A Review – A Commission for a Briar Sweat & Tears Rhodesian

12 Replies

I spoke with Todd Bannard of Briar Sweat and Tears last fall when I visited his shop about the possibility of him crafting a pipe for me. We talked in generalities with no particular focus in mind other than that I wanted a chubby apple or Rhodesian shaped pipe with a Cumberland stem. As I looked at the pipes he had on his table I really liked the sandblast finish that he was doing on those pipes so I decided that it would be sandblasted.Later in the fall I was gifted some birthday cash and also knew that some Christmas cash was coming so I called Todd and the process began. Through our emails back and forth we came to the conclusion that the shape would be his take on a Comoy’s 499 – a chubby shanked Rhodesian. With that shape in mind and the Cumberland stem I left it to his discretion regarding stain colours and the details. I was excited to see what he would come up with. There is something about having been in a pipe maker’s shop and seeing his tools and craftsmanship firsthand that gives another dimension to process of a commission that is not present through phone and emails conversations.I thoroughly enjoyed working with Todd on this pipe.

Those of you who have commissioned a pipe before will understand the excitement I had when I turned on the computer and found I had received an email from Todd regarding the pipe. When I saw the title and return I thought maybe it was more details regarding the pipe he was working on. But it was more than just details. It was a quick note about where he was at with the pipe and a photo of my pipe! I was thrilled with the look of the pipe at this stage. I have included that photo as a bit of a teaser to give you an idea of what it looked like at this stage in the process. The shape was perfect – it was exactly what I had wanted. The stain contrast was also very nice to my eye. The chunky shank and stem were also on target. And truly what can I say about the horizontal striations on the Cumberland stem. Wow. He still had work to do but wanted me to have an idea of what was coming.
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With the arrival of that photo my impatience grew. I did not bug Todd because I hate having that done to me but I could not wait. Not long after the first photo another email arrived with the photo below of the finished pipe. We emailed back and forth a bit about it and I asked if he could do a bit more of a bend in the stem. Otherwise it was perfect.
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He bent the stem slightly as I had asked and then later sent me the next photo of the pipe.
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I answered Todd’s email and told him the pipe looked perfect except for the fact that it was not in my hands yet ;). The only thing that would have been better in this deal in my mind would have been for me to have been closer to the shop so that I could have driven over and picked it up. But such as it was I would have to wait for it to be shipped. I paid the bill and Todd packed it up and sent it to me via Canada Post. He packed a couple of samples of tobacco with the pipe so that when it arrived I would have something new to try out.

It did not take long before it arrived. I came home from work one afternoon to find the box sitting on my dining room table with a lot of other uninteresting mail. I opened the box, pushed aside the packing material and took out the two samples of tobacco. There, in the middle of the material sat a bright red pipe sock. It was here. I took the sock out of the box, opened it and took out my new pipe. My daughters laughed at my excitement. I was like a kid opening a present that held the gift he was waiting for inside of the wrappings. Once it was out I turned it over and over in my hands taking in its beauty. It was exactly as I had imagined it as Todd and I had talked about it. He had captured it well. I had to take a photo of it as it looked it when it arrived. The red of the pipe bag picked up the red in the stain on the pipe.
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I took the pipe apart, because it is my nature to see how things are made. The drilling was perfect and the stem airway lined up perfectly with the opening in the end of the mortise. The slight divot on the bottom of the mortise is from the drilling of the airway into the bowl. That drilling is a straight shot that comes out in the center of the back wall at the bottom of the bowl. I noticed that Todd had funneled the end of the tenon for good airflow. The tenon was very short – something I had not seen before on a handmade pipe. There was plenty of length for a good seat in the mortise as it too was also drilled more shallowly than I had seen. The fit against the end of the mortise was snug with no gap between the tenon end and the end of the mortise. Nicely done Todd. The drilling in the stem was clean and smooth. There were no rough edges in the tenon or stem. The tenon is an integral part of the Cumberland stem and not a Delrin tenon. The button was just the right thickness for me as I like it with a slight shelf to hold behind my teeth but not too thick. The slot was well made and a flattened oval at the end of a flared airway – thus keeping the airway consistent diameter from the bottom of the bowl to the end of the slot. The draught was easy and quiet. To pull air through the stem was effortless. This always bodes well for a new pipe.
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I wrote Todd and asked about the short tenon and mortise and received this reply:“A short, fat (3/8″ rather than 1/4 or 5/16″) tenon allows a guy to have the same surface area for the mortise tenon fit (so the same “stiffness” of fit) but allows you to drill the airway dead center in the mortise (you can tip the drill more than if the mortise is an inch deep). So the integrity of the airway is not compromised, the pipe passes a cleaner, etc.” Interesting concept and one that seems to work well on this pipe.

I took the pipe to the worktable to look it over and just enjoy the craftsmanship before I loaded it up to smoke the inaugural bowl. I have to tell you the shape and finish went beyond what I had in mind when Todd and I talked about it. It is beautiful. The length of the pipe is 5 1/8 inches and the bowl height is 1 3/4 inches. The bowl diameter is 1 3/4 inches. The chamber diameter is 3/4 inches and depth is 1 1/2 inches. The lay of the shape to the grain is superb. The blast reveals that the grain on the sides of the bowl are nearly identical and the birdseye grain on the top and bottom of the bowl and shank are very nice. Todd did a shallow blast that revealed some of the intricacies of the briar but did not make the blast craggy or deep. The parallel rings around the cap on the Rhodesian are nicely done and close enough together to give the cap a classic look. The angle of the cap is perfect in my mind and captures the Comoy’s shape nicely.It looks to me that he used a dark brown stain on the undercoat to sit deep in the nooks and crannies of the blast and then an oxblood stain to cover that and give the pipe a warm hue.Whatever the combination, in real life it is a perfect match to the colours in the Cumberland stem as shown in the photo below.
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Earlier last year Todd cut a Cumberland stem for me from some material he had in the shop that had a horizontal flow to the Cumberland. I really liked the look of the stem then and asked him to use the same material here. Todd stained the pipe to match the colour of the stem. The overall flow of the bowl and shank is brilliant and the colours are beautifully matched from rim to the end of the shank. It has a gentle taper,both on the sides and the top and bottom, from the shank to the button. It has a slight bend to it that gives it a stylized look. Todd did a great job shaping the stem and capturing a shape that really works with this pipe. The stem is nicely finished with no marks or scratches in the Cumberland. The tenon is integrated with the stem and cut into the Cumberland. The fit in the mortise and against the shank is snug. He countersunk the end of the mortise to make for a snug fit of the stem to the shank. The end of the tenon is funneled slightly for a smooth transition from the mortise when it is in place.
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The overall construction of this pipe is very well done. It is light in the hand and in the mouth. It is well balanced and has a shape that fits well in my hand. There was one slight detail in the blast of the pipe that bothered me but it in no way affects its smoking ability. It was truly cosmetic in nature. It involved the shank/stem junction. When it first came it appeared that the stem diameter was bigger than that of the shank on the left side. It seemed that the stem was larger. It bugged me and my daughter who knows her father well suggested that I measure the diameter of both as it probably was an Illusion. I did that and upon closer inspection I found that there was a slight ridge on the shank itself and Todd had matched the stem to the ridge. I decided to fire him an email and ask him about it. I wrote this to him:“The stem fits very well against the shank – no light! Cool. When I first looked at it, it seemed like the left side of the stem was a bit larger in diameter as was the top of it… then when I took it off I found that there was a slight ridge in the briar from the blast and went aha!! How do you do the blast on the shank?”

Todd wrote back and replied: “The blast, going right to the stem, is something that I’m trying to work out, rather than have a band of smooth wood and then a “cutaway” where the blast starts. I’ve been told to “fake” the blast and sort of rusticate that part, but I think what I did worked pretty good, not perfect but next time! As for the rings, I taped them off, blasted the top, taped that off and blasted the bottom. I can’t stand fudgy blast work, and I’ll sacrifice depth of blast to keep the integrity of the shape. I have a Castello with a lovely blast but it’s just a molten lump of no real shape because of what they did to it.” Once I had done the work and received Todd’s response that solved the question for me.
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For its inaugural smoke I loaded a bowl of McClelland’s Blue Mountain. I am not sure if I will make it a Virginia or an English tobacco pipe but for this smoke I chose this blend. I went for a walk along the river near my work and enjoyed a rare sunny day in Vancouver. The pipe draws well; lighting was not a problem and it delivered a smooth dry smoke. When I emptied the bowl the briar had coloured inside but not burned! That is always a fear of mine in breaking in a new pipe. I enjoyed the day and the dry cool smoke and I watched the ducks on the water. It seems like this pipe will take very little time to break it in as it already delivers an effortless smoke.

Thanks Todd for delivering a well-made pipe at a great price. It was great to work with you on the commission and I enjoyed the communication during the process. I am looking forward to this pipe being one of my favourites in the years ahead.It is certainly made to outlive me! If you have not tried one of Todd’s pipes they are worth purchasing. He makes a great pipe and is a pleasure to work with. Check out his work on his website http://briarsweatandtears.com/ If you don’t see something you like send him an email or give him a call. He can certainly carve a pipe for you that will exceed what you have in mind. You cannot go wrong with a Briar Sweat and Tears Handmade Pipe.

Topping a Badly Damaged Georg Jensen Bent Billiard

5 Replies

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Reworking the Stem/Shank Junction on a MPS 1534

2 Replies

I went through the box of pipes for the Vancouver Pipe Club a final time and found two more that needed some cosmetic work. The first is rusticated acorn or Peewit shape with smooth “leaves” on the side of the bowl and a smooth spot on the shank and a band at the end of the shank. It is stamped on the underside of the shank M.P.S. with the P slightly higher than the M and S forming almost a triangle. Along the end of the shank it is stamped 1534. The pipe is in great shape and needed no cleaning or reworking. What was wrong with this one was the rough fit of the stem to the shank. It was clearly a replacement stem and showed the marks of the work done to fit it to the shank. There was no gap between the stem and shank and the tenon fit in the mortise snugly. The stem itself was slightly larger in diameter than the shank and was very rough. There were lots of lines and pits in the stem itself making the transition quite bumpy.
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I took the following close up photos to show the gouges and scratches on the stem near the junction.
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I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the transition and remove the scratching and gouges. It took quite a bit of sanding to smooth it out but the fit when I finished was far better. I then sanded it with the usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the surface.
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When the Obsidian Oil had soaked into the vulcanite I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to polish the stem and bowl. I then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish it. The pipe is ready to go back in the box with the rest of the lot that will go to the Vancouver Pipe Club. It should provide someone with a great smoking pipe.
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Reclaiming a Mistreated Royal Danish 29 Billiard

1 Reply

This is the last of the Vancouver Pipe Club pipes that I decided to rework. It is stamped on the bottom of the shank near the stem Royal Danish over Made in Denmark. On the right side of the shank, mid shank it is stamped 29 which I assume is the shape number. Like the others in this lot it was coated with a thick coat of varnish. The finish under the varnish was dirty and there were finger prints in the varnish coat – like it had been handled while wet. The rim looked like someone had used it for a hammer and had a thick coat of tars on the rim under the varnish. Not only were there marks on the surface of the rim but the inner and outer edges were also rough and damaged. The stem is a replacement and it was poorly fitted to the shank. The person who had restemmed it had left the shank pitted with small divots and out of round. The stem itself was no longer round but in different spots than the shank. It had not been sanded on the underside at the shank because of the close stamping on the end of the shank. Instead it had ripples and grooves left in the vulcanite that made it feel very rough in that portion of the stem. The bowl was coated with the same black rubbery substance.
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The next photo shows the condition of the rim and what led me to top the bowl and refinish this pipe. It had great overall structure but needed some TLC to bring it to the next level and make it a pleasure to have and to hold.
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I used 220 grit sandpaper to work on the stem shank junction and try to smooth things out. Though it is hard to see in the photos the transition was a mix of hills and valleys. It was very rough and uneven all around that portion of the top and sides of the shank. The stem itself was poorly finished as well at that point. There were sanding marks and gouges in its surface that paralleled the shank. The shoulders of the stem were rounded as well so the fit to the shank was odd. I worked on the shank stem fit before turning to the bowl rim.
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The underside of the shank was quite tedious to work on as the stamping was faint at that point and very close to the end of the shank. I had to use a folded piece of sandpaper and carefully sand the stem and shank for a good clean fit. I worked to smooth out the transition as much as possible and minimize the rounded edges of the stem. I wanted the fit to be even and tight. Once the transition between the shank and stem were smooth and the feel seamless to touch I moved on to top the bowl. I set up my topping board and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and began to work on the top of the bowl. I sanded it until it was flat and the outer edges of the bowl were clean and sharp. I used a folded piece of sandpaper on the inner edge to clean up some of the damage and sharpen the angles.
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I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish and the finish and bring the briar back to an even tone throughout the pipe. It always makes the staining easier when you rework the entirety of the bowl and the overall condition of this pipe demanded that kind of work.
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I used a MinWax Red Mahogany stain on the bowl to approximate the reddish colour of the original stain. I rubbed it on and off with a cotton pad until I had the colour I was looking for. When the stain was dry I hand buffed it with a soft cloth to bring out a shine. I set the bowl aside while I worked on the stem.
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I sanded the marks out of the stem on the underside near the shank and in several spots on the taper mid stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a fine grit sanding sponge. I then used my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads.
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After sanding with the final grit of micromesh pads I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and then when it had dried took the pipe to the buffer. I lightly buffed the stem and bowl with White Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown below and to my eye looks much better after the makeover. I think this is yet another pipe that will find a new home among the members of the Vancouver Pipe Club.
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Reworking a Peterson’s Kildare X105

10 Replies

I picked up this old pipe primarily for the shape. It has the chunky look I like in a pipe. The bowl has some nice grain on it and that was attractive as well. The stamping was too faint to read in the shop but when I got home with a bright light and a loupe I was able to see the stamping more clearly – though it is very faint. The left side of the shank says Peterson’s over Kildare and the right side says Made in England and the shape number of X105 (at least that is what the stamping of the number looks like). The pipe was in decent shape and would clean up quite nicely. The finish was not too bad though the previous restorer had given it a coat of varnish or something that was quite heavy. There were finger prints still in the varnish coat. The bowl was reamed and clean and the shank quite clean. The rim had some buildup that had been varnished over which gave it a damaged appearance. The stem seems like a replacement but I cannot be sure as the fit is very well done. It was in great shape with minimal oxidation and slight pitting on the surface of the vulcanite. There were not any tooth marks or chatter.
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I decided to remove the varnish coat (it seems like I have had to do that a lot lately with the pipes I am reworking for the pipe club). I wiped down the bowl with acetone and cotton pads until I had removed the varnish and the stain. I scrubbed the rim with the acetone and pads as well to remove the buildup under the varnish. It came of quite easily and turned out to be undamaged. There was a slight darkening of the rim on the left side toward the front but no damage to the area.
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While I was working on it I remembered that I had picked up a Peterson sterling silver band that would probably fit this pipe very well. I dug it out of my box of bands and gave it a try on the shank. It fit perfectly on the shank. I like the look of the bling and the added perk of it being a Peterson stamped sterling silver band was bonus!
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I put wood glue on the shank to anchor the band (no repairs were necessary and the band was purely adornment) and pressed the band into place. I rotated it so that the Peterson engraving was on the top of the shank.
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I stained the bowl with MinWax Medium Walnut and Red Mahogany stain to get a reddish brown tint to the briar. I rubbed it on the pipe and then off again. I did the same with both colours. When it was dry I hand buffed it with a soft cotton cloth.
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The stem was lightly oxidized and slightly pitted so I decided to work it over with the micromesh sanding pads. I used the usual method I have developed as a habit over the years and wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and rubbed in some Obsidian Oil to preserve the vulcanite.
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When the stem was done I reinserted it into the shank and buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond. I avoided buffing the silver as I find that it darkens the wheels and also the wood and vulcanite on both sides of the band. So once I had finished buffing the pipe I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean flannel buff. I took it back to the work table and polished the silver band with a jeweler’s cloth and then applied some wax on the band to slow down the oxidation of the silver. The finished pipe is pictured below. I also have included a picture of the finished rim to show the cleanup results. The pipe is cleaned and ready to be smoked. The addition of the silver band worked well in my opinion and I like the finished look of the old timer quite a bit.
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Restoring a Natural Liverpool

3 Replies

The pipe was in good shape. The finish was covered with a coat of varnish and under that there were soiled marks on the sides of the bowl. The rim had burn marks on the outer front edge. And there was slight darkening on the surface of the rim. The stem was clean with some slight tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem that had been sanded previously. The stem also had some scratches and gouges in the surfaces in the middle of the top taper. The pipe is stamped NATURAL over London Made on the left side of the shank and there are no shape stamp numbers on the right side or underneath. I believe that the original finish was unstained, hence the natural stamping.
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I have included the close-up photo of the rim below to show the burn damage on the front edge and the other damage on the surface and inner edge of the bowl.
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I topped the bowl with sandpaper on a flat board to remove the damage and the burn marks. Once that was finished the top looked like new with good sharp edges on the inside and outside of the rim.
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I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare wood. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish and the grime underneath. It took a few pads to clean off the finish, but once it was done the pipe looked good.
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I used my usual array of micromesh sanding pads to clean up the stem – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads.
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Once I had finished sanding the stem I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is pictured below. The grain stands out nicely on this old pipe and the natural finish highlights that.
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A Renovation of a Good Companion London Made Billiard

7 Replies

My wife and I went out for lunch on Saturday and there was an antique shop across the street from the restaurant. After eating we brave torrential downpours and ran across the street check out a shop we had not visited before. We looked through the various display cases and I found the pipe below along with a chewed up Yello-Bole billiard. The pipe was a small group 3 sized billiard. The finish was a dark brown stain on a sandblasted pipe. The left side had great grain pattern and showed deep grooves. The right side was a tight birdseye grain and the blast was shallow and close. The shank was rusticated to look like a sandblast. The stem had a slight bend but seemed be from sitting in the heat rather than intention. There was a bite through on the top surface of the stem that was large enough that it could not have been patched. The rim was originally smooth and beveled inward but the bevel had been damaged and needed to be reshaped and cleaned up. The stamping on the pipe is what ultimately made me spend the $10 to make the pipe mine. It read Good Companion over London Made on the underside of the shank. I just finished reading a new book by Mark Irwin called Pipe Companions. In it he wrote of the relationship between the pipe and the pipeman. I think it was a great coincidence to walk into a pipe stamped Good Companion. I wanted to clean it up and make it my own.
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When I got home from the visit to the shop I took the pipe apart. The stem had a large spiral stinger apparatus in the tenon. The stem itself was badly chewed. I found a new stem for the pipe in my can of stems and worked on the tenon to make the tapered stem fit the shank.
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I pushed the newly fitted stem into the shank to have a look at the shape with a taper stem. I liked the overall look of the pipe with the new stem. I sanded the stem to remove the calcification and the oxidation on it. I also worked on the fit of the stem to the shank. I wanted the transition to be smooth and seamless. I took the stem in and out several times while I worked on it. The last time I pushed it into the shank there was a crack! I don’t know if that has happened to you but when it happens there is a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Here the pipe was almost ready to refinish and the stem fit well and then crack. The frustration at that moment is high level. I laid the pipe down and had a coffee while I thought about my next steps.
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I went through the box of nickel bands that I have here and I did not have any the correct size for the shank. All of them were either too huge or too small. I did remember however that I had some brass plumbing pressure fitting pieces that would make a great band on the pipe and create a totally different look on this old pipe. Before fitting the band I worked on the bevel of the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the rim damage and reshape the bevel.
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I used a Dremel and sanding drum to sand back the shank so that the band could be pressure fit against the cracked shank. I took back the rustication until the finish was gone and the shank area was smooth. When the band fit tightly on the shank I heated the brass band with a heat gun and then pressed it into place on the shank.
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I pressed the band into place on the shank and then hand sanded the area in front of the band smooth so that I could rework the taper of the shank and the finish to match the rest of the pipe.
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I used the two Dremel diamond cutting heads pictured below to rusticate the finish on the shank. I used the cylinder first and then the ball. I worked it into the briar to make the smooth area match the rest of the bowl.
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After rusticating the shank I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it deep within the grain. I stained the rest of the pipe as well and the rim with multiple coats of the dark brown.
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Once the stain was dry on the bowl I hand buffed it with a cotton cloth and then stained it a second time with MinWax Red Mahogany stain. I rubbed it on and then rubbed it off. I repeated the process until I had the colour that I wanted.
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I buffed the bowl on with White Diamond and to evenly distribute the stain coat and give the pipe a rich shine. When I had finished I worked on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit sanding sponge and micromesh sanding pads. I used my usual array – wet sanding with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite.
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I sanded the bevel on the bowl and the brass band on the shank with the 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads.
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I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used Halcyon II wax on the sandblast finish of the bowl. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff. I have to say though I would have liked to keep the pipe unbanded and pristine, the crack that happened in the shank made me try something a little different. I actually like the finished look of the pipe with the brass band. The combination of the two stains give the blast finish depth that changes with different lighting and the tapered stem adds some panache to this Good Companion.
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Looking at the photos I decided to do a bit more work shaping the brass band. I sanded the band with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the ridges in the brass. I followed that by sanding with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I finished sanding the band with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-3200 grit polish it.
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With the band finished I will give the pipe another buff to polish the handling that it received working over the stem.

Topping and Refinishing a No-name Worm Trail Billiard

8 Replies

There are a few of the pipes in the Vancouver Pipe Club lot that just don’t do anything for me. One of them was this large billiard – no name. There are several others in the lot that have the same finish and bear the stamping of Partner. It has some nice wedges of smooth grained briar in between the rustication pattern on the bowl. That pattern is what really does not work for me – I call the pattern worm trails because that is what they look like to me. This old pipe has been restemmed somewhere along the way and the person who did the work sanded the shank down to fit the stem – one of my pet peeves! I think there is little that is more irritating in my work of restoration than working on pipes that have been “butchered” to make a stem fit. Why not hack the stem to fit the shank instead of the shank to fit the stem? Hmmm. I will never understand that really. But that is irreparable. The bowl itself had the standard coat of varnish over the bowl and rim – even over the buildup on the rim. The rim was a mess, lots of damage to the outer edge of the bowl and to the top and the bevel in the bowl.
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I took several close-up photos of the damage to the rim to give a general idea of what I was starting with on this old pipe.
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I topped the bowl with my sandpaper and board setup. I sanded until the top was flat and the majority of the damage was minized. I also evened out the bevel on the inner edge of the rim with folded sandpaper to match all the way around the bowl.
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Once I finished with the 220 grit sandpaper I sanded the rim and bevel with a fine grit sanding block to smooth out the scratches. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish and the finish as much as possible. I also reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the black rubbery bowl coating.
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When the finish was gone, I decided to highlight the “worm trails” and give them some character in the finished bowl. I used a cotton swab and some black aniline stain to paint the trails around the bowl. To dull them a bit and lighten them I wiped them down with a cotton pad and Everclear.
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I stained the bowl with MinWax Red Mahogany and Medium Walnut. I wanted to highlight the reds in the briar but not have it an oxblood colour so I use the two stains. I applied the red first and then the walnut stain.
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When the stain was dry I buffed the pipe with White Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to give it protection and a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. With the addition of this one to the Pipe Club box I am getting closer to finishing this project – I think maybe four or five left that desperately need some work and perhaps a few others that will need a touch up. Hopefully someone will like the “worm trails” more than I do.
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Topped, Reshaped and Restored a Kolding Old Briar 17

4 Replies

This old Kolding Old Briar is also one of the pipes that belong to the Vancouver Pipe Club lot. It is stamped Kolding over Old Briar on the top of the shank and Made in Denmark over 17 on the underside of the shank. I have a very similar pipe to this one made by Stanwell – same overall shape and oval flat saddle stem. Mine is a great smoking pipe. This one appears to have been much-loved as well. As with the others in this lot it was in dire need of attention. The briar had been given the standard coat of varnish that is on all of them. The varnish is put over the top of some buildup on the rim and some significant rim damage to the top and the edges of the bowl. There was a small piece of briar missing from one spot on the left front side of the bowl’s outer rim. The inner rim also was rough. The bowl had been coated with a black rubbery bowl coating. The stem was in very good shape with no tooth marks or damage and no oxidation.
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The close up photo below shows the rim damage – both burning, buildup and marks that went quite deep and broke the grain of the briar. Steaming would not work to lift the damage on this rim as it was compromised.
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Topping this bowl would be far more involved than the previous bowls I had topped. It needed to be topped to remove the damage to the surface, flattened to take care of the deep cuts in the briar, and then the inner edge beveled and the outer edge rounded. I set up my topping board and sandpaper and began to sand the top of the bowl.
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I took it down far enough to remove the damaged portions of the rim and then worked to bevel the inner edge with a folded piece of sandpaper. I sanded the rim and the inner bevel with a medium and then a fine grit sanding block. I also used the block to reshape the curve of the outer edge of the rim into the flow of the bowl.
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I wiped the pipe down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish and the finish on the remainder of the pipe in preparation for the new coat of stain.
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I decided to use two different colours of stain to restain the pipe. The first stain was a MinWax Medium Walnut stain. I rubbed it on and then rubbed it off. I buffed the pipe with White Diamond to polish the briar before giving it the second colour of stain.
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For the second stain I used MinWax Red Mahogany stain. I rubbed it into the bowl and then rubbed it off. I polished the pipe with a soft cloth. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and hand buffed the stem.
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I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond again and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I gave it a final buff with a clean flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below. It will now join the others in the Pipe Club box until I finish those that remain. I love the rounded look of the bowl top and the bevel on the rim as it adds to the feel of the pipe. I think this one will also bring a good return for the club.
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Topping and Refinishing a Dansk Handvaerk Thorshammer Bruyere

2 Replies

This is yet another one of the Vancouver Pipe Club lot – it is stamped on the left side of the long shank Thorshammer over Bruyere. On the right side it is stamped Dansk Handvaerk. On the underside of the shank is an interesting stamping next to the stem shank junction – it reads A/ES with the / being the image of a pipe. It also has the shape number 5 on the underside. The shape is either a long shanked billiard or a long stemmed lumberman or Liverpool. When I took it out of the box the finish had a coating of varnish that had the fingerprints of the varnisher imprinted in them. The pipe has a small band of light briar near the stem. I thought that maybe this was done when the pipe was restemmed, but upon examination I believe the stem is the original. The light band could also have been a thin silver band or such but that was missing. The rim was a mess as with the majority of the pipes I am doing for the club box. The outer edge had burn marks on the right side and had been badly beaten against whatever the smoker used to empty his bowl. It was missing chunks of briar and steaming would not bring out the damage. The finish was also spotty under the varnish so I decided to strip the bowl and start over.
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The picture below gives a fairly good view of the damage to the rim. In later photos of the topping process I show a few more of the damaged areas of the rim.
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I set up my topping board and sandpaper and began to top the bowl. I checked often to make sure that I would stop at the right point in the process. I wanted to remove as little of the height of the bowl as possible while smoothing out the damaged areas.
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The next two photos show the outer edge damage after a little bit of sanding on the board. It was really quite rough to the touch as I ran my fingers around the bowl.
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I continued to sand the top of the bowl until the damage was minimized. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding block afterwards to smooth out the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I also beveled the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out that area as well. This will become visible in the later photos.
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I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the varnish and the stain. I sanded the bowl with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the stubborn varnish areas and then scrubbed it down with acetone again. Once I had the finish removed the bowl was ready to be stained.
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For ease of use, since I have a lot of these to do for the pipe club stash, I am using MinWax stain. On this one I gave it a coat of Red Mahogany stain followed by a coat of Medium Walnut stain. I rubbed them on and off to get the colour I wanted. The area at the stem junction stubbornly refused to take much of the stain no matter how much I coaxed it and heated it. In the photos below the lighter area at that point is better though still visible to me.
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I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite. Once it was dry I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of caranauba wax to protect and give it a shine. The rim came out exceptionally well and the stain coat looks far better than when I started. The red Mahogany stain kept the red undertones that were present in the original stain coat. I finished buffing with a clean flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready to go back in the box of finished pipes for the Pipe Club. Still a few more pipes to fix and work on before I send them back to the club for sale or their fund-raising use.
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