Tag Archives: fitting a stem

Rescuing a Tinderbox Monza Horn – Restemming and Refinishing

Blog by Steve Laug

Another of the pipes that my brother Jeff sent me was a horn shaped pipe that was stamped Tinderbox Made in Italy in a circle with Monza in the centre of the circle. It is stamped on the underside of the shank. The shape is quite unique. The bowl had around 10-12 fills in it that went from tiny spots to huge plugs in the briar. The finish was a heavy urethane coat that made the pipe very shiny and really highlighted the fills around the bowl and the shank.

The shank had a split in the underside of the shank that went from under the band up the shank for one inch on the bottom side. It had just turned slightly upward and if left alone would have continued to the bowl. The rim was heavily damaged and there was a thick hard cake in the bowl that hurt my hand when I pushed the various reamers that I had trying to remove it. The bowl looked like it was conical in shape but was so thick that there was very little room in the bowl for tobacco. The stem was a replacement, like many of them in the pipes my brother sent me. It was a saddle stem and was missing a huge chunk on the left side of the button and up the stem about ½ inch. The person who had made the replacement had cut an angled end on the tenon which in my opinion was careless and not necessary. The airway into the bowl from the shank was plugged and when I blew into the end of the shank I could not get any air through it.

The next four photos show the pipe as it appeared when it arrived in the box from my brother.

I took a close up photo of the bowl and rim to show the damage and the cake in the bowl. The second photo below shows the broken stem. The stem was pretty much a throw away as it is very narrow after the broken button.

I started to ream the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I started with a small cutting head and soon gave up. I used the largest head that would fit the diameter of the bowl and still found the cake too hard to cut through with the reamer. I dropped it in an alcohol bath to soak to soften the cake and to soften the urethane coat on the bowl. After it had been soaking an hour I took it out of the bath.

In my can of stems I had one with the same diameter as the shank and a tenon that would work with some adjustments. The tenon was too long so I would need to trim it back and also adjust the diameter to get a snug fit in the shank. The alcohol bath did not even make a dent in the finish. As I expected the only way to remove a urethane finish is to sand it off. I did not mind as it was covering a lot of damage to the rounded rim and the sides of the bowl. I fit the new stem in the shank and took a few photos to get an idea of the look. The stem was a little too bent to my liking so that would need adjusting but the taper worked well with the horn shape. The last photo of the underside of the shank shows a dark area. That is where the stamping is present and also the crack in the shank.

I put the stem aside and used a pen knife, a KleenReam and a PipNet reamer to work on the hard cake. It was still rock hard but I was able to chip away at it until I had removed it from the bowl. I used the drill bit from the handle of the KleenReem to open up the airway into the bowl.

I sanded the bowl some more with some medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I wanted to clean up the cracked area on the shank bottom so that I could repair it. I took the photo below to show the crack in the shank. I used a micro drill bit on my Dremel to drill a small hole at the end of the crack to stop it from spreading further up the shank.

I packed some briar dust into the hole and then dripped super glue on top of that and then more briar dust and some more glue. I ran a dental pick along the crack to open it slightly and then put some glue along the crack to the band as to preserve that as well.

I sanded the repair to smooth it out and blend it into the shank and avoided the area inside the stamping. I heated the stem with a heat gun to take a bit of the bend out of it. Once it was pliable I bent it to match the flow of the curve of the horn. I wanted it to sit with the rim and the bend in the stem flat on the table when laid down. That angle would make it sit correctly in the mouth when it was smoked.

I worked on the curve of the rim and top with sandpaper and sanding sponges to get the flow of the rolled rim even all the way around the bowl. I worked on the inner edge of the rim as well to make it flow into the bowl rather than be an abrupt edge. I sanded the bowl with medium grit sanding sponges and fine grit sanding blocks to remove the scratches from the briar and to work on the oxidation on the stem. The grain was beginning to show through. I wiped it down with a tack cloth to remove the sanding dust in preparation for staining the bowl. The bowl had a lot of fills so I decided to try a contrast stain to both hide the fills and to bring out the grain. I started with a black aniline stain and finished with a brown. I stained the bowl with the black and flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I reapplied and reflamed it until the coverage was even. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol and cotton pads to remove the excess black and leave it only in the grain of the briar. I wanted it to show the grain and highlight the beauty. I also wanted to mask the fills to some degree.

I used a black Sharpie permanent marker to draw grain lines through the huge fills on the bowl to further blend them into the briar.

With that preparation done I gave it a top coat of dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated until I was happy with the coverage.

I hand buffed the bowl to check out the coverage of the brown and the contrast of the black and the black Sharpie marks. By and large I liked what I saw. There were some spots that needed some more work but it was looking good.

I worked the stem over with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then giving it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and then gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine and then with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It exceeds my expectations when I began the reclamation work on it. The fills on the sides, shank and back of the bowl have all but disappeared in the blend of stains and Sharpie pen. The large ones on the bowl front look better but are still somewhat visible. Overall I am happy with the results. Thanks for looking.

A Simple Mistake Forced a Restem on a Meerschaum Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I found these two no name meerschaum billiards on one of the web forums that I frequent. The seller gave me a decent price on the two. The top pipe was older than the bottom one and I chose to work on it first. The stem was Bakelite and had a metal tenon. It did not fit in the shank either in terms of the diameter of the tenon or the diameter of the stem. It fit very loosely and wobbled in the mortise. The stem itself was about 1/8 inch in some places and 1/16 inches in others smaller than the shank of the pipe. The pipe was dirty and in need of some effort to clean it up and restore it. The next three photos show the pipe from different vantage points.

Once the pipe arrived I was able to have a clear look at it. The rim on the bowl was tarred and the outer edge was chipped. The bowl surface itself was dirty and spotty looking. It had a light brown patina under the dirt. The tars on the rim ran down the outside of the bowl. The shank also was dirty on the outside. The inside of the bowl had been reamed and cleaned. There was some wax in the bottom of the bowl. The airway entering the bowl was damaged and had been worn upward about ½ an inch to form a trough along the back wall of the bowl. The inside of the shank was clean and still undarkened by smoke. There were no threads or marks on the inside of the shank so I was pretty sure that the original stem had been a push stem. It may even have been a Bakelite stem like the one that had been substituted on this pipe. But I was pretty certain that I was working with a replacement stem and poorly fitting one at that.

The close up photo of the rim shows the rim damage and the damaged airway in the bottom of the bowl. The next photo shows the oxidized aluminum tenon on the stem. I thought about adding a coating of superglue to the tenon to tighten the fit but that would not do anything for the diameter issue. I was pretty sure that I would have to restem this pipe to get a good fit on the stem and shank union. In the mean time I cleaned up the bowl. I should have paid attention to my initial thoughts here and just set the stem aside but I did not and would regret it soon enough. In the mean time I cleaned up the bowl. I used a medium grit and a fine grit sanding block to remove the tars and deposits on the rim. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime on the surface and leave as much of the patina intact as possible.

I decided to put a coat of superglue on the tenon and see if I could build it up for a snug fit. I should have left well enough alone. Needless to say my “quick fix” did not work. I got the fit correct or what I thought was correct and when I removed it from the shank I heard a popping sound and noticed that I a small chunk of meerschaum had cracked and come out of the shank. I was sick with having broken a chunk out of the shank because I had not gone with my first instinct of cutting a new stem. Now I had made work for myself. I glued the chunk back in place on the shank with some epoxy and then cleaned up the repair so I could band it. I had used some brass pressure fittings on some meerschaum pipes I had restemmed earlier and like the look of them so I found one that was the right diameter for this shank as well. I heated it with a heat gun and pressed it in place on the shank. I covered the majority of the repaired shank and protected it from breaking further.

I found a stem that was the right diameter for the shank of the pipe in my can of stems. I sanded the tenon to get a snug fit in the shank and put it in place. The photos below show the stem before I had put the finishing touches on it and cleaned it up. They do give a good idea of how the new stem will look with the band.

The stem style is wide at the button and more tapered than the one that had probably graced the pipe originally but I liked the new look of it. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and tooth marks at the button. I also sanded to remove the oxidation. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads- 1500-12000 grit and polished it by hand.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down after each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil and then kept sanding. When I finished with the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry.

When it was dry I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel until it shone. Then I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it by hand with a microfibre cloth. I gave the bowl several coats of white beeswax paste that I have here and then buffed it as well. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am actually happy how the finished pipe turned out. The issues that arose during the clean up worked out better than I had expected. For that I am thankful.

The meer polished up nicely and the spotty brown colouring was a nice contrast with the brass and the black vulcanite. I like the look of the band on the shank and only wish that I had not cracked the shank and made it necessary and not just cosmetic. Ah well it is nearly invisible and it will still give a good smoke. I need to figure out some way to repair the airway on the inside of the bowl. I am still puzzling over several options but will probably use a natural plaster of Paris to build up the groove on the back wall of the bowl. Time will tell. I will add that repair to the end of this blog once I decide how to do it. Thanks for looking.

What a Mess – A Vanguard Reg’d. Lumberman with a Bit of History

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Blog by Steve Laug

I recently came across an EBay lot of bowls without stems and broken tenons still in the shanks. In the lot was one that intrigued me. It was the only one with a stem. The stem was short and tapered. It was very narrow and the button and slot made me think that it was old. The lot had the look of older English pipes but there was no information on the stamping. When the lot arrived in Vancouver, the stemmed pipe was stamped Vanguard over Reg’d on the left side of the shank. All other stamping, if there had been any, was lost. The bowls finish was gone. The colour was almost grey and there were spots all over this bowl and the others as can be seen in the photo below. From the third and fourth photo provided by the seller I could see that the shank was cracked and would need to be addressed. The rim appeared to be very thickly covered with lava and the outer edge had been damaged and rounded. The next photo shows the large crack that was present in the shank of the pipe. It had started to open and the edge of the shank where it met the stem had some nicks. When the box arrived the pipe was actually in worse shape than the photos had shown. The bowl rim was not all that was caked with tars. The bowl itself was almost 1/3 full of half burned tobacco, dottle that was rock hard and filled the bottom of the bowl. The cake on the rest of the bowl was not thick but was very hard. The finish was not only grey and spotty but was dented and rough to the touch. I could feel the ridge where the sides of the crack in the shank had separated. The rim edges were not only damaged and rounded but were also rough from banging out the burnt tobacco against something hard. The stem had tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem at the button. The button and slot were intact. The stem appeared to be as old as or older than I first thought. This was going to be a challenge to bring back to life but the age of it made it something I could not wait to tackle.

I took some close up photos of the state of the rim and cracked shank once the pipe arrived. It was a mess that is for sure. The rim and bowl were in bad shape and smelled awful. The shank crack was worse than I had imagined. The first photo of the cracked shank is from the top and the second photo is from the side.

I looked up the Vanguard name in Who Made That Pipe and found that there were two makers. There was a French maker and an English maker. The French pipe was made by Marchal, Rouchon 1907 and the English one was made by A. Oppenheimer/Bernhardt & Meyers. Given that I cannot be definitive as to which maker crafted this pipe. But the interesting thing is that the Marchal & Rouchon Cie which later became GBD France came under control of Oppenheimer in Great Britain. So you can see that though I may not know which one ultimately made the pipe the fact is that the two brands came together in 1902 when Marchal & Rouchon Cie sold out to Oppenheimer. I now have in my collection a pipe which may well have bridged the union of the two companies. The Vanguard thus could easily bear both the French and the English stamping. The lack of a “Made in…” stamp may well signify the years that the companies joined. That in itself made cleaning up and restoring this old-timer interesting for me.

I decided to start the clean up by reaming back the cake and cleaning out the dottle from the bowl. I used a PipNet reamer and started with the smallest head and worked up to the one that fit the bowl. I took the cake back to bare wood to check for damage to the inside walls of the bowl. With a pipe this worn I find that this is extremely necessary. I do not want any surprises after I have cleaned it up.

To repair the damaged shank I opened the crack as much as possible without making it worse and used a dental pick to push super glue into the crack. I pressed it together until it dried. I then used the sanding drum on the Dremel to take down the shank slightly so that a band would fit snugly on the shank and hold the crack tightly together. I pressed the band onto the end of the shank and took the picture below before I heated the band and pressed it into place. I heated the band with a heat gun and then pressed it against a flat surface until the band was in place on the shank. I pressed it onto the shank and then used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the edge of the band and shank. I left about 1/8th of an inch of the band extending past the shank to deal with the chipped and damage shank end. The stem would not have had a clean fit against the shank because of the damage. When the stem was in place it fit inside of the band against he shank and looked great.

With the band in place the shank was repaired and the tenon would no longer fit in the mortise. The contraction of the briar by the band cleaned up the crack and tightened up the loose fitting stem. I lightly sanded the tenon with a sanding drum on the Dremel and then by hand to get a snug fit in the shank.

I scrubbed the surface of the briar with acetone and cotton pads to remove the grime, spotting and remaining finish. There was some interesting grain under the grime.

The damaged rim surface and outer edge required that the bowl be topped. I used the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damaged surface and sharpen the edge of the bowl.

I scrubbed the surface of the bowl down again with acetone and cotton pads to remove the dust and grime from topping.

I cleaned the inside of the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used the drill bit from the Kleen Reem pipe reamer to clean out the airway from the mortise to the bowl. When I was finished I swabbed out the bowl with cotton swabs and alcohol and was pleased to find that the rank smell was gone. I sanded the bowl and stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the tooth marks on the stem and scratches in the briar. I steamed the dents in the briar with a knife blade and wet cloth.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each grit and then continued sanding until I had worked through the lot of pads.

I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and then sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then continued through the rest of the grits of pads. I continued to polish the bowl with the remaining grits of micromesh.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It came out well for a pipe that potentially was made 108 years ago. Thanks for looking.

Cleaning up Two Sisters – A pair of Beaver Cut Genuine Briar Pipes

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Blog by Steve Laug

I received this pair of pipes from Charles Lemon of Dad’s Pipes Blog. He picked them up as part of an estate from London, Ontario, Canada. They are both stamped on the bottom of the shank on a smooth surface with the words Beaver Cut in script over a block script Genuine Briar. He did some hunting on the web and could find nothing that gave any sense of history of the brand. When I got them I did the same and found absolutely nothing. The Genuine Briar stamping tells me it is post WW2 and is made in the USA. I found another Beaver Cut for sale on Worthpoint but it also did not have any information. From what I can find that is the extent of the information available.

The top pipe in the photo is Prince. The rustication was dirty and a lot of dirt and debris had collected in the grooves. It had a rustication pattern that I had not seen before. It is like rows and rows of birdseye cuts in the surface of the briar. There is a smooth patch on both sides and on the bottom of the shank. The bowl had a thick cake and the shank had a lot of debris and oils in it. The rim had an overflow of lava and oils on the top of the bevel. The inner and outer edge of the rim was in great shape and the bowl was still in round. The brass band on the shank appeared to be factory as it was on both pipes and was identical. It was scarred and had tarnished. When it was installed the installer had made a mess of the shank. He had cut the shank back farther than the length of the band so that when it was installed it left a groove between the edge of the band and the rustication on the shank. It looked almost as if the band was an afterthought. I am pretty certain that it was sent out from the factory with that look. The stamping had been cut in two by the chopping of the briar to fit the band. The stem did not fit the shank due to the buildup internally. The stem was also missing a large chunk on the right side near the button and someone had cut a groove in the top of the stem to begin cutting a new button but had not finished the work.

The lower pipe is a Billiard with the exact same grain pattern. It was in a bit better shape than the Prince. The grooves in the unique rustication were actually clean. There was a varnish coat on the smooth parts of the bowl even though there were several sandpits in each smooth spot. The bowl had a thick cake and the rim had an overflow of tars and lava which obscured the bevel. The fit of the band to the shank on this one was better though looking at it from the end of the mortise it was clear that the shank was out of round. The brass was also scratched and marred on this pipe. The stamping on this one was clean and deep. The stem diameter extended further on the right side than on the left though the stem was of equal diameter all the way around. There were some light tooth marks on the top and the bottom of the stem near the button and there was tooth chatter. The stem was oxidized but was faintly stamped with a B in a circle.

I took a close up photo of the rim on each of the pipes. The first photo below shows the rim on the Prince and the second shows the rim on the Billiard. The buildup and the uneven cake are visible in both pipes. It is hard to see the bevel on the rim in the Prince but it matches the one on the rim of the Billiard.

I also took some close up photos of the stems on both pipes to show the state of the stem. The first two photos show the stem on the Prince. You can see the damage of the broken area on the side of the button and the cut off button. You can also see the groove or divot that had been cut in the stem to make the pipe useable. The third and fourth photos show the stem on the Billiard and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on the stem surface. It is also clear that it does not fit well against the side of the band.

I decided to restem the Prince so I found a stem in my can of stems that was the same diameter as the shank and slightly longer than the broken stem to account for the missing button. I turned the tenon with a sanding drum on a Dremel to get a close fit and then hand sanded until it push snuggly into the mortise. To deal with the badly fit shank band I cleaned the area with a dental pick and then pressed briar dust into the groove just ahead of the band. I dripped clear super glue into the briar dust and then as it settled add more glue and more briar dust. I wanted the transition between the shank and the band to be smooth. I sanded the repair with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches in the surface. I reamed both bowls back to bare wood with a PipNet reamer. I sanded the beveled rim on the Prince to clean off the oils and lava and to show the bevel. More work would need to be done on both rims.

I worked on the bevel of the rims with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the buildup and also to smooth out the bevel. It took quite a bit of sanding on both rims to get the angle consistent all the way around the bowl and also to remove the burn damage on the inner edge of both. I sanded both with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to finish the cleanup. I stained the newly cleaned surfaces of the rim with a light brown stain pen to approximate the colour on the smooth portions on the bowl sides and bottom of the shank. I sanded them both with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to smooth out the remaining scratches that showed up with the stain. It also lightened the stain enough that the match was perfect.

With the rims finished it was time to scrub the rustication. I used Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to scour the rustication pattern on both bowls. I scrubbed them and then rinsed them under warm running water.

To address the difference in diameter of the stem and the band on the shank on the Billiard I used a Dremel and sanding drum to take down the top, bottom and right side of the saddle stem. I repeatedly checked the fit until I had it very close then I finished adjusting the fit by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem on the Prince with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the calcification on the end of the stem.

With the fit finished on the stems it was time to clean out the internals of the stems and shanks. I used alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to scrub the insides until they were clean.

I wet sanded the stem and the brass with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad for the first round of sanding on both. It worked to remove many of the scratches and marks in the brass and the vulcanite. I worked on the stem with the micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I finished sanding with the 12000 grit pad I let the oil dry on the stem.

In the final sanding I sanded the brass and it carried over onto the top portion of each stem giving it a bit of a brown look in the next photo. This all came off when I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond. I heated the stem on the Prince and gave it a slight bend to give it a more finished looked. I buffed the stems and rims with White Diamond and Blue Diamond and then gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I also waxed the smooth portions on the bowl sides, shank bottoms and the rims. I buffed these with Blue Diamond as well. I wiped the rustication down with a light coat of olive oil to bring some life back to the briar. The finished sisters are shown below.

Thanks for looking. Does anyone have any information about this brand? It would be great to be able to get a little information. Please post anything you know in the comments below. Thanks.

A Mysterious Little Bent Billiard Brought to Life

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Blog by Steve Laug
This is another pipe I picked up at the antique mall in Idaho Falls. It is a bit of a mystery pipe in that the stamping is faint on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped Made in England. On the right side it is missing some of the first letters but is stamped _ ANTE_ over London. Searching through Who Made That Pipe the best option I found for that combination of letters was a CANTERBURY. The brand was made by Comoy’s. There is a very faint C in a Circle on the stem that also matches the CANTERBURY stamping so I think that may well be the stamping on this mystery pipe. The pipe was in pretty rough shape. The previous owner was in the antique mall when I bought it and he walked me through its deficiencies as he saw them. He had wrapped a piece of Teflon tape around the tenon to hold it in the shank. The stem itself had deep bite marks on the top and a large bit through on the underside near the button. The bowl had some fills on the left side and the underside that were quite large. The finish was shot and was dirty with lots of dents and dings. The rim was smooth but had tars and lava overflow. The bowl was heavily caked and the cake was as hard as rock. The inner edge of the rim was slightly damaged and out of round. The outer edge was clean with a small fill on the front of the bowl near the rim.

I took the next photos to give a clear picture of the bite through on the underside of the stem and a close up of the thick cake in the bowl.

I tried to ream the bowl with a PipNet reamer and barely made a dent in it. It was very hard. I decided to let it soak in an alcohol bath to soften the cake. I left it in the bath overnight.

When I took it out of the bath the finish was clean. The briar looked pretty good. The grain was quite nice. The fills softened and were white putty that would need to be removed and refilled.

The softened cake came out easily with the PipNet reamer and then I scraped it further with a pen knife. The next photo shows the cleaned out bowl. I wiped down the rim with a soft cloth to remove the tars. I lightly topped the bowl with a medium and fine grit sanding block to clean up the rim surface. The cleaned up rim looked very good.

I cleaned out the bowl and shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I picked out the putty fills with a dental pick. I filled in the holes with briar dust and then covered that with super glue. I added more briar dust to smooth out the repairs.

I sanded the bowl repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I forgot to take photos after sanding the bowl.

I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I cleaned out the bite marks on the top of the stem and the underside with a dental pick, alcohol and cotton swabs. Once they were clean I put some charcoal powder and black superglue on the bite marks on the top of the stem and leveled the repair with the edge of the dental pick. I set it aside to dry. Once the topside repair was cured I put Vaseline on the point of an old nail file that I use to repair bite throughs. I inserted it in the slot on the button. I mixed some black super glue and charcoal powder and filled the hole in the stem with the mixture. I spread it and leveled it with a dental pick. When the repair was finished I set the stem aside to cure once again.

The next morning I sanded the repairs on the top and bottom of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and with a series of sanding sticks to smooth out the surface. The sanding sticks allowed me to get a good angle on the sharp edge of the button. I started with the coarse stick and worked my way up to the fine stick.

I cleaned out the inside of the stem to remove the Vaseline and the dust from sanding using alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I heated the tenon with a lighter and inserted an ice pick in the airway in the tenon to expand the tenon enough to get a good solid fit in the shank. With the stem repair complete and the pipe clean inside and out I decided to do some contrast stain work on the bowl. I stained it with a black aniline dye for the first coat. I wanted to blend in the fills a bit and also highlight the grain. I was aiming for a darker colour in the finished product so this was the first step. I applied the stain and then flamed it. I wiped it off with alcohol on cotton pads to lighten the surface coat while leaving the black in the grain and the fills.

I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads to remove more of the finish and then gave it a top coat of a medium brown stain. I applied it and flamed it before hand buffing it.

The colour of the pipe was still too dark to really make the grain pop so I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to further remove some of the dark colour and to also minimize the scratches in the briar. I wiped it down with acetone to lighten it further.

With the finish on the bowl complete I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. Between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian oil. On the last rub down I let it sit until it was absorbed.

I buffed the pipe with Red Tripoli and White Diamond to further lighten the top coat of stain and to polish the stem. I then buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown below.

Replacing a push-tenon and mortise in a Meerschaum pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother, Jeff has been on a roll picking up some nice pipes that he gifted me. The first was the CAO meer that I reworked the stem and wrote about. The second was the Peterson Kildare 999 (one of my favourite shapes). The third one that I worked on was a no name meerschaum. It is a bent barrel shaped pipe with a stag running through the trees carved on the front of the bowl. The meerschaum is very heavy and dense in appearance so I am pretty certain it is a pressed meerschaum pipe. The stem is a bright yellow Lucite that actually shows better craftsmanship than the Lucite stem on the CAO meerschaum. The pipe came in a decent brown leather cover case with smooth fabric in the lid and a soft faux fur in the base. The hinge and the clasp were brass. The pipe fit well in the case. The photo below comes from the auction and gives a clear picture of the pipe as it was advertised. The issue that I had to address with this one was that the mortise insert for the push stem connector was shattered in the shank. When I twisted the stem out of the shank a portion of the insert came with it. I looked into the mortise and I could see the cracks and breaks in the insert. It would need to be pulled. The bowl of the pipe was pretty clean. The inside of the bowl was slightly darkened but looked like it had been smoked only a few times (if that). There was also some rim darkening that probably would clean up easily enough. Under a bright light it appeared that there was either a small crack or a scratch on the outer rim just above the ring on the barrel on the right side of the bowl. I checked the mark with a jeweler’s loupe and it appears to be a small hairline crack. I cannot feel it with my finger when I run it over the surface. There is a scratch below the band on the barrel as well, just below this. That particular line is not a crack but a scratch. That is the bad news and the good news regarding the crack. The shank was clean past the insert.

The stem had some oils and stain in the airway. There were light tooth marks and chatter on the underside of the stem next to the button. The slot was well cut in the end of the button and the interior of the Y was smoothly sanded. The button itself was well shaped. The stem did not align with the shank. Though they were both the same diameter, the airway in the shank was slightly off centre which made the right side of the stem extend past the edge of the shank while the left side was slightly smaller than the shank diameter at that point. I may need to do a bit of work on the right side to make it match the right side.

I removed the stem from the shank and wiggled the broken portion of the mortise insert that was stuck at the top of the push tenon in the stem free from the stem. I used a knife blade inserted in the shank to bite into the broken insert and twisted it free of the shank. It came out in three pieces that fell apart when they hit the table top.

I have a few Delrin push tenons and inserts that I ordered for just such an occasion and took one out of the box where I have them. I cleaned up the edges and casting overage on the top cap. I sanded it to smooth out the Delrin fitting. I aligned the thread in the shank with those on the insert and screwed it into place in the shank. When I replace these I do not glue them in place in case they again disintegrate or crack. It will make a replacement much simpler for whoever has to work on the pipe next.

I unscrewed the push tenon from the stem so that I could clean out the area behind it. It was a cheap clear nylon that was discoloured and had some grooves cut in the surface from the fractured mortise insert pieces. I would replace it with the Delrin tenon counterpart once I cleaned out threads in the end of the shank and the airway in the stem. I used cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol to remove the staining and oils in the airway. The new Delrin tenon had a larger airway and gave a more open draw on the pipe. It will be a significant improvement to the smokability of the pipe. A small bonus was that once I replaced the tenon and put the pipe back together the stem aligned better with the shank. I lined up well enough that the only small overage in diameter of the stem is on the underside. Also a quick draw on the pipe once it was together confirmed the new more open draw. It looked like this quick repair gave some unexpected bonuses that were worth the little effort.

I sanded the tooth chatter on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I wet sanded this area with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads. I was able to remove all of the tooth chatter and polish the stem. The stem is clean and the finish has a shine. I scrubbed the top of the bowl with cotton pads and saliva to remove the tars and oils on the rim. A little elbow grease and the majority of the darkening came off. I left the scratch on the side of the meer as I did not want to chance removing the top coat if the bowl was pressed meer. I rubbed down the surface of the bowl and the rim with some white beeswax to protect the finish and to encourage colouration of the bowl. I let the wax dry and then hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is polished, repaired and ready to be used.

Cleaning up and reworking the stem on a CAO Meerschaum Lace Calabash

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Blog by Steve Laug

One of the pipes that my brother in Idaho found was this lace carved Meerschaum Calabash that he bought for me from an auction house near his home. The pipe came in a well made case that was lined with yellow gold velvet. It bore a decal that read CAO in the centre of the circle and around the edges it read Handcrafted of the Finest Block Meeerschaum by CAO. The exterior of the case is covered in black leather with a brass hinge at the top and latch on the bottom edge. The case itself is in good shape with some scuffs on the top and bottom surfaces of the sides. The photo below is the one taken from the advertisement for the auction. The pipe is a very well carved meerschaum. The lattice or lace work is very well done. The rim of the bowl had some darkening and tars that would need to be cleaned off. There was a light build up of cake in the bowl. The meer itself was beginning to colour and show some depth of golden brown on the sides of the bowl and the shank. The stem was Lucite but was poorly fit to the shank. It was larger in diameter than the shank and still had sanding and file marks on the stem. The CAO emblem had been pressed into the side of the stem and the Lucite had bubbled around the circular logo. The button was not well cut in the stem and the slot in the end was rough and still had sanding marks and file marks in it as well.

I took some close up photos of the stem to show some of the scratching and dullness of the stem material, the poorly cut button and the bulging of the stem material around the shank. The shoulders of the stem were rounded rather than flat and the transition to the shank was not smooth to the touch.

I removed the stem from the shank and sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the rounded shoulders and reduce the diameter of the stem to match the shank. I sanded carefully to keep from rounding the shoulders even more. My goal was to smooth that out and flatten the transition area. I also sanded around the CAO logo to remove the wrinkles or bubbling of the stem under the inset emblem. I also sanded the inside of the slot and the Y shaped flow into the airway in the stem. I sanded the entire stem to remove some of the scratches and to even out the flow of the stem. I also worked on thinning down the edges of the stem and giving it sharper edge. I used a blade shaped needle file with a flat face and edge to square up the button angles on the stem surface.

I carefully reamed the cake from the bowl with a pen knife taking it back to the smooth surface of the meerschaum bowl. I continued to shape and refit the stem to the shank with the 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge.

I cleaned off the tars on the rim with a cotton swab and saliva until all of them were gone. I removed them to reveal a darkening amber colour around the inside of the rim cap. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down with oil to give it a bit of bite before continuing to dry sand with 3200-4000 grit pads. I finished by sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads.

I lightly buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel to polish it before giving it several coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth and hand buffed the bowl with the same cloth. The CAO emblem is very clear and the wrinkled surface around the emblem is smooth. The rounded shoulders of the stem have been smoothed out and flattened. The cleaned up button edges gave the end of the stem a very sharp look. The slot was smoothed out and broadened. The finished pipe is shown below.

The final photo is of the pipe in its case. It is picking up the yellow colour of the velvet lining of the case. The photos above show the current colour of the pipe more accurately.

Refitting an existing stem on a Royal Windsor Prince

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

When I was in Idaho my brother showed me the pipes he had picked up in auctions and from antique shops. He had found three meerschaum pipes and two briars. One of the briar pipes that he picked up in an auction was a Royal Windsor Imported Briar Prince. It was included as part of a sculpture that he bought that he really liked. It was an old man with a cap, glasses and a pipe. The old boy in the sculpture looks lost without his pipe in the photo below. It is finished now and it will go out in the mail tomorrow so he should have it back very soon.
My daughter took the following photo of the sculpture with the pipe. In her photo the table top looks like a sweater.
The pipe itself is a clean and quite beautiful little pipe with a rusticated finish and some smooth parts similar to the Stanwell Vario line. In looking at it when I was visiting it was obvious the pipe had been restemmed at some point along the way and the stem shank union was poorly executed. There was a bulge to the stem at that point and it also was not round. The right side and bottom of the stem diameter were wider than the shank of the pipe. The taper of the stem on the underside did not work with the flow of the shank. He wanted to keep it for the sculpture but the fit of the stem bugged me enough that I offered to bring it home and reshape the stem for a better fit. It was also badly oxidized so that would also need to be cleaned up. The bowl itself was quite clean and virtually unsmoked. The first photos below were taken after I had started cleaning up the stem. I began reworking the stem without taking photos and caught myself before I had gone too far.

I put a plastic washer on the tenon to protect the shoulders of the stem from rounding while I worked on the shape of the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to shape and fit the stem to the shank. To me the taper on the underside of the stem did not flow into the shank correctly. I sanded it and removed a lot of material and changed the taper to flow better. I checked the fit often by removing the washer and looking at the stem in place.

I refined the shape some more and then sanded the entire stem to remove the surface oxidation. I finished this part of the process by sanding the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the 220 grit paper. With the shape and fit greatly improved (at least to my eye ;)) I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads. Another coat of Oil was rubbed into the stem and then I sanded it with the final 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then Blue Diamond on the wheel. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and shine. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then with a microfibre cloth by hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Removing a Broken Metal Tenon from a LHS Sterncrest 14K

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago I received an email from Dave Gossett regarding another LHS Sterncrest that he had picked up. He asked if I had any hints on how to remove a broken metal mortise and broken off stinger from the shank of a pipe. He sent a picture of the issue and I wrote back regarding drilling the broken mortise insert out of the shank. He also posted on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum looking for help. “Does anyone have any ideas how to get this out of the shank without damaging the pipe (further)? I received this in an estate lot. Looks like somebody gave it hell already. I tried putting a screw in to remove it, but it has been gouged so badly that it won’t budge. I left it as is to keep from further damaging the shank. It has the stinger inside as well. I would have tried to file it or hot exacto knife the vulcanite but with the stinger, I don’t think this will work either. The mortise has been chewed up but I think if I can remove the debris, using a replacement stem with an extra-long tenon should make a good seal past the damaged area.”

I wrote my suggestions along with those of others on the forum and looked forward to hearing from Dave and seeing some more of his craftsmanship on this old timer. A month or so passed without any follow-up post or emails regarding the pipe. I found myself wondering what he had done with the pipe and if he had been able to use the method I wrote about on the forum and in the email. Being a bit impatient and I suppose nosey as well, I wrote Dave to see if he had had any luck clearing the shank of the pipe. He wrote back:

“On another note, I bought a Sterncrest 14k with the tenon and stinger broke off in the shank. Do you do repair work for hire? I tried putting a screw in the broken tenon to remove it, but it won’t budge. The eBay genius I bought it from gouged the hell out of the mortise trying to remove it. I’d like to have it removed and get a stem replacement fitted for it. I’ll order the replacement stem and send both together if you’re interested.”

I wrote him back and said I would gladly remove the broken tenon and ruined mortise apparatus for him. I offered to do it for nothing as I like the challenge. I also have more than enough stems here that would probably work with the pipe so I suggested he just mail it to me and let me have a shot at clearing things up.

I was away this past week and when I returned there was a box waiting for me. I opened it and removed several pipe bowls and stem that he sent as gifts. I unwrapped the bowl that needed attention and had a look at it. I was pretty sure that the method I suggested would work very well and remove the ruined mortise. I was hoping that once I had removed that I would be able to push the broken tenon out of the bowl and shank.

I set up my cordless drill and put a drill bit the same size as the mortise in the shank of the pipe. I tightened it in place in the chuck and then hand twisted the bowl onto the drill bit. I never use a power tool to do this as it can create more problems that it cures. Because of the extensive damage to the shank and to the aluminum fitting I chose a bit the same size as the mortise rather than starting with a smaller one. My idea was to twist the bowl onto the bit until I had removed the mortise apparatus and opened up the shank so that the tenon piece could be removed.

It did not take too long to carefully twist the bowl onto the shank enough that the broken part was removed. A side benefit was that in doing this I also smoothed out the inside of the shank and removed many of the gouges in the side walls of the mortise. I would need to use a needle file to further smooth out the spots in the shank where the marks were deeper than the drill bit could remedy. When I had finished removing the mortise insert I used a dental pick to push the broken tenon piece out of the shank. The tenon/stinger extended into the bottom of the bowl so I put the end of the pick in one of the holes in the top of the stinger and pushed the apparatus back into the shank. It was not stuck so it moved easily into the shank and with a light tap of the end of the shank fell out on the work table. With the airway cleared of impediment I used a small round needle file and a sanding stick to clean up the inside of the shank and to prepare it for a new push stem that I would fit to the shank. I removed a lot of the damage to the shank with the files though some of it was too deep into the briar to completely remove. I gave the inner edge of the shank end a slight bevel with a sharp knife. It was not perfect as the hack job on the shank end was very rough. I was able to smooth it up quite a bit. The first picture below shows the shank end before the bevel. The second one shows the slight bevel. I am sure that Dave will clean it up even more in his refurb.

For fun I salvaged the broken tenon and cut off the broken part with a hack saw. It will need a small tube extension to extend it fully into the bowl but it is going back to Dave so he can decide if he wants to use it.

The stinger was just over a half inch too short and I did not have a tube to extend it. I did have another stinger apparatus that was the right length. It fit perfectly in the tenon and extended the right distance into the shank. I am pretty sure it is another iteration of the LHS system but it is slightly different. I inserted it in the tenon and took the next photo. I put the stem in the shank and took a photo of the stinger end in the bowl.

I will send both stingers to Dave when I return the pipe. I did not ream or clean the bowl as Dave wanted to do the restoration work himself. I had a hard time not falling prey to the temptation to ream the bowl or clean up the pipe but somehow I succeeded. I kept myself to the task at hand. I went through my stem can and found a stem that would work well with the shank diameter. It has some scratches and will need a bit of fine tuning make the fit perfect but it is a good starting place.

A Simple Elegance: Cleaning, Restemming and Restoring a Diplomat Billiard

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

On my recent Lethbridge trip I found the Diplomat pipe at an Antique Fair. It is a nice sandblast billiard with a dark undercoat and a brown over stain. The bowl was in decent shape. The sandblast was deep and quite beautiful to look at. The nooks and crannies caused in the process made for an interesting feel in the hand as well. The stain had worn off in spots on the sides of the bowl and along the outer edges of the rim. The finish was also generally dull and lifeless. The surface of the rim was dirty with tars and oils. The inner edge was slightly damaged and would need to be worked on. There was a thick cake around the middle of the bowl and light at bottom and on top. The stem was one that somebody had Gerry-rigged to fit. It was smaller in diameter and the tenon was too small. The previous owner had wrapped the tenon with thread and then with aluminum foil and pressed it into the shank. The stem had also been hacked up to repair a damaged button and grooves had been carved on the top and bottom sides of the stem to make it a dental bit.

I took close-up photos of the top of the bowl and the underside of the shank to give a clear picture of the state of the inner edge of the rim and the stamping on the pipe.

The next two photos show the stem that came with the pipe and the “fancy” work that had been down to make it fit the shank and create grooves on the top and underside that would allow the pipe to be held in the mouth behind dentures.

My first task was to go through my stem can and see if I could find a better stem for this pipe. I did not have a tapered stem that would readily fit but I did have a saddle stem that would look good after shaping and fitting it to the shank. I lightly sanded the tenon to get a snug fit in the shank and pushed the new stem home to have a look at the fit. The stem would need to be sanded to bring the diameter at the stem/shank union down to match the shank. I took a few photos to see what the pipe looked like with this new stem.

I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to carefully reduce the diameter of the saddle portion of the stem. I have found that I can roughly shape the stem to fit better and then finish by hand sanding it (photo 1). Once I had the rough shape I sanded it with a coarse emery paper to remove the gouges and scratches left behind by the sanding drum (photo 2). I slipped a plastic washer on the tenon and put the stem back in place. I sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to further shape it and remove the scratches (photo 3).

With the basic fit correct and only needing to fine tune it and polish the stem I decided to ream the bowl. I used a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare wood.

I cleaned out the inside of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. Once it was clean I worked on the inner edge of the rim. I sanded it and reshaped it to make it smooth and round once again using a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.

I sanded the stem some more with 220 grit sandpaper and flattened the bottom side to match the flat bottom of the shank. The next set of three photos show the fit and shape of the stem at this point.

The button was quite thin and I decided to build it up with black superglue. I also could see a repair that had been done on the stem before I used it so I worked on that to further blend it into the stem surface. When the glue dried I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to feather it into the surface of the rest of the stem and also worked on shaping the button. In the second photo below you can see the end view of the built-up and reshaped button.

I sanded the stem and button with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and blend in the patches. I then wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and rubbed it down again with oil. I finished by sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set it aside until the oil was dry.

I touched up the worn spots on the finish of the bowl with a dark brown stain pen and a black permanent marker and then buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond on the wheel. I buffed it again with Blue Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I polished it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buff with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I like the looks of the saddle stem and the deep sandblast finish. The pipe has an understated elegance about it that I like.

Thanks for looking.

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rebornpipes

reclaiming old and worn estate pipes

Tag Archives: fitting a stem

Rescuing a Tinderbox Monza Horn – Restemming and Refinishing

A Simple Mistake Forced a Restem on a Meerschaum Billiard

What a Mess – A Vanguard Reg’d. Lumberman with a Bit of History

Cleaning up Two Sisters – A pair of Beaver Cut Genuine Briar Pipes

A Mysterious Little Bent Billiard Brought to Life

Replacing a push-tenon and mortise in a Meerschaum pipe

Cleaning up and reworking the stem on a CAO Meerschaum Lace Calabash

Refitting an existing stem on a Royal Windsor Prince

Removing a Broken Metal Tenon from a LHS Sterncrest 14K

A Simple Elegance: Cleaning, Restemming and Restoring a Diplomat Billiard

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