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.

A GBD “Dublinish” Poker Brought Back to Life

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Blog by Steve Laug

The fourth pipe I have refurbished from the lot I just picked up is an oval shanked “Dublinish” Poker that has a GBD on the brass stem roundel. It is stamped on top of the shank with GBD in an oval over New Standard in script. On the underside of the shank it is stamped London England over 9558. I looked up the shape number on the GBD shape site and was unable to find a listing for a pipe of this shape. I looked other places on the web and did not find this shape either listed or pictured. It is certainly not a shape that I have seen for the years that I have been working on pipes and collecting GBD pipes.

The picture below shows the state of the bowl when I brought it to the work table. It had a thick and crumbly carbon cake and carbon and tar build up on the concave surface of the rim. The front of the outer edge had burn marks from repeated lighting. The GBD roundel on the stem was badly oxidized and looked to be corroded. The stem was badly oxidized and on the bottom had a large hole where the previous owner had bitten through the stem.

The picture below shows the size of the bite through and gives a pretty clear picture why I chose not to patch the stem but rather to cut the bite through off and rework the stem and button.

I cut off the end of the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum attachment. I cut it back to the place behind the bite mark that was solid and undamaged. The next four photos show the pipe with the damaged portion of the stem removed and a straight cut made across the end of the stem.

I took it back to the work table and reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I used three of the cutting heads from the smallest up to remove the cake and clear out the debris in the bowl. I wanted to remove the cake to assess the soundness of the rim and the bowl of the pipe. I scrubbed the rim down with saliva and cotton pads. It took a lot of elbow grease to finally get the rim clean of the buildup and tars. In the photo below the burn mark on the front of the bowl is visible.

I used files, a wood rasp and needle files to cut the line on the button across the top and the bottom of the stem. I trimmed the thickness of the stem tapering toward the shank with the needle files. I wanted to thin down the stem and taper is more smoothly into the new button making for an even transition from the saddle to the edge of the button.

I used the needle files to open the end of the button and shape it into and oval and a funnel into the airway. I wanted a good open airway that would easily take a pipe cleaner.

After working with the files I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and to continue to shape the stem into a smooth taper from the saddle to the button.

I sanded the end of the button to angle it back toward the slot and to smooth it out and shape it. I also used the needle files to clean up the straight edge of the button.

Once I had the taper and the angles correct I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches from the sandpaper.

When the stem was finished in terms of shaping I moved on to work on the bowl. I wanted to stain the rim and the edges of the bowl where the burn marks were. I used a red mahogany Minwax stain and rubbed it into the rim and gave the entire pipe a stain coat. Once I had wiped that off with a clean towel I gave it a second coat of medium walnut stain to blend it in even more with the rest of the bowl. I buffed it with White Diamond to polish it and give it a shine.

I sanded the stem with my regular regimen of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed in a coat of Obsidian Oil and when it had dried took the stem to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to give it a shine.

I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and then multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing the bowl and stem with a clean buff with soft flannel to bring out a high shine. The finished pipe is shown below in the pictures. The shortened stem came out looking very good and the reduced length does not detract from the look of the pipe as a whole.

Restoring a Comoy’s Tradition Shape 225 Bent Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

The second Comoy’s I picked up on the recent hunt was a beautifully shaped 225 Tradition. It is a shape that I love for its graceful flow and bend. The stamping on it was weak but visible under a lens. The left side of the shank was stamped Comoy’s over Tradition and the right side was stamped 225. I looked up the shape on Chris Keene’s Pipe Pages and found this page on a 1960’s catalogue http://pipepages.com/64com19s.htm . It is the 225 shape at the bottom of the page.

When I picked it up the pipe the stain on the briar was slightly faded. The stamping was weak. On the side where Comoy’s Tradition was stamped it is very faint, though still visible with light. On the side of the shank where the shape number was stamped the 2 and the 5 are clear and the middle 2 is very light. The bowl was caked and the rim was caked with tars and carbon build up. The inner bevel was clean and undamaged though dirty with tars and the outer edge was also very clean. The exterior of the pipe had no dents of dings. The stem was a replacement and was missing the usual step down tenon that I have come to expect and the existing tenon was shorter than normal. The stem itself was oxidized and had a large bite through on the underside. Of the six pipes (GBD and Comoy’s) that I picked up all but the little bulldog have the same issue.

The photo below shows a closer look at the bite through on the underside of the stem. It’s size, the length of the stem and the fact that it was an obvious replacement stem made my decision of whether to try to repair the hole or to cut the stem back quite easy to make.

I used a Dremel and sanding drum to cut the stem back to solid vulcanite and remove the damaged spot and the button. This would necessitate recutting and shaping a new button on the stem as well as reshaping the slot in the button.

After cutting it off I took it back to the worktable to prepare it for the new button. I wiped the stem down to remove the dust from cutting and to clean the surface so that I could get a good clean line on the button.

I used files, a wood rasp and various needle files to cut an edge for the new button on both the top and the bottom sides of the stem. I also used the files to cut back the stem on the slope before the new button on both sides of the stem. The stem needed to be thinned down from the button forward to the shank for more comfort in the mouth and to keep the graceful lines of the shape intact. I used the needle files to carve back the stem thickness and smooth out the lines so that the button did not look choked and pinched at the line. Once I had a clean slope on the stem previous to the button I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to further highlight the angles of the button.

I sanded the end of the new button to give it a slope toward the slot and to remove the sharp edge look of the new cut. I opened up the button to give it a funnelled shape to the airway and also made it oval. The side profile photos give a clear look at the stem and the angle of the stem previous to the new button.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to get rid of the cake and to clear away the debris from the inner edge of the bowl. I cleaned the rim with saliva on a cotton pad and scrubbed until I had removed the tars and buildup from both the top and the inner bevel of the rim.

I sanded the stem to further define the button and shape it using 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge. When I was happy with the overall shape of the stem, I sanded its entirety to remove the oxidation. I finished sanding it with my usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

When I had finished sanding with the final grits of pads I put the stem in the shank and buffed it with red Tripoli to remove some of the scratches that still remained on the underside of the stem near the button and then buffed the whole stem with White Diamond. I lightly buffed the pipe as well before taking it back to the worktable to give it a top coat of red mahogany Minwax stain. I rubbed the stain on the bowl to bring back some of the reddish colour that I have found in my other Tradition pipes and used them to match the colour on this pipe.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to preserve the vulcanite. And when the stain was dry I gave it a light buff with White Diamond. I finished by giving the entire pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax to preserve and give it a shine. The finished pipe is picture below. It is cleaned and ready to continue a life of service.

Reclaiming a Digby Conquest Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

On the weekend I went pipe hunting to refill my box of pipes for refurbishing. I found some nice ones to add to the box. The first one that I took on was odd looking when I picked it up. The stem on it was an aftermarket replacement that proportionally was all wrong. The addition of the stem made the pipe over seven inches long. The stem was also a twin bore which was not standard on GBD line pipes. The stamping on the bottom of the shank is Conquest in script followed by Digby over London Made. That is followed by London England and the shape number 9519. Digby is a GBD second line. It has the same blast as a GBD Prehistoric which lends one more question mark to what makes a pipe a second. In checking the GBD shape numbers there is no shape #9519 listed on the GBD shape site. http://www.perardua.net/pipes/GBDshape.html

The blast on the bowl was quite nice while the shank was rusticated. The person who added the new stem to the pipe changed the shank to fit the new stem rather than the other way around. In doing so they sanded the shank and removed the blast/rustication on the end of the shank. They also tapered both sides and top and bottom to meet the new stem. While both of these “errors” in fitting a stem are a pain to deal with they are not irreparable. It just means that any new stem must follow the new lines of the pipe and that the rustication pattern needs to be repaired as well. The bowl itself was thickly caked and the rim dirty and with a slight buildup of tars. The finish was spotty and the reddish brown stain was worn.

I went through my can of stems to find one that would properly fit a GBD style Canadian with an oval shank and found several. I chose the acrylic one in the photo below and used the PIMO Tenon Turning tool to reduce the diameter of the tenon. I also used the Dremel and sanding drum and hand sanding to further fit the tenon to the shank.

With the tenon fitting well, the overall diameter of the stem needed to be reduced to fit the shank diameter. It was just slightly bigger so the work on it would not be difficult. The excess is visible in the four photos below. Note also the smoothing of the shank that had been done in the previous repair.

I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess acrylic material and bring the stem into line with the shank. I took care to not nick the shank even though I later planned to rework the rustication on it.

With the fit roughed in I took it back to the work table to hand sand the stem and make fit seamless. To begin the process I used 220 grit sandpaper to do the hand work. On the right side bottom of the shank I noted that the oval was slightly out of round with the stem removed and gave the new tapered stem a bulge in that area. I sanded the shank and the stem together at that point to correct the previous damage.

With the fit nearly finished on the stem I reamed the bowl of the pipe with a PipNet reaming set. I began with the smallest cutting head and then ended with the proper sized head for the bowl. I cut the cake back to bare wood.

I worked some more on the stem shank junction with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches in the briar and the stem. I was more concerned with the briar as I wanted to give it a coat of stain.

Staining would be a complicated process of using a variety of stains to match the original stain colour on the prehistoric. For the first stain colour I used an oxblood aniline stain. I would use other stains later in the process to get the colour I was aiming for.

As I put the newly fitted stem in place so that I could lay it down to dry the tenon snapped on the new stem. As I examined it I could see the many small fractures in the acrylic. This is one of the frustrations of pipe repair. You get a pipe on its way to the finish line only to have something like this happen and have to begin again. I took another stem out of my can of stems. I once again had to go through the process of turning the tenon, using the Dremel and sanding drum and finally hand sanding to fit the tenon in the shank. I also had to trim back the diameter of the new stem to match the shank with the Dremel. One good thing is that doing it the second time everything is set up to do it again more quickly the second time.

Once I had a good fit on the stem it was time to re-rusticate the shank using an etching head on the Dremel. In the next two photos the cutting tool is visible and the rustication of the shank is completed. I did both sides of the shank and the top to match the pattern on the upper portion of the shank. On the underside I brought the pattern around the flattened oval stamping area of the shank and matched the pattern around that area.

I stained the newly rusticated shank area with the oxblood stain. The stained rustication is visible in the next four photos. I am pleased with the match on the pattern of the rustication on the shank that I was able to achieve with the tool.

I still needed to use several more colours of stain to achieve a match to the bowl. I used aniline black and an aniline dark brown stain to approximate the mix of stains to blend the repaired portion with the remainder of the pipe. I would still need to do a top coat of oxblood to truly blend in the repair.

I sanded the stem with the usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I gave the shank a final coat of the oxblood stain and lightly buffed the shank with White Diamond to blend the wear of the older portion with the new rustication. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the stem with White Diamond as well. Once the buffing was done I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba on the wheel and then buffed it with a soft flannel buff. I rubbed in Halcyon II wax on the bowl and shank and then lightly buffed the bowl with a soft flannel buff. The “new” Digby Canadian is now ready for its inaugural smoke. It is shown below in the final four photos.

Restemming and Repairing a Meerschaum Lined Lancaster Billiard

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I have had this old meerschaum lined bowl for many years now. It has been sitting in a cupboard and should have rightly been pitched several times over. For some reason I could not bring myself to throw it away. I kind of figured that one day when I had nothing else to do I would experiment on a repair of the meerschaum lining. I had read of several repairs in the past and experimented with one of them previously. The two methods I had read of involved a non-acrylic tile grout without sand while the other one involved Plaster of Paris. I had used the tile grout on a pipe many years ago and still smoke it. The bowl has long since look repaired and you would be hard pressed to see where the repair was in the bowl. This old bowl had much the same damage as that one so I decided to experiment with the Plaster of Paris method. The pipe did not have a stem so I would also need to restem it once the patch was finished. The bowl is stamped Lancaster over Imported Briar on the left side of the shank and has no stamping on the right side. There were small fills present on the bowl – almost like small pin pricks that had been filled in the manufacture of the pipe. The finish on the bowl was virtually not present except for a few spots where the stain had held on stubbornly over the years.

I mixed a small batch of Plaster of Paris and water and stirred it with a dental pick. I also had some sanding dust from a meer bowl that I had save so I mixed it in with the Plaster of Paris mixture. I inserted a pipe cleaner into the airway to keep it open when I packed in the mixture to the bowl bottom and side. Once I had a good paste mixed up I used the dental pick to put pieces of it into the bowl. I used the head of a tamper to pack the Plaster of Paris into the bowl bottom. I also pushed the Plaster mixture into the side of the bowl and used the spoon end of the tamper to push it into place. I used the dental pick to carve the airway open at the bottom of the bowl and then a wetted pipe cleaner to smooth out the bowl wall and shape the bottom of the bowl in a slight cup shape. Once that was completed I smoothed out the whole bowl with the wetted pipe cleaner and feathered the edges of the patch into the existing meerschaum material.

I cleaned up the top of the bowl and the tools and set the bowl aside to dry. After one hour the Plaster of Paris set and I removed the pipe cleaner from the shank. I used the dental pick to shape the airway after removing the pipe cleaner. The bowl was ready to restem. I went through my can of stems and found an old stem that was the right length and close to the correct diameter of the shank. It had a brass stem band that would look great on the old pipe bowl. When I cleaned it up I found that it had a Delrin tenon. I used the tenon tool to turn the tenon down enough to fit the shank snugly. When I cleaned out the end of the tenon after turning it I found that it was set up for a nine millimeter filter.

I fit it into the shank and used the Dremel with a sanding drum to sand down the diameter of the brass band and stem to fit the shank. I nicked the shank a couple of times lightly with the drum as I worked on the brass band. The nicks were not deep but merely surface so they would clean up when I sanded the stem and shank for a smooth transition.

I took the pipe back to the work table and sanded the stem and shank with 220 grit sandpaper to make a smooth transition between the shank and the stem. I also sanded off the calcification that had built up around the button at the same time.

I sanded the bowl with the 220 grit sandpaper and then the stem and the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the finish before I stained it. I then wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone on a cotton pad to clean off the sanding dust.

I stained the bowl with a black aniline stain, flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I heated the bowl with a lighter to set the stain into the grain of the pipe. I wiped the freshly stained bowl with Everclear to remove the top coat of stain and reduce the black stain. The next series of three photos shows the bowl after the wash.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to further remove the black stain. The next four photos show the pipe after I had sanded it and wiped it down with Everclear.

I dry sanded it again with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then stained it with a coat of Minwax red mahogany stain. I rubbed it on the bowl and rubbed off again to give a contrast look to the briar and to hide some of the fills that were present. I sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh to polish the remaining scratches in the briar.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh and then dry sanded it with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I finished the bowl by giving it a final coat of Minwax medium walnut stain. I rubbed it into the bowl and wiped it off and then hand buffed the pipe with a shoe brush. The rich red brown stain on the bowl turned out well with a variety of highlights.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond to polish it. I finished by giving it multiple coats of carnauba wax to build a shine and protect the finish. The completed pipe is visible in the next four photos.

I also sanded the top of the rim and the inner bevel of meerschaum with the 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pad to polish the meerschaum edge. I gave this top edge a final coat of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine. The Plaster of Paris patch is drying and needs to cure for 24 hours before it is good to go. The box says that it does not shrink as it dries and so far it is good to its promise. I will have to see if it holds true tomorrow after it has cured a full 24 hours. If so, then it is time to fire it up and check out if it holds as well as the tile grout patch has held up over all these years.

Kaywoodie Drinkless Apple Repurposed and Refurbished

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was gifted this old Kaywoodie Apple in an exchange recently. It is the last of the box of pipes that I have to refurbish. I left it to last as it had some serious problems. The stem was overturned and had deep tooth marks at the button. The bowl had some deep scoring on the left side of the bowl. Those issues might not seem too serious at first glance but they were more so than I had expected. I inspected the stinger apparatus and saw that it had been reglued in the stem. I heated the stinger with a heat gun and turned it back into the shank of the pipe. As I turned it carefully the stem fell off in my hand. I looked and saw that it was corroded through and the heat had softened the glue and the piece literally fell out of the stem. I tried to epoxy it back into the stem and connect the two pieces but it would not stay. Each time I put it back into the shank it fell out – no matter how much curing time I gave it. That was the first issue. In looking at the tooth marks they were repairable but with the broken stinger and threaded tenon I wondered whether it was worth fixing it. The grooves on the bowl and the dip in the rim above them could be repaired and would be a simple fix if I decided to keep the pipe. Those were the issues that caused me to lay the pipe aside for a bit and work on other pipes. That is why it is the last pipe in the bottom of the box.

Because of the extent of damage to this pipe it was unlikely that it would ever be truly collectible again. Though to some my next decisions will appear to have desecrated an older Kaywoodie I decided to use this pipe to experiment with a few repair ideas. I topped the bowl with my usual method to remove the rim damage. I removed the damaged portion of the bowl and flattened the rim against the sandpaper. When I was finished topping the bowl the rim was flat again however the inner edge of the rim needed to be repaired. It was missing a large chunk of briar.

The missing chunk matched the twin scoring marks on the outside of the bowl and made me wonder how the previous pipeman had caused that kind of damage to the bowl. The divot on the rim was not a burn mark but a divot that had been caused in the same moment the scoring occurred on the outside of the bowl. I sanded down the scored areas and cleaned the bowl with acetone. I then patched the score marks with superglue and briar dust. I also built up the top of the rim in the divot area with the same mixture. I kept the mix on the top of the rim as much as possible with very little of it on the inside edge. I did not want to use it inside the bowl.

I sanded the bowl to remove the excess of the glue and briar dust mix and then wiped the entire bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. The three photos below show the state of the bowl and the repairs down with the briar dust and superglue. The third photo shows the top patch.

Because the stem was not functional I had a decision to make. I could drill out the disintegrated end of the stinger and put a new replacement tenon in place or I could remove the metal shank insert and make a new push stem for the pipe. The faintness of the stamping on the shank and the extent of damage that I had repaired on the bowl made me take the second choice. I removed the metal shank insert from the shank. This is not as hard as it sounds. I have heard of others drilling it out and leaving it in place. I have opted to remove it. It is threaded and can be unscrewed from the shank with a small pair of needle nose pliers. The next two photos show the process. I sorted through my stem can and found a stem that could be repurposed to fit this shank and then be adapted to fit the diameter of the shank.

Before I could properly fit the tenon in the shank I needed to drill the mortise deeper. The current depth of the mortise was the same length as the threaded portion of the metal shank attachment in the photo. I wanted the tenon to be longer so I drilled out the mortise to double the length of the current depth. I would need to remove some of the tenon length on the stem to make a good fit but that is a simple task.

With the drilling done, I used the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool to remove some of the excess diameter of the tenon and also shortened the tenon slightly to get a good tight fit in the shank and clean joint at the tenon shank union. The larger diameter of the stem is visible in the photo below.

I used the Dremel with the sanding drum and carefully reduced the diameter of the stem while it was in place on the shank. I run the Dremel at a speed that allows me to carefully and steadily control it as I work close to the shank of the pipe.

Once I had it roughed in to fit with the Dremel it was time to take it back to the work table and do the hand work with sandpaper to make the fit seamless. Since I was going to restain the pipe anyway I sanded the shank as I sanded the stem to make the transition smooth. In the first two photos the stamping is visible in the light of the flash. In real life it is quite a bit fainter and shallow. I also use some superglue and briar dust to repair some of the deeper dings and marks on the bowl to ready it for staining. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface and remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

I wiped the bowl down with Everclear to remove the sanding dust and give it a last cleaning before I started giving it a new stain coat. I have also included two photos of the new stem with the older KW stem and broken parts for comparison sake. I really like the way the new stem fit the shank and the look of the pipe after the repairs.

I wanted to continue to experiment with contrast staining so I gave the pipe a first coat of stain with black aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I then heated the entire bowl by passing over it with the flame of a Bic lighter to warm the briar and set the stain.

The black aniline stain is transparent enough that the brown of the briar actually makes the stain appear to be a dark brown. It also covers the repairs on the bowl and blends them into the grain in way that makes them less visible. This was especially important with the repair I had made to the two deep scoring marks on the left side of the bowl. Once the stain dried I wiped it down with acetone to remove the top coat and leave only the grain darkened with the black. After doing that the bowl was still do dark for my liking. Though the grain patterns are very visible I wanted it to be lighter so that when I put the contrast stain coat on it would really pop to the surface.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to further remove the black stain. I finished the sanding by wet sanding the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. Sanding with the micromesh pads removed the scratching left behind by the other sandpapers and prepared it for the next coat of stain that I wanted to give it. I stained the bowl a second time with a coat of Minwax Water based stain. I chose a red mahogany stain for this coat. I like the contrast the reddish colour of the mahogany with the black undercoat. I applied the stain and then wiped it off with a soft cotton cloth.

I finished the contrast staining with a third colour – a Minwax medium walnut stain for the finish coat. I applied the stain and wiped it down using a soft cotton cloth and then hand buffed it with a shoe shine brush. The next series of four photos show the finish after the application of the three stains and a hand buffing. I really like the contrast finish that the three stains gave the pipe.

I sanded the bowl and stem with micromesh sanding pads to bring out the shine. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and then dry sanded the bowl and stem with 3200- 4,000 grit pads. At that point I made a decision that some will like and others will hate.

I took out my box of nickel bands and found one that would fit the shank. I took the photo below with the band next to the pipe to symbolize the thinking process that went into this decision. I put the band against the shank and the stem next to it to see how it looked. I looked at the faint stamping and the fact that is was a non-collectible pipe anyway due to my stem modifications and decided to give it a go.

I put the band on the end of the shank. For those banding a pipe shank pay attention to the diameter of the band – the end that goes on the shank is slightly larger than the end the faces the stem. I took the pipe and heated the band with a heat gun and then pressed it into place on the shank.

I took it back to the work table and finished sanding the stem and bowl with 6,000, 8,000 and 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. In the photo below the newly banded shank is visible. The band is solely cosmetic as the shank was not cracked and the fit of the stem was perfect. I liked the added bling on this pipe quite a bit.

I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the surface of the vulcanite and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond. I avoid buffing the band as much as possible because it discolors the stem and the shank with the black residue caused by buffing the nickel. I then buffed the pipe with multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and give a rich finish to the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below in the last four photos. The contrast stain worked well on this pipe. The flaws are there and visible but do not detract from the finish. The stem has a good glow with the lines of the pipe and the nickel band gives a nice polished look to the old pipe. Overall this experiment in repairs ended well. I like the finished look of the pipe and I learned a few new tricks along the way.

Restoring an LHS Certified Purex Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This LHS pot was another gift from a friend in exchange for restemming his pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Certified Purex in a convex arc and underneath is a concave arc stamped Imported Briar. In the middle the stamping is very faint but using a magnifying lens the remnants of a diamond with the letters LHS are barely visible. The finish was very dirty and the rim was blackened but not burned. The bottom of the bowl near the front was covered with dents and pin pricks like the pipe had been tapped or dropped on concrete. There was very little cake in the bowl. The stem had a screw mount tenon with an aluminum receptor on the end of the shank. The stem itself had an aluminum end on it with a push in stinger apparatus. The stem had deep tooth marks on the top and the bottom sides and was oxidized. On the left side of the stem was an aluminum diamond that was inserted in the stem.

I looked up LHS Certified Purex pipes on Google and found the following information. The first comes from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-lhs.html#certifiedpurex . Phil has a page on the LHS pipes. The L&H Stern Inc. was established by Ludwig Stern (1877-1942) in 1911. His brother Hugo (1872-?) acted as vice-president & secretary. The firm moved to 56 Pearl St. Brooklyn in 1920. It closed down in the 1960s. LHS was one of the main pipe suppliers for US soldiers during WWII. LHS had several seconds lines, two of which are the London Royal and the Stanhope. Phil included the two photos below. The first is of the diamond insert on the stem. The one I am refurbishing has the same diamond. The second is of the stamping on the pipe. The top photo which is a picture of the stamping reads Certified Purex over Imported Briar with the LHS in a Diamond inside the two arcs. This stamping matches the pipe I worked on.
Pipedia also had information on the pipes from which I summarize some additions that were not included above. L & H Stern (LHS) of Brooklyn, New York. The company’s famous logo is in a diamond. These pipes are high quality production pipes. A popular and moderately priced pipe made from 1896 through the 1960’s by the L&H Stern Company of Brooklyn, New York. Many of their later Sterncrest pipes featured silver bands and some were made with 14kt. gold bands as well. The “Diamond” series appears to be their high-end line. They had a different logo which was 3 diamonds in a row, larger in the middle. They also had Allbriar models (stem and bowl both made of briar) in the Diamond line, and these tended to have a screw type fitment with stinger, like Kaywoodie or Dr. Grabows.

With this information I took the Purex pot to my work table. I took off the stem and dropped the bowl into an alcohol bath to soak while I worked on the stem. It sat in the bath for about an hour while I addressed the issues on the stem.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification around the button and up the stem for about ½ inch. I also wanted to clean up around the tooth dents to see what I would have to do to fix them. In the next two photos below the dents in the stem are clearly visible on the top and the underside of the stem. Removing the calcification made the dents very clear.

After examining them with a magnifying glass I could see that they were dents. I was able to heat them and lift them to some degree and then sanded what remained after heating. The next three photos show the removal of the dents and remaining marks with the sandpaper.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit “pink” sanding sponge that is visible in the photos below. This removed the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. In these photos the dents are no longer visible. The sanding also removed the majority of the oxidation on the stem.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish before I worked on the pitting and marks on the bottom of the bowl. I steamed the dents and then filled the remaining marks with superglue to smooth them out. I sanded the superglue with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the slight bubble on the super glue and also followed up that with a medium grit sanding sponge. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I stained the bowl with black aniline stain and flamed it to set it deep in the grain. I repeated the staining and flaming to make sure I got a smooth and even coverage on the undercoat of stain. The black understain does a great job in hiding the small fills that were in the bottom of the bowl.

I wiped down the stain with acetone to remove the topcoat and to highlight the dark grain pattern that remained. The dents on the bottom of the bowl are not visible in the fourth photo below. The grain shows through nicely. I sanded the bowl with 1800-2400 micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches that were still visible in the finish.

I then stained the pipe with a oxblood stain for a finish coat. I applied the stain, flamed it and reapplied it and flamed it repeatedly until I had the coverage I wanted on the pipe. The next three photos show the rich overstain. The repairs to the pits on the bottom of the bowl are no longer visible.

The stem had been slightly overturned so I needed to heat the tenon and turn it clockwise on the shank until it lined up again. I removed the stinger and then heated the tenon over a heat gun to loosen the glue in the stem. Once it was heated I screwed it into the shank of the pipe until it was aligned again.

I put the stinger back in place and wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

Once I finished sanding the stem I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite. I polished the aluminum on the shank and the stem with the higher grits of micromesh and then with silver polish. I then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and then with multiple coats of carnauba wax to polish and protect it. The finished pipe is pictured below.

Restemming and Refinishing a Tiny Bulldog

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I had one more miniature pipe bowl in my box of pipes for refurbishing and I thought I would finish up the third of the lot. It needed a diamond shaped saddle stem to match the shank on this little bulldog. The bowl was coated with a thick coat of varathane or some kind of plastic coat. It had a small crack in the shank under the brass band. I also was without a stem. The trouble with these little pipes is being able to turn a tenon down far enough to fit the shank.

I went through my box of stems and found a diamond shank saddle stem that would do the trick. I turned the tenon down as far as possible with the PIMO tenon turning tool and then used the sanding drum on the Dremel to get the tenon size close. I hand finished the fit with 220 grit sandpaper until I had a snug fit on the stem. The stem was a regular sized stem to fit a group 4 bulldog so it was about ¾ inch per side. I reduced the diameter a side at a time with the Dremel until the stem sides were roughly 3/8 inch per side. The Dremel and sanding drum took off the majority of the excess material and then I hand sanded it to fine tune and adjust the angles of the stem and sides.

The band was loose so I removed it while I sanded the stem to match the shank. Since I planned on stripping the finish off the pipe and refinishing it I sanded both the shank and the stem in the process. Once I had a clean smooth fit I reglued the band in place on the shank with wood glue and pressed it into place.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to try and break through plastic finish on the pipe. It did very little to break down the finish. I sanded the bowl and rim with 220 grit sandpaper and then with 1500 grit micromesh to remove the finish. I repeated the acetone wash after sanding and found that it was more effective once the plastic coat was broken down.

I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set the stain. I repeated the process until the coverage was what I was aiming for with the undercoat of dark brown stain. I then gave it a top coat of oxblood aniline stain to get better coverage for the sanded bowl. There were still problems with the stain coat but I set it aside for the time being and turned my attention to the stem.

The stem was too long in the photos above and gave the pipe an awkward disproportionate look rather than refined look of a miniature bulldog so I cut it down with a sanding drum on the Dremel. I removed slightly over one inch of the length – cutting the stem back to the end of the bend. I cut it straight and made sure that the line of the end of the stem was squared both vertically and horizontally.

With the length cut back I then recut the button on the end of the stem with needle files. I began by cutting in the line of the button on the underside and the topside of the stem and then used the files to trim back the thickness of the stem from the saddle to the new line of the button. I used a rasp to thin down the thickness of the stem as well. I wanted a graceful flow to the taper of the blade of the stem so I worked it until it was thinner on both the top and bottom sides of the stem from the saddle to the button.

The next series of seven photos show the gradual transformation of the thick and chunky stem after I had first cut the button to the sleeker look of the stem after the file work. I continue to shape the blade with the needle files until the flow looked right and the edges of the stem were tapered with the line of the diamond saddle.

I reshaped the slot in the button with the needle files into an oval and opened up the airway into a funnel into the blade of the stem. I sanded the end of the button and the opened slot with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the airway.

I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper and to give shape and form to the button. The next series of four photos show the shortened and reshaped stem. The length now matches the proportion of the pipe and the angle of the bend and the shape of the button are finished. All that remains is to continue to sand and polish the stem.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to remove the scratches and fine tune the shape of the stem. Each grit of pad gave a more refined look to the newly formed stem and button.

I sanded the bowl with the micromesh sanding pads at the same time as the stem and when finished I restained and flamed the bowl with the dark brown aniline stain until the coverage was better than previously. I buffed the pipe and the stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing wheel to bring up the finished shine. The final photos below show the finished pipe. It is finished and ready for its inaugural smoke.

I have included some pictures of the pair of tiny pipes that I restemmed – the little Rhodesian and now the little bulldog. They make a nice pair of little pipes.

A GBD Quantum 9438 Given a New Look and New Life

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I am always on the lookout for Rhodesian shaped pipes and 9438s in particular. I have a few that I picked up before they became so sought after. So when I picked up this 9438 Rhodesian for $9.99 on Ebay recently I figured I had a deal. I am pretty sure that the reason for the low price was the condition of the stem and the look of the pipe in the photos on the sale. I was hoping that the bowl was actually in better shape than it looked. I knew that the stem was ruined and a real mess but the bowl looked like it had some life left in it. To me the price it was listed at made it worth bidding on and I won it. I had several possible solutions in mind for the pipe if the bowl was as salvageable as it looked. One possibility is that I have a terribly over reamed 9438 that I could salvage the stem from and utilize on this pipe. If that does not work, my second possibility is to make a new taper stem for it. At the moment I am leaning toward the taper stem. I have included the photos from the seller to give an idea of the pipe’s condition.

When it arrived it was in worse shape than the photos alluded to, if that is possible. The bowl was badly caked and the rim was caked and slightly scorched. That part was actually not a big issue to me. I could easily take care of that. The finish was shot as expected so that was no surprise. But the stem was not only chewed and broken but also was quite brittle. It was almost as if it was rotted. To cut it off back to the solid material would make the stem very short and stubby. There were also no guarantees that the rest of the stem was not in the same condition once I removed the ruined portion. The shank was dirty and there was a lot of build up inside.

The stamping is actually quite unique. I have not seen a 9438 stamped this way. On the left side of the shank it is stamped with a letter G in a circle to the left of the GBD in the oval as normal. Underneath it is stamped QUANTUM, which is a line I am not familiar with in the GBD family. On the underside of the shank next to the stem is stamped with a J. On the right side it is stamped Made in London in a circle with the “in” inside the circle. Underneath it reads England. Next to that is the 9438 stamping. All of these stampings leave me with many questions. I know from previous study that the oval Made in London stamping, a Comoy’s like stamping, dates it as a Cadogan era pipe and that would likely put it in the 1980’s. The parts that leave me wondering are the G in a circle stamp on the left side and the line QUANTUM. I have never seen or heard of either of those stampings. I have included the next three photos to show the stamping on the shank for those of you who are interested.

I checked my over reamed GBD 9438 to see if it would work on this pipe. It is a Perspex stem and would look quite nice. However, the stem was already a repair and the shank diameter was slightly smaller so that was a no go. I was left with my second option mentioned above – to fit a new taper stem on it. Since the pipe was already in need of a lot of work fitting a taper stem on it would not be an issue. I was pretty sure that I had a vulcanite taper stem that would be a close fit. I went through my stem box until I found the fat taper stem I was looking for. The tenon was too large so I turned it with the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool until it was a close fit to the shank and then took it back to the work table to hand sand it to a snug fit. The two photos below show the new stem. The first photo shows the new stem alone and the second one shows it in comparison with the damaged stem. It is slightly shorter and the shape of the end of the stem tapers more than the original chewed one.

The diameter of the stem at the shank was slightly larger than the shank so I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to get a good fit between the shank and the stem. I carefully sanded the shank to clean up the fit and make a smooth transition. I wanted to avoid all of the stamping to leave it as pristine as possible.

The next two photos show the extent of damage to the old stem. I wanted to have those photos for comparison purposes and to give an idea of how short I would have to cut back the original stem to remove the damage.

I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer until it was bare wood. In doing that I found that underneath the cake, on the right side about half way down the inside, there was some charring on the wall. It was the beginning of a burn through in that area. I cleaned up around the area with sandpaper and picked at it with the dental pick. In doing so I found that it was still solid and not too deeply damaged. It would require some damage control and protection so I coated it with some pipe mud. The airway entered the bowl a bit high as well so I raised the bottom of the bowl with the pipe mud at the same time. I may well give it a bowl coating to further protect it but will decide that in the future.

The rim also needed to be lightly topped to remove some of the damage there that I could not steam out or repair. I did that with a piece of sandpaper on a board and lightly sanded the rim until it was smooth and the damage minimized. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to bevel the inner edge of the rim to match what remained in the undamaged portion of the rim.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to clean up the finish and remove the remaining stain. I have found that when I am planning to restain a bowl it is easier blend the sanded portions and the remainder of the bowl when I wash down the finish with acetone before restaining.

I removed the GBD oval from the old stem with a dental pick. I am still deciding whether to insert it on the new stem or to save it for later use on another old pipe in need of one. Time will tell. I always scavenge as much as is usable before discarding old pipe parts.

I washed the pipe down with acetone another time to further clean it up and prepare it for staining. This final wash removed the rest of the finish nicely and I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads 1500-2400 grit to further prepare it.

I warmed the briar with a heat gun and then stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I flamed it and reapplied the stain and reflamed it until it had an even coat of the brown stain. I mixed the aniline stain with isopropyl alcohol – 2 parts stain to 1 part alcohol. I wanted the grain on the pipe to show through the stain and I also was using it as the undercoat before giving it a slightly darker topcoat.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then applied a Danish Oil Walnut stain as the top coat. It is a mixture of stain and linseed oil and gives a great finish when put over the top of the previous stain coat. The first three pictures below show the pipe while the stain is still wet. I wiped it down with a soft cotton cloth and hand buffed it to give it an initial shine (Photos 4-7).

Once the bowl was finished I put it aside and worked on the stem. I had already sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge so now it was time to sand with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Each successive grit of micromesh deepened the shine in the vulcanite.

I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil, rubbed it down afterwards when it had dried and then buffed it lightly with White diamond. I reinserted it in the shank and then buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba to protect and give it a shine. I gave the bowl a second coat of pipe mud on the damage section to fill the shrinkage that had occurred as the pipe mud dried. It is drying and curing now but I look forward to firing up a bowl soon. I like the new look of the pipe and definitely like the taper stem. The shorter stem gives it a stubby look but it actually less than ¼ inch shorter than the saddle stem on my other 9438s.

Here are a couple of photos with the rondelle inserted in the stem and a bit more of a bend applied to the stem.

A Tiny Rhodesian Restored and Restemmed

12 Replies

Here is another pipe from the bottom of the refurbishment box. It is a little Rhodesian that I had ignored for a while. It measures 4 3/8 inches long stem included. The bowl is 1 ¾ inches long and 1 inch tall. The inner diameter of the bowl is ½ inch and the bowl depth is ¾ inch. The bowl was in pretty decent shape and was unsmoked. There was a fill on the left side of the bowl and a slight divot on the shank next to the bowl. The end of the shank had some pretty deep nicks in it and would make a tight fit between stem and shank impossible. Half the battle in restemming these small pipes is finding a stem that will work and then turning the tenon to fit the small mortise. This one was no exception. I had a stem that would work it was 2 5/8 inches long and was made out of nylon. It was an old WDC pipe stem. The shoulders were well rounded and the tenon was short.

I reduced the diameter of the tenon with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I laid the sanding drum against the surface of the tenon and let it ride around the tenon until the diameter was close. Then I sanded it until the fit was snug. The mortise was not that deep due to the size of the pipe so I needed to shorten the tenon to the same depth as the mortise. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to achieve that as well.

Once I had a good tight fit on the stem I sanded down the bowl and wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish. I pressure fit a small nickel band on the shank to provide a smooth transition between the bowl and stem and to cover the deep nicks or gouges on the end of the shank. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess material on the diameter and make a good fit against the end of the tenon.

I sanded the area around the divot in the shank and cleaned it with acetone. I then filled the divot with clear superglue and sanded it again once the glue had dried. I wanted to have a smooth transition between the bowl and shank without the divot showing. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge. I also sanded the stem at the same time and then wiped the entirety down with acetone.

I sanded the bowl and the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. When finished I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then took it to the buffer and lightly buffed the stem with White Diamond. I say lightly because I have learned that a heavy hand on the buffer will make a mess out of a nylon stem and you will have to start over with the sanding process.

I took the pipe back to the worktable and stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed the pipe several times until I had an even coverage on the sanded areas and they blended in well with the rest of the pipe.

I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it a top coat of oxblood stain. I have found that the combination of the two stains helps hide the fills that were present as well as the repairs that had been done with superglue.

I buffed the entire pipe again with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring the shine out on the pipe. In order to help you appreciate the small size of the pipe I have included the next two photos. The top pipe in the photos is group 4 sized. In contrast, the tiny Rhodesian is a group 1.

The finished pipe is pictured below and I think it will be a nice little flake pipe for the Virginia smokers in the lot.

I received two comments below about giving the stem a slight bend so this morning I did just that. Below is a photo of the new look! Thanks Greg and Chiz.

A New Look for an Italian Made Billiard – Restemmed and Reworked

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This is yet another bowl from the bottom of the box of pipes for refurbishing. This one is an Italian made no name basket pipe. The stamping merely says Imported Briar Italy. The finish was spotty and peeling from the bowl. It almost looked like a dark brown opaque stain coat and then a thick varnish coat over that. The bowl was badly caked, the shank was filthy and the rim caked and peeling. There were some large fills on the left side of the bowl that were coming out of the holes and were peeling around the edges. The bowl did not have a stem so I found one in my box of stems that fit with a little adjustment to the tenon.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. The bowl and shank smelled heavily of aromatics with a fruity overtone and I wanted to remove that so that the new owner could form a cake of his/her own choice.

The stem was too large in diameter at the stem shank junction. So I sanded it back with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I have found that a Dremel run a medium speed can be carefully used to take back the diameter of a stem to almost match the shank with the stem in the shank. Care must be exercised so as not to nick the briar of the shank with the sanding drum.

I took the pipe back to the work table and sanded it until it fit well with 220 grit sandpaper. I also decided to sand the shank with the sandpaper as well to achieve a good flow from shank to stem. I also wanted to remove the heavy black/brown finish on the pipe so removing it from the shank was not problematic.

Once I had sanded the transition smooth I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the remainder of the finish on the bowl.

After wiping it down I gave it a buff with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel to remove the remainder of the finish and give me an idea of what would still need to be done with the bowl.

I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge and then picked out the large broken fills on the left side of the bowl. I wiped it with acetone to clean it one more time before packing the fills with briar dust. I packed in the briar dust with a dental pick and then tamped it down with flat head tamper to make sure the pack was good and tight. I dripped some superglue gel into the briar dust and then more briar dust on top of the glue. I tamped it another time to get a good solid fill. I sanded the excess briar dust superglue mixture with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge.

I stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol as the undercoat on the pipe. I stained and flamed the stain repeatedly until the coverage was even and solid over the entire pipe. The patch on the side is still visible but in no longer flaking and falling out the fill. The surface remains slightly rough but I will continue to sand it before giving it another coat of stain.

I buffed the bowl with Red Tripoli and then with White Diamond in preparation for the next coat of stain. I sanded the fill area with a fine grit sanding sponge and then sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads 1500-2400 grit. I then restained the bowl with a oxblood stain as the second coat on the bowl. I applied it and flamed it until the coverage was even. Then buffed it with White Diamond.

During this second staining I removed the stem and examined the end of the shank and saw small hairline cracks in several places. They did not go through to the surface of the shank but they were troublesome enough to me that I decided to band the pipe. There were also several nicks in the outer edge of the shank that made a tight fit relatively impossible to attain. I heated a nickel band with a heat gun and pressure fit it in place on the shank. I had to reduce the tenon slightly to get a good fit on the stem. I also sanded the stem around the junction so that it would fit properly against the banded shank.

The fills still needed more work but for the time being I worked on the stem some more. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax.

I decided to do some more work on the areas of the fills. I sanded the areas of the fills down with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge. I then sanded the entire bowl and shank with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the finish. I wiped it down with a cotton pad and Everclear to remove the last of the finish and also the sanding grit. I used superglue to refill the fills and even out the surface and dips that still remained after the first reworking. I then sanded the spots with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and blend the fills into the surface of the bowl.

I stained the bowl with a 2:1 mixture of aniline dark brown stain and isopropyl alcohol. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and flamed it. I reapplied and reflamed it several times until I had a good even coverage on the bowl and shank.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond to smooth out the surface of the bowl and then gave it a top coat of oxblood stain. I wiped the stain on with a cotton pad and flamed it repeating the process until I was happy with the coverage on the bowl. I was much happier now with the fills as they were smooth to the touch and there were no more pits or divots in them.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond one more time. It brought a deep rich shine to the bowl and the stem. I then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish the pipe. The four photos below show the finished pipe. It is ready for someone to load it and fire it up. It should provide a reliable and lightweight pipe for someone’s rack.

rebornpipes

reclaiming old and worn estate pipes

Category Archives: Examples of Refurbished Pipes

A GBD “Dublinish” Poker Brought Back to Life

Restoring a Comoy’s Tradition Shape 225 Bent Dublin

Reclaiming a Digby Conquest Canadian

Restemming and Repairing a Meerschaum Lined Lancaster Billiard

Kaywoodie Drinkless Apple Repurposed and Refurbished

Restoring an LHS Certified Purex Pot

Restemming and Refinishing a Tiny Bulldog

A GBD Quantum 9438 Given a New Look and New Life

A Tiny Rhodesian Restored and Restemmed

A New Look for an Italian Made Billiard – Restemmed and Reworked

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