L’Anatra dalle Uova d’Oro Pipe

Blog by Steve Laug

Last week I received a call from a local Vancouver Pipe Shop that I do repairs for regularly. The Fellow on the line said he needed my help with a Brand New Pipe he had in hand. He had taken the pipe out of its package and turned the stem to have the tenon snap in the shank. He was very shaken as I could hear from his voice. He said that the pipe was a beautiful L’Anatra Freehand with a plateau rim top. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read L’Anatra [over] dalle Uova d’Oro [over] Fiammata followed by a single egg. Underneath that it was stamped Hand Made In Italy. He said he would courier the pipe over to me so I could replace the tenon. I have included photos of the pipe when it arrived so you could see what I was going to deal with. It is truly a stunning piece of briar. I had to laugh as he had sent it in a Dunhill pipe box and included the original price tag on the pipe. The price was high enough to sufficiently spook me but then again I have worked on quite few pipes like this. I took photos of the rim top to show the clean bowl and the pretty plateau rim top. The egg shaped look of the rim top from the top was quite beautiful. I also took photos of the stem to show that the tenon had snapped off almost flush against the end of the stem.I rotated the bowl and took photos of the stamping on the shank. It was clear and readable as noted above.I decided to start my work on the pipe by pulling the tenon. The first two photos show the snapped tenon. The first shows that it snapped very close to the end of the stem. The second shows the broken tenon firmly stuck in the shank. All my normal methods for pulling a broken tenon did not work – it was stuck fast. I put the bowl in the freezer while I had a coffee. When I finished the coffee I tried to pull the tenon again with the screw and it came out very easily. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to remove the fragments of the broken tenon on the stem face. I went through my tenons and found one that would fit the shank. I put the tenon in the shank and took some photos of the fit. It was looking very good. Now it was time to work on replacing the broken tenon. I drilled out the smoothed face of the stem with a cordless drill and a bit roughly the size of the airway in the stem. I find that this helps to center the drilling. I worked my way through 3 drill bits up to 15/64s which is the largest size drill bit that I could safely use on this stem.I reduced the diameter of the portion of the replacement tenon to fit the newly drilled airway. I started with the Dremel and sanding drum and cleaned up the fit with a pair of files. Once I was finished the fit in the new opening on the stem was snug. I shortened the length of the tenon to fit the stem depth. I took a photo of the newly shaped tenon along with a new one. You can see the difference in the length and in the stepped down portion that will go in the stem.
I turned it into the stem and took photos to show the fit in the stem. It looks really good. Still polishing to do at this point as well as gluing the tenon in the stem.
I fit a pipe cleaner in the stem and then coated the shaped tenon end with black CA glue and pressed it into the drilled airway in the stem. I set it aside to let the glue harden.The bowl was in excellent new condition and did not need any attention. I think it has a thin coat of shellac or varnish so it still had its new pipe shine. I polished the newly fit tenon with micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out and give it a shine. It really is a nice looking pipe. This Italian Hand Made L’Anatra dalle Uova d’ Oro Fiammata 1 Egg Grade Freehand turned out to be a beautiful pipe. The finish on the briar is beautiful and the grain is quite stunning around the bowl and shank. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with some carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished black acrylic stem. This classic looking Freehand L’Anatra dalle Uova d’ Oro Freehand feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 5/8 inches wide x 2 ¼ inches long, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 77 grams/2.72 oz. It is a beautiful pipe and another one that will be heading back to the Vancouver Pipe Shop after replacing the broken tenon.Thanks for walking through the tenon replacement with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Blog by Steve Laug

I got a call from a customer of a local pipe shop about a possible pipe repair. He had dropped his L’Anatra dalle Uova d’Oro pipe and the stem had snapped at the tenon. He wanted to know if I could repair it for him. He stopped by yesterday afternoon for me to have a look at it and today I had the time to work on it. This kind of break is actually a nice one if you are going to have them. It snapped off pretty close to the stem end and he was able to pull it out of the shank. This is actually the first L’Anatra pipe that I have worked on and one I could easily have added to my collection. It is my kind of shape. I have looked at them in various pipe shops and always like the look and the feel but this is the first one that has crossed the work table. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the name of the brand L’Anatra, under that it read dalle Uova d’Oro. Underneath it reads Made in Italy. L’Anatra dalle Uova d’Oro in English means “The Duck that Lays Golden Eggs”. On the underside of the shank it is stamped with three eggs which refers to the grade of the pipe.

When he dropped the pipe off, I took some photos of the broken tenon. The first three photos show the pipe before I started the repair. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to flatten out the end of the stem and finished it on the topping board to make a flat surface for the new tenon to sit against. I started drilling out the airway with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway and worked my way up to the same size as the threaded end on the new tenon. I do not use the power on the drill but rather carefully turn the stem onto the drill bit slowly making sure to hold the stem straight against the bit.Once the airway is opened to the length of the threaded portion of the new tenon I used a tapping tool to thread the sides of the newly drilled airway so that I could screw in the new tenon.Once the airway was tapped I used a knife to cut a small bevel in the end of the stem so that the new tenon would sit tight against the face of the stem. I used the knife to also bevel the end of the tenon to match the original tenon that had broken off. With all the preparations done I screwed the tenon in place to check the fit. Once I knew that the fit was correct I unscrewed it from the stem, brushed the threads with some slow drying epoxy and turned the new tenon into the stem. This was a case of a perfect fit. The photo below shows the newly replaced tenon.I noticed there was some light tooth chatter on the stem so I polished it out with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I polished the tenon with micromesh sanding pads to remove the sanding marks and scratches in the Delrin. I put the stem in place in the shank and buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave the stem and bowl several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to give it a deep shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The owner will soon pick up his pipe and fire it up again with his favourite tobacco. Thanks for looking.