Tag Archives: Oxidation

Restoring an Apple from Bertam, the Nation’s Pipemaker

Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe from the foursome I bought on Ebay was a shapely apple and of all the foursome it was in the best shape. It was dirty and lightly caked but the stem was lightly oxidized and very clean. The shank was quite clean and fresh and took very little to clean out. It is stamped Bertram in script on the shank over Washington DC. It appears to also have a number on the shank to the left of the script. The first number is unreadable but the second is a 0. These numbers on the Bertrams told the price of the pipe and where it fit in the hierarchy of the line.

I have included the following link to give a bit of historical information on the pipe company. It is a well written article that gives a glimpse of the heart of the company. http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/01/bertrams-pipe-shop-on-14th-street.html#!

In the photo below the Bertram is the pipe at the top of the picture. And in the second photo provided by the seller it is out of focus but the shape is clear.

The next four photos show the overall state of the pipe when I brought it to the worktable last evening. The stem is lightly oxidized and appears to be high quality vulcanite. Unlike many of the Bertram stem I have had in the past this one does not have clunky sharp edges of a vulcanite blank. They had been sanded down (at the factory) to make the stem more tapered and finished looking. Bertrams did not typically have a stain or finish. They were polished briar in a natural finish. This one was dirty and had some ground in oils on the shank and sides of the bowl. The grain was a nice cross grain on the right side and mixed on the left. The bowl had a cake in the first 1/3 from the top. The rim was dirty with oils and tar and had a few dents and dings from being knocked about. The slot in the button was very tight – as I have found true of my other Bertram pipes and would need to be opened up to facilitate cleaning with a pipe cleaner. In examining the bowl there were several fills but they had been done well – the putty that was used was not the pink or white putty and had coloured along with the briar as the pipe was smoked.

The close up photo of the bowl shows the rim and the buildup of cake at the top of the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer, matching the cutting head to the diameter of the bowl. I wiped down the briar with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the ground in oils and dirt. I scrubbed with the pad and was able to remove most of the dirt and grime. To address the dents and dings on the rim I decided to lightly top the bowl. I would not be staining the pipe so I would not need to try to match the stain from the bowl and rim. I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I wiped it down a second time using isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads. I cleaned out the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It was not too dirty and cleaned up quickly. I decided to work on the slot so that I could more easily clean out the inside. I used needle files to open the slot. I used three different files – a flat oval, a rounded oval and a round to reshape the slot into an oval.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove some of the buildup and roughness on surface of the stem. I also sanded the end of the stem and the inside of the newly shaped slot. I followed that up with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I followed that with my usual micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

The inside of the bowl had some cracking so I mixed up some pipe mud – cigar ash and water – and coated the inside of the bowl with it. I painted it on with a pipe cleaner and covered the cracks. I also used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the rim and make it crisper. The last three photos show the stem and the bowl after the complete reworking.

Anonimo, or the Modern Westminster Cathedral*

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

“…once I falsely hoped to meet the beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), English novelist, in “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,” 1818

PREFACE
I was, as my ancestors, a native of Redondo Beach and its environs, and most of my family born in that temperate South Bay region of the California Republic was by any appraisal undistinguished, indeed, a study in dysfunction. Whilst every genealogy has its heritage of eccentricity and neurosis, mine is cursed with a spasmodic line of schizophrenia.

My grandfather, the one shining beacon, remains known the world round for his pioneering and influential photography of the sport that is known as surfing, owing to the vernacular origin peculiar to the American colonies. The good gentleman was a lifelong champion and active participant, with vigor, flair and skill, both in the sport and his avid documentation of its participants, famous and obscure, and the attendant culture. Who knew, in its inception, that his physician’s prescription, ordered in the middle part of the late twentieth century, for a hobby to aid the old man in recovering from a particularly tenacious bout with peptic ulcers, would spawn a latent talent and lead to eternal glory?

Indeed, one beguiled writer at a magazine that showcased most of the great photographers of the previous century – which renowned publication, alas, has now passed almost as thoroughly as my grandfather, remaining for the living and breathing inhabitants of this wayfarer’s station, before the Great Unknown, to appreciate only in the ether realm known as the World Wide Web – was so beside himself with giddiness as to dub the much beloved old man “the godfather of surf photography.”

My mother, being the first offspring of the great man, was the only one of her siblings to pursue a noted career, as a nurse now retired. Together the patriarch and eldest daughter formed the bulwark of the otherwise mostly listless, melancholy clan.

On the subject of my own eclectic interests, I have, since childhood, had a consuming hunger for the study of diverse subjects. This omniology put me on my present path, that is, to understand every facet of human knowledge concerning everything, particularly, in my case, the often seemingly unfathomableness of information relating to the genesis, history, science, study, culture, enjoyment and preservation of smoking pipes. One could call me an omnitabacariusphile, although in my zeal for this inclination, however well-meaning and innocent its beginning, the pursuit lead me to a monster I shudder to recall and doubt in my constitution to do so.

Some months have passed since I set upon the fearsome, God-like determination of restoring life to the creature that this narration shall endeavor to describe in the entirety of its awful nature, the frightful apparition of which you shall observe in its original form as I first perceived it in the mists of the cold, barren, lifeless wasteland that is called the Internet in these peculiar times we are fated to spend our lives. Nothing of that initial sighting, the image of the monster blurred by the swirling incorporation of sundry others similar in basic form yet far fairer in the details of their corporeal makeup, could prepare me for the spectre I beheld when the entire host of them arrived by poste.

Good God! Readers, had you been in my company at the instant when first I disrobed the fiendish animation that was hurled through space and time to alight in my quivering hands, then only would you comprehend truly the horror that consumed my entire humanity. Yet, think not for an instant that the visage I discerned was the genuine inception of my natural sense of loathing. The full nature of my revulsion sprang, as fast as the Trees of Truth and Knowledge, from the immediate and overwhelming understanding of the cruelty that was inflicted by Man upon this poor brute.

FIRST SIGHTING
Now, at last, I have regained enough of my stamina – which, for all of my life prior to the advent of the incident which forms the central theme of this account, was as vigorous as that of any young man who plays cricket almost every day – to reveal the thing as I found it, through the following crude illustrations.

I implore you, in the name of all that is Holy, to scrutinize the abominable disfigurements of the beast’s original form. Perceive with more than just your eyes, and especially with pity in your hearts, I further beseech you, the jagged wound inflicted just below its forehead, or rim; the dreadful rending of its skin from the right side of its torso – shank, rather – beside the artificial extension of the same, and lastly, the woeful bleeding of black stain, as blood, from this extension onto the very wood that was to be its natural makeup. At first I took the freak of nature, nay, far worse, the creation of a man, to be the first attempt of a novice at crafting a briar pipe of the freehand variety. Only later was I corrected by one whose opinion and experience in such matters I hold inviolate, my mentor and good friend Chuck Richards, who informed me to my astonishment and dismay that the egregious work was in fact of Italian descent with no name.

Read on at your own peril.

RESTORATION OF LIFE
Seeking no more than to breathe new life into the ruined corpse of a smoking pipe, one I envisioned in my mind’s eye as it could have been, had it been born into the good society so many take for granted, I proceeded with the course of action which I perhaps foolishly believed was pre-determined. Regardless of my motives, I felt a pull that led me inexorably to the conclusion I shall in good time reveal.

Having triaged the wounds to the unknown pipe, I found myself in the gravest sense of urgency whilst I resolved to expunge the haphazard spatter of bloodlike blackness betwixt the briar shank and its extension.

With the utmost surgical care, employing 220-grit paper, I erased the accursed stains.

Regarding the ridge of the odd, beak-like figure on the front of the bowl, the un-level aspect of the prominently scabrous feature was positively unnerving to behold. Though a full frontal view is not available before its correction, these left and right images reveal the disparity. The cruel hideousness of the misdeed inflicted upon a central feature of the freehand was so ghastly to behold, reminding one of the nose of an old man spotted and mangled by the advanced stages of alcoholism, that its repair was my second priority. With the aid of a flat filing tool, I corrected the flaw whilst also removing a gash above it. A cursory smoothing of the abraded surface resulted in the beginning of an almost intoxicating, God-like improvement, though minor work to finish the makeover I had begun was still necessary. Scarcely able to control my escalating excitement that was directed with all-consuming mania toward the ultimate re-animation of the pipe, I turned my gaze again to the frightful laceration to the cranium – that is to say, the rim. Devoid of even a dash of hope for correcting the near fatal head wound, and directly upon the heels of the greatest battle between my ever-intensifying lust to restore the spark that is life to this wretched pipe versus my thoughts of utter failure and ruin, I could envision no measure short of inflicting a deliberate pattern of the very same gouges round the rim and the immediate area of the bowl beneath it. Toward this remarkably heady end, I embarked upon a slippery path of utter destruction of the rim with naught but prayers that I could complete and then reverse, as it were, the radical procedure. The only implement available being a spring-loaded round hole-puncher with a small but sturdy grip, I commenced the initial task of creating matching and equidistant blemishes round the top of the bowl.

And then, with mounting glee at the sheer recklessness of the notion, onto the top of the skull – or rim – I repeated the same process with tighter punches. Oh, to formulate in words the wonder and terror that overwhelmed my senses is beyond the power of the greatest poet! In my crazed mind I entertained a vision of beauty like a newborn phoenix rising from the ashes! The mental snapshot was breathtaking in its audacity and execution! I was all but hopelessly mad in the ecstasy of the moment! I daresay some would now postulate that I had already surpassed that precipitant threshold.

Therefore it is without any sense of sin whatsoever that I confess my elation at the removal of the few remaining but festering sores that upon first sight of the beleaguered pipe put me in such a state of apprehension.

I performed a retort for a thorough purging of the accreted waste and other filth that continued to leech the innards of the reanimated Italian pipe with no name, though I retained hope that the poor thing would regain some of its more pleasant previous memories, if indeed it ever possessed any, as its recovery progressed.

Wishing to be done forever with the coarse, disheveled appearance of the still recuperating pipe, I applied a progressive regimen of micromesh from 1500 to 4000 upon the unfinished pocks covering the rusticated dome and the pale, sickly spots at various intervals of the pipe’s wooden body where once had flourished cuts, scrapes and crevasses.

The quick application of a double-coat of medium brown leather stain to the areas of the wood effected by the various degrees of sanding and more aggressive restorative measures, and the immediate removal of the dye’s alcohol by ritual of fire left a meager residue of ash that was banished with ease using the 4000 micromesh pad.

The stem, once oxidized to a uniform sickly green shade, glimmered again in its healthy black condition following a treatment with red and white Tripoli and White Diamond.

The wooden body, cured of every ailment that had at first glance so shocked me to the very core of my being, was ready for the final course of medicine, which included the same wholly natural elixirs and a gentle buff with carnauba.

CONCLUSION
Though mighty powers of science, craftsmanship and other forces beyond the comprehension of Man indeed coexist on some unseen dual plain of reality, the awesome dynamism behind them must be harnessed by the guardians of restoration before they can be utilized on a regular basis. I count myself among the fortunate to have survived this harrowing ordeal with my body, mind and soul intact.

I entreat all those who read this to consider it with open minds, but as a cautionary tale.

*Reconstruction of Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of English Catholicism, began in 1895, but due to the cost has never been completed – leaving much of the interior unfinished brickwork.

New Life for an Old and Tired BBB Own Make 701 Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

I saw a foursome on Ebay and the one pipe in the lot that caught my eye was of course this older Rhodesian. At first glance I figured it was a GBD 9348. Then I looked more closely at the photos and could see that it was not a GBD at all. It was clearly a BBB with the brass inset on the top of the stem. I bid and won the lot. While the other three pipes are probably fine in terms of additions to the pipes for sale this one was the one I wanted for my collection. It had two things going for it that caught me – it was Rhodesian and it was a BBB. Both fit the one of the focuses of my collection. Needless to say but the one in the roughest shape was the BBB. In the photo below you can see the hole in the stem and the roughening around the inner edge of the rim on the left side of the bowl. It was going to take a bit of work to bring this one back from the brink and keep the original stem.

When the package arrived I took out the BBB and unwrapped it from the bubble wrap. The stem was stuck in the shank and the damage to the bowl was quite extensive. The stamping on the left side of the shank read BBB in a Diamond and under that was Own Make. On the right side it read London England in a straight line over the shape number 701. On the right side of the bowl and on several spots on the shank it had dark stains from sitting in water or juice. It had discoloured the briar and damaged the finish. There were also some dents and dings under the dark discolouration from the bowl having been dropped on concrete or something that left the side of the bowl dimpled with dents and marks. The stem was quite gnawed on – the hole on the top was solid around the edges and the button was chewed and worn on the top side. The underside of the stem had bite marks and was worn from clenching.

I put the pipe in the freezer for 30 minutes and when I took it out I was able to easily remove the stem. I cleaned the edges around the hole in the top of the stem with alcohol and a dental pick to remove the buildup and the detritus that was caught in the edges. The good thing was the edges were solid and not crumbling. I put Vaseline on a nail file that I have here and use for more wide repairs on the stem and inserted it into the slot. It provided a solid base for me to drip superglue onto the hole. I built up the edges and worked my way to the centre of the stem bite. You will note that I grossly over filled the hole with the superglue. I have been having trouble with the accelerant that I am using. It tends to dry out the surface of the patch and the centre never sets correctly. I decided to set the stem aside overnight and let the patch cure overnight. I dropped the badly stained bowl into my alcohol bath and called it a night. The bowl soaked for over 12 hours and the stem cured while I slept soundly. In the morning I took a look at the stem and saw that it was pretty hard. I removed the bowl from the alcohol bath and dried it off. You can see the dark stains on the right side of the bowl and on other spots on the bowl. It was almost black in colour and the alcohol had not lightened it at all.

The top view of the bowl below shows the extent of the damage to the bowl. It was out of round and the gouge out of the left inner edge was rough. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and see if it would lighten the stains on the bowl. While it indeed lightened them it did not remove them. It was encouraging to see the grain through the stains however, so I knew that sanding the damaged areas would remove much of the darkening.

I lightly topped the bowl on my topping board to remove some of the damage to the rim surface.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare wood. I wanted to remove as much as possible and see if I could also clean up the inner edge of the rim. I used a retort as has become a habit lately and boiled alcohol through the stem and shank to remove the tars and build up. After the retort I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol.

I worked on the stem using needle files to recut the button and clean up the sharp edge. I sanded with 180 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repair to the topside and underside of the stem. I followed that by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out some of the scratches left behind by the lower grit paper.

While I had the 220 grit sandpaper out I sanded the bowl as well to remove the stains on the sides of the bowl and the cap. I also used a folded piece of sandpaper to work on the inner edge of the rim and give it a slight bevel to minimize the damage there. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol and then sanded it with a medium grit and a fine grit sanding sponge followed by 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. In the photos below you can see how it worked to remove the majority of the stain on the bowl. I very carefully sanded around the stamping on the right shank as I did not want to damage the stamping.

I used a hot knife and wet cloth to steam out the dents on the bowl sides, cap and rim. When I had lifted them as much as possible I sanded the bowl further with the 400 grit wet dry paper and also with the fine grit sanding sponge. I wanted to clean up the damaged areas on the sides and top as well as the stem repairs.

After the steaming and sanding I spent some more time on the inner edge of the rim. I wanted the bevel to smooth out the damaged side of the rim and also wanted to bring the bowl back into round. It took quite a bit of time to handwork the rim damage but I am happy with the end result. When finished I rubbed the bowl down with a soft paper towel and olive oil. I rubbed the oil into the bowl, paying special attention to the areas that were previously damaged with the stain and the dents. Again, I set the bowl aside for the night to let the oil soak in and be absorbed into the briar.

The next morning I worked on the stem with fine grit sanding sponges and then with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. The higher grit pads allowed me to blend in the repair as much as possible and though still visible it looks very good. The patch is hard and solid with no give when pressed on.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it had dried I buffed it on the wheel with White Diamond. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is ready for loading up and enjoying a good smoke. It should serve me well for a long time.

Bringing a Yello Bole Pot back to Life

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Blog by Andrew Selking

Anyone who reads my previous postings know that I have a fondness for early KB&B pipes. Since the briar used in Yello Bole pipes was generally inferior to those used in Kaywoodies, most Yello Bole pipes are smaller. This was a work around for defects found in the briar. I saw this Yello Bole pot and was intrigued. It’s a full size pipe. Here is the seller’s picture. When the pipe arrived, the stem was nearly perfect with the original stinger intact (not that I planned to leave it there). The bowl looked decent with a minimal amount of tar on the rim and very light cake. I dropped the bowl into the alcohol bath and soaked the stem in Oxyclean.

I noticed the first indication of trouble when I pulled the bowl out for reaming: it had a heavy varnish coating. That’s usually a sign that the pipe maker wanted to hide imperfections in the wood.

I quickly reamed the bowl then broke out the 0000 steel wool and acetone to remove the varnish.

I’ve seen some pits in briar before, but this is the first time I’ve encountered a pit so deep that I gave it a name. I named it the pit of despair. Here’s the picture before I removed the pink putty.

Here’s the pit of despair fully revealed. My dental pick had a good ¼ of an inch of room to explore.

Even with the pit I still liked the pipe and decided to fix it anyway. I filed a good amount of briar dust from a broken shank onto a piece of paper. The paper makes it easier to collect the briar dust. Or you could do like Steve and just have a big jar of briar dust. I packed the pit and added super glue followed by accelerator. After applying the super glue and accelerator, I had to add briar dust two more times. This was the final result. In addition to the pit of despair, there were three minor pits on the front of the bowl and two deep pits on the bottom of the shank near the juncture of the stem. I finally got the exterior of the pipe sorted out and turned my attention to the insides.
I did my retort on the bowl. There was some gunk on the brush, but the stinger did a decent job keeping the shank clean. After a few passes with the brush dipped in alcohol, I moved on to q-tips. Not a terribly dirty pipe. Next I retorted the stem. I anticipated it would be dirty, since stingers tend to make pipes smoke wet. I retorted it three times to be safe and had an easy time cleaning the remaining tar.

I next turned my attention to removing the oxidization from the stem. I used 400 wet/dry with water and my sanding wedge, followed by 1500-2400 grit micro mesh pads with water. I polished both the bowl and stem with a progression of micro mesh pads, 1500-12,000 in preparation for final finish. I used my rotary tool with white diamond, followed by carnauba wax on the stem. I have to say this will be the new standard from now on. I decided to use Pimo Pipe Supply’s dark walnut stain on the bowl. This would give me a fighting chance to cover the pit repairs while still allowing the grain to show. It turned out better than I expected. I now have a very classy looking short pot. I also had the chance to try extreme pit repair. Even though this pipe had several pits, the briar still had nice grain. This one is a keeper.

Kaywoodie 73 Supergrain Restoration

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Blog by Al Jones

This Kaywoodie Supergrain belongs to a Brian, a friend of mine in my local pipe club, based located in Frederick, MD. I had some brought some restored Kaywoodies to a previous meeting so he asked if I could could tackle this one. The pipe wasn’t in bad shape. It had light oxidation and teeth chatter on the stem and some scorching on the rim. The pipe is a two-digit shape number, but has a “Drinkless” stamped, 4-hole stinger. I estimate it was made in the early 1950’s as the 4-hole stinger was no longer used after the mid-50’s.

I used some worn, 8000 grade micromesh to remove the scorching from the top of the bowl. The briar was then polished with White Diamond and several coats of Carnuba wax.

I polished the stem starting with 800 grit wet paper, moving thru the 1500 and 2000 grades. Next was 8000 and 12000 grade micromesh sheets followed by a polish with White Diamond on the buffer.

Our pipe club meeting is this week, so Brian will get his Supergrain back. An relatively easy restoration on an elegant little pipe.

Rescuing a Scorched GBD New Era 549

5 Replies

Blog by Andrew Selking

After reading Al’s posts about his GBD pipes, I had to have one. I saw this pipe listed on eBay with a low buy it now price, obviously based on the scorch mark on the front of the bowl. I’m not sure whether it was a sense of overconfidence in my ability or naivety about the extent of the damage, but I bought the pipe. I realized when it arrived that if I couldn’t fix the scorch mark the pipe probably wouldn’t be worth my time. I nearly despaired when normal procedures failed to even lighten the mark. I put the pipe aside several times before finally deciding to take drastic measures and use a hand sander with 150 grit sand paper. I figured at this point there was nothing to lose and I knew I could still maintain the original shape if I was careful. After spending about a half an hour with the sander, I found myself at about an 80% solution. The mark was still too dark, so I took it to the next level of desperation: the rotary tool (that’s the generic name for a dremel that you buy at Harbor Freight Tools) with a sanding attachment.

I do not recommend the use of either a hand sander or the rotary tool except as a last resort. By this point I had accepted the fact that this pipe was beyond hope for a perfect restoration, so I lowered my expectations to a good restoration.

The sanding on the top portion of the bowl changed the contour of the rim, so I used 400 grit sand paper and a piece of glass to top it. Normally I have a set order for restoring a pipe, but dealing with the scorch mark threw it all off. I don’t like to work on a pipe that has a dirty bowl, so I went ahead and reamed it. As you can see from this picture the scorch mark is fairly light. Next I retorted the shank. She was a dirty girl.

I retorted the stem after that, but did it four times. On a dirty pipe you can either spend time with lots of q-tips and fuzzy sticks, or do the retort multiple times. Now that I had the internals of the pipe cleaned, I turned my attention to the removing the oxidation from the stem. This stem was all angles and had some serious oxidation. I’ve felt for a long time that my stem work needed improvement. It’s especially difficult to clean the crease under the button and in the case of this stem the curved area where it meets the diamond portion. I know that when I work with wood I use a sanding block or wrap the sand paper around an object that would fit into the area to be sanded. With that in mind, I “borrowed” a small plastic scraper from the kitchen. You will notice that it has a beveled edge and fits the underside of the button perfectly.

Using the scraper wrapped with 400 grit wet/dry and water, the oxidation was soon gone. I followed with 1500-2400 grit micro mesh pads and water. The bowl had a couple of dents so I decided to steam them out. One of my essential tools for this type of work is an old butter knife. I used my heat gun to get the tip of the knife very hot, then applied it to a wet cloth directly over the dents. Here is what it looked like after several applications of steam. The dents still needed some work, so I sanded them smooth with 400 grit sand paper. By this point the finish was completely uneven, with bare wood on the rim and side of the bowl, so I used acetone and 0000 steel wool to remove the remaining finish. I find that if I’m careful with the stampings, that grade of steel wool cleans the wood without damaging the stampings. This is what the pipe looked like after I took the bowl and stem through a progression of micro mesh pads, 1500-12,000. I decided to use a dark walnut stain from Pimo Pipe Supply to help cover the remaining scorch mark. Here is the bowl after the application of stain. I used white diamond buffing compound on the buffing wheel to bring out a shine. Let me digress a bit about buffers. There are three things that a buffer loves, angles, stem inserts, and nice pipes. When spinning at 3450 rpm’s the buffer will catch anything with an angle and fling it at a high rate of speed onto the nearest hard surface. Alternately it will catch any type of stem insert and rip it out of the stem. Finally if you have a nice pipe that you’ve invested time in, the buffer has a tendency to shatter it just as you finish. This pipe had all of those elements, so I decided to try something different; my rotary tool.

I took a felt buffing pad and loaded it with white diamond buffing compound. The results were spectacular. The rotary tool gave me more control, I didn’t have to worry about the stem flying out of my hand, and I was able to achieve a more consistent shine in the areas that are hard to get with a buffer. Not bad when you consider that I paid $19.99 for this thing at Harbor Freight Tools. I finished the bowl on the buffing wheel and here is the final result.

Refreshing an Older Heritage Antique #13 Dublin Pipe

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The Heritage brand was on I had no familiarity with until Andrew wrote up this blog for us https://rebornpipes.com/2014/12/23/refurbishing-a-heritage-heirloom/ He gave background, history, line information and the classic brochure from the company. I want to give a brief summary of what he found in the next two short paragraphs to set the stage for the one that I found once he highlighted the brand for me.

Heritage pipes were Kaywoodie’s answer to Dunhill. According to one of their brochures, Heritage pipes were made from “briar burls seasoned and cured for up to 8 months,” with only “one briar bowl in over 300 selected to bear the Heritage name.” “Heritage stems are custom fitted with the finest hand finished Para Rubber stems. Mouthpieces are wafer thin and concave.”

The Heritage line began in the early 1960’s, with the trademark issued in 1964. The line was started at the request of Stephen Ogdon, (who worked for Kaywoodie in 1962). Mr. Ogdon had previous experience working for Dunhill, either running the New York store or working for Dunhill North America. Mr. Ogden was made President of Heritage Pipes, Inc., Kaywoodie Tobacco Co.,Inc. and Kaywoodie Products Inc. as well as a Vice President of S.M. Frank & Co. Heritage Pipes were produced from 1964 until 1970 (Source Kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org).

I found one online on Ebay that was stamped Heritage Antique 13. I scanned the brochure that Andrew provided and found this regarding the Antique Line: The Heritage Antique line is characterized by “Rustic Grain stands out in rugged relief.” “This pipe is so bold-looking, yet so light and smooth-smoking. A special sandblasting process exposes a greater surface area on the bowl, giving a cooler, more satisfying smoke. Centuries-old Heritage Antique is strikingly masculine in appearance.”The number 13 is the shape number for the Dublin shape. It can be seen in the first coloumn second pipe down on the left side of the brochure page below. The seller of the pipe I picked up on EBay included some basic information on the pipe. The said the stamping was Heritage Antique with a 13 on the bottom of the shank. The stem has an inlaid double white diamond on the left side. It is out of a Kansas City estate. It measures:
5-1/2 inches Long
1-3/4 Inches High Bowl
1-1/4 inches Bowl Width
3/4 inch of a Bowl Bore
3 inch long stem

The next eight photos were included with the EBay advert and give a pretty good idea of the type of blast on the briar as well as a good picture of the state of the stem. The pictures show the colour of the pipe in a more red hue than it actually appeared when it arrived. In reality the stain is a brown tone similar to that of the Dunhill Shell Briar.

When the pipe arrived in Canada I was very pleased when I opened the box. The briar was in good but dirty condition and it appeared that the finish was in great shape under the grime and tars. The blast was amazing and craggy – very much like that on my older Shell Briars. The rim had some buildup on it that was flaking off but the bowl was in round and there was no damage to the edges of the rim.

The stem was thin and quite clean. It was oxidized and had some waxy substance on the top side. There were two tooth marks – almost pin prick marks, on the underside of the stem visible in the first photo below. The second photo shows the waxy buildup on the surface of the stem and the oxidation.

The rim of the pipe, shown in the photo below had a thick buildup of tars that were flaking off the surface of the rim. I picked at it with a dental pick and could see that the sandblast surface was undamaged underneath. The bowl was in need of a reaming to smooth out the uneven cake on the sides and bottom of the bowl. The stem was frozen in the shank so a short time in the freezer and the stem was easily removed from the shank. The step down tenon was in great shape and showed no damage and the tenon itself was not tarry. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet Reamer beginning with the first cutting head and finishing with the size 2 cutting head. I reamed it back to bare wood to restart the cake build up.

I picked the flaky buildup on the rim with a dental pick and the scrubbed it with a soft bristle brass tire brush to remove all the grit and take it back to the surface of the rim. I have used this method over years as the bristles remove the tars without damaging the sandblasted surface. Once I had the surface brushed clean with the wire brush I scrubbed the entire bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to get the grime out of the crevices of the blast and remove the oils from the previous owners hands. Once I had scrubbed it I put my thumb in the bowl and rinsed it off with cool water and dried with a cotton cloth. I put the stem back in place and set up the retort. I filled the test tube half full of 99% isopropyl alcohol and heated the alcohol over a tea candle. The alcohol boiled through the pipe and cleaned out the tars and oils in the stem and shank. The alcohol also rinsed the inside of the bowl which was plugged with a cotton ball.

With the inside of the pipe cleaned and the exterior of the briar scrubbed it was time to address the oxidation and the marks on the stem. I put a plastic washer between the stem and shank so that I could sand the stem right up to the shank without worrying about rounding the shoulders of the stem. I sanded it lightly with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the waxy buildup on the stem (turns out it was a varnish) and also loosen the surface oxidation. I followed that by sanding with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove scratching and oxidation.

Once the stem was sanded, I wiped it down with a cotton pad and alcohol in preparation for repairing the two tooth marks. I filled these with black super glue and set aside the stem to let the glue cure. When the glue had dried I sanded the two spots with 220 grit sandpaper and the two sanding sponges to smooth out the patches and blend them into the vulcanite. I then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and also at the end of the sanding process.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I rubbed two coats of Halcyon II Wax on the sandblast of the bowl and then gave the pipe and stem a light buff with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The next photos give a clear picture of the finished pipe.

I end with three close-up photos of the bowl to give a good idea of the quality of the sandblast on this piece of briar. It is a stunning pipe with a blast that rivals that found on the Dunhill Shells that are in my collection. I intend to fire up this old pipe and enjoy its trust for many years to come.

Restoring pleasant lines on a damaged stem – home grown hack job repaired

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have wanted to focus a blog on reshaping a damaged stem for a while now but did not have either the stem or examples I needed to document the process. The Everton pipe I restored recently provided the example and it was a matter of documenting the process in a broad way that was applicable to whatever stem you may have that needed to be reworked. So while the photos may be the same as those used in that blog on the Everton the documentation regarding the stem reshaping and restoration is a newly written blog.

If a stem is too thick to your liking please don’t afflict the kind of horror on it that this older BC pipe experienced at the hands of a previous owner. Obviously the stem felt too thick to his liking and he took matters into his own hands. Hey, what’s to lose? It is just a matter of cutting back the thickness to the degree it meets the expectations right? Wrong! In many, many ways that is just wrong. It is far more than just hacking off material to get the “right” thickness. The taper needs to be adjusted, the flow and lines of the pipe stem need to be considered in the process. Trying to keep the surface smooth and not rippled are just some of the challenges. Well, this individual figured that cosmetics, flow and appearance made no difference whatsoever as long at the thing felt better. In my mind the cosmetics are not mere accoutrements to the functionality they actually facilitate the functionality. A smooth surface in the mouth feels better and is far more sanitary that the rough ridged and hacked surface visible below. The stem “surgeon/hacker” had inflicted far more damage to the underside of the stem that he had to the topside. But both bore marks of his inordinate attention. The top of the stem had a flattened appearance that ruined the crowned look of the old vulcanite stem. It had deep gouges and marks from files and knives but the “hacker” had partially smoothed these out. Against the button there were some deep marks. It was a sheer miracle that the hard rubber was high quality and did not oxidize over time. To address this kind of issue with a stem looking at repair you are left with two options – repair or reshape. To repair would involve filling the surface grooves with black superglue or epoxy and vulcanite dust. To reshape would involve more work in changing the profile of the stem to remove the damage, to retaper the stem and flow to make the transitions smooth. The choice of method really is affected by the thickness of the stem material. Would there be enough meat to the stem to allow for reshaping and reinventing the stem without compromising the strength and integrity of the stem?

Because of the thickness of this stem I decided to reshape it rather than repair it. Even the deepest gouges could be removed and the look and flow of the stem adjusted to look very close to the original. The adjustments would also make the thickness in the mouth better. I started the process with 180 grit sandpaper. Some would think that grit was overkill but the overall damage to the stem surfaces demanded this drastic grit to cut deeply enough to remove the damage. I sanded it enough to remove the surface cuts on the top and bottom sides. In the photos below of the underside and topside of the stem the deep gouges remain and are visible. You can see the angularity and randomness of the cuts that had been made. Add to that the lighter cuts that are gone with the initial sanding and you have some idea of the ugliness of this hack job.

I continued to sand with the 180 grit sandpaper until the majority of the gouges were smoothed out. There were still several that would require more work with a higher grit of sandpaper. I moved on to sanding the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I moved up this amount because there was still significant damage to remove but also because that incremental step up in grits really minimizes the scratches left behind by the 180 grit paper. The next two photos show the change after sanding with the 220 grit paper. The grooves on the underside have all disappeared save one deep gouge that will soon disappear. The ones on the topside are all gone and the surface is once again curved, tapered and smooth.

I worked on the groove on the underside of the stem with the 220 grit paper until it was gone. I also worked on the tapered edges of the stem to remove the cuts and gouges along the edges and smooth out the taper. The two photos below show the transition from the groove being gone and the edges being rough to a smooth flowing underside of the stem – gouge-less and well tapered.

With the rough shaping done it was time to fine tune the reshaping. In the next step of the process I use a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the flow and lines of the stem. I cut the sanding sponges into 1 inch squares to allow me to work closely against the button and follow the curve of the stem. These sanding sponges remove the scratching left behind by the 220 grit paper and move the stem a step closer to polishing. While I only show one photo of this step it is probably one that I spent the most time on. It is important to work the surface to remove as much scratching as possible before polishing the stem with micromesh sanding pads. The initial reshaping took about 45-60 minutes. This sanding took 60-80 minutes to complete. It is easy to remove damage but hard to not create more damage in the process of its removal. With reshaping completed and the surface scratches minimized with the sanding sponges it was time to move to the polishing phase of the process. For this I use micromesh sanding pads. I wet sand with 1500-2400 grit pads. This involves a small bowl of water near at hand when I am sanding with the pad. I used to dip the pad in the water and then sand with the wet pad. Now I dip the stem itself into the water and sand the wet stem. I shifted the method as I found that with repeated dipping the pads began to fall apart and separate from the foam core centre. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil before moving to the dry sanding step of the polishing. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. Each successive grit of pad really heightens the polish and shine on the vulcanite. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after using the 4000 grit pad. I then sanded it with the final four pads and finished with a final coat of the oil.

Once it had been absorbed and the stem was dry I buffed the stem with White Diamond. In the bright light of the flash several scratches are still visible from the sanding process on the underside of the stem. I buffed this section with red Tripoli and then back to White Diamond to further erase these scratches. The final photos of the stem show a stem whose taper has been reshaped, whose lines and flow restored and whose stem has been given a finished look. It took patient sanding and reshaping to move the stem from its original corrugated shape to this final polished look but in my mind it was definitely worth the effort. It is also clear that the proper choice or reshaping had been made.

If you should decide to reshape a stem why not aim for doing even better work in shaping and polishing the stem. Never leave a stem in the condition this one was in when I received it. While it was terrible I have seen worse and in the back of mind are residual memories of having inflicted terror to a lesser degree on several of my early restemming jobs. Work hard to reshape a stem to a place where it looks like it was made that way at the factory.

Bringing an Everton Big-Boy 1025 Rhodesian back from the brink

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Blog by Steve Laug

I saw the Everton Big-Boy pipe on a website and the shape hooked me. In the photos the bowl seemed squat and wide and the shank was thick. The bend in the stem appeared similar to an earlier Sina pipe that I picked up; in fact the entire shape was similar. I searched and could find nothing on the brand. There was nothing in any of the books that I usually check out and nothing on the various websites that I use when researching a brand. The brand was a mystery to me and that made me want the pipe even more. I could find Everton Tobacco which is a Danish pipe tobacco. I could find the Everton Football Club (Everton is a District of Liverpool) but no Everton tobacco pipes. I figured that when it arrived I might be able to see why the seller had labeled it an English made pipe. When the pipe arrived I checked the stamping and it was stamped Everton over Big-Boy on the left side of the shank. On the right side of the shank it was stamped 1025. The shape in hand is not as wide and squat at the above photo led me to believe it would be. It is actually very close to a GBD 9438 though I had never seen a GBD stamped with this number. This sent me on a hunt for potential English makers that had a similarly shaped Rhodesian. I looked through many of the Comoy’s charts and again could not find any reference to the number. On a lark I just typed in the shape number in a Google search and immediately had a hit for a 1025 shaped pipe made by the French pipe making company, Butz Choquin (BC). I opened the link from Google to find that it was indeed the pipe I was looking for. BC still makes the 1025 shape in several of their lines. The stamping is slightly different in terms of the name on the left side of the shank. All of them have the BC name and the Line underneath. The right side has the 1025 stamp and also a Made in France. I have included the next two photos from Tobacco Pipes.com. The first is the Bistro line 1025 Rhodesian, while it has the thick shank the stem shape is slightly thinner that the one I have. The second one is from the Manoir line. It has the same thick stubby stem as the one I have. From this exploration I can see that the pipe is an older BC pipe. I have no idea what the Everton stamping is – though it may well be a Liverpool tobacconist.

As I examined the pipe upon taking it out of the box I was troubled by the state of the pipe. There were no noted issues with the pipe either on his site or in email exchanges regarding billing and shipping. The trouble was that there were many issues with the pipe. All together they add up to a question mark for me regarding this pipe. The bowl was over reamed and out of round. There appears to be a sandpit in the inner edge of the bowl toward the front. There is a small crack on the underside of the bowl (the heel) directly below the over reaming. The top of the shank near the stem has a large pit that appears to have small spider web cracks that radiate from it. They are not deep but they are present. The stem is a mess. Evidently the previous owner found the stem to thick to his liking and had performed a butcher job trying to remedy that. It had been hacked with a knife blade on the underside from about mid stem to the button leaving the surface corrugated looking with a lot of file and knife marks. The top of the stem had also been hacked and filed in an attempt to thin it down. It is wavy and rippled. I think that most of the damages to the stem can be fixed as the stem is beefy and I should be able to smooth them out. In terms of the over reaming and the crack – time will tell what I can do with it. Needless to say I was disappointed when I opened the package from the seller.

From first appearance the pipe does not appear all that deficient. It seems like it is in pretty good nick. You can see the similarity in shape to the GBD 9438 Rhodesian in the photos below.

It is only when the pipe is viewed more closely that the problems become obvious. The first photo below shows the crack in the bottom of the bowl and the dents and scratches around that crack. The next photo shows the underside of the stem. The underside had been carved with a knife and with files and left maimed and decimated. The gouges were deep and crossed each other leaving a corrugated surface. The next photo shows the topside of the stem. It had much the same issues as the underside but was nearly as drastic. It had grooves, scratches and flattening. There were ripples in the surface of the vulcanite that left it marked. The filing had left grooves and damage and had been done at angles that destroyed the flow of the stem. The bowl was out of round and the rim had damage to the inner front edge of the bowl. There was a pit in the edge that had opened up. There was burn damage to the bowl edge and rim top. I started working on the stem to smooth out the ridges and corrugations on the top and underside. I used 180 grit sandpaper to begin the process and reduce the ridges. The next series of photos show the stem after this initial sanding.

I continued to sand with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the scratches and smooth out the surface. I followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. The next two photos show the progress in the shaping of the stem. The top side worked quite well. The underside still had one horizontal groove that would take more work but the overall look was getting better.

I continued to sand the underside with the 220 grit sandpaper to remove the groove and reshape the edges of the stem. Once I had the stem shaped and smoothed out I sanded the bottom of the bowl to clean up the glue and bumps on the bottom of the bowl. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface. Once I had removed the glue I could see that the damaged area, the crack had been repaired with epoxy mixed with briar dust. I was glad to see that the crack had been repaired and that the repair while rough, nonetheless was solid and had stopped the crack. The round area in the center of the crack made me wonder if there was potential burnout that had been cleaned out and repaired. Examining the bowl interior I could not see evidence of a burnout though it was severely over reamed.

I topped the bowl to remove the sandpit in the surface and smooth out some of the out of round shape of the bowl. The rim was damage so a light topping would take care of the problems. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the inner rim of the bowl. I cleaned the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.

On the top of the shank there was a sandpit at the shank/stem junction that had spidering cracks around it. I sanded it smooth and refilled it with super glue and briar dust. I sanded the junction with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the flow of the stem and shank.

I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and wiped the bowl and stem down with a cotton pad. I wiped the bowl down with acetone and cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and prepare it for staining.

I sanded the bowl and stem with a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the finish and remove the wear and tear that had come with the bowl.

I mixed a small batch of plaster of Paris to repair the over reamed bowl. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the shank and then pressed the plaster into the bowl bottom under and around the pipe cleaner. I raised the bottom of the bowl to the bottom of the airway.

I sanded the inner edge of the rim some more to bevel it inward and try to work in more into round. I finished that shaping and then prepped the bowl to restain. I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it. I restained and reflamed it until I had an even coverage on the bowl. I wiped the newly stained bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to lighten the bowl and make it more transparent. I wanted the grain to show through once the bowl was polished.

I sanded the stem with my usual pattern of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. Once the final rub had dried I buffed the stem with White Diamond.

The newly shaped stem is shown in the next two photos. The shine and polish came out well and the reshape of the stem took care of the ridges and cuts on the surface. The sanding had taken care of the issues with the stem.

After I put the stem on the pipe I buffed the entirety with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below. Once I shed this chest cold I intend to christen this one with a bowl of Black Parrot. I am looking forward to giving this old timer a re-entry into pipedom.

Refurbishing The Guildhall London Pipe 409 Bulldog for Country Squire Radio Host Beau York

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Blog by Steve Laug

I really like the grain and look of this bulldog. It is made by Comoy’s London and bears the stamping is The Guildhall over London Pipe on the left side of the shank. On the right side is the circular Com stamp Made In London in a circle with the In centered in the circle. Underneath the circle it reads England and to the right of that is the shape stamp 409. The grain on this pipe is a mixed bag but is nonetheless beautiful. There is cross grain, swirls and birdseye that pops on the right side of the bowl. I was listening to the live show when Beau and Jon David talked about this pipe. They showed the condition of it and made some comment about needing to give it some attention as it was looking rough (my recollection). I tweeted them that I would gladly take it on as a project if he sent it my way. Beau packed it up and sent it my way. It arrived early this week after the New Year weekend. When I took it out of the packing envelopes and unwrapped it this is what I found. The stem was badly oxidized but did not have any deep bite marks. There was the normal tooth chatter around the button on the top and bottom sides of the stem. There was a distinct line from the button up ½ inch toward the shank that looked like the stem at one time in its life had sported a rubber softie bit over the vulcanite. The finish was worn and spotty and there were some serious issues with dents and marks in the briar. The rim was very rough with a lot of dings and damage to the top surface. Some of the damage went down the cap on the left side of the bowl. The top of the bowl looked as if it had been dropped on asphalt or concrete. There were parallel marks and dings on the left side low on the bowl and on the point at the bottom of the bowl.

I took the next three close-up photos of the dings on the bowl and rim to show the extent of the damage. Both the inner and outer edge of the rim had damage that made this rim a prime candidate for topping.

Andrew, Anthony and others use a piece of glass for their flat smooth surface for topping a bowl. I use a hard piece of finished oak that is part of my work top. I put a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on the board and anchor it in place. Then I turn the bowl clockwise in a circle across the sandpaper to remove the damaged portions. I check frequently to make sure that I remove just the damage and not too much briar. I also make sure that the rim is flat against the board so that I do not change the angles and profile of the rim top and cap.

Once I had the top flattened with the 220 grit sandpaper I worked it over with a medium and a fine grit sanding block to remove any of the scratches left behind in the topping of the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the spotty finish.

I steamed the dents and marks on the bowl using a wet cloth and the blade of a butter knife that I heated on the flame of our gas range. I put the wet cloth over the dents and touched it with the hot knife blade. The stem generated lifts the dents from the briar. Doing this I was able to remove many of the dents on the sides of the bowl and on the back edge of the cap and rim.

Some of the dents were going to take more drastic measures to try to raise and some of them would need to be filled with a mix of briar and clear superglue to smooth out the surface of the briar. I decided to work on the stem for a break in the process. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and remove what appeared to be ripples in the vulcanite stem. The more oxidation I removed the more these ripples became apparent. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge made by 3M. I pick it up in 8×10 sheets and cut it into working squares to sand stems and bowls. I used a plastic washer that I made to sit between the shank and stem to protect the shoulders of the stem from being rounded in the sanding process.

The next photo shows the remaining dents in the bottom of the bowl. It was almost like a road rash left behind by a drop on concrete. Many of the lighter more shallow dents were raised with the steam but these were more stubborn. I decided to soak the dented portion of the bowl in water. I was careful to not get water in the shank or the bowl. I used a small shallow dish filled with about an inch of water and angled the dented bottom and side of the bowl in to the water. I have found in other refinishing work that water will swell dents in the wood and lift them to the surface. While I knew that some of these dents would not move much, I was certain I could raise them all significantly using this method.

While the bowl soaked in the water I turned my attention to the stem. I find these old Comoy’s stems with the three silver bars inset in them a pain to deal with. Sanding or polishing around them causes the metal to ghost on the surface of the vulcanite. It has to be quickly wiped down with a soft towel to remove it before it penetrates the vulcanite surface. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads again rubbing down the stem with the oil between each group of three pads. I have found that sanding a freshly oiled stem gives teeth to the micromesh and it gives a deeper shine in the process.

The bowl sat in the water for the entire time I worked on the stem (probably 1 ½ hours). Once I finished the stem with the micromesh I heated the knife and used it and the wet cloth to once again steam the dents. I was able to significantly lift the majority of them this way. The photos below show the pipe after the steaming. The rim dents are all gone. The majority of the ones on the side and bottom are either gone or significantly shallower. The steam on the briar brought out some nice reds in the grain of the briar. I used a soft cloth with a few drops of olive oil to wipe down the bowl and shank after the steaming.

I decided to address the remaining dents with briar dust and clear super glue fills. I sanded the surface of the bowl around the dents. I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to clean the surface of dust. I packed briar dust into the dents and put a drop of super glue on each repaired area.

I sanded the patches with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges to blend the repairs into the briar and to remove the excess glue and briar dust. The next two photos show the bowl after I had sanded the repairs smooth. They appear as dark spots on the bowl but they are smooth to touch. The dents are all gone at this point in the process.

I sanded the bowl with 2400-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches and prepare the bowl for staining. I wiped it down a final time with alcohol on a cotton pad. I decided to stain it with an aniline based walnut stain. Before staining it I used a dark brown stain pen to go over the areas that were repaired. Once they were covered I applied a coat of the aniline stain and flamed it. Once it was dry to touch I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to polish and even out the stain. The next series of four photos show the bowl before polishing. It is smooth in the hand. All dents have been removed or repaired.

I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed it with White Diamond to raise the shine. I then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad as the final touch. The finished pipe is shown below. There is still some remaining oxidation around the three bars on the left side of the stem but it has been minimized.