Tag Archives: Bowl – refinishing

Restoring a Heritage Heirloom 98S Bulldog

Blog by Andrew Selking

I am always on the lookout for high quality American pipes that have yet to gain the popularity of some of the more well-known European makes. Heritage pipes appeal to my sense of American pride, craftsmanship, and value. These pipes were made in the Kaywoodie factory, but on a completely separate line. Heritage pipes were Kaywoodie’s answer to Dunhill. According to one of their brochures, Heritage pipes were made from “briar burls seasoned and cured for up to 8 months,” with only “one briar bowl in over 300 selected to bear the Heritage name.” “Heritage stems are custom fitted with the finest hand finished Para-Rubber stems. Mouthpieces are wafer thin and concave.”

The Heritage line began in the early 1960’s, with the trademark issued in 1964. The line was started at the request of Stephen Ogdon, (who worked for Kaywoodie in 1962). Mr. Ogdon had previous experience working for Dunhill, either running the New York store or working for Dunhill North America. Mr. Ogden was made President of Heritage Pi pes, Inc., Kaywoodie Tobacco Co.,Inc. and Kaywoodie Products Inc. as well as a Vice President of S.M. Frank & Co. Heritage Pipes were produced from 1964 until 1970 (Source Kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org).

Here is a link to a Heritage brochure:

The Wonderful World of Heritage Briars

The best part about Heritage pipes is, for the most part other collectors have yet to discover them and you can still find one for a reasonable price. I found this fantastic bulldog in a lot of pipes otherwise unremarkable pipes. It had a good bit of cake, some tooth marks, and what looked like mold on the stem.

With concerns about cleanliness in mind, I dropped the bowl into the alcohol bath. I also soaked the stem in Oxyclean. After soaking overnight, I used my Castelford reamer to clean the cake. I checked the cleanliness of the shank with a brush and was pleasantly surprised. I retorted the shank, sorry no pictures this time, and after a few q-tips and fuzzy sticks the shank was clean. Next I retorted the stem. It was also relatively clean; this was a fuzzy stick dipped in alcohol right after the retort. I used two fuzzy sticks dipped in alcohol just to make sure. I wanted to tackle the grime on the bowl and tar on the rim, so I used 0000 steel wool and acetone. Next I turned my attention to the stem. I used 400 grit wet/dry sand paper with water, followed by 1500-2400 grit micro mesh pads with water. Since the stem had some tooth marks, I mixed up some clear CA glue and ground charcoal. I applied the glue with a straight pin and added accelerator to dry it. I used a small flat file to shape the repairs followed by sanding with 400 grit and micro mesh pads.

The bowl had some scratches and was darker than I preferred, so I used a progression of 1500-12,000 grit micro mesh pads to get it ready for polishing. I buffed the bowl on the wheel and used the rotary tool on the stem. Here is the final result.

Thanks for looking.

A Bit of an Experiment – Restoring a Broken Bowl on a Hardcastles Jack o’ London Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Having had a long week at work with nary a break in the busyness I needed a bit of a diversion on the weekend. I had an old Hardcastle’s Jack o’ London billiard in the cupboard that I probably should have thrown away but did not. I picked up the nice little billiard on one of my pipe hunts months ago. When I reamed it after I brought it home the bowl cracked and a large piece fell out of the right back side of the bowl. Up on examination it was on its way to being a burn out as the interior wall on the crack was charred and damaged. I took pictures of the bowl to show the damage at that time. For some reason I did not throw it away but rather put it in the cupboard and figured I could use the briar for other repairs.

But this weekend I took it out and decided to experiment with it and see what I could do with the damaged bowl. I debated whether to cannibalize it and save the parts or to rework it. I had already scavenged the stem and reused it on another Hardcastle’s pipe bowl that I restored so I only had the bowl. If the repair worked I would have to fit a new stem on the pipe before I could smoke it.

Here are some photos I took when the bowl cracked during the initial reaming. I took quite a few because I had not had that happen before in my experience. Looking at the photos you can clearly see the damage to both the remaining bowl and the chunk of briar that fell out. It was seriously damaged and one that I seriously considered throwing away that day. The rim was a mess as well besides being cracked and broken and the inner edge was out of round and the top beaten around the outer edge. The bowl was heavily caked and it looked to have been a good smoking pipe for the previous pipeman. There were even some fragments of unsmoked tobacco in the bottom of the bowl.

Out of boredom and the need for something to keep my hands busy while my dog was being groomed I decided to experiment with repairs on the bowl. I cleaned up the broken pieces of the briar both the edges on the bowl and broken pieces with alcohol and cotton swabs and picked out any remaining loose pieces of briar or charred pieces of briar. I knew that I could easily patch the external side of the bowl and make it look acceptable but I was not sure what I would do with the internal side. I used a pen knife to scrape out the remaining cake in the bowl and to make sure there was no loose carbon that would get in the way of the repair before gluing in the piece. I applied clear super glue to both the bowl and the chunk of briar being careful to keep it out of the interior of the bowl and pressed the piece in place. In the photos below you can see how the glue ran down the exterior of the back side of the bowl but not on the inside.

I applied some more glue to the cracks on the outside of the bowl so that I could push briar dust into any spaces or chips in the briar between the pieces.

With the chunk of briar glued in place and the external cracks patched it was time to look at the damage on the inside of the bowl and determine what to do. I know that in the past I have used J.B. Weld and Greg and others have used fireplace cement to repair the inside surfaces of the bowl but I had in mind a different experiment. Both the J.B. Weld and the fireplace cement dry and are neutral after curing. They are both impervious to heat or moisture but I wanted to see if I could use all natural substances and work a repair that would hold up. I knew that only time would tell if it actually worked but I figured that I had nothing to lose with this old pipe. If it did not work it would go back to the scrap yard and come back to life in repairs on other pipes. But if it did work I would have a useable yard pipe that I could smoke while working with little concern of damaging or ruining it in the process. Too me it was worth a try.

The next series of two photos show the inside of the bowl. The cracks and damage to the inside of the bowl was quite extensive. But it was still worth trying a repair.

I fit a stem on the shank from my can of stems with minimal sanding of the tenon for a good fit in the shank. The diameter of the stem would need to be adjusted but that would not be too much of a problem.

The next two photos show the variation in diameter of the shank and the stem.

I use a Dremel and sanding drum to take down the excess material as close to the shank as possible without damaging the shank. I also decided to use the Dremel and sanding drum on the overflow of super glue and briar dust on the outside of the bowl as I planned on sanding the bowl anyway.

Once I had the fit of the stem close and the majority of the glue and briar dust patch smoothed out I took it back to the work table and sanded both the bowl and the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite.

The rim needed to be topped to smooth out the damage to the top and the outer edges. I set up the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and pressed the bowl flat against the sandpaper. I sanded it in a circular motion until I had removed the damaged rim surface and the damaged out edge.

I forgot to take a photo of the rim at this point but you can see in the photos of the staining that it is sharp and clean on the outer edge. I sanded the briar with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches even more and then heated the bowl before I applied a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain, flamed it and repeated the process until I had good even coverage on the bowl.

The dark brown stain was quite opaque so I wiped down the bowl with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to remove and thin down the stain coat.

The top of the rim can be seen in the next photo. The damage to the rim top has been minimized and the surface is smooth. There is still some damage on the inner edge but that will be addressed when I do the internal repairs to the bowl walls. I buffed the bowl with Red Tripoli and then wiped it down again with alcohol. The colour was just what I was looking for at this point in the process. It was a rich brown stain that allowed the grain – birdseye and mixed to show through the finish. It also did a decent job covering the repair to the other side of the bowl.

I buffed it again with White Diamond to raise the shine. The stem still needed some fine tuning for a better fit against the shank and some sanding to remove the oxidation and scratches but the pipe was beginning to look good.

I took the next close up photos to show the work that still needed to be done on the rim and the look of the repairs on the right side of the bowl. The bowl surface and rim surface was very smooth but still needed to be sanded with micromesh pads to take out the scratches and polish the briar to a deep shine.

With exterior at a good place to take a break it was time to address the inside of the bowl. I mixed a batch of pipe mud using cigar ash and water. I mixed it to a thicker than usual consistency so that I could press it into the damaged area of the bowl wall. I did not want it runny or soupy but I still wanted it wet enough that the mud was well mixed and would stick. I painted it on the wall in the damaged area with a folded pipe cleaner and pressed it into the cracks with the spoon end of a pipe nail. I also pressed it in with the end of my finger. I repeated the application of the mud until the surface of the wall was smooth and showed no pits or divots. I set the bowl aside to dry over night as I wanted the mud to harden and also wanted to see if it was solidly stuck in the damaged areas.

In the morning, after curing over night I inspected the patch on the inside of the bowl. I used my dental pick to make sure that the patch was well set in the divots in the wall of the bowl and then smooth out the surface with a pen knife.

I let it dry for about four more hours while I did other things and then decided to mix a batch of bowl coating to paint the bowl interior. I mix a batch of bowl coating using sour cream and activated charcoal powder. I use a finely ground powder that comes in capsules.

I take apart the capsules and dump the charcoal powder into the sour cream. I use a dental spatula to mix the charcoal and sour cream into a black paste. I work the paste until all the sour cream and charcoal are combined.

I used the spatula to apply the paste to the walls of the pipe and then smoothed it out using a folded pipe cleaner. The entire bowl is coated with the paste and after smoothing it out with the pipe cleaner looks like a dark grey almost black coating around the sides and bottom of the bowl. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway so that I would not get the paste in the airway when smoothing it out.

I wiped down the top of the rim with a bit of saliva on a cotton pad and then set the bowl aside to let the coating cure. Once the coating cured it would provide a protective layer over the bowl interior and facilitate the buildup of a new cake.

While the bowl coating was drying I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper with a plastic washer between the shank and stem to smooth out the transition between the two. When I had finished sanding the stem with the 220 grit sandpaper I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to minimize the scratches. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the stem with Red Tripoli to further polish the stem. I brought it back to the work table and dry sanded it with 6000-12,000 grit sanding pads. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak in. I sanded the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond to polish the briar. There are some fine scratches that seem to be around the junction of the shank and stem. I buffed it with Red Tripoli again and with White Diamond and then with Blue Diamond. I polished the stem and bowl with carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

The next photos are close up pictures of the repair. They also that the carbon/sour cream bowl coating has dried and is a dark grey colour. The cracks on the exterior are smooth to touch and do not feel like cracks. The repairs to the top of the rim still show as a red coloured spot at the back of the rim. The stain took to the patch a little lighter than the rest of the bowl. It is smooth to the touch but still shows. The internal bowl coating has dried to the touch and gives a nice coat that is cover the repairs on the bowl wall. The carbon bowl coating has small particles of carbon in the finish. These will provide something for the new cake to bind to when it is smoked. All that remains is to let the coating cure for a few days and then load a bowl and smoke it.

Restoring a Monster KBB Yello Bole Imperial Rusticated Billiard

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Blog by Troy Wilburn

I picked up this huge pipe from a friend of mine on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum. This pipe isn’t a magnum it’s a howitzer! It is 7 ½ inches long and has an almost 2 ½ inch tall bowl. The pipe was nice but had some issues. The top of the rim and the inner edge had been hacked up. The stem also has some heavy nicks and dings in it. It was really clean though and I had very little to do as far as getting the inside clean.

Here are some photos of the pipe before I worked on it.

As I stated above the top of the rim and the inner edge were badly hacked. I began by working on the rim. I topped it and made a large concave inner rim. I don’t know if it came like this from the factory or not but it has one now. I took it down with 80 grit sandpaper and then a lot of sanding with 120 grit sandpaper.

After I had finished rough shaping the rim I did LOTS and LOTS more sanding from 400 grit sandpaper all the way up to 2000 grit sandpaper. I used mineral oil as a lubricant for the sandpaper and also to bring out the colour of the natural wood.

I soaked the stem in alcohol and then scrubbed it with a green scouring pad. I cleaned it out with pipe cleaners. The stem had several tooth marks and gouges on the top and the bottom side next to the button.

I filed out the tooth marks and reshaped the button. Here is a little trick that some of you may know, but I came up with it in working on the last few pipes. I thought I would share it here. After filing the stem I take a lighter and work the flame back and forth across the file marks. The heat from the lighter helps to blend in the file marks and makes it easier to sand them out.

Here is a photo of the stem before I used the lighter. Here is a photo of the stem after using the lighter. I buffed the rim with Brown Tripoli a few times to get rid of the fine sanding marks. I could not get the pads into the concave inner rim so I waxed it by hand with paste wax several times. With the initial sanding and cleaning of the stem done, I still had a lot more sanding to do. There were lots of scratches and dings in it. I began sanding with 400 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to 2500 grit sandpaper. I put the stem back on the bowl and got it ready for the final buffing and waxing. Here are photos of the pipe after it had been buffed and polished.

To give an idea of the size of this pipe and put it in perspective here is a photo of it next to a Yello Bole Hand Made Poker I have. As most of you would know, a Hand Made is not a small pipe by any means. This billiard almost dwarfs it.

Rejuvenating an Italian Sitter stamped MAT

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am finally working on the last of the pipes that I picked up on craigslist – a sitter that is stamped MAT and Italy. It was my least favourite shape in the lot. I left it to the very end to work on. It is shown in the photo below in the middle of the left column. It was a bit of a mess. The stem was stuck in the shank and was oxidized. It also had some tooth chatter. Once again there was the calcification on the stem that comes when a softie is left in place on the stem. The bowl had a shiny varnish finish but that was dulled with a lot of tars and oils. The rim was caked with a very hard, thick coat of tars and oil – lava over flow from the bowl. The bowl itself was caked. There were quite a few fills in the bowl on bottom and on the back side of the bowl near the shank. There was also an area of fills on the top of the rim and a small crack that had been filled on the back side of the bowl near the rim.

I put the pipe in the freezer for an hour to loosen the stem. After an hour of cooling I was able to twist the stem out of the shank. I was a little surprised to find a very short – ½ inch stinger in the end of the tenon.

I heated the stinger with a lighter and then twisted it out of the tenon with a pair of pliers on which I had wrapped tape around the jaws. This tape prevented the jaws from damaging the aluminum stinger. I set the stem aside and reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I used three of the four cutting heads to remove the cake from the bowl. With the small crack on the back edge of the bowl I wanted to expose the interior of the bowl and check out the interior for cracks.

To remove the hard lava from the rim I used a sharp blade pressed flat against the rim to scrape away the buildup. I scraped and then wiped it down with alcohol to soften the tars. I continue until I had removed the cake. In doing so I found that just above the crack on the back of the bowl was an area of several small fills that were on the rim. I scrubbed the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish that was on the finish. I wanted to get underneath that finish so that I could do a repair on the small crack and also get to the surface of the briar. I personally do not like the thick varnish coats that are on some pipes.

I cleaned out the small crack with a dental pick and alcohol. I drilled a tiny hole at the bottom of the crack to stop it from spreading. Once it was clean I stuffed briar dust into the crack and then dripped some super glue on to the rim and the side of the bowl to fill in the crack.

I sanded the rim and the repaired area with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and light tooth marks. I also sanded it to remove the oxidation. I followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to break through the oxidation. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed it a second time. I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I used some dark cherry stain that I had on hand – this stain is a water based stain and matched the colour of the original bowl. I applied the stain with a folded pipe cleaner and once I had covered the bowl I let it sit for a few moments before wiping it off.

I wiped down the pipe with a cotton cloth to remove the excess stain and give it a light hand buff.

I buffed the pipe and stem on the buffing wheel using pads charged with red Tripoli and with Blue Diamond. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown below.

Saving a Pipe – Restoring a Royal Danish 33 Bulldog that had seen better days.

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am in the midst of a particularly labour intensive restoration of a Royal Danish 33 Bulldog. It was in very rough shape but having met the old timer who it originally belonged to I decided to make the extra effort to bring it back to life. It was obviously a favourite pipe of his and he as much as said so. I think it was the only one of the lot that he felt bad about letting go of when he sold me the lot. Often I will take time to read some of my favourite blogs during lunch break at work or even when I come home to help me unwind from a long day. I read before I pick up a pipe to work on or restore and find that it helps focus my attention. Yesterday at lunch I came across an article by Alan Chestnutt on his blog on his website Reborn Briar Estate Pipes that really resonated with what I was feeling as I worked on the particular pipe. He called the work he does as a pipe restorer – “saving the pipes”. I think that is a particularly poignant description of the work on this Royal Danish 33 Bulldog that I picked up in the lot from craigslist. It is shown in the first photo below at the bottom middle of the photo. In the second photo it is in the right hand column at the bottom of the photo.

The old timer was a well loved pipe and obviously a good smoking pipe. It was in rough shape. In fact it was in the roughest shape of the lot. The photos below show the state of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. The finish was rough and dirty with lots of scratches and dents in it. The rim was shot. The front side was worn down from beating out dottle when the smoke was finished. The drop from the height at the back of the bowl to the height at the front was over ¼ inch and the surface was chewed up. The outer edge of the bowl on the front was obliterated. The rim surface was beat up as well. There were thick marks of tar or oil on the sides of the bowl and rim that were sticky. The bowl was heavily caked. The double ring around the bowl was damaged. Over ½ of the briar between the rings was broken and missing. The stem was oxidized and chewed. The topside of the stem had deep dents near the button that went up almost a half an inch. On the underside the tooth marks were even deeper and there was a hole in the stem where it had been gnawed through. Around the stem was calcification that is common pipes that have had a softie bit on the stem. I think the old timer who had this pipe slipped the softie bit over the damage so he could keep smoking his favourite pipe.

The next series of photos show the thickness of the cake, the extent of the damage to the rim and the missing pieces of the briar between the double rings around the cap of the bowl.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to a head that was almost the same diameter as the bowl. I took the cake back to a very thin layer on the bowl.

I decided to sacrifice some of the height of the bowl to give back some dignity to the tired bowl. I topped the bowl in stages on a topping board. The back side of the rim was significantly higher than the front of the bowl so I started by leveling out the bowl height all the way around the bowl. I brought the back side down to the same height as the damaged portion.

Once the height was even all the way around the bowl it was time to work on the front edge damage. At this point in the topping process I pressed the bowl down on the topping board with even pressure front and back and moved it on the sand paper in a circular motion. I continued sanding until the damage on the front top of the rim was minimized. There was still damage on the front of the bowl that would need to be addressed to smooth out the damage to the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the sticky oils and tars spots on the bowl sides. I also cleaned up the damaged area on the front of the bowl so that I could repair it.

I dripped some super glue into the damaged surface and then pressed briar dust into the glue. I then gave it a top coat of super glue as well. In the photo below you can see the repaired edge and the repair to the gouges and damage on the bowl front. I sanded the repaired area with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to blend the repair into the surface of the briar. The next photo shows the same spot on the bowl after sanding the repair. The second photo below shows the top view of the rim repair. The dark/shiny edge at the bottom of the photo is the super glue repair.

I tried to fill in the damaged briar between the double rings around the bowl. I filled in the areas with briar dust and super glue but when I tried to re-score the two lines the fills fell out of the ring. After several failed attempts to build up the centre I finally decided to remove the centre from between the two rings. I used a sharp knife to lift out the centre portion all the way around the bowl. With that gone I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand the surface smooth in the groove. I also sanded it with the sanding sponges to remove the scratching.

I decided to stain the groove to highlight it rather than hide it. I used a black aniline stain and applied it, flamed it and repeated the process until I had the coverage in the groove that I wanted.

I sanded the bowl sides around the groove to remove the spillage of the stain. I worked on the bowl until the black was confined to the groove and the top and bottom edges. The more I sanded the bowl the more I liked the grain that I was seeing come through. There was some great flame grain, birdseye and mixed grain on the bowl and shank.

I decided to do a contrast stain on the rest of the bowl to highlight the grain and contrast with the black stain in the groove. I heated the briar and stained it with a black aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it, and repeated it a second time. Once it was dry to touch I wiped the bowl down with alcohol and then with acetone on cotton pads to remove the black stain from the surface of the briar and leave it in the grain.

I set the bowl aside to dry for awhile so I could work on the damage to the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and to clean up the calcification around the damaged areas of the top and underside of the stem.

I wiped the stem down with alcohol to clean the surface of the stem so I could apply the superglue patch. I used a dental pick to remove debris and damage vulcanite. I greased a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it in the button underneath the hole in the stem. I built up the area around the hole with black super glue. I sprayed it with an accelerator to allow me to add a second and third coat to the repair to the hole. I then flipped the stem and repaired the deep tooth marks on the top of the stem. I filled them and also sprayed them with the accelerator.

Once the stem patch was dry to touch I put the stem back in place on the bowl and sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove more of the black stain. I also used a fine grit sanding block. The next four photos show the bowl with the black removed and the grain patterns highlighted.

I set the pipe aside for the night and let the stem repairs cure over night. In the morning I sanded the patched areas with 220 grit sandpaper and with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil to see what contrast would look like. I really liked the overall look of the bowl with the contrast. Seeing this I knew what contrast stain colour I would use on the next stain coat.

There were still small pits in the patches on the top and bottom repairs. I find that when I use an accelerator the spray causes these bubbles that once dry pop and leave pits in the surface of the finish. I sanded the stem surface some more with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out and then added another coat of black super glue. When it dried I sanded it again to bring it smooth. In the next two photos you can still see some small pits in the finish.

I repeated the process of filling in the pits and then finished by using some clear super glue which dries more quickly and brushing it over the pitted areas on the stem. Once I had that done I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads. The surface was significantly smoother but the patches still showed through the finish.

I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. Once it dried I repeated the sanding with the same pads. The patches are still visible but are gradually blending into the surface of the vulcanite.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove the scratches in the rubber and to further blend the patches. I then took it back to the work table and dry sanded it with 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed it down with another coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside until it was absorbed. I rubbed the stem down with Scratch X2.0 to polish the scratches. It is a plastic polish and blemish remover that is used on acrylic/plastic headlamps. It worked wonders in removing the remaining scratches in rubber stem material. I then buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine shown in the next two photos.

After finishing the stem it was time to give the bowl its contrast coat of stain. I used an oxblood aniline stain. I applied it with a folded pipe cleaner to keep it out of the groove around the bowl. I flamed it, reapplied it to the briar and flamed it again.

I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond and then gave the entire pipe several more coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. I think that Alan Chestnutt’s definition of the restoration process as Saving the Pipe accurately describes the work that went into restoring this beauty. The finished pipe ready to fire up and be enjoyed for many more years to come.

A Bachelor’s Soliloquy for a Lovely French Camelia Bulldog

Another Pre-War Yello Bole

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Blog by Andrew Selking

In my quest to corner the market on pre-war Yello Bole pipes, I snagged this nice little oval shank Dublin. It’s between a group one and group two size, my smallest reamer head only fits about half way into the bowl. The best part is the pipe had not suffered serious abuse. It had some tar on the rim, along with a few nicks and a small tooth mark on the back of the stem. Here is what it looked like when I got it. You will notice the varnish, in a lot of cases a finish like that is to cover up imperfections in the briar. So it was with a little trepidation that I dropped the bowl into the alcohol bath. While the bowl marinated, I soaked the stem in Oxyclean. Next I reamed the bowl. As I mentioned earlier the reamer head didn’t fit all the way down, so I carefully removed the remaining cake with a small pen knife (which you can see in the corner of the picture) and a dental pick. Next up the retort. Judging from the stinger I didn’t expect a dirty pipe.

The stem was a little dirtier, but a second retort cleared it up nicely.

With the internals sorted, I could now see what lurked under the varnish. I used 0000 grit steel wool and acetone to remove the tar on the rim and the varnish. I was pleased to only find a single fill. It was the pink putty though, and I hate pink putty, so it had to go. I’ve tried as many different techniques for fixing fills as I can think of. My current technique is to use a push pin to spread a small amount of CA glue into the hole, next I pack it full of briar dust, followed by a drop of CA, followed by a drop of accelerator. The nice thing about using accelerator is you can work the repair right after drying off any remaining accelerator. Here is what the repair looked like before sanding. Next I tackled the oxidation on the stem. I used 400 grit wet/dry with water followed by 1500, 1800, and 2400 grit micro mesh pads with water. I always hold a washer over the tenon to prevent rounding the shoulders of the stem. Here is the stem after removing oxidation. I still had the tooth mark on the bottom of the stem to fix, so I mixed up some clear CA and finely ground charcoal dust and applied it with my push pin. You may notice the yogurt container, I use that to mix the glue and charcoal. When it gets too dirty I throw it away and get a new one. I used 400 grit sand paper to shape the fill, followed by 1500-2400 grit micro mesh. I usually don’t use water when sanding down fills. I removed the top coat of finish on the bowl with a progression of 1500 to 2400 grit micro mesh pads. Next I used 3200 to 12,000 grit micro mesh pads to polish the entire pipe. You will again notice the washer on the stem. Here is the pipe ready for final polish. I used my rotary tool with white diamond and carnauba wax on the stem. I took the bowl to the buffer and used white diamond and carnauba wax on it as well. Just a word of caution when using a buffer, hold onto whatever you’re buffing with both hands.

Here is the final result. Thanks for looking.

One of the surprises found in the craigslist lot – A Castello Sea Rock 15AF

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

One of the surprises in the craigslist lot I purchased was a Castello Sea Rock 15FA military mount billiard. When I saw the photos in the seller’s advertisement I only saw a rusticated billiard and in the way it laid in the pipe rack it was unclear it was a military mount or a Castello. When I got it home and looked at the assortment I was surprised to see that it was indeed a Castello Sea Rock. It is shown in the photo below – the third pipe down on the right side. I think this must have been a pipe the seller loved as it was well smoked. There was still a bowl of tobacco unlit in the depths of the bowl. The cake was quite uneven but was thick around the top of the bowl. The rim was overflowing with tars and oils to the point that it had clogged the rustication on the top. It was higher in some places than others from the buildup. The outer edges of the rim were knocked about to the degree that it was work and there were scratches and stain missing from the edges. The stem was dirty on the end like it had sported a softie bit and had some calcification on it. There were also tooth marks on the topside and underside of the stem near the button. The button itself had some damage and scratches. The tenon end was also covered with a buildup of calcium on the end around the insert in the end cap. The stem had the “diamond” inset on the side that showed that it was originally made for the North American Market. I did a bit of research and found some information on the stem logo. I quote: “American logo’d Castello pipes use a small round “Diamond” (referred to and looking like, but it is NOT actually a diamond) inlaid into the mouthpiece. This was originally done so that the standard Castello white bar logo did not conflict with another brand and logo that was sold by Wally Frank called the “White Bar Pipe” (in the 1950’s).” I also found that “The SEA ROCK [Carved Black or dark brown] is the lowest grade of the Castello line and is the most common in the USA. Sea Rocks are produced by taking a smooth bowl that has not been “final finished” and surface carving the finish with tools. This “carved” finish is then evened out using a steel wire brush, stained and then waxed.” This information was found and condensed from the PCCA Castello Grade & Style Guide – by Robert C. Hamlin (c) 1988, 1992, 1994.

The two photos below show the buildup on the rim more closely. The thick tars and oils over flowed on the top of the rim. You can see that the rustication is buried under the lava.

The next two close up photos show the stem with the bite marks on the top and the bottom side and the calcification on the surface of the stem. In the second photo there is also buildup around the insert end of the stem.

I reamed back the cake to bare wood to remove the uneven surface with a PipNet reamer. I started with the second cutting head and finished with the third cutting head.

I used a brass wire brush and a dental pick to work on the tars on the rim. I scrubbed it and then used a tooth brush to put Murphy’s Oil Soap on the rim. It softened the tars enough that I scrubbed it again with the wire brush and picked at it with the dental pick. I rinsed off the soap with running water and then dried the bowl.

I restained the worn areas on the top of the rim and the outer edges with a Guardsman Stain pen. I used the dark stain pen as it matched the rest of the bowl. Once I had touched up the stain I rubbed the top of the rim with a cotton cloth to blend the stain into the rest of the rim colour.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and the tooth marks. I also sanded the stem to remove the calcification. I then sanded it with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to reduce the scratching.

I sanded the stem 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.

I also polished the edges of the end cap to remove the worn areas on the surface. I fit the stem back into the shank and hand polished the stem with a cotton polishing cloth. I gave the bowl a coat of Halcyon II wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. The photos below show the pipe after the buff with the brush.

The next close up photo shows the stamping on the pipe. It is stamped CASTELLO over SEA ROCK BRIAR on the flat portion of the shank bottom. To the left of that stamping it reads MADE IN CANTU over ITALY and to the left of it is the number 15 over AF. The end cap is also stamped HAND MADE over CASTELLO over 5. The next series of photos shows the finished pipe. I lightly buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. It raised the shine on the briar. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe lightly with the clean soft buff.

After looking at the finished photos I decided to give it a light rubdown with olive oil. I wanted to enliven the finish and what better way than to add some Italian Olive Oil to and Italian briar.

ADDENDUM: I wrote this while wondering about the 15 AF stamping. I knew that the 15 was the shape stamp but the AF threw me for a loop. I posted on both Smokers Forums and Pipe Smokers Unlimited Forum and asked for help. Many offered suggestions. Several said to write Mike Glukler of Briarblues so I did that. Mike replied fairly quickly that he had no idea about the mystery stamp but sent it on to Marco at Novelli, and Castello collector Dave Peterson. Dave replied that he believes that it stands for Army Fitment. He went on to say that the newer army fit pipes that he has have the letter (SC) size designation and have no AF suffix so he assumes the AF stamp was discontinued in the early 60’s. He also said he would check with some others. So it seems I have a tentative answer regarding the stamping.

ADDENDUM 2: Bill on Pipe Smokers Unlimited wrote to Castello and asked them what the stamping meant. He posted their response this morning:

“Steve here is the Castello response and I think you will be quite pleased and surprised.

Dear Customer,
thank you for your inquiry,
the number stands for the shape 15, the billiard. Then “A” stands for
“amici” = friends, “F” stands for flock.
That is a pipe given to friends (read “not for sale”) with a flock. I
hope it helps.”

You got to love the pipesmoking community and the wealth of information available to us if we ask.

JPL Tomato restored and given a new look

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I first saw the pipe lot on craigslist Vancouver the pipe that caught my eye was the squashed tomato that is shown in the photo below on the top right. I had no idea who the make was but it was obviously a large pipe and a unique shape that made me want to know more. It is actually the pipe that pushed me to make the phone call to the seller. I have a Rad Davis that is similarly shaped but nowhere near as large. When I got to the seller’s home and looked at the pipe I could see that it was stamped JPL over Bruyere over St. Claude France on the shank. The pipe was well smoked. The finish was pretty well dried out – I think originally it had been an oil finish over the natural briar and that was gone and in its place was a lot of grime. The top of the bowl was in the roughest shape. It had a thick coat of tar/oil that I call lava flowing over the rim. The bowl had a cake that was hard and there were remnants of tobacco stuck in the walls and bottom of the bowl. The top also had what looked like road rash on the front. There were many pin prick nicks and dents that made me think that the pipe had been dropped on concrete. The redeeming feature was that the briar had some stunning flame grain around the sides and top portion of the bowl and featured great birdseye grain on the bottom. The stem was oxidized and there were two deep tooth marks on the top and bottom sides of the stem near the button. There was also a lot of tooth chatter and it looked as if the stem had been covered at one time with a softie bit.

I took the next series of three photos to show the damage to the top of the bowl and the tooth marks in the stem.

I was unfamiliar with the stamping on the pipe as I had not seen it before. Once Googled it on the web I found that JPL stood for Jean Pierre Lacroix. That was a name I was familiar with in previous reading on St. Claude pipe making families. I looked on Pipedia and found the following information:

“Lacroix Pipes have a rich history of pipe making tradition and the brand was started in 1962. Eugine Lacroix began making pipes for the Delacour factory in the 19th century; his sons founded their own factory in 1921. Two of the grandsons (including Jean) continued on in the business, but parted ways and struck out on their own in 1962. At that time, Jean set up Jean Lacroix pipes, coincidentally in the old Delacour building his grandfather started in 85 years prior. Today, Jean Lacroix, Chacom, Jeantet, and Vuillard are all pieces of the larger Cuty-Fort Enterprises, and Jean is actively involved with the prestigious Confrerie des Maitres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude. Jean still makes pipes; his spectacular freehands are known throughout the world. The model named “Nizza” De Luxe is made by him with scripted stamp showing his name (hard to read!). Jean Pierre Lacroix sometimes marked Maitre Pipier a Saint-Claude.” Quoted from Pipedia http://pipedia.org/wiki/Lacroix

More information is available on PipePhil’s website. http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/lacroix-en.html#split

I began cleaning up the pipe by scrubbing the rim with acetone on a cotton pad. Since the pipe was unfinished and was so dirty I used acetone rather than alcohol. I scrubbed the bowl top until I had removed all of the tars and oils. I also wiped down the remainder of the bowl to remove the oils and dirt from the years of being held in the hand. Once I had the bowl top cleaned I removed the stem to see what I was dealing with. I found that the stem and the shank was drilled for a 9MM filter but that somewhere along the way someone had inserted an ill fitting stinger apparatus in the tenon. It was pressed in place deep in the tenon and there was a lot of wiggle room around it. It did not extend very far into the shank and as such the shank was filthy. The first photo below shows the stinger in place. The second shows the length of the stinger once I removed it from the tenon.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage on the top of the bowl. I sanded until I had removed the road rash on the front edge and the damage to the back of the bowl. I sanded it further with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

While I had the sandpaper out I also sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks on the stem. You can see that after sanding I still had a fairly large tooth dent on the underside of the stem and a small one on the top near the left edge.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the largest cutting head that would fit and working my way up to the largest head in the set. I took the cake back completely to leave the bare briar exposed and ready to build a new cake of my liking.

I did some more sanding on the stem and was able to remove the damage from the top side near the button completely. The mark on the underside was still deep. I cleaned the surface of the stem with alcohol and picked the tooth mark clean with a dental pick. I filled it with black super glue and set it aside to dry. I sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding block and worked over the damaged area on the top front and some of the more minor damage on the sides and back of the bowl. I sanded it and then wiped it clean with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad. After wiping it down the grain really began to show. The final photo in this series shows the birdseye on the bottom of the bowl.

I scrubbed out the shank of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the swabs came back white. I may well use a retort on it later but at this point I stopped with the swabs. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads in preparation for staining the bowl. Though the pipe was originally unstained when it was made I decided to use a contrast stain to highlight the beautiful grain on the bowl. I heated the briar and then applied several coats of black aniline stain. I flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I wiped the briar down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove the topcoat of black stain.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with red Tripoli to further remove the topcoat of stain. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge and the fine grit sanding block.

Once I had the surface stain removed and the remaining black stain highlighted the grain I wiped the bowl down a final time with alcohol and prepared to stain it with the contrast stain. I decided to use a rich mahogany aniline stain for the contrast coat. I applied the stain and then flamed it to set it in the briar.

When it had dried I buffed it with White Diamond and took the following photos to show where it stood at this point in the process.

The grain really stood out on the pipe at this point. I still needed to sand it with micromesh to develop a richer sheen.

I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.

After sanding with the 12,000 grit micromesh pad I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave it a coat of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and went to work on the stem. I cleaned out the 9MM tenon with alcohol and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked until the stem was clean.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I had a box of 9MM filters so I took one out of the box to try in the stem. It fit well and made the draw less open.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove the stubborn oxidation. I resanded it with the micromesh before moving on and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. After sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and polished until the stem shone. I then gave it a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff.

I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed the whole pipe with carnauba wax. I gave it multiple coats of wax and then a final buff with a soft flannel buffing pad.

The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the new look that the contrast stain gives the pipe. The colour makes the grain pop and stand out very well.