Tag Archives: Bowl – refinishing

Rebirth of a WDC Milano Dublin

This old WDC Milano was a challenge that I wanted to take on and see how it would turn out. In the pictures below you can see the state of the pipe when I received it. The stem was deeply darkened in the button area as well as scratched and marked with tooth chatter on the first inch of the stem. The bowl was badly caked – much of the cake had broken away in chunks and what remained was soft and crumbling. It also appeared to have been reamed with a pocket knife and had nicks and cuts around the inner edge of the rim and the resulting effect left the bowl way out of round. The finish was damaged and parts of the stain had rubbed away and what was left was underneath layers of black grime. The sides of the bowl and the bottom side of the shank both showed signs of having been laid in an ashtray and burned with a cigarette. The burn on the bowl side was not deep and would be easily addressed but the one on the shank was pretty deep. I would have to take out as much as possible without changing the integrity of the shape. That gives you a pretty clear assessment of the damages facing me as I decided to work on this old pipe.

I reamed and cleaned the bowl back to the bare wood in order to remove the crumbling and cracked soft cake in the bowl. My thinking was that a good clean surface would encourage the build-up of a proper cake. With a sharp knife I worked on the inner rim. I worked to get it evened out with the knife and then turned to a folded 1 inch piece of 240 grit sandpaper to smooth out the roughness of the inner rim and to bring it back as close as possible to being round. The roughness of the rim required topping to even it out as well. I used my normal procedure of sandpaper anchored on a solid flat hard surface and turning the bowl clockwise or counter clockwise into the sandpaper – exercising caution to keep the bowl flat on the surface and vertical in order to keep the rim flat and not slanted. To remove the burn mark on the bowl and on the shank took a little time. On the bowl side it was not deep so it only needed to be sanded to remove the damage. But on the shank I scraped until I got to hard wood and then sanded. Once I had solid briar under the burn I put the bowl in an alcohol bath to remove the grime and the remaining finish. I left it overnight to soak and turned my attention to the stem.

The stem has a steel tenon and insert that is the system in these old Milano pipes. It seems to be some sort of condensing chamber to collect the moisture generated in a smoke. In any case this one was filled with tars inside and coated with them on the outside. I cleaned it out with a shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and then fluffy ones until they came out clean. The outside of the condenser I scrubbed with 0000 steel wool to polish and remove the grime and tars. The aluminum polished up nicely and the tenon looks like new. The Bakelite stem took a bit more work and creativity. I cleaned the inside of the stem scrubbing it with soft scrub and bristle cleaners. I was able to remove much of the interior stains. I sanded the exterior of the stem to remove the tooth chatter and external discolouration. I sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then the usual course of micromesh pads from 1500-6000 grit. I finished by buffing the stem with Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba wax.

I put the stem aside and removed the bowl from the alcohol bath and dried it off. I sanded the bowl with 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh to remove any remaining finish. I also sanded it with 3200 and 4000 grit micromesh to polish the bowl. I restained it with an oxblood stain. I flamed the stain and then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and carnauba wax. Below are the pictures of the finished pipe.

Giving New Life to a Barling’s 2729 Fancy Bent Dublin from 1962

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I picked up this old Barling’s shape 2729 in a lot I bought on EBay. From what I could find out about it on the internet it came out in 1962. You can see from the pictures the state it was in when it arrived. It was the kind of challenge I like to work on in these old estate pipes. There is a deep satisfaction in bringing them back to life and restoring them to a spot on the pipe rack and the weekly rotation. The finish was gone, though in the grooves of the blast there was some darker brown/red stain. The blast was obscured on the sides and rim by the grime that filled the valleys in it. The rim was intact and not beat up at all – just incredible dirty. The bowl had been lightly reamed and was still round!! The stem was well chewed with deep dents on the edges of the stem and deep dents in the top and bottom. There were also holes chewed through the stem on both the top and bottom as well. The oxidation was very heavy and deep. The Barling’s Cross was all but gone on the stem but under a bright light it was faintly visible so the stem was clearly the original.

I took the stem off the pipe to work on and placed the bowl in my alcohol bath for overnight. Before submerging it in the bath I wet it with alcohol and scrubbed it with a small brass tire brush that is readily available at most Wal-Mart stores or online through Amazon. I find that the soft brass does not damage the ridges and valleys on the blast finish but really loosens the grime when used with Isopropyl alcohol. I generally dip the bowl and then scrub it before leaving it to soak. When I remove it from the bath I scrub it once again and wash off the bowl with some fresh alcohol to remove any residual grime. Once the bowl was dry it was utterly lacking any finish. It was ready to restain. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem.

The stem was a mess on this pipe as I mentioned above. Below are four pictures of it after I soaked it in Oxyclean to soften the oxidation on the surface. The pictures show how reddish brown that oxidation was when I started. I sanded the surface to highlight the bite marks and holes in the stem. The stem was badly chewed and could have been a candidate for replacement but it was an original Barling’s stem so I wanted to see if I could save it and reuse it. I cleaned the surface and picked the grit and grime out of the holes with a dental pick. I washed the surface down with Isopropyl to give a good clean surface. The button was virtually chewed away and there was a fair sized hole on the underside of the stem. The tooth marks were very deep and there was not much to work with in lifting them with heat. This made them a candidate for a patch with black super glue.

The picture below shows the top of the stem with the black super glue fill in the bite marks and holes. The idea is to slowly fill them and build up the surface of the stem. I also continued to fill them until there was a good slope from the stem surface to the top of the button. Once it was dry my plan was to use needle files to recut the button.

The next picture shows the glue after it has dried and I have done the initial sanding to smooth out the surface of the stem. I still have not recut the button at this point.

The picture below shows the underside of the stem after the glue has dried and I have done the initial sanding on the stem. It is still pretty rough but the holes are filled and the button is built up. Note in this picture the very visible copper tenon on the stem. The previous owner must have broken the tenon and had it replace with this thin copper tubing. The tenon is very delicate on this stem so the copper is actually an interesting fix in terms of durability. I have never seen a repair like that. The tubing was scored and inserted into the stem and held with an epoxy. After the soak in Oxyclean it was loose so I removed it, cleaned it and since it was a good tight fitting tenon/mortise union so I decided to reuse it. It is a wonder that he did not put a copper band around the button end of the stem as well to repair the bite through and tooth marks.

The next two pictures show the stem after sanding the stem surface smooth with 240 grit sandpaper. My purpose in using that grit is to get a clean surface to work with as I move to rework the button on the top and bottom of the stem. I had yet to work on the saddle of the stem in these pictures. I will often save that until the rest is finished.

I failed to take pictures of recutting the button on the stem but you can see the new button in the finished pictures below. I cut and shaped it with a flat needle file and a wedge needle file. I like the clean angles of a new button so I was aiming for that with just a little wear to match the age of the pipe. I finished the sanding and polishing of the stem using 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then used the normal list of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-6000 grit. I keep a bowl of water close by to dip both the paper and the pads in as I sand as I find it more effective in removing the scratches and remaining oxidation. Once the stem was finished I put it on the pipe bowl and gave it a buff with Tripoli and White Diamond to get a good sheen to the surface. I never buff a stem apart from a pipe as I do not want to damage the stem shank junction by rounding the clean edge of the stem. Once I finished I set it aside and went back to restain the bowl.

I did a bit of research (that is a part of the process I really like) to find out about the original finish and colour of stain used on this particular pipe. I learned that it was more of a reddish tone and really wanted to get close to that reddish brown colour on the finished pipe. I used some oxblood stain and a bit of medium brown stain (both aniline stains) and gave the bowl a coat of the brown first and then flamed it and buffed it. After that I gave it a coat of the oxblood stain and flamed it. I reinserted the stem and took it to the buffer and with a light touch buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond. I did not want to soften the ridges of the blast but wanted to buff it enough to get a contrast in the stain.

I used some Obsidian Oil on the stem and then Halcyon II wax on the bowl. Once they dried I hand buffed the stem and the bowl with a soft cotton cloth. I added a coat of wax to the stem when it was finished as well. In the pictures below you can have a look at the finished pipe. I took pictures with a .10 cent piece/dime below the pipe to give an idea of the size. It is a dainty little pipe with a pencil shank. I hope to smoke it this week end and enjoy a nice bowl of aged 5100 in it.

Every restoration has a beginning…. – Chuck, aka Desertpipe on SF

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Chuck posted this on Smokers Forums and I thought it merited posting here as well. I asked him for permission to post and use his photos. I copied the exchange from his side in writing about his cleaning process. I include it here as it is helpful to see another refurbisher at work.

It is one thing to restore pipes for yourself, and then later on start giving them to friends. It is quite another to restore as an adjunct to working as a Tobacconist, in a Brick and Mortar Shop. I am slipping into that position, as my pipes have been well received in our Estate Pipe (sorry Ben) display case. I find myself challenged, and we will see, together, the outcome. Here is a trio of pipes that were they to show up in a group from eBay, would go directly to my “Someday Box”. They are caked heavily and there is damage beginning to the structure of the bowls. The briar is tar soaked to the point that grain is no longer visible, and the bits cannot go further into the shanks, nor be withdrawn in one pipe.

Stay tuned over this weekend, as I see what can be made of these three.

Mike….I have practiced on a number of pipes that were badly caked, actually a few were my Dad’s handed down, and I even purchased a few off eBay in that condition. I use my “Someday Pipes” to increase my skill level. I have acquired seven specialized tools that I use to vanquish this demon cake. And I examine closely for any existing damage, pointing it out to the customer and explaining a worst case ending to the attempted restoration.

And I sure hope in these three cases they end up resembling a pipe….

After carefully removing the bits from the shanks, I went to work on the cake. As Mike pointed out, one has to be very careful, as a pipe caked to this extent is almost assuredly suffering from some damage to the briar.

Special note – New Mexico Environmental has informed me that they plan to insist that I get the certification required for coal strip mining, if I plan to continue to bring back pipes in this condition…..

Stage one of the “Cleanup”….Bits soaked overnight in my magic solution and then steel wooled while still wet. Total bristle clean-out of the airway and the tenon area. Two solution scrubs of the briar and clean-out of the mortise…..now on to sanding and briar repair.

I would have had these done Sunday evening, but with the temperature hovering around 100 degrees, we had a wide spread power outage on our side of the Mountain…..six hours later, we could check the update for fires, cool off and relax. The pipes had to wait….until now.

I did not restore the surface bite marks on the bits, as they were going back to the same owner. Leaving them as intact as they came to me, with no heavy sanding, allows him to retain much of the original thickness. Buffing them out and then resurfacing the finish has them looking good.

The customer had a funny response when he picked up his pipes today. He quietly picked them up, one at a time, and examined them for several minutes. He then looked up at me with a big smile on his face and said “Alright! What did you do with MY pipes?” Quiet for another minute, and then “They haven’t looked like this in 20 years.”

And then he paid his bill and added a tip to cover my lunch.

Refurb on a London Made Dainty Prince

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This was a refurb I did last August while I was laid up with a couple of cracked ribs. I wanted to post it here because it gives a good idea of the process of refurbishing and taking grimy old pipes and bringing them back to life.

I am a bit laid up after a fall so I am sitting quietly in my shop instead of doing painting and trim on the house (original plan for the holidays). The great part of this is no guilt about not working on the house or yard. Because of that I am getting a bunch of old pipes I have in boxes cleaned up and finished.

The first one today (Aug. 1) is a nice little London Made Prince with a patented Flat Grip Stem. (I cannot remember who made these but I have had a few over the years). The stem is stamped Flat Grip and has a nice raised silver spot on the stem. The bowl is stamped London Made. It is a small pipe – 5 1/4 inches long but about a group one sized bowl.

From the pictures below you can see the state it was in after the reaming. I got into a groove and forgot to take pictures before I reamed it. But it was really dirty and caked – to the point that a pencil could not stand in the bowl. It always amazes me that in these small pipes, which hold very little tobacco any way, people let them get to the point where they hold even less tobacco. Just a few minutes of work and they would have had a clean bowl.

I reamed and cleaned the bowl and shank and put it in my alcohol bath for the morning. I have a pint jar filled with Isopropyl alcohol that serves as the bath for filthy bowls. In this case it sat in the bath for 3 hours before I got to work on it. It is a nice sized jar in that I can drop 4 or 5 bowls in it at the same time and work on the stems while they soak. Once it came out and dried I sanded the bowl all around and cleaned it once again to get any residual grime out. The airway was clogged so a paper clip took care of that and then a good scrub with a bristle pipe shank brush and repeated pipe cleaners. Once clean I stained it with a cherry stain that works with these old timers and brings out the colours of the briar. It was then buffed with Tripoli and White Diamond and waxed it with carnauba.

The stem was rough so I buffed and sanded and buffed and sanded and got the oxidation off and then sanded a bit more to get the teeth chatter off of the surface of the stem near the button. I always start with a 220 or 240 grit sandpaper in removing the oxidation and tooth chatter and then progress through 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper before finishing the progress with micromesh sanding pads – 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 4000 and 6000 grit. Once the sanding is finished I took the pipe to the buffer for a final buff with White Diamond before polishing the whole pipe with carnauba wax.

Before shots: (I reamed out the cake prior to this photo set)

Photos of the finished pipe:

Refurb on an old WDC “Falcon” style pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

I refurbished this old WDC pipe a while ago now and thought I would post it for its historical value. I have called it a Falcon style pipe in that the bowl is removable and thus interchangeable with other WDC bowls. The stem and bowl bottom are Bakelite and the bowl itself is threaded briar bowl with an airway on the bottom. This one needed a bit of work as can be seen from the first two pictures below. The bowl was badly caked so I reamed it, sanded it and cleaned it. Then I had to top it as the rim seemed to have been used as a “hammer” and was seriously dented and chewed along the out edges of the bowl. Once the bowl was topped I decided to strip the finish from the bowl and restain and polish the bowl as a whole. I wanted to keep with the older style reddish brown stains that I had seen on other WDC pipes that I have so I used an oxblood understain and the overstained it with Medium Brown aniline. I buffed the finished bowl with Tripoli and White Diamond while holding it with a finger inserted in the bowl and holding on to the bowl with the other hand. I did not want the buffer to snatch it out of my hand while I was buffing it. I finished by giving the bowl a polish with carnauba wax and a soft cotton flannel buff.

The bowl seats in the Bakelite bottom on top of a brass ring that seems to act as both decoration and gasket to the bowl connection. It needed some cleaning and polishing as it too had dents and scratches in the surface.

The Bakelite receptacle bottom that the briar bowl screwed into was very dirty and I cleaned it out with cotton swabs and alcohol and then polished the inside with a soft cloth. The stem was rough with deep scratches and gouges in it. I sanded it with 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper and a bit of water to give the grit a bite. Then I finished with micromesh pads in 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 4000 and 6000 grits. Upon completion of the sanding I buffed the stem with Tripoli and White Diamond.

Here are pictures of the pipe after I reamed it with a Pipnet Reamer (T-handle with interchangeable heads).

Here are pictures of the pipe after it has been finished:

I also thought some of you might be interested in seeing a picture of the pipe taken apart. I have included a picture of the cleaned version for you to get an idea of what the pipe looks like when taken apart.

A Trio of BBB’s in need of topping!

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Blog by Steve Laug

Tonight I went to work on a trio of BBB’s I just purchased. Two of them, those stamped BBB Tortoise (with the ivory stem) looked to have come from the same pipe smoker wielding the same torch lighter. He had in essence cut a trough across the top of the rim from front right to back middle. In the three photos below you can see the damages to the rims. The top photo shows the oval shank Canadian and the second shows the round shank Liverpool. The third one is a BBB Silver Grain and it looked to have been used as a hammer. The outer edges of the rim were rough and beaten and the rim itself was marred with dents. Besides the damage to the rim the Tortoise Liverpool had a cracked shank that I needed to repair. That repair will be the subject of another blog post.

I have a board on my desk that I attach a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to and use that to top the bowls. In the picture below it is to the right of the two Tortoise pipes. I hold the bowl flat against the sandpaper and rotate it to remove the damaged portions of the briar. It is important to keep the bowl perfectly flat against the board and paper so that the top remains flat. It is very easy to sand an angle to the bowl if you are not careful with this process. In the picture the two bowls have been sanded to remove the finish and the top layers of the darkening. Both bowls have a slight trench burned into the surface that moves from the front right to the rear centre. The topping will need to be deep enough to remove the damage yet not too deep to change the profile of the two pipes.

In the next series of two pictures you can begin to see that the rims are returning to a normal and the troughs are disappearing under the sanding. The top photo is of the Canadian and it is pretty close to being finished in this photo. The second photo shows that the trough in the Liverpool is also disappearing though it will take a bit more sanding.

The Silver Grain Liverpool also was topped using the same process to remove the damage to the outer rim and the top of the rim. The nicks and dents on the tops and the damage to the edges made it necessary to top this bowl as well. It was a much simpler process as the rim did not have a deep trough across it but rather rough edges on the outer edge of the rim. The picture below shows the final result of the topping on that pipe. Once it was topped with the 220 grit sandpaper I moved to a fine grit sanding block – 400 grit and then on to the micromesh pads to polish the sanding marks out of the rim. I finished the sanding by buffing it with Tripoli and White Diamond to remove any remnant of the sanding marks.

I then used a small one inch square piece of sandpaper folded in half and held at an angle to sand a slight bevel into the inner rim of the two Tortoise pipes. This took care of the inner damage that remained after topping the bowl. I then sanded the two pipes in the same manner as described for the Silver Grain above. Finishing with 6000 grit micromesh and then buffing with Tripoli and White diamond. I stained the trio with a medium brown aniline stain applied to the surface with a dauber. It took two coats to cover the fresh briar of the repairs. The stain was wiped off and the pipes were taken to the buffer when dry.

The three pictures below of the three pipes show the buffed rims before waxing. The stain matched exceptionally well. The inner bevel took care of the inner rim damage and the topping took care of the trough that went across the bowl. In both of the Tortoise pipes below the damage is virtually removed and the rim surface and edges look new. The rim on the Silver Grain also came out very well and is smooth and looks as good as new. The outer rim damage and the nicks on the top of the rim are gone and a smooth shiny surface is what remains.

The final three pictures show the rims after they have been given several coats of carnauba wax and buffed to a sheen. The pipes are ready to smoke and look renewed and reborn. You can see from the process that is spelled out above that it is not difficult to do and the results are worth the effort. Take your time and proceed with caution, checking to make sure that enough of the damage surface has been removed but not too much. Once that is done it is a simple matter of sanding, staining and polishing.

Refurb on an Old BW Dog with Bling

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This one is another mystery to me. Because I am always picking up these old timers I have a habit of researching out as much information as I can once they have arrived and I can see the stamping and hallmarks up close. This one bears the hallmarking of the Anchor which tells me it is made or assayed in Birmingham, the Lion which tells me it is Sterling silver and the date letter that though worn looks to be a capital E which would date it as an 1850 pipe. That is as close as I can tell to the date and time frame for this old timer. There is also a Makers Mark in the silver stamped BW and the briar of the pipe is also stamped BW. I cannot find any information on that maker in all of my searching so that is where it stands. If anyone reading this can shed light on the initials and what they may refer to I would deeply appreciate it. Until then I have a nice old bulldog from 1850 that smokes exceptionally well and it is a mystery regarding its maker.

When the pipe arrived it was in rough shape. The silver was very tarnished and dull looking. It was also scratched and much worn in places. The bowl had a very spotty finish with just the remnants of the original stain. The rim was tarred and the bowl heavily tarred and caked. The stem is made of some amberoid substance or may be Bakelite. It seems to be a softer material than the hard Bakelite. It has a bone tenon that was over turned so the stem was off to the side. The button also has an orific hole in the button instead of the newer slotted button.

I reamed the bowl and cleaned it with Isopropyl alcohol and many pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I sanded the bowl to remove a bit more of the cake and take it back to the wood. I then put the bowl in an alcohol soak to remove the remnants of finish and the grime that was worked into the surface of the pipe. Once I removed it from the alcohol bath I re-stained it with Cherry stain. The stem was crackled a bit – lots of tiny spidering all over the surface so I did not want to chance using alcohol on it as it can cause more spidering and cracking. So I cleaned it with Gojo an all purpose hand cleaner with grit suspended in liquid soap. I ran it through the stem repeatedly to remove the tars and grime inside the airway. When it was clean I rinsed it with warm water to remove any residual soap. I sanded the tooth chatter and used my needle files to recut the button as it was pretty worn. I sanded and polished the stem with micromesh pads 1500-6000 grit as is my usual practice. I also heated the bone tenon with hot water and readjusted the fit to the shank. Upon completion of the refurbishing above the pipe and stem were given a final buff with carnauba wax. I also gave the black leather pipe case a cleaning with leather renewer and a coat of wax as well.

Here is what it looked like when I got it from EBay

Here is what the pipe looks like today

Refurb on an old Morell Mackenzie Bent

KBB Yello-Bole Premier – Stem repair and refurbishing

You don’t have a buffer? Here is one refurbed without the use of a buffer.

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I have one I am working on now that is interesting. It is a nice looking shape – Whitehall Washington Park Author. It had an overturned stem that did not line up and was oxidized and spotty on the stem

I heated the stem in boiling water to loosen the glue this morning and turned it until it lined up then cooled it with water. The boiling water raised the oxidation and also softened it. The stem had a lot of marks like someone had used a pair of pliers to try to get it to line up. Pliers marks were all around the stem mid stem. The oxidation had some spots that were dark… so I sanded it and sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sand paper. I wanted to get the tooth marks and pliers marks out as well as the oxidation. The bowl is changing colours from the oils in my hands.

Still in the process of sanding the stem. Next I have to see what I can do to hide the bubblegum pink fills – argghh. We shall see. Will keep you posted.

I am planning on doing the stem with sandpaper and Micromesh pads only. I want to show how it can be done without a buffer. At least that is the plan for now.

This is with 600 grit wet dry sand paper.

The next are with 1500 and 1800 Micromesh pads. Going to work my way up to 6000 before waxing.

Here is the stem after 2400 and 3200 Micromesh sanding

Here it is after 4000 and 6000 Micromesh sanding

Here it is with the final sanding with the 6000 and then a coat of Obsidian Oil.

Ok. Stem is finished. I just picked out the pink fills with a dental pick. Three of the four I have filled with briar dust and superglue.

The first picture is of the fills before picking.

The next two show it picked and filled

These two show the fills on the front of the bowl and the large one on the left side of the bowl. I picked out the fill in both of these larger ones and filled with the briar dust and super glue. I still need to do a bit of fine sanding as the stain will not go into the glue areas.

Here is a shot of it ready for staining

And here is the finished stained bowl. The fills at the shank have vitrually disappeared. The larger ones are still visible but are dark and blend in better.