Tag Archives: Bowl – finishing

Refurbishing The Guildhall London Pipe 409 Bulldog for Country Squire Radio Host Beau York

Blog by Steve Laug

I really like the grain and look of this bulldog. It is made by Comoy’s London and bears the stamping is The Guildhall over London Pipe on the left side of the shank. On the right side is the circular Com stamp Made In London in a circle with the In centered in the circle. Underneath the circle it reads England and to the right of that is the shape stamp 409. The grain on this pipe is a mixed bag but is nonetheless beautiful. There is cross grain, swirls and birdseye that pops on the right side of the bowl. I was listening to the live show when Beau and Jon David talked about this pipe. They showed the condition of it and made some comment about needing to give it some attention as it was looking rough (my recollection). I tweeted them that I would gladly take it on as a project if he sent it my way. Beau packed it up and sent it my way. It arrived early this week after the New Year weekend. When I took it out of the packing envelopes and unwrapped it this is what I found. The stem was badly oxidized but did not have any deep bite marks. There was the normal tooth chatter around the button on the top and bottom sides of the stem. There was a distinct line from the button up ½ inch toward the shank that looked like the stem at one time in its life had sported a rubber softie bit over the vulcanite. The finish was worn and spotty and there were some serious issues with dents and marks in the briar. The rim was very rough with a lot of dings and damage to the top surface. Some of the damage went down the cap on the left side of the bowl. The top of the bowl looked as if it had been dropped on asphalt or concrete. There were parallel marks and dings on the left side low on the bowl and on the point at the bottom of the bowl.

I took the next three close-up photos of the dings on the bowl and rim to show the extent of the damage. Both the inner and outer edge of the rim had damage that made this rim a prime candidate for topping.

Andrew, Anthony and others use a piece of glass for their flat smooth surface for topping a bowl. I use a hard piece of finished oak that is part of my work top. I put a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on the board and anchor it in place. Then I turn the bowl clockwise in a circle across the sandpaper to remove the damaged portions. I check frequently to make sure that I remove just the damage and not too much briar. I also make sure that the rim is flat against the board so that I do not change the angles and profile of the rim top and cap.

Once I had the top flattened with the 220 grit sandpaper I worked it over with a medium and a fine grit sanding block to remove any of the scratches left behind in the topping of the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the spotty finish.

I steamed the dents and marks on the bowl using a wet cloth and the blade of a butter knife that I heated on the flame of our gas range. I put the wet cloth over the dents and touched it with the hot knife blade. The stem generated lifts the dents from the briar. Doing this I was able to remove many of the dents on the sides of the bowl and on the back edge of the cap and rim.

Some of the dents were going to take more drastic measures to try to raise and some of them would need to be filled with a mix of briar and clear superglue to smooth out the surface of the briar. I decided to work on the stem for a break in the process. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and remove what appeared to be ripples in the vulcanite stem. The more oxidation I removed the more these ripples became apparent. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge made by 3M. I pick it up in 8×10 sheets and cut it into working squares to sand stems and bowls. I used a plastic washer that I made to sit between the shank and stem to protect the shoulders of the stem from being rounded in the sanding process.

The next photo shows the remaining dents in the bottom of the bowl. It was almost like a road rash left behind by a drop on concrete. Many of the lighter more shallow dents were raised with the steam but these were more stubborn. I decided to soak the dented portion of the bowl in water. I was careful to not get water in the shank or the bowl. I used a small shallow dish filled with about an inch of water and angled the dented bottom and side of the bowl in to the water. I have found in other refinishing work that water will swell dents in the wood and lift them to the surface. While I knew that some of these dents would not move much, I was certain I could raise them all significantly using this method.

While the bowl soaked in the water I turned my attention to the stem. I find these old Comoy’s stems with the three silver bars inset in them a pain to deal with. Sanding or polishing around them causes the metal to ghost on the surface of the vulcanite. It has to be quickly wiped down with a soft towel to remove it before it penetrates the vulcanite surface. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads again rubbing down the stem with the oil between each group of three pads. I have found that sanding a freshly oiled stem gives teeth to the micromesh and it gives a deeper shine in the process.

The bowl sat in the water for the entire time I worked on the stem (probably 1 ½ hours). Once I finished the stem with the micromesh I heated the knife and used it and the wet cloth to once again steam the dents. I was able to significantly lift the majority of them this way. The photos below show the pipe after the steaming. The rim dents are all gone. The majority of the ones on the side and bottom are either gone or significantly shallower. The steam on the briar brought out some nice reds in the grain of the briar. I used a soft cloth with a few drops of olive oil to wipe down the bowl and shank after the steaming.

I decided to address the remaining dents with briar dust and clear super glue fills. I sanded the surface of the bowl around the dents. I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to clean the surface of dust. I packed briar dust into the dents and put a drop of super glue on each repaired area.

I sanded the patches with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges to blend the repairs into the briar and to remove the excess glue and briar dust. The next two photos show the bowl after I had sanded the repairs smooth. They appear as dark spots on the bowl but they are smooth to touch. The dents are all gone at this point in the process.

I sanded the bowl with 2400-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches and prepare the bowl for staining. I wiped it down a final time with alcohol on a cotton pad. I decided to stain it with an aniline based walnut stain. Before staining it I used a dark brown stain pen to go over the areas that were repaired. Once they were covered I applied a coat of the aniline stain and flamed it. Once it was dry to touch I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to polish and even out the stain. The next series of four photos show the bowl before polishing. It is smooth in the hand. All dents have been removed or repaired.

I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed it with White Diamond to raise the shine. I then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad as the final touch. The finished pipe is shown below. There is still some remaining oxidation around the three bars on the left side of the stem but it has been minimized.

A Student Pays Tuition with a Reborn Suffolk

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Blog by Anthony Cook (Piffyr from Reddit’s /r/PipeTobacco forum)

It is a pleasure to put Anthony’s first blog on rebornpipes. His work on this tired old Suffolk pipe is well done. His ability to adjust and flex to deal with the challenges presented by this old pipe is really enjoyable to read about. I did a little digging and found that Suffolk pipes were made by two companies – one in England (Tyler & Co.) and one in the US (Whitehall Products). My guess would be that this is the American made pipe – thus made by Whitehall. It has a look that is very similar to some of the Whitehall pipes that I have restored over the years. Welcome to the blog Anthony. We look forward to reading about more your work in the year ahead. Thanks for being willing to post here. Without further introduction here are Anthony’s own words.

I think when I first spoke with Steve near the end of last year over on Reddit’s /r/PipeTobacco forum that I was actually a bit starstruck. You see, I’m a new guy at the art of pipe restoration, but since discovering Reborn Pipes around mid-2014, I have fallen madly and deeply in love with the site. I have read every post going back to October 2012. Steve, Al, Greg, and the other contributors here have been unwittingly providing me a free education for months and I have great admiration for the excellent work that they do.

So, when Steve invited me to share some of my work on the site I quaked in my Nikes a little. At the time, I had restored a sum total of six pipes to varying degrees of success. None of them had exploded, but I did partially dissolve one (more on that later). Still, when you are invited up to the Country Club, you go even if you’re not dressed for it.

It so happens that another member of that same forum was kind (or possibly foolish) enough to send me a few pipes to practice with around that same time. The pipe in the following picture was part of that group. It was described by him as one of two in the lot that were “as basket pipey as basket pipes get.” It had a few issues that I had not dealt with previously and had rarely seen covered. Since Lady Fortuity seemed to have spoken, I decided to document the restoration of this one and contribute it to the site to pay back some of the tuition that I owe. I’ve had no luck digging up anything on the origin of this pipe, but the stamping reads “SUFFOLK” over “ALGERIAN BRIAR”. The first thing that struck me when I pulled this one out of the packaging was the interesting and varying grain pattern. I thought it would be fun to work with to bring up to its full potential. Two small fills on the side of the bowl that were barely more than scratches and another that peeked out from under the band on the shank were the only factory flaws that I could find. There was clear evidence that it had suffered through an abusive relationship in its past though.

The stummel was dented and well scratched with a worn and uneven stain. The rim, as you can see in the photo below, was tarred, charred, deeply scratched, and there was a large gouge on the front edge from being knocked on a hard surface. Worse yet, the bottom of the bowl chamber had been reamed within five millimeters of its life and it was just begging for a burnout. Clearly, the wood was going to need some intensive therapy. The ABS stem was largely in good shape on the bit end with only light tooth chatter and a small amount of material missing from the upper portion of the button. On the other end though, the edge of the stem face had been roughly chiseled away in what I could only imagine to be an attempt to create a faux military mount fit. There was also an abrasion along the side that was deep enough to take the stem out of round. Once the ailments were cataloged, I went to work cleaning and sanitizing the internals. I started by reaming the bowl to bare wood to prepare it for the necessary repairs. Since I was unsure of the condition of the bottom of the chamber, I used my T-handle reamer only in the top 2/3 of the bowl. Then, I sanded out the remaining cake in the bottom by hand with 400-grit, then 600-grit sandpaper. The bowl, mortise, and airway were scrubbed clean with several cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out as white as they were when they went in. Then, I ran a pipe cleaner through the shank into the bowl and filled the chamber with cotton balls and alcohol and set it aside in a container of rice (to keep it upright) and let it leech out any remaining tars. I know that some people prefer to use kosher salt instead of cotton balls for this treatment. I’ve tried both and haven’t seen any difference in the end results. Cleanup is easier with the cotton balls, though. So, that’s the method I choose. In any case, I’ve since figured out that this step is unnecessary for pipes like this, because it’s going into an alcohol bath anyway and that will accomplish pretty much the same thing. Sometimes, it takes me a while, but I get there eventually. I then turned my attention to cleaning the stem. I don’t like working with ABS stem material. Some experience has taught me that some of the cheaper ones will begin to dissolve when exposed to alcohol. You’ll think (or at least I did) that you are removing thick tar build-up, but the sticky sludge on the pipe cleaner is actually disintegrated stem material. I speak with no exaggeration when I tell you that this is a horrifying revelation when you are faced with it. So now, I make sure to always test them first by dipping the pad of a finger in alcohol and pressing firmly against the surface of the stem for 20-30 seconds while it’s lying on the work surface. If the stem sticks to my finger when I lift it away and needs to be “peeled” off, then I know that the material is no good for alcohol cleaning. If that’s the case, like it was here, I use a citrus cleaner instead. It doesn’t work as well for breaking down tar build-up, but it’s non-toxic and doesn’t cause harm to the stem material. It just takes more a bit more elbow grease and I always keep a good supply of that on hand.

Roughly 24 hours later, I removed the tar-stained cotton balls and pipe cleaner from the bowl. Then, I dropped the stummel into a jar of isopropyl alcohol to bathe overnight to remove the old stain and soften the tar around the rim to make removing it easier.

I removed the stummel from the bath the next morning. I was surprised to see that not only had it performed well at removing the stain, but it had done a fantastic job of removing the crud from around the rim too. A lot of what I had taken to char was actually heavily caked soot and tar that had dissolved away in the alcohol. It still looked like it had been through a thresher, but this time at least, the machine hadn’t been on fire. My first step in repairing the damaged rim was to remove the surface scratches. I clamped 220-grit sandpaper to a sheet of glass from and glass-top table (the glass looks dimpled in the photo below, but that’s actually the opposite side) to set up a topping surface. 220 is more course than what I would normally start with, but the scratches were deep and it helps to speed things up when you’re removing that much material. I placed the bowl rim-down on the paper, firmly gripped the bottom of the bowl, and slowly sanded in a circular motion. While sanding, I made sure to check my progress often and to change the position of my hand frequently to avoid putting too much pressure on the same side.Once the worst of the scratches were about half of their original depth, I switched to a 320-grit paper. I continued sanding until the scratches were barely visible. Then, I swapped the paper to 400-grit and sanded until the scratches and majority of the charring were gone.

The top surface of the rim was smooth and scratch-free but there were still several small nicks remaining along the inner and outer edges. Also, the gouge along the front had barely been touched. So, I decided to chamfer the outside edge of the rim at an angle and depth that matched the gouge. The chamfer would have to be deep. So, this decision was going to take the project outside of the realm of pure restoration and into modification, since it was going to change the shape of the pipe. I’m never completely happy with a choice like that, but in my opinion, it was the only way to give the pipe a truly refinished look.

Starting at the front of the rim, I first sanded the rough surface of the gouge smooth, and then worked my way around the rim to create the chamfer. I used the same progression paper that I had when topping the bowl. I roughed in the shape with 220-grit and then refined it as I moved to the higher grits. I also put a narrow chamfer on the inside edge to remove most of the nicks there. You can see the end results in my admittedly poorly lit photo below.The major issues of the rim were taken care of. So, I began to work on the rest of the briar surface using a little steam power. To free up my hands, I secured the stummel in my bench vice using a bit of foam rubber to protect it. I then heated the end of an old, flat-head screwdriver over a tea candle, placed a dampened cotton cloth over the dents, and pressed the hot metal into it. If there’s no material missing inside the dent and the edges aren’t too sharp, this method does a fine job of raising the wood to the surface. There were still scratches when I finished, but I would take care of those in a later step. I gave the stummel a good wipe-down with acetone after working on the dents, and then dropped it into a short alcohol bath to further remove the original stain. I wanted this one as bare as possible to give the grain the chance to do what it so badly wanted to do. I let the stummel completely dry out overnight. Then, I patched a few scratches on the front of the bowl that were too deep to be sanded out. I used an artist’s palette knife as a trowel to pack briar dust into the scratches until they were slightly overfull and dripped CA glue into the dust. Once dry, I sanded back the hardened glue. I began sanding with 320-grit until the “bumps” of glue were about half their original height. Then, I used 400-grit until the glue was just barely a ridge above the surface. Finally, I sanded with 600-grit to sand the patch flush and remove any of the shiny glue that remained on the surface around the patch. At this point, the bowl was looking much better, but it was still heavily scratched and needed more work. However, I also needed to pay some attention to the stem. So, I sat it aside for later.

It seems that even these ABS stems will oxidize over time. Perhaps not at the rate or to the severity of vulcanite, but I’ve noticed a brownish hue on the surface of some of the older stems like this one. So, I applied a bit of Vaseline to the metal tenon and dropped it into a Oxyclean bath for an hour or so (the Oxyclean dulls the finish on polished metal, thus the Vaseline). Once removed, it was ready for a scrub with a Magic Eraser. When I use these, I cut each pad into eight cubes and rotate the cubes as I work to get a clean surface. Lightly oxidized stems might need only one or two cubes before they’re finished. Here’s the stem with a matte black finish after the scrub. Heating a stem is a great method for raising deep tooth dents in most materials. I’ve found that it also works well for leveling out even normal chatter. The more that I accomplish with the application of heat, then the less material I will have to remove and the less work I will have to do in sanding them out. So, it’s become part of my regular routine for stem maintenance. My high-tech stem heating apparatus consists of a paint stripper secured by a large, weathered c-clamp with a jar of cold water by the side. I run a pipe cleaner through the stem to hold it and move it back and forth over the heat source to keep it from burning. As soon as I can smell the hot material I know that I have done all that I can do. I either immediately dip it in the cold water to set it, or re-bend if necessary, and then dip. Most bent stems like this one tend to straighten out at least a little during heating. So, before I begin, I print a photo reference of the stem, trace the inside edge of the bend on paper, and find a hard, smooth, rounded surface that fits well inside the bend. If it’s required, I’ll grasp both ends of the pipe cleaner and bend the warm, pliable stem over the rounded surface and let it cool for a few seconds. Then, I set it with cold water, wipe it dry and compare it to my tracing. If it’s still off a bit, it usually takes only a couple of minutes to reheat the stem enough to give it another try. The following picture shows the stem after heating and re-bending. It was time to address that chiseled chamfer along the stem face. I considered cutting the damage off and reseating the tenon, but decided against it because I didn’t want to shorten the stem. The only other option, aside from replacement (and that wasn’t going to happen – this was for practice after all), was to replace the missing material. I began by applying several layers of black CA glue to create a sort of collar around the edge. I allowed each layer to dry and sanded them back a bit to keep it smooth and prevent bubbles from forming between each layer. I also applied a couple of layers of CA glue to the abrasion that had taken the stem out of round and on the top of the button where a bit had been worn off. The picture below shows the collar once it was completely built-up. To ensure that the stem was without gaps when attached to the shank, I needed a way to evenly sand out a smooth surface on the face of the stem. My solution was to take a piece of scrap wood and drill a hole in it only slightly larger than the tenon. Then, I tightly clamped a strip of sandpaper over the wood and used an X-Acto blade to carefully cut a hole in the paper to match the bore. I inserted the tenon into the hole, then twisted and rotated to sand out any lumps and bumps created by the CA glue. I began sanding with 320-grit paper, and then progressed to 400-grit and 600-grit to finalize. When the stem face was smooth and even, I reattached it to the stummel to do the final work on the stem patches. I put a strip of painter’s tape around the end of the shank to prevent any scratching. It’s much easier to match the shape of this sort of patch with the stem attached. Still, care has to be taken not to remove material from outside of the patch, which would give it a fluted appearance. I used the same progression of grits to sand as I did on the face. It took a long time to get the collar, abrasion, and button patches shaped to my satisfaction. Once they were, I sanded out what tooth chatter remained after the heat treatment with 400 and 600-grit paper. Then I lightly sanded the entire stem with 1200-grit to smooth the dimpled surface. I followed with the full range of micromesh pads from 1500 to 12,000 to polish it. I don’t have a currently working buffer. So, that was going to have to be it for this stem. I gave it a wipe down with Obsidian oil and two shots of Paragon wax to achieve the results you see in the two pictures below. Also, it is obvious from those pictures that I am not working in a lint-free environment.

The stem was complete. So, I could get back to work on the stummel, which is where I have the most fun. There were still all of those scratches to address, but before removing them, I applied a quick layer of dark brown stain thinned with about three times the amount of isopropyl alcohol. I heated the wood to open the grain, and then I used a cotton swab to “paint” the stain along the grain. I didn’t want to cover the whole piece. I just want to add a bit of contrast and variation to the grain. The stain is very uneven and blotchy in the picture below, but that’s fine. Most of it was to be removed in the next step anyway, leaving only what had set in the grain. After letting the stain set, I sanded out the scratches with 600-grit paper. I also took the opportunity to further refine the shape of the rim chamfer and soften the edges a little. You can see in the picture below that the contrast stain has done its thing and the grain is really starting to “pop”. Even the minor grain has some definition now. Once again, I painted the bowl with another contrast stain. This time, I got fancy and used a size 20/0 liner brush. I again heated the wood, and then used a black stain to paint over only the thickest and tightest areas of the grain. The last staining gave the grain definition. I was hoping that this one would give it depth. Next, I sanded the stummel with 1200-grit paper. Then, I used micromesh pads 1500, 1800, and 2400 to arrive at the results you see in the picture below. It’s difficult to tell from the picture, but the lighter grain seems to recede a bit behind the darker stained grain to add some subtle intensity. I then applied a final stain to the wood. I used a medium brown to even everything out and add some warmth. I used micromesh pads 3200-12,000 to give it a polish. The following picture gives you an idea of the final finish. There was still the issue of that over-reamed bowl that needed to be addressed. So, I mixed up a batch of pipe mud to fill the bottom of the bowl. The recipe that I use consists of activated charcoal, powdered pumice and sodium silicate (water glass). I use the spoon on my pipe tool to “measure” out roughly equal parts activated charcoal and powdered pumice. Then, I use a toothpick to stir them together in a glass candle jar top. When they are well mixed, I level out the powdered material, and then use a pipette to drip a few drops of sodium silicate into the mix near the edge. I then begin stir the sodium silicate into the mix with the toothpick and “shovel” in more dry material as needed. Once it reaches a thick, tar-like consistency, it’s ready to be applied.

Once mixed, the patch material begins to set up very quickly. So, it’s important to work with a bit of haste. I use the toothpick to load the spoon of my pipe tool with the gooey “tar”, and then transfer it to the pipe bowl where I have already ran a pipe cleaner through the airway and slightly into the bowl to seal it. When the patch is in the bowl, I use the tamper to press it into place just below the draft hole. After a minute or two, the patch material has set up enough that it is no longer sticky but still pliable. I use this opportunity to refine the shape of the patch with my fingertip. I put the stummel aside for three days to give the bowl patch a chance to fully cure. When I returned to it, the material had become dark gray and very hard to the touch. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get a picture of it after it cured. I was excited to be in the home stretch with this pipe and plunged ahead without thinking about it. So, I probed around the edges of the patch a bit with the spoon of my pipe tool, and then turned the bowl upside-down and gave it a few firm taps into the palm of my hand. I wanted to make sure that the material was fully adhered to the bottom surface of the chamber. Once I was satisfied that it was, I sanded the patch a bit with a piece of 600-grit paper to smooth the edges along the slope of the chamber and the patch was complete. This repair should last a long time and eliminate any chance of a burn-through in the bottom of the bowl.

Then, I prepared a batch of bowl coating. I know that bowl coatings are a controversial subject among pipe smokers, but to me it just makes sense when a chamber has been badly damaged like this one. To me, any extra protection that I can provide is a benefit. Personally, I can’t detect any taste from it, but I won’t argue with those who say that they can. In any case, my simple recipe is a mixture of sour cream and activated charcoal. I don’t measure. I just mix by eye until it becomes a deep charcoal gray. I then apply it to the inside of the bowl with a cotton swab. After six hours, the coating was dry and I smoothed it out with a paper towel wrapped around my finger.

Again, I’m currently working without a buffer. So, instead of carnauba, I gave the bowl several coats of Paragon wax to finish the work. You can see the completed pipe in the pictures below.

Thanks again to Steve and the rest of the contributors at Reborn Pipes for taking the time to teach me the skills to get this done. I still have a lot of learning to do. So, I’ll be around for a good while. Until next time…

Restoring a Burned Beveled Rim on an Algerian Briar Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This morning I finished working on the second pipe from my recent pipe hunt – the small pot shaped pipe on the right in the two photos below. It is a natural finish, virgin pot shaped pipe. The left side of the shank has no stamping and the right side is stamped Algerian Briar over Made in France. It is a pretty decent piece of briar and had a beveled/chamferred rim that caught my eye. Not a bad pickup for $10USD.

When I took it to the work table to examine it I found that the stem was very tight and would not go all the way into the shank. There was no oxidation on it and not a bite mark on the stem. The finish was clean and there were no fills or dents in the bowl. The left side had some great birdseye grain and the right side had a mix of grains. The rim was dirty and had a buildup of tars and oils that would need to be removed. There was also a burn mark on the outer edge at the front of the bowl and potential inner edge burn damage at the back side of the bowl.

I removed the stem carefully as it was very tight in the shank. It is a delicate stem so I did not want to snap the blade. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the light cake that was buildup in the bowl. I was surprised to see that the bowl was almost unsmoked from midway down to the bottom of the bowl. The briar did not show any burn or darkening in the bottom of the bowl. The shank was very clean. I scrubbed it down with isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the little debris that was in the shank and made the tenon fit so tight. Once the shank was clean, I waxed the tenon with beeswax and it fit the shank with no problems. That was a very simple fix.

The burned area on the front of the rim was another story. I have detailed the repairs on the rim in a separate blog. If you want to read the details have a look at this link https://rebornpipes.com/2015/01/04/repairing-and-minimizing-a-burn-mark-on-a-bowl-rim/ After sanding, reshaping and polishing the rim I rubbed the natural finish down with a light coat of olive oil to blend it with the bowl. I buffed it by hand and then gave the bowl several coats of carnauba wax to seal and protect the briar. The finished rim is shown in the photo below. At this point I still needed to buff the pipe on the buffer and give it a final polish but the reworked rim is visible.

The stem was one of the simplest I have worked on in a long time. There were no bite marks, tooth chatter or even oxidation. I lightly sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and wiped it down with a soft cloth to remove the debris that was stuck on the surface of the stem. 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 between each set of three pads and then gave the stem a final coat of oil and let it dry before buffing and applying the wax.

I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I gave it a final buff with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine and polish the pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Giving New Life to a MasterCraft Custom De Luxe Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Yesterday morning my wife, three of our daughters and I made our after Christmas trek to the US, crossing the border at Blaine, Washington. After a great breakfast I dropped them off at the shopping mall and I made my way down to my favourite hunting grounds for pipes. I made a quick stop at Senate Tobacco Shop and sorted through some of the tins of tobacco he had in stock, though Washington prices are high they are still lower than Canada. I picked up a nice tin of McClellands Black Parrot, a Virginia, Carolina and Perique flake tobacco dated from May of 2010. I went from there to look for pipes. I went through three of my normal stops and found nothing of interested. I stopped at the last spot, figuring I would go home empty handed but the shopkeep had just picked up a few pipes. I was able to get the MasterCraft pipe on the left below and an Algerian Briar pot that had been made in France.

I really liked the shape of the old MasterCraft. The original stem was in excellent shape with no tooth marks or damage and the MC stem logo was intact. The briar had some nice spots but the pipe had a lot of fills on the bowl and shank that had fallen out and left pits in the briar. The finish was shot with peeling varnish on the sides, back and front. The stamping was sharp and read MasterCraft in the usual shield and underneath that it read Custom De Luxe. There was no other stamping on the bowl.

There was one large fill on the rim that went ¾ of the way from the outside of the bowl inward but did not enter the bowl. The putty fill on that one had shrunken and portions of it had fallen out. The bowl had a thick hard cake that was like rock. The band was stamped STERLING and was oxidized and worn. It was also loose on the shank so it was amazing that it still was with the pipe when I found it.

I took the next three photos to show the status of the fills on the bowl and shank. They were broken and loose and would take very little to remove them.

To soften the fills and the cake I took the stem off the bowl and dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath to soak while I cleaned up the stem. It was not in bad shape so I did not need to soak it in oxyclean. There was no oxidation on the stem only dirt and grime build up that would scrub off quite easily.

I removed the bowl after soaking for 30 minutes and used my PipNet reamer with the number 2 cutting head to ream the cake back to the briar. I used a dental pick to pick out the remaining putty fills from the bowl and shank. The alcohol bath had sufficiently softened them so that removing them was quite simple.

I took the band off the shank and wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the remaining varnish.

With the finish removed I took out my canister of briar dust and used the dental pick to fill each of the pits in the bowl. I put the dust in them one at a time, tamped it down so that the dust was well compacted and then dripped super glue into the repair. I packed in more briar dust and then more glue. Even though the glue hardens and dries dark I find it far better than the white and pink putty fills that had been there before. I always overfill the holes as I have found in the past that to skimp on the process inevitably means that I repeat it.

I sanded the bowl and repaired fills with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then wet sanded the bowl and shank with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. Once I had the surface of the fills blended into the surface of the briar I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain. I decided to use the stain straight without cutting it to lighten it. I wanted to have the rim and top edges near the fills dark so that they would blend in with the fills well and hide them. I then stained the rest of the bowl and shank, flamed the stain and restained it until I had a good even coverage.

I buffed the bowl and shank with red Tripoli and White Diamond and brought it back to the work table. I glued the silver band on the shank and polished it with a silver polishing cloth and 4000-6000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with a light coat of olive oil to prepare it for sanding with micromesh sanding pads.

The coverage on the fills was quite good. They were still there but the darker stain coat hid them and made them blend into the briar. I sanded the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads to lighten the stain slightly and to bring up the shine. I wanted a bit more of the grain to show through the stain so the sanding would allow that to happen. The oil on the surface helped the micromesh to cut into the briar and really smooth things. Once I had finished sanding the bowl, I set up my retort to clean out the shank and stem. I had to run three tubes of alcohol through the stem and shank before it came out clean. It was one dirty pipe.

When I removed the retort I cleaned out the shank and stem with a minimum of pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and with very little effort they were spotless. I sanded 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 between each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil. I gave the stem a final coat of oil and once it dried buffed the stem with White Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax to protect.

I put the stem back on the shank and then buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below.

Restoring a Four-Digit Kaywoodie Canadian

3 Replies

Blog by Andew Selking

I have a weakness for Kaywoodies, especially those from the 1940’s or earlier; the briar is just amazing. I read somewhere that Kaywoodie was the largest pipe maker prior to WWII and used 100-year-old briar. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but this pipe was one of their mid-range pipes, yet it doesn’t have a single fill. Additionally, it weighs exactly the same as my Heritage Heirloom with the same shape number. (As an aside, the Heritage pipes were made in the 1960’s to compete with Dunhill. According to their brochures, only one pipe out of 300 made the cut.)

Here is a picture of the pipe when I received it. It had some heavy cake, tar build up on the rim, and a few dents in the stem. Cake doesn’t scare me, my reamer makes quick work of it, and tar build up often protects the rim from damage. The only problem from a collector’s standpoint was the stinger had been cut. I think pipes smoke better without the stinger, so that wasn’t a huge issue for me. One of the things that I do to make reaming heavy cake easier is soak the bowl in alcohol. Here’s the bowl getting dropped into the bath. After a good long soak, it was time to remove the cake. My Castleford reamer effortlessly removed the cake. I like to multi-task, so while the bowl was working, I soaked the stem in Oxyclean. I used a fuzzy stick and Oxyclean solution to get the worst of the gunk out of the stem. Here is the first pass. Although I usually retort the shank and stem separately, the screw in stem prevented that. I ended up retorting the whole pipe. The inside of the shank and stem were nasty. Next I turned my attention to the rim. It had some scars that necessitated topping.

I used 150 grit sandpaper on a piece of glass to remove the damaged section. To fix the dents in the stem, I used a three-pronged approach. First I used steam to raise the dents as much as possible. I have an old kitchen knife that I heated with my heat gun. I placed a wet cloth over the area and pressed the hot knife blade onto the stem. It raised it a little bit. This is after the application of steam. Next I used 400 grit sand paper. The underside of the button was kind of messed up, so I dressed it with a file. I still had a small dent, so I filled it with clear super glue and applied a drop of accelerator. The accelerator comes in a spray bottle, which I find makes a mess. My solution is to take the sprayer out and use the end as an applicator. I also use a thumb tack to apply a small amount of glue. I’m not very neat when using glue straight from the bottle and using a thumb tack gives me more control (it also means less material to sand after the glue dries). Once I had the stem sorted out, I used 400 grit wet/dry with water followed by 1500-2400 grit micro mesh with water. I used a progression of 1500-12000 micro mesh on the bowl. Next I used Pimo Pipe Supply medium walnut stain, cut with 50% de-natured alcohol, to make the rim match the bowl.

After an uneventful spin on the buffer (anyone who ever used a buffer to shine pipes understands the drama that can occur when the pipe gets away from you) this is the result.

The Christmastime Joy of Refurbishing an Old Peterson

9 Replies

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert

Photos © the Author

“Smoke your pipe and be silent; there’s only wind and smoke in the world.” – Irish Proverb

INTRODUCTION
Many of the pipe lots I purchased during the past few months were to spruce up and sell at my online restored pipe site, although I admit to liberating a few of the choicer finds here and there for my own collection. However,this fine example of a vintage classic Peterson and a number of other brands I bought as singles in more recent weeks were intended with lust a forethought for my own ultimate and lifelong use. As far as the Pete I just received is concerned, my decision to keep it was not based on the Peterson brand name, 22 of which I already owned.

In fact, I expected to add one of the Pete’s I ordered near the end of November to the trove, which seems to increase at an exponential rate and counts 23 now of this brand alone.I chose instead to list the fine pipe for sale for disparate reasons even I find difficult to explain. My penchant for anything Peterson is so well known that my announcement on the Smokers Forums of my plan to sell the K&P System Standard brought a humorous reply: “I thought you’d never say ‘Enough Petersons.’ ”

My decision to sell the basic K&P System Standard full bent which, when I at last held it in my hands, was similar to some I already have, was based in part on that factor but, more to the point, it somehow lacked the certain element of instant overwhelming attraction which is too complicated to describe in this forum, and besides, I am sure anyone who reads this already knows the butterfly effect all too well. I am also adding higher-end pipes to my site and concluded a shiny new-looking Peterson would provide a nice incentive to someone out there in Cyberland who possess the essential sense of captivation to give it the loving home it deserves and not enjoy it once or twice only to put it in the rack and almost never again give it a serious thought.

And I should add how any potential rarity or value of the engaging pipe shown here pre-restored is irrelevant to my sentiments for it. No, I reserved the Peterson Dublin Republic Era straight billiard for my own caring use even despite its mixed grain because it, well, possesses the right stuff as defined by my personal sensibilities. Who knows? Maybe the System Standard full bent is an extraordinary find. I just don’t have eyes for every pipe that comes my way as I do for the subject of this blog.

Perhaps the strongest tug at the curious side of me was the stem, which is perfect except for one tell-tale sign that it is not the original for this Made in the Republic of Ireland Peterson. Clear as day on the left side is the symbol that identifies it as a Peterson stem made for a pipe manufactured in France:

Now that’s one kind of oddity that always endears a pipe to me on first sight.

REFURBISH
First, as the word refurbish suggests, this was, for the most part, not a difficult task. The only actual problem was removing the cake buildup from the chamber, where I started.

For the most part, in my experience at least, even cake this bad comes free without a fight and leaves the chamber relatively smooth. The third photo above does not do service to the way the cake tapered downward from more to less. This turned out to be one of the ordeal varieties, not a piece of cake at all. (I know, and tender my apology now.) I started with the 19mm reamer since most of the carbon mess was at the top, and it fit about halfway down with snugness. Several laborious full turns later, applying just enough force to see the reamer moving a bit lower, I paused to dump the carbon dust. Seeing the huge amount that fell out, I took another close look into the chamber and was amazed to see not only that the upper bowl needed much more work, but that the bottom was unfazed.

And so I switched to the 21mm reamer that was barely able to clear the inner diameter and gave the entire area a go with several more intense turns, using pressure again to reach the real bottom. Another massive amount of carbon fled the chamber as I turned it upside-down over a proper receptacle. Then, sticking with the bigger reamer, I engaged the entire enemy for the first time. The biggest load of carbon so far emptied out, and after I blew through the shank, a thick dark cloud of dust flew through the air, reminiscent of Victorian Era London skies as described by Charles Dickens with much greater skill.

I soaked a couple of small squares of cotton cloth with Everclear and folded them around my middle finger to insert into the chamber and scrub away much of the residual grime. I did this with both sides of the cloths. Waste not, want not and all that. Of course the wet cotton came out soaked solid black along with part of my finger, but I allowed the alcohol to dry a little as I halfway cleaned my begrimed digit before sticking my clean index finger all the way in and feeling the walls. They were pocked all over.

Reattaching the 19mm blades, I angled them first against the upper half of the chamber before adjusting them to favor the lower half. Much more carbon was loosened, and more alcohol-soaked cotton cloths wiped away the excess. Again I inserted a clean finger and used it to dig out little chunks of carbon. The chamber was better but still needed work.

I turned to a small piece of 200-grit sandpaper long enough to reach the bottom of the chamber with a little above the rim and wide enough to cover half of the wall. With whatever finger fit inside the chamber leaving enough room to press down against the paper and turn it with roughness 360 degrees a few times, I heard that old familiar fingers-on-chalkboard screech the entire time. But I felt the wall smoothing. The paper came out black, and I wiped it over a rag to remove the dust. Still again, a small mountain of carbon fell from the inverted chamber. Feeling the wall with a bare finger, I knew I had to get rough at last.

A perfect old piece of 150-grit paper presented itself for my use, and I went at the chamber again with real gusto. The fact that another pile of carbon was removed dismayed and discouraged me. I repeated the process several times, cleaned the chamber with cotton cloths and Everclear, and believe it or not, got the reward I had awaited with a clean, smooth finger inspection. So that’s my page and a half on fixing the dang chamber.

Next up on my itinerary was beginning the cleaning process of the shank. After about ten minutes of running a wire-handled bristle cleaner dipped in alcohol over and over through the inner shank, I saw it was having an effect and stopped to prepare for the retort.

At this point I remembered the small stem was Lucite, which can be warped and ruined by alcohol. However, finding the task of attaching the rubber tube of the retort kit directly over the wide shank opening, and also locating no suitable temporary stem, I saw no choice but to take a chance. And so I connected the rubber over the lip of the stem and commenced the retort process.

Several test tubes of Everclear later, the shank at last came clean. Removing the stem as fast as I could and inserting a stem cleaner into it, where I let it stay long enough to dry, I found that it was intact. I completed the retort by removing the cotton balls from the chamber and using more cotton cloth to scour the chamber clean and dry and doing the same to the shank with a soft cleaner.

The stem, as nice as it was, still had a couple of minor bite marks and other blemishes I might have ignored with a pipe I was keeping, but I couldn’t do it.The ease of removing the bitemarks and other marks with 400-grit paper came as a happy surprise. While the sandpaper was handy, I cleaned the shank opening, as you will see below. After that all I needed to do was micromesh the bowl and shank with 1500, 2400 and 3200.

I was more reluctant than ever before to remove any of the original stain, but had no choice with the rim, which was blackened beyond the help of purified water, steel wool or micromesh. I chose 400-grit paper, which eliminated the blackening, before a three-step micromesh using 1500, 2400 and 3200. That done, I considered which of my modern day stains would best approximate the original, and decided to go with the medium brown. I flamed it and set it aside to cool. After a few minutes, I took out my 2400 micromesh pad and gently rubbed away the ash, followed by a quick wipe with a soft rag.

I’d have to say the greatest surprise with this old pipe was the flawless condition of the bowl and shank, with the exception of the rim as described. Based on the general design, the less familiar shade of brown and the grain that is not as uniform as pipe enjoyers today expect, I estimate that this pipe dates to the 1940s or 1950s. At first I believed the pipe was never waxed until I gave it a good wash with purified water and cotton cloth and was able to make out a couple of thin, shiny streaks on the top of the shank, where it appears its long-time previous owner seldom if ever touched the faithful companion.

Still, to assure its readiness for a smooth buffing, I prepared the wood with micromesh progressing from 1500 to 2400 to 3200 and at last 4000.

Eager to try out this wondrous pipe that, as I noted, was created before I was, I found myself filled with more excitement than usual as the moment to buff the beauty with waxes arrived. Leaving the stem behind, having waxed it with red and white Tripoli followed by White Diamond while the new rim stain dried, I carried the smooth piece of old briar into my workroom. Wanting to bring out as much of the varied grain as possible, I decided to use the whole ball of wax. (I know, I know! Again, I apologize.) Starting with the red Tripoli wheel, I coated it with an easy, light touch before moving to the white Tripoli, followed by White Diamond, and to finish it off, carnauba.

CONCLUSION
I could never describe what it is about a pipe that attracts me to it. My tastes are too eclectic. But when I see it, it is always like love at first sight. I mean that in the literal sense, as with two or three times in my life when I took one look at someone and was instantly light-headed with my stomach full of butterflies and found myself tongue-twisted. Alas, none of those relationships worked out in the end. With pipes, at least, love is forever – and perhaps a bit lecherously, I have quite the stable of mistresses.

The author enjoying the pipe.

The Little Champion 057 Horn Reborn

7 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I saw this old timer it reminded me of a Dunhill shape that I had seen though that one had had a taper stem. The seller was from Germany and the only photo included is the one below. The stem was badly oxidized in the photos and the finish on the bowl that showed was worn. I had no idea what the rim or the rest of the pipe looked like. The seller did not include any information on the stamping on the pipe so it was a bit of a blind bid. I decided to go for it and put in a low bid and won the pipe. The pipe arrived this week and I was nervous when I saw the package that the postie delivered. It was totally smashed with the corners blown out on two sides. Someone had reconstructed the box with strapping tape but the crushed box was not repaired. I cut the tape and opened the box with fear and trembling. I was wondering if the pipe inside would be in pieces of if it would be unscathed. Inside the box were many crumpled newspaper pages. I dug through the pages and in the very middle was a bubble wrapped object. The stem was still in the shank of the pipe and looking through the bubble wrap it appeared unbroken. I cut the tape on the wrapping and took out the pipe. What I found is shown in the next four photos below.

The finish was much worn with much of the black overstain worn off. Someone had put a coat of varnish over the worn finish so it was very shiny. There was very little of the sandblast that was not worn. The odd thing was that the blast was still quite rugged and not flattened in the worn portions. The stem was oxidized and dirty. There was a faint logo on the stem of the pipe – a rising sun over a wavy line like a sun over water. On the bottom of the shank it was stamped “The Little Champion”. The bowl had some remnants of broken cake in the V shaped bowl. The rim had a build up tars and oils that had filled in the blast. The rim was slightly slanted inward and gave a dapper look to the old pipe. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. For the upper portion of the bowl I used the second cutting head in the set and the smallest cutting head for the lower portion of the bowl. I evened out the section where the two cutting heads over lapped with a small pen knife. Once the bowl was reamed I put the stem in jar of oxyclean to soak and the bowl in an alcohol bath to soak. I wanted to loosen the oils on the rim top and also see if the alcohol would begin to remove the varnish coat.

Later in the day, after the bowl had soaked in the bath for several hours I took it out of the bath and dried it off with a cotton cloth. I used a soft bristled brass tire brush to scrub the rim and loosen the buildup.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to further remove the varnish. Using the acetone I was able to take of the varnish coat and prep the bowl for restaining.

I took the stem out of the oxyclean and dried it off. I put it back on the bowl and then set up a pipe retort to boil out the shank and stem. I put a cotton ball in the bowl and the surgical tube over the mouth piece. I heated the alcohol with a tea light candle. The first boil through came out brown. The photo below shows the colour of the alcohol after the first tube boiled through. I dumped the alcohol out of the test tube and refilled it and repeated the process.

I removed the stem and cleaned out the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It took very little time to clean out what remained. I put a plastic washer in place between the shank and the stem and then sanded it lightly with 220 grit sandpaper to loosen the oxidation. I followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil when finished. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and again rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and then finished sanding with 600-12,000 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed the stem down a final time with Obsidian Oil and then when dry buffed it lightly with White Diamond.

I stained the bowl with a mix of 50/50 alcohol and dark brown aniline stain. I applied it with a cotton swab, flamed it and then wiped it down with a cotton pad. The dark brown stain settled deeply into the blast. Some of the higher spots remained a lighter brown. The contrast came out looking quite nice.

Once the stain had dried I buffed the bowl and stem lightly with White Diamond. I then gave both the stem and the bowl several coats of Halcyon II wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The pipe is ready to load and enjoy. I am planning on loading it up on Christmas morning with a bowl of Pilgrim’s Muse from the Country Squire shop in Jackson.

The final photo shows the bottom of the shank and the stamping is very readable. Anyone with information on the brand please let us know in the comment section below and I will add it to the blog. Thanks ahead of time.

UPDATE:
Yohanan sent me a note that he had found the same logo on PipePhil’s Logo site http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-e3.html and once I checked it out it matches the stem logo exactly. Here is a photo.

My First Solo Pipe Restoration – A Hand Made Preben Holm IIS – PART 1

9 Replies

Blog by John Ferguson

My friend John Ferguson, who I wrote regarding our pipe hunt and his learning to clean up estates, sent me an email a few days ago. In it he included some photos of a pipe that he picked up and was working on currently. He asked about the brand of the pipe so I did a bit of research on the pipe and found out that it was a Preben Holm pipe – the IIS stamping identifies it as such. Later he sent me a piece that he wrote about the find and his restoration work. Here are his words on this first restoration. It is great to have you posting regarding this pipe on rebornpipes John. Keep up the good work.

Ever since my friend, Steve, showed me how to restore my first estate pipe that I found in a batch of pipes at an antique store in Bellingham, WA, I’ve been itching to do some more hunting for pipes that would intrigue me.

I had the opportunity to do so on a recent trip to Texas to visit my family. One beautiful afternoon towards the end of November, my mother and I headed out to some antique stores to spend some time together. And of course, hunt for some pipes.

I found this pipe that intrigued me.

It was stamped with the words, “Handmade in Denmark” with a “IIS” below it. I did a quick search on my smart phone, but couldn’t find any info quickly. With some help from Steve, we discovered that this was a Preben Holm Pipe.

It was only $10, and since my 19 year old son loves all things Scandinavian, and since it looked like something out of Lord of the Rings (another favourite of his), I decided to get it and restore it, and to give it to him as a Christmas gift this year.

It definitely needed some help. The stem had tooth marks plus calcification.

And the bowl had what looked like paint chips embedded in the texture.

There was a lot of cake built up on the inside of the bowl, so I took my grandfather’s pocket knife and began to ream it. Gently. I was careful not to damage the bowl.

I followed that up with pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean the shank. I used regular pipe cleaners, bristled pipe cleaners, and a pipe cleaning brush and worked until no more gunk came out and the pipe cleaners came out clean. The next step was to clean the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and an old toothbrush. I took several rounds of scrubbing to get most of the ‘paint flecks’ off of it, and what the brush didn’t get the tip of my pocket knife did. I think it turned out beautifully.

Next came the cotton ball soak with alcohol on the inside of the bowl. Then I turned to work on the stem. I began working on smoothing out the bite mark and removing the calcification by using 240 grit paper, followed by 180 grit. Then I began using micromesh pads working from the 1500 pad to the fine 12000 pad. After about an hour of work, I had a brand new looking stem.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Carrying on the story of a 1905 Imperial ITC Bent Billiard

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The seller had marked this little pipe an Imperial ITC Silver Mount Birmingham 1934. Something about the gentle bend of the stem and shank, the shape and wear on the bowl made me want to have this diminutive pipe as my own. I bid on it and was the only bidder picking it up for about $22 Canadian. I think the seller wet down the stem and bowl for the photos because it is far too shiny looking. When I see an old pipe like this I immediately begin to wonder about the gent who owned the pipe. What was he like? What did he smoke in it? When did he purchase it and what did he smoke in it? Many of those questions can of course be answered by the pipe itself. The date in this case was suspect and would be formalized once I had it here. The vulcanite stem appeared to have an older rounded button that let me to surmise that it has an orifice button – a single round hole in the end of the button rather than a flared airway. The bowl was obviously well smoked telling me that it was a good smoking pipe. The stem unchewed telling me that the owner had cared for it well. Other than that I was left wondering about the last owner, was he the purchaser? How had the seller come into possession of the pipe? Questions for which I will not have an answer. When the pipe arrived I opened the box and excitedly cut through the layers of tape that held the pipe captive in the bubble wrap that protected it. I was proven correct in my assumption regarding the state of the pipe. The finish was indeed wetted for the photos of the seller as the pipe did not glisten like the photos. The bowl was in decent shape, the finish worn and tired. The rim was shot with built up tars and damage from tapping the bowl out. The silver had multitudes of dents and pock marks in it that showed its carriage in a coat or vest pocket and was tarnished. The stem was clean a lightly oxidized but showed no tooth damage. The bowl was caked with a thick build up of carbons but did not have a sweet or smokey smell so it was likely a Virginia pipe. The curve of the stem matched the curve of the bowl. The stamping was clear and readable – Imperial in script at an angle with ITC underneath the underline of Imperial. There was no other stamping on the briar.

I wanted to check out the date given by the seller as I suspected it was somewhat earlier than the 1934 date given by the seller. The stem and button shape and the threaded bone tenon all pointed to an earlier date in my opinion. The hallmarks on the silver band would allow me to do that with some precision as they were not badly worn. I wiped down the band with a silver polishing cloth to remove the tarnish enough that I could read the stamping. To the naked eye it appeared to have a W.H. in an oval followed by an anchor, a lion and a lower case k. I brought home a magnifying glass from work that had a built in light. I put the pipe under the lens and turned on the light. I lifted it to get the clearest magnification I could get on the silver hallmarks and what I had seen was indeed correct. It was a WH in two interlocking circles and the three hallmarks were correct.

I took this information to one of my favourite websites to process the information and gather what I could from the stamping http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallmarks.html. There I found the following data. The anchor stamp told me that the pipe or at least the silver band came from Birmingham, England. The lion told me I was dealing with sterling silver. And the k told me the date – 1905 not 1934. The pipe was significantly older than the seller had noted. That excited me as I love these older briar pipes. I also wanted to know what the W.H. in the oval could tell me about the pipe. I dug a little deeper on the English silver marks page and found more information. The maker of the silver band was a William Harrison who was active in London. Various copies of Harrison’s marks in Chester Assay Office were registered by Imperial Tobacco Co between 1907 and 1916. The mark above shows a Birmingham 1908 hallmark. From that information I gathered that the W.H. was William Harrison and that the Birmingham Assay Office had stamped the band in 1905.

I unscrewed the stem from the shank in order to work on the bowl. The cake was thick and crumbling in the bowl so I reamed it back to bare wood with a PipNet reamer.

The rim would take some serious work to get it back to workable condition. I set up a topping board and carefully worked the top of the bowl against the sandpaper. The surface of the rim was not even so this took some care so as not to angle the rim. I sanded the rim until the surface was flat and the damage was removed. There was still some darkening to the briar but I chose to leave that rather than to remove more of the briar from the rim.

To remove the spotty and damaged finish on the bowl I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads and was able to take it back to the unfinished briar. The brown patina of the briar was not removed in the process and once finished would clean up well and still show some age. I wanted to take photos of the stem and tenon so that you could see the age and shape it was in. It was a bone tenon, threaded to match the threads in the shank. The end of the tenon has a funnel or tube that is part of the tenon to capture the smoke and bring it into the airway. The other end of the stem is the rounded orific button that I have come to expect on pipes from this time period.

Once the exterior surfaces were clean it was time to work on the interior of the shank and stem. I put the pipe back together and set up a retort. I filled the test tube with 99% isopropyl alcohol and put the stopper and apparatus in place. I stuffed a cotton ball in the bowl to keep the alcohol that was boiled through the pipe in the pipe and not all over the desk top. I use a small tea light candle to heat the alcohol and boil it through the pipe. I repeat the process twice, changing the alcohol between procedures to remove the tars and oils from the shank and stem. Once I removed the retort I cleaned out the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It takes far less pipe cleaners once the retort has finished its work.

I decided to stain the briar using the stain pens instead of the usual aniline stains. I wiped down the surface of the bowl with alcohol and then used the stain the medium brown stain pen to stain the bowl. When applied the stain is streaked but that is easily taken care of with a quick buff with a cotton cloth. I also cleaned the silver with a silver polish and a jeweler’s polishing cloth to remove the tarnish and bring up the shine. I removed the stem and sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to address the light oxidation. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem between each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil. When I finished sanding with the 12000 grit pad I also gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and when dry took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and then carnauba wax to protect the stem.

I decided to rub down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil. I find that on these older pipes it brings out the patina nicely. I put some oil on a paper towel and then rub down the pipe, wipe off the excess and repeat the process until it shines.

When the olive oil was absorbed and the bowl was dry to touch I took the pipe to the buffer and lightly buffed it with White Diamond. I gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax, buffing the silver with a very light touch so as not to damage the hallmarks and stamping. I finished by buffing it lightly with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is ready to go back into service. I intend to enjoy it for many more years. I always enjoy smoking these old timers and only wish they could tell their stories. It is amazing to be able to load a bowl and smoke a pipe that is almost 110 years old. Speak to me, I am listening I want to hear your stories… and add my own to the saga you could tell.

A Unique Town and Country Squat Round Bottom Rhodesian – Robert M. Boughton

4 Replies

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

The pipe with solemn interposing puff,
Makes half a sentence at a time enough;
The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain,
Then, pause and puff – and speak, and pause again. — William Cowper (1731-1800), English poet, in “Conversation,” 1782

INTRODUCTION
When this odd little pipe arrived in the mail a couple of months ago, as part of an estate lot, it stood out, to be sure. Amongst a beautiful Kaywoodie Standard mixed Sandblast/Smooth Grain Billiard, an elegant LHS Park Lane DeLuxe Dublin, a vintage WDC Full Bent Billiard with 14K ring, an Ehrlich Rusticated Billiard and two others – yes, it stood out. I will leave it to the reader to determine the nature of the deviation.

Still, it did force me to reconsider the true form and figure of a Rhodesian, and to imagine the turmoil I could incite if I threw this pipe as an example into the ongoing brouhaha that is the Bulldog versus Rhodesian debate. I do have a touch of Old Nick in me that way (and I don’t mean St. Nick).

Yet how else can I describe this weird pipe, at its basest, but as a Rhodesian, despite the squatness of its stature and the roundness of the bottom of the bowl? The fact is that this Town and Country (made by the Bradberry Briar Pipe Corp. of New York) has a rounded bowl with two slits carved into its upper end below the rim and a round shank.

RESTORATION
Part of me did not want to mess with the original stain, but some impulse screamed at me, “Drown this thing in Everclear and see what lies beneath!” And so, that I did. As it turned out, the voice was right. All kinds of scratches and other flaws became apparent where they were obscured before.

Beginning the process of removing the various blemishes with a thorough sanding (except for the nomenclature)using 220-grit paper, I was careful to make smooth, even runs in the directions of the grain. After some time at this task, rubbing the fine briar dust away with a rag as I progressed, I was at last satisfied with the results.

To prep the wood for staining, I brushed the surface with super fine steel wool, which returned the natural color of the briar and created a light sheen. Then I commenced a thorough de-wrinkling treatment with micromesh pads, starting with 1500, then 1800, 2400, 3200 and 4000. Again, I rubbed the wood clear of any residue between each micromesh pad.

The obvious next step seemed to be a full cleaning of the pipe’s interior. Expecting to find the usual massive buildup of crud associated with the shanks of most estate pipes, I was in fact shocked to see the wire-handled, heavy-duty bristly cleaner, dipped in Everclear, emerge from the exercise almost un-befouled the first time and spotless the second.

Still wary, I sanded the pinky-sized circumference of the chamber with a Lilliputian-sized scrap of 220-grit paper and succeeded in removing a fair amount of carbon. Then I inserted an alcohol-soaked square of gun cleaning cotton cloth and twirled it with the aforementioned pinky until most of the carbon residue was cleared from the chamber.

Despite the failure of the wire cleaner to dig up more than trace elements of old tobacco, and determined to assure the shank was truly ready to pass anyone’s test, I employed my newly acquired proficiency in retorting. To my utter dismay, despite my certainty that I had performed the retort without error, the remainder of the boiling alcohol – which had surged all the way into the chamber and left the cotton there somewhat dirtier than it started – returned to the Pyrex test tube clear enough to drink, if I were so inclined. Disbelieving the unheard of result, I re-boiled the alcohol in a second and sent it packing again whence it had returned once empty-handed, so to speak. The second try came back as clean as the first.

At last, my mind exploded in dizzying exultation, a clean shank at the outset!

I turned to the stem, which, other than being a uniform military green, was all but devoid of scratches or chatter. There was one small ding, but given the usual mauling of stems I encounter, this one was a gift from Heaven. As I have yet to come up with a formula for a solution in which to treat stems, I was compelled to do it the old fashioned way: by hand, using 320-grit paper to restore the stem from green to black. This step required several passes, more and more localized each time.

Next I turned to micromesh and gave the stem the same care I provided the wood: 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200 and 4000. I tend to enjoy re-staining the wood of a pipe when necessary, and my biggest question so far had been what shade of brown to use if not marine (burgundy) red. This pipe I wanted to do as a two-tone, with the beautiful natural color and grain of the rounded rim left unchanged and the rest of the bowl and shank dark enough to show the difference. And so the only question was whether to use medium brown, which is darker than it sounds, or marine? I admit to having a fluttery, nervous feeling in my stomach when I opted for the marine. Although the result was better than okay, I won’t be showing it here for reasons that will soon be apparent.

Having stained the majority of the wood marine and left the round rim plain, I flamed out the alcohol from the boot stain, buffed the greater part of the wood with its resulting ash using 3200 micromesh and then waxed the wood and stem – from which I had removed the superfluous metal tenon extension by heating it with my Bic and yanking it out – and achieved a definite high contrast. The grain still showed through the stain, but I knew it wasn’t right.

Therefore, wishing to have a little fun and test my mentor, Chuck Richards, I took the “almost finished” product to him for his opinion. True to form, Chuck scrutinized every angle of the pipe through his glasses and handed it back to me. His critique was like the ultimate New Yorker bad book review: no comment. He still has no idea how good that made me feel!

Pleased with myself, I later returned home with the dark red body of the pipe topped by a blond head and with care again applied the super fine steel wool to remove the wax and stain on all of the wood but the rim. Ready for the correct approach, I re-stained most of the wood medium brown, went through all of the steps as before to prepare it for waxing on my two buffer machines, and applied white and red Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba. The result was much more satisfying, and I felt no need to run it by Chuck again before submitting this blog, as I had already messed with him enough, albeit unbeknownst to my good friend.

CONCLUSION
All fun and pranks with my big-hearted but not coddling mentor aside, I ended this restoration with more work than was necessary. I should have learned by now not to disregard the advice of that little fluttery feeling of unease I had in my stomach when I chose marine over medium brown. In the end, the stomach almost always wins in all matters over the mind.

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