An Old Manhattan Billiard with a Bakelite Stem

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I picked up this old timer a while ago now and did a quick clean on it and put it away. Today I decided to take it out and finish it. The first tree pictures below are photos that were with the EBay auction. I liked the look of the pipe in those photos and decided to bid on it. From the EBay photos it appeared to be in pretty good shape. It appeared to be dirty and in need of a good cleaning. The stem was red Bakelite and the shank extension appeared to be yellow Bakelite. The rim looked dirty and tarred but pretty sound.

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When it arrived it was in worse shape than the pictures showed. The rim was rough around the outer edge. The inner edge was also rough and out of round. The bowl was caked with a broken and chipped cake. The stem was over turned and had some significant bite marks in it on the top surface near the button. On the underside of the stem there was what appeared to be a repair to a bit through. It looked like an epoxy patch. The fill on the patch was overdone and the edge of the button was virtually gone. The top side bite marks were deeper than I expected and would need some work to raise them.

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I reamed the bowl and cleaned the shank and bowl with pipe cleaners and Isopropyl alcohol. Once the pipe cleaners came out clean I was happy with it. The stem also needed a thorough cleaning. The tenon was a screw tenon and appeared to be metal as it was corroded and a little rusty. The previous owner or maybe the seller had put a paper washer on the stem before turning the stem on tightly. I think this was the solution to the overturned stem. I scraped the washer off of the shank and the stem and cleaned up the tenon with steel wool and alcohol. Once it was clean I worked on the button area on the underside of the stem. The epoxy repair was thick so I sanded it down and then recut the button edge with my flat needle file. I recut the top edge as well to clean it up and give it a new sharpness. I sanded the patch and the tooth marks until they were smooth and then used micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to sand the surface smooth. I also used the Maguiar’s scratch polish to polish out the scratches. Once that was finished I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond. To readjust the overturned tenon I heated the tenon and then turned it until it aligned. I also turned and turned it back until I had a good solid fit on the shank. Once the stem was aligned I gave it a coating of Obsidian Oil and set it aside for a little while and worked on the bowl rim.

The rim took a bit of work as there were quite a few deep marks in the surface of the rim and also a rough edge on the outside of the bowl all the way around. I steamed the dents to the surface and then topped the bowl on a flat board until the edge was smooth once again. I worked the inner edge of the bowl with sandpaper to minimize the out of round shape of the bowl and make it at least appear to be more round again. I then sanded the bowl rim with progressively higher grit sandpaper end with 400 and 600 grit wet dry. I finished sanding with micromesh sanding pads using all grits from 1500-12,000. There is one small fill that is visible on the top right edge of the rim that is the only fill I find in the pipe. I restained the pipe with an oxblood aniline stain and carefully applied it with a cotton swab as I did not want the stain to mark the shank extension. I did not flame it this time around as I did not want to risk any melting of the extension with the fire. Once it was dry I put the stem on and took it to the buffer to buff with White Diamond. I finished by buffing the entire pipe with carnauba wax until it shone. The finished pipe is pictured below.

I am not familiar with the Manhattan brand but am pretty sure that it is a US made pipe. It is older as it has the Bakelite stem with an orific button. Manhattan Pipe Company made pipes in the US and I would assume made this one. It is stamped only on the left side of the shank with the words MANHATTAN over DeLuxe (in script) over the word BAKELITE. The case has a tag in it that also reads MANHATTAN over French Briar over Bakelite in a shield style logo.

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A View from the End of Stem

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I don’t’ know about you, but sometimes when I have too much time on my hands my head can begin to reflect on things that I had not thought of before that moment. That happened recently and I can tell you that up to that moment the topic of this post is one that I had not given much thought before that time. I mean really – the shape of the end of the stems or the button. Yet the other day (I am on holidays right now for another week before the grind of a new year of work begins) I was at my desk in the study and I looked over to my pipe cabinet. To give you a bit of the geography of my study might help visualize the moment. My study is in the basement of my old Victorian Cottage. On the west wall just under the stairs is my desk. Behind me on the east wall are books. To the south are also books and to the North on both sides are books. But at the north end of the room is a pipe cabinet that houses my pipes and tampers. The picture below gives a bit of an idea of what I am speaking about.

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As I looked across the pipes in my collection I was struck by something I had not paid attention to before. Now understand that I often pick up my pipes either to smoke them or fondle them – if you are a pipe smoker you know what I mean. The thing that I saw was that among the pipes of my collection there were two distinct shapes to the end of the stems. For lack of a more definitive description I have chosen the descriptors convex and concave (curved out and curved in respectively as pictured below). Both types of stems are in my pipe collection – both the pipes I have refurbished to sell or give away and those that retain a more permanent position in my cupboard. The division seems to be equal betweeb both types of button curvature. Now mind you, there are variations on the theme. Some of the older, late 1800’s and early 1900’s orific button stems have a very pronounced convex shape. Think of the convex shape of a Peterson system type stem and you understand the concept of convex stems. Some of my Dunhill’s fishtail stems have a very pronounced concave button – almost an open “(“ shape. These are on the extreme ends of the spectrum but the rest of the pipes I have also fall into those two categories with different degrees of flattening to the curves.

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As I looked at them I wondered about the difference. Is the difference merely one of preference of the maker as they are machined? Is it the preference of the craftsman as he decides on the overall look of his finished piece? In other words is it a matter of aesthetics? What difference does the shape of the button make? Is it a comfort issue or is there something mechanical that led to the shape? I don’t think that I will ever know for sure but it is probably safe to assume that many of you either don’t care or have not thought about it. But here are my thoughts as I processed the difference.

The older pipes in my collection – those from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s – all seem to have convex stems like the one on the right. They have either a soft convex curve or a more pronounced curve. One thought that comes to my mind as I study them is that most have an orific (or round) opening in the button. In fact I don’t think it is a far stretch to say that all the pipes that have an orific opening have a convex shape. I don’t have any orific openings on pipes that have concave buttons. The logic of that seems to make sense. If the opening in the button is a round hole as opposed to a slot, it is pretty natural that it would be at the centre of the convex curve. To test this idea I looked at the newer pipe stems that I had that are convex and I found that as the orific opening disappeared and a more oval or football shaped slot takes the place the convex shape begins to flatten and in some cases becomes concave. Thus the survey of the pipes in my cupboard leads me to believe that the shape of the end of the button, at least at first, may be a function of the shape of the opening at the end of the button.

As I smoke each of them I have no particular opinion as to which is more comfortable in the mouth. This seems to be a more complex topic than just button shape. Both types of buttons can be very comfortable and deliver a great smoke or a lousy one. I wonder too if it is not something of an era issue. It seems that today the orific slot on the button has gone by the way of the dinosaur. The only manufacturer that I see still using a modified form of the style is Peterson. I do not know of any current pipemakers that use that style of button. The two shapes of button now seem much more a thing of form versus function.

Those are just a few of my thoughts from the end of the stem this morning. What are your thoughts? Some may think that this reflection is a waste of time but think it has a practical implication for the refurbisher. I fit quite a few replacement stems on older and newer stummels that I have. One of my goals is to make the stem as much as possible like the one that would have been on the pipe when it left the workshop or factory. I research the stem shapes on a particular brand and seek to match the shape of the button, the tenon and the slope of the stem to the original. For example when I restemmed several early 1900’s era BBB pipes that I in my collection I researched the BBB catalogues and did web searches to see what the stems looked like from the tenon to the button. I sought to duplicate what I found as much as I could. I know that to some this will seem like an unnecessary step in the process. Can’t you just put a new stem on the pipe and smoke it? Certainly I can do that but on these old gentlemen I aim to bring them back to their former glory even in terms of the stem style and shapes. Call it a quirk if you like, but it has become an integral part of the hobby of refurbishing to me.

Anyway enough on the topic. I am curious to read your thoughts. Post a reply and weigh in on the end of the stem. Post some examples if you have them in your collection.

A Chairleg Style Stem on a Clubhouse Apple by GBD

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was giving EBay my usual morning once over and came across this pipe. What interested me about it was that I have a pipe very similar to it but stamped Penthouse rather than Clubhouse. A bit of research showed that both were made by GBD and were a part of their chairleg stem pipes. Looking at them in comparison to other GBD chairleg pipes that I have I can see that these may have been a seconds line of their pipes (though I am not certain of that). The ball on the chairleg of both the Penthouse and the Clubhouse is not consistently the same size around the edges. It also had some finishing scratches that never were sanded out. I liked the look of this one from the photos so I went for it and won the auction. It is stamped Clubhouse over Made in England on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped London England over 335. The pictures below were the ones posted by the seller. The pipe looked to be in excellent shape. The grain is quite nice. It looked like one that would not take a lot of work to get it in shape.

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When the pipe arrived here in Canada the bowl was in great shape. The bowl only needed a light ream and clean. The shank was clean and the stem was clean inside. This would be an easy cleanup in terms of the briar. The stem was another story altogether. It was far more oxidized than the EBay pictures showed. The next four pictures show what the pipe looked like when I took it out of the box. These chairleg stems are a pain to clean up and get the oxidation out of all of the grooves. I knew that this one would prove to be a challenge.

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I lightly reamed the bowl and wiped it down with a soft cloth and oil soap. It cleaned up nicely. I coated it with some carnauba wax and then put it aside. I dropped the stem in a soak of Oxyclean to soften the oxidation. I would need all the help I could muster to get the oxidation off of this one. Once I took it out of the soak the stem needed to be sanded. I used medium grit sandpaper on a foam pad to allow me to get into the grooves and the sharp edges. Once I had the initial sanding down I wiped the stem down with a soft cotton cloth dampened with alcohol. I then continued the sanding process with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I finished with the pads and then scrubbed the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch polish. I gave it several repeated rub downs with the scratch polish and then progressed through the remaining micromesh pads from 3200-12,000 grits. The finished stem is pictured in the four pictures below. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it sit. After it dried you can see the areas that still need to be worked over on the stem.

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The stem top and bottom are clean and fresh. The underside of the chairleg portion of the stem is quite clean and free of oxidation. The sides and the top of the chairleg portion still need more work. I then sanded these once again with the sponge backed medium grit sandpaper. I worked through the grits of micromesh from 1500-12,000 again. I coated the stem with another coat of Obsidian Oil. Once it dried I rubbed it down and then buffed it with White Diamond. It was significantly better so I took it back to the work table and scrubbed it down with Maguiar’s another time. Each time I do this I can see how much oxidation come off by the brown on the cotton scrubbing pad. This time the pad was relatively white when I finished the polishing. I gave the whole pipe a buff with White Diamond for a final time and then coated it with several coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

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GBD 9438 Prehistoric Restoration

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I love the GBD 9438 shape and have this model in several finished.  This Prehistoric finish pipe was found on Ebay.  I thought this was going to be a simple buff and clean, but the pipes took a little more effort due to a self-inflicted stem issue, or an issue that was hidden by the oxidation.

Some “Before” shots of the pipe:

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I cleaned the bowl with my new retort, which worked well and really scoured the bowl.  This was the first time I’ve used a retort.  I cleaned the tars off the bowl rim which revealed a nicely polished rim edge that I love on Prehistoric grade GBD’s.  The rest of the bowl was buffed lightly with tripoli, white diamond and then several coats of carnuba wax.

While I worked in the bowl, the stem was soaked in a mild Oxy-clean solution (the brass GBD rondell was covered with some grease).  I removed the outer layer of oxidation with 1500 and then 2000 grit paper.  There were several light tooth indention’s on the top of the stem and they popped out nicely with some heat.  The nicks/cuts on the middle of the stem (handling?)took some effort with 800 grit paper but came out as well.  After the 2000 grit paper, I used 8000 and then 12000 grades of micromesh.  The stem was then polished on the buffer with white diamond and then plastic polish.

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When I went to photograph what I thought was the finished pipe, I was disappointed to see a crack on the underside of the stem, near and through the button.  I’m not sure if the heat used to remove the teeth marks or retort caused this issue but I’m 99% sure it wasn’t there when I started. To fix that, I greased a cleaner, inserting into the stem.  I then dribbled some superglue down into the crack.  When it was dry, I sanded it smooth with 800 then 1500 and 2000 grade paper, then the micromesh and buffing wheel.  The crack looks and feels solid now and I don’t think it will cause me any issues.

After:

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Crack Repair (with some hair/fuzz…):

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A Bill Boyle Chubby Apple – A Review

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I have been smoking this Bill Boyle chubby apple that I picked up from him for quite a while now and thought it was time to write up a review. This is the second pipe that I have purchased from Bill and I have found both of them to be consistently good smokers. Bill moved from pipe refurbishing and cobbery (crafting handmade cob uniques) to pipe making a few years back and his craftsmanship is progressing quickly. The first pipe I bought from Bill several years back smoked incredibly well, as the internal mechanics were perfect. But it had a thick stem and button that I found uncomfortable. In this pipe he has progressed on the shaping of stems and buttons to the point that it is very comfortable. I think one of the things I appreciate about Bill is that he is always learning and improving.

The latest pipe I purchased from Bill was a Chubby Apple.

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The dimensions for this pipe are as follows:

Length: 5 inches

Height of the bowl:  1.75 inches

Size of the chamber:  .75 inch diameter and 1.5 inches in depth

Drilling through the shank:  5/32inches

Drilling in the stem:  5/32″ to tapered toward the button and funnelled at the button

Weight: 2.0 ounces

The mechanics of this pipe are well done – as are those of my previous Bill Boyle pipe. He has really mastered the drilling and internal design for his pipes. The bowl interior is clean and smooth when it arrived. He uses no bowl coating so the interior of the briar is visible. This one is a clean piece of briar with no surprises (at least on the surface). The airway is centered in the bottom of the bowl as it should be. There are no ragged edges or pieces left behind by the drill bit. The airway is smooth when examined with a light. It is smooth throughout the shank with no ragged edges. The transition from the airway to the mortise is also smooth and clean. The airway in the stem tapers toward the button and ends in a smooth funnel at the button. The button on Bill’s pipes used to be too thick for me and I would file them down to the size I like when they arrived. I mentioned that once to Bill and he made this button to exactly the specs that I spelled out over the phone. The slot in the airway is also smooth and clean with no ragged edges. It is also centred in the button – something that I used to take for granted but have learned to pay attention to on the pipes I buy and the ones I restem.

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The externals – shaping, finish, stem and feel of the pipe are excellent. I like the compactness of Bill’s apple shape. My other pipe is also an apple – ¼ bent. He did a great job cutting it to maximize the grain and highlight the beauty of the piece of briar. The feel in the hand is perfect for me as I find the apple shape a very comfortable shape to smoke. The finish is nicely done. His staining of the pipe is even and smooth with no fading or light spots on the pipe. The contrast of the undercoat with the brown finish coat makes a nice looking pipe. The stain on the undercoat makes the grain really stand out and the overcoat sets it off very nicely. There is one flaw in the bowl on the front of the pipe. It is visible but does not affect the smoking ability of the pipe (see the picture below). The flaw is not terribly deep but Bill chose to stop sanding so that he could maintain the shape that he had chosen for this pipe.

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The saddle stem is hand cut German ebonite and is comfortable in the mouth. For me some of Bill’s earlier pipes had a more drastic slope on them and thus were not as comfortable in my mouth. I found them hard to hold in my jaw. The slope on this one is more gradual. The flat blade of the stem is cut well and is also a good thickness for the look of the chubby bowl and shank. Bill has tapered the edges to meet and create a midline on both sides of the stem. Nicely done! The finish on the stem is also very good. There are no file marks or scratches in the finish. It is a smooth finish and he has polished it a glassy shine. The fit of the saddle to the shank is also well done. There is no gap between the stem and the shank of the pipe. The thin saddle is a feature that I really like on this pipe – it gives is a unique look. The fit in the tenon is snug and smooth.

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I have been smoking the pipe now for long enough to know that it is a smoking machine. It was not terribly hard to break in and after a few bowls the bowl had begun to form a thin cake. I smoke primarily Virginias and Virginia Perique tobaccos in this pipe and it delivers a clean full bodied taste each smoke. The draught on the pipe is quite effortless as it is an open drilling. The briar warms nicely in the hand but does not get hot. If you have not worked with Bill to have him make a pipe for you or have not picked one up on his website http://billboylepipes.weebly.com/ you should give them a try. If your experience is anything like mine you will not stop with one pipe.

You Are About To Experience – A Comoy’s Pamphlet

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Another old pamphlet I picked up at an antique store with an old Brigham pipe I found. It had the previous Love That Pipe Booklet and this one in the box with the pipe. The Comoy’s pamphlet has a copy of the guarantee, the shape chart, a guide pipe lines within Comoy’s, the Comoy’s Briar Story, Comoy’s Pipe Care and some of the pouches that used to be available through Comoy’s. Hopefully these photos are clear enough for you to get the idea of the interesting content of the brochure.

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Love That Pipe – RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company

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This little booklet “Love That Pipe” is subtitled A Fun Guide To Pipe Smoking. It is full of of helpful information for the long time pipe smoker and new comer to the hobby. It covers lots of topics from choosing a pipe to how to feed and care for it. Kind of an interesting blast from the past.
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Alpha Abrasives – Micromesh Alternative

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Blog by Al Jones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1937 Patent Era Brigham Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked this little Lovat up in a trio of pipes from EBay. I refurbished the first two – the no name Sandblasted Poker and the Dr. Plumb Statesman already. I have written about them earlier on the blog. Today I worked on the Brigham Lovat. It is stamped Brigham over Can. Pat. 372982. The shape stamp in on the flattened bowl bottom and is stamped 199. The finish was pretty well worn off but there was some nice looking grain on the bowl and shank. The briar actually is flawless with no fills or sandpits. The rim was black and covered with what appeared to be a thin coat of hard tar. The stem was badly oxidized and the brass one dot logo was obscured. Once the stem was removed the Brigham patented filter system was a little hard to remove. The hard rock maple filter was clean but there was a white cobweb like substance in the bowl and in the shank and filter.

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I did a patent search on the Canadian Patent site and found documentation filed with the number stamped on the pipe. I have copied that documentation in the following three pictures. The first picture is a drawing of the Brigham filter system signed by the designer Roy Brigham when it was filed. The next two pictures are the descriptive text of the patent. It is always fascinating to me to discover these pieces of history when I am working on a pipe. This old timer had a story to tell that is for sure. I am not sure when Brigham stopped stamping their pipes with the patent number but in the many that have crossed my desk I have not seen one with the numbers.

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I put the bowl to soak in the Isopropyl alcohol bath with the other bowls while the stem soaked in an Oxyclean bath. Once I took the bowls out I wiped them down and went to work on them. The Brigham is the bowl at the top of the photo below. You can see the grain on it is actually quite beautiful.

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The bowl when dried off is pictured below is quite clean. It has no fills or sand flaws in the briar. It is going to stain nicely and be a great looking pipe when finished.ImageImage

In the picture above you can see the tars on the rim of the pipe. I dried it off and sanded the rim with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the tar build up on the rim. The next two photos below show the rim with the tars removed and the surface smooth. The beauty of this old pipe was that the rim was flawless. There were no dings or dents in it. The outer and inner rim edges were still quite sharp.

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After sanding the rim I sanded the entire bowl of the pipe and also the first sanding on the stem. The picture below shows the sanded bowl. I used 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads, carefully sanding around the Brigham Patent Stamping.

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When I finished sanding I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad. I use nail polish remover which is a solution of acetone and that is readily available at our local dollar store. It works well to lift any remaining stain in the briar and clean the surface of any leftover debris from the sanding process. The grain is really standing out nicely in the three photos below and will make a great looking finished pipe. I also continued to sand the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding pad to cut through the heavy oxidation.

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After sanding with the sanding pads I moved on to wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I have a cup of water at hand to dip the sanding pad into and then sand the stem to remove the oxidation. These first three grits of micromesh do a great job in removing the remaining oxidation on the stem. The water begins to turn a brownish yellow as I dip the sanding pad and squeeze out the grit from the sanding. The stem begins to come back to black by the 2400 grit pad.

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At this point in the process I have started to use Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 before going onto the higher grits of micromesh. I rub on the Mequiar’s with my finger and scrub it into the finish of the stem. Once it is applied I let it dry for a few moments and then scrub the stem with a cotton pad. The next three photos below show the stem after the rub down with the Mequiar’s and a hand buff with the cotton pad.

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After polishing the stem I rub it down with Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. I find that it penetrates the vulcanite and the remaining oxidation seems to lift to the surface. Once it is dry I continue to sand the stem with the micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12,000 grit.

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After the stem really begins to shine I remove it from the shank and place a dental pick into the mortise to provide a handle for me when I am staining the pipe. This allows me control as I turn it over in my hands. I stained this pipe with Dark Brown aniline stain (Feibing’s Leather Dye). The first photo below shows the pipe ready to be stained and the second is with its first coat of stain. While it is still wet I flame it by lighting it with a match and setting the stain.The flame sets the alcohol in the stain on fire and burns it off.

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Once it is flamed I rub down the bowl with a piece of cotton terry cloth. It removes the surface stain and leaves the stain set in the softer grain. The next series of photos show the pipe after it has been wiped down but not buffed.

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Once I have wiped it down I take it to the buffer to remove any more of the stain and to give it a shine. With this particular pipe the stain obscured the grain a bit so I decided to wipe it down with the acetone to lighten the stain. I wiped it until I got the effect that I desired. I then buffed it repeatedly to get a shine.

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The stain was still a little dark to me and I wanted a bit more contrast in the stain. I wiped the bowl a final time with Isopropyl and then buffed it a final time. I also buffed the stem. I scrubbed the metal tenon with 0000 steel wool to polish the oxidation on the aluminum. It shined as well. I inserted a new Brigham Hard Rock Maple filter and put the pipe back together. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and then when it had dried I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on my buffing wheel. I finished with a quick buff with a soft flannel buffing wheel. The finished pipe can be seen in the pictures below.

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Positives and Negatives of the PME Tenon Expander

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After reading about it online, I picked up a tenon expander from the Pipe Makers Emporium several years ago. It can be ordered online at http://www.pipemakers.org/tools02.html The website describes it as follows: Tenon Expander: (Three sizes-in-one: 1/25, 1/50, 1/60) “An absolute must for pipe repair! One tool that will do 99 percent of all loose tenons. Throw away that ice pick because this will do a much better job. Heat the Tenon with an alcohol lamp until it is soft. Insert the Expander to the next size. Place Tenon and Expander into cold water to set the Tenon to its new size. Remove the Expander and your Tenon will maintain its new size. .” The sell for $29.00 each

The concept of the tool is actually quite simple – heat the tenon with a heat gun/ hot water or heat the tenon expander tool with a flame or heat source. Once it is heated, push the expander into the tenon and twist it until the tenon expands. Cool the tenon under clean or cool water to set the expansion and then remove the tool. You will notice in the picture below that the tip is tapered and gets larger in diameter the farther you move up the tip toward the handle. By pushing the tool into the tenon you can expand it for a tighter fit in the shank. In my use of the tool I would heat and expand, then cool the tenon in water, remove the tool and try the stem on the pipe for a fit. If it needed more expansion I repeated the process until the fit was snug. The gradated slope on the tenon expander gives you a broad range of possibilities in accomplishing that task. After I had used it for a while I decided to evaluate the tool in terms of its positives and negatives. What about the tool did I like and what were its deficiencies?

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The positives –

In thinking through the positives the obvious ones were those advertised on the PME website.

  1. The ease of use is the first thing that stood out with the tenon expander. It is very simple to use even though it came with no instructions. It was not hard to figure out how to use it correctly.
  2. The tapered end is also billed as a positive feature of at first glance as it works to open the tenon to varying degrees and you can repeat the fit until the stem is snug. I will explain in the negatives why I have come to believe that the tapered end is not as great a feature as it initially appears to be when you begin.
  3. The grooves on the handle of the tool are cut to make it easy to hold on to as you work with it.

The negatives –

Over time and experience working with the tool I have found some of the features that I first thought were helpful have grown to irritate me and work as limitations of the tool.

  1. The first thing I have learned is that the taper on the end of the expander, while being helpful, is also a negative feature. The expander does not expand the entire tenon but rather the end of the tenon. With use the tenon thus is no longer cylindrical but can flare at the end. The snug fit is thus only for the first 1/8 inch of the tenon. The rest of the tenon is not touching the walls of the mortise.
  2. Heating the tenon to insert the expander makes the tenon very pliable and if you are not careful the tenon can be bent at an angle thus ruining the fit at the shank. I have found that if I heat the expander instead then the tenon does not soften as much and I avoid the potential of tilting the tenon.
  3. A final negative for me is the handle of the expander. I use a pair of heat mitts to hold it as I heat it but if I were going to continue to use it regularly I would make a wooden handle and epoxy the expander into it. In my opinion it would make it more usable.

Other options: As I pushed the limitations of the tenon expander that I purchased I decided to look and see if I could find other tools that would address the negatives that I have spelled out above. I have been experimenting with various sizes of ice picks and awls to use for tenon expansion as they have a longer shank and less taper. This allows me to expand the tenon the entire length of the tenon rather than just the tip. So far they have worked very well. I can easily heat the shaft of the awl or ice pick while holding the wooden handle. They slide into the tenon and are easily twisted slowly to expand the tenon. The final verdict is still out on them as I continue to look for picks and awls with a variety of diameter shafts.