Tag Archives: bite marks

Reworking a La Strada Staccato 213 Billiard

The last of the bowls that came to me as a gift from Andrew was a La Strada Billiard bowl. It was stamped La Strada over Staccato on the left side of the shank and shape 213 on the right side. It needed a stem and it had a few minor issues that needed to be addressed. The finish was an interesting rope rustication pattern that went around the bowl like a lasso and the finish under the rope pattern was leatherlike in terms of colour and look. Over the top of the finish was a plastic clear coat that added a perma shine to the bowl. The rim was in very rough shape and had been hammered on to hard surface in tapping out the dottle. The build up on the rim covered the damaged roughness of the surface. The bowl was badly caked on only one side of the bowl. The shank was clean and looked undamaged. There was no stem with the bowl and the shank was very clean.

The La Strada was once again a brand with which I was unfamiliar. I had some vague memory of seeing them sold through Tinderbox but was not sure about that memory. I did a bit of research and found that indeed they had been sold there. They were Italian Made. Here is a page from a Tinderbox catalogue showing the brand. The catalog describes the pipe as “a gracefully conservative style that has today’s favoured matte finish, enhance by the unexpected touch of random routing.” The price was a princely $8.95-$10.00.

I sorted through my stems and found one that fit very nicely in the shank. When I inserted it there were two cracks revealed, one on top and one on the bottom of the shank. I honestly don’t know if they were present or if the happened when I put the stem in place. It was not a tight fit so I am unsure. It honestly did not matter as banding it would not be a problem. I found a silver band I had in my kit that was a good fit and pressed it into place on the shank. I heated the band with a heat gun and then pressure fit it onto the shank.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer (this seems to be more and more my reamer of choice in refurbishing).

I set up my topping board and then topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper. I removed enough of the surface of the rim to take away the damage to the top and the front of the bowl. There were also some burn marks on the left side of the rim that I was able to sand out the majority of damage.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone to try to break up the plastic/shiny finish that was on the bowl and was not able to remove it. The thick coat had bubbles that were thick around the rope rustication areas on the left side of the bowl. I finally put the bowl into an alcohol bath and let it soak overnight to try to break up the finish.

I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and sanded it with a medium grit and a fine grit sanding sponge and was able to break through the finish and finally remove it. I wiped the bowl down again with acetone on cotton pads and the bowl was clean. I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol and applied and flamed it until the coverage matched the rim to the rest of the bowl. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel and brought it back to the work table and set it aside to work on the stem.

I sanded the tooth marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge until they were no longer visible. I then used micromesh sanding pads to finish the stem. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and when dry buffed it with White Diamond.

I polished the silver band with silver polish and micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for its initial and should make someone a good pipe in the long run.

Plugging a Burnout on a Peterson’s Irish Whiskey 999

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Blog by Steve Laug

Lately several of the pipes that I have refurbished were part of a trade with Mark Domingues for work on this pipe. It is a beautifully grained Peterson’s Rhodesian 999 – one of my favourite shapes. The grain on this thing is beautiful. The photo below shows what drew Mark to bid on this pipe in the first place. What the photo does not show however, is the incredibly horrible shape that this pipe was in when it came to Mark.

The problem with the pipe became obvious when Mark took it out of the shipping package to enjoy the “new” Peterson that he had purchased. The pipe had a serious burn through on the front right side of the bowl toward the bottom. That damage was quite extensive and either the pipe could be thrown away or the burn through drilled out and the damaged briar replaced with a briar plug.

Mark decided to drill out the damaged portion of the bowl. We talked back and forth via email about the steps to take to fix it. He toyed with it and then one day asked if I wanted to do the work on it. He would send the pipe, a chunk of briar some pipes that he thought I might enjoy working on in exchange for the repair. After emailing back and forth we agreed to the terms and he sent the bowl on to me to do the repair in exchange for a few pipes for my refurbishing box. Here is what the pipe looked like when it arrived in Vancouver. Mark had cleaned up the exterior of the pipe and also the interior and drilled out the burnout. The brass/gold band on the shank was loose and the stem was in decent shape with two minor tooth marks.

The top view of the pipe, shown in the photo below, also highlights several others issues with the pipe. First, the bowl itself was not drilled straight into the briar but at a slight angle from left to right. Second, the stem was totally out of round and the right side of the stem fit against the band far differently than the left side. Looking at the stem from the tenon end it was clear that the stem was not round but rather oblong. The small block of briar in the photo was sent along by mark for me to use in cutting a plug for the bowl.

I used a small hacksaw to cut off a small chunk of briar. I then shaped the briar chunk into a cylinder. I always cut the plug long to give me something to hold onto when I am shaping it. I am sure others do it differently but I shape the plug with a Dremel by hand and I hold the piece of briar with my fingers while I shape it. The next series of eight photos show the progressive shaping of the cylinder to fit the drilled out hole in the bowl of the pipe.

The next four photos show the final shape of the cylinder. I left a slight handle on the top of the plug to hold onto while I turned the cylinder with the Dremel. I tapered the plug slightly so that it would fit into the hole but not extend to far into the bowl itself. Once I had the shape correct and the piece extending into the bowl smoothed to fit the shape of the bowl I glued it in place with superglue.

I used the hacksaw to trim off the excess briar in the plug as close as possible to the surface of the bowl.

Once I had it trimmed back to that place I used the Dremel and sanding drum to sand it down to the surface and then hand sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to make the surface of the plug and the bowl match. I used superglue around the circumference of the plug to hold it tightly in place.

I washed down the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grit and the remaining finish on the bowl. I also sanded the plug and the rim with 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges to smooth out the scratches. I sanded the inner rim with a folded piece of sandpaper to remove the damage to that portion of the bowl. In the photos below the fit and finish of the plug is clearly visible. The grain on the plug and that on the bowl did not match but the fit was nearly perfect.

Mark and I had talked about rusticating the whole bowl but I could not bring myself to do that to such a beautiful piece of briar. I marked the area that I planned on rusticating with a black permanent marker to give myself an outlined area that I would rusticate. I find that setting up parameters and boundaries for the rustication helps me to keep it in a defined space more easily.

I used the modified Philips screwdriver with the four points to rusticate this part of the bowl. The next two photos show the rusticated portion of the bowl. The area of the older briar showed dark spots in the rustication and the new fresh plug showed almost white after rustication.

I decided to try and use a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol on the whole pipe to see what would happen with the rustication. I wanted to see if the dark areas on the rustication would blend into the briar of the lighter parts. I did not really expect it to work but thought I would give it a try.

The dark portions of the old briar still showed dark after staining. I decided to use a black aniline stain on the rusticated portion of the bowl and leave the smooth part of the bowl the brown colour. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and flamed it, reapplied it and reflamed it until the coverage was even.

The inside of the bowl then needed to be addressed. The drilling of the bowl was not only angled from left to right but the airway entered the bowl over 3/8 inches above the bottom of the bowl. Whether this was caused by drilling or over reaming is not clear to me. My problem was that the angle of the patch on the side did allow me to shape the patch to provide a new bottom for the bowl. I could have cut another piece of briar and inserted it into the bottom of the bowl but the strange angles of the bowl made that a task that I did not want to tackle. I opted to build up the bottom of the bowl with Plaster of Paris instead of pipe mud because of the depth of the buildup. My fear was that the pipe mud would have to be almost ½ inch thick and I was not sure if it would hold. I have used Plaster of Paris to repair meerlined pipes and it is durable and gives a solid base. I intend to use pipe mud on top of the repair and also reshape the bowl sides.

I glued the band on the shank with wood glue before I restained it with another coat of the medium brown aniline stain. I flamed it and then buffed it with White Diamond. I gave the smooth portions of the bowl several coats of carnauba wax and hand buffed the rusticated portion with Halcyon II wax.

I sanded the tooth marks and chatter out of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge. I reshaped the stem to fit more proportionally against the band. I made it round instead of oblong so that the fit against the band was even all the way around giving it a more finished look. I then sanded it with my usual array of 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 and when it was dry buffed it with White Diamond. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to finish and protect it.

The next series of five photos show the finished exterior and stem of the pipe. The stain and the patch rustication are completed. The interior of the bowl still only bears the plaster repair. Once it cures for several days I will give it a coating of pipe mud to finish the job.

The pipe is finished other than the pipe mud and soon it will go back to Mark for its inaugural smoke. I am looking forward to hearing his response once the pipe is in his hands and he has smoked it.

UPDATE: I applied the pipe mud to the bowl last evening. It was a great day to fire up a Cohiba Habana and save the ash to mix. I use a shot glass to collect the ash and add the water with an ear syringe. Once the mix is the right consistency I apply it with a folded pipe cleaner. I apply it and let it set and then follow up with a second or third coat as necessary.

For this particular pipe mud application I built up the right side of the bowl toward the bottom to compensate for the angular drilling of the bowl. I was able to smooth out the wall and that side is as straight as possible.

Refurbishing a Pipe for a New Pipe Smoker – A Straight Grain Apple

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This past weekend I was in Lethbridge, Alberta as the speaker at a retreat for a friend of mine. As usual I took along my pipe and some tobacco and planned to sit on his front porch and enjoy a few bowls during the course of the weekend. We were sitting one night in his living room enjoying good conversation and a pint when he commented that he had been thinking of smoking a pipe. He wanted to know if I would teach him the ropes. Of course I agreed and the next afternoon we visited a couple of antique shops in search of a pipe for him. My experience in helping a newbie start is to find a seasoned pipe that is in good shape and use it to introduce the art of pipe smoking. The seasoned or estate pipe is already broken in and if it has been cared for is not too difficult to clean up and restore. We found just the pipe at the third shop we visited. It is a nice apple shaped pipe that was in fairly decent shape. He paid the $9 price on the pipe and we took it home.

I asked him for some isopropyl alcohol, some cotton swabs, cotton makeup pads, and a sharp knife. I had some pipe cleaners with me so that we could field dress the pipe and clean it enough that he could smoke a bowl with me. The pipe had a slight burn on the front right of the bowl toward the bottom from having laid it in an ashtray and having it come in contact with a cigarette. The rim was caked and dirty with buildup but undamaged. The bowl was caked and had some burnt tobacco in it. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was light tooth chatter near the button. There was a stinger apparatus in the tenon of the stem. The stamping on the pipe was on the left side and read Straight Grain over Imported Briar. There was no other stamping on the pipe.

I carefully reamed the bowl with the pocket knife to remove a large portion of the cake. I scrubbed the top of the rim with the cotton pads and saliva until I removed the buildup on the rim. I cleaned out the inside of the shank with the pipe cleaners and the cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. I removed the stinger, threw it away and scrubbed the exterior and the interior of the stem to make it ready for him to smoke. Once finished we loaded a bowl of tobacco – a light English blend and headed to his front porch to have a bowl. It took some work to get the hang of lighting and keeping the bowl lit but it worked well after several tries. We enjoyed the visit and the smoke and then headed back inside.

When I headed back to Vancouver I took the pipe with me to give it a more thorough cleaning and polish. The photos below show the pipe when I put it on the work table to give it a thorough work over.

The next photo shows the cigarette burn mark on the bowl. It was not too deep and did not char the wood but it was deep enough that it could not be sanded out without damaging the shape of the bowl.

I sanded the burn mark and the rim to clean up the burn on the front inner edge. I used 220 grit sandpaper to start with and followed that with a medium grit sanding sponge.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and to prepare it for new staining.

The slot in the stem was tight and hard to get a pipe cleaner to pass through easily so I decided to open the slot open with needle files. I shaped it and opened it and then sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.

I reamed the bowl and cleaned out the shank with isopropyl alcohol and then used pipe cleaners. I used the drill bit in the KleenReem pipe reamer to open up the airway into the bowl from the shank. The tars had clogged the airway so the drill bit opened it and cleaned up the buildup on the sides of the airway.

I decided to do a cotton boll and alcohol soak on the bowl. I stuffed the bowl with cotton and used an ear syringe to fill it with Everclear. I set the bowl in an old ice cube tray to let it soak while I was at work. The alcohol leaches out the tars in the bowl into the cotton and leaves the pipe fresh inside.

It sat in the tray for about 10 hours soaking. The cotton boll was soaked and brown coloured from the tars that leached out of the bowl.

I took the cotton out of the bowl and then lit the alcohol remaining in the bowl with a lighter. It quickly burned the alcohol out and left the bowl dry. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to work on the inner edge of the rim to remove the burned spot on the front inner edge. I also used a PipNet reamer to remove the remaining cake that I had missed earlier. I wiped the bowl down a final time with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grit and grime that came out with the cleaning of the bowl.

I stained the bowl with an oxblood stain as an undercoat. I applied it and then flamed it. I hand buffed the bowl once the stain was dry.

For the second coat of stain I used a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I hand buffed the bowl with a soft cloth and then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond.

Once the staining of the pipe was finished I worked on the stem with my usual array of 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 and let it dry.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a clean flannel buffing pad. The pictures below show the finished pipe. It is ready to send back to my buddy in Lethbridge. I think I will put a few samples of tobacco in the package with the “new pipe”. I think he will enjoy the improved version of his pipe.

A Renovation of a Good Companion London Made Billiard

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My wife and I went out for lunch on Saturday and there was an antique shop across the street from the restaurant. After eating we brave torrential downpours and ran across the street check out a shop we had not visited before. We looked through the various display cases and I found the pipe below along with a chewed up Yello-Bole billiard. The pipe was a small group 3 sized billiard. The finish was a dark brown stain on a sandblasted pipe. The left side had great grain pattern and showed deep grooves. The right side was a tight birdseye grain and the blast was shallow and close. The shank was rusticated to look like a sandblast. The stem had a slight bend but seemed be from sitting in the heat rather than intention. There was a bite through on the top surface of the stem that was large enough that it could not have been patched. The rim was originally smooth and beveled inward but the bevel had been damaged and needed to be reshaped and cleaned up. The stamping on the pipe is what ultimately made me spend the $10 to make the pipe mine. It read Good Companion over London Made on the underside of the shank. I just finished reading a new book by Mark Irwin called Pipe Companions. In it he wrote of the relationship between the pipe and the pipeman. I think it was a great coincidence to walk into a pipe stamped Good Companion. I wanted to clean it up and make it my own.

When I got home from the visit to the shop I took the pipe apart. The stem had a large spiral stinger apparatus in the tenon. The stem itself was badly chewed. I found a new stem for the pipe in my can of stems and worked on the tenon to make the tapered stem fit the shank.

I pushed the newly fitted stem into the shank to have a look at the shape with a taper stem. I liked the overall look of the pipe with the new stem. I sanded the stem to remove the calcification and the oxidation on it. I also worked on the fit of the stem to the shank. I wanted the transition to be smooth and seamless. I took the stem in and out several times while I worked on it. The last time I pushed it into the shank there was a crack! I don’t know if that has happened to you but when it happens there is a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Here the pipe was almost ready to refinish and the stem fit well and then crack. The frustration at that moment is high level. I laid the pipe down and had a coffee while I thought about my next steps.

I went through the box of nickel bands that I have here and I did not have any the correct size for the shank. All of them were either too huge or too small. I did remember however that I had some brass plumbing pressure fitting pieces that would make a great band on the pipe and create a totally different look on this old pipe. Before fitting the band I worked on the bevel of the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the rim damage and reshape the bevel.

I used a Dremel and sanding drum to sand back the shank so that the band could be pressure fit against the cracked shank. I took back the rustication until the finish was gone and the shank area was smooth. When the band fit tightly on the shank I heated the brass band with a heat gun and then pressed it into place on the shank.

I pressed the band into place on the shank and then hand sanded the area in front of the band smooth so that I could rework the taper of the shank and the finish to match the rest of the pipe.

I used the two Dremel diamond cutting heads pictured below to rusticate the finish on the shank. I used the cylinder first and then the ball. I worked it into the briar to make the smooth area match the rest of the bowl.

After rusticating the shank I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it deep within the grain. I stained the rest of the pipe as well and the rim with multiple coats of the dark brown.

Once the stain was dry on the bowl I hand buffed it with a cotton cloth and then stained it a second time with MinWax Red Mahogany stain. I rubbed it on and then rubbed it off. I repeated the process until I had the colour that I wanted.

I buffed the bowl on with White Diamond and to evenly distribute the stain coat and give the pipe a rich shine. When I had finished I worked on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit sanding sponge and micromesh sanding pads. I used my usual array – wet sanding with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite.

I sanded the bevel on the bowl and the brass band on the shank with the 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used Halcyon II wax on the sandblast finish of the bowl. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff. I have to say though I would have liked to keep the pipe unbanded and pristine, the crack that happened in the shank made me try something a little different. I actually like the finished look of the pipe with the brass band. The combination of the two stains give the blast finish depth that changes with different lighting and the tapered stem adds some panache to this Good Companion.

Looking at the photos I decided to do a bit more work shaping the brass band. I sanded the band with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the ridges in the brass. I followed that by sanding with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I finished sanding the band with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-3200 grit polish it.

With the band finished I will give the pipe another buff to polish the handling that it received working over the stem.

Reworked Comoy’s The Guildhall London Pipe Stack – Shape 345

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Blog by Steve Laug

The pipe is stamped The in script over Guildhall over London Pipe on the left side of the shank and number 345 near the bowl on the right side of the shank and Made in London in a circle over England. This is the third of the pipes from the box my daughters found for me. The first two were the Orlik’s that I wrote about earlier. This one was in better condition than the other two. The top was beat up with outer and inner rim damage and also the same varnish coat over the uncleaned rim and the bowl and shank. The stem was original and has the three silver bars on the left side as expected in the Guildhall series. There were tooth dents that had been buffed out and left the stem with waves around the remaining marks. The grain was quite nice on this one – lots of cross grain and birdseye but it was obscured by the finish coat. The interior was filthy as were the others. In the side photos below the finish looks pretty good but the grain could stand out more clearly.

I took the next photo to show the damage on the rim. The inner edge was rough and the outer edge was also rough. There was tar build up under the varnish coat that had not been cleaned off before varnishing. The bowl was also coated with a black bowl coating.

I sanded the top and bottom side of the stem with 20 grit sandpaper to smooth out the ripples in the vulcanite and remove the remainder of the tooth marks. Once I had them removed I worked on the bowl.

I topped the bowl on the sandpaper and flat board as is my usual method. I took off enough briar to make the top smooth and the outer edge sharp as well. I sanded the inner edge with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the damage there as well. The next two photos show the topping process and the sanding of the inner edge.

The interior of the shank and stem were filthy and needed a lot of work with Everclear, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. The photo below shows the first lot that was used but by the time I was finished cleaning the shank I had used about twice that number.

I wiped down the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish coat and the finish. I wanted to remove as much of it as possible so that when I restained the rim it would be easier to match.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge and then with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem in between the wet sanding and the dry sanding with red Tripoli because I wanted to see what I had to work with and if I had removed the rippling on the vulcanite. I had so I went on to the dry sanding. When I had finished I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and put it aside to dry.

I stained the bowl with MinWax Medium Walnut stain. I applied it with a cotton pad and rubbed it off with a cotton cloth. I repeated the process until I had the coverage that I wanted and the rim and bowl matched.

I reinserted the stem in the shank and took the pipe to the buffing wheel for a buff with White Diamond. I gave both the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished it with a soft flannel buff. The reworked Comoy’s Guildhall Stack is shown in the photos below ready and clean for its inaugural smoke.

Reworking a Couple of Pipes with my Son in Law on a Grey Vancouver Day

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On a recent pipe hunt my son in law went with me and picked up a couple of pipes of his own. The first one was an interesting little Medico VFQ apple with a red stem. The stem was not too badly damaged. It was a filter pipe and still had the old paper Medico tube in the shank. The bowl was a mess. The rim had been burned and chipped and the bowl was badly caked and it looked as if the previous owner had smoked gooey aromatics in it that left behind a heavy residue of tar in the bottom of the bowl. It had hardened into lava like material. He liked the stem colour and the shape of the old pipe so I said to go ahead and pick it up and the two of us could work on it and bring it back for him. So he shelled out the $12.50 for the pipe and it became his first estate purchase of the trip.

This old pipe took every trick I had up my sleeves to refurbish. The stem was nylon not rubber so it was fussy to clean up. Every scratch shows in nylon and it cannot be buffed except with a very gentle hand. Everything had to be done by hand. I worked on the stem while Lance worked on the bowl. I sanded the stem from the button up the stem for about an inch to remove the calcification on the end and remove the tooth chatter on the top of the stem. On the underside there were a couple of deeper tooth marks that needed attention. I heated the nylon carefully with a lighter to try to raise the dents in the stem. I moved quickly across the surface so as not to melt the nylon. All but one of them lifted nicely – it remained a stubborn part of the sanding process. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge. I finished by sanding the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit – wet sanding with the first three grits and then dry sanding with the remaining grits. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I also sanded the aluminum tenon with the 2400 grit micromesh pad to remove the oxidation on it. I polished it with a silver polishing cloth.

In the mean I had Lance top the bowl and flatten out the rim surface. Then he beveled the outer edge to give the pipe a rounded look like it had previously. He gave the inner edge a slight bevel as well. There were three flaws in the rim surface where the fills were missing. I had him repair these with briar dust and super glue. He then topped the bowl lightly a second time to smooth out the fill repairs. He wiped the bowl down with acetone and sanded it with the sanding sponge. He gave it a quick sand with 1500-2400 grit micromesh as well and then stained it with a black undercoat making sure that the stain went into the grooves that were carved in the bowl surface. He then wiped it down with acetone and sanded it again to remove the black stain from the surface of the bowl leaving it deep in the grooves and around the rim. The black feathered out down the bowl sides and at the tenon shank union. He sanded the aluminum band with a 3200 grit micromesh sanding pad to polish it and then restained the bowl with a red mahogany Miniwax stain. We buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave the stem very lightly making sure to not let it heat up. We gave the entirety several coats of carnauba wax. Here is the first pipe he had ever refurbished after it was finished.

The second pipe was less of a challenge and it was found second on the hunt. It is a Kirsten SX. With a little research we found out that the X designation added to the shape and size S usually meant Brass but that during the 1960’s there was a brief period of time where the SX was an antiqued black and silver finish. That is what he had! Thus we were able to date the pipe a bit for him. The bowl was unsmoked new stock and was probably a replacement. The stem was oxidized and covered with tooth chatter. The barrel was oxidized and much of the antiquing had worn of the finish. The valve at the end was stuck in place. The ramrod was oxidized and dirty. It would be a very easy refurbishing job. Considering the pipe cost him $15 it was well worth the effort.

Lance took the pipe apart unscrewing the bowl and removing the stem and ramrod from the barrel. The valve at the end was stuck so we had to drive it out with piece of rod I have here. Once it was apart we each went to work cleaning the parts. Lance worked on the barrel and the valve cleaning the outside and the inside of the parts. I worked on the ramrod and the stem. He cleaned out the valve with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and Everclear and also cleaned out the inside of the barrel with the same. He polished the barrel with silver polish to remove the oxidation and then we washed the barrel with a wash of black aniline stain to give it a bit of an antique look. I sanded out the tooth marks on the stem and polished the ramrod. Lance then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. Once the stem was polished he rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then we gave the stem a quick buff with White Diamond on the buffer. We rubbed Vaseline into the O-rings on the valve and the stem/ramrod then reassembled the pipe. We gave the entire pipe a light buff with carnauba wax and a soft flannel pad to polish it. Here is the finished pipe.

When we finished we filled a bowl with well aged Balkan Sobranie Virginian No. 10 and retired to the porch to have a bowl and a visit. It was a great way to spend a grey Vancouver day and get to know my son in law a bit better. We are already planning more hunts and pipe refurbishing sessions. It is great to have someone working with me who is interested in learning the tricks of the hobby living so close by.

A Piece of Tobacciana – Restoring an Old Nylon Cigarette Filter/Holder

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Somewhere along the way in one of the pipe lots I bought off EBay this old cigarette holder was included as a pipe stem. I put it in a drawer and forgot about it for several years at least. The other evening I was cleaning out a drawer of pipes that I had already refurbished getting them ready for my daughter to catalogue and came across the old holder. At first glance it appeared to be a cigarette holder. There was no filter apparatus present and the mouthpiece was short and condensed so I did not think there would be one inside the stem itself. I sanded down the casting marks on the side of the stem and also cleaned the stem of debris. There was one burn spot on the underside of the stem near the metal holder end. The metal holder was brass and quite clean with a slight nicotine and tar build up on the inside. The airway on the stem was plugged and no air could pass through it.

I twisted the end cap and it came free from the stem itself. Inside was a filter apparatus similar to the different stingers that one finds in American made pipes of days gone by. This apparatus was a single unit. There was a rubber o-ring around the top just below the holder top. This held the cap unit snugly in place in the stem.

Once I had removed the apparatus from the stem the stinger design was visible. It extended half way down the shank of the stem. Behind the o-ring was a cut/slit half way through the aluminum of the stinger. It was clogged with tars and oils. In the middle of the slit was an opening. One on the o-ring side and one on the stem side of the slit. The aluminum then funneled down to tube that at first glance appeared to be solid. At the end of the tube were two solid rings around the tube. Between the rings there were holes on two sides in the groove. When it was inserted and clear the air would be pulled through the holder and into the stinger slit. It would circulate in the stem to cool and then move through the slit and down the tube and out the two holes. These would then disperse the smoke through the remainder of the stem and out the slot in the button. In many ways it was like an inverted stinger in shape and function to those found on pipes.

The hole in the end of the stinger does not go through the stinger but rather is like a small cup on the end. It was for collecting moisture and tars if the grime buildup was any indication.

The holder cap pictured in the photo below is the depth of the filter on a modern cigarette and also the dame diameter as the end of the cigarette. I cleaned the entire apparatus and soaked it in a bath of Everclear to try to open the airway. I was able to clean out the cut in the aluminum, the holes in the end and in the cut itself using a dental pick. I scrubbed down the apparatus with a tooth brush and Everclear. I was unable to get air to pass through due to a clog in the end of the holder. In the photo below it is visible as a small hole in the bottom of the cup. It was plugged and the dental pick was too thick to go through it. I tried a thin paper clip and a needle with no success. I finally was able to open it with a tiny micro drill bit on the Dremel and pushed it through at a very slow speed. The bit came with a plastic guide that fit inside the cup perfectly and kept the drill straight as it opened the airway. Once it pushed the clog through I cleaned the inside of the airway with Everclear and was able to push air through with no effort.

I repaired the burned spot on the stem with superglue and sanded the stem until the patch blended with the rest of the stem surface. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches in the surface of the nylon stem.

I wet sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-2400 grit and then dry sanded with 3200 – 12,000 grit sanding pads. I used a plastic polish to further shine the stem once I was finished with the micromesh pads.

I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and gave it a very light buff with White Diamond. You have to exercise a very light touch when buffing nylon as it melts with the heat of the buffing wheel. I finished by giving the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine. I hand buffed the shine with a soft cotton cloth. The finish filter is pictured below in the final three photos. It is not something I will ever use but it is an interesting piece of tobacciana for the collection. I have no idea of the maker of the piece or of the age but I am fascinated by the ingenuity of the product.

Restoring a Bryson Metal Pipe with Two Bowls

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I picked up this metal pipe with two bowls in an eBay lot recently. The shank shape and the two bowls intrigued me. I had no idea who had made the pipe but I bid on it because of some other items in the lot.

I decided to do a bit of research on the metal pipe on the great Smoking Metal website. It is a gift to the pipe smoking community looking for information on particular metal pipes that they come across or may have in their collection. The web address is: http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=57
This is what I found out about the metal pipe pictured above: (credit given to the site above)

“This pipe was made by the Briarwood Corporation, Palo Alto, California; the BRYSON has number D120275 under the Bryson name on the pipe stem. There is a crosshead screw to attach the briar bowl to the stem. The end cap attaches to the mouthpiece by means of a rod through the length of the pipe, in which the air hole is close to the mouth piece. The stem is of polished duraluminum and hexagonal in cross-section.

The bowls are unusual in that they are not briar turned on a lathe, but briar wood, ground to a powder and compressed under very high pressure (no glue, heat or plastics are used, just pressure. It is claimed this produces a perfect bowl of aged briar every time with increased porosity. The varnished finish on the smooth bowl however is often very badly crazed.

Two bowls, one smooth and one rusticated, were supplied with the new pipe. The bowl retaining screw is ‘locked’ onto the bowl by a gasket and metal collar, enabling rapid replacement of the bowls without the need of a screwdriver. The corn cob bowl, in centre image, is another version, not sure if this was manufactured by Bryson, or a home workshop job.

The set here shown was available for $3.50 new, but in what year? Below that are pictures of adverts seen from 1946 magazine. The last photograph was of a possible derivative on eBay in 2003, although US patent D122042 seems to be this pipe, invented by Max Bressler, Chicago Ill 1940.

There are also other derivatives without the Bryson name stamped in the metal and variations on the shape and grooving of the stem. The pipe pictured with Pat Pend under the Bryson name has no grooves forward of the bowl and the front end cap is a larger thread than the other models, including my version with no name. 30 April 1940 US patent # D120275 Inventor Charles Rothman, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, assignor Briarwood Corp, also of Cleveland Ohio at that time.”

When the pipe arrived it was in pretty rough shape. The aluminum was oxidized on the barrel and the bowls were both very dirty and filled with cobwebs and built up grit. The rusticated bowl had not been smoked very much so it was clean on the inside underneath the dust and webs. There was no cake or tars. The smooth bowl was the exact opposite. The bowl was caked and the top of the rim was tarred and dented. In examining it I notice that the grain on the smooth one was peeling and fading in places – it was a decal and not truly grain. I could also see the composite make up of the pipe bowl as described above. This was strange looking material – similar to my Medico Brylon but also a lot like particle board that is used in building. This was going to be a fun piece to clean up and restore. The metal barrel was unstamped but the lines on the barrel match the photos above perfectly.

I was able to take it apart, which sounds normal but I have found that on these metal pipes that are in this condition the end cap and bowl are often welded together with tars that make breaking it free and taking it apart virtually impossible. The four photos below show the state of the parts once the pipe was disassembled. The bowl each had a screw in the bottom of the bowl with a hole in the center and a cap on the bottom of the bowl that was inset. The bowls thus could be quickly interchanged. The apparatus on the inside consisted of an end cap, a long pin that was threaded on both ends – into the cap and into the tenon on the stem, a nylon stem and in this case a paper filter slid over the pin. The pin was not hollow but acted as the connection that held the stem in place in the aluminum barrel. The end cap was inserted on one end with the pin extended the length of the barrel and the stem screwed onto the pin and tightening against the barrel. Without the end cap and pin in place the stem did not stay in place.

The inside of the barrel had a dark lacquer of tobacco juices that had hardened on the walls. The pin and inside the cap and tenon the same dark amber lacquer was hardened. This was going to be a challenge to clean up. The pressed briar bowls would also not be easy to clean as I was afraid of using alcohol on them for fear of decompressing the material with moisture.

I took apart the smooth bowl in order to ream and clean it. The next two photos show the parts of the bowl. You can see the hollow screw, the insert cap and a small washer. From all appearances the washer was an addition to the set up done by the previous owner. I appeared to me that the bowl had been over tightened and the cap pressed to deeply into the bowl for a tight fit. The washer took up the excess space and allowed the bowl to be tightened. In the second photo the top edge of the rim can be seen with the dents and damage visible.

I cleaned the screw and the washers with Everclear and cotton swabs to remove the lacquer buildup. I reamed the bowl with the largest cutting head of the PipNet reamer set as the bowl is quite large. In the first photo below the damaged finish is also visible. Once I had reamed the bowl I topped it with my usual method – a piece of sandpaper on a flat board. I twisted the bowl surface against the sandpaper until the damage was removed. Once done the composite nature of the bowl material was very visible.

Cleaning out the barrel and all of the metal internals was labour intensive. It took many pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and Everclear to get the pipe barrel clean. I used cotton bolls that I twisted into plugs, dipped in Everclear and rammed through the barrel – just like cleaning a rifle. In the photos below you can see some of the plugs and swabs that were used. Once I had scrubbed the surfaces clean inside the barrel I worked on the pin, tenon and end cap. I used 0000 steel wool to clean the aluminum surface and brighten it.

The nylon stem had a deep tooth mark on the top and on the underside of the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the tooth chatter and the calcification on the stem. I wiped it clean with Everclear to remove the sanding dust, cleaned the inside with Everclear and picked out the debris in the tooth dents. Once they were clean and dry I patched the dents with a drop of clear superglue. Because the colour of the stem is more of a grey black the black superglue did not match. The clear superglue was transparent and when dried and sanded was invisible.

I set the stem aside to let the superglue spot patches to cure before I sanded them smooth. While it was drying I restained the bowls with a dark brown aniline stain applied with a cotton swab. I applied it and flamed it to set it. I was not sure the stain would take on the smooth bowl as it seemed to have a varnish coat on the surface and the grain pattern was a decal. Once it was dry I would give it a light buff and see if it took.

I set the bowls aside and worked on the superglue patches on the stem. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and then followed that by sanding with a medium grit sanding sponge. The next series of four photos show the process of blending in the repair.

Once I had blended the patch into the surface of the stem it was time to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I decided to sand both the stem and the aluminum barrel at the same time. I wet sanded with the 1500—2400 grit pads to minimize the scratching on both and then dry sanded with the remaining grits. By the end of the process the patch was invisible and both the stem and the barrel shone.

Once I had finished with the micromesh sanding pads I reassembled the internals, stem and the barrel. I gave it a light buff with White Diamond. A light touch is necessary in order not to turn the buffing pads black with the metal as it is polished. I took it back to the work table and hand applied wax and hand buffed it with a soft towel. The next two photos show the finished barrel and stem.

When the bowls had dried I buffed them with White Diamond as well. The rusticated bowl worked well and the shine came up on it with no problem. The smooth bowl was another story altogether. As I buffed it the finish came off in pieces. The varnish coat lifted and along with it the decal. The grain coat disappeared. I then gave it a clean buff with red Tripoli to remove the coat in its entirety. I hand sanded the bowl with the medium grit sanding sponge. Once the surface was clean I wiped it down with an alcohol dampened cotton pad. I then used a permanent black marker to draw grain lines on the surface of the bowl. These looked horrible after I had applied them but with some sanding with micromesh sanding pads and the sanding sponge I was able to lighten them and they began to look more natural. I then restained the bowl with some linseed oil and cherry stain. The photo below shows the finished surface of both bowls.

When the bowls had dried I tried screwing each bowl to the barrel to make sure they fit well. I coated the rusticated bowl with Halcyon II wax and gave it a light buff with a clean flannel buffing pad. The smooth bowl I coated with carnauba wax and lightly buffed with the flannel buff as well. The finished pipe is pictured below with each of the bowls in place. I am pleased with how it turned out. In evaluating the amount of work to keep it clean, I am not sure I will ever smoke this one. It may well end up in the display cupboard as part of my oddities collection.

Reworking a Unique Nylon “Vikingish” Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I saw this old pipe in the rack at the antique mall I wanted it because of its uniqueness. The price was also good – $9.95. I figured at that price it was like buying a corn cob pipe and certainly would function in the same capacity for me. This one had a nylon base and stem with a briar bowl that screwed into the base. Dr. Grabow bowls fit this pipe base perfectly but Falcon bowls do not fit. The only stamping on the pipe is on the bottom of the base where it reads Nylon. In researching this pipe on the net I was unable to find any pertinent information. When I posted it on Pipe Smoker Unlimited Forums I got a suggestion and a link to the Smoking Metals site. Low and behold the link took me to the exact pipe base as the one I had found. Here is the link: http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=60 The pipe pictured has a far better bowl than the one that I found. What I found interesting was the information that was on the site regarding this pipe. I am copying it verbatim:

“No makers name, simply the word ‘NYLON’ on the base of the stem under the bowl. The briar bowl is Viking style, accepting all Dr Grabow Viking and Koolsmoke bowls. The bit can be varying colours and not always vulcanite so often severely damaged. The stems can be silvered or in gilt, or even painted, but it is not known if this is how they left the manufacturer. Among names sold under is Forecaster Superline. US Patent# 179,373 Inventor Berenson would seem to apply.”

This pipe was in good shape. The stem is attached and not removable. It had some tooth chatter but no tooth marks or bites. It was made of nylon and not vulcanite even though it is black. The base itself is an opalescent white colour and showed tobacco stains in the base and the shank. The bowl was unfinished and showed tooling marks from the turning on the lathe. There was a slight uneven ridge on one side where the top of the bowl curved upward. There were rough spots all around the bowl and the finish was unsanded. The wood is not briar and seems more like the maple or hickory bowls that come from Missouri Meerschaum. The inside of the bowl has a slight uneven carbon build up in the top of the bowl and dried and hardened pieces of dottle stuck to the sides in the bottom half of the bowl. The reservoir in the base also had a buildup of tars and shreds of tobacco stuck to the base. The first photo below was taken the day I found the pipe. Photos two through five show the bowl when I began working on it at my work table.

I unscrewed the bowl from the base and set it aside while I worked on the base to begin with. I cleaned out the stained reservoir with cotton swabs dipped in Everclear and used bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners on the inside of the stem and the shank. The dried tobacco shreds were stuck to the base so it took some scrubbing to remove the dried materials. The next three photos give an idea of the state of the reservoir and the slight tooth chatter on the stem. The fourth photo shows the cleaned but stained base of nylon.

Once the base was clean and the tars and buildup removed I worked on the finish of the bowl. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the marks from the lathe and the rough spots. I wanted to remove as much of the marking on the bowl as possible without changing the shape. As I sanded it I was impressed by the grain on the particular piece. I sanded the stem at the same time with the 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter. Interestingly the nylon stem sanded out greyish white. The sanding dust was light grey in colour.

The next step in the sanding process was to use a medium grit sanding sponge and also with a fine grit sanding block to remove the marks and scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper on both the bowl and the stem. I followed that by wet sanding the bowl and the stem with 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I then dry sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12,000 grit. I used the micromesh pads on both the bowl and the stem. I did not include pictures of all of the sanding process but chose the one below as representative.

When I had finished sanding the stem and the bowl I buffed them lightly with White Diamond and then gave both a coat of carnauba wax. I chose for this bowl to not stain it but leave it natural as I like the look of the grain in the wood. The photos below show the finished pipe. Any ideas on what the wood might be?

I had no idea Douwe Egberts made pipes

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I posted the find of this pipe on Twitter, I received an email from Al Jones (upshallfan) that pretty well summarized my thinking. I post a bit of that email here: Douwe Egberts pipe??? We used them for our restaurant coffee program for many years (they provide the on-demand brewers used by Burger Kings as well). They are now owned by Sara-Lee. Who knew they made pipes! I’ll look forward to that restore and history lesson… If I had thought a bit more about it I would have remembered that Amphora tobacco was once made by Douwe Egberts but I did not remember that.

The one I picked up is a nice rusticated briar billiard. It is stamped Douwe Egberts X-tra 819. The stem also has a logo – an upward pointing white arrow-head. The bowl had a thick cake and the rim had a buildup of cake and tars. The bowl had what appears to be a combination of sandblasted and rusticated finish. The shank is sandblasted and it appears that the bowl was rusticated first and then sandblasted afterwards. The rustication has a rough edge appearance to it like it was blasted after the patterns were cut. The finish was dirty and worn and the stem had hints of oxidation under the grit and grime. There was minor tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem near the button. In the photo below, taken on my iPhone the pipe I am speaking about is the second one down from the top of the photo. (I apologize for the blurriness of the photo.)

Wikipedia states that Douwe Egberts (often abbreviated as DE) is a Dutch corporation that processes and trades coffee, tea, and other groceries. Its full name is Douwe Egberts Koninklijke Tabaksfabriek-Koffiebranderijen-Theehandel NV, which translates as “Douwe Egberts Royal Tobacco Factory – Coffee Roasters – Tea Traders, Plc.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douwe_Egberts

The late Bob Runowski (Morelysson) had this to say about the brand: Douwe Egbert was a conglomerate which used to manufacture Amphora. I don’t recall if the conglomerate ever owned pipe manufacturing. DE offered pipes as a premium for coupons in Amphora Pipe Tobacco, I think in the ’60s. Strange to me, though, because their Amphora pipes were always stamped “Amphora”. I did smoke a fair amount of Amphora Brown in my time. It was quite common for most tobacco firms to offer some inducement for the smoker to continue to buy their products. One of the better known was the Reynolds offerings for PA and CH users. H&H used to include a pipe tool (tamper/knife).

As Bob spoke of above, I have seen DE offering pipes with Amphora coupons. But those pipes were consistently stamped Amphora –and sometimes X-tra as the DE one I have is stamped. Generally they also bore the Made in Holland stamp as well. This pipe is not stamped with any other than the Douwe Egberts stamp.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the cake, taking it back to bare wood. This pipe had a heavy aromatic smell so I decided to go back to the beginning and clean it out. Once I had reamed it I dropped it in an alcohol bath to soak for several hours.

I dropped the stem in a Oxyclean bath while the bowl was soaking. The Oxyclean softens the oxidation and makes it much easier to remove.

After a two hour soak, I took the bowl and the stem out of their respective baths and dried them off. In the first photo below you can see the oxidation has all risen to the surface of the DE stem. It is the third stem from the top in the photo.

I pushed the stem back into the shank once the shank had dried out and took some pictures to show the state of the pipe after the soaks.

I scrubbed the exterior bowl and shank down with a soft bristle tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and build up in the grooves of the finish. I also scrubbed top of the rim with the tooth brush and used a dental pick to remove the buildup from the grooves of the finish. Once I had scrubbed the bowl I rinsed it with warm water under the tap. I scrubbed it with the warm water to remove the soap and then dried it with a soft cloth.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to clean off the remainder of the finish on the pipe. I worked on the rim until it was clean and free of the buildup that was deep in the grooves.

I restained the bowl and shank with a dark brown aniline stain, flamed it and then gave it a coat of Linseed oil with a light cherry stain.

This time around in the cleaning process I had gotten ahead of myself and stained the pipe before I had thoroughly cleaned out the interior of the pipe. IT WAS AN ERROR. Normally I clean and scrub the interior the same time I do the outside. It makes the cleaning with Everclear much easier and if the alcohol drips on the surface no harm is done. Doing it after the staining made the cleaner process fussy and I had to be careful not to harm the finish of the newly stained bowl and shank.

Once the interior was cleaned I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the surface oxidation. The Oxyclean had done a great job in bringing it all to the surface.

I put the stem back in the shank and did some work on the tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem. I flamed them with a Bic lighter to lift them as much as possible. On the top side the marks disappeared altogether between the light sanding and the flame of the lighter. On the underside one deeper bite mark remained. I continued to flame it and sand until I had minimized its appearance on the stem.

I dry sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. Each successive grit removed more of the scratches on the vulcanite and brought a deeper shine to the stem.

I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry and soak into the stem and buffed it by hand.

I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and then with carnauba wax. I gave it multiple coats of wax and then buffed the pipe with a soft flannel buffing pad to give it a shine. The finished pipe is pictured below.

rebornpipes

reclaiming old and worn estate pipes

Tag Archives: bite marks

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A Piece of Tobacciana – Restoring an Old Nylon Cigarette Filter/Holder

Restoring a Bryson Metal Pipe with Two Bowls

Reworking a Unique Nylon “Vikingish” Pipe

I had no idea Douwe Egberts made pipes

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