Tag Archives: finishing

This little Dr. Plumb Bulldog is a beauty

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Blog by Steve Laug

This little pipe came to me via a friend in Germany. I finished cleaning up what has turned out to be a very nice squat straight bulldog that is stamped Dr. Plumb Extra on one side and 13 D.R.G.M. on the other. I have been familiar with Dr. Plumb pipes for quite a while and love the fact that they were a GBD seconds line. In fact they often share the same numbering system for shapes. This little guy had some serious issues when I took it under my wing. It needed a bit of work. The bowl was scorched along the front outer edge of the rim as it looked to have been lit with a torch lighter. The finish was shot and not only faded and washed out but also pitted and darkened along the bowl sides. The stem was oxidized and a bit chewed on the end. The stinger apparatus was dark and filled with tars and hardened tobacco oils.

My friend had started removing the burn mark and the bowl angles were slightly out or line. I finished removing the scorched briar and reworked the angles on all the outer edges of the bowl to keep the perspective and rim correct. I gave a ream and clean to remove any of the remaining cake and the sanding dust that had become embedded in the cracks in the cake. I put the bowl in the alcohol bath and then worked on the stem.

The pipe had the strangest stinger contraption I have ever seen that extends into the bottom of the bowl. It almost looks like a motorcycle exhaust pipe. I have inserted a few pictures of the stinger and fit in the bowl. I removed the stinger and placed in a small bowl of alcohol to soak. The stem was badly oxidized – not the brown oxidation that sat on the surface but a deep oxidation that left the stem a deep brown under the surface. I had been soaking the stem in Oxyclean while I worked on the burn on the rim of the bowl so that when I removed it from the water the oxidation had been brought to the surface. I used my buffer to remove the surface oxidation that had softened. I use Tripoli at this stage and work the stem carefully on the buffer to avoid rounding the shoulders on the stem. Then I sanded it with 240 grit sandpaper until it was matte black and clean. I then sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and water to remove the scratches. I finished the stem by sanding with the micromesh pads 1500-6000 grit until the stem had a sheen to it. ImageImage

I then took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and dried it off. I sanded it with the 1800-2400 grit micromesh pads until the surface was free of scratches and grooves and was smooth. Then I refinished it with an oxblood aniline stain to bring out the red highlights in the briar. I put the stem back on the pipe and took it to the buffer to buff with White Diamond. Once finished I gave the whole pipe several coats of carnauba wax. ImageImageImage

Edwards Contour or Criterion Restoration

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I found this old Edwards pipe while I was visiting a small community in Washington in the US. My wife and I were away for our 36th wedding anniversary and always love visiting second hand shops and antique malls. We must have visited a dozen or more shops on that trip. This older Edwards pipe was in the last shop we visited. It was an interesting shape and intrigued my eye. I made an offer for it and it soon became mine.

Once I got home I decided to refurbish it as one of the first I dealt with. I am not sure of the name of the particular Edwards line this one came from but on one of the online forums someone thought that it belonged to either the Contour or Criterion line. He had pointed out that the lines were carved in France but the only sign of that was that the word France was usually stamped on the underside of the stem. However, on this one there was no stamping on the stem – no France or other name, just smooth brown oxidation. The stem also had tooth marks on the top near the button and a very prominent dent on the underside of the stem near the button. The finish on the pipe was dirty but in great shape. There were no dents or scratches and the pipe seemed to have been well cared for. Edwards did not stain their pipes as is evidenced by the natural finish on this one. The rim was probably the most potentially problematic area on the pipe. It was tarred, caked and possibly charred on the bevel inward.

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I reamed the bowl and cleaned the inside of the bowl and the shank. I wiped down the entire pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil soap on a cotton pad and removed the grime and old waxes. I scrubbed the bevelled rim with the oil soap as well to remove the tars and the surface carbons. I used some 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh to remove the rest of the tars and bring it back to a smooth surface. I was pleased to see that there was not any charring or burn to the surface of the rim and once cleaned it looked pristine. The pipe has not been stained but had a natural finish so I buffed and polished the rim and the rest of the surface of the pipe to get the shine back. While I was at the buffer I also buffed the stem with Tripoli to break up the oxidation and then took it back to my work table. At the table I used nail polishing sticks (these are fingernail polishing stick and come with micromesh sandpaper on a foam stick) to sand out the bite marks on the top and underside of the stem. I worked with the 1500-6000 grit micromesh pads to polish the stem and remove the remaining oxidation. A folded pad worked well to sand in the grooves of the stem to give even that area a clean glow. I coated it with Obsidian Oil and once it was dry I buffed the entirety with several coats of carnauba wax.

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Keyser Hygienic Patent Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

Over the past year I have been picking up these Keyser Hygienic pipes on EBay. This one makes the third one I have picked up at a reasonable price. They are made in England and sold exclusively in South Africa. The word is that they were designed to be virtually indestructible for farmer pipe smokers in SA. All versions of the pipe have the same stem – one size fits all. They seem to be made of nylon and rubber or some combination. They are tough and take tooth wear very well. Two of the three I picked up are older and both had the original stems on them. They had tooth chatter and minor dents. Steaming would not raise the dents at all. I had to deal with them with sandpaper and micromesh sanding pads.

The photo below came from the web and pictures a cutaway picture of the pipe and the unique condensing chamber that makes up the patented portion of the pipe. The shank has an aluminum condensing chamber with a tube in the centre that lines up with the tube inside the stem. It is pointing downward so air swirls around in the chamber formed by the military bit stem and the shank. Moisture is trapped and the smoke is cool and dry without loss of flavour.

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The pipe I am working on this time is a pot shaped sand blasted pipe. The aluminum was oxidized and dull the blast was dirty and the crevices filled with dirt and grime. The stem was in pretty clean shape other than the tooth chatter near the button. The rim of the bowl was tarred and caked. The cake was uneven and tapering in the bowl – almost as if the bowl was only half filled and smoked that way the majority of the time. The upper portion of the bowl had a very thin layer of cake and the lower portion a thick uneven cake. The condenser in both the stem and the shank were filled with a dark brown tar and the airway was constricted in the shank and clogged in the stem. The photo below shows the condition of the bowl and the stem and highlight where the work would be needed to clean up the exterior of this pipe.

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I reamed the bowl back to bare briar and scrubbed the blast surface with a brass tire brush to clean out the crevices. I also used a soft bristle tooth brush to finish cleaning the surface off. Once that was done I put the bowl in the alcohol bath to soak while I worked on the stem. The next two photos below show the stem after I used 240 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and slight dents. I then used micromesh pads from 1500-6000 grit to polish the stem and work out the scratches. I have learned the hard way that you cannot buff these stems on the buffer as a little bit of surface heat from the buffing pads melts and distorts the surface. So these stems are totally buffed and polished by hand.

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The next two photos show the stem after it has been sanded up to the 3200 grit micromesh pad. The stem is beginning to get a shine and the scratches are disappearing with the sanding. From this point I went on the sand the stem through the remaining micromesh grits and when finished I gave it a coating of Obsidian Oil to penetrate the surface and give it a deep polish. Once that dried I buffed it by hand with some carnauba wax in paste form that I purchased from Walker Briar Works.ImageImage

From the next series of photos you can see that I interrupted my work on the stem to remove the bowl from the alcohol bath. I did that because I was curious to see how it was cleaning up. You will notice in these photos the brownish grey sludge in the grooves of the blast. I used the tooth brush once again to scrub the surface with Isopropyl from the alcohol bath. Once the grime was removed I washed the bowl down with clean Isopropyl and dried it off.

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The next series of photos show the dried bowl. The grime is gone and the finish is now down to the stain. Even some of the top coat of stain has been removed and you can see the briar. I laid the bowl aside and finished up the stem as I described it above.

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The aluminum condensing chamber on the shank and the chamber in the stem needed much work. I used cotton swabs that I flattened to clean the area inside the shank around the airway extension and the same in the stem. Once that was clean I polished the oxidized aluminum with the micromesh pads to burnish the aluminum and get the shine back.

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I then restained the bowl with a dark brown stain, knowing that when I buffed it the reddish brown undercoat would shine through on the high spots and the dark would fill the crevices and give the pipe a contrast stain. The next series of three photos show the staining and the way the various grains took the stain. The right side of the bowl has a great ring blast that is fairly deep and craggy. The left side is more of a blast on birdseye. It is an interesting looking blast. The bowl rim came out clean as well and shows an interesting contrast in the light of the flash.

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The final series of four photos show the finished pipe. The entirety has been given a coat of wax. I used Halcyon II on the blast to polish it without leaving the white residue in the grain of the blast when it dried. I buffed it by hand. The stem received another hand applied coat of carnauba wax and a buff by hand. The pipe pictured is clean and ready to smoke.

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I have included pictures below of the other two Keyser pipes that I picked up and refurbished. The top one is an apple with really nice grain. I have been smoking this one and enjoying the dry and cool smoke that it gives. The second is a smaller prince shape that is no longer available. It had some burns on the rim that are still visible but it too smokes very well. One day will rework the rim a bit and minimize the burn marks. Till then I will smoke these Keyser’s and keep an eye for more of them.

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Refurb on a Dr. Plumb Tween Size Prince

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Blog by Steve Laug

Off the workbench today is a nice little Dr. Plumb Tween Size Prince (that is what the stamping on this one says). It was pretty rough looking as can be seen from the before shots. I had reamed it before I remembered to take the photos, so the bowl is very clean in the photo below.

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The bowl, in fact, was very dirty with tars and crumbling cake as well as a thick white “gunk”, for lack of a better word, in the bowl and all the way through the shank. I have no idea what it was other than the fact that it had a plastic feel to it. It was stringy and literally all over the inside of the bowl and shank. I had never seen anything like this in the years I have been refurbishing pipes. It came out with the reaming of the bowl and out of the shank with alcohol soaked pipe cleaners and a shank brush. It took some time to clear it out. Many pipe cleaners later it was clean. The state of the bowl when I got it told me that obviously this little guy (5 inches long, group one sized bowl) was a great smoker.

I stuffed the bowl with cotton bolls and filled it with alcohol using an ear syringe.

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I removed the stem and put a cork in the shank so that the alcohol would go all the way into the shank. I wanted to make sure that all of the remnants of white stuff and tars were removed from the bowl before I went further in cleaning it. I left it overnight and the next morning removed the cotton bolls and plug and cleaned out the bowl and stem with pipe cleaners. The bowl smelled fresh and almost new once that final cleaning was done and the alcohol evaporated. The bowl was then dropped in an alcohol bath for a soak. While it was soaking I went to work on the stem.

The stem took quite a bit of work to restore as it was badly oxidized. I had soaked it in Oxyclean while I worked on the bowl so now when I took it out the oxidation had softened. I buffed it with Tripoli, sanded with 240 grit sandpaper, buffed again with Tripoli, sanded with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper until I was able to get the grit off and then polished with micromesh pads from1500-6000 grit. Each level of micromesh gives the stem a deeper polish and shine to the stem. In buffing a stem by itself, I always avoid the saddle area or the area next to where it joins the shank as it is very easy to over buff this area and make rounded shoulders on the stem and ruin the stem/shank junction. Once that was finished I laid it aside with a coat of Obsidian Oil and turned again to the bowl.

I removed the bowl from the alcohol bath and dried it off. The bath removed the remnant of finish and all of the oils and grime on the bowl. I used the 3200 and 4000 grit micromesh pads to sand down the bowl, being careful to not damage the stamping. Once it was smooth, I wiped it down with a soft cloth dampened with Isopropyl alcohol to remove the sanding dust and then stained the pipe with a light cherry coloured aniline stain. (I mixed the stain by adding Isopropyl to the oxblood stain until it was basically a light cherry coloured wash.) I flamed it and then put the stem on and buffed both the bowl and stem with White Diamond and finished it with several coats of carnauba wax. Here is the pipe ready to smoke!

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Renewed Brigham One Dot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This old Brigham One Dot was on the shelf at a Movie Studio Clearance Store – they sell old set items and materials from movies and television shows. Over the years I have found quite a few nice old pipes there for sale at a low price. I paid $12 for this one. From the photos below you can see its condition clearly. The stem was very oxidized and worse at the button end. I think that it probably had a rubber bit protector on it and it was cut off or fell of when they put it up for sale. The rustication was still crisp and sharp. The stain had faded from the top to about mid bowl and would need to be restained. The rim was tarred but not dented or damaged. The inside of the bowl was caked with an uneven cake that smelled of sweet aromatics.

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I reamed the bowl and cleaned the shank and inside of the stem with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and alcohol. I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl and rim with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and the tars on the rim. I have used oil soap for a long time now on the surface of pipes and found that it works best undiluted. I rub it on and rub it off. On the rim I use a soft bristle tooth brush to scrub the tars off. On this pipe since I was restaining it anyway I did not care about losing a bit of the stain or finish in the process. I finished cleaning the rim with an 1800 grit micromesh pad. I then restained it to match the colour of the smooth patch on the underside. I gave it a quick light buff with White Diamond to polish the stain.

I had put the stem in a bath of Oxyclean and hot water and let it soak while I was working on the bowl. I removed it and wiped it down and resoaked it. After the second soak I sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then 1500-6000 grit micromesh pads to polish it. The Brighams have an aluminum shank that holds the hard rock maple filter tube. The filter tube was shot so I used a new one. The aluminum was tarry so it needed cleaning and a polish with 0000 steel wool. (The Brigham system is pictured in the graphic below.)

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When the aluminum was clean and polished I put the pipe back together took it to the buffer and gave the stem a buff with Tripoli to take off the remnant of oxidization. Then I used some White Diamond on it to give it a clean polish. I finished buffing the whole pipe lightly with carnauba wax. The finished pipe is pictured below.

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Black Super Glue Repair to a Damaged Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

Using the stem on the little Barling I repaired earlier as an example I thought I would post the process of repairing bite marks with Black Super Glue. The glue is available online at a variety of sources, though I purchased mine from http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Glues,_adhesives.html a company that is a supplier for stringed instrument repairmen. They offer super glue in several colours and viscosities. I order the black super glue from them that comes with whip tip nozzles as I find that it is easy to control the size of the drops used. I also have used the clear super glue and it works very well in several other applications including repairing and replacing fills on older pipes. They also carry a wide variety of micromesh sanding pads and papers. It is a great resource for hard to find items (at least in Canada) that I use regularly in my repairs.

I always seek to repair a stem in the least intrusive manner possible. In the case of the stem below I heated the tooth dents to try and lift them as much as possible before any other method was used. This can be done carefully with a heat gun – I stand the gun on its stand, turn it on its lowest setting and move the damaged part of the stem in the heat about 4-6 inches above the tip of the gun. If it gets too close the vulcanite is damaged through burning. The other method that I have used avoids this problem – it involves putting a cup of water in a microwave and boiling it. Once it is hot place the stem button end down in the boiling water and leave it. Repeat as often as necessary or until there is no more lift on the dents of marks in the stem. Note if the dents have sharp edges, or are cuts, the heat will not lift the dents at all. It also will not work on holes or bite throughs on the stem.

In Photos 1 and 2 the stem is pictured as I received it on the pipe. The first photo shows the top of the stem and shows the damage to the button and the surface – mostly dents. The second photo shows the underside of the stem. It was significantly worse that the top. The dents were very deep and the button was virtually destroyed. At this point it is probably pertinent to ask whether the stem should have been replaced or not. Several things went against doing that in my opinion. The first was that this is an original Transition Era Barling stem. It is hard to find replacements that have the slab look and slight taper on the saddle that are hallmarks of the Barling stem. The second was that the tenon on this one is very tiny. I did not have a tool that allowed me to turn that small of a tenon. Thus I decided to give it a repair. Then of course, if you have followed this blog for long you will understand, there was the challenge. Could I possible restore the stem to at least a semblance of its original “glory” and functionality?  

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So with the decision made I turned to work on this stem. I used my heat gun to lift the marks as much as I could on the top and the bottom of the stem. The two pictures below show the effect of the heat on the stems. The first photo shows the top of the stem – the heat actually lifted those bit marks quite a bit. It took out the rounded edges of the dents. What is left was actually sharp edges or cuts from the teeth on the button and on the surface. You will also notice that some of the oxidation burned off in the process. I also sanded the surface with 240 grit sand paper to better see what I was dealing with on this stem. The second photo shows the underside of the stem – the heat lifted the dents significantly but not totally. The sharp edges on the dents still remain, as does the destroyed button and the hole is very visible. I repeated the heating process several times (to be honest I lost count) until there was no more visible improvement in the dents. It was time to prepare for the patching process.

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Before I use super glue to patch a hole or fill dents in the stem I prepare the surface to be clean and debris free in order to get a good bond on the glue. I sand the surface with 240 grit to remove the oxidation as much as possible. I want the area under the patch to be black so that the glue matches. Oxidation on the edges of the patch makes that match impossible. Once I have the surface sanded I buff it with Tripoli to take a bit of the roughness out. I don’t want a glossy finish as a little roughness gives surface for the glue to bite into. But I do want it clean. I wash the stem with isopropyl alcohol to remove any debris that still remains, including any of the Tripoli. I use a dental pick to make sure that the edges of the hole are not cracked or broken. Doing this often opens the hole a bit larger but it also removes chips or cracking that will not provide a good base for the patch. I finish the cleanup with yet another wash with alcohol and a cotton swab. The surface should have solid edges to bind to and no extraneous sanding dust or debris that will be in the way of the patch.

On this stem the easiest part to patch was the top of the stem so I started with that part. I used the whip nozzle on the super glue and dripped it on the stem. I smoothed the drop out with the end of the whip. I want the dent and cut to be totally filled so I moved the glue back and forth until it was all covered and then set it aside to dry with the end of the stem propped up to keep the patch level. The first picture below shows the patch after the glue had dried. It formed a solid patch on the stem. I always layer the patch doing multiple layers until I have built up the hole and dent. In this case I also used the glue to build up the button. While the picture does not show it clearly, the glue is actually level with the top of the button and small spots of glue are moved into the dent marks in the button surface itself. In the second photo the stem shows the patch after sanding with 240 grit sandpaper. The object was to get a smooth surface on the stem. The dent marks in front of the button are gone. The brown spot on the stem is some oxidation that has not been sanded out yet. The button is also repaired and you can see a bit of the bulk that is now there. The button will need to be shaped and recut with needle files once the underside of the stem is also patched.

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Once I had the top surface of the stem to the point it is pictured above I turned the stem over to work on the underside. This part of the stem was really the challenge on this one. It had deep tooth cuts and a bite through that needed to be repaired. The first step for me was to repair the bite through. I fold a pipe cleaned to fit the flared slot on the button. I greased it with olive oil and inserted it in the slot. I wanted it to be smooth and not pucker through the bite hole, so I tucked it down with my dental pick. Once it was set I put in the first drops of black super glue. Remember at this point I am not work on the surface detail of the holes only the bite through. Once it was patched I went on to fill the other deep dents and marks on the surface and build up the button. I set aside the stem on a level surface and raise the tenon end to keep the bubble of glue level so it would dry.

Once the glue dried I removed the pipe cleaner from the slot. This is always the moment of truth for me – did I grease it well enough that the pipe cleaner did not permanently bond to the slot. In this case it worked perfectly and it came out easily! Whew! Once it was removed I filled the rest of the dent marks with the super glue and also built up the non-existent button. I forgot to take pictures of that step. So the verbal description and the picture of the topside fill will have to suffice. I set the stem aside again and leveled the glue so that it would dry and not run up the stem. Super glue dries very hard and is a lot of work to sand off the surface. Once it was dry I sanded the surface with 240 grit sandpaper once again to level out the surface. The picture below shows the stem at that stage in the process. The fills appear to be white but that is the sanding dust on the surface. You can clearly see the three large patches on the underside of the stem in this picture as well as the rebuilt portion of the button. Again I over filled the patch to the level of the top of the button to provide a solid new surface for me to work with when I recut the button with the needle files.

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The next two photos show the result of the sanding process with the 240 grit sandpaper on the top and the bottom of the stem. I wanted to make sure that the patches blended into the surface of the stem. You will note that in the first photo of the top of the stem, that the patch is virtually invisible. Though it is not very clear, I had also recut the button with the needle files to give it a good sharp edge against the surface of the stem. I use wedge shaped file and a rectangular file to cut that edge cleanly and the result is a button that looks original. In the second photo you can clearly see that the patches are fairly well hidden. The one against the button and the large one at the top of the photo were the deepest ones. After this sanding and recleaning the surface I refilled those two spots, let them dry and sanded them again. Once that was completed the underside of the stem looked exactly like the topside of the stem at this point.

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I failed to take pictures of recutting the button on the underside of the stem but you can see the new button in the pictures below. I cut and shaped it with the same needle files that I used on the top of the stem. I like the clean angles of a new button so I was aiming for that with just a little wear or rounding to match the age of the pipe. I finished the sanding and polishing of the stem using 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then used the normal list of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-6000 grit. I keep a bowl of water close by to dip both the paper and the pads in as I sand as I find it more effective in removing the scratches and remaining oxidation. Once the stem was finished I put it on the pipe bowl and gave it a buff with Tripoli and White Diamond to get a good sheen to the surface. I never buff a stem apart from a pipe as I do not want to damage the stem shank junction by rounding the clean edge of the stem. The top two photos below show the top and bottom of the stem respectively. You can see the repair is complete and the button is very clean and present. The second two photos below show the stem from the right and left profile so you can see the flow of the stem surface – uninterrupted from either side with the tooth dents as before and also the profile of the button. It is distinctive and present. The stem was finished with several coats of Obsidian Oil and then carnauba wax to protect the surface.

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Rebirth of a WDC Milano Dublin

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This old WDC Milano was a challenge that I wanted to take on and see how it would turn out. In the pictures below you can see the state of the pipe when I received it. The stem was deeply darkened in the button area as well as scratched and marked with tooth chatter on the first inch of the stem. The bowl was badly caked – much of the cake had broken away in chunks and what remained was soft and crumbling. It also appeared to have been reamed with a pocket knife and had nicks and cuts around the inner edge of the rim and the resulting effect left the bowl way out of round. The finish was damaged and parts of the stain had rubbed away and what was left was underneath layers of black grime. The sides of the bowl and the bottom side of the shank both showed signs of having been laid in an ashtray and burned with a cigarette. The burn on the bowl side was not deep and would be easily addressed but the one on the shank was pretty deep. I would have to take out as much as possible without changing the integrity of the shape. That gives you a pretty clear assessment of the damages facing me as I decided to work on this old pipe.

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I reamed and cleaned the bowl back to the bare wood in order to remove the crumbling and cracked soft cake in the bowl. My thinking was that a good clean surface would encourage the build-up of a proper cake. With a sharp knife I worked on the inner rim. I worked to get it evened out with the knife and then turned to a folded 1 inch piece of 240 grit sandpaper to smooth out the roughness of the inner rim and to bring it back as close as possible to being round. The roughness of the rim required topping to even it out as well. I used my normal procedure of sandpaper anchored on a solid flat hard surface and turning the bowl clockwise or counter clockwise into the sandpaper – exercising caution to keep the bowl flat on the surface and vertical in order to keep the rim flat and not slanted. To remove the burn mark on the bowl and on the shank took a little time. On the bowl side it was not deep so it only needed to be sanded to remove the damage. But on the shank I scraped until I got to hard wood and then sanded. Once I had solid briar under the burn I put the bowl in an alcohol bath to remove the grime and the remaining finish. I left it overnight to soak and turned my attention to the stem.

The stem has a steel tenon and insert that is the system in these old Milano pipes. It seems to be some sort of condensing chamber to collect the moisture generated in a smoke. In any case this one was filled with tars inside and coated with them on the outside. I cleaned it out with a shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and then fluffy ones until they came out clean. The outside of the condenser I scrubbed with 0000 steel wool to polish and remove the grime and tars. The aluminum polished up nicely and the tenon looks like new. The Bakelite stem took a bit more work and creativity. I cleaned the inside of the stem scrubbing it with soft scrub and bristle cleaners. I was able to remove much of the interior stains. I sanded the exterior of the stem to remove the tooth chatter and external discolouration. I sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then the usual course of micromesh pads from 1500-6000 grit. I finished by buffing the stem with Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba wax.

I put the stem aside and removed the bowl from the alcohol bath and dried it off. I sanded the bowl with 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh to remove any remaining finish. I also sanded it with 3200 and 4000 grit micromesh to polish the bowl. I restained it with an oxblood stain. I flamed the stain and then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and carnauba wax. Below are the pictures of the finished pipe.

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Giving New Life to a Barling’s 2729 Fancy Bent Dublin from 1962

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I picked up this old Barling’s shape 2729 in a lot I bought on EBay. From what I could find out about it on the internet it came out in 1962. You can see from the pictures the state it was in when it arrived. It was the kind of challenge I like to work on in these old estate pipes. There is a deep satisfaction in bringing them back to life and restoring them to a spot on the pipe rack and the weekly rotation. The finish was gone, though in the grooves of the blast there was some darker brown/red stain. The blast was obscured on the sides and rim by the grime that filled the valleys in it. The rim was intact and not beat up at all – just incredible dirty. The bowl had been lightly reamed and was still round!! The stem was well chewed with deep dents on the edges of the stem and deep dents in the top and bottom. There were also holes chewed through the stem on both the top and bottom as well. The oxidation was very heavy and deep. The Barling’s Cross was all but gone on the stem but under a bright light it was faintly visible so the stem was clearly the original.

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I took the stem off the pipe to work on and placed the bowl in my alcohol bath for overnight. Before submerging it in the bath I wet it with alcohol and scrubbed it with a small brass tire brush that is readily available at most Wal-Mart stores or online through Amazon. I find that the soft brass does not damage the ridges and valleys on the blast finish but really loosens the grime when used with Isopropyl alcohol. I generally dip the bowl and then scrub it before leaving it to soak. When I remove it from the bath I scrub it once again and wash off the bowl with some fresh alcohol to remove any residual grime. Once the bowl was dry it was utterly lacking any finish. It was ready to restain. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem.

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The stem was a mess on this pipe as I mentioned above. Below are four pictures of it after I soaked it in Oxyclean to soften the oxidation on the surface. The pictures show how reddish brown that oxidation was when I started. I sanded the surface to highlight the bite marks and holes in the stem. The stem was badly chewed and could have been a candidate for replacement but it was an original Barling’s stem so I wanted to see if I could save it and reuse it. I cleaned the surface and picked the grit and grime out of the holes with a dental pick. I washed the surface down with Isopropyl to give a good clean surface. The button was virtually chewed away and there was a fair sized hole on the underside of the stem. The tooth marks were very deep and there was not much to work with in lifting them with heat. This made them a candidate for a patch with black super glue.

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The picture below shows the top of the stem with the black super glue fill in the bite marks and holes. The idea is to slowly fill them and build up the surface of the stem. I also continued to fill them until there was a good slope from the stem surface to the top of the button. Once it was dry my plan was to use needle files to recut the button.

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The next picture shows the glue after it has dried and I have done the initial sanding to smooth out the surface of the stem. I still have not recut the button at this point.

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The picture below shows the underside of the stem after the glue has dried and I have done the initial sanding on the stem. It is still pretty rough but the holes are filled and the button is built up. Note in this picture the very visible copper tenon on the stem. The previous owner must have broken the tenon and had it replace with this thin copper tubing. The tenon is very delicate on this stem so the copper is actually an interesting fix in terms of durability. I have never seen a repair like that. The tubing was scored and inserted into the stem and held with an epoxy. After the soak in Oxyclean it was loose so I removed it, cleaned it and since it was a good tight fitting tenon/mortise union so I decided to reuse it. It is a wonder that he did not put a copper band around the button end of the stem as well to repair the bite through and tooth marks.

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The next two pictures show the stem after sanding the stem surface smooth with 240 grit sandpaper. My purpose in using that grit is to get a clean surface to work with as I move to rework the button on the top and bottom of the stem. I had yet to work on the saddle of the stem in these pictures. I will often save that until the rest is finished.ImageImage

I failed to take pictures of recutting the button on the stem but you can see the new button in the finished pictures below. I cut and shaped it with a flat needle file and a wedge needle file. I like the clean angles of a new button so I was aiming for that with just a little wear to match the age of the pipe. I finished the sanding and polishing of the stem using 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then used the normal list of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-6000 grit. I keep a bowl of water close by to dip both the paper and the pads in as I sand as I find it more effective in removing the scratches and remaining oxidation. Once the stem was finished I put it on the pipe bowl and gave it a buff with Tripoli and White Diamond to get a good sheen to the surface. I never buff a stem apart from a pipe as I do not want to damage the stem shank junction by rounding the clean edge of the stem. Once I finished I set it aside and went back to restain the bowl.

I did a bit of research (that is a part of the process I really like) to find out about the original finish and colour of stain used on this particular pipe. I learned that it was more of a reddish tone and really wanted to get close to that reddish brown colour on the finished pipe. I used some oxblood stain and a bit of medium brown stain (both aniline stains) and gave the bowl a coat of the brown first and then flamed it and buffed it. After that I gave it a coat of the oxblood stain and flamed it. I reinserted the stem and took it to the buffer and with a light touch buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond. I did not want to soften the ridges of the blast but wanted to buff it enough to get a contrast in the stain.

I used some Obsidian Oil on the stem and then Halcyon II wax on the bowl. Once they dried I hand buffed the stem and the bowl with a soft cotton cloth. I added a coat of wax to the stem when it was finished as well. In the pictures below you can have a look at the finished pipe. I took pictures with a .10 cent piece/dime below the pipe to give an idea of the size. It is a dainty little pipe with a pencil shank. I hope to smoke it this week end and enjoy a nice bowl of aged 5100 in it.

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A New Polishing Tool (at least to me)

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I received an email advertisement from Stewart-Macdonald the same company that sells black super glue. In it they were talking about a new product that is used in the guitar making industry. I have found that several of the tools and sanding blocks etc. work very well in refurbishing pipes. These particular tools are called Fret Erasers. They are flexible self-padded rubber blocks embedded with abrasive grits. They were being billed as “incredibly handy, to erase fine file marks and scratches”. The grits are color-coded for convenience. The ad went on to say that they polish the frets to a high gloss shine.

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They come in coarse, medium, medium fine, fine and extra fine. I ordered a pair of the two finest grits to try out in my work on stems. My expectations were that they would exceptionally well up against the angles of the button at the end of the pipe stem and also very well around inset logos and medallions. The edges are square and the block fits well in the hand and can be held against the angle of the button easily. I have sanding wedges and small sanding blocks that I used to work with around the button and always fought them a bit to keep the sand paper from slipping or getting worn thin at the crease. This product does not have that problem and they leave behind no sandy grit or particles of steel wool (as the advert promised).

I put them through their paces on the last batch of stems that I cleaned up and they worked nicely and left a smooth shiny surface. In my experimenting with them I used them between the wet dry sandpaper and the micromesh pads. I left the final polishing to the higher grits of micromesh pads. I also used them around the BBB Diamond and the GBD rondelles and they were easily maneuvered around those without compromising the relief of the stamping. I also want to try them around stamped logos and see how well they work. In the future I plan on using these two blocks in place of the 4000 and 6000 grit micromesh pads for the final polishing before I buff them on the wheel.

Here is the link to the Stewart-Macdonald website and the Fret erasers.
http://www.stewmac.com/npa/0472?utm_…_0472_20120423

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Anybody else ever used these?