Tag Archives: Bowl – refinishing

Restoring an Astor Belge

This was one of the pipes I picked up recently on a trip to the US. It is a small Astor Belge shape which is one of my favourite shapes of pipes. Astor pipes were made by Comoy as a second line of pipes. From the number of fills on this one it can easily be seen why it is a second. It is a shame as it also has some amazing cross grain on the front and back and some beautiful birdseye among the fills on both sides. The extent of the birdseye grain can be seen in the second photo below.

The pipe was dirty but really in pretty good shape for its age. I reamed the bowl and cleaned the bowl and shank with Isopropyl alcohol (99%) to remove the tars and oils from the inside. Then I dropped the stem in some oxyclean to soak and wiped the bowl down with acetone (fingernail polish remover) to remove the finish. I dropped the bowl in the alcohol bath for awhile to give it a good soak and worked on several others for awhile.

After an hour in the bath, I removed the bowl and dried it off. The next series of three photos show the pipe after removal from the bath. I used micromesh 1500 grit sanding pads to remove the grime and tar from the rim and the inside bevelled edge. It took a bit of work to smooth this out and keep the angles the same all the way around. The third photo below shows the finished bevel and the top after quite a bit of sanding. The top took a bit more sanding with the micromesh to remove the darkening as it was on the surface and not too deep into the briar.

At that point I decided to remove the fills from the bowl as I personally dislike the pink putty fills that are often used on these old timers. I used the dental pick to remove the as can be seen in the next series of three photos. They were all pretty deep and would need to be repaired. After picking out the fill I wipe the bowl down with a soft cloth and Isopropyl alcohol to clean the surface of any remaining bits of putty. When they are clean and dry I fill them with briar dust that I have saved for this purpose.

After filling them with briar dust I drip the super glue/krazy glue into the dust and it dries almost instantly. The next three photos show the newly filled holes at various stages of the repair. The first photo shows the dust and super glue in the bottom holes before I sanded them. The top holes in the photo have been sanded a bit to smooth them out but are not finished. The second photo of the front of the bowl shows both the sanded ones and a newly filled hole with the super glue patch before it dried. The final photo in this series of three shows all the holes filled and the initial sanding completed.

The next two photos sow the holes patched and sanded smooth. The super glue and briar dust turned black in this case. This does not always happen but it did this time. I have no explanation for that in this case but they do look better than the previous pink fills. I have also learned that they can be hidden a bit with a dark understain. In this case I decided to stain the entire bowl with black aniline stain for a first coat. I flamed the stain and when it dried I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the entire bowl with Tripoli to remove the excess stain and leave the black in the grain and around the fills. You can also use black permanent marker to build the grain pattern around the fills to help hide them though I did not use that method on this pipe. I then sanded the bowl with the 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh pads to remove more of the overstain. I washed the bowl down several times with acetone to also lighten the black. Once it was at the saturation I wanted it was ready for the overcoat of stain.

I decided to use oxblood coloured aniline stain for the finish coat on this one. I wiped it on and then wiped it off before it dried to get good coverage I repeated that several times and finally gave it a full coat and flamed the stain to set it. When it was dry I took it to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond to give the final coat a real shine.

I finished the stem with my usual regimen of micromesh pads from 1500-6000 before putting it back on the bowl and buffing the pipe with White Diamond. I coated the stem with several coatings of Obsidian Oil and then gave the whole pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax to finish. The pictures below show the finished pipe. Though the fills are still visible they are diminished in their overall presence in the pipe. They no longer stand out in the finish. I personally love the depth of colour that this old Belge has with the new stains.

Carving one of my own

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Every so often I get the urge to carve a pipe of my own. I have done it from scratch, drilling the airway and bowl but often it is just as much fun for me to buy a pre-drilled block with its own stem and rework it into something I like. The pictures and essay below will take you through my process with a pipe I picked up off EBay for almost nothing. When you look at it some of you will recognize that for awhile in the 80’s and maybe earlier Singleton sold these pipes as Caveman Pipes. They were rough and were stained and waxed, stamped Singleton Caveman pipes and sold as is. I have always thought that they were ugly and looked unfinished. This one just begged to be reshaped – at least that is the excuse I gave when the package arrived and my wife commented on “yet another pipe”.

The first four photos give a good sense of what it looked like when it arrived at my house. It was a fairly small piece of briar and there was no way of knowing what lay beneath the surface of the block. It was stained and waxed. The stem was oxidized a bit but it did not matter as I was going to reshape it and make it my own. The last photo of the four shows the Caveman stamping I was referring to earlier.

I took out my Dremel with the larger sanding drum, replaced the sandpaper cylinder with a new one and began the process of removing the briar and making a shape that I liked and that I felt the briar held inside. The next three photos show the block with much of the briar removed and a shape is beginning to come out. I bring it to this point in the shaping process with the Dremel and the sanding drum. It works great for me. Some of you may notice the nicks from the Dremel on the saddle of the stem. Those are a pain but I was not worrying too much about it as I planned to shape the stem a bit more as well and those would disappear in the process. Also note, the shank is still not the diameter of the saddle on the stem at this point. From this stage one I do the shaping by hand with 100 grit sandpaper. It makes short work of the remaining excess briar. You will also see some burn marks at the bowl shank junction from the sanding drum – nothing that will not sand off. There are also sand pits and flaws beginning to show up in the surface of the briar.

Much sanding went on before I took the next series of three photos. I used the 100 grit sandpaper to remove much of the excess and then progressed to 220 and 240 grit sandpaper to bring the shape to the stage in these photos. I also sanded the saddle of the stem and the edges of the blade to match the line of the shank. I wanted the flow to be uninterrupted by the juncture of the two materials and I wanted the transition to be smooth. There were many sand pits visible at this time on the sides, top and bottom of the bowl and the shank. It is always a bit of pain to get to this point in the shaping and sanding and not be able to get rid of them. This left me with a bit of a quandary. What should I do to get the best finish on this pipe? I dislike fills and did not want to use putty in any form on this pipe. I figured the next bet would be to rusticate the pipe and give it an interesting texture for the prestained finish.

I used a tool that I fashioned out of a fistful of galvanized nails, a piece of steel pipe, a cap and nipple coupling. It looks like the photos below. It is the tool on the left. I also used a florist’s frog (pictured on the right) to give the finished surface a different touch.

Before I used the tool on the surface of the briar, I wrapped the saddle of the stem and a 1/8^th inch band with black electrical tape. I wanted to protect the saddle and the small band of briar from being rusticated with the tool. It is a work horse but is not subtle in its deep cuts. I wrap the cap end with a thick towel to protect my hand when I pushed the points of the nails into the briar. I pushed the head into the briar and twisted the tool back and forth to cut the surface of the briar and roughen it. The next series of four photos show the rusticated surface of the pipe after I finished with the nails and also after I rubbed the florist’s frog across the surface to knock off high points. I was aiming for a finish that has the look of aged leather so I wanted no roughness left but I wanted a crinkled, wrinkled look to the briar.

The next two photos show the pipe after I gave it a black understain. I used black aniline stain and applied it with a dauber. Once the pipe was covered I used a lighter to flame the stain to set it deeply in the briar. My goal was to have the black stain set deeply into the crevices of the rustication once I had buffed it. (I have learned that when I am staining to always start with the darkest stain and work toward the final lighter coat.) Once the stain was dry I took it to my buffer and buffed it with Tripoli. The buffer removed all of the black stain from the smoother, higher surfaces and the band next to the stem and the rim. The only black stain remaining was in the crevices and pits in the briar. At that point I restained the pipe with a medium brown aniline stain and flamed it as well. I took it to the buffer and this time buffed with Tripoli and White Diamond. I wanted the brown to give a top coat and allow the black to show through. I also wanted to smooth the surface a little to make it smooth in the hand.

The final series of photos show the finished pipe. I think I achieved the look of old worn leather I was aiming for with this rustication and staining. I worked on the stem and smoothed it out with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and water. Once the scratches were gone I worked through the usual regimen of micromesh pads from 1500 to 6000 grit. These gave the stem a good polished look. I finished it on the buffer with White Diamond and multiple coats of carnauba. The bowl was waxed with Halcyon 2 wax so that I could avoid the wax build up from carnauba in the crevices of the rustication. I gave the entirety a final buff with a clean flannel buffing pad. This one has become a favourite smoker of mine. It is perfect size to fit in my jacket pocket and it is a veritable furnace for good Virginia Flake tobacco.

Cleaning Up Estate Meerschaums – Fred Bass

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Blog by Fred Bass

Fred Bass, who is the moderator of the All Things Meerschaum Group on Smokers Forums, wrote this article and has given permission to have it posted on rebornpipes. Thanks to Fred for his continued work in educating many of us to the joy and delight of the meerschaum pipe.

There are an abundance of ideas about how to clean up used meerschaum pipes and return them to active service. Some of these ideas are good while others can generate problems of greater magnitude than those you sought to remedy. I don’t have all the answers and my repair skills are limited by spartan equipment and my lack of finesse with the tools that I do have. Just the same, many of the meerschaums in my collection were smoked by others before I acquired them and cleaned them up, using simple methods to get years of further use from these old soldiers. I’ve written essays and articles on the pleasures of smoking the seasoned meerschaums I’ve acquired, and which I continue to enjoy smoking. This can be done by anyone who cares to invest a bit of time and patience in acquiring vintage meerschaums to resurrect, and cleaning them up so that they can provide you with years of smoking pleasures as well. I don’t claim to be an expert or an artisan, but using the scraps of knowledge I’ve acquired over the years, as a student and devotee of these pipes and their cultures, has been a benefit to me and it is my pleasure to share what I’ve learned. These are things that I would like to pass along, not as the perfect example that should be followed, since there’s already plenty of that from all of the persona in the pipe community, but as something that I can contribute to the body of available knowledge, while not perpetuating myths and hearsay that are commonly held to be fact. The opinions and preferences of meerschaum pipe smoker are as numerous and diverse as the people who smoke them, and I have no intention to slight or refute them. If you read something in this essay that you think might be useful to you, then I will have achieved my intent to provide you with viable information.

Large Bent with scalloped underside, Amber mouthpiece, 7″ overall length

I will discuss things to consider prior to purchase of a vintage pipe, which means a pipe that is less than 100 years old, assuming that you don’t already have a pipe that you want to clean up; the basics of removing the debris of past use; routine cleaning to maintain a pipe that will smoke with clarity; and the choices you will need to make about the general appearance of the pipe. I have my own opinions, like everyone else, which you will find throughout this essay, but I will not tell you something that is outside of my experience without giving notice that it either speculation or something someone else has discovered by trial and error. If this sounds like it is something that is worth your time to read, then this is for you. Hopefully, you will find these old veterans of past fires to be as worthwhile as they are to me.

When considering the purchase of a used estate pipe or fixing up a meerschaum that you already have, it is important to get an idea of how much it will cost to fix the pipe, prior to a purchase and/or investing the cash, time and materials that will be required before it can be smoked again. Any good discussion about cleaning up estate pipes should take the value of the pipe and the cost of getting it back in service into consideration, as the two issues are linked to each other, unless you plan to use it for display in its’ current condition. It is best to be able to examine the pipe yourself, which is not always possible since many estate pipes are sold in online auctions.

Koncak Andreas Bauer Paneled Billiard

First, determine if there are any cracks, dings or break lines in the block, because if the block isn’t sound, then there is no reason to consider the pipe as being a candidate for future use. Online sellers should be able to provide this information, even if they don’t know a whit about pipes and have poor skills at photography. Reputable sellers are happy to answer your questions. Repairs to damaged block meerschaum are difficult, costly and generally not worth the investment. The presence of a metal band on the distal portion of the shank, where it meets the bit, may be there because of a repair, which is not a good sign for continued block integrity if you intend to smoke the pipe. Metal bands that adorn the pipe for effect don’t present this problem, but it is wise to consider how easy it will be to maintain a bright finish on them without creating problems for the block. Personally, I prefer to avoid having to clean metal on a pipe, especially around the bowl’s plateau, or to have to deal with the metal getting hot while discoloring the block during the smoke. Another aspect of the condition of the block is how much it has been smoked. Yes, well developed coloration is attractive but the more use a meerschaum has provided, the greater the possibility of diminished strength in the block’s integrity, especially in the older pipes, which are prone to being brittle. This is more of a consideration for Turkish block than it is for African block, because Turkish block is softer and hasn’t been strengthened by a calcification process, commonly used by factories that produced African block meerschaum pipes. That rich patina might also be there because the previous owner smoked a cheap aromatic blend and never spent a cent on a pipe cleaner, so you could be spending years trying to exorcise the ghosts from the pipe. I’ve been fortunate in that most of the estate pipes I’ve purchased were smoked by someone who enjoyed virginia blends, but the few that I discovered had been used to burn cheap aromatics were a real trial to clean up. Remember, you can’t use a retort or the salt-alcohol treatment on a meerschaum pipe. I know a few meerschaum pipe smokers that have drilled out the chamber and shank on pipes that have seen decades of abuse and neglect, but I don’t have the skills to do this. Others have used denatured alcohol as a cleaner but I prefer to rely on the FDA standards that Everclear must meet as a food grade solvent. The alcohol concentration is 95% with Everclear and I don’ need to be concerned about what the remaining 5% has in it, which is likely water. You should scrape the cake down to the block and clean the shank with Everclear, a shank brush and plenty of pipe cleaners before the first smoke, but you will need to repeat the cleaning between every smoke until the pipe starts smoking with clarity. Once the block has flushed the debris left by the last guy from burning his blends in it, the pipe will smoke well and it is up to you to keep it clean if you want it to remain smoking with clarity. After you scrape the cake out of the bowl’s chamber, then use a doubled over pipe cleaner with Everclear on it to get more of it out, and a paper towel to ream it. I don’t recommend using a pipe reamer because the force that is required to use one might crack the block. The shank brush with Everclear will help you clean the pipe’s draft, and it might take more than one to do so because a fouled draft can destroy a good number of them before the job is done. When the pipe cleaners start coming back white, then you will know that the pipe is clean. Smoking the pipe will cause more of the trash to migrate out of the block, so be prepared to use a lot more pipe cleaners, shank brushes and Everclear. Some of the abused estate pipes I’ve cleaned up have made a pint of Everclear look like engine sludge with the first cleaning. This isn’t the fun part of cleaning these old pipes up, so it deserves your consideration prior to a purchase or a decision to clean up that old meerschaum that’s been in the family for generations.

The next thing to consider is the bit and the bit-to-shank connector. I prefer derlin push/pull connectors and bone screws.

The Delrin connectors are easily replaced, providing that the threads in the bit and the shank are intact. The bone screw connectors in some of my pipes have lasted for 35 years or more. The downside to them is that they must be kept clean or they can foul the smoke and they can require advance skills in the use of a pipe cleaner. I’ve never been able to appreciate the taste that metal connectors impart to the smoke, so I avoid them. If the bit and the connector need replacing, then either I’ll do it or send it to a pipe repairman if it requires more skills than I have in order to fix them. In the past, I have sanded and refinished bit that were badly oxidized. These days, after discovering that it involved a lot of work, I prefer to just have them replaced if they are in poor condition. There are guys that are happy to work for days on restoring a bit. I’m not one of them. If I can’t clean the bit up using Everclear, a shank brush, pipe cleaners and bit polish, then I send it to Floyd Norwood. If the bit is light colored so that the lumen of the draft is visible, then I’ll use hydrogen peroxide to help remove old stains in the plastic, which is a timely process because I use a shank brush to scrub them in my routine cleaning and do not let the bits soak in the hydrogen peroxide. Get used to the fact that everything about meerschaum pipes is a slow process. If the pipe has an amber bit with chunks missing, I will have it replaced with and a new acrylic bit. Amber is expensive and many artisans will not work with it. Amber is fragile and the ‘cultured amber’, which is made from the dust and chips left over from cutting and polishing the raw material, is the most fragile. I use regular pipe cleaners, Everclear and bit polish on them. Shank brushes and bristled pipe cleaners should never be used to clean amber bits, as they are brittle and break easily.

The general appearance and condition of the block’s exterior must be taken into account. Dirt and grime on the block can be removed by using a clean, white cotton cloth, moistened with Everclear. In a recent reply to my e-mail inquiry to S.M.S. Meerschaums about re-waxing meerschaums, Beth Sermet replied as follows:

Rewaxing a Block Meerschaum
Preparation: 100% beeswax cakes — confectionery quality
Old towel or cloth — to prevent hot wax from dripping or spattering onto other surfaces
Hair dryer — multiple temperature and fan settings
Cotton swabs — for brushing the melted beeswax
Polishing cloth — soft white terry cloth towel or white flannel

STEP 1: Use a hair dryer set to hot temperature setting, but low air speed. Heat the beeswax cake to consistency of lip balm. Hold the pipe by the stem. Smear onto the bowl directly from the beeswax cake like lipstick. Do not touch the bowl with your fingers during any of the steps.

STEP 2: Continue to heat the section of the surface of the bowl until the wax becomes liquid. Use the cotton swab like a brush to paint the area with a coating of wax. Push (the) molten wax into crevices and hard to access areas. The swab may unravel as it absorbs excess wax. Coat the entire bowl surface evenly. CAUTION: Try to prevent wax from dripping into the tobacco hole since it will leave a bitter taste.

STEP 3: Heat the bowl again to allow complete absorption of the wax. Set the pipe down on the towel to cool.

STEP 4: After the bowl cools to room temperature. Buff the surface to a high gloss using a towel first then the flannel cloth for the final buffing. If the surface is tacky, too much wax is on the surface. Heat this area again and remove excess wax with a cotton swab and buff again.

STEP 5: Repeat when the surface becomes soiled or dull. Excessive waxing may cause too much wax accumulation (tacky surface and dripping).

Peterson African Block Meerschaum Prince Estate Pipe Made in Great Britain

In the past, I’ve used aggressive methods to clean up the exterior of the pipe. These days, I try to preserve as much patina as I can, which means that I wax the meerschaum while smoking it, using white beeswax, instead of resorting to the heroic measures of the artisan. Sanding the block to remove scratches and stains will change the shape of the pipe and it could be years before the patina returns, anytime you disturb the color progression. If there is a buildup of cake on the scorched plateau of the bowl, then scrape the carbon off as best you can without scoring or exposing the surface of the block. The beeswax will serve to make the black color soften and become more diffuse in time with continued waxing and smoking of the pipe. This is a more conservative approach but I’ve found it to be preferable to waiting years for the coloration to return to the pipe. These pipes will often take a lot of beeswax because they likely have not been waxed since they received it from the carver, which will produce rapid onset of coloration in pipes that have been heavily smoked by others. It is like having the benefits of a professional smoker- a service that the wealthy and nobles have paid for in the past. Here is a bit of history that Ben Rapaport ran across while digging thru the stacks of resources.

There is no doubt that the industry of colouring meerschaum pipes was, and probably is still, thriving in Paris. I remember, when living in one of the streets surrounding the Palais-Royal, to have seen opposite the house in which I lived a man, with his window open, smoking all day long and all the year round curiously elaborated meerschaum pipes. I met him one day, and could not help asking him how he could resist such inhalation of nicotine. He told me he was a professional ‘meerschaum colourer’ for the account of Madame Hubert, an extensive pipe-dealer in the neighborhood. He was paid a yearly salary of 1500 francs, and supplied gratis with tobacco. (“Very Like ‘Smoke,” Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-Communication for Literary Men, Readers, Etc., Fourth Series.–Volume Third, June 12, 1869, 567)

These days, I’m more selective about the pipes I take in to clean up. If they look like they are going to be a real trial, then I pass on them. There are guys that enjoy working long hours to salvage the pipes that have been abused for decades. I’ve discovered that I’m simply not one of them. The additional cash that I might spend on another pipe that is in better condition is worth it to me. I know my limitations. Some of you already know that dwelling in the realms of the White Goddess can be devastating to your bank account. In many ways, the estate meerschaum pipe market offers some degree of respite as long as you think about the hidden costs, such as what it takes to clean these survivors up, and/or repair them. In The Thrill of the Hunt (PipesMagazine.com, 10/19 2010): http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/put-that-in-your-pipe/the-thrill-of-the-hunt-a-guide-to-estate-meerschaums/, I wrote about some of the realities of this market and expanded on it in Time Travelers (PipesMagazine.com, 6/2012). It pays to do the homework before playing with the past glories of this seductive mistress because the rewards can be great. Whether you have found grandfather’s old meerschaum, while rummaging thru the attic, or have acquired the vintage pipe of your dreams from an auction, knowing that returning these old veterans of past fires to active duty will take time is just another of the many lessons in delayed gratification that the White Goddess teaches. Come with me and discover for yourself why these pipes have been so highly prized for the past 300+ years. Care to join me in a smoke?

Fred Bass founded the All Things Meerschaum Group on October 14, 2008 for anyone interested in meerschaum pipes, carvers, culture & history, and the care & maintenance of meerschaums. If you have an interest in, or are curious about the meerschaum experience, you can contact Fred at FBass16117@aol.com or on Smoker’s Forums, http://www.smokersforums.co.uk/

Edwards Contour or Criterion Restoration

A WDC Milano Hesson Guard Reworked

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I just worked over this old timer – A WDC Milano Hesson Guard. In order to know more about the pipe I was working on I searched for information regarding the patent number stamped on the pipe and went to the US Patent site where I found documentation. The patent was filed for it in 1932. It is an early example of the pipe. It is in the acorn shape. It has the patent number stamped on it as well as the other WDC labels. The triangle on the stem is silver or steel inlay. For me this is a part of the mystery of unpacking the history and life of the brand and mark. I always like to know as much of the back story as I can find on any of the pipes I refurbish. Patent numbers stamped on the pipe provide a means of ferretting out information on the design and the particular part of the pipe that is patented. I have included the patent site information on the pipe for your reading pleasure. At least to me this part is fascinating information.

The pipe was caked with a crumbly thick cake that pretty much filled the bowl when I picked it up. I reamed it out to field dress the pipe. I generally do this with most of the pipes I bring home for renewal. It keeps the mess of the carbon from the cake outside and away from my work desk. In the photos below you can see that the finish was pretty dirty with a lot of hand oils and grease ground into the bowl surface. The rim was caked and tarred and it looked like it was damaged. The finish was worn and the stain faded in many places on the bowl sides. The stem was oxidized and had some bubbles in the surface along the button – the bubbles are visible near the button in the second photo below.

I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil soap, undiluted. I wipe it on with a cotton cloth and immediately wipe it off. Others have said that it removes the stain if left to long and it does indeed do that. But I have found it unsurpassed in quickly removing grime and grease if rubbed on and rubbed off quickly. I worked on the rim as well with a soft bristle tooth brush and the oil soap to remove the buildup. Once that was done I put it in the alcohol bath and removed the finish that was on it. It seemed to have had some built up waxes and also some kind of varnish coat over the stain. It came off with a bit of elbow grease after soaking. I decided to not stain this pipe as the briar looked great as it was. I just sanded it with the micromesh pads to polish it and remove the surface scratches. Then I took it to the buffer to give it a buff with White Diamond.

I worked on the stem while the bowl soaked in the bath. I soaked it in the Oxyclean mixture for a while to soften the oxidation. I dried it and buffed it with Tripoli to remove the surface oxidation. I sanded it with 240 grit sandpaper to get the deeper oxidation. I also had to lift a few tooth marks from the underside of the stem near the button. I used the heat gun to do that. The bubble on the top of the stem also was heated to try to smooth it out. It was evidently not a blister but a bump from teeth. It went back in place with the heat. I sanded the remaining signs of bite with 240 grit sandpaper and then 400 and 600 grit wet dry and water. I finished it with the normal regimen of 1500-6000 grit micromesh pads to polish. I put it back on the bowl and then gave the entirety a buff with White Diamond to polish it and finished the restoration with several coats of carnauba wax.

Restored a Comoy’s Tradition from the 50’s

Dr. Plumb Bulldog Restoration

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My daughter’s boyfriend found this neat little Dr. Plumb bulldog at a New Orleans shop and sent it to me for restoration. I thought Dr. Plumb had a connection to GBD and I believe they are now owned by the Cadogan group. The stem was in terrific shape, save for a heavy coat of oxidation. The top of the bowl was scorched and it had some dents and scratches.

Before:

I reamed the bowl with both my Castleford and Senor reamers. Someone in the pipes past had reamed it a little out of round, but it wasn’t too bad. I removed some of the dents with a knife heated by a flame and a wet towel. Most of the major ones popped back out nicely. The bowl has some fills, but they are hidden well by the factory finish. In order to remove the scorched top, it would have required a restain. I was afraid with the numerous fills, it would look better with the factory finish. “Character” as they say. I buffed the bowl with some Tripoli, White diamond and with a final buff using Carnuba. The stamping is very legible.

The stem was soaked in an Oxyclean solution overnight to soften the brown coating. Unfortunately, the stem logo proved very problematic. I could not get the oxidation off this part of the stem without removing the logo. The owner opted for me to leave the logo and brown patch.

Here is the finished product.

The pipe sure looks like it would be a good smoking piece and I hope the young man enjoys it for many years.

Keyser Hygienic Patent Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

Over the past year I have been picking up these Keyser Hygienic pipes on EBay. This one makes the third one I have picked up at a reasonable price. They are made in England and sold exclusively in South Africa. The word is that they were designed to be virtually indestructible for farmer pipe smokers in SA. All versions of the pipe have the same stem – one size fits all. They seem to be made of nylon and rubber or some combination. They are tough and take tooth wear very well. Two of the three I picked up are older and both had the original stems on them. They had tooth chatter and minor dents. Steaming would not raise the dents at all. I had to deal with them with sandpaper and micromesh sanding pads.

The photo below came from the web and pictures a cutaway picture of the pipe and the unique condensing chamber that makes up the patented portion of the pipe. The shank has an aluminum condensing chamber with a tube in the centre that lines up with the tube inside the stem. It is pointing downward so air swirls around in the chamber formed by the military bit stem and the shank. Moisture is trapped and the smoke is cool and dry without loss of flavour.

The pipe I am working on this time is a pot shaped sand blasted pipe. The aluminum was oxidized and dull the blast was dirty and the crevices filled with dirt and grime. The stem was in pretty clean shape other than the tooth chatter near the button. The rim of the bowl was tarred and caked. The cake was uneven and tapering in the bowl – almost as if the bowl was only half filled and smoked that way the majority of the time. The upper portion of the bowl had a very thin layer of cake and the lower portion a thick uneven cake. The condenser in both the stem and the shank were filled with a dark brown tar and the airway was constricted in the shank and clogged in the stem. The photo below shows the condition of the bowl and the stem and highlight where the work would be needed to clean up the exterior of this pipe.

I reamed the bowl back to bare briar and scrubbed the blast surface with a brass tire brush to clean out the crevices. I also used a soft bristle tooth brush to finish cleaning the surface off. Once that was done I put the bowl in the alcohol bath to soak while I worked on the stem. The next two photos below show the stem after I used 240 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and slight dents. I then used micromesh pads from 1500-6000 grit to polish the stem and work out the scratches. I have learned the hard way that you cannot buff these stems on the buffer as a little bit of surface heat from the buffing pads melts and distorts the surface. So these stems are totally buffed and polished by hand.

The next two photos show the stem after it has been sanded up to the 3200 grit micromesh pad. The stem is beginning to get a shine and the scratches are disappearing with the sanding. From this point I went on the sand the stem through the remaining micromesh grits and when finished I gave it a coating of Obsidian Oil to penetrate the surface and give it a deep polish. Once that dried I buffed it by hand with some carnauba wax in paste form that I purchased from Walker Briar Works.

From the next series of photos you can see that I interrupted my work on the stem to remove the bowl from the alcohol bath. I did that because I was curious to see how it was cleaning up. You will notice in these photos the brownish grey sludge in the grooves of the blast. I used the tooth brush once again to scrub the surface with Isopropyl from the alcohol bath. Once the grime was removed I washed the bowl down with clean Isopropyl and dried it off.

The next series of photos show the dried bowl. The grime is gone and the finish is now down to the stain. Even some of the top coat of stain has been removed and you can see the briar. I laid the bowl aside and finished up the stem as I described it above.

The aluminum condensing chamber on the shank and the chamber in the stem needed much work. I used cotton swabs that I flattened to clean the area inside the shank around the airway extension and the same in the stem. Once that was clean I polished the oxidized aluminum with the micromesh pads to burnish the aluminum and get the shine back.

I then restained the bowl with a dark brown stain, knowing that when I buffed it the reddish brown undercoat would shine through on the high spots and the dark would fill the crevices and give the pipe a contrast stain. The next series of three photos show the staining and the way the various grains took the stain. The right side of the bowl has a great ring blast that is fairly deep and craggy. The left side is more of a blast on birdseye. It is an interesting looking blast. The bowl rim came out clean as well and shows an interesting contrast in the light of the flash.

The final series of four photos show the finished pipe. The entirety has been given a coat of wax. I used Halcyon II on the blast to polish it without leaving the white residue in the grain of the blast when it dried. I buffed it by hand. The stem received another hand applied coat of carnauba wax and a buff by hand. The pipe pictured is clean and ready to smoke.

I have included pictures below of the other two Keyser pipes that I picked up and refurbished. The top one is an apple with really nice grain. I have been smoking this one and enjoying the dry and cool smoke that it gives. The second is a smaller prince shape that is no longer available. It had some burns on the rim that are still visible but it too smokes very well. One day will rework the rim a bit and minimize the burn marks. Till then I will smoke these Keyser’s and keep an eye for more of them.

Refurb on a Two Point Billiard – Gnawed Stem

Rebuilding a chewed and dented stem with super glue

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I just finished reworking this old stem from an Imperial Two Point Made in London Lovat. The stem was very unique in that it is a p-lip design though slotted in the airway. I have a second one that I am working on that has the same stem so I believe this is one of the hallmarks of the Two Point. That being the case I decided to restore the stem rather than cut a new one. You can see the state of the vulcanite from the three pictures below. The first picture is of the top of the stem. There were three major tooth dents in the surface of the stem, two chunks out of the edge of the button and a piece missing out of the edge of the lip of the slot. The second picture is of the underside of the stem. There you can see one major dent from teeth and also several smaller dents. There is also a dent in the edge of the lip of the pipe that has moved the straight line with a dip in it. The third picture shows the slot in the end of the stem, it is a bit out of focus but you can see the missing piece at the left side of the top edge.

I used my heat gun set on low to lift the dents as much as possible before working on the stem with sandpaper and superglue patches. I cleaned the surfaces of both the top and bottom of the stem after heating and then sanded them with 240 grit sandpaper to remove oxidation and anything that would prohibit the glue from sticking. In the first photo below you can see the two patches on the dents that remained after heating on the underside of the stem and the work that has been done straightening the line. I decided to work on the underside first as it needed a bit less repair. Once the glue was dry I turned the stem over and patched the top side. In the second photo below you can see the super glue patches on the surface of the stem, the two dents on the edge of the button to build up the edge. Once it was dry I planned on using needle files on both top and bottom to sharpen the edge of the button to a crisp restored look.

The next two photos show the top and bottom surfaces of the stem after sanding with 240 grit sandpaper to bring the glue patches flush with the surface and using the needle files to sharpen the edges of the patched button.

The next picture (I apologize for the blurriness but I think it still is clear enough to see the point I am making) shows the work that was needed to rebuild the lip of the button on the topside where the chip was. I carefully layered in black superglue making sure not to close off the airway. I used a greased pipe cleaner folded in half in the airway of the slot to provide a base to build on. Once the base was buildt I stood the stem on end and gradually layered in super glue to build up the top edge of the slot. The goal was to return it to a smooth rounded crown with a clean straight slot for the airway.

The next two pictures show the build up area on the end of the button. It is a shiny black spot in the photo at the bottom right edge of the button. Each one shows a bit more of the build up to give an idea of the process. I would have to recut the edge of the button on the top side when the build up was complete.

When I had the surface filled to satisfaction I recut the edge of the button with the needle files and also sanded the surface with 240 grit sandpaper and 400 and 600 grit wet dry and water to smooth out the fill. I then proceeded to use my normal list of micromesh pads from 1500-6000 grit to finish the stem. I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it with White Diamond. I took it back to the work desk and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil, wiped it off when dry and gave the stem a final coat of carnauba wax. The pictures below show the finished stem. The first one shows the topside and the rebuilt crown of the button. The glare and shadows on the picture do not allow you to see clearly the recut edge but it is straight and clean. The second picture shows the underside of the stem and the crisp straight edge of the button. The final picture is an end shot to show the slot and the curve and flow of the crown of the button.