Tag Archives: Bowl – refinishing

A Journey from a Sad Apple to a Handsome Prince

Weber Scoop Junior Restemmed and Renewed

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is pictured below. The stamping is faint on the left side of the shank but it reads Weber in and oval over Scoop Junior. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Imported Briar. I decided to do a bit of reading on Weber pipes. I looked on Pipedia and found the following information.

Carl B. Weber was a German from Bavaria. Aged 21 he immigrated to the USA in 1911. In 1938 he established Weber Briars Inc. in Jersey City, New Jersey – later renamed the Weber Pipe Co. The firm grew to be one of the giants of American pipe industry focusing itself in the middle price and quality zone. Trademark: “Weber” in an oval. Beside that Weber – especially in the years after 1950 – was a most important supplier for private label pipes that went to an immense number of pipe shops. In New York alone for example, exactly the same pipes were found at Wilke’s, Barclay Rex, Trinity East, Joe Strano’s Northampton Tobacconist in Ridgewood, Queens, Don-Lou in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Nearly all pipes for Wilke were unstained and many models, for example the “Wilke Danish Bent”, could hardly deny originating of Weber. Among others well reputed pipemaker Anthony Passante worked for Weber.

Weber Pipe Co. owned and manufactured Jobey pipes – when mainly sold in the USA by The Tinderbox from 1970’s – 80’s. In addition Jobey / Weber bought Danish freehands from Karl Erik (Ottendahl). These pipes were offered as Jobey Dansk. Ottendahl discontinued exports to the United States in 1987 and in the very same year – obviously only as a ghost brand – Jobey was transferred to Saint-Claude, France to be manufactured by Butz-Choquin. Carl B. Weber is the author of the famous book “Weber’s Guide to Pipes and Pipe Smoking”.

This particular Weber was a shape that he made famous. I have had several different version of this pipe – mostly straight or ¼ bent and all were rusticated with Weber’s recognizable rustication. This one was different – it was smooth, with no fills and very interesting grain. The bottom of the bowl and shank was beautiful cross grain; the sides were a mix of grain and some stunning birdseye. The finish was shot and the briar was weathered and dry. There were two fine cracks on the rim at 7 and 11 but they did not extend into the bowl – more like hairline cracks. The flat rim and the crowned portion above the parallel lines encircling the bowl was almost tiger striped. The parallel lines were filled with dust and grime. It had a broken cake in the bowl and had been repaired at some point in its history with pipe mud to build up the bottom of the bowl at the airway. The end of the shank had some small nicks on both sides and the bottom edge that would make lining up a stem for a tight fit difficult but not impossible. The bowl did not come with a stem so a stem would have to be fit and shaped.

The only stem I had in my box of stems was a chunky saddle bit that would work but would need to have major adjustments in terms of diameter. I turned the tenon on a PIMO tenon turning tool until the stem fit snuggly in the shank of the pipe.

You can see from the next series of photos that the stem was far too wide in diameter and would need to be trimmed to size for a good fit against the shank.

Before I worked on the stem I decided to do a bit of clean up on the bowl. I quickly reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer. I used the largest cutting head to ream the bowl.

I lightly topped the bowl on a piece of sandpaper to remove the damage and the hard buildup on the surface of the rim.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the damaged finish. I sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the rough spots on the bowl and to further remove the finish.

I trimmed the diameter of the stem with a sanding drum on a Dremel. A steady hand is essential in doing this to get close to the shank of the pipe but not nick it with the fast moving drum. I generally do this in several stages to get it even and the alignment with the sides and top of the shank correct. I also take as much off as possible with the Dremel so that the hand sanding is really fine tuning the shape of the stem.

When the majority of the excess material has been removed with the Dremel I continue shaping the stem with 220 grit sandpaper squares. I sand until the marks from the Dremel are gone and the sides of the stem align with the line of the shank on each side. I want a good flow between the shank and the stem. I also sand the junction of the shank and stem until the flow is also correct. It takes a lot of sanding to get it to the place where the transitions are smooth and the old round chunky stem is a thing of the past.

Once I had the stem fitted there was still fine tuning to do to it. There were still scratches and marks on the saddle and the sides of the stem. The sides of the stem were too thick and needed to be thinned and shaped. However, I decided to change my pace a little and stain the bowl with a black aniline stain undercoat. I applied it and flamed it several times until the coverage was even.

When the stain was dry I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove some of the top black stain, while leaving it deep in the softer parts of the briar – the grain. I repeated the process until much of the black top coat was gone and the grain began to stand out on the bowl. It still would require some sanding and buffing to remove all that I wanted to remove before I applied a second coat of stain – an oxblood colour that would really set off the grain in this pipe.

Before calling it a night I decided to bend the stem so I set up a heat gun and heated the stem until the vulcanite was pliable. Once it was soft I bent it over a wooden rolling pin that I use to keep the bend even. In this particular case because the stem was quite thick it took several reheatings until I got the bend the way I wanted it.

In the morning when I got up I went down to the work table and gave the bowl its top coat of stain. I used an oxblood stain for the top coat as I thought the contrast between the black undercoat and the red would look good with this particular pipe.

I set the bowl aside and went to work, letting it dry for 8 or more hours. When I returned home in the evening I worked on the shaping of the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to thin it down and shape the edges on the blade. I also worked on the fit of the saddle to the shank to make sure the transition was smooth and as seamless as possible. Once I had the fit correct I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then my usual array of micromesh pads. I wet sanded with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanded with 3600-12000 grit pads.

Once the stem was polished with the pads I buffed it with White Diamond on the wheel to further polish it and then gave it a final sanding with the last three grits of micromesh pads – 6000-12000 grit pads. I was not happy with the finish on the stem as it still showed scratches in the first batch of finished photos so I resanded it with the medium and fine grit pads to remove the scratches and then went through the micromesh pads again. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when dry buffed the pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is picture below. The finish came out quite nice. The contrast stain highlights the great grain on the pipe and makes the finish interesting to look at while smoking it.

Restoring a Princely Rhodesian Medico – New Stem and New Life

A “King’s Imperial” Opera Pipe Reborn

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Blog by Steve Laug

Looking over my latest box of pipes that I picked up at an antique mall in Edmonton, I chose to work on one that did not need to be restemmed and had a bit of a mystery attached to it. In the photo below it on the right side just above the batch of stems that were included in the purchase. It was hard to read the stamping while I was in the shop as I had forgotten to bring along a loop to examine it but I could read Made in London England stamped on the underside of the shank near the stem. It was priced at $20 which I figured it was worth in this condition so I added it to the lot.

When I got home I looked at it more closely under a magnifier and saw that the stamping read “King’s Imperial” Made in London England. The pipe was rusticated in an identifiable manner that I had seen on several pipes before so it looked promising. The finish was actually far rougher than it appears in the photos below. The stain was gone in many of the high spots and the low spots in the rustication were also pretty raw briar. There were two burn marks on the top back side and front side of the bowl that had darkened, though they were not scorched and rough. There was also a rough place on the left side bottom front of the bowl where it looked as if it had been knocked about. These marks would make it unlikely that I would be able to stain the bowl a natural tan colour. The bowl was oval both inside and outside. The rim had some scorching and darkening. It had been reamed in the centre of the oval but both ends were still caked and needed to be cleaned. The stem was oxidized and had a shallow tooth mark on the topside near the button.

I have a sharp bladed Japanese letter opener that was a gift from my grandfather that worked very well to ream the oval ends of the bowl. I proceeded to slowly scrape away the buildup of carbon and took the cake back to the bare briar.

After reaming the bowl I dropped the bowl into an alcohol bath to soak for an hour and then scrubbed it with a brass bristle tire brush to clean up the surface of the bowl and to scrub the burned areas on the bowl. I also put the stem into an Oxyclean bath to soften the oxidation on the vulcanite so that it would clean up more easily when removed.

After an hour of soaking the alcohol bath I took the bowl out and dried it off with cotton cloths. I scrubbed it with a soft bristle tooth brush to remove any remaining grit in the grooves of the finish and then dried it off again. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove stubborn areas of the old finish. I wanted the bowl clean and free of any remnant of the old finish before I was ready to restain the briar. I sanded the rim with a fine grit sanding sponge to clean off the softened tar buildup and wiped it down with the acetone as well. I used a dental pick to pick out grime that was stubbornly remaining in the grooves of the rustication. I finished by cleaning out the inside of the bowl and shank with clean isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs until they came out clean.

I decided to try and stain the pipe with a light brown stain – almost tan coloured to mimic the original appearance of the bowl. I mixed one part dark brown stain with 3 parts isopropyl alcohol to make a light brown wash. I applied it to the rusticated surface with cotton swabs and flamed it once it was done. I restained it and reflamed it a second and third time to give it an even coverage.

Once it was dry I buffed it lightly with White Diamond to see where things stood. When I brought it back to the work table I took the following photos to give me a clearer picture of the look of the pipe. The burn marks were not covered and in fact seem to be highlighted by the light stain. I set the bowl aside for a while to think about what I would do with it.

With the bowl set aside I turned my attention to the stem. I took it out of the Oxyclean bath and dried it off. The next two photos show the top and bottom of the stem. The oxidation is even and soft over the surface of the stem. The Oxy does not remove oxidation on stems but merely serves to soften it. When I dried it off with the cloth that it is pictured on it took a lot of oxidation off the surface.

I decided to use Bar Keepers Friend on this stem. I wet the stem with a wet cotton pad and then sprinkled the surface with the powder. I scrubbed it with the wet pad and a dry pad to scour off the oxidation. The next three photos show how well the Bar Keepers Friend work to remove most of the oxidation. There were some stubborn spots around the shank and the button that would take more work, but it was definitely cleaning up well.

My tendency in cleaning up a pipe is to work on the bowl for a bit, set it aside and work on the stem and cogitate about what I plan to do to address issues on the bowl. In this case while I worked on the stem I was thinking about how to address the darkened marks on the bowl. The light stain was not working and a darker brown would not work either. I set aside the stem and wrote a quick post on two of the forums I am part of and asked about the brand. I had not heard of the “King’s Imperial” brand before and decided to ask about it. A friend on one of them did not have information on the brand but posted a couple of photos of a Hardcastle Sandhewn pipe that he had refurbished to show similarities in the finish of my pipe. When I looked at his pipe I saw the solution to taking care of the burn marks and darkening. Here are a couple of photos of the Sandhewn pipe.

Hardcastle had used a contrast stain on this pipe that made the grooves of the rustication black and the high spots on the briar were brown. There was my solution staring me in the face. I set up my staining cloth and put the bowl on the cloth. I applied the black aniline stain and flamed it to set it in the grooves. Once it was dry I buffed it with Red Tripoli to highlight the high points on the rustication and remove the black stain from those areas. The photos below show the pipe after the staining and the buffing. The contrast stain worked well on the burned and darkened areas of the bowl.

The contrast was still not quite what I wanted as it was too dark for my liking. I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to remove more of the black from the high spots on the bowl and shank. I also wiped down the smooth rim area as I wanted it to match the high spots on the bowl.

I took the pipe to the buffer again and buffed the bowl and stem with Tripoli and then with White Diamond to give it a shine. The contrast now was exactly what I was aiming for with the staining so I was pleased with the results.

I set the bowl aside and worked some more on the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the stubborn spots of oxidation at the button and the shank end. I then used my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. Each photo below shows the progressive deepening of the shine and the blackness of the vulcanite.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it was dry buffed the pipe and the stem with White Diamond. I was careful in my buffing around the stamping on the bottom of the shank as I did not want to further damage the stamping. I applied multiple coats of carnauba wax to the bowl (lightly touching it against the buffing pad so that it would not cake up in the rustication) and the stem. The finished pipe is pictured below.

This morning while I worked on the pipe, I checked on the forums to see if there was anyone that had information on the brand. Bill, on Pipe Smokers Unleashed forum, had come across a photo online that had the same stamping but one additional line – Blakemar Briars. The stamping can be seen in the photo below. The “King’s Imperial” stamping was identical. My pipe was stamped Made in London England while this one said Made in England. The Blakemar Briars was the addition that gave the first clue.

After reading this I sent an email to Mike Billington at Blakemar Briars to ask about the brand. He replied with the following email.

Hi Steve
It is possible that the “King’s Imperial” pipe was made here, it depends on the age to some extent. My Uncle used to make pipes for John Redman Ltd during the 60’s and 70’s and early 80’s and I continued to do so until the early nineties. The King’s Imperial range was one of John Redmans pipe ranges during that time, but Redmans also had them made by other pipe makers; they also did some pipe making “in house”- so while it is possible that the pipe was made here, it is not definite. From around 1992 until 2005 (I think), Redman’s brands were taken over by Gerald Grudgings of Loughborough in Leicestershire and during that time any Kings Imperial produced were definitely made here.

My memories only go back to the early 70’s but if you send a photo, I can tell you if it seems familiar to me

thanks
Mike

I immediately sent him photos of the pipe as it was when I found it, showing the stamping on the bowl. I am waiting to hear back from him. But I found it interesting to learn that John Redman Ltd had Blakemar Briars make pipes for them during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and into the early 90’s. To find out that King’s Imperial was a range of Redman pipes during that time was also invaluable. Some of the other historical notes of interest in Mike’s email were that Redman’s had others making pipes for them and that they also did pipe making in house. I am hoping that Mike can remember and give a bit of certainty to the dating on this old opera pipe. I will update this post as I gather new information.

Bewlay Beauty and the Playboy Meer Beast – Robert M. Boughton

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It is once again my pleasure to present an article by Robert Boughton. Robert has written several pieces on his work in refurbishing pipes. He always has a great way of not only describing the process he uses in the work but also does very thorough research into the background of the pipe brands he works on. This article covers his work on two pipes that recently joined his rack – a Bewlay and Playboy meerschaum. Thank you Robert for your willingness to share your work with us.

Bewlay Beauty and the Playboy Meer Beast Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
http://about.me/boughtonrobert Photos © the Author

“Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.” – Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher, poet and critic

INTRODUCTION
As I admitted in a thread on the Smoker’s Forums, I am the first person to acknowledge that I suffer from a severe case of Pipe Acquisition Disorder (P.A.D.), and so I take both of the above admonitory notes with all due respect, even though I made up one and have no intention of troubling myself with the other. With that in mind, during the past two months my pipe acquisitions have reached epic proportions, at least for me, at 16 additions and one more (a 1980s series Peterson Mark Twain) I am committed to buy on Friday. I really have no choice about that last one, you see, as my word is as good as the metal of the band in my Peterson Gold Spigot Bent System natural grain.And to further my own defense, I should add that I received a nice tax refund and pay raise.Besides, there are far worse things on which to spend ones money, and I have no other serious vices, even having given up alcohol 26 years ago for reasons obvious to everyone who knew me back in the day. Really, when you look at the situation from all sides, it’s more of a quirk than a disorder. Right? I say the habit should be called Pipe Acquisition Quirk, or P.A.Q., to downplay the association of the condition from that of a mental disease.At any rate, that is quite enough of that.

My goal here, as I have already tried to begin making clear, is to have some fun describing the excitement of the hunt for little gems of pipes that can be found in odd locations, such as second-hand stores and antique shops, and the special thrill when it is apparent that the rewards located need some attention and care to restore them to their rightful glory. The latter aspect of the overall adventure is the best part for me, anyway. That is why I was almost disappointed to find that the Knickerbocker and Winston pipes I picked up on Tuesday are in pristine condition and have never even been smoked. If you ask me, I have to say that response to buying pipes is more twisted than being in the habit of acquiring one at every turn.

But as I already suggested, there is nothing like the clandestine hunt for the prized pipe, not online or in the regular haunts but in the wild, so to speak – lurking out there in a dark corner of the jungle where everything from the lowest to the highest example of the art of pipe craft might be found by the crafty hunter, just waiting for the right person to place in his sights and liberate the artifact from its unwitting seller for restoration and lifelong appreciation.

Such was the case this Friday past, while I was driving to my weekly pipe meeting earlier than usual and the notion hit me to veer from my regular course for a stop at an unassuming and poorly situated antique arcade on the east side of town, whence I had heard from a fellow pipe club member of incredible deals on excellent pipes. However, by the time I arrived at the scene, my friend, who seems to have a touch of the old P.A.D. himself, had pretty well cleared out the available stock and was remembered with cloying fondness by all of the vendors. Still, there were five left – the two I bought last Friday, which are the subjects of this blog, the other pair I purchased on Tuesday and one I let someone else have. Note I do not call it the one that got away because had it been a fish I caught I would have thrown it back in the water.

THE RESTORATIONS

I.The Bewlay London Made Hand Cut Spiral
Bewlay & Co., Ltd. was an English chain of pipe shops for about the first half of the 20th century until it was sold. [See Steve’s excellent recap of everything I found in my own research and more at https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/house-of-bewlay-pipes-tobacco-leaflets/.%5D The general consensus is that Bewlay sold only Barlings, Charatans and Loewes with the Bewlay name and mark on the pipes. Another source included Orlik in the list. But regardless of the total roster of pipe crafters that supplied Bewlay, everything they offered was considered to be of high quality.

Such is the case with my little beauty of a Bewlay small billiard (1-½” x 5”). I have had a difficult time trying to match this pipe with its maker. Even after viewing many samples of all of the above pipe crafters’ works, it is with uncertainty but sufficient confidence that I attribute the pipe’s origin as Barling.Most of my pipe friends to whom I have shown the Bewlay commented right away that it looks like a Barling. My only serious doubt arose from the little billiard’s bizarre, if I may be so bold as to describe it, tenon bit. Here indeed is a bit fashioned by an evil dentist tossed out of the profession and turned stem-maker. My friend and mentor, Chuck Richards, calls it a “funky screw,” but I prefer corkscrew or even drill bit. The thin half of the screwy bit, which bears the same Patent number found on the bottom of the shank – № 167103 – as shown above separate from the bit, fits snugly through a thin horizontal slot in the front of the tenon. The wider half slips into the mortise. Whatever this bit’s real name (and I would very much appreciate a message from anyone who knows the answer), it is removable for cleaning and perhaps replacement if necessary, which is not unimaginable given its frailty. To tell the truth, in fact, I bent mine with almost no force applied when I first discovered its presence and just had to probe to see what I could discover. Well, I soon found that the odd bit is at least like aluminum and can be removed intentionally or not, and bends with alarming ease, but then again bends right back just as handily.

The Bewlay/Barling Spiral billiard was in pretty good shape when I bought it, other than the scorched rim, cake build-up in the bowl, some scratches on the pipe, bite marks and discoloration of the originally brown stem and general dirtiness inside.

My first line of attack was to ream the bowl carefully, then sand it with 400-grit paper torn off into a piece that wrapped around my ring finger. Then I soaked it for some time in alcohol, removing most of the old coating which I finished off with some 1000-grit micro-mesh, careful to leave the areas around all of the nomenclature untouched.
Pleased with the results so far, I applied Lincoln light brown alcohol-based boot stain to the entire outside of the pipe bowl and shank, and flamed it all around just enough to see the whoosh of blue light as the alcohol burned off and left a light layer of black soot. The soot I easily removed with the finest micro-mesh

The only task remaining for the bowl and shank were to buff them with my cheap high-speed dual buffer: once all over with white Tripoli, then again with carnauba. At last I think I’m getting the hang of using a light touch on the single high-speed buffers so as to avoid flying objects that can break easily and to achieve the desired polished effect evenly and without streaks.

I micro-meshed the stem with #600 paper, getting rid of all the discoloration that was not inside the stem itself, and buffed it with white Tripoli. To finish it off, I used a white crayon marker to fill in the Bewlay “B.”

Bewlay Spiral

London Made S101

Patent № 167103

II. THE PLAYBOY MEERSCHAUM BEAST
I already owned one Laxley African Meer…

…and as soon as I saw the Playboy, I knew it had to be a Laxley also.

With Chuck’s concurrence, I am satisfied it’s a Laxley Playboy club edition.
This rugged African pebbled Meer was easy to clean up and make it look almost new again, despite the heavy, crystallized burning all around the rim. I began by taking some small cotton gun cleaning cloths and applying a little purified water to each, then lightly cleaning off the outside of the bowl and shank.

I had to sand off the bright black crystallized burn around the rim with patient use of 400-grit paper until I began to see the light brown of the Meerschaum show through. Then I switched to micro-mesh and decided to go all the way past the black stain from the original. Not having any stain of that color, I bought some Lincoln for $6.95 and daubed it around the rim with care not to let it run down the top, which was fine the way it was. Next, of course, I flamed it and micro-meshed the ash away to a very smooth finish.

The screw on brown stem was a mess, so I fixed it up with micro-mesh #600 micro-mesh and buffed it evenly with white Tripoli only.

That, my friends, is how beauty met the beast. And as I intend to keep both of these for my ever growing, P.A.D.-fueled collection, I expect they shall live happily ever after.

Crafting a Bamboo Shank Briar Mini Churchwarden

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I had all the parts to do a bit of an experiment. I had a broken shank briar pipe, a long piece of black bamboo and an assortment of stems to choose from to see if I could connect all the pieces and make a workable smoking pipe. Putting together the pieces is reminds me of playing with my old Erector Set when I was a kid. The only limit to what can be put together is your imagination. The bowl came to me with two large gashes in the shank. They were both quite deep and both had been repaired by fills. There was a metal threaded mortise in the shank for a threaded tenon. While I was cleaning up the bowl the shank fell off in my hands. I put it in the cupboard as I expected I could scavenge some briar for repairing burn outs in the future. It sat there for more than a week before I began to wonder if I couldn’t do something with it. I went through my parts drawer and found the piece of black bamboo that had been sitting for quite a few years waiting for the right moment. I brought the bowl out and put the two pieces side by side and kind of liked what I saw. The end product would be a four knuckle bamboo mini Churchwarden pipe. It would be extremely lightweight and might actually end up looking quite nice. Now it was time to start working.

I drilled out the inside of the bamboo with an 11/64 inch drill bit. I then drilled out the end that would meet the bowl with a ¼ inch and then a 3/8 inch bit so that I could use a metal tenon I had saved from a previous pipe. Once the drilling was done the tenon fit the newly drilled bamboo mortise very well. I faced the end of the broken shank so that the bamboo would fit against it smoothly.

The metal tenon also fit in the shank of the bowl well. The length was perfect as it fit against the airway in the end of the shank next to the bowl bottom. There was no gap between the two so the smoked would flow smoothly down the shank of the pipe. I cleaned out the bamboo airway with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol and then put the pipe together and checked the draw. It was open and was an effortless draw.

I repaired the fill on the side of the shank as it was not even with the surface of the shank. I used a superglue and briar dust patch on it. Some might wonder why I did not cut back the shank and eliminate the damaged area. I chose not to do that as I wanted the shank to have some length to it in contrast to the long bamboo section. I also planned on rusticating the entire bowl so the damage would be covered. The insert of the metal tenon would stabilize the area as well and the shank repair would be solid.

I took the bamboo shank off the bowl and sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the finish. I repaired several of the gouges on the bowl surface with superglue and briar dust. I wanted a smooth canvas to work on when I rusticated the bowl. I then sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge. The top of the bowl had a slight buildup of tars so I cleaned that with the medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads. I sanded the knuckles on the bamboo to remove the fibers that were still attached and to smooth out the nodules. More work would need to be done on the shank but at least at this point it would be smooth in my hand while I worked on the bowl.

I set the bowl aside and went through my can of stems to find a nice saddle bit that would look good proportionally with the pipe. I drilled out the stem end of the bamboo with a ¼ inch bit to serve as a mortise for the stem. I turned the tenon on a PIMO tenon turning tool and then hand sanded it. I pushed the stem in place and starting sanding the saddle portion of the stem to get the diameter of the stem and shank to match. I mixed some two part epoxy and glued the metal tenon in place in the bamboo. When it was dry I put the pipe together. I did not epoxy the bowl to the shank at this point as I wanted to be able to remove it work on the rustication. The next three photos show the pipe with all parts in place.

I used a Dremel with a cone shape cutting head to pre-rusticate the shank and then followed that up with the modified Philips screwdriver. I rusticated the briar shank with it attached to the bamboo so that I could rusticate it up to the joint of the two shank materials. Once I had the shank finished I removed the bowl and worked on it with the Philips screwdriver. I find it easier to manipulate the bowl when it is not attached to the shank. When the bowl was completely rusticated I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock of the rough edges and give the bowl the texture that I wanted. I left the rim smooth to contrast with the finish on the bowl.

I put the pipe back together to have a look at the finished rustication and the contrast with the finish on the bamboo. I liked the overall look of the pipe at this stage. I did a bit more rustication on the bowl and shank and wire brushed them until I was happy with the end result.

At this point I was ready to attach the shank to the bowl permanently. I scored the metal shank to give the surface something to bond with in the briar shank. I mixed the two part epoxy and applied it to the metal shank with a dental pick. I pressed the two parts together and used the dental pick to trim off the excess glue and wiped it down with a soft cloth. I clamped the parts together while the epoxy set.

While the glue was drying I worked on the stem to taper it to fit the diameter of the bamboo shank. I sanded it with a Dremel to take off the majority of the excess vulcanite and then hand sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper. Once the epoxy had set, late last evening I inserted the stem and took the photos below.

This morning I got up early and stained the bowl with a black aniline stain. My plan is to use the black stain as an undercoat on the bowl. Once the pipe is dry I will buff it with red Tripoli to remove the black from the high spots on the rustication and then stain the bowl with a brown topcoat to give it depth and contrast.

I buffed the bowl with the Tripoli and then used isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to dab off the stain on the high spots. The finish is rough so to scrub it with the pads leaves behind a lot of cotton bits. I sanded the surface of the bowl with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove more of the black stain from the high spots and to soften the rustication. I stained the bowl and shank with a coat of walnut stain to give some depth and highlights to the bowl. I had asked online how to finish bamboo and received a step by step response from James of JSEC pipes. He said to stabilize the cracks in the bamboo with superglue and then to sand the bamboo with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and follow that with 1500 grit sandpaper. I followed that process to the letter. The change in the surface of the bamboo was noticeable. It was smooth and had a developing patina on the surface. I then took the next steps in the process and rubbed the shank down with Danish Oil. James said the he generally gave multiple coats of Danish Oil over several days. The photo below was taken after the bowl had been stained with the walnut and the shank sanded as described above. It also shows the first coat of Danish Oil on the stem. After about one hour the oil had dried to a matte finish on the bamboo.

While the Danish Oil was drying on the bamboo I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the saddle to match the shank diameter. I then used a medium grit sanding sponge and 600 grit sandpaper. I then sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak into the vulcanite.

When the bamboo had dried I buffed it with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. I buffed bowl and stem as well. I took the next series of four photos before I gave the bamboo a second coat of the Danish Oil. The pipe is beginning to look finished. I like the look of the black bamboo with this treatment – there is a rich patina beginning to show up on the shank now.

I gave it a second and third coat of Danish Oil and then buffed the bamboo with White Diamond. I gave the stem and the bowl a light buff as well. The bamboo is looking really nice. I like the developing patina that is coming from the finishing. I gave the shank and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed to a shine with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is picture below. This weekend I hope to take it on its inaugural smoke!

An Earl of Essex Apple Reborn

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This Earl of Essex pipe bowl was in bad shape. I had received the bowl without a stem so I would need to restem it if I was going to refurbish it. The bowl rim was angled down toward the front and was worn and rough. It appeared to be thinner in the front than the back of the bowl and had burn marks and rough patches on the front. The finish was shot and the aluminum insert in the shank was oxidized. The bowl had an uneven cake and was crumbling. There were several red spots on the surface of the rustication. What interested me in this old bowl was the rustication. The top of the bowl had almost a wax drip look to it with rustication between the drips of “wax”. The drip pattern is smooth briar as was the rim at one time. The end of the shank and the high spots on the shank were also smooth.

The aluminum inset mortise took a screw in tenon and I did not have any metal screw in tenon stems. I would have to drill it out to fit a new stem. I decided to try my hand at opening up the mortise with a drill. I started with a drill bit slightly larger than the mortise and then moved up with bigger drill bits until the mortise was smooth and open enough to take a new push stem.

I started to top the bowl but stopped mid stream and reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to clean out the cake. I wanted the bowl clean so that as I topped it I would be able to see how deep the damage to the bowl went.

Once reamed, I took it back to the topping board and sandpaper. I used 220 grit sandpaper and twisted the bowl top into the sandpaper in a clockwise pattern. With the bowl topped and the shank opened the bowl was ready to clean up.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and clean up the grime that was built up in the grooves of the rustication. There was a bright red pigment in the grooves on two sides of the bowl. I scraped at it with a dental pick to clean it up. At first I thought it might be putty but as I scraped it, it came off like a red pigment. I am not sure what the red material was. I wiped it down after scraping it.

I decided to stain the bowl with a contrast to set off the rusticated portion from the smooth portion of the bowl. I used a cotton swab and black aniline stain to stain the rusticated portions of the bowl. I wanted the black to highlight the areas between the smooth drip portions of the bowl. I stained and flamed it and repeated the process until it was a good even colour around the bowl. I sanded the smooth areas of the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding block and sponge to remove scratches and clean them up for the next coat of stain that would be used on the smooth areas.

I had several stems in my stem can that would fit the shank of the drilled out mortise. I tried a BBB stem first. It fit very well in the shank. The look was exactly what I wanted but I did not want to waste a BBB stem with the logo intact on an experiment.

So I used the second stem I had from the can. It was a saddle stem with a bite through on the top of the stem. I decided to cut it back and then reshape the button until it was a new stem.

I cut it back with a Dremel and a sanding drum until it was smooth, solid and straight across.

Before working on cutting the new button in the stem I stained the top portion of the bowl with a light walnut stain on the smooth parts of the bowl. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to give it a shine.

I worked on the button with needle files cutting in the straight line of the inner edge of the button and then smoothed out the button itself with the files. I carved away the surface of the stem tapering it from the saddle to the button. Once it was cut with the files I sanded the new taper with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches on the vulcanite.

I sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and buffed it with White Diamond.

I buffed the bowl lightly with White Diamond and buffed the stem with it as well. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The bowl top is clean and new, the finish is redone and the wax drip look is highlighted with the stains. The new stem and the newly cut button fit the pipe well. The experiment of drilling out the aluminum shank insert to take a push stem was a success. The metal polished well and looks like a shank band. Overall the final product is nice looking pipe that will make a good addition to someone’s rack in the future.

Repairing an Out of Round Bowl

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On the recent post I made regarding the Dublin that I cut the shank off of and reworked I neglected to work on the out of round bowl. https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/cutting-back-a-broken-shank-and-reworking-a-no-name-dublin/ A friend on one of the online forums sent me a message and asked me why I had not bothered to rework the out of round bowl. My answer to him was that I had done minimal work on it and then turned my attention to the shank. His words niggled at me all day at work and I wrote him and told him I would work on the bowl when I got home this evening. So, I did and decided it was worth a write-up of its own. Many times in refurbishing pipes for myself or others I am face with a bowl that has suffered at the hands of a “mad reamer” who leaves the bowl with all kinds of nicks and dents in the inner rim of the bowl. Often the inner edge is so out of round that it almost appears to be oblong (at best) or ragged and jagged (at worst). Either way if left as it was the ragged inner rim detracts from the overall beauty of the refurbished pipe. I dedicate this post to Chiz, the friend who called me on my skipping of the inner rim. Thanks Chiz, without your urging I don’t know if I would have even given this a second thought.

The first photo below shows the bowl as it was when I received it. The inner rim edges are a mess. On the left side of the photo you can see the major cut and damage to the bowl and on the right side of the photo there is also major damage. The bowl is badly out of round on the inner rim.

I scrubbed off the top of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads. Sometimes this is unnecessary as you will be topping the bowl anyway but I always want to know how deep the cuts and scarring goes into the surface of the rim. This gives me an idea of how much I will have to top the bowl to remove the damage.

I topped the bowl on a hard surface that holds a piece of sandpaper flat. I place the bowl face down on the 220 grit sandpaper and sand it in a clockwise direction. If you were to ask me why clockwise, I would have to say I don’t honestly know! I suppose it is because I am right-handed and it seems that everything I turn goes that direction. The point however, is to keep the bowl flat against the sandpaper. Check it often to see if you have removed enough of the rim surface to deal with the problems.

In the photo above the bowl has been topped but will need further topping to take care of the damage to the outer rim. I am always careful to not change the profile of the bowl when I am doing the topping. It is too easy to remove more briar than is necessary and it is impossible to put it back. I returned the bowl to the topping board and worked to remove more of the damage. You can also see the extent of the damage to the inner edge of the rim clearly. Once I had it finished, I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding blocks and then with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches.

I stained the bowl with an aniline stain to highlight the great grain patterns on this particular block of briar and buffed it with red Tripoli to remove some of the black stain. I sanded and resanded with multiple grits of sandpaper, sanding blocks, and micromesh sanding pads to get a clean smooth finish on the rim. In the photo below you will still note the out of round bowl. I did minimal work in smoothing out the roughness but did not address the problem of the out of round bowl.

I sanded the bowl with a small folded piece of sandpaper to even out the edge a bit more. I still did not address the major issue. I think at one level I was avoiding it. There is nothing that bugs me more than this kind of careless reaming that leaves a nice pipe in such a state. I have seen this in high-end pipes to Dr. Grabows and everywhere in between. The careless wielding of a reamer or knife knows no economic bounds.

At this point in the process I buffed the pipe, gave it several coats of wax and set it aside. I posted it on the blog and on a pipe forum. That is the pipe as it was when Chiz saw the finished pipe and asked his “immortal question” WHY.

When I got home from work today, with that WHY ringing in my ears I sat down at my work table and used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work on the inner rim of the bowl. I proceeded carefully so as not to damage the finish on the rim itself. This would sure have been easier had I done it before I refinished the bowl! I sanded the inner edge of the rim to minimize the damage and give the bowl a slight bevel on the edge. The next photo shows the first step in the sanding process. Already the bowl is beginning to take a better shape.

I continued to work on the inner edge with the folded piece of sand paper (approximately 1inch square). I wanted to not only smooth out the edges but I wanted to also bevel the inner edge to a point where the damage blended into the flow of the circle. This involved working the edge to get the distance between the inner and out diameter of the bowl the same/or close to the same the entire way around the bowl. The next three photos show the progressive reshaping of the inner rim. By the third photo the rim is almost finished.

I finished the sanding with a small square of medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove scratch marks on the bevel and get it ready for a buff. I did not intend to stain the inner rim at this point merely smooth it out.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond. I then polished it with carnauba wax to bring up the shine and give it some protection. The next two photos show the finished rim.

Cutting Back a Broken Shank and Reworking a No Name Dublin

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In keeping with the theme of my last few posts about my recent pipe restorations the pipe I took on in this repair/restoration was in fairly bad shape. The rim was damaged on the top and the outer edge had been beaten badly and was rough to the touch. The inner edge had been reamed out of round somewhere in the distant past of its life. The bowl finish was “finished”. It was in rough shape. The left side had many fills and divots on the surface. It looked as if it had been dropped on concrete or rocks. The shank was much the same but worse in that the end on the top right side had a large chunk of briar missing. It did not have a stem but that was the least of the concerns at the moment.

I went through my can of stems and found one that would work. The diameter and length were correct for this size pipe. However I had to decide what to do with the missing chunk of briar. I could band it and cosmeticly hide the missing piece under the band or I could cut back the shank, shorten it and then band and restem the pipe.

I removed the band – this is slightly harder than the simple words sound. It really involved cutting the metal and peeling it off the shank. I was not happy with the look so I decided to cut off the damaged end of the shank. What made this a happy solution to me was that the shank itself was not cracked. There were no cracks radiating from the area of the missing piece of briar.

When cutting back a shank I use a small hack saw with a fine toothed blade to do the work. I am limited to hand tools as I do not have a shop. The problem with this method is that it is very difficult to get a good, clean, straight cut with a hand saw. I followed the scoring left behind by the band as I sawed around the shank.

Even in being careful and working slowly the shank end was not perfectly square. That would have to be dealt with later.

I needed to deepen the mortise area as I had removed a major piece of it by shortening the shank. I started with a drill bit that fit well in the existing mortise and turned it in by hand. I worked up to the correct size bit – each time anchoring the bit in my hand drill and turning the bowl onto the bit by hand. I did not want to risk using the power and having the bit go right through the bowl. I have a pin vise but it was not large enough to hold a bit this size so I improvised.

Once I had the airway drilled in the shank I set up a topping board to sand down both the end of the shank and the rim. I started with the shank end hold the bowl against the sand paper and making sure that it was straight up and down vertically and sanded the end of the shank to face it. I also topped the damaged rim to remove the damage to the surface and the edges of the bowl. I sanded the bowl down with sandpaper in preparation for the topping. The shank needed to be re-tapered to match the diameter of the stem and to give it more of a flow from the bowl to the stem. I used 220 grit sandpaper to taper the shank and to sand the bowl.

Once I had a good fit on the stem and the shank and the bowl was topped and the finish cleaned up I decided to put a band on the shank. I thought that the shiny bling of the band would be a nice contrast to the stain I intended to use. I heated the band and pressed it onto the shank.

With the band in place and the stem fitting well it was time to address the finish of the briar. The left side damage needed to be cleaned up and repaired. I picked out the loose fill material with a dental pick. I washed down the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove dust and clean up any loose pieces of fill material. I roughened the edges of the divots and crevices on the briar and then filled them with briar dust and superglue.

I sanded the repaired area with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess material and smooth out the surface of the bowl.

I sanded the bowl with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the scratches and prepare the surface for staining. I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to pick up any surface dust before staining. I am continuing to experiment with contrast stains so I gave the bowl a heavy coat of black aniline stain. I flamed it and heated it to set the stain deep in the grain of the bowl. This particular bowl had some really stunning birdseye on the sides and great cross grain on the front and back and underside of the shank and bowl. I wanted to highlight that grain and make it pop.

Once the stain was dried I wiped the bowl down with acetone on pads to remove the surface stain and then buffed the pipe with red Tripoli. I wanted to remove as much of the stain on the surface as possible while leaving it in the grain and around the birdseye. I sanded the bowl with medium and fine grit sanding blocks and sponges to get the surface down to the place the grain was highlighted. I then rubbed the bowl down with olive oil and buffed it with White Diamond to make the bowl shine.

I was happy with the contrast on the contrast stain and the look of the bowl at this point but now needed to work on the stem and the band. I sanded the stem with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the scratches. I sanded the band with a fine grit sanding sponge as well. I then sanded the stem, band and the bowl with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded the bowl with the same grit pads. I dry sanded the bowl and the stem with 3200-12,000 grit pads to finish polishing them both. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then when dry I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond.

The series of four photos below show the bowl and stem after sanding with the micromesh sanding pads. The finish on the bowl is exactly what I was aiming for. The translucency of the finish was perfect. The fills and damage on the left side of the bowl all but disappeared – not just hidden by the finish by smooth to touch as well.

I buffed the pipe one last time with White Diamond and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to polish and protect it. I finished by buffing with a clean flannel buff to lift the shine. The finished pipe is shown below and is ready for its inaugural smoke. The bowl and pipe came out well in my opinion and should last a long time in the hands of the person whose rack it eventually will grace.

I just reworked the inner rim of the bowl. I did a write up on the process and posted it here: https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/repairing-an-out-of-round-bowl/

No Name Pot Brought Back to Life from the Brink

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This bowl came to me with a batch of bowls needing different degrees of work. This old-timer needed cleaning as the buildup of grime and grit that was ground into the bowl was thick. The surface was coated with a greasy black substance all around the top of the bowl and the sides. The bowl/shank junction was incredibly grimy. The inner rim was out of round and the outer rim and the top of the rim were in rough shape. The outer edge had been hammered around the sides and the top had dents and cuts in the surface. The shank looked to be slightly shorter than I have come to expect on this shape of pipe; though the drilling and the mortise were original. The shank had definitely not been shortened. The bowl was caked and the buildup thickest around mid bowl. There were quite a few small pink fills around the bowl sides. There was no stamping or identifying marks on the pipe. There had been some sanding done around he shank and it had left behind some fairly deep scratches.

I went through my can of stems and found one that fit quite well. It did not need work on the tenon diameter as the fit was snug. The stem was bent and would need to be straightened to give it a proper fit to the bowl. Once the stem was in place it was clear that the shank was out of round. The bottom edge of the shank was somewhat thicker than the stem at the same spot. I would need to work on the flow of the shank from the bowl to the stem union to insure that the fit was smooth and the transition seamless.

The stem was badly oxidized so I figured heating it to straighten it would actually soften the oxidation and bring it to the surface. I used a heat gun on the low setting to heat the stem. I generally hold it about 4 or more inches above the heat source and hold so it bends in the correct direction as it softens. In this case it did not take long for the vulcanite to heat and the stem to return to the original straight position. I decided to leave a slight bend in the stem as I like the look of on the pipe.

The next two photos show the stem after heating and straightening. The variation in the diameter of the shank and the stem is also clearly visible in these two photos.

Since the shank had no stamping to preserve I decided to sand the shank and the stem to even things out and to bring the shank into round. I used 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess briar and to shape the taper on the stem. I sanded the stem as well to remove the softened oxidation and make the cleanup simpler.

I set up a topping board and anchored a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on the surface to provide a flat straight surface to sand the top on. I twisted the top into the sandpaper in a clockwise motion to remove the tars and rim damage on the bowl.

I wiped down the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grimy buildup on the finish. The black tarry substance took some elbow grease and hard scrubbing to remove. The inner rim would need some work to bring it back into round but that would wait until after I reamed the pipe.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges to further remove the finish and the grime. I worked on the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bevel the inner edge into the bowl. This minimizes the appearance of the bowl being out of round. It also removes burn damage and smooths the look of the rim as a whole.

I decided to try something different on this bowl in terms of stain. It had some great cross grain and some nice birdseye grain that I wanted to highlight. It also had some ugly pink fills that I did not want to pick out and refill. This led me to try a black aniline stain. Before I stained it I used a black permanent marker – a sharpie to line through the pink fills. I blended them into the grain of the wood with the pen. I heated the bowl with the heat gun to open the grain and then applied several coats of black aniline stain, flaming the stain between each application. Once the stain was dry I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads and then sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding block. I wanted to remove the black stain from the higher/harder areas of the briar while leaving it in the grain patterns.

I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge and then wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol to remove the dust. I remarked the fills with the black Sharpie. In the four photos below the marked fills are visible and the finish has about all the black removed that I wanted to take off.

I rubbed the bowl down with Olive oil on a paper towel and rubbed it into the finish. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-2400 grit, while the oil was wet as the oil gives the pads a bit more bite. I worked on the marked areas to blend them in with the sanding pads. I also sanded the stem with the micromesh sanding pads and the Olive oil at the same time. The next four photos show the finish after it had dried over night. I then buffed it on my buffer with White Diamond and gave the bowl several coats of carnauba wax. You can see how well the black sharpie blended into the finish. The pink fills have all but disappeared in the finish.

I sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh – the difference this time was all pads were used to dry sand the stem – 1500-12,000 grit. In between each grit I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite before sanding with the next grit pad. Once I had finished with all grits I gave the stem a final rub down with the Obsidian Oil.

I gave the pipe several more coats of carnauba wax on the buffer and then buffed it with a soft flannel buff to bring out the shine. I was aiming for a stem shape similar to what I had seen on the Castello 55 shape and wanted that slight bend downward in the final look. While the pipe is certainly no Castello, I like the final look of the stem and the bowl. It certainly has come a long way from the bowl that came in the lot I received in the mail. This one should make a good addition to someone’s rack once it leaves here. The next four photos show the finished pipe.