Tag Archives: Oxidation

Easy Restoration of a 3-Star Pipes by Lee Rhodesian

Blog by Aaron Henson – 2/20/16

I have found that writing up my pipe restorations is handicapped by my in-ability to remember to take pictures as I am working. On this Pipes by Lee Rhodesian I did a little better job at taking pictures. Although this was a simple restoration I thought I would take the opportunity to share my experience.

I found this 3-star Lee with two other pipes (a Mastercraft and a Grabow) in a lot at a local antique shop. I wanted to know more about the Lee brand but I found there is not much out there. But here is what I found:

The Pipes by Lee brand was distributed by Stewart-Allen Co, Inc., NY. The pipes were graded by stars: 1 to 5 stars (5 being the high end). Early pipes have seven pointed stars; the middle run have five pointed stars and later pipes are stamped with colored gold stars. (the preceding content from the “Pipes: Logos & Markings” website and the 1947 Ad, courtesy Doug Valitchka).

This pipe has three 7-point gold/brass stars set in a line in the top of the stem. I could not find the dates of the different runs/eras mention above but based on the ad I would have to guess my pipe dates to the late 1940’s to 1950’s.

The Pipe
The outside of the pipe was in very good condition. The briar was clean and the stem was moderately oxidized. The stamps on the shank were very clear: left side read ‘Pipe by Lee’ over ‘Limited Edition’. The right side of the shank is stamped ‘An Authentic’ over ‘Imported Briar’. The stem was slightly over-clocked and the previous owner had placed a couple of sheets of paper between the stem and shank to act as a spacer. There was one divot in the bottom stem near the button but otherwise was free from tooth chatter.

The internals were a different story; the chamber had a healthy cake buildup and good amount of tar on the rim. The shank was full of tar and the stinger was coated in dried tar. The internals of the stem itself were not as bad as the shank and I will attribute this to the removable filter/stinger. I began the restoration by cleaning the rim. I moistened a little powdered Oxyclean and placed it on a damp green-pad. I laid the pad on a flat surface and worked the bowl much like I was topping it. I don’t have a picture of the result but this worked very well.

The cake was very hard and resisted my attempts with the reamer so set the bowl to soak in alcohol overnight. I also set the stem to soak in an Oxyclean bath using a pipe cleaner to hold the stinger out of the solution.With the cake nice and soft, I reamed the bowl back to bare wood with little difficulty. An inspection of the inside of the chamber showed that the briar to be sound and without burnouts or cracks. The airway was clear and located precisely at the bottom center of the chamber. The alcohol soak also removed much of the stain and revealed three small pink fills that would have to be addressed.I finished up the internals by cleaning the shank with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out as clean as they went in.

I neglected the pictures during this next part but in summary I used a dental pick to remove fills and packed the voids with briar dust. A dab of clear CA (cyanoacrylate) glue set the dust in place. After drying, the fills were sanded smooth. I also sanded the entire bowl (except around the stamps) with 1500-3200 micromesh pads.

Returning to the stem, I removed the aluminum ‘filter’ and cleaned it and the threads with 0000 steel wool and alcohol. Then I tried to raise the divot out of the stem with flame from a lighter. I didn’t expect to completely eliminate the divot but wanted to reduce it as much as possible before filling it. The fill was made with black CA glue and charcoal powder then sanded smooth when cured.

I polished the stem by wet sanding with 1500-4000 micromesh pads, rubbing down with mineral oil after each group of the three pads. A plastic washer was placed between the stem and the stummel at this stage to prevent damaging the wood and to keep from rounding the shoulder of the stem. At this point I set up the alcohol retort. It took three test tubes until the alcohol was clean; note that I left the filter off during the retort. I won’t describe the retort process because that can be found in other posts but I do want to comment on one point. I have found that heating the alcohol often time lead to an explosive boiling – not a very controlled process. The smooth surface of the test tube and purity of the alcohol does not provide a surface for bubble to form on. However, if I add a small foreign object to the bottom of the tube the boil is much more controlled. I small piece of cake or charred candle wick gives the bubbles a place to form and eliminate the possibility of super-heating the alcohol.Now that the pipe was cleaned and sanitized I finished the stummel by applying two coats of Feibing’s light brown aniline stain. I flamed the stain to set it and then wiped off the excess with a cotton pad and alcohol. While reassembling the pipe I heated the threaded tenon and re-align the stem. Then I coated the entire pipe with mineral oil and set it aside to soak in before applying three coats of carnauba wax.

Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think.

If it’s good enough for Bing then it’s good enough for me – Mastercraft Standard Oom Paul

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Over the years I have cleaned up quite a few Mastercraft pipes. My brother picked one up on Ebay for me recently. It looked like a good one when he sent me the photos of the pipe. I could not wait for it to arrive and I could begin to work on it. In one of my earlier blogs I wrote a bit about the history of the brand (https://rebornpipes.com/2014/06/22/learned-a-bit-of-american-pipe-history-mastercraft-executive-choice-pot-restored/). In that article I made the connection of the brand to Bing Crosby. I posted this old advertisement for the pipes with the old crooner himself.

The connection between the pipe in this advert and the Oom Paul I received from my brother. They both bear the same stamping. The both had the shield on the left side of the shank and then bore the same stamping. The Oom Paul was stamped Mastercraft over Standard in the shield. On the right side of the shank it was stamped I continued through the Google list for Mastercraft and one of the next listing was in Pipedia. http://pipedia.org/wiki/Mastercraft

It doesn’t appear that Mastercraft was ever a manufacturer and bought pipes from multiple factories — mostly French and English. It survived briefly the post war recovery and then was acquired by Grabow. As an importer of finished pipes M/C worked with many of the world’s foremost pipe makers and had in inventory finished product from the likes of… England: Hardcastle and Orlik. France: Ropp, Jeantet, Jean LaCroix. Italy: Lorenzo, Gasparini, Federico Rovera, Emilio Rovera, GIGI Pipe, Brebbia, Santambrogio, Fratelli Rossi. Israel: Shalom and Alpha. Plus all the tools, pouches and lighters from Hong Kong and Japan. The list of suppliers is enormous.

I had also found some older RTDA Almanac pages on Chris’ Pipe Pages site. http://pipepages.com/index.html. The first one of these shows the Mastercraft Standard. It sold for $3.50 and was a midrange pipe value as shown on the list below.The first of these shows the address of the Mastercraft Pipe Company in New York which was where they were prior to moving to North Carolina. I clipped this image from the 1949 RTDA Almanac. It is an early catalogue listing, since the brand was created in 1941. My guess, judging from the previous advertisement and the 1949 RTDA Almanac clipping above, is that the pipe I have is from the period between the beginning of the company and the publication of this catalogue (1941-1949). After that period in the 50’s and 60’s the names of the pipes changed and I was not able to find the Mastercraft Standard in later catalogues.

The photo to the left and the next two photos that follow are the ones my brother sent to me before I received the pipe. They give a good idea of the condition of the pipe when I received it. The pipe had a natural finish, no stain on the briar. Over the years the briar takes on a richer colour. This one had taken on a reddish tint. The stamping on the left side still showed the gold stamping in some of the grooves. There were specks of white paint on the bowl, shank and stem. There was also some darkening on the sides at the shank junction with the bowl from oils and soiling from the previous pipe man’s hands. The rim was thickly tarred with lava overflow. The bowl had a thin cake on the top 2/3 and the bottom 1/3 was still fresh briar showing raw briar. The pipe obviously had not been smoked to the heel. The stem was quality rubber and did not show signs of metal fragments in the mix that seem to appear in many of the war year pipes. There was little oxidation but there were tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. There was tooth chatter on both sides. The stem did not fit tight against the end of the shank.

When the pipe arrived I put it in my refurbishing box and would eventually get to it. Today I took it out of the box to work on it. I removed the stem and was a bit surprised to see the interesting and unusual stinger apparatus in the end of the tenon. It had a flat blade that ended in a point. It was almost a spear point. It sat down in the sump of the shank. It ended at a spiral cylindrical piece with a slot in the last half of the cylinder. It fit into tenon by pressure and was easily twisted free.

I scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and soil in the briar and the white flecks of paint on the bowl and shank. I scrubbed the rim with the acetone as well to try to remove the lava overflow that was present. I used a pen knife and scraped at the lava between wipes of acetone and was able to remove the buildup without damaging the finish on the rim. I did not need to top the bowl!

The acetone removed the grime from the briar and all of previous coats of wax that had given it a dull finish.

Once I had cleaned the finish of the bowl and shank with the acetone I washed it down with alcohol and dried it off. I used some antique gold Rub ‘n Buff to restore the stamping to its previous look.

I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush and a little Conservator’s Wax to protect it during the rest of the clean up. Though I probably should have done the next step before the work on the stamping I did not do so. But such is the way things go. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the third cutting head to take back the cake to bare briar. Since the bottom 1/3 of the bowl was uncaked I wanted the transition between the sides of the bowl from top to bottom to be smooth.

I scrubbed the stinger with alcohol and cotton swabs to remove the grime. I also scrubbed it with a brass tire brush. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaner, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. I was surprised to find that the tenon was lined with an aluminum tube. The stinger pressed against the sides of the tube when it was inserted. I think it was also an attempt to strengthen the tenon. I scrubbed out the mortise, sump and airway on the bowl with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol until they came out clean. I sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove them as they were not too deep.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil, then left it to dry.

I rubbed down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil and then buffed it with Blue Diamond. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I gave it a final buff with a microfiber cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It should provide many years of service to the next pipe man whose rack it graces. It will likely outlive both that pipe man and me and be passed on it trust to the next person who will enjoy it companionship for the years that they have it in trust. These old pipes always outlive the pipe man who keeps them company if they are well cared for (and even sometimes when they are not!).

Putting the Rusticated Rim back on a Savinelli Capri 121 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

One of the gift pipes received from a friend when I repaired his pipe was a beautiful little Savinelli Capri 121 Pot. I love the finish on the Capris. There is something about the rusticated finish that adds a tactile dimension to the pipe that I thoroughly appreciate. This pipe was no exception. The finish on the bowl was in excellent condition though at some point in its life it had been topped. The typical rustication on the rim surface had been sanded smooth and the rim had been stained with a reddish brown stain. The internals of the pipe were very clean. The bowl had been reamed and the airway in the mortise was spotless. The stamping on the bottom of the shank was sharp and legible – it reads Savinelli Capri over Root Briar and the Savinelli shield and next to that the shape #121 over Italy.

The stem had seen better days but it was still repairable. It was oxidized and the gold stamping was faint on top of the saddle. There were tooth marks on the top and the bottom of the stem. The ones on top had been repaired and filled with a white looking epoxy. It was hard and smooth but it was white and it looked really bad with the brown oxidation on the stem. These would need to be removed and repaired when I worked on the stem. The tooth marks on the underside of the stem were not as deep and could easily be remedied by sanding the stem. The inside of the stem was also very clean. I took the following photos when I brought the pipe to the work table.

I took some close-up photos of the rim and the stem to show the condition of both. The topping job on the rim actually was very well done. The refinish on it was impeccable – no scratches or grooves, just a clean smooth surface. The stem shows the story I mentioned above. The top side view shows the repairs and the underside view shows the dents.

Taking care of the dents on the underside of the stem was an easy matter. They were not too deep so I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and they disappeared. The top of the stem was another matter. I wanted to remove the white repairs. I sanded the stem until they were four distinct repairs. Then I used the dental pick to pick away at the white epoxy repair until it was pitted and gave me a new divot to work with. I used some black super glue to refill the divots and cover the white that had been present before.

I sprayed the glue with an accelerator and then sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the stem. In the next photo you can see that the white no longer was visible. The trick would be to keep it that way!

Now it was time to address the rim. I was not sure about rusticating it because it actually looked quite fine the way it was. I went online and found a photo of a Capri that was the same shape and the rim was rusticated. I liked the look of the rim blending into the finish of the bowl. The decision was made. Now I had to work to get a similar look. took out my Dremel and my assortment of burrs. I was pretty certain that I would use them all in the process of rusticating the rim with a deep and pebbled look. I started with a simple cylindrical burr to carve some random swirls across the rim. I did this lightly at first and then deepened them. At this point I kept to the middle of the rim as I had ideas about rusticating the edges a little differently. I followed that by using the ball burr to deepen the swirls and work on the inner and outer edges of the rim. At this point the surface was beginning to look good. But too me it was not rustic enough for the Capri finish on the bowl – it was too tame looking. I used cone burr next with a cross hatch pattern to randomize the pattern even more and deepen the grooves in the surface and edges. I next moved onto another cone burr with a spiral pattern and continued to work on the rim pattern. It was getting close to the point I was aiming for. I used the last cone burr that had a swirl pattern in the opposite direction and went over the rim again to further accent the roughness. I used the cylindrical burr to cut some of the lines between the divots and edges of the bowl and make it more craggy looking. At this point in the process I was finished with the burrs and I put a coat of medium brown stain on the high points in the rustication using a stain pen. I followed that up with using a black Sharpie pen to fill in the divots and low spots on the rustication.

I scrubbed the newly stained rim with a brass bristle brush to knock off some of the high spots and get a more burnished look like the bowl sides. I still was not happy with the stain so I used the sharpie again to darken the low spots and grooves. I then restained the rim with the dark brown stain pen. The colour was very close to the sides of the bowl.

I could have probably stopped there but I did not. I studied the photo of the rim above and noted that there were some striations or cuts in the surface of the rim that connected all the rustication and gave it a distressed look. I have a serrated edge letter opener here that I thought might work to give me more of that look. I cut the surface from every direction with the edge of the letter opener and carved and hacked it to distress it. I used the brass brush once again and then recut the rim with the opener. I restained the rim with the black Sharpie and the dark brown pen. And then gave it a light buff on the wheel with Blue Diamond. I say light because if I had pressed any harder the polishing material would have gone into the grooves and made a mess. The rim looked good to me. The finish was done and all that remained was to wax it with some Conservator’s Wax. I gave the bowl and rim several coats of Conservator’s Wax (works like Halcyon II on rusticated finishes) and buffed it with a shoe brush to polish and give a shine. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads to begin the polishing process. It was tricky around the stamp on the shank so I had to work carefully with the pad to get as much of the oxidation as possible.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond to further polish it and then sanded it with 4000 grit wet dry sandpaper to really work on the oxidation at the shank. It is a finicky part of the process because of the weak stamping. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then progressed to 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads. Another coat of oil preceded the final sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave the stem a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.

I buffed the pipe with a shoe brush and then with a microfibre cloth. I gave it several more coats of the Conservator’s Wax and polished it to a shine. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba to protect it and then buffed the stem with a clean buff to raise the shine. I hand buffed the entirety one final time with a shoe brush and then took the finished photos below. This was a fun project. You can see that the white stem repairs have disappeared and the rustication on the rim fits the overall look of the pipe far better than the smooth finish that was there before. Thanks for looking.

It was A Kaywoodie Metal Pipe that I had never seen before

13 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

My brother, Jeff has caught the pipe hunting bug and that is a great thing for me. It won’t kill him and he won’t suffer too much harm from it unless he gets carried away and gets in trouble with the wife. But it is good news for me. It means that with him we can cover twice the ground looking for old pipes than I used to do by myself. It also means that he comes on things that I have never seen. He is in the US and I am in Canada and we have different stomping grounds for our hunt other than the odd time we are in the same place. I don’t remember if we found this one while we were looking at eBay together using Facetime or if it was a find on a hunt. But it does not really matter as we got it. It is an old Kaywoodie the style of which I have never seen before. The base unit is the typical long metal shank but rather than a cup the bowl threads into this one has a ring on the end. It is split on the end of the bowl and goes around the base of the bowl. When I first looked at it I was hooked. I wanted to see it and work on it. The thing that caught my eye was the unusual look of the pipe. I wanted to see how the bowl was held in the ring.

The pipe was in pretty decent shape from the photos. The stem had the usual tooth chatter and oxidation around the button. The Kaywoodie club emblem on the stem looked rough. The embossed emblem in the aluminum shank was really clean. The entire base unit was oxidized but clean. The briar also was very clean. There was some darkening and lava on the back edge of hte rim and a thin cake in the bowl but no inner or outer edge rim damage. The base plate was stamped Kaywoodie Filter Pipe Pat. Pend and there was a slot in the bowl. It appeared that someone had tried to use a screwdriver to turn the base plate and damaged it. To me the slot looks like it was made for a coin to turn the base. The next photo shows the pin on the front of the briar bowl and the split in the ring of the base unit. To me it is hard to figure out how the bowl is to be removed. While my brother had it in hand in the states looking it over and trying to figure out how to remove the bowl I did a quick search and found the pipe on the Smoking Metal site (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=132). The site had the following information and pictures that I have copied to use here. The first paragraph gave me the information I was searching for on how to remove the bowl. I read it to my brother and he tried it and bowl came free. He showed me the pieces on Facetime. I was fascinated.

“Many of these wrecked by folk not realising how the bowl is released. Pulling the bit out of the stem and twisting half turn in either direction releases the retaining pin and allows the bowl to come free of the stem. The lower and right hand adverts are from October 1962 Flying Magazine
The pipes were $6.95, bowls @ $3.50 and 3 filters were 25 cents.”

“In the base of the bowl is a screw cap which when undone releases a ceramic filter. These filters came in plastic tubes containing three filters. As with all metal pipes, frequent cleaning is advisable to prevent any screws from becoming irretrievably sealed into pipe. The filters are at times available on eBay, but I have been told by Rob that soaking in alcohol (Everclear or IPA) can extend their life.”

The second photo below of the bowls and the third photo of the boxed set also come from the Smoking Metals website. In the photo of the bowls you can see the clay filter piece that sits in the bottom of the bowl. It is shaped like a flattened spool and there are holes in the top of the spool as well as a stamped Kaywoodie Club emblem. The bottom of the spool is indented and sits in the metal threaded base cap. In the third photo you can see how the filters were sold in plastic tubes that held three filters and sold for $.25.

Given all of information found in these photos I could not wait until the pipe arrived in Canada and I could take it apart and clean it up.

When the pipe arrived I took the bowl off per the above instructions and it worked quite simply. I could easily see why the Smoking Metal website said that many of the pipes were damaged by improperly removing the bowl. Fortunately this one was not damaged by me. The metal base plate was solidly stuck in place and I read above that the clay filter was not damaged by alcohol so I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath and let it sit all morning while I finished up some repairs I was doing. I took it out this afternoon and dried it off with a cotton cloth. The grime on the finish was gone and the bowl was clean. The lava on the rim was softened so I could work on it with more ease. It looked like I would not have to top the bowl to remove the lava. That is always a good thing. The rim edge was also not charred or burned which was a bonus as well.

I decided to take the bowl apart before working on cleaning it up. I inserted a quarter in the slot in the bottom plate and twisted it both directions until it came loose. Then I unscrewed it and took out the clay filter. The inside of the base and cap were thick with tars. The clay filter was black and goopy.

I cleaned out the bottom half of the bowl, the filter and the base cap with alcohol and cotton swabs. I picked the threads clean with a dental pick and then scrubbed them with the cotton swabs. I scrubbed the clay filter and used the pick to clean out the holes in the top of the spool and also the build up on the middle and bottom of the spool. I wiped it down with alcohol and cotton swabs.

I wiped down the outside of the bowl with alcohol and cleaned out the air hole on the side of the bowl. I used 0000 steel wool to scrub the inside of the base cap. With the bottom half of the bowl cleaned I reamed the top half of the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I took the cake back to bare wood.

I scrubbed the rim clean with cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove the lava build up. I sanded it lightly with a 3200 grit micromesh sanding pad and brought some shine to the rim.

I set the bowl aside and went to work on the metal base and vulcanite stem. I cleaned out the interior of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. The stem is spring loaded and cannot be removed from the base without potential damage so I ran many pipe cleaners through to clean out the tars and oils.

I sanded the stem to remove the oxidation and the tooth chatter. I used 220 grit sandpaper to break through the surface and then a medium grit sanding sponge.

I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and then put the pipe back together. I dropped the filter into the bottom of the bowl with the holes upward, lubricated the threads on the bottom cap with Vaseline and screwed it in place. I pulled the stem back and turned it to retract the aluminum tube into the shank and dropped the bowl in place. I let the stem reseat and the tube entered the bowl. The bowl was anchored in place. Now I had a bit of a handle on the pipe while I worked over the stem with micromesh sanding pads.

I started wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and quickly found that the club logo was just pieces in the indent in the stem. It was broken and not complete. The ragged look that I had noted earlier was the grit and grim holding the broken logo in place. I cleaned out the old pieces of logo with a dental pick and blew out the dust. I had a broken Kaywoodie stem with a club logo the same size as this one so I carefully liberated it from the broken stem for use on this one (it visible at the bottom of the first photo) I cleaned out the indent on the stem with air and then put some all purpose glue in the hole with the end of the dental pick. I pressed the new logo into the hole with the rounded handle of a dental spatula. The new logo looked good and it was smooth when you ran a finger over that area of the stem.

I reworked the stem with the 1500-2400 grit micromesh, this time dry sanding it. There was no need to wet sand it again. I was careful while sanding around the newly set logo so as not to risk lifting it from the stem. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads. The stem was beginning to take on a shine. I continued to polish it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final wipe down with Obsidian Oil. I let it dry.

I gave the stem several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed the stem by hand so as not to damage to the logo. I also hand buffed the bowl and metal base by hand with the wax and then rubbed it down with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the looks and mechanics of this old Kaywoodie. It is a pleasure to add it to my collection of metal pipes.

Just when I had given up on finding a great pipe this happens – but not to me

7 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

It has been a long time since I found a pipe of this caliber in a thrift shop of antique mall. It seems that the finds of earlier times are fewer and farther apart. Then something like what I am about to tell you happens – in this case happens to someone else. It creates in me a renewed passion for the hunt.

It is not too often that the pipes that others find set loose a twinge of jealousy in me but this one certainly did. It was one of my favourite shapes and he virtually stole it in terms of price. It was found by a pipeman on Vancouver Island. He found it in a local thrift/antique shop and paid $15 Canadian for it. For the Americans reading this our Canadian dollar is worth about 65 cents US. That is why I said that he stole the pipe, paying a whopping $9.75 US. He sent me a message on Facebook Messenger and asked if I would clean up the pipe for him and restore it. He sent me a photo that did not begin to tell the story of this beautiful little dog. We talked via Messenger and discussed the pipe. He sent it to me and I received it earlier this week.

It is a beautiful Shell Briar Bulldog. The bowl had a thick cake and was dirty on the outside. The finish looked undamaged by scratches and dents and merely bore a thick coat of dust and grime. The rim was in excellent shape – both inner and outer edges were undamaged. The stem was the worst part of the pipe – it was extremely oxidized and had a deep oxidation and also a very gritty feel in the hand. It almost felt like sand was stuck to the surface of the rubber. There were tooth marks on the top side of the stem and on the underside. There was a sticky spot on the top of the stem where there must have been a price tag at one point. The button and the slot were both undamaged and would clean up easily. There was an inner tube in the stem and shank of the pipe. It ran from the end of the tenon to the bottom of the bowl. These were made originally to facilitate keeping the airway clean. This one had a few oxidized spots on the surface of the aluminum and also was stained with tars and oils on the inside.

It was stamped on the flat underside of the bowl and shank as follows: On the bottom of the bowl it was stamped 148F/T which told me the shape number and the style of the stem – a fish tail. After that almost mid-shank it was stamped Dunhill Shell Briar. Next to that it was stamped Made in England7 0. From my read of the stamping the underlined 7 is added to the date 1960 which would make this pipe a 1967 pipe (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shellbriar1.html). I am not sure of the meaning of the 0 that sits between the underlined 7 and the Circle 3 S. I do know that the circle three tells me that this pipe is a Group 3 sized pipe and the S gives the finish which in this case is a Shell.

The next set of five photos show what the pipe looked like when it arrived at my work table.

I studied the pipe for a while before proceeding with my usual clean up. I shook of the remnants of pipe envy and congratulated the finder. I began by reaming the pipe with a PipNet Reamer. The bowl, being a Group 3 size would only take the smallest cutting head of the reamer. I took the cake back as close as possible to bare wood with the reamer. I had to finish the reaming with a small pen knife and removed the ridges and remnants of cake that are visible in the second photo below.

After I finished the reaming with the pen knife I used a brass bristle tire brush to clean up the finish on the top of the rim. I find that the soft brass bristles clean out the stubborn lava without doing damage to the blast/rustication finish on the rim. They also do not damage either the inner or outer edge of the rim. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the detritus that had collected in the crevices of the finish. I rinsed the bowl with running water and dried it off with a towel. I cleaned out the airway in the slot and stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol and cleaned out the inner tube the same way. I scrubbed the exterior of the inner tube with 0000 steel wool. The oxidation on the stem was deep and concentrated. It really was a mess. To try to soften the oxidation and bring it to the surface I mixed a batch of OxyClean and dropped the stem in the mixture to soak overnight and worked on the bowl. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and then buffed it with a shoe brush. I gave it several coats of Halcyon II wax and rebuffed with the shoe brush.

I cleaned out the shank and the mortise with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. Thanks to the inner tube it was not nearly as black and grimy as many of the older pipes that I clean up. In the morning I took the stem out of the Oxyclean bath and dried it off with a coarse cotton towel. The oxidation had softened considerably and I was able to scrape a little away with a fingernail (that is a “secret” test I use to see if it ready to come out of the soak).

I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. The oxidation was stubborn on this stem. It took a lot of work to get it out of the edges and curve of the saddle. Once I cut through the oxidation on the rough spots I moved on to sanding the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished by sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I let the oil dry.

I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel. I buffed the bowl with a light touch to make sure that I did not get the buffing compound in the crevices of the blast. I buffed the stem with a little heavier touch and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several coats of Halcyon II wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. I rubbed the bowl and stem down with a microfibre cloth for the final shine. It is now packed and on its way home to the lucky gent who found it. I have a renewed passion to take up the hunt for more pipes. Perhaps it will be my turn to find a treasure like this. Thanks for looking.

12647990_10156469550400557_62413239_n I received this photo last night of the pipeman who found this Dunhill. The mail delivered the pipe to him yesterday and he loaded it up and enjoyed a smoke. I don’t often get to see this end of the story! Thanks Ryan.

Breathing new life into this Dusky Dulcet Bulldog

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Blog by Geoff Carmell

It is a pleasure for me to post this first blog by Geoff Carmell. I have followed his work on Facebook and we have communicated via Messenger and email now for a while. We have common friends in the small pipe community of Calgary. I saw his work on this bulldog and knew it was going to a common friend so I asked him to do a blog on the restoration. Geoff, it is great to have this piece here. You have done some great work on that old pipe. Thanks for sharing it with us all. Welcome to rebornpipes.
Hello everyone, this is my first attempt at blogging about one of my pipe refinishing projects.

Before I begin, our host Steve Laug wanted me to give a brief introduction about myself. I am still quite a novice when it comes to the world of pipes but that hasn’t quelled my desire to keep collecting, refinishing and smoking pipes. For me it truly started while going to local antique shops last fall while my parents were visiting. I was hooked when I refinished one of those antique store finds and haven’t looked back since.

I wanted to take a moment and say that refinishing pipes as a hobby has really helped me in more ways than one. I live in Southern Alberta and I am a crane truck operator in the oil and gas industry. Last year was an extremely slow year for me and 2016 isn’t looking any better. As such, I needed an outlet to keep myself from going crazy worrying about all the “what if’s” in life.

This began my journey into the world of pipe refinishing. This nice little bulldog was one of my first eBay purchases and was really in decent shape needing very little work, or so I thought…

My first step was to thoroughly clean the bowl inside and out. I did my usual salt/alcohol soak to get rid of any “ghosts” in the bowl. Before I did that though, I used Q-tips and pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol to clean the shank. Once the bowl was sanitized I turned my attention to the outside of the bowl by using a lightly dampened patch of “0000” steel wool to clean off the grime. To my dismay, this “cleaning” uncovered a crack in the rim. Not sure of what to do I just began sanding the rim down to the point that the crack was no longer visible. After I finished sanding the rim, I turned my attention to the grooves on the front of the bowl which had all but disappeared due to the wood swelling. After lots of filing with my newly acquired needle files the grooves started to take shape again. With the rim and grooves in good shape again I sanded the bowl with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper. I then proceeded to dye the bowl with Fiebings mahogany leather dye. I set the dye by flaming it and then left that to sit overnight. I turned once again to my steel wool to help strip off the dye to reveal the beautiful grain underneath. The bowl seemed lacking, I decided to sand the rim of the bowl once more if only to reveal the original briar again, although it’s not noticeable in the pictures, I sanded the ridge between the two grooves as well to show some contrast. Once the sanding was complete I used my buffing wheel with brown Tripoli to further bring out the shine and then applied a couple of coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish.

After the bowl was done I used the buffing wheels to put a shine on the stem as well. After all the buffing and waxing is done I like to use a clean microfiber clothe to hand rub the bowl and stem. This really helps to get rid of any wax buildup. After all is said and done I really enjoyed this refinishing project and I was pleased that it turned out to be my first pipe that would go to a great guy in our church.
Thanks for looking.
Best regards,
Geoff

A Sad Lesson from a Botched GBD Repair (by Someone Else) I Tried to Mend

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipesnm.biz
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
― Thomas Bertram “Bert” Lance (1931-2013), U.S. bank teller to president and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter, in the May 1977 issue of “Nation’s Business” magazine

INTRODUCTION
This is a sad tale for all involved: the eBay seller from whom I purchased the GBD straight apple sitter this blog concerns, for $39.99 in April of last year, which the good lady in England refunded five days later; me, as the buyer who requested the refund after receiving the pipe and finding that the photos posted by the seller did not reveal the hidden nomenclature from a previous silver banding to fix an apparent crack in the shank, and at last, in a very real way, the person or persons unknown responsible for the banding itself that, nine months later, I have only just discovered was unnecessary. At least the last of the concerned parties is/are blithely unaware.

That’s right, you read correctly. Although I was justified in asking for the refund, and intended to pay the high postage required to return it to the seller beforehand, she responded, to my gentle but detailed account of the reasoning, with a message that can only be described as hysterical from an obvious sense of unjustified guilt for having “falsely advertised” the GBD. I never used that phrase in my request.

As I recall – though I can’t locate the exchange of emails between the Englishwoman and me that followed my awaiting the arrival of the GBD, with great expectations that were dashed by its clear flaws upon receipt – she wrote back that I should not bother returning it at all, but instead that she would promptly refund my money and I should “keep it, sell it for whatever you can, or throw it away, I don’t care.”

At that point, I was filled with remorse over the anguish in the tone and content of her message that literally rang in my ears, even without an exclamation point. I nevertheless attempted, in a final, unanswered message, to express my intent merely to let her know, in order to sell this pipe or any other (they are not her specialty), that she only needed to add a brief note of the band work and its effect on the nomenclature, as these are important details to collectors and sellers, and perhaps lower her asking price.

After showing the pipe to Chuck Richards, my good friend and mentor, before the emails described above and allowing him to discover on his own the same flaws I detected, he concluded that if I paid more than $10 for it, I should immediately ask for a refund, as I had bought it for my own estate pipe business with the prospect of a quick clean-up for resale. When I told Chuck the actual amount I had shelled out, he was speechless for a moment before all but insisting I seek the refund.

I have been unable to get the shame-riddled emailed words of the kind seller, who as far as I’m concerned made an honest mistake and acted, throughout the transaction, in absolute good faith, out of my mind ever since. I have entertained various options concerning the ultimate disposition of the pipe’s rightful ownership. Of course, I could (A) keep the still beautiful pipe and restore it as best I could to put in my own collection or sell with appropriate disclaimers; (B) clean it up and return it, like a good gentleman, to the grief-stricken lady, with the emphatic suggestion that she give it to a friend who enjoys pipes and would likely treasure this one, if she still didn’t wish to sell it on eBay with a lower price and notices, or (C) complete the work that could be done to fix the damages wrought on the hapless GBD, keep it or sell it but under no circumstances toss it in the trash as the seller advocated, and write the blog now presented as a full and sincere apology to the lady, with the intent of depositing the refunded money back into her PayPal account and forwarding her the link to the blog.

With great effort, I at last located the transaction numbers and dates of the original purchase and refund, and with them was able to obtain the lady’s name and email address.

I will save my final decision for later in this account of the restoration of the GBD Prestige straight apple sitter, which research has disclosed was made prior to the acquisition of GBD (an abbreviation of the three founders of the brand in 1850 in Paris – Ganneval, Bondier and Donninger) by Cadogan of the Oppenheimer group in the 1970s. The imprint “London England” in a straight line on the right side of the shank, almost half of which was obliterated by the band, narrowed the pipe to the pre-Cadogan era and also signified that it might have been made in France despite the nomenclature. GBD was last taken over in 1981 by Comoy’s.

The other nomenclature on the Prestige was critically faint, before I started work on it, and included on the left shank the small letters GBD in an oval, barely visible beside the band, and the model name in cursive that took hours to decipher enough to make out the first uncovered letters, “Prest,” which led the excellent Englishwoman to suspect Presto, but I Googled and found the full correct name. On the right shank, equally as light as the left and below “on England,” were three numbers for the shape, 448, which I understood was 9448. Here is what another version of the pipe looked like. The apple of my eyes in this blog is remarkably similar, discounting the nomenclature.

RESTORATION

[Note the unusual, perfect, pale half oval indentation in the top of the shank in the sixth photo above: I have.no rational explanation for the presence of this mark other than the appearance that it is neither a natural aspect of the wood nor any type of damage, such as a crack. I believe the previous restorer attempted to use a self-made metal band, with the idea of reinforcing the top of the shank without covering any of the nomenclature. If this admittedly crazy-sounding guess is correct, the restorer likely intended to do the same on the bottom of the shank but aborted the idea altogether after failing with the top piece. Call me nuts, but this mark is not an accident.]

Already considering re-banding the apple with a shorter sterling variety, I tugged at the one used in the first place, without much hope that it might be loose, and was surprised when it flew off of the shank and onto my lap. Now that was fortunate indeed, for, upon closer inspection, I was able to see that the tiny line in the shank’s opening, which ignited some daft restorer’s passion to fix something that wasn’t broken, was a mere blemish that led nowhere and, in fact, disappeared with a few seconds of sanding. I have to add an acknowledgement of my simultaneous relief that the shank was not cracked and disgust with the previous restorer who desecrated the otherwise weathered but fine pipe by ruining so much of the invaluable nomenclature. The only remaining imprints were the indentations left from the hallmarks and sterling silver designation on the once tight band. I scoffed out loud after my brain digested this enormous error in judgment that more or less ended any real value – and prestige, so to say – this GBD might have had.

Not yet wanting to deal with the majority of the stummel’s outer area, I decided to start by removing the years of accumulated dirt and whatnot from the wood with small soft white pieces of cotton gun cleaner cloths and much of the rim char with wet micromesh pads and a light touch of superfine steel wool. I followed those tasks by clearing the small amount of excess carbon in the chamber with a 19mm reamer and 200- and 500-grit paper, swabbing with Everclear-soaked cotton cloth pieces, and a retort of the pipe.

The retort turned out to be the hardest part of these preliminary steps, as neither of the two rubber tubes that span the few inches from the boiling Everclear to the lip of the bit would fit the extra wide mouthpiece that was part of the GBD. And so, ad-libbing somewhat, I sought out another bit from my collection with a tenon that fit the GBD and a lip that matched the rubber tube. Of course, the last possible pipe I checked was a match – or closely enough. It was from a favorite Ropp. I had no trouble cleaning the metal inlaid GBD bit with a couple of alcohol-soaked bristly cleaners.

The photos above show the surprising cleanliness of the well-worn sitter, and by inference, the degree of care its fortunate owner once accorded the bijou. The later of two test tubes full of Everclear used in the retort was almost clear, with only a few small, solid pieces of flotsam at the bottom.

Here, alas, is where I erred, and will have to accept the consequences, until the day I die, for the heartbreaking lesson they provided. In hindsight, I suppose I might, at this critical stage, have sought the guidance of Chuck or Steve (my second if unofficial mentor in this ever-evolving process of learning). But, as Jesse Eisenberg’s character in “Zombieland,” Columbus (for the city in Ohio where he was born), repeated slowly as a sort of mantra: “Shoulda-coulda-woulda.” Much as Columbus had come up with rules for surviving a zombie apocalypse, so have I adopted a set of guidelines, from my own experiences and those of others, for pipe restoring.

Sometimes I ignore one of these, for the most part with success, and sometimes I have to learn the hard way, on my own. Still, as I type this, I find myself experiencing emotions I prefer to avoid. Recognizing my harshness with the previous restorer, and my own share of fault for the apple’s present condition, I nevertheless tell myself I did my best, alone, to return the splendid pipe to its potential glory. My mistake, although unintentionally made in the pursuit of correcting one more egregious that I believed necessitated my next step, is on me.

To the point, and in spite of a note in my previous blog that I try my best to avoid full stripping of a pipe’s original stain and waxes with an Everclear bath, that is what I did.

These photos show two things: the wonderful success in removing the remaining rim char and reducing the wood to its natural smoothness, and, as an unexpected result of the latter, also eliminating almost every vestige of the remaining nomenclature. Anyone who loves pipes with all of his heart, as I do, will comprehend the complete hollowness, in the pit of my stomach and consuming my mind, I experienced upon seeing with my own eyes the gaff I had committed. I sat there on my couch awhile, stunned, until I forced myself to snap out of the melancholy reverie and get on with it.

Flashing on memories of a few pipes restored by Chuck, and which I bought despite the blemishes I detected and wondered why he let them remain, I knew the full answer he omitted, in his enigmatic way, when I asked him. Some flaws, as battles, are better left unfought. Before I reached this conclusion – as my mind was still rampaging with thoughts of how I should have approached the same notion of stripping the original stain and waxes from just the bowl and chamber, or could have accomplished the goal better, or would have saved the fragile markings that could now be visible – I had to suffer the unavoidable fact of my misdeed. Shoulda-coulda-woulda.

Thus I embarked on the only course of action I had left – to re-smooth and finish cleaning the chamber with 150-, 200- and 500-grit papers followed by small cotton cloths soaked with alcohol, and returning the sheen of the wood using superfine steel wool and then 3600-12000 micromesh pads. I then re-stained the briar, first trying Lincoln Medium Brown leather dye and flaming it before buffing with 6000 and 8000 micromesh.

I saw that the clear, pale half-oval shape, from the suspected attempt by the previous restorer to use an adornment band to fix the misperceived shank crack, remained stubbornly. And so, having nothing to lose, I sanded the open end of the shank with 150-, 200-, 320- and 500-grit papers before micro-meshing and staining again. I’ll tell you straight out, this was not the end of the struggle to fix the single blemish. Of course, I buffed off the char from flaming the end of the shank with 6000 and 8000 micromesh, and reattached the bit to the shank with the band removed, to check the fit. The bit was still a match with the shank! Grateful to have something go right, I turned in that direction and went after the bit. The photos below show before, as it arrived in the mail, and after I worked on it with the tools displayed.

This blog is nothing if not a cautionary tale about the horrors of reversing someone else’s mistakes – of which mine, unfortunately, cannot be undone. I return to the battle of the pernicious, aborted oval pipe band, at the very moment I concluded that maybe a darker staining, adding Lincoln’s version of burgundy red to the medium brown I applied earlier, would help me be out, out with the foul spot. I was wrong, but here’s what it looked like after flaming the alcohol out of the stain. However, this was, at least, a step in the right direction. I concluded that, despite my deepest desire not to be forced to re-shackle the apple sitter with the excellent but unnecessary sterling band that caused this ruckus in the first place, I had no choice. I Super Glued the band firmly back onto the shank, with the hallmarks on the left side, and it did serve to obscure most of the oval shape. Before I snapped the next photos, I added another spot stain using more of the medium brown, flamed it and buffed with 8000 micromesh. That was pretty much the end of the oval spot!

At long last, I was ready for the final buffing on my electric wheels, which as always involved the clean buffer after each of the waxes. For the bit, I used the regular red and white Tripoli and White Diamond. Having let every other convention fly in the wind, the thought occurred to me to wax the stummel with the red Tripoli as well as white, followed by White Diamond and a slow double-coat of carnauba.

CONCLUSION
The foul spot still remains enough for a good eye to catch, if not the camera for once. I’m going to sum this up with the note that I sincerely hope I succeeded in creating a final result that, despite its one glaring disaster, reveals a more beautiful grain than the original darker version. And one more thing: I have decided to return the money the Englishwoman who gave me this fine GBD refunded to me last April, and then forward the link to this explanation. At this point in the whole experience with the cursed and enchanted apple sitter, I am happy to take a loss for once, and will try to sell the pipe for $25. I have no doubt the lady in England is lovely. How could she not be, given her obvious love of pipes that equals mine?

SOURCES
http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-gbd.html
http://yeoldebriars.com/gbd013.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPIuIfAywvY Zombieland Rules (AC, AL, GL, V)

UPCOMING RESTORES

Celebrating the Re-Opening of My Store with a Restoration

Reborn S.M. Frank Bakelite Bent Billiard

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Blog by Pam Otto

This week’s refurbing adventure comes courtesy of an eBay estate lot, for which the seller accepted my “Best Offer” bid. The transaction occurred on a Sunday and by Wednesday the pipes had arrived. This is the photo that accompanied the listing: All of the pipes appeared quite old, with orifice bits, and two of them really jumped out at me: a KB&B Blue Line that would need to be restemmed, but otherwise appeared to be in decent shape, and a C.P.F. Chesterfield that looked to be, and indeed is, positively enormous.

The other two pipes were older S.M. Franks. One is stamped Genuine Amber on the shank but as the stem on it is quite dark I’m going to guess it’s a replacement. The second one is stamped Frank Bakelite on the shank. It has a lovely bent red stem, way overturned, and a metal band stamped EP Silver. A few dings and a couple scratches on the bowl, and no tooth marks on the stem. I’m thinking this one, for whatever reason, was not a favorite.

Even though I’m anxious to get the Blue Line and Chesterfield cleaned up and smokable, the Frank Bakelite, with its simple needs, beckoned. It moved to the front of the queue.

I don’t know old this particular pipe is, but if it dates to the same era as the KB&B Blue Line, it could well be past the century mark. Thoughts, anyone?

At any rate, the stem of this old boy seemed like a logical place to start. I took a couple of pictures of it in its overturned state, then unscrewed it completely to see if an internal problem was to blame. Thankfully, the bone tenon was clean and solid.

Knowing I’d read how to tackle overturned stems, I looked to Steve’s blog and, sure enough, there it was in clear, easy-to-follow directions. Following the steps he listed, I filled a cup halfway with water, leaned the stem against the side of the cup and put it in the microwave. I used the highest setting and, because the cup was only half full, set the time for 1 minute—plenty of time to get the water boiling.

In those 60 seconds, two things happened that I hadn’t really counted on. One, it worked (not that I had any doubts in the recommendation; it’s just that I rarely get things right the first time). And two, whether because of the vigorous bubbling of the boiling water, or because my microwave is a carousel, or even because the Bakelite was so smooth, the stem fell all the way into the water.

The material itself was fine; in fact, some of the debris from the airway got cleaned out by the bubbling water. However, the heat caused the bent stem to straighten.

Reheating the stem to restore the curve was no big deal; all I had to do next was re-bend it over a rounded object. But as I hadn’t foreseen this step, I didn’t have many options from which to choose. Paper towel tube? Nope, too flimsy. Peanut butter jar? Too big.

Then I saw it, sitting amid the excelsior of a near-empty holiday gift basket: a small summer sausage. It had a slightly narrower diameter than I’d hoped for, but it was a solid cylinder and certainly convenient. I heated the stem in boiling water again, laid it across the curve of the sausage, and applied slow, steady pressure.

The results weren’t perfect, but they could be worse. Or wurst, har har. The stem feels good in my mouth, and the curvature looks okay. However, it’s not quite as deep as it was originally, and that bothers me just a wee bit. If I can find the rolling pin I know I used to have, I may try re-curving the stem at some point in the future.

To make the tenon fix on the stem permanent I dunked the tenon-stem assembly once again in boiling water—this time holding onto the stem so it couldn’t submerge completely. I twisted it tightly onto the pipe, counting on the slightly swelled tenon to grab hold inside the shank and the slightly softened glue in the stem to let go. I untwisted and, sure enough, the stem came off while the tenon stayed in the shank.

I dried the tenon with a soft pipe cleaner and applied super glue sparingly to the narrow threads, then twisted it back into the stem. Satisfied with the alignment, I put the pipe down to let the glue cure.
The following evening I unscrewed the stem from the bowl and the tenon withdrew from the shank just fine. I screwed it back in to make sure the repair held, then removed it once again and set it aside.
I took the bowl over to the sink and scrubbed the outside with a toothbrush dipped in Murphy’s Oil Soap. I wiped it down, then took it back to the table and rubbed it good with cotton balls soaked in 91% isopropyl alcohol.

The rim had a pretty good chip—maybe 1mm or so deep–missing at about the 8 o’clock position as you look at the bowl from the shank. While an extreme topping of the bowl would smooth things out, I felt it could also compromise the bowl’s shape. So after sizing it up from all angles, and finding that there really wouldn’t be much chance of tobacco being in contact with that area, I decided to try filling it instead.

Before proceeding with the fill, I thought it might be good to first address the inside of the bowl, which had minimal cake but a troubling bit of what looked like fuzzy mold or fungus. I didn’t want any spores getting into the fill, so I wiped everything down with 190 proof alcohol, then wrapped a piece of 220 grit sandpaper around my finger and sanded the interior thoroughly. More alcohol, then the addition of a flame. Take that, moldy fungus! After another heavy swabbing with Everclear I declared the inside done.

Back to the rim patch… I cleaned the area to be filled with alcohol, then scrubbed it with a green Scotch Brite pad to remove any dirt and debris. I was glad I used a wide pad like that because the briar on either side of the chip was loose and came off when I scrubbed.

The fill would need to be a little wider but not any deeper—not a big deal. I packed some briar dust along the rim, then reached for the super glue to drip onto the patch.

I’ve done this many times but am still perfecting the technique. This time I learned an important lesson: Don’t attempt a maneuver like super glue-dripping, which requires a certain degree of precision, with a parrot perched on your shoulder.

(Time out for a side note: I have a large macaw named Tom who is a frequent observer of my pipe renovations. I don’t let him near smoke or fumes but other than that he’s close by pretty much all the time. He normally sits on his stand and looks down on the proceedings, but this particular night he was on my shoulder.)

Anyway, Tom shifted just as I was letting a little drip drop onto the pipe. I totally missed the briar dust and watched as the dribble made its way down the inside of the bowl. Shazbot.

I tried again, Tom shifted again, and I dripped on the outside of the bowl. Arrrr!

Fool me once, fool me twice… I wiped up the outside drip as best I could and put Tom over on his stand. I sat down and, with steadier hands, I dripped the glue a third time—on target—and after sprinkling on a little more briar dust, set the bowl aside to cure overnight. The next morning I took a flat needle file to the overfilled fill to jump start the removal of material. After that a thorough sanding with 220 grit sandpaper, first with the paper in my hand and then on my topping board, got the fill flush with the side of the bowl as well as the adjoining rim surfaces.

Follow-up sandings with 400 and 600 grit smoothed things out even more, but also revealed a couple of small holes in the fill. I probably had left some small air pockets in the briar dust; I couldn’t pack it down as tightly as I normally would due to its location on the rim. I refilled the fill using minute amounts of briar dust and applying the superglue with a toothpick. While these tiny patches dried, I took on the task of shining up the metal band. I wiped it down with white vinegar, then ran through the sequence of 1500-12000 micromesh pads to make it good and shiny. Using the same pads, I polished the stem as well. To give the patches a little more time to cure, I set about cleaning out the shank. Two—count ‘em, TWO—pipe cleaners, one bristle and one regular, dipped in alcohol was all it took.

I don’t know why the former owner didn’t smoke this pipe much, but as I set about sanding the patches I started coming up with scenarios. One, maybe it’s a crappy smoker. Only time will tell on that one. But other situations came to mind too. Maybe the stem was a problem from the get-go. Maybe it overturned after only a few smokes. Maybe the bend didn’t feel right. (Not that that will be problem any more. Ha.) Maybe it gurgled.

Whatever the reason for its nearly new condition, the pipe was rapidly coming back together again. Even with a 20 minute detour to sand off my super glue mistake inside of the bowl, the end was in sight.

I sanded the outside of the bowl and shank with 400 and 600 grit paper and followed up with the 1500 micromesh pad to take care of some slight scratches and dings. Next I got out the aniline stains to even up the color of the briar. Although much of the bowl was still quite dark, it was lighter on either side of the rim patch. I wiped on some oxblood stain, flamed it, wiped on dark brown and flamed again. A little bit of dabbing here and there with the dark brown and the staining was complete.

I slipped the metal band on the shank, screwed on the stem, smiled when it stopped right where it should, and headed over to the buffer.

(New development here at Casa Otto: Aided by a couple of gift cards from my brother, I invested in a Foredom M.BL—a small bench lathe with a variable speed motor that tops out at 7,000 rpm. I haven’t gone over what I estimate is about 1,200 rpm, based on the intervals marked on the speed control, and the results have been outstanding. Not only is it a fabulous machine, but it’s also small and fits nicely on the kitchen counter. It’s a huge improvement over my jerry-rigged drill press buffing station in the garage, and on a day like today when the outside temp is 2°F, a heck of a lot warmer too. Next step: Setting up the buffer in a spare bedroom. Upside to this will be getting counter space back. Downside is that the spare room is quite a distance from where the beer and snacks that fuel all good pipe projects are stored.)

I first buffed the assembled pipe with White Diamond, wiped it down with a flannel rag, then gave it three coats of carnauba, buffing with a clean wheel after each application.

This old pipe didn’t see much action during its go-around. But today, chip-free, moldy fungus-free and with a stem that sits where it should, it stands ready for a new century of service. Pam15 Pam14 Pam13

A Peterson’s Product 268 Zulu Restemmed and Restored

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe came to me with the Meerschaum Sultan that I restemmed. It is stamped Shamrock on the top of the shank and “A Peterson’s Product” Made in the Republic of Ireland on the underside. On the right side near the bowl shank union it was stamped 268. I looked the number up and it is the shape number for a Zulu shape. The gentleman in Chile wrote: “I only have the bowl (I’m not acquainted with the minor brand) with an inappropriate mouthpiece which makes it impossible to smoke. I don’t remember how it got into my collection and certainly it’s not a pipe I purchased myself. It has a heavy cake and is a second-hand. If a proper mouthpiece could be made and a proper tune-up, it could make a fine pipe.” He included the following pictures. When it arrived I took it out of the box to deal with when I had finished repairing the Sultan Meerschaum pipe. It was a nice piece of briar with mixed grain and a worn finish. The stamping on the top of the shank was clear and sharp. The stamping on the underside showed clearly on the left side as you read it but as you got to the right side it was fainter. The rim was dirty and had a flaky coat of lava overflowing from the inside of the bowl and the thick cake there. The inner and outer rim looked good with no dents or chips. The bowl sides, front and back had some light dents in the finish. The stem was a billiard stem that had been stuck in the shank. It fit snugly but absolutely did not match the oval shank.

I took a close up photo of the rim and the bowl to show the thickness of the cake. Toward the bottom of the bowl it got thicker and reduced the size of the bowl at the airway. I looked at several Peterson shape # 268 Zulus to get an idea of what the stem looked like originally on this pipe. I went through my can of stems and found several that would work on this pipe. The one that was the closest to matching the diameter of the shank of the pipe was a brand new stem blank that still had the castings on the sides and end of the button. The slot was constricted but the length and shape would be easy to match to the shank. I drilled open the airway to accept the rod of the PIMO tenon tool. And then set up the tenon tool on a cordless drill. The current tenon was too long for the tool to cut all the way to the end of the tenon so I used the Dremel and sanding drum to shorten the tenon. I put it on the tool and adjusted the set screws and took off the first round of material. I did three adjustments to turn the tenon down to a fit in the mortise. I fine tuned the fit with 220 grit sandpaper.

The fit in the mortise was snug. The diameter of the new stem was large on the sides and the bottom. The top would take the least adjustment to get the fit correct.

I took off the majority of the excess vulcanite with the Dremel and sanding drum. I put it back in the shank and the fit was better. The rest of the work would have to be done by hand sanding. I hand sanded the stem until it was smooth and the transition between the shank and stem needed some fine tuning then set the stem aside and worked on the bowl. Contrary to my normal pattern I wiped off the outside of the bowl and shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and the grime that had been ground into the briar. Once it was gone there was some nice grain showing through.

I put the stem in place and took a few photos so that I could see where I stood at this point in the process. The pipe was looking good and with a few tweaks would look even better.

The top of the bowl was caked and the lava was very hard. I tried to scrape it carefully with a pen knife and gave up. I resorted to lightly topping the bowl on the topping board to remove the thick lava build up.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the first cutting head. I finished with the second cutting head which was the same diameter as the inside of the bowl. I cut the cake back to bare briar so I could assess the inner bowl walls. They looked very good with little burn or damage. The cake had protected them.

I fine tuned the sanding on the stem and shank fit with 220 grit sandpaper and shaped the stem to match the oval of the shank. The flow of the bowl and stem were looking really good at this point in the process.

I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the stem and shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used the dark brown stain pen to touch up the rim and the end of the shank to match the stain colour on the rest of the pipe. I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil to give some life to the dry wood. I gave the bowl a quick buff with Blue Diamond and then gave it one coat of carnauba wax and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The “new” look of the bowl is shown in the photos below.

With the bowl stained and oiled I used a heat gun to bend the stem and get the proper angles that I had found online on the 268 shaped pipes. I heated the stem until it was pliable and then bent it over a round can to get a smooth angle. I took photos of the pipe with a bent stem to give a feel for the finished look.

I fine tuned the fit of the stem to the shank by beveling the inner edge of the mortise in the shank and then cleaning the area around the tenon stem joint. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit micromesh pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I laid the stem aside to dry.

I put the stem on the pipe and buffed the entirety with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready to go back to Chile. Sometime early this week I will pack the two repaired pipes up and make the trip to FEDEX to send them back. I look forward to hearing what the two of them smoke like for the Chilean pipeman. I like the new looks of both of these pipes and I think he will as well. But I have to tell you I am a sucker for the Zulu shaped Petersons. This one is a beauty!