Reclaimed a Horn Stem Oldenkott Panel

Blog by Steve Laug

I find that I enjoy smoking pipe with horn stems. The feel in the mouth is unique in range of pipe stem material. It is not hard like Lucite nor is it like Vulcanite. There is a very different feel in the mouth than anything else. I really don’t know how to describe it – it is smooth like well-polished Vulcanite or Lucite. It is soft like Vulcanite but somehow a different kind of softness. It has a luminescence that is beautiful when polished to a reflective sheen. It that almost indescribable feel that keeps me on the lookout for more horn stemmed pipes. I think that I have probably a half dozen in my rack at the moment. All but one of them is small bowled and lightweight. All of them are great Virginia Flake pipes and seem to be made for that style of tobacco.

Here is a few of my horn stem pipes.

The pipe below is one I added recently. It is the fourth pipe from the left in the picture above. It is an Oldenkott pipe. When I got it the finish was rough as it seemed to have had a varnish or some kind of topcoat on the bowl that was flaking off and broken. The bowl was unevenly caked but the pipe showed promise. I reamed and cleaned it then put it in the alcohol bath while I worked on the stem. The stem had a few minor bit marks that I repaired by sanding them smooth. The tooth chatter disappeared in the same manner. I have found that with horn I have to be a bit careful with the sanding so that the horn itself does not sliver or splinter so I used micromesh pads exclusively on this one. I started with 1500 grit and sanded up to 6000 grit. Then I took the stem to the buffer and carefully buffed it with White Diamond.

After removing the bowl from the alcohol bath the finish coat of varnish was gone and the colour looked very nice so I sanded it with micromesh pads and then buffed the bowl with White Diamond. I reinserted the stem and gave the pipe several coats of carnauba to bring back the sheen to both the horn and the bowl. The final picture shows the unique tenon and filter apparatus on this pipe. It is aluminum and seems to work as a condensation chamber more than a filter. The shank and stem were clean on the inside and took very little work to clean out the tars that were present.

Do I need to ream my pipe?

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I don’t know how many times I asked this question in the past as I was new to smoking a pipe. Nor do I know how many times I have read this question on the various online forums that I frequent. When I think back to the responses I got when I asked the question and when I read the responses given on the forums I have found that generally the answers that are given fall equally between yes and no. There are proponents of the “never ream” school, the “no” answers, who would argue that if a pipe is properly cared for after each smoke the necessity of reaming is removed. Just fold a pipe cleaner and swish it around the bowl to knock of remnants of tobacco and smooth out the bowl sides and you are good to go. This is the method that I have used for years and I have found that it allows a slow and steady build-up of the cake. But there are also just as many proponents of the “ream often” school, the “yes” answers, which seem to ream at the slightest build-up of cake.

As I consider the question today I have to reflect on whether or not the two schools have made things too black and white. I understand why folks would argue for never reaming. For when I think of the many pipes that have crossed my table that have suffered at the hands of the ream often folks I too want to say, “Never ream your pipe”. The pipes that come damaged are pretty close to ruined – at least when you consider that the bowls are out of round and often too deeply reamed. It takes some creative shaping and reshaping to repair the damage caused by overzealous reaming. To me the “ream often” school of thought seems too often to cause more damage than a little cake build-up would ever cause.

However, that being said there are pipes that have come across my desk over the years that could have clearly used some of the “ream often” care. They were badly caked pipes, neglected to the point that the cake over fills the bowl and the pressure from the different expansion of the cake and the briar cracked the bowls. In the photo below the five pipes on the left show these signs of neglect. The first and the third bowl were so caked that my little finger would not fit in the bowl. The second, fourth and fifth pipes in the photo have had a bit of the cake carved away to make room for more tobacco but to little was removed too late and the bowls are cracked and ruined. My old uncle could easily have owned any of these pipes. I clearly remember, from the times I road with him on his dry cleaning route, that his pipe always looked like this. In fact for years I kind of figured this is what they were supposed to look like! There were times when I would pick up the pipe off the console of the VW Bus and look at and wonder how he could get tobacco in the bowl. One day as I was holding the pipe and checking it out with my little finger, he came back to the van and chuckled at what I was doing. So I asked him about how he got tobacco in his pipe and why he didn’t clean out the hard stuff. I still remember his response – “when it holds no more tobacco I throw it away and get a new one”. And with that he took the pipe from my hands and packed some more tobacco in the bowl and fired it up. As I look at these old cracked pipes and others I have seen, so caked that they hardly hold anything, I wonder if the previous owners shared my uncle’s view of the disposability of the pipe. They may well have been part of the “smoke it until it is dead” philosophy and then set it aside and started on the next pipe.

So that leaves me with a question that others have asked as well. What is the proper reaming method? Should you never ream or always ream? I think that like most things in life the answer to this question negates the always and never choices. It is not a black and white issue. To me I have learned that there are times that I need to ream my pipe. Mind you, some of my pipes have never been reamed. Others I have had for over 20 years and smoked a lot and have had to ream once or twice in that time. There are only a few times that I ream a pipe. I am basically a proponent of the “never ream” school – daily maintenance keeps my pipes in order and never looking like the ones above.

Here are three occasions that I have found that I ream a pipe without any hesitation. I know others may well disagree with my choices, but here they are nonetheless. I have the freedom to exercise these choices as I see fit and my opinion is just that, my opinion. Read them over and if you agree, that is fine. And if you disagree, well that is fine as well. Let’s fire up a pipe and enjoy the fellowship of the briar.

I only ream when the cake exceeds the thickness of a dime – a thin coin. I want to maintain that thickness as I have found that it works best for the style and process of my smoking. I use a Pipnet reamer or a Senior Reamer to keep the cake at this thickness only because I have learned that they are easy to keep vertical in the bowl and not tilt to one side and cause the bowl to become out of round. I actually have rarely had to ream my pipes.
I also ream when I by estate pipes. I remove all of the cake so that I can minimize the potential for ghosting tobaccos from previous owners. This is my preference and I know others who ream them back to the amount mentioned above. I like starting over and building a good hard cake of my own making.
I have also reamed pipes that I smoked in my early days with aromatics. I have found that they are almost impossible to get out of a bowl without removing a cake. Again this is my opinion but I have found it works for me. I like to have a clean surface to work from. I know others just load it up with the new tobacco and smoke it into submission!

A New Stem for a La Strada Moderna Volcano

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I restemmed a couple of pipes for a fellow Canadian who needed one done for himself and one for his father in law. In thanks he gave me a couple of pipes. This La Strada Moderna Volcano was one of them. It was in need of a stem as well and also needed a good cleaning and restaining. The mortise in the tenon was actually very thin at the top of the shank and had some very small cracks that seemed to have come from just removing and reinserting the stem. I repaired the cracks by opening them a bit with pressure on a dental pick and dripped some superglue into the cracks and held them closed until the glue set. I then banded the shank with an oval nickel band that I pressure fit.

I had an oval stem blank in my can of stems that would fit with a bit of work. I fit the tenon with my tenon cutter and sandpaper. Then I used the Dremel to shape the stem to a fit. Using the larger sanding drum on the Dremel I can get very close to a good fit and with a light touch can leave the surface with minimum scratching. I then finish the fit with sandpaper. In this case I used some medium grit emery cloth to bring it very close and then 240 grit sandpaper to finish the fit. Once that was done I used 400 and 600 wet dry sand paper to finish removing the scratches and then took it to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli so that I could see the scratches I needed to work on some more with sandpaper before turning to the micromesh sanding pads. I used 1500-6000 grit pads to finish sanding the stem. I then finished with White Diamond on the buffer and gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I restained the bowl with oxblood aniline stain and then buffed the bowl lightly with White Diamond and coated it with Halcyon II wax to give it a sheen.

Resurrecting a Petersen Pre-Republic Billiard – Gan Barber

5 Replies

Blog by Gan Barber

It is a privilege to be able to post this blog entry from a friend and co-laborer in the refurbishing hobby. I have learned much from Gan, including the use of the alcohol bath for soaking bowls and preparing them. In fact as I read this report I am amazed at all the things we do similarly. I appreciate his taking the time to write this up to share here at rebornpipes. I look forward to more articles from Gan, as I am sure you will also after reading this one. Thanks Gan!

Well, the work is done, so it’s time to sit back, light up a bowl of Perreti 9575, and record this adventure….

I am not an expert on dating Petersen Pipes, but from the little I know, this one appears to be a Pre-Republic era vintage. There are no markings on the briar or stem. The hallmark on the band indicates nickel, not silver, and provides no dating information. The K&P, Peterson, Dublin stamping is the only indication that the pipe dates from the Pre-Republic era.

It came to me in a sorry state of repair, and, after some preliminary cleaning, sat in my ‘Lazarus’ box for many years. The shank had been snapped from the bowl, the rim was dented, and the P-Lip modified. It was never going to be a collector piece. Still, it held some promise……

Before I begin the cleaning phase of any project, I like to remove any excess cake. I’m not looking to do anything more than scrape away thick accumulations from the bowl in order to find possible charring or burn-out. In this case, the break was clean, and exhibited no signs of burning that may have contributed to the damage. There was a small dent on the upper left rim of the bowl, leading me to believe that the previous owner liked to tap out the dottle, and had done so once too often.

Satisfied that the bowl was structurally sound, I placed it into a 91% Isopropyl alcohol bath. Once I removed the band, the broken shank followed.

I have had favorable results using this method to strip and clean a stummel. Using the highest percentage Isopropyl alcohol I can find (91%), means that only 9% of the solution is water. The low percentage of water allows the briar to dry rapidly once removed from the bath with very little residual moisture. I have soaked stummels for days without ill effects, though the extended time provides little in the way of additional cleaning. It can help with reducing strong ghosts, though. The alcohol will soften even the most stubborn cake, and sweeten the bowl as well as any other method.

Once the bowl had soaked long enough so loosen the dirt and soften the cake, I removed it from the bath and immediately reamed the bowl, removing as much cake as possible without quite getting down to bare briar. My tool of choice here is a Senior Adjustable Reamer. Not that it’s the only tool that will work; it just happens to be what I have and works quite well for this task.

With the reaming completed, the stummel went back into the bath for another wash. I prefer to do the preliminary cleaning wet, so the stummel will see the bath frequently. The advantages of working wet are two-fold: The alcohol lubricates the mechanical action of the steelwool, mitigating scratching, and the wetting reveals any missed areas requiring additional attention. I worked the wet stummel with 0000 steel wool until most of the dirt, grime and tar were gone.

While the bowl soaked in the alcohol bath, the vulcanite stem soaked in a solution of Oxy-Clean (1/4 scoop to 16 ounces of clean, warm water). Depending on the level of oxidation, I will let the stem soak anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight. Again, I’ve left stems soaking for days without detriment. Generally, I like to soak the stem for two to three hours. The oxidation will turn to a yellow-white slime, and the majority of it will come off quite easily with 0000 steel wool. There was no logo present, so I used the 0000 liberally to achieve a thorough cleaning. Another advantage of the Oxi-Clean soak is its ability to loosen any gunk that has accumulated in the smoke passage. Several bristle pipe cleaners are all that are needed to literally pull the residue from the passage. Another pass with a regular pipe cleaner and some alcohol will remove any traces of tar.

Below are the bowl, shank, and stem after soaking in their respective baths and an initial wet scrub with the 0000 steel wool. Later on in the refurb, I will continue to clean them, but by dipping the steel wool into the alcohol for the wood and the Oxi-clean for the stem, rather than re-immersing them.

Once I was satisfied with the initial cleaning, it was time to move on to the most challenging aspect of this project – mating the shank to the bowl.

There are a number of factors to consider when choosing the proper bonding agent to use in repairing a broken or cracked stummel. Heat, moisture, clamping time and compatibility with wood are paramount. Traditional outdoor rated aliphatic glues (Tite-Bond, Elmers, etc.) are resistant to moisture, but I don’t trust them to withstand moist heat. Polyurethane adhesives are stronger and more resistant to both heat and moisture, but have high expansion rates and excessive foaming. Both require extended clamping periods, which is extremely challenging due to the irregular shape of a stummel.

My adhesive of choice is a a fast set epoxy – JB Kwik. It is extremely strong (though not as strong as regular Weld Bond), heat resistant to 500+ degrees F, impervious to moisture, and has a clamping time of only 3 minutes. Mixed from two parts (epoxy/catalyst), it has a reasonable working time, and the two pieces of the pipe stummel can be held together with strong hand pressure for three minutes and then released.

To rejoin the shank to the bowl, I carefully aligned the two pieces so that I could easily find the correct registration before mixing a small amount of the epoxy. I applied it to both surfaces with a toothpick, then pressed the shank and bowl together, squeezing as much epoxy out of the joint as hand pressure would allow. I held them this way for three minutes. I did not worry about any squeeze-out getting into the air passage – yet.

After hand clamping for three minutes, I gently set the stummel down and let it rest for another 7 minutes. If properly mixed, Weld Bond Quick will be set to a rubbery stage after ten minutes (at 70 degrees F). At this point, I took a utility knife and carefully lifted the squeeze out off of the briar. It should peel like a rubber gasket if you catch it at the right time, leaving only a dark oily residue where it contacted the briar. Next, I took the drill bit from the Senior Reamer, and gently worked it through the airway. Care must be taken to use as little pressure as possible to twist and push out any epoxy the made its way into the passage. Although Weld Bond is non-toxic when cured, if cleaned out properly, little if any will be present in the airway.

I allowed the epoxy to cure for 6 hours, and then set to work gently sanding the joint with 400 grit emery to fare the seam as smooth as possible without altering the shape of the pipe. The only caveat to using this epoxy – it is rather viscous and will leave a faintly visible line at the joint no matter how well the parts are mated. I’ve found that after sanding, staining and buffing, this line will all but disappear.

The stummel after roughing in with the 400 grit emery. The graining did little to hide the seam on the left side…..

…while on the right, the grain pattern was more favorable and the seam blended in nicely.

With the shank and bowl rejoined and fared, I finished cleaning the briar with 0000 steel wool wetted with alcohol. Working wet with alcohol eases the scuffing of the steel wool and reveals the grain and any remaining flaws that may need attention. It also removes any oils or dirt introduced from handling the raw wood. The JB Kwik is impervious to the alcohol.

The next stage consisted of wet sanding with 600 grit. I used alcohol as a lubricant. When finished with the 600, I took the bowl to the buffer for a gentle once over with red rouge. This serves to deepen the color of the briar and reveal any scratches or imperfections that the finer grits will have difficulty removing. Satisfied with the results, I continued to wet sand with 1500 grit emery. The final sanding stages were done dry with 3600 and 6000 micro-mesh. At this point in the process, I was simply polishing the briar to prepare it for staining.

I chose Feibings Light Brown dye and gave the stummel a wash coat, undiluted, using a cotton Q-Tip. I set the stain with my Perdomo table-top lighter, and then gave it a thorough rub down with a microfiber cloth. The microfiber works to even out any imperfections in the finish, and noticeably polishes the dye to a nice luster. The bowl is now ready for the buffer.

The stem received an additional scrub with 0000 steel wool wetted with Oxi-Clean to remove any remaining oxidation. I then wet sanded, with water now, using 400 and then 600 grit emery. A quick and gentle buff with red rouge to find any remaining scratches from the steel wool and sandpaper was followed by a wet sand with 1500 emery. I then polished the vulcanite with 3600 and 6000 micro-mesh to prepare it for the buffer.

Both the stem and bowl were given a soft buffing with white diamond on the buffer and then wiped down with microfiber to remove any trace compound. I then swapped out the white diamond wheel for the wax one, and applied three coats of caranauba wax to the bowl. I like to use a moderate amount of pressure when applying wax as the caranauba is extremely hard and requires the heat generated to go on properly.

After the stem received a coat of Walker Briar Works sealer/wax and the nickel band was polished with Never Dull wadding, everything went back together and was ready to be enjoyed once again. It’s far from perfect, but then, it’s all about the journey, isn’t it?

Thanks to Steve for inviting me to contribute.

Best Regards,

Gan Barber

A New Tenon on an Old Stem and a Petersons K Briar 999 is Back in Action

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this older Peterson 999 K Briar from EBay. It came in a lot with some Barlings, Bewlays and three Imperial Tobacco pipes that I have repaired. This is an interesting pipe in that it is stamped K over Briar on the left side of the shank and on the right side it is stamped 999 “Peterson’s Product” made in England. I had not seen a K Briar pipe from Peterson before. This one is a beauty. It has the appearance of a GBD Rhodesian or a BBB Rhodesian. It has no fills and some very minor sand pits. The stain and finish were in great shape. The stem had just two small bite marks that needed to be taken care of. It has a unique stem that can be seen in the photos below. It is very different from the standard Peterson stem as it is rounded and crowned with a slot in the end of the button.

When the pipe arrived the tenon was broken off at the shank. It was a clean break as can be seen in the photo below. The tenon itself was stuck in the shank. I tried to remove it by my usual method – turning a screw into the airway on the tenon and then pulling. I tried and pulled both by hand and with a pair of vice grips. I clamp down on the screw and try to twist the bowl of the pipe. This tenon was really stuck. I dribbled alcohol down the shank and filled the bowl with cotton bolls and poured in alcohol and so that the inside of the shank could soak. I left it sitting that way over night and in the morning the tenon still would not come out. I figured I would try putting it in the freezer so that the two materials of the shank and tenon would contract and expand at different rates and loosen that way. When I took it out of the freezer I tried to remove it from the shank. It did not move. Nothing I tried seemed to work. I took a drill bit a little bigger than the airway in the tenon and drilled out the tenon very carefully. Once the drill bit was set I backed the drill out and the tenon was free.

Once the tenon was out I held the stem vertically on a flat board and sandpaper to make certain that the flat surface of the stem was smooth and that there were no sharp pieces of the old tenon in the way. I drilled the airway in the stem to receive a quarter inch tap. I worked up to the quarter inch drill bit slowly moving from one that was slightly bigger than the airway. I wanted to make sure that the new opening for the Delrin tenon was centred and not off. Once I had it drilled with the ¼ inch drill bit I used a quarter inch tap to thread the hole in the stem. I had ordered threaded tenons from Pipe Makers Emporium and when they arrived I checked the depth on the tapped hole in the stem to make sure that it was the same depth as the length of the new tenon. Once it was correct I turned the new tenon into the threaded hole until it was just about tight and then dripped some super glue into the hole and finished threading the tenon in. I set it aside to dry before trying the tenon for a fit on the pipe. These threaded tenons are great to work with. It is the first time I have used them and it worked like a charm.

Once the tenon was set, it was time to work on the stem and remove the oxidation. I used fine grit emery cloth to loosen the oxidation on the stem. From there I proceeded to use 240 grit sandpaper and then used 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper. I wet the stem and sanded it with the wet dry sandpaper until all of the scratches were gone. The next series of three photos show the fit of the stem with the new tenon. Most of the oxidation is gone at this point.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the stem with Tripoli to see where I was at with the sanding. The oxidation was gone so I took it back to the worktable and sanded it with the micromesh pads from 1500-12000 grit. The final shine came alive with the 8000 and the 12000 grit micromesh. From that point I took it to the buffer and lightly buffed it with White Diamond. Then I waxed the pipe and stem with carnauba and buffed with a flannel buff.

Reworking a John Bessai Pipe

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I picked this old pipe up on EBay for a very cheap price. In fact I think the postage was more than the pipe. I had read on the forums that John Bessai carved some great smoking pipes.

Pipedia has this information http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Bessai

John Bessai was a long time pipemaker, repairman and tobacco shop owner who operated his pipe shop at the “Old Arcade” in Cleveland, Ohio. The shop was opened in approximately 1898. It was a small 2-room shop where he hand-crafted his own pipes in the back room and could work when customers were not there. Like so many other shop made brand, John Bessai’s limited production was quickly acquired by regular customers and thus his craftsmanship remained little known outside of Ohio and the Midwest. While his name is known by pipe collectors in the Midwest, his work is seldom seen elsewhere! He died before 1969. Nevertheless, John Bessai left behind a small number of classic shaped pipes; all were made on-site. They are praised worthy of collecting and reflecting skills well beyond most American pipe makers. John Bessai’s logo “JB” appeared as one letter as the “back” of the “J” and the “back” of the “B” share a single line. The logo was stamped on the stem and on the left side of the shank. His son Herb Bessai took over the business and also continued making pipes. He closed the shop in about 1978.

I was excited to have one of his pipes and looked forward to its arrival here in Canada. When it came and I opened the package I loved the shape and the feel of the pipe, but the large fills really bugged me. I cleaned up the pipe and gave it a smoke to see if I would even keep it. It smoked incredibly well and the draw was effortless. It was comfortable and lightweight so it seemed like one that I would keep. But what to do with the fills that covered the right side and the front of the bowl puzzled me. I wanted to keep the pipe clearly a Bessai pipe. I did not want to destroy what he had carved but I wanted to do something to deal with the fills.

So I decided to rusticate it with a leather-like rustication and then give it a contrast stain on it give it an interesting look. I used my rustication tool (the pipe and nails that I have written about in another post on the blog) to cut into the finish and rusticate the surface of the bowl. Once the bowl was rusticated to the place I liked I took it to the buffer and buffed off the rough spots and made the overall surface smooth to the touch. I then stained it with a coat of black aniline stain and flamed it to set the stain. Once it was dry I took it to the buffer and removed the black stain on the high spots with a Tripoli buffing pad. I then took it back to the desk and gave it a coat of medium brown aniline stain and flamed it. I let it dry and then buffed it with White Diamond. I then buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond to polish the stem and bowl and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I used a light touch on the bowl as I did not want to fill the grooves with wax.

Restemming a Wimbledon Bulldog

A Reborn Kaywoodie Relief Grain Billiard

1 Reply

I went to work on this old timer Sunday afternoon. I had picked it up on a recent trip to the US for a visit. It has an amazing blast that is deep and craggy. The pictures give a bit of an idea how beautiful the grain is but in hand it is an amazing tactile experience. It is very rugged yet the ridges are smooth to the touch. The bowl still had tobacco inside and a hard cake inside that was uneven. The rim of the bowl was coated with tars and oils that filled all the grooves of the blast to the point that they were smooth. They were also running down the front of the bowl along the outer lip of the rim. The stem was badly oxidized and over-turned so that it would not line up when tightened. The stem was amazingly bite free and only had a minimum of tooth chatter so it would be easy to work on. The finish was in good shape but was dirty. This one would take more work on the stem than the bowl.

I cleaned out the old tobacco with a dental pick and then reamed the bowl until it was bare wood. The cake was too uneven to leave much behind. I then used pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in isopropyl alcohol to clean out the shank and the inside of the bowl. To scrub down the bowl I coated it with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and used a tooth brush to scrub it down. I scrubbed the rim with a brass wire tire brush. I wiped the bowl down to remove the soap and then reapplied it to the rim and continued scrubbing until the grooves of the blast were clean and visible. I also used a micromesh pad 2400 grit to polish the metal band on the shank and the face of the metal tenon. Once that was finished I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem.

I put the stem on the pipe and buffed it with Tripoli to remove the oxidation that would easily come off. Then I heated the 4 hole KW stinger with my heat gun and realigned the overturned stem. Once it cooled I took it back to the worktable to sand on the stem. I used 240 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and bring the surface back to a matter black. I was careful around the inserted KW emblem as they are fairly thin. I then used 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to finish the initial cleaning. Once the stem is fairly smooth, no tooth chatter, no more oxidation then I use the regimen of micromesh pads to sand it to a polished look. This time I added three new grits of pad to the process. I normally have used 1500-6000. This time I added 7000, 8000 and 12000 to the mix and the shine is remarkable. I finished by buffing it quickly and lightly with White Diamond and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba and the bowl several coats of Halcyon II Wax.

A Compendium of Methods for Cleaning Bowl Rims

This little Dr. Plumb Bulldog is a beauty

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This little pipe came to me via a friend in Germany. I finished cleaning up what has turned out to be a very nice squat straight bulldog that is stamped Dr. Plumb Extra on one side and 13 D.R.G.M. on the other. I have been familiar with Dr. Plumb pipes for quite a while and love the fact that they were a GBD seconds line. In fact they often share the same numbering system for shapes. This little guy had some serious issues when I took it under my wing. It needed a bit of work. The bowl was scorched along the front outer edge of the rim as it looked to have been lit with a torch lighter. The finish was shot and not only faded and washed out but also pitted and darkened along the bowl sides. The stem was oxidized and a bit chewed on the end. The stinger apparatus was dark and filled with tars and hardened tobacco oils.

My friend had started removing the burn mark and the bowl angles were slightly out or line. I finished removing the scorched briar and reworked the angles on all the outer edges of the bowl to keep the perspective and rim correct. I gave a ream and clean to remove any of the remaining cake and the sanding dust that had become embedded in the cracks in the cake. I put the bowl in the alcohol bath and then worked on the stem.

The pipe had the strangest stinger contraption I have ever seen that extends into the bottom of the bowl. It almost looks like a motorcycle exhaust pipe. I have inserted a few pictures of the stinger and fit in the bowl. I removed the stinger and placed in a small bowl of alcohol to soak. The stem was badly oxidized – not the brown oxidation that sat on the surface but a deep oxidation that left the stem a deep brown under the surface. I had been soaking the stem in Oxyclean while I worked on the burn on the rim of the bowl so that when I removed it from the water the oxidation had been brought to the surface. I used my buffer to remove the surface oxidation that had softened. I use Tripoli at this stage and work the stem carefully on the buffer to avoid rounding the shoulders on the stem. Then I sanded it with 240 grit sandpaper until it was matte black and clean. I then sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and water to remove the scratches. I finished the stem by sanding with the micromesh pads 1500-6000 grit until the stem had a sheen to it.

I then took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and dried it off. I sanded it with the 1800-2400 grit micromesh pads until the surface was free of scratches and grooves and was smooth. Then I refinished it with an oxblood aniline stain to bring out the red highlights in the briar. I put the stem back on the pipe and took it to the buffer to buff with White Diamond. Once finished I gave the whole pipe several coats of carnauba wax.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: