Tag Archives: Bowl – refinishing

Giving New Life to an Old, Tired Unique

I am not sure who the maker of this pipe original was. It has some rustication patterns that remind me of Dr. Grabow. It has a metal screw mount mortise. The flat base that extends from the bottom of the bowl backward toward the stem also has similarities to a Grabow shape. But this one is only stamped Imported Briar on the bottom of the shank. When I received it the bowl was in rough shape. The finish was gone. The stem was gone, the rim was a beaten and worn down mess. I think originally the rim was probably straight across but it was worn and beaten to the point that it was now angled. If indeed it was originally angled then the rim was badly beaten. Either way it was rough. The cake in the bowl was quite thick. The internals of the shank and airway were quite clean – that was a surprise. The briar was solid and relatively thick and sound.

As I looked at it and studied it there was something about it that drew me to the shape. The wear and tear still did not hide the fact that there was some life still left in this old pipe. I went through my can of stems and found an old screw mount stem. The stinger apparatus on it was slightly different than the old Grabows that I had seen but it would work. The draw on the stem was very constricted anyway so I figured I would end up cutting the stinger off and drilling out the metal tenon. The stem has lots of tooth marks and chatter but was solid. It was a nylon stem and not vulcanite so it was a little trickier to work with. The diameter was also slightly off and the stem was overturned once it was on the shank.

I heated the metal tenon with a heat gun until the glue softened and then turned it in the shank until it lined up. This type of tenon is actually very easy to realign.

Once the stem was aligned I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and heads taking the bowl back to bare wood. I wanted to see what the shape of the bowl under the cake was like to assess whether I wanted to continue to put time into the pipe. The interior bowl was actually in excellent shape under the cake. This pipe must have been a good smoker – someone’s favourite pipe.

I set up a topping board and sanded the rim at the angle of the bowl to even out the top and to minimize the damage. The back edge was very ragged from tapping the pipe out, or using it as a hammer! It took some time to get the top flat and the angle correct from the back of the bowl to the front edge.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to clean up the grime in the grooves of the rustication and to even out the remaining stain coat. There was also some varnish left on the shank that I wanted to remove.

Once the finish was gone I experimented with a metal band. The shank was not cracked or broken. It was solid but I wanted to see what the shiny silver would look like against the rugged rustication. I also wanted to minimize the slight difference in the diameter of the shank and the stem. I decided I liked the look of the band so I heated it with the heat gun and pressed it into place on the shank. I liked the finished look of the nickel band. I feel it gives a bit of bling to a rough looking pipe.

I screwed the stem in place to have a look at the fit and finish of the pipe as a whole. I thought to myself that it would work well. I would need to give the stem a bend to make a correct fit to the sitter style of the bowl but it would work.

I decided to sand out the tooth marks and chatter as much as possible. I was hoping that the heat would lift the marks a bit. I heated the stem with a heat gun to do the bending. I bent it over a rolling pin. It took awhile for the nylon to be flexible enough to bend. Bending nylon stems is far trickier than vulcanite. It does not seem to have the memory of vulcanite so once bent it remains even if heated and has to be pressed back into shape. It also kinks very easily so you have to be very careful when bending it. I have also found that the wire in a pipe cleaner heats up and the pipe cleaner can stick to the inside of the stem. All of the above make it a pain to bend this type of stem.

I finished the bend and set it with cold water. I was not happy with the overall look and flow of the stem. The bend was correct in terms of allowing the pipe to sit flat on the bottom of the bowl with the tip of the button arching to touch as well but the flow/arch of the stem was not right. I reheated and tried it a second time and still it did not quite work. I decided to stop and revisit that later.

The draught on the pipe bowl was wide open and easy but the stem itself was very constricted. The stinger apparatus had a slotted entry into the stem. It was very narrow and seemed to extend quite a distance up the stem. A pipe cleaner would not pass through the stem and the stinger. I decided to sacrifice the stinger end so I sawed it off with a hack saw and then drilled out the airway in the metal tenon. As can be seen in the photo below the drill bit went a long ways into the stem before it broke through the slotted airway. Once I had opened the airway in the stem and removed the stinger the draught on the pipe was excellent – open all the way and passing a pipe cleaner with ease.

I stained the bowl with an oxblood aniline based stain. I flamed it and restained until it was well covered. I then buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. The photos below show the bowl after the staining and buffing. The colour of the briar after the stain coat was workable. The black undertones that were deep in the grooves of the rustication worked well with the red of the oxblood stain. The rim colour matched the bowl and the birdseye grain showed nicely on the flat of the rim.

The stem being nylon required all handwork. I could not use the buffer on it as it would melt and make more work than I desired to do on this pipe. Before I sanded it I used the heat gun to rebend the stem and get the angles and bend correct. Once I had that done I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I then sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I rubbed the nylon down with Obsidian Oil and once it was soaked in I hand buffed it with Paragon Wax. I gave it multiple coats of the wax to preserve it. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax with a light touch to keep the wax from building up deep in the grooves of the rustication. The next series of photos show the finished pipe. The side profile photos show the pipe in the sitter position and also from an angle. The top and bottom view photos show the new finish on the rim and the shape of the bottom of the pipe. This old worn pipe is now freshly reworked and ready to give many more years of service.

Giving a Contrasting Look to a Hilson Viva 272 Sandblast Dublin – John Williams (aka Coastie)

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I like contrast, and I like smooth rims. Contrast is just so much more attractive to my eye, and smooth rims are so much easier to clean. So when my good friend Holymolar, from the Pipe Smoker Unlimited Forum gifted this Hilson Viva 272 Sandblast Dublin in black, with a sandblast rim, the gears starting turning in my head. Every time I would smoke this pipe I would find myself staring at it and pondering what I was going to do.

Then one evening I came up with a plan and set that plan into motion. Obviously the first thing that had to go was the sandblast on the bowl rim. So I pulled out the sanding board and a sheet of 320 grit and starting sanding away. Slowly and steadily the sandblast disappeared and left me with a nice smooth rim. Just what I like. If you use this technique make sure you keep your bowl rim completely flat on the sandpaper, sand in the same direction throughout and keep a check on your progress. No sense in taking off more than you need to. This technique also works very good when removing char from the rim.

Now that the bowl rim was smooth and tidy, time to add some contrast. This is pretty easy to do on a sandblast finish. I took some 320 grit sandpaper and simply gave the pipe a good rub down until I had the degree of contrast I was looking for. Once the 320 took the finish off in the appropriate places I finished prepping the finish with 400, 500, 1000, then 1200 grit. Then switched to micromesh pads and went through the series; 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, and finally 12000. Make sure you wipe down the surface well with a microfiber towel between each grit. What you will have when done is a very smooth surface that is ready for application of a finish.

I decided that instead of applying a dye I would make the grain in the bare areas pop with an application of olive oil. A good olive oil rub down will reveal grain that you never would have seen any other way, and it adds an amazing color to the briar. After applying the olive oil and rubbing it in good, thoroughly wipe off the excess and let the pipe rest overnight. Then rub the pipe down good with a microfiber towel and remove any left over oil. When you are done you should not be able to feel any oily residue. If you follow this strictly then there is no danger of your pipe getting sticky or gooey when exposed to heat from smoking. I have used this technique on a lot of my pipes, that I smoke daily, and have never had an issue. Try it, you’ll like it.
In this first pic you can see the change in briar color where I applied the oil as compared to the shank that has not been oiled yet. And the bowl rim is so much better smooth with a good color to the briar.

And of the course the final step to the process is a good buffing. Since this pipe is a sandblast I decided not to use White Diamond or carnauba on the body of the pipe as it would simply build up in the sandblast texture and look bad. So I applied a couple of light coats of Halcyon II wax, by hand, let it dry between coats and buffed it out with a clean microfiber towel. The bowl rim, since it is nice and smooth got treated to a buffing with White Diamond to bring out the shine, the 3 coats of carnauba wax.

Now it is all done and I can smoke it and enjoy the beauty of the briar.

Reworking a No Name Pipe Bowl – Adding Rustication and Bling

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

Andrew is turning out to be a great source of older pipe bowls in need of stemming. I received this old bowl in the mail from him not to long ago. It had a look to it that was interesting to me. The shank had been reworked somewhere along the way. I think that originally it may have had a diamond shank. Someone had carved it by hand into an almost round end and flattening as it moved toward the bowl. They had added three bands of coloured tape to the shank to dress it up. The first two bands were thin gold tape and the third was a wide swath of dark brown tape. The bowl was clean and reamed and the inside of the shank was also clean. The underside of the shank and bowl were rough. I think that the person who had reworked this bowl had used a knife to work on it and had not sanded it smooth after his work. There were also some pretty deep dents and grooves on the bottom of the bowl.

This old pipe bowl provided a challenge to me. The tape had to go but I had no idea what was underneath and hidden by it. The funky shape of the shank also needed to be reworked to give it a more artistic and shapely appearance. The restemming would also be a challenge in that the shank was not round at this point but very oddly shaped with all sides being unequal. I found an old saddle stem in my box of stems and tried that first – to me it was too long and gave the pipe an unbalanced look so I dug through my can of stems and found a saddle stem that was shorter that would look nice on the pipe.

I peeled off the tape and underneath the two gold tape bands was a small crack in the shank. Underneath the brown tape was a huge fill on the top and underside of the shank. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reshape the shank and bowl union and also to reshape the end of the shank. I had a nice sterling silver wedding ring band that would work well on this pipe bowl so I reshaped the end of the shank with 220 grit sandpaper after the Dremel work and then applied all purpose white glue on the shank and pressed the silver band into place. Once it was in place I could see that the end of the shank was not straight but had been cut off at an angle. With the band in place I used the Dremel and sanding drum to straighten up the end of the shank. I finished that work by using the same sanding board set up I use for topping bowls. With all that finished I put the stem in place and sanded the bowl and shank until it was a clean smooth shape. I wiped the surface down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the urethane finish that the previous person put over all the bowl and tape. In the next four photos below the size of the large fill is obvious.

With the shaping of the bowl and shank finished and looking more balanced I had to make a decision on how to deal with the large fills on the shank. There were also several sand pits on the bottom of the bowl that needed to be addressed. I weighed my options and decided to rusticate the shank. I used the modified Philips screwdriver to rusticate the shank first. At this point I left the bottom of the bowl smooth and just worked on the shank. Once I had rusticated it I used a small brass tire brush to smooth out the roughness of the rustication. I find that the brush knocks off the loose pieces of briar and gives the finish a contrast of highs and lows. The rustication looked good against the wedding band and the smoothness of the vulcanite. I also liked the look of the rustication against the smoothness of the bowl.

I stained the shank with a black aniline stain. I applied it heavily with a cotton swab and flamed and repeated the process until I had a good matte black finish on the shank. At that point I decided to carry the rustication to the bottom of the bowl and slightly up the sides and curve it into the top of the shank bowl union.

I stained the bottom of the bowl to match the shank colour. I applied a black aniline stain to the bottom and restained the shank at the same time. I flamed the stain and repeated the process until I had the coverage that I wanted on the bottom of the bowl. I then sanded the rest of the bowl with 200 grit sandpaper and then a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I finished by sanding it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wanted to have the briar clean and smooth on the upper portion of the bowl. The grain on that part of the bowl was quite nice. I wiped down the bowl with isopropyl on a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust. The state of the bowl at this point is shown in the next four photos below.

It was time to bend the stem so I heated the stem until it was pliable with a heat gun set on the lowest setting. I bent is over a rolling pin to the angle that I wanted and set the angle with cold water. This particular stem evidently was good quality vulcanite as it did not have any oxidation and the water did not bring any to the surface. That was a real gift in this process as I would have had to work out the oxidation on the stem as well. The next series of photos shows the process and the finished look of the bend.

At this point I reflected on what I wanted to do with the upper part of the bowl. I could stain it with a variety of colours to contrast with the rusticated black portion of the shank and bowl bottom but I was not certain I wanted to do that. I finally decided to rub down the bowl with olive oil to bring out the grain. I rubbed it in by hand and repeated that until it was finished. I gave the bowl a light buff with White Diamond to give it a shine. I will still need to give it several coats of carnauba wax but the look works for me. The grain pops with the oil finish. The next series of four photos show the bowl finish at this point in the process.

I liked the overall appearance of the pipe. It was certainly significantly different from the bowl that it was before I started. The old bowl had a more elegant look to it now and felt great in the hand. The chunky wedding band contrasts well with the shape and the finish of the bowl. Now it was time to work on the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the casting marks on the sides of the saddled and blade of the stem. I followed that by sanding with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to further remove the scratches to the vulcanite. I finished the sanding with my usual list of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak in to the stem material.

I buffed the finished pipe and stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I was careful to not get wax on the rusticated portion of the bowl and shank. The finished pipe is pictured below. It seems to me to have a much more dignified appearance than what it started with. I like the tactile feel of the bowl in my hand while at the same time maintaining the beautiful straight and flame grain on the bowl. I think this one will stay in my collection for quite awhile.

Restoring a Briarmeer Rhodesian 175 ED that was Made in Canada

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Blog by Steve Laug

I received an email from Andrew saying that he had a pipe he wanted to send my way. It was my kind of shape – a Rhodesian. He said that it was an odd pipe in that on the bottom of the bowl it had a slightly inset circular divot. The round inset was almost like a poorly made plug on the bottom of the bowl, or one that had shrunken with time. He thought that it would be a great challenge for me to do a repair on it. The stamping on the pipe shank was Briarmeer 175 ED Canada.

The brand was one I had not heard of before. And since I am in Canada I wanted to try to figure out where the pipe was made and what the plug was about. The name seemed to suggest that it was a meerlined pipe or at least included meerschaum in some form or fashion. Yet when I emailed Andrew about it he replied that there was no meerschaum lining present in the bowl. Instead it was just a nice looking briar pipe with the strange, misfit looking round plug on the bottom of the bowl.

This would require some research to see what I could find out. I went online and searched for any information that I could find regarding the brand. I wrote to the trademark attorney who was listed as the representative of the brand and received a very cryptic answer that was not helpful at all. I did learn however that Briarmeer pipes were made by Briarmeer Pipes Limited, 226 Park Street, Brockville, Ontario. The business was no longer present at that address and did not show up in any Brockville Business Directories available online or through the Yellow Pages .I searched the Canadian, American and British patent sites hoping to find a patent registration for the pipe but was not able to find one. I found a trademark registration document from the US patent office that showed that the brand or trademark was registered in the US in 1973. The document pictured below gives that information as well as the Canadian Registration Number 180,805 and that it was registered in Canada on January 21, 1972.

Using these registration numbers I searched both the Canadian and US patent records but could find no patent information available. From the public records it appears that the Briarmeer Company went out of business sometime in the late1980’s or early 1990’s and the name became public domain.

I was able to find out through further digging that the pipe is a variation on what Kaywoodiedid with its famous Carburetor.Kaywoodie had drilled a hole in the bottom of the bowl and inserted a metal airhole to introduce air into the bottom of the bowl to enhance burning of the tobacco. In the Briarmeer the drilled out area in the bottom of the bowl was significantly larger.It had been drilled out and a meerschaum disk inserted in the resultant hole. The draw hole was to be perfectly centered at the bottom of the bowl. From what I could find out the idea of using the meerschaum insert came to a Canadian engineer about 30+ years ago. He reasoned that the meerschaum bottom of the bowl would allow for a drier and cooler smoke while the briar would be sturdier than the meerschaum for the walls of the bowl.Now I knew what the inset on the bottom of the bowl was and where the Meer portion of the Briarmeer name came from.

I decided to see if I could hunt down some photos of the pipe. I had not noticed them before and did not figure I would find many available. I was wrong. I found quite a few clear photos online that showed the novel meerschaum insert with clarity. In all of the photos it was clear that the insert sits inset into the bottom of the bowl and there is a variance in the external bowl bottom and the depth of the inset meerschaum disk. I have included four of the photos I found to show the insert in the exterior bowl bottom. Some of the photos show a new and unsmoked pipe and other show an estate pipe. All have the pipes show the same variation in the depth of the bottom of the bowl and the depth of the meerschaum disk.

I also learned that the American Company, Briarcraft who made the Smokemaster pipe also made a pipe with called the Briarmeer Acadian. The Briarcraft version of the pipe was a meerschaum lined pipe and was stamped with the Briarcraft logo, a B in a diamond on the shank and on the stem.However, the pipe I was gifted was not a meerschaum lined briar and it did not have the B stamp on either the shank or the stem. The stem appears to be original and the stamping on the shank clearly says that the pipe is Canadian made.

The pipe from Andrew arrived and it was indeed one of my favourite shapes. The finish was a little dirty and the rim had some carbon build up. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth marks on the underside of the stem near the button. There was also a darkened spot like a burn mark on the underside of the shank near the insert. There were several fills in the grooves of the rustication but I was fairly certain that when I restained the pipe they would be hidden. The meerschaum insert looked to be in very good shape from the outside of the bowl. Inside was caked with a fair amount of carbon and the insert was not visible looking into the bowl.

Upon closer examination it was evident that there was a crack in the shank on the right side that ran at an angle from mid-shank toward the back of the bowl shank union. The crack did not start on the bottom of the shank but rather started midway up on the right side of the shank and ended near the top middle of the shank. It was very clear under a lens that it was present. The next two photos, though slightly out of focus show the crack. It runs across the rustication pattern mid-shank.

I cleaned out the crack with a dental pick to remove the buildup of grime that filled it. The grime was evident through the lens. Once I had it clean when I viewed it through the lens I used superglue to repair the crack. Fortunately the crack did not go all the way into the airway. I checked the inside of the airway with a penlight and it was smooth and flawless. The repair externally would remove the visible damage.

I left the superglue to cure overnight and in the morning used the dental pick to clean out the grooves of the rustication and sanded the smooth portions of the briar surface with 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges. The photo below shows the repair after sanding and shaping.

I wiped the surface of the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the damaged finish and enable me to blend in the patch when I restained the pipe. I scrubbed the rusticated rim of the bowl with the pads as well and was able to remove the carbon build up.

I sanded the darkened area (burn?) on the bottom of the bowl to lighten it in preparation for staining. I wiped that area down with acetone on cotton pads afterward.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the oxidation. I sanded the tooth marks on the underside of the stem near the button and was able to remove them.

I wiped the bowl down a final time with acetone, being careful not to scrub the insert with it. Once it was cleaned off I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain applied with a cotton swab. I avoided the meerschaum insert as I did not want to have the stain penetrate the meerschaum. I flamed the stain and reapplied it. I flamed it again and reapplied it again. After the final flaming of the bowl I set it aside to dry.

When the stain had dried I buffed it with White Diamond on the buffer to even out the stain and give it a shine. I also applied a coat of Halcyon II wax to the rusticated surface and hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush. The next four photos show the bowl after the buffing and waxing.

I worked on the stem with my usual group of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I then buffed the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond before going back to the work table and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak into the vulcanite.

I buffed the finished pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The meerschaum disk inset into the bottom of the bowl is an interesting touch. I look forward to loading up a bowl and giving it a test run very soon. At the very least this is a great piece of tobacciana that still leaves a bit of mystery unsolved.

Restoring a Second Lumberman Deluxe Canadian by Comoys

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Blog by Steve Laug

Andrew had a second LUMBERMAN DELUXE that he mentioned to me in a previous email when he sent me the other Lumberman to restem. He graciously gave the second one to me. In the photo below it is the one with the stem. It is slightly larger than the first one and also slightly longer as can be seen from the photo. It is stamped LUMBERMAN over DELUXE on top of the shank and on the underside there is no Made and London circle stamp. It is only stamped 309S. The pipe was in very good shape. There were no cracks in the long shank. There was one small sand pit in the top near the stamping. The bowl was slightly caked and the rim had some carbon buildup and many tiny pin pricks in the surface of the rim. The finish was dirty and had several sticky spots on the sides of the bowl. It was a gummy spot that seemed like the residue left behind by a price sticker. The stem was larger in diameter that the shank. It extended beyond the edge of the shank on both sides of the stem and also slightly on the bottom edge. The top edge fit well. There were also two tooth marks – one on top and on matching on the bottom of the stem near the button.

Before seeing these two pipes I had not heard of the Lumberman brand so Andrew had sent along some information that he had found on the web regarding the brand. He had gleaned the information from a Mr. Can EBay listing. In the previous blog post on the first LUMBERMAN I included Andrew’s information. I am also including it now as a quick reminder of the provenance of the brand. That posting read as follows:

“This Collectible Briar pipe is unique, extremely rare Comoy’s 309XL – a classic Canadian Shape. It has the arched Comoy’s nomenclature stamped over Deluxe (just as it appeared in the early 1930’s) both of which were stamped over Lumberman. For anyone already familiar with the stamping of Comoy Canadians that is enough to recognize that this is a rare and collectible Comoy.”

“During its history, Comoy’s has had three distinct sets of nomenclature, though they became somewhat blended in later years. The earliest Comoy nomenclature either had no Comoy stamping or a scripted, signature like forward leaning Comoy’s beneath which were featured names instead of shape numbers. Few of those names (Like Leman, Naval, Adelaide, and so on) are recognized even by the most ardent collectors. Then after World War I when Comoy began introducing what is sometimes called their Old Nomenclature (featuring the Prima, as the Top of the line with other lines like the Old Bruyere, Grand Slam, Lions Head, Lumberman, Lumberman Special and so forth) and arched Comoy’s stamping was used. In the 1930’s the Prima gave way to the Deluxe as the top of the line Comoy. Then just before World War II newer nomenclature started to appear (like Blue Riband, Specimen Straight Grain, and so on) and the Deluxe was replaced by the Royal Comoy. That New Nomenclature expanded dramatically after the War and blended with the modern nomenclature today.”

“The use of the arched Comoy’s ended with World War II and was replaced after the War with a straight line Comoy’s (along with the now famous country of origin stamping of a circular “Made In London” over a straight line “England”.”

“Prior to World War II with manufacturing facilities in both France and England, Comoy had pipes made in both locations. Most were easily identifiable by their country of origin stamping. There were several versions of Comoy’s Lumberman made in France and/or England. (They might have been the dame pipe but with different nomenclature.) “The Lumberman” and “The Lumberman Special were made in both factories. But none had the arched Comoy’s stamping.”

“After WWII Comoy’s reintroduced the Deluxe, discontinued the arched Comoy’s and continued various versions of the Lumberman. Perhaps Comoy’s best graded Lumberman was stamped Lumberman Deluxe – but it had no Comoy stamping. Lumberman was always stamped over Deluxe.”

“Normally Comoy offered to Canadian sizes designated by shape numbers 296 and 309. The difference was in the length of the Canadians. The 309 shape was Comoy’s longest Canadian and the 296 was shorter. However, the extra long Canadians were upgraded with the additional stamping of XL and the very longest were sometimes stamped XXL. Either upgrade was rare.” – The above was taken from correspondence Andrew included when he sent the pipe to me.

The previous blog post can be found at this link: https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/repairing-and-restoring-a-lumberman-deluxe-canadian-by-comoys/

The difference between this pipe and the previous one was that the stamping on the underside of the pipe lacked the Comoy’s circle Made in London stamp and also bore the shape designation of 309 but instead of X or XL it is stamped “S”. It is larger than the previous LUMBERMAN but the stamping appears to be a bit of an anomaly.

The next series of photos show the pipe as it appeared when I received it from Andrew. There was slight oxidation on the stem and the stem was larger as noted above.

I took several close-up photos to show the fit of the stem and how the sides and the bottom edge of the stem was larger than the diameter of the shank.

I refit the stem and sanded the sides of the stem until it matched the shank. I also sanded the shank lightly in order to make a smooth transition between the two. I used 220 grit sandpaper to take off the excess vulcanite and bring the stem in line with the shank. At the same time I sanded the tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem at the button and was able to remove them.

I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and then a fine grit sanding block. The refit stem is shown in the next series of four photos.

I wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone and clean the stem and shank with isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to take the slight cake back to the wood and even the buildup on the walls. It seemed to have a slight ridge of cake mid-bowl and I wanted the walls clean so that I could build up my own cake.

I sanded the stem down with medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then used my usual array of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with the 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and the stem down with Obsidian Oil. Once it had been absorbed in both places I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond on the wheel. I gave bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff to give it a finish shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The fit of the stem matches the lines of the pipe and the oiled finish gives the pipe a look that is fresh and new. It is ready for its new maiden voyage.

ADDENDUM – I am copying this from the responses below so that it gets more readership.

Here is the info from the link Jacek supplied. Very helpful additional information. Thanks Jacek.
As many realize, Comoy is one of the oldest London Pipemakers with production started in France in 1825. Francois Comoy started making smoking pipes with his brothers in St. Claude, France in 1825. His son, Louis, took over the company and in 1848 helped guide it into the era of power-driven machines beginning what Comoy called a “Century of Progress.” His son, Henri, followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and moved Comoy’s to Clerkenwell in the City of London in 1879, and thus began “Comoy’s of London.” And his son, Louis, was the last family member to run the company.

During its’ history, Comoy’s has had three distinct sets of nomenclature, though they became somewhat blended in later years. The earliest Comoy Nomenclature either had no ”Comoy” stamping or a scripted, signature-like (forward leaning) “Comoy’s” beneath which were featured names instead of shape numbers. Few of those names (like the “Leman”, “Naval”, “Adelaide” and so on) are recognized even by the most ardent Comoy collectors. Then after World War I when Comoy began introducing what is sometimes called their “Old Nomenclature” (featuring the “Prima” as “Top-of-the-Line” with other lines like the “Old Bruyere,” “Grand Slam,” “Lions Head,” “LUMBERMAN,” “LUMBERMAN SPECIAL,” and so forth) an ARCHED “COMOY’S” stamping was used. In the 1930s the Prima gave way to the “DE LUXE” as the “Top-of-the-Line” Comoy. Then, just before World War II newer nomenclature started to appear (like “Blue Riband,” “Specimen Straight Grain,” and so on) and the “DE LUXE” was replaced by the “Royal Comoy”. That “New Nomenclature” expanded dramatically after the War and blended with the modern nomenclature of today.

The use of the ARCHED “COMOY’S” ended with World War II and was replaced after the War with a straight line “Comoy’s” (along with the now famous Country of Origin stamping of a circular “Made in London” over a straight line “England”).

Prior to World War II with manufacturing facilities in both France and England, Comoy had pipes made in both locations. Most were easily identifiable by their Country of Origin stamping. There were several versions of Comoy’s “LUMBERMAN” made in France and/or England. (They might have been the same Pipe but with different nomenclature.) “THE LUMBERMAN,” and “THE LUMBERMAN SPECIAL” were made in both factories. But NONE had the ARCHED “COMOY’S” stamping!

After World War II, Comoy reintroduced the “DE LUXE,” discontinued the ARCHED “COMOY’S” and continued various versions of the “LUMBERMAN”! Perhaps Comoy’s” best” graded “LUMBERMAN” was stamped “LUMBERMAN DE LUXE” – – – but it had no “Comoy” stamping. ”LUMBERMAN” was always stamped over “DE LUXE”!!!

Now look at the stamping on this Comoy Canadian – – – the ARCHED “COMOY’S” is stamped OVER “DE LUXE” (just as it would have been on a “Top-of-the-Line” Comoy’s De Luxe” in the early 1930s! In addition, that stamping is OVER “LUMBERMAN”!!! This Canadian is the only one I have ever seen with such stamping(s)!!!

Comoy offered truly elegant Canadians that were always perfectly shaped, light weight and fitted with “wafer thin” mouthpieces that are easy to hold in the mouth. Of course, they came in different lengths and finishes.

Normally, Comoy offered two Canadian sizes designated by Shape Numbers 296 and 309. The difference in the length of the Canadians. The “309” Shape was Comoy’s LONGEST CANADIAN, and the “296” was shorter. However, EXTRA LONG Canadians were ”upgraded” with the additional stamping of “XL” (creating a “309 XL”) and the very longest were sometimes stamped “XXL”!!! Either upgrade was rare, and this exceptional Canadian is stamped “309 XL”!!!

So looking at the title of this description one would expect to see a long, sleek Canadian of special length. It is not! It is a mere 6 3/8” LONG which is barely longer than average for most pipe makers!

The grain is not exceptional nor is the size (although the Bowl is a large Dunhill Group 4/5 Size which is larger than most “average” Canadians). But the Pipe has a HAND RUSTICATED RING around the Rim as well as a small HAND RUSTICATED “ARROWHEAD” or “TRIANGLE” on the bottom of the Shank! Both are unusual for any Comoy and ensure that this Canadian is UNIQUE (if only because no two rustications are identical).

Combining these features, you are looking at an EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, UNIQUE COMOY “LUMBERMAN”!!!

We cannot be certain of a date for this Comoy. It is an ARCHED “COMOY’S” over “DE LUXE” which dates it from the early 1930s. It is also a “LUMBERMAN” with a COMOY’s 3-PIECE “C” LOGO in the Mouthpiece dating it to the post-World War II timeframe; and it has the newer Country of Origin stamping which did not exist before World War II. So it would seem that this Comoy Lumberman/Canadian most likelydates from the late 1940’s which would seem to be the most reasonable time for such a Pipe to appear.

As the pictures reflect, this Canadian remains in PRISTINE CONDITION! The STRONG NOMENCLATURE confirms that! There are NO chips, dents or scratches to detract from the exterior finish. NO varnish, lacquer or shellac has been used to improve the appearance of the Pipe for the pictures (and temporarily fill scratches and toothmarks). And, NO coating has been applied to the inside of the Bowl to hide cracks, heat fissures or even burnouts. The Pipe shines as it did when it left the factory in London over 60 Years Ago!!!

This Canadian measures 6 3/8″ LONG with a Bowl 2″ TALL!!! The nomenclature is crisp and clear: “COMOY’S [arched and over] DE LUXE, LUMBERMAN, MADE IN LONDON [in a circle and over] ENGLAND, 309 XL”. The Famous Comoy’s 3-Piece White “C” Logo is inlaid in the Bit. So what you are viewing is an EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, and COLLECTIBLE COMOY CANADIAN!!! The fact that it is in PRISTINE CONDITION with particularly STRONG NOMENCLATURE makes it worthy of consideration by those desirous of accumulating a special Comoy collection!

Out Damned Spot!…or at Least Hide – By Josiah Ruotsinoja

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Josiah and I have been emailing back and forth on this old Kaywoodie for quite a while now. I asked him to do a write up for the blog on it as he tried some different ways of minimizing stains to the briar. Each method he used has its own application and effect. Josiah did a great job writing this up and demonstrating the way the method worked and the results of the application. Thanks Josiah for the great work. I look forward to reading more about your refurbishing in the days ahead.

This last August, I acquired a Lot of estate Kaywoodies. All were in fair condition. Some looked like old, loved friends and a couple hardly smoked at all. One was unsmoked with the price sticker still on the stem. I’m guessing that all came from the same estate judging from the burn pattern on the rims. The main issues to be dealt with were the moderate burns on the rim and some spots from sitting in something wet. These spots proved to be the more serious problem, as you may gather from the title.
Among them was this Connoisseur #69 pot.

As you can see, there was quite a lot of grime and a large dark spot on the left side of the bowl. Another, less severe spot was on the bottom of the shank. However, it appeared to be in good condition overall with nice thick walls and no deep dents or scratches. The bowl had some very nice birdseye on both sides. Visions of a nice blond or honey colored stain immediately jumped into my head.

Time to restore! My first steps were to ream the bowl and put it in an alcohol bath and soak the stem in an Oxyclean solution. The stem came clean and polished up nicely without much trouble. I heated up the stinger and screwed it in to the mortise while still warm to correct the alignment.

The grime on the rim came off quickly, but there were a couple pretty deep scorch marks. I started off topping the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper, but it quickly became apparent that it was going to take forever with that fine a grit. So I started over with 80 grit until most of the burn was removed and worked my way up through 600 until it was gone. Then I put a slight bevel on the outer and inner rim.

Now for the real problem. The water marks (I kinda think old motor oil) hadn’t come out in the alcohol bath as I had hoped it would. Having never dealt with removing such marks from wood, I decided I needed to consult someone with more experience. I sent an email off to Steve here at the blog for advice. In response he suggested a few options: lemon juice, bleach, oxalic acid and as a last resort sand paper.

First, I tried lemon juice.That worked to a degree, but the stains were still clearly visible. Here are the marks after the lemon juice.

I figured anything I could see would be more visible after applying stain, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I sanded the entire surface from 220 up to about 6000 grit. I applied stain and flamed it to set the stain. Below is the first attempt…not so successful.

So I sanded off the stain again and went for bleach. I almost ruined the whole project here by leaving the bowl in the bleach too long. It raised the grain quite a bit and penetrated further than I expected.

After sanding, I managed to get most of the white patched off and the surface smooth again.

On to attempt #2 with stain…

Better results, but the stains were still clearly visible. I moved on to oxalic acid crystals. I mixed a paste of crystals and water, applied it, let it dry and sanded the dried mixture off. Use a particle mask when sanding this stuff. It’s not something you want to inhale.

I tried once more with stain and the results were similar to the second attempt. I seem to have lost the pictures for this, but by this time, you get the idea. This last unsuccessful attempt made it clear to me that I must admit defeat and give up my dreams for a shapely blond and give a brunette a try. The repeated sanding, staining and sanding again had taken its toll on the nomenclature and the side profile was starting to flatten out. In order to save the now faint stampings, I chose a nice deep espresso color and success! The pesky spots are now hiding well in the rich stain. I think that only a very well trained eye, or one that knew the stains were there in the first place, would be able to spot them.

So after a lot of work, I have myself a beautiful Kaywoodie pot. Disaster almost struck in its inaugural smoke, however, when the Kaywoodie club fell out of the stem, the original glue having lost its glue-iness after the soak in the Oxyclean. I managed to find it where I had been sitting and it’s safely superglued back in place.

Many thanks to Steve for his suggestions. Even if it didn’t turn out the way I planned originally, I now have options for tackling similar problems in the future and about a pound of oxalic acid to try to remove the stains my 13 year old has left on her bedroom window sill.

Repairing and Restemming an Older Unsmoked Paneled Dublin

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This paneled Dublin came to me from Mark Domingues in a package that he sent. I think he sent it for possible briar to be used in the repair of the Peterson Irish Whiskey 999 that I worked on. The shank was quite badly cracked but otherwise this small pipe had not been smoked. The shank and the bowl were absolutely clean and unsmoked! All that sat in the bottom of the bowl was dust. The pipe is quite small as can be seen from my finger and thumb in the photo below. The finish was quite good, just a few small places on the edges of the panels that had rub spots on them. The shank was long so I looked at my options in repairing and restemming it. It was an older unsmoked pipe so it would have been a shame to pitch it in the bin. I could either band it or shorten the shank and then fit the stem.

The next two photos, though slightly out of focus show the crack in the shank. I opened it up with a dental pick to show the extent of the damage.

After looking at the extent of the damage and weighing my options I chose to shorten the length of the shank. It had a deep set mortise so that would not be a problem. If I needed to I could drill it more deeply but time would tell. I decided to use a brass fitting on the shank to give me a straight line to saw. I have seen too many shank shortenings that have come out crooked so I figured a guide would keep the line straight. I used a hack saw with a fine blade to saw off the broken portion.

I used a Dremel to smooth out the end of the shank and remove the small pieces that stayed behind when the cut went through. I left the brass band in place while I sanded the end of the shank. I used a knife with a sharp blade to bevel the inner edge of the end of the mortise to receive the tenon and stem more closely. I liked the look of the brass pressure fitting so I decided to leave it as a band. I glued it in place with wood glue. I used a Dremel to trim off some of the excess on the tenon of the stem from my can and then followed up with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper until the tenon fit snugly in the shank.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper followed by a medium grit and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and shape the stem at the end next to the band. I also used the Dremel to remove the ridges on the brass pressure fitting and give it a more rounded appearance. I sanded the band with the sandpaper and sanding sponges as well.

I finished sanding the stem with the micromesh sanding pads to polish it and give it a deep sheen. 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 when it was dry buffed it with White Diamond.

To touch up the rubbed areas on the ridges of the panels I stained the entire bowl with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied with cotton swabs and then flamed it. I hand rubbed the bowl with a soft cotton cloth.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the stem and bowl with White Diamond. I avoided the band at this point as it leaves behind a black residue when buffed. I removed the stem and buffed the band with Red Tripoli and then lightly buffed it with White Diamond. I gave the entire pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed to a shine with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. It is ready for that long awaited inaugural bowl of tobacco. I am not sure what I will use to christen this new bowl but once the head cold I have leaves I have several in mind.

Giving a Brewster Round Top Billiard a Face Lift

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was gifted a pipe bowl from a friend in exchange for some work on his Peterson. He had no idea of the brand or maker but thought I could have some fun with it. I dug it out of the refurb bin the other evening and began to work on it. I would need to clean it up and then restem it in the process as it did not come with a stem. It was stamped Brewster over Imported Briar on the left side of the shank with no other identifying stamping.

The finish seemed to be a very heavy lacquer that was cloudy with age. The shape was very interesting to me – a billiard like shape with a crowned rim, rounded and quite elevated. I like the looks of it. It is a small pipe – group 2 sized. There were a lot of putty fills on both sides of the bowl, the shank and the rim that would definitely show up once the lacquer finish was removed.

The bowl was in great shape with a light build up of cake that was the right thickness. There was no heavy smell of aromatics clinging to the pipe. The shank was clean and the metal insert in the mortise was also clean and in good shape. The thread pattern and the look of the metal fitment looked exactly like a Dr. Grabow set up.

I had an old Dr Grabow stem here that was missing the stinger apparatus but the threaded tenon was in working order. I took it from the can of stems I have and gave it a try on the shank. It threaded in perfectly. It was overturned but it fit. This added some objective evidence to my assumption that this pipe had some connection to Dr. Grabow.

Back Story of Brewster Pipes (If you get bogged down in the history you can skip ahead to the section on the refurbishing process).

At that point in the process I slowed down the cleanup and went to the computer. I was hooked and wanted to see what I could find out about the Dr. Grabow connection to Brewster, if there was one. I wanted to know who made the pipe so I did some research on the web and in some of my books to see what I could find out about the brand. From the book Who Made that Pipe I learned that the brand was Italian made followed by the words unknown maker. I looked on Pipedia and there found much the same information – Italian made followed by question marks as to the maker. After working the web with Google and other search engines the most I could find out was that slight information – the pipe was an export brand of an unknown Italian company.

I decided to take a different tack. I found the Grabow Company site online and wrote an email to their information centre seeking information on the brand. I decided to follow-up on my hunch from the stamping and the metal insert in the shank that somehow this pipe was related to Dr. Grabow pipes. I had no clue how but it certainly had the signs so I went to the Dr. Grabow forum on-line and posted my questions http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/index.php . I also did some reading on the forum of back posts and found one series of posts on the brand. I read the following and immediately had more questions. The Grabow connection was not clear but I had found that the pipe may have been a promotional item. Here is the quote that gave me the information”

“A couple months back, I scored a Brewster off eBay for five bucks. Research on this forum and the wild, untamed internet tells me the Brewster pipes were all made in one batch in 1964 as a promotional item for Sir Walter Raleigh.”

Last evening while relaxing, my iPhone vibrated notifying me of a new email. I picked up the phone and saw that I had a response to the questions that I had posted on the forum. Dave Whitney, author of the book on refurbishing called Old Briar, had responded to my request for information. What he sent me was extremely helpful and a true goldmine of information. His answer affirmed the Grabow connection and gave critical information that I had not been able to find anywhere. I have included that information in part below.

Dave Whitney: Here’s what I have from my accumulated notes on Brewster – much of it looks like it came off this forum, ted/td being one of the early ones to help build this forum and a former Sparta CEO:

All the Brewsters were “made” in about 64’… Brewster… is probably from Fratelli Rossi from 64’… Ted, an older pipe smoker than me, suggested the Brewster pipes are comparable to the Willard pipes, and that Brewsters were often sold either with tobacco, or in a coupon offer. For example Brewster was sold as a redemption offer with Brown and Williamson for Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco.

Further information came from Dr. B… I think (in my feeble state of mind, after today) that Brewster was sold as a redemption offer with Brown and Williamson for Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco. But, Mastercraft in 74 had a LOAD of them left. We (Mastercraft) sold them as closeouts along with several pipes in baskets of 4 dozen at $3.98. We also included a bunch of Mastercraft from F. Rossi at the same price……..Rossi pipes are another story……Remind me of the “sticky lacquer” and I’ll tell it…….ted

Mastercraft was founded by Bernard Hochstein, an Orthodox Jew. Old, White Haired, Santa Claus looking (still alive at 96, last time I knew), and he was REKNOWNED for his ability to “strong arm” the European pipe suppliers into selling pipes to M/C at a bargain. Probably the best (never say nothing) negotiator that I’ve ever met. He sold a business (Mastercraft) to UST for 6 million in STOCK. He’s probably worth 60 million today. Mr. Hochstein could negotiate a peace in the Middle East in a very few days, and talk all parties outta’ their pants in the process.

OK, so Mr H “rapes” the Italian suppliers even up till 1964 when the Surgeon General’s (SG) report comes out. As it turns out, “rape” works both ways. A supplier, Fratelli Rossi, (still in business) took an order in 1963 for over 1 million pipes at 1/2 dollar (US) per pipe. When the SG’s report comes out, Rossi has filled a small part of the order for Hochstein, and had orders for a great many more pipes than Hochstein ordered. Rossi decided to experiment with his lacquer …Whose pipes did he experiment on? Hochsteins.

When I started at Mastercraft we had 1215 cartons of pipes from Rossi…Mastercraft Standard….72 dozen per carton, with lacquer so “tacky” that if you held the pipe as if you were smoking it, you’d have to “shake” it out of your hand. Rossi left out the curing agent. Ever touched wet paint?……..After 10 years they were still STICKY…..after 20 years, they were still STICKY.

We fought these SOB’s for years, when finally Luther Marlow (you’ll see topics about him) concluded that we could re-spray them with the Grabow lacquer and sell em’. We did, and we did. Through a “drive” by the UST salesforce, we sold every one. So if you have a Mastercraft Standard with what looks to be “heavy” lacquer, you are probably right.

Hussar…..Rossi also made Brewster. Better lacquer job though… Brewster was sold as a redemption offer with Brown and Williamson for Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco. But, Mastercraft in 74 had a LOAD of them left. We (Mastercraft) sold them as closeouts along with several pipes in baskets of 4 dozen at $3.98.

When I started with Mastercraft in the early 70’s we had over 400 cartons of pipes from Hully. Each carton contained 60 to 80 dozen, most of which were stamped Brewster or Stetson and these had a base cost (from the 60’s or earlier) of $2.80 /dz. Some of the smaller pipes, called Southern Assortment were $1.90 / dz. May be partly to blame for them going out of business.

That was very helpful information on the brand. It gave a definitive date and origin to the pipe. The Italian connection was also clear. The Dr. Grabow link was also clear in Dave’s answer. Now I wanted to know something about maker, Rossi. Dave kindly included that information in his answer as well. It is as follows:

From approximately 1946 up to the end, Ferdinando Rossi II, a grandchild of the founder, headed the company. But after World War II the world of the pipe changed dramatically. Especially in Italy, where those big pipe factories mainly turned out pipes for the lower priced segments of the international mass markets. The demand for these pipes shrunk considerably as more and more smokers turned to cigarettes. Rossi got into this vortex as well. Little by little the number of pipes produced sank. This evolution was accelerated by the upcoming fame of pipes from Denmark. As well, new Italian brands established after the war like Castello, Brebbia or little later Savinelli operated cleverer and thus were more successful.

So the decline went on through the 1960’s and 1970’s, even though Rossi offered more than 800 possible shapes in dozens of lines and uncounted finishes. Besides the completely machine made pipes there were also some lines of semi-freehands and even quite considerable freehands were made. But all these efforts could not stop the fall anyway. Due to increasing financial difficulties Rossi closed down in 1985, just one year before the 100th anniversary.

In the years around 1870 and still later the bulk of Italian pipes was made by time taking and laboriously manual work. Mainly based on families who sold their pipes to travelling purchasers handing them on to some wholesaler. Most pipes were still made of box or olive wood.

Ferdinando Rossi from Milan was one of the most important wholesalers for tobacco related goods of northern Italy. When he attended one of his pipe suppliers in Saint-Claude in 1880 he got hooked on the idea to establish this manner of industrialised briar pipe production in Italy as well. Rossi went abroad several times to buy the hardware here and there because the special features of machines for pipemaking were secrets – well kept by the French in those days. Many machines and tools had to be modified on Rossi’s defaults.

[From the Catalogue “La Regina della Pipa” (1896)] He acquired a large area of land in Barasso in the province of Varese and founded the Fabbrica di Pipe di Radica Rossi in 1886. For sure there was no lack of skilled workers and Rossi personally recruited 30 craftsmen of different occupations from the environment to get started. After a few years the enterprise had developed well and entered into export trades. In 1892 e.g. the ledgers registered the first pipes shipped to Brazil.

One reason of success was the ultramodern conception of the factory and its equipment at the given time. To give an example: a system of canals invented by Rossi drove water to turbines propelling downstream generators, which supplied the entire machinery with electricity. Also lighting and heating were already electrically operated.

In the first years after 1900 Rossi grew steadily and became one of the ten biggest pipe manufacturers of the world. Rossi’s rapid ascent produced further foundations of pipemaking firms in the area.

I love finding out the old company histories of the pipes that I refurbish. I find that it gives a colour and flavour to the pipe I hold in my hands and rework. It gives me the back story on the pipe and adds another dimension to the work of refurbishing. I have included it here for those who enjoy the same kind of history.

The Refurbishing Process (for those of you who have skipped ahead to see the work here is where it begins.)

I screwed the old Grabow stem into the mortise fitment and found that it was overturned. I used a Bic lighter to heat the metal tenon in the stem to loosen the glue. I put the stem back in place and tried to turn it straight, to clock it, but it was not loose enough. I reheated and retried until it was loose. I then turned the stem into place and aligned it with the bowl. I then cooled it under cool running water to set the glue. From the photos below it can be seen that the diameter of the stem was off. In looking at it from the tenon end it was also not round. The bottom part of the stem and the sides were wider than the top portion.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to decrease the diameter but soon grew tired of hand sanding and decided to give myself a head start on the work. I used a Dremel with the sanding drum to remove the excess vulcanite of the stem. I then brought it back to the work table and sanded the shank to make the transition between the shank and the stem smooth and the bowl to remove the lacquer finish.

Once I had removed the finish I could see that the number and the size and shape of the fills would make them hard to blend into the new stain. I made a decision to rusticate the bowl at that point in the process. I used the modified Philips screw driver to rusticate the bowl.

With the bowl rustication finished and the stem fit finished I set up my heat gun and heated the stem to take out the bend. This particular Brewster shape had a straight stem. I held it above the heat gun until the vulcanite softened and the stem began to straighten on its own.

Once it was straight I set the shape by putting it under running water. The straightened stem can be seen in the photo below.

I took the pipe back to my work table and went over the surface with a brass bristle brush to knock off the rough spots on the surface of the bowl. I also buffed it with Tripoli to smooth it out. I took the photos below to show the new look of the Brewster. The stem and the rustication looked good to me. The smooth rim and the patch with the stamping would look good once the pipe was restained.

I decided to give the pipe a contrast stain. For the bottom coat I used a dark brown aniline stain. I applied it with a cotton swab and flamed it. I repeated the process until the stain had covered the bowl evenly. The dark brown went deep into the crevices of the rustication.

For the topcoat of stain I chose an oxblood aniline stain. I rubbed it onto the high points of the rustication with a cotton pad. My plan was to leave the dark brown in the crevices and the oxblood on the high points. I flamed the stain and then buffed the pipe with Tripoli.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to finish the shaping and then used medium and fine grit sanding sponges to removes the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I followed that up by sanding the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and dry sanded with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it was dry buffed the stem with White Diamond.

I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond. I then lightly buffed the bowl and buffed the stem with carnauba wax. I wanted to preserve the vulcanite and give it a shine. I also wanted to give a shine to the high points of the rustication on the bowl and also polish the rim. The finished pipe is shown in the pictures below. The old Brewster, with all of its history since 1964, is ready to enter a new phase of its own personal history. The face lift I gave it brings it to a new place. It is my hope that this old timer will give someone a great smoke and endure beyond me. That, after all, is what refurbishing work is all about – extending the life of the old pipes and delivering them intact to the next generation of pipemen.

Reworking a La Strada Staccato 213 Billiard

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The last of the bowls that came to me as a gift from Andrew was a La Strada Billiard bowl. It was stamped La Strada over Staccato on the left side of the shank and shape 213 on the right side. It needed a stem and it had a few minor issues that needed to be addressed. The finish was an interesting rope rustication pattern that went around the bowl like a lasso and the finish under the rope pattern was leatherlike in terms of colour and look. Over the top of the finish was a plastic clear coat that added a perma shine to the bowl. The rim was in very rough shape and had been hammered on to hard surface in tapping out the dottle. The build up on the rim covered the damaged roughness of the surface. The bowl was badly caked on only one side of the bowl. The shank was clean and looked undamaged. There was no stem with the bowl and the shank was very clean.

The La Strada was once again a brand with which I was unfamiliar. I had some vague memory of seeing them sold through Tinderbox but was not sure about that memory. I did a bit of research and found that indeed they had been sold there. They were Italian Made. Here is a page from a Tinderbox catalogue showing the brand. The catalog describes the pipe as “a gracefully conservative style that has today’s favoured matte finish, enhance by the unexpected touch of random routing.” The price was a princely $8.95-$10.00.

I sorted through my stems and found one that fit very nicely in the shank. When I inserted it there were two cracks revealed, one on top and one on the bottom of the shank. I honestly don’t know if they were present or if the happened when I put the stem in place. It was not a tight fit so I am unsure. It honestly did not matter as banding it would not be a problem. I found a silver band I had in my kit that was a good fit and pressed it into place on the shank. I heated the band with a heat gun and then pressure fit it onto the shank.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer (this seems to be more and more my reamer of choice in refurbishing).

I set up my topping board and then topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper. I removed enough of the surface of the rim to take away the damage to the top and the front of the bowl. There were also some burn marks on the left side of the rim that I was able to sand out the majority of damage.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone to try to break up the plastic/shiny finish that was on the bowl and was not able to remove it. The thick coat had bubbles that were thick around the rope rustication areas on the left side of the bowl. I finally put the bowl into an alcohol bath and let it soak overnight to try to break up the finish.

I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and sanded it with a medium grit and a fine grit sanding sponge and was able to break through the finish and finally remove it. I wiped the bowl down again with acetone on cotton pads and the bowl was clean. I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol and applied and flamed it until the coverage matched the rim to the rest of the bowl. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel and brought it back to the work table and set it aside to work on the stem.

I sanded the tooth marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge until they were no longer visible. I then used micromesh sanding pads to finish the stem. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and when dry buffed it with White Diamond.

I polished the silver band with silver polish and micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for its initial and should make someone a good pipe in the long run.

A Kaywoodie Reworked, with a Little Mystery!

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Blog by Greg Wolford

This year has not been a banner one, so far, for me personally. The harsh weather, an accident, and a failure of one of my orthotics has had me mostly sidelined since the first of the year. My workshop is downstairs, in the garage, and it isn’t exactly the warmest, most comfortable place to work in the temperatures we’ve had, not to mention the difficulty of actually getting myself up and down the stairs … but I digress … so I’ve been able to do very little work on either of my hobbies so far in 2014.

Last week my wife had a little pity on me and allowed me to bring a few necessary tools and supplies up to the kitchen so I could work on a few old pipes; leather work is out of the question until the temperature and my body cooperate. I think she knew I was getting a bit restless, not being able to get into any of my projects. When I said she “allowed” it, she corrected me with “I didn’t say you could do that” but she didn’t send it all back down to the shop either, so I take that as permission I told her! LOL

Now, I must admit that my photographs, when I remember to take them (that’s a preview hint that I haven’t remembered as often as I should have), aren’t as good as I would like but I don’t have as good a set-up as I normally do. So, I ask you to bear with me on the quality and quantity of them.

Sometime back I acquired an older Kaywoodie model 33. It is an apple shape with a rounded bowl-top. The pipe was in pretty good condition other than the front edge was damaged from being knocked-out and the bottom of the stem had been bitten off. because of the stem damage I put off working on this pipe for months; I wanted to save the stem but didn’t have the black super glue yet, which I planned on using, to do the job. Here are a couple of photos (all I could find) of it before I started working on it.

Unfortunately all I can find are some photos that I used it as a “prop” in and one of the underside of the stem. You can see the pipe itself wasn’t too bad but the stem was another story.

Initially I tried to patch the chip with black super glue; I tried this three times: the first attempt the pipe cleaner I was using as a plug absorbed all the glue and the other two times, using different materials for the plug, the patch failed. It turned out that the chip was just too large for me to patch well so I decided to cut it off and file a new button since there seemed to be plenty of room to work with on this stem.

I used a hacksaw on a small frame to remove just behind the bite through. When I looked at the air hole I noticed two things, neither good: first I had closed off the airway accidentally with the glue and second the air hole wasn’t drilled center. I fixed the glue-plug problem quickly by drilling out the hardened glue with a pin vice and then picking out the small fragments that were left. One problem down – now onto forming a new button and slot.

I used various needle files to shape the new button, being timid about not getting it too thin. I recently bought a new set of Kobalt needle files, a big upgrade from my old ones, and found that this (only my second or third time making a whole new button and transition) went much smoother and faster than in the past. I also used the files and a bit of sandpaper to open and funnel the slot, again I was a bit timid in not going too thin; I have done that once and suffered a cracked bit afterward. This is a fair representation of what I ended up with:

Once I had the stem to my satisfaction I turned to the stummel.

I had at some time past already reamed the bowl lightly, it had very little cake, and cleaned the shank and stem. I now began by cleaning the stummel with acetone wetted cotton pads to remove the old finish and dirt. After the acetone I moved on to some alcohol wetted pads to lighten up the grime on the bowl top. When it was sufficiently clean I decided to use some 400 grit sandpaper to lightly smooth the edge damage. I didn’t know it at the time – because I failed to look first, a fault I have all too often – but the rim was supposed to be rounded. Luckily I liked the general look of the rounded top and thought it might be the way it was supposed to be so I wanted to keep it rather than topping the entire bowl. I personally like, in general, the less sharp lines on a bowl top so this was an easy choice – one that turned out to be a good one as well.

Once I had reduced the damage to the rim and front, keeping the shape as close to original/symmetrical as I could, I moved to micro mesh pads to sand and polish the bowl top. After getting through the first two grades I thought the entire pipe would look nice just polished with the micro mesh. At this point I reassembled the pipe and began to look for nomenclature to avoid during my polishing; this is when I discovered my “mystery”.

On the bottom of the stem, a origianl Kaywoodie, three-hole stinger with white clover logo, I saw something I had never seen before: there was stamping on the vulcanite “D-2”. This immediately intrigued me; I knew I would have to find out more about that … but lets’ wait a paragraph or two on that.

I polished the entire pipe with all of the micro mesh grits in order from 1500 – 12000, avoiding all of the stamping, including on the stem. I wet sanded the stem (only) through 4000, then polished the stem with plastic polish, before finishing the entire pipe through 12000 grit. I then applied Halcyon II wax to the entire pipe and hand buffed it. I was really pretty pleased with the results, considering I didn’t have access to my buffer and this was, more or less, my first experience with the Halcyon wax.

I missed some file marks on the stem, and the “bits” near the bit; I figure when I can properly buff the pipe I will get those taken care of, as well as put a better shine on it with some carnauba wax. But until then I am enjoying this old gal just as she is!

The stem still has oxidation near that stamping, which I began to research after I finished the work on the pipe. None of the other Kaywoodies I have, or have ever had, have any stamping on their stems like this one does. I scoured the ‘net and asked as many folks as I could think of to no avail … well, almost none. I am a member of the Kaywoodie Pipes Group on Facebook and one of the members there is Bill Fuerbach is as well. He saw my question that I posted about the stamping in that group and replied as follows:

Hey guys. I’ve seen this also on some older Kaywoodie stems. unfortunately at this time I don’t know what the significance is. :(:(

So unfortunately there is not yet an answer to what the stamping means or its significance is – and the mystery remains … If by chance anyone what reads this knows the answer I would really appreciate it is you would leave a comment with the answers!

Edit

I received an email from Chris at PipePages about this question. He said in his personal opinion, and that it is only a guess, that it could be a factory replacement stem and the number was a style/guide for the repairman to know which stem to use. Although it is only a shot-in-the-dark type of guess, it seems like a plausible answer to me.

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