and the new one a white-looking dust, more like acrylic. Anyway, here’s the real completed project.

Again, thanks, Steve, for providing me with such a nice stem to top off saving this old pipe with. And, in case you’re wondering, I’ve had the chance to run a few bowls through her and she smokes great for me!

Stop the Noise- Opening Up a Pipe’s Draw

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Blog by Greg Wolford

I have this German acorn basket pipe that I love; it was a gift from my son. I really like everything about it: the shape, the feel, everything except the gurgle. This morning I decided it was time to “open her up” a little and remembered to take a few photos of the process (finally) to share what I generally do and generally works really well for me.

This process takes only a few tools and a few minutes to do. But you can spend a lot more time and effort and use more tools to get better, more precise results if you so desire. The tools I used:

a round needle file
a straight “pick”
5’32” drill bit
reamer (bought from Harbor Freight)
a quick change handle (all of the rest of the tools are Kobalt from Lowe’s)

I start by inserting the pick to check the angle of the air hole in the mortise. Sometimes the angle won’t let me re-drill the pipe without damaging the edge of the shank. In this case there was ample clearance so I changed the over to the drill bit. The drilling can be done by hand or with the use of a hobby/universal vice with cushioned jaws; I use one sometimes, depending on how I feel, the value of the pipe, the angle, etc. I do this slowly and evenly, with moderate to light pressure. When I see the tip of the bit peek into the bowl I begin to pull the bit out, continuing to “drill” as I go backwards; I think this cuts a more even hole. I usually repeat this process 2-3 times, as I feel needed by the resistance on the bit and material that comes out with each pass.

I now turn to the stem and the reamer. As you can see, this is drilled straight, with no funneling or chamber. Most of the time the procedure I am going to talk about with fix draw/gurgle issues but sometimes the stem will need re-drilled, too; that is another post!I use the reamer to open up the tenon just like one would do with a drill; the difference is that we aren’t going in very far (less than 1/2″ generally speaking) and we are increasing the size of the hole in a funnel shape as we go. You can see the difference a little work makes.When you are satisfied with the size and shape of the end of the tenon the next step is filing. I use a round needle file to make sure the inside of the tenon is smooth and there are no sudden changes in diameter. After filing the tenon I then do the same procedure to the newly opened air hole, though I forgot to photograph that.

This quick and easy project will benefit almost any pipe that has a gurgle issue. In this case the drilling was off-center, to the right a bit, and the re-drilling brought the air hole almost dead centered. I do still need to raise the bottom of the bowl a bit when I have time but I anticipate this opening up if the airway will make smoking this loved pipe more enjoyable than it already is.

Medico VFQ – Save This Old Pipe Project

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Blog by Greg Wolford

I saw this old Medico V.F.Q. go through two or three eBay auctions with no bids. I have recently been admiring pipes with Cumberland stems and thought this one would make an excellent “project” pipe to see how well I could repair a Cumberland stem. (A side not here: This is not a Cumberland stem I have found out; it is nylon/plastic.) So I wrote to the seller and offered $5/shipped for the pipe, noting that I didn’t care how she shipped it, just safely and cheaply would suffice. She posted a seven-day auction with an opening bid of $5 with free shipping; I was the only bidder.

When the pipe arrived it looked as bad, maybe worse, than I had expected. The stem was really chewed up and the finish was shot. There were also several fills that I hadn’t been able to see in the (above) auction photos. I decided to work on the stem first so I broke out some tools.

The first thing I did was to try to raise the dents with the heat of a tea candle. Not being actual rubber (which I didn’t realize yet), this had little effect. Next I began with needle files to take off some of the roughness. This made some improvement and gave me a better surface to work with for patching with super glue, which I applied at this point. You can also see the shape of the pipe as a whole here when I got it.

I worked in stages over a few days on the stem: allowing the patch to cure, adding more as it shrank, touch it up a little as I went with files or sandpaper. Once it had finally cured into a patch that filled and covered all the dents on both sides I began to shape and smooth it with files and 220 grit sandpaper. The button was ragged and kept getting that way when I worked on it; it was at this point I think that I realized I was working with nylon not rubber. When this revelation struck I decided to begin working it toward the best finish I could get with micro mesh and not spend a lot more time on this stem.

From beginning to final end.

I had been doing a running post on Pipe Smokers Unlimited forum with this project. Steve, our humble leader and blog owner, contacted me with the welcome news that he had a very nice VFQ stem that he would send to me for this pipe. I excitedly accepted his gracious offer and sent him my address. When the stem shows up, if it fits, I will add photos of the end product; thank you again, Steve.

It was now time to get the bowl going, starting with a good leaning, inside and out. The pipe needed reaming and the shank was clogged with gunk, too. So I reamed it back to bare wood, pretty much, and cleaned the shank with many pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and a set of shank brushes until the final cleaners can out white; I also cleaned the stem at this point.

The finish was terrible so I took some cotton balls and acetone to the stummel, scrubbing off the years of grime and broken layer of what I assume is/was lacquer. With the old finish gone there were a few things now obvious: there were a couple of large fills to address and the bowl needed to be sanded to remove some scratches, and it needed topped.

I started with the topping process, using 220 grit sandpaper. I realized that the rim char was too deep to get all of it out without getting into the large fill near the top of the bowl’s front so I rounded the edges of the bowl to remove the edge char and see how deep that was; it wasn’t bad. I decided to leave the top for now and work on the fills; after the fills were done I came back and sanded the top smooth.

I wanted to use this pipe to experiment on, not just the stem but also the fills. In the past when I have used super glue and briar dust to patch a fill it is usually much darker than the rest of the pipe; sometimes I can blend it in well and other times not so much, so I wanted to try something different here, with an eye toward a future project. A few months ago I bought some black and amber super glues from Stewart McDonald; they offer black, amber, clear, and white. The black I plan to use on stems but the amber I thought might work well on patching fills and this was the project to try it on.

I removed one fill to start, just in case the experiment didn’t go well; the dry time on this stuff is very long so I suggest you try the accelerator if you order from them (I forgot it).

I used my dental pick, a beading awl, and a file to pick out the old putty. After the putty was out I dripped a bit of the amber glue into the hole, leaving extra to feather when I sanded it. I also used the end of the awl to make sure the glue went all the way into the hole. Then I waited until it cured a few hours, tapped it down with a tamper, in case there was any air pockets, and let it finish curing. When it was set through, several hours, I began to sand with 220 grit paper. And I was really pleased with the initial results: an almost perfect match to my eyes!I then decided to take out all the fills and patch them the same way, with amber glue and nothing else.The waiting game began again. Some hours later I noticed that the large fill at the top needed more glue so I dripped in another layer and waited more. This morning I finally got to start sanding the new fills down, and the entire bowl as I went. The results on these fills were a bit varied from the first one I soon saw. Even when sanded smooth a couple of the fills weren’t as nice and I have a few ideas why: I didn’t use the awl to make sure the glue went in all the way, I didn’t go back and tamp it part way through the curing process, and I may not have gotten all the pink-filler out. The next time I do this I will be sure to remember these items!

Next I prepared the bowl for staining. I finished sanding with 220, then 320, and finally 400 grit paper and wiped the bowl down with alcohol to remove any dust left behind. Then I began staining the bowl with a medium brown stain marker. I applied one coat as evenly as I could and let it dry about 10 minutes. Then, the secret I think to using these, I applied a second coat in small segments, wiping it with a paper towel to even out the color as I went. The rim got 3 coats of stain. Next I gave the stummel a light buff with Tripoli, and the entire pipe a buff with white diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax, then a buff on a clean wheel before a final hand buffing with a microfiber cloth. I’m very happy with the end results of this multi day project. I think the fills look and blend much better, especially the first one. And I believe with a little more tweaking and experimenting this is a very good option for patching fills. From a $5 eBay catch to, well, it’s probably still not worth much – but I’m glad in the end that I took the time to Save This Old Pipe.

EDIT

The new stem that Steve sent me arrived in the mail. I have written about and post the story, along with new photos, here.

A Quick and Easy Face Lift for a Missouri Meerschaum Corn Cob Pipe

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Blog by Greg Wolford

Recently I’d read a comment someplace about using wood filler to repair cracks and leaks in corn cob pipes. Being an avid fan and user of Missouri Meerschaum pipes, and needing a quick and fun project for me and my five year-old grandson to do, I decided to try it out on one of my cobs yesterday afternoon.

Legends are one of my favorites: they are cheap, of decent size, and readily available locally. I use them for potentially “rough” times, like outside or on the pontoon, and also to test new blends and smoke the occasional aromatic. I had one that had seem better days (I didn’t get a before picture since I was sort of occupied with Connor, my grandson) that had some cracking in the plaster and some blackened “kernels” in the middle; this would be our project!

We used a minimal amount of tools for this project: wood filler, 220-grit sandpaper, and a light brown furniture repair marker.We applied a nice, thin coat of the wood filler all over the cob bowl and let it dry, about 10 minutes I’d guess. Then we took turns sanding the cob smooth with the sandpaper. I then topped the bowl a bit to remove most of the char and “gunk” that had built up. After it was nice and smooth we, again, took turns staining it with the furniture marker. It then needed a few minutes to dry.

Connor had such a good time he convinced me to do a second, almost new, pipe that really didn’t need any thing done to it. But since the little guy was having such a good time and is on the mend from a broken arm and surgery to set it, how could I not do it? You are right: There was no way not to!

The middle pipe is the one I set out to make repairs on, compared to a new in the package one and the almost new one. This project took us probably 20 minutes, maybe less, from start to finish and it was so simple, well, a five year-old can do it!

Learning something new while repurposing this damaged pipe bowl – adding a shank extension.

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Blog by Steve Laug

One of the pipe bowls I was recently gifted was an unsmoked Mastercraft Drysmoke bowl that had the shank cut back to half of its original length. The cutback was done poorly – crooked cut with a dull saw. It had cut right through the stamping on both sides of the shank and was crooked.

The bowl had a very heavy coat of urethane on it as well. There was some nice grain on part of the bowl but the bottom had some hack marks where it looked like the saw had jumped. I took some time to look it over and try to figure out what I was going to do with it. I was not sure and looked at the end of the cut off. I knew I would have to face the end of the shank to even things up no matter what I did with it. I could easily have just drilled the mortise large and cut a new stem for it. It would have ended up a short shank billiard and that would have been fine. However in the midst of the review I decided that it was time to learn something new. I have always wanted to learn how to do shank extensions so I figured this was a great candidate for my schooling. I flattened the end of the shank squaring it like I do when topping a bowl. I had an old vulcanite shank extension I scavenged somewhere. I had played around with it and sanded away part of the end that faced on the shank of the pipe before I threw it in my parts box. It was a mess as it was but it might just work. I also had some white Delrin tenon material that would work well. I had already turned it almost to the correct size with my Dremel and sanding drum. Maybe these parts would all come together and help me craft something different. What the heck it was worth a try and I would learn a lot in the process.

The photo above shows all the parts laid out for the connection. I faced the end of the shank using a sanding board in the same manner I used to top a bowl rim. It took a bit of work and focus to get it flattened out and perfectly horizontal. (Oh to have a lathe to do this kind of thing.) I used the Dremel with the sanding drum to fine tune the diameter of the Delrin so that it would fit well in both the end of the cut of shank and the vulcanite extension. I wanted the two parts to face smoothly against each other. I put it together to make sure I had the fit right

I put glue on the end of the tenon and pressed it into the shank and then repeated the process and pressed the extension in place. The fit against each other was exactly what I wanted. I ran some superglue in the joint between the two materials and when it dried I would sand it down. I had an old stem that had the right tenon size and inserted it to have a look. I wanted to see what the newly glued shank extension would look like with a stem in place. The joint looked good and a stick bit stem would work well when I got to that point in the process.

I removed the excess material of the extension with the Dremel and sanding drum and a lot of hand sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted to make the extension slightly flared and the transition between the shank and the extension smooth and seamless. I was going for a taper back from the bowl to the end of the shank. I also wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the urethane finish. It was a tough go so I sanded the bowl and shank. I decided to not worry about sanding the partial stamping that was left on the shank as it was no longer a Mastercraft pipe at this point.

In the process of adding the Delrin I noticed that there was a crack in the shank on the right side of the pipe. It was present before I inserted the tenon, but the insert opened it up. I dripped some super glue in the crack before I put the Delrin insert in place. I knew that the insertion of the tube in the shank from the cut end to the end of the airway would give strength to the repair and also remove the pressure on the shank. I also knew that there would no more stress on the crack once the extension and tube was in place. After sanding the shank and extension I did some cosmetic work on the crack and filled it with superglue and briar dust. Once it was dry I sanded that area of the shank until it was smooth.

With the crack and repair being very visible and knowing that it would not disappear in the stain I decided to rusticate the shank and the bowl bottom. I did not worry about the visibility of the repair as the entire pipe is a repair job. I have been reading a lot about John Calich and his use of rustication and smooth finishes in the same pipe and the contrast stains to highlight the transition between finishes so I decided to try that out with this bowl. I wanted a thin band of smooth briar around the joint so I taped off the area and did the rustication with my modified Philips screwdriver. I rusticated the shank and the bottom of the bowl. I used a brass bristle tire brush to go over the rustication and knock off the rough areas. I buffed it with red Tripoli to further smooth out the rustication slightly.

I stained the bowl bottom with black aniline stain and flamed it. I repeated the staining and flaming until I had a good even coverage on the rusticated portion of the bowl. I cleaned up the smooth areas next to the stained rustication with sandpaper to remove the slight bleed from the black stain. I wiped those areas down with acetone on a cotton swab to clean the transition areas.

I found the stem I wanted to use in my can of stems. It was a slender military bit with a slight taper. I liked the look of the stem. I put it in place for the next photos. It is not stuck deeply enough into the mortise because of the taper to the end of the stem. It will need to be turned down slightly to get a good snug fit deep in the mortise.

Before going to bed last evening I rubbed down the bowl and stem with Olive oil. I wanted it to penetrate the vulcanite extension, stem and the bowl (smooth and rusticated portions) to give a bit more life to the rubber and the briar. This morning when I got up I worked on the end of the stem to get a deeper fit into the mortise. I used the PIMO tenon turning tool adjusted as small as possible and turned the first inch of the stem to get a tenon. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to bring it down to the diameter of the inside of the mortise. The next two photos show the stem sanded enough to go half way into the mortise. It would take a lot more sanding before it sat against the end of the mortise.

Ah progress! Got the stem fit right – it is snug and deep in the mortise now. I sanded the tenon until it fit well. I also sanded the transition from the end of the tenon to the taper on the rest of the stem. I wanted the fit against the shank extension to be snug without the edges of the tenon showing when the stem was in place. This pipe has turned out to be a great lesson for me in the school of pipe repair up to this point. I am looking forward to “graduating” from this project at this point.

I sanded the bowl, the smooth band at the union of the extension and the briar and the vulcanite of the stem and extension with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads to remove any scratches in the briar and the shank extension from sanding with the fine grit sanding sponges. The photos below show the bowl and stem after I had sanded them with the early grits of micromesh. I wiped down the bowl and the stem with a cotton cloth and then rubbed Obsidian Oil into the vulcanite extension and stem.

I stained the smooth parts of the bowl and shank with a cherry stain using a cotton swab and wiped it off with a soft cloth. I hand buffed the bowl and shank with a shoe brush to give it a quick polish.

Once that was finished I continued to sand the stem with the micromesh sanding pads. I had already wet sanded the extension and the stem with the earlier grits of pad so now it was time to dry sand them with the remaining pads – 3200-12,000 grit.

When I finished sanding with the micromesh sanding pads I rubbed the vulcanite extension and stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it was dry gave the stem, extension and smooth portions of the pipe a buff with White Diamond. I gave the smooth areas of the pipe and the vulcanite multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It has come a long way from the cut off bowl that I started with in the beginning of this restoration. I think rather than restoring this one I have actually repurposed a bowl – a phoenix rising from the ashes. Now I have another new pipe to fire up and try out later today.

Kaywoodie Ruf-Tone

A Kaywoodie Reworked, with a Little Mystery!

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Blog by Greg Wolford

This year has not been a banner one, so far, for me personally. The harsh weather, an accident, and a failure of one of my orthotics has had me mostly sidelined since the first of the year. My workshop is downstairs, in the garage, and it isn’t exactly the warmest, most comfortable place to work in the temperatures we’ve had, not to mention the difficulty of actually getting myself up and down the stairs … but I digress … so I’ve been able to do very little work on either of my hobbies so far in 2014.

Last week my wife had a little pity on me and allowed me to bring a few necessary tools and supplies up to the kitchen so I could work on a few old pipes; leather work is out of the question until the temperature and my body cooperate. I think she knew I was getting a bit restless, not being able to get into any of my projects. When I said she “allowed” it, she corrected me with “I didn’t say you could do that” but she didn’t send it all back down to the shop either, so I take that as permission I told her! LOL

Now, I must admit that my photographs, when I remember to take them (that’s a preview hint that I haven’t remembered as often as I should have), aren’t as good as I would like but I don’t have as good a set-up as I normally do. So, I ask you to bear with me on the quality and quantity of them.

Sometime back I acquired an older Kaywoodie model 33. It is an apple shape with a rounded bowl-top. The pipe was in pretty good condition other than the front edge was damaged from being knocked-out and the bottom of the stem had been bitten off. because of the stem damage I put off working on this pipe for months; I wanted to save the stem but didn’t have the black super glue yet, which I planned on using, to do the job. Here are a couple of photos (all I could find) of it before I started working on it.

Unfortunately all I can find are some photos that I used it as a “prop” in and one of the underside of the stem. You can see the pipe itself wasn’t too bad but the stem was another story.

Initially I tried to patch the chip with black super glue; I tried this three times: the first attempt the pipe cleaner I was using as a plug absorbed all the glue and the other two times, using different materials for the plug, the patch failed. It turned out that the chip was just too large for me to patch well so I decided to cut it off and file a new button since there seemed to be plenty of room to work with on this stem.

I used a hacksaw on a small frame to remove just behind the bite through. When I looked at the air hole I noticed two things, neither good: first I had closed off the airway accidentally with the glue and second the air hole wasn’t drilled center. I fixed the glue-plug problem quickly by drilling out the hardened glue with a pin vice and then picking out the small fragments that were left. One problem down – now onto forming a new button and slot.

I used various needle files to shape the new button, being timid about not getting it too thin. I recently bought a new set of Kobalt needle files, a big upgrade from my old ones, and found that this (only my second or third time making a whole new button and transition) went much smoother and faster than in the past. I also used the files and a bit of sandpaper to open and funnel the slot, again I was a bit timid in not going too thin; I have done that once and suffered a cracked bit afterward. This is a fair representation of what I ended up with:

Once I had the stem to my satisfaction I turned to the stummel.

I had at some time past already reamed the bowl lightly, it had very little cake, and cleaned the shank and stem. I now began by cleaning the stummel with acetone wetted cotton pads to remove the old finish and dirt. After the acetone I moved on to some alcohol wetted pads to lighten up the grime on the bowl top. When it was sufficiently clean I decided to use some 400 grit sandpaper to lightly smooth the edge damage. I didn’t know it at the time – because I failed to look first, a fault I have all too often – but the rim was supposed to be rounded. Luckily I liked the general look of the rounded top and thought it might be the way it was supposed to be so I wanted to keep it rather than topping the entire bowl. I personally like, in general, the less sharp lines on a bowl top so this was an easy choice – one that turned out to be a good one as well.

Once I had reduced the damage to the rim and front, keeping the shape as close to original/symmetrical as I could, I moved to micro mesh pads to sand and polish the bowl top. After getting through the first two grades I thought the entire pipe would look nice just polished with the micro mesh. At this point I reassembled the pipe and began to look for nomenclature to avoid during my polishing; this is when I discovered my “mystery”.

On the bottom of the stem, a origianl Kaywoodie, three-hole stinger with white clover logo, I saw something I had never seen before: there was stamping on the vulcanite “D-2”. This immediately intrigued me; I knew I would have to find out more about that … but lets’ wait a paragraph or two on that.

I polished the entire pipe with all of the micro mesh grits in order from 1500 – 12000, avoiding all of the stamping, including on the stem. I wet sanded the stem (only) through 4000, then polished the stem with plastic polish, before finishing the entire pipe through 12000 grit. I then applied Halcyon II wax to the entire pipe and hand buffed it. I was really pretty pleased with the results, considering I didn’t have access to my buffer and this was, more or less, my first experience with the Halcyon wax.

I missed some file marks on the stem, and the “bits” near the bit; I figure when I can properly buff the pipe I will get those taken care of, as well as put a better shine on it with some carnauba wax. But until then I am enjoying this old gal just as she is!

The stem still has oxidation near that stamping, which I began to research after I finished the work on the pipe. None of the other Kaywoodies I have, or have ever had, have any stamping on their stems like this one does. I scoured the ‘net and asked as many folks as I could think of to no avail … well, almost none. I am a member of the Kaywoodie Pipes Group on Facebook and one of the members there is Bill Fuerbach is as well. He saw my question that I posted about the stamping in that group and replied as follows:

Hey guys. I’ve seen this also on some older Kaywoodie stems. unfortunately at this time I don’t know what the significance is. :(:(

So unfortunately there is not yet an answer to what the stamping means or its significance is – and the mystery remains … If by chance anyone what reads this knows the answer I would really appreciate it is you would leave a comment with the answers!

Edit

I received an email from Chris at PipePages about this question. He said in his personal opinion, and that it is only a guess, that it could be a factory replacement stem and the number was a style/guide for the repairman to know which stem to use. Although it is only a shot-in-the-dark type of guess, it seems like a plausible answer to me.

James Upshall Bark (Unsmoked) Restoration

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As my screen name for this blog implies, I’m a pretty big James Upshall fan. To this point, all of my Upshalls are smooth pipes of the various grades (P, S, B and ungraded). This pipe, my 8th Upshall, was advertised as “unsmoked”. The Ebay pictures were lousy, but the price was right and the seller took refunds, so I rolled the dice. I was pleasantly surprised with a beautiful Bark finish pipe and in perfect, unsmoked condition. Of course the stem was oxidized, which proved to be more stubborn than it appeared.

I didn’t want to soften or damage any of the stem edges on the saddle stem, so I started with a relatively fine, 2000 grit wet paper. I used a combination of popsicle stick and small, flat needle file to get the oxidation out of the creases. That took considerable effort, but I’m pleased with the results. I followed next with 8000 and 12000 grades of micromesh, also utilizing the sticks. Working around the small, stamped logo, was challenging. The stem was then buffed with white diamond and then plastic polish.

I worked in some Halycon II wax on the bowl, which was in mint condition. I used an old toothbrush to work the wax into the rough finish and then buffed it with a clean cloth.

I’m very excited to smoke this one, as it is my first unsmoked James Upshall. I’ve handled other Bark finish Upshalls in the past and some of the stem work was not to my liking. This one looks to have a good grade of vulacanite and has the feel I’m accustomed to on my polished Upshalls. The button is particularly appealing and has perfect mouth feel. I’m not a real clencher, so smaller profile buttons are to my liking. The Bark finish feels superb in my hand and it is a bit similar to the Sea Rock on my Castello. After the Rhodesian and Bulldog shapes, the classic Bent Billiard is next on my preferred shapes list.

I have several large Upshalls in my collection and I’m focusing on obtaining only smaller pipes now. Fortunately, this one isn’t too far out of my comfort zone at 60 grams. It is also about the same size as my Castello 4k pipe (also a bent billiard).

Topping a Badly Damaged Georg Jensen Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

In the process of going through the box of pipes for the Vancouver Pipe Club to put back the ones I had worked on, I found another that really needed attention. I just could not leave it in the box as the damage looked awful and I knew it could look so much better. It is an oddly shaped bent billiard to me but it had a quaint quality about it that I liked. It is stamped Georg Jensen over Made in Denmark Pipes on the left side and Zenta on the right side. On the underside of the shank it is stamped 525. I am assuming that is a shape number. The stem was oxidized around the shank. The bowl had been coated with varnish – even over the grit on the surface. There were also finger prints in the varnish. The worst part of the pipe was the rim. It was worn down on the front side and the varnish had covered the rough surface of the beat up briar. It was also burned on the back inner edge of the rim and onto the rim surface. The inner edge of the rim was also damaged and nicked and gouged out of round. The stem had one tooth mark on the topside near the button.

I have included the next two close-up photos to show the rim damage. The front edge is very worn, the back inner edge is burned and the inner edge of the rim is clearly gouged and marked. Fortunately the damage did not extend deeply into the bowl was limited to the top 1/8th inch of the bowl top. The bowl had also been coated with a black rubbery bowl coating. I chose to leave it as the bowl also had some gouges in the bottom from the knife that someone used to ream the bowl.

I set up my board and sandpaper that I use for topping pipe bowls and sanded the top of the rim. This one was a little tricky in that the front slope was lower than the rest of the rim. I worked the back half of the rim first to bring the height down to the same place as the highest portion of the front slope. Once I had that done it was an easy matter to proceed with topping the rest of the rim. I worked until I had removed the burn damage and the rough front edge and had a flat, smooth and rim with an even circumference.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish coat and the rest of the finish so that I could blend in the stain on the freshly topped rim with the rest of the pipe.

I used MinWax Red Mahogany stain to restain the pipe. I rubbed it on and then wiped it off several times until I had the even coverage I wanted on the bowl. I had buffed it with a cotton cloth to give it a slight shine and get a feel for the overall look of the stain on the bowl. I retouched the stain on the rim to darken it slightly. I lightly buffed the bowl with White Diamond and gave it an initial coat of carnauba wax.

The tooth mark on the top of the stem needed to be heated to lift it as much as possible and then I used some superglue to finish the repair. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to feather it into the surface of the stem. I followed that with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I finished the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wetsanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to finish. The completed pipe is shown in the photos below. I also included a photo of the top of the rim to show the repair. The pipe is now ready to join the rest of the ones heading to the Vancouver Pipe Club. It should provide years of service to the pipeman who takes it home.

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29	30	31

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
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29	30	31

rebornpipes

reclaiming old and worn estate pipes

Category Archives: Examples of Refurbished Pipes

Reparing a Cumberland Stem on a Kaywoodie Regent Bulldog 98B

You Complete Me- Finishing Touch on the Medico VFQ

Stop the Noise- Opening Up a Pipe’s Draw

Medico VFQ – Save This Old Pipe Project

A Quick and Easy Face Lift for a Missouri Meerschaum Corn Cob Pipe

Learning something new while repurposing this damaged pipe bowl – adding a shank extension.

Kaywoodie Ruf-Tone

A Kaywoodie Reworked, with a Little Mystery!

Topping a Badly Damaged Georg Jensen Bent Billiard

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