Tag Archives: Flaming stain

A Reborn Real Briar Prince – Restemmed and Restored

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Quite a few of the old stummels in my box for restemming are stamped Real Briar over Made in Italy. This one caught my eye. It had a great classic shape of a Prince. I dug through my can of stems and found an old stem that would work on this little prince with some work. The bowl was coated with tars and needed to be reamed. The rim was tarred and the cake overflowed the bowl onto the rim. On the bottom left side of the bowl near the shank were several fills that were visible and ugly. The shank was plugged with tars and oils and I could not pass a pipe cleaner through it. The old stem I picked had the right shape but was also badly oxidized and coated with a calcification that was white and hard. The button had a single hole drilled in the centre but it had been damaged and had been worn toward the top of the button. This one was going to be a challenge but it was something I wanted to give a shot.

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I used my Dremel with the sanding drum to cut away the excess material on the diameter of the stem. The next three photos show the stem after it has been shaped to close to the diameter of the shank. The rest of the work would have to be done by hand. The first one shows the state of the stem when I started with it. The second and third photos show the stem after I had sanded it with emery paper to remove the oxidation and the calcification.

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I wiped down the bowl with acetone and in doing so found a hairline crack in the shank on the underside of the pipe. I don’t believe this was done in fitting the stem as the fit is actually very precise and smooth. There was no stress on the shank from the new stem. The look of the crack also was dirty and showed that it had been there for awhile. The next two photos below show the crack in the shank on the underside.

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I dripped some superglue into the crack and then heated a nickel band and pressure fit it on the shank. I then took a little more of the stem material off so that the fit to the band would be smooth and not bulge. The next two photos show the band and stem fit. The band seems to really dress up this old Real Briar Prince.

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I wiped the bowl down with several more wipes of acetone on a cotton pad to break up the varnish coat. I have found that the acetone softens the varnish and makes it easier to sand off with sand paper. I also decided to sand off the rim to get rid of the hard tars. The next two photos show the process I use for sanding the rim. In this case since I was restaining the pipe anyway I did not care if the finish was removed from the rim.

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I then sanded the bowl and shank with a foam back medium grit sanding pad to remove the varnish coat. I sanded it until the bowl finish was foggy looking and then I wiped it down with acetone once again on a cotton pad. The next three photos show the result of the sanding and washing with acetone. The finish is finally beginning to break up and the briar is down to the stain coat.

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I put the stem on the bowl and continued to sand the stem and the bowl with the sanding sponge that is pictured with the pipe. The next three photos show the progress of the sanding. Once I was finished the sanding I wiped it down a final time with the acetone and cotton pad to prepare it for restaining.

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The next three photos show the bowl after I have stained, flamed, restained and flamed it again. I stained the rim three times to get it to be the same colour as the bowl. It took a bit of work to get the colours to match. I used a dark brown aniline stain mixed in a 2:1 ratio with isopropyl alcohol to attain the colour that I wanted for this pipe. I have learned that the mix is great for hiding unsightly fills and blending them into the rest of the bowl.

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I removed the bowl and went to work on the button. The airway in the button was actually quite large and had been cut very close to the edge of the button. I examined it and could see that the damage was fairly surface. The airway inside the button was centered in the button so the edge would need to be built up to accommodate the new slot that I would cut into the button. I used a two part 5 minute epoxy that I mixed and inserted into the damaged edge of the airway with a dental pick. This took a bit of time to get it to the point that I was happy with. The first photo below shows the airway when I started on the repairs.

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The next three photos, though a little blurry show the repair in process. To start with I used my needle files to open up the airway into a slot. I wanted to provide a straight edge to build up to on the airway so that I that the epoxy would stay put in the right place. The epoxy is wet and shiny in these photos and is visible on the bottom edge of the stem photos. The slotted airway is very clearly visible in these photos showing the process of rebuilding the airhole.

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The next photo shows the dried patch in the airway and the even slot that is present in the button. I needed to let the epoxy harden before I finished the shaping of the slot to an oval that easily took a pipe cleaner.

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The next three photos show the repaired airhole and the newly cut slot in the button. The first photo shows the stem held in my hand upside down. The repair is visible at the 6 o’clock position in the picture and looks like a small divot in the slot. The slot itself is smooth and the divot is the patch. The second photo shows the stem right side up and the repair is visible at the 12 o’clock position. The final of the three photos shows the small oval needle file that I used to open the airway. I inserted it into the slot to give an idea of the size of the files that I use to do the work on these slots.

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I then turned my attention to the stem itself. It needed a lot more sanding to clean it up and bring out a clean shine. The first photo below shows the polish that I gave it with the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0. I rub this on with my fingers and then scrub it off with the cotton pad. The polish is white and when I rub it off it is the brown colour that stains the cotton pad in the picture below. Once I had finished with the polish I then sanded it with the micromesh sanding pads. I only took one photo (the second one below) to show the sanding process. I used 1500-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches and shine the stem.

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I continued to work on the stem but removed it from the bowl and gave the bowl a cotton bole and alcohol treatment to remove the strong sour smell that came from the bowl. I stuffed the bowl with a cotton bole, put a pipe cleaner in the shank and used my ear syringe to fill the bowl with Everclear. I left it to sit on the ice cube tray while I went hunting at the flea market. It sat for about 4 hours before I removed the cotton bole and flamed the bowl to remove the remaining alcohol. The first photo shows the pipe when I first set it up. The second one is how it looked four hours later when I returned home and removed the cotton.

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I cleaned the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners. I used my Kleen Reem drill bit to clean out the softened tars in the airway in the shank. The amount of gunk that came out is astonishing. I wiped it and ran the bit through several times to get the airway back to the briar. Then I used many pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear to finish cleaning the shank. Once I was finished I reinserted the finished stem on the bowl and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil and then multiple coats of carnauba wax to give the pipe a finished shine. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

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Restored Golf Old Briar Billiard

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This Golf Old Briar Billiard is the fourth pipe of the six that a friend from Smokers Forums sent my way. This one was the kind of challenge I enjoy. The briar was in pretty good shape under all the dirt and paint and black tarry deposits on the rim and the sides of the bowl. The pipe is stamped Golf in script over Old Briar in block type. On the underside of the shank near the stem it is also stamped with the shape number 1304. I am not sure who made the Golf brand of pipes but I saw several on Pipephil’s site with the name and different logos. It is an interesting piece and quite hefty. It is not large in terms of length or height but in terms of bulk. The finish was shot as you can see and would take some work to remove all the stains and paint flecks on the bowl. There were also some very visible fills on the bowl sides. The stem was very oxidized and had some odd oil like patterns on it that remain a mystery to me as to the cause. There was also a script G on the stem but it was merely applied to the surface rather than stamped into the stem material.

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In the photo below I wanted to show the unique stinger apparatus in the stem. It was removable but seems very tiny in proportion to the size of the pipe. It is a needle point with a slot in the top surface that the smoke is drawn through. There is not much surface area to collect the moisture so I am not altogether sure of the effectiveness of the stinger. The stem was stuck so I had to put it in the freezer for several hours before I could remove it from the shank without breaking things. Once I took it out of the freezer it was fairly easy to remove.

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I put the stem in the Oxyclean bath with the one from the figural pipe. I also put the two bowls in the alcohol bath overnight before giving them a once over. The two photos below show the pipe after I took it out of the bath to begin working on it. You can see that some of the grime was removed but the paint flecks remained as did the black stains on the bowl. These would take more work.

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I used some acetone on a cotton pad to scrub down the bowl. The next series of two photos show how well the acetone removed the finish. It made short work of the paint and dark stains on the briar. I scrubbed it until the surface was clean. You can also see the presence of the fills that I spoke of earlier.

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The rim of the bowl was rough so I decided to top it a slight amount to remove the damage and to clean up the surface. Since I was staining the pipe anyway there would be no problem in trying to match bowl and rim. I used my normal sandpaper on a board system and sanded the bowl in a clockwise motion to smooth out the surface. I first used a fine grit emery cloth and then followed that with 320 grit sandpaper. The first two photos below show that process and the effectiveness of it.

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The next series of four photos show the bowl after I wiped it down with acetone again after the topping of the rim. The cotton pads show the sanding dust and surface grit that still remained on the surface of the bowl. I wanted to give it a final wash before staining it. I decided to not remove the fills on this bowl. I wanted to see if I could blend them in with the stain coat rather than replace them with the superglue briar dust patches that I generally use.

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I chose to restain this pipe with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. It is the same stain I used on the figural pipe that I posted about earlier. The next series of four photos show the process of the staining. I had my daughter help me with the photos and she was able to capture the flaming process in the last photo in this series. The flame burns quickly and blue. It burns off the alcohol and sets the stain in the grain of the briar. I love the way that flame dances on the surface of the pipe.

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I set the bowl aside once the flame had died and worked on the stem. The next series of photos show the stem as it appeared after I removed it from the Oxyclean bath. It needed a lot of work. I had to sacrifice the painted G script as it would not survive the clean up. I used my Bic lighter technique to burn the oxidation. The process is very simple as I just move the flame over the surface of the stem never letting it stay in one place too long. I repeat the process until the surface is clean and black. I then polished the stem with the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 scrubbed on by hand then polished off with cotton pads. I repeated that process twice and then sanded the stem with the micromesh sanding pads 1500-12,000 grit. I finished by once again applying the Maguiar’s before putting the stem back on the pipe and taking it to my buffer to buff with White Diamond.

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The next four photos show the finished pipe. It has several coats of carnauba wax applied by my buffer and buffed out to a shine with soft flannel buffing pads. The stain is a bit lighter than it appears in the photos and you can see the grain through the finish. The fills are all but invisible at a quick glance. Before I stained the fills I drew over them with a black permanent marker and then stained them. They covered very well with the marker and the dark stain.

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1937 Patent Era Brigham Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked this little Lovat up in a trio of pipes from EBay. I refurbished the first two – the no name Sandblasted Poker and the Dr. Plumb Statesman already. I have written about them earlier on the blog. Today I worked on the Brigham Lovat. It is stamped Brigham over Can. Pat. 372982. The shape stamp in on the flattened bowl bottom and is stamped 199. The finish was pretty well worn off but there was some nice looking grain on the bowl and shank. The briar actually is flawless with no fills or sandpits. The rim was black and covered with what appeared to be a thin coat of hard tar. The stem was badly oxidized and the brass one dot logo was obscured. Once the stem was removed the Brigham patented filter system was a little hard to remove. The hard rock maple filter was clean but there was a white cobweb like substance in the bowl and in the shank and filter.

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I did a patent search on the Canadian Patent site and found documentation filed with the number stamped on the pipe. I have copied that documentation in the following three pictures. The first picture is a drawing of the Brigham filter system signed by the designer Roy Brigham when it was filed. The next two pictures are the descriptive text of the patent. It is always fascinating to me to discover these pieces of history when I am working on a pipe. This old timer had a story to tell that is for sure. I am not sure when Brigham stopped stamping their pipes with the patent number but in the many that have crossed my desk I have not seen one with the numbers.

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I put the bowl to soak in the Isopropyl alcohol bath with the other bowls while the stem soaked in an Oxyclean bath. Once I took the bowls out I wiped them down and went to work on them. The Brigham is the bowl at the top of the photo below. You can see the grain on it is actually quite beautiful.

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The bowl when dried off is pictured below is quite clean. It has no fills or sand flaws in the briar. It is going to stain nicely and be a great looking pipe when finished.ImageImage

In the picture above you can see the tars on the rim of the pipe. I dried it off and sanded the rim with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the tar build up on the rim. The next two photos below show the rim with the tars removed and the surface smooth. The beauty of this old pipe was that the rim was flawless. There were no dings or dents in it. The outer and inner rim edges were still quite sharp.

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After sanding the rim I sanded the entire bowl of the pipe and also the first sanding on the stem. The picture below shows the sanded bowl. I used 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads, carefully sanding around the Brigham Patent Stamping.

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When I finished sanding I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad. I use nail polish remover which is a solution of acetone and that is readily available at our local dollar store. It works well to lift any remaining stain in the briar and clean the surface of any leftover debris from the sanding process. The grain is really standing out nicely in the three photos below and will make a great looking finished pipe. I also continued to sand the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding pad to cut through the heavy oxidation.

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After sanding with the sanding pads I moved on to wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I have a cup of water at hand to dip the sanding pad into and then sand the stem to remove the oxidation. These first three grits of micromesh do a great job in removing the remaining oxidation on the stem. The water begins to turn a brownish yellow as I dip the sanding pad and squeeze out the grit from the sanding. The stem begins to come back to black by the 2400 grit pad.

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At this point in the process I have started to use Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 before going onto the higher grits of micromesh. I rub on the Mequiar’s with my finger and scrub it into the finish of the stem. Once it is applied I let it dry for a few moments and then scrub the stem with a cotton pad. The next three photos below show the stem after the rub down with the Mequiar’s and a hand buff with the cotton pad.

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After polishing the stem I rub it down with Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. I find that it penetrates the vulcanite and the remaining oxidation seems to lift to the surface. Once it is dry I continue to sand the stem with the micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12,000 grit.

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After the stem really begins to shine I remove it from the shank and place a dental pick into the mortise to provide a handle for me when I am staining the pipe. This allows me control as I turn it over in my hands. I stained this pipe with Dark Brown aniline stain (Feibing’s Leather Dye). The first photo below shows the pipe ready to be stained and the second is with its first coat of stain. While it is still wet I flame it by lighting it with a match and setting the stain.The flame sets the alcohol in the stain on fire and burns it off.

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Once it is flamed I rub down the bowl with a piece of cotton terry cloth. It removes the surface stain and leaves the stain set in the softer grain. The next series of photos show the pipe after it has been wiped down but not buffed.

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Once I have wiped it down I take it to the buffer to remove any more of the stain and to give it a shine. With this particular pipe the stain obscured the grain a bit so I decided to wipe it down with the acetone to lighten the stain. I wiped it until I got the effect that I desired. I then buffed it repeatedly to get a shine.

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The stain was still a little dark to me and I wanted a bit more contrast in the stain. I wiped the bowl a final time with Isopropyl and then buffed it a final time. I also buffed the stem. I scrubbed the metal tenon with 0000 steel wool to polish the oxidation on the aluminum. It shined as well. I inserted a new Brigham Hard Rock Maple filter and put the pipe back together. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and then when it had dried I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on my buffing wheel. I finished with a quick buff with a soft flannel buffing wheel. The finished pipe can be seen in the pictures below.

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