Tag Archives: fitting a stem

Restemming a Comoy’s Sandblast Goldenbark 6 Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

This sandblast bowl came to me in a lot of pipes from eBay. When I saw it I was pretty excited about refurbishing it. It had a great blast and really appeared to be a decent looking pipe. With a little bit of elbow grease it would be a beauty. It is stamped on the on the underside of the shank in a smooth flat base. It reads COMOY’S over SANDBLAST on the bottom of the bowl. Next to that is stamped GOLDENBARK followed by the Com Stamp – a circle composed of MADE ENGLAND with IN stamped in the middle of the circle. Following that it is stamped with the number 6. The finish was dirty but underneath there was some great grain showing through the blast. Someone had reamed the bowl before I got it so it was really quite clean. Once the grime was cleaned out of the swirls and ridges in the blast it would look really sharp. I would need to fit a stem to the shank to complete this pipe but it had a lot of promise. I went through my can of stems and found this one. It took very little sanding on the tenon to get a snug fit in the shank. I scrubbed the top of the rim with a brass bristle brush to remove the tars and grit in the sandblast in that area. The blast looked really good under the grit. So far so good!I scrubbed the finish with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and the grit. With the grime cleaned off the rim I found three disturbing looking cracks on the rim. One of them was small and was on the top with minimal cracking down the side of the bowl. One of them was cracked down the inside of the bowl about ½ of an inch and the third was cracked down the outside of the bowl almost an inch. This was a huge disappointment. I figured I had a nice example of a Comoy’s Sandblast and while it was the cracks gave me serious pause. This one would clean up and be good basket pipe but never one that is stellar. It would probably last longer than me but I was choked.

I almost stopped working on it at this point and pitched it back in the refurb box but I decided since I was so close to finishing it I would complete the task. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and dried it off. I buffed the bowl with a shoe brush. The photo below of the top of the rim shows the crack toward the back of the bowl that ran down the back side for almost an inch. I would need to drill the end of the crack and repair it. The other cracks are not as visible but they are at about 10 and 4 if the front of the bowl is 12. I used a micro drill bit on the Dremel to drill a small hole at the bottom end of the largest crack. The crack on the inside of the bowl was irreparable at this point and I drilled a small hole at the end of the small crack as well. I used a tooth pick to push super glue into the holes and then pushed super glue into the cracks on the bowl sides. At the top of the rim I also used the tooth pick and pressed the glue down into the cracks. Once the glue had dried I used a sanding stick to gently sand the glue that was on the surface of the rim and in the cracks on the bowl sides to remove the excess. The repairs to the cracks were as complete as I could make them so I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I have to tell you the pleasure of fitting this stem and making it shine had pretty much dissipated. This is one of the frustrating things about pipe restoration. You find what appears to be a great pipe only to run into unforeseen issues in the restoration. For me this one had move from a pleasure to a “get it done” pipe! I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 and gave it another coat of oil. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel – careful to have a light touch on the bowl. I then gave the pipe several light coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I then buffed it by hand with a microfibre cloth. The look of the blast is quite beautiful it is only a shame that the bowl had the cracks in it. The repairs are quite invisible but I know that they are there and to me it diminishes the beauty of the pipe. It will likely smoke well and last longer than me. One day I will likely gift it to a friend. Until then it will reside in my collection. The photos below show the finished pipe. Thanks for looking.

Restemming a GBD International London Made – 508 Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Quite a while ago now my brother Jeff picked up a handful of pipes from an antique shop in Montana. There were quite a few GBD pipes in the lot. One of them was this GBD International bent billiard. It came with a gnawed off stem that was irreparable. The bowl was caked and dirty and the rusticated/plateau top was filled with grime to the point that it was almost smooth. The bowl looked good under the grime and the finish looked salvageable. The pipe was stamped GBD in an oval over International over London Made on the left side of the shank. On the right side it was stamped with London England over the shape number 508. I failed to take photos of the bowl before I cleaned it up as I was on a roll with about four bowls going at the same time. Here is what it looked like after I had wiped it down with alcohol. I scrubbed the plateau top with a brass bristle brush and some Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it down with cool water and dried it off. It is in very good shape. I had reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cleaned out the shank and the bowl. I went through my stem can and had several potential stems there. I chose one that was slightly larger in diameter than the shank. I had to shorten the tenon as it was too long to sit correctly in the shank. With the tenon shortened the stem fit nicely in the mortise. The diameter was close and I would adjust it to fit.The stem was a used one that I recycled and it had one deep bit mark on the top side near the button. I sanded it smooth and cleaned it before I filled it in with black super glue. Once the glue cured I sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper until the transition was smooth. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to clean off the remaining grime before restaining the rim with a Black Sharpie. I heated the stem over a heat gun until it was pliable and bent it to the proper angle. I set the bend with cold water. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches left behind by the Dremel and smooth out the flow of the stem. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The grain on this pipe is spectacular – great birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front, back and bottom. The plateau or rustication on the rim that I stained black gives it a unique look. I think it is a beauty! Thanks for looking.

A Ruined Stanwell Handmade 80R Bent Billiard – another ugly duckling

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Blog by Steve Laug

Out of the three pipes from the “hackster” – the cut off Rhodesian, the coffee grounds Dublin and this Stanwell 80R Bent Billiard I have to say that the work he did on this one was by far the worst abomination. This pipe is stamped Stanwell Hand Made 80R Made in Denmark on the underside of the shank. It was a sandblast brown contrast bent billiard that would have been beautiful when it was made. The “hackster” decided to improve upon the finish and believe it or not he desecrated the pipe. He used a Dremel or sander to remove the majority of the sandblast finish leaving a dab of it on the back of the bowl at the joint of the shank and the bowl and a dab on the front side about 1 inch long from the rim. In removing the blast he completely ruined the shank leaving a thick band near the stem and the two thick sandblasted dabs. He sanded off the blast on the shank leaving it looking anemic and awful. He ruined the shape of the bowl and left it totally out of round on the outside. He also over reamed the bowl with what looked like a Dremel and sanding drum and took the bottom of the bowl almost ¼ inch below the entrance of the airway.

He did not leave the stem safe either he reshaped the button by removing the majority of the sharp edge. Then to add insult to injury he left the stamping intact on the bottom of the shank giving credit to Stanwell for the ruination of this fine briar pipe. It went from handmade to hand ruined. Over the entire bowl and slopping onto the stem was a thick coat of shellac. Runs and drips had hardened. The file and Dremel marks were held in perpetuity under a thick coat of shellac. That is where I started with this abomination. The question was could I do anything to redeem this mess. I took some photos of the stem and the left over sandblast sections. There is also a photo of the rim shows the out of round condition of the outer edge of the rim. I sanded off the remaining sandblast sections on the bowl and shank and rounded the bowl with a Dremel and sanding drum. I used the Dremel to reshape the shank and the bowl and shank. The damage done to the shank made it necessary to shape the stem into an oval instead of a round. With the rough shaping work done there was a lot of fine tuning to be done to the shape of the bowl. I topped the bowl with a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the deep saw and file marks and to flatten the surface. I sanded the areas on the bowl where I left the shellac and existing finish until they were smooth as well. I left the band on the bottom of the shank where the faint stampings that the “hackster” had left behind remained. I had still not decided whether to remove them as the pipe was certainly not a Stanwell any longer and when I was finished reclaiming it the pipe would be two times removed from the pipe that came out of the Stanwell factory. I hand sanded the bowl and shank with 220 grit sandpaper to further shape it. I sanded the stem as well to remove the damage that had been done to it and also to reshape it to the oval shank. I worked on the outer edge of the rim and shaped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper. Fortunately, the inner beveled rim was undamaged. The bottom of the bowl was a mess that I would need to fill with pipe mud to restore the depth of the bowl to the bottom of entry of the airway into the bowl.I sanded the bowl and shank with a coarse grit sanding block to smooth out more of the curves. The larger surface of the block ensures and evenness to the contours of the bowl and shank. I used the heat gun to bend the end of the stem to the angle that would have originally been present when the pipe left Denmark. I sanded the stem and bowl further with sandpaper and gradually the pipe was taking shape. The swan was beginning to appear. During the sanding process I found that there were several flaws in the briar and at least one fill. During the course of the sanding these may well disappear. Overall this is a nice piece of briar with enough meat on it that I can still end up with a nice pipe.I cleaned out the shank and the airway to the bowl and in the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It was amazingly dirty for a pipe that had been “refurbished”. The “hackster” had left the inside absolutely filthy while destroying the outside of the bowl and stem. I continued to sand the bowl and stem with a coarse grit sanding block to remove the remaining scratches left behind by the Dremel and sanding drum. Gradually the swan was beginning to emerge. I was getting excited about what this one was going to look like when it was finished. There was some nice grain emerging as I sanded. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads to further remove the scratches. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit pads and sanded until the grain began to shine. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads and then rubbed on a coat of Danish Oil Cherry stain. I gave the bowl several coats of the finish and then set it on a cork stand to dry over night. I cleaned up the sharp edge of the button with needle files to redefine it as the shape was blurred into the body of the stem. I shaped the button with 220 grit sandpaper at the same time to give it definition. I sanded the file marks out with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the edge of the cut into the surface of the stem. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished by sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and giving it a final coat of oil. I set the stem and pipe aside for the night. In the morning I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel to bring out the shine and then gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. To me it looks far better than the mess I started with but what is your verdict? Did a swan emerge? The pipe certainly has some nice grain and the flaws are small in comparison to the overall look of the pipe. Thanks for looking.

Dressing up a no name Walnut Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff found this homemade no name Walnut Billiard on eBay and was drawn to it. He has sent me more panel pipes than I have ever bought myself… the funny thing is that I am starting to really like them. This one is quite unique and almost a folk-art piece. It is a panel but the carver did not worry about making things symmetrical. All of the sides are different sizes. The rustication is quite nice and I like it – almost like the surface of a golf ball. The rim is smooth and the bowl is almost round. The pipe had a little cake building but not enough to keep. The pipe was stained with a bland tan coloured stain but there appeared to be remnants of red stain in some places. The sanding on the smooth parts was a little rough and there were scratch marks left behind by a file or some carving knife. The stem was good quality vulcanite and there was some buildup around the button and some oxidation. The fit of the stem to the shank was not good as the end of the shank was cut at an angle. The stem was also too large for the shank and neither the shank nor the stem was round. The tenon was also not round – it looked as if it had been sanded and was a little conical. The concept for the pipe was good but the execution left a lot of unfinished angles and left a mediocre handmade pipe. I took a close up photo of the shank/stem union to show what I am talking about when I say that they do not match.I have also included a photo of the bowl to show the “almost round” bowl. It looked as if the carver had tried to bevel the inner edge of the rim.The stem was oxidized and had some spots and build up on the surface. At the stem/shank union it was rough and there were some deep scratches.To take care of the bad angle on the shank I used the topping board to face the end. It squared up pretty neatly. The out of round shank and stem required something a little different. I decided to use a nickel band to break up the shank and stem union and give me a round edge to bring the stem against. That way I could at least make the stem round and clean up the junction. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to round out the shank enough to take the band. I smoothed out the flow of the shank to the bowl and round the top of the shank. Once I had the area sanded for the band I pressed the band lightly onto the shank and then heated the band with a heat gun. Once it heated and expanded I pressed it into place on the shank. The band fit well with the shank and actually dressed up the pipe. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and prepare the bowl for a contrast stain. I used a black Sharpie pen to colour/stain the rustication on the whole pipe. I wanted that portion of the pipe to contrast with the smooth portions of the walnut. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on cotton pads to lighten the shiny black of the Sharpie and dull it slightly. I then stained and flamed the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 50/50 with alcohol to make it more of a wash. I stained the entire bowl including the black portion to make sure to get stain into all of the grooves. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the wheel paying particular attention to the smooth portions of the bowl. I wanted the contrast to be stark between the rusticated parts and the smooth parts. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I was surprised with how clean it was.The carver who had fit the stem to the pipe had not finished working on the slot. It looked like he had started by using a small cutting wheel to cut a line across the airway in the end of the stem. That was all that had been done to the slot at this point.I used needle files and sandpaper to open up the airway and shape the slot. I smoothed out the transition from the cut to airway and made the entire slot more oval. The general shape of the airway is a Y with it following the curve of the button and creating an open airway. A pipe cleaner slides easily into the airway with the new open end.To prepare the mortise to accept the curve of where the tenon met the stem, I beveled the inside edge of the mortise with a knife. I also beveled the end of the tenon into a funnel while I had the knife out. When I pushed the stem into the shank it fit snugly against the end of the tenon.I took out the stem and cleaned out the airway to the bowl and the mortise with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I scrubbed it until it was clean.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and also to remove some of the dings and marks on the stem surface. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry. I sanded the smooth portions of the bowl with micromesh sanding pads to lighten the stain there. I lightly buffed the bowl and buffed a bit harder on the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buff. I applied some Conservator’s Wax to the bowl and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It came out pretty well with the adjustments and tweaks that I added. The band sets off the bowl and stem. The contrast stain works with the walnut. The smooth and the rusticated finish go well with the stains I chose. It is now a better looking workable pipe. Thanks for looking.

A Facelift for Colored Billiard

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Blog by Aaron Henson

Last fall I went to a flea market at our fair grounds and found a pipe that I could not leave without. It is was a Yello-Bole, Chesterfield, bent billiard with P-lip stem and nickel-plated shank band. It had been well used but was in good shape. When I got into restoring it I found that it had two significant issues, one of which was a deep burn on the outside of the rim. After a consultation email with Steve, I decided to build up the outside of the bowl and then rusticate the bowl to hide the repair. Since I had not rusticated a bowl before I thought I should try my hand on another pipe first. This is the story of my first pipe rustication. I’ll do a write up on the Chesterfield when I get it done.Incidentally, I also picked up a white bent billiard at the same flea market. Truth be told (and revealing my inexperience), I thought I was buying a smooth meerschaum. It had a nice smooth bowl, with a gold shank band and a yellow acrylic stem. The stem attached to the bowl with a tenon that threaded into an insert in the shank. The rim was dark and heavy with tar. It wasn’t until I cleaned off the rim that I noticed the chipped paint and the wood underneath and realized my error. After deciding to rusticate the Chesterfield, I thought that this pipe would be a perfect candidate on which to practice. I began by reaming the bowl and cleaning the shank. The tar was very thick and hard even the stem was plugged about halfway. Once the internal of the stummel were cleaned I started removing the white paint. Not a necessary step but I wanted to see just what kind of wood lay underneath the white coat of paint. To my surprise it wasn’t briar at all. I’m still not certain what it is; very little grain, very light in color and quite soft compared to briar. My guess is pear wood but it could be any of a variety of alternate woods. I used 60-grit sand paper to remove the paint which left a rough surface. I didn’t bother to smooth in any further but rather applied a heavy coat of black aniline dye. The dye was sacrificial and would help me see the extent and depth of the rusticating.I made my rustication tool using ten 10d nails set with Gorilla Glue into the hollowed out end of a large dowel. Before gluing the nails, I cut off the heads and sharpened the points. Taping them all together so the points were even I set them in the dowel and waited for glue to set. The nails extended a little more than 2 inches from the dowel and I later found that this was too far. Using the push and twist method the nails would flex and separate while twisting the tool. Placing a hose clamp around the nails about half an inch from the end kept the nails together and the tool worked much better. At this point the bowl had a very sharp and coarse texture so I knocked it down with a wire brush and then switched to a light sanding with 60-grit sandpaper. With the texturing done, I applied another two coats of black Feibing’s dye and flamed them to set the color.I wanted to try a contrasting stain, so I took some 400 grit paper and worked the stain off high points. By the time I got done and wiped the stummel down with alcohol, I had a slightly rusticated pipe with white high points and blue (faded black) low points. I was not very happy with the results so I set it aside to dwell on it for a while.Reflecting on the pipe I realized that the wood was not very interesting and did not seem to absorb stain well; I can see why it was painted in the beginning. I also reminded myself not to get ‘attached’ to this pipe. It was for practice after all; experiment and learn.

The texture that I got with my rustication tool was not what I wanted for the Chesterfield. So I took the white and blue stummel back to the workbench again and this time used a small carving bit on my Dremel. I went over the low spots and making them more defined and just randomly played with the tool. In the end I had something I kind of liked, and more importantly, something that I felt I could use on the Chesterfield.

To finish the stummel I decided to go simple and leave it all black. I gave it two coats of black dye and set it aside to dry. Because the wood didn’t seem to hold the stain well I was concerned about buffing the finish. Instead I finished the stummel with two coats of clear shellac.

Then, I turned my attention to the stem. I had decided early on that the yellow acrylic stem would not work with the new look so I would need to fashion a new one. I liked the idea of an acrylic stem but after looking at stems online I could not find just what I wanted. So I ordered two different round tapered vulcanite stems from Vermont Freehand.Having only worked with vulcanite stems with integral tenons I was on the low end of the learning curve for this type of tenon. In the shank, there is a threaded (female) insert. The tenon itself (the other part) is double ended (male-male) – one threaded and other end smooth. The threaded end is simple enough to understand and the smooth part fit into the end of the stem.When I received the stems I selected the one I thought would look best and took it to the work bench. First I cut off the formed tenon, then using progressively larger drill bits, enlarged the air hole. I made the mortise for the smooth end of the plastic tenon. I have a detachable chuck for my hand drill and I used it to hold the bit while I turned the stem by hand. I then had to counter sink the mortise to seat the tenon ring. After the tenon was fit to the shank and the stem was rotated correctly, I marked the top of the stem and taped off the band to protect it. Using a flat micro file I shaved off stem material until it closely match the shank diameter. I finished the shaping with 240-grit wet/dry sand paper taking care not to round the shoulder of the stem.Once the stem was fully fitted and shaped to the stem I used a heat gun to soften the vulcanite and bend it to match the shape of the original stem. I set the shape by dipping the stem in cool water. This is where I ran into my next challenge. The heat from bending the stem also expanded the mortise and now the tenon was too loose. My solution was to coat the inside of the mortise with a thin layer of super glue. I am not sure how this will hold up long term but it works well for now.

Lastly I polished the stem with micro mesh pads (1500–12,000) using a little mineral oil between each set of three. I finished the stem with white diamond on the buffing wheel then three coats of carnauba wax. All things considered, I am happy with the results. I am under no illusions, this pipe is no master piece, but I did learn a few things and that was what I was after. Hopefully this will help someone else too. Your feedback is very welcomed. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Replacing a Threaded Mortise/Tenon system with a Push Mortise/Tenon System in a Meerschaum Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I received this meerschaum pipe the sender said that it needed to have the tenon replaced. It looked like it would be a simple repair so I left it until last. I restemmed the other little meerschaum that I posted earlier and put a new tenon on an Italian pipe for him and figured that this would be an easy fix. I unscrewed the stem from the broken tenon – it was split and half of it was missing. The stem came off with no problem. I had a perfect replacement tenon available to me so I screwed it into the stem and then looked at the broken tenon in the shank. Still the problem seemed quite simple. I used my wood screw and threaded it into the airway and tried to pull the tenon – either unscrewing it or at least wiggling it free. It did not move at all. I looked at it with a lens and saw that there were remnants of epoxy around the portion of the tenon that showed. Now I was in trouble. What had originally been an easy fix now was complicated. Before I drilled out the tenon I took a few photos of the bowl to show the condition of the meer. It was worn and scratched but had some beauty that shown through the grime and the scratches. The rim was dirty and pitted but the edges were sharp. The bowl interior was lightly caked and the pipe smelled of strong aromatics. I drilled out the tenon in the shank of the pipe starting with a bit slightly larger than the airway. No problem with that first step. I increased the size of the bit and drilled it again. It was my hope to have the glued tenon break free with the drilling. I increased the size of the bit yet again, this time to almost the same size as the threaded tenon. No luck. The tenon was absolutely stuck to the insert in the shank. I increased the bit size once more and this time the tenon broke. I tried to pick out the remaining pieces but they were solidly glued in place. I looked at the insert with a lens and could see that the glue and tenon had damaged the internal threads on the insert. This was turning into a real pain. I would have to drill out the entire insert and replace it. Once I had the tenon free I figured this would be easy as well. Again I was wrong. The insert was also glued in place. I increased the size of the bit several times until I had removed the insert itself. This old pipe was turning into a head ache.

I finally was able to remove the insert. I examined the inside of the shank. The original drilling of this pipe was fascinating. It was obviously drilled in several stages stepping down the mortise to the airway. I wrote to the owner and asked if it would be okay to replace the threaded tenon and mortise set up with a push tenon. I figured why complicate things. He confirmed that he was okay with that replacement. I started work on the stem and shank for that set up. I drilled the airway on the stem slightly bigger to take the push tenon. I cleaned out the inside of the stem to remove the debris and the tars. I checked the fit of the tenon in the stem and it was a good fit. I would need to countersink the airway to accommodate the rim on the tenon. I cleaned out the shank and airway on the bowl as well. I fit the insert in the shank. The fit was good but I would also need to countersink it to make a flat surface for the stem to sit against.I used a slightly larger drill bit to create the countersink on the shank and pushed the insert in place. The fit was perfect. Due to the damage on the shank from all of the glue I would need to use glue to hold the insert in place but I wanted to clean up the fit before I set the glue in place. In the photo below the new system can be seen. The mortise insert is in place and the push tenon is on the stem.I cleaned out the shank one more time and then mixed a two part epoxy for the insert. I applied the mixture to the insert and pressed it into place. I aligned the airway and the stem so that things would be straight once it dried and set the bowl aside so the epoxy could cure.I used a drill bit to countersink the rim on the tenon into the stem. I threaded it in place to make sure the fit was correct.

I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the roughness and bring back some of the shine of polished meer. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and was able to bring back a lot of the life in the meerschaum. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads to polish it further. The photos below show the pipe after I had sanded it. When I am working on an older meerschaum I do not like to remove all of nicks and scratches as they add character to an old pipe. They are like battle scars and each of them has a story to tell. I clean up the surface damage and highlight the patina but leave the pipe clean but looking its age. I let the epoxy set over night and then this morning pushed the stem into the new mortise. The fit was a little tight and I could see some light between the stem and the shank end. I needed to finesse the fit of the stem and shank. I carefully sanded the end of the mortise with the Dremel to make sure the insert was flush against the meerschaum end of the shank. I also worked on the countersink of the tenon in the stem with a sharp knife to give it a wider and sharper bevel to accommodate the rim around the middle of the tenon. I polished the newly sanded and cut areas with micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the fresh work. I polished the stem and the bowl lightly with some soft white Beeswax and then buffed the pipe by hand with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Soon I will pack up the threesome of pipes and send them back to the pipe man who sent them to me. They are all functional now and to me actually look and work better than they did before. Thanks for looking.

Restemming an Old Diamond Shank Meerschaum Bent Billiard

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe sent to me for work was a nice older style diamond shank meerschaum. The bowl was clean with some grime on the outside and some lava on the rim top. The bowl was quite clean. The stem was Bakelite and was missing a lot of the parts to connect the two broken pieces. The tenon connecting the stem to the bowl was stuck in the shank but I was able to unscrew the broken stem from the tenon. The silver band was marked Sterling and was badly tarnished. I would clearly need to restem this pipe as the original stem was unusable. I went through my can of stems and found a likely candidate for the new stem. I did not have any Bakelite stems so I would have to use vulcanite and shape and drill it to fit. I had one stem that was slightly longer than the broken stem but the shape was right. The sides of the saddle were larger than the original as well so I would need to shape it to fit.I used the Dremel to remove the tenon from the new stem and flatten the end. I used the topping board to smooth out the end of the stem. Once I had it faced I used a drill bit to drill out the airway. I started with one slightly larger than the airway and hand turned the stem onto the bit. I changed the bit to one that was the same size as the tenon and repeated the process. I was able to twist the stem onto the tenon and it cut threads into the vulcanite. I thought I was set at this point as the stem fit pretty well. I would need to sand the sides and the points of the diamond to get a fit that matched the shank and band but it looked like it was going to work out well. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to remove the excess material on each side of the diamond, trying to get as close as possible without damaging the silver band. I would need to finish it by hand but I wanted to minimize the work that needed to be done by hand. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the marks left behind by the Dremel and to further reduce the sides of the diamond.I put a drop of super glue on the Bakelite stem to get an idea of the angle of the bend in the stem. I figured I would use it along with the case as a template for the new stem. While it dried I sanded the surface of the new stem with 220 grit sandpaper and used the topping board to reduce the length of the stem. You can see that the vulcanite is cleaning up very nicely and the scratches are gone. I used a ragged piece of sanding sponge to sand the lava on the top of the rim. I was able to remove all of it without harming the patina on the rim or bowl.I polished the silver band with a jeweler’s cloth to remove the tarnish. I was able to remove the bone tenon from the shank of the pipe and clean out the inside of the shank before putting in a replacement tenon that I got from Tim at JH Lowe. The fit was perfect in both the shank and the stem. The new tenon was not brittle like the old one so it would last and give better durability to the pipe.I set up my heat gun and heated the stem until it was pliable. Using the old broken stem as a template I bent the new stem to match. I sanded the stem with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove more of the scratching and then put it on the pipe to check the fit. I really like the look of the new stem. The black vulcanite goes well with the patina of the old meerschaum. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I am sure by now you know my drill by heart but just in case – I sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads, another coat of oil and final sand with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the stem with a clean buff and then put it back on the bowl. I finished buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I like the way the black shiny vulcanite stem sets off the colours of the bowl. I hope the pipeman who sent it to me for a new stem will be pleased with the result. Thanks for looking.

Replacing a Tenon and Doing a Restoration on a Sorrentino Manager 0704

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I received this one from a fellow who wanted the tenon replaced but being the way I am I could not just replace the tenon and leave the pipe looking tired and worn so I wrote and offered to clean it up for him. It took more work than I had originally thought it would but the added effort made for a beautiful looking pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank MANAGER over SORRENTINO. On the right side it says 0704 which is the shape number and Italy. The briar was really in need of some work. The left side was stained with a dark patch that ran from the top to the bottom of the bowl. The finish was also rough to the touch over that section. On the bottom, front and right side of the bowl there was a lot of dents and dings like the pipe had been dropped. The rim had a coat of lava and the bowl had a very uneven cake with more on the left side of the bowl than the right. The finish was basically shot. The stem came with lots of tooth chatter and a broken tenon. The tenon snapped right at the shank and was stuck in the shank. The brass band on the shank was loose. The pipe was tired and needed some TLC. Here is what it looked like when I started. In the photos above I had already turned the wood screw into the broken tenon. I use that to pull a broken tenon and it never disappoints in effectiveness. Note the state of the bowl in the photos.I used a Dremel and sanding drum to flatten out the remnant of the broken tenon on the stem. Once it was flat it was time to drill the stem to take the new tenon. I started with a bit slightly larger than the airway to center the drilling and turned the stem onto the bit by hand. I find that though it is harder to do it by hand, turning it by hand and not drilling it gives me more control of the stem. I worked my way up to a ¼ inch bit and then cleaned it out with a needle file. I had a Delrin tenon I purchased from Tim at JH Lowe and I roughed up the surface of the portion that would go into the stem and gave it a coat of two part slow drying epoxy to hold it in place. I lined up the stem in the shank and then set it aside to let the epoxy cure over night. While it dried I worked on the bowl. I stripped off the remaining finish with acetone and cotton pads. I sanded the dark stain mark on the left side of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damaged briar and smooth things out. I scrubbed that side with acetone to finish. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to even out the cake that had been there. I decided to strip it back to bare wood. I wanted to check out the inside of the bowl walls. The interior was sound and there was no damage on the bowl walls. I sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to clean up the scratches left behind on the briar by the sand paper and by the wear and tear of age. The stripped and sanded bowl was looking pretty good. I sanded the inner bevel of the rim to clean it up and prepare the bowl for staining. I wiped it down a final time with isopropyl alcohol. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain. I flamed it and restained it with a second coat of the stain. I flamed it again. Before setting the bowl aside to dry I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to smooth out the stain and lighten it slightly. I wanted the grain to show through.I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave it several coats of carnauba wax to seal and preserve the finish. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. (Forgive the poor focus on the first photo below. It is blurry but still gives you an idea of how the dark area had been reduced.) With the bowl finished I set it aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the tooth marks and chatter on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until they were smoothed out. I was able to easily remove most of the tooth damage to the stem. There was one small tooth dent on the top of the stem that I left as it is minimal and I did not want to thin the stem. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel. I put the pipe together and lightly buffed it with some more carnauba wax to finish it. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth for the final buffing. The photos below show the finished pipe. Hopefully when it is returned to the pipeman who owns it he will be pleased with the finished pipe. Thanks for looking.

More than met the eye: Would I be able to bring this Jobey Fawn Cauldron back to life?

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

My brother sent me the Ebay link to this Jobey Cauldron and I was hooked. It was in pretty worn shape in terms of the finish and the rim. There was a thick cake in the bowl and some serious lava had overflowed the rim. There were nicks around the outer edge of the rim and the bevel on the inner edge was pretty well covered with lava. There were scratches in the sides of the bowl and it was truly filthy. The stem was oxidized and spotty on the stop side and the saddle. Underneath it was missing a large triangular chunk from the button forward. It was a Jobey so it had the Jobey link tenon that screwed into the shank and the stem fit over the tenon. It was made for a quick and easy replacement. The photos below are from the Ebay seller and clearly show the state of the pipe he was selling. We bid on it and won. Little did I know that what I saw in terms of issues with this pipe were only part of the problems that I would need to deal with in restoring it. The seller included a few close up photos to show some of the damage to the pipe. The oxidized and spotty stem is shown in the first photo and the second shows the state of the rim and bowl. The next two photos show the stamping on the pipe. The top of the shank is stamped Jobey in script over FAWN. The underside is stamped E52 over EXTRA. The seller also included the following photos to give a clear picture of the profile of the pipe and the damage to the underside of the stem. He gets full props for full disclosure of the issues with this pipe (at least those that were visible through the grime and build up on the briar and stem). I went online and searched for a photo of what the pipe had originally looked like and found this one on Smokingpipes.com. Looking at it gave me hope for the repairs and restoration of the one we purchased.When the pipe arrived I put it in my box of pipes to be refurbed and it sat for several months. When I took it out and looked it over I found that the stem was not aligned. I tried to unscrew it from the shank and it would not turn. I tried to wiggle the stem free from the shank and in the process heard that awful cracking sound which refurbishers the world over have come to dread. The tenon snapped off. Great! Now I added one more issue to the refurbishing process on this old pipe. Fortunately, I was able to clear the broken end out of the stem with very little problem but the one in the shank took a bit more ingenuity. I finally was able to remove it by hand turning a drill bit into the broken end and then turning it free of the shank. I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol, and then put the parts aside. Since I had no Jobey Link tenons in my kit I would need to wait until I could get some. I called Tim West at JH Lowe and put in an order for tenons. Even that turned out to be far more of an issue than I expected – they came in five sizes and the one I had was so shattered that I was unable to get the measurements. I could estimate the measurements but not get an accurate diameter on either the threaded end or the insert. So I had to order one of each of the three sizes that Tim had in stock. I was hoping that when they arrived that one of them would fit the stem and the shank. Now I would have to wait for their arrival.

It did not take too long of the package to come from Tim. I took out the various Jobey Links that he included and breathed a sigh of relief when the middle sized link was a perfect fit in the shank. The end of the tenon is slotted so that it can be screwed into the shank and unscrewed with a slotted screw driver. In this case it turned into the shank with no issues. The stem did not fit over the end of the tenon but the measurements were correct so I cleaned out the end of the stem and was astonished at the amount of grit that came out of it. I used cotton swabs and alcohol to scrub it clean. Once it was clean the stem fit snuggly over the end of the tenon and all parts aligned perfectly. With the stem fit completed and the new tenon in place it was time to clean up the pipe and see what I was dealing with underneath the grime and dirt. I took some close up photos of the bowl and the stem issues and a complete set of photos of the pipe from multiple angles to show what it looked like when I started. The bowl on this pipe is quite large. I reamed it with the two largest cutting heads on the PipNet pipe reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the ridges and edges of the broken cake shown in the second photo below with a pen knife and the bowl inside was smooth and clean.I lightly sanded the rim with 220 grit sandpaper to cut through the thick lava on the rim and the inner edge of the bowl. I was able to remove most of it with the sandpaper and finished by scrubbing the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. The next photo shows the beauty of the rim that lay beneath the lava flow.Once I had removed the grime and the finish I examined the bowl to look for issues that I would need to deal with. Sadly I found that there was a hairline crack where the shank connected to the bowl. It was on the underside of that junction and went up the left side. It was about an inch long. This Jobey Cauldron was turning out to be far more work than I originally imagined when my brother and I had looked at the Ebay photos.This crack, though not deep and pretty cosmetic at this point, would need to be dealt with so that it would not become a bigger issue. I used a micro drill bit on the Dremel and drilled both ends of the crack. I examined it with a lens and saw that it went a little further than I had expected originally and redrilled the end of the crack on the side of the bowl.I decided to also drill some small holes along the crack to make sure that I could seal it further.I pressed some briar dust into the drill holes with a dental pick and then put drops of super glue into the filled holes. I pressed some more briar dust into the surface of the holes to deal with expected shrinkage as the patches dried. At this point the repair always looks ugly and over done but I have found if I skip the last step I have to repeat the process to ensure that the holes are filled.I sanded the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge.I stained the repair area and the top of the rim with a light brown stain pen to blend it into the colour of the bowl and shank. This would not be the final colour of the bowl but I wanted to minimize the difference between the sanded areas and the rest of the bowl and shank when I gave it a final stain coat.

I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond to even out the stain. While the repairs showed through the stain at this point I intended to darken the stain later and it would blend in the repairs a bit more. With the bowl basically finished at this point I worked on the stem. The missing chunk in the stem end was the expected major repair that needed to be addressed. I mixed up a batch of black super glue and activated charcoal powder to make a paste. I put a wedge of cardboard wrapped in packing tape in what remained of the slot in the stem and applied the paste to the hole in the stem with a dental spatula. At this point I was more interested in getting a good thick coat of the paste in place than in making it look pretty. Shaping and smoothing would be done once it cured. Once the patch had cured I used a file to define the edge of the button and to smooth out the surface of the stem. I used the topping board to smooth out the end of the stem.It took a lot of filing with needle files to clean up and define the button and then sanding with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the patch into the surface of the surround stem. I used a round, an oval and a flattened oval needle file to open up and shape the slot on the bottom side to match that of the top side.I continued to sand the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper to shape the blade and the button. The stem was beginning to take shape. The new button and the repair to the bottom of the stem were complete.I wanted to make sure to stain the bowl before I called it a night so I set the stem aside for a bit and stained the bowl. I gave it several coats of dark brown aniline stain and flamed it between to set the colour in the briar. The darker colour would bring the pipe to a similar colour to the one that I found on Smoking pipes.com (shown above).In the morning I worked some more on the stem. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. At this point in the process you can see the scratches on the underside of the stem. No matter how much I sanded them with the micromesh pads these still remained. I started over the process of sanding with the pads – beginning with 1500 grit I worked my way through them until I had finished with 12000 grit. Finally I was able to remove the scratches. I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave both the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then with a microfiber cloth before taking the photos below. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The repairs to the hairline crack and the stem repair though still visible under scrutiny blend in well with the rest of the bowl and stem. The darker stain covers the repairs on the bowl and look quite natural. The bowl has been brought back to life and I like the rich colour of the buffed and polished dark brown stain. Thanks for looking.

A Humpty Dumpty Cross Canada Project – Could this Poor Richards Select Square Shank Billiard 9489 ever be whole again?

12 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug and Charles Lemon

My brother sent me a box of pipes and bowls that he had picked up. In it was an old square shank billiard that had seen far better days. The bowl sported a thick cake and was cracked 2/3rds of the way down the bowl on the front and another crack on the back of the bowl that went across the bowl to the left side. The finish was rough but there was some nice grain. Its stem was chewed up and was broken and smelly. I threw the unredeemable stem away. The bowl went into the parts box to be cannibalized for repairs. It was interesting that the pipe was stamped Poor Richard’s over Select over Bozeman, Montana on the left side of the shank. I grew up in Idaho and spent a lot of time in my early years in Bozeman. My youngest brother went to school there and my second brother was married there. Lots of family ties. It was stamped London England over 9489 on the right side. The 9489 stamp told me that it was a GBD product. Something about it intrigued me. I wondered if it might not be a candidate for a second collaboration with Charles Lemon of Dadspipes. It would be another test to our theory that just about any pipe can be restored and reused. I wrote to him and sent him some photos to see if he was game for taking it on. This project would provide some unique challenges to us both or it may end up as kindling. I took a photo of the bowl from the top looking into it. The cake is unbelievable even to me with all the pipes I have worked on. This stuff was as hard as concrete and seemed impervious to the reamers in my kit. No wonder the bowl was cracked on the front and the back sides. I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath to soak and while it soaked I decided to see what I could find out about the connection of the pipe to Bozeman. I did a Google search for Poor Richard’s and found that the pipe shop is still open. It is located in downtown Bozeman. I read through their website and gleaned the following photo and history. http://poorrichardsbozeman.com/about-poor-richards/From its beginnings in 1962 as the Ellen News at 17 West Main Street, owners Dick Wike and Hal McDowell wanted to achieve a modern-looking newsstand in the building which had formerly been home to Cuttings Newsstand, Lawton’s News and the Stag Pipe Shop. After the partnership dissolved the following year, Wike went on to expand the line of pipes and tobaccos offered, as well as the variety of paperback books, magazines and newspapers offered. A theatre expansion project in 1968 necessitated a move a few doors down, and a name change in the process. On September 9, 1968, Poor Richard’s opened at its current location at 33 West Main Street. Successive owners Richard Fish, sisters Nicole and Glenn Close, Sarah and Dan Cole, and Kate Wiggins added their personal stamp to the offerings.

Today, Poor Richard’s offers its customers a wide variety of merchandise:
• Local Montana and regional books, including Falcon Guides
• Local, regional and national newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and the Sunday New York Times
• Over 500 magazines and periodicals
• A large selection of fine cigars, including Padron, Arturo Fuente, Partagas, Macanudo, Punch, Romeo y Julieta, Oliva, and more…
• Pipes, including Peterson, Savinelli, Federico Rovera and more…
• Fine tobaccos and accessories

Knowing the background to a pipe is always interesting to me and adds another dimension to the restoration. It was time to stop reading however, and address the issues of the cake and a new stem. I soaked the bowl in an alcohol bath for over three days hoping to soften it. It did not work. It was impervious to the cutting blades on the PipNet and the KleenReem reamers. They would not even dent the hard carbon. I chipped at it with a pen knife and was able to clean off the rim and scrape a bit of the cake around the bowl edge. I tried the reamer again with no success. Knowing that Charles would work on the bowl and that was the hardest part, I did not want to send him the bowl with the cake intact. I put the sanding drum on the Dremel and attacked the bowl. It was slow going but after working at it for over 30 minutes I was able to get about half way down the bowl. I used a sharp knife to open the bottom half of the bowl more and then the Dremel once more to take it to the bottom. I have never fought a cake this hard before. I wrapped the cutting head on the PipNet reamer with sandpaper and worked on the inside of the bowl. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the bowl. There is still a lot to be done but at least Charles has a bit of a “clean” slate to begin with. You can see the crack from the top of the bowl on both the front and the back. The one on the front goes down over half way on the front side. The one on the back descends half way down and turns toward the left for about a half an inch.With the bowl cleaned I want to rough fit the stem before I sent it to Charles. I turned the tenon and made a snug fit of the square shank replacement stem. Fitting a new stem to these old timers is always a pain because none of the angles are actually square and the sides are of different sizes. Thus the stem has to be custom fit. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to take down a lot of the excess vulcanite and then followed up with a flat file to make the transition from the shank to the stem smooth and even.Once the fit was close I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to bring the angles in line with the shank and to smooth out the file marks. It took a lot of sanding and it is still not finished at this point. I would finish sanding and fitting it after Charles had repaired the bowl. The bowl and shank had a white scum on the briar and in the stamping. It was hard to remove. I lightly sanded it and then scrubbed the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove it and the remaining finish on the bowl. The pipe has some nice grain and once it cleaned up and repaired it will be interesting to see. With the bowl cleaned up I was ready to send the reamed and cleaned stummel to Charles for the bowl repair work on the pipe this time. Once Charles had it in hand he would carry on with the repairs….

Time passed slowly for me as the pipe travelled from British Columbia to Ontario. Charles sent me a message on Skype saying that the pipe had arrived and he was ready to start the work on it. I turn over this part of the narrative to him.

(Charles picks up the narrative now.)

The cracked stummel arrived from Steve today. I was keen to get my first close-up look at it – Steve had sent me pictures of course, but nothing beats a hands-on examination. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of clean-up work Steve had already done. I knew he had reamed it (at great effort), but he’d also done a nice job removing the dirt and grime on the outside of the bowl. Apart from a small amount of rim tar, I could concentrate immediately on the major issue of the crack repairs. I shot these pics to show the state of the stummel when I received it. There were two major cracked areas at the front and back of the bowl. Both cut all the way through the chamber walls, all but slicing the bowl in half lengthwise. The front crack looked like a clean break running from the rim down the face of the bowl to the bottom of the tobacco chamber. The rear crack wasn’t as straightforward. Instead of a single linear crack, the damage at the rear started at the rim, dropped down to roughly the centre of the bowl, and took a sharp left as it sought out an old fill – a natural weak spot in the briar. From the fill the crack had “spidered”, with thinner cracks running up, down and across the bowl. Yikes! Its times like this that I marvel at the sheer power of neglected cake to inexorably break a pipe bowl into pieces. Pipers take heed – ream your bowls!

I’ve worked on cracked bowls before, but the majority that have come across my work table have been tight cracks that don’t penetrate the chamber walls. These cracks, by contrast, could be visibly moved by squeezing and releasing the bowl in my hand. Without some way to lock the briar in position, this bowl would have to be retired.

While I worked on a plan to knit Humpty Dumpty back together again, I took steps to ensure that the existing spider cracks did not run further into the briar. I fitted a micro drill bit to my electric hand drill and popped a tiny hole at the end of each fissure in the wood, careful not to drill through to the tobacco chamber. These “end cap” holes would stop the cracks in their tracks, though there were quite a few of them around the back of the bowl. Glue alone would not provide sufficient holding power to keep the cracks tight and immobile. I would need to add physical reinforcement of some kind to ensure that the bowl stayed in one piece after being placed back in service. I had never used the procedure before, but I decided that I’d have to try to pin the cracks. I dug about in my supplies and found a length of 1.2mm brass rod I thought would do the trick, and matched it up to a micro drill bit from my tool kit. I would have to drill pin shafts across the crack, through the curved walls of the bowl, without drilling into the chamber. I muttered a short prayer to the Pipe Gods, and then sank the first shaft just below the rim across the rear crack.

This close-up pic shows the flat angle at which I drilled, and the brass rod in position. I marked the rod length and then cut it a bit shorter so that when fully seated in the shaft, the outer end of the rod would be below the outer surface of the briar. I roughed up the brass pin with 220-grit sandpaper to give the glue more gripping surface, and then ran a drop of CA glue into the shaft before pushing the pin home.Sharp-eyed readers will also have noticed that the second shaft had been drilled when I took the pic above. Note the angle of this shaft relative to the first one – it’s not even close to parallel. This is deliberate. Each pin was drilled at an opposing angle to its neighbours. This way any movement of the briar as it heats and cools will be blocked by one or more pins. If the pins were parallel, pressure in the wrong direction could push the crack open again.

In all I installed ten brass pins – four in front and six in back – and sank seven end cap holes (all but one of these in the back). I had expected the pinning to be both nerve wracking and time consuming, but after the first couple of pins I caught my stride and set the stummel aside to let the glue cure a short 30 minutes later. The Pipe Gods must have approved of the work as I didn’t drill through the chamber wall once. Whew! I snapped these pictures of the bowl after the pinning. The red lines show the direction of the pin shafts. You can see how the pins work to stitch the crack shut. The front repair doesn’t look too bad, but the rear of the bowl looks like it was attacked by termites! The proof of any repair is in the pudding, so to speak. I won’t be on hand to witness the first firing of this pipe after the work is done, but I can happily report that I can no longer make the cracks move no matter how hard I squeeze the bowl. That’s a very good sign, as it shows that the bowl is acting as a single piece of briar instead of several bits of loosely connected wood.

With the bowl structurally sound again, it was time to sort out the damage inflicted on the stummel by some maniac with a drill. I patched over all 17 (!!) holes with CA and briar dust and let the CA cure before filing and sanding the fills flush with the surface of the briar. This is a process I’ve done many times on many different pipes, so I figured this would be the easy part of the repair. Ironically, the fills took up more of my time, energy and patience than the pinning as I had to revisit several of the fills more than once to ensure a smooth finish. I also realized that a few of the pins were left slightly too long – the brass kept shining through two of the fills – which necessitated extra work to get everything in order before staining. Eventually, though, perseverance paid off. I topped the bowl gently at this point to remove the excess CA glue and remove a few tiny dings. I then prepped the stummel for stain by sanding with 1500 – 2400 grit Micromesh sanding pads. With the crazy number of fills in the briar, I knew I’d have to go with a darker finish than I’d usually select. I started with a coat of Fiebing’s Black water-based leather dye to bring out the grain as much as I could. I let the colour dry and then wiped off the excess with 0000 steel wool and a bit of fresh water. This left the grain stained black while the rest of the wood remained lighter. I then made a wash of Fiebing’s Dark Brown dye diluted about 50%. I washed the colour over the briar repeatedly until I got close to the amount of coverage I was looking for. I let the dye dry so I could assess how well the fills were hidden. Still fairly prominent. A few scribbles with a medium stain marker helped push the fills to the background without obliterating the grain altogether.I left the stummel overnight at this point. I wasn’t sure that I was done with the stain, but I was getting tired and didn’t want to mess up the work with a bad decision or a shaky hand. The next morning, however, the stain seemed to have settled into its intended depth and coverage. The fills were reasonably subdued by the stain, so I took the stummel to the bench and gave it a light buffing with White Diamond compound followed by Carnauba wax. I’ve got to buy a lotto ticket this week – if the Lotto Gods smile on me even half as much as the Pipe Gods did here, I’ll be retiring early. The fills and cracks have disappeared almost completely, though the stain is translucent enough to allow the grain to shine through. Even the cracks across the rim are hard to find. What a relief after the hours of filling and sanding! The repairs are still visible under strong light, but the stummel certainly passes the casual inspection test. Before sending the stummel back to Steve, I filled and further stabilized the repair from the interior of the bowl by pressing JB Weld into the cracks. There was also a spot on the front chamber wall that looked suspiciously like the beginnings of a burnout that I filled in the same way. I let the JB cure and then sanded out the excess epoxy. This produced nice smooth chamber walls with JB Weld left only in the repaired areas. JB doesn’t “breathe” like wood as it heats and cools, so I wanted only the required amount of it left in the bowl. I finished off the repair with a bowl coating of activated charcoal powder and maple syrup. This coating is largely cosmetic in this case, used to hide the JB, but it will provide an extra layer of protection for the repairs as well as a consistent surface upon which to build a new (and hopefully well-trimmed) layer of cake. (Steve picks up the narrative again.)

Charles had sent the package Express Post and it did not take long to get it back. When I got home from a short business trip I went to the post office to pick it up. I carried the box home excited to see what Charles had done with the mess that I had sent him. It is one thing to see the photos and follow the process but truly a different story when you hold it in hand.

When I opened the box I was not prepared for the beautifully restored bowl that was carefully wrapped inside. Charles had done a masterful job on the bowl repair. The cracks were virtually invisible. The measles of the end caps were basically small specks and hardly visible at all. It was amazing! Charles had accomplished a bit of a miracle in my book. This one was a pipe I wondered if we would be burning rather than loading up. But the bowl was perfect.

Now it was back in my hands to finish the stem that I had previously roughly fit to the shank before sending the bowl off to him. I also needed to address the small dent that went all around the end of the shank. It looked like there had been a band of some sort on the shank for adornment as the shank was the one thing on the pipe that was not cracked. I would have to address that later in the process.

First I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to bring the surface of each side of the square stem to the same height as the shank. The fit was good and once the band was in place would look even. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I let the oil dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then inserted it in the shank. Things lined up nicely but there was an indentation around the top, bottom and sides of the shank where it appeared there had been a band of some sort. The photo below shows the worst of the indentations.I went through my box of bands which are almost all round. That is not a problem as it is easy to square up a round band. But as Charles said above, the Pipe Gods were smiling on me and I found that I had one square band and it was exactly the size and depth I needed to fit the shank, cover the indentations and cover the stamping on the sides. I pressed the band in place. The band is worn and battered but it adds a bit of flair to the pipe. To clean up the dents and wear on the band I used a tiny upholstery hammer to tap out many of the dents and wrinkles on it. I also used it to flatten the end of the shank and smooth it out. I heated the band with a lighter to warm the metal and then tapped it until it was as smooth as I could get it. The photos below show the pipe at this point in the process. The new stem fits well and the band sets of the pipe very nicely in my opinion. It smooths out the transition between the shank and the stem. However, I was not happy with the still battered appearance and some of the rounded edges on the corners of the band. I took the band off the shank and used a flat blade screw driver to square up the angles and to flatten the band from the inside. I was able to remove more of the dents and wrinkles. I put some all purpose glue on the shank and pressed the band back in place. I took the following photos. Thanks for looking. Charles, this was a fun project to work on together. I look forward to firing up this old timer. The proof is indeed in the pudding as you said above. That will be the real test of the new life of this pipe repair. I am also thinking of contacting the Poor Richard’s Pipe Shop in Bozeman, Montana with a bit of a story of the resurrection of this pipe and its cross Canada journey from Vancouver to Kitchener and back again. Let’s keep our eyes open for another joint project… there still may be another pipe out there that stymies us… until then keep up the good work my friend. IT is always a pleasure to work together. I think you said it best in one of our back and forth interchanges – if we lived closer together we would be in trouble. Take care.