Tag Archives: contrast staining

Steps Toward Solving a Pipe Mystery – 2 More One Blue Dot Billiards

On October 26, 2013, I wrote about a pipe I found and my questioning whether it was a Sasieni Blue Dot billiard. I refurbished the billiard and wrote about it in this blog post https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/when-i-saw-it-i-thought-it-was-a-sasieni-one-dot-billiard/ . I was never satisfied with my conclusions regarding the manufacture of this particular pipe. Last weekend (December 28, 2013) I went pipe hunting again and stopped at the same location. There were two more of the blue dot pipes in his case. One of them had been smoked quite a lot and one of them was pretty clean. The one had a cracked shank and the other was clean. The clean one had a stinger apparatus in it while neither the earlier find or the other one this time had one present. The interesting thing to me was that on both of these pipes there was a single line stamped on the bottom of the shank. On the relatively clean pipe the stamping was gold filled and read ATLAS POWDER CO. On the other pipe it had the same stamping though the gold was long gone. I checked the previous pipe and sure enough the same stamping, though fainter was present. Suddenly I had in my possession a trio of billiards. All had the single blue dot on the stem, all were stamped Genuine Briar. All had the same English style tapered stem. All were nice pieces of briar with no fills or flaws. All were stamped ATLAS POWDER CO.

Now I had some work to do – not just restoring these two old pipes to the same state as the other one but really digging into the ATLAS POWDER CO. to find out who they were. Was it possible that what I had were three specialty pipes, stamped with the Company name in gold lettering were made as gift pipes or award pipes? That raised a second question that to me was at least as important. Who made the pipes for the company? Is it possible that they were made by Sasieni, specially stamped with the name of the company to be given out to executives or share holders as gifts? Being able to read the stamping on the bottom of the shank gave me an important clue regarding what to look for on the web. With my questions clearly in my I began to do research on the company. I quickly found out that in 1912, Atlas Powder Company was created in Wilmington, Delaware, when DuPont Company sold two explosives divisions, as mandated by “trust busting” enactments during the Theodore Roosevelt presidency. In the 1960s, Atlas Powder Company changed its corporate name to Atlas Chemical Industries. I wanted more details on that formation and the other companies that may have been included in the process.

I found a facsimile of an old stock certificate that had some corporate information on it as well as the back side of a mailing envelope with the name and products that were produced by the Atlas Company.

Further research took me to the company archives at this site http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/collection/data/776641025 There I found information and company minutes from a variety of their meetings and activities. I also found information on lawsuits and actions pending against them at various times in their history. There were corporate memos and data that was marginally interesting but nothing that definitively spoke of pipe being made, purchased or given away. Quoting from the site:

“… The Atlas Powder Company was incorporated in Delaware on October 18, 1912 as part of the court-ordered breakup of the explosives monopoly of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. As part of the settlement, parts of DuPont’s black powder and dynamite business were spun off to two new companies, the Hercules Powder Company, capitalized at $13 million, and the Atlas Powder Company, capitalized at $6 million. Atlas functioned as an independent explosives and chemicals company until July 21, 1971, when it was purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (U.K.) and became its American affiliate under the name ICI Americas Inc.

Atlas began business on Jan. 1, 1913, with four former DuPont black powder plants at Ooltewah, Tenn., Belleville, Ill., Pittsburg, Kan., and Patterson, Okla., and three ex-DuPont dynamite plants at Landing, N.J., Hancock, Mich., and Webb City, Mo. Later that year, it purchased the Reynolds Works near Tamaqua, Pa. from the Potts Powder Company, where it manufactured electric exploders, blasting caps, nitric and sulphuric acids, dynamite, and blasting detonators. In 1915, Atlas purchased The Giant Powder Company, Consolidated, which held the first U.S. rights to the Nobel dynamite patents, giving it a presence on the West Coast.

Following the lead of DuPont and Hercules, Atlas began diversifying from explosives into other chemical lines with the 1917 acquisition of Richards & Co., Inc., of Connecticut, and its sales subsidiaries Zapon Leather Cloth Company and Celluloid Zapon Company, manufacturers of lacquers and artificial leather. In 1925, the Pacific Lacquer & Bronze Company was added to the Zapon family. In 1921, Atlas contracted with the Darco Corporation to build an activated carbon plant in Marshall, Tex., and in 1928 Richards & Co., Inc., purchased the Duratex Corporation, a manufacturer of pyroxylin and rubber coated fabrics which also brought a controlling interest in Darco. Atlas bought the assets of the Brevolite Lacquer Company of North Chicago in 1933 and combined it with the Midwest business to the Zapon Company as the Zapon-Brevolite Lacquer Company. Traditional explosives capacity increased with the 1932 purchase of the Peerless-Union Explosives Company. The Atlas Research Laboratory was established at the Reynolds Plant in 1930, and Atlas de Mexico, S.A., was organized as a sales company in 1937.

Atlas devoted all of its plants to military needs during World War II and operated three ordnance plants under contract from the government. However, despite a second surge during the Korean War, the post-World War II years brought a major restructuring. The Duratex line of coated fabrics and plastics was discontinued in 1948, and the Zapon-Darco industrial finishes business was sold in 1955. The following year, Atlas bought the Thermaflow Chemical Corporation of Pennsylvania, makers of high-impact reinforced plastic molding compounds, and the Aquaness Corporation of Houston, Texas, a maker of chemical compounds used in the petroleum industry. In 1959, Atlas formed Solar Nitrogen Chemicals, Inc., as a joint venture with the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) to manufacture ammonia fertilizers. At the same time, explosives plants were being closed. As a consequence, Atlas changed its name to Atlas Chemical Industries, Inc., on May 31, 1961, and the next day completed a merger with The Stuart Company, a Pasadena pharmaceuticals maker. In 1997, after numerous spinoffs and restructurings, the pharmaceuticals business of Atlas became AstraZeneca LP, which has its headquarters in the former Atlas facilities in the Wilmington suburbs.”

Armed with that information and information gleaned by looking at sales of gift memorabilia on EBay it became at least a real possibility that these pipes were given to stock holders as gifts. I was not able to find definitive information regarding the gifting of the pipes or who made them the implications were strong that they were made for that purpose.
The question still remained regarding the pipes. That took me to a search on the history of Sasieni pipes and any potential connections between the companies. The first article that I turned to was a definitive piece on the history of the brand by Stephen Smith entitled, “Connecting the Dots: A Concise History of the Sasieni Pipe”. http://murderofravens.org/my-sasieni-pipe-article/

From the article I learned a brief review of the history of the brand. I learned that the Sasieni Company began in 1919 and continued in the family until 1979 when it was sold (this period is the Pre-Transition Period). The Transition period lasted from 1979 to 1986. The company had been bought by Ian Chase and a group of South African investors. In 1986, the company was once again sold to James B. Russell and after him to Cadogan Investments Ltd (Oppenheimer & Co. Ltd.). This Post-Transition period has continued since 1986 to the present. The time period of the pipe and the ATLAS POWDER CO. overlap. However interesting that may be there is still no proof of the connection at this point in my search. I included the above advertisement photo from Stephen’s article because the shape of the billiard in the photo is virtually identical to the three that I have that are the cause of this research.

I am on holiday so I had the time to spare and I spent several hours tracing down leads and dead ends on the links between the two companies. There are no links that I can find. So I am left with just a hunch, a supposition that the pipes were made for the Atlas Powder Co. as gift pipes and that they were potentially made by Sasieni. I may never know more than that but it still leaves more room for digging in the future.

Leaving the mystery to stew for a bit longer I will walk through the refurbishing of the two additional one dot pipes. Here is the pair of bowls in question. The one on the left is solid and less used than the one on the right. It had very little cake in the bowl and the shank and stem were in good shape. The one on the right was more heavily smoked and had a cracked shank. The stem was in fairly decent shape on this one as well. I began my refurbishing on this pair with the pipe on the right.

I use a dental pick to remove the scotch tape that held the shank together. It was not clear how bad the crack was until I could get the tape completely removed. I wetted a cotton pad with acetone and wiped down the scotch tape to facilitate its removal.

The next photo is horrible and for that I apologize. I would not have included it if it did not still show the damage to the cracked shank on the first pipe. I glued the cracked piece in place with superglue and then found a band that I could pressure fit on the shank. The combination of gluing the damaged shank and banding it would make it useable once more. I heated the band on the shank over a heat gun and then pressure fit it onto the shank.

The next series of three photos show the newly banded shank. The repair is finished and with the band in place the rest of the refurbishing of the bowl can take place.

With the band in place on the shank the tenon had to be reduced slightly for a comfortable fit. I cleaned out the shank before I sanded the tenon as I wanted a clean surface for the tenon to sit against. I used cotton swabs and Everclear to clean out the shank. Once it was done I sanded the tenon with 220 grit sand paper to remove enough of the tenon for it to have a snug fit in the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the carbon build up in the bowl. I lightly topped the bowl to remove the tars and buildup on the rim and to remove some of the slight burn marks on the rim top. Fortunately these were shallow and I was able to remove them completely without dramatically affecting the height of the bowl.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish that remained on the pipe. There was a light varnish coat that came off easily with the acetone. Underneath was some very nice grain and no fills or fissures.

The airway in the stem was clogged and I was not able to blow air through it so I used a dental pick to reach into the airway at the tenon end and through the slot in the button. Fortunately the blockage was near both of these openings and I was able to remove the hardened tars and oils that were present. The tenon end also seemed to have some metallic pieces remaining from the stinger apparatus that was originally in the tenon (I know that it had a stinger as the other pipe still had one in place). It took many pipe cleaners and much Everclear to get the grime deposits removed from the airway of the stem. The photo below shows just a few of them toward the end of the process.

I stained the pipe with a Minwax Medium Walnut stain. It has a nice patina and goes well with the age of these older pipes. I rubbed it on with a cotton pad and rubbed it off with a soft cotton cloth. I reapplied the stain until I had the coverage that I wanted. My goal was to let the grain show through the stain and highlight the beauty of this old pipe.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond once the stain was dry to bring out a shine to the finish.

The next photo shows the pipe lying next to the other one. I wanted the stamping on the unrefurbished pipe to highlight the stamping on this pipe. The golden colour of the other stamp is very clear and the stamping on the newly stained one is still visible yet not golden. Before I finished this one, the golden stamping was missing and a black stamping was present in its place.

I worked on the stem with my usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond after using the 12,000 grit pad and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I hand buffed it before putting it back in the shank of the pipe. I also used the micromesh pads to polish the nickel band before I buffed the pipe. I used 2400-4000 grit pads to polish the nickel and then rubbed it down with a silver polishing cloth.

The first of the two pipes was finished. I buffed the entirety with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the newly waxed pipe with a soft, clean flannel buff to give it a shine and set it aside while I worked on the second pipe. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

The second pipe looked worse for wear when I started on it but it was merely surface wear. The bowl itself was not even broken in and the slight cake on the top portion of the bowl was very thin. The shank and the inside of the stem were very clean. The original stinger apparatus was still in place and was slightly discoloured. The ATLAS POWDER CO. stamping on the bottom of the shank was still embossed with gold in the letters. The varnish coat on the finish was disintegrating on the surface of the briar but the briar itself was in great shape. There was no damage to the rim or the edges of the rim. The bowl had no visible fills or dents. It just needed a major cleanup.

I have included the next photo to show the ATLAS stamping on the shank more clearly.

I followed the same process on this pipe as the one above and wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. I was careful to not wipe down the bottom of the shank as I wanted to leave the gold stamping intact. With the varnish coat removed the grain on this pipe was also very nice. There is a mix of cross grain, birdseye and a swirl of mixed grain.

I removed the stinger apparatus which was pressed into the tenon of the pipe by twisting it free. Once it was removed I cleaned up the interior of the slot on the stinger and the grooves around the end of the spoon portion of the piece. I reinserted it in the stem.

I used the same regimen on the stem as noted above to polish the oxidation away. I have found that the combination of wet and dry sanding with micromesh sanding pads works well for me and gives the stem a deep shine. When I finished sanding I buffed it with White Diamond and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I hand buffed the stem and set it aside while I worked on the bowl.

I used the same Minwax Medium Walnut stain on this pipe as the last. I applied it, rubbed it off, and reapplied it until I had the coverage I wanted. As before, I wanted the grain to shine through the stain and give depth to the finish of the pipe.

I inserted the stem in the shank and buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

With both of the new additions finished I put them together with the previous ATLAS POWDER CO. pipe and took the following photos. The first pipe has a shorter stem because when I found it the stem had a large bite through. I shortened the length on it and reshaped the button. Other than that and the added band on the middle one the pipes are much the same. All bear the same stamping and the same blue dot. Who knows who the maker of these pipes was? I am still inclined to believe that they may have been made by Sasieni for the ATLAS POWDER CO. to be given to share holders or executives. Whatever the case may be they are smooth smoking pipes and will last another lifetime.

A GBD “Dublinish” Poker Brought Back to Life

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The fourth pipe I have refurbished from the lot I just picked up is an oval shanked “Dublinish” Poker that has a GBD on the brass stem roundel. It is stamped on top of the shank with GBD in an oval over New Standard in script. On the underside of the shank it is stamped London England over 9558. I looked up the shape number on the GBD shape site and was unable to find a listing for a pipe of this shape. I looked other places on the web and did not find this shape either listed or pictured. It is certainly not a shape that I have seen for the years that I have been working on pipes and collecting GBD pipes.

The picture below shows the state of the bowl when I brought it to the work table. It had a thick and crumbly carbon cake and carbon and tar build up on the concave surface of the rim. The front of the outer edge had burn marks from repeated lighting. The GBD roundel on the stem was badly oxidized and looked to be corroded. The stem was badly oxidized and on the bottom had a large hole where the previous owner had bitten through the stem.

The picture below shows the size of the bite through and gives a pretty clear picture why I chose not to patch the stem but rather to cut the bite through off and rework the stem and button.

I cut off the end of the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum attachment. I cut it back to the place behind the bite mark that was solid and undamaged. The next four photos show the pipe with the damaged portion of the stem removed and a straight cut made across the end of the stem.

I took it back to the work table and reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I used three of the cutting heads from the smallest up to remove the cake and clear out the debris in the bowl. I wanted to remove the cake to assess the soundness of the rim and the bowl of the pipe. I scrubbed the rim down with saliva and cotton pads. It took a lot of elbow grease to finally get the rim clean of the buildup and tars. In the photo below the burn mark on the front of the bowl is visible.

I used files, a wood rasp and needle files to cut the line on the button across the top and the bottom of the stem. I trimmed the thickness of the stem tapering toward the shank with the needle files. I wanted to thin down the stem and taper is more smoothly into the new button making for an even transition from the saddle to the edge of the button.

I used the needle files to open the end of the button and shape it into and oval and a funnel into the airway. I wanted a good open airway that would easily take a pipe cleaner.

After working with the files I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and to continue to shape the stem into a smooth taper from the saddle to the button.

I sanded the end of the button to angle it back toward the slot and to smooth it out and shape it. I also used the needle files to clean up the straight edge of the button.

Once I had the taper and the angles correct I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches from the sandpaper.

When the stem was finished in terms of shaping I moved on to work on the bowl. I wanted to stain the rim and the edges of the bowl where the burn marks were. I used a red mahogany Minwax stain and rubbed it into the rim and gave the entire pipe a stain coat. Once I had wiped that off with a clean towel I gave it a second coat of medium walnut stain to blend it in even more with the rest of the bowl. I buffed it with White Diamond to polish it and give it a shine.

I sanded the stem with my regular regimen of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed in a coat of Obsidian Oil and when it had dried took the stem to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to give it a shine.

I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and then multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing the bowl and stem with a clean buff with soft flannel to bring out a high shine. The finished pipe is shown below in the pictures. The shortened stem came out looking very good and the reduced length does not detract from the look of the pipe as a whole.

Reclaiming a Digby Conquest Canadian

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

On the weekend I went pipe hunting to refill my box of pipes for refurbishing. I found some nice ones to add to the box. The first one that I took on was odd looking when I picked it up. The stem on it was an aftermarket replacement that proportionally was all wrong. The addition of the stem made the pipe over seven inches long. The stem was also a twin bore which was not standard on GBD line pipes. The stamping on the bottom of the shank is Conquest in script followed by Digby over London Made. That is followed by London England and the shape number 9519. Digby is a GBD second line. It has the same blast as a GBD Prehistoric which lends one more question mark to what makes a pipe a second. In checking the GBD shape numbers there is no shape #9519 listed on the GBD shape site. http://www.perardua.net/pipes/GBDshape.html

The blast on the bowl was quite nice while the shank was rusticated. The person who added the new stem to the pipe changed the shank to fit the new stem rather than the other way around. In doing so they sanded the shank and removed the blast/rustication on the end of the shank. They also tapered both sides and top and bottom to meet the new stem. While both of these “errors” in fitting a stem are a pain to deal with they are not irreparable. It just means that any new stem must follow the new lines of the pipe and that the rustication pattern needs to be repaired as well. The bowl itself was thickly caked and the rim dirty and with a slight buildup of tars. The finish was spotty and the reddish brown stain was worn.

I went through my can of stems to find one that would properly fit a GBD style Canadian with an oval shank and found several. I chose the acrylic one in the photo below and used the PIMO Tenon Turning tool to reduce the diameter of the tenon. I also used the Dremel and sanding drum and hand sanding to further fit the tenon to the shank.

With the tenon fitting well, the overall diameter of the stem needed to be reduced to fit the shank diameter. It was just slightly bigger so the work on it would not be difficult. The excess is visible in the four photos below. Note also the smoothing of the shank that had been done in the previous repair.

I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess acrylic material and bring the stem into line with the shank. I took care to not nick the shank even though I later planned to rework the rustication on it.

With the fit roughed in I took it back to the work table to hand sand the stem and make fit seamless. To begin the process I used 220 grit sandpaper to do the hand work. On the right side bottom of the shank I noted that the oval was slightly out of round with the stem removed and gave the new tapered stem a bulge in that area. I sanded the shank and the stem together at that point to correct the previous damage.

With the fit nearly finished on the stem I reamed the bowl of the pipe with a PipNet reaming set. I began with the smallest cutting head and then ended with the proper sized head for the bowl. I cut the cake back to bare wood.

I worked some more on the stem shank junction with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches in the briar and the stem. I was more concerned with the briar as I wanted to give it a coat of stain.

Staining would be a complicated process of using a variety of stains to match the original stain colour on the prehistoric. For the first stain colour I used an oxblood aniline stain. I would use other stains later in the process to get the colour I was aiming for.

As I put the newly fitted stem in place so that I could lay it down to dry the tenon snapped on the new stem. As I examined it I could see the many small fractures in the acrylic. This is one of the frustrations of pipe repair. You get a pipe on its way to the finish line only to have something like this happen and have to begin again. I took another stem out of my can of stems. I once again had to go through the process of turning the tenon, using the Dremel and sanding drum and finally hand sanding to fit the tenon in the shank. I also had to trim back the diameter of the new stem to match the shank with the Dremel. One good thing is that doing it the second time everything is set up to do it again more quickly the second time.

Once I had a good fit on the stem it was time to re-rusticate the shank using an etching head on the Dremel. In the next two photos the cutting tool is visible and the rustication of the shank is completed. I did both sides of the shank and the top to match the pattern on the upper portion of the shank. On the underside I brought the pattern around the flattened oval stamping area of the shank and matched the pattern around that area.

I stained the newly rusticated shank area with the oxblood stain. The stained rustication is visible in the next four photos. I am pleased with the match on the pattern of the rustication on the shank that I was able to achieve with the tool.

I still needed to use several more colours of stain to achieve a match to the bowl. I used aniline black and an aniline dark brown stain to approximate the mix of stains to blend the repaired portion with the remainder of the pipe. I would still need to do a top coat of oxblood to truly blend in the repair.

I sanded the stem with the usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I gave the shank a final coat of the oxblood stain and lightly buffed the shank with White Diamond to blend the wear of the older portion with the new rustication. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the stem with White Diamond as well. Once the buffing was done I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba on the wheel and then buffed it with a soft flannel buff. I rubbed in Halcyon II wax on the bowl and shank and then lightly buffed the bowl with a soft flannel buff. The “new” Digby Canadian is now ready for its inaugural smoke. It is shown below in the final four photos.

Restemming and Repairing a Meerschaum Lined Lancaster Billiard

4 Replies

I have had this old meerschaum lined bowl for many years now. It has been sitting in a cupboard and should have rightly been pitched several times over. For some reason I could not bring myself to throw it away. I kind of figured that one day when I had nothing else to do I would experiment on a repair of the meerschaum lining. I had read of several repairs in the past and experimented with one of them previously. The two methods I had read of involved a non-acrylic tile grout without sand while the other one involved Plaster of Paris. I had used the tile grout on a pipe many years ago and still smoke it. The bowl has long since look repaired and you would be hard pressed to see where the repair was in the bowl. This old bowl had much the same damage as that one so I decided to experiment with the Plaster of Paris method. The pipe did not have a stem so I would also need to restem it once the patch was finished. The bowl is stamped Lancaster over Imported Briar on the left side of the shank and has no stamping on the right side. There were small fills present on the bowl – almost like small pin pricks that had been filled in the manufacture of the pipe. The finish on the bowl was virtually not present except for a few spots where the stain had held on stubbornly over the years.

I mixed a small batch of Plaster of Paris and water and stirred it with a dental pick. I also had some sanding dust from a meer bowl that I had save so I mixed it in with the Plaster of Paris mixture. I inserted a pipe cleaner into the airway to keep it open when I packed in the mixture to the bowl bottom and side. Once I had a good paste mixed up I used the dental pick to put pieces of it into the bowl. I used the head of a tamper to pack the Plaster of Paris into the bowl bottom. I also pushed the Plaster mixture into the side of the bowl and used the spoon end of the tamper to push it into place. I used the dental pick to carve the airway open at the bottom of the bowl and then a wetted pipe cleaner to smooth out the bowl wall and shape the bottom of the bowl in a slight cup shape. Once that was completed I smoothed out the whole bowl with the wetted pipe cleaner and feathered the edges of the patch into the existing meerschaum material.

I cleaned up the top of the bowl and the tools and set the bowl aside to dry. After one hour the Plaster of Paris set and I removed the pipe cleaner from the shank. I used the dental pick to shape the airway after removing the pipe cleaner. The bowl was ready to restem. I went through my can of stems and found an old stem that was the right length and close to the correct diameter of the shank. It had a brass stem band that would look great on the old pipe bowl. When I cleaned it up I found that it had a Delrin tenon. I used the tenon tool to turn the tenon down enough to fit the shank snugly. When I cleaned out the end of the tenon after turning it I found that it was set up for a nine millimeter filter.

I fit it into the shank and used the Dremel with a sanding drum to sand down the diameter of the brass band and stem to fit the shank. I nicked the shank a couple of times lightly with the drum as I worked on the brass band. The nicks were not deep but merely surface so they would clean up when I sanded the stem and shank for a smooth transition.

I took the pipe back to the work table and sanded the stem and shank with 220 grit sandpaper to make a smooth transition between the shank and the stem. I also sanded off the calcification that had built up around the button at the same time.

I sanded the bowl with the 220 grit sandpaper and then the stem and the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the finish before I stained it. I then wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone on a cotton pad to clean off the sanding dust.

I stained the bowl with a black aniline stain, flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I heated the bowl with a lighter to set the stain into the grain of the pipe. I wiped the freshly stained bowl with Everclear to remove the top coat of stain and reduce the black stain. The next series of three photos shows the bowl after the wash.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to further remove the black stain. The next four photos show the pipe after I had sanded it and wiped it down with Everclear.

I dry sanded it again with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then stained it with a coat of Minwax red mahogany stain. I rubbed it on the bowl and rubbed off again to give a contrast look to the briar and to hide some of the fills that were present. I sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh to polish the remaining scratches in the briar.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh and then dry sanded it with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I finished the bowl by giving it a final coat of Minwax medium walnut stain. I rubbed it into the bowl and wiped it off and then hand buffed the pipe with a shoe brush. The rich red brown stain on the bowl turned out well with a variety of highlights.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond to polish it. I finished by giving it multiple coats of carnauba wax to build a shine and protect the finish. The completed pipe is visible in the next four photos.

I also sanded the top of the rim and the inner bevel of meerschaum with the 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pad to polish the meerschaum edge. I gave this top edge a final coat of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine. The Plaster of Paris patch is drying and needs to cure for 24 hours before it is good to go. The box says that it does not shrink as it dries and so far it is good to its promise. I will have to see if it holds true tomorrow after it has cured a full 24 hours. If so, then it is time to fire it up and check out if it holds as well as the tile grout patch has held up over all these years.

Kaywoodie Drinkless Apple Repurposed and Refurbished

10 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I was gifted this old Kaywoodie Apple in an exchange recently. It is the last of the box of pipes that I have to refurbish. I left it to last as it had some serious problems. The stem was overturned and had deep tooth marks at the button. The bowl had some deep scoring on the left side of the bowl. Those issues might not seem too serious at first glance but they were more so than I had expected. I inspected the stinger apparatus and saw that it had been reglued in the stem. I heated the stinger with a heat gun and turned it back into the shank of the pipe. As I turned it carefully the stem fell off in my hand. I looked and saw that it was corroded through and the heat had softened the glue and the piece literally fell out of the stem. I tried to epoxy it back into the stem and connect the two pieces but it would not stay. Each time I put it back into the shank it fell out – no matter how much curing time I gave it. That was the first issue. In looking at the tooth marks they were repairable but with the broken stinger and threaded tenon I wondered whether it was worth fixing it. The grooves on the bowl and the dip in the rim above them could be repaired and would be a simple fix if I decided to keep the pipe. Those were the issues that caused me to lay the pipe aside for a bit and work on other pipes. That is why it is the last pipe in the bottom of the box.

Because of the extent of damage to this pipe it was unlikely that it would ever be truly collectible again. Though to some my next decisions will appear to have desecrated an older Kaywoodie I decided to use this pipe to experiment with a few repair ideas. I topped the bowl with my usual method to remove the rim damage. I removed the damaged portion of the bowl and flattened the rim against the sandpaper. When I was finished topping the bowl the rim was flat again however the inner edge of the rim needed to be repaired. It was missing a large chunk of briar.

The missing chunk matched the twin scoring marks on the outside of the bowl and made me wonder how the previous pipeman had caused that kind of damage to the bowl. The divot on the rim was not a burn mark but a divot that had been caused in the same moment the scoring occurred on the outside of the bowl. I sanded down the scored areas and cleaned the bowl with acetone. I then patched the score marks with superglue and briar dust. I also built up the top of the rim in the divot area with the same mixture. I kept the mix on the top of the rim as much as possible with very little of it on the inside edge. I did not want to use it inside the bowl.

I sanded the bowl to remove the excess of the glue and briar dust mix and then wiped the entire bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. The three photos below show the state of the bowl and the repairs down with the briar dust and superglue. The third photo shows the top patch.

Because the stem was not functional I had a decision to make. I could drill out the disintegrated end of the stinger and put a new replacement tenon in place or I could remove the metal shank insert and make a new push stem for the pipe. The faintness of the stamping on the shank and the extent of damage that I had repaired on the bowl made me take the second choice. I removed the metal shank insert from the shank. This is not as hard as it sounds. I have heard of others drilling it out and leaving it in place. I have opted to remove it. It is threaded and can be unscrewed from the shank with a small pair of needle nose pliers. The next two photos show the process. I sorted through my stem can and found a stem that could be repurposed to fit this shank and then be adapted to fit the diameter of the shank.

Before I could properly fit the tenon in the shank I needed to drill the mortise deeper. The current depth of the mortise was the same length as the threaded portion of the metal shank attachment in the photo. I wanted the tenon to be longer so I drilled out the mortise to double the length of the current depth. I would need to remove some of the tenon length on the stem to make a good fit but that is a simple task.

With the drilling done, I used the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool to remove some of the excess diameter of the tenon and also shortened the tenon slightly to get a good tight fit in the shank and clean joint at the tenon shank union. The larger diameter of the stem is visible in the photo below.

I used the Dremel with the sanding drum and carefully reduced the diameter of the stem while it was in place on the shank. I run the Dremel at a speed that allows me to carefully and steadily control it as I work close to the shank of the pipe.

Once I had it roughed in to fit with the Dremel it was time to take it back to the work table and do the hand work with sandpaper to make the fit seamless. Since I was going to restain the pipe anyway I sanded the shank as I sanded the stem to make the transition smooth. In the first two photos the stamping is visible in the light of the flash. In real life it is quite a bit fainter and shallow. I also use some superglue and briar dust to repair some of the deeper dings and marks on the bowl to ready it for staining. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface and remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

I wiped the bowl down with Everclear to remove the sanding dust and give it a last cleaning before I started giving it a new stain coat. I have also included two photos of the new stem with the older KW stem and broken parts for comparison sake. I really like the way the new stem fit the shank and the look of the pipe after the repairs.

I wanted to continue to experiment with contrast staining so I gave the pipe a first coat of stain with black aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I then heated the entire bowl by passing over it with the flame of a Bic lighter to warm the briar and set the stain.

The black aniline stain is transparent enough that the brown of the briar actually makes the stain appear to be a dark brown. It also covers the repairs on the bowl and blends them into the grain in way that makes them less visible. This was especially important with the repair I had made to the two deep scoring marks on the left side of the bowl. Once the stain dried I wiped it down with acetone to remove the top coat and leave only the grain darkened with the black. After doing that the bowl was still do dark for my liking. Though the grain patterns are very visible I wanted it to be lighter so that when I put the contrast stain coat on it would really pop to the surface.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to further remove the black stain. I finished the sanding by wet sanding the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. Sanding with the micromesh pads removed the scratching left behind by the other sandpapers and prepared it for the next coat of stain that I wanted to give it. I stained the bowl a second time with a coat of Minwax Water based stain. I chose a red mahogany stain for this coat. I like the contrast the reddish colour of the mahogany with the black undercoat. I applied the stain and then wiped it off with a soft cotton cloth.

I finished the contrast staining with a third colour – a Minwax medium walnut stain for the finish coat. I applied the stain and wiped it down using a soft cotton cloth and then hand buffed it with a shoe shine brush. The next series of four photos show the finish after the application of the three stains and a hand buffing. I really like the contrast finish that the three stains gave the pipe.

I sanded the bowl and stem with micromesh sanding pads to bring out the shine. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and then dry sanded the bowl and stem with 3200- 4,000 grit pads. At that point I made a decision that some will like and others will hate.

I took out my box of nickel bands and found one that would fit the shank. I took the photo below with the band next to the pipe to symbolize the thinking process that went into this decision. I put the band against the shank and the stem next to it to see how it looked. I looked at the faint stamping and the fact that is was a non-collectible pipe anyway due to my stem modifications and decided to give it a go.

I put the band on the end of the shank. For those banding a pipe shank pay attention to the diameter of the band – the end that goes on the shank is slightly larger than the end the faces the stem. I took the pipe and heated the band with a heat gun and then pressed it into place on the shank.

I took it back to the work table and finished sanding the stem and bowl with 6,000, 8,000 and 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. In the photo below the newly banded shank is visible. The band is solely cosmetic as the shank was not cracked and the fit of the stem was perfect. I liked the added bling on this pipe quite a bit.

I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the surface of the vulcanite and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond. I avoid buffing the band as much as possible because it discolors the stem and the shank with the black residue caused by buffing the nickel. I then buffed the pipe with multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and give a rich finish to the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below in the last four photos. The contrast stain worked well on this pipe. The flaws are there and visible but do not detract from the finish. The stem has a good glow with the lines of the pipe and the nickel band gives a nice polished look to the old pipe. Overall this experiment in repairs ended well. I like the finished look of the pipe and I learned a few new tricks along the way.

Reworking a No Name Brand Italian Billiard

1 Reply

I am definitely getting to the bottom of the refurbishing box – this pipe and one other left before it is empty and I need to start hunting again for more. This old-timer is only stamped on the left side of the shank with IMPORTED BRIAR over ITALY. There is no other stamping on the right side of the shank. The bowl was in pretty decent shape – no real dents or scratches other than around the rim. The edges of the rim were rounded over. The left side showed some nice birdseye grain and the front and the back of the bowl were cross grain. The right side of the bowl was a mess. There were at least a dozen putty fills in various states of coming out of the briar. There were two on the rim that took a bite out of the outer edge of the rim. The finish was gone and the stain had faded. The bowl did not come with a stem so I hunted through my can of stems and found one that would do the trick. It took very little work to get the tenon to fit into the shank. It was a wide blade stem that previously had been on a George Jensen pipe at sometime in its life but that pipe bowl had long since disappeared. With some minor adjustments to the diameter of the stem it would make a great stem for the Italian billiard.

I decided to top the bowl to clean up the rounded edges on the outer rim and to minimize the damage from the two fills on the right edge. I set up my sandpaper on the flat board and turned the bowl top into the sandpaper. I work at this slowly and turn and sand and then tip the briar dust into a container that I have saved for repairs to fills. The first photo below shows the set up as well as the condition of the rim before I worked on it.

I took the top down until the outer edges of the rim were sharp and clean. The damage from the fills is still visible but I stopped before I changed the overall shape of the bowl. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the stem to match the shank. I take it down as far as possible with the Dremel and then do the finish shaping by hand with sandpaper.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and to finish shaping the area around the shank and stem junction.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the remaining finish.

I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath to soften the putty fills to make them easier to remove. It also removed the remaining finish to the bowl. The dark colour of the alcohol bath adds a patina to the bowl that is something that I appreciate. (I continue to use the bath and filter out the grit and grime from the alcohol every other month. The filtering removes the impurities but leaves the alcohol the colour of the stain that has been removed from the bowl. It is a uniform dark brown colour. I rarely change the bath, just refill it as the alcohol evaporates over time.)

When I removed it from the bath I picked out the softened putty fills with a dental pick and lightly sanded the bowl and shank with a fine grit sanding sponge.

I am continuing to experiment with wood glue and briar dust combined to replace the fills. I am finding that the mixture gives virtually the same darkening of the fill as the mixture of briar dust and superglue so I am not convinced. The drawback to using the wood glue is the slow drying time. That probably is not an issue for some of you but if the result is the same I will opt for the quick results of the superglue. I packed in the briar dust, dribbled the glue into the fills and then added more dust to the mixture. When it dried I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the buildup and smooth out the surface of the bowl. I then sanded the bowl with a fine grit sanding block to remove the scratches.

I am also continuing to experiment with the contrast staining process so I used it again on this bowl. I wanted to highlight the beautiful birdseye grain and cross grain on the bowl and hide the repaired fills as much as possible. I used a black aniline stain for the first coat of stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated the process until I had good coverage on the bowl.

I wiped down the bowl with Everclear on a cotton pad to remove the heavy black stain from the surface of the bowl while leaving it deep in the grain. I notice in the process that the stain did not soak into the areas around the fills where there was remnant of wood glue on the surface of the briar. It left a shiny spot of unstained briar. To remedy that I would need to sand those areas of the bowl before applying the second coat of stain.

I sanded the bowl with a fine grit sanding sponge and also with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-2400 grit. I wet sanded with these grits as they work well to remove scratches in the surface and also to remove the remaining glue on the surface. Once I had the bowl sanded smooth I wiped it down with a damp alcohol pad to remove surface dust and then restained the bowl with an oxblood aniline stain. The next series of photos show the freshly stained bowl before I flamed it. The undercoat of black comes through and highlights the grain very nicely. Once the bowl was dry I buffed it lightly with White Diamond.

I sanded the bowl and stem with micromesh sanding pads to polish it further. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I find that the higher grit pads add a deeper level of shine with each successive grit. The next three photos show the stem and bowl after polishing with three grits of micromesh. The first photo shows 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit pads. The second photo shows 3200, 3600 and 4000 grit pads. The third photo shows 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit pads.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it was dry I buffed the stem and bowl with White Diamond. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish and give it a shine. The contrast stain worked well with this pipe. The birdseye grain really pops and the cross grain is also highlighted. The black undercoat also minimizes the eyesore of the fills on the right side of the bowl and the small one on the left side has virtually disappeared. The final four photos below show the finished pipe. I am happy with the way it turned out – far better than I expected when I took it out of the box to refurbish.

Help Requested for Unknown Maker of a Threaded Pipe Bowl with an Aluminum Base

5 Replies

In one of the lots of pipes I picked up on Ebay this threaded bowl was present. There was not a pipe base that it fit even though there were two threaded bases in the lot. One was a WDC Bakelite base that was wider and had different threads and the other was a no name older base also with a wider base and different threads on the bowl. I have not seen a bowl with this kind of set up before. The bowl itself is a tube of briar fit over an aluminum bottom. The bottom of the bowl is threaded on the end that screws into the pipe and the upper portion is inserted into the bowl. The top of the insert is a cup that extends a third of the way up the sides of the bowl. I have quite a few metal pipe bases and older Bakelite bases available here but this bowl does not fit any of them. It is truly a mystery to me.

When I got it the finish was worn and there was a crack in the bottom edge of the bowl where it sits against the aluminum. The crack went up about a quarter of the way up the outside of the bowl. The bottom of the threaded portion is stamped PATENT APD FOR, which I assume is the abbreviation of Patent Applied For. I have no idea about country of origin or manufacturer so checking for patent information is difficult. If anyone has seen one of these and has some information please let me know.

Since I am working with the bottom of my refurbishing box, I decided to clean up the bowl and restore it so that when I find a base that it fits it will be ready. The rim was rough so I topped the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a flat surface. I twisted the bowl into the sandpaper to remove the damage to the surface.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to clean up the inside. The outer edge of the bowl rim was damaged so I sanded it until it was smooth. I also used a piece of folded sandpaper to smooth out the damage to the inner rim. I scrubbed the aluminum base with acetone on cotton swabs to clean out the grooves/threads on the nub. I scrubbed the base on the outside and the inside of the bowl. I picked the threads with a dental pick to clean out the buildup of tars in each groove. I wiped down the exterior of the bowl with the acetone to remove the finish.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and also with a medium grit sanding sponge. I sanded it with 1500-1800 grit micromesh sanding pads. Once the surface was smooth I cleaned out the crack with a dental pick and filled it with superglue and briar dust. I sanded that area until it was smooth and blended in with the rest of the bowl. I wiped it down a final time with the alcohol soaked pads to remove the dust before I gave it the first coat of the two step stain.

I stained it with a black aniline stain, flamed it and then restained and reflamed it again. Once the stain was set I wiped it down with Everclear on a cotton pad to remove the top coat of black. My intention was to set the black into the interesting grain pattern around the bowl and rim and then remove the excess before giving a second colour of stain as a top coat.

I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli to finish removing the excess black and to also smooth out any existing scratches in the bowl. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and then with 1500 grit micromesh sanding pads. The next three photos show the bowl before I gave it the top coat of stain.

For the second coat of stain I used an oxblood aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and then buffed it to give it a shine.

To finish the bowl I buffed it with White Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish it. The finished bowl is seen in the photos below. It is ready for the mystery base that will allow it to once again be filled with tobacco and smoked.

Once again, I would appreciate any information that folks may have regarding potential makers for the bowl and potential bases that would hold this kind of threaded bowl. For information sake: it does not fit the Pacemaker, the Falcon, Alco, Viking or any of those pipes. It also does not fit the WDC bases or older Bakelite bases that I have tried. Thanks ahead of time for your help.

A Dr. Grabow Duke Billiard Reborn

5 Replies

Two more pipes left in the box of pipes needing to be refurbished. The first is a Gr. Grabow billiard. It is stamped on the left side of the shank DUKE over Dr. Grabow and on the right side Imported Briar. It was a bowl without a stem. The bowl was in very rough shape. The top was no longer flat and had a large dip in the front where the bowl rim was burned down by a torch lighter or something like that. The finish was ruined and the fills on the left and right had fallen out of the briar. The bowl itself was caked heavily and appeared to be out of round. I sorted through my can of stems and found one that was close to the shank diameter. The oddity of this pipe was that the original shank was more oval than round so whatever stem I fit would have to be adjusted to fit the shape of the shank. I turned the tenon on this old stem and it fit quite well in the shank. I would need to adjust the diameter of the stem to the oval shape of the shank eventually.

I adjusted the diameter of the stem to fit the shank with a Dremel and sanding drum. I was able to bring it very close to the shank size and then did the rest of the work in fitting the stem by hand sanding.

The bowl rim was in rough shape. I debated whether to refurbish this pipe since I received it from a friend. I would take it out and look it over and then put it back in the box undecided. However, with the box almost empty I decided to give a go. The biggest area of damage was the front edge of the rim. The extent of damage to the rim is visible in the next two photos.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to clean up the inside of the bowl and assess the damage to the inner rim on the front. The front edge of the rim had the most damage. I topped the bowl using my usual method of sandpaper on a flat surface. The sandpaper was 220 grit. I placed the bowl top flat against the sandpaper and turned it into the sandpaper to remove the damaged material. I worked the rim down until it was once again flat. I worked on the inner edge of the rim with a piece of sandpaper to smooth out the surface and restore as much of the roundness of the bowl as possible.

I repaired the fills that had fallen out next. First I cleaned them with a dental pick to remove loose debris and the wipe them down with alcohol. I packed briar dust into the holes and mixed it with wood glue. I wanted to experiment with the wood glue to see if it would take stain better than the superglue patches that I have been using. Once the glue was dry I sanded the bowl smooth again with 220 grit sandpaper and also a medium grit sanding sponge.

I sanded the bowl smooth and then wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the stain and the remaining finish.

After wiping it down with the acetone I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the remaining surface and prepare it for staining. (In the third photo below the reworked inner edge of the bowl is visible.)

I decided to use a two part staining process once again to give good coverage to the bowl and to bring out some of the grain on the pipe. I applied the first coat of stain – a black aniline stain – with a cotton swab, flamed it and reapplied and reflamed it until the coverage was good. I warmed the briar with the flame of the lighter to set the stain deep in the grain of the briar.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone again to remove the top coat of the black stain and bring the grain highlights to the surface. I continued to wipe it down until I removed as much as possible with the acetone.

I sanded the bowl with the medium grit sanding sponge and then wiped it between sandings with cotton pads and Everclear. When I had the finish looking the way I was hoping it would I gave it a final wash with Everclear.

I buffed the pipe and stem with red Tripoli to remove more of the stain and to see what the finish would look like with a buff. I knew that I would need to do more sanding to the bowl and shank to remove the scratches that remained before I gave it the second stain colour coat.

I sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then stained it with a top stain of walnut brown aniline. I applied it, flamed it and repeated the process until I had a good even coat of stain.

I sanded the bowl again and the stem as well with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and then dry sanded with the remaining grits from 3200-12,000. When I had finished sanding the stem I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the stem.

When it was dry I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then gave the entirety several coats of carnauba wax to protect and seal the stem against oxidation and to give some shine to the bowl of the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below. The finished look is far better than I expected when I started with the pipe. The rim looks better and the stain colour highlights the grain nicely. It should provide someone with a good smoking pipe for use in the yard or shop.

Giving a Smokemaster Bard Billiard a Facelift

8 Replies

I am down to the bottom of my box of pipes to be refurbished. I have three left. In the bottom of my box was a pipe bowl stamped Smokemaster Bard on the left side of the shank and on the right side of the shank stamped Imported Briar. I found a stem in my can of stems that fit the shank after I adjusted the tenon. The diameter of the stem was slightly larger than the shank but that would be an easy adjustment. The bend would need to be straightened but that would be a simple process. The bowl was lightly smoked and the finish was a very shiny Varathane coating that made the bowl look like plastic. The shank was clean and took very little work to remove the dust that had built up in it.

I knew nothing about Smokemaster pipes and had no idea who made them. The finish and shape reminded me a lot of Dr. Grabow pipes that I have reworked but that was not enough for me. As has become my habit with pipes I don’t know about, I did a bit of research on the web and found out that the pipe was made by the Briarcraft Pipe Company. The Company was very prosperous between 1920 and 1940. They produced both Briarcraft pipes and a line of seconds under the following names: Airo, Arcadian, Briarmeer, Smokemaster, Cavalcade, Hallmark, Sterling Hall, Filter Kleen and Wimbledon. They closed their doors in 1950. The pipe that I had was definitely not made pre-1950 and the stamping was wrong for it to be made by them. The original Briarcraft stamping was more stylized and had a Germanic script for the stamp. This one was italicized.

Further digging uncovered the fact that around 1967 Dr. Grabow acquired the name and system rights to the Smokemaster line, and was produced until the mid 1990’s. Thus my initial thought of it being a Grabow was correct. It turned out that Dr. Grabow made three series of Smokemaster pipes – the 100, 200, and 300. I have restored and restemmed several of these over the years but never found one that had the original stem intact. Dr. Grabow also made a line of Smokemaster pipes for L.L. Bean. Below are two photos – one of the stem logo which is a shield and the other is the stamping that is on the pipe that I refurbished.

I found out that the Smokemaster had a very unique filter system and was distinct from other filter systems in that it did not include a stinger apparatus. Rather it used a slotted tube that had two special holes in it. A folded pipe cleaner was inserted into the two holes and extended the length of the shank. It collected the tars and moisture of the smoke and could be easily changed and replaced by the pipe smoker. The diagram below shows the design from the end of the tenon.

I did a patent search and it gave me the following information. This includes both the original description by the inventor and also a diagram submitted at the time of the patent application. I found it at this site: https://www.google.com/patents/US2166537?dq=2166537&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r2u4UtPOHI_ZoAT9moHYCg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ

Description
1939 – B. M. SHOEMAKER 2,166,537
TOBACCO PIPE Filed Oct. 12, 1934 crnar B.M. Shoemaker INVENTOR v ATTORNEY Patented July 18, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.
My invention relates to tobacco pipes and more particularly to the type in which the bit and bowl portions are separately united to each other.
The principal object of my invention is to maintain the smoke passage in the pipe substantially free of solid deposits, making for general cleanliness in the interior of the pipe and sweet, cool smoking qualities.
I accomplish this object by arranging within the pipe a readily replaceable absorptive member which is designed to receive condensate and solid matter from the smoke as it passes through the pipe. The preferred form of such absorptive member is an ordinary pipe cleaner which, as is well known in the art, comprises a highly flexible metallic core portion carrying a large number of bristles extending there from.
One embodiment of the invention is illustratively exemplified in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a pipe; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a broken elevation view of a metallic tube or liner constituting one of the pipe elements; Fig. 5 is an elevation view broken intermediate its ends, of the form of absorptive member used in the present construction.
Referring to the drawing, and more specifically to Figs. 1 to 3, denotes the pipe bowl, 1 the bowl stem, 2 the bit and 3 the tenon by which the bit and bowl stem are separately united. The bowl stem has the usual well l4 and the bit the usual smoke or draft passage 15. The bit 12 is further provided with three bores, 15b, c, d, and forming a continuation of the smoke passage 16. A metal tube 16 is provided which is longitudinally slotted at its lower portion and through the slot l8 the products of well be omitted. The tube l6 lies in the bore 15b. The pipe cleaner is doubled upon itself and the two legs or branches of the pipe cleaner enter the bores 15c and l5d and rest there during use of the pipe. The bores 15c and l5d parallel the bore 15b at opposite sides of its longitudinal centre. The embodiment of the invention described is a very desirable construction inasmuch as it receives a standard length pipe cleaner, which in its folded position in the passage 14 is offset from the axis thereof, and which when rotated or twisted with the tenon to seat the same the folded strands of the cleaner engage and brush or clean the wall of the bore.
The operation of the device is very simple. The pipe is sold complete with the pipe cleaner in position. After the pipe has been used for a length of time it will be found that the pipe cleaner is practically saturated with deposited matter. Thereupon the pipe cleaner is simply removed from the pipe and a new one inserted in its place. If desired, the cleaner may also be used in the ordinary manner, naturally before it has become fouled, by moving it back and forth once or twice through the draft passage l5 and/or tube.
What I claim is: In a tobacco pipe, a bowl portion having a stem provided with a central bore, and a bit portion for said stem, the bit having a centrally disposed smoke passage and grooves arranged in the bottom of said passage, a tubular liner mounted in the smoke passage and adapted to project into the bore of the stem, said liner having its underside provided with a longitudinal slot opening into the grooves and bottom of the central bore of the stem beyond the bit, and an absorptive member mounted in said grooves and arranged under the liner throughout its length to receive condensate from the liner and to wipe the wall of said bore when the bit is turned.
BERNARD M. SHOEMAKER.
Classifications

U.S. Classification 131/184.1, 131/203

International Classification A24F1/00

Cooperative Classification A24F1/00, A24F2700/03

European Classification A24F1/00

I find that kind of information fascinating and am always intrigued by the designers urge to provide a cooler and cleaner smoke for the pipeman who uses his invention. I was not able to find out if Dr. Grabow continued to use the patented design when it took over the line from Briarcraft but I am assuming so until it is shown otherwise by information from those who read this or by a pristine stem that still has the apparatus intact on one of the Grabow Smokemaster pipes.

So armed with that information I went to work on the pipe. I began with the newly fitted stem and heated it with a heat gun to straighten the bend. Vulcanite has memory so with heat the stem returns to its original shape. I held the stem about 6 inches above the heat source, ran the gun on high and watched as the stem began to return to normal. It is important not to hold the vulcanite too close to the heat as it burns and to not rush the bend by helping it as it can snap if not properly heated.

The straightened stem is pictured below. It can also be seen in the next three photos that the diameter of the stem is slightly larger than the diameter of the shank. I also left a slight bend to the stem as I liked the look of it on this pipe.

I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the stem to match the shank. This has to be done slowly and with a steady hand so as not to nick the shank of the pipe. I move the Dremel slowly along the diameter of the stem and also backward toward the button to keep the lines accurate and not bulge after the sanded area. I sand it as close as possible to the correct diameter and then hand sand it to fit.

I took it back to the work table and sanded the stem with medium grit emery cloth to smooth out the finish and fit of the stem. I then used 220 grit sandpaper and continued to sand until the stem fit was smooth. At this point I also began to use a sanding block to make the transition between the new stem and the shank smooth. I did not worry about sanding the stem as I intended to remove the plastic finish and rework the entire pipe with a new finish. I also sanded the top of the bowl to remove the two burn marks that were present on the inner edge of the rim. This is visible in the last of the series of photos below.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to try to remove the plastic like finish that was on the pipe. The acetone succeeded in dulling the finish but not in removing it from the briar. I continued to wipe it down until I was through the finish coat. I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge between the acetone washes. (I had previously tried the alcohol bath on pipes with this type of finish and found that they did not penetrate the finish.)

Once the finish was removed I sanded the pipe with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches as much as possible. I was not overly worried at this point in removing them all as I intended to do a two part stain and sand between the stain coats. I stained the pipe with a black aniline stain, flamed and stained and flamed again. I also heated the bowl to drive the black stain deep into the grain of the pipe so that when I sanded it the grain would show well.

I wiped the bowl down with Everclear on a cotton pad to remove the topcoat of the stain. I knew that the stain would have penetrated deep enough into the grain to leave the parts present that I wanted highlighted.

I buffed the pipe with red Tripoli to further remove the black stain. The next four photos show the bowl after buffing. I still wanted to remove more of the stain from the pipe to get the desired effect and differentiate the grain for the finished look of the pipe.

I wet sanded the bowl and the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to further remove the black stain from the surface of the bowl. The sanding also served to remove the scratches left behind by the fine grit sanding sponge before staining. The first four photos below show the finish after I had sanded the bowl with these grits of micromesh. I then dry sanded the bowl and stem with the remaining grits of micromesh pads from 3200-12,000. The state of the bowl and stem can be seen in the last two photos below.

Once I had removed as much of the black as I wanted I stained the pipe with the second stain – an oxblood aniline stain. I heated the bowl, applied the stain, flamed it and reapplied and reflamed it until the coverage was even around the bowl. Once it was dry I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond to polish the finish and the stem. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to protect the vulcanite and when dry gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to polish and protect the pipe. The finished pipe is pictured below. I really like the contrast stain and the matte like finish on the pipe. The two step stain process highlighted the grain on the pipe and gives it a far more polished and finished look than the previous plastic coat had down. This piece of briar, though not stellar, did not have fills or flaws that are visible. It should make someone a great addition for their pipe rack.

NOTE: I was just reading on PSU and saw a post there that had this photo of the filtration system on these pipes. http://pipesmokerunlimited.com/showthread.php?4015-Smokemaster-Filter-Pipe Thanks to the poster, Hammerhead (Terry Swope???maybe) for posting the photo for us to see.

Restoring an LHS Certified Purex Pot

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This LHS pot was another gift from a friend in exchange for restemming his pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Certified Purex in a convex arc and underneath is a concave arc stamped Imported Briar. In the middle the stamping is very faint but using a magnifying lens the remnants of a diamond with the letters LHS are barely visible. The finish was very dirty and the rim was blackened but not burned. The bottom of the bowl near the front was covered with dents and pin pricks like the pipe had been tapped or dropped on concrete. There was very little cake in the bowl. The stem had a screw mount tenon with an aluminum receptor on the end of the shank. The stem itself had an aluminum end on it with a push in stinger apparatus. The stem had deep tooth marks on the top and the bottom sides and was oxidized. On the left side of the stem was an aluminum diamond that was inserted in the stem.

I looked up LHS Certified Purex pipes on Google and found the following information. The first comes from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-lhs.html#certifiedpurex . Phil has a page on the LHS pipes. The L&H Stern Inc. was established by Ludwig Stern (1877-1942) in 1911. His brother Hugo (1872-?) acted as vice-president & secretary. The firm moved to 56 Pearl St. Brooklyn in 1920. It closed down in the 1960s. LHS was one of the main pipe suppliers for US soldiers during WWII. LHS had several seconds lines, two of which are the London Royal and the Stanhope. Phil included the two photos below. The first is of the diamond insert on the stem. The one I am refurbishing has the same diamond. The second is of the stamping on the pipe. The top photo which is a picture of the stamping reads Certified Purex over Imported Briar with the LHS in a Diamond inside the two arcs. This stamping matches the pipe I worked on.
Pipedia also had information on the pipes from which I summarize some additions that were not included above. L & H Stern (LHS) of Brooklyn, New York. The company’s famous logo is in a diamond. These pipes are high quality production pipes. A popular and moderately priced pipe made from 1896 through the 1960’s by the L&H Stern Company of Brooklyn, New York. Many of their later Sterncrest pipes featured silver bands and some were made with 14kt. gold bands as well. The “Diamond” series appears to be their high-end line. They had a different logo which was 3 diamonds in a row, larger in the middle. They also had Allbriar models (stem and bowl both made of briar) in the Diamond line, and these tended to have a screw type fitment with stinger, like Kaywoodie or Dr. Grabows.

With this information I took the Purex pot to my work table. I took off the stem and dropped the bowl into an alcohol bath to soak while I worked on the stem. It sat in the bath for about an hour while I addressed the issues on the stem.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification around the button and up the stem for about ½ inch. I also wanted to clean up around the tooth dents to see what I would have to do to fix them. In the next two photos below the dents in the stem are clearly visible on the top and the underside of the stem. Removing the calcification made the dents very clear.

After examining them with a magnifying glass I could see that they were dents. I was able to heat them and lift them to some degree and then sanded what remained after heating. The next three photos show the removal of the dents and remaining marks with the sandpaper.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit “pink” sanding sponge that is visible in the photos below. This removed the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. In these photos the dents are no longer visible. The sanding also removed the majority of the oxidation on the stem.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish before I worked on the pitting and marks on the bottom of the bowl. I steamed the dents and then filled the remaining marks with superglue to smooth them out. I sanded the superglue with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the slight bubble on the super glue and also followed up that with a medium grit sanding sponge. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I stained the bowl with black aniline stain and flamed it to set it deep in the grain. I repeated the staining and flaming to make sure I got a smooth and even coverage on the undercoat of stain. The black understain does a great job in hiding the small fills that were in the bottom of the bowl.

I wiped down the stain with acetone to remove the topcoat and to highlight the dark grain pattern that remained. The dents on the bottom of the bowl are not visible in the fourth photo below. The grain shows through nicely. I sanded the bowl with 1800-2400 micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches that were still visible in the finish.

I then stained the pipe with a oxblood stain for a finish coat. I applied the stain, flamed it and reapplied it and flamed it repeatedly until I had the coverage I wanted on the pipe. The next three photos show the rich overstain. The repairs to the pits on the bottom of the bowl are no longer visible.

The stem had been slightly overturned so I needed to heat the tenon and turn it clockwise on the shank until it lined up again. I removed the stinger and then heated the tenon over a heat gun to loosen the glue in the stem. Once it was heated I screwed it into the shank of the pipe until it was aligned again.

I put the stinger back in place and wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

Once I finished sanding the stem I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite. I polished the aluminum on the shank and the stem with the higher grits of micromesh and then with silver polish. I then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and then with multiple coats of carnauba wax to polish and protect it. The finished pipe is pictured below.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: