Tag Archives: Bowl – refinishing

Repairing a Burned Through Bowl

Blog by Steve Laug

There are many times I take on the challenge of repairing a pipe totally for the learning experience. When I begin working on it there is nothing of redeeming value in the pipe itself. It is not beautiful or worthy of keeping. Rather it provides a unique learning opportunity for me to work on a skill in my refurbishing hobby. The pipe below is exactly that kind of pipe. Mark Domigues sent it to me along with other bowls when I was working on the shank repair on his old Peterson pipe. It is a no name pipe with a rustication pattern that I did find particularly attractive. In fact I put off working on it as it just did not appeal to me. I can’t tell you how many times I picked the bowl up and carried it to the recycle bin (a bin I used for briar parts) and then carried it back to the “to be refurbished” box.

Finally, Monday the challenge called me. I took the bowl out of my box and looked it over. As I looked at it, the shape kind of grew on me. It is a brandy glass shape and the shank actually has a flare to it as well. The rustication is a bit striated but as I cleaned up the exterior it is a lot like tree bark. The stain is a contrast stain – a black undercoat in the grooves and a brown top coat. It was worn but could be salvaged. The shank stem junction was also worn but a band would clean up that part of the pipe. The interior bowl sides were clean and solid. The rim was in good shape. But the glaring problem is visible in the photo below – a large, ½ inch diameter burnout on the flat bottom of the pipe. The surrounding briar was solid. The burnout was very focused. The burn did not extend into the rest of the bottom of the pipe. In fact the wood around the edges of the hole was clean and solid. There was none of the darkening around edges of the burnout or on the bottom of the bowl. It looked like it might be a great candidate for practicing a repair. I have done one other repair on a burn out which involved inserting a briar plug and this looked like it was another candidate for that repair. The difference in this one was the solidness of the briar around the hole.

As I worked up the chutzpah to tackle this repair I decided to work on the shank. I sanded the shank smooth in preparation for the band. I like to have a smooth surface under the band rather than a rusticated pattern. I find it gives a good smooth fit to the band. I sanded out the rustication to the width of a nickel band. Once it was sanded smooth, I heated a band over a heat gun and then pressed it into place. I liked the finished look of the band.

I am sure that you can tell at this point that I am procrastinating in addressing the main issue of the bowl with all of the other random work on the pipe but that went on a little longer. I found a stem in my stem box that fit the shank quite well. The mortise had originally had a screw in fitment so it was threaded. The threads were well worn so I decided to use a regular style push stem. I sanded the tenon to get a good tight fit on the stem and then sanded the stem to get a good fit against the shank and band. The slight bend in the stem looked good but it was a bit crooked so I would address that issue later. The finished look of the stem and band with the bowl was quite nice…maybe there was something redeemable about the bowl after all.

I have a few pieces of scrap briar that I have scavenged from pipe maker friends that I had put away for this kind of repair. So I found one that had enough briar left that I could carve it into a plug for the bottom of the bowl. I trimmed it with a hack saw to reduce the size of the plug.

In the first photo below you can see what the hole looked like after I had cleaned it up with a pick and Everclear. I had also reamed the inside of the bowl to remove all of the cake from the sides and the bottom of the bowl. The second photo shows the hole after I had drilled it out. I used a cordless drill with a ½ inch drill bit to round out the damage area and remove any further damage around the burnout. I chose the ½ inch bit as that was the diameter of the hole at the widest part of the hole.

I shaped the briar plug with a Dremel and sanding drum. The next series of photos show the progress of the shaping. I took the rough briar from a wedge to a circular plug and then shortened it to a round plug. I shaped a cap on the plug to the inner diameter of the bowl. Also originally I envisioned pushing the plug through from the inside of the bowl and then cutting off the portion that extended beyond the bottom of the bowl. I would then redrill the airway to finish the repair.

I continued to reduce the diameter of the plug until it was the same size as the hole in the bowl. The inside bowl bottom was hard to match with the cap of the plug. I continued to shape it until it was cup shaped. It seemed no matter how I shaped it however, it would not fit in the bowl bottom as the burnout was not centered in the bowl bottom. It was toward the front of the bowl bottom. I finally decided to use a different tact. I would forgo inserting it from the inside and go the other direction. I would insert it from the outside in. I measured the thickness of the bowl bottom (which was actually in good shape other than the burned portion). I then shortened the plug until it was relatively flush with the bottom of the airway. I coated the plug with superglue gel which gives me a bit more time before it sets and pushed it into the drilled hole. I pressed it against the table top to get the plug in place solidly.

Once the glue set I sanded away the excess briar with a Dremel to match the surface of the bowl. I was not worried about the rustication as I would duplicate that after I finished working the plug into place. The next two photos show the plug and the bowl surface are smooth and the plug is tightly in place.

The next photo shows the interior of the bowl. The plug is even with the entrance of the airway. There is difference in bowl depth around the left edge. I plan to give the bottom of the bowl a thick coating of pipe mud to both protect the new plug and to even out the slight trough on the left front edge of the plug.

I rusticated the bottom of the bowl with the Dremel to match the tree bark look of the rustication on the bowl (Photo 1 below). I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and then also gave the bottom of the bowl a second coat with black stain to emulate the effect of the stain coat on the rest of the bowl (Photos 2 and 3 below).

I stained the rest of the bowl with the dark brown stain to freshen it up and blend in the stain on the bottom of the bowl. I buffed it with red Tripoli and White Diamond to raise a shine and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax on the buffer. The finished exterior is visible in the first close up below and the following four photos of the pipe.

With the repair finished on the exterior of the pipe I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to clean up the oxidation and scratches on the vulcanite. I heated the stem with a heat gun to straighten it and then rebent it over a rolling-pin to give it a slight bend. I set the bend under cool water and then gave the stem a quick buff with Tripoli before taking it back to the work table to further sand the stem.

I continued to sand the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to bring a shine to the vulcanite. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. When I finished sanding with the pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry then buffed it with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax.

With the externals repaired and finished it was time to make up some pipe mud to coat the bottom of the bowl and give a protective coat over the bowl plug. I sacrificed a nice little Cohiba Cuban cigar for the purpose of making the mud of the ash. When the cigar was finished I had a nice bowl of clean ash.

I mixed the ash with a small amount of water to make a paste. I inserted a pipe cleaner into the airway and then applied it to the bottom of the bowl, tamping it into the crevices around the plug and building up the bowl bottom. As the pipe mud dried I added additional layers of mud to the bottom of the bowl and around the lower sides of the bowl. The next series of three photos show the progressive build up of the mud in the bottom of the bowl.

When the mud had dried to touch I buffed the pipe a final time with White Diamond and then gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax to protect and give it a shine. I then used a clean flannel buff for the final buffing. The restored pipe is pictured below. I will let the pipe mud cure and harden for a few days before loading up the pipe and smoking the inaugural bowl.

Restemmed and Restored Imported Genuine Briar Billiard

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This is another bowl from my refurbishing box. It is stamped Imported in an arc over Genuine Briar on the left side of the shank. The finish was varnished and dirty. I intended on stripping it so when I restemmed it I block sanded the stem fit. I had an old Erhlich stem that fit very well and gave the pipe a nice line. The rim had a strange rustication pattern on it that did not match the carvings on the front of the bowl. It was tarred and the varnish coat had bubbled on it. So I decided I was going to top it and give the bowl a smooth rim to match the smooth portions of the bowl. I sanded the shank and stem junction to make sure that the transition was smooth. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit sanding sponge and then a medium grit sanding block.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cleaned out the old stem and the shank with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear. I cleaned it until both came out white. I then continued to sand the union of the stem and shank with the 220 grit sandpaper until the transition was very smooth. I was careful around the stamping as I wanted to leave that intact and clear. Some nice grain began to come out once I had the finish removed at the junction. It bode well for what would be under the varnish coat once I stripped that away.

I used my usual method for topping the bowl – a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a board and twisted the bowl rim into the sandpaper being careful to keep the rim flat against the board. I kept sanding until all of the carved grooves on the rim were gone and the rim was smooth. I also sanded the rim with a medium grit sanding sponge and then a medium grit sanding block to smooth out the scratches left by the 220 grit sandpaper. I finished the rim sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads in preparation for the new stain coat.

I wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the varnish coat and as much of the stain as possible so that blending the stain on the sanded areas into the overall finish would be simpler.

With the finish removed I restained the bowl with a medium walnut stain in a linseed oil mixture. I think it was Mark who asked in a comment on the Dr. Grabow Royal Duke write up why I did not use the aniline stains on the past few pipe restorations. The answer is quite simply that I am out of brown aniline stain so I have been using this walnut stain until I can get time to replenish my supplies. I used cotton pads to apply the stain to the bowl and wiped it down until it was an even colour on the pipe. I repeated the process until it met my expectations. When it had dried I took it to the buffer and buffed the bowl and rim with White Diamond.

I then worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with the 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Each of the photos below shows the progressive shine to the vulcanite becoming more pronounced.

With the bowl finished and the stem polished I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is pictured below. The colour on the rim appears lighter than the bowl in the photos. In real life it is a good match. The new look of the pipe is much better than the original in my opinion. This one should make someone a great smoking pipe in the future. The stem is a comfortable one and the light weight of the briar will make it a good yard pipe.

Restemmed Dr. Grabow Royal Duke Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am getting close to the bottom of the box of pipes to refurbish so I pulled out this Dr. Grabow bowl to restem and to refinish. It is stamped Royal Duke over Dr. Grabow on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar on the right side. I like taking the sealer coat of varnish off of these old Grabows and seeing what they look like refinished. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer and cutting heads. I found a stem blank in my box and turned the tenon with a Pimo Tenon Turning Tool until it was close and then finnished the fit by hand. I ran a Dremel with a sanding drum on it down the sides where the overflow from the casting of the stem blanks left the sides and end rough. The next six photos show the fit of the new stem and the look of the pipe with its new stem.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the finish (photos 1-3 below). I then sanded the smooth surface of the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to break up the varnish finish on the rim and sides. I then wiped it down with acetone a second time and was more successful removing the varnish coat (photos 4-9 below). As can be seen from the progress of the photos the finish came off nicely and the rim darkening and bubbled varnish was also removed.

I decided to stain the pipe with a medium walnut stain in a linseed oil mixture. I rubbed it on the bowl and rubbed it off until the colour was solid and even over the bowl. The next series of three photos show the freshly stained bowl of the pipe. I was able to get into the grooves of the rustication with the cotton pads dipped in stain so that all surfaces were covered.

I rubbed off the stain and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed it with White Diamond to polish the surface of the bowl and rim. The fibres from the pad also polished the grooves of the rustication as well. I put the stem back on the bowl and sanded it down with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the Dremel. I particularly worked on the shank stem union to make sure it was a smooth transition. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. The progress of the sanding with micromesh pads is visible in the next series of three photos below. When I finished sanding the stem I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I rubbed it down and buffed it with White Diamond on the buffing wheel.

The finished pipe is pictured below. I buffed the pipe with multiple coats of carnauba wax and then polished it with a clean flannel buff. This old timer is ready to go back into service and will be a nice addition to someone’s pipe rack.

Restoring an Older GFB Three Star Horn Stem Bent Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The pipe below is one I bought off EBay because it looked like a challenge, that and the fact that it was another GFB pipe. This is the third GFB that I have in my collection. I love the way they feel in the hand and the elegant look of the curves and angles they have. I went back and reread my previous two posts on the GFB pipes I had refurbished to remind myself of their history. There I described the process of hunting down information on the brand. I summarize that here for those may not have read the other two posts. (https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/restemming-and-reclaiming-an-older-unsmoked-gfb-briar-calabash/ , https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/restoring-a-gfb-bent-billiard-another-reclamation-project/)

The first thing I found was information that the GFB brand was an older French Trademark and that it came from Saint Claude, France. A more focused search for GFB French Briar Pipes led to information that the stamping GFB stood for Great French Briar – something about that did not seem right to me so I continued to look and finally came across the following advertisement from a Sears Catalogue. It shows a full page of GFB pipes and the header says GENUINE FRENCH BRIAR. That made much more sense to me, and all three of my GFB pipes match the pipes in the catalogue. It was good to be reminded of the old brand. I am pretty sure that all three of my GFB pipes come from either the late 1890’s or the early 1900’s.

This third pipe was a charmer to me. When I saw the photos I decided I would bid to win it. The elegance of the old pipe caught me. The bowl appeared to be in good shape and it had a horn stem. The striations and colour of the stem was beautiful even in its oxidized state. The three photos below were included in the EBay sale. The third photo shows the underside of the stem and the damage to the underside near the button. It looked to be more than tooth marks or chewing. It actually looked like “worm” damage. From the photos it appeared to be localized to that part of the stem and was worth a chance. Worst case scenario, I would sacrifice the stem and restem the old pipe with a vulcanite stem.

I find that photographing stem damage is difficult and my photos can be out of focus. But I now have a tripod to help with the clarity of the photos (did not get it until after I had started the repairs on this stem. Ah well sorry about the clarity of some of these). When the pipe arrived I took it apart and examined the holes on the end of the stem. Under the lens it was clear that it was not a worm hole at all. Rather it had been bitten and the stem had crumbled in that area. It did not go through into the airway so I think that the previous owner had scraped out the crumbled area of the horn stem for cleanliness and just kept smoking it. That was encouraging to me as it meant that I could repair and not worry about an old “worm” somewhere in the horn stem chewing his way out later! The next two photos show the extent of the damage to the area

I cleaned out the open area with cotton swabs and Everclear, careful to not use too much of the alcohol on the horn stem. Once it was clean of debris and dust I decided to fill the area with a superglue gel rather than the usual liquid superglue I generally use (Photo 1). My thinking was that the gel would sit better in the large area without running all over the stem. There were also nicks on the sharp edges near the shank that I also repaired with the superglue gel (Photo 2). I layered the glue into the hole to build it up gradually (Photo 3) as each previous layer dried.

Once the glued cured over night I sanded the area with medium grit emery paper to remove the high spots and smooth out the surface (Photo 1). I refilled the low areas on the fill to further level out the area. There was also a deep nick on the sharp edge of the shank. I cleaned that out and used the superglue to fill that as well. It would dry black but with the staining of the bowl that could be minimized and I wanted it smooth to the touch rather than the sharp cut of the nick that was previously present (Photo 2).

With everything glued I set the bowl and stem aside and went to work for the day. I would work on the patched areas when I returned home in the evening.

When I returned in the evening, the patches were dry and the pipe was ready to be worked on. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer. On this particular pipe the bowl was conical so it took three different cutting heads on the T handle to ream the bowl to the bottom. With down I cleaned the bowl, shank and stem with Everclear, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I wanted the pipe cleaned out before I worked on the exterior.

The next two photos show the stem after the patches had hardened. Though the photos are a bit blurry, the shininess of the spots where the superglue patches were applied is very clearly visible. Those areas would need to be sanded smooth to match the surface of the surrounding horn.

I sanded the patch on the shank of the pipe with 220 grit sandpaper and also medium grit sanding sponge to remove the excess glue from the patch. Then I wiped the bowl down with Everclear on a cotton pad. I decided not to use acetone as the stamping on the shank was filled with a gold paint and was still visible. I did not want to damage that stamping. I carefully worked the Everclear around the stamping so as not to get any in the grooves of the stars and GFB stamp.

I sanded the patch on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the patch. I continued to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with the remaining grits up to 12,000.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond on the buffer and the finished stem is shown below. The patch still shows some small holes that need to be repaired with superglue. The sanding and polishing made them very apparent in the first photo below. The patch at the sharp edge near the shank came out very well and is invisible. The horn of the rest of the stem has a deep sheen to it after all the sanding and polishing.

I unscrewed the stem and set it aside while I stained the bowl. I used a medium walnut stain mixed with linseed oil to stain this pipe. The colour is a rich brown with a slight red in certain lights. It matches the colour of the other GFB pipes that are in my collection. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. Then I gave it a coat of carnauba wax and set it aside to work some more on the stem.

I was not completely satisfied with the stem patch so I sanded it next to the button some more and cleaned it out. I put some more of the superglue in the low spots and set it aside to cure while I went to work for the day.

When I returned the glue was hard and the patch a solid bubble on the surface of the stem. I sanded it with the medium grit emery paper and then 220 grit sandpaper to remove the over fill. I always over fill the spots as the glue shrinks as it dries. I have learned that it is easier to remove the excess than to continue to fill and sand repeatedly. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge and then went through the grits of micromesh sanding pads again from 1500-12,000 grit. When I had finished I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb. Once done I buffed it on the wheel with multiple coats of carnauba wax.

After buffing and polishing the horn stem I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish it then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to restore and preserve the shine on the horn and the briar. The finished pipe is back to usable with the stem patch taking care of the deep holes that were previously in the stem. The striated horn stem looks like new and the colouration of the horn goes amazingly well with the medium brown walnut stain. Other than the slightly visible patch the pipe looks like new. I intend to enjoy a bowl of some aged tobacco in a pipe that is far older than I am. I look forward to the day when I pass it on in trust to the next pipeman who will care for and cherish it. Sentimental? I don’t think so, just a realist who knows that this pipe has lived and will live longer than I.

Restemming and Refurbishing an Arlington Imported Briar Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a box with a few pipe bowls in it that need restemming. When I get low on pipes for refurbishing I take one of these bowls and restem it. Generally they are not even midrange pipes. Rather they are an odd assortment of no name bowls or low end bowls that I have picked up along the way somewhere. Each of these provides me with something to practice on in terms of staining, bowl topping, repairing fills, rustication or restemming. The one I worked on last evening is stamped Arlington over Imported Briar on the left side of the shank and no other numbers. The bowl was dirty and tarred with a thick and crumbly cake. The rim was tarred and dented but no roughening from hitting against something. The shank was full of tars and even a few cobwebs. The rustication was deep on the bowl toward the bottom at the bowl shank junction. The finish was gone and the briar was dirty.

There is not much information available on the brand. A search on Google did not turn up much other than some information from Pipedia. The Brooklyn, New York Company known as Arlington Briar Pipe Corporation mainly operated as a sub-contractor for other brands. Jobey pipes are said to be made by Arlington at an unknown point of time. Arlington’s own pipes are seldom seen. The article also included the following advertisement from the RTDA Catalogue.

I used the PIMO tenon turning tool to fit a tenon on a stem blank that I had in my can of stems. I fine-tuned the fit with sand paper until it fit well.I took the next series of four photos to show the state of the pipe before I worked on it.

I cleaned the inside of the shank and bowl with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear. The alcohol removed the grime from the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. The bowl is quite large – so I used the largest cutting head on the reamer. I wiped down the tars on the rim with alcohol wetted cotton pads to clean off the buildup as much as possible.

To clean up the rim damage I lightly topped the bowl with a medium grit sanding block. I also sanded the burn spot on the side of the shank to try to minimize it and see how deeply the damage went. It was still hard and not too badly damaged but to remove it I would change the profile of the shank so I left it as a character mark.

After topping the bowl I wiped the entirety down with acetone on a cotton pad. I wanted to remove as much of the remaining finish as possible to make a match between the rim and the rest of bowl easier to achieve.

I then sanded the stem to bring the diameter to match the shank. I also wanted to remove the entire casting overflow on the sides and the end of the stem. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the initial excess and to bring the diameter close to that of the shank. Then I used 220 grit sandpaper to finish the fitting. I cleaned up the scratches left behind by the sandpaper with a medium grit sanding sponge and then finally used a sanding block to sand the shank and stem to good smooth fit and flow. The next seven photos show the progress to a proper fit of the new stem.

I stained the bowl with a medium walnut stain in a linseed oil base. I rubbed it on the bowl with a cotton pad and then wiped it off with a soft cloth. I reapplied the stain until I had good coverage to the bowl. The bowl has some great grain in places and the deep grooves looked good with the new stain coat. Once the stain was dry to touch I buffed it on the wheel with White Diamond and set it aside to work on the stem.

I sanded the stem with my usual stack of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I wet sanded with the first three grits of micromesh and dry sanded with the remaining grits. Once I had finished the sanding I gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite.

When I had finished with the stem I reinserted it in the shank and took the pipe to the buffer again. I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and then gave the entirety multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to give it a shine. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

A Dr. Grabow Special Rhodesian/Bulldog – A Makeover

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The last of the pipes from the Ebay lot below was the one in the bottom left corner of the photo. It was stamped Dr. Grabow over Special over Imported Bruyere on the left side of the shank. The finish was a varnish or polyurethane coat over the briar. It was bubbling and crackling. There was water damage on the edges of the rim. The briar itself was in good shape with no dents or roughening on the rim. The rim was slightly darkened but no dents or dings. The bowl was slightly out of round from poor reaming but very workable. The stem was a mess with chew marks on the top and the bottom for about an inch up the stem from the button. The stem was made of nylon and not vulcanite. The tenon was a push style and not a screw in stem. There was a shovel like stinger in the end of the tenon. The stem was loose in the shank and there was significant debris and buildup in the shank and in the stem. The second photo below shows the pipe as it was in the pictures from the seller.

I took it to my worktable this evening and went to work on it. I took the stem out and began to sand on the bite marks on the top and bottom of it. The next series of five photos show the progress of smoothing out the stem by sanding. I began with 220 grit sandpaper and worked up to a medium grit sanding sponge. By the fourth and fifth photo the bite marks are gone and some sanding scratches remain that will need to be worked out with micromesh sanding pads. I recut the edge of the button on the top and bottom with a needle file to clean up the angles. That is also visible in the last two photos. I also removed the stinger and cleaned it with 0000 steel wool and then polished it with micromesh sanding pads.

While I worked on the stem the bowl had been soaking in an alcohol bath to help loosen the varnish or urethane finish. My plan was to remove the finish totally and sand and restain the pipe once it was cleaned and sanded.

The alcohol bath softened the finish so when I dried it off the finish was cloudy. I have found that with this kind of finish I can use acetone on a cotton pad afterward to further remove the softened finish. The next two photos show the bowl with the finish removed. There is some nice looking birdseye grain coming through. Once the briar was clean I reglued the metal decorative band back on the shank and let it dry.

I sanded the bowl with the medium grit sanding sponge and then with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads. The next series of four photos are a little out of focus but the cleaned surface of the briar is visible and the grain that was underneath the finish is quite nice. I was also able to remove the water marks/damage that was along the outer edge of the rim and down the side of the bowl in the process of the sanding. I also cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs and Everclear. I did the stem as well and cleaned until the cleaners and swabs came out clean and white.

While the glue dried I worked on the nylon stem. I was able to remove all of the tooth damage. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads and removed the majority of the scratches left behind by the sanding sponge. I continued to rework the stem with these sanding pads until all of the scratches were gone and the stem began to take on a shine. (Photos 1-2 below show a top and bottom view of the stem).

I dry sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12,000 grit. The stem took on its original shine. The next series of four photos show the stem as it moves through each level of polishing.

I wiped the bowl down a final time with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and grit. I dried it carefully and then it was ready to stain. I decided to use a linseed oil and medium walnut stain on this pipe. I felt it would make the grain show well and give the bowl a good protective coat. I applied the stain and wiped it off, reapplied and wiped it until I got the coverage I wanted on the bowl. The next series of four photos show the stained bowl.

I buffed the bowl and shank on the buffing wheel lightly with Tripoli and then with White Diamond to give it a shine. I then buffed it with carnauba wax and gave it several coats to protect the wood. I did not buff the stem on the wheel as the nylon heats too quickly on the buffing wheel and melts. I have made a mess out of more than one nylon stem. It does not seem to matter how light a touch I use the wheel and the nylon stems do not work well together. I gave the stem a coating of Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the stem. I then hand applied several coats of carnauba wax and hand buffed the stem with a shoe brush and a soft cotton cloth. The finished pipe is pictured below. All in all it is not a bad looking old Grabow. It is clean and should smoke very well.

Rejuvenating A Nicely Grained Merchants Service Apple

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I bought a pair of older pipes on EBay for a good price. I have written about the refurbishment of the first – the ¾ bent Royal Falcon in an earlier blog post. This particular post is about the second pipe. It is pictured at the top of the first two photos below and on the left in the third photo. It is stamped on the left side of the shank with the words, Merchants over Service in block capital letters over London Made also in block caps though smaller stamp. There is a shape number stamped next to the above stamping and just prior to the stem – 519. The photos below were supplied by the seller in the EBay sale. The seller said that the finish on the pipe looked very good in the photos and the stem was in good shape without cracks, dents or tooth chatter. They also said that the bowl was clean but previously smoked.

While I waited for its arrival I did a bit of hunting on the web to find out what I could about the brand. There was not much information available and what was there was attached to Bing Crosby. What I found out about the brand on the internet turns out to have originally come from Jose Manuel Lopes great work called Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks. The Merchant Service Pipe was a former English brand of pipe made by Merchant Service Ltd. It was a firm created by Herbert Merchant (d.1944) and which later belonged to Holland Penny Limited. It turns out that the company was a favourite of the North American Entertainer Bing Crosby. That is not a lot of information and I would love to find some more. If anyone who reads this has more information please do not hesitate to post it in the response boxes below.

I took the pipe to my worktable this morning and worked on the stem. It was pretty clean though it had some oxidation on the left side next to the shank and some tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button. I sanded the stem with 1500 grit micromesh to remove the oxidation and to sand away the tooth chatter next to the button. I wet sanded with the micromesh pad until the finish was a matte black and free of oxidation and marks. The next four photos show the stem after this initial sanding.

The underside of the bowl was covered with many fills of a pinkish coloured putty that showed through the finish.

I decided to remove the largest of the putty fills and rework them with briar dust and superglue. To prepare the surface of the briar for reworking the fills I wiped down the surface of the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad. As I removed the grime and some of the dark buildup on the bowl a beautiful grain began to pop out on the briar. This one was going to be a beauty when I finished refurbishing it.

I cleaned out the inside of the pipe and stem before working on the fills. It took many pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the buildup inside the stem and shank. The shank had a reservoir area below the airway and it had collected a lot of tars and build up. The stem was also dirty on the inside.

When I had finished cleaning it I removed the stem and turned the bowl over on the worktable to begin to pick out the putty in the fills. Once I had the putty picked out I wiped the surface down with acetone once again to remove the debris that might be left behind in the flaws. I packed briar dust into the cleaned areas and tamped it down into the grooves. Once it was tightly packed I dripped clear superglue into the repaired area and pushed some more briar dust into the superglue surface. When it was dry, which takes very little time, I would sand down the surface to make it match the bowl surface.

I sanded the superglue/briar dust fill with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the excess of the patch (I always overfill them as they tend to shrink as the glue dries). The third photo below shows the patch after the sanding has blended it into the surface of the bowl. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads 1500-3200 grit to prepare the surface for the restaining. I wiped it down a final time with acetone on a cotton pad to remove all grit from the sanding. It was ready for a restaining.

I applied a dark brown aniline stain mixed with two parts isopropyl alcohol to one part dark brown stain. I used a cotton swab to apply it to the newly sanded area of the repair and flamed it and restained until it matched the rest of the bowl. When that was finished I gave a light coat of stain and flamed it to the entire bowl to blend in the restain on the bottom even more. The next five photos show the restained bowl bottom and then the retouched remainder of the bowl.

With the bowl finished and ready to go it was time to tackle the stem. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with the remaining grits. The next three photos below show the progressive shine building on the stem. Once it was finished I buffed it with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil to protect it. When it had dried I put it back on the pipe and took it to the buffer.

I buffed the entirety (carefully around the stamping) with White Diamond a final time and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad. Once it was finished I loaded up a bowl of Balkan Sobranie Virginian No. 10 and went for a long walk on a cool and dry fall day in Vancouver. It is a great smoking pipe and one that is one of my favourite shapes.

A Canadian Pipe Maker I had never heard of: Leonard Payne Pipes

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Blog by Steve Laug

On a Saturday not too long ago I went on a pipe hunt in Vancouver. I began at the Vancouver Flea Market and worked my way back toward my home. I stopped a quite a few antique shops and “malls” in my hunt for old pipes. I found a few at the flea market and several old timers at the shops that I left behind. However, one pipe caught my eye. It was not a brand that I had seen before or heard of.It was a nicely shaped thick shanked apple that needed very little work. It had a bit of tarry build up on the rim, some tooth chatter on the stem and minor oxidation. It grabbed my attention. The stamping was Leonard Payne on the left side of the shank and Made in Canada on the right side. The stem bears a green dot in the centre of a white circle on the left side of the stem. I decided to do a bit of research on the web and found the following advertisement that highlighted the pipes.

Further digging with Google came up with this short note from alt.smokers.pipes forum. It was written by Mike Glukler of Briar Blues. I quote it below in full. (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.smokers.pipes/RrICLiVgE2o) “Leonard Payne was based in B.C. for many years. He came to Canada from England. He had shops in Surrey, B.C. and Kelowna, B.C.Interesting fellow. Gruff as the day is long. When you bought a pipe it was handed to you in a paper bag. No sock, no box. Most of his pipes carried a “carburetor” system at the shank / stem junction.Another Payne idea was his shanks. Almost all his pipes were two pieces. He’d turn the bowl and shank, then cut off the shank and reattach with glue (not always with the same piece of briar, so many did not match grains). His thinking was that the shank being the weakest link, if cut and glued would never break and thus “correcting”the weakest link.You may find his pipes on E-Bay on occasion listed as a Len Cayne. The P in his stamping looks more like a fancy upper case C.”

That is the extent of information that I could find on the pipe. It was a Canadian made pipe carved by an eccentric BC pipe carver. The one example I purchase was a single piece of briar without the broken and reglued shank that Mike mentions above. It is a light weight piece of briar and the fit of the stem and shank is very well done. The gap between the end of the tenon and the end of the mortise is very small – just enough to allow for expansion. The finish was very good and the stain well done.

My clean up on the pipe was very simple. I sanded out the tooth chatter on the stem near the button and polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I then took it to the buffer and used red Tripoli and White Diamond on the buffing wheels to further polish the stem. I reamed the bowl and cleaned the tars off the rim and polished it as well with White Diamond. I am careful when buffing the shank area where the stamping is so that I do not harm the stamping. Once I was finished with the polishing I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I polished the pipe with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is pictured below.

Fast forward several months to a conversation had with a friend in Ontario via email. She had come across several Leonard Payne pipes and done the same research I did. She found the same information I did and sent me photos of the three pipes she found. We talked for a while and I offered to restem a pipe of hers. She sent me the pipe for work and then also the nice little Leonard Payne Zulu/Dublin pictured below.

She said that it needed some TLC but it was really in quite good shape. The finish was clean, though somewhat spotty. There were very few scratches or dings. There was a scuff mark on the bottom of the shank next to the stem and the stem was slightly scuffed in the same area. The rim was also clean. The bowl was already reamed and relatively clean. The bowl and shank smelled of Latakia but the pipe really seemed to be hardly smoked and certainly not broken in to the bottom of the bowl. The stem had some ripples in the surface near the button and in those were the remnants of tooth marks. The shoulders of the stem at the stem/shank junction were slightly rounded from sanding or buffing with the stem off the pipe. There were two small spots of oxidation around the logo.

I sanded the stems and shank with a fine grit sanding sponge and used a sanding block to reduce the rounding to the shoulders of the stem. I then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to polish the vulcanite. I rubbed stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak into the surface. Once it was dry I buffed it with White Diamond and then carnauba wax. The ripples in the stem are gone and the oxidation around the logo is also gone. My Black and Tan Cocker Spaniel decided to sit and “help” me this morning. He has learned that I generally have some dog chews at the work table but he gives me the illusion that he is really interested in what I am doing!

I set the stem aside and worked on the bowl. I found that though the finish was clean it was faded and spotty in places. I decided to give it a coat of medium walnut aniline stain mixed with linseed oil to even out the finish and give it a shine. I applied the stain with a cotton pad and then buffed it by hand with a cotton cloth when it was dry.

I reinserted the stem and gave the entire pipe a buff with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing the entirety with multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is pictured below. This nice little pipe is cleaned, restored and ready to smoke. It joins the other Leonard Payne pipe in my collection.

A New Stem for a Barling’s Make Billiard

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

In talking with a friend a few days ago via email she mentioned that she had come across an old Barling pipe on US Ebay. She described it as a small billiard with nice grain, a few scratches and some over reaming in the bowl. The stem had a faded “W” or a crown on it the top. The stamping is Barling’s arched over Make on the left side and possibly a faint EL and a 3 near the bowl on the right side. She sent me the following two photos for me to have a look at the pipe.

From the photos and her description I was pretty certain the pipe stem was not original. It just did not look right in the photos above – the fit was off on the shank and the length was too short. I was pretty sure she had a replacement stem on the pipe. She packed it up and sent it off to me. I received it yesterday and took it to the work table. My assessment is below.

The pipe is old and very worn. The scratches that she mentioned were deeper than I expected from the photos. The finish was worn on the underside of the shank and in places on the sides of the bowl. There were some dark spots on the top and bottom of the shank that looked like stains from moisture or something sitting against the shank in a box. Several of the scratches had white markings in them. As she noted the bowl was over reamed but that too was worse than I expected. It had been reamed to the point that the walls were very thin all the way around and the inner edge of the bowl was out of round. In examining the tapered stem up close it indeed seems to be proportionally short in comparison to the length of the bowl and shank. The shoulders at the shank/stem union are rounded and the fit is not tight. The crown or “W” stamping she mentioned is very hard to see and I am not sure of the actual stamp. There were deep scratches on the vulcanite of the stem as well. In my opinion the pipe needed to be restemmed. The next three photos below show the pipe on my work table before I started fitting a new stem.

I had a slab cut stem blank in my box of stems that had a Barling like look to it. The tenon needed to be turned slightly and hand sanded to fit the shank well. The diameter of the stem at the joint of the shank and stem was larger and needed to be trimmed to fit well. The slab blank had casting seams along the edges, a tight slot and an unfinished look to the edges. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to cut back the diameter of the stem at the shank. I also used it to sand away the casting marks and to smooth out the edges of the slab to give it a more finished looked. I took it back to the work table and sanded the saddle and slab with medium grit emery cloth to reduce the scratches left behind by the Dremel and to smooth out the fit to the shank. The next four photos show the state of the pipe after fitting the stem, using the Dremel and the emery cloth. The saddle still shows the marks of the sanding drum and needs more fine tuning to be a good tight fit but it is getting there. To me this stem looks more fitting to the old Barling’s Make billiard.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge to fine tune the fit and to remove the scratches. I then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and used needle files to open up the slot in the button. I used the round, oval and flattened files to open and shape the slot. I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the newly shaped slot. I then dry sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh from 3200-12,000 grit. The photos below show the progress of the sanding.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry while I worked on giving the bowl a new coat of stain to bring it back to life. I gave it a coating of Medium Walnut aniline stain and flamed it. I took it to the buffer and gave it a light buff with White Diamond on the buffing pad. I was careful around the faint stampings on the shank and hand buffed the shank.

I reinserted the new stem and gave the stem a buff with White Diamond and then waxed the entire pipe with carnauba wax. I applied several coats of the wax and the buffed it with a clean flannel buff to bring up the shine. The finished pipe is pictured in the four photos below. The new stem gives the pipe a much more dignified new look. I can’t wait to get it back to the owner and see what she thinks of the “new” look her pipe now sports!

A Petite Egg Cup Sitter – (English Made?) Repaired

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This pipe is a total mystery to me, but the shape and form of it caught my eye and I put a bid on it. The case that came with the pipe did not appear to be a pipe case at all but rather a case for a pair of glasses. The case thus did not lend any information to the maker of the pipe. The pipe itself looked to be quite small and petite. The dimensions given by the seller were a great help in determining whether this pipe was a miniature or not. Its overall length was 5 ¼ inches (which is not a small pipe). The bowl was 1 3/8 inches tall and the inner diameter of the bowl was 5/8 inches. The outer diameter of the bowl was 15/16 inches. The stem appeared to be attached to the bowl by a metal tip that was anchored in the bowl much like the insert in a cob – though way more elegant. The stem looked delicate and pencil like.

The bowl was like an egg cup – a round, egg shaped bowl sitting on a flat pedestal. The finish looked to be in good shape. There was a chip out of the top edge of the bowl, outside edge of the rim that had been repaired with a red putty of some sort that had bubbled. The rim was clean and undamaged. The bowl was very clean and the finish was a dark oxblood/dark brown combination that looked nice. The stem seemed to be in excellent shape. There were no bite marks of consequence. It was oxidized and brown but intact. In the photos the oxidation did not look too bad. There was a mark on the right side of the stem near the metal insert into the bowl. It did not look too deep but it was visible. The seller thought it may have once held a logo/medallion or some kind of identifying mark. It does not look like it did; rather it looks like an accidental burn (the burn mark and the bowl repair are visible in the seller’s photo below).

The next five photos below are the remainder of those posted by the seller.

When it arrived it was more delicate looking than it was in the pictures. Even though the measurements were correct it gives the illusion of being much smaller. My observations above drawn from the photos provided by the seller were correct. The case was indeed made for eye glasses and not the pipe. The stem was in excellent shape in terms of dents or bite marks. The mark on the side near the front was indeed a burn mark left by a match or cigarette in the ashtray. The aluminum was scratched and oxidized. The stem itself was more oxidized than the photos showed. The bowl finish was not bad and would not need to be refinished but would need to be touched up when I repaired the divot on the side of the bowl and rim. The next four photos show the pipe when I took it from the box and put it on my worktable.

The next photo below shows the burn mark on the stem. It is slightly blurry and I apologize for that but the burn itself is very visible. I cleaned out the burn mark with a dental pick to remove any of the damaged vulcanite around the mark. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge to clean up the vulcanite. I wiped it down with Everclear to remove and sanding debris and prepared it for a superglue patch.

The next series of three photos show the patching of the burn mark. I put a drop of superglue in the burn mark and let it dry. When it dried I sanded it with the medium grit sanding sponge to even out the surface and remove the excess glue. The center of the patch was still concave so once I cleaned the surface of the stem again I put another drop of black superglue on the mark and set it aside to dry.

The superglue dried over night and was hard in the morning. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and the sanding sponge to blend it into the surface of the stem. This is done carefully so as to not change or damage the profile of the stem. The next two photos show the progress of the blending. The first one was done with 220 grit and the second with the sanding sponge.

Once the initial sanding was done with the sponge I moved on to sanding the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit micromesh and dry sanded with the remaining grits of pad from 3200-12,000. When I had finished sanding and polishing the stem with the micromesh I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. When it had dried I polished the stem with a soft cotton cloth.

With the stem finished I worked on the chip and repair on the bowl and rim. I carefully picked out the putty fill with a dental pick. It only covered half of the chip so it was necessary to clean it out enough to repair the whole chip with one solid patch. I also sanded the rim in that area as the chip also extended into the surface of the rim. I wiped down the bowl and the area of the chip with acetone on a cloth to clean up the surface for the superglue and briar dust repair.

I packed briar dust into the chipped area with a dental pick and tamped it in place. I over filled the area on the side and on the rim of the bowl. Once it was solidly packed in place I dripped clear superglue into the briar dust on the side and the rim. The glue dries very quickly so it is a good idea to pack the dust in well the first time. If it sinks you can refill it and reapply the glue. It can be done in layers to build up the chip or fill area.

As the clear superglue dries quickly, the patch can be sanded soon after the application. I sanded it first with a corner of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess of patching material. I then sanded it with the sanding sponge to clean up the scratches and remaining surface grit. I also used a sanding sponge to top the bowl. The aim was not to remove much of the rim but to blend the patch into the rest of the rim.

I sanded the rim and the side of the bowl with micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the surface and to prepare it for staining. The next two photos show the patch after sanding and cleanup. It is ready for staining at this point in the process in terms of smoothness of the bowl. The red of the original putty patch came through the briar dust and superglue fill. It is evident in the photos below but should blend fairly well into the stain of the bowl once it is finished.

Before staining the pipe I wiped it down with acetone to even out the stain and to remove any remaining dust left behind by sanding.

I applied an oxblood aniline stain to the rim and bowl of the pipe. I flamed it and reapplied it as necessary. The rim and the repair took more coats of stain than the rest of the bowl which is to be expected.

Once the stain had set, I hand buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth and a buffing brush. I then gave the bowl and stem a hand applied a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it again by hand. I then took it to the buffer and gave it a buff with White Diamond and several coats of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe pictured below. I have also included a close shot of the area of the stem and the bowl that were repaired.

Al asked in a comment below that I post a picture of the pipe with a regular pipe to give an idea of the size. The pipe I have in the picture is the blue dot billiard that I posted earlier. It is about a group four sized pipe.

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