Tag Archives: oxidation

Restoring an old Claridge Dublin made by Comoy’s

Blog by Steve Laug

Several times over the past few years I have run across Claridge pipes. The last two I had were the same shape as the one in this post. They were a nicely shaped Dublin with a chamfered rim and fairly decent grain with one or two fills. This one was no different it was a nice piece of briar with a large round fill on the right side of the bowl. It was the last pipe I worked on from the Ebay foursome shown in the picture below. It is the bottom pipe in the photograph. You can see from the photo that it had a thick cake that was uneven in the bowl with a lot of overflow onto the rim. The coat of tars and grime on the rim made the rim almost flat. The varnish coat on the bowl was in rough shape and the sterling silver mortise fitting was oxidized and yellowed with tarnish. The stem had the characteristic Claridge logo – a circle divided into four wedges – two blue and two red. It was badly oxidized and almost brown in colour. Inside the shank the metal mortise was threaded to house the threaded tenon. There was an odd stinger apparatus that was removable in the end of the tenon. Inside the shank was heavily built up with tars and oils as was the stinger and the airway in the stem. I took the next four photos of the pipe before I started to work on it. I wanted several close-up photos to show the state of affairs at the beginning of the process. I know that I generally include these in the blog I write about pipes I refurbish but I have to let you know that I do that more for me than you. I must have some encouragement when I get to the midway point that the pipe is actually looking better than when I started. I take these for a documentation of the progress of an estate pipe from grime to shine.

I took two close-up photos of the bowl. The first was to show the thick build-up on the rim that would need to be removed in the cleanup process. It is hard to tell from the first photo below but the rim is actually chamfered inward at a significant angle. The tars/lava that has overflowed onto the rim has virtually filled the cup of the rim to the point where the rim is flat. The cake in the photo is also visibly thick and hard. The second photo shows the one fill on the bowl. It is on the right side toward the front of the bowl. It is almost perfectly round and is a tan coloured putty material. It stood out to me every time I looked at the pipe. The rest of the grain on the bowl was decent. It is also the only fill on the bowl.

In the back of my mind I remembered something about the Claridge brand be made by Comoy’s as a seconds line. It was only a dim memory so I looked it up on Pipephil’s site and on Pipedia and found that indeed it was one of many sub-brands of Comoy’s. The picture below shows the logo and stamping on the Claridge. It came from the PipePhil site. My pipe is stamped like the second one in the photo – Claridge over Imported Briar and bears the same stem logo. The list below was the one found on Pipedia and includes quite a few of the older pipes that I have refurbished over the years. I have highlighted the Claridge brand in the list by making the text bold and upper case.

Ace of spades, Ancestor, Astor, Ayres, Britannia, Carlyle, Charles Cross, CLARIDGE, Cromwell, Dorchester, Dunbar, Drury Lane, Emerson, Everyman, Festival of Britain, Grand Master, Gresham, Guildhall, Kingsway, Lion’s Head, Lord Clive, Hyde Park, Lloyds, Mc Gahey, Moorgate, Newcastle, Oxford, O’Gorman, Royal Falcon, Royal Lane, Scotland Yard, St James, Sunrise, Sussex, The Academy Award, The Golden Arrow, The Mansion House, The Exmoor Pipe, Throgmorton, Tinder Box Royal Coachman, Townhall, Trident, Westminster, Wilshire.

I reamed the cake out of the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head first and then working up to the cutting head closest in diameter to the bowl. I took the cake back to bare wood in order to be able to work on the rim and to check out the interior of the bowl for checkering or cracks. In the second photo below you can see that some of the cake on the rim fell away as I reamed it and the chamfering is becoming visible.

The challenge with a chamfered rim is that you cannot top the bowl without seriously damaging the inward cant of the rim toward the bowl. I scrubbed the rim with acetone on cotton pads and then sanded it lightly with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the tars. When I had finished removing the build-up on the rim I also scrubbed the bowl with acetone to remove the varnish coat.

The yellow tinge to the silver band seemed like it also was varnish that had peeled and bubbled. I scrubbed it with the acetone as well to soften it and then used a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to polish the silver and remove the varnish and build-up. I then used silver polish to further polish the silver and remove the small scratches left behind by the micromesh. On the top side of the band/mortise insert it is stamped Sterling Silver in script at an angle across the surface of the band.

I scrubbed the stinger with alcohol on cotton pads to remove the grime and then 0000 steel wool to polish it. The stinger end was pressure fit into the tenon so it was easy to remove to clean out the airway in the stem. The stem was overturned or over-clocked to the right. I heated the tenon with a Bic lighter until the glue softened and then turned the stem all the way around until it lined up. I cooled the tenon with water to reset the glue. I really starting to like the natural finish on these older bowls and decided that rather than staining this one I would give it a light coat of olive oil and rub it in with my hand. The beauty of the oil is that it helped to blend the fill into the natural colour of the briar. It is still present but does not stand out as blatantly to me.

I let the oil sit over night and in the morning while I had a cup of coffee I sat and rubbed down the bowl by turning it over in my hand. I finished the coffee and then took a picture of the pipe where it stood after the rub down. You can see the chamfer on and the nice birdseye that is on the surface of the rim. With the bowl finished to this point I turned to work on the stem. I used a Bic lighter to paint the flame over the surface of the vulcanite to lift out some of the tooth chatter and to raise the oxidation to the surface. I then sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge, wiped it down with a cotton pad and painted it with the flame yet again. When I had finished that the majority of the oxidation was gone. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. After the sanding with the 6000 grit pad I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then brought it back to the work table and sanded it with the 8000 and 12,000 grit pads.

I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel and then hand buffed it with a soft flannel cloth. The final buff with the Blue Diamond removed many of the light scratches in the briar. I gave the stem and bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax and a final buff with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below.

Respecting a Maligned Pipe, with Two Yankee Doodler Dandies as Examples

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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

Oh I went down South for to see my Sal
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
My Sally is a spunky gal
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
Oh my Sal she is a maiden fair
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
With laughing eyes and curly hair
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
Fare thee well
Fare thee well
Fare thee well my fairy fey
For I’m going to Louisiana
For to see my Susyanna
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
― Beginning of “Polly Wolly Doodle,” author unknown

INTRODUCTION
The entire ditty, made famous by Shirley Temple’s iconic, vivacious wholesomeness in the super-duper 1935 movie “The Little Rebel,” goes on about a grasshopper that picks its teeth with a carpet tack and develops such a serious case of pertussis (the whooping-cough) that the unfortunate creature “sneezes” its head off in a well-turned euphemism. This is a U.S. contribution to songs taught to small children around the world, for some perverse reason, and ranks right up there with “Frère Jacques,” who is not asleep but dead from influenza, and “La Cucaracha,” the most common version of which touches on a cockroach unable to walk for lack of marijuana to fix it.

Still, the usage of the word doodle, which is not as common these days, illustrates the reason for the name of “The Doodler,” a pipe of some fame invented by Tracy Mincer, founder of Custom-Bilt, apparently sometime in the late 1950s or early ’60s. The line was perpetuated by the National Briar Pipe Co. after Mincer’s death in 1964 and was last made in 1980. The Oxford English Dictionary defines doodler as “one who draws or scrawls aimlessly,” hence the verb doodle for engaging in this activity (or lack thereof). That must have been how the innovator had his brainstorm. It seems Mincer had a sense of humor.

With something approaching their love of very few All-American wonders, including Mickey Mouse and Jerry Lewis, Frenchmen seem to have an affinity for The Doodler. (See http://www.pipephil.com/article-3285357.html, which should be translatable by your browser.) The author of the site calls this a “radiator” style. He also notes what he calls the brand’s unique look that he claims requires no special nomenclature or stem mark to identify one with certainty. But it just isn’t so. Take, for example, the following samples.

The Doodlers in this blog are of the type familiar to most of those pipe enthusiasts who have even heard of them. While I find beauty in many different forms, including those I restored and describe here, many of my friends, upon seeing The Doodlers for the first time, resort to evasions such as “Weird” and “I’ve never seen anything like this,” or more direct grimaces and even shudders in place of their true probable thoughts along the lines of “Ugly, ugly, ugly!” But as Margaret Wolfe Hungerford first paraphrased the ideas that many before her had suggested, in “Molly Bawn” in 1878: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” And all of The Doodlers do include a stamp, with a star on some stems.

Here are two of “The Doodlers” I could not resist buying online, for a good price, as they arrived in the mail. I had come across the peculiar pipe in scrolling through the listings on pipephil.eu under T for “The Everyman,” which referred me tersely to Everyman. But above it was “The Doodler.” Note the well-known ridges and patterns of holes drilled through the outer ridges of the bowls, which were intended to cool the pipes with air circulation, whether or not they in fact succeed in that purpose. An interesting sideline to this serendipitous discovery and mental note to acquire one was that the very next day, on my eBay homepage, I found a “suggestion” for The Doodler. I’m not sure I buy into one friend’s claim that it was the result of Google keeping track of my search history and offering up products to buy…but then again, the same thing does seem to be happening more often.

THE RESTORATIONS

The Saddle Stem Two-Ring Doodler

Neither of these stems was in bad shape other than one with some discoloration, but having determined to begin assuring even more thorough cleaning than I already have practiced the hard way, and knowing I had quite a few real messes awaiting restoration, I bought a tub of powdered OxiClean at the closest Walmart. My mentor, Chuck Richards, and others have recipes they prefer, but I have to start somewhere. I decided to begin this dual restoration with separate steps requiring two small Tupperware containers.

One, of course, was the OxiClean soak, for which I found instructions available on one website I located with clear directions. The other was for an Everclear strip of the old stains. And so – after filling one container with just enough warm water to cover the two stems and stirring in a little more than a tablespoon of OxiClean, and the other with a jar of used Everclear that was almost not enough to clear the tops of both bowls – I sat back and filled a pipe close at hand and relaxed for the next 20 minutes. And then while the briar dried and I finished the stem wash with cleaners and a scrubbing rag, I didn’t let those activities detract from my enjoyment of the fine tobacco. There seemed no good reason not to micromesh the saddle stem while I was at it. By the way, the foulness of the soapy water from the OxiClean soak gave me inner warmth only another restorer could understand.

Running a finger around the chamber before stripping the old stain, I knew the reaming and sanding would not be easy, but I hoped the pure grain alcohol soak would ease the job more than it in fact did. Although the inside of the bowl was somewhat smoother, and bits and even a chunk or two of cake came free with my second finger inspection, I realized the carbon buildup was not the true problem. The previous owner of this pipe had enjoyed it so often and with such complete faith in the professed cooling qualities of its unique radiator design that he overheated the chamber and created an even pattern of rather deep pocks.

Therefore I took my 21mm fixed reamer (the second largest) from its box and found that it embraced the chamber just short of close enough to serve as a measurement of its horizontal and vertical dimensions. Only the small square at the end to which the handle attached extended above the rim. I reamed the chamber a few times at different angles to cover all of it, emptying out the scant amount of carbon resulting as I progressed, and cleaned the inner briar with a small cotton cloth swab soaked in alcohol. Finding, as I expected, that the pocks were still prominent, I turned to a piece of 220-grit paper that removed more cake but had little impact on the smoothness. Turning to 150-grit, as I tend to do, I began to get somewhere, and after much tenacity and aurally irritating screeching achieved a level of regularity with which I could live, after a quick finish with 300.

I dipped a pipe cleaner in the Everclear and then ran in down through each vent hole to clear out more hidden dirtiness and scrubbed until they were clean.

The oddest part of this restore, to my thinking, was the difficulty of retorting after the thorough Everclear dip. The first round dredged up so much gunk that half of the shank leading to the draught hole was clogged to the point where the soft cleaner bunched up and would not pass. Each successive beaker brought out more dark nastiness, and the cleaners I passed through the shank as well as the small cotton cloths with which I scrubbed the chamber were filthy – until the last. I boiled the alcohol through the shank and into the bowl several times to be sure. When all was done, I had used seven beakers of Everclear, five soft cleaners, three cotton balls and as many cloth squares.

For the next step I wanted to clean up the bowl and shank to see what I had to work with. I used only a light rubbing with super fine steel wool. Happy with the ongoing progress, I took both pipes to Chuck at the shop.

He had no comment about the tapered three-ridge version, which on this rare occasion I understood meant it was looking okay. But I will never cease to be astonished by his ability to glance at a pipe for no more than two seconds and see all that is wrong with it. In this case he spotted a major horizontal crack within the upper ring of the saddle bit bowl, not to mention a minor crack. Without my magnifier glasses in the fluorescent light, I still could not see them until he held it beneath a certain ray of light. Then they were as clear as day, which it was. I suggested a mix of Super Glue and briar shavings, and Chuck concurred.

I was disappointed, not because of Chuck’s keen eyes and helpfulness in pointing out the serious flaw, but due to the fact that I had intended to keep the other and to my taste nicer Doodler for my own collection and offer the saddle bit for sale. Knowing then I could not in good conscience do this, I told him so.

“Sometimes that’s just the kind of trade-off you have to make,” Master Po pronounced with his big grin, chuckling that his Grasshopper was learning.

Returning later to my abode in Albuquerque’s War Zone, I sat on the couch that is my customary main work area and scrutinized the pipe.

I sanded the bottom of the tapered three-ridge bowl and collected the fine briar dust. Filling the cracks required two layers of the mixture, the second of which I applied more liberally. Getting into the groove with 300-grit paper to sand away the excess glue mix was a little tricky, and I thought I was done. However, after I sanded the yellowed areas and micro-meshed the whole thing using a full barrage of 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000, I saw the grooves needed harsher measures.

I broke out the 220-grit and paid as close attention as possible to the white areas of remaining glue, then repeated the previous micromesh procedure to the one groove. Success at last! I stained the wood with marine cordovan (burgundy) leather dressing, flamed it and used a very light touch of micromesh 3200. I then removed myself and the prepped briar to my official workroom, where I buffed the wood with white and red Tripoli, White Diamond and several coats of carnauba.

The Tapered Stem Three-Ring Doodler

This tapered, three-ring classic style model appeared, at least to my eyes that are still in training, to be in better shape than the saddle stem version, not counting the stem that was discolored, the rim that was more darkened and the chamber that seemed to have more severe damage. In general, those are all superficial defects easy to remedy. Still, I chose to start with the saddle stem pipe because of my perception that it would be more difficult – and in part due to its nomenclature being faint almost to invisibility, I was going to offer it for sale on my site at the lowest price I offer. But oh, did I learn how appearances can be deceiving, and this three-ring pipe turned into a three-ring circus!

First, I will start with the good news. The OxiClean soak cleared away the discoloration and most of the other crud inside and out of the stem, and the rest came clean and ready to buff with some firm rubbing of a soft cloth, minor spot sanding and regular micro-meshing.

The initial problem I encountered was stripping the old stain. I have seen this happen before, of course, but not with almost identical pipes soaked for the same time with such radical results. Even after soaking the tapered pipe another two hours, it came out not down to the briar with nothing but a few yellow spots like the other pipe but almost unfazed.

At least it was cleaner, in particular the rim and rings, and the chamber showed signs of improvement. Also, removing the remaining cake and evening the chamber walls was no problem. As with the saddle stem Doodler, I ran a couple of alcohol soaked cleaners downward through the vent holes and removed some leftover grime. Even the retort this time was more typical, needing only a couple of beakers of Everclear to be boiled through the stem and shank and into the chamber.

The pipe as shown above was almost ready for the buffing wheels. I hand-buffed it starting with super fine steel wool, particularly on the still somewhat blackened rim and a few areas that needed a little work on the remaining roughness from the Everclear soak. I then progressed with micromesh pads using 1500, 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000, with the results below shown only front and back. Of course I picked out the little piece of fluff visible in the front bottom ring.

The second Doodler was, indeed, ready to be stained. For the task I chose my Liebing’s brown leather stain, which is in fact a lighter shade than the Lincoln medium brown I have. Considering the large amount of residual original stain, but wanting to darken the briar a bit, I had a plan, if not yet the knowledge to carry it out to full effect. At any rate, I stained the bowl and shank as well as I could, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not work the applicator into the dratted grooves of the middle tier of smooth briar, although I was able to coat all three rings. Consulting my pictorial folder of the project that showed the original estate pipe, I noticed un-stained rings and grooves, and concluded I was ahead in the game, so to speak.

This was where I was mistaken. Have you ever had that feeling? The one that nags at you, whispering that despite all evidence to the contrary, there are the right way and the wrong, and this is definitely wrong? Yet still you didn’t follow your instincts?

Nevertheless, to make my act of self-destruction almost complete (there’s the modifier again – almost), I flamed the stain and eased off the char with 3200 micromesh before taking the pipe to the wheels. There I applied ever more beautiful coats of white Tripoli and red (to enhance the darkness of the grain) before White Diamond and a final coat of carnauba.

And so what, you might ask, was the major [expletive voluntarily deleted] malfunction with this tapered variant of The Doodler compared to the saddle stem? In short, the pipe that, to my eyes-in-training I mentioned before, appeared to be well used but more or less as its previous owner received it, had in fact been modified in a manner I did not detect. I very much suspect this pipe had only one prior owner, other than the conduit to me, after getting a close look at the crafty way he covered a ding that must have been, in tobacco pipe scale, comparable to a large patch of skin ripped from a person’s body.
And Chuck, when I showed him both pipes in progress before, pointed out the horizontal crack in the saddle stem pipe but appears to have assumed I was aware that the middle tier of smooth briar below the top ring was not made with the evenly spaced slots. I use the term “appears to have assumed” because of my utter inability to wrap my mind around the possibility that Chuck missed the alteration before he set it aside, especially considering his first words to me when I showed him the pipe I then hoped was finished. Again, I choose the word hoped because I was, at least, aware of the unstained grooves, and was hearing that shrewish voice again.

“Did you make this nick here?” Chuck asked, holding the pipe out to me and pointing, and puffing on his own pipe.

“No, it was there already,” I replied, not knowing where he was going. Surely he didn’t expect me to fashion and Super Glue a fragment of briar onto the tiny spot I beheld. Even he wouldn’t touch a blemish that small, I knew.

Chuck began to explain the situation to me, in his own way, which took me longer than usual to grasp. I felt like an idiot, although that was not Chuck’s intent. When at last I understood, a light went on in my mind.

“You mean someone, sometime slipped up and made a single gash in that area of the pipe and then, to fix his mistake, went around the bowl and made it uniform?” I said more than asked with a big smile of my own.

“Exactly!” Chuck said.

“Just like the way I had to rusticate the entire rim of the Italian No-Name Full Bent Billiard because of the one missing chunk,” I added by way of comparison.

“Yes!” Chuck exclaimed again, laughing and re-lighting his pipe. Then he brought up the missing stain and told me a small paint brush would do the trick.

And so to home I returned the first chance I had and, after lighting a bowl of tobacco, began the only other activity that has come to give me any real pleasure: restoring a pipe. Chuck’s advice to use a small brush did the trick, and I only had to stain, flame and fully buff the small circle of the truly prepped pipe. Still, I decided to add a couple more coats of carnauba to bring out an extra shine.

CONCLUSION
I forgot to mention the extra sanding of the rim and the top tier, making it lighter than the rest of the bowl and shank, and giving me the idea for a gentle two-tone effect. At this point in a rather long blog, I just don’t feel like going back to find and edit that part. These were not the easy restorations I thought they would be, and I’m tired…but very satisfied.

To Chuck, my friend and mentor, and Steve Laug, our host and my friend and frequent guide through the endless learning process, I owe much for these restores. Thank you, gentlemen.

Restoring a Wally Frank Natural Sun Cured Algerian Made Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This older Wally Frank Pot shaped pipe came in the same gift box as the little no named prince that I restored recently. In fact it was the second pipe in the photos included with the prince. It was a fairly decent piece of briar with one large fill on the top of the shank in the middle. The putty used was brown rather than pink coloured putty so it would blend fairly well. The briar was darkened from use with oils and dirt. There was a thick build up of tar and oil on the rim that was rock hard. The cake in the bowl was thick and hard. The stem was good quality vulcanite and did not have much oxidation. There were deep scratches around the stem near the stem shank junction. There were also flecks of metal in the vulcanite that makes me think that the pipe is a war years pipe as often the rubber stems were made from recycled tires. There was a slight buildup of calcium on the stem just ahead of the button. The tenon had an aluminum inner tube that sat ran the length of the shank and ended with a diagonal cut end in the bottom of the bowl.

The next three photos show the stamping on the pipe. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank Natural over Sun Cured and on the right side Wally Frank Ltd. On the underside of the shank it was stamped Second and Made in Algeria. I have seen plenty of pipes that were stamped Algerian Briar but this is the first stamped Made in Algeria that I have seen.

The next photo is a close-up of the rim and bowl. It shows the cake and the build-up on the rim as well as the inner tube sitting in the bottom of the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to the head that was the same diameter as the bowl. I reamed the bowl back to bare wood and wiped down the inside of the bowl with cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the dust that remained in the bowl. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and rim with acetone on cotton pads. I scrubbed until the oils and dirt were gone from the bowl and the rim was clean. There was some nice grain showing on the bowl – cross cut on the side and birdseye on the front and back.

I sanded the stem and shank with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches around the stem at the junction. I sanded both the shank and stem with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I sanded the bowl and rim with a fine grit sanding sponge. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. The shank was remarkably clean considering how caked the bowl was. I wonder if the inner tube was not responsible for that. The next two photos show the pipe along with the no name prince that I recently restored. Both had a natural finish that probably was oiled originally.

I decided to rub this pipe down with olive oil as I did the prince. I rubbed on the oil with a paper towel and let the wood absorb it. I wiped off the excess and hand rubbed it until the wood had a rich glow.

I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to give it a shine and then gave it a coat of carnauba wax. I then worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads.

I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and worked it over the stem and bowl until the feel was smooth. I also buffed it with Blue Diamond. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Stem Reconstruction on an Ehrlich Billiard

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Blog by Andrew Selking

“He’s not dead, just mostly dead.” Miracle Max The Princes Bride

I like the way the pipe looked in the auction pictures, but when I first examined it I thought the stem was beyond help. This is not a little pipe, but the previous owner was obviously a clencher. The top and bottom of the stem had a hole, as you can see by these pictures.

Before getting into the stem repair, I soaked the bowl in alcohol. Although I have done simple repairs on tooth marks, I had never tackled anything this complicated. The holes were far enough down that it wouldn’t be practical to cut a new button. The stem is fat enough that finding a replacement was also out of the question. The one thing the stem had going for it was the edges were still in good shape. I decided to do a complete reconstruction of the stem.

I don’t claim to be an expert on these things, so I turned to one of the how-to articles on Pipe Smoker’s Unlimited. The one gentleman used activated charcoal with super glue, so I decided to try it. I found a large container of activated carbon, which is the same thing, in the pet department of my local Walmart. It came in small pellets, which needed to be ground into a fine powder. This is what it looked like after grinding. I took some wax paper and folded it to fit inside the stem. Once I got the fit I wanted, I sprayed the wax paper with cooking spray and put it back inside the stem. I used a couple drops of clear super glue on the bottom of a plastic cup, mixed in some charcoal dust, and applied it to the hole. I added a couple of drops of glue accelerator and set it aside to cure. I did the same thing with the other side. I’ve found that even with accelerator, it’s a good idea to let the glue cure for at least 24 hours. You can work it sooner than that, but it has a tendency to come out when you’re sanding it. I used several applications of the glue and charcoal paste.

Once the hole was filled in I sanded it down.

As you can see the charcoal left a few pits. To fill them in I applied a thin layer of super glue over the pits and sprinkled charcoal dust directly on top of it.

This is what it looked like after sanding. The stem was still far from finished, but it was good enough to start cleaning the insides. I went ahead and retorted the bowl first. The brush came out fairly clean. I learned a hard lesson while cleaning this shank. In spite of the large diameter, the inner hole was smaller than the q-tip I tried to stick inside it. The end came off and it took a lot of effort to get it out. The moral of the story is, if it doesn’t fit don’t try to make it fit.

In spite of the minor set-back, the shank was pretty clean. Next I retorted the stem. It had a lot of tar inside it, so repeated the process an additional two times. It was easy to clean after that. With the inside cleaned, it was time to finish smoothing out the stem. I used 400 grit wet/dry with water, followed by 1500-2400 grit micro mesh pads with water. To prevent rounding the edges of the stem I held a rubber washer over the end of the tenon. While the stem dried I turned to repairing the rim damage. I used 150 grit sand paper on a piece of glass to remove the worst of the damage. Once I had the edge almost where I wanted it, I switched to 400 grit sand paper. This is what it looked like after sanding. I have become a big fan of natural finished pipes, especially when they have nice grain like this one does, so I used acetone and 0000 grit steel wool to clean the bowl. After cleaning the finish, I noticed a couple of dents on the front of the bowl. I used my wife’s iron and a wet cloth to steam out the dents. After allowing the wood to dry out overnight, I polished the bowl and stem with a progression of 3200-12,000 grit micro mesh pads. I know Steve uses Obsidian oil on his stems during this step and also uses olive oil to bring out the grain of the bowl. I’ve been experimenting with mineral oil for the same purpose. It doesn’t take much, just a little bit on the tip of your finger. I used one coat after the first three pads on both the bowl and the stem. After the final pad, I repeated the process. I really worked the bowl in my hand to bring out a beautiful reddish brown color. I used a soft cloth to buff the pipe and remove any excess oil before the final buffing stage. I buffed the bowl on my buffing wheel with white diamond and carnauba wax. I used my rotatory tool with white diamond and carnauba wax on the stem. I gave the whole pipe a final coat of Halcyon II wax and filled the E on the stem with a white out pen. This is the result.

Breathing New Life into a Wally Frank De Luxe Saddle Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am slowly working my way through the gift box of pipes I received. The one that caught my eye next was a small Wally Frank De Luxe saddle billiard. The stem was not in too bad shape – just a bit of tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem along with a deep tooth mark on the underside near the button. It was lightly oxidized. The metal threaded tenon had a pressure fit metal stinger in place that was stuck. The stem was slightly overturned. The bowl was dirty – the finish spotty and damaged. There were scratches but they did not go deep in the briar. The rim had a thick build up of “lava” (tars and oils) that came out of the bowl and over the rim. The bowl was thickly caked. The left side of the shank was stamped WALLY FRANK over DE LUXE. On the saddle of the stem was worn and light stamping of what appears to be WF in a circle but the right side of the stamping is missing. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Imported Briar. The bottom of the bowl and the shank are flattened making the pipe a sitter.

I took two close-up photos of the rim and the stamping on the left side of the shank to show the state of the pipe when I brought it to the work table.

I unscrewed the stem from the shank and dripped alcohol on the stinger to loosen it from the tenon. Once it soaked a few moments I was able to carefully pull it out of the tenon. One side of the stinger insert was missing but it still fit in the tenon tightly. With the stinger removed I heated the tenon with a lighter to soften the glue and correct the over turned stem. It did not take long to heat it enough to screw it into the shank and turn the stem on the tenon until it lined up correctly. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to the head that would take the cake back to bare wood.

With cake cleaned I scrubbed the rim with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the buildup of tars and oils. I was able to remove the majority of the overflow on the rim with elbow grease and persistence. There was some slight inner rim damage that would be easy to clean up with a light sanding. I also scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads and then with alcohol. It took off the grime and some of the mess but left the stain intact. The shank was very dirty and the aluminum on the tenon, stinger and end of the mortise insert was oxidized. I scrubbed those with 0000 steel wool and then put the pipe back together in order to use the retort on it. I set up the retort using a jar to lift the pipe up above the flame of the candle I used to heat the alcohol. I filled the test tube 2/3 of the way full with isopropyl alcohol and inserted the rubber stopper in it. I pulled the surgical tubing over the end of the stem and put a cotton ball loosely in the bowl. I heated the alcohol over the candle flame until it boiled through the shank and bowl. I changed the alcohol four times before I was able to get the shank clean and the alcohol coming out clean.

Finally the shank and stem was clean. I removed the retort and ran pipe cleaners through the stem and shank. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the leftover tar and oil from both. Finally they were clean and came out as white as they were when I put them into the shank and stem.
I decided to stain the bowl and rim with a oxblood stain. I applied it to the pipe with a cotton pad and then flamed it to set it in the grain. I reapplied it until I had the coverage I wanted with the colour.

I set the bowl aside to dry for a while and worked on the stem. I sanded the tooth chatter and oxidation with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. They were hard to remove so I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work on the tooth chatter and tooth mark on the underside of the stem. I had to use a small drop of clear super glue to fill the tooth mark. Once it dried I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and then began the work of polishing the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down between each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil before sanding with the next set of three pads.

I put the stem back in the shank after sanding with the 12,000 grit pad and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond and Blue Diamond before giving the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buff to raise a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The new stain coat, the wax and the polished stem give it a new look and the cleaned interior a new life. This one should be a great smoker if the amount of cake and gunk I removed from the bowl and shank are any indication.

Restemming & Working on New Staining Techniques on a Mastercraft Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe from the gift box is a Mastercraft Pot. It is stamped Mastercraft in a shield on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Italy on the right side. There are no shape numbers. There are a lot of fills on the bottom of the bowl and the right side of the bowl. The finish is a thick coat of what appears to be urethane – almost plastic looking. Someone had previous started refurbishing it – to bowl had been carefully reamed and the bowl topped. There was a large fill on the rim that was loose that ran from the middle of the right side of the bowl almost all the way across the rim. This pipe would be a great one to experiment with using different stains to blend the fills and highlight the grain. The urethane coat would prove a challenge to remove completely but once gone it would prove a perfect candidate for the new staining techniques I wanted to learn. The band on the shank is aluminum and is oxidized and dull. The stem is a replacement that is poorly fit. It is loose in the shank and does not fit against the shank well. The tenon is very short and almost conical in shape. I will break the work on this pipe into two parts: Part 1: Fitting a Stem and Part 2: The Staining Experiment and a Conclusion called Finishing Touches.

I took a few close-up photos of the rim and the stem. These will help to give an idea of the state of affairs when I brought the pipe to the work table.

Part 1: Fitting a Stem

I removed the stem and found two possible replacements in my stem can. The original replace in the one at the bottom of the photo below. The two options were a longer taper and a saddle stem. Both of them worked well with the length of the shank. They looked better than the one the pipe arrived with. I tried the bowl with each of the stems to get an idea of the look of the pipe. I made a decision for the taper once I had seen them both in place in the shank.

The taper stem was slightly larger in diameter than the shank so I would need to adjust the diameter. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to remove the tars and oils from the shank. Because someone had already started the process on this pipe it was not a long clean. It took very few cleaners before the shank was clean.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to start and then decided it was taking too much time. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum and quickly removed the excess material.

I brought it back to the work table and sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the marks left by the sanding drum. I needed to fine tune the fit but it was working with the bowl.

Part 2: The Staining Experiment

To prepare the bowl for staining I needed to do the repairs and remove the old finish. I decided to re-top the bowl to remove some of the damage and smooth out the area around the fill on the right side top and edge. I wanted to bring the top down to lessen the area that the fill intruded on. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the finish only to find that it did not work to cut through the finish. Before I intruded on the finish with my next measure I decided to repair the fill on the outer edge of the rim on the right side. I used briar dust and super glue to repair the fill on the side and top of the rim. Most of the fill had been smoothed out on the top but there was some of the fill missing on the edge of the rim. I cleaned and sanded the repair to blend it into the finish. When that was smoothed out I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to break the gloss of the finish and then dropped it into the alcohol bath. When I took it out of the bath the finish was dulled but still not broken. This top coat was a real bear to remove. I needed to do quite a bit more sanding on the coating to remove the finish. Once the finish was gone and I was at bare wood I decided I would use a three part staining process to try to hide the fills and blend them into the briar. I wanted to try something new as well with the staining of this pipe. I wiped it down a final time with acetone to clean off the dust and any remnants of finish, scrubbing hard around the stamping on the shank. I stained it with a medium walnut stain, flamed it and buffed it.

When the stain dried I gave it a light buff with a cloth and a shoe brush and then gave it the second coat of stain. This time I gave it a coat of oxblood coloured stain. I wanted to bring out the grain on the sides and front and back of the bowl and try to blend the fills more. I stained it and flamed the stain.

When that stain dried I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and wiped it down with isopropyl to even out the stain coat. I hand buffed it afterwards with a soft cloth. The bowl was beginning to take on the colour I wanted from these first two coats of stain.

Then it was time for the third coat of stain. I stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated the process until I had good coverage on the pipe. The dark brown looked opaque when first applied.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond on the wheel and gradually the grain began to show through the finish. The combination of stains gave the pipe precisely the colour I was wanting – a warm reddish brown with dark highlights in the grain patterns. The fills though still present, did not stick out as badly and seemed to blend into the finish.

Conclusion: Finishing Touches

With the finish on the pipe completed I worked on the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and then with micromesh sanding pads. I also sanded the band on the shank with the micromesh pads at the same time. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and sanded the band without the stem present. You have to be careful with the pads when polishing metal as they will leave a dark stain on the briar and the vulcanite. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and dry sanded the stem with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I polished the band with the same and also with a silver polishing cloth. After each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with the oil. When I had finished the stem I gave it a final coat of the oil and then let it dry.

The next photos show the finished pipe. It is a rich brown/red colour that has warmth and depth to it. The silver band and the new stem make the pipe look quite rich. I figure it is at least as nice or nicer than when it left the Mastercraft warehouse.

Restemming and Restoring The Albany Pipe by ?Orlik?

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a recent gift box of pipes there was a billiard that had a replacement stem. The stem did not fit correctly and when it was rotated in any other way but the one it did not fit and showed light between the shank and stem. The diameter of the shank and that of the stem did not match either and the shoulders on the stem were rounded – one of my pet peeves. The pipe is stamped with gold on the left side of the shank The Albany Pipe. On the right side it is gold stamped Made in England. On the bottom of the shank it is gold stamped 17 and Fieldcraft in script.

The finish was natural – no stain and had begun to pick up a patina of age. The stamping was clear but the gold was faded and missing in some parts. The rim was dirty and also damaged on the outer edge and had some deep scratches in the top. The stem was not original. The bowl had a light cake and looked like someone had reamed it recently.

I took a few close-up pictures of the rim and the stamping to give a clear picture of the state of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. You can also see the poor fit of the replacement stem in the photos as well.

The brand is one that I am unfamiliar with though in the back of my mind I have a memory of seeing it somewhere listed as a second line of a major English brand. I just cannot find it now. Does anyone have any ideas regarding the maker? I have looked in WMTP and on PipePhil and Pipedia and found nothing so far. I like knowing some of the history of the brands I restore so I am still digging on this one.

One suggestion in response to a post I made on Smokers Forums was from flatticus (Chris) who wrote the following: “Steve, I think The Albany Pipe must be the tobacconist (there was The Albany Pipe Hospital circa 1920?) and Fieldcraft must be the brand of the pipe. There was another Fieldcraft marked for Frederick Tranter Pipe Shop in Bath, England which came up on eBay some years back, unfortunately too long ago to link properly. I can’t find a thing (trademarks, old ads, what have you) mentioning the Fieldcraft name in relation to pipes, but Tranter is still in business. I wonder if someone there would know who used to make their pipes. They were bought out by Havana House, but only about 4 years ago, so you may get lucky.”

Thanks Chris I will keep looking. I did a bit more digging on PipePhil’s site and looked at the major English brands and sub-brands. The Made in England stamping looks much like that on Orlik Pipes. The shape number 17 also fits one shown in the Orlik Catalogue on Chris Keene’s Pipe pages. I removed the stem and looked through my can of stems to find one that would work better for this billiard bowl. Two options came to the front. The first is shown in the photo below next to the replacement stem that came on the pipe. It is a saddle stem that could have worked but the tenon was too small for a snug fit in the shank. The second stem I chose was a fat taper stem that had a tenon that was a little too large. I decided to use that one. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reduce the tenon enough that I could get a snug fit. The next four photos show the pipe with the new stem. It has a slight bend in it that looks dapper on the bowl. There was light oxidation on the stem and tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem next to the button. Other than that the stem was in great shape. It was also slightly larger in diameter than the shank and would need to be fit properly.

I decided to clean up the bowl before working on the fit of the stem. I lightly topped the bowl to remove the damage to the surface of the rim. I also scraped the remaining cake out of the bowl with a PipeNet pipe reamer.

With the bowl cleaned I put the stem back on the shank and worked on the fit of the stem at the junction of the two. I sanded the stem and lightly sanded the shank, being careful of the stamping to clean up the transition. Because the bowl did not have a stain coat and was natural briar I figured this would be easy to blend in later when I worked on the finish. I used 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges to blend the transition.

I took several close-up photos of the transition to show the finished fit of the stem and shank. They also show the gold stamping on the bowl.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads. I did not worry too much about the gold stamping as I have some rub and buff that I could use to redo the gold once I cleaned up the pipe.

I sanded the stem and worked out the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I followed that with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I continue to use Obsidian Oil in between each set of three pads.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to protect and shine. I used the Rub and Buff antique gold on the stamping to give it the same look as before and then rubbed down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil before calling it a night. The olive oil soaked in and blended the sanded area of the shank and the topped rim with the rest of the pipe. I sanded the rim, shank and bowl with micromesh sanding pads to smooth out any scratches left behind by the sanding sponges. I usually do this while the oil is on the surface of the briar as the oil gives bite to the micromesh sanding pads. The next four photos show the pipe as it looked when I quit for the evening.

In the morning I buffed the pipe with a Blue Diamond wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring a shine to the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below. I am still undecided if I will leave the slight bend in the stem or not. We shall see.

The next two photos – top and bottom view turned out more read in the photos than they are in real life. The colour of the bowl is more properly shown in the photos above and the close-up photos following them.

Restoring a NATIONAL Washington DC Square Shank Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this little square shank billiard in a foursome I purchased on EBay. I wanted the Rhodesian in the lot and the others were really just a bonus. This one was in the group but there was no information on it in the advert. When I saw it in the listing I thought it had a bit of a look like an older Comoy’s or even an old GBD square shank. There was no stamping visible in the photos. The stem had some heavy calcification and tooth marks in the photo and what appeared to be a bite through on the topside of the stem. Once it arrived I would have a better idea of what I had purchased.

When I opened the box, of course I went for the BBB Rhodesian first and it was the first pipe I cleaned up. The apple shaped pipe at the top was a Bertram and it was my second cleanup. I pretty much ignored the little square shank billiard as the stem was a mess that I did not feel like tackling at the moment. Shortly after receiving this one I got a gift box of more pipes so this one was pushed to the bottom of the refurb box.

Finally last evening I decided to take it out of the box and examine it more closely. It had faint stamping on the left side of the shank that read NATIONAL over WASHINGTON DC. In many ways it reminded me of the stamping on the Bertram apple that is shown above. It read Bertram in script over WASHINGTON DC. There was no other stamping on the sides, top and bottom of the pipe.

The bowl had a heavy, hard cake that had chunks missing out of it in the bowl sides. The rim was heavily caked and tarred and also had cuts in the top of the rim and dents and chips in the outer edge of the rim.

The underside of the bowl and shank had been flattened to create a sitter. There were scratches and dents in the finish of the bowl. The bowl had evidently been finished like the Bertrams as well in that it did not have a stain coat. It had picked up a patina in the finish over the years that had some red overtones that would come out nicely once the bowl was cleaned up. The stem was in rough shape. With a buildup of white calcification that went half way up both sides of the stem. There were also a lot of tooth marks on the top and bottom sides of the stem. The stem was upside down in the photos and did not align properly with the square shank. I turned it over and everything fit very well. The stem had a pinhole like bite through in the surface that would need to be repaired. The stem itself had a slight cant to the right when it was manufactured and that could not be changed without drastically reworking the stem. The slot in the airway was clogged to an airhole the size of a pin that allowed minimal airflow and would not take a pipe cleaner.

Topside of the stem

Underside of the stem

With the stem removed from the shank it was obvious that the shank had never been cleaned out and had a thick build up of tars and oils. The tenon was a step down version and the step itself was tarred and caked to the point that the step did not show.

I had a gut feeling that the pipe had some connection to Bertram Pipe Company of Washington DC but only the vaguest memory of that connection. I could not remember where I picked that up but just had the memory. I did some searching on the Internet and found a National Briar Pipe Company of Jersey City, New Jersey with no clear ties to Washington DC on the Pipedia site. This was the company that purchased the Doodler after Tracy Mincer died. I could see that the Jersey City pipes were stamped differently and all had line names stamped on them. On the Pipephil site I found an English version that had very different stamping on the left side of the shank as well as Made in England on the right side of the shank.

I also posted a question on Smokers Forum and Pipe Smokers Unlimited regarding the brand. I received several responses that gave me information. One of them on SF came from Ed Klang and provided me with some confirmation regarding my memory of the connection with Bertram. I quote him in full, “In the history of the Bertram company, after the fire at the Washington facility and the decision was made to discontinue Bertram production a group of employees and a few investors wanted to buy the rights to the Bertram name, which was turned down and it was then proposed that they would rebrand the pipes as National, no mention was made whether anything ever came of that proposal. Supposedly this group did produce pipes for a while but the effort was finally abandoned and I have never been able to reliably confirm this. Just bits and pieces here and there.” Thanks Ed. This is the random memory that I was trying to dig up.

I also received a reply on SF from Radiobob that read as follows: “National Pipe and Tobacco was located on the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., just about a block from where I worked. I still have two Canadians that I bought there, as well as a Comoy’s Patina Apple. In my recollection, it closed down–much to my regret–in the mid to late 1980s.”

Those responses gave me the kind of details that I always find helpful in my restoration work. I will continue to do some digging on the company and see what I can find but that bit confirmed the visual tie to the Bertram Company of DC. Thank you for your help Ed and Bob.

I started work on the pipe by removing the stem and then reaming the bowl. The cake was hard as a rock but by beginning with the smallest cutting head of my PipNet reamer and working up to the third cutting head I was able to ream the bowl back to bare briar.

You can see in the photo above that there were still some rough places on the side of the bowl that needed more attention. I used a pen knife/letter opener that I keep in my refurb tool kit to carefully scrape away the remnant of cake. I started to slowly sand the top of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper but found the damaged areas significant enough that I decided to top the bowl and reshape the top of the rim by hand afterwards.

I scrubbed the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime that had been rubbed into the bowl sides and shank. There were a few fills present but I figured that once I oiled the bowl these would blend into the reddish finish of the briar.

I reshaped the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the rough spots on the outer edge and to give the rim a slight bevel toward the inner rim edge. I wiped it down with acetone and cotton pads as well. I set the bowl aside for a bit and worked on the stem. I sanded the stem surface to remove the tooth marks and the calcium buildup. I also wanted to remove the light oxidation that was underneath that and to also clean up the stem enough that I could see the extent of the damage around the bite through on the topside. The first photo below is enlarged to show the hole. It was not huge but there were small cracks radiating around the hole. There were no holes on the bottom side of the stem or tooth marks along the sides.

I picked the area around the small hole with a dental pick to remove any loose pieces of vulcanite that were present and then scrubbed down the area on the top of the stem with alcohol to clean it up for the repair. I greased a pipe cleaner with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly and inserted it in the airway under the hole. I filled the hole with a large drop of black super glue, intentionally overfilling it in order to have the glue go into the spidering cracks around the edges. I set the stem aside for the evening and let it cure. In the morning when the glue had cured I used a needle file to redefine the button and then sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and feather it into the surface of the stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and found that while the major hole was filled and solidly repaired there was a small air bubble that once sanded produced a small hole that also needed to be fixed. It was right next to the newly shaped button. I used a drop of clear super glue to repair that. It dries quickly so I could easily sand it and blend it into the stem.

I sanded the patch and the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. The results can be seen in the photos below. The hole is gone and the stem is ready for polishing.

I sanded the bowl, shank and stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and while it dried I decided to rub down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil. It serves to highlight the grain and brings out the red in the briar. The next four photos show the pipe at this point in the refurb.

I dry sanded the stem, bowl and shank with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and gave the stem a final coat of the oil after the 12,000 grit pad.

I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The olive oil really highlights the red tints in the briar and shows the contrast between the birdseye and the background briar as well as the grain on the front, back, top and bottom of the shank and bowl. It truly is a beautiful pipe – the briar is well grained and the fills disappear into the red colour of the briar.

Restoring a Heritage Heirloom 94C Outdoorsman

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Blog by Andrew Selking

Ever since I stumbled across my first Heritage pipe, I have been on a quest to find more. Heritage pipes represent the pinnacle of American craftsmanship from the Kaufman Brothers and Bondy (KB&B) family of pipes. I will not go into great detail about the Heritage line, but here is a link for further information. https://rebornpipes.com/2014/12/23/the-wonderful-world-of-heritage-briars/

Although Heritage pipes used Kaywoodie shape numbers, this particular pipe’s shape is not in any of the Kaywoodie catalogues that I have (1936, 1947, 1955, and 1972). It has an apple shape bowl, a long shank, and a ¼ bent saddle bit. It’s a small pipe, weighing in at exactly one ounce and measuring 4.9 inches long, and as befitting its namesake I can envision the owner fly fishing while smoking it. What really amazed me about this pipe though is the cross grain. It starts at the front of the bowl and runs vertically throughout the entire pipe into the shank. I have never seen anything quite like it.

The pipe arrived in good shape, a slight tar build up on the rim, some minor oxidation on the stem, and a single tooth mark under the button. Here is what it looked like.

I started by giving the bowl an alcohol bath. The purpose of the bath is not to sanitize the pipe, the alcohol just loosens up all of the crud (tar, cake, un-burned tobacco etc.). While the bowl marinated, I soaked the stem in Oxyclean. The Oxyclean brings out the oxidation and helps loosen the gunk inside the stem. I usually run a fuzzy stick through the stem while I still have the cleaning solution. That’s always a good indicator how much work I will have during the next step. Fortunately, this stem didn’t look too bad. Notice the brown oxidation. Once I finished the inside of the stem, I took an old tooth brush and some tooth paste and removed the worst of the oxidation. This also had the benefit of making the white inlay nice and bright.

Next up was removing the cake from the bowl. After a 24 hour soak, it is very easy to remove even the most stubborn cake. After removing the cake it was time to tackle the shank using the retort. She was a dirty girl.

I ended up retorting the shank five times! Not sure what kind of tobacco the previous owner smoked or if he ever used pipe cleaners.

Next up, the shank. As I’ve mentioned before, if you retort the shank separately make sure you plug the end to prevent boiling alcohol and tobacco juice from spewing everywhere. Fortunately most of the nastiness was in the shank and the stem only required one fuzzy stick. The final cleaning step was removing the tar and cake from the rim. I used 0000 steel wool and acetone. The steel wool does a nice job removing the tar without damaging the finish.

There were a couple of dents in the side of the bowl, so I used steam to raise the dents. I then used a progression of micro mesh pads, 1500-12,000 grit in preparation for staining. Here is the bowl ready for stain.

You can see the grain is everywhere. I used Pimo Pipe Supply medium walnut stain, diluted by 50%, to even out the color. Followed by a furniture pen to add a little bit of red tint. Here is the final result. I used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water to remove the tooth mark and oxidation. I’ve started using a rubber washer, placed over the tenon, to make sure that I don’t round the edges of the stem while sanding. After the 400 grit, I used 1500, 1800, and 2400 grit micro mesh with water. Once the stem dried I finished polishing it with a progression of micro mesh pads, 3200-12,000 grit, followed by white diamond and carnauba wax with my rotary tool. I buffed the bowl on the buffing wheel with White Diamond and carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

Put Up Your Ducs: Restoring a Meer-Lined Le Duc

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Blog by Anthony Cook

I recently completed work on this meerschaum-lined Le Duc pipe. It has a paneled bowl and a shape that sits somewhere between a squat egg and an elongated apple. It’s stamped simply, “LE DUC” on the left side of the shank and “1” on the right side, which I assume is the shape code. The stem is horn with an aluminum tenon and a twisting, screw-in stinger. This pipe presented me with a number of firsts. I had never worked with panels, meer-linings, or horn stems. So, I knew this one would be fun. It’s been difficult to dig up anything conclusive on the history of the Le Duc brand. Both Pipephil and Pipedia come up empty, and a Google search reveals very little more other than a couple of links to an estate pipe that was once available for purchase from Amazon and eBay (the same pipe at both sites). That pipe is the only other example of a Le Duc that I have been able to find. The previous owner of this one did mention that it was from the Netherlands. So, it’s possible that it’s somehow associated with Gubbels.

I posted pictures of the pipe on Pipe Smoker Unlimited and asked if anyone had any more information. General consensus was that it is a French-made pipe, but that’s about as far as it went. Due to some slight shaping errors that I found in both the stummel and stem, I’m willing to bet that it’s somebody’s seconds brand. Though, I’m not quite willing to bet all of my marbles on a particular country of origin yet. So, if anyone out there has any insight into the brand, please don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments section.

There were a few small scratches and dents on the surface of the lacquer-coated stummel. The worst of which was a series of more than a dozen nicks on one back panel. The narrow surface of briar around the rim was lightly scratched, but didn’t appear to be charred. A thin layer of old tar covered both the meer and the briar on the back of the rim.

The chamber was lightly caked, mostly in the top two-thirds. The meerschaum lining was by and large intact, but roughly a third of it had been broken out of the heel of the bowl around the draft hole. A crack in the remaining meer ran around the circumference of the heel and I could not for life of me figure out what was holding the rest in. I planned to eye this area with suspicion while I worked.

Some light chatter was present on both sides of the stem and there were a couple of shallow tooth impressions on the top. Someone had also chosen to add a dash of white paint to the bottom of the button, apparently for contrast and flair.

Overall, things could have been better, but I’ve seen much, much worse. The photos below should give you a better idea of the condition of the pipe when I started work.

(By the way, that dark spot in the photo above is not a natural coloration. It’s tar build-up showing through the translucency of the horn. More on that later.)

The first thing I did was remove the nasty, tar-caked stinger, which wasn’t easy. The build-up had pretty much glued it into place. I dripped alcohol around the joint until the tar had softened enough that I could unscrew it. Then, I dropped the stinger into a small container of alcohol to soften the remainder of the gunk.

While the stinger detoxed, I attempted to remove the schmutz along the rim with good ol’ cotton pads, saliva, and elbow grease, but I found it to be too stubborn. Since I needed to address the scratched in the briar along the rim anyway, I lightly topped the bowl with 320 and 400-grit sandpaper until both the tar and scratches were gone. The cake in the chamber was light but very hard. I started removing it by sanding out with 320-grit paper. Once most of it had been removed, I switched to 400-grit to finish it off. Unfortunately, like William Butler Yeats wrote, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;” and as careful as I was, the remaining bottom of the meer liner was sacrificed during the cake removal process. Of course, I wasn’t at all surprised. I think the cake was the only thing holding it in to begin with. After removing most of the cake, I checked back in with the gummy stinger. The alcohol had softened the tar enough that the majority of it could be removed with cotton swabs and a pipe cleaner. The crud in the air slot was still pretty firm, however, and I had to use a pick to scrape it out before I could scrub it clean with a pipe cleaner. I followed with some #0000 steel wool along most of its length. The aluminum is very soft. So, I maintained a very light pressure and avoided the threaded end. Then, I started scrubbing out the inside of the shank with isopropyl alcohol and a few shank brushes, cotton swabs, and pipe cleaners. Let me tell you, this was one dirty Duc. The tar was built up into peaks and ridges that seemed to rival the Himalayas. Removing the crud in the shank was less like cleaning and more like heavy landscaping.

Eventually, it did start to come clean and I was surprised to discover a cork gasket in the mortise that I hadn’t noticed before. It was quite worn and seemed to be deteriorating with age. I found a similarly colored, dry dust around the tenon and also clogging the airway of the stem that I assumed to be detritus from the crumbling cork. There still remained enough of the gasket to give the stem a fairly snug fit, though, and I didn’t have anything at hand for a proper replacement. So, I decided to leave it for the time being to give it some thought. Cleaning the stem internals was no more fun than the shank had been. It was completely clogged and would by no means pass a cleaner. To open it up, I had to drip alcohol into the tenon, wait for it to soak in, and then gouge the softened tar with a straight pick. Rinse and repeat all the way down. The process was a bit like mining, except there was no prospect of gold or precious jewels. When I finally broke through the button end, the sludge that came pouring out looked for all in the world like black squid ink. It actually cleaned up pretty quickly after that and you can see it for yourself in the photo below. Notice that the dark spot on the stem that I referenced earlier has lightened considerably after cleaning. The more I thought about the mortise gasket, the more I knew that I couldn’t leave it be. It was clearly on its last legs and I started to worry about the taste that might be imparted to the smoke by the years of tar soaking into the cork. I still didn’t have a solid solution, but I learned years ago with my first car that anything can be easily disassembled. If you want to continue using it though, you’ll have no choice but to figure out a way to put it back. With that in mind, I decided to remove the gasket.

I picked through my selection of drill bits until I found one that was a perfect match for the job. It was almost exactly the diameter of the mortise. So, I could insert it and rotate it by hand to remove the gasket without any fear of it scraping the briar. Afterward, I very carefully sanded the mortise with 400-grit paper wrapped around a pencil end to remove the remaining cork and glue. The photo below shows the mortise just after using the bit. I gave a lot of thought to how best to replace the gasket and experimented with a couple of different materials. Surgical tubing used as a sleeve fitted over the tenon had the longest legs at this stage. I found that tubing with a 1/32” wall would kind of work, but was much too tight of a fit and put far too much stress on the mortise. My ideas were just about exhausted. I began to consider drilling out the mortise to accommodate the tubing sleeve, but that was something that I really didn’t want to do. Then, I remembered that I had some marine heat shrink tubing that I’ve barely ever used. I gave it a try out of desperation. Perfect fit! Since it’s the marine quality stuff, it has adhesive on the inside to keep it from slipping. I made sure to use a piece without any printing because that would just be ugly. With that problem out of the way, I turned my attention back to the stummel. I stripped the lacquer coat off the bowl by wiping it down with acetone and cotton pads. It was quite stubborn in areas. So, I had to use #0000 steel wool to remove it in a few spots. When the bare wood was exposed it was much easier to tell which of the surface blemishes would require special attention. I then clamped the stummel in my bench vice to prepare it for the first step in removing the blemishes. I used some soft foam between the stummel and the vice jaws to protect the wood. Then, I set up my steaming kit, which includes a tea candle, a flat-blade screwdriver, a cotton cloth, and a container of water. I wet the cloth and placed it over the surface dents. Then, I heated the blade of the screwdriver and applied it to the cloth. A hiss and a tiny puff of steam later and the dents were on their way to being level with the rest of the surface. It took multiple applications of steam to raise the nicks along the back of the bowl. The edges were sharp. So, they weren’t removed completely, but they were raised enough to make them much easier to deal with when sanding. All in all, the steam treatment did a great job and would save a lot of time and material later. I addressed the remaining nicks and scratches by sanding them out. I used 220-grit paper on the deepest ones to knock them down until they were barely visible. Then, I used 320-grit to completely remove them along with some of the minor scratches. I followed that with 400-grit to blend those areas into the rest of the surface. The next order of business was to repair the damage in the chamber. The meer liner sits like a cup inside the bowl and there had been a slight gap between the bottom of the liner and the heel of the bowl. So, with a section of the liner completely missing at this point, there was a significant gap between the draft hole and the bottom of the chamber. I decided to use a two-stage mud application to build up the bottom and replace the missing lining.

In stage one; I ran a pipe cleaner through the shank and slightly into the bowl to protect the airway. Then, I mixed up a batch of what I like to call “pipe tar” and applied a small amount to the bottom of the chamber with my pipe tool. Pipe tar is equal amounts of activated charcoal and FFFF-grade (very fine) powdered pumice mixed with just enough sodium silicate (waterglass) to give it a tar-like consistency. It’s very sticky and sets up quickly. So, it can be difficult to work with when fresh. It clings like ivy, though, and it can be applied in fairly thick layers without developing cracks while it dries. This makes it an excellent choice for building up the bottom of a chamber. It takes about three days to fully cure, but once it has, it is as hard as concrete and just as porous. However, due to its hardness it’s extremely difficult to sand. So, I’ve learned that it’s best to use it sparingly.

In stage two; I again secured the airway with a pipe cleaner, and then mixed up a batch of more traditional pipe mud. The recipe is largely the same, except that I used water instead of sodium silicate for the mix. Although, I did add a drop or two of sodium silicate to act as a binder and to give it a little more “stick”. The mud has a more paste-like consistency than the tar and is slightly gritty. I used my pipe tool to apply the mud around the edges of the heel, and then shaped it to round out the bottom. It takes a full day to dry. Once it has, it’s a bit softer and easier to sand smooth than the tar. The photo below was taken shortly after applying the mud. I wasn’t idle during all of that drying. I took the opportunity to get some work done on the horn stem while I was waiting. As I’ve said, this was my first time working with horn and it was quite different from any other stem material that I have encountered.

I started by leveling out the chatter with 220-grit paper. The horn turned out to be much softer than I expected. So, I used a very light touch to avoid removing too much material. Next, I applied a thin patch of clear CA glue to the tooth impressions at the top. The dents were small and very shallow. So, instead of dripping glue directly on the stem, I put a couple of drops on a cardboard surface. Then, I used a flat toothpick to pick up small amounts of glue and applied it to the stem. When the glue had dried, I sanded the patches down with 220-grit paper. I began blending them in with 320-grit followed by 400-grit. I rubbed the stem down with a drop of mineral oil between each grit to keep the fine fibers from splintering. Once the patches were blended, I again rubbed the stem down with mineral oil and lightly sanded the entire surface with 600-grit and 1200-grit to remove a few faint scratches and smooth it out. Finally, I polished with 1500-12000 micromesh pads with an application of mineral oil between each progression of three grits.

I had no idea when I began working with it that this stem would turn out like it has. When the light hits the stem, the translucency gives it a soft glow. I am completely in love with it and ready to replace all of my stems with horn. The polished stem can be seen in the two photos below (although they don’t do it justice).

With the stem work completed, it was time to get back to the chamber. The tar and mud repair had cured. So, I used a finger to sand the patch smooth with 400-grit paper. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten to take any photos at this stage. I get caught up in the work sometimes. No worries. You can see the final patch in the photos of the completed pipe.

There was nothing left to do then but to work on the finish. I was very nervous about staining around the meer liner. The briar around the rim was so narrow that it seemed impossible to stain it without touching the meerschaum. So, I made an attempt to protect it by smearing a little petroleum jelly over the surface of the meer with a toothpick. I began staining by applying a rather sloppy coat of Fiebing’s medium brown dye thinned 3:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I used a size 10/0 filbert brush to paint over the grain. I made sure to leave several open and unstained areas to provide some contrast. Normally, I would heat the briar before doing this, but I didn’t want to melt the petroleum jelly into the meer. So, I made do.

After application and flaming, I wiped the rim clean and realized that the petroleum jelly had been a mistake. It had given the meer a slight yellow stain. I scrubbed it out as best I could with a couple of cotton swabs lightly dampened with alcohol, but some of it still remains. Oh, well. Lesson learned. I won’t be doing that again.

I finished this step by hand-buffing the stummel with a cotton cloth to remove the excess stain. You can see the results in the photo below. Next, I lightly sanded the entire surface with 600-grit paper before using a size 20/0 liner brush to make a more specific application of dark brown dye thinned 3:1 with alcohol. I used this sparingly, since I just wanted to add some depth to a few areas in the grain. After flaming the stain to set it, I hand-buffed the stummel with a cotton cloth again. Obviously, I skipped the petroleum jelly this time. It turns out that it was unnecessary anyway. The liner brush did a great job of precisely applying the stain to the rim. The stummel was sanded with 1200-grit paper, which I followed with 1500, 1800, and 2400-grit micromesh pads. Then, I gave it one, final coat of stain. This time I used light brown thinned to the same ratio as the previous applications. I used a cotton swab to apply it to the entire stummel, except for around the rim where I used the liner brush. I gave it a final hand-buff to achieve the results in the photo below. To finish up the work on this pipe, I polished the stummel with the remaining pads in the micromesh series. I then gave it a light buff and a few coats of wax to seal the deal.

I think this one turned out quite nice. There is a “warmth” to the pipe that is difficult to describe. It was also a pleasure to work on a pipe that did not require any major modifications to facilitate repairs for a change (repairs to the bowl lining notwithstanding). You can see the final pipe for yourself in the photos below.