Tag Archives: buffing

Banding and Restemming a Weber Blackthorne 485

I just finished refurbishing the last of the EBay lot, the second pipe down in the centre column of the photo below. It is stamped Blackthorne over Weber in an oval and Imported Briar 485 on the underside of the shank. The Weber was probably the easiest pipe of the lot to restem and clean up. The bowl was lightly caked and the rim had a light buildup of tars on it. The blast is quite nice on the bowl and when I first saw it thought it might be a GBD Prehistoric. The rim is crowned upward from the bowl and also sandblasted. The bowl is stained with a dark brown and black contrast stain which leaves much of the black stain in the crevices of the bowl and the brown on the higher portions. The shank had some darkening from the end toward the bowl for about a ½ inch – like it had had a band on it at one point. There were no cracks in the shank so the band must have been cosmetic in function. The shank was thick and gave the pipe a chubby look. I am not sure whether to call the shape a chubby billiard or a pot. The inside of the shank was not terribly dirty would take little to clean up the pipe and ready it for a smoke.

I searched through my box of stem and found one of a suitable diameter to fit the pipe. I had the perfect match but it was a bent so I heated it with the heat gun and straightened it out. I used the PIMO tenon turning tool to clean up the tenon and make it straight. In the picture below the tenon appears to have a slight conical shape to it. After turning it the tenon was a cylinder that fit well in the shank.

I took out a nickel band that would fit the shank and then used the Dremel to smooth out the portion of the shank that would have the band. I find that a band seats much better when the surface that it is pressed onto is smooth rather than blasted or rusticated. I slipped the band lightly on the end of the shank and heated it with the heat gun to expand the metal and make the band simpler to fit on the shank. I pressed it into place on a metal plate that I use for a flat surface to press bands.

With the band in place on the shank the tenon needed a slight adjustment with sandpaper to fit well against the shank.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and took the cake down to the briar. I scrubbed the top of the bowl with a cotton pad and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the buildup of tars. I gently wiped down the exterior of the bowl with the Oil Soap as well to remove the grime in the grooves and crevices of the finish.

I polished the bowl with Halcyon II wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. I cleaned out the shank and the bowl with pipe cleaners and Everclear and put the stem in place for the photo below. Once finished this will be a handsome pipe. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to polish and remove any scratches left by the heating and straightening. I took the pipe to the buffer afterwards and buffed the stem with White Diamond and Blue polish to give it a shine.

I polished the nickel band with a silver tarnish polishing cloth and then waxed the stem with several coats of carnauba wax. I touched up the areas of the rim and the rim outer edge with a black permanent marker to cover some of the scratches in the finish of the bowl in those places. I buffed the pipe lightly on the buffer with White Diamond and gave the stem another coat of wax. The finished pipe is pictured below.

An Engagement Pipe (GBD 548 Seventy-Six)

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My family had a pretty big life event here last week. My daughter came home from New Orleans for a week of vacation, with the boyfriend of two years in tow again. He had called us a few weeks prior to ask permission to marry her, the first of our daughters to get engaged. This young man is quite a gentleman, as you might have guessed (who knew guys still ask for permission?). He and I share a number of interests, including pipes. I enjoyed my week with him and we were able to spend some time in the shop where I shared with him some estate pipe restoration techniques. He left here with a few briars that he cleaned. I miss him and her already.

As they were getting ready to depart, I found this GBD Seventy-Six, shape 548, on Ebay. I later learned it was sold by our own Bob Landry. The pipe had some issues and I was a bit skeptical that a good outcome could result. I’m a fan of the Seventy-Six line and I liked the tall bulldog shape. The bowl top had some chips on it but the tall bowl looked like there was plenty of briar there to top it just a bit. The stem was in great shape, just oxidized and I rationalized that if it didn’t work out, at least I had a brass rondell for the parts box. The big concern was the two burn marks on the briar (photographed and described well by Bob). I knew it would require a restain. Here is the pipe as it was received.

I reamed the bowl and found it to be in great shape. I used a sheet of 800 grit paper on my flat work bench to top the bowl and work past the damaged area. That fix came out great and the tall bowl definitely lent itself to that repair. Next up, I soaked the bowl in alcohol to remove the stain. This really exposed the burned areas. I tried to sand past them, but that was not possible and I was afraid of putting a flat spot on the bowl, particularly on that right side. This work exposed some other nicks on the bottom of the bowl. I was able to buff/sand out most of those.

The GBD Seventy-Six line used a two stain process that I really like, much like Comoys used. I stained the bowl black but must have put it on too heavy, as I had a hard time getting the black off. The plan was to sand off the black, leaving it to highlight the grain and then apply a very light brown stain. I mulled over just leaving it black, but that didn’t set well with me either. I was a bit frustrated at this point and almost bagged the whole project and save the stem for a future project. I left it on the bench for the better part of a week, working on other projects. I decided to soak off the black stain and left it in an alcohol bath for several days. That finally did the trick and afterwards, I sanded the briar smooth with some 2000 grit paper and then 8000 grit micromesh.

I then applied a very light brown stain using Feiblings Medium Brown heavily diluted with alcohol (20:1 ratio or so?) The combination of the black and brown stain finally hid the burn marks rather well and I was pleased with the outcome. The bowl was then polished with White Diamond and then several coats of carnuba wax was applied.

With the bowl completed, I turned my attention to the stem, which didn’t require nearly as much work. Using a piece of plastic, cut into a round shape I inserted it as a shield between the stem and the briar for the sanding work. I sanded the stem with 800, 1500 and 2000 grit paper, all wet. I then moved to 8000 and 12000 grit micromesh sheets. The stem was then buffed with White Diamond and an automotive plastic polish.

This shows the plastic shield.

As I was finishing the pipe and thinking about my daughters marriage, it struck me that there were some similarities in this pipe project and a successful marriage. Like a marriage, at times things don’t always go the way you anticipated and being patient with your spouse or a project always pays off. I sent the pipe off to my future son-in-law with a note welcoming him to our family. I hoped when smoking the pipe, he would remember the week he spent here and his proposal to my daughter.

Making a New Stem for a Peterson’s Kildare XL999

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The Peterson’s Kildare is the second pipe down in the left column in the photo below. The second and third photos are of the pipe bowl apart from the lot. The externals were in pretty decent shape but the rim has a heavy buildup of tars and the cake in the bowl is quite thick and hard. To give an idea of the thickness of the cake I was unable to put my little finger in the bowl. The shank was quite large – the tenon is ½ inch in diameter for a snug fit in a clean tenon. The shank itself is 7/8 inches in diameter. It is a large mortise and airway. The pipe is stamped Peterson’s “Kildare” on the left side of the shank and Made in the Republic of Ireland XL999 on the right side of the shank. The finish is quite clean. The top will need to be topped to remove the buildup and dents. I also will need to chamfer the inner edge of the rim to repair the damage that is present on the surface of the rim.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet Reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head on the T handle and working up to the diameter of the bowl. I carefully ream the cake so as not to damage the bowl roundness or the inner edge of the rim any more than it already is. I emptied the carbon out of the bowl repeatedly until it was clean and empty. I reamed the cake back to bare wood to begin to rebuild on a clean surface. I scoured the bowl and shank with Everclear and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners.

Once the inside was clean I decided to gently top the bowl. I used a medium grit sanding sponge flat on the table top and worked the rim against that to remove the buildup of tars. The first photo shows the set up and the second the result of the topping. Very little briar was removed from the rim, mostly tars. The finish however also was removed so the rim would need to be restained. The third photo shows how I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bevel/chamfer the inner rim to repair the damage that had been done to the rim.

I sent out several emails and private messages to folks on the online forums to see if I could find a Peterson stem with these dimensions. I received many answers and several possible stems that could work for this pipe. Thanks to those who sent them. For the most part they were either too long or the diameter of the stem was not large enough to fit the shank. Chuck (desertpipe on SF) sent me several that would work. I also have a piece of brindle rod coming that Todd (Sasquatch on SF) was willing to cut for me. So in the end I will have two different stems for the pipe. While awaiting the arrival of the Cumberland stock I decided to turn the tenon on a vulcanite stem blank from Chuck. I turned it with a PIMO tenon tool and fit it to the bowl. The end fit was a ½ tenon for the mortise so I did not need to remove much of the existing vulcanite on the cast stem to make it fit well. To fit the stem on the tool I drilled the airway so that it slid easily over the pin on the tool but did not have too much play. I held the stem and ran the drill over the tenon for a first pass (second photo below) I adjusted the cutting tip and spun it several more times until the fit in the mortise was close. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to take off more of the material and fine tune the fit (third photo below). I spun it one last time to clean up the face of the stem where it sat against the shank. I want that surface to be smooth and seamless in its fit.

After fitting the tenon to the mortise I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess vulcanite on the diameter of the stem. I carefully sand with the Dremel and bring the stem as close to the diameter of the shank as possible without nicking the briar. I also sand down the sides of the stem to remove the casting overrun on the stem and button. The idea is to get as close as possible to the stem diameter and then sand the rest of the fit by hand with medium grit emery cloth and 220 grit sandpaper.

I took the pipe back to my work table and removed the stem and sanded it until the fit was perfect and the marks left by the Dremel were gone. The hand sanding is probably the longest part of the process of fitting a new stem. I sanded it repeatedly with emery paper and 220 grit sandpaper until it was smooth enough to move to the next step in the process. At this point I am not looking for a smooth and perfect fit but one that is getting close. I then heat the stem with my heat gun in order to bend the stem to fit the flow of the pipe. I heated it until it was pliable and then bent it over the rolling pin and cardboard tube that I use for getting the curve of the stem smooth and correct.

I took the pipe back to my table and showed it to my sidekick and helper, Spence for his approval. He gave it a sniff and looked it over. It passed his inspection so I continued to sand and shape the shank/stem union. Lots of pieces of sandpaper and emery paper later the stem is getting closer and closer to a good fit.

The button was very tight and I was not able to push a pipe cleaner through the slot so I opened the slot with needle files and reshaped it into an oval that was open and flared back to the airway in the stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. Each step of sanding brought both the fit and finish closer to the look I was aiming for with the finished stem.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish and prepare the bowl for a new coat of stain. I have found that if I do not remove the stain then it is very hard to match the rim to the colour of the bowl. With the finish gone the staining is very simple.

I thinned the stain, a dark brown aniline stain, with isopropyl alcohol – 1 part stain to two parts alcohol. I had picked a stain that matched the previous colour of the bowl and also matched another 999 Peterson that I have here. I heated the surface of the bowl with my heat gun to warm the briar and open the pores in the wood. Once it was warmed I applied the stain with a cotton swab and repeated until I had good coverage over the entire surface. I flamed the stain, repeated the application and flamed it a second time. Once it was dry I took it to the buffer and gave it a light buff with White Diamond to even out the stain coverage and remove the excess on the surface of the briar. I wiped down the inside of the bowl where the stain ran in with a cotton swab dipped in Everclear.

With the bowl finished and ready to buff it was time to finish the work on the stem. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit. Each successive grit brought more of a shine to the stem and removed the scratches left behind by previous sanding.

I worked on the slot with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the surface of the inside. I also shaped it with the sandpaper until I had the look I wanted. The oval slot now easily took a pipe cleaner no matter how fluffy.

After much sanding and fitting, the vulcanite stem is finished. The pipe is smokeable while I wait for the Cumberland/brindle rod stock to come from Todd. I like the look and feel of the pipe as it is very close in size and design to the GBD 9438 with a tapered stem. The finished pipe is pictured below after buffing with multiple coats of carnauba wax and with a clean flannel buff.

Big Ben Freehand: Re-Stemmed and Reborn

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Blog by Greg Wolford

This stummel was gifted to me by a friend from Louisiana. We met via one of the pipe smokers forums probably near a year ago and he recently sent me two stemless pipes, this one and one I have yet to get to, to restore. These are interesting pieces, in my opinion, because of their history, a little of which I will share with you before I get into the “meat and potatoes” of the work.

RJ, my friend, inherited a large quantity of pipes, near 100 if memory serves me. They were given to him by an aunt, I think it was, after her father passed away. Her father was Major in the US Army and served overseas in World War 2 (again, some of these details may be a tad off but they are close enough for our purposes). He was an avid pipe smoker and acquired many of his pipes while deployed overseas.

The Major’s wife was involved in a serious car accident many years ago. Her injuries were serious, leaving her with diminished mental, and to a lesser extent, physical capabilities. THe Major, as they affectionately called the man, took care of her himself after this accident. Sadly, the Major began to develop Alzheimer’s with dementia in his latter years, though he continued to care for his beloved wife; they were separated from their daughter, who gave the pipes to RJ, by miles, geographically.

The Major called his daughter the day after Valentine’s Day, 2005, and told her, quite confusedly, that her mother had gone missing. After much questioning, she called the police, local to her parents, and they dispatched a unit to the couple’s home. Shortening the story some, the Major had, in a state of mental confusion brought on by his disease, killed his wife. He was never found competent to stand trial for the killing of his wife 50-years. As far as I understand it, he was in a mental hospital for the rest of his life. A tragic story to be sure but an interesting one to go along with these unique pipes!

When the stummel arrived it was dull and dirty and, as I said, without a stem. The bottom of the pipe is stamped “Big-Ben” over “Handmade” and the stamping is pretty good overall. Doing a quick search on http://pipephil.eu, it seems that the Big-Ben brand is a brand of the Elbert Gubbels & Sons -Royal Dutch Pipe Factory. Here are a few photos of it before I began any work.

I actually began this restoration with the stem, finding the pipe a new one that is. I had planned on using an acrylic stem but changed my mind for a couple of reasons: I was turning my first tenon with my brand new Pipe Makers Emporium tenon turner and know that acrylic is more finicky than vulcanite and I thought, after looking at it, that the rubber stem would look better on this stummel.

The PME tenon tool is, by all accounts, essentially the same tool as the one offered by PIMO. I chose the PME tool because it was about $10 cheaper and they happened to have a couple of acrylic stems I liked on clearance for cheap. I plan on writing about my thoughts on the tool in a separate article.

I choose a pre-formed Italian ebonite freehand-style stem for this stummel. To my eye it looked like it would be something very close to what the pipe would have originally had. I took my time turning the tenon down to fit since it was the first time I had done this and I didn’t have another stem like this one to use if I fouled up. After I got the tenon very close with the tool I hand sanded the tenon to get to the final fit; I know from reading Steve’s articles that it is easy to over-turn a tenon and you can’t put the material back on once it is gone! Here is a photo of the stem placed in the stummel after getting it fit:

I decided to not bend the stem until after I had sanded and polished it. In retrospect, I probably should have bent it before I did all the sanding; there are some very small “marks” on the stem where the bend is now that I had not anticipated. Next time I will bend after the initial sanding is done I think,

I began the sanding with 220 grit sandpaper to take out the casting/molding lines on the sides. I forgot to photograph the stem before I had started to sand it. This shows it early on and beside a smaller ebionite stem from the same lot to try to give you an idea of what the lines looked like from the start:

I sanded out the marks with 220 then 320 grit paper. The stem had some, but not many, small sots on it that made me decide to go head and use the 320 wet/dry paper on the entire stem. I progressed to 400 grit wet/dry and then micro mesh 1800 through 12000 (I also used the plastic polish several times between grits to make sure I wasn’t missing any scratches). Here is a progressive photo along the way from rough through 12000 grit micro mesh.

The stem didn’t fit flush at the top and bottom due to the angle of the shank so I had to do a considerable amount of file work to get it almost completely flush to the shank on the top and bottom. At this point I stopped working on the stem and turned my attention to the stummel.

I wiped the pipe down with an alcohol soaked cotton pad. There was little wax left on the pipe and the wipe down removed what remained as well as some surface dirt. While the pipe was wet with the alcohol I could see there was a nice grain hiding under there, one that I hoped to bring out with a contrast stain. But first it would need an alcohol bath. So, I soaked the stummel a couple of in an alcohol bath. When I removed it I realized that the rim had a lot of build up on it; the rim, I thought, was stained black but that was just dirt, grime, and tar, and it was actually not stained black. I then scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle brush lightly to loosen the grime, with not a lot of success so I put the pipe back in the alcohol bath and left it overnight. The next afternoon I removed it from the bath and wiped it down then took it over another container of alcohol that I use for cleaning and dipped in my wire brush and started to scrub gently again. This time I saw much more removal of grime; the extra time in the alcohol has paid off in really softening the buildup. I switched to a toothbrush and scrubbed out all the remaining grime. I found that there were some rim char under there that the gunk had hidden. Below is a photo of before and after the 12-plus hour soak and scrubbing.

The charring made me decide that the rim would need to be stained black now. The large shank end was stained black so this would match and look good I was sure. But there was also a fairly large burn on the back, left side of the bowl that would have to be addressed. There were two fairly large fills near the burn but I didn’t plan on removing and/or refilling them; I planned on leaving them and seeing how they covered with the contrast stain. I had recently read a post suggesting that fills should be done with carbon dust, not briar dust, and super glue. The idea was that the pipe would darken over time with use and the black fills would blend in more naturally. I don’t know if that is a fact but I thought on this pipe I would stain the existing fills black and see how it ended up looking. Here are a few photos:

It was at this point that I decided to clean and ream the pipe. Knowing this pipe had more or less been in retirement for almost a decade, I expected it probably would be fairly dirty; I was right. The alcohol bath had softened the cake some, I suspect, and it was fairly thick and not very even so reaming was definitely in order. I used a Castleford reamer to do the job, using the second largest bit to ream the bowl; the two smaller sizes didn’t touch the cake in this large bowl. After reaming I began to clean the shank, which was terribly gunked up. I used the drill bit-tool on my Kleen-Reem to open up the shank, both with and without pipe cleaners on it. After many pipe cleaners, both on the drill bit and doubled over off of the bit, I finally decided that I needed to do an alcohol and cotton ball treatment; this is the same as a salt and alcohol treatment only you use cotton balls instead of salt. I put two large cotton balls in the bowl and, using an old medicine syringe, I filled the bowl with 91% isopropyl alcohol. Then I took the syringe and filled the shank; since this pipe is a sitter with such a large shank this idea worked very well and was quite easy to do. I topped off the bowl with a bit more alcohol and left it till morning. This is what the cotton balls looked like when I came back the next day:

The photos don’t really show how much tar leached out into them; they were really quite brown. The shank was much cleaner now as I went back to it, only taking less than a dozen pipe cleaners to get it clean now.

Back to the burn on the bowl, I started out with some course emery boards to remove some of the charred area. I had three different grits, from a package I bought at the local dollar store, and I worked through all three grits on it. The burn mark was reduced in size a fair amount but would need more, which I planned on doing with sandpaper. I thought the emery boards would be a good way to keep the more coarse sanding confined to a smaller area and it seemed to work fairly well.

From here I went to 220 grit paper and got out the biggest part of the burn, feathering out the sanding a little, too. I then went to 320 wet/dry paper and sanded the entire pipe, except for the bottom; I didn’t want to sand any where the nomenclature was if I could keep from it. I then moved up to 400 wet/dry paper, wiping ever so often with an alcohol pad to see how the pipe looked, making sure it was smooth and scratch free. After I got the pipe to where I thought it would be good I took it to the buffer and buffed it with black compound; I find that this buffing highlights any small scratches or dents that may have been missed during the sanding. Here is what the pipe looked like at this point:

I saw one small scratch I had missed so I took the 400 grit paper to it and got that one out, along with lightening the burn mark a bit more. Now it was time to bend the stem.

I heated the stem with my heat gun on low until it was pliable, after putting a pipe cleaner in the stem to keep from closing off the airway accidentally. I had set up my maul as my bending guide on my table. I heated and bent it and eyeballed it; it wasn’t quite what I wanted. So, I heated it again and bent it a little more and looked it over carefully; now it was more to my liking:

I used Fiebing’s USMC Black leather dye to the rim and shank end, since I knew these would need deeper penetration of color since they would remain black. I applied the stain, flamed it in and then repeated. I then heated up the stummel, setting the stem aside, to start the contrast staining. I got the stummel nice and warm, wearing leather gloves to protect my hand. I then applied the dye to the entire pipe, flamed and repeated. Next I hand buffed the pipe with an old cotton t-shirt leaving it at this point:

After the pipe had cooled for 10-15 minutes and was no longer warm I began to sand off the black; I wanted to remove the majority of the black but leave it in the grain areas as much as possible. I also wanted to try to blend in the burn as much as possible. I sanded and wiped it clean with a dry cotton pad until I thought I was getting close to where I wanted it to be; I didn’t want to use an alcohol pad until I had to in order to not lift any stain that I wanted left on the pipe. I think I sanded it over about three times before I wiped it with an alcohol pad. As the dust came off the alcohol wet pipe began to look more like what my mind’s eye had thought it would:

Now I applied a brown stain that I had mixed up earlier for another project; to be honest, I don’t recall what color I used or what I diluted it to. I applied the stain, flamed and repeated. After buffing it off with the old t-shirt I realized it was too dark for what I had wanted so I took an alcohol pad to it and removed some stain. But it was still too dark so back to the 400 grit I went. I sanded it over, wiped with an alcohol pad, and repeated until I was happy with the color; I think it took about four cycles to get it where I left it. I then buffed it off with the t-shirt one last time before heading to the buffer.

I buffed the stummel with Tripoli and then the stummel and stem, separately due to the way this pipe is made, with white diamond. Both parts then got several coats of carnauba wax, buffed on a clean soft wheel and finally hand buffed with my flannel gloves; I don’t know the flannel glove-buff is needed but it seems it adds a little “something” though it may only be in my head. But since it only takes a few extra minutes, and gets any stray threads of the pipe that the wheel may have left, I almost always finish this way.

I am really happy with how this old pipe came out. The new stem was a success, both in fitting it and in the look, and I really like how the contrast staining came out. The rim looks much better now stained black with dye not tar. The fills didn’t hold the stain as well as I’d hoped but are much less noticeable now. And the and burn mark is almost invisible, which really pleases me. The only thing that I am not happy about, really confused about more than unhappy, is that the stem has loosened from the tight fit it had the day I turned it. I don’t know if the humidity (it had been extremely humid here the last two weeks), the alcohol soak, the extended time of separation for stem and stummel or what caused that. Hopefully a few days seated together and/or some use will remedy that. If not, I’ll likely heat and gently expand the tenon a tad to get the fit better. At any rate, here is the final result:

Restoration – The Guildhall 284

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By Al Jones

I am an admirer of the Rhodesian shape and the Comoy’s Shape 284, a compact Rhodesian, is one of my favorites. Unfortunately that shape doesn’t show up that often and when it does there is strong competition. I found this “The Guidall” shape 284 on Ebay but it was not in great shape, so I took a chance on it. “The Guildhall London Pipe” is a Comoy’s second line with a distinctive three-metal bar stem logo.

As you can see from these photos, the stem was heavily oxidized but it didn’t appear to have any tooth marks. The bowl top was a little misshapen and it had a very heavy cake build-up. Mike, the “Streets of London” social group administrator on the SmokersForums.uk tells me that The Guidall used pre-made stems. This one had a large stinger. I’m not a fan of stingers, so I warmed the metal end of the stinger and pulled it out.

I reamed the bowl starting with my smallest Castleford bit and gradually worked up to the full bowl size. There was some damage at the bottom of the bowl that I will have to repair with some “pipe mud” (cigar ash & water). I soaked the bowl overnight with some sea salt and alcohol to remove the tars and residue. The stem was soaked in a mild Oxyclean and water solution. The metal stem logo looked pretty durable, so I didn’t do anything to protect it.

After the bowl soak was completed, I polished the briar on my buffer with some Tripoli and then White Diamond rouge. The briar was in remarkably good condition, considering the way the rest of the pipe was treated over its life. I didn’t detect any fills or other imperfections. You can see the burned out area on the bottom of the bowl, but when I filled it with pipe mud, it wasn’t as deep as it appeared.

The stem took quite a bit of work to remove the heavy layer of oxidation, which was also in the draft hole. I started with 800 wet grit paper, then progressed to 1500 and 200 grits. I then moved to the micro-mesh paper, with 8000 and finally 12000 grit papers used. The stem was then buffed on the machine with White Diamond rouge. I always use an automotive plastic polish as a final prep. The end of the stem where it meets the briar still has a little oxidation but I was reluctant to sand further for fear of rounding the stem. I may go back and retouch this area. I mixed up some cigar ash I save with just a few drops of water to make a paste called “pipe mud”. I used the spoon on a Czech tool to ladle in the mixture and a small button head bolt to tamp it into shape.

The premade stem feels all right in my mouth, but I have to wait until the pipe mud dries to smoke it. I need a compact pipe for travel use and carry in my one-pipe bag and I’m hoping this one can fit that requirement.

Here is the finished pipe.

Italian Made Sandblasted Canadian Brought Back to Life

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This pipe is another that came in that EBay lot of bowls that I purchased. Once I was finished with this one I have two more left to restem. It is a large oval shanked pipe with a large bowl. The sandblast is not deep and is particularly shallow on the shank where it meets the stem. The bowl was heavily caked and the finish was dirty and faded. There was a deep divot out of the left side of the bowl toward the bottom. It was a chipped out spot that looked like the pipe had been knocked hard against something when it was dropped. There was also a chip on the edge of the front right side of the outer rim. It is pictured below in the first photo and is the first pipe in column one on the left. The second photo shows the state of the bowl when I started working on it. The cake was hard and thick.

I sorted through my box of stems and found a wide oval stem blank that would fit the curves and width of the shank. The first photo below shows the new stem before any work was done on it. The second photo below shows the tenon being turned on the PIMO tenon turning tool. I removed enough material from the tenon to get it close to fitting. I hand sanded it to get a snug fit in the shank. The tenon turner literally peels the vulcanite back to the right diameter. The third photo below shows the newly turned tenon before the hand sanding to fit it in the shank. The fourth photo shows the fit of tenon. It still needed to be shaped to match the diameter of the shank but the fit was good and tight.

I removed the excess of vulcanite and shaped the stem close to the diameter of the shank with a Dremel with a sanding drum. I carefully worked the drum against the stem and worked to get it as close to the shank shape as possible without damaging the shank. Once I had it close I worked on the fit with emery paper to remove the marks left by the sanding drum. The next series of four photos show the shaping of the stem to fit the shank with the Dremel and the emery paper.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I started with the smallest head on the T handle and worked my way up to the largest head that would fit the bowl. The next series of three photos shows the reaming of the bowl and the finished reamed bowl.

I cleaned out the divot on the side of the bowl with a dental pick and then packed in briar dust with a dental pick and added drops of super glue. I created a briar dust and super glue fill for the divot. The next series of five photos show the progress of the patch. Once it was filled and even with the surrounding area I used a dental pick to scratch in grooves and crevices to match the sand blasted finish of the surrounding bowl. I wiped down the surface with Everclear and scratched the surface until the finish matched.

I wiped down the entire bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to clean up the finish on the bowl and prepare if for the new stain that I would add once the surface was clean. Note how well the patch on the left side of the bowl matched the grain of the sand blast on the rest of the bowl in first photo below.

I chose to restain the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain that I thinned with two parts isopropyl alcohol to one part stain. From experimenting I had found that this colour matched the original stain on the bowl. I heated the bowl with a heat gun, applied the stain, flamed it and stained and flamed it a second time. I put more stain on the shank near the stem as the smoother portion of the finish seemed to not hold the stain as well as the blasted areas. There had also been a black under stain on the bowl from the original and the thinned dark brown worked well with that under stain to give some depth to the finish of the bowl. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush to give it the initial shine.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to polish the stem. Each successive grit of micromesh deepened the shine of the stem. Between the 2400 and the 3200 grit micromesh I polished the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 – a plastic polish that I have used to polish stems. I then sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh.

After sanding, I buffed the bowl and stem on the buffer with White Diamond and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I used Halcyon II wax on the sandblasted finish on the bowl and shank. I finished the pipe by buffing it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine of the wax. The finished pipe is pictured below.

The final photo below shows the repaired divot on the bowl. It is utterly merged in the side of the bowl and the finish and stain make it invisible.

Reworking a Mastercraft Custom Deluxe Billiard and Removing Mold

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Blog by Steve Laug

This old Mastercraft billiard is the second pipe of the threesome that was sent to me last week as a gift. In his email asking if I wanted them he said they were either going to the rubbish bin or to me so I was not surprised when I opened the box and unpacked them. It had some nice looking grain underneath all of the grime and peeling varnish. But this one was in very rough shape. The stem was chewed in half so there was not enough to save. The inner tube apparatus inserted into the stem looked like it had been destroyed and then somebody bent it close to shape and cut a X cut in the end of the tenon so that it would fit into the stem. The shank was grimy and dark with a white mold residing inside both the bowl and the shank. The pipe reeked of mold. The bowl itself had a heavy but broken cake underneath the mold. It had a coat of varnish that was spotty and peeling where it was worn off the briar. In those worn spots the briar was almost black. The rim was also in very bad shape. The front was burned down from repeatedly lighting the pipe in the same spot with a torch. The back side of the rim looked like it had been scraped on concrete or hammered out on concrete because it was worn and broken down. The three photos below (I apologize for the poor quality – still getting used to this new camera!) show the state of the bowl and stem.

I sorted through my stems and found two options that I thought might work on the pipe. The first one was an acrylic saddle stem that I thought might look good with the bowl (pictured in the first photo below). I turned the tenon and fit it to the pipe but did not like the proportion of the stem and shank length. I then took the second stem – a shorter, straight tapered stem and fit it to the pipe (pictured in the second – fourth photo below). It looked like it belonged on the pipe so my choice was made. It was an old previously used vulcanite stem from my collection of old pre-used stems that I collect. This one would take some work as it was oxidized and had a calcified buildup around the button area. It was also clogged and the slot was plugged to a small pin hole. But it had the right look so it would be worth cleaning up.

I set the stem aside and worked on the bowl. I reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer to get rid of the cake and the mold. I cleaned the reamer with alcohol before putting it away. I cleaned the bowl and the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and Everclear to remove as much of the tars and oils and moldy smell as possible.

When I finished it still smelled moldy, but I had several plans in mind for addressing that. But first I topped the bowl with my usual flat board and 220 grit sandpaper. I place the bowl rim down flat against the sandpaper and work in it a circle to remove the damage on the rim. This one took quite a bit of work to even out the top and get rid of the damage from the burn on the front side of the rim and the roughened back edge done by beating the pipe against concrete. I sanded it, repeatedly checking to see if I was removing enough of the damage to get a sharp edge on the bowl. On the outer rim next to the shank there was a chunk of briar missing that I would try to minimize after topping the bowl. I was able to remove all of the damage of the burned area and most of the damage of the battering the old pipe had taken. The rim looked good. I used a folded piece of sand paper to work on the inside edge of the rim and clean up the damage that was done there and keep the bowl in round.

I wiped the exterior of the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the grime and the finish that remained. I repeated this until I could not remove any more finish or grime. The next two photos show the wipe downed bowl.

I placed the bowl in an alcohol bath for several hours while I worked on the stem and worked on several other old pipes that I have on the go. When I took it out of the bath, I dried it off with a cotton cloth and scrubbed it with a tooth-brush dipped in alcohol from the bath. I dried it again to check on the finish. There were still several spots where the varnish remained – the shank and the bottom of the bowl. One benefit of the bath was that the glue softened on the over pressed band and I was able to remove it from the shank. I sanded and scrubbed the old glue off the shank and sanded the bowl with a fine grit sanding sponge. I wiped it down with another acetone cotton pad. It still needed to soak a bit longer to finish breaking down the varnish that remained. While it soaked I cleaned up the silver band with silver polish and the jeweler’s polishing cloth. Under all the tarnish I found that the band was stamped Sterling.
I removed the bowl from the alcohol soak and dried it off. I used a lighter to burn off the alcohol from inside the bowl and the shank. I then recleaned the inside of the bowl and the shank with Everclear and many more pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. The amount of tars and sticky oils and grit that came out of the shank was incredible. It was no wonder that the pipe still reeked like mold. The next series of three photos show the pipe after soaking and sanding.

I scoured the shank until it was fairly clean and then set up a retort to do a more thorough clean. The retort sends vaporized alcohol into the bowl and shank and in essence boils out the grime with hot alcohol. As the alcohol cools it returns to the tube and with it the grime and oils from the pipe. I repeated the retort three times on the pipe until the alcohol came out clean. I then took apart the pipe and cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs a third time. There was even more oil and grime that came out of the shank. I cleaned off the surface with an acetone wipe and then reset the silver band with Weldbond glue. I turned it so that the Sterling stamp was on the top of the shank and pressed it on to the shank until it was even with the edge of the shank. Weldbond dries fairly quickly to touch so that the band would not be loosened when I went on to the next step in my cleaning process.

After removing the retort I cleaned the bowl and shank. Yet even more grime came out. I put the stem back on and took the four photos below to show the state of the pipe at this point. I did this more for an encouragement to me as this one was proving a difficult rework. The photos gave me a picture of what I was aiming for in cleaning this one up. If I lose sight of that it will end up in the bin as rubbish.

When the alcohol dried in the bowl and the visual showed a clean bowl and shank I took a sniff of the bowl. After all of this work the moldy smell still was present in the bowl and shank. This called for more drastic measures. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum on it and sanded the inside of the bowl until the briar was bare and clean. Then I filled the bowl with salt and alcohol to leach out the oil from the inside of the bowl and shank. My hope was that in doing this I would also kill the stench. I plugged the shank with a cork, filled the bowl with kosher rock salt (I was out of my normal cotton bolls) and set it up on an old ice-cube tray. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I set it aside and went to bed to let the treatment do its work while I was sleeping. The two photos below show the bowl after filling with alcohol.

In the morning the salt was a dark brown as pictured below. I emptied the now darkened salt and dried out the inside of the bowl by flaming the alcohol with my lighter. It still smelled like mold though the smell was definitely losing strength.

I cleaned out the button area of the stem with the dental pick and then ran several bristle pipe cleaners through it and then followed up with regular pipe cleaners. I soak both in Everclear to clean out the stem. I then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification that was all over the stem. I also gave the stem a quick sand all over with the 220 grit to remove the top oxidation. I ran the flame from the Bic lighter over the surface to burn off the oxidation. It did a great job of removing what I had loosened with the sandpaper. I continued sanding it with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the remaining oxidation. I rubbed down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside with the bowl while I went off to work. The Obsidian Oil sat on the stem and soaked in for the 9 hours I was at work.

I refilled the bowl with salt and put a cork in the shank. I again used the ear syringe to fill the bowl with alcohol and set it aside to work on the stem. It too sat for the nine hours I was at work.

When I got home from work the stem looked quite good. It was significantly more black and the oxidation was gone except around the stem shank union. More work to do there. The salt was a dark brown, but slightly lighter than the first treatment. I dumped out the salt and cleaned out the bowl and shank with cotton swabs again. When I finished the smell was better but present nonetheless. I cleaned out the bowl with alcohol and cotton swabs again.

I needed another bit of encouragement at this point so I decided to stain the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain cut 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I applied the stain, flamed it and then buffed it on with Tripoli and White Diamond (photos 1-4 below). The brown did a fair job of coverage but I would need to give it a second coat of stain using a oxblood colour to do some blending with the dark areas on the bowl.

I worked on the stem with fine grit sanding sponges and 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. There were some minor tooth dents that still showed up so I passed over them with a Bic lighter and was able to raise them. More sanding was needed and I repeated the sanding described above.

Once the bowl dried out it still smelled so I decided to repeat the salt and alcohol treatment a third time. I filled the bowl with salt and isopropyl and set it aside over night (photo 1 below). In the morning the salt was little lighter brown this time (photos 2-3 below). I dumped the salt out and cleaned the bowl and shank again. This time the cotton swabs came out fairly clean. I flamed the inside of the bowl. Once the bowl dried out it still smelled so I decided to repeat the salt and alcohol treatment again. I filled the bowl with salt and isopropyl and set it aside over night. In the morning the salt was once again a dark brown. I dumped the salt out and cleaned the bowl and shank again. This time the cotton swabs came out fairly clean. I flamed the inside of the bowl. Though the inside of the bowl and the shank was very clean the musty smell still remained, though less prevalent. This was one stubborn pipe bowl to clean.

While the inside of the bowl dried out I decided to restain the bowl. For the second/top coat I used a oxblood stain. I applied it and wiped it off (first photo below). The coverage this time was much better. The dark reddish stain blended well and covered the dark areas of the bowl. The finished colour is a nice older deep reddish brown look (second-fourth photos below).

I decided to sand back the inside of the bowl yet again. I used the Dremel with the sanding drum a second time. When I was finished the inside of the bowl was very clean and fresh looking. The smell was still there. I stuffed the bowl with cotton bolls and then used an ear syringe to fill it with white vinegar and set it in the ice-cube tray to let it work. I have used that in the past to remove stubborn ghosts so I thought I would give it a try on this one.

While the bowl soaked I worked on the stem with the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads – 3200-12,000 to bring back the deep shine on the stem. Sanding them with the higher grits of micromesh really gives a deep shine to the stem. It is amazing to see the difference between each of the successive grits of micromesh. I did not take photos of the steps as almost all of my refurbishing posts have shown the polishing process with the micromesh. The next two photos show the finished stem. Once the bowl is finished I will buff the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then give the whole a buff with multiple coats of carnauba wax to polish.

Once the vinegar had soaked in the bowl for several hours I removed the cotton boll and dried out the bowl. I then used a Dremel with a sanding drum to sand back the sides of the bowl yet again. This time I extended the diameter of the bowl to get rid of the surface area of the bowl interior. Once I was finished with the Dremel I hand sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the small ridges left behind by the drum sanding. The last two photos in this sequence show the newly sanded bowl.

I took the bowl outside and put it in the bright sun on my patio. I wanted to let the heat and the UV rays from the sun do more work on the potential mold in the bowl. The evening is cooling down and the sun is no longer as warm. I brought in the bowl and wiped down the inside of the bowl and shank with an alcohol based anti bacterial wipe. I took it to the buffer and gave the whole pipe a buff with White Diamond. I then gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buff. The pipe is like new and it SMELLS GREAT. I finally beat the moldy smell. The final four photos show the finished pipe.

GBD Midnight 9456

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Blog by Greg Wolford

The last few months have been extremely busy for me. It is amazing how much a disabled, non-working person can be obligated to do; I think I had more “free time” when I was working full time in the car business! Ah, but I digress …

By chance, I found myself today with no obligations, no chores, no appointments, just a day to myself. Unfortunately it also stormed badly which flared up my arthritic joints but I was able, finally, to get to a project, if only a simple one.

I picked up this GBD Midnight about two weeks ago. It was a fair price and an interesting pipe to me; all of the Midnight models I had seen before had acrylic stems and this one had vulcanite. Some later research led me to believe that there were at least two productions of this line: the first with vulcanite stems shortly after the merger and another some time later with acrylic stems.

Although I forgot to take “before” photos the seller’s were quite accurate except for the oxidation was a bit more than I anticipated: it wasn’t thick or heavy but was even, all over brown. The seller said he had only smoked it a few times over the years and didn’t like it; he prefers a 9 mm filter pipe. He said there were a few tooth dents but not bad ones and that he had cleaned it; these things were accurate, if he meant cleaned the inside.

The too had a fair amount if tar build up but not thick. The stummel was dirty but not in bad shape at all. And the dents were mild as be had said.

I began with an alcohol soaked pad, wiping down the stummel, paying extra attention to the rim’s build up. It didn’t take a lot to get it cleaned up and the rim smoothed out. I then reamed the bowl, which needed it but wasn’t badly caked. I set the stummel aside and began to work on the stem.

I started by rubbing the entire stem well with Back-to-Black, which removed a lot of oxidation. Then I took some automotive rubbing compound and cotton pads and polished away almost all of the remaining oxidation. After the rubbing compound I took the stem to the heat gun to raise the dents. They came up pretty well but not completely. But they were now slight enough I decided to not sand them smooth; I wanted to finish this pipe and write this blog tonight, those things and the small dents left made this decision for me easy. I did wet sand the stem with 400 grit wet/dry paper to remove the last of the oxidation and the few scratches I saw.

I reassembled the pipe and went to the buffing wheel. I like to buff the shank-stem union together so as to keep a nice fit. I began with black buffing compound, about an 800-grit I believe. After the union was buffed I took the stem and stummel apart and buffed each piece. I moved onto brown tripoli, then white diamond doing the same process.

I had a small deviation at the end of the white diamond buffing: the wheel grabbed the stummel and bounced it off my table. It left two dents, the bounce across the garage, that totally irritated me. I then had to steam the the dents out; thankfully the dents weren’t bad and came out. I went back to the white diamond and re-buffed the stummel.

I reassembled the pipe and gave it several coats of carnauba wax, buffed it on a soft, clean wheel and, finally, hand buffed it wearing a pair of linen gloves I bought just for that purpose.

The pipe came out quite well I think. After cleaning and buffing it is a bit lighter on color, which I am very happy with; the grain, especially the Birdseye on the front of the bowl really pops now.

Hopefully the frantic pace of life will slow some over the coming weeks; I have many more wonderful old pipes that are patiently awaiting being brought back to life. And I am anxious to do the work an share it with you.

Breathing New Life into a Dr. Grabow Riviera

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I am refurbishing pipes I take the same care on older factory made pipes as I do on the more collectible ones. To me this is part of the stewardship of refurbishing. It does not matter what the original price of the pipe was – it is worth redeeming and bringing back to life. The refurbishing of the next pipe is one of those. It is an older Dr. Grabow Riviera. It was given to me by a good friend in Ponoka, Alberta. He gave it to me as a gift when I visited him recently. It is stamped Riviera over Dr. Grabow on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Adjustomatic over a patent number – PAT. 2461905 on the right side of the shank. The stinger apparatus in this one is an insert into the metal tenon. It is tube with a scooped portion on top that has a hole in the bottom of the scoop. The air/smoke circulates in the shank and is drawn into the stem by the smoker. The surface area of the apparatus acts as a condenser and filter. The beauty of this design is that it can be removed. The stem was badly oxidized and also had tooth dents on the top and bottom near the button. The finish was shot and the varnish was peeling from the bowl and shank. The rim was darkened and dirty and had a small crack on the top left side. The four photos below show the state of the pipe when I brought it home.

I love doing research on old patents and with US made pipes it is very simple. The following website is a simple way to find data and diagrams. http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm In the search parameters you enter the patent number from the pipe and click on the search button. Generally, these older patents have been made into PDF files that can be downloaded. Here is a copy of the information I found there. It is a patent for the Adjustomatic connector. I always find reading through these patent application documents gives me a feel for why the designer came up with invention. This proved true of this application as well.

After reading through the patent information I was ready to restore this old pipe. It appeared to be made somewhere around the time of the Patent as it had the patent number stamped on it. That dated it somewhere around 1949 after the patent was given. I began by reaming the bowl with the PipNet reaming set to clear up the uneven and broken cake. I decided to work on the externals first. I wiped down the bowl and shank with acetone on a cotton makeup pad to remove the finish. There was some very nice grain poking through the mottled finish and very few tiny fills that made it even more attractive to me. The acetone removed the varnish very well and also took away the dirt and filth on the exterior. The first two photos below show the process of wiping down the bowl. The old finish is visible on the cotton pad.

Once the finish was removed from the bowl as much as possible with the acetone, I sanded it down with 340 grit sandpaper and a fine grit sanding sponge to further remove the finish. The next series of four photos show the bowl after the acetone wash and the sanding. The grain on this one is very nice. The inner rim would need to have some attention to smooth out the rough edges and the darkening.

I sanded the metal shank band as it had some deep scratches and gouges in it. I could not remove the damage but I minimized its look. I worked on the tooth marks in the topside and the underside of the stem surface. I heated the stem with a Bic lighter – passing the flame over the tooth marks to lift them to the surface. I then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining marks that were present (Photos 1 – 4 below). I followed that by sanding with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper (Photos 5 – 6 below).

I sanded the entire stem with the sanding sponge to remove the oxidation from the vulcanite. I took the pipe apart and cleaned the stinger apparatus with a cotton swab and alcohol. The next two photos show that design of the stinger. It is a two part piece and the extended tube can be removed from the screw in metal tenon. I cleaned the inside of the stem and also the inside of the stinger to remove the buildup of tars and oils inside.

I sanded the bowl with 1500 – 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads, being careful around the stamping on the shank. Once the scratches were removed and the bowl was smooth I restained it with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. Doing this makes the stain less opaque and also several shades lighter. I wanted to highlight the grain not hide it so this was the perfect mix to do that. I applied the stain with a cotton swab, flamed it with a lighter to set the stain and then repeated the process a second time. The next three photos show that process. You will note that I also cleaned up the inner edge of the rim with the sanding process noted above. Most of the roughness is removed. A small crack remains on the top of the left side of the bowl rim.

I set the bowl aside and worked on finishing the stem. I sanded it with 1500 – 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads until it was smooth and finished. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil to protect and remove the oxidation. I reattached it to the bowl and buffed the stem and bowl with White Diamond on the buffer. I gave the entirety several coats of carnauba wax to bring out the shine and protect it. The final four photos show the finished pipe – cleaned, restored and ready to smoke. The photos show tinges of brown/oxidation still remaining in the stem under the flash of the camera. To deal with that I polished the stem some more and gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil and let it soak in. Upon finishing I buffed it again with carnauba.