Tag Archives: oxidation

JPL Tomato restored and given a new look

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I first saw the pipe lot on craigslist Vancouver the pipe that caught my eye was the squashed tomato that is shown in the photo below on the top right. I had no idea who the make was but it was obviously a large pipe and a unique shape that made me want to know more. It is actually the pipe that pushed me to make the phone call to the seller. I have a Rad Davis that is similarly shaped but nowhere near as large.craig5 When I got to the seller’s home and looked at the pipe I could see that it was stamped JPL over Bruyere over St. Claude France on the shank. The pipe was well smoked. The finish was pretty well dried out – I think originally it had been an oil finish over the natural briar and that was gone and in its place was a lot of grime. The top of the bowl was in the roughest shape. It had a thick coat of tar/oil that I call lava flowing over the rim. The bowl had a cake that was hard and there were remnants of tobacco stuck in the walls and bottom of the bowl. The top also had what looked like road rash on the front. There were many pin prick nicks and dents that made me think that the pipe had been dropped on concrete. The redeeming feature was that the briar had some stunning flame grain around the sides and top portion of the bowl and featured great birdseye grain on the bottom. The stem was oxidized and there were two deep tooth marks on the top and bottom sides of the stem near the button. There was also a lot of tooth chatter and it looked as if the stem had been covered at one time with a softie bit.JPL1

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JPL4 I took the next series of three photos to show the damage to the top of the bowl and the tooth marks in the stem.JPL5

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JPL7 I was unfamiliar with the stamping on the pipe as I had not seen it before. Once Googled it on the web I found that JPL stood for Jean Pierre Lacroix. That was a name I was familiar with in previous reading on St. Claude pipe making families. I looked on Pipedia and found the following information:

“Lacroix Pipes have a rich history of pipe making tradition and the brand was started in 1962. Eugine Lacroix began making pipes for the Delacour factory in the 19th century; his sons founded their own factory in 1921. Two of the grandsons (including Jean) continued on in the business, but parted ways and struck out on their own in 1962. At that time, Jean set up Jean Lacroix pipes, coincidentally in the old Delacour building his grandfather started in 85 years prior. Today, Jean Lacroix, Chacom, Jeantet, and Vuillard are all pieces of the larger Cuty-Fort Enterprises, and Jean is actively involved with the prestigious Confrerie des Maitres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude. Jean still makes pipes; his spectacular freehands are known throughout the world. The model named “Nizza” De Luxe is made by him with scripted stamp showing his name (hard to read!). Jean Pierre Lacroix sometimes marked Maitre Pipier a Saint-Claude.” Quoted from Pipedia http://pipedia.org/wiki/Lacroix

More information is available on PipePhil’s website. http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/lacroix-en.html#split

I began cleaning up the pipe by scrubbing the rim with acetone on a cotton pad. Since the pipe was unfinished and was so dirty I used acetone rather than alcohol. I scrubbed the bowl top until I had removed all of the tars and oils. I also wiped down the remainder of the bowl to remove the oils and dirt from the years of being held in the hand.JPL8 Once I had the bowl top cleaned I removed the stem to see what I was dealing with. I found that the stem and the shank was drilled for a 9MM filter but that somewhere along the way someone had inserted an ill fitting stinger apparatus in the tenon. It was pressed in place deep in the tenon and there was a lot of wiggle room around it. It did not extend very far into the shank and as such the shank was filthy. The first photo below shows the stinger in place. The second shows the length of the stinger once I removed it from the tenon.JPL9

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JPL11 I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage on the top of the bowl. I sanded until I had removed the road rash on the front edge and the damage to the back of the bowl. I sanded it further with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.JPL12

JPL13 While I had the sandpaper out I also sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks on the stem. You can see that after sanding I still had a fairly large tooth dent on the underside of the stem and a small one on the top near the left edge.JPL14

JPL15 I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the largest cutting head that would fit and working my way up to the largest head in the set. I took the cake back completely to leave the bare briar exposed and ready to build a new cake of my liking.JPL16

JPL17 I did some more sanding on the stem and was able to remove the damage from the top side near the button completely. The mark on the underside was still deep. I cleaned the surface of the stem with alcohol and picked the tooth mark clean with a dental pick. I filled it with black super glue and set it aside to dry.JPL18 I sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding block and worked over the damaged area on the top front and some of the more minor damage on the sides and back of the bowl. I sanded it and then wiped it clean with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad. After wiping it down the grain really began to show. The final photo in this series shows the birdseye on the bottom of the bowl.JPL19

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JPL23 I scrubbed out the shank of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the swabs came back white. I may well use a retort on it later but at this point I stopped with the swabs.JPL24 I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads in preparation for staining the bowl.JPL25 Though the pipe was originally unstained when it was made I decided to use a contrast stain to highlight the beautiful grain on the bowl. I heated the briar and then applied several coats of black aniline stain. I flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I wiped the briar down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove the topcoat of black stain.JPL26

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JPL28 I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with red Tripoli to further remove the topcoat of stain. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge and the fine grit sanding block.JPL29

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JPL32 Once I had the surface stain removed and the remaining black stain highlighted the grain I wiped the bowl down a final time with alcohol and prepared to stain it with the contrast stain. I decided to use a rich mahogany aniline stain for the contrast coat. I applied the stain and then flamed it to set it in the briar.JPL33

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JPL35 When it had dried I buffed it with White Diamond and took the following photos to show where it stood at this point in the process.JPL36

JPL37 The grain really stood out on the pipe at this point. I still needed to sand it with micromesh to develop a richer sheen.JPL38

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JPL44 I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.JPL45

JPL46 I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.JPL47

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JPL50 After sanding with the 12,000 grit micromesh pad I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave it a coat of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and went to work on the stem. I cleaned out the 9MM tenon with alcohol and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked until the stem was clean.JPL51

JPL52 I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I had a box of 9MM filters so I took one out of the box to try in the stem. It fit well and made the draw less open.JPL53

JPL54 I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove the stubborn oxidation. I resanded it with the micromesh before moving on and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. After sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and polished until the stem shone. I then gave it a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff.JPL55

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JPL57 I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed the whole pipe with carnauba wax. I gave it multiple coats of wax and then a final buff with a soft flannel buffing pad.JPL58

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JPL60 The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the new look that the contrast stain gives the pipe. The colour makes the grain pop and stand out very well.JPL61

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Stealing a Huge Savinelli 515 KS Champagne Panel

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

“Cave ne venditor.”
“Let the seller beware.”
― From Latin, inspired by “Caveat emptor” – Let the buyer beware

INTRODUCTION
I might just as well have started this blog with former President Richard Nixon’s televised statement to 400 Associated Press editors on November 17, 1973, denying any involvement in the Watergate scandal: “Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” He certainly did. But I thought the Latin reference was more appropriate to describe my fortunate acquisition of this unusual and magnificent example of a Savinelli panel pipe. After all, it’s not my fault the online seller probably thought he would get more for it. I suspect that in hindsight, he now wishes he had asked for a higher amount, perhaps as a “Buy Now” offer. I would have paid it, within reason. In fact, I went so far as to look for a charitable donation link to make up for some of the money I saved, but this seller didn’t have one.

The two aspects of this serendipitous acquisition that surprised me even more were that the other four bidders seemed not to recognize a fantastic bargain when it seemed to scream the fact at them, and that I lucked out in that no other serious collectors chanced upon the offer. The minimum asking price was $9.50. About 24 hours later, the first bidder appears to have made a max offer of $12.00 and for the moment had it for $10. Then the second entrant offered $14.50 because when I entered what I thought would be a sharply escalating war with my first $25 bid and two days left, a third-party had the beautiful pipe for $15. The second and third amateurs took the price up to $24.50 by the time I bumped my bid to $50 with 22 minutes remaining and my finger on a higher last-second bid should it have become necessary. It did not, and I won for a total of $29.45 with shipping. The vagaries of eBay bidding never cease to amaze me.

The Champagne, as with most varieties of the 515 KS shape, measures 6″ in length with a chamber diameter of ¾”x1″. The bowl is 5¼”x1¾”. The shank is a 2¼” square leading into the 2½” stem with a wide comfort bit. Check out these other versions.Robert1 When the box arrived, somehow I managed to keep it unopened on the seat beside me until I reached my next destination, the best old-style tobacconist in these parts, where I almost have my own cushioned chair and a cot to sleep on in the back. Taking a seat in my favorite spot, with its view of the whole shop, I retrieved my knife from my pipe go-bag and slit through the packing tape, then peeled open the glued sides of the box. Here is what I was overjoyed to find inside.Robert2

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Robert7 THE RESTORATION
Disregarding the few minor detractions seen in some of the photos above (namely, the rim, chamber and stem), this was a restorer’s dream. The nomenclature was crystal clear through the oil and dirt of handling: Champagne on the left shank, the Savinelli shield and 515 KS above Italy on the left and Savinelli Product on the bottom. Even the full black outline of the crown was still on the stem.Robert8

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Robert10 And for the first time in my experience, the chamber was all that needed sanding, with 150-grit paper followed by 320. I put the stem in a water and OxiClean soak for a half-hour while I gave the bowl and shank a quick bath with purified water and a couple of small pieces of cotton cloth, and then prepared the rim with super fine steel wool and the chamber as described.Robert11 Removing the stem from the wash, I ran a soft fluffy cleaner through the air hole, clearing out considerable grime. An initial concerted scrubbing of the rinsed and still wet outer stem with a soft meshed cotton rag followed by rubbing hard with a four-grade progression of micromesh from 1500-4000 removed all but a few pernicious patches of green. And so I replaced the stem in the OxiClean mix and gave it another hour. By then, a second fluffy cleaner came out almost clean, all discoloration was gone and the same micro-meshing left it ready for buffing.Robert12

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Robert15 I retorted the pipe with two Pyrex test tubes of boiled alcohol and eliminated the considerable smoke, carbon and other crud that had, over time, leached into the shank and bowl. A vigorous scrubbing of the inner shank with both ends of another fluffy cleaner pulled out the residual dark wet mess that remained after extraction from the briar; the same treatment of the chamber with hard, tight, squeaky turns of a final small piece of thin cotton cloth cleared the last bit of blackness there.

There were very fine scratches all around the panels of the pipe, but they were so minuscule that they all but vanished with steady, even, up-and-down strokes of 1500 and 3200 micromesh, and dissipated to a nice gloss with the final buffs of 3600 and 4000.Robert16

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Robert21 The final step of putting the stem to the wheels with white and red Tripoli and White diamond, clearing the excess and giving all of these a stronger grip with a gentle spin on an un-waxed buffing cloth, brought out a high, more durable sheen. The same approach, without the red Tripoli but adding two coats of carnauba, had the same effect on the briar.

The finishing touch was filling in the crown on the stem with a white china marker.Robert22

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Robert27 CONCLUSION
In my online pipe sales and service business, I have been successful in a steady upgrade of the brands and quality of products offered. I have listed and sold a number of pipes I dearly wanted to keep – including a smooth, old meerschaum bulldog with an excellent patina, a Comoy’s Satin Matte Christmas edition, a Jobey Fawn small apple, a WDC 14K band full bent smooth billiard and even a no-name Italian semi-rusticated full bent billiard that was exceptional in its resemblance to a Peterson full bent system pipe and was engineered as well as most of that brand’s models.

My struggle with the question of whether to add the newly restored Savinelli Champagne Panel to my private collection or offer it up for sale was the longest, most tortuous inner debate I have made due to my strong desire to add a Savinelli to the inventory, which I have in fact already done by sacrificing one of my old favorites, a Clark’s Favorite medium smooth churchwarden that sold immediately. But, as some might already have guessed, I succumbed to the more powerful voice urging me to keep this one. I know I can’t horde everything that comes my way, but I can select those that speak to me deeply and personally.

I have not even enjoyed the pipe yet, so recent was my decision not to let it go. That patience will almost certainly end today, and soon.

A Rebirth for a pair of Duncan Hill Aerosphere Pipes

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Blog by Steve Laug

The last pair of pipes needing refurbishing from my gift box was a pair of Duncan Hill Aerosphere pipes – one a smooth pot and the other a rusticated billiard. I have had quite a few Duncan Hill pipes over the years and sold some, restemmed others without the reverse tenon system and really never paid much attention to them. The pot was a nice piece of briar and actually quite clean. The finish was in good shape though dirty. The inserted reverse tenon was loose and would need to be repaired. The bowl was dirty and had some pieces of tobacco attached to the walls of the bowl. The rim was in great shape. The stem was oxidized and the round brass carburetor hole was plugged. There was minimal tooth chatter on the stem and no bite marks that would need to be repaired. The stamping was slightly worn in the middle but it still clearly read Aerosphere over Duncan Hill over Ltd.Aero1 The rusticated billiard was also fairly clean though there was dried wax stuck in the grooves of the rustication. The rim top was quite dirty with tars and oils built up and filling in the rustication. The bowl had a light cake and tobacco leaf stuck on the bowl sides. The finish was workable but dirty. The stem was in better shape than the one on the pot. It was dirty and had sticky tape remnants on the top but there was little oxidation and no tooth chatter. The carburetor on this one was also clogged and the stem was loose on the reverse tenon. It was stamped with the same stamping as the smooth pot but on a smooth band on the bottom of the shank.Aero2

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Aero8 I removed the stems and put the bowls in my alcohol bath to soak for a while. While they were soaking I wanted to do a bit of research on the brand and see what I could discover about it. I was curious to look for patent information and old advertisements to see if I could discover the marketing schemes that made this quite a prolific seller over the years.Aero9 I Googled Duncan Hill Aerosphere and the first bit I found was from a Google group for ASP. There I found the following quote. I have the reference link placed at the end of the quote if you want to follow up on the information: “The Duncan Hill Aerosphere smoking system (U.S. patent #4,275,747) utilizes the same principle of physics as the manometer. The Aerosphere, visible as the brass pin on the side of the mouthpiece, brings a scientifically measured amount of air into the stem with each puff. The control of the amount of air and the velocity of the air produces two effects that result in superior smoking pipe performance.” https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.smokers.pipes/GUxdN5Dus4Q

I also found a link to an advertisement for the brand featuring the designer in Popular Mechanics Magazine, February 1980, pg. 31 on Google books. Here is the link:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=m9UDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=Duncan+Hill+Aerosphere+Pipes&source=bl&ots=tR4egGI0ig&sig=XeACE0-Vh19-1JNcA0kAgS87kRI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=p1QbVbPTEpLvoATEpoLoCQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwADgU#v=onepage&q=Duncan%20Hill%20Aerosphere%20Pipes&f=false Aero10 Next is an advertisement from Popular Mechanics Magazine, September 1982, pg. 216 on google books. Here is the link. https://books.google.ca/books?id=f9kDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=Duncan+Hill+Aerosphere+Pipes&source=bl&ots=fsZtVqD0z9&sig=Kl3wI-76NJqpFxAg8SPndnnWyqM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=owEcVdGGKdj9oQSD_4L4Bw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAjgo#v=onepage&q=Duncan%20Hill%20Aerosphere%20Pipes&f=false Aero11 Finally using the patent number in the ASP quote I was able to find the patent documents for the pipe on the US Patent Office site. I have included the documents from the US Patent Office here. There are four pages – 2 of drawings and two of description.Aero12

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Aero15 I love finding this old information and reading about the persistent search for the dryer cooler smoking pipe that has led to many creative solutions. It lends some colour to the work of my refurbishing to be able to read about the design ideas and the inventors themselves as I work on the pipes. Armed with new information I worked on the stems while the bowls were soaking in the alcohol bath. I cleaned the inside and outside of the stems with 99% isopropyl alcohol on cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. It took some scrubbing to clean out the grime built up around the interior of the carburetor insert in the stem and in the second chamber below the airway in the stem. The tars and oils were built up in there but far less so than I would have expected on these pipes from the 1980s.Aero16

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Aero21 With the stems cleaned and the carburetor air hole opened in both of them with a dental pick it was time to take the bowls out of the alcohol bath and begin to work on them.Aero22 I dried off the bowls and pulled the loose reverse tenon out of the shank of the pot. I cleaned the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners then pressed the loose piece back in place. Once the alcohol evaporated the fit was tight. I cleaned the shanks on both pipes until the pipe cleaners and swabs came out white.Aero23

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Aero25 By the time I finished cleaning out the shanks the bowls had dried enough to ream them with the PipNet reamer. I cut back the cake in the billiard to the bare wood and cleaned up the light cake in the pot.Aero26 In the photo below the wall of the billiard on the left looks damaged. I used a slightly larger reaming head and took back the remaining cake until the wood was clean and solid.Aero27 Then it was time to work on the stems. I did a rough sand with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the sticky build up on the darker of the stems and to break up the oxidation on the other one. I followed that by sanding them both with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge.Aero28

Aero29 I put them on the pipes to have a look at the progress of the restoration.Aero30 I buffed the stems with red Tripoli and worked on the stubborn oxidation on the one stem. I then buffed it with White Diamond. I took them back to the work table and sanded them with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Aero31

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Aero33 I rubbed the stems down with Obsidian Oil and when it had been absorbed I buffed the stems with Blue Diamond plastic polish. The oxidation still showed on the one stem so I started again and sanded it with the medium and fine grit stem and repeated the process through the micromesh and buffing until I had conquered the oxidation.Aero34

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Aero37 I buffed the stems with Blue Diamond once again and gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the smooth bowl with carnauba and a soft flannel buff. I stained the rusticated bowl with dark brown aniline stain diluted 1:2 with isopropyl alcohol and then buffed it with White Diamond. I finished that pipe with several coats of Halcyon II wax. The finished pipes are shown in the photos below.Aero38

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A New Lesson Graces an Albertson Sandblasted Bent Bulldog Restore

3 Replies

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

“Every failure is a lesson well learned, every success is a battle well fought, and every friend is a jewel well-kept in one’s heart.”
― Unknown

INTRODUCTION
As a valued friend and mentor, Chuck Richards can be counted on to tell me the truth, always. No matter how special are the occasions when his comments are clear thumbs-up, being thick-skinned, I can say with all honesty that I value more the constructive tips, outright lessons and even contributions (whether requested or not) that this gem of a friend has shared with me during the fleeting past three years since I made my first pipe restoration of a Czech-made La Grande Bruyère mini bent billiard. This openness in my character is fortunate, considering the greater incidence of the latter compared to the former.

Chuck with Victor Rimkus in a rare peaceful moment.

Chuck with Victor Rimkus in a rare peaceful moment.

The only aspect of Chuck’s always invaluable input that sometimes frustrates me, as can happen in particular when two people are friends and see each other often, is his erratic timing. While for the most part Chuck speaks his mind with blunt promptness, he has far more projects in his own shop, not counting the free work he performs for customers at the tobacconist where he works, than I can even imagine. Therefore, he has the odd habit of briefing me on certain pipe restoration intelligence data, pertinent to my Need to Know clearance, crucial to my reputation and consequent success in the business.

By way of example, there was the time early last December when Chuck, after being approached by an unspecified number of my local customers with reports of un-thorough cleaning of the inner stems and shanks of some pipes I had sold to that date, at last brought up the subject. I was not only unhappy to learn that any of my friends and associates who paid money for my pipes were too worried they might “hurt my feelings” by giving me the chance to correct the problem myself; I was still more irked that Chuck failed to warn me after the first instance. [See https://rebornpipes.com/2014/12/10/in-retort-to-claims-of-unclean-restored-pipes-robert-m-boughton/ for the full story.] Of course Chuck then emphasized the importance of retorting, and in one mad 18-hour marathon when my retort kit arrived in the mail soon after, I corrected the problem with every remaining pipe on my sales list, as I have done with each pipe I’ve restored since.

And so, last Friday night at our weekly pipe club get-together I showed Chuck my latest finished projects. He examined them before leaning toward me to tell me discretely of another fellow club member who saw my array of pipes for sale next to his at the monthly Moose Club meeting, where we are free to sell. It seems the gentleman in question, who is getting into the restoration practice, wondered why my pipes (and his own, it turned out) looked “so dull” compared to Chuck’s. I am pleased that I was apprised of the comment soon afterward, but had to wonder why Chuck – who no doubt noticed the same effect long ago – didn’t tell me of the importance of using an un-waxed buffer wheel after each application of the various waxes that can be used to finish pipes.

I had more than usual difficulty grasping the process as Chuck explained it to me, until his third description, when some light in my head snapped on. I understood he was not talking about removing the nice shiny layer of wax applied with such care; he was describing a way to take off the excess wax and firm up the rest so that it would shine even more, not smudge and last longer.

“You won’t believe the difference in the look of the pipe when you use a clean buffer after each wax you put on it,” Chuck told me, smiling in relief and the genuine pleasure he derives from explaining anything pipe-related, when he saw that my head had wrapped around the whole idea.

Again, of course, I remembered Chuck’s work-load and other difficulties, not to mention the bombardment of questions he receives every day from friends and customers. I identified with the high probability that every time he planned to say something it simply slipped his mind.

At any rate, this blog concerns a lovely rusticated bent bulldog made by the Belgian company known as Albertson, which, after World War II, was taken over by the Hilson factory. Since that crafter went bankrupt in 1980, the Albertson brand has been continued by the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory.

Considerable work went into this particular restoration, the first opportunity to use my new knowledge of proper pipe waxing. Thank you, Chuck, for being a real friend again. I officially challenge anyone to inspect this bulldog and find anything whatsoever lacking in its inner and outer shimmer.

THE RESTORATION Robert2

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Robert8 When my now customary first step of OxiCleaning the stem was complete, the well-shaped and gently curved stem was clean but covered with green, white and brownish spots. I solemnly affirm that I documented the result with a photo, but it seems to have been lost due to a malfunction of my camera. Likewise, the effects of 220-grit sandpaper on removing the serious tooth chatter that marred both sides of the top of the stem, almost an inch below the lip, are gone. Even the lip had been gnawed and required intense sanding, but at least I avoided Black Super Glue.

I stripped the rusticated briar in Everclear.Robert9 Again, the photos of the bare briar after this process are not to be found, although rubbing with super fine steel wool, then sanding the top of the bowl above the traditional line to make it lighter in color, followed by a thorough micro-meshing of the whole with five grades from 1500-4000 made the wood ready for buffing. The only way I can even begin to explain the absence of these particular photos is to note that all of them were taken in order during a short period of peculiar behavior by the DSLR.

After sanding the chamber with 320-grit paper followed by 200, I retorted the pipe. For the first time, that step required only one test tube of boiled alcohol, thanks to the excellent care by the previous owner and the Everclear soak. I had stained all of it but the top and rim with burgundy boot dye, which I flamed and hand-buffed with 4000 micromesh before resorting to 3600 to heighten the new red tone. Here is the briar when I was almost done prepping it for the final buffs.Robert10 At the last moment, I decided to give the upper part of the bowl and the rim a final sanding with 320-grit paper and re-using the same micromesh progression as before to take it all the way down to its natural light brown color. All was in order to try out my newly-learned wheel buffing technique.

The stem took a little extra work with its extra lines, using the regular red Tripoli followed by White Diamond. I happened to have an extra, new buffer which I then attached to the electric wheel that had held the red Tripoli cloth. Beginning on the briar with a regular white Tripoli buff, I held it up in the light for a better look before I moved to the clean buffer and turned the wood with extra care. Again I held it up to see the change, which, as Chuck had promised, was prominent. Repeating these steps with White Diamond and at last carnauba (since I still need to replace my spent supply of Halcyon II), when the work was done I was truly impressed with the far finer and more solid shine.Robert11

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I was fortunate to start with an estate pipe that was well-tended by it prior owner, and I like to think that he would be pleased with its new, sharper two-tone look. My only regret is that now I have to re-polish my entire growing collection of pipes for sale. But I am looking forward to the next monthly Moose Lodge meeting of the pipe club on the third Thursday of April. You can bet I’ll be there, with all of my pipes arranged proudly beside Chuck’s.

Still I wonder…what future comments might make their way to me via my good friend and mentor? Perhaps now my potential local customers might find the good grace and trust to approach me instead.

Sometimes I can’t help myself and have to refinish a new pipe – a Butz Choquin Belami Pocket Canadian

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I was in Stuttgart, Germany recently I purchased a petite pocket Canadian made by Butz Choquin. The cost was relatively cheap at 43€. It was stamped Butz Choquin Belami on the top of the shank and St. Claude in an arch over France. I like the contrast stain on the pipe and the fact that it would fit nicely in my coat pocket while traveling in Germany. When I returned to my hotel room I looked it up on the web. I found that it was listed as a Junior Pipe on the Butz Choquin Website and in fact there was a picture of a pipe that looked very much like the one I picked up. (http://www.butzchoquin.com/detail.php?id=BCBELUN5PF4)BC1 I liked the look, the shape and the size of the pipe as soon as I saw it and decided it was a pipe that would commemorate my trip to Stuttgart. There was a sandblast version of the pipe available as well and I looked them both over carefully before choosing the smooth one. I purchased the pipe and a pouch of one of the shop blends called Cigarren-Mezger Vaihinger Mischung Nr. 15 – an English mixture to christen the pipe. It was one of the only shop blends that did not have some kind of fruit topping. I took my newly purchased pipe and tobacco to a coffee shop across the street from the shop and loaded a bowl of the Vaihinger Mischung Nr. 15. I bought a cup of dark hot chocolate and fired up the bowl and sipped the hot chocolate. I was impressed by how well the pipe smoked. It delivered a flavourful and cool smoke from start to finish. Early in the bowl there was a slight charcoal taste from the bowl coating but it soon disappeared into the well rounded English smoke. While I smoked it I looked it over more carefully. Though it was smoking well the finish left much to be desired. It was rough to say the least. After smoking it a few moments I noticed that the stem had oxidized. I would need to think about what to do with the finish when I returned to Canada.BC2

BC3 I smoked the pipe for the remaining week of my German trip and continually looked it over. As I had decided when I bought it the shape was perfect and the taper on the short stem fit well with the overall look of the pipe. It felt good in the hand and was a pleasure to smoke. But the rough finish became increasingly problematic to me. There were a lot of scratches in the briar on the surface of the rim and the rest of the bowl and shank. The contrast stain was nice with the dark black under coat that highlighted the grain and the lighter yellow brown top coat to add depth to the finish. But the pre-staining finish work was severely lacking as the scratches from the initial sanding were tactile and visible. A coat of varnish had been applied to the pipe that not only covered the bowl but also flowed over part of the stem. The varnish on the stem showed up when the pipe was smoked. The stem oxidized in weird patterns around the flow of the varnish. It gave the stem almost a flame pattern with the oxidation appearing from the button forward about a ½ inch along the jagged edges of the varnish coat. I would need to address the finish of the pipe when I returned to Canada.BC4

BC5 I took it to the worktable and took the above photos before beginning to work on the pipe. Though it is hard to really see the roughness of the finish some of the scratches are visible in the photos. The oxidation of the stem is also less visible in the photos than it was in person. I stripped off the varnish using acetone on a cotton pad. I used it sparingly as I wanted to remove the varnish but not the stain. I sanded the pipe with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the remaining varnish and also remove the scratches in the briar. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I sanded the stem as well with a fine grit sanding sponge and the micromesh sanding pads being careful to avoid the BC logo that was painted on the stem. Once the bowl was smooth I buffed it with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil to enliven the finish and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish and vulcanite. I finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. I am happy with the finished pipe. Now not only does it smoke well but it feels better in the hand looks more finished to the eye. Sometimes I just can’t help myself and have to refinish a pipe that simply irritates my sensibilities.BC6

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BC10 (The apparent scratch on the pipe shown at the top of the photo that runs from the shank across the stem is merely a hair on the lens of the camera.)BC11

A Restored Orlik Dugout Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Al Jones’ recent posts on his restorations of two Orlik pipes – one a Sterling and one a Dugout – for John Guss prompted me to take this old Orlik Dugout out of my pipe cabinet and take a few photos. I restored it many years ago now and have smoked it many times since that restoration. The pipe originally came to me via an eBay auction. When it arrived I cleaned up the bowl and the stem. I remember that the bowl was caked and in need of a reaming and cleaning. The shank was dirty and the stem was oxidized. I cleaned both up and waxed and polished the pipe. It came in a worn black leather covered case with a red velvet lining. The pipe fit the case perfectly. There was an indentation for a second stem or a cigarette holder that no longer was present. Some of these older cased pipes came with a vulcanite and an amber stem – this may have been the case here. The blast was originally deep but had been worn over the years.Orlik1 The stamping on the pipe is very clear. It reads ORLIK over DUGOUT with TRADE to the left of the stamping and MARK to the right. The finish appears to almost be a rustication with a sandblast afterwards. It has both a black understain and a brown overstain. The combination of the rustication and blast is what I think gives it the name dugout.Orlik2 The stem is similar to the one that Al cleaned up for John on his Dugout. It has the same shape and look to the button. It has an orific airway in the end of the rounded button on the stem.Orlik3

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Orlik5 While the walls are thin on the bowl the pipe smokes cool nonetheless. It is one of my favourite old collectible pipes.

Repaired a couple of Brighams for a friend

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Blog by Steve Laug

The pipe at the top of the photo is a Brigham Algonquin shape 265. It is a newer Brigham and has the nylon tenon and system. The second pipe is a Brigham 384 volcano. The stem of that one is shown in the photo below. A friend and reader of the blog, Joe Iacobellis sent me a note to see if I could help him out on these two. He had restored the bowls on both pipes but the stems were giving him fits. The Algonquin was completely restored and he put the stem on the finished pipe to have a look. When he took the stem off the tenon and system apparatus remained in the bowl. It was stuck and would not come out. The two brass dots or pins had come loose from the tenon and though the stem fit well the tenon would not come out of the shank or stay in the stem. The stem on the Volcano was a mess. There seemed to have been a coating of varnish or something on the stem and when he worked on it the surface came off pitted and scarred. He wanted me to help on these two issues so I had him send them to me.Brig1 When I came home from a recent trip for work the pipes were waiting for me. The issues that Joe had mentioned in his email were right on. The tenon on the Algonquin was torn where the pins had come free from the nylon. The tenon was stuck in the shank and would not move. I put the bowl in the freezer over night and let it sit. When I took it out in the morning I used a pair of needle nose pliers to carefully twist the tenon out of the shank. I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to make sure that shank was not the issue. I put the tenon back in place on the stem and it was fairly tight. I twisted it back into the shank and it fit well. When I removed the stem the tenon was once again stuck in the shank. I used the needle nose to twist it out again. I used an ice pick to push the pins further out of the inside of the stem so that the surface was smooth. I used some clear super glue and coated the end of the tenon and pressed it into place in the stem.

After the glue set I used the ice pick and a small furniture hammer to tap the pins back into the tenon. I tapped lightly so as not to damage the tenon or the stem. I pushed the stem into the shank and twisted it out several times to make sure that the fit was good and the tenon would remain in the stem instead of the shank. It worked! I then cleaned up the tenon and the stem with micromesh sanding pads to polish it. I buffed it on the buffer with Blue Diamond and then carnauba wax. I gave the rim of the bowl a light coat of cherry stain to bring it closer to a match on the bowl. I buffed the rim and gave it a coat of carnauba. The finished pipe is shown below.Brig2

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Brig8 The stem on the volcano took some work. The surface of the vulcanite was rough and somewhat ridged from the varnish or clear coat on it. I used some 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the surface of the stem and remove the oxidation around the shank/stem junction. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponges. I then wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I buffed it with Tripoli before dry sanding it with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads to finish polishing the stem. Once completed I gave it a light buff with Blue Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax.Brig9

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Brig12 Joe, the pipes are finished. I will get them wrapped up and in the mail as soon as possible. I think they came out great and hope you will get a lot of use out of them. Enjoy! Thanks for sending them to me to work on, I enjoyed it.

For the Love of an Amadeus Half-Bent Brandy

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

“According to Diotima, Love is not a god at all, but is rather a spirit that mediates between people and the objects of their desire. Love is neither wise nor beautiful, but is rather the desire for wisdom and beauty.”
― Plato (429?–347 BCE), Athenian philosopher, in “Symposium,” 360 BCE

INTRODUCTION
Amadeus may be known best as the 1984 feature film that won eight Academy Awards and was titled after the fourth given (or in this case, chosen) name of the latter 18th century Austrian composer, more often shortened to Mozart. Christened Johannes Chrystosomus Wolfgangus Theophilis Mozart, the often inebriated genius preferred the Latin translation of Theophilis – Greek for “lover of God” – which is Amadeus, derived from amare, to love, and Deus, God. The name also happens to be a Greek pipe brand founded in 1975 by eight artisans.

The half-bent brandy I obtained as part of a multi-pipe estate lot last year is a mid-level example of an Achaki-Amadeus S.A. briar. The company’s products range in price new from $50 on sale to $320 at the regular rate. They are all made of high quality Mediterranean briar, and the Greek company is among the primary suppliers of that variety of wood to other makers including Stanwell, Vauen, Tsuge and the late Bjarne Nielsen of Denmark.

This Amadeus arrived in much better than usual shape except for the chamber and rim and some minor wear of the stem.AM1

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AM7 THE RESTORATION
I was eager to start a OxiClean bath on the stem. Knowing the stem hole as well as the outer area would benefit from a good soak for about a half-hour, I suspected that some of the chatter I could see in line with the lower lip would require more than that and even some sanding before micro-meshing.Am8

Am9 In the meantime, I had no trouble removing the little bit of blackening of the rim with easy rubbing using super fine steel wool, and the mild buildup of carbon in the chamber with a 19mm reamer followed by 150-grit paper and finished to silky smoothness with 320-grit.

Although the top of the stem was good after the soak, rinse and a wet micromesh work-over – building a grade at a time from 1500-4000 – the bottom, after the same treatment, indeed needed more work.AM10

Am11 And so I removed a little more of the chatter with 200-grit paper and applied some Black Super Glue.Am12

Am13 My work so far was easy, but being the glass-half-empty sort I was prepared to discover serious accreted grime when I commended the stage of clearing the mortise and shank with a wire-handled cleaner dipped in Everclear. But my luck continued. After a few passes that met no resistance and resulted in minor darkness of the cleaner, I decided with a rare sense of admiration that the previous owner had enjoyed the Amadeus brandy for some time and taken appropriate care of it. Reattaching the stem, I retorted the pipe with a mere two Pyrex test tubes of boiled alcohol.

As has been the case in many of my restorations so far, I was curious with the shade of the stain that I considered to be over-dark. To my way of thinking, as long as a careful visual analysis reveals no hidden reason for the extra obscuring, the clearer the grain, the better. And so, again with the utmost gentleness, I used a small piece of steel wool to lighten the briar and worked my way up the micromesh scale.Am14

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AM19 For those of you with more discerning eyes, the pieces of crud visible with enlargement of the last photo, showing the shank opening, resulted from a final impulsive sanding of the chamber. Rest assured none of it remained after I noticed and gave it a good blow.

The two pieces of the pipe were ready for buffing. I used red and white Tripoli and White Diamond on the stem (big surprise) and white Tripoli, White Diamond and three coats of carnauba on the wood.Am20

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Am26 CONCLUSION
There were no big problems with this restoration; no special problems to report or whine about; no particular distinction of the Amadeus itself, except for its very fine craftsmanship and, to me, less common country of manufacture. Still, it is a real beauty, an opinion I expressed in an email to Achaki-Amadeus to date the crafting of the pipe. Excepting the general pleasure of the simple but effective restoration, in fact, the most exciting aspect of the process came after the fact, when I received a response from one of the brand’s owners:

This is a line we used to make some good ten years ago. If you are in the USA it was imported in the country four years ago.

I hope I helped.

Thank you for your kind words.

Best regards

Makis Minetos

Please visit my blog:

http://www.acutabovebriar4.blogspot.com

The French Girl with the Fuzzy Identity

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

“The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.”
― Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), U.S. author who re-invented and popularized the hard-boiled private investigator genre, in “The Thin Man” (1934)

INTRODUCTION
I take great solace from life’s frequent misadventures through activities that nevertheless focus on the same causes of grief: reading a good book, realistic or fantastic; writing news articles, blogs, letters to the editor and my own versions of literature; photographing street life, landscapes, nature and the occasional spot news event; drafting, filing and arguing civil actions in courts of law when I too frequently encounter those who would do me harm through ignorance or the misperception that I lack understanding of that study of knowledge, and researching and at times investigating anything and everything. But when I need to retreat all the way into the pleasure centers of my brain, I have only my local tobacconist and pipe acquisition disorder on which to fall back, and on the great majority of my P.A.D. attacks for almost a year now I can at least blame my small but expanding online business of refurbishing or restoring estate pipes for sale. Yet even that endeavor involves research and background checks.

Other than the classic but elegant shape and crafting of the Butz-Choquin bent billiard I scored a few months ago in an estate lot with several lesser gems – including a unique red Kaywoodie lumberman that was, for the most part, sandblasted, but with two natural rings around the billiard bowl and matching sitter bottom and ferrule – the obvious challenge of restoring the shapely French pipe to her original fine condition was a definite attraction. Except for the BC logo clear on the left side of the stem and the overall haggard appearance, I had no idea what I was getting. When the lot arrived, I searched for the BC, but when I found her the nomenclature was so fuzzy I could make out little more of the brand stamp on the left shank than the distinctive cursive B. Of the name itself, I saw two lines, the top beginning with a definite F and the bottom a clear word: MAJOR.

This may sound like plenty to go by, but my browser search suggested multiple possibilities for Butz-Choquin matches starting with F. There was the Formula, Formula Noir, Fait Main and filter, all of which I ruled out. And so I added an L and found Flamme, Flamme Extra, Flamme Standard, Flash and Fleuron. Then I tried Flamme Major and, seeing no suggestions, just Major. That excavated a site with images for BC Major Pipes, among which I saw a similar although straight stem specimen.Butz1 Therefore I returned to the full Butz-Choquin Flamme Major search and completed it, confirming that indeed was what I had.

THE RESTORATION
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Butz8 I recently started making several basic changes in my pattern of restoration S.O.P. First, I now begin with an OxiClean stem wash as it can go on in the background, so to speak, while I do other tasks. I’ve also found it really works, although not with the comprehensive results sworn to in the site I found for its basic instructions, including the consistent lack of need for additional work such as sanding and on occasion using Black Super Glue for deep fills. Sometimes after washing with OxiClean and warm water, rubbing out the excess discoloration with a cloth and micro-meshing, the result is a perfect stem ready for the wheel. More often than not, however, I need to sand out scratches that are exposed. Such was the case with this stem. But the practice serves its purpose, to clean the stem inside and out and make the job of producing a shinier end product far easier.

Before
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Ready for buffing:Butz11

Butz12 The second new habit is working on the rim and chamber and scraping out the major buildup of old tobacco and its related substances from the shank with a wire cleaner rinsed over and over in Everclear. All of these can be completed during the OxiClean wash. Third, I now retort every pipe at this stage.

All of these stages of the process completed, I turned to the bowl and shank, which showed the wear and tear of age. Tell me about it! After washing the briar with purified water, I used a piece of super fine steel wool to lighten the all-too-often over-dark original finish, shine the wood and make the grain show with more clarity. The wood was in very good condition with no pits, dings or scratches worth mentioning, and the slight appearance of discoloring in areas disappeared. I did a full micromesh workup with 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000.

By the end of the restoration, the nomenclature somehow was much clearer.Butz13

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Butz16

Butz17The time was right for the final buffing, and so I repaired from the comfort of the living room for the prep work to the workroom for finishing. The stem, as usual, I gave a nice shine with red Tripoli and White Diamond. The briar I buffed with white Tripoli, White Diamond, and a few coats of carnauba.Butz18

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Butz25CONCLUSION
I think the most notable achievement of this restoration is that for the first time I was able to sand the chamber until it was baby smooth and like-new. I accomplished this by reaming and then sanding with 150-grit paper as usual but followed those steps with a second sanding using 320-grit paper.

All in all, I am happy with the outcome and will, of course, be sorry to let this one get away from me.

Restoring a Dr. Plumb 9438 and a Ben Wade Freehand

2 Replies

Blog by Joey Bruce

I am always on the lookout for pipes every time I’m… Well pretty much anywhere but especially thrift stores and flea markets. I have picked up a few Kaywoodies and Dr. Grabow’s along with some no names here and there and they are sitting on the shelf collecting dust. It wasn’t until recently that I was in another thrift store that I spotted a group of pipes sitting on the shelf. I didn’t even bother looking for logos I just grabbed them and took them to the front to ask how much. For four pipes the guy wanted a whopping $5. I happily agreed and took them home. That’s where I discovered the store had sold me some really nice pipes.

Two noteworthy and impressive looking pipes were a Ben Wade freehand and a Dr. Plumb. This immediately started a fire under me and I quickly went to the closet and got out all my pipe restoring equipment.
I started working on the stems first. It had been awhile so I forgot my routine. Usually the first thing I do is soak them in a Oxyclean solution, then break out the alcohol soaked pipe cleaners and let them sit overnight, then start with the sanding. This time in my excitement I forgot the Oxyclean and went straight into the pipe cleaners and then the sanding.

It wasn’t until I noticed all the oxidation wasn’t coming off that I remembered my original routine. So I threw them in the Oxyclean solution and after 6hrs removed them. That lifted the rest of the oxidation up to where I could now sand it off. You can see here as I’m part way through the Ben Wade stem.

I usually wet sand until the brown goo stops and that’s when I know it’s time to hit the buffer. A few minutes issuing a mild polish then hit it up with a finishing polish for that extra bright luster. On the BW freehand the logo was already worn down pretty well so I couldn’t sand it much or I’d risk losing the logo completely. So you’ll see some brown oxidation around that area.

While the stems are being polished I let the bowls soak in sea salt and alcohol for about a day.Joey1 I keep topping them off with alcohol throughout the day as they dry up. Not sure if this is the proper technique but it works for me.
Neither the Ben Wade or Dr. Plumb had much cake built up so lucky for me I didn’t have to go into the bowl and clean it up. If you look back at the first pic (sorry I didn’t photo document the steps well) you can see some build up on the rim of the two pipes. The Dr. Plumb needed to be wet sanded to get that off but the Ben Wade came off super easy on the buffer.
I finished the Dr. Plumb up on the buffer the same way I did the stems and it came out nice. This pipe is quite large in diameter and you can feel it with the weight. The grain of the wood is this rich dark almost tiger stripes grain. It rests very comfortably in the palm of your hand.Joey2

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Joey4 The BW however, I tried to take the buffer to it and quickly noticed it took off the black worn look to the rustic briar. Not sure if that’s what it looked like in the beginning but I like the black weathered look to the wood so I took some toothpaste and brush to it to clean it and then I spent a good amount of time just rubbing it with my hands. Working the natural oils (and probably some grit and grime) into it. It too is a large pipe but it’s a featherweight. Not sure how they were able to do that. It’s almost like an illusion or some magic trick.Joey5

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Joey7 I’m pleased how they turned out. All in all not a bad purchase for $2.50.