By Al Jones

This Comoy’s Tradition is the 2nd pipe I worked on from the group that came to me for some restoration work. This is the Shape 5, Large Straight Bulldog. Curiously, this one has the letter “F” with the 5. I’ve worked on several shape 5’s, but never saw this letter. The COM and drilled C stem logo date the pipe to being made prior to the merger in 1981.

The pipe had an oxidized stem, a heavy cake and some lava on top. There was also a small chip on the edge of the bowl. The stem had no bite marks and the bowl bead rings were perfect. Below is the pipe as it was received (photos taken after the bowl top build up was removed).

I used some Tripoli with the buffing wheel to smooth out the chip on the bowl top, it’s much less noticeable now. The bowl was reamed, and soaked with alcohol and sea salt.

Following the soak, the stem was mounted and I removed the oxidation with wet sandpaper – 800, 1,500 and 2,000 grades, followed by machine buff with White Diamond rouge then Meguiars Plastic polish. The bowl was buffed lightly with White Diamond rouge and several coats of carnuba wax.

Below is the finished pipe: