Tag Archives: bite marks

Restoring a No-Name Bent Rhodesian

7 Replies

Blog by Aaron Henson

Still being relatively new to the pipe collecting/restoration hobby I have been a bit selective when it comes to the pipe I purchase. I typically look for shapes that have visual or tactile appeal and pay little attention to the name on the stem. And in that line of thought, ever since seeing the GBD 4292 for the first time I have wanted a pipe of this shape. So when I came across this no-name bent Rhodesian on eBay, I quickly placed a bid.Aaron1 It’s not that there were no markings on this pipe. The left side was stamped with STANDARD on the shank and a white 5-point star on the stem. The right side of the shank was stamped with Bruyère in script over Garantie.

A week later the package arrived in the mail and happily, the pipe was just as described and there were no surprise chips or cracks that the seller forgot to mention in the advertisement.Aaron2

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Aaron5 Stummel Inspection
The grain was very nice with some birds eye on the right side and a kind of flame grain on the left. There was some minor denting on the heel but the only real wood flaw was a large fill on the left side The color of the fill did not blend well with the grain and it detracted from look of the pipe. Around the rim there was some chipping and charring; damage not uncommon in a used pipe. The only other major issue that I found was the that the twin groves around the bowl were not very deep and had been worn completely away on the right side.

Stem Inspection
The stem was in very good shape. There were some tooth marks on the bottom side of the stem with moderate oxidation overall. The singer was removable and had a modest build up of tar. The biggest issue with the stem was the loose fit to the stummel – which didn’t become apparent until after the shank was cleaned.

During the inspection I decided to change the stain and finish of the pipe in order to highlight the grain and camouflage the large patch. So I began by setting the stummel to soak in 95% isopropyl alcohol to remove finish and loosen the tars and cake. I set the stem to soak in the same solution in a different container for the same reasons.Aaron6 After an overnight soak, I began cleaning the stem with pipe cleaners, running them through until they came out clean. To address the oxidation, I placed a small dab of petroleum jelly over the star and set the stem to soak in a solution of 50/50 chlorine bleach and water. After 20 minutes – when the bubbles had subsided – I rolled the stem over in the solution and let it go another 20 minutes. Then I removed from the bath, rinsed with fresh water and set the stem aside to dry.Aaron7 I didn’t get back to the work bench right away, so after a 36 hour soak, I removed the stummel from its alcohol bath and wiped it dry. I then reamed the bowl with 40 grit sand paper wrapped around a ½” diameter dowel (although this method works well, I did finally order a Castelford pipe reamer from Amazon). Once the cake was removed and the chamber cleaned, I went to work on the shank. Pipe cleaners and cotton swabs removed the remaining gunk inside the shank.

The chips and charring around the rim could only be cleaned up by topping the bowl. I use a sheet of 220 grit sandpaper laid on a flat surface and worked the stummel around in the circular motion. Even pressure and constant checking ensured that the rim was flat and level. I didn’t get the deepest chips because I was concerned that anymore material off the top would change the look of the pipe. Looking back now, I could have filled these chips with a briar dust patch. Maybe I will go back and do that this fall.

I sanded the remainder of the bowl with 320 – particularly around the large filled area and decided that the fill was in good shape and not worth removing. The fill proved to be of a darker color and that went along with my finishing plans.

The parallel grooves around the bowl were next on the list. On the right side they had worn away until they were barely visible. I went to my local hardware store and searched through the saw blades until I found what I was after: a thin fine toothed mini-hacksaw blade that just fit the width of the existing grooves. I trimmed the end of the blade with shears so I would have more clearance around the shank. Using the existing groves as a guide, I carefully worked my way around the bowl deepening and redefining the grooves. As usual, I found that not rushing yielded the bet results.Aaron8

Aaron9 Returning to the stem, I tried applying heat to raise the tooth mark but that did not answer. So I roughened the tooth marks with 320 grit paper and fill of the divot with black superglue in multiple thin layers, letting the glue dry completely (12 hours) between layers. Once the final layer of superglue was dry, I feathered out the patch with 320 grit paper. Then I began the sanding/polishing process by wet sanding with 400 – 4000 grit paper stopping every few grits to dry the stem and apply a light coat of mineral oil. I didn’t touch the star on the stem until I got to the 2000 grit paper not wanting to damage the logo. Once I finished polishing the stem with 6000 – 12000 grit paper I oiled the stem and set it aside.

I wanted to provide some contract to the grain of the pipe and to make the grooves really stand out. The original grooves did not have a contrasting color. I began with a coat of Black Fiebing’s leather dye. In retrospect, I should have thinned it down some.Aaron10 After the stain dried, I had a difficult time removing it. Acetone wipes and eventually light sanding removed most of the dye but left enough to highlighting the grain.Aaron11 I wanted a little more color so I applied a 3:1 diluted coat of Fiebing’s Ox Blood dye. This had the result of giving the pipe a pink hue that had me more than a little concerned. Happily, it all came together with multiple thin coats of olive oil. I left the oil on the stummel until it soaked in and then applied the second and third coats. The third coat did not soak in, so I wiped in clean and set it aside to rest for a couple of days.Aaron12 Before taking the pipe to the buffing wheel and thought I would address the loose stem. I tried bee’s wax, which has worked in the past, but the stem remained too loose. After a little research I heated the tenon over the heat gun and then inserted a nail set into the air hole and let the tenon cool. This technique only enlarges the end of the tenon rather than the full length of the tenon, which is a better repair. I went through the heating/cooling process several times until I got a snug but not tight fit. Another thing to be aware of when heating the tenon is that the softened tenon may ‘sag’ a little. If this happens, then you may be left with a little gap between the stem and shank.

From here, I assembled the pipe and took it to the buffing wheel. I use an inexpensive Sears buffing system that fits into the chuck of my drill press. I found on previous projects that gearing down the drill speed to 1200 rpms was important to maintain control and not overheat the pipe. I finished with three coats of carnauba wax and buffed to a shine.Aaron13

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Bringing New Life to a Weber Blackthorne 370 Poker

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Blog by Troy Wilburn

I acquired this Weber Poker off Ebay with a “Best Offer” bid. Although I got other pokers made by Weber (Webco, Jobey, Wally Frank) I did not have one stamped Weber, so I added this to my American Poker Collection.Frank1

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Frank3 It had a crack on the bottom which in my “Best Offer” bid I noted my concern over it and got the pipe for much less than the amount they wanted.Frank4

Frank5 The pipe was pretty dirty and the cake was set like concrete.Frank6 After getting cake out and shank cleaned I stripped off the old wax and grime.Frank7 I dug out all the trash from the crack with a sewing needle. I was thinking this damage was from abuse from a smoker. I dug out old filler so I think it may have come from factory with it.Frank8 After cleaning out crack I taped it up with some packing tape.Frank9 I then filled it with glue and briar dust and hit it with a file when dried.Frank10

Frank11 I mixed up a thin color match to the factory color and applied a couple of coats.Frank12 After a soak in Oxy Clean I worked on stem. The owner had teeth like a house cat. All were small round and deep. What a pain they were. I haven’t done a Cherrywood Poker in a while and I had forgotten what a chore it was doing these thin little saddle bits.Frank13 I colored in the Weber emblem with black sharpie to be taken off when I buffed it.Frank14 After the dye dried I scuffed it with a Scotch Brite pad and mineral oil to highlight the blast.Frank15 Here is the finished pipe, buffed and waxed.Frank16

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Frank23 I had a hard time getting a picture of stamping and repair on bottom of bowl with the glare. This was best out of several attempts.Frank24 Now it’s time to try this ol gal out with some Dark Strong Kentucky:). Frank25

Midterm Exam #4: Re-Refurbishing an Unknown Bulldog

9 Replies

Blog by Anthony Cook

It’s time for the fourth and final midterm exam! This one is an “unknown” bent bulldog that I picked up from eBay. I snagged it because I liked the shape and it was cheap. What I didn’t know at the time, but became immediately apparent when the pipe arrived, was that the end of the shank had been shattered into at least three pieces and glued back together. There was no stamping on the pipe, but I don’t think that was always the case. It was likely sacrificed during the shank repair. The repair is fairly obvious in my photos below, but I assure you that it was not nearly so in the seller’s. The right combination of lighting and angles can cover up a multitude of sins, folks. Caveat emptor.

The exposed cracks weren’t the worst part of the story though. The repair did as much damage to the pipe as the crack did. An alarming amount of material had been taken off while sanding out the excess glue. It’s difficult to see in the photos, because from any one angle everything looked correct. However, if you held the pipe in hand and rolled it around you would notice that no two faces on the shank were equal. The shank was no longer a diamond shape; it was a trapezium. The repairman hadn’t paid much attention to keeping the surfaces level either. So, there was a subtle undulation to the line of the shank as it went from thick to thin and back again several times along its length. There was also very little effort made to blend the repaired area into the rest of the pipe, and several shallow “steps” were visible where the two surfaces met. There was at least an attempt to match up the stem to the shank, but that only gave the stem the same odd angles and even they didn’t quite match up to the ones on the shank. All in all, it was a bit of a travesty. Here are a few photos taken just after it arrived.Anthony1

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Anthony3 That was all far more than my tender, noobie hands could handle at the time. So, I cleaned the internals of the pipe and put it away for later, but not before adding a bit of bend to the stem that it seemed to have lost over time.
I’ve finished up work on all the rest of the pipes in that first batch. So, this week it was time to put a collar on that dog and turn in my final midterm.

I started (or restarted I should say) by dropping the stummel into an alcohol bath for a couple of hours to soften any coating that might be on the pipe. I had quite a surprise when I removed it later on. It looked fine when it was fresh from the bath, but a hazy, white glaze began to form on the surface as it dried. I hadn’t seen anything like this before and I’ll admit to a brief moment of panic. I assumed that this was probably the result of some type of coating reacting to the alcohol. So, I wiped the stummel down with acetone taking extra care around the shank repair, since acetone will break down superglue. That did the trick and the stummel cleaned up nicely.Anthony4 I set up the retort to see if I could remove any more tar buildup from the pipe. I flushed the shank about 10 times with boiling alcohol before allowing the pipe to cool. I noticed that the vial appeared to be losing a lot of liquid during the retort. The cotton wasn’t discolored. So, it wasn’t gassing out through the bowl. It really had me scratching my head until I saw a spot of moisture on the shank when I was removing the retort. For some reason, it wasn’t sealing well at the mortise and I’d need to look into that before I went much further.Anthony5 I gave the pipe a post-retort scrub of the stem and shank, and then inspected the crack repair for gaps. The surface of the glue joints looked airtight, but I noticed that the glue hadn’t penetrated very deep. The joints left shallow fissures inside the mortise and along the shank face. I used a small pushpin to place a little super-thin CA glue directly into the fissures, and then used a toothpick to apply a thin layer of the CA around the end of the mortise to create a seal inside as well as out.

When the glue was dry, I sanded out the interior patches with sanding needles and a piece of 400-grit sandpaper wrapped around a small dowel. I refaced the shank on my topping surface in a manner similar to how I would top a bowl (pressing lightly into the paper and using a circular motion). The following pictures show the patches when fresh and after they had been sanded out. You can also get some idea of the irregularities in the shank by comparing the differences in the face angles and wall thickness around the mortise.Anthony6 After that, I reattached the stem and ran a retort through it again to test for leaks. The outside of the stem and shank stayed dry as a bone through the whole process. So, I began addressing the pipe’s cosmetic issues.

I lightly topped the bowl and chamfered the inner rim to remove the scratches and dings. Then, I steamed a few dents out of the finish by pressing a screwdriver that had been heated over a tea candle into a wet cloth placed over the dents. Finally, I used CA glue and briar dust to patch a few, small gouges and missing fills and sanded them out with 220-grit and 320-grit sandpaper.Anthony7 While I worked on the stummel, the stem had been soaking in an Oxyclean bath. I removed it and scrubbed it down with a Magic Eraser to remove any oxidation. I used black CA glue to fill the tooth dents on the top and bottom of the stem. Once that had dried I sanded it down with 220-grit paper.Anthony8 The stem button needed to be rebuilt since it was worn and dented. I wrapped several layers of clear tape around the stem just below the button to create a form to make a crisp edge and also inserted a Vaseline smeared wedge of cardboard into the slot to seal it. Then, I applied thick, black CA glue in several layers to the end of the stem to begin building the new button. It wasn’t a pretty thing to look at when I removed the tape, but the edge was sharp and there was enough material to work with. I trimmed away the glue artifacts created by the tape molding with an X-Acto blade and rough-shaped the new button with 220-grit paper.Anthony9 Once the button started taking shape, it was time to do something about the other end of the stem and also the deformity of the shank. This was the part of the exam that I had not been looking forward to. Up to this point, everything had been the equivalent to multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions. There were a couple of challenges, but nothing too rough. The next part was more like the essay section.

After a lot of thought, I finally decided that there just wasn’t enough material left around the stem to square everything back up. So, I thought I’d try some trickery of my own. If I couldn’t make everything right, maybe I could use a little more finesse and subtlety than the original repairman did to make it at least look “righter”. If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

I used 220-grit sandpaper to start carefully nudging the edges of the shank and stem saddle this way and that to give them an appearance of alignment. All the while I paid special attention to keep the faces as level and even as I could. There was very little technical skill involved. I was basically just freehanding. Once I had corrected the lines as much as I could, I began blending the reworked areas into the rest of the pipe with 320-grit. The photo below shows the progress somewhere early in the reshaping phase. Honestly, I was at this for a while and kind of lost myself in the middle of it. So, I didn’t get many photos.Anthony10 When I was as satisfied as I was likely to be with the shape of the shank and saddle, I went back to work on the rest of the stem to finish it up. I continued shaping the button with 320-grit and 400-grit paper. Then, I smoothed the entire surface by lightly sanding with 600-grit and 1200-grit paper. Finally, I polished the stem with micro-mesh pads 1500-12000.Anthony11 The stem work was wrapped up. So, it was time to do the same for the stummel. The off-kilter shape of the shank made it difficult to find a band that would fit well. It took three attempts before I found one that would work. I used a method for shaping a round band for the diamond shank similar to what Steve has previously written about here, but it took quite a bit of reworking to get it to conform to the now strange dimensions of the shank. I’m still not quite happy with how it fits, but I’m not sure what I could have done differently.Anthony12 There was nothing left to do at that point but to address the finish of the stummel. I wanted the final color to be close to the original but a little darker to help hide the bit of crack repair that was still visible. I heated the stummel over the heat gun to open the grain and then applied Fiebing’s black dye to the stummel. I then sanded down the surface with 400-grit paper to remove the remaining scratches and most of the black stain, except for what had set in the grain and recesses of the rings. Next, I applied a mahogany stain before sanding with 600-grit and 1200-grit paper. I took the stummel to the buffer and gave it a quick Tripoli buff, and then applied a final stain of British Tan.

The stummel was polished with micro-mesh pads starting with 3600-grit and working through to 12000-grit. I then buffed the entire pipe with white diamond compound and gave it several coats of carnauba wax to finish it up.

I leaned back in my chair and checked the clock on the wall. There were only minutes to go and most of the other seats were already empty. I had to admit that this was really as good as it was going to get. So, with a sigh, I stood up from my chair, gathered my exam materials, and delivered them to the desk at the front of the room…Anthony13

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NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 7 –Restoring a Kirsten K – Companion Generation 2

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the seventh pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. Once again all funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal.

It is a Kirsten metal pipe with a briar Dublin bowl. It is stamped on the left side of the shank, Kirsten in a cursive script. On the underside it is stamped Made in U.S.A. – K. These pipes were made for a long period of time in the Seattle, Washington area of the US. They came in four generations or iterations – Generation 1, 1.5, 2 and 3. The stamping on this one, the absence of a metal cap to hold the bowl, and the presence of the rubber O rings on the metal valve and on the stem insert, point to it being a Generation 1.5 pipe or a transitional one.

Documentation that I quote on an earlier blog from Dave Whitney shows the following information on the Generation 1.5 – transitional period – mid to late 50’s. This was an experimental stage. Kirsten realized that the bit and insert were prone to seizure as the condensate dried. This model always has O-rings on the metal insert, and later models can have O-rings on both. Same markings, as I remember it. There is no metal cup spacer under the bowl. This generation has O rings either on the valve or mouthpiece but no O rings on the other end. This transitional period is stamped “Pat. Pending” and “Pats. & Pats. Pending” some with “Made in U.S.A. It seems like the company was using surplus parts to combine into this series of pipes. This particular pipe is stamped K after the U.S.A. thus making it a Companion.

When I brought this one to the work table the stem was frozen in the shank and the valve on the end was also frozen. The bowl could not be turned off by hand as my other Kirsten’s can. The bowl had a layer of cake and the screw in the bottom of the bowl was also caked and dirty. The rim was dirty and the metal was barrel was dull and soiled. The stem was not only stuck but it also had tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. There was also some discoloration and sticky buildup on the stem.K1

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K4 I cleaned out the slot on the screw in the bottom of the bowl and was able to remove it with a flat blade screwdriver. The valve at the end of the barrel also came out when I used a pair of pliers that I had taped the end on so that it would not damage the aluminum of the valve. It was very tight and the tobacco oils acted like dried varnish on the rubber gasket and the aluminum almost welding it to the barrel. By carefully working it back and forth I was finally able to remove it.K5 The stem would not budge so I dropped the barrel stem down in my alcohol bath and let it soak overnight. I dropped the bowl into the bath at the same time to soften the cake in it and also make the cleanup of the rim and bowl easier.K6 I filled a small cap with alcohol and put the valve and the screw into the small bath overnight as well. I figured a good soak would make the clean up process much simpler.K7 In the morning I was able to remove the stem and rod apparatus from the barrel with ease. It was caked with the same kind of varnish from the tars and oils of the tobacco.K8 I took a photograph down the barrel to show what the inside looked like once the stem was removed.k9 I took the bowl out of the bath as well and laid out the parts of the pipe side by side for the photos before I cleaned them up.k10 Using a piece of 0000 steel wool I scrubbed the rod and the bowl down to clean up the grime and buildup. I also scrubbed the screw and the valve as well with the steel wool. It did not take much effort to remove that from the metal or the briar. The photo below shows the cleaned up parts.k11 I scrubbed out the barrel with cotton swabs and alcohol as far as I could reach. I pushed it through the threaded connector for the bowl as well to remove all of the oils and tar.k12 I took the next photo of the barrel to show the inside and how much cleaner it was. I still needed to clean it more so I twisted some tissue into a cord and turned it into the barrel until it came out the other end. I move it back and forth to scrub out the inside of the barrel. Once it was out the inside of the barrel shone.k13

k14 I reamed the bowl using a sharp pen knife paying particular attention to the seat at the bottom of the bowl which held the screw flat against the bowl bottom. I cut the cake back to a very thin coat along the walls. I then used some Vaseline on the threads of the screw and put it through the bottom of the bowl and used the screw driver to turn it into the barrel. I still needed to polish the grooves on the barrel and the valve but the pipe was beginning to look very good.k15

k16 I sanded the tooth marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove as much of them as I could without thinning the surface of the stem or leaving behind a groove. I was able to remove both marks on the top and bottom of the stem.k17

k18 I used micromesh sanding pads to polish the stem and bring back the shine. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. Finally I sanded with the 6000-12,000 grit pads and then gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry.k19

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k21 I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond Plastic Polish on the wheel and brought out a deep shine. I then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean, soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine.k22

k23 I buffed the barrel lightly with the Blue Diamond and also buffed the bowl. I gave the bowl and barrel several coats of carnauba wax and then lightly buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for someone who has been looking for one of these to pick it up and add it to their rack and help out the women of Nepal at the same time.k24

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k28 This older Kirsten Companion K is a great looking pipe and the Dublin bowl gives it a distinctive look. As I said above, it should make someone a great addition. If you are interested in this pipe email me with an offer at slaug@uniserve.com and we can discuss it. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 3 – Cleaning up and Restoring a GBD Bronze Velvet 548 Bulldog

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This is the third pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. The funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal.

The third pipe I decided to clean up from the box of donated pipes is an interesting GBD Shape 548 – a shape I call an elongated bulldog. It is a unique shape that GBD made for quite a number of years. It is stamped GBD in an oval over Bronze Velvet on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 548 and London over England. When it was introduced it had a natural finish and a swirled bronze acrylic bit. In a 1976 Catalogue it was billed by GBD as, “Our ultimate GBD! Only the choicest natural bowls are selected for this premium newcomer. The crowning touch is the handcut mottled Bronze Velvet mouthpiece blending in complementary contrast to the bowl.”

This one will also be sold and all the proceeds will go to the project in Kathmandu. It is a great looking piece of briar with no visible fills in the briar.GBD1

GBD2 I examined the pipe before I went to work on cleaning it up and restoring it. The briar was very dirty and had sticky spots on the bowl and diamond shank sides. The double ring around the bowl was in excellent shape but had debris in the grooves. The rim was in rough shape. Not only was it caked with a lot of tars and oils but it had been knocked out on the front edge of the rim and there was roughening and damage to the front and the top of the rim. There were also notches in the top outer edge of the rim all the way around the rim. The inner bevel on the rim was also caked and hardly visible but appeared to be in pretty decent shape under the grime.GBD3

GBD4 The stem was a marbled bronze as suggested in the catalogue. The sharp edge of the button had been worn down so that the button merely sloped into the end of the stem. The top side was clean and the underside had a well done repair to a bite through. It appeared to be made out of epoxy and was rock hard. There were slight dents in the surface of the repair but it was still solid.GBD5

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GBD7 I decided to work on the stem first. I used a flat edge needle file to sharpen the edge of the button and give it more definition from the rest of the stem surface. I worked on both sides of the stem to give it shape. I also used the file to scrape away some of the stem material in front of the edge to give depth to the button.GBD8

GBD9 Once the button was cleaned up and defined I worked on the inside of the stem. I scrubbed the interior of the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I was surprised to find that the tenon had a metal tube that ran from the end into the stem to give the Lucite tenon more strength in an area where I have seen many of them snap off.GBD10

GBD11 I also wiped down the surface of the stem and used a dental pick to clean up the epoxy repair on the underside. When I had the area cleaned up I used some clear super glue to fill the marks and dents in the epoxy repair and then sanded the stem in that area with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to blend it into the surface of the stem and smooth it out. Once that was done I set the stem aside and worked on the bowl.
I used the PipNet reamer to clean up the bowl and remove the bits of carbon that were left behind. I also cleaned the airway and the mortise with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean.GBD12

GBD13 The damage to the rim needed to be addressed so I topped the bowl with the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper until the damaged portion was gone. I did the topping in several steps. I took the top down until the major damage was gone and then did a little more to minimize the damage on the front of the bowl.GBD14

GBD15 I reworked the beveled inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper until it was the same angles it was before I topped it. When that was sanding was complete I worked on the damage to the outer rim with the same sandpaper and then sanded the entire rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.GBD16 I wiped the bowl and the rim down with alcohol on a cotton pad. When I had finished the bowl looked as it is shown in the next photo.GBD17

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GBD20 The next two photos show the bowl after I had scrubbed the surface of the briar with alcohol on a cotton pad. The natural briar looks clean and bears a slight patina of age. But is looking pretty decent at this point in the process – and I had not even buffed it yet.GBD21

GBD22 I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I finished I gave it a light buff with White Diamond.GBD23

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GBD27 I buffed the entire pipe with Blue Diamond Plastic polish on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing the pipe with a clean, soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for its next pipeman to bring it home and bring it back into rotation.GBD28

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GBD32 This GBD Bronze Velvet should make someone a great addition. If you are interested in this pipe email me at slaug@uniserve.com and we can discuss it. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

Restoring a 1967 Dunhill Oom Paul 591

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next one to my work table was a Dunhill Oom Paul 591. It was a Dunhill shape that I had not seen before. The stamping on the left side showed the shape number 591 next to DUNHILL over BRUYERE. On the right side of the shank it was stamped Made in England7 and next to that Circle 4A designating the size of the pipe. From several sources I was able to ascertain that the pipe was made in 1967. The finish on this one was in good shape. There was a light build up on the top of the rim and there was an uneven cake in the bowl. There were some small dents in the sides of the bowl but not enough for me to steam them out and risk harming the original finish. The stem would not fit down into the shank. In the pictures below you can see how far it would go into the mortise. I removed the stem and the mortise was dirty and black. The stem was oxidized and had some minimal tooth chatter on the underside near the button. There was also a shallow tooth mark on the underside amidst the chatter.Dun1

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Dun4 I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until the swabs came out clean. I cleaned the airway to the bowl and gave the bowl a light reaming to remove the uneven build up. I scrubbed down the rim and removed the light build up that was there and polished the bowl with carnauba on the buffer.Dun5 I lightly sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge to loosen the oxidation and with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and small dent.Dun6

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Dun9 I mixed up a batch of oxyclean and put the stem in the bath to soak overnight.Dun10 In the morning I took the lid off the container and removed the stem. The water had turned amber coloured. The oxidation had risen to the surface of the stem and I rubbed most of it off with a coarse cloth. I cleaned out the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners and used the dental pick to clean out the slot on the stem.Dun11 I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the softened oxidation.Dun12 Then it was time to polish it with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli after I finished with the 2400 grit pad and with White Diamond after the 12,000 grit pad.Dun13

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Dun15 There were still some scratches that showed up in the bright light of the flash so I worked it over again with the last set of pads and then buffed it with Blue Diamond Plastic Polish on the wheel. I finished by giving the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffing it with a clean, soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. Somehow in the photos the fluorescent lights lend the photo a yellow tint that I normally do not get. The stem is absolutely shiny and black and the bowl is a rich oxblood red. It is ready to be smoked and enjoyed.Dun16

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Dun22 Thanks for looking.

Rejuvenating a Caminetto Business Long Shank Stack

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I just finished working on a long shank Caminetto Stack. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Caminetto Business. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Ascorti over Radice over Cucciago over Cantu Italy. Next to it is a shield. The finish is a rustication that looks very much like the older Castello Sea Rock finish. The bowl needed a thorough reaming to clean out the remnants of the old cake. The internals of the shank will also need a thorough cleaning. The pipe has a strong English smelling ghost that would need to be exorcised by a retort treatment. If that did not kill it then it would need to be given a cotton ball and alcohol treatment to further remove the ghost. The inner and out rim edges look really good. There is a build up tars and oils in the rustication on the top of the rim that will need to be scrubbed out. The deep rustication is also harbouring a lot of dust in the crevices that will also need to be scrubbed as well. Cam1

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Cam4 The stem needs some work. It is loose in the shank and I will need to see what the fit is like once the shank is cleaned. There is a deep tooth mark on the underside of the stem next to the button. It is not quite broken through the surface of the stem but it is deep. There are also marks on the topside of the stem in the same place though nowhere near as deep. The stem was almost clogged and will need to be cleared. The slot is tight and hard to get a pipe cleaner through easily. It will need to be opened to make cleaning the pipe a simpler procedure. Between the semi-clogged stem and the tight slot the draw is constricted. Once the repairs are made to the stem it will need to be polished.Cam5

Cam6 I took a close-up photo of the rim for you to see clearly the build up on the rim. There were tars and oils deep in the grooves of the rustication on the surface of the rim. There was also a thin cake on the walls of the bowl that would need to be removed to address the heavy Latakia smell that was in the pipe.Cam7 I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head and working up to the third head that was the same diameter as the bowl. I then scraped the inside lightly with a sharp pen knife.Cam8

Cam9 I scrubbed the inside of the shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and isopropyl 99% alcohol before setting up a retort to boil alcohol through the inside of the pipe. I stuffed a cotton ball in the top of the bowl and then fit the rubber end of the test tube stopper over the stem. I place the bowl in a pipe rest and held the test tube over a candle. As the alcohol heated and boiled in the test tube it circulated into the bowl and when removed from the flame the alcohol would carry the tars and oils back to the test tube. I continued to boil the alcohol and remove it from the flame until the alcohol turned amber from the inside of the pipe.Cam10

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Cam13 I changed the alcohol and boiled it through the pipe again. This second time the alcohol came out clean. I kept it boiling through for about 15 minutes and then removed it from the flame. The photo below shows the relatively clean alcohol after this retort.Cam14 Once I had removed the retort I cleaned out the bowl and the shank with isopropyl alcohol on cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. This time they came out relatively clean.Cam15 The problem was that the pipe still smelled strongly of Latakia. The ghost was stubborn and persistent. I decided to use a cotton ball and alcohol soak to see if I could draw out some more of the oils and smell. I stuff two cotton balls into the bowl and plugged the shank. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with alcohol and tipped it back and forth to run the alcohol through the shank. I unplugged the shank and set the bowl in an old ice cube tray over night to draw out the oils. The next three photos were taken over a 12 hour period and show what happened with the soak.Cam16

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Cam18 When I removed the cotton balls and let the pipe dry out the ghost still persisted. I cleaned out the bowl and shank again, then put some white vinegar and cotton in the bowl and shank and let it sit for 3 hours. I cleaned out the shank and the ghost still remained. I was beating it but it was still present. I then filled the bowl with Kosher rock salt and then used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I set it aside in the ice cube tray to let the salt do its magic.Cam19

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Cam21 Once I removed the salt and alcohol and cleaned out the shank and bowl a final time the ghost is pretty well exorcised. There is a faint tobacco smell but the overpowering smell is gone.

I scrubbed the top of the rim with a brass bristle tire brush and then rescrubbed it with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it hard enough to remove the dust and grime from the crevices of the rusticated finish.Cam22

Cam23 I rinsed the bowl under running water to remove the soap from the finish, being careful to not get any water in the bowl. I dried it off with a cotton cloth. The photos below show the cleaned bowl. The finish was dull and had lightened slightly.Cam24

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Cam26 I used a wash of brown aniline stain mixed 4 parts alcohol and one part stain to restain the bowl and shank. The next four photos show the pipe after it had been restained and buffed with Blue Diamond. I buffed it with a light touch and then rebuffed it with a shoe brush.Cam27

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Cam30 With the bowl finished it was time to work on the stem. I decided to start with the narrow slot and airway on the end of the stem. I used three different needle files to open it up. I started with a flat file to widen the gap on the top and the bottom edge of the slot. I needed it open enough that I could use a flat oval file to smooth out the slot and open both the top, bottom and sides of the slot. I finished with a round file to taper the edges of the slot at an angle to the airway in the stem. While this was done to a slight degree I increased the angle and also opened up the end of the airway. I used the round file to also enter from the tenon end of the stem and smooth out what appeared to be rough transitions from the airway to the slot. I finished by sanding the inside of the slot with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then finishing with a bristle pipe cleaner and a little scrubbing powder.Cam31

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Cam34 I still needed to clean up the end of the stem when I worked on the stem surface itself but the basic shape was finished and the slot was wide enough to easily handle a pipe cleaner. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the tooth chatter on the top side of the stem and to clean up around the deep tooth mark on the surface of the stem. I picked out the debris from the tooth mark and then filled it with black super glue. I set the stem aside overnight to let the glue repair cure.Cam35

Cam36 The next morning I sanded the repaired area with 220 grit sandpaper and then the sanding sponges to remove the excess patch and to blend it into the surface of the stem.Cam37 Once the repair was smoothed out it was time to sand the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. Once it had dried I gave it a quick buff with White Diamond.Cam38 The tooth chatter was gone on the top of the stem and the repair on the underside blended in quite well. At this stage in the sanding it still showed but would begin to disappear into the stem with further sanding with micromesh. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-4000 grit pads and then rubbed it down again with Obsidian Oil. The first photo below shows the topside of the stem. The tooth chatter is gone. The second shows the underside of the stem. The tooth mark is repaired and the repair no longer shows. The next three grits of micromesh will make the patch disappear in the shine of the stem.Cam39

Cam40 I dry sanded with 6000-12,000 grit pads and then gave it a final buff with Blue Diamond. I rubbed in a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.Cam41

Cam42 The next two photos show the finished stem. The repair is blended into the vulcanite and it is polished and clean.Cam43

Cam44 I gave the pipe a light buff with Blue Diamond Plastic polish and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I lightly buffed the bowl with carnauba and then buffed the entire pipe with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine. Here is the finished pipe. Thanks for looking.Cam45

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Restoring an Ed Burak Connoisseur Tall Stack

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe that came to my worktable was the shapely stack pictured below. It is stamped Connoisseur over N.Y.C. on the left side of the shank and then below that E. Burak in script. The majority of the stamping is very sharp. The N.Y.C. is a bit faint. There is no other stamping on the pipe or shank. The briar was natural and unstained. It had darkened slightly with age. The finish was dirty and there were a few dents and dings in the briar. The stem was badly oxidized and had several small tooth marks on the surface. It was over bent and the way it hung in the mouth would dump the ash in your lap. The rim had a tarry buildup on the back top surface. The inner and outer edges of the rim were in perfect shape. There were some small sandpits in the briar on the left side of the bowl and on the underside of the shank. The inside of the shank was dirty and black with tars and oils. The bowl inside was thickly caked with a crumbly soft cake that was flaking away in some parts of the bowl. The shank itself was interesting to me in that it looked perfectly round. Once the stem was removed the drilling of the mortise was centered but low on the shank. The drilling was perfectly aligned but the airway seemed constricted. My guess was that there were tars and oils clogging the airway in the shank and the over bent stem made the draught constricted.Con1

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Con4 Over the years I have had several Connoisseur pipes but none of them were stamped like this one. I wondered about the stamping. It was my guess that it somehow helped with dating the pipe to a particular time in Ed Burak’s pipe making career but I did not know for sure. I decided that before working on this particular pipe I would do a little research on the brand and the maker on Google. I always check Pipedia to see what they might have on a maker. In this case I was not disappointed. There as a great article on the site. The link to that is: http://pipedia.org/wiki/Burak.

On that site I found not only some history on Ed Burak and the brand but also a photo of a pipe that was the same shape as the one I was working on. I was fortunate to find it because it confirmed my earlier assessment that the stem was over bent. With the photo and a second one that I found on another site I would be able to correct the bend on the stem and open the airflow from the bowl to the button.

I also found some great information on the site regarding Ed Burak. I quote from that article below. If you should wish to read it in its entirety click on the link noted above. The article is entitled, The Art of Edward F. Burak, Dean of American Pipe Designers.
Con5“Ed Burak is the dean of American pipe designers whose work has had a worldwide influence on the thinking and the work of contemporary pipe makers.”

“…he met and subsequently began working with Meerschaum master Paul Fisher, with whom he stayed 5 years. During that time he produced a small number of Meerschaum pipes, a few of which are still extant in collections. He also worked for Wally Frank as a pipe designer. In 1968 he bought the Connoisseur Pipe Shop, where he was able to concentrate on his own designs. Burak’s pipes have been carved by a number of well-regarded pipe makers, among them Joe Corteggione and Tony Passante. Several of his freehands are in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and have been part of a traveling exhibit of the American Craft Museum.”

“Burak’s work is best known as pipe design as fine art. He admires pays tribute to the classic English designs of the old Barlings and Comoy’s and offers a line of “Classics” which begin with these traditional values yet reflect his own interpretations.”

“Because these pipes are different, so carefully crafted, they not only please the eye, but educate it. Most pipe makers will start with an idea and work the wood toward that goal, but will change their original design to accommodate the briar. Burak does not allow the medium to modify the intent. Minor surface flaws are left on the pipes. No staining is permitted; all Connoisseurs have a natural finish, with only carnauba was added.”

“As a significant footnote, the reader should note that Ed Burak’s pipes are NOT made by Paul Perri, nor Weber, nor Jobey, as erroneously stated in Lopes’s book “Pipes: Artisans and Trademarks.” Burak prefers not to disclose the name of his current pipe carver.”

I also learned on Pipephil’s website, http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/about-en.html that the stamping did indeed give some information that helped in identifying the period that a particular pipe was made. There I found that one may generally separate Connoisseur pipes date of manufacture into three periods.

From late 1960’s until 1974: no stampings
From 1974 until 1981: CONNOISSEUR over N.Y.C.
From 1981 on: CONNOISSEUR over N.Y.C. and Ed Burak’s signature

The pipe I was working on was stamped like the photo below. It had the Connoisseur over N.Y.C. stamp and Ed Burak’s signature. That dated the pipe to the time period from 1981 to the time that the Connoisseur Pipe Shop in Manhattan closed in 2009 on Ed’s retirement. Included with the photo of the stamp was a picture of a tall stack pipe that looked identical to the one that I was working on. Using the photo above and this photo gave me a clear picture of what the bend of the stem was like originally.Con6 I took a photo below of the stamping on the left side of the pipe that I am working on for comparison with the one above. You can see that they have the same stamping.Con7 On the Puff.com Pipe Forums I found a thread on Connoisseur pipes that confirmed how the pipes were finished when they were originally made. http://www.puff.com/forums/vb/general-pipe-forum/299824-ed-burak-pipes-man.html. There in the latter part of a post by a member identified as Mr. Rogers was the information that I was seeking confirmation about.

“His premium pipes were like nothing I had seen before. He finished all of his pieces with only wax, no stain. He incorporated blemishes into his designs and made no attempt to hide these flaws with fillers. I frequented the CPS (Connoisseur Pipe Shop) as a high school, college, then grad school student, never really having the funds to purchase his premium pieces. As luck would have it, once I became established in my work/field, the CPS was long gone…”

Now that I had a pretty good idea of when the pipe was made and what the stamping meant, it was time to go to work cleaning up this beauty. I took a close-up photo of the bowl to show the state of the uneven broken cake that was formed on the walls of the bowl. The cake had a fuzzy appearance that bothered me. So before I cut into it with the reamer I examined it with my lens to see if it was mold. I was glad to see that it was merely dust particles. I was able to blow them out before with a blast of air before I reamed back the cake. You can also see the flaw on the back side of the rim centered between the inner and outer edge of the rim.Con8 I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I started with the smallest cutting head and worked up to a cutting head the same diameter as the original bowl. The bowl was U-shaped but narrowed slightly half way down the bowl so I had to use the second cutting head to clean out the bottom half of the bowl and smoothed out the transition between the two cutting heads with a sharp pen knife. I took the cake completely back to the bare wood so that a good, clean, solid cake could be formed.Con9

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Con11 I scrubbed the exterior of the natural briar with alcohol on cotton pads. It removed the grime, oils and ground in dirt from the finish and left the briar clean.Con12 I dropped the stem in a bath of Oxyclean. Almost as soon as it hit the water and I shook it the mixture turned amber coloured as the Oxy worked on the oxidation. I set the bath aside to let the stem soak and turned my attention to cleaning up the bowl.Con13 Before I could repair the flaw on the rim I needed to clean it up. I lightly topped the bowl on the topping board using 220 grit sandpaper. Once I had topped it lightly I washed it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and blew out the dust in the bowl.Con14 I picked out the dust and grime in the flaw and used a drop of clear super glue and some briar dust from the topping of the bowl to fill in the flaw. Once it was hardened I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding block to smooth out the scratches and polish the rim.Con15 The photo below shows the repair to the rim as well as the oils and tars on the cotton swabs and pipes cleaners that I used to clean out of the mortise and airway. I also wiped down the inside of the bowl with alcohol on cotton swabs to remove the dust and any remnants of the old cake.Con16 With the bowl cleaned and repaired I took the stem out of the Oxy bath. It had been soaking for about 2 hours and the oxidation was softened and brought to the surface enough that when I scrubbed stem to dry it off I was able to remove much of it.Con17

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Con19 I put the stem in the shank and used a heat gun to heat the vulcanite and reduce the angle of the bend in the stem.Con21 I took it back to the work table and took the next four photos of the new angle of the stem to see how it looked from the comfortable distance of the computer screen. I took it back and heated it again to bend it slightly more. The angle was close but I would need to adjustments to get to what I wanted for the bend in the stem.Con22

Con23 While this photo was taken to show the stem it also gives a good picture of the repair to the rim on the pipe. It blended in very well and looks far better than the original crevice.Con24

Con25 I sanded the stem lightly with 220 grit sandpaper paying special attention to the tooth marks and tooth chatter near the button on both the top and bottom of the stem. Once I had removed the marks and chatter I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches.Con26

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Con29 The next four close-up photos show what the stem looked like at this point in the process of removing the oxidation and scratches.Con30

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Con33 To highlight the beautiful mixed grain on this piece of briar I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil and let it soak into the briar.Con34

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Con37 I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. Once I finished with the 2400 grit pad I buffed it with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil.Con38 I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and again rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. Once it dried I lightly buffed it again with White Diamond to give it a deeper polish. Then I continued sanding it with 6000-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.Con39

Con40 I gave it a final coat of the oil and took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with Blue Diamond Plastic Polish.Con41

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Con44 I buffed the whole pipe with Blue Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish and the stem. I finished buffing it with a clean, soft flannel buff and no buffing compounds to raise the shine on the finish and the stem. The finished pipe is shown below. Thanks for looking.Con45

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What are the options for repairing a damaged stem?

8 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Over the years that I have been working on pipe restoration I have found that when working on badly damaged stems I have 4 basic choices on how to deal with the damage. They are stated in the form of a simple list below but each one will have to be detailed out to understand the implications of the choice.
1. Cut it off
2. Build it up
3. Splice it
4. Replace it

Choice #1 – Cut it off

This sounds pretty brutal but it really is a pretty easy repair to work on the chewed stem. I generally see how far back I have to go to get enough stem material on the top and bottom of the stem to shape a new button. Once I have a pretty clear idea of that I put a piece of cellophane tape on the stem to get an idea of how it will look with that bit of stem removed. Sometimes the new stem length just does not work. If it is too short it is awkward. If not then it can be reworked and still look acceptable. I have even cut back badly broken billiard stems and crafted a Lovat shaped pipe that looked really good. The decision is yours and cannot be reversed without making a new stem for the pipe.

The process is quite simple. Once I have marked the part of the stem I plan to remove I use a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the damaged portion. It works quite quickly. The only caution is to keep the line straight as you are removing the broken part of the stem. This line is not only the horizontal one across the surface of the stem but also the vertical one looking at the pipe from the end. Others use a coping saw or hacksaw to remove the broken area. I prefer a Dremel. With the end removed the stem is ready for reshaping. I use needle files to cut a new button on the stem. I do that by filing a straight line across the top and bottom of the stem making sure that they align.Broken1

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Broken3 Once the new button line is in place I use a flat needle file to file back the slope of the stem to the button line. I am careful not to go to deep but judge depth by the amount of material above the opening in the stem end. Once I have the slope set and the button more defined I use the flat needle file to clean up and define the edge of the button. I want a good sharp edge on the inside of the button to catch behind the teeth. I use 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the slope and smooth out the file marks.Broken4

Broken5 When I get the stem shaped the way I want it I then move on to the shaping of the button. I like a button that is shaped like an oval that tapers outward to the edges on both sides. I sand and file and file and sand to shape it. When I have the shape correct I also slope the button backward toward the airway on the stem end. I generally am working the button to look as much as possible like the one that was originally on the stem. I use pictures of the stem from the internet or from the camera that I took to get the look just right.Broken6 After the button is shaped I work on the airway in the end of the button. I want it to be a slot. I use the needle files to open the airway. I flair it from the opening like a Y. The idea is to create an opening that is funnel shaped. I start with a flat file and work toward a round and an oval needle file I shape the ends of the slot to match the shape of the button as much as possible. When I finally have the slot open I fold a piece of sandpaper and work on the inside of the slot to smooth out the file marks.Broken7

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Broken9 I finish by sanding the stem with micromesh sanding pads and polishing it to give it a shine. Here are some photos of the finished stem.Broken10

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Choice #2 – Build it up

I have used this method quite a bit with variations. I have used it repair bite marks and bite throughs on stem. The basic procedure is to clean up the affected area on the stem with alcohol and sandpaper to prepare it for the buildup. I leave the area slightly roughened to give the repair something to grab on to. Once all loose debris, sanding dust and oxidation is removed you are ready to begin the patch. The stem I am using to illustrate the process had holes on both sides of the stem and both were large. Alongside both sides there were also many tooth dents that needed to be addressed as well. In this case those dents would provide a strong base for what would be a large patch.Broken12

Broken13 I grease a piece of folded paper or a nail file with Vaseline and insert it into the slot on the stem. I want to have a slick base for the glue to sit against but not fasten to. I also do not want to close off the airway and this method has worked well for me for many years.Broken14

Broken15 With the folded paper inserted it is time to begin to build up the repair. I use medium viscosity black super glue that I get from Stewart MacDonald online. I build up the edges of the repair first. Some folks will use an accelerator at this point to speed up the process. I have also done so but find that the glue is more brittle and I have had patches fail after using it. So I have learned to “patiently” wait for the glue to harden. Others mix in fine charcoal powder or grit with the superglue and feel that it gives a stronger patch. I have done that as well but did not choose to use that on this stem repair.Broken16

Broken17 As the first layer of glue dried I continued to build the patch inward to the middle and thicken it as well. The process took several days and included at least four layers of glue.Broken18

Broken19 Once the last layer of the patch was finished I set the pipe aside to cure for several days. When it was dry I sanded it with 180 grit sandpaper and then 220 grit sandpaper to level out the patch and the surrounding stem.Broken20

Broken21 I used needle files to sharpen and define the edge of the button. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. The patches show up still in the surface of the stem as a slightly different colour but once the stem is sanded with micromesh they begin to disappear.Broken22

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Broken25 The finished stem looks like new.Broken26

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Choice #3 – Splice it

On the blog, Jacek Rochacki has written of splicing a repair and reshaping the stem. I am inserting his procedure at this point to explain the choice he uses.
Instead of cutting/removing the damaged part and carving the lip/button of what is left, I would proceed in different way. Keeping in mind my wish of keeping original dimension, proportions, form, I would try to reconstruct damaged stem/mouthpiece as following:

By using sharp cutting tools – engravers/burins, scrapers or in case of better equipped “workshop corner” – cutters, like those used by jewelers for stone settings, or even a sharp pocket knife, a frame saw and needle files I would work on the damaged area making it a proper shape a piece of the same material carved that I will later shape/carve to fit what is missing. The words “making it of proper shape”, may be a subject for another longer text. But as sort of inspiration may be the different ways dentists use to “elaborate” holes in teeth so that the filling will be kept securely in place. In a stem the situation is easier as we have good binding glues and are binding together the same kind of materials – vulcanite/ebonite to vulcanite/ebonite.

When the newly carved material is fixed into the missing area with glue, I work with files and drill bits to achieve desired missing shape. Then I proceed with finishing techniques. Let us look at the pictures:Broken28

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Broken30 Others have actually cut off the broken portion of the stem after matching it to a similar style and shaped stem. The also cut off the replacement stem so that the undamaged areas match perfectly. A small stainless steel tube can be used to join the two pieces of stem together and black superglue can be used to hold it together and to fill in the joint of the two stems. Once the glue has cured then the repair can be sanded and blended together so that it does not show at all.

Choice #4 – Replace it

The fourth option is to fit a replacement stem on the pipe or make one from vulcanite or Lucite rod stock. I do not have a lathe so I usually use precast stems and do a lot of shaping and fitting and improvements on the blank. The photos below show a new stem that I fit to a Lovat pipe for a friend. I used an old saddle stem that I had here so I did not need to use a precast one. This one just needed adjustment and fiddling to make it work well.
The original stem had a large bite out of the end of it the underside next to the button.Broken31 I choose a stem that is similar in shape and style that was the same length. It had a slightly larger saddle portion on the stem but I liked the look of it and figured it would work. I turned the tenon down slightly to make for a snug fit in the mortise.Broken32 In this case I sanded the stem down to remove the oxidation from the surface and also to remove the slight tooth marks and tooth chatter that was there.Broken33

Broken34 After sanding with the 220 grit sandpaper I used a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to clean up the stem further and remove scratches.Broken35

Broken36 I sand the finished stem with micromesh sanding pads to polish it.Broken37 After sanding with the 12000 grit pads I buffed it with Blue Diamond Plastic Polish and then with carnauba wax and a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished stem is shown below.Broken38

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A Dodgy Rogers: Restoring and Modifying a Rogers Standard

4 Replies

Blog by Anthony Cook

I was recently engaged in a conversation with another member of an online pipe tobacco forum and I learned that he had been smoking a pipe for six months and had only one pipe. I’ve been there, man. From what I’ve seen, six months seems to be the sweet spot for new pipe smokers. They’re likely to stick with it if they’ve made it that far, but everything is still new enough that even simple things can be a challenge. I’m sure that most of you will agree that smoking a pipe isn’t rocket science, but the initial learning curve can be fairly steep all the same. So, I offered to send him a pipe to give his faithful companion a break, reward his perseverance, and encourage him to hang in there.

I sent him a photo of a few pipes that I had on hand. I told him to pick one and I’d send it along. I half expected him to balk after seeing the photos. None of the pipes had been restored at all. If you’re not used to dealing with estate pipes, it can be difficult to see one as anything other than what it is; grime, tar, fills, and all. So, to ease any concerns that he may have I sent him a few before/after photos of some of my work and promised that I would make sure that his pipe was clean and pretty. He responded quickly with his choice, and to my surprise, it was probably the grungiest in appearance of the lot. Here it is…An1 The pipe is a Rogers Standard. I think the unique shaping is what attracted him and I can understand why. The slightly longer shank paired with the short saddle on the stem give it a quirky look that’s still classy. Here are a few more photos to give you an idea of what I was working with.An2

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An4 The stem was stuck tight on this one, but a couple of hours in the freezer took care of that. Once the stem was removed, I found a grimy, spiral stinger in the tenon. It too was stuck. So, I dripped alcohol into and around the tenon to soften the tar that was gluing it in. After a few minutes, I wrapped it in several layers of soft cloth to protect it and pulled it out with a pair of pliers. I dropped it into a container of alcohol for about an hour, and then scrubbed it with a pipe cleaner until it was as good as new.An5 I gave the stummel an alcohol bath to remove the old, lacquer finish. Several hours later, I removed it and wiped it down. Only about the top two-thirds of the bowl was caked to any degree, but what was there was thick, uneven, and harder than chicken lips. In the end, it took a group effort to ream the bowl back to bare wood the way I like it, but a T-handle reamer, a pipe knife, 400-grit paper wrapped around a Sharpie pen, and a little elbow grease got the job done.

I’ve added a retort to my tool chest since I last posted here, but I still like to scrub out the solid debris and lumpy build-ups by hand before using it. The Rogers took a whole handful of pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, and a couple of shank brushes before I was satisfied enough to move on.An6 I set up the retort and flushed the stem and shank several times before setting it aside to cool for about 15 minutes. Then, I refilled with clean alcohol and flushed several more times. After the second retort, the alcohol was nearly clear. So, I considered the retort to have done its job and gave the stummel and stem one last quick scrub to remove any remaining tar.An7 While I had been retorting the stummel, the stem had been soaking in an Oxyclean bath. I removed it and scrubbed it down with a couple of 1” cubes cut from a Magic Eraser pad to remove the oxidation. There is one thing to note though. I noticed that the paint had come out of the stem stamping during the bath despite my attempt to protect it with a dab of petroleum jelly. I’ve never really trusted this method of protection and I think I’m going to explore some others ideas in the future.An8You may have noticed from the photos that this pipe had a few fills. Okay… It had a lot of fills and the ones that concerned me the most were a few that were right inside the stamping on the shank. I was considering what to do about them when the thought occurred to me that it might be best to leave it up to the guy that was going to smoke the pipe. I contacted the future owner and presented him with a few option: (1) I could patch the fills with briar dust and CA that would blend well into the final finish, but some of the stamping would be sacrificed, (2) I could leave the stamping intact, but there would be some obvious fills on the shank of the finished pipe, or (3) I could rusticate the pipe, which would completely obliterate the stamping but the pipe would be unique. He chose to go with rustication.

So, once I knew the direction in which I was heading, I set up my topping surface to remove the scratches and charring on the rim. I sanded with a progression of 220-grit, then 320-grit, then 400-grit paper until I was satisfied that all of the scratches were gone. I also softened the inside and outside edge of the rim by light sanding with 400 grit paper (not pictured).

My rustication plan called for a round, smooth button on the right side of the bowl where there were few fills and some fairly decent bird’s eye. There were also a few dents in the area. So, I clamped the stummel in a vice and tried to steam them out by pressing a heated screwdriver into a wet cloth placed over the dents. Most of them were removed successfully, but one large dent with sharp edges still remained. You win some. You lose some.An9 Nobody wants a pipe that looks like it has the measles and those pink putty fills will show through and ruin even a rusticated finish. So, I picked them all out. I also discovered that the wood inside the mortise directly beneath the shank crack was weak and spongy. I scraped it out easily with a pick, but left behind a disconcertingly large gouge in the mortise.An10 I had been experimenting with pre-staining briar dust for patches and fills, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to put it into practice until this pipe. I dripped a couple of drops each of Fiebing’s black and oxblood into a bit of briar dust, and then added a few drops of isopropyl alcohol to spread it evenly. After mixing it up and sitting it under a warm lamp for about 30 minutes, I had a batch of stained briar dust.An11 The stained dust and a bit of CA glue were used to patch the dent and a large fill on the right side of the bowl. I also used unstained dust and CA to fill in the area of missing wood in the mortise.An12 The bowl patches were sanded out with 220-grit, then 320-grit, sandpaper. In the mortise, I used 240 and 320-grit sanding needles. When I inserted the stem to test the fit, I heard a sharp “snap”. Uh-oh.
When I flipped the pipe over I saw that the shank had cracked again. This one began about 1mm below the patched crack and was also longer than that one. I used a 1/32” drill bit to make a small hole at the end of the crack to stop the run. I didn’t drill all the way through, only a hair’s width below the crack. Then, I inserted the stem (after smearing petroleum jelly on the tenon) to widen the crack and filled the crack and drill hole with stained dust and CA. Once the patch had set up, I removed the stem, wiped the petroleum jelly from the mortise, and added more briar dust and CA there to add the strength that it obviously needed.An13 The new patches were sanded out once dry and I used a strip of 400-grit paper to reduce the diameter of the tenon before trying to insert is again. The fit was snug but not overly tight, and best of all, there were no new cracks.An14 Since the shank crack had been opened up and then filled, the overall diameter of the shank had increased slightly. So, I used 220-grit, then 320-grit, sandpaper to bring it back into register with the stem.

Then it was time to strike up the band. I selected a band from my box that was large enough to fit over the end of the shank, but not so large that I could slide it all of the way up by hand. With the band partially in place over the shank, I heated it with a heat gun to expand the metal, and then pressed it into place on a hard, cushioned surface.An15 The mortise had been constricted by the placement of the band. So, again, I had to do a bit of sanding with 220-grit, 320-grit, and 400-grit paper to turn the tenon down enough to make a good, snug fit.

The heat gun was already set up. So, I used it to heat the stem to see if I could raise some of the tooth dents. It did a fair job, but a few still remained after the heat treatment. I also took the opportunity to add a few more degrees of bend in the stem to give it a more elegant flow (at least to my eyes).An16 The stem button had a couple of chunks bitten out of it that needed to be repaired. I borrowed Andrew Selking’s idea of wrapping the area below the button with tape to keep a crisp edge before applying black CA glue to the gouges. The middle picture in the image below shows the button just after removing the tape. There was a bit of overhang at the lip that would have to be taken off, but the area where the button meets the stem is crisp and clean. That would save a lot of work. Thanks, Andrew!

I sanded out the lighter dents on the stem with 220-grit paper. For the deeper dents, I patched them with a bit of black CA glue applied with a toothpick.An17 When the stem patches where dry I sanded them down with 220-grit paper, and used 320-grit and 400-grit to blend them into the rest of the surface and to shape the button. Then, I lightly sanded the entire stem with 600-grit paper to remove any scratches and pits in the vulcanite. I also used a grout pen to paint in the stamped logo. Some of the logo area had been worn smooth over time. So, the resulting logo didn’t look as good as the example over at PipePhil.eu, but I think it looks better than it did originally.An18 For comparison, here’s the logo example from PipePhil.eu (first image), the original logo (second image), and the repainted logo (third image):An19 The stem was polished with micro-mesh pads 1500-grit to 12000-grit. I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil to the stem, let it sit for a couple of minutes, and then wiped off the excess to finish up the work on the stem.An20 I decided to go for three levels of texture in the partial rustication and hoped that would give the pipe a unique appearance. I used a felt pen to mark an oval-shaped guideline on each side of the bowl. I started carving with a Dremel and a 3/32” engraving burr. Basically, I just scribbled around the stummel avoided the areas that I wanted to leave smooth to create the base for the medium texture. Then, I used a variety of hand-cut bits and tools to really get in there and remove some wood to create the craggy texture around the ovals that I had marked. To finish up the rustication, I used a 1/32” engraving burr to touch up a few of the places where the rustication met the smooth areas.An21 It turned out to be a rather lengthy process to get the final color and finish the way that I wanted it. So, I won’t go into a lot of detail, but here’s the gist of it:
1) Applied black stain, sanded smooth areas and rustication high spots with 400-grit, and buffed with Tripoli
2) Applied mahogany stain, lightly sanded smooth areas and brushed the rustication high spots with 600-grit, and buffed with a clean wheel.
3) Applied ox blood stain to the rusticated areas only, hand buffed, sanded smooth areas with 1200-grit (Not pictured below. Oops).
4) Polished with micro-mesh 1500-grit to 2400-grit, applied red stain to smooth areas only, buffed with a clean wheel, continued polishing smooth areas with micro-mesh 3200-12000.An22 After the final micro-mesh polish, I reattached the stem and buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond. I then applied Halcyon II wax to the stummel and carnauba wax to the stem and buffed the pipe with a clean wheel. Lastly, I painted the walls of the chamber with a sour cream and activated charcoal bowl coating to add some temporary insulation until a good cake could form.

The finished pipe is very different from what it was when I started. It has lost its pedigree, but it has gained a unique, one-of-a-kind appearance. I’m quite pleased with the way that it turned out and I’m hoping that the new owner will be too. It’s in the mail, Dustin. Smoke it well, brother!An23

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