Tag Archives: Ben Wade Pipes

Restemming, Repairing and Reconditioning a Ben Wade Golden Walnut Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

When Mark sent me his uncle’s seven pipes to restore, he also sent several of his own pipes to be restored. The first pipe was the Italian made acorn with a sea rock style finish that I worked on earlier (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/01/20/breathing-new-life-into-an-italian-made-%c2%bc-bent-acorn/). The second pipe was a very nice looking Ben Wade Golden Walnut Freehand. It had some great grain on the sides, front and back. It had a flat area on the bottom of the bowl and could stand up without the stem. The shank end and the top of the rim had areas of plateau that were stained darker than the rest of the pipe. It is stamped on the underside of the shank Ben Wade over Golden Walnut. Underneath that it is stamped Hand Made in Denmark. The briar was dirty and there was grime into the grooves and crevices on the plateau top and end of the shank. There was grime and oils ground into the sides of the bowl and shank. The original stem with the broken tenon came in the bag that he sent the pipe in. It had snapped off cleanly at the flare in the stem. The stem itself was oxidized and had tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. There were scratches around the golden crown on the top of the stem. The crown was faded and worn. I decided I was going to try to put a new tenon on the original stem so I dropped it in the Before & After Deoxidizer bath to soak. I figured it would be easier to work on cleaned up. I added it to the photo after I took the photo below but it sat with the rest of the stems from the uncle’s pipes in the soak over night.While the original stem soaked I worked on an acrylic stem that Mark had chosen. I had sent him a photo of several options and he liked the brown and cream swirled acrylic. I used the PIMO tenon turner to reduce the diameter of the tenon to fit in the shank. It did not take too much to remove the excess material. The photos below show the stem on the tenon turner and the finished stem after turning.I took the stem out of the bath and rinsed it under warm water and rubbed it down with a coarse cloth to remove the oxidation. I took a photo of the two stems and the bowl to get a send of how the stem would look.I inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway and used a heat gun to soften the stem enough that I could bend it. I bent it at the same angle as the original stem. I cooled it with running water to set the bend in the stem. The photos below show the process and the final bent stem. I took some photos of the pipe with the new stem in place. The colour and the shape look good with Ben Wade. With the new stem fitted it was time to work on the cleanup of the briar. I worked on the insides of the bowl and shank to remove the tars and oils. I scraped out the inside of the mortise with a pen knife to remove the buildup in that area. I cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and rim with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the buildup of grime and oils in the briar and in the plateau areas of the shank and rim top. I rinsed it off the pipe under running water and scrubbed it under the water flow. I dried it off with a cotton cloth and buffed it lightly to raise a shine. I sanded the buildup on the inner edge of the rim on the back of the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the tars that remained in those areas. I polished the rim top with 3200-6000 grit pads.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my finger tips to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the wood. I worked the balm into the plateau on the rim top and the end of the shank to polish the cleaned up area. I buffed the pipe with a horsehair shoe shine brush to get it into the grooves of the plateau. I let it sit for a few minutes and then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The grain in the wood came alive and there was a rich shine to the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. Ah now I was making progress. I had finished the acrylic stem and the cleaning and polishing of the bowl. It was time to address the original stem and see if I could put a new tenon on the freehand stem. I used the topping board to flatten the broken end of the stem using 220 grit sandpaper. I set up my cordless drill, put in a bit that was slightly larger than the airway in the stem. I slowly drilled the airway larger. I slowly moved up to larger bits to make the opening the same size as the threaded end of the new Delrin tenon.I used a needle file to clean up the opening in the end of the stem and even out the sides so that when the new tenon was in place it would align all the way around. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to take down the threads on the end of the new tenon to fit right in the hole. I did not want to drill it further and affect the structure of the stem. Once the threads were smoothed out slightly, it fit in nicely. I had to be careful in drilling the stem to not go to deep and drill through the top or underside of the stem. I also reduced the diameter of the rest of the tenon with the Dremel and sanding drum to fit in the mortise of the pipe.I pushed the tenon into the shank and smoothed out the transition between it and the rest of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. Once I had it smooth I glued the tenon in the stem with super glue.I inserted the tenon into the stem a little less than previously to match the length of the original tenon. I mixed a batch of charcoal powder and super glue to fill in the gap between the new tenon and the stem.When the repair had cured I used a rasp and file to smooth out the repair to the connection. I sanded the repaired area with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper and was able to make the transition taper correctly. It would take more sanding but you can see the progress in the next photos. I worked over the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I polished out the sanding scratches and marks in the vulcanite and the rebuilt tenon area – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiping it down with Obsidian Oil. After the 2400 grit pad I applied some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold gold to the crown stamp on the top of the stem. I rubbed it on and off leaving the gold in the stamping. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. When I finished with the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry. Once it had dried, I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed it down with final coat Obsidian Oil and took the following pictures. Since I had polished the bowl and the acrylic stem I decided to put it all together. I took photos of the finished pipe with the acrylic stem. The golds, browns and cream coloured swirls work well with the grain on the briar. The old Ben Wade Hand Made Golden Walnut looks good with a different kind of stem. It will give Mark an option to have both an acrylic and the original stem to choose from – almost like having two different pipes. Here are the photos of the pipe with the acrylic stem. I finished the repairs on the original stem, repaired and polished it. I put it back on the pipe and buffed the entire pipe again with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The new stem and the original stem looked good to me and the bend was just right. The bowl polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown with the original stem in the photos below. I will be adding to Mark’s package along with his uncle’s pipes when I have finished all of them and send it to him shortly. Thanks for looking.

Rejuvenating a Made in Leeds, England Ben Wade Natural Grain Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

This little Ben Wade Lovat is the fourth pipe of the lot from Eastern Canada that I am restoring for a pipe man from there who sent it to me. It is stamped on the left side of the shank BEN WADE over Natural Grain and on the right side of the shank it reads Made in Leeds over England and a shape number 20 V near the bowl shank junction. The finish was natural and either unstained or stained with a light tan stain. The grain is quite good on the pipe. The rim is in rough shape from having been knocked on hard surfaces to remove the dottle. There were dents, dings and roughening. The bowl was slightly out of round. The stem was good quality vulcanite and has light oxidation at the joint of the stem and shank. There was tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and bottom side near the button.ben1 ben2I took some close up photos of the rim and the stem. You can see the damage to the outer and inner edges of the rim as well as dents in the rim top. The cake has been poorly reamed from the bowl and there were some gouges in the briar walls that will need to be sanded out. The stem photos show the tooth chatter and marks as well as the small band of oxidation next to the shank.ben3 ben4I have always heard that the Ben Wade Company made quality English made pipes prior to its purchase by Herman Lane but I did not have any idea of the history of the brand. I did a bit of research on it and found the following helpful information on Pipedia. The link follows the quoted portion.

The company was founded by Benjamin Wade in 1860 in Leeds, Yorkshire, where it was located for over a century. Ben Wade started as a pipe trader, but yet in the 1860’s he established a workshop to produce briar pipes. The pipes were made in very many standard shapes – always extensively classic and “very British”. Many models tended to be of smaller dimensions. Ben Wade offered a very high standard of craftsmanship and quality without any fills. Thus the pipes were considered to be high grade and a major competitor to other famous English brands. The often heard comparison to Charatan seems to be a little bit inadequate because those days’ Charatans were entirely handmade.

In the II World War the factory was destroyed by German air raids on Leeds. But the Ben Wade family decided to re-build it immediately after the war and pipe production was re-started soon and successfully linked to the fame from the pre-war years. Even though the owner family decided to leave pipe business and sell off the firm. The family went into negotiations with Herman G. Lane, president of Lane Ltd. in New York at about the same time as the Charatan family. Lane Ltd. bought both firms in 1962.

Herman G. Lane had been Charatan’s US sole distributor since 1955 and Charatan always remained his pet child. But Ben Wade was treated in another way by its new owner. The fabrication of pipes was reduced and the factory in Leeds was closed in 1965 finally.

So this was the end of Ben Wade pipes stamped “Made in Leeds, England”. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wade

The pipe I was working on was stamped “Made in Leeds, England” thus effectively dating it to the period the company was owned by the family. I know that it was made before the closing of the factory in 1965. So I had the last date it could have been made. Judging from the age of the rest of the auction lot my guess would be that this pipe also came from the 1930s. The style and cut of the stem leads me to place it in that period.

I cleaned up the reaming in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and took the cake back to bare wood. It took some work to smooth out the gouges in the bowl walls. I was able to remove many of them leaving only a remnant behind. I wrapped a dowel with sandpaper and sanded the bowl walls after I had reamed it.ben4a ben5To remove the damage to the rim edges and the top I topped the bowl on the topping board. I did a minimal topping to just even things out and clean up the surface.ben6I scrubbed the bowl surface with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and oils that were embedded in the bowl sides. I wanted to get the briar clean so I could retain the natural finish.ben7 ben8I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to give the inside rim a light bevel to bring the bowl back into round. I also used in on the outside edge to soften it.ben9With the bowl clean I lightly sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to take out the scratches and smooth out the finish. I sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads as well. When I had finished sanding it I wiped it down with a last wipe of alcohol on a cotton pad in preparation for giving it a light coat of oil. I rubbed the bowl down with olive oil and polished it by hand.ben10 ben11I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the entire stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth chatter. I “painted” the tooth marks in the stem with a lighter flame until they lifted. I sanded the damaged areas with the sandpaper until the surfaces were smooth and showed no more sign of tooth damage.ben12I wet sanded the saddle portion of the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then used Rub ‘n Buff European Gold to fill in the portions of the BW stamp that still showed on the stem surface.ben13I cleaned out the interior of the mortise and the airways in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they were no longer dirty and oily. As you can see from the photos below it took a few swabs and cleaners to get to that point.ben14I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After the final rubdown with oil I set the stem aside to dry.ben15 ben16 ben17Once the oil had dried I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It came out quite nice with the grain popping through over the bowl and shank. The pipe will soon join the others in the lot on the return trip to Eastern Canada. Thanks for looking.ben18 ben19 ben20 ben21 ben22 ben23 ben24 ben25

 

Restoring a Ben Wade Danish Hand Model Free Hand 400

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Blog by Steve Laug

The latest pipe that I have on the work table was a beautifully grained Ben Wade Danish Hand Model 400 free hand. It has some amazing flame and straight grain all the way around the bowl. The flat bottom of the bowl has some great birdseye grain. There is plateau on the top of the bowl and on the end of the shank. There appeared to be a smooth inner rim that had been covered with tars and oils. The plateau on the rim was oily and tarry. The valleys were basically filled in and the rough beauty of plateau was hidden under the grime. The smooth bowl sides were dirty with dark spots where hand oil and grime had been rubbed into the finish. Fortunately there were not any dents or scratches on the briar.Ben1

Ben2 The stem was Lucite and quite thick. There were tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button and there was some calcification on the stem top next to the button. The airway in the stem was partially closed off and there was not much airflow being drawn through the stem. The shank airway was also closed partially with oils and tars. The bowl had been reamed before it came to me and was quite clean.Ben3

Ben4 The next two photos are close up pictures of the stem and the bite marks. The first shows the calcification next to the button and the slight damage to the inside button edge. The tooth mark is visible just ahead of the white line on the stem. The stem was also lack luster and the shine was gone. The second photo shows the underside of the stem. It was slightly wavy like it had been pushed to heavily into the buffing wheel. There was a small tooth mark in the same spot as on the upper side of the stem.Ben5

Ben6 I decided to address the issues with the stem first. I used a straightened paper clip bent to the angle of the stem to push through the airway. Pushing from the slot I was unable to get the wire through the airway. I pushed it through from the tenon and a large chunk of tars and pipe cleaner detritus came out of the button. I worked the wire around in the airway to clean the sides and remove any other build up. It appeared to be at the bend in the stem. I then used pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to clean out the airway and remove the remaining tars and oils in the stem and tenon.

I sanded the tooth marks on the topside and underside of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until I had removed the damaged area. I also wanted to thin the thick Lucite slightly as there was plenty of material to work with. I sanded with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and see if I had removed the mark. It took repeated sanding with the three grits of sanding material to remove the remnants of the tooth marks.Ben7

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Ben9 I continued to sand with the fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches and then sanded the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. Once I had finished with the sandpaper I used micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between the grits in order to provide the medium for the micromesh to cut better. When I finished I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond plastic polish on the buffing wheel and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax.Ben10

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Ben12 I set aside the stem so that I could work on the bowl. When the bowl was finished I would buff the two parts together and also give them another coat of wax. I used a soft bristle brass white wall brush to work on the buildup on the rim and plateau. It was quite thick on the inner edge of the rim. I have learned over time that the tar coat really protects the briar underneath. Once I had removed the tars I would see that.Ben13 I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and oils that were all over the surface. I used cotton pads to scrub the bowl.Ben14 Once I had removed the grime I washed the exterior of the bowl with running water to remove the soap. The photos below show the clean bowl of the pipe.Ben15

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Ben18 I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I wiped down the plateau with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove any remaining dust in preparation for staining.Ben21 I stained all of the plateau areas with a black aniline stain and flamed it. I repeated the process until the coverage was thorough. When it had dried I hand buffed the plateau with a shoe brush until the high points shone and the valleys were slightly darker.Ben22 I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond and then gave the bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine on the bowl and stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Thanks for looking.Ben23

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A Restart into the World of Pipes

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After birth of my firstborn daughter, when I was 30, I picked up the pipe again for the first time in about 10 years. My first foray back into pipes was to buy a cheap Medico Brylon pipe, Medico filters, pipe cleaners and some Borkum Riff from a local 7-Eleven in Escondido, California. (Some of you may well remember the days when the local convenience store sold both pipes and pipe tobacco and had them readily displayed for convenience. Some of you may have missed those good days.) It did not take long before I began to start looking for a different pipe. I visited local Tinderbox stores and did not find one that struck my fancy. Mind you it was 1982 and I was not into the traditional shaped pipes and some of the freehand shapes just did not do it for me either. One day I happened on a little shop in Vista, California just across the street from where I was working. I stopped by on my lunch hour one day and got engaged in a great conversation with the older gentleman who was smoking a pipe was sitting behind the till. He said he was the owner of the shop and that his name was Bill. (He was probably about the age I am now, but when I was 30 everyone looked older in my mind.)

We talked during that lunch hour about the kind of tobacco I smoked and the pipes I had. I told him I had only smoked the tobaccos I had purchased through drugstores, grocery stores and convenience stores. That limited the tobacs to Sail, Borkum Riff, Velvet, Half and Half, Sir Walter Raleigh, Prince Albert and Mixture 79. He laughed and said I had not really smoked anything that he would consider worth the time. They were staple tobaccos but I needed to try something of better quality and fuller flavour. He introduced me to some of the better bulk tobaccos that he had available and gave me some sample of Virginia and Virginia and Perique blends to try. I was hooked and quickly quit buying the Borkum Riff. I also tried a nice toasted Cavendish that became my go to blend for quite a while.

I showed him my little Medico Brylon billiard and I have to give him credit, he did not mock it or laugh when he saw it. He asked me some questions about whether it burned hot or wet. He talked about caring for the pipe and keeping it clean. He showed me how to pack the pipe and tamp it. All things I had learned before but things he wanted to make sure I understood. After all of that he introduced me to the world of estate pipes. He had a display case filled with a wide range of pipes of all brands and shapes. I wish I knew then what I have learned since because I remember that the pipes he had were well maintained and restored. I went through many of them and in the course of our conversation he talked about how briar would smoke better than the Brylon I currently smoked.

He asked me a price range of pipes I might be interested in. I was not sure so I gave the price as $25-40 would work for me. After all I had spent $5.95 on the Medico. He again did not laugh or shake his head in disbelief. Rather he put about 6 different pipes on the top of the display case for me to look at in that range. He walked me through the information on each pipe and showed me the condition of them and any issues that they may have had. He said I would need at least two pipes in order to give ample time for them to rest between smokes/days. Added to the little Medico that would give me a rotation of three pipes and that was a good start. I sorted through the lot that he had put up for me to look at and chose two pipes. The first was a Ben Wade – Preben Holm freehand. It had a great blast finish and felt really good in the hand. It was broken in well but Bill had reamed the cake back to a thin coating on the bowl. The stem was buffed to a shiny polish and the pipe truly looked new to me. The plateau top was great and I loved the look of it. The second one was a little Alpha, Israeli made pipe that had a more classic look to it. I am not sure of the shape of it to this day. The stem was a simple saddle bit with a denture stem on it. That is where the name Alpha Comfit came from. This was also very clean and ready to smoke. (I have since had the stem replaced. I sent out to Lee Von Erck in Northern Michigan, USA and he did the stem for me about 15 or more years ago).

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Ben Wade – Preben Holm

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Alpha Comfit

Both of these pipes are still in my collection and have provided many years of fine smoking pleasure for me. They have darkened over the years and have a nice patina to them now. They are pipes that I frequently pick up in my rotation because they always deliver. The photos above show the two pipes as they are today. I should polish and buff the stems a bit to remove the tooth chatter and oxidation.