Tag Archives: Bowl – finishing

Rode Hard Put Away Wet – A Tired Julius Vesz shape 31 Zulu/Canted Dublin

Blog by Steve Laug

When I walked by the display case in the antique mall and saw the classic Vesz finish and the O logo on the stem I knew I was looking at one of Julius’ pipes. It was in very rough shape. The stem was covered on the topside and underside from the button forward for about an inch with a lot of dents and bite marks. On the topside there was a bite through – not large, more of a pinhole sized hole. There was also a lot of calcified buildup on the stem. The stem was over bent and the flat bottom of the bowl and shank did not rest on the desk top when laid down. The stem arch kept it from happening. The button and crease had were also worn. The rest of the stem was oxidized. The bowl finish was dirty and worn with white paint spots on the bowl. The stem was very tight and hard to remove but when I did remove it the tars on the end of the tenon were thick. The inside of the stem was so filled that the airway was virtually clogged. The slot on the end of the stem was plugged but for a hole the size of a pencil lead. The rim was damaged and worn from tapping it out on hard surfaces. There were large dents and worn areas. The inner edge was blackened and on first glance looked to have burned damage. It was hard to tell for sure but it also looked to be slightly out of round due to the damage to the inside edge. The bowl was heavily caked with a concrete like carbon build up. I tried to ream it and found it too hard to cut as it stood. The inside of the shank had heavy carbon and tar buildup. The pipe is stamped on the flattened bottom of the shank. Toward the front of the bowl it is stamped Circle 3 which denotes the price point of the pipes. Julius stamped them 1-6 to denote the price. That is followed by the shape number – in this case 31. The final stamping is Julius Vesz over Hand Made. To soften the concrete like cake so that I could ream it more easily without damaging the briar I put the bowl into an alcohol bath to soak for a while. I also wanted to remove the grime from the rustication on the bowl and the soak would facilitate that. While the bowl soaked I worked on the stem. I cleaned the inside of the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. I also sanded the calcification with 180 grit sandpaper and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the build up from the surface of the stem. The tooth marks are very evident in the photos below. I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath to ream it and found that indeed the alcohol had softened the cake enough to make reaming a very easy task. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to the size of the diameter of the bowl. I topped the bowl and removed the damaged surface of the rim. I set up a topping board and used 220 grit sandpaper to gently and carefully remove the damage. I sanded the bowl in a circular pattern on the board as I find that doing so does not leave as deep scratches in the finish. Once I had removed the damage I could see the state of the inner edge of the rim. It had some darkening but it was still solid. There were no deep burned areas that needed to be removed. I set up a heat gun and heated the bent stem to reduce the bend to a point where the pipe would sit up right on the flat bottom of the shank and bowl. I also heated the tooth dents to raise them as much as possible before I sanded them. Once the stem was heated and flexible I inserted it in the shank and pressed down on the bend to adjust the bend to allow the bowl to sit without falling over. The tooth marks did lift quite a bit and are visible in the last two photos of the foursome below. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to clean up the dents as much as possible. The surface needed to be cleaned and prepped for the work of filling the dents with black super glue. I washed down the dents with alcohol to remove the sanding dust. I filled the holes and built up the dents in the button lip with black super glue until they were overfilled, then sprayed them with the accelerator to harden the glue. I sanded the fills with 180 grit sandpaper and then with 220 grit sandpaper to begin the process of smoothing them and blending them into the surface of the vulcanite. I continued to sand with the 220 grit sandpaper to shape the crease and the button as well as the surface of the patches until they were at the same level as the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem after that with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to further blend it into the stem surface. It took a lot of sanding to blend it into the surrounding vulcanite. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil to make the scratches and trouble areas very visible. I also rubbed down the bowl with olive oil and wiped it off and set it aside overnight to let the oil be absorbed into the wood. In the morning I took the following set of two photos to show the state of the pipe when I began to do the finishing work on it. I sanded the stem with fine grit sanding sponges to clean it up further and remove the deeper scratches. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I finished the stem work by buffing the stem with White Diamond on the wheel to finish the polish. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The bowl had a heavy ghosting of aromatics – it was overwhelming and no matter how many times I cleaned it the smell remained. I filled the bowl with cotton balls, pressed them down and then filled the bowl with isopropyl alcohol with an ear syringe until the cotton was soaked. I set the pipe bowl in an old ice-cube tray that holds it upright and let the alcohol and cotton do their work to pull out the oils from the briar and sweeten it. I have moved more and more toward using cotton instead of coarse salt. It seems to work just as well and is less of a mess in the clean up stage. I let the pipe sit with the alcohol and cotton balls for about three hours. The photo below shows the oils that were drawn out of the bowl. The cotton turned a yellow-brown and was almost dry. I took the cotton balls out of the bowl and cleaned the shank and bowl with pipe cleaners. I put the stem back in place on the pipe and gave the pipe a hand polish with some Halcyon II Wax. I hand buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The look and feel of the pipe is far better than when I started. The repairs to the stem and button worked well and blended in nicely to the stem. The topping of the bowl removed the damaged portion and the blackening of the inner edge of the rim is merely a character trait. This is one that will stay in my collection. It smells sweet and is ready to smoke.

Giving new life to a Savinelli Product – a David’s Choice Canadian

Restoring A Len Payne Twin Bore System Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I saw the rusticated bulldog shaped pipe in the display case at the Alberta antique mall I could not help but want to have a look at it. I asked the clerk to open the display case for me to have a closer look at it. The aluminum shank end look too substantial to be just an end cap or ferrule like Peterson’s and other older pipes have used for years. In fact it reminded me of some of the South African Keyser Hygienic pipes that I have in my collection. It had that kind of weight to the aluminum. The stem also had the same kind of look. It was a large diameter military mount stem that pushed into the shank end opening.

Once the clerk took it out of the case I looked at the underside of the diamond shank to see if it was a Keyser pipe – it wasn’t! It was stamped Len Payne. Now I was wondering. In the past I had written about pipes by Len Payne on the blog https://rebornpipes.com/2013/11/16/a-pipe-maker-i-had-never-heard-of-leonard-payne-pipes/. But I had not seen one with this kind of apparatus on the shank. I am including the quote below from Mike Glukler of Briar Blues that gives a quick summary of the brand. Not the bold italicized sentence in the paragraph below that applies to this pipe.

Leonard Payne was based in B.C. for many years. He came to Canada from England. He had shops in Surrey, B.C. and Kelowna, B.C. Interesting fellow. Gruff as the day is long. When you bought a pipe it was handed to you in a paper bag. No sock, no box. Most of his pipes carried a “carburetor” system at the shank/stem junction. Another Payne idea was his shanks. Almost all his pipes were two pieces. He’d turn the bowl and shank, then cut off the shank and reattach with glue (not always with the same piece of briar, so many did not match grains). His thinking was that the shank being the weakest link, if cut and glued would never break and thus “correcting” the weakest link. You may find his pipes on E-Bay on occasion listed as an L. Cayne. The P in his stamping looks more like a fancy upper case C…- Michael J. Glukler

I removed the stem from the shank to look inside and found the carburetor system that Mike refers to in the above quote. The inside of the shank was aluminum so the end cap fit over the outside of the shank and was inset into the interior and formed a collection chamber for moisture. It was dirty with oils and tars. In the centre of the chamber was a tube that extended half the distance up the shank to the end. In the stem was an aluminum tube that was smaller in diameter than the shank tube and when the stem was inserted the stem tube fit in the shank tube. The tube thus formed a straight line from the bottom of the bowl to the end of the stem. The Payne inner tube system differed from the Keyser system in that the two tubes interlocked and formed a seamless tube from bowl to button. In the Keyser system the tube in the stem had a downward angle and the one in the shank was shorter. The tubes did not meet or join. Rather the air was swirled around the aluminum chamber and then drawn upward into the downward point tip of the stem tube. In the cutaway drawing below you can visualize the Payne stem with the shank tube extended further into the shank and the stem tube inserted into the shank tube when the stem was in place. The stem itself in this case was a twin bore stem where the airway split into a Y and ended in the button with two holes – one on either side of the button. The theory was it made a more bite proof stem. So while the externals and stem appeared to be the same the internals were markedly different in their execution.

The bowl itself was clean but the rim was dirty and damaged with small dents and places that could not be steamed out. The bowl would need to be lightly topped. The finish on the rusticated bowl was in great shape with little wear. The grooves had been stained with a dark brown and the high smooth parts were stained with a lighter brown stain to make a contrast. The aluminum shank cap was scratched and dull. The interior of the pipe was very dirty. The stem was high-grade vulcanite and was lightly oxidized and coated with a sticky substance like price sticker glue. There were no bite marks in the surface and under the grime it was clean. The button had the twin bore system and was also clean and undamaged. I took the pipe apart so that I could clean the internals and work on the top of the rim. The beauty of this old pipe was that it did not need to be reamed as it was clean inside the bowl. The next two photos show the diameter of the military stem and the overall look of the stem. I set up the topping board and the 220 grit sandpaper in order to lightly top the rim of the Payne. I pressed the rim against the board and moved it in a circular motion to remove the damage to the rim and the hard buildup. I cleaned out the inside of the end cap insert to remove the tars and oils with alcohol, folded pipe cleaners, and cotton swabs. I cleaned out the airway with pipe cleaners and alcohol.I used the Guardsman stain pens to stain the rim. I started with the lightest stain and moved to the darkest stain. I wanted to match the stain on the rim to the stain of the bowl. Once it was dry I buffed it with White Diamond and then lightly wiped it off with alcohol on cotton pads to lighten it slightly to get a more correct match. The stem was in good shape and did not have any bite marks or tooth chatter. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. In between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I waxed the stem with carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. I sanded the aluminum end cap with the micromesh pads to polish the metal and remove the scratches. Once the aluminum shone I waxed the bowl and stem with carnauba and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below. It is ready to load up and smoke with its inaugural bowl of tobacco. I am wondering how the tube system works in delivering a cool smoker and how the smoke compares to the Keyser Hygienic pipes. Time will tell.

Stripping a Chacom Cocktail Pipe and giving it a new look

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Blog by Steve Laug

My son-in-law and I dropped off his wife and two of my other daughters at the shopping mall and made our way to the pipe hunting turf. He found a nice Peterson Dunmore and I picked up this little Chacom. I love the shape of the bowl. It is an oval shanked pipe with stamping on both the top and the underside. On top it is stamped Chacom over Cocktail and on the underside it is stamped St. Claude over France and 338 next to the stem shank junction. The bowl was caked and quite dirty. The top of the rim while undamaged by dents or chips was thickly covered with tars and oils. The finish was shot – the black paint, kind of shiny dress black, was peeling and large spots on the finish were missing. The stem was dirty, oxidize, and covered with a calcification for the first inch of the stem. There was tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem and on the underside it had some tooth dents that would need to be addressed. I reamed back the cake to the bare briar with a PipNet pipe reamer. I used both the first and second sized cutting heads to ream the cake back. This time it was not hard but rather it crumbled when the blades of the reamer touched them. I put the bowl in an alcohol bath overnight and let it soak. In the morning I took it from the bath and found that the finish was unphased by the soak. I had run out of acetone for removing the finish but I borrowed some fingernail polish remover from my daughter. It was a peach flavoured wash with added vitamin E. I figured that neither the pipe nor I would mine the smell of fresh peaches as I scrubbed down the finish. The peach aroma made the acetone removal of the painted finish not only quick and easy but made it smell like peach cobbler! Wow. I used a lot of cotton pads soaked in the acetone to remove the paint and clean up the finish. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper but did not sand the shank as I did not want to damage the stamping on the top and the bottom. I went over the sanded bowl with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I dropped the bowl into an alcohol bath to soak out the deep stain and remove some more of the paint that held on fast. While it soaked I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification and oxidation and then wiped it down with alcohol. I was able to remove the tooth chatter from the top side but the bottom side still had a deep tooth mark. I sanded it and opened up the edges of the mark. I wiped it down with alcohol and then filled it in with black superglue and sprayed it with accelerator. I sanded the patch with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper and then with the sanding sponges to blend it into the surface of the stem. I removed the bowl from the alcohol bath after it had soaked for about an hour. I dried it off with a soft rag and took the following four photos to give a clear idea of where it stood at this point in the process of removing the finish. The peach flavoured acetone and the isopropyl alcohol had done their magic and the paint was gone! I let the bowl dry and continued to work on the oxidation on the stem. I sanded the bowl lightly with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and then wiped it down with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove the dust. I put the stem back on the bowl and took the pictures below to show the progress toward the new look of this old dress pipe. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to rework the inner edge of the rim. It had originally had a slight bevel toward the bowl and I wanted to clean that up and redefine it. Once that was completed I wiped the bowl down a final time with the alcohol and prepared it for staining. I decided to use a dark brown aniline stain to work with the black highlights on the grain. I applied the stain, flamed it and reapplied and flamed it again. When the stain dried I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to remove some of the opacity of the colour and to try to make it more transparent. The next four photos show the pipe after the wipe down. I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond, being careful to avoid buffing the stamping on the shank. I am careful not to damage that in the process of the restoration. Once buffed the stamping really shows up again. Now it was time to work on the stem some more and get rid of the oxidation and scratches. I use a plastic spacer between the shank and the stem to protect the shank and to allow me to sand the stem without rounding the shoulders. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sandpaper and then used micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads.The tooth repair on the underside of the stem is smooth and even. However, when I sprayed it with the accelerator it left a white centre to the patch. I have not had that happen before but it is all the way through the patch. I will live with it for now, but one day may pick it out and redo it to remove that aspect of the patch. I continued to sand the stem as the photos highlighted areas that still showed oxidation. Once I had that removed I buffed the stem with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I wiped the bowl down once again with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to further lighten the brown stain and highlight the contrast with the remaining black stain in the grain. I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba. I buffed the entire pipe with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine and set it aside for an inaugural smoke – either later today or early this week. The finished pipe is shown below.

Cleaning up a Unique No Name Metal Pipe – It turned out to be a Stirling

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I found this old metal pipe on a recent trip to Alberta it had no markings and at first glance appeared to be similar to both Falcons and Vikings. There was a difference though from those other metal pipes that I have in my collection. The tube in the base was thicker in the section next to the stem. The tube actually was normal sized from the bowl to the first joint and thicker from the joint back to the end of the shank. The shank itself was also round instead of the oval ones found in the previously mentioned pipes.It was the shape that caught my eye and I had to take it apart to see what made it different. I was surprised that the stem was actually removable and came out very easily when turned. The stem was also vulcanite rather than nylon and seemed to be of a good quality as it did not have signs of oxidation on it. When I removed the stem I was surprised to see that it had a metal tenon like those found in Medico pipes – slotted on each side so that it can be adjusted for a tight fit in the shank. Obviously this tenon was made to accommodate a filter by all appearances. I was hooked so I paid for it and added to my pipe hunt “treasures” that I would restore when I got home from the road trip.
While I was travelling I posted pictures of the pipe on the PSU Pipe Smoker Unlimited Forum and got a response that what I had was probably a Stirling pipe. The response included a link to the Smoking Metal website http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=285. The site had pictures of the pipe and it matched mine precisely. It stated the following: “STIRLING, no markings on pipe or bowls, only the box is marked as Stirling, as Foreign Made, but no idea by whom. There are several similar pipes, none of which have a name on them. Arcadia (on this website) is one, differing only in the fact that whereas this Stirling has an all vulcanite push fit stem, the Arcadia has a vulcanite stem with a metal threaded insert. The “Park Lane” has no facility for a filter like the Stirling. This one accepts some Dr. Grabow Viking Bowls as well. Its overall length is 5 7/8 inches or 149mm. I have included the photos from the Smoking Metal site for comparison sake.From the above photos I conclude that the pipe I found is indeed a Stirling Air-Cooled Briar. It evidently had originally come with interchangeable bowls. From the information found on the site I was able to ascertain that Grabow Viking Bowls would fit the base. I had several of those at home so I when I got home earlier this week I checked it out and found that they did fit well. While this information is helpful it still leaves a lot shrouded in mystery for me. I would love to figure out who made the pipe. I have written to Ed on the Dr. Grabow forum and Bill Feuerbach from KW to see if they have any information on the pipe. If any of you readers have any information please let me know.

Now it was time to clean up the pipe. The bowl was thickly caked and the insides of the base were black with tars and oils that had hardened. The stem had some tooth chatter on both the top and bottom near the button. The finish on the bowl was flaking and the varnish coat was peeling off the briar. The rim was black with tars and also had some damage from the bowl being tapped out to empty it. The aluminum was oxidized and dirty as well. The next four photos show what the pipe looked like when I started to work on it. I took the pipe apart to clean the interior of the base. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, cotton pads and alcohol to break through the hardened oils and tars in both the shank and the base. The tenon was metal (brass?) and was thickly caked as well. The two slots on the side of the tenon were covered so it was not clear that they even existed. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took it back to the briar. I started with the smallest cutting head and worked my way up to the size that fit the bowl. I set up a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and sanded the top of the rim to remove the damage. I scrubbed the finish off of the bowl with alcohol and also cleaned the bottom of the bowl. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to break the finish and then used medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I finished sanding it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. The next series of three photos show the bowl at this point in the process. I was not sure whether I would stain the bowl or leave it natural and just polish it. I sanded the tooth chatter on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage and then followed that with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I finished the stem by sanding it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. Once the stem was done I buffed it with White Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I cleaned the aluminum and polished it with a silver polish and polishing cloth then set it aside to figure out what I was going to do with the bowl. I finally decided to leave it natural but to also wipe it down with a light coat of olive oil to darken the finish slightly. I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to bring out the shine. The pipe was finished in terms of the cleanup. I put a Medico filter in the shank for the inaugural smoke though I will probably not keep it there for future smokes. The finished pipe is shown below.

Restoring a Frozen Kirsten Companion K Straight Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The last pipe I picked up on my recent Alberta trip was a Kirsten style straight pipe. The metal shank is stamped on the left side Companion and on the underside it is stamped Made in U.S.A and then K. On the top of the shank the previous owner scratched in his initials FWE. The bowl was stuck on the shank. The finish on the bowl was worn and dirty. The rim of the bowl had a thick tarry buildup and had some deep dents in the surface. There was a thick cake build up on the inside of the bowl that was shaped like a cone – the bottom was very narrow and the top was wide open. Normally the bowl on Kirsten pipes are more U-shaped with the walls similarly open to the bottom of the bowl where the drilled screw goes through. The stem had a tooth mark on the top and the bottom side near the button. The stem was frozen in the metal shank and I could not twist it at all. The airflow adjustment end cap that normally twists to either open or dampen the airflow was also frozen in place. The metal barrel and end cap had scratches and marks on it. The end cap ridges were worn and looked like someone had used a pair of pliers on it to try to break it free. I was able to twist the bowl off the barrel by carefully turning it back and forth slightly to break it free. The tars in the barrel threads and on the drilled out screw in the bowl were really gummed up and dirty.I put the barrel in the freezer and left it there during dinner. After dinner I took it out and was able to twist the stem from the barrel. Once I removed the stem and the metal tube plunger it was extremely tarred and sticky. The second photo below shows the black tars of the interior of the barrel and plunger. The end cap was still frozen in the barrel. I filled the barrel with alcohol and set it in an ice-cube try to let it soak. I knew that the tars on the plunger were also what held the end cap in place binding the metal of the barrel and the cap to each other. Typically the end cap had a rubber grommet on it that held it in place with a friction fit. In this case it appeared that the rubber grommet was compressed against the metal on the inside of the barrel and bound it in place.I cleaned the plunger and sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the hard tarry build up on it. I wiped it down with alcohol and then sanded it until the plunger was shiny and clean. I cleaned out the inside of the stem and the plunger with both bristle and regular pipe cleaners. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and used all sizes of the cutting heads to ream back the carbon build up in the bowl. The bowl was badly dinged and hammered leaving some deep denting. I topped the rim with a topping board to clean up the damaged top edge. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads and then used a flat blade screwdriver to remove the screw from the bottom of the bowl and remove bottom cap on the bowl. I wiped down the inside of the cap and cleaned the screw with a brass bristle tire brush. I wiped it down with alcohol and then sanded the outside of the cap and screw with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to polish them. The rim had two rather large fills that needed to be hidden with stain. I used the stain pens to restain the rim and the bowl. I started with the lightest colour pen and finished with the darkest colour.I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I put the metal cap back in place and turned the screw into the bottom of the bowl. The end cap still did not come off after I had soaked it with alcohol. I used a Robertson head screw driver with a long shank and inserted it in the barrel. I hammered the end with a hammer and tried to drive it out of the barrel. It cam half way out but I could not budge it further. I boiled a cup of water and let the barrel and end cap sit in it to see if I could loosen the tars. I repeated this three times with the cooling of the water. I then inserted the screw driver and was able to drive out the cap. It was covered with a black tar build up and the inside of the barrel was also thickly coated. I cleaned out the inside of the end cap and the barrel with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I rubbed down the rubber grommet on the stem and the end cap with Vaseline to soften them again and then inserted them in place in the barrel.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the tooth marks and the oxidation. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I gave the stem a final buff with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. I rubbed the stem down with some Conservator’s Wax – a microcrystalline wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. I avoid using the buffer on metal as it turns the pads black and does not shine the metal. I put it back together and it is ready for its inaugural smoke. I have two other Kirstens that are great smokers and this one with be added to that number until the day I pass it on to someone along the way.

The Screwy Nature of the Jenkins Truly Dry System Billiard – Robert M. Boughton

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

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
— Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese philosopher, teacher, editor and politician

INTRODUCTION
I had two main concerns when another pipe lot arrived in the mail and I turned one of the diverse examples in my hands: the head of a screw tightened flush with the draught end of the bottom of the shank, just before the chamber, and my serious doubts that whatever purpose a screw might serve could be legitimate. In other words, I was afraid to remove the thing for fear the pipe, which otherwise had potential for elegance, would fall to pieces if I did so. Before attempting to remove the ominous screw, I tried blowing through the open end of the shank, only to become red in the face and breathless with failure. Then I turned to running an alcohol-soaked pipe cleaner through the shank and found that it, also, was blocked, although the cleaner came out with only a light rusty color, a fact I told myself was promising. For the first time in my restoration experience, I had a structural problem with which to deal. I was elated.

Now, don’t go and think I’m some sort of nut who gets his jollies working on broken things. For the most part I satisfy myself making old, abused or “well-used” pipes beautiful again. From upcoming photos, the need for this treatment on the bizarre Jenkins billiard this blog is about will be obvious. It’s just that until this pipe, the only kind of restoration I had done was of the basic variety. At last, I had an opportunity to tinker around and make adjustments to a pipe’s infrastructure, if you will. Hence, I felt the butterfly effect in my stomach.

Before touching whatever was screwed into the bottom of the pipe – I only describe the device this way now, as at the time I had no reason to suspect it might be anything but an average screw – I thought it advisable to see if I could find a Jenkins Pipe Co. or the like anywhere online. I started with pipephil.eu, my favorite first stop, but found no mention of the brand. And so I resorted to pipedia.com, which, as a user-generated source of information, can be more dubious in its reliability. Still I found no mention of the maker, despite the crisp, clear nomenclature including an elaborate brand stamp. Having spent two days using more than every word combination in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy to track down the pipe’s origin, with both Google and Yahoo search engines, and finding everything but a plausible reference to the Jenkins who made this beautiful if weird pipe, my patience, wits and research skills (short of doing something crazy like going to the library) were exhausted. I must now hope for knowledgeable feedback from readers of this blog, or maybe our host.

The closest I came was a patent issued to one Eric G. Jenkins in 1959 for a wild but unique spring contraption to be used for tamping the spent ashes of pipe tobacco from the chamber into a suitable receptacle, without risking damage to the pipe or staining of the fingers, to which I gather pipe enjoyers back in the day had no other way to avoid. [See first hyperlink at the end of the blog. Thinking about it, the idea occurs to me that this is just the sort of Jenkins who could design the device used in the Ever Dry.

Remember, this was before the now ubiquitous three-piece pocket pipe tool was patented in the early 1970s.

RESTORATION
My routine in these blogs has been to take a linear path showing, with words and photos, what it was like, what happened, and what it is like now. But this restore was far more indirect, and so to guide me in my description of it I organized my photos to prompt my memory of just what it was I did, and when, to fix this Jenkins TrulyDry system pipe. That noted I will nevertheless begin with what it was like: As some may have noticed in a few of the photos above, the stem and shank were uneven. In fact, I had to place the entire pipe in the refrigerator for close to an hour before I could even make the stem budge much less remove it. That feat came with more time in the cooler. The problem with the alignment, I soon learned, was remedied without trouble by cleaning off the buildup of some substance, with which I am not familiar, from the tenon. Confident enough to continue with the removal of the screwy, old-fashioned tenon attachment-like gizmo that was over-tightened into the bottom of the shank, I did so with extreme care and slowness, listening all the while for something like a nut to come undone inside. But there was no such sound. Right away, it was apparent that the object removed from the shank was not a regular screw employed in an ad lib repair but something designed for a purpose, however inexplicable. Able to blow through the shank, at least, I decided it was time to clean the pipe after reaming and sanding the chamber and using super fine steel wool on the rim to remove the blackness there.

Without much hope that the pipe would have any draw on it when I replaced the screw, I was, therefore, not disappointed to find I was correct. But an idea came to me, and I loosened the screw just one full turn, allowing me to blow and inhale through the intact pipe. I removed the ventilator again and set it aside for the remaining work on the wood.

I cleaned up most of the scattered scratches either with 1500 micromesh or 400-grit paper and then rubbed the entire area of wood with the 1500 followed by 3600. The result was, as one reader of another recent blog commented, baby smooth. I also only had to re-stain a few small patches of the wood, not counting the rim.The stem required heavy sanding with 400-grit paper to fix all of the scratches, teeth chatter and uneven bit, followed by 1500 and then 3600 micromesh.

When I had prepped the pieces better than I had ever done before, the buffing brought out a brilliant, dark reddish luster. CONCLUSION
I emailed my blog-in-progress to a retired engineer friend of mine, who looked over the text and photos and called me to arrange a meeting at McDonald’s the next morning. Armed with my laptop, an iced coffee and two printouts of the ash removal system patent that even I could see did not match the device used in the Ever Dry, I was relieved when I saw my friend walk through the door.

Confirming my conclusion concerning what the valve was not, my friend determined by the design and placement of the device that it was some sort of ventilator, however obtuse in planning and execution, that was intended to release heat and maybe even to collect moisture and small pieces of tobacco with the valve extended almost all the way. The engineer’s analysis made sense, and, happy to have an explanation of the atypical screw valve to present in this blog space, I embraced it.

At that time, I experienced another one of my moments of clarity. Seeing the intentional groove cut into the wood, I suggested that it would accommodate storage of the device with the valve retracted at times when the pipe was not being enjoyed. The engineer concurred.

Still later, while making the extensive but necessary revisions to my original version that had been debunked by the good engineer, I recalled an enlightening and lengthy online article concerning and titled “The Revolution of the System Pipe,” by Don Duco. The general knowledge and research behind the study of the evolution of system pipes around the globe is exhaustive.

I flashed on a description of the original Kirsten metal pipes with screw-on briar bowls and their inclusion of a closure system between the bowl and the shank that accomplished the same result of the screw valve on the Jenkins, and realized the design of the mechanism in the Jenkins pipe was nothing more than an adaptation of the early Kirsten, despite the newer, cruder method.

Still, whoever owned the Jenkins pipe brand must have been a frustrated engineer, if only by the aesthetic evidence, for being inspired by the notion of screwing something that, when the pipe is being enjoyed, dangles downward with an obvious and alarming attraction of attention. Besides, anyone, whether or not a connoisseur of pipes but not familiar with the Jenkins system, seeing one with the head of a screw in the bottom of it, would think it some sort of jury-rigged attempt to hold the pipe together.

As my father often pointed out, it takes all kinds.

WEBSITES TO VISIT

http://www.google.com/patents/US2886044 (Click on View as PDF for official USPTO document.)

http://www.pijpenkabinet.nl/Artikelen/Systeempijp/art-E-systeempijp.html

The Case of the Danco Squat Diplomat Sitter – Robert M. Boughton

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

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
— Steve Jobs (1955-2011), U.S. inventor, entrepreneur and marketer and co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple, Inc.

INTRODUCTION
Once again I found myself with an estate pipe that looked, without close inspection, ready to clean and sanitize and offer for sale. The squat Danco brand Diplomat sitter, which looks like the offspring of an apple that mated with a tomato (in terms of pipe shapes), had dark brown stain I suspected might hide fills or other flaws, and so, in particular given the shine and apparent smoothness of the finish, I saw no reason to mess with that. The stem was in the best condition I have ever encountered, and the bowl, at least, was already partly cleaned.

Then I put my dollar store 3x glasses on and took a closer look. I observed clear, deep lines all around the rim that I supposed were caused by uncouth tamping of smoked tobacco from the chamber and also found small but numerous scratches and dings all over the bowl and shank that would in all likelihood require more than micromesh to remove. Therefore, re-staining in patches might be necessary.

Information online about the Danco brand was sparse, but I did learn that the pipes were manufactured in Belgium, Italy and the U.S. Those stamped “Imported Briar,” as is this squat Diplomat sitter, are believed to have been made and distributed in the U.S. Also, the brand dates at least to 1946:

Courtesy of the Web

For more information on and examples of Danco pipes, see the hyperlinks at the end of this blog.

RESTORATION
While the necessity of taking a restoration a step at a time is obvious, choosing the order is the trick. This time, as I did with my WDC Full Bent Billiard, I decided to begin with the rim, which seemed to require little attention. The lack of blackening made it easier, but the crags called for sanding that would leave it even.

320-grit followed by 1500 micromesh made a fast, clean job of it. Venturing into the chamber, I switched to 150-grit to break through what I found to be more carbon than had at first appeared to be the case and was very rough to the touch. When the sandpaper proved to be insufficient for the job, I turned to my reamer and all but finished with the chamber in short order. The last step was to do an alcohol flush, which I let sit for about a half-hour.
While the chamber was clean down to faint briar showing through somewhat all the way down, the shank was still filthy. I used up about 10 bristly cleaners soaked in alcohol before the last one came out white.

Next, with a small piece of super fine steel wool, I rubbed clean the small round opening of the shank where the stem fits and put on my dollar glasses again for close scrutiny to plan a course of action for mending the bowl and shank.

Hoping against hope to avoid even a spotty re-stain, I started with 1500 micromesh, which in fact removed one or two shallow scratches, then 1000 and even 800, all of them with the effect of wet toilet paper.

I decided to notch it up (or down) to the limit I trusted would get out all but a few of the scratches and pits – 400-grit. I was not surprised that the coarser paper worked as I expected but that the resulting lighter color was more pleasing to the eye and also uncovered no blemishes. I buffed the wood with 1500 micromesh to eliminate the sanding marks and give it some shine. And so, taking a chance I knew I could correct if necessary, I removed the rest of the original waxes and stain to the same degree. Astonished to find not a single fill or other blemish that needed repair, but even more so at the apparent sloppy over-application of stain in some areas where it was so thick the wood looked black, I forthwith took off all of the offensive misuse of stain with more 400-grit and buffed the entire surface with 1500 micromesh. I mentioned earlier that the stem was almost perfect as I received it, and so the minor sanding of the lip and micro-meshing of the rest was easy. And then, the moment had come to put the prepped vulcanite and briar to the electric buffers. As usual, I used red Tripoli and White Diamond on the stem, and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba on the wood. CONCLUSION
At the risk of repeating myself, I took on this project thinking it would be fast and easy. I will either give it to a pipe club friend who has a penchant for apples and whom I think might also like this shape, or donate it to the club’s raffle, one of which contingencies will happen this coming Thursday. Several times, I have restored three or even four pipes from start to finish in a single evening, but this was not one of those occasions. I ended up spending more time on this one “simple” pipe.

I have often heard that there is no such thing as common sense, which requires complex cognitive abilities beyond some humans. By the same token, to paraphrase Steve Jobs, simple ideas often, if not always, require hard work to formulate.

WEBSITES TO VISIT
Here are some of the sources of information I gleaned on the Danco brand:

http://pipedia.org/wiki/Danco

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167017038/vintage-danco-hollow-bowl-tobacco-pipe?ref=shop_home_active&favorite_listing_id=167017038&show_panel=true Scroll down
http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/united-states/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=35071

The Wily Nature of a WDC 14K Full Bent Billiard Restore – Robert M. Boughton

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

O, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
— Sir Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet, in “Marmion” (1808), Canto VI, stanza xvii.

INTRODUCTION
I mention poet last among the great Scot’s endeavors because, if any of them were much good, the poetry was most lacking. However, there are forever those two lines that people remember, even if they often misattribute it to Shakespeare, who would have made a much better and shorter sonnet of the one theme had he thought of it. Scott’s epic in length tragic poem (in more senses than intended) – with its jumbled use of rhymed couplets in iambic tetrameter, alternating rhyme in iambic pentameter and alternating or nested rhyme in hymn meter – just tends to bore. I admit that my writing skills do not include poetry, which I consider the highest form of the literary art form, but I also do not pretend to have the mind for it.

Many of the quotes I include before my blogs are no doubt somewhat enigmatic, but this one hits the mark much closer. A quick look at the WDC Full Bent Billiard with 14K gold band reveals much ado about nothing as far as the need for serious restoration is concerned.In fact, when it came in the mail with six others I bought in a pipe lot, I was happy to see they were nowhere near as thrashed as many others I received before. Most, in particular the WDC, seemed at a glance to need only a simple refurbishing. Only upon close examination did I see the problems that appeared little but might indeed create bigger problems when the actual work began. Still I chose this one both because of its seeming almost pristine condition but because I might have a buyer lined up already.

As a note, WDC is short for the William Demuth Co., a U.S. crafter of fine pipes from 1862-c. 1973, after the venture had changed hands several times and was at last liquidated. The Full Bent Billiard described in this blog appears to be quite old, perhaps dating to the 1930s or ’40s, based on a WDC Master List by Kaywoodie [http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=191&start=0].

Photo © WDC Master List

RESTORATION
The problems I encountered, despite being almost invisible in the following photos, by the hidden nature of their presence convinced me to take on this supposed easy project. As a result, I was led, step by step, into a web of blemishes, some of which were simple to fix and others proving more difficult.

In general, I start with the chamber, which in my recent blogs has involved the removal of massive cake buildup. Here it is apparent that is not a problem, but that fact ends up concealing a more significant flaw, which I will get to in short order. This time, I chose to begin with the rim and shank opening Even in the photo above, the blackening, scratches and jagged inner rim show. Closer photos display the rim and shank hole better.

Steel wool was perfect for the shank opening. But 1500 and even 800 micromesh proved ineffective on the rim. I jumped to 400 micromesh, which removed the blackening. As I intended only to sand the bowl this time instead of using my reamer that has been mandatory with so many other recent restores, I switched to 150-grit paper for the chamber, starting with the rim to eliminate the craggy inside.

After continuing with multiple turns of the paper until I reached the bottom, I tapped and blew out most of the accumulated carbon dust and used a small piece of cotton cloth to wipe off enough of the residue to insert a finger and feel the sides. They were smooth, but what I found at the bottom was troubling: a big hole with another ridge of cake around it.

And so I decided to go with the reamer after all. Besides, I thought, I like to leave the chamber wall as close as possible to the wood, and the reamer would accomplish that and even out the hole in the bottom – I thought.

However, while I indeed removed more carbon from the sides and bottom, the latter proved much more stubborn. Returning to the 150-grit paper, I took the walls down to where the wood almost showed all the way. With awkward, slow turns of the paper, during which I heard an awful scraping wail rising from the base of the chamber, I succeeded in sanding the hole as far as it would go. In the end, a small hole remained. For the first time, I understood that I needed some sort of tool I do not yet possess, but the result was satisfactory.

Meanwhile, I used a record 15 bristly pipe cleaners to remove the long-accreted mess of tar and other fantastic buildup of nastiness from the shank. I concluded a serious alcohol flush was in order. I stuck a piece of cotton in the bottom and for the first time plugged the shank with some cork I had on hand.About a half-hour later, seeing the cotton was dark, I removed it with a cheap tobacco pick and pulled the cork, letting the brown alcohol drain through the shank. I had given the outer wood a good bath with purified water, which removed considerable filth, but being quick to wipe up the overflow of alcohol, I used it to wipe away more tenacious hangers-on, so to speak. The next strands of the web were the many tiny scratches and pits on the bowl and shank, all of which were so small I was (I have to admit) tempted to let them slide. That being a sin of restoration I have yet to commit with malice aforethought, my senses returned. I considered how to accomplish their elimination.

The 1500 micromesh worked on a few superficial scratches. Given that I could see them myself, I used the 320 micromesh for the deeper flaws that were small but still clear to serious scrutiny. That was the magic number but left the treated areas lightened. One of my goals with this restore was to avoid re-staining anywhere, and I had succeeded so far so I was determined not to resort to the last measure at the point. I tried the 1500 again on these spots and found it shined up the wood almost as it had been.

Then I had a thought. I know, the phenomenon doesn’t occur every day, but this was like one of James Joyce’s little epiphanies. Taking a risk, I used the 1500 micromesh on the entire bowl and shank, smoothing the entire surface to a nice glow. The only part of the web before I was clear of it was the stem. Now, I have had stems discolored and bitten almost to the point of being irreparable and made them shine like new. This stem, on the other hand, which showed nothing but the slightest use by a long-time, caring pipe tobacco enjoyer, eluded several efforts to remove the minor scratches. To my surprise, the chatter came off with ease, but the scratches would disappear with micro-meshing and then new scratches and even white blotches popped up when I wiped the stem down with my cotton cloth.

Nothing was going to stop me. And so, with a barrage of micromesh grades starting with 1500 and then 800 followed by 3200 and 320 and at last 1500 again, I could find no scratches, chatter or blotches. All that remained was the buffing. I finished the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond. The briar I used everything at my disposal, starting with white and red Tripoli, then White Diamond and at last carnauba. CONCLUSION
I had a good time restoring this excellent old pipe, despite the unexpected difficulties I seemed to encounter at every turn. In fact, I suspect the new problems added to the pleasure. I’ve always enjoyed a challenge, and while mine in this process may seem tame compared to those some of my more experienced readers have dealt with – and believe me, I’ve read enough of Steve’s and heard about plenty of my friend’s and mentor’s to know there is far worse – they nevertheless represent new obstacles I overcame. That, I understand, is what the job is all about.

I suppose I was born with the type of personality that finds it impossible to overlook even the slightest flaws I notice in any project I undertake. People – for the most part those who are satisfied with mediocre conclusions – have always called me a perfectionist, but I never use the word to describe myself because I know I am far from it. Only on rare occasions have I completed a project (whether it be a short story, screenplay, novel, blog, pipe restoration or anything else) to which I did not return later and see how I could write, edit or do it better.

By way of example, when I was writing my last blog, on The Guildhall London Pipe, I started to insert photos and noticed the stem was not up to my present snuff, so to speak. And so, although it was somewhat of a hassle to stop my blog, get the pipe, remove the stem and not just rebuff it using the White Diamond wax I recently added to my wheels but re-sand it to remove the horrible discoloration I had missed before, I could not bring myself to publish photos knowing they would show my incompetence. I think the final result was worth the extra effort.

I am beginning to realize an important part of the restoration learning process is simple rising self-expectations. By good fortune, I have several dozen estate pipes in many shapes and degrees of duress on which to practice in the near future…and I am chomping on the bit!

The Guildhall London Pipe Large Pot: An Account of Extreme Abuse – Robert M. Boughton

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

“Beauty is whatever gives joy.”
— Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), U.S. poet

“Beauty of whatever kind, in its most supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”
— Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), U.S. author, poet, editor and literary critic

WARNING: Some of the images that follow are graphic and shocking and may be upsetting to pipe smokers with sensitive souls.

INTRODUCTION
This is with certainty the most abused pipe I have ever restored, although, no thanks to the original owner, the damages sustained were reversible. In the event that the smoker of this Comoy’s second ever had children, I suspect their emotional baggage is far greater, but for the sole reason of their sentience, and I pity them.

I can only add that I was fortunate enough to aid in the vintage pipe’s liberation, through an intermediary agent online, by purchasing a group with similar wounds, if not inflicted with such evil spirit.

RESTORATION
Here is the condition of the pipe, which I in fact restored some weeks ago but failed to publish the details until now, when I received it: In my haste to restore the pipe as close to its original beauty as possible, I also did not take photos of the project’s progress, which I will of course describe in detail, as well as showing the results. Needless to say, except for a quick inspection to ensure the lack of more serious harm to the interior, I began with the chamber. I was successful in removing all of the massive and repugnant cake buildup.There must somehow, despite the overwhelming unlikelihood of the possibility, be a dozen bowls’ worth of carbon that I reamed and sanded out of the chamber before that part of the Guildhall London Pipe large pot was smooth again, and down to the briar around the top and almost as far the rest of the way. The rim also came clean with caring and determined use of 400-grit paper followed by 2400 micromesh.

The bowl, shank and stem I gave a bath with four small patches of cotton soaked in purified water. Again I wish I had a record of the grime from the dirt, sweat, body oil and other unknown unpleasantness that the wet cloth cleaned away to reveal scratches, pits and various attendant blemishes, although I think the reader of this might still not believe what he saw with his own eyes.

I used 1500 micromesh wherever possible but had to resort to 400-grit paper again in many areas. When I finished sanding, I re-stained the places on the rim, bowl and shank that needed it with a burgundy boot stain, flamed those areas and rubbed every inch of the wood with 3200 micromesh to remove the char and leave the body a nice, uniform, deep reddish color.

For the stem, I was forced to choose 220-grit paper, so horrible were the scratches, pocks and discoloration. Whoever smoked this pipe had succeeded in removing the upper ridge of the lip altogether, leaving serious teeth chatter and bite marks. Four of the bites are still present, awaiting an order of Black Super Glue to fill them.

When, an hour after all of this work described so far, I finished cleaning out the filthy stem and shank, I threw into the trash about 12 bristly cleaners, for the most part in utter black ruin and then lightening by degree to pure whiteness.

In the end, I polished the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond waxes and the wood with the same but added white Tripoli and carnauba, to this effect: CONCLUSION
One of the recent major themes of my blogs has been abuse because I love all of the many pipes in my collection and would never, with intent, do harm to any of them.

That is the main reason I have taken up pipe restoration and am sure I will never give up that endeavor. The other is that I enjoy working with my hands on various man-made, and sometimes neglected objects of beauty.

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