Tag Archives: oxidation

Resurrecting an Old Weber Silver Grain Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

The fifth pipe of the six that I picked up in the antique malls in Washington State is a Weber Silver Grain Apple. It was probably the cleanest of the six in terms of work that would need to be done to bring it back to life and usefulness. The stem was oxidized and very pitted. The vulcanite was actually rough to touch. It was not the typical roughness I have come to expect in old vulcanite stems but more pitted with visible pits and ridges. There were two tooth marks – one on the top and one on the bottom of the stem about ½ inch above the edge of the button. The button itself was still very clean and the slot was the typical wide open oval that I have found on most of the older Weber pipes I have worked on. It was stamped Weber over SILVERGRAIN on the left side of the shank and IMPORTED BRIAR on the right side of the shank. On the underside of the shank there were some fairly deep gouges to the briar. The finish was not too bad just very dirty. The rim and inside lip of the bowl were very caked with tars and buildup and the bowl was caked with a light build up that was uneven around the sides of the bowl. There were also dings in the sides of the bowl that would need work. The W in a circle stamping on the stem was basically gone other than a small bottom edge of the circle. The silver band was dirty.

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I decided to start work on this refurb by reaming the bowl and cleaning the bowl and shank. I used cotton swabs on the shank as it is a wide open drill from mortise to bowl. I believe this is because of the stinger apparatus that the Weber pipes used. It creates a chamber where the smoke swirls around the stinger and cools as it is then drawn to the stem and the mouth of the smoker. Once the bowl and shank were clean I worked on the outside of the bowl. I first lightly sanded the tars and buildup on the rim and the inner edge of the bowl to remove them. I used 320 grit sandpaper and lightly worked the area over to remove the buildup and to work on the inner edge. Once the rim was free of the tars and buildup I wiped the bowl and rim down with acetone on a cotton pad. The first wipe of that can be seen in the dark stains on the cotton pad in the pictures below. I also sanded the deep marks on the bottom of the shank. I steamed them a little to raise them and then sanded them to be as smooth as possible. I could not remove them entirely as the wood fibres were broken and would not rise totally. Sanding it to make it smooth would change the profile of the bottom of the shank so I brought is as far up as I could and smoothed out the roughness with the 320 grit sandpaper. I also cleaned the silver band with some tarnish remover and a jewelers polishing cloth. The band is stamped STERLING and came back to a clean shine.

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Once I had removed the grime and tars from the bowl and shank I took it to the buffer and buffed the pipe with Tripoli and White Diamond. The resultant shine and colour was excellent so I decided not to restain the pipe at all but to leave it natural and give it some wax. The next series of photos show the bowl and shank when I had finished the buffing. The stamping is still crisp and sharp as I lightly buffed over those areas. I also buffed the stem to remove some of the roughness of the vulcanite and prepare it for sanding. I did a bit of sanding around the tooth marks and chatter in front of the button before buffing.

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The stem was in need of quite a bit of work. I buffed it to begin with using Red Tripoli and then took it back to the work table to sand it with a medium grit sandpaper on a foam back to allow me to really work with the angles of the stem and button. I sanded with that sandpaper until the surface began to get smooth and I could feel the smoothness. I then progressed to the 320 grit sandpaper and worked on it longer. It took quite a bit of sanding to remove the ridges and pits. Once I had it to that point I decided to use the Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 and rubbed it on by hand and scrubbed the stem with a soft cotton pad to clean off the polish and the oxidation. I then worked with my micromesh sanding pads and wet sanded with the 1500-3200 grit pads. I then used another wipe down with Maguiar’s and then used the 3600-6000 grit pads on it. The next series of photos show the stem after all of the work described above and you can still see the roughness of the finish and the pitted oxidized state of the stem.ImageImageImage

At this point in the process I started over with my sanding of the stem. I again used the medium grit foam back sanding sponge and broke up the finish. I wanted to smooth out the pits in the vulcanite. I sanded and buffed with red Tripoli and then sanded it once again with the foam back sanding sponge. I wiped it down with a damp cloth and could see that I was finally gaining some ground on the roughness of the stem. I then sanded it with some 320 grit sandpaper and dampened the stem before sanding. I sanded it until the stem was smooth to my touch. I again wiped it down with a cotton pad and was ready to move on to the 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I sanded the entire stem with these two grits and then buffed it with White Diamond and was pleased to see that I had the oxidation beat and the pitting was minimized. I then wet sanded with 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit micromesh sanding pads, polished the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 and then moved on to 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads. I dry sanded with these pads and then took the stem and pipe to the buffer again and buffed it with White Diamond. I brought it back to the work table and wiped it down with some Obsidian Oil and let it dry while I did a few other things. Once it was dry I finished sanding with 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit micromesh pads. I used these dry and once I was finished I gave the bowl another coating of wax and the stem a coating of Obsidian Oil and then several coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is pictured in the next series of photos.ImageImageImageImage

The bowl is only finished with multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed and polished. I did not use any stain on the bowl. In the final photo above you can see the dent in the bottom of the shank that remains but the roughness of the edges has been minimized. The silver band was also coated with several coats of wax to slow down the tarnishing. I lightly buffed the whole pipe on my buffer with a soft flannel buffing pad.

Refinished a Custombilt Scoop in Memory of Bill Unger

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Blog by Steve Laug

I just heard the sad news that Bill Unger died today. He suffered from leukemia and that war is over now. Bill touched many lives in inestimable ways and will be deeply missed by all who knew him. It was not long ago that all of us in the NASPC got news of Bill’s illness and his impending end. It was a shock for certain but none of us would have guessed it would end so soon. Bill is the one who got me started into hunting down old Custom-Bilt and Custombilt pipes. I read his book: As Individual as a Thumbprint: The Custom-Bilt Pipe Story and was sold on the uniqueness and smokability of these pipes. I don’t remember the date I read the book, but probably not long after it came out. I immediately went on the hunt. I have about a half dozen of the pipes and several of the Doodlers as well. With that background and Bill’s book I could not pass up this old pipe when I found it in the antique mall last weekend. It is fitting that the first refurb of this New Year happened on the same day as Bill’s death. So Bill I dedicate this refurbishment to you. I raise my pipe to you my friend and will smoke a bowl this afternoon in your honour. RIP Bill.

This old timer needed some tlc to make it a functional smoker again. The finish was shot and very dirty. The rim was caked and the cake was thick and heavy. The tars in the shank were so thick that the airway was virtually closed off. I am not sure how the previous owner could still smoke it. The stem was also clogged and dirty. The outside of the stem was oxidized. There were also some tooth marks and bite marks on the underside of the stem near the button. But something about the look and feel of this old timer in my hand drew me to it. I paid a princely sum of $11.99 to take this one home with me. The first set of photos show the state of pipe when I brought it home. The colour of the briar is correct in the first photo. The other ones are cast in an odd light that I cannot quite figure out but you can see what needed to be done to bring this pipe back to life and usefulness.

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I took the pipe apart on my worktable and began the long process of cleaning out the tars and grime from the bowl and shank. I reamed the bowl with my Pipnet reaming set until it was down to the bare wood. I like bringing the bowl back to a new base to rebuild the cake as I like it. This one has an odd shaped bowl in that at the bottom of the bowl the airway enters quite high in the side of the bowl – about a 1/8 inch above the bottom of the bowl. Below the airway the bowl bottom is cut like a V – not sure if the previous owner cut the channel that way or it just happened for over working pipe cleaners in the bowl bottom. Whatever the cause, I will need to build up the bowl bottom with pipe mud. I cleaned out the grime from the bowl bottom with a dental pick and removed the dottle that had collected in the V. A good cigar will give me the ash I need to make pipe mud to do the repair. It should be as good as new when I have finished that. I used some isopropyl alcohol and then switched to Everclear to clean the inside of the shank. That took some work as the shank was very constricted from the end of the mortise to the bowl. I cleaned the airway with a bent paper clip and then bristle pipe cleaners to open it up. Because of the way the bottom of the bowl was I did not want to risk a drill bit to clean it at this point. Many pipe cleaners later the airway came out clean. I then scrubbed the mortise with cotton swabs and alcohol until it also was clean and spotless.

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After I had finished cleaning the inside of the pipe I put it in an alcohol bath to remove the grime from the rim and the outside of the bowel. I let the bowl soak in the alcohol bath for about an hour. When the time was up I removed it from the bath and scrubbed it with the alcohol from the bath and a toothbrush. I scrubbed the rim and the exterior of the pipe to remove the softened grime. Once it was finished I dried it off and set it aside to dry. The next series of photos show the bowl after the cleaning in the alcohol bath and the scrubbing.

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I went to work on the stem at that point and sanded it initially with fine grit sandpaper on foam backing. This gave me the ability to work the angles and curves of the saddle stem and the area around the button to remove the tooth marks and chatter. Once I had done that I used 320 grit sandpaper to sand out the scratches and remove the remaining oxidation. I then used Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 to polish the stem. I coated the stem with the polish and then scrubbed it with a cotton pad and repeated the process two more times to give it an initial shine. The next two photos show the stem after the polishing with the Maguiar’s polish.

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I put the cleaned stem back on the now dried pipe bowl to do some of the close sanding around the shank/stem union. I did not want to round the edges of the stem and ruin the smooth fit that the stem had originally. Using micromesh sanding pads 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit I wet sanded the stem. I then used Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to scour the pipe bowl and shank exterior. I scrubbed it until the soap was brown and frothy. I then rinsed it in the sink under warm water and dried it off with a microfiber cloth. The next series of four photos show the finished bowl ready for a new coat of stain.

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I then set the bowl aside and worked on the stem for the remainder of the micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12,000 grit. Before beginning with the 3200 grit I coated the stem with some Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the stem. When it was dried I sanded the stem with 3200, 4000 and 6000 grit sanding pads. The next series of photos show the process of the sanding and the resultant look of the stem at this point.

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I set up my staining area and took out the dark brown aniline stain. I thinned it with isopropyl alcohol 3 to 1 and then applied the stain with a dauber to get the stain into all the crevices. Once it was coated well I flamed the stain and let it set the stain. The flaming burns off the alcohol in the stain and works to set the stain in the briar. I reapplied the stain and reflamed it to set a second time.

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After flaming the stain I let it sit for about 15 minutes to let the stain dry in the crevices of the rustication. The first photo below shows the bowl after the stain has dried to a nice matte finish. I then used a shoe buffing brush to buff the pipe. The second photo shows the bowl after that buffing. I then finished sanding the stem with 6000, 8000 and 12,000 girt micromesh sanding pads and then coated it a final time with Obsidian Oil.

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The next series of four photos show the finished pipe. Once I was done with the stem I put it back on the pipe and took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then coated the stem with carnauba wax and used Halcyon II wax on the rusticated surface of the bowl. The entirety of the pipe was then buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad to bring up the shine of the wax. Once I have smoked a bowl in Bill’s honour I will coat the bowl with pipe mud to raise the V shaped bottom of the bowl even with the entrance of the airway.

Now the pipe is ready to load with Virginia and smoke a bowl in memory and honour of Bill Unger. Here is to you Bill. May your bowls always be full as you enjoy the end of all your struggles. My prayers and condolences go out to your family and close friends.

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Refurbishing a Pipe by Lee Bull Moose Scoop

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Blog by Steve Laug

This weekend I took my wife down for a visit to Bellingham, Washington – just about 40 minutes or so from Vancouver, BC. One of our past times when we are visiting another city is to check out the antique shops and antique malls. We have a circuit of them that we visit whenever we go to Bellingham. She looks for things for the house and I look for pipe and tobacciana. This weekend was great in that I found 6 pipes and three old pouches of tobacco. The first pipe on the work table is one that intrigued me and grabbed my attention. It has a nice rustication (??) that looks almost like a sand blast. The carver left a smooth rim and a small ring around the top edge of the pipe. There is also a smooth band at the end of the shank and also two patches that are smooth that bear the stamping on the pipe. The shape is a Bull Moose, I believer. It is also very similar to a Weber Scoop that I have except for the prominent prow on the front of the bowl. It is stamped on the left side of the shank PIPE BY Lee (Lee is in Script) over LIMITED EDITION. On the other side of the shank it is stamped AN AUTHENTIC over IMPORTED BRIAR. The stem bears the brass stars that grace the stems of Lee pipes. This one has three stars.

When I found it in the shop the stem had some oxidation and some minor tooth marks on the underside of the stem near the button. The stem had a metal stinger that was black with tars and oils and was also overturned slightly. The bowl was dirty with dirt and grime wedged into the finish of the rustication. The rim had a thick coat of tars and buildup and the bowl was heavily caked and wreaked of aromatics. When I found it there was also a threesome of tobaccos in their original packages tied in a sealed plastic bag – Skandinavic Mildly Aromatic, Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic and a leather pouch of something that smells aromatic as well. The pipe smelled just like these tobaccos. The first series of four photos show the pipe as I found it.

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I unscrewed the stem from the shank and dropped the bowl into my alcohol bath. It is a jar of isopropyl alcohol that I have reused and filtered repeatedly to remove the grit from the bath. The remaining alcohol has a dark brown colour and actually does a great job in not only removing the grime and old finish but gives the old bowls a light patina as well.

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While the bowl soaked I worked on the stem. I cleaned it with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol to get the tars and oils out of the stem. The style of stinger restricts the airway enough that I could not get the pipe cleaner all the way through. It took quite a few cleaners until they came out clean. The stinger I cleaned with alcohol and then 0000 steel wool until it was clean. I began sanding it with the medium grit sandpaper on the sponge back to remove the oxidation and the roughness of the stem. It was very rough and almost pitted. It is hard to capture that with the photos. The first three photos below show the sanding pad and the stem after that initial sanding.

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From there I filled a glass with warm water and used a micromesh1500 grit sanding pad to wet sand the stem. This took the majority of the scratch marks out of the surface and took care of the roughness of the stem. It would take a lot of sanding to bring the surface to a glossy smooth finish.

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At this point I took the bowl out of the bath. It had been sitting in the bath for about an hour and I figured it was time to pull it. I scrubbed it with a soft bristle tooth brush to remove the softened grit and grime in the rustication. The next two photos show the bowl after I removed it from the bath and dried it off with the cloth that it is resting on. The grit is pretty well gone and the rim tar is softened but still present. The third photo below shows the rim after I had used some fine grit sandpaper to begin removing the tars on the rim. I continued to sand it until they were all gone. Since I planned on restaining the pipe anyway it was not an issue.

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I still was not happy with the grime in the crevices of the rustication. I had removed much of it but there was still quite a bit present and I decided to scrub it with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush until the surface was clean. Again I was not worrying about removing any finish as I planned on redoing that anyway so I gave it a heavy scrub and then rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I repeated the scrub until the bowl was clean and the rustication free of grime.

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The next four photos show the pipe bowl after I had scrubbed it with the oil soap and rinsed it the final time. I dried it off with some microfiber rags that I have here for that purpose. It removed the water from the briar and left a good clean surface that was ready for a coat of stain. In the photos you can also see the stem after it has been sanded with micromesh sanding pads up to 2400 grit. All of the sanding on the stem to this point was done with water and wet sanded. The rim is clean and ready for the stain. The bowl is clean and you can actually see the rustication really well.

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At this point in the refurbishing process I decided to correct the over turned stem. I set up my heat gun and then took the pipe apart. The second and third photos show the process of heating the stinger. The heat softens the glue in the stem and once it is soft I turn it back on the shank until I can turn it all the way around and align the stem properly. Once it was aligned I dipped it in cold water to set the glue again. The fourth and fifth pictures in the sequence below show the newly aligned stem.

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The next series of photos show the staining process of the bowl. I decided to thin the Dark Brown aniline stain to a light brown wash. I use an old tobacco tin and fill it with 2/3 alcohol and 1/3 stain. I mix it well and then use a dauber to stain the pipe. I repeated the staining until it was the brown colour I was looking for. I flamed the stain between coats. The colour I was aiming for was a wash coat that allowed the grain to show through on the smooth portions of the pipe and also made a good contrast between those parts and the rustication.

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Once I had the stain the colour I wanted I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond. The next two photos show the pipe bowl after the buffing. The contrast came out nicely and the grain is very visible on the smooth portions.

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After buffing I took it back to the work table and gave the bowl a coat of Halcyon II wax. I rubbed it on by hand and then buffed it with a soft bristle shoe shine brush. For some reason the photos came out with some strange looking browns to the finish. The final colour is the reddish brown tone that is visible in the first photo below.

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Once the bowl was stained, waxed and buffed I put it aside and went back to work on the stem. I finished wet sanding the stem with the micromesh sanding pads 1500, 1800 and 2400 and then gave the stem a coating of Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0. I applied it with my finger and then rubbed it with a cotton pad. The first photo below shows the coating of the polish. The second and third photos show the stem after the polishing with Maguiar’s.

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At that point I shifted to 3200, 3600 and 4000 grit micromesh sanding pads. The next two photos show the change in the stem polish after this next set of three sanding pads.

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I then coated the stem with Obsidian Oil as pictured in the next two photos. When it was dry I wiped the stem down and finished sanding with the last three micromesh sanding pads – 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit. The difference in the finish after the last three pads is quite remarkable.

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Once the stem was polished I gave it a coat of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. Here is the finished pipe. The pipe in person has a glossy stem. I got a new camera so I am still learning all the tricks of it. The thing really picks up the dust particles on the pics. Ah well. I will get it down eventually!

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Restemming a Custombilt Look Alike

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This morning I decided to restem an old Custombilt look alike pot that I had in my box of pipes for repair. I am getting down to only twenty or so pipes left so it is the pipes I have left until the end. Some of these I left because they had no charm to me and others because I just was not ready to work on them. This old no name pot was one of the ones that held no charm for me. The rim was pretty covered with grit and grime. The finish was not in too bad a shape. There was a small crack in the shank which would need to be banded and then the matter of matching a stem to the pipe hung in the air. This morning I went through my can of pipe stems and found an old cast off taper stem that was the right diameter to match the shank. The tenon would need to be sanded to fit the mortise. I set it aside and reamed the pipe and cleaned the shank before fitting the stem. I opened the crack in the shank a bit with some pressure from a dental pick and dripped some super glue into the crack and held it tight until it set. I then heated a nickel band and pressure fit it to the shank. I sanded the tenon by hand with 240 grit sandpaper until the fit was snug.

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Once the stem was a good snug fit I went to work on the bowl. I cleaned the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a soft bristle tooth brush. I wanted to remove as much of the grim from the rim as possible and clean up the rustication on the rim surface without damaging the finish. I repeated the process by applying the soap, scrubbing and wiping it off with a cloth.

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When the rim was clean I wiped down the outside of the bowl with the Oil soap as well and removed the grime that remained on the surface. I then wiped the entire bowl down with some acetone on a cotton pad to even out the stain colouring. Once it was dry I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the pipe and stem with Tripoli and White Diamond.

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I sanded the stem with a sponge backed medium grit sandpaper. I find that this allows me to get into the crevices on the button and to follow the shape and taper of the stem well. At this point the two photos below show the stem after the buffing and sanding. I spent a bit of time working on some tooth marks along the edge of the button on both the top and the bottom of the stem. You can see the work that has been done near the button in the photos below.

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I worked on the stem with the micromesh sanding pads using the 1500, 1800 and the 2400 grit with water to sand out the scratches and the remaining oxidation. At the conclusion of this process the stem was a nice matte black and the oxidation was basically history as can be seen in the photos below.

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At this point in my stem rejuvenating process I rub the stem down with Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 a fine scratch and blemish remover intended for cleaning and polishing plastic headlight lenses. I rub it on by hand and then scrub it off with a cotton pad until the stem is clean. When I finish with the polish I move on to the next grits of micromesh 3200-12,000 grit and sand until the finish is a polished black with a depth to it. I dry sand with these grits of micromesh. Between the 4000 and 6000 grit pads I took it to the buffer and gave it a buff with White Diamond. I found that the oxidation at the shank end of the stem was still present after the buffing and would require some more work with the earlier grits of micromesh. I buffed that end with some Tripoli and then decided to try the Bic Lighter method to address the remaining oxidation. Once that was finished I sanded the stem with the higher grits of micromesh 4000-12,000 and then coated the stem with Obsidian Oil. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then reinserted it in the pipe and gave the entire pipe a final buffing with multiple coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

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Redeeming a Disaster – A Repair with a Happy Ending

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On Christmas Eve I decided to start working on a little acorn shaped pipe bowl that I have had here for quite awhile. It sat in my repair box in wait for the right moment for me to take it to the work table. It needed a stem and the shank was set up for a metal screw in tenon. I did not have any metal threaded tenons that fit the shank well or I could have made a stem for the pipe and inserted the threaded tenon. The time was right and I wanted to try something a bit different on this one. It did not matter if it worked or not really as it was truly a disposable pipe. With that freedom in mind I decided to fit the bowl with a push tenon stem. To make that work involved removing the metal insert from the shank. I reamed the bowl and cleaned out the shank to get it ready for removing the insert. I tried to twist if out as I figured that it was screwed into the shank. No such luck. It was tight and I could not remove it after using heat or putting it into the freezer to cause it to contract and loosen. I made a decision at that moment that did not end well – at least in the short term.

I set up my cordless drill with a bit that would open up the shank. My thinking was that if I could not removed the insert I would drill it open and smooth so that it would take a regular push tenon with no problem. I started with a drill bit virtually the same size as the airway and then planned on moving up to larger drill bits as the work progressed. The initial drilling worked well and the threads were smoothed out. So far so good! I was pretty excited to watch the airway smoothing out and opening up. Then I changed the drill bit for the next size up and drilled it a second time. I progressed slowly holding the bowl in my hand as I drilled the shank. I have done this before and did expect any problems. You know the thinking right – it worked well in the past so I could expect it to work the same this time around. So with full confidence I worked away. Then disaster struck. A few moments after starting to drill with the slightly larger bit the shank literally shattered in my hand. I was left holding four pieces of broken briar in my hand. The bottom half of the shank remained intact but the upper half was in three pieces. The metal insert remained unmovable in the bottom portion of the shank.

I was a bit stunned and almost binned the broken briar. What had at first appeared to be a good idea was reduced to something that I was ready to throw away and write off as a learning experience. However, I stopped and looked at the pieces for awhile. I thought about cutting the shank off and adding a shank extension to do one of Piet’s Hot Rods. I weighed the pros and cons of that and still was not certain whether I wanted to go to that trouble for this pipe. I took the pieces and puzzled them together to see what the damage looked like when it was put back together. I examined it closely and could see that the break was at least very clean and the surface was not chipped or damaged. I used a dental pick to remove the metal insert from the shank. I decided to get out the super glue and put the pieces back together for a look. With all the pieces in place the pipe looked okay. I sanded off the excess glue from the shank and used some acetone to clean off the stain that was on the shank and bowl. It looked like there was some promise. I decided to strengthen the bond with a nickel band. I heated a nickel band with my heat gun and carefully pressure fit the band on the shank. The repaired pipe was going to be workable.

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I sanded the bowl and the shank and wiped it down repeatedly with acetone. The idea was to remove all of the remaining lacquer finish and even out the stain. I wanted to get the bowl back to bare wood as much as possible before restaining. Once I had it clean I sanded it again with a fine grit sponge backed sanding pad. I continued to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to prepare it for staining.

I had an old saddle stem that would fit the shank dimensions in my box of scavenged stems. I turned the tenon to fit the newly cleaned shank and did the initial sanding to remove the oxidation on the stem. I used the same sponge back sanding pad I used on the bowl as it allows good access to the saddle areas of the stem. The photos below show the newly fit stem. I have quite a bit more work to do on the stem and bowl to bring the pipe to a finished condition but the promise is definitely there. In the second and third top view photo below you can see the repaired shank. I am pretty confident that it will be pretty well hidden by the staining.

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Before restaining the bowl I decided to work on the stem and get it polished and smooth. I used the 1500 and 1800 micromesh pads to do the sanding and polishing before using the Maguiar’s polishing compound. I have started to use it after the first two or three micromesh sanding grits. I rub it on by hand and then scrub it with a soft cotton pads before wiping it off. I repeat this polishing process with the compound two times before proceeding to working through the remaining micromesh grits. I sanded the stem with 2400 and 3200 grit and took it to the buffer and used Tripoli to buff away the scratches and the oxidation that remained at this point in the process. I also buffed the bowl with the Tripoli. Once back to the work table I used 3600 and 4000 grit before giving the stem a rub down with Obsidian Oil. The four pictures below show the pipe as it looks at this point. The bowl is ready to stain and the stem is getting close to the finished look. There is still some oxidation around the saddle area that will need some more work.

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I decided to use an oxblood coloured aniline stain on the pipe to try to minimize the visibility of the repair to the shank. I used a cotton swab to apply the stain, flamed it and then buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth before taking it to the buffer and buffing it with White Diamond. After buffing I waxed it with several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine.

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I also finished the polish on the stem using White Diamond on the buffer before finishing with the remaining three grits of micromesh pads – 6000, 8000 and 12,000. I gave it a final buff with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil. I finished the stem with several coats of carnauba wax. The four photos below show the finished pipe. The repair to the stem is visible if you look closely but the redemption of this broken pipe is complete and it is ready to smoke.

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A Chairleg Style Stem on a Clubhouse Apple by GBD

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was giving EBay my usual morning once over and came across this pipe. What interested me about it was that I have a pipe very similar to it but stamped Penthouse rather than Clubhouse. A bit of research showed that both were made by GBD and were a part of their chairleg stem pipes. Looking at them in comparison to other GBD chairleg pipes that I have I can see that these may have been a seconds line of their pipes (though I am not certain of that). The ball on the chairleg of both the Penthouse and the Clubhouse is not consistently the same size around the edges. It also had some finishing scratches that never were sanded out. I liked the look of this one from the photos so I went for it and won the auction. It is stamped Clubhouse over Made in England on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped London England over 335. The pictures below were the ones posted by the seller. The pipe looked to be in excellent shape. The grain is quite nice. It looked like one that would not take a lot of work to get it in shape.

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When the pipe arrived here in Canada the bowl was in great shape. The bowl only needed a light ream and clean. The shank was clean and the stem was clean inside. This would be an easy cleanup in terms of the briar. The stem was another story altogether. It was far more oxidized than the EBay pictures showed. The next four pictures show what the pipe looked like when I took it out of the box. These chairleg stems are a pain to clean up and get the oxidation out of all of the grooves. I knew that this one would prove to be a challenge.

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I lightly reamed the bowl and wiped it down with a soft cloth and oil soap. It cleaned up nicely. I coated it with some carnauba wax and then put it aside. I dropped the stem in a soak of Oxyclean to soften the oxidation. I would need all the help I could muster to get the oxidation off of this one. Once I took it out of the soak the stem needed to be sanded. I used medium grit sandpaper on a foam pad to allow me to get into the grooves and the sharp edges. Once I had the initial sanding down I wiped the stem down with a soft cotton cloth dampened with alcohol. I then continued the sanding process with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I finished with the pads and then scrubbed the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch polish. I gave it several repeated rub downs with the scratch polish and then progressed through the remaining micromesh pads from 3200-12,000 grits. The finished stem is pictured in the four pictures below. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it sit. After it dried you can see the areas that still need to be worked over on the stem.

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The stem top and bottom are clean and fresh. The underside of the chairleg portion of the stem is quite clean and free of oxidation. The sides and the top of the chairleg portion still need more work. I then sanded these once again with the sponge backed medium grit sandpaper. I worked through the grits of micromesh from 1500-12,000 again. I coated the stem with another coat of Obsidian Oil. Once it dried I rubbed it down and then buffed it with White Diamond. It was significantly better so I took it back to the work table and scrubbed it down with Maguiar’s another time. Each time I do this I can see how much oxidation come off by the brown on the cotton scrubbing pad. This time the pad was relatively white when I finished the polishing. I gave the whole pipe a buff with White Diamond for a final time and then coated it with several coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

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Reworking a Dr. Plumb Statesman

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The second pipe in the lot of three pipes I picked up on EBay was this long shanked billiard. The first one I refurbished and posted about was the no name poker that I wrote about here. This one was stamped Dr. Plumb over London Made over Statesman on the underside of the shank. The sand blast was very nice on it. In fact I like the deep grooves and flow of the blast on the briar. The rim was shot. It had been sanded smooth (may have been smooth originally to match the smooth portions of the bowl). It was also no longer flat. When the pipe was laid down on the rim it rocked in every direction. It was rough and pitted from tapping the pipe out. The bowl was a bit out of round and the previous owner had reamed the inner rim with a knife at an angle that really damaged the inside rim and the roundness of the bowl. The stem had the same white calcification on it as the poker. This one also had teeth marks and dents in it. The slot on the stem was closed with the white calcified material and there was no open airway in the stem. The shank was dirty and clogged and the bowl needed to be reamed in the lower portion. The first four picture show the pipe as it was when it came to me.

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It had the same alcohol bath as the poker and I am including the same photos of that process I included in the previous post. It soaked for two hours and then I took it out and dried the bowls off with a soft cloth. I also soaked the stem in Oxyclean to soften the calcification on the button area.

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In the photo below you can clearly see the flaw in the briar of the Dr. Plumb (the pipe on the right side of the photo). The alcohol bath softened the fill and it fell out of the crevice. It was quite large but not deep. It appears to me that it opened up larger as the pipe was blasted. You can also see in the second photo below the shape of the bowl and rim of the pipe.

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The first thing that I decided to address with regard to this pipe was the rim. I set up my board for sanding the top. I anchored the sandpaper to it. I used a pretty heavy grit for this one because I needed to remove quite a bit of the top to smooth it out and remove the rockiness of the pipe. I used a medium grit emery paper. I hold the pipe flat against the board and sandpaper and sand it in a circular fashion clockwise. I don’t know what the point is of that but that has been my practice for as long as I remember. The next two photos show that process. Once I had the top level once again I sanded it in the same manner using 240 grit sandpaper and then 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper and water. I finished sanding the top with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500 – 12,000 grit.

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The next photo shows the finished topping of the bowl. The grain is quite nice and will stain well in contrast to the roughness of the blast. The second and third photo below show the repaired fill in the shank. I used briar dust from the topping of the bowl and packed it into the crevice with a dental pick. When it was full I dripped super glue into the dust. Once it was dry I used a wire brush on the shank rather than sandpaper. I wanted to remove the signs of my repair without sanding the fill. The shank looked really good when that job was done. The pipe was basically ready for a coat of brown aniline stain.

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I used my dental pick for a handle by inserting it into the mortise and then used Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye. I diluted it 2 to 1 with Isopropyl alcohol to get the colour I was aiming for. Once I coated it with the stain I flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I repeated this several times to make certain I had stained all the crevices and blast. The first picture below is of the wet pipe. The second is of the bowl after flaming the stain. I light wooden matches and ignite the stain. The alcohol burns off and the pipe then is dry to touch.

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At this point in my refurbishing process I took the bowl to the buffer and buffed the bowl lightly with Tripoli and the repeated it with White Diamond. My goal was to buff of the high areas and make a bit of contrast. I also wanted to buff the rim to make it a bit lighter than the blast and have it match the smooth patch on the bottom of the shank.

I then went to work on the stem. I heated the dents to raise them as much as possible and then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining tooth chatter and also to remove the calcified area around the button. I cleaned out the stem with pipe cleaners and a shank brush to remove the tars and oils and to open the stem. I used the dental pick to clean out the slot in the button. Once that was done I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding pad and then progressed through 1500, 1600, and 2400 grit micromesh before scrubbing the stem with Maguiar’s X2.0 scratch polish. I rub it on with a cotton pad and let it dry a bit before rubbing it off. I finished sanding the stem with 3200 – 12,000 grit micromesh pads and then buffed the stem with White Diamond. I coated it with Obsidian Oil and then when it dried I coated it with multiple coats of carnauba wax. I waxed the rim and the smooth part with carnauba and then used Halcyon II wax on the sandblast. I buffed the pipe with a light touch on the cotton buffing wheel to polish and then hand buffed it with a shoe brush. Here is the final product – ready to fire up!

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Once I had posted the pictures of the pipe above when I blew them up to see them more clearly the top of the rim was full of scratches and obviously to me needed more work so I just finished reworking the rim and restaining it. IMG_9265IMG_9264

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A No Name Sandblasted Poker Restored

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I picked up this threesome pictured below on EBay. The first photo is the one posted by the seller to show the pipes that were for sale. I bid and won the auction. The threesome arrived this week and I decided to tackle the refurb on the poker first. Something about it grabbed my interest.

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When it arrived I unpacked the box to find that the three pipes were a bit worse for wear than the original picture above. The side shot of the photo obscured the tooth marks and oxidation of the stems. The poker had a white build up on the stem, almost a calcification that was rock hard and would need a soak to deal with. The finish was not too bad on the bowl – just a little spotty and dirty. The finish is a sandblast on the bowl that is quite deep and nicely done. The shank has a combination sandblast and rustication on it. The bottom of the bowl is smooth and there is a small ring of smooth briar next to the stem on the shank. The rim had originally been rusticated but appeared to have been sanded virtually smooth. It had a slight build up of tars and oils on it. There was a faint rustication pattern but the stain was gone under the grime. It looked as if the owner had sanded the rim clean and then left it to smoke it as it was.

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I decided to ream the bowls on all three pipes. Once that was done I put all three in an alcohol bath – a jar with isopropyl alcohol. I leave the alcohol and replenish it as it evaporates or is used up. Once a month I pour it off and clean out the sediment in the bottom of the jar. The alcohol is dark and seems to give the briar a good patina as it soaks in it. It removes the stain a bit and also the grime and grit of the finish. I let all three bowls soak for several hours and then removed them and dried them off before setting them aside for the night. I also soaked the stems in a bath of Oxyclean while the bowls soaked. I find that this soak softens the calcification on the stems and also loosens the oxidation making it easier to deal with once I work on the stems. The picture below shows the bowls just after I removed them from the bath and had not dried them off.

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The next four pictures show the bowls after they have been dried off and you can see the state of the finish on each of the pipes. The first one on the left side of the first picture is the little patent Brigham Lovat. The finish is clean and ready to work on. The middle pipe is the no name poker. The last pipe on the right is the Dr. Plumb Statesman long shanked billiard.

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The poker came out very clean. The finish was ready to rework. The bowl had an undercoat of oxblood stain that is clearly visible and would pretty much determine the colour I would use in restaining it. In the photo below you can see the bowl rim of the poker in the middle. The faint rustication is visible and you can see that the rim had been sanded. In the second photo below you can see the smooth bottom on the poker and see the scratches in the briar that will need to be dealt with.

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I used my rustication tool, the modified Philips screwdriver and reworked the rustication on the rim following the faint pattern that was visible. Once I had it way I wanted I worked on teh scratches on the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bottom with micromesh pads 1500, 1800 and 2400 as the scratches were not deep. When I was finished and they were smooth I decided to restain the bowl with oxblood coloured aniline stain. I applied the stain with the dauber that came with the stain, making sure to get the stain in all of the crevices of the blast and the rustication. Once it was applied I flamed the stain and then set it aside to dry. I took it to the buffer once it was dry and buffed the bowl with Tripoli and White Diamond to polish the stain and give some depth to the finish. At this point in the process the pipe bowl was laid aside and I worked on the stem.

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The stem took quite a bit of work. Not only was it calcified at the bit end but it also had some fairly deep scratches on the top of the stem. These needed to be sanded out to remove them. The stem also had some of the bevel of what appears to be a replacement stem blank. It may not be but it has all the look of one. It fits well but the edge bevels on the sides of the stem rather than a smooth transition from top to edge show the lack of finish to me. I wanted to sand out the scratches and the bevels and smooth the transition to a smooth edge with no bevels. I used some 280 grit sandpaper to begin with and progress through a medium grit sanding pad, a fine grit sanding pad, 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper and water. Once I had the finish smooth and the bevels removed I then worked on the stem with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500 – 12,000 grit. I used 1500 – 2400 grit with water and was able to remove the remaining scratches. After that I used the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 polish on a cotton pad and rubbed the stem until it was smooth. I wiped off the polish and then proceeded to use the remainder of the micromesh pads. I gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I then used some Halcyon II wax on the bowl and hand polished it with a soft cotton buff. Once I finished that I wiped down the stem and gave it a buff with White Diamond and then gave the entire pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax until it glowed.

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This Refurb Makes Me Question, what makes a pipe a REJECT

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have no idea who the maker of this pipe is. When I bid on it I thought it might be a Peterson Reject but once it got here I am not so sure. It has no stamping on it other than REJECT in big block letters on the left side of the shank. The briar is not too bad, in fact I can find only one or possibly two fills that are virtually invisible as they are blended into the stain very well. The stem is a cross between a Peterson and a Wellington. There is no p-lip on it – just a straight orific button with the airway on the end of the button not on top. There is a sump in the shank so it is a system pipe of sorts. It is well drilled and has a great draft on it. The band seems to be a stainless steel rather than the cheap reject band put on by Peterson rejects of time past. Sooo, I am not sure who the maker is, nor am I sure why it is a REJECT.

I took it from the box, reamed and cleaned the bowl and shank. The sump is surprisingly new looking. There is no stain or darkening in it, just clean untouched briar. The bowl is darkened but there was not much cake and what was there was only around the top half of the bowl. The stem was minimally oxidized and there was some tooth chatter on the top and the underside of the stem. I did not do much to the bowl finish, merely buffed it with Tripoli and then gave it several coats of carnauba. The stem took a little work as I sanded out the tooth chatter and then went through the list of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I also polished the stem with the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0. I finished by buffing it with White Diamond and then wiped it down with some Obsidian Oil before giving it multiple coats of carnauba and a buff with a soft flannel buffing wheel.

I forgot to take the pictures beforehand but here are some photos of the finished pipe.

A Pair of Rare Dunhill Cobs – Dunhillbillies

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On a lark I restemmed a couple of my Missouri Meerschaum cobs a while back for a special pipe cleaning and polishing night hosted by our local Dunhill and Brigham Representative. He told us that if we brought our old pipes with oxidized stems he would buff them and polish them for us – no charge. Being a bit of a joker and handyman I scavenged in my can of stems and found two oxidized Dunhill white spot stems. These had just the right sized tenons to fit on a couple of old cobs that I had here. So with very little effort, I made them fit the shank. Just in case some of you are worried that I might have ruined them by trimming them back, I assure you that I did nothing to the stems other than clean them up a wee bit and then insert them into my cobs.

Thus armed I packed my trusty pipe bag – holds eight pipes. I included some other nice pipes that I wanted to have the benefit of having buffed but I also included the pair of Dunhill cobs. I waited for an opportune moment when the handy rep was at the buffing wheel. There was a lag in the number of gents coming to him for buffing work so I sidled over and handed him my good pipes first and he did a magnificent job cleaning and waxing them on his wheels. When he had finished them he asked if I had any others that I wanted him to take care of. I hemmed and hahed a bit and then said I had a couple but that they were very special and rare. I wanted to make sure that he would not damage them in any way. I emphasized the fact of their rarity by stating that in fact I had never seen or come across any like them in all the years I had been smoking a pipe.

With that I had hooked him and he turned off his buffer and looked inquiringly. I could see the look in his eye – full of questions. What kind of pipes could I possibly have that I was worried he would harm them? What could I have in my bag that I was slow to pull out and have him buff? I think he was a bit put out by my slow response. So now that I had him hooked I decided to work him a little bit and play with the hook. I began to spin the tale I had worked on earlier in the afternoon. I was enjoying every moment of this so I dragged it out a bit longer than necessary probably, but as I talked a small group of other pipesmokers had gathered around the wheel. We were all puffing on pipes of chosen tobaccos and everyone was interested.

I spun the tale of how I had come across these two special pipes in a cabinet at a local antique mall in Fort Langley, British Columbia. I had gotten the clerk to unlock the cabinet and carefully removed the pair from the cabinet. I looked each of them over carefully so as not to break them. After all I did not want to buy something that was worthless. Both pipes were a bit worn from wear and showed some charring at the rim but otherwise they were clean and seemed to be solid. The clerk said they were rare and who was I to argue as I had never seen anything like the two of them. The price for each was a kingly sum. At this point in my tale I looked at each of my listeners. But in particular I fixed my eyes on the buffing king. I wanted to emphasize the cost of these gems. Now my tale had captured the most dubious of them so I began to reel them in. I explained the stems and the slight oxidation that each had. I explained how they each had a white dot set in the vulcanite of the stems. At this point I am sure the buffing king was wondering if I had stumbled on a pair of early patent era Dunhills. All those listening to the tale know my proclivity for pipe scavenging and how I am pretty lucky in my finds. I honestly think that I had struck the motherlode of pipes finds.

The Dunhill Rep/buffing king was beside himself now. He wanted to see them now. He wanted to handle the two old timers and get a feel for their age and ply his skill in bringing the shine back to life on them both. But I wanted to set the hook a bit deeper so I continued talking about how I had carefully carried them to the cashier and shelled out the money for them. I talked of the deep shell finish on both and the almost amberlike brown of the bowls and shanks. Then as they were almost salivating I pulled the pair out of my bag and handed them to him with the bowls and shanks hidden in my hands. Just the two white spot stem poked out of my hands. I slowly and carefully opened my hands to reveal the treasure. I told him they were called Dunhillbillies. And with that everyone but him was just about rolling on the floor in laughter. They just shook their heads and few of them had choice comments for me. But the buffing king looked at me with a grimace and then he laughed loudly, shaking his head. I have to hand it to him as he did a great job buffing the pair. The pictures below show the twosome after his hard work. What do you think? Are they treasures or not?

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