Tag Archives: Mixing a bowl coating of Sour cream and activated charcoal powder

Let’s Try This Again – Re-cleaning the Bowl of a Bertram 55 Lovat and Giving it a Bowl Coating

Blog by Steve Laug

A while ago I sold this Bertram Grade 55 Lovat to a fellow who was excited to get it. When it arrived he examined it and sent me a message that it had a lot of carbon in the bowl and had a crack as well. I am pretty sure we left a thin coat of cake in the bowl but we generally clean the pipes we work on very well. I knew that I had gone over it with a fine tooth comb and was not sure what he meant about a crack. It did not matter though as he was not happy with the purchase. I refunded his payment and postage and had him send the pipe back to me. It took a while to arrive but I really wanted to see what was going on. Before I talk about what I found though, here is the link to the restoration of the pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/04/13/the-8th-of-a-collection-of-bertrams-a-bertram-55-lovat/). It really was a beautiful piece of briar.

It is a Bertram Grade 55 in a classic Lovat shape and some amazing grain on a proportionally well carved pipe. Once it was buffed the pipe the briar came alive and the mixture of grain – cross, swirled and birdseye – popped with polishing. The black vulcanite stem had a rich glow. The finished pipe is a beautiful grained Lovat shaped pipe. Like the other Bertrams I have worked on this one fits well in the hand and sits right in the mouth. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 1/4 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 33 grams/1.16 oz. I have included photos of the pipe after the first restoration to show the beauty of the pipe. When it arrived in its shipping box I actually let it sit here for a few days. I was quite discouraged that somehow I had missed a crack in the bowl. To my mind I expected to open the box and find some horizontal crack around the bowl somewhere. I just could not figure it out or even imagine how I had missed that.

When I finally opened the box and unpacked it I went over it even more thoroughly than before. I worked my way around the rim, bowl sides and bottom with a bright light and a lens. There were no cracks in the exterior of the briar that I could find. I breathed a sigh of relief about that. The bowl was not cracked externally! Whew. Then I went over the interior of the bowl using a light and a dental pick. The front, back and left side of the bowl were solid. There was however a large area on the right side of the bowl that had some significant checking. I picked it clean and it definitely had what looked like a crack. I have learned that sometimes these are surface fissures so I would need to reclean and ream the bowl again and then re-examine it. I set it aside for awhile and worked on some other pipes.

I finally got around to dealing with the issue this evening. I started by scraping all of the cake off the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I took it back to bare briar and remove all possible cake. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a dowel and smoothed out the bowl surface. I was able to remove almost all of the offending checking. There was a small spot of it left midbowl on the right side so I decided to mix up a bowl coating of activated charcoal and sour cream. I applied it to the inside of the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner and painted the walls. I let the first coat dry for 30 minutes and then gave it a second coat. Once it was coated I set the bowl aside to let the coating cure over night. I set it aside for an overnight cure that eventually ended up being two days. The coating dried black and smooth on the bowl sides. There really is no smell in the bowl which always surprises most folks. I used a flashlight to illuminate the walls of the bowl and took some photos to show what it looks like now. You can see the small ridges in the bowl coating but it is smooth to touch. I put the stem and bowl of this lovely Bertram Lovat Grade 55 back together. It really is a beautiful little pipe. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I polished the briar and the vulcanite of the stem until there was a rich shine. This Bertram has a classic Lovat shape and some amazing grain on a proportionally well carved pipe. The briar came alive and the mixture of grain – cross, swirled and birdseye – popped with polishing. The black vulcanite stem had a rich glow. The finished pipe is a beautiful grained Lovat shaped pipe. The neutral bowl coating should take care of the checking issues on the bowl walls and give the pipe a long life. The dimensions are Length: 5 1/4 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 32 grams/1.13 ounces. This one will be going back on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers section soon. I will be pricing it as a bargain for someone to add to their rack. If you are interested let me know.

Christmas Addendum – Short Snorter Burn Through Repair

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Blog by Dal Stanton

Having semi-completed the restoration of the unmarked Weber Short Snorter previously (see Link), since my wife and I were heading to Denver for Christmas, I ran out of time to complete the needed repair of this Short Snorter’s burn through problems. The slender horn shape had contributed to a thinning front firewall which in turn had created a darkened burnt area on the front of the bowl, which in turn had produced a burn fissure crack in the impacted briar. My subsequent attempt to repair the crack by drilling holes (not going through to the fire chamber!) on either side of the crack to halt any crack creep, resulted in one of the drilled holes punching through the thinner-than-expected wall…. Things went from bad to worse in a blink! A briar dust mixed with superglue patch soon followed. I completed the full restoration of stummel and stem except for rebuilding the fire chamber. A few pictures serve as a reminder of the restoration dealing with the burn area bringing us up to date. With this Short Snorter destined to be under the tree in Denver as a gift for my daughter, Santa’s sleigh took the shape of Lufthansa Airlines from Sofia via Munich to Denver to deliver the gift in time. Now that Christmas Day is finished, the Short Snorter unwrapped and introduced to a new steward, I need to complete the repair to the internal burn area. Using Charles Lemon’s technique, author of Dad’s Pipes, of applying JB Weld to rebuild the internal firewall, I had ordered JB Kwik from Amazon and it arrived in the mail in Denver for my use with the Short Snorter. To make sure the internal bowl was clean; I wiped it down with alcohol. The trick will be to do the work and not disturb the externals which are already completed!Since this is my first time using a JB Weld product I read the directions – a novel idea! I discover that the mixture between the two tubes that make up the ‘weld’ is straight forward. The JB Kwik ‘hardener’ and ‘steel’ are mixed at a 1 to 1 ratio. The directions also describe a window of 4 minutes until the mixture sets and then 4 hours until fully cured. The JB Weld website gives JB Kwik a tensile strength rating at 2424 PSI and withstanding temperatures up to 300ºF (See Link). Since I want to build-up the thinned fire chamber wall with a thick layer of JB Weld, I insert a folded pipe cleaner into the mortise and slightly out the draft hole as it enters the internal bowl. When I put the JB Weld mixture in the bowl, I don’t want the airway plugged! Since this is my first go at using JB Weld, I did not know how much to use. I squirt out probably more than needed, but I would rather err on that side than not enough. I first put some hardener on the cardboard mix area. Then, taking more effort to squeeze out of the tube, I put an almost equal amount of ‘steel’ next to it and then mix. When it appeared mixed, using the end of a plastic spoon as a spatula (left over from our Christmas feast!) I try to apply the mixture carefully – wanting to avoid the finished rim! With a gloved hand, I use my pinky finger to contour the weld mixture over the forward burned area making sure the thin chamber wall is reinforced well with added thickness and I also shape the round curvature of the forward chamber patched area. As careful as I try to be, I dribble a bit of weld mixture over the rim. With a wetted paper towel, I easily can wipe the rim dribble off while the weld mixture is in the setting state. I also wipe the inner rim with my gloved thumbnail to clean away the weld mixture leaving a briar strip above the patched area. Pictures show the progress. After about 5 minutes, I take the following picture. The JB Kwik is setting and I put it aside for its 4-hour rest to cure.Hindsight is 20/20 they say. In hindsight, I should have removed the pipe cleaner while the JB Weld was still pliable and shaped the draft hole. After the JB Kwik Weld cured, I yank a bit on the pipe cleaner and the pipe cleaner is not budging! After unsuccessfully pulling on the welded pipe cleaner a few times, I take needle-nose plyers and extract the pipe cleaner leaving behind pipe cleaner fibers. To remove the left-over pipe cleaner fiber and to contour the draft hole I sand with a round needle file. I follow this with 220 grit sanding paper and smooth the internal surface between the native briar and the cured JB Weld patch and finish by wiping the bowl with 95% isopropyl to remove left over dust and debris. The last picture in the set below clearly shows the reinforced area of the fire chamber. It looks good and feels smooth. The pictures show the progress. To complete the bowl repair, I mix sour cream and charcoal to form a paste that I use to create a protective insulation around the bowl. This insulation provides the foundation for a new cake to form to protect the briar long-term. After cured, it is hard and leaves no taste or smell. When Steve first told me about this mixture, I was a bit doubtful! Yet, after using this mixture several times, his assurances have been verified. After applying the paste to the internal wall with a folded pipe cleaner, I set the bowl aside to cure well overnight.The next morning I record the following pictures completing this Christmas Addendum of the Short Snorter from Denver. I trust you all have had a wonderful Christmas and you will enjoy a blessed New Year! Thanks for joining me!