Tag Archives: finishing

Restoring a Patent-era Dunhill 137 – Andrew Selking

Blog by Andrew Selking

I stumbled across this Dunhill while browsing eBay. A little bit of research indicated this was a desirable patent-era pipe from the collector’s range, which used a better of briar. The pictures indicated a lot of tar build-up (I actually don’t mind tar, it seems to protect the rim from some of the abuse of knocking out the pipe) and some dark spots that might hide scorch marks or burn through. The stem looked decent, free of significant chatter or bite through, so I decided to take a chance.

Here’s what the pipe looked like when it arrived.

The first order of business was to loosen the tar and heave cake, so I dropped the bowl in the alcohol bath. Next I turned my attention to the stem with the Oxyclean bath (yes it is taking a bath with another Dunhill stem, which I will write about later). After a good long soak, I broke out my Castleford reamer and removed the cake back to the wood. After cleaning the inside of the bowl, I used some 0000 grade steel wool in an attempt to remove the tar. Usually that works, but there was some rim damage that necessitated topping. I use a piece of glass that I found to ensure an even surface when topping. I also use a relatively fine grit (400 grit) paper when doing something like this. I find that it makes the final sanding easier and I don’t inadvertently remove more than I wanted to. Here is what the bowl looked like after topping. Next I tackled the inside of the shank using the retort. There is nothing like boiling alcohol to loosen up built up tar and tobacco. This is what the brush looked like after the first pass. In case you’re wondering what I do to clean the brush in between passes, I swish it in the jar I use for soaking the bowls. The sediment settles to the bottom and since soaking in alcohol is only one step in the process, I don’t worry too much about it.

Once the brush no longer captured a bunch of gunk, I moved on to q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol. In my opinion, rubbing alcohol works fine for general cleaning, but it does not work well for mixing with stain or for doing the retort. As you can see, it took a good amount of q-tips before the shank came clean. Next I used the retort on the stem. As always, I made sure to plug the end to ensure the dirty alcohol didn’t boil over and shoot out the end (that’s always hard to explain to your significant other). The stem was pretty nasty, as you can see from the residual alcohol in the test tube. After using a pile of fuzzy sticks (I get them in the craft section at Wal Mart, they’re cheaper than pipe cleaners and longer), the inside of the stem was finally clean. Starting with the stem, I used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water to remove the oxidation. I then moved on to 1500-2400 grit micro-mesh pads with water. I find that the wet sandpaper does a good job getting into the little crease on the underside of the button. It’s also helpful to occasionally dry the stem off and see if there’s still any oxidation left, it’s easy to overlook when the stem is wet. I use the same progression of micromesh on both the bowl and the stem, although I don’t use water with the bowl. Here is the pipe after going through the entire progression 15000 through 12,000. I stained the bowl with Pimo Pipe Supply’s mahogany stain, diluted with denatured alcohol and flamed to set.

Next I took the bowl and stem to the buffing wheel, where I used some white diamond and a couple of coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished result.

A Wally Frank Sandblast Unique Sitter Reborn

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Blog by Steve Laug

Every once in a while I get the urge to just sit and work my way through the estate pipes on the various Ebay sites. I rarely if ever pick anything up anymore unless it is something that is unique and just grabs me. The last time I did the scan of the various sales I came across this old Wally Frank sitter. It combined the look of a Rhodesian with a diamond shank like a Bulldog and a sitter base. It had a very English made pipe look in my opinion. The sandblast on the bowl and front portion of the shank appeared to be deep and craggy. The rustication of the last third of the shank, a feature that I find often on sandblasted Wally Frank pipes, looked good and the stamping was clear and readable. The bowl appeared to be in decent shape and finish looked good in the photos. The stem was oxidized and the seller noted that it sat off centre slightly or did not line up with the shank. I figured if it had a metal tenon that was fixable and if it was a push tenon it was a non-issue. I was hooked. I bid on it and won, only to find out that the shipper never shipped out of the US. We corresponded and he decided to send it on to me. For that I thank him. The next series of six photos were included by the seller in the Ebay write-up.

When the pipe arrived, I opened the box and removed the pipe. The blast was even better than the photos had shown. The stem oxidation was pretty much as shown above. The misaligned stem was no issue as the stem had a push tenon and was only a matter of turning the stem slightly. The airway was open but dirty with tars and grime. The bowl had a light cake that thickened toward the bottom of the bowl. The edges of the shank and the stem were sharp and clean showing that it had not been buffed much in its history. There were a couple of spots on the edge of the rim and shank at the union next to the stem where the stain was worn or missing. The rim itself was dirty with tars. The stem was clean though oxidized with no tooth marks or chatter. The button was crisp and sharp and the slot was an open oval that flared into the stem opening up into the airway like a funnel. I took a few photos of the pipe when I took it out of the box.

The photo below shows the situation with the cake in the bowl. It was not centered or evenly built up around the bowl so it would need to be cleaned up and adjusted. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the uneven cake back to bare wood. I used the smallest cutting head to begin with and worked my way up to the second cutting head. With these two I was able to clean out the cake. The bowl shape is kind of combination of a V and U shape. The sides are U-shaped to about a half-inch from the bottom of the bowl where it shifts to a V shape. I scrubbed the rim surface with a soft bristle brass tire brush to clean off the tars and oils built up there.

I scrubbed the bowl and rim with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. Once I had scoured it with the soap I put a thumb over the bowl and rinsed off the soap with running water. The photos below show the pipe after I had scrubbed, rinsed it and dried it off with a soft cloth.

After cleaning the briar I gave it a coat of Conservators Wax which is a microcrystalline wax cleaner. I buffed it with a shoe brush to bring a shine to the bowl. I put the stem in a jar of Oxyclean to soak and raise the oxidation to the surface. I let it sit overnight to soak. I then returned to the inside of the bowl. (NOTE: The reason I give the bowl a coat of wax before cleaning the inside of the shank and bowl is because I want to protect the finish when I am cleaning out the inside).

I cleaned out the shank with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs and the airway with pipe cleaners. I cleaned it until the cleaners came out with no grime on them. In the morning I took the stem out of the oxyclean and dried it off with a paper towel. The roughness of the paper towel removes the oxidation that has been raised to the surface of the stem. Once it was dry I slipped a plastic washer on the tenon and reinserted it into the shank of the pipe. The washer allows me to sand all the way to the edges of the stem without rounding the edges at the shank junction. I started with a medium grit sanding sponge and worked through a fine grit sponge and fine grit sanding block. I then wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem between each group of three pads with Obsidian Oil and then moved onto the next set of three. When I finished I buffed the stem with White Diamond and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it sit until it had dried.

(NB In the photo below I left the plastic washer in place on the stem while in the two above I removed it for the photo) I put the stem back on the bowl and gave it a final buff with a blue polishing bar on the buffer. This polishing compound is a plastic polishing compound (Blue Diamond maybe, can’t remember the name). I finished by giving the bowl a buff of carnauba wax (light touch so as not to gum up the blast finish) and then multiple coats of the wax on the stem. I buffed the whole pipe with a soft flannel buff for the finished shine on the stem and the bowl shown in the photos below. The pipe is ready to be christened with its inaugural smoke this afternoon while I go for a walk in the neighbourhood. I have chosen a Virginia Perique blend called Pilgrim’s Muse that I purchased from the Country Squire Tobacconist. It is a great smoking tobacco with a good flavour.

Reviving a Peterson Dunmore 79 with my Son in Law

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Blog by Steve Laug

This past weekend my son in law came over with the Peterson Dunmore pipe that he had purchased on a recent pipe hunt in the US. He picked it up for $15USD so it was a good purchase. We finally got around to working on it. In a previous post on the Dunmore line I had found that the line from Peterson really is a stripped down pipe. The one that we worked on this weekend was in essence a system pipe. The lack of a ferrule is made up for by a stylized carving around the shank end. The stem sits snugly against the end of the shank but is not flush with the diameter of the shank. The saddle on the stem has a slightly different flair than a regular Peterson pipe. It had a Plip stem. It bore the stamping Peterson’s over “Dunmore” on the left side of the shank and Made in the Republic of Ireland and the number 79 on the right side of the shank.

The pipe was in pretty decent shape under the grime and tars on the bowl and rim. It had some beautiful birdseye grain under the grime that would really stand out with a bit of work. The rim was damaged along the back outer edge with small nicks. The build up on the rim was hard and uneven. The bowl itself was out of round and would need to be adjusted. The stem was oxidized but under the oxidation on the saddle it bore the stylized P stamp. The top of the stem near the button had a few small bite marks and some tooth chatter. The underside of the stem near the button had a pin hole in it that would need to be patched.

While my son in law, Lance worked on the bowl scrubbing and cleaning it I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the tooth marks. I wiped it down with alcohol to clean the areas around the hole. I daubed Vaseline on a pipe cleaner and inserted it from the tenon end of the stem and then used black superglue to repair the hole. I gave it several coats of glue to build up the repair, sprayed it with accelerator and let it dry between applications. Once I had the patch solidly in place I set it aside and let it cure. After curing for about 30 minutes I sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the stem. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and further blend it.

Lance worked on the bowl while this was going on. He washed down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the remaining finish on the pipe. He softened the buildup on the rim surface and then lightly topped the bowl to remove the damage and the buildup. Once it was smooth, he sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and then wiped the bowl down with another wash of acetone. We gave the bowl a coat of medium walnut stain mixed with Danish Oil and rubbed it onto the bowl and off again with a soft cotton pad. The bowl looked good when I had finished wiping it down and buffing it with a shoe brush. The grain is quite stunning.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond to remove more of the oxidation. I rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil and set it aside for the pictures below. At this point in the refurbishing the stem is looking quite good. I still need to sand with micromesh pads and then reapply the gold in the P stamp on the left side of the stem.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. In between each set of three pads I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I finished by buffing the stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad.

After sanding it with 3200-4000 grit pads I used a gold paint and applied it to the P logo on the stem and then sanded it again with the same three grits of pad.

I put the stem back in the shank and buffed the entire pipe with carnauba wax and with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below. The first four photos give a close up look at the bowl so that you can appreciate the beautiful grain on the pipe. The last four photos show the pipe in its entirety. It is truly a stunning piece of briar with no fills or pits. It is ready for its inaugural smoke by my son in law. It looks as good as new and the stunning birdseye grain gives the pipe a rich look. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of his restored pipe and even more what he thinks once he has smoked it.

Re-stemming a Hardcastle Pot – Andrew Selking

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Blog by Andrew Selking

I picked up this nice looking Hardcastle pot, but when it arrived I realized that it did not have the proper stem.

Fortunately Steve bailed me out and sent a couple of likely replacements. The stem that I settled on had a slightly smaller tenon diameter and the outside diameter was noticeably bigger. This was going to be a fun challenge. I covered the shank with painter’s tape and started reshaping the stem with 100 grit sand-paper. Here is a shot after getting to about 80% completion. Next, I took the painter’s tape off and replaced it with Scotch tape (since it is thinner) at the end of the shank. At this point I was using 400 grit wet/dry without water. Once I completed that step, I took a rubber washer and placed it on the tenon to protect the end of the stem and shank. I used 400 grit to finish the last little bit, frequently taking the washer out to check the fit. This is what the pipe looked like once I had the stem sanded to fit.

Next I turned my attention to the bowl. I used the largest reamer to get almost to the bottom and finished it with the next smaller one. I used OOOO grade steel wool to remove the tar from the rim. Once the bowl was clean, I used my retort to clean the shank. This is why I am a firm believer in the retort, pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol came clean, but all this gunk was still inside. I used the retort on the stem. Although this picture does not show it, always plug the end of the stem to prevent the retort from boiling over and spitting nasty tobacco juice everywhere (ask me how I know this). After the stem was cleaned, I worked on polishing it. I started with 400 grit, then moved to 1500 through 2400 grit micro mesh with water. I used the 1500 grit through 2400 grit without water on the bowl, then finished both with a progression through 12,000 grit. Now the pipe was ready for stain. This time I used an aniline dye (light walnut) from Pimo Pipe Supply. I diluted the dye by 50% with denatured alcohol, applied it with a cotton ball, flamed it with a lighter, and repeated until I had the coverage I wanted.

After an uneventful trip to the buffer, where I used white diamond and carnauba wax on both the stem and bowl, this is the result. I am really happy how this turned out. Thanks again to Steve for his generosity in providing the donor stem.

Comoy’s Satin Matte Bent Christmas Pipe, In Four-Part Harmony – Robert M. Boughton

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

This blog is dedicated to my older uncle, Frank Lee Grannis (1945-2014), who was maybe Arlo Guthrie’s biggest fan. Frank once snapped a black and white photo of a teenaged Arlo, at an outdoor music festival somewhere in the countryside, smiling and signing an autograph for another fan who was about Arlo’s age. I lost the photo in my younger, wilder days, or I would include it here, but the image will always be in my memory.

Let’s get Santa Clause ’cause:
Santa Clause has a red suit
He’s a communist
And a beard, and long hair
Must be a pacifist
What’s in the pipe that he’s smoking?—Arlo Guthrie, U.S. singer-songwriter-musician, in “The Pause of Mr. Claus” (1968)

INTRODUCTION
Now friends, tonight we’re gonna sing you a song, a Christmas carol in four-part harmony. The song…the Christmas carol is part of an album called “Arlo.” That’s my name. Some of you right about now might be thinking, thinking in your private thoughts there in your heads, well, this Arlo fella must have a pretty big ego. I mean, to go and name an album after himself, he must have let all that fame and fortune go to his head. I don’t know about the fame and fortune part, because all that doesn’t last long, but my head, my head is really sort of small. We’ve never actually met. All of you out there and me, that is.But that’s not what I came to talk about. Came to talk about a pipe. Remember the pipe? This is a story about a pipe.And I’ll get to it. In time, and four-part harmony.

So there I was, sitting on a bench, looking for a song to start with. I didn’t find it. I’m not proud…or tired.Out of all the songs I wrote, there I was, on the bench trying to pull just one verse from my head, but nothing would come.I knew right then and there I had to get ahold of Steve Laug, he’s a good friend of mine. We’ve never actually met. But we write emails back and forth to each other all the time. Now friends, if you ask me, that’s one hell of a way for folks to talk. Sort of like writing a story, in four-part harmony.

And then it hits me that it would be a friendly gesture to sing a Christmas carol about the guy who started it all. A guy in a red coat who has a beard, and all he does is give presents…for free…to all the rest of us. Must be something deranged about a guy like that.Living in Canada…living at the North Pole, it’ll do that to a guy.

Now, Steve and me, we never exactly said anything about any quote. All we talked about was the pipe. Remember the pipe? Anyway, I sent him a picture with the email, an eight-by-ten color glossy with all the details written down, and I said I thought it was what’s called a brandy shape, and Steve, he says it’s like a BBB he has that’s the same shape, only it’s a Christmas pipe. Well, I never heard of any Christmas pipe shape, but Steve knows more than I do. And later on he wrote back and sent a picture of his BBB, an eight-by-ten color glossy with all the details. And the two eight-by-ten color glossies with all the details were almost the same.

And the good news is, that’s when I remembered this Christmas carol I wrote, in four-part harmony, because it was about Santa Claus, even though it’s spelled with an “e” in the song. Don’t ask me why, you can figure it out. Now, everyone knows old Santa is all about Christmas. So that’s about how that story goes.

Now I’ll get on with the other story, about the pipe. Remember the pipe?

I got mixed up online with some poor fella who was selling seven pipes all together and didn’t have a clue what all was in there. ’Cause my eye went straight to one with a white C on the stem and even I knew what that meant. The listing, in micro-mini small print at the bottom of the page, that you’re not supposed to read, called it a “Como’s Bent Billiard,” but I took a closer look and made out the blurry Y after Como. So there I was, still sitting on the bench and having a good old time knowing how nobody else knew the Como pipe was in there with all the others, and that’s why the price was so low with time running out. I’d like to dedicate this Christmas carol to all the pipe-abusing S.O.B.s out there who have been bad little boys and girls and ought to keep that in mind this coming Christmas. It’s called “The Pause of Mr. Como.” Now here’s how the song goes.

RESTORATION
Meanwhile, back to myself again after a brief diversion, I will describe the pipe as I received it. Although there were bad cake buildup in the chamber, rim burning, ubiquitous scratches on all sides of the bowl and a stem in dire need of work and polishing, the allure of this excellent Comoy’s example was almost intoxicating, and I haven’t tasted alcohol in 26 years – not that you could tell after reading my Introduction.

I like to start on a rim with super fine steel wool, as I did with this pipe. In general, this approach takes off most or all of the char and leaves the wood beneath without a single new scratch and often even shiny. This time I got nowhere with the regular method, and so I switched to 400-grit paper, which removed the char as well as dings and scratches I uncovered. Of course, the sandpaper also took off the old stain.

With the rim clean and smooth, showing the fine grain, I found my old Senior Reamer in its box and took on the chamber.This time, the reamer worked as it should. Almost all of the buildup was reduced to dust. A little quick sanding with 120-grit paper was needed before smoothing with 400. Now, as I described earlier, the outer wood was scratched almost everywhere. I very much wanted to avoid ruining the good, light stain of the original. Having learned that micromesh can go a long way, from advice of my mentor, Chuck Richards, as well as our host and several previous readers, I put the theory to a tougher test than I had before.

And you know what? I think they’re on to something! Starting with 800-grade, I was able to eliminate all but the most insignificant scratches. I then worked my way up from 1000 to 1500 to 2400 and ending with 3200, leaving the briar– well, leaving the briar as smooth as it must have been the day it left the Comoy’s shop.

Taking on the stem only required heavy sanding and buffing with 1500, 2400 and 3200 micromesh.

Cleaning the pipe turned out to be the hardest part. I just kept dipping the bristly cleaners in Everclear one half at a time and scrubbing away until they came out of the shank and stem clear.

CONCLUSION
If I had kept this fine example of Comoy’s craftsmanship, I would prize it as the best as compared to the two I own. However, as fate would have it, the pipe sold almost as soon as I posted it on my restored pipes Website. My only consolation is that I have reason to believe it is in adoring hands.

Ben Wade and the Chamber of Horrors – Robert M. Boughton

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” —J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (1998 U.K.)

INTRODUCTION
Never has one of the quotes with which I like to begin my blogs spoken with more directness to the heart of the matter at hand than the words of J.K. Rowling above. At the risk of kicking a dead horse, I must point out how the choices of the prior owner of the Ben Wade Tall Poker (Made in London England) effected this description of its harrowing restoration. I am sure the individual lacked not in ability, only decision-making. But where do I begin? Ah, the stem pops into mind. Just try to take in the scope of the mauling the perp inflicted on the bit and downward, from these photos alone: the complete gnashing away of the bottom lip and the gash in the upper side as shown on the left, and the chips in the top of the bit and great flat plain below it on the right. The only true cure for this degree of chewing, like a single piranha in frenzy that has been chased away by a bigger fish with no interest in pipes, is total replacement.

I believe someone even re-stemmed this pipe at some point during the old owner’s possession of it, as the bottom of the bowl is flat with ample room to stabilize it in a canted position yet the stem’s weight topples it. But that probability only serves to compound the undeserving person’s culpability. After all, imagine the debasement the original stem must have suffered. However, with another replacement in mind for the future, for now I took the mayhem as a challenge for some serious Black Super Glue practice.

Then there was the liberal, to use a kind adjective, distribution of deep pits and scratches covering the bowl and shank.

And at last, I come to the reason for the name of this blog: the chamber and rim. When I first saw this angle on the site where I ordered a three-pipe lot of Ben Wades (one of which, when it arrived, was a tall billiard with a huge crack extending down the side of the bowl that required amputation and is therefore now undergoing the trauma of drastic re-shaping, and the other a small apple, which I restored with success and already blogged), I thought the rim would be the biggest challenge of the project.

Although the rim did indeed present considerable obstacles to overcome, the greatest battle proved to be with the chamber of horrors itself, from which I emerged, torn and bleeding, but victorious – if there can be any genuine victory in war.

REFURBISH
Following my initial structural inspection with a couple of bristly cleaners soaked in Everclear 190-proof that I ran through the stem and shank, I concluded the pipe somehow was intact but filthy almost to the point of total clogging with black resinous goop. In fact, when I looked at the shank opening as shown in the second to last photo above and then tried to blow through it only to meet extreme resistance, I got my first clue that many sturdy cleaners would make the ultimate sacrifice before this BW was fit to enjoy.

I proceeded with the part of the restoration that has always been my first step: reaming the chamber. But this time, after about an hour of sweaty, hand- and arm-weakening cranking, I only prevailed, with repeated efforts applying the reamer at different levels and angles of attack, in dislodging multiple layers of cake that slowly made a pile of fine carbon amounting to more than half a dozen bowls. Even sanding with 80-grit paper only added another few bowls of carbon to the growing heap. It’s too bad all the pipe cake out there waiting to be converted to powder by folks of my persuasion isn’t recyclable as tobacco, but then again, there seem to be plenty of another kind of folk who enjoy the taste of massive congestion from carbon and other nasty accretions.

Deciding, based on the horrible pocks and craters remaining in the chamber, that the hallowed space would take work throughout the restoration process, I launched a concerted offensive on the rim, at first believing with reason based on experience that I would be able to salvage the nice inward curve of the briar there. However, after another considerable chunk of time flew away with each level of char I banished, all that I had done was reveal wounds so deep and close-spaced along the inside curve of the rim and several bad wounds at the top of the bowl that I knew I would have to level the rim.
Drastic situations call for equal measures, and so, not having a power sander, I chose the best weapon I possessed, said tool being a metal rasp. Thus began another arduous labor removing the once elegant curve of the rim, with heavy mental protest. I was filled with sadness as I applied the rough edge of the rasp with slow care to the rim and watched the slope disappear more and more over time.

That stage finished and the rim flat, I sanded the well-grained wood with 220-grit paper followed by 400 and then micro-meshed using 600, then 800, 1000, 1500, 2400 and ending with 3600. Even this view does not reveal the insidious nature of the cake buildup inside the chamber from hell. The ongoing task of removing all of the cake, every time I thought I achieved smoothness all around, only uncovered still more hidden holes, similar to microcosmic pits and craters on the moon, only black.

I decided the time had come to remove all of the dings and other rough spots in the bowl and shank and used 220 paper again for the worst areas, then 2400 micromesh followed by 3600.

Seeing the nice, lighter wood that lay beneath, but suspecting the dark stain was used for a reason (e.g., hiding fills), I nevertheless embarked on a removal of the original stain by hand using 400-grit paper.

I know, I know! I see here and noted at the time the scratches left by my removal method, but careful, even sanding and then buffing with several levels of micromesh took them off quite well. Two important goals were accomplished by this roughness. One, I satisfied my curiosity about the potential for fills. Yes, as you can see, they are present, but nowhere near to the extent that I anticipated. Two, I removed the dings, divots, dents and most of the other defects. Of course, some might reverse the order of significance of these resolved issues.

At this juncture, I became resolved to eradicate the stubborn, troublesome cake no matter what it might take. The determination was born not only of my own obdurate nature that exceeds that of any piece of wood, but from the fact that the Ben Wade Chamber of Horrors had managed to destroy my Senior Reamer – no joke. Not wanting to discard the fallen reamer, which had been so faithful to me until it met The Chamber That Must Not Be Named, by such callous means as tossing it in the garbage, I chose rather to retire it to a place of honor on my bench. But now I had to avenge my defeated brother in restoration, not to mention buy a replacement. I already ordered a new-in-box Castleford Five-Piece Multi-Fit Reamer Kit and a full set of micromesh pads (no more paper for me) online for just more than $30, postage included.

With no small sense of retribution fuelling me, I girded myself with an entire large sheet of the coarsest sandpaper I had and cut off a few small strips before bending one into the right shape to begin the ugly but necessary task with a vengeance. Unbelievable amounts of carbon spilling from the demon chamber every time I emptied it, and my fingers blackened with soot, I kept at it with gusto, thinking I must have made progress. My left index finger was developing scrapes and calluses.

Still, the evil chamber walls in spots felt like the bowels of a volcano. In desperation, I turned to a Dremel I borrowed for the amputated Ben Wade Billiard’s re-shaping. I changed the Dremel bit to a small, fine rounded piece of sandpaper and, at the slowest speed, began making circular turns around the chamber walls.

As some of you with more experience might imagine, this approach almost led to disaster, but instead turned the tables in my favor. Granted, the Dremel (not I) left several new chinked spots where none existed before. But these occurring after the power tool caught a scent of the pure briar, the cake crisis was solved with a bit more rapid sanding that also repaired the new nicks.

With the chamber vanquished of the dreadful cake as well as it ever would be, and the hollow area covered in blackness, and the shank still needing to be purged of its mess, I plugged the shank opening with several small squares of cotton and flooded the chamber with Everclear. I set the big chunk of briar aside for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, I felt a keen sting in my right index finger and noticed that under the True Coat of soot there appeared to be some blood and loose skin. I thought it wise to scrub my hands forthwith, with soap and water as hot as I could stand, and this ordeal ended up lasting about 15 minutes. When I was done, I realized I had no hydrogen peroxide to sterilize the cut caused by so much sanding of the wicked chamber.

But I did have Everclear, the pouring of which onto my already burning sore did not excite me. Better safe than sorry, I just got it over with.

Oh, my gosh, did it burn! I pulled the cotton plug from the shank and let the remaining coal-black liquid ooze from it like a suppurating wound, and began the still serious business of running both ends of so many bristly cleaners dipped in alcohol through the shank that I lost count. While the darker part of my brain, made meaner by the frequent sting of more Everclear running onto my exposed wound, whispered that the little hole would never come clean, the rational side assured me that before I knew it the job would be done.

But it wasn’t happening fast enough, and so I resorted to digging through my growing and a bit disordered supplies for the wire bristle brush I knew was there. At last I found it buried in the bottom of a drawer and at once started the repetitious but effective process of wetting it with alcohol, scrubbing the inner shank, rinsing it in a shallow bowl of alcohol that grew fouler each time, squeezing the bristles clean and dry, and repeating all of these steps over and over. Of course, my reward did come when I switched back to a normal cleaner soaked in alcohol and it came out clean.

Somewhere along the line, I finished the stem work by sanding down the excess Black Super Glue and smoothing the Vulcanite with vigorous rubbings of three grades of micromesh.

After inspecting the briar for any missed flaws I could fix and finding none, I gave the bowl and shank a final purified water bath, which proved to be necessary from all of the black powder that had transferred from my formerly dirty fingers.

Ready for the final countdown, I opened a brand-new bottle of burgundy-colored Lincoln boot stain and coated the entire outer area of wood using the small, damp applicator. As fast as I could manage, I flamed it all over with my Bic, reveling in the great poofs of blue flame that rose and dissipated as the alcohol in the stain burned off.

I rubbed off the char with a piece of 2400 micromesh until I could see the good grain through the fresh, dark red stain and then put on my magnifier glasses to do the finish work with 3600. It looked good to me, so I put it aside with the stem on a thick cotton cloth for about a half-hour.

That was all I could stand before taking the pieces to my bedroom/office/shop and focusing on the two buffing wheels I use to bring out the ever-anticipated shine. Taking a deep breath to steady myself for the always risky business of touching anything fragile to the high speed wheels, I turned them both on.

Starting with the stem, I turned it with all due respect and care first on the red Tripoli wheel and looked it over as I rubbed it with the cotton cloth, then the white Tripoli wheel on the other machine, and back to the first for the final coat of White Diamond. Much better, I thought and set it aside. To the wood I applied quick, thorough coats of white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba.I looked it over, noticed a spot that was duller than the rest and repeated the process there.

CONCLUSION
Fixing this pipe took me the greater part of a week, by far the longest I have spent on a project since my first real restoration two years ago. That is the reason why the concept of being finished with the Ben Wade Tall Poker is still taking time to sink in. After all the time I have spent with the BW – before the project began to make a plan of action I ended up throwing out the window, during the circuitous restoration itself and now afterward, writing about the experience – I have grown attached to the curious example of pipe craft. I would like to keep it to myself, to add it to my growing collection of Ben Wades. I have no doubt it will smoke at least as well as the others.

But I have decided to let someone else discover the accuracy of that prediction.

Converting an Old Briar Bowl to fit a Kirsten

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Blog by Steve Laug

After I finished fitting the old Maplewood bowl for my son-in-law’s Kirsten I took another bowl from my pipe parts box. This was another old bowl with the airway drilled on the bottom of the bowl and having a nipple fitting. This bowl came from part of an old hookah type set up. I had picked it up in the same bag of parts as the maple bowl. It had a rubber fitting that the bowl sat in and a glass pipette that extended from the bottom of the fitting. I removed the bowl from the rubber and then stripped it with acetone on a cotton pad and wiped it down until the finish was gone. I sanded the surface of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remnants of the finish. There were also fills in the bowl on two sides. Some of them had shrunken and needed to be refilled. I sanded the surface to clean up around the fills. I filled them with super glue and briar dust and sanded them flush against the surface of the bowl.

The underside of the bowl also had several fills. The nipple actually was not part of the briar bowl but was made out of maple. It was inserted in the bottom of the bowl. I wiped it clean to show the connections. I also topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface.

I used a hacksaw to cut the nipple off the bottom of the bowl. Once I had the wood portion of the nipple cut all the way through it came off the bowl. In the middle was a brass tube that ran the length of the nipple and went into the bottom of the bowl where it was flared against the inside bottom. I used a small hammer to drive the tube into the bowl.

When I had removed the tube I sanded the bottom of the bowl to smooth out the surface. Once it was clean I could see that the maple was inset into the bottom of the bowl. It is distinguishable in that it is white in the photos below. On one side of the white maple insert were two flaws in the briar that had originally been filled. One of the fills fell out of the bowl bottom when I drove out the metal tube. I drilled the airway in the bottom of the bowl larger with a drill bit the same size as the metal bottom cap that is part of the Kirsten bowl system. The cap would sit in the hole and a drilled screw would be inserted into the cap from inside the bowl. When I drilled out the hole the maple insert came out of the bottom. It left an inset area on the bottom that would be removed when I sanded the bottom of the bowl for the cap to sit flush against the bottom. I used super glue and briar dust to repair the two flaws in the bottom of the bowl. I dripped the glue into the holes and then pushed super glue into the flaws with a dental pick. I sanded the bottom of the bowl with a Dremel and sanding drum to shape the bottom edges of the bowl to fit on the Kirsten shank. I sanded the bottom edges of the bowl at a sharper angle to give it a more defined shape.

I used the Dremel and sanding drum to deepen the bottom of the bowl and give the internal screw a flat surface to seat against. I also used a PipNet reamer with the largest cutting head to flatten out the bottom of the bowl and smooth out the surface. Once it was smooth I inserted the screw into the bowl bottom and threaded it onto the bottom cap. Once I had the cap inserted and tightened with a Philips screwdriver I screwed it onto the Kirsten shank. The next four photos show the newly shaped cauldron bowl on the Kirsten.

I took the cap and screw off the bowl and wiped it down a final time before staining it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and then flamed it to set it in the briar. I restained and reflamed it until the coverage was even.

I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and White Diamond to polish the stain and give it a shine. In doing so the fills were highlighted. I used a permanent marker to cover the fills and then gave the bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. I put the cap and screw in place and tightened it down. The photos below show the finished bowl.

I buffed the bowl with several new coats of carnauba wax and polished it to a shine with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished cauldron bowl is shown in place on the pipe below. It looks really good on the Kirsten stem. It provides a second bowl for one of my other Kirsten pipes. I like the overall look of the piece and it is great to have a repurposed bowl to use. I look forward to loading it up and giving it an inaugural smoke.

Fitting a Maplewood Bowl to fit a Kirsten Pipe Shank

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Blog by Steve Laug

My son-in-law brought his Kirsten with him on the pipe hunt we went on recently and mentioned that the bowl was too small to his liking. We were talking about hunting for a bowl that had a airway drilled in the bottom of the bowl that could be modified to accept the fitting – screw and cap – on a Kirsten bowl. These fittings hold the bowl on the shank. I remembered that I had a Maplewood bowl in my box of pipe parts that could work really well. It had a nipple on the bottom of the bowl. The nipple ended at a rounded cap and then steps up to the bowl. The original bowl can be seen in the photo below. The bowl was clean and unsmoked. There was a varnish finish on the bowl and the wood was quite rough. Around the hip at the base of the bowl there was a rough band around one side of the bowl. The bowl had some really interesting grain on it. Around the top third of the bowl the grain went around the bowl horizontally. Below that there was some vertical grain. The combination was attractive. This bowl would work well once I modified it to fit the pipe. I sawed the nipple off the bottom of the bowl with a hacksaw. I sawed it flat against the bottom of the bowl to make that surface flush. With the nipple removed it was clear that the airway was slightly off centre and would need to be adjusted once I drilled it to open it up to hold the bottom cap from the Kirsten. I measure the diameter and the length of the insert to figure out how much of the bottom of the bowl I would need to remove. I drilled it out with a drill bit the same size as the insert on the Kirsten cap. I used a knife to open the air hole and move it more toward the centre of the bottom of the bowl. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to shape the bottom of the bowl. I had to remove about ¼ of an inch or more from the bottom of the bowl. I sanded it bring it down and begin to round the edges. The next three photos show the progress of shaping the bowl bottom. The third photo shows the bowl after I also sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper.

I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches. I fitted the bottom cap to the bowl to see what more I would need to remove for a proper fit between the bowl and the shank. I fit the screw into the bottom cap and used a Philips screwdriver to tighten it in place.

I sanded the bowl more to remove the finish and fine tune the shaping the bottom of the bowl. I wanted the finished bowl to look like a brandy glass shape.

When I had fine tuned the bowl shape and the bottom of the bowl I fit it on a Kirsten shank from one of my pipes. The fit was pretty accurate and the look of the shape worked well with the pipe. I would need to sand the bowl some more, remove the remaining varnish and then stain the bowl once finished. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the rim. Though the pipe was unsmoked the rim was roughly finished.

I took the bowl apart and prepared it for staining. I wiped it down with acetone to remove the remaining varnish and dust from the bowl. I used a dark brown aniline stain to colour the bowl. I stained it and flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied and reflamed the bowl several more times until the coverage was even.

I wanted the finish to be light brown in colour with dark grain patterns on the bowl. I wiped it down with alcohol on cotton pads to thin down the finish. I continued to wipe it until the underlying maple showed through and the grain patterns were darkened. I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and also White Diamond. Once it was finished I sanded it with 1500-3200 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out. I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil and rubbed it into the finish. The bowl was complete at this point – I fit it back on the shank and took the next set of photos to show the look I was aiming for.

I took the bowl off the shank and buffed it with White Diamond once more. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The dark brown aniline stain had brought out the grain and contrasted nicely with the rest of the bowl. The horizontal and vertical graining makes this a nice looking pipe bowl.

I put the bowl back on the Kirsten shank and took the next set of photos to show the finished bowl and shank. It certainly fit the shank well and the larger bowl should meet my son-in-laws request for a longer smoking bowl for his Kirsten. He is away with my daughter for the weekend but when he returns home I look forward to seeing what he thinks of his new bowl.

Addendum: I was working my way through Ebay UK when I found a pipe that had the same bowl as the one used in this article. It is a tourist pipe from the Smokey Mountains National Park. It looks to be the same pipe bowl and looks identical to the one I used.

Giving New Life to a Briar Squire Bent Pot – Andrew Selking

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Blog by Andrew Selking

This is the second article by Andrew that I have the pleasure of posting on the blog. It is about a well restored Briar Squire bent Pot. Andrew does some beautiful work and it is a pleasure to read and see the results of his work. Thanks Andrew.

I did not get as many pipes completed as I planned this past weekend, my honey-do list was longer than anticipated. However, I could not resist finding the time to fix up a Briar Squire bent pot with a diamond shank. According to Pipephil.eu, the Briar Squire was a brick and mortar tobacco and pipe shop located in Crystal Lake, IL from 1977 to 1983. I assume they had their pipes made by an outside pipe maker. Whoever made this pipe did a nice job. There were no fills in it and judging by all the angles on the stem that was hand cut as well.

The previous owner kept the bowl very clean, but the stem had some tooth marks and calcification on the end. I dropped the bowl into the alcohol bath and went to work on the stem with the 400 grit wet/dry with water. As you can see in this picture, there is still some faint oxidation left. I readdressed the oxidation with the 400 grit until it was gone. I find that it helps to dry the stem when you think you’ve reached the point where the oxidation is removed. I then proceeded to use the micro mesh, 1500-2400 grit, with water. Next I turned my attention to the bowl. The rim had some tar build up, which I tried to remove with distilled water. The water helped, but there was an area of stubborn tar that just wouldn’t come off. Since I didn’t want to remove all of the finish, I used 1500 grit micro mesh to top the bowl. I used 1500-2400 grit micro mesh without water on the bowl, then 3200-12000 grit micro mesh on the bowl and the stem. The last few levels really do a nice job of polishing both wood and vulcanite.

Next it was time to apply the wax/stain. For red/brown colored pipes I use Kiwi Brown. As I mentioned in my previous post, it is very easy to work with and gives a good base shine before the final polish on the buffing wheel.

After applying the shoe polish, I used the heat gun to melt the wax and buffed it out with a brush. As you can see. Finally it was off to the buffing wheel. Here are the results. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Diamond Shank Bent – Andrew Selking

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Blog by Andrew Selking

I have been following Andrew’s refurbishing work on Pipe Smoker Unlimited Forum for quite some time now and decided it was time to ask him if he would be willing to write some of his work up with photos for the blog. I sent him a message and he responded that he was glad to do so. I am happy to be able to present him to the readers here. He has been doing some great work in restoring pipes and has some great adaptations and innovations in terms of tools and equipment used to restore pipes. Besides he also takes amazing photos compared to me! Thanks Andrew for being willing to write for us here. So without further words from me I turn it over to Andrew.

It was a great honor when Steve asked me to write up a restoration for his blog. This pipe came in a lot of three. It’s a very chunky, diamond shank pipe marked Made in London England. It has a couple large fills near the end of the shank, one on the bottom of the bowl, and one on the rim. It also has an amazing feel in your hand and some very pretty cross grain. I decided to do this one for myself.

The first thing I do with all of my pipes is soak the bowl in isopropyl alcohol, usually for at least 24 hours. This serves multiple purpose; loosens the gunk inside the pipe (especially in the shank), makes the cake easier to remove, and usually takes of the exterior finish and softens any fills. Here is the bowl taking a bath.While the bowl marinated, I soaked the stem in a solution of hot water and Oxyclean. After sitting for several hours, I rinsed the stem under running water, this removes some of the oxidation. Next I took a pipe cleaner and used the Oxyclean solution to remove the built up tar and tobacco from inside the stem. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. In the case of this pipe, the alcohol was not enough to remove all of the finish. When this happens, I use 0000 steel wool soaked in acetone. The steel wool is fine enough that it doesn’t damage the stampings on the shank, but aggressive enough to make short work of any remaining finish.Next I turned my attention to the bowl. I use a Castleford reamer (available on eBay for around $20.00) to remove the cake.I usually go down to the wood. I’ve found it’s better to use a reamer that is slightly smaller than the inside of the bowl to prevent damage to the wood.

Next I worked on the shank. I have some small brushes that I bought in the baby section at Walmart (normal people use them to clean baby bottles, but I find they work great for the shank of a pipe). Although the brush gets most of the gunk out, I use a retort to really clean the inside of the shank and the stem. I started using this method when I couldn’t fit the end of the rubber tube over the wide button on a pipe. The tenon was a perfect fit and the tube also fits perfectly into the shank. This saves a lot of time and pipe cleaners. After doing the retort, I run one pipe cleaner through the stem and a pipe cleaner and q-tip through the shank and it’s done. Now that the inside of the pipe is clean, it’s time to start working on the outside. For the stem, I used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water. This gets the majority of the oxidation out, the wet sand paper also makes it easier to get the underside of the button. Next I used micro-mesh pads (1500-2400 grit) with water. I wiped the stem dry and turned my attention to the bowl. I used a progression of micromesh pads, 1500-12000 grit. I also used the same progression on the stem. Now the pipe was ready for stain. This next part might be kind of controversial (I have never seen this method anywhere else). I use shoe polish for stain. Now before you dismiss this as crazy talk, consider this. It is very simple. I apply the polish, heat it with a heat gun, and buff it out with a shoe brush. I also protect the finish with carnauba wax and have never had any issues with the polish melting or coming off in my hand. Polish applied. After melting with the heat gun and buffing with a shoe brush. It is also very simple to even out the stain.Next up the heart breaker (also known as the buffing wheel). This little gem makes the difference between a really nice application of carnauba wax and an average looking pipe. It will also grab what you’re working on and fling it to the four winds and shatter the pipe you’ve just spent the last few hours working on. Hold what you’re working on with both hands, place as much padding as you can under and behind the buffer, and work on the stem and bowl separately. Sorry about the quality of the picture. I didn’t lose the pipe to the buffer and here’s the results. I anticipate that this pipe will pass on to my kids, or be part of the estate sale. I can’t wait to smoke it.