Tag Archives: bowl – refinishing

Restoring an older KBB Yello-Bole Imperial Dublin

Blog by Steve Laug

This is the last of the pipes I picked up when I was down in Washington State with my wife for 38th Anniversary. It is an older KBB (no ampersand between the two B’s). It had no shape numbers on the right side of the shank, but on the left side it had the KBB in the cloverleaf/club and next to it was stamped Yello-Bole over Imperial over Imported Briar. The Imperial stamping had been over-stamped with a cross hatch pattern. The bowl was in decent shape. The finish had dark soiling and oils on both sides of the bowl. There were also some dark spots on the sides of the bowl. There was a heavy coat of varnish over the bowl except for the worn spots where the oils and darkening was. The rim was heavily caked with tars and oils. The bowl was caked from the top half way down the bowl, though the yellow honey coating was still visible on the bottom half of the bowl. There were some burn marks along the outer edge and top of the rim.

Again since Yello-Bole is one of my favourite older US brands I did some more reading online to see if I could narrow down when this one was made. I have come to understand that these older Yello-Boles are great smoking pipes and underrated. I turned to one of my go to sources of information on all things KBB and Kaywoodie – the Kaywoodie forum http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/ftopic13-0-asc-0.php. There I found a very helpful article by Dave Whitney that helped narrow down the date. The pipe I have has the shovel drinkless mechanism, the KBB-in-a-clover logo on the left side of the shank and the yellow circle on the stem. From what I can ascertain from Dave’s information it seems to have been produced between the years of 1938-42. I am fairly certain that it did not come from the later period of 1945-50 (World War II) since it did not have the aluminum stem ring and the aluminum drinkless mechanism which came out during those years.

The photos below show the pipe as it was when I found it in the antique shop. The stem is made of nylon rather than vulcanite. It has the yellow circle inset in the top near the shank of the pipe. The button area was chewed and dented. There was a shallow dent on top of the stem and deeper ones on the underside of the stem next to the button. The button had been chewed down and had deep dents on the underside while the slot had been dented in so that it was not longer straight. I sanded the stem down and was able to remove the dents on the topside. The underside tooth mark was too deep to sand or even heat and raise. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the chatter further up the stem and then picked the area clean around the large dent with a dental pick. I wiped the stem down with alcohol to clean off the dust and then filled it with black super glue that I purchased from Stewmac online. I filled it the first time and sprayed it with an accelerator. Once it dried it had shrunken and left a divot in the stem surface. I refilled it with the glue and then sprayed it again with the accelerator. I set it aside overnight to cure and worked on the bowl. The bowl and rim were caked with an uneven cake so I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer to take it back to the briar. The cake was soft and once I removed it from the middle portion of the bowl I could see the yellow coating on the bottom half and partway down from the rim. The only portion that was darkened was in the centre of the bowl. I set up my topping board to remove the hard tars on the rim and also the burn damage. Fortunately the burn damage did not go too deep but merely sat on the surface under the tar coat. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and as much of the dark staining on the side of the bowl as possible. The dark spots were deep in the finish of briar so I was not sure I would be able to remove them. Even after wiping down the bowl repeatedly the dark stains on the sides remained, lighter though still present. The dark spots appeared to be ink stains and they too remained. I decided to let the bowl soak in an alcohol bath overnight and address it again in the morning. The next morning I removed the bowl from the alcohol bath and found that it had done its magic. The stains were gone and the ink stains were significantly lighter. I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I kept cleaning until the pipe cleaners and swabs came out clean. I stained the bowl with Fiebings Dark Brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and then flamed and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I wiped it down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of the opaque colour of the stain and to make the grain more visible. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond. The next three photos show the bowl at this point in the process. Once I had finished the work on the bowl to this point I decided to work on the stem. I used a coarse grit sanding stick to cut the sharp edge of the button. While it worked relatively well I could see that the hardened super glue needed something with more teeth to cut into the repair. I used a file to take off the overfill on the repair and then followed that with the sanding stick and 220 grit sandpaper.
I sanded the stem further with the 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the scratches in the surface. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Between each grit of micromesh I wiped the stem down with olive oil. I have found that the olive oil allows the micromesh sanding pads to really cut into the surface of the nylon stem. I cleaned up the stinger with alcohol and cotton pads and then 0000 steel wool. I gave the bowl a coat of walnut stain and boiled linseed oil to bring out a shine. I wanted the pipe to have a similar shine to what it originally had when it left the factory but did not want to use a varnish coat. I wiped it on the bowl with a cotton pad and then set it aside to air dry. Once the finish had dried I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed to a shine with a soft flannel buff. I hand waxed the stem with Paragon Wax as I find that the nylon stems are hard to buff. Without a light touch the wheel can do irreparable damage to the nylon stem. The heat generated by the buffer will actually cause the stem to melt. The final photos below show the finished pipe cleaned, polished and ready to enter into the next years of its life. I think that this one will outlive me if properly cared for by the next pipeman after me.

Restoring and restemming a second Television Pipe – a Prince

5 Replies

The second Television Pipe I received was a prince shape bowl without a stem. From the previous post I found out that it was an English Brand with a long stem. The brand was sold by A. Grunfield Co. and was produced by Gasparini. That bit of information came from Jose Manuel Lopes – Pipes Artisans and Trademarks. The bowl had a thick coat of varnish and a large fill on the front of the bowl. It appeared to be a deep fill and went from the top edge of the rim down about a third of the bowl. It did not go all the way through the briar to the bowl itself. There was also a smaller fill on the bottom of the bowl near the shank bowl junction. The grain was very mixed. On the back side and on the left and right sides there was some nice straight grain. The front of the bowl looked bald with the fill in the middle. The rim had a tarry buildup and was rough. The bowl had an uneven cake on the inside. Since there was no stem with the pipe and I did not have any church warden stems on hand I had some choices to make on the stem. I had a vulcanite stem and a clear Lucite stem that had potential. They were both longer than a typical prince stem but still not a church warden style. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the varnish and the grit that was in the finish. I set up my topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to top the bowl and smooth out the surface. With the fill going from the rim down the side I wanted to clean off the surface to see what repairs would need to be done. Once the top was cleaned off the fill looked like it was a crack that ran from the inside to the outside of the bowl. Upon examination with a loupe I could see that it was not a crack but the edges of the putty fill. I decided not to remove the fill at this point as I did not want to destabilize the bowl so I left it. I reamed the cake back with a PipNet reamer. I decided to use the clear Lucite stem that I had so I turned the tenon down with the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool on a cordless drill. I fine tuned the fit in the shank with 220 grit sandpaper. The diameter of the stem was wider than that of the shank so I sanded it with 150 grit sandpaper to bring it down in size. When I got it close to the proper diameter I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches in the Lucite. I sanded the shank to match so I had a smooth transition. I intended to restain the pipe any way so this was not a real problem. I liked the overall look of the new stem and with a slight bend it would look like a long stemmed prince. The Lucite stem did not have a slot carved in the end – merely a drilled airway so that I would need to use needle files to open and shape it into a funnel. The next four photos show the progress of the shaping of the slot. I apologize for the blurriness of the last two photos but they do give a rough idea of the shape of the slot at this point. To bend the stem I set up my heat gun and heated the Lucite until it was pliable and then bent it over my rolling pin. It took a few tries to get the bend that I wanted but eventually I set it with cool water. The next series of five photos show the bend in the stem. I still needed to do some sanding on the underside of the bend to thin it and shape it more cleanly. The angle appears a little abrupt but some sanding and shaping would take care of that. I also rubbed down the bowl with a cloth and olive oil to darken the briar to get a better idea of the grain patterns. I often use this method to show the grain but I am careful to not put too much oil on it. To polish the inside of the stem/airway I used a pipe cleaner dipped in Bar Keepers Friend (a cleanser). I have found that the grit of the cleanser polishes the inside of the airway. I sanded the stem to thin it on the top and on the underside of the bend with 220 grit sandpaper and when it was an even taper I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I sanded with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond to raise the shine. I put cotton balls in the bowls of the prince and the other Television pipe and used an ear syringe to put isopropyl alcohol in them to draw out the tars and oils of the tobacco. I set them in an old ice cube tray overnight. In the morning the alcohol had drawn out a lot of oils and the cotton was dark. I removed the cotton and cleaned the bowl and shank with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I rubbed down the bowl with some walnut stain in a Danish Oil and put it on a cork to dry. I know that many may question the use of linseed oil on pipe bowls but I use it sparingly on a few specific pipes that I want to give protection. In the case of this particular pipe, the large fill in the front seemed like it needed the extra protection. I buffed the finished pipe with White Diamond and gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is drying on a pipe stand to let any residual alcohol from the cotton ball and alcohol soak to evaporate. After than it will be given an inaugural smoke to make sure the draw is correct and the stem is comfortable. Who knows I may even reheat the stem and experiment some more with the bend.

Restoring and restemming the first of two Television pipes – a Pot

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The first Television pipe of the two that came to me in a gift box of bowls needing stems was this pot shaped bowl. I had not heard of the brand before so I put a question on the online pipe forums that I frequent and got two responses with information. The first was a link to the Smoking Metal website which has become a standard place I check for metal pipes that I pick up or pipes with screw on bowls. I had not thought of looking on that site as the Television pipes that I had found were regular briar pipes. The link follows and gives a look at a unique Television pipe with a threaded bowl http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=277. The second response came from Jose Manuel Lopes – Pipes Artisans and Trademarks. Lopes states that the brand was sold by A. Grunfield Co. and was produced by Gasparini. They were known to be an English brand with long stems.

The first bowl I had was a pot shape without a stem. Like the second bowl it had a thick coat of varnish. There was a large fill on the right side of the bowl toward the top. It was a putty fill and was lighter than the briar. The grain on the pipe was very mixed. On the back and front of the bowl was cross grain and on the sides was some nice birdseye. The rim had a tarry buildup and a burned area on the back right side of inner rim. The bowl had an uneven cake on the inside. The right side of the shank was stamped Imported Briar over Italy and the left side was stamped TELEVISION. The second pipe bore identical stamping. There were no shape numbers on either bowl or shank. Both pipes had a broken tenon in the shank. I used a wood screw I keep around for pulling out the broken tenons. I screw it in by hand and the wiggle it until it comes out. I removed the broken tenon from both of the pipe shanks while I was at it. I found a vulcanite stem in my can of stems that would work with the pipe and make it a standard pot shape pipe and stem. I turned the tenon on the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool until it was close and then fine tuned the fit with 220 grit sandpaper. The diameter of the stem was larger than that of the shank so I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to match the two. I decided to replace the large ugly fill on the right side of the bowl. It was a light brown/pink colour and stood out from the rest of a decently grained pipe. I picked it out with a dental pick and found that underneath the surface it was a white hard putty. There was also a fill on the underside of the bowl that I picked out and one on the rim. I decided to top the bowl to see how close to the side fill the top one was. I set up the sanding board and topped the bowl. Once it was topped I could see the fill on the rim and I decided to leave it as it was close to the inner edge of the bowl. I wiped off the surface of the bowl with isopropyl alcohol and spent time scrubbing the large fill on the side of the bowl. I then took some briar dust that I had and began to work on the patching material for the hole. I poured some Fiebings Dark Brown stain into the briar dust and mixed it until the briar dust was evenly stained a dark brown. I then mixed in some Weldbond multipurpose white glue into the stained briar dust. Once it began clumping I worked it into a dough and kneaded in the briar dust until it was evenly mixed. The mixture was tacky but not wet. I tamped it into the two repairs on the bowl, the bottom and the left side. I pushed it down into the deep parts of both fills with a dental pick and a pipe nail. When the patch had cured overnight it looked like the photo below. It was a solid bump on the side of the bowl. It took a lot of sanding with 180 grit sandpaper and 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the footprint of the patch and level it with the surface of the briar. The next series of photos show the process of sanding the patch. I also sanded the shank to smooth out the junction of the stem and the shank at the same time I worked on sanding the patch. I used 220 grit sandpaper and then sanded both the bowl and shank with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. When all the sanded areas were smooth I sanded them again with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-6000 grit pads. When the scratches no longer stood out I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain (same colour I had used in the briar dust patch). I applied the stain and flamed it and repeated until the coverage was even. I wiped the bowl down with acetone and isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to make it less opaque. It took quite a few wipes to get it to the colour I wanted. The next series of photos show the progress of the wipe down. (The stained briar dust and wood glue dough patch did not work well in terms of blending with the briar. It still stood out but now was a dark brown.) I still needed to do more sanding on the bowl – particularly in the area of the patch as it looked grainy. I wanted it to be smooth to the touch so I worked on it with the micromesh sanding pads and tried to blend it in more with the stain on the bowl. I also sanded the bowl and stem with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded as usual with 1300-2400 grit pads and 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down between each three grits of pads with Obsidian Oil. I decided to use a walnut stain and boiled linseed oil. I wiped it on the bowl and then wiped it down. I used a cork and candle stand to hold the bowl while I let the linseed oil dry. I put the stem back on the bowl and then buffed both the bowl and stem with White Diamond and gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad between coats of wax to give it a deep shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready to load and smoke an inaugural bowl of tobacco by whoever owns it next.

For the Canadian Pipe Restorer Who Has Everything – Robert M. Boughton

4 Replies

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

“The old pipe gives the sweetest smoke.”
— Irish Proverb

“Never to be underestimated is the value of shielding the water and the wind from the bowl of the pipe.”
— The Author

INTRODUCTION
Well, this isn’t a truly old pipe as was likely envisioned by the proverbial author of the Irish quote above, although it is vintage, having survived our world since the days of the yippies, give or take a few years.Certainly it can’t be ranked among the great brands, either, although its name is well-known to pipe smokers with a grain of salt or more of experience.

But it is still a pipe of note, if not, say,as fast and exotic as a Porsche or as timeless and exquisite as a Paganini violin piece, still unique in its own way. And being both weather- and spark-proof to boot, for the enthusiastic smoker determined to light up and head out into natural elements including high wind and rain, this is the tool he wants. It’s also a peach of an apple, which is uncommon for its brand, and the bowl is crafted (if not by hand) of Algerian briar – other than the Bakelite swivel cover. For briar of that origin, the grain is even very nice.

What sets this wonderful specimen of a pipe apart from all others of its ilk, though, is the absence of the brand’s initials where they once were inlaid in the stem, before the original plastic piece fell out (as I have since gathered through research is common with older pipes of this type), and the way the hole was filled.

By the way, I owe credit for the substitute inlay idea, as opposed to filling the hole with a replacement from a similar pipe or just using black Super Glue, to another restoration guru and my mentor, Chuck Richards. Thanks, Chuck, for the inspired thought, which indeed gives the pipe a definite Southwestern flair, as shall be shown.
So I ask, therefore, what better gift to present to the man who can have his pick from among all the legendary pipes, the man I have come to consider a friend and guide in pipe restoration – Steve Laug – than this simple but utilitarian Mastercraft Weatherproof-Sparkproof, made in France? I mean, Steve has already restored, and in many instances all but re-made, almost every brand and probably every style there is. Besides, he lives in Canada, where such a pipe could really come in handy.

BACKGROUND
I bought two Mastercrafts – the apple described here and its apparent mate, a tall billiard which had its MC inlay intact – among 19 pipes from an estate. I suppose that makes me responsible for the forced separation of what might have been a lifelong companionship between the two pipes, for all I know. Putting aside any such sentimental thoughts and planning on restoring most of the pipes for sale on my new Website but knowing ahead of time that I wanted to give Steve one of the Mastercrafts, I put considerable thought into which one to make the lucky winner, so to speak. I was seriously leaning toward the billiard because of its larger bowl and the fact that it was all there.

Then Chuck made his breakthrough brainstorm when I asked if he knew where, other than eBay, I might find an old Mastercraft stem with which to replace the smaller pipe’s altogether or extract its precious inlay for re-implant in the original. At the time, Chuck had no idea of my intention to give one to Steve; in fact, I’m sure he thought he was helping me sell the pipe online thanks to the unique character it would have.

Of course, my ultimate choice of the right gift for Steve was made for me on the spot. Dooming the poor billiard to an uncertain future, Chuck’s brilliant advice secured for its more weathered (pun intended) but soon to be made-over adorable petite amiea definite safe harbor in this often cruel world.

THE RESTORATION
With a cursory first look at the over-the-hill pipe, it seems to be a relatively easy restoration, except maybe for the missing stem inlay. In fact, most of the process was indeed standard including the basic mineral water bath and removal of the rim burn. Where the situation escalated somewhat was reaming the bowl, which was crusted with decades of cake buildup that made a huge pile, sanding the inside of the bowl to make it baby-smooth again and cleaning the underside of the Bakelite cover that was difficult to reach given the facts that the only way to remove the thing seemed to be to break it off, and the maximum space to get under the lid was highly limited. But I used good old-fashioned elbow grease and ingenuity, and with the reamer and some 150-grit shifting to 400-grit sandpaper, I worked out the three-tiered layers of cake until the bowl was almost down to fresh briar again.

Then I used up quite a few bristly stem cleaners soaked in alcohol getting under the cover and many more through the stem and shank before they came out clean. That alone took considerable time and patience. I completed the cleaning of the bowl, shank and underside of the cover with a simple soaking with alcohol while the lid was closed.

The next task was to rub out some scratches and dings in the wood with 600 micromesh, which ended up being most difficult on the sides of the bowl where the Bakelite didn’t prevent me from going, and 1000 micromesh on the Bakelite itself.

Now, for Chuck’s suggestion, which was to insert a piece of genuine New Mexico turquoise into the hole in the stem where the original inlay once was fairly poorly set. The better part of valor being discretion, or good judgment, I was willing to take on the task myself but knew to seize a good opportunity to have it done right. That chance presented itself to me when I bought the desired piece of turquoise at a local gem store (http://www.mamasminerals.com/http://www.mamasminerals.com/).

Consulting the store’s gemologist and jeweler, a gentleman and a scholar named Dennis, on how to cut the small piece of turquoise without shattering it and make it a sturdy new part of the stem, I was surprised when he was intrigued enough by my project to offer to do it himself – for $10.

“I’ve done this kind of thing in just about everything, but never a pipe,” Dennis told me.

And so I accepted his offer, and here are the final results after re-staining the rim, buffing the bowl with White Tripoli and carnauba and doing the same to the stem with Red and White Tripoli before handing it over to Dennis to make his much appreciated contribution: CONCLUSION
To be brief for a change, it was all worth it. Over the past two and a half years, Steve has given me so much help and friendship, in addition to the immense support I receive from Chuck, that this small token of my appreciation hardly seems adequate. Thanks again for everything, Steve. May your days and nights in Canada be windy and rainy often enough to keep enjoying this pipe.

Procedure for hand rusticating a pipe

3 Replies

I have rusticated quite a few pipes over the years and by much experimenting, with successes and failures have learned a few tricks in the process. I am by no means an expert in the process. I continue to experiment with developing different patterns of rustication and deeper, craggier finishes. I have done some rustications that have the look of old leather and others that are gritty and rough. I love the process of experimenting and seeing what I can make with the tools that I have close at hand. I am including some photos of the finishes I have done to illustrate the variety of patterns that can be achieved.

The first pipe is an author carved by John Bessai. It had so many fills in the briar that it was a mess in my opinion. It was a prime candidate for a new look. I used the handmade tool – nails in a piece of pipe to achieve the rustication and then buffed it with Tripoli to smooth out the high spots. I stained it with a black undercoat and dark brown top coat.

The second one is one of my own carvings. I wanted a look similar to the one on the Bessai by smoother and more leatherlike in terms of a finished look. I rusticated it with nails in a pipe, wire brushed the finish and then sanded to smooth out the high spots. I used a black understain and medium brown top stain to get the finish.
The third pipe was a small Canadian with many fills in the shank and bowl. I did a shallow rustication with the pipe and nails and then used a dark brown and medium brown stain to get the look. All three of the first pipes have a leatherlike finish to them that was achieved by sanding or buffing the highspots on the finish after rusticating.
The fourth pipe pictured below was one of my creations, my first Frankenpipe composed of three different pipes. I used a Philips screwdriver that I made into a rustication tool to achieve the rustication pattern on the shank. I left areas in the pattern that were smooth. I stained the gouges with a black stain and the rest of the pipe with a medium brown stain. I wire brushed the rustication and then buffed it with Tripoli.
The fifth pipe pictured is another Canadian I rusticated. This one was a pipe that I finished shaping and made a stem for. The briar was bland with poor grain. It had a lot of bald spots in the briar so I decided to do a black and tan finish on it.
The next two rustications were done with the Philips screwdriver. I tried for two different finishes on these pipes. The first is quite deep but then brushed and buffed before staining. The idea was to give a random broken look to the pattern. I stained it with a medium brown stain. The second is a very craggy rough finish. I used the screwdriver and went over the briar three times to roughen it and give it the roughness I wanted. I reversed the stains on this one and did a medium brown understain and a black topcoat.
I have rusticated many other pipes using a variety of tools that I have developed or repurposed to experiment with over the years. I have used a pipe with nails, a handmade wooden handle with nails, a floral frog, a modified Philips Screwdriver a flat blade screwdriver notched and sharpened, and a Dremel tool with a variety of burrs. I have used different sizes and clusters of nails in the pipe and each one achieves a slight variation of pattern on the finished briar. Each tool delivers a different finish and look. Even with the same tool a variety can be achieved by wire brushing the finish, buffing or sanding. I have also used a combination of tools at times – the nails and the floral frog work well together to make a tighter smaller rustication while the screwdrivers and the nails also give a unique looking pattern.

However, no matter which tool I use I always follow the same process. I have broken it down into steps in the list below for ease of use.

1. Clean the surface of the wood – I clean the surface of the briar with either acetone or isopropyl alcohol to remove the grime and the existing finish on the pipe. I do this because I like working on a clean surface. I know that others do not do this before rustication so the choice is yours.

2. Stain the surface with a dark stain to show contrast when rusticating – Many stain the briar with a dark stain before rusticating to make it easier to see the developing pattern in the rustication. Personally I only do this if the briar is raw and unstained. A stained pipe already has colour and the rustication shows up quite well.

3. Tape off any spots that you want to leave smooth using masking tape or painters tape. I wrap it with several layers of tape to protect the smooth wood underneath from an accidental slip when I am working the tools. I have also used scotch or cellophane tape. The idea is not to abuse the tape but use it as a straight edge to work toward and around. I often tape the shank end but you can also tape the line around the rim as well.

4. If partially rusticating a bowl mark off the area that you will rusticate with a permanent marker. On the Frankenpipe above I marked the angle of the shank and bowl junction that I wanted to rusticate.

5. Choose the place on the briar to start – personally I always start on the side of the bowl when rusticating. I remove the stem and work on the bowl alone. I have seen others snap a tenon while rusticating so I remove it. I work from the side down to the bottom of the bowl. I work the bottom of the bowl and then move to the shank and work the side that connects to side I have rusticated. I then work my way around the rest of the bowl.

6. I rusticate by pushing the rusticator into the wood and twisting it to gouge the briar. The harder you push the tool into the briar the deeper the rustication will be. So decide how deep or rough a rustication you are aiming for and press accordingly. Do not be afraid to rusticate too deeply. Most people are too timid and end up with mere scratches on the wood the first time they try the process.

7. Use a wire brush to knock off loose pieces of briar and chips that are left behind on the surface. I brush quite aggressively as there is no fear of scratching the briar. The idea is to clean up the rustication pattern. The more aggressively you brush the more variation you will get in the pattern. You can also buff the bowl and shank at this point as well to further smooth out the surface. If it is still too rough for your liking then lightly sand the high spots with 220 grit sandpaper to knock it down further.

8. Clean off the bowl with isopropyl alcohol on a soft cloth to remove the dust left behind by rusticating and wire brushing. I do this to prepare the finish to be stained. It dries very quickly so it is not a problem to stain immediately afterwards. I also use an aniline (alcohol) based stain so it is truly not an issue.

9. Stain the bowl with either the final stain or a base coat. I generally use a dark base coat and flame it with a lighter. Once it is dry wipe the high spots down with isopropyl or buff them with Tripoli. I then give the bowl a top coat of a lighter or the final stain and flame it again. I like the contrast look of dark valleys and lighter ridges on a rusticated pipe.

10. Buff the pipe lightly with White Diamond and then use Halcyon II wax to give the bowl a light shine. I have also used olive oil at this point instead of wax. I use a folded paper towel that has been dampened with olive oil and wipe down the bowl making sure to get into all the crevices or valleys in the finish.

That is the process I use to rusticate. The results are worth the effort to me. I like the feel of the rustication as the bowl warms in my hand. I like the looks of the finished bowl as it takes on age through use. Why not try it out on one of your own pipes or an estate that you have that is just too bland to draw your eye? Go for it and enjoy the process.

The Ongoing Experiment of Fill Replacement – Wood Glue and Stained Briar Dust

6 Replies

Over the past few years I have been experimenting with many different materials to use for fill replacement. I started with various wood putties that were supposed to be stainable and found that all did not take stain well enough to blend well with briar. I tried super glue and briar dust and found that the repair was more acceptable – instead of the pink, tan or white of putty I was left with a very dark repair. The super glue and briar dust dried almost black. I tried wood glue and briar dust with much the same result. I fiddled with the proportions of the mixture and with the kind of glues. I tried Gorilla Glue, Krazy Glue and Super Glue from Stewmac. All of them ended up with a dark patch. I got used to working with that and using stains and contrast to blend the fill into the finish – generally it was still present but less intrusive to the eye.

I was gifted two old pipe bowls that would be great pieces to continue the experiment on. They both had large fills on the bowl. The first was a pot shaped piece with relatively good grain all the way around the bowl. On the right side of the bowl was a large fill. I took several photos of it to try to capture it. It was a tan coloured material and stuck out like a sore spot to my eye. The bowl was dirty and covered with a thick coat of varnish. I reamed the bowl and worked at picking out the fill with a dental pick. Once I had removed the top coat of the fill it was white hard putty that was impermeable. There was no way that the stain would penetrate that putty. I picked the fill until I got down to the bottom of the fill. I cleaned up the area with acetone on a cotton pad. Once I had the hole completely cleaned of the white putty the briar underneath was raw and unstained. For this experiment I decided to try something I had not used before. I used a small mixing cup I have in the work cupboard and put in a small mound of briar dust. I collect the briar dust when I top a bowl or from when I am carving a pipe. I have used briar dust for the repairs for a long time but never tried staining the dust before using it in the patch. This time I used an ear syringe to drop some aniline stain into briar dust. I used Fiebings Dark Brown stain this time. I mixed it with the saw dust to get a dark dust. I mixed it in with a cotton swab and the end of a dental pick to get the stain and saw dust all mixed. The result was the colour of coffee grounds. I will have to try the same mixing with various stains to see if the result will vary at a later date. I have wood glue that I regularly use here that is labeled Weldbond. It is the same make up as Elmers Glueall – a white glue that dries clear. It is not a liquid but the same consistency as Elmers. I added the glue to the stained briar dust and stirred it in with the dental pick. The result was a clumping of the briar dust around the glue. I kneaded the briar dust and glue until the clumps were well mixed. When I was finished I had a small soft ball of briar dust and glue that had a paste like consistency. It was not dry but quite tacky or sticky. I took a small piece of the doughy ball and pressed it into the hole in the side of the bowl. I pushed it into the crevices of the hole with the dental pick until the hole was solidly filled with the mixture. At this point it was slightly darker than the stain on the bowl. I cleaned up the new fill with the end of the dental pick and feathered it out to make the surface smooth. I overfilled the repair to allow for shrinkage as the glue mixture dried. I let the patch dry overnight. In the morning it was solid and hard to the touch. I tested it with the end of the dental pick to make sure that it was dry all the way through and not just on the surface of the repair. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad avoiding contact with the patch but removing the varnish coat. I also topped the bowl. I wanted to check the rim to see if the hole had any “tentacles” reaching the rim. There was a small pit the size of a pen tip but it was solid so I left it alone. I sanded the bowl patch with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and blend it into the bowl surface. The patch was very hard so it took quite a bit of sanding to smooth it out. I used 150 grit sandpaper and was finally able to remove the majority of the excess. It left the surface scratched but sanding it with higher grit sandpaper would take care of that. In the photo below the size of the patch is clearly shown. It is still dark brown in colour. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. That further cleaned up the repair. I needed to address the scratches in the briar so I sanded it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper and then wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. Once the surface was smooth and polished I used the same dark brown aniline stain on the bowl. I applied the stain and flamed it, repeating the process until I had an even coat on the entire bowl. The stain at that point was too opaque to my liking so I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to lighten the finish coat. The patch remained darker than the bowl at this point in the process but it was still dark brown and not black. I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and then White Diamond to polish it. The patch still stood out but was dark brown rather than the light tan it had been to begin with. The photo below shows the patch after buffing and polishing. The surface looks to be pitted but is smooth to the touch and is flush with the surface of the briar. I sanded the bowl further with 4000-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I gave the bowl a finish coat of walnut stain Danish Oil. The photo below shows the patch before buffing and polishing. It is by no means hidden or blended into the finish. In viewing the end result of the patch using the wood glue, stain and briar dust I have to say that overall experiment failed in terms of making a matching patch. The dark brown stain created a dark brown patch that is hard to blend into the stain. It is more visible than the black patch left behind by the mix of superglue and briar dust. I want to further experiment with lighter stains and wood glue and see if I can make the patch lighter in colour. That might facilitate blending it into the finish better.

An Elegant New Look for a Forester Pinecrest Chubby Apple

5 Replies

I worked on this chubby apple over the weekend. It was in rough shape when I started the stem had a bite through on the end and was missing a large chunk. It was badly oxidized and dirty. The pipe itself had many fills in the bottom side and small sandpit fills all over the bowl. The rim was dirty and damaged on the inner and outer edge. There were missing pieces from it as well. The finish was absolutely gone but it has some really nice looking grain on it and that is why I picked it up – that and it was a chubby apple which is one of my favourite shapes. The stamping on the left side is FORESTER over Made in England and on the right side reads PINECREST. There was a stinger in the tenon that was tarry and stained. I went digging on the web and could find nothing on the brand of pipe. PipePhil had photos and a question mark as to the maker. No one showed any information as to the manufacturer so this one will remain a mystery.

I have to apologize for the lack of detailed photos of the pipe before and during the initial stages of the refurb. I had some great photos of the pipe before and during these stages but sadly they are no longer available to me. During the course of last evening my dog died in our arms and somehow in the fog of that I erased the majority of the photos of this old timer. So… you will have to take my word for the work that needed to be done.

In the two photos below I show the bowl after I had fit the new stem. I had turned the tenon on my PIMO Tenon Turning Tool and then hand fit it. I had to shorten the tenon as I wanted to be able to use the stinger on the pipe. I sanded the stem and the shank to get a good fit against the shank. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish that remained. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and then hand shaped the inner and outer edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I drilled out the tenon to receive the stinger apparatus and glued it in place with metal and wood glue. With heat it is removable. In the photo below you can see the old stem and the new one. I added about ½ inch of length to the new stem and made the taper more defined. I liked the added length to the stem and thought it would look good with the bowl. I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. I cleaned it until the swabs came out clean. The pile of pipe cleaners and swabs shown in the photo is about half the number it took to clean this old timer. Normally I would have used a retort but I needed the therapeutic repetitiveness after we buried our old spaniel. I inserted the stem part way into the shank so I had something to hold onto while I stained it. I used a dark brown aniline stain and stained, flamed and repeated the process until the coverage was sufficient. I then wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to help the grain stand out through the stain. I sanded the stem with fine grit sanding sponges and then with the usual array of micromesh pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I also sanded the bowl and shank with the higher grades of micromesh from 6000-12,000 grit. Once the bowl was dry I used a black permanent marker and used it to darken the fills – spots and larger ones on the bowl sides and bottom. I then gave the bowl a coat of Danish Oil with a walnut stain in it. I know that using this product bothers some folks but I like the way it seals the black touch ups on the fills and helps to mask them and blend them into the finish. I used a wine cork in a candle holder to hold the bowl until it dried. The grain on this old pipe really pops now and the birdseye and cross grain look quite stunning with the top coat. When the pipe dried I gave it a light buff with White Diamond and buffed the stem more rigorously. I gave the entire pipe a buff with multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed with a soft flannel buff between coats. The finished pipe is shown in the next series of photos below. The new stain and stem give it an attractive and rather elegant look.

Restoring a Tracy Mincer “The Doodler”

5 Replies

A pipe I picked up on a recent trip to La Conner, Washington was a billiard that has the drilled flutes from the top to the bowl of the bowl all the way around. It is stamped “The Doodler” over Imported Briar on the left side of the shank. On the right side of the bowl is a burn mark that covered two of the rings. The finish was in good shape. The outer edge of the rim had cuts and broken edges from hitting the bowl to empty it. On the back side of the bowl one of the rings have two notches out of the lower edges. The inside rings of the bowl were unstained. Usually on a Doodler there is a scoring ring around the top of the rim. On this rim that was missing on most of the rim. The bowl had a poorly developed cake and the shank was dirty. The rustication on the bottom of the bowl was rough in the grooves and smooth on the surface. The stem was original and had a stepped down tenon. There was also some oxidation on the stem and tooth chatter on both sides near the button.
I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish. It took some scrubbing to remove the finish and the buildup on the rim. Once the finish was removed the burn on the right side was very clear. It fortunately was not too deep in the briar and would be less problematic to minimize when I refinished the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I used the third cutting head and took back the cake to the bare briar. I had to also use the second head to remove the cake from the bottom of the bowl. I cleaned out the shank and the bowl with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used many of each and was able to remove much of the tars and oils in the shank. The pipe cleaners and cotton swabs came out very dirty so I decided to set up a retort and boil out the shank and airways with hot alcohol. The alcohol in the test tube was heated with the votive candle and the boiling sent the hot alcohol into the shank. I had plugged the bowl with a cotton pad. I repeated the process until the alcohol came out clean. Once I removed the retort I cleaned out the interior of the stem and shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and more isopropyl. The remainder of the oils came out with this cleaning. I sanded the bowl with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the damage to the rim and the burn area. I followed that with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. After sanding I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad. I stained the bowl and shank with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl. I flamed the stain and then repeated the process until the coverage was even. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I followed that by sanding it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to shine and protect. I buffed it with soft flannel buffing pads to give it a final shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is now joins my other Doodler and Holy Smoke Pipes in my pipe cupboard. If it is anything like the others it will smoke very well and stay cool throughout the entire smoke due to the drilling all around the bowl.

A Painful Stem Refitting – a Schowa Briar Selected Billiard

3 Replies

Yet another gift bowl made its way to the work table today. It is stamped Schowa Briar Selected. The brand was one I had never heard of and never seen before. There is little background information on the brand on the internet. What I could find came from Pipephil’s website http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s4.html There I read that the brand belongs to the Schum family who were established in Bad König (Odenwald, Hesse), Germany. The name was a combination of the Schum name and Odenwald. The factory crafted briar and porcelain pipes (Bavarian style). I have no idea on the date or time of the brand. I did find some porcelain examples of their work from the mid to late 1970’s and some nice briar pipes with no dates. They seem to also have carved figurals in briar. That was the extent of information I could find.

This bowl is on the small side with the stamping on the left side of the shank. It was pretty clean internally. The finish was gone and what remained was bare briar. There were several nicks in the sides of the bowl. The inner edge of the rim has some burn damage and there was a burn mark on the front middle top of the rim and inner edge. The back outer edge of the rim had a large divot out of it. The shank was pinched at the end and was out of round. The left side was significantly thinner than the right side. Restemming it was going to be a bit of a challenge in terms of getting a good clean/smooth fit of the shank and stem.
I found a stem in my stem can that would work with this bowl and sanded the tenon so that it would fit in the shank. The diameter of the stem was larger than the shank and the out of round and pinched shank was going to make getting a proper fit an issue. I took down the excess material with a Dremel and sanding drum and then hand sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth things out. I could easily sand about ¾ of the shank to get a smooth fit but the left side stamping made working on that side a challenge. In the photo below of the top of the pipe the indent on the left side is visible. The stem and the shank dip in at the joint and make the fit less than I wanted to achieve. The other three sides were perfect. I decided to leave the bothersome fit of the stem and work on the bowl. I topped the bowl with my usual method of a sanding board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the burn damage on the front and the large divot on the back of the rim. I was able to remove most of it with a light topping. The remaining dark spot on the front of the rim would blend in to the stain fairly well. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish that remain and to prepare the pipe for staining. I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until the cleaners came out with no colour. The dip in the left side of the union of the stem and shank bothered me. I took photos of the shank end and the end of the stem to show the degree that they were out of round. These are slightly out of focus but the problem can be seen. The left side of the stem next to the tenon is thinner than the right and the same is true of the shank. The stem is straight and clean edged but the shank is pinched inward. The union of the two would always be slightly pinched on the left. I was not happy with the fit but decided to leave it for the moment. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain (Fiebings) and flamed it. I repeated the process until the coverage was even. I wiped down the bowl and shank with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to lighten the stain on the bowl and make it less opaque. (In the first photo the troublesome left side joint really stands out.) The joint bothered me enough that I took out a second stem and fit it in the shank. I sanded the outer diameter until it was a close fit to the shank. This time I did not sand the shank any further and avoided the junction on the left side altogether. I decided to focus on keeping the profile of the stem straight and not worry about the pinched end on the left side of the shank. I knew that it would look slightly oversized on the left when finished but I could live with that look. I washed down the bowl when I was finished with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to clean up the sanding dust from the stem and further lighten the look of the stain on the briar. Once I had finished with the bowl I worked on the stem. I sanded it with a medium and find grit sanding sponge to clean up the scratches left behind by the sandpaper and then used micromesh sanding pads to polish it. I wet sanded with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanded with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between the wet and dry sanding and also between each successive group of three grits of micromesh pads. This time the fit on the shank was better though far from flawless. It would work for me though. One day I may well end up banding this pipe but not today. I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and then gave it repeated coats of carnauba wax to raise a shine and protect the new finish. The finished pipe is shown below. While the stem fit is far from perfect it is now a serviceable pipe and ready for use.

Renewing a 30’s Era KBB Yello-Bole Honey Cured Briar

8 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I just finished restoring and restemming an older Yello-Bole billiard. The bowl was stamped with the KBB (no ampersand) on the left side of the shank and next to it is stamped Yello-Bole in capital letters. Underneath is stamped Honey Cured Briar. On the right side of the shank it is stamped 2068B.
The bowl was in decent shape. The finish had a heavy coat of varnish over the stain but the briar appeared to be quite nice. I could not find any visible fills in the bowl. There was some good grain under the varnish. The rim had been topped and was rounded and crowned. It still had some scratch marks in the wood and also it was stained in a much lighter colour than the rest of the bowl. The stem was missing. It originally had a push tenon stem as the mortise was not threaded. Fitting a new stem would not be difficult but getting proper look to the stem required that I had some idea of the era of the pipe. That pushed me to do a bit of research. Since Yello-Bole pipes are one of my favorite older US brands doing the research would be enjoyable. As with other early brands made in the states I have found that older is better. A KBB in a cloverleaf stamp will date them back to the ’30’s. I have found through my reading that the 4 digit shape numbers are older than 2 digit ones. The pipes with the logo on top of the stem are older than ones that have them on the side. That is just some of the information that I found with a cursory read through the forums and a variety of websites.

I found that Kaywoodie would sort shipments of briar and send the culls to be used for Yello-Boles, meaning they got some quality briar. One fellow on the web believes that is why Yello-Bole pipes tend to be smaller over all, working around flaws. He also said that he thinks calling them Kaywoodie seconds is a bit of a misnomer, being that Kaywoodie was one of the largest briar purchasers in the world at the time (’20’s-50’s) and got some fantastic wood.

I came across the SM Frank website http://www.smfrankcoinc.com/home/?page_id=2 and found a wealth of historical information on Kaywoodies, Yello-Boles and the merger between KBB and SM Frank and later Demuth. It was a great read and I would encourage others to give the website a read. The information in the next paragraph was condensed from that site. I found confirmation for the statement above that the Yello-Bole line was an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production. Yello-Bole’s were introduced in 1932 and manufactured by Penacook, New Hampshire subsidiary, The New England Briar Pipe Company. Advertising from the 1940′s, pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl” and urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” Honey was an ingredient of the material used to line the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.

I went hunting further to see if I could find information on establishing dates for Yello-Bole pipes and found that there was not a lot of information other than what I had found above. Then I came across this link to the Kaywoodie Forum: http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/archive/dating-yello-bole-pipes__o_t__t_86.html I quote the information I found there as it gives the only information that I found in my hunt to this point.

“OK so there isn’t a lot of dating information for Yello-Bole pipes but here is what I have learned so far.
– If it has the KBB stamped in the clover leaf it was made 1955 or earlier as they stopped the stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
– From 1933-1936 they were stamped Honey Cured Briar.
– Pipes stems stamped with the propeller logo they were made in the 30s or 40s no propellers were used after the 40s.
– Yello-Bole also used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 30s.
– If the pipe had the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it was made in the 30s this stopped after 1939.
– If the pipe was stamped BRUYERE rather than briar it was made in the 30s.

That is all I have in my notes right now I don’t have anything on the multitude of stem stampings or any other age indicators. If anyone has more definitive information or other methods of determining date please feel free to post it and I will edit this as I go. I currently have 2 from the 30s and 6 from pre 55 and 2 fairly modern ones.”

One further item was also found on that site. It was just a passing comment in the midst of some information on Kaywoodie pipes. I quote: “The pre-Kaywoodie KB&B pipes were marked on the shank with a cloverleaf around KB&B. Some early Kaywoodies had this same marking on the shank, but the practice was dropped sometime prior to 1936. Yello-Boles also had KBB in the leaf on the shanks, but did not have the ampersand found on Kaywoodies.” (Highlighting is mine)

Given the above information I discovered that the pipe I was working on was made sometime between 1933-1936. It was stamped with the Honey Cured Briar stamping on the shank and had a four digit code. Thus it was an early Yello-Bole from the 1930s. With that information I had a fairly clear idea of what kind of stem I needed to fit to the shank. I looked for photos of the pipe online and found none from that era. So I looked at KW stems to get some sense of what the shape of the stem and the slope of the taper would have been like. I found one the shape I was looking for in my can of stems. It had the right taper and look and after turning the tenon I was able to fit it to the shank. The diameter of the stem was slightly larger than the shank on the top and would need to be sanded until the transition was smooth between the shank and stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess material on the top side. I sanded the shank to make the transition smooth. I planned on removing the varnish and touching up the stain on the rim anyway so to touch up the shank would not be a problem. I sanded carefully so as not to damage the stamping. There were some slight ripples in the taper of the stem so I sanded it with a sanding block to smooth out the high points on the taper and even out the line. I wiped down the bowl with acetone and cotton pads to remove the varnish and some of the stain coat. I always do that when I am going to do a restain on the rim and shank as I find that it makes the new coat of stain much simpler. I wanted to remove the crown and rounding of the rim and flatten it out. The original bowls did not have a crowned rim but a flat one so I wanted to repair that and bring it back to its original look. I set up a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper and pressed the rim into the sandpaper and sanded the top flat. I sanded the rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and also with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to prepare it for staining. I stained the bowl, rim and shank with oxblood aniline based stain, flamed and repeated until the coverage was even. I then buffed the pipe with White Diamond. I sanded the stem with medium and fine grit sanding pads once again and then sanded it with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it had dried took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax, buffing with a flannel buff between the coats. The finished 1930’s era pipe is shown below ready to be loaded and enjoyed for another 80 years. The stain does a great job highlighting the grain on this little pipe. It came out looking like new. The stamping stands out and is still sharp. The stem tapers just right to my liking. It is finished and waiting. Now the only decision left is what tobacco to use to break it in once again.