Tag Archives: contrast staining

I love these old timers – this one is a GC Bulldog

Blog by Steve Laug

When I found this old bulldog on EBay I was drawn to it and immediately put in a bid. I won it as no one else saw the charm in this one. It was a hard to see the stamping in the photos and many of the photos the seller included were out of focus which even made it harder to figure out the state of the pipe. The seller identified the pipe as a GC Bulldog. The seller’s photos that I have chosen below show the condition of the pipe. The finish is dirty and there are definitely dings and nicks in the briar. The bead around the cap of the bowl is a nice touch and it too is worn. The stem is oversized and is larger in diameter than the bowl so it makes one wonder if it is original. The threaded bone tenon in the stem fits perfectly in the shank with the alignment matching. The angles of the shank and the stem match. The vulcanite stem is just slightly larger than the shank on the left side of the pipe but works on the right side. The button is rounded and has an orific opening that shows that it is the proper age for this pipe. All that I saw was enough for me.

When the pipe arrived my assessment from the photos was correct. The stem was a good fit but it was larger than the shank on the left side. The bone tenon was in excellent shape with no wear and tear on it. It was stained with the tobacco juices of the long smoking. The shank was dirty and the airway in the stem was dirty. The airway in the bowl was clogged so no air would go through it no matter how hard I blew on the shank. The rim had serious damage on the right side front. There was a chunk of briar missing from the inner edge of the bowl and there was a scar running part way down below that. The rim had a divot at that point and also on the front itself that looked to have been caused by overzealous lighting from the exact same point every time the pipe was smoked. The bowl had been reamed and looked clean and smooth other than the damage on the right top side. The finish was dark and dirty. The stem had tooth marks on the underside near the button and tooth chatter on the top side. The next four photos show the pipe when I brought it to the work table.

The next photo is a close-up of the rim to show the damage. I decided to top the bowl so I used the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the top surface damage to the rim edge. When I had topped as much as I could without changing the profile of the bowl it was time to decide how to address the damage. I set that aside for a bit and worked on the fit of the stem.

I sanded the stem sides with 220 grit sandpaper to bring it to the same height and dimensions as the shank. It took work on the left sides and some adjustments to the right side. I also needed to work over the points of the diamond to make the alignment straight and flowing. I sanded the tooth marks and tooth chatter at the same time and was able to remove it.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the damaged and dirty finish that remained on the bowl. With these old finishes the grime and some of the clouded top coat disappears and the grain begins to poke through as the bowl is scrubbed.

I worked on the internals of the mortise, airway and the airway in the stem. Since the airway in the mortise was plugged I used a round dental pick to push through the grime that plugged the airway. I reamed out the airway with the pick and then scrubbed it with pipe cleaners and a shank brush until it was clean. I scrubbed out the mortise with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until it was clean and smelled fresh. I swabbed out the inside of the bowl with cotton swabs and alcohol. I used pipe cleaners and alcohol in the stem airway and cleaned the threads on the bone tenon with cotton swabs.

With the interior of the bowl clean I lightly sanded the inner edge of the bowl in the damaged area. I put some small drops of super glue on the rim and inner edge and used a dental spatula to press briar dust into the glue.

I retopped the bowl to smooth out the repair and sanded the inside with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the curve of the inner edge.

I sanded the top and rim edge with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper and then with 1500 grit micromesh in preparation for staining. I stained the areas where I had sanded the shank to match the stem and the rim with a dark brown stain pen.

I hand buffed the stained areas and the rim and took the following photos.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I set the stem aside until the oil dried.

I gave the bowl and stem several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed the pipe and stem with a shoe brush and a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. There are still some dents and dings on the sides of the shank and bowl that I chose to leave there. Some of them are the very faint stampings that remain on the right and left topside of the diamond shank. Some of them are beauty marks that came with the long life and hard travel of this little pipe. I chose to leave them as they were and imagine the stories that go along with them. Thanks for looking.

Putting the Rusticated Rim back on a Savinelli Capri 121 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

One of the gift pipes received from a friend when I repaired his pipe was a beautiful little Savinelli Capri 121 Pot. I love the finish on the Capris. There is something about the rusticated finish that adds a tactile dimension to the pipe that I thoroughly appreciate. This pipe was no exception. The finish on the bowl was in excellent condition though at some point in its life it had been topped. The typical rustication on the rim surface had been sanded smooth and the rim had been stained with a reddish brown stain. The internals of the pipe were very clean. The bowl had been reamed and the airway in the mortise was spotless. The stamping on the bottom of the shank was sharp and legible – it reads Savinelli Capri over Root Briar and the Savinelli shield and next to that the shape #121 over Italy.

The stem had seen better days but it was still repairable. It was oxidized and the gold stamping was faint on top of the saddle. There were tooth marks on the top and the bottom of the stem. The ones on top had been repaired and filled with a white looking epoxy. It was hard and smooth but it was white and it looked really bad with the brown oxidation on the stem. These would need to be removed and repaired when I worked on the stem. The tooth marks on the underside of the stem were not as deep and could easily be remedied by sanding the stem. The inside of the stem was also very clean. I took the following photos when I brought the pipe to the work table.

I took some close-up photos of the rim and the stem to show the condition of both. The topping job on the rim actually was very well done. The refinish on it was impeccable – no scratches or grooves, just a clean smooth surface. The stem shows the story I mentioned above. The top side view shows the repairs and the underside view shows the dents.

Taking care of the dents on the underside of the stem was an easy matter. They were not too deep so I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and they disappeared. The top of the stem was another matter. I wanted to remove the white repairs. I sanded the stem until they were four distinct repairs. Then I used the dental pick to pick away at the white epoxy repair until it was pitted and gave me a new divot to work with. I used some black super glue to refill the divots and cover the white that had been present before.

I sprayed the glue with an accelerator and then sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the stem. In the next photo you can see that the white no longer was visible. The trick would be to keep it that way!

Now it was time to address the rim. I was not sure about rusticating it because it actually looked quite fine the way it was. I went online and found a photo of a Capri that was the same shape and the rim was rusticated. I liked the look of the rim blending into the finish of the bowl. The decision was made. Now I had to work to get a similar look. took out my Dremel and my assortment of burrs. I was pretty certain that I would use them all in the process of rusticating the rim with a deep and pebbled look. I started with a simple cylindrical burr to carve some random swirls across the rim. I did this lightly at first and then deepened them. At this point I kept to the middle of the rim as I had ideas about rusticating the edges a little differently. I followed that by using the ball burr to deepen the swirls and work on the inner and outer edges of the rim. At this point the surface was beginning to look good. But too me it was not rustic enough for the Capri finish on the bowl – it was too tame looking. I used cone burr next with a cross hatch pattern to randomize the pattern even more and deepen the grooves in the surface and edges. I next moved onto another cone burr with a spiral pattern and continued to work on the rim pattern. It was getting close to the point I was aiming for. I used the last cone burr that had a swirl pattern in the opposite direction and went over the rim again to further accent the roughness. I used the cylindrical burr to cut some of the lines between the divots and edges of the bowl and make it more craggy looking. At this point in the process I was finished with the burrs and I put a coat of medium brown stain on the high points in the rustication using a stain pen. I followed that up with using a black Sharpie pen to fill in the divots and low spots on the rustication.

I scrubbed the newly stained rim with a brass bristle brush to knock off some of the high spots and get a more burnished look like the bowl sides. I still was not happy with the stain so I used the sharpie again to darken the low spots and grooves. I then restained the rim with the dark brown stain pen. The colour was very close to the sides of the bowl.

I could have probably stopped there but I did not. I studied the photo of the rim above and noted that there were some striations or cuts in the surface of the rim that connected all the rustication and gave it a distressed look. I have a serrated edge letter opener here that I thought might work to give me more of that look. I cut the surface from every direction with the edge of the letter opener and carved and hacked it to distress it. I used the brass brush once again and then recut the rim with the opener. I restained the rim with the black Sharpie and the dark brown pen. And then gave it a light buff on the wheel with Blue Diamond. I say light because if I had pressed any harder the polishing material would have gone into the grooves and made a mess. The rim looked good to me. The finish was done and all that remained was to wax it with some Conservator’s Wax. I gave the bowl and rim several coats of Conservator’s Wax (works like Halcyon II on rusticated finishes) and buffed it with a shoe brush to polish and give a shine. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads to begin the polishing process. It was tricky around the stamp on the shank so I had to work carefully with the pad to get as much of the oxidation as possible.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond to further polish it and then sanded it with 4000 grit wet dry sandpaper to really work on the oxidation at the shank. It is a finicky part of the process because of the weak stamping. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then progressed to 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads. Another coat of oil preceded the final sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave the stem a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.

I buffed the pipe with a shoe brush and then with a microfibre cloth. I gave it several more coats of the Conservator’s Wax and polished it to a shine. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba to protect it and then buffed the stem with a clean buff to raise the shine. I hand buffed the entirety one final time with a shoe brush and then took the finished photos below. This was a fun project. You can see that the white stem repairs have disappeared and the rustication on the rim fits the overall look of the pipe far better than the smooth finish that was there before. Thanks for looking.

Mission Impossible: Operation Long Shot

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Blog by Charles Lemon and Steve Laug

Charles posted this on his Dadspipes blog this morning and I reblogged it here on rebornpipes. I was thinking about it this evening and thought it was worth saving in total on both blogs so not only have I reblogged it but I also have put it here in the archives of this blog. That way it is easily accessible on both blogs. This was a fun project for both of us to do. We spoke this afternoon and already are working on another collaboration… Keep an eye out for it on both blogs.

The door opened and a man walked into the bar, pausing briefly in the doorway to allow his eyes to adapt to the dim light inside. The place was what optimists would euphemistically call a dive. The establishment was empty except for a few drunks and a large, bored-looking man behind the counter wiping glasses with a rag that was presumably once white but was now an indeterminate shade of grey.

The man walked through the room, turned in at a doorway marked “Gents” and scanned the room – two stalls, a urinal and a grimy sink – before spotting what he sought. Moving across the room, he fed a handful of coins into a coin-operated machine advertising cheap cologne. There was a rattle and then a small rectangular device dropped into a waiting hand. The man pushed his thumb against a small pad on the otherwise blank rectangle. A laser washed briefly up and down the pad and then a voice was heard.

“Good morning, Agent. You have been selected to join a small, two-man strike force for a delicate and potentially disastrous assignment. Your mission, should you choose to accept it…..”

A while back, Steve Laug of Reborn Pipes and I had a conversation about the limits of pipe restorations. Was a pipe ever truly beyond repair? We responded in the negative, and decided to put our theory to the test with this mission, code-named Operation Long Shot. We wanted a pipe that was so far gone that most people would immediately write it off as firewood or worse, the sort of thing barely recognizable as a pipe.

We selected as our test subject this Brigham 3-Dot Prince. As you can see in the photos below, it was in terrible condition when I came across it in a jumble of estate pipes I picked up about six months ago. I had been holding onto it with some vague notion of using it for spare parts.

The pipe was filthy, crusted with dirt and debris. The old finish was long gone, and the nomenclature was almost entirely worn away. Wiping the shank with a bit of water, however, revealed the thin, flowing script of the early Brigham logo stamped over “Can Pat 372982”. That stamp places the production date of this old warrior in the 1938-1955 range.

The pipe stem carried the three brass dots of Brigham’s mid-grade 300 series, but was deeply oxidized a gruesome yellow/green colour. It had been brutally chopped off at the bit and a crude button cut into the raw end. To add insult to injury, the bowl had suffered a burnout through the bottom, which had been “repaired” as delicately as the stem with a large clod of epoxy which spread over most of the bottom bowl surface. The interior of the bowl was in no better shape – the epoxy fill had been roughly wiped around the chamber floor, and the draft hole had been worn or burnt open to about double its original diameter. All in, this pipe was a train wreck, though evidently much prized by its previous owner who had refused to give up on it.

Mission Log: Agent Lemon. Phase I – Cleanup and Salvage

This restoration would be a great challenge, but Steve and I were up for it. We agreed to tag-team the job: I would clean up the stummel and salvage what I could from the hacked up stem, and then mail the briar across the country to Steve in Vancouver, BC. He would plug the burnout and tidy up the stummel and then send the pipe home to me in Kitchener, ON for re-stemming and the final fit and finish.

Wanting to get the pipe off to Steve as quickly as possible, I got going on the reaming and cleaning work. I used my Castleford reamer to remove as much carbon from the bowl as I could. I reamed very carefully, expecting the bowl to crumble in my hands, but the old girl held together. I think most of what came out was actually more dirt than cake, but at least the chamber walls looked ok except for the enlarged draft hole. I scrubbed the exterior of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a soft toothbrush, and then dropped the briar into an isopropyl alcohol bath to soak overnight.

While the stummel soaked, I had a good look at the stem. I have another Prince shape in my Brigham collection, and a quick comparison showed that the stem for this old pipe was missing about an inch of length. I decided that I would need to work up a new stem to replace the old one. A vulcanite stem would be relatively easy to get hold of, but an aluminum Brigham tenon was quite another matter. As the tenon on the junk stem was still in good shape (or would be after a good cleaning), I decided to salvage it to implant in the replacement stem. I heated the tenon and the end of the stem over a lighter flame until the vulcanite softened, then gently twisted the aluminum tenon out of the stem. One of the brass dots decided to come with it, demonstrating how Brigham used the first brass pin to help hold the tenon/filter holder in the stem.

The next morning, I pulled the stummel out of the alcohol bath and scrubbed it down with an old towel. This is when I ran into the first bit of luck on this project – the alcohol soak had softened the wide but thin patch of epoxy spread across the bottom of the bowl. I quickly grabbed a dental pick and scraped as much of the old adhesive from the briar as I could. I managed to remove most of the softened epoxy, revealing a central core of harder fill about 5/8″ in diameter. This then, was the original burnout.

I drilled out the core epoxy and used a tapered reamer to trip the opening to an even circle with fresh briar all around. This would be the hole Steve would need to plug.

My first stage of the mission was complete, so I packed the stummel securely and entrusted it to Canada Post for shipment to Steve in Vancouver.

Mission Log: Agent Laug. Phase II – Bowl Repair & Refinish

Charles Lemon of DadsPipes and I decided to collaborate on a refurbish that captured some of the essence of our conversation that we shared on our blogs regarding restoration. This old Brigham had major issues with the stem and the bowl. Charles tackled the stem and did the cleanup work on the bowl and then sent the stummel to me to work on. When it arrived I took it out of the small box and had a look at what he had sent to me. He had cleaned out the bowl which had been plugged with JB Weld and opened up the burn out in the bottom of the bowl. He drilled out the plug and when I got it the bowl had pretty much most of the bottom missing. I cut the side out of an old briar bowl I cannibalized for parts and shaped it for the plug. It was thick enough and big enough for me to cut the plug. I cut it and shaped it with a Dremel and sanding drum. The next two photos below shows the plug after the initial shaping. It is still too large in diameter and also needs to be flattened on the inside.

I continued to shape and fine tune the plug until it fit into the hole in the bottom of the bowl. I flattened the inside surface to match the angles of the bowl bottom. The next two photos show that the plug is just about ready to press into place. Just a little more material needs to be sanded off the edges before it is a fit.

I sanded the edges with the Dremel and sanding drum until I had a good fit and then pressed it into the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the outer surface of the plug with the Dremel and sanding drum until it was flush with the surface of the bowl. I used a black sharpie to draw a cross on the bottom of the bowl so that I could align the plug once I put the glue on and pressed it into place. I then coated the edges of the plug with slow drying super glue and pressed it into the hole in the bowl. The next two photos show how the plug looked in place from the outside and the inside of the bowl.

I used a dental pick to clean out the edges of the plug and bowl on the outside and then filled them with super glue and briar dust to take care of the chips and damage to the bowl bottom. Once it dried I sanded the bottom of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to blend in the plug.

The next two photos show the state of the bowl repair at this point in the process. The plug has been set in the bowl and the crevices around the plug have been filled and repaired. The inside of the bowl is smooth and the plug sits nicely in place.

At this point in the process others may use JB Weld or Pipe Mud to finish up the bottom but I have found that a thin coat of Plaster of Paris gives a little bit of added protection to the bowl and also levels out the bowl bottom. In this case the bowl had a low spot in front of the entrance to the airway. I mixed a batch of Plaster, put a pipe cleaner in the airway and put it in the bottom of the bowl to level it out.

When the Plaster dried I applied a coat of pipe mud to the bowl bottom and sides, filling in some of the crevices in the bowl sides and smoothing out the surface. I used a dental spatula to press the pipe mud in place on the bowl sides and a pipe nail to press it into the bottom of the bowl.

I set the bowl aside at this point to cure for two days and then worked on the rustication of the bowl. I used a dental burr to follow the pattern on the bowl sides and deepen them. I cut a similar pattern on the bottom of the bowl with the burr. I used the burr to clean up the rustication on the shank as well – carefully avoiding the area where the faint Brigham stamping remained.

I used a black Sharpie permanent marker to stain the grooves in the bowl. I wanted a dark under tone to the bowl after I stained it. I like the way the stain looks with this underneath in the grooves.

I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it.

I wiped it down with alcohol on cotton pads to give it some more transparency and create the contrast with the black in the grooves of the rustication. I sanded the rim with a 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pad to smooth it out and to add to the contrast of the smooth rim.

I hand rubbed in several coats of Conservators Wax and then buffed the bowl with a shoe brush.

I mixed up a bowl coating of charcoal powder and sour cream and painted it on the inside walls of the bowl to give it further protection. When the bowl coating dried, it was time to pack the stummel back up for its return trip to Ontario.

Mission Log: Agent Lemon. Phase III – Stem Work

Recreating a Patent Era Brigham stem requires only a few items – a vulcanite stem of appropriate length and sufficient diameter to hold a Brigham rock maple filter, an aluminum Brigham tenon/filter holder, a few drill bits and some epoxy.

I found a suitable stem in my box of stems, using a Brigham Prince pipe from my collection as a reference. I used a hacksaw to remove the vulcanite tenon, and then clamped the stem into a simple drilling jig in my drill press. The stem must be perfectly aligned in the press or you risk drilling through the side of the stem instead of down the airway. The goal is to enlarge the airway to make room for the filter, and then drill out a mortise in the face of the stem to accept the aluminum tenon/filter holder. A quick test fit verified my drilling, so I glued the original tenon into the new stem with a bit of JB Weld and let the assembly cure.

When the repaired stummel arrived from Vancouver, I could fit the replacement stem. As I was working with the original tenon, it wasn’t a great surprise when the stem fit nicely into the shank. A little bit of filing and sanding to remove the stem’s molding marks and reduce the diameter to match the shank, and I was ready to install the Brigham dots.

The dots are made by inserting 1/16″ brass rod into holes drilled in the side of the stem. The first pin is located approximately 5/16″ from the end of the stem at the centre line, and the other pins in the 2, 3, and 4-dot patterns are built off the first dot. As this was a 300-level pipe, I’d be installing three pins in a triangle pattern. The first pin is the bottom left dot of the triangle.

I marked out the pinning pattern with a Sharpie and then drilled the holes, being careful not to drill through into the stem’s airway. Short segments of brass rod were then glued into the holes with clear CA glue. When the glue had cured, I used a combination of files and sandpapers to bring the dots flush with the surface of the stem. A final polishing with micromesh pads to remove any remaining scratches prepped the stem for buffing. Just before doing so, I gave the stem a 1/8th bend by holding it over the heat gun until pliable and shaping it over a round form. A dip in cool water set the bend in place.

Mission Log: Impossible Accomplished

The restored pipe sits on the desk in front of me. I hardly recognize it as being even remotely related to the broken-down shell of a pipe Steve and I started with only a few short weeks ago. Shipping the patient back and forth took a lot of time, but the results of this cross-country collaboration speak for themselves. This Patent Era Brigham 313 looks ready for another 60 years of smoking pleasure. Steve did a truly magnificent job on the stummel, and the new stem looks like it’s been there all along. I think we both learned something new during this restoration, and we proved our theory (in grand fashion) as we did it – every pipe, no matter the condition, can be restored to useful service with the right combination of skill and will.

I hope this project inspires other pipe refurbishers to take a second look at that written-off pipe you’ve held onto for some reason. I’m willing to bet there’s still a great smoke hiding in that old briar somewhere. It’s up to you to find it.

Here’s the finished pipe.

Mission Impossible: Operation Long Shot

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This is an old Brigham that Charles and I did together and it was almost Mission Impossible. Wanted to post on both blogs.

View original post 2,428 more words

Breathing New Life into a Briarlee Scoop

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff and I were looking through Ebay and came upon this old Briarlee Scoop. The stem was badly overturned as these old pipes had a threaded metal tenon and shank insert. This one was turned upside down. Something about these 1960s era chunky pipes grabs my attention. They are very Minceresque, strongly resembling Custombilts. They have anice vintage look. Briarlee pipes were made by the Arlington Pipe Company.

I wanted to refresh my memory of the brand since it had been a while since I had worked on an Arlington made pipe. I checked my usual sources and found that Pipedia had some quick and helpful reminders for me https://pipedia.org/wiki/Arlington. The next photo came from that site and is a great advertisement for the brand. I quote from Pipedia: “Arlington Briar Pipes Corporation was founded in 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, and produced the Arlington, Briarlee, Firethorn, Krona and Olde London brands among dozens of others, primarily acting as a subcontractor making pipes to be sold under other brand names. Among others, in the 1950’s, Arlington turned pipes for the famed Wilke Pipe Shop in New York City. The corporation was dissolved by the State of New York as inactive on December 6, 1978. Arlington Briar Pipe Corporation, located at 200 Kosciusko Street, Brooklyn, New York, registered only a single brand trademark, the Arlington brand, the trademark for which was applied for on November 13, 1962 and granted on February 25, 1964. Jack Kaye, of Arlington Briar, was also granted a patent for a combined mirror and stand in 1967.”

Pipedia also quotes José Manuel Lopes, Pipes Artisans and Trademarks; “Arlington is a North American brand that belonged to Arlington Briar Pipes Corp., Brooklyn, New York, founded in 1919. In the 1940s, Ludwig Rosenberger gave the company new life, and it continued until the 70s. His son, Mel Rosenberger, has recently launched the DiMonte brand. Jack Uhle was also linked to Arlington.” Arlington, as far as known, mainly operated as a sub-contractor for other brands. The Jobey pipes are said to be made by Arlington at an unknown point of time. Arlington’s own pipes are seldom seen.”

Now I had the information in hand and I started to work on this pipe. The next set of photos was the ones that the EBay seller posted. They give a good reference point for the state of the pipe.

When it arrived I brought it to the work table and took my own set of photos. The overturned stem makes the pipe look awkward.

I unscrewed the stem and heated the stinger and tenon with a lighter until the glue softened in the stem. Once it was warm the stem was quite easy to turn and align. I took the next two close-up photos to show the size of the pink putty fills on both the right and left side of the bowl. These pink fills would have to go as they are very hard to stain or mask.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the largest cutting head. I was able to ream back the cake to briar and at the same time clean up the inner edge of the rim. The edge was not as damaged as I thought it might have been.

I cleaned the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and the grime. I scrubbed the lava on the rim to see if I could remove it. Briar15 Briar16 Briar17 Briar18

I lightly sanded the rim to remove the hard tars on the surface while not scratching or damaging the bowl. I also sanded the inner edge of the rim to clean up the rough edges.

Briar19

I removed the pink putty fills with a dental pick and refilled them with briar dust and clear super glue.

Briar20 Briar21

I sanded the repairs smooth and then used a black Sharpie permanent marker to stain the grooves on the sides and top of the bowl.

Briar22 Briar23 Briar24

I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain for a top coat to contrast with the black trails in the briar.

Briar25 Briar26

I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to give it a shine and get a feel for the coverage of the stains.

Briar27 Briar28

Now it was time to work on the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sand paper to remove the tooth chatter and bite marks on the underside near the button. I followed up by sanding with a medium grit sanding sponge.

Briar29 Briar30

The inside of the shank was a mess as is often the case with these pipes with metal mortise fitments. It took a lot of scrubbing before I could remove the oils. The pile of cotton swabs is about half of what I used to clean out the shank. Cleaning the stem was a challenge as the stinger was not removable. I fit pipe cleaners through the slot in the stinger and drew them through the airway in the stem until it was clean. I scrubbed the stinger with alcohol and a brass bristle brush to remove the hardened tars that had collected and dried there. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads but forgot to take a picture of the stem after the sanding. The effect of that sanding can be seen in the second photo below.

Briar31 Briar32

With the internals clean I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I continued sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave the stem a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.

Briar33 Briar34

I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed them with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed them with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine in the briar and the stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The old warrior is ready for ongoing service. Once again, thanks for looking.

Briar35 Briar36 Briar37 Briar38 Briar39 Briar40 Briar41

Breathing new life into this Dusky Dulcet Bulldog

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Blog by Geoff Carmell

It is a pleasure for me to post this first blog by Geoff Carmell. I have followed his work on Facebook and we have communicated via Messenger and email now for a while. We have common friends in the small pipe community of Calgary. I saw his work on this bulldog and knew it was going to a common friend so I asked him to do a blog on the restoration. Geoff, it is great to have this piece here. You have done some great work on that old pipe. Thanks for sharing it with us all. Welcome to rebornpipes.
Hello everyone, this is my first attempt at blogging about one of my pipe refinishing projects.

Before I begin, our host Steve Laug wanted me to give a brief introduction about myself. I am still quite a novice when it comes to the world of pipes but that hasn’t quelled my desire to keep collecting, refinishing and smoking pipes. For me it truly started while going to local antique shops last fall while my parents were visiting. I was hooked when I refinished one of those antique store finds and haven’t looked back since.

I wanted to take a moment and say that refinishing pipes as a hobby has really helped me in more ways than one. I live in Southern Alberta and I am a crane truck operator in the oil and gas industry. Last year was an extremely slow year for me and 2016 isn’t looking any better. As such, I needed an outlet to keep myself from going crazy worrying about all the “what if’s” in life.

This began my journey into the world of pipe refinishing. This nice little bulldog was one of my first eBay purchases and was really in decent shape needing very little work, or so I thought…

My first step was to thoroughly clean the bowl inside and out. I did my usual salt/alcohol soak to get rid of any “ghosts” in the bowl. Before I did that though, I used Q-tips and pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol to clean the shank. Once the bowl was sanitized I turned my attention to the outside of the bowl by using a lightly dampened patch of “0000” steel wool to clean off the grime. To my dismay, this “cleaning” uncovered a crack in the rim. Not sure of what to do I just began sanding the rim down to the point that the crack was no longer visible. After I finished sanding the rim, I turned my attention to the grooves on the front of the bowl which had all but disappeared due to the wood swelling. After lots of filing with my newly acquired needle files the grooves started to take shape again. With the rim and grooves in good shape again I sanded the bowl with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper. I then proceeded to dye the bowl with Fiebings mahogany leather dye. I set the dye by flaming it and then left that to sit overnight. I turned once again to my steel wool to help strip off the dye to reveal the beautiful grain underneath. The bowl seemed lacking, I decided to sand the rim of the bowl once more if only to reveal the original briar again, although it’s not noticeable in the pictures, I sanded the ridge between the two grooves as well to show some contrast. Once the sanding was complete I used my buffing wheel with brown Tripoli to further bring out the shine and then applied a couple of coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish.

After the bowl was done I used the buffing wheels to put a shine on the stem as well. After all the buffing and waxing is done I like to use a clean microfiber clothe to hand rub the bowl and stem. This really helps to get rid of any wax buildup. After all is said and done I really enjoyed this refinishing project and I was pleased that it turned out to be my first pipe that would go to a great guy in our church.
Thanks for looking.
Best regards,
Geoff

A Peterson’s Product 268 Zulu Restemmed and Restored

10 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe came to me with the Meerschaum Sultan that I restemmed. It is stamped Shamrock on the top of the shank and “A Peterson’s Product” Made in the Republic of Ireland on the underside. On the right side near the bowl shank union it was stamped 268. I looked the number up and it is the shape number for a Zulu shape. The gentleman in Chile wrote: “I only have the bowl (I’m not acquainted with the minor brand) with an inappropriate mouthpiece which makes it impossible to smoke. I don’t remember how it got into my collection and certainly it’s not a pipe I purchased myself. It has a heavy cake and is a second-hand. If a proper mouthpiece could be made and a proper tune-up, it could make a fine pipe.” He included the following pictures. When it arrived I took it out of the box to deal with when I had finished repairing the Sultan Meerschaum pipe. It was a nice piece of briar with mixed grain and a worn finish. The stamping on the top of the shank was clear and sharp. The stamping on the underside showed clearly on the left side as you read it but as you got to the right side it was fainter. The rim was dirty and had a flaky coat of lava overflowing from the inside of the bowl and the thick cake there. The inner and outer rim looked good with no dents or chips. The bowl sides, front and back had some light dents in the finish. The stem was a billiard stem that had been stuck in the shank. It fit snugly but absolutely did not match the oval shank.

I took a close up photo of the rim and the bowl to show the thickness of the cake. Toward the bottom of the bowl it got thicker and reduced the size of the bowl at the airway. I looked at several Peterson shape # 268 Zulus to get an idea of what the stem looked like originally on this pipe. I went through my can of stems and found several that would work on this pipe. The one that was the closest to matching the diameter of the shank of the pipe was a brand new stem blank that still had the castings on the sides and end of the button. The slot was constricted but the length and shape would be easy to match to the shank. I drilled open the airway to accept the rod of the PIMO tenon tool. And then set up the tenon tool on a cordless drill. The current tenon was too long for the tool to cut all the way to the end of the tenon so I used the Dremel and sanding drum to shorten the tenon. I put it on the tool and adjusted the set screws and took off the first round of material. I did three adjustments to turn the tenon down to a fit in the mortise. I fine tuned the fit with 220 grit sandpaper.

The fit in the mortise was snug. The diameter of the new stem was large on the sides and the bottom. The top would take the least adjustment to get the fit correct.

I took off the majority of the excess vulcanite with the Dremel and sanding drum. I put it back in the shank and the fit was better. The rest of the work would have to be done by hand sanding. I hand sanded the stem until it was smooth and the transition between the shank and stem needed some fine tuning then set the stem aside and worked on the bowl. Contrary to my normal pattern I wiped off the outside of the bowl and shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and the grime that had been ground into the briar. Once it was gone there was some nice grain showing through.

I put the stem in place and took a few photos so that I could see where I stood at this point in the process. The pipe was looking good and with a few tweaks would look even better.

The top of the bowl was caked and the lava was very hard. I tried to scrape it carefully with a pen knife and gave up. I resorted to lightly topping the bowl on the topping board to remove the thick lava build up.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the first cutting head. I finished with the second cutting head which was the same diameter as the inside of the bowl. I cut the cake back to bare briar so I could assess the inner bowl walls. They looked very good with little burn or damage. The cake had protected them.

I fine tuned the sanding on the stem and shank fit with 220 grit sandpaper and shaped the stem to match the oval of the shank. The flow of the bowl and stem were looking really good at this point in the process.

I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the stem and shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used the dark brown stain pen to touch up the rim and the end of the shank to match the stain colour on the rest of the pipe. I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil to give some life to the dry wood. I gave the bowl a quick buff with Blue Diamond and then gave it one coat of carnauba wax and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The “new” look of the bowl is shown in the photos below.

With the bowl stained and oiled I used a heat gun to bend the stem and get the proper angles that I had found online on the 268 shaped pipes. I heated the stem until it was pliable and then bent it over a round can to get a smooth angle. I took photos of the pipe with a bent stem to give a feel for the finished look.

I fine tuned the fit of the stem to the shank by beveling the inner edge of the mortise in the shank and then cleaning the area around the tenon stem joint. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit micromesh pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I laid the stem aside to dry.

I put the stem on the pipe and buffed the entirety with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready to go back to Chile. Sometime early this week I will pack the two repaired pipes up and make the trip to FEDEX to send them back. I look forward to hearing what the two of them smoke like for the Chilean pipeman. I like the new looks of both of these pipes and I think he will as well. But I have to tell you I am a sucker for the Zulu shaped Petersons. This one is a beauty!

Putting the pieces together and arriving at a Parker Super Bruyere Billiard

3 Replies

Blog by Pam Otto

It is with pleasure that I introduce to you all the work of one of our readers, Pam Otto. I think as you read this first blog of hers posted here that you will join me in hoping we have not heard the last of her. She has done work on this Parker that rivals what an early writer, Gan Barber did with a Peterson. (If you did not read it or don’t remember here is the link: https://rebornpipes.com/2012/10/03/all-the-kings-horses-and-all-the-kings-men-a-petersen-adventure-gan-barber/). Pam has done the work a masterful job of rebuilding this old pipe. Its finished beauty is amazing. Thank you Pam for being willing to post here. It is a privilege to have you here. Without further ado, here is her post. — rebornpipes

I discovered the hobby of pipe restoration about a year and a half ago and jumped in with both feet. I soon discovered Reborn Pipes and Steve, let me tell you, my life hasn’t been the same since. Thanks so much for the information, techniques and methods you share, and for this opportunity to contribute to your blog.

Most of the pipes I’ve worked on, and learned on, have arrived through the “usual channels”–flea markets, estate sales and of course eBay. But this particular pipe, a Parker Super Bruyere, came via a more unusual route.

I was at work one recent Saturday (I manage a nature center when I’m not fiddling with pipes) when I received a text message from my friend Suzi. It contained this photo, along with the words, “Thought of you at Geneva Mothers Club bazaar!” One look at that pic and I knew work could wait. I jumped in the car and within minutes arrived at the craft show location.

I half walked, half jogged up to the building, paid my entrance fee and made my way through the throng—a well-dressed, Ladies Who Lunch crowd—in search of a sign that read Exit 22E. A subsequent text from Suzi had given this added detail, which turned out to be absolutely essential in navigating the cavalcade of vendors.

After a couple of wrong turns I at last found the booth, staffed by a pleasant woman peddling hand-crafted snowman décor. With sawdust and a little mud crumbling off my jacket, I reached for her basket of “Frosty’s Pipes” and began laying them out on the counter. We exchanged pleasantries—the woman and I—and she told me that the pipes were US$4.95 each. She also encouraged me to consider a snowman for my front door. But by then I wasn’t really listening.

I emptied the basket and studied what Frosty had to offer, eventually deciding on five Yello Boles of various vintages going back to Honey Cured Briar; a Medico Ventilator I want to try unventilating; and the Parker.

Clutching my prizes, swathed in tissue paper within a plastic Wal-Mart bag, I then faced the daunting task of navigating back through the crowded aisles. (Exit 22E, it turns out, was for emergencies only.) Along the way I bumped into Suzi and excitedly showed her the pipes—especially the Parker—while she in turn showed me the handmade greeting cards she’d found. Both happy with our purchases, we went our separate ways—she to peruse more holiday wares, I to head home and triage my treasures. Spread out on the dining room table, the pipes ran the gamut from barely touched to smoked nearly beyond recognition. Oddly enough, rather than dismiss pipes in poor condition, I find myself drawn to them. Clearly their previous owners found them quite delectable; there’s a good chance some of that former glory remains. And so it was that the Parker went to the front of the line.

Carbon clogged the bowl and had fractured the briar in three separate places, the cracks pervading the crusted rim and converging at the bottom of the bowl. The shank too was obstructed with decades of hardened goo, to the point where the mortise could accommodate only about half of the stem’s tenon. I turned up the lights and rubbed the shank a bit in an effort to remove some surface grime and get a better look at the shank’s stampings. The left side bore a faint PARKER SUPER BRUYERE, the SUPER inside a diamond; closer to the bowl was stamped the number 5. The right side read MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND and the number 18. Below this was PAT. NO. 116989/17 and, about 5mm toward the bowl, a capital letter T.

I did a quick check of Pipedia and PipePhil for Parker date codes and discovered that this old boy* dates to 1941. (*As a female, I find it funny that men tend to refer to pipes in the feminine, i.e. she/her. To me they’re clearly male. But to each his or her own, right?)

At any rate, I couldn’t wait to get started on the pipe’s revival. I started by gently pulling the stem from the shank and laying it aside. For all its years of service, its oxidation was minimal. There were some troubling dings, one nearly marring the P logo, but the delicate work they would require could wait.

Instead I turned my attention to the amazing carbon cake. I tried to picture the very last time the previous owner loaded up the bowl. Roughly half its original capacity remained and the draw, if there was one at all, probably caused some pulled lip and/or cheek muscles. I put the smallest head on my Pipnet and gently twisted it inside the cake. I expected the bowl to disintegrate immediately but, no, that took a good two or three turns more.

Moments later, with three distinct pieces in my hand and a lot more carbon to remove, I headed down to the garage and the Dremel. Even though this tool and its potential for destruction scares the bejeebers out of me, when equipped with a sanding barrel it does make quick work of hardened cake. A few minutes later I returned to my dining/work table blackened with carbon (thank goodness for dust masks and goggles) but with three much-cleaner pieces of briar to assess.

Parts of the bowl were not only caked but also charred, so I’d had to remove a considerable amount of material. Worse, due to the uneven nature of the char, the bowl innards were something less than round.

The good news tho was that all the breaks were clean, and the three pieces fit neatly back together. Before reassembly I scrubbed the outer surfaces with straight-up Murphy’s Oil Soap, then wiped them down with a damp towel. The grain that was hiding beneath the grunge made me smile. I mixed up some JB Weld and applied it to the breaks, placing more on the inner edges than the outer. I reunited the individual parts, pressed and held them together for a couple of minutes, smoothed the interior with a toothpick and then set the bowl aside to cure.

A combination of demands at work as well as home meant that it was another week before I returned to the Parker. I tried twisting and turning the bowl and thankfully the “welds” held. JB Weld is tough stuff. 🙂 I ran a needle along the external surfaces of the cracks to clean out any loose debris, then applied briar dust and super glue. While waiting for the glue mixture to cure, I began work on the stem. Starting with a small, folded bit of 220 grit paper, then 400 and 600, I gingerly worked on the small gouges near the base. If it weren’t for their location near the logo, I would have tried using a flame and then sanding. But I opted instead to make the raised edges flush with the stem, then mixed powdered charcoal with super glue and filled in the small cavities that remained. After curing, I sanded the patches smooth.

I also decided to experiment with the inside of a cigar box as background for picture taking. The next day I sanded the briar-dust crack repairs with a succession of 220, 400 and 600 grit sandpapers. I also topped the bowl with that same sequence to see how the cracks appeared from the top down. I put the stem back in the shank to size up how things were coming along and, when it only went in halfway, remembered that I still had a lot of internal cleaning to do.

I dipped a bristle pipe cleaner in 91% isopropyl alcohol and threaded it through the stem, then set it aside to soak. I attempted to do the same with the shank, but it was so clogged I had to first abrade away whatever gunk I could reach with a round needle file.

I dripped some alcohol down the shank and eventually was able to poke through to the bowl with a bristle cleaner—the first of many. I worked for about an hour, switching between bristle cleaners and cotton swabs, before finally finishing up with a few regular pipe cleaners.

The stem took a little less time, maybe 30 minutes, and a dozen bristle and regular pipe cleaners combined.

The P logo on the stem was a little worse for wear. The lower right side of the diamond, as viewed from the button end, was virtually nonexistent. Using an Exacto blade, I pushed on the faint outline that remained until there was a slight indent. It wasn’t quite as deep as the other three sides of the diamond, but I thought it prudent to stop before I went too far.

I tried using white nail polish to brighten up the logo but, perhaps because the bottle was 20 years old, the results weren’t quite what I was looking for. I wiped away the nail polish residue and applied Liquid Paper white correction fluid, which I’ve had success with in the past. I would say the results were “Meh,” except that, in looking up other Parkers online, it would appear that their stem stampings are not always super-crisp. Rather than waste more time on a detail that probably can’t improve a whole lot more, I decided to celebrate its unevenness and move along to the next step: resolving the bowl’s myriad issues.

Using 220 grit sandpaper, I moved along the inside of the bowl, sanding away excess JB Weld along with microns of briar. I eyeballed the progress as I went, hoping for a shape that approximated round. When I was satisfied it was as close as it could get, I mixed up a small batch of Steve’s sour cream-n-powdered-charcoal bowl coating and applied it, first with a dental spatula, then a folded pipe cleaner. I used my index finger for a final smoothing.
It was during this process that I noticed the left exterior of the bowl was itself somewhat flattened. Maybe a few too many whacks on a tabletop or boot heel?

Whatever the reason, I moistened a towel, heated a table knife and proceeded to steam the area. Maybe it worked, maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but the flatness did seem to raise up a bit. With that issue addressed, it was time to start staining.

When I’d cleaned up the briar with the Murphy’s Oil Soap, the grunge on the towel included a considerable amount of red pigment. Hoping to recreate the same hue, I swabbed the bowl with oxblood aniline stain, wiped it immediately with an absorbent cloth, then swabbed it with dark brown stain and wiped again. After a few touch-ups I was satisfied that the coverage was even, and flamed the stain with a lighter.

The seams where the bowl had been mended were still a little too visible for my taste, so I went at them with a black Sharpie marker. A quick dab with the marker followed by a quick wipe with my finger helped the cracks blend in a little more.

At this point I decided this Parker was about as reborn as he was going to get. Down to the garage workshop we went, one last time, to apply some carnauba. Only then did I realize just how cold our recent cold snap has been. I brought the wax bar inside to warm up a bit, then went back to the garage for a couple quick coats. More will come, after the next thaw.

If you look at the pipe up close, the cracks are still apparent. But like a bad memory, they fade with some distance. This is one pipe Frosty is going to have to do without.

A Tiny Apple Reborn – new stem and new finish

Reshaping and Restemming a no name Oval Opera Pipe

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I bought a group of pipe bowls on Ebay a while ago and one of them was an oval bowl Opera pipe. The stamping was non-existent, whether worn off by over buffing or never present it was no longer on the shank on either side. It is shown in the photo below marked with a red oval. It is an interesting shape and this one was a normal sized pipe. There was nothing of the typical small size of the pipes like this that I have worked on in the past. The stem was long gone and the broken tenon was stuck in the shank. The finish was rough and had deep dents and nicks all over the bowl. The cake in the bowl was thick and the rim was damaged on the inner edge and had burn marks on the front top and left side. There were two large fills on the bowl; one on the left side shank near the bowl junction and the other on the underside mid-shank. I pulled the broken tenon by my usual method. I use a drywall screw and insert it in the airway. I use a screwdriver to turn it into the airway just enough to be tight in the tenon. You need to be careful to not turn it in to far as it will expand the tenon and crack the shank. Once it is in place I use needle nose pliers to wiggle it free of the shank. It usually comes free with little effort. That was true in the case of this tenon.
I took the next set of photos to show the state of the pipe when I started this project. Note the damaged rim top and inner edge.

I went through my can of stems for a donor stem and found a bent saddle stem that I could straighten and fit to this pipe. I turned the tenon with the PIMO tenon turning tool to a close fit and hand sanded it to get a snug fit. The shank was slightly oval and the stem round so I would need to work on the shank to get a good fit.
I used 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the finish on the bowl and shank. I did preliminary shaping of the rim to clean up the damage at the top. I used a PipNet reamer to ream the bowl. I use the smallest head and work it in the centre of the oval first and then move it to the front and back of the oval to ream those areas. I cleaned up the reamed bowl with a pen knife to get rid of the cake. I needed to take the cake back to bare briar so that I could reshape the inner edge. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove as much of the damage to sides of the bowl as possible. You can see from the photo below the dip in the top edge of the bowl about middle. That is where the burn damage is on that side. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove any remaining finish and to see where I stood in terms of removing damage to the bowl.
The next photo shows the extent of the damage to the top and inner edge of the rim. You can see the rough cut marks on the inner edge from a previous owners attempt to ream the bowl. You can also see the burn marks on the left and right top and sides of the rim.
To remove the dips where the burn marks were in the rim top and to remove the damaged briar I decided to top the bowl. I would need to reshape the rim to match the original but I would deal with that later. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to shape the outside edge of the rim and bowl.
I put the stem in place in the shank, aligned it correctly and sanded the shank to clean up the fit. I wanted the shank to be more round and consistently shaped as it originally was not completely oval – it was only that shape on the left bottom side. The rest of the shank was round. I sanded until I had the shank rounded and matching the stem.
I continued to shape and sand the rim and flow into the bowl. I worked on the slight bulge in the stem at the saddle to get the alignment and flow right. Since I had a clean slate to work with on this old briar I figured to get it as close as I could to a clean flowing look. I wanted it to look better than before not just cleaned up. It would take a lot of sanding and shaping before I was finished with it.

The fill on the bottom of the shank was solid except for one small spot in the centre of the repair so I sanded it, wiped it clean and filled in the spot with clear super glue. Once it dried I sanded it smooth to match the rest of the shank. The small rough spot was gone and the fill was smooth and dark. I cleaned out the shank and airway with the KLEENREEM drill bit to remove the buildup in that area. The draw on the shank was constricted so this was necessary to open it and give an easy draw to the pipe.
I cleaned out the shank and the airway in both the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until it was clean. I sanded the edges of the stem and the scratches in the saddle portion with 220 grit sandpaper to shape and define the edge and fit of the stem. I left a slight bend downward in the stem when I had straightened it and like the look of it.

I put a cork in the bowl of the pipe and prepared to stain it with the black undercoat. I wanted to highlight the interesting grain and the black would bring that out. It would also serve to mask the repair on the shank and the fill next to the bowl. I applied and flamed the black stain and repeated the process to get good coverage on the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol soaked cotton pads to remove the stain that did not settle into the grain.

I sanded the bowl and shank with a medium and fine grit sanding block to further remove the black stain. The contrast is beginning to show and the grain stand out.

I sanded the bowl and shank with 1500-1800 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches on the briar.
I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad and then set it up for the top coat of stain. I chose to use a Cherry Danish Oil on the top coat. I applied it with a cotton pad and set the bowl aside to dry.
While the bowl dried I worked on the stem. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads to further fine tune the shape of the stem. I worked to remove the remnants of scratching left behind by the initial shaping done with the lower grits of sand paper. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

The bowl was dry by the time I finished with the stem so I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave both several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buffing pad and then hand buffed it with the microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the contrast stain came out and the way it hid the fills on the shank. The pipe really has some stunning and interesting grain all the way. Not one side looks the same. There is birdseye, cross grain and swirled grain. I think the finished pipe is a great improvement from when I started it. Thanks for looking.