Tag Archives: an experiment in replacing putty fills in briar

Cleaning up a Peterson’s Made Republic Era Irish Second Rhodesian

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from Ebay 2017 and it has been sitting here for a long time. It is a nicely grained Irish Second Rhodesian with a tapered vulcanite stem. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads IRISH SECONDS. On the right side it is stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland. Irish Seconds were a Peterson’s second line that usually did not make the grade because of flaws in the briar or sandpits. This is another nicer piece of briar than I have seen on some of the firsts I have worked on. The finish had a lot of grime ground into the smooth finish on the bowl and some darkening around the sides of the bowl. The bowl was heavily caked in the lower half of the bowl and thinner toward the top. There was a light lava coat and darkening on the inner edge of the rim. The edges looked okay but we would know more after the cleanup. There were a few sandpits and nicks around the sides of the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. There were not markings or a logo on the taper stem. The pipe showed promise but it was very dirty. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and the condition of the rim top and edges. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification and chatter and tooth marks. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar around the pipe looked like. There is some great grain under the grime. He took photos of the stamping on the shank. It reads as noted above and is clear and readable. I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

I knew that I was dealing with a Republic Era pipe made between 1950-1989. It was a smooth bent Rhodesian with nice grain. The finish was stained with a combination of brown stains. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. The rim top and inner edge of the rim showed some damage. The inner edge of the bowl was roughened and showed some darkening. The rim top also showed some damage. The stem surface looked good with some remaining oxidation and tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The stem is short and tapered. I decided to start my work on the pipe by cleaning up the damaged rim top and inner edge. I reworked the edge and top with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper. Once I finished the rim and edges looked much better.I moved next to repairing the damaged fills on the underside of the shank and the back side of the rim cap. I filled them in with clear super glue and briar dust. Once it cured I sanded them smooth and blended them into the surrounding briar. I polished the bowl and the rim top, sides and shank with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I filled in tooth marks in the stem surface with clear super glue. Once the repairs cured I used a rasp and a file to recut the button edge and flatten out the repairs. I sanded out the file marks and smoothed out the rest of the repair with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Peterson’s made Irish Second Rhodesian with a vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. There is some great grain around the bowl and shank. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Irish Second Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 56gr/1.94oz. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

The Ongoing Experiment of Fill Replacement – Wood Glue and Stained Briar Dust

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Over the past few years I have been experimenting with many different materials to use for fill replacement. I started with various wood putties that were supposed to be stainable and found that all did not take stain well enough to blend well with briar. I tried super glue and briar dust and found that the repair was more acceptable – instead of the pink, tan or white of putty I was left with a very dark repair. The super glue and briar dust dried almost black. I tried wood glue and briar dust with much the same result. I fiddled with the proportions of the mixture and with the kind of glues. I tried Gorilla Glue, Krazy Glue and Super Glue from Stewmac. All of them ended up with a dark patch. I got used to working with that and using stains and contrast to blend the fill into the finish – generally it was still present but less intrusive to the eye.

I was gifted two old pipe bowls that would be great pieces to continue the experiment on. They both had large fills on the bowl. The first was a pot shaped piece with relatively good grain all the way around the bowl. On the right side of the bowl was a large fill. I took several photos of it to try to capture it. It was a tan coloured material and stuck out like a sore spot to my eye. The bowl was dirty and covered with a thick coat of varnish. I reamed the bowl and worked at picking out the fill with a dental pick. Once I had removed the top coat of the fill it was white hard putty that was impermeable. There was no way that the stain would penetrate that putty. I picked the fill until I got down to the bottom of the fill. I cleaned up the area with acetone on a cotton pad. Once I had the hole completely cleaned of the white putty the briar underneath was raw and unstained. For this experiment I decided to try something I had not used before. I used a small mixing cup I have in the work cupboard and put in a small mound of briar dust. I collect the briar dust when I top a bowl or from when I am carving a pipe. I have used briar dust for the repairs for a long time but never tried staining the dust before using it in the patch. This time I used an ear syringe to drop some aniline stain into briar dust. I used Fiebings Dark Brown stain this time. I mixed it with the saw dust to get a dark dust. I mixed it in with a cotton swab and the end of a dental pick to get the stain and saw dust all mixed. The result was the colour of coffee grounds. I will have to try the same mixing with various stains to see if the result will vary at a later date. I have wood glue that I regularly use here that is labeled Weldbond. It is the same make up as Elmers Glueall – a white glue that dries clear. It is not a liquid but the same consistency as Elmers. I added the glue to the stained briar dust and stirred it in with the dental pick. The result was a clumping of the briar dust around the glue. I kneaded the briar dust and glue until the clumps were well mixed. When I was finished I had a small soft ball of briar dust and glue that had a paste like consistency. It was not dry but quite tacky or sticky. I took a small piece of the doughy ball and pressed it into the hole in the side of the bowl. I pushed it into the crevices of the hole with the dental pick until the hole was solidly filled with the mixture. At this point it was slightly darker than the stain on the bowl. I cleaned up the new fill with the end of the dental pick and feathered it out to make the surface smooth. I overfilled the repair to allow for shrinkage as the glue mixture dried. I let the patch dry overnight. In the morning it was solid and hard to the touch. I tested it with the end of the dental pick to make sure that it was dry all the way through and not just on the surface of the repair. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad avoiding contact with the patch but removing the varnish coat. I also topped the bowl. I wanted to check the rim to see if the hole had any “tentacles” reaching the rim. There was a small pit the size of a pen tip but it was solid so I left it alone. I sanded the bowl patch with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and blend it into the bowl surface. The patch was very hard so it took quite a bit of sanding to smooth it out. I used 150 grit sandpaper and was finally able to remove the majority of the excess. It left the surface scratched but sanding it with higher grit sandpaper would take care of that. In the photo below the size of the patch is clearly shown. It is still dark brown in colour. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. That further cleaned up the repair. I needed to address the scratches in the briar so I sanded it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper and then wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. Once the surface was smooth and polished I used the same dark brown aniline stain on the bowl. I applied the stain and flamed it, repeating the process until I had an even coat on the entire bowl. The stain at that point was too opaque to my liking so I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to lighten the finish coat. The patch remained darker than the bowl at this point in the process but it was still dark brown and not black. I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and then White Diamond to polish it. The patch still stood out but was dark brown rather than the light tan it had been to begin with. The photo below shows the patch after buffing and polishing. The surface looks to be pitted but is smooth to the touch and is flush with the surface of the briar. I sanded the bowl further with 4000-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I gave the bowl a finish coat of walnut stain Danish Oil. The photo below shows the patch before buffing and polishing. It is by no means hidden or blended into the finish. In viewing the end result of the patch using the wood glue, stain and briar dust I have to say that overall experiment failed in terms of making a matching patch. The dark brown stain created a dark brown patch that is hard to blend into the stain. It is more visible than the black patch left behind by the mix of superglue and briar dust. I want to further experiment with lighter stains and wood glue and see if I can make the patch lighter in colour. That might facilitate blending it into the finish better.