Tag Archives: Kirsten

NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 7 –Restoring a Kirsten K – Companion Generation 2

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the seventh pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. Once again all funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal.

It is a Kirsten metal pipe with a briar Dublin bowl. It is stamped on the left side of the shank, Kirsten in a cursive script. On the underside it is stamped Made in U.S.A. – K. These pipes were made for a long period of time in the Seattle, Washington area of the US. They came in four generations or iterations – Generation 1, 1.5, 2 and 3. The stamping on this one, the absence of a metal cap to hold the bowl, and the presence of the rubber O rings on the metal valve and on the stem insert, point to it being a Generation 1.5 pipe or a transitional one.

Documentation that I quote on an earlier blog from Dave Whitney shows the following information on the Generation 1.5 – transitional period – mid to late 50’s. This was an experimental stage. Kirsten realized that the bit and insert were prone to seizure as the condensate dried. This model always has O-rings on the metal insert, and later models can have O-rings on both. Same markings, as I remember it. There is no metal cup spacer under the bowl. This generation has O rings either on the valve or mouthpiece but no O rings on the other end. This transitional period is stamped “Pat. Pending” and “Pats. & Pats. Pending” some with “Made in U.S.A. It seems like the company was using surplus parts to combine into this series of pipes. This particular pipe is stamped K after the U.S.A. thus making it a Companion.

When I brought this one to the work table the stem was frozen in the shank and the valve on the end was also frozen. The bowl could not be turned off by hand as my other Kirsten’s can. The bowl had a layer of cake and the screw in the bottom of the bowl was also caked and dirty. The rim was dirty and the metal was barrel was dull and soiled. The stem was not only stuck but it also had tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. There was also some discoloration and sticky buildup on the stem.K1

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K4 I cleaned out the slot on the screw in the bottom of the bowl and was able to remove it with a flat blade screwdriver. The valve at the end of the barrel also came out when I used a pair of pliers that I had taped the end on so that it would not damage the aluminum of the valve. It was very tight and the tobacco oils acted like dried varnish on the rubber gasket and the aluminum almost welding it to the barrel. By carefully working it back and forth I was finally able to remove it.K5 The stem would not budge so I dropped the barrel stem down in my alcohol bath and let it soak overnight. I dropped the bowl into the bath at the same time to soften the cake in it and also make the cleanup of the rim and bowl easier.K6 I filled a small cap with alcohol and put the valve and the screw into the small bath overnight as well. I figured a good soak would make the clean up process much simpler.K7 In the morning I was able to remove the stem and rod apparatus from the barrel with ease. It was caked with the same kind of varnish from the tars and oils of the tobacco.K8 I took a photograph down the barrel to show what the inside looked like once the stem was removed.k9 I took the bowl out of the bath as well and laid out the parts of the pipe side by side for the photos before I cleaned them up.k10 Using a piece of 0000 steel wool I scrubbed the rod and the bowl down to clean up the grime and buildup. I also scrubbed the screw and the valve as well with the steel wool. It did not take much effort to remove that from the metal or the briar. The photo below shows the cleaned up parts.k11 I scrubbed out the barrel with cotton swabs and alcohol as far as I could reach. I pushed it through the threaded connector for the bowl as well to remove all of the oils and tar.k12 I took the next photo of the barrel to show the inside and how much cleaner it was. I still needed to clean it more so I twisted some tissue into a cord and turned it into the barrel until it came out the other end. I move it back and forth to scrub out the inside of the barrel. Once it was out the inside of the barrel shone.k13

k14 I reamed the bowl using a sharp pen knife paying particular attention to the seat at the bottom of the bowl which held the screw flat against the bowl bottom. I cut the cake back to a very thin coat along the walls. I then used some Vaseline on the threads of the screw and put it through the bottom of the bowl and used the screw driver to turn it into the barrel. I still needed to polish the grooves on the barrel and the valve but the pipe was beginning to look very good.k15

k16 I sanded the tooth marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove as much of them as I could without thinning the surface of the stem or leaving behind a groove. I was able to remove both marks on the top and bottom of the stem.k17

k18 I used micromesh sanding pads to polish the stem and bring back the shine. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. Finally I sanded with the 6000-12,000 grit pads and then gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry.k19

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k21 I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond Plastic Polish on the wheel and brought out a deep shine. I then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean, soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine.k22

k23 I buffed the barrel lightly with the Blue Diamond and also buffed the bowl. I gave the bowl and barrel several coats of carnauba wax and then lightly buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for someone who has been looking for one of these to pick it up and add it to their rack and help out the women of Nepal at the same time.k24

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k28 This older Kirsten Companion K is a great looking pipe and the Dublin bowl gives it a distinctive look. As I said above, it should make someone a great addition. If you are interested in this pipe email me with an offer at slaug@uniserve.com and we can discuss it. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

Fitting a Maplewood Bowl to fit a Kirsten Pipe Shank

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Blog by Steve Laug

My son-in-law brought his Kirsten with him on the pipe hunt we went on recently and mentioned that the bowl was too small to his liking. We were talking about hunting for a bowl that had a airway drilled in the bottom of the bowl that could be modified to accept the fitting – screw and cap – on a Kirsten bowl. These fittings hold the bowl on the shank. I remembered that I had a Maplewood bowl in my box of pipe parts that could work really well. It had a nipple on the bottom of the bowl. The nipple ended at a rounded cap and then steps up to the bowl. The original bowl can be seen in the photo below. The bowl was clean and unsmoked. There was a varnish finish on the bowl and the wood was quite rough. Around the hip at the base of the bowl there was a rough band around one side of the bowl. The bowl had some really interesting grain on it. Around the top third of the bowl the grain went around the bowl horizontally. Below that there was some vertical grain. The combination was attractive. This bowl would work well once I modified it to fit the pipe.Bowl1 I sawed the nipple off the bottom of the bowl with a hacksaw. I sawed it flat against the bottom of the bowl to make that surface flush.Bowl2 With the nipple removed it was clear that the airway was slightly off centre and would need to be adjusted once I drilled it to open it up to hold the bottom cap from the Kirsten.Bowl3 I measure the diameter and the length of the insert to figure out how much of the bottom of the bowl I would need to remove. I drilled it out with a drill bit the same size as the insert on the Kirsten cap. I used a knife to open the air hole and move it more toward the centre of the bottom of the bowl.Bowl4 I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to shape the bottom of the bowl. I had to remove about ¼ of an inch or more from the bottom of the bowl. I sanded it bring it down and begin to round the edges. The next three photos show the progress of shaping the bowl bottom. The third photo shows the bowl after I also sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper.Bowl5

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Bowl7 I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches. I fitted the bottom cap to the bowl to see what more I would need to remove for a proper fit between the bowl and the shank. I fit the screw into the bottom cap and used a Philips screwdriver to tighten it in place.Bowl8

Bowl9 I sanded the bowl more to remove the finish and fine tune the shaping the bottom of the bowl. I wanted the finished bowl to look like a brandy glass shape.Bowl10

Bowl11 When I had fine tuned the bowl shape and the bottom of the bowl I fit it on a Kirsten shank from one of my pipes. The fit was pretty accurate and the look of the shape worked well with the pipe. I would need to sand the bowl some more, remove the remaining varnish and then stain the bowl once finished. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the rim. Though the pipe was unsmoked the rim was roughly finished.Bowl12

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Bowl14 I took the bowl apart and prepared it for staining. I wiped it down with acetone to remove the remaining varnish and dust from the bowl. I used a dark brown aniline stain to colour the bowl. I stained it and flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied and reflamed the bowl several more times until the coverage was even.Bowl15

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Bowl17 I wanted the finish to be light brown in colour with dark grain patterns on the bowl. I wiped it down with alcohol on cotton pads to thin down the finish. I continued to wipe it until the underlying maple showed through and the grain patterns were darkened.Bowl18 I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and also White Diamond. Once it was finished I sanded it with 1500-3200 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out. I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil and rubbed it into the finish. The bowl was complete at this point – I fit it back on the shank and took the next set of photos to show the look I was aiming for.Bowl19

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Bowl22 I took the bowl off the shank and buffed it with White Diamond once more. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The dark brown aniline stain had brought out the grain and contrasted nicely with the rest of the bowl. The horizontal and vertical graining makes this a nice looking pipe bowl.Bowl23

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Bowl27I put the bowl back on the Kirsten shank and took the next set of photos to show the finished bowl and shank. It certainly fit the shank well and the larger bowl should meet my son-in-laws request for a longer smoking bowl for his Kirsten. He is away with my daughter for the weekend but when he returns home I look forward to seeing what he thinks of his new bowl.Bowl28

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Addendum: I was working my way through Ebay UK when I found a pipe that had the same bowl as the one used in this article. It is a tourist pipe from the Smokey Mountains National Park. It looks to be the same pipe bowl and looks identical to the one I used.$_57

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Restoring a Frozen Kirsten Companion K Straight Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The last pipe I picked up on my recent Alberta trip was a Kirsten style straight pipe. The metal shank is stamped on the left side Companion and on the underside it is stamped Made in U.S.A and then K. On the top of the shank the previous owner scratched in his initials FWE. The bowl was stuck on the shank. The finish on the bowl was worn and dirty. The rim of the bowl had a thick tarry buildup and had some deep dents in the surface. There was a thick cake build up on the inside of the bowl that was shaped like a cone – the bottom was very narrow and the top was wide open. Normally the bowl on Kirsten pipes are more U-shaped with the walls similarly open to the bottom of the bowl where the drilled screw goes through. The stem had a tooth mark on the top and the bottom side near the button. The stem was frozen in the metal shank and I could not twist it at all. The airflow adjustment end cap that normally twists to either open or dampen the airflow was also frozen in place. The metal barrel and end cap had scratches and marks on it. The end cap ridges were worn and looked like someone had used a pair of pliers on it to try to break it free.IMG_2531 IMG_2532 IMG_2533 IMG_2534 I was able to twist the bowl off the barrel by carefully turning it back and forth slightly to break it free. The tars in the barrel threads and on the drilled out screw in the bowl were really gummed up and dirty.IMG_2535I put the barrel in the freezer and left it there during dinner. After dinner I took it out and was able to twist the stem from the barrel. Once I removed the stem and the metal tube plunger it was extremely tarred and sticky. The second photo below shows the black tars of the interior of the barrel and plunger.IMG_2536 IMG_2537The end cap was still frozen in the barrel. I filled the barrel with alcohol and set it in an ice-cube try to let it soak. I knew that the tars on the plunger were also what held the end cap in place binding the metal of the barrel and the cap to each other. Typically the end cap had a rubber grommet on it that held it in place with a friction fit. In this case it appeared that the rubber grommet was compressed against the metal on the inside of the barrel and bound it in place.IMG_2538I cleaned the plunger and sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the hard tarry build up on it. I wiped it down with alcohol and then sanded it until the plunger was shiny and clean. I cleaned out the inside of the stem and the plunger with both bristle and regular pipe cleaners.IMG_2539 IMG_2540I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and used all sizes of the cutting heads to ream back the carbon build up in the bowl.IMG_2541 IMG_2542 IMG_2543The bowl was badly dinged and hammered leaving some deep denting. I topped the rim with a topping board to clean up the damaged top edge.IMG_2544 IMG_2545I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads and then used a flat blade screwdriver to remove the screw from the bottom of the bowl and remove bottom cap on the bowl. I wiped down the inside of the cap and cleaned the screw with a brass bristle tire brush. I wiped it down with alcohol and then sanded the outside of the cap and screw with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to polish them.IMG_2546 IMG_2547The rim had two rather large fills that needed to be hidden with stain. I used the stain pens to restain the rim and the bowl. I started with the lightest colour pen and finished with the darkest colour.IMG_2548I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I put the metal cap back in place and turned the screw into the bottom of the bowl.IMG_2549 IMG_2550The end cap still did not come off after I had soaked it with alcohol. I used a Robertson head screw driver with a long shank and inserted it in the barrel. I hammered the end with a hammer and tried to drive it out of the barrel. It cam half way out but I could not budge it further. I boiled a cup of water and let the barrel and end cap sit in it to see if I could loosen the tars. I repeated this three times with the cooling of the water. I then inserted the screw driver and was able to drive out the cap. It was covered with a black tar build up and the inside of the barrel was also thickly coated. I cleaned out the inside of the end cap and the barrel with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I rubbed down the rubber grommet on the stem and the end cap with Vaseline to soften them again and then inserted them in place in the barrel.IMG_2551I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the tooth marks and the oxidation. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I gave the stem a final buff with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine.IMG_2552 IMG_2553 IMG_2554The finished pipe is shown below. I rubbed the stem down with some Conservator’s Wax – a microcrystalline wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. I avoid using the buffer on metal as it turns the pads black and does not shine the metal. I put it back together and it is ready for its inaugural smoke. I have two other Kirstens that are great smokers and this one with be added to that number until the day I pass it on to someone along the way.IMG_2555 IMG_2556 IMG_2557 IMG_2558

Looking Over My Metal, Nylon and Bakelite Pipes with Threaded Bowls

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Blog by Steve Laug

It is funny how the number of pipes one has seems to grow exponentially. It is almost as if they are breeding in the drawers I keep them stored in. This afternoon I thought I would take out assorted metal stemmed pipes and then added the Nylon and Bakelite pipes as well. All of them have threaded bowls that are interchangeable within the brand of pipes. None of them are interchangeable with each other.

The first photo below shows my two Dr. Grabow Vikings. I have two of them and one of them I restemmed. They do not have any stamping on them but the base and the design of the stems matches other Vikings that I have had.
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The next photo shows my three Falcon Bents. All of my Falcon pipes were made in England including the straight shank one in the second photo. The bowls are interchangeable among the Falcons but not on the Grabows. I have refinished all of the bowls. The second and third bowl below were unfinished when I bought them on Ebay so I sanded them and finished them.
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The next photo shows my only Falcon straight. I have had many of these over the years and sold or gave them away. I refinished the bowl on this pipe as well.
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The next photo shows a unique metal pipe – a Dr. Plumb Peacemaker – Made in England. This pipe has a very narrow shank from the top view but a wide shank from the side. The bowl is threaded and only fits the Peacemaker pipes.
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The next two pictured below were made by Kirsten in Seattle, Washington, USA. The top one was a silver barrel and stem I picked up on Ebay. I carved and fitted the meerschaum bowl to fit the barrel. The second one is a Kirsten Mandarin. I bought this pipe in the 80’s brand new. It is a lightweight pipe and has a large diameter bowl. The stem is a thick Lucite and not particularly comfortable.
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The next two photos show a two bowl Bryson metal pipe. I did a write up on the blog on refurbishing this old pipe. It was a challenge. The bowls are actually compressed briar dust – almost like particle board. The grain on the smooth one was a decal. The rustication on the other hides the nature of the material.
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The pipe pictured below has a Nylon stem and base. The bowl is not briar but an alternative wood. It has the appearance of maple but I am uncertain of the wood. It is extremely lightweight. I wrote a blog post on the refurbishing of this pipe as well. If you are interested do a search for Nylon pipes among the posts and you can read about it.
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The final photo shows some of my Bakelite Pipe stems and bases with interchangeable bowls. Three of them are made by WDC. I reworked the bowls and restemmed two of them. The Bakelite stem and base are hard and quite resilient. The bottom pipe in the photo has no name stamped on it and is a Bakelite bowl and stem. I have not seen one of these before and enjoyed refurbishing it.
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These pipes hold a unique place in my collection. I find that I do not smoke any of them that often. The Falcons and Grabows are kept for their uniqueness and their place in pipe and tobacco history. I enjoy working on them. They tend to pass through my collection quite often. Today I have the ones pictured but they may well be gone in the months ahead and replaced by others. The Brylon and the Peacemaker are kept for their uniqueness and will probably remain with me. The Kirstens I smoke and enjoy infrequently but find that I pick them up several times a year to have the dry smoke they offer. The final photo of the WDC pipes and the Bakelite bowled pipe pictures pipes that will remain with me and not be traded or sold unless I find better versions of them.