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An Easy Sprucing up of a 1949 Dunhill Shell # 52 F/T

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

Believe you me friends, this is FUN!! Being able to work on different pipes, be able to choose your project, choose a brand you wish to work on, is an exhilarating experience for me. Prior to the Mumbai Bonanza striking me, I was restricted mostly to working on my inherited collection of pipes, each complete with its stem challenges and similar stummel condition and was getting slightly monotonous to say the least.

I was fortunate enough to have heeded the advice of my dear friend and mentor, Mr. Steve, and struck a deal with a trash collector from Mumbai. He did not know what he was selling and I did not know what I was buying as we reside in different cities!! The argument that Mr. Steve presented was that if not anything, I shall at least have some spares and this was logical. I struck a deal and here are pictures of the pipes that I received in this lot.  This lot contains some very nice collectible pipes, a few well known brand pipes and some mediocre pipe brands. Overall, with seven Dunhills, a Preben Holm #1, a couple of Made in England Pete System pipes, Charatan’s, Custom-Bilt, Stanwell and other assorted pipes, I would say that I had hit a huge jack pot!!! Hence, I like to call this find as “Mumbai Bonanza”.

The pipe that I decided to work on from this find is a smallish full bent Dunhill Shell billiard, and is marked in pastel blue circle in the picture below (the ones circled in red and yellow are completed projects). This is a beautiful deeply sandblasted billiard with a lovely tactile feel in the hand. The play of dark red brown hues on the sandblast makes for a visual treat. It is stamped on a smooth surface on the foot and the underside of the shank with the shape number 52 followed by F/T followed by DUNHILL Shell Made in England 9 (9 is underlined) 0 all in a straight line over PATENT No 417574/34 followed by an encircled 3 at the shank end. This stamping indicates that this pipe is a fishtailed group 3 sized shell and dates this pipe to being manufactured in 1949 and sold in 1950.  The Trademark Dunhill White Dot adorns the top of the vulcanite stem. The stampings are deep, crisp and clear.With this information, I move ahead with the restoration of this beautiful sandblasted Dunhill bent billiard.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber has a thick layer of even and smooth cake which indicates that the pipe has been well used but also well cared for by its previous Steward. From what I can see, the chamber walls appear to be without any damage. The chamber is odorless. There is an overflow of lava on the blasted rim top surface. The inner and outer rim edges appear to be in pristine condition. The mortise is clean and so is the shank airway. The stummel boasts of some beautiful deep sandblast pattern all around. It is dirty with grime and oils filling in much of the craggy finish. The briar, in this condition also, looks amazing. I can’t wait to see after I have worked on it. The round shank of the bent billiard flows into a bent tapered stem which has a flare, like a fish tail, at the button end and hence the stamp F/T. The vulcanite stem shows significant damage to the button end with deep bite marks on both upper and lower surface of the stem. The lip is also severely damaged and will have to be reshaped. In this project, repairs to the damaged stem will be a major challenge, however if compared to previous stem repairs, this should be a cake walk.

THE PROCESS
Since the stem has significant damage, and from my experience of stem repairs, this will be time consuming and laborious part and hence I start this project by tackling the stem first

Now that I was clear about the path to be followed, I first flame both the surfaces of the stem with a Bic lighter. The heat from the flame raises the vulcanite to the surface and takes care of the tooth chatter that was seen earlier. I sand the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to get rid of the oxidation, have a clear idea of the areas which require fill and its extent while providing a smooth surface for the intended fill. I cleaned out the internals of the stem with hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Once I was satisfied with the internal cleaning, I wiped the stem surface, particularly the damaged button end, with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove any traces of dirt and grime.To begin the stem repairs, I prepared a mix of CA superglue and activated charcoal and generously applied it over the damaged surface and set it aside for curing over night. Before moving ahead, I would like to mention here that I had applied this mix to achieve sufficient thickness which would help during the filing and sanding while shaping the button and achieving the correct stem profile.While the stem repair was set aside to cure, I moved ahead to deal with the stummel repairs. I start the reaming with a size 1 head of the PipNet reamer and progress to size 2 head. I further clean the chamber with a folded piece of 180 grits sand paper to sand out the remaining traces of cake and expose the walls of the chamber to ascertain that there are no cracks/ heat fissures. Using my fabricated knife, I gently scrapped away the lava overflow. I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol to remove the carbon dust left behind by all the reaming and sanding process. This also eliminated all traces of old smells from previous usage. The walls of the chamber were solid with no damage. Continuing with the cleaning regime, using a soft brass wired brush I gently scraped away the thick lava coat in the blast of the rim. With a hard bristled tooth brush and dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap, I very deliberately scrubbed the sandblast finish on the stummel and the rim top. The stummel and rim top was dried using paper napkins and soft cotton cloth and set it aside to dry out naturally. The stummel looks fresh and clean. Next, I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful contrasting hues colors that are unique to this sandblast pipe, on full display. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. After I had applied the balm, the rim top surface appeared too darkened and unclean. I was not happy with the way the rim top looked at this stage and decided to further clean it. I scrapped the rim top surface with a brass wired brush with a bit more pressure than I normally apply. The rim surface appeared clean as can be seen in the picture below. I reapplied the balm, hoping that the surface would look clean with the sandblast patterns showing themselves proudly. But alas!! The rim top surface appeared as before, blackened and unclean. I was at my wits end when after repeated cleaning with the brass brush with increasing pressure each time, the rim top surface appeared as before, dark and unclean. Mind you readers, being a sandblasted surface, topping really was not an option that I desired to adopt. I let the rim top surface be, satisfied that it was clean and sans any old lava overflow. In my exuberance to appreciate the beautiful and rugged patterns on the stummel caused by sandblasting, I missed out on cleaning the mortise and the shank airway. This is what exactly I addressed at this stage. Using bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol, I first moistened the oils, tars and gunk in the mortise. Thereafter, with my fabricated spatula, I scrapped out all the tars and oils from the mortise. As I progressed with my cleaning, eventually the pipe cleaners started coming out clean indicating that the shank internals are clean.I set the stummel aside and turned my attention to the stem repair. The fill had cured nicely and I moved ahead and began the process of filing and shaping the button end with a flat head needle file. For a better blending, I further sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 600 and 800 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rehydrate the vulcanite. The repairs have blended in very well and the stem now looks shiny black and beautiful. The internals of the stem was once again cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners to clear the airway of all the debris resulting due to the sanding. The finished stem is shown below. To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to my local machine which is similar to the Dremel.  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further.The completed pipe looks lovely, fresh and vibrant. The deeply sandblasted surface proudly displays the contrasting dark brown hues which was the hallmark of Dunhill Shell pipes with a nice tactile feel in the hand. It surely is one of the best looking sandblasted pipes and will find a place of pride in my humble collection. As and when I load this pipe with my favorite tobacco (I love my English blends…) and sip my scotch, I wish this dude could tell me all about its past life!! Ah, this would be bliss…cheers!

Sprucing up another WDC: A Cased Bakelite & Briar Dublin

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

There a quite a few WDCs that I have inherited from my old man and the one on my table now is “WDC BAKELITE” in its original case. I loved the deep red color of the Bakelite shank and the fiery transparent red of the stem. Thus, no surprise here that I chose to work on this WDC Bakelite Dublin shaped pipe!!

This is the third WDC from my grandfather’s collection, WDC Bakelite in an impressive Dublin shape. The dark brown briar bowl, Bakelite base and translucent Bakelite stem looks attractive. The gold filigree at the shank end adds a classy bling, breaking the red monotony of the stem and shank.  I dare say that this pipe does not boast of only beautiful bird’s eye or cross or straight grains but nevertheless distinct swirls of grains can be seen which are eye-catching to say the least!!  The shank and stem is devoid of any stamping, however, the only stamping to identify this pipe to be a WDC is seen on the top lid of the leather covered case. The case is internally lined with a soft silky felt cloth in light green color and bears the trademark inverted equilateral triangle in red with letters “WDC” over “BAKELITE” in gold. Gold ribbons flow from either sides of the triangle and bears the words “FRENCH” on the left ribbon and “BRIAR” on the right. The quality of the case, its felt lining and the stamping simply shouts QUALITY!! I searched pipedia.com for more information on this pipe and attempt at estimating the vintage of this pipe. Though I could not find any information about this pipe in particular or a connection between WDC and Bakelite material, here is what I have found on pipedia.org about the brand:

William Demuth. (Wilhelm C. Demuth, 1835-1911), a native of Germany, entered the United States at the age of 16 as a penniless immigrant. After a series of odd jobs he found work as a clerk in the import business of a tobacco tradesman in New York City. In 1862 William established his own company. The William Demuth Company specialized in pipes, smoker’s requisites, cigar-store figures, canes and other carved objects.

The Demuth Company is probably well known for the famous trademark, WDC in an inverted equilateral triangle. William commissioned the figurative meerschaum Presidential series, 29 precision-carved likenesses of John Adams, the second president of the United States (1797-1801) to Herbert Hoover, the 30th president (1929-1933), and “Columbus Landing in America,” a 32-inch-long centennial meerschaum masterpiece that took two years to complete and was exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

The Presidential series was the result of Demuth’s friendship with President James A. Garfield, a connoisseur of meerschaum pipes. Demuth presented two pipes to Garfield at his inauguration in 1881, one in his likeness, the other in the likeness of the President’s wife. Later, Demuth arranged for another figurative matching the others to be added to the collection as each new president acceded to the White House, terminating with President Hoover.

In early 1937, the City of New York notified S.M. Frank & Co. of their intent to take by eminent domain, part of the land on which the companies pipe factory was located. This was being done to widen two of the adjacent streets. As a result of this, Frank entered into negotiations to purchase the Wm. Demuth Co.’s pipe factory in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. It was agreed upon that Demuth would become a subsidiary of S.M. Frank and all pipe production of the two companies would be moved to DeMuth factory. New Corporate offices were located at 133 Fifth Avenue, NYC.

Demuth pipes continued to be made at the Richmond Hill plant till December 31. 1972. Then the Wm. Demuth Company met its official end as a subsidiary company by liquidation.

I came across an interesting catalog on the same page on pipedia.org which shows the exact same pipe that I am now working on. It is the same pipe as the first pipe on the left in second row. A close scrutiny of the picture confirms the following:

(a) Bakelite material was being newly introduced by WDC as WDC Bakelite line. This can be inferred from the Note on the flyer “BAKELITE IS A NEW PATENT COMPOSITION……….NOT BURN”.

(b) The pipe before me is model number 24718 and was at the time their second most expensive of all the pipes advertised in the flyer, retailing at $8!!

(c) The catalog was published by “John V Farwell Company, Chicago”. John V. Farwell & Co. was a department store in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The store’s history traces back to 1836, when the Wadsworth brothers came to Chicago to sell goods. John V. Farwell & Co. was the most successful store in the city until the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. The store continued to operate after the fire, but faced stiff competition from former partners Marshall Field and Levi Leiter. It was purchased by Carson, Pirie & Co. in 1926. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_V._Farwell_%26_Co.) I visited rebornpipes.com and came across an interesting article on materials used in pipe making (https://rebornpipes.com/2014/08/09/hard-rubber-and-other-early-plastic-used-in-pipes-ronald-j-de-haan/)

It is here that I found the following information on “BAKELITE”:

These qualities made Bakelite the most successful synthetic material in the first half of the 20th century. From 1928 it was also produced as molded resin. Both the pressed and the molded forms were suitable for the pipe making industry. Pipes were made from Bakelite and molded phenol-resin. Complete pipes of Bakelite are very rare because of its lack of heat resistance. Phenol-resin however was frequently used for pipe mouthpieces and cigarette holders because it imitated amber.

From the above gleaned information, it is safe to conclude that the pipe now on my worktable is of 1920s and early 1930 vintage and at that point in time was WDC’s new offering retailing at $ 8!!

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The leather covered case in which the pipe was safely ensconced for many years has borne the maximum brunt of uncared for storage. The leather has weathered while being exposed to the extreme climate and has cracked at a number of places. However, the hinges and the lock mechanisms are intact and function smoothly. I shall just be giving a nice wipe with a moist cloth and applying a neutral shoe polish coat which is rich in wax content. The lining within has stained near the bowl/ Bakelite base joint and near the rim top. This needs to be cleaned up. Age definitely shows on the stummel surface!! The briar is dull and lifeless and has taken on a layer of aged patina, through which one can make out the beautiful grain patterns all around. There is a heavy overflow of lava all over the entire stummel surface. The bowl is covered in oils, tars and grime accumulated over the years of storage and is sticky to the touch. To be honest, the stummel is filthy to say the least. A thorough cleaning of the stummel followed by polish should accentuate the beautiful mixed grain pattern seen on the stummel through all the dirt. The Bakelite base of the stummel is dirty and sticky. Few scratches are also seen on close observation. The bowl (‘Real Walnut Bowl’ as specified in the flyer above!!) screws-in directly on to the Bakelite base. There is no brass or any metal separator between the bowl and the base, which is surprising. The threads on the bowl and the Bakelite base are covered in oils, tars and gunk. The bowl has one small hole at the heel through which the smoke passes in to the shank. The heel of the Bakelite base shows traces of old oils and tars. This will need a thorough cleaning.There is heavy buildup of cake with a thick layer in the chamber. The condition of the inner walls of the chamber can be ascertained only after the cake has been removed completely and taken down to bare briar. The bowl however, feels robust and solid to the touch from the outside. The rim top has a thick layer of overflowing lava. The condition of the smooth rounded inner and outer edge and rim top can be commented upon once the overflow of lava is removed and the chamber is reamed. The shank end of the pipe is clean. These issues should be a breeze to address, unless some hidden gremlins present themselves!!The diamond Bakelite stem has a rounded orifice which also points to its vintage. It is a rich reddish color that is translucent and the light really plays through. I cannot wait to see the stem clean up. Deep tooth indentations and minor tooth chatter is seen on the upper and lower surface. The pointed corner edge of the lip on the left is broken and will either have to be reconstructed or filed away to a straight profile. The lip edges have also been chewed off and greatly deformed. The screw-in tenon appears to be a Delrin tenon (or is it bone?) and is covered with dried oils and tars. The fit of the stem in to the mortise is very loose and the alignment is overturned. This will be a first for me as I have corrected metal threaded stingers, but never a Delrin or bone. The mortise does show signs of accumulated dried oils, tars and remnants of ash, greatly restricting the air flow. As I was dismantling the pipe, the gold filigree band also separated from the diamond squared Bakelite shank.The overall condition of the pipe, with the thick build-up of cake in the chamber, clogged mortises, overflowing of lava covering the entire stummel and the deep bite marks to the stem makes me believe that this would have been one of my grandfather’s favorite pipes.

THE PROCESS
As is always the case, I prefer to start my restoration with part that has the most significant damage. In this case it was the stem. I first cleaned out the internals of the airway with pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol. This was followed by cleaning the surface and the deep tooth marks with cotton pads dipped in alcohol. This helps to remove all the dirt, oils and grime from the surface before proceeding with fills. Since the tooth indentations are deep, I shall resort to the layering technique for the fills. Having cleaned the bite marks and the stem surface, I fill these with clear superglue and set it aside to dry. The fills had shrunk once the glue had cured, exposing the damage. I gave a second layer of superglue fill and set it aside to cure. I had decided to address the issue of broken corner of the lip edge by reconstructing it afresh using superglue (God, why can’t I simply straighten the edges which would have been way simpler than reconstructing the concave shaped lip edges!!). I went about this task by placing a big drop of superglue and holding the stem such that a droplet was formed at the broken edge. Once this was done, it was all about twisting, turning and blowing so that the droplet does not fall to the ground while remaining at the broken edge. After the droplet has hardened, I repeated the process till I had more than enough well cured and hardened large edge which then could be filed and shaped as required.While the stem fills were curing, I addressed the thick cake in the chamber. I started by reaming the chamber with size 2 and followed it up with size 3 and 4 head of PipNet reamer. I used a 220 grit sand paper, pinched between my thumb and forefinger, to sand the inner walls of the chamber of the pipe. Once I had reached the bare briar, I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This removed all the residual carbon dust from the chamber. The walls of the chamber are nice and solid with no signs of heat fissures or cracks. I scrapped out the overflowing lava from the rim top with my fabricated knife. The inner and outer rim edges are pristine and that was a big relief.I cleaned the threads and the heel of the Bakelite base with cotton and alcohol. This was followed by cleaning the mortise and air way of the pipe using hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners, q-tips dipped in alcohol. The mortise and the draught hole were given a final clean with shank brushes dipped in alcohol. I dried the mortise with a rolled paper napkin. The shank internals and the draught hole are now nice and clean with an open and full draw.Using a hard bristled tooth brush dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap and brass wire brush, I scrubbed the stummel, cleaning the surface thoroughly. I was very deliberate on the surface areas which were covered in overflowed lava over which dirt and grime had accumulated over the years. I rinsed the stummel under tap water, taking care that water does not enter the mortise or the chamber. I dried the stummel using cotton cloth and paper napkins. On close inspection, I observed a couple of minor dents and ding on the front portion of the stummel. These would need to be addressed. I also cleaned and removed the entire accumulated and now moistened gunk from the threads and base if the bowl with my fabricated dental spatula and the brass wired brush. The stummel is now clean and devoid of any grime and dirt. It is really surprising that the rim top, round edges and the stummel is in such pristine condition after so many years of storage and without a single fill. Speaks volumes about the quality of this line of pipes from WDC!! To further clean and highlight the grains, I sand the stummel with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper followed by 600 grit sand paper. For a deeper shine and to remove the scratches left behind by the coarse grit papers, I followed it up by sanding with the micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stummel after each wet pad with a moist cloth to remove the resulting dust. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to briar and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. The pipe now looks lovely with beautiful grains showing off their beauty in all glory!! While the bowl was absorbing the balm, I worked the Bakelite base. I cleaned the surface with a cotton pad dipped in acetone and with horror I realized that I could see some swirls like marks on the shank. This got me worried and I immediately conferred with Mr. Steve, my mentor. He informed me that the Bakelite needs to be cleaned only with soap water!! Ah, well, what’s done is done. He suggested that I use the balm and see if it helps and it did but not to the full extent. I bashed on regardless, going through the complete micromesh pad cycle. It was then that I realized that the so called spots were from within and not external! Whew, what a relief. The Bakelite base looks absolutely stunning with a deep red color. With the bowl and Bakelite base now nice and clean and attractive, I worked the stem of the WDC.  Just to let the readers know, that all the while that I was working the bowl and base, I was simultaneously adding layers of superglue to the tooth indentations and chatter and the broken corner edge of the lip. Once I was satisfied with the thickness of the fill (I prefer over filling which can be evened out during sanding), I began by sanding the fills with a flat heat needle to achieve a rough match with the surrounding stem surface. I sharpened the lip edges using a needle file and sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 800 and 1000 grit sand paper to perfectly blend the filled surface with the rest of the stem surface. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. By mere sanding itself, the minor tooth marks seen on stem surfaces were completely addressed. I was especially careful while shaping the broken corner edge of the lip. Finally, after long hours at the table, I was able to achieve a satisfactory reconstruction of the lip along with the proper concave around the orifice. To bring a deep shine to the Bakelite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. The only part begging for attention was also the most attractive and costly item on this pipe; the gold filigree band!! This band was easily detached from the shank end and this made the cleaning job very easy. I use Colgate tooth powder to clean all the silver and gold bands and embellishments on pipes, a trick I learned from Abha, my wife. Some readers may find it surprising, but believe you me gentlemen, please at least give a try to see if it suits you. The band cleaned up nicely. I carefully applied a very small quantity of superglue along the shank end edges and stuck the band firmly over the shank end.Before moving on to polishing and buffing, the only issue that remained to be addressed was that of the overturned tenon. I discussed with Mr. Steve who suggested that I should try using clear nail polish coat over the threaded tenon and once the nail polish had completely dried, I should try the fit. I did just that and, viola!! The fit and alignment of the stem and shank was perfect!!

To finish, I re-assembled the entire pipe. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my local machine which is similar to a Dremel.  I set the speed at about half of the full power and polished the entire pipe with White Diamond compound. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax over the bowl, Bakelite base and the Bakelite stem. I finished the restoration by giving the pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe, with the dark brown hues of the grains on the bowl contrasting with the shining deep red Bakelite base and the translucent Bakelite stem, looks lovely, fresh and vibrant; the photographs speak for themselves. The leather covered case was cleaned and polished with wax rich neutral shoe polish. If only the pipe could tell some of my grand Old man’s stories and recount incidents witnessed while being smoked.…………… Cheers!! I am grateful to all the readers for their valuable time spent in reading this write up and joining me on this part of the journey in to the world of pipe restoration while I attempt to preserve a heritage and past memories which eternally shall remain a part of me. 

Refurbishing a Battered Dunhill Bruyere #32041

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had just finished restoring three pipes from my inheritance; a WDC Stratford, The Doodler and a Barling # 2639. Save for the WDC, these were easy projects and it helped that Abha, my wife, had done all the initial cleaning. I finished these pipes in real quick time.

Now I turned my attention once again to the pipes from my “Mumbai Bonanza”. I have restored three pipes; two Dunhill and a Stefano Exclusive from this lot of 30 and each one has been, well, to put it mildly a royal pain where you wouldn’t like it!!  How did I land up with this lot makes for an interesting read and about one which I have written in the restoration of the Stefano Exclusive (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/11/mumbai-bonanza-stefano-exclusive-restorationa-month-long-project/).

Here are pictures of the pipes that I received in this lot. This lot contains some very nice collectible pipes, a few well known brand pipes and some mediocre pipe brands. Overall, with seven Dunhills, a Preben Holm #1, a couple of “Made in England” Pete System pipes, Charatan’s and other assorted pipes, I would say that I had hit a huge jack pot!!! Hence, I like to call this find as “Mumbai Bonanza”.

The pipe that I decided to work on is from this find and is marked in a red circle in the picture below. It’s the third Dunhill from this lot, a Bruyere in a classic bulldog shape. The stummel surface boasts of some beautiful densely packed cross grain on the stummel, cap and also the shank top, bottom and side surfaces. It is stamped with “# 32041” towards the bowl and followed by “DUNHILL” over “BRUYERE” on the left side of the shank while the right side bears the COM stamp “MADE IN” over “ENGLAND” followed by underlined numeral “18”. Dunhill White Dot adorns the top of the vulcanite stem. The stampings on either side is deep, crisp and clear.The dating of this pipe is very straight forward and dates to 1978 (1960+18). Deciphering the shape code, “32041” is equally straight forward with the first digit 3 identifying this pipe as being Group size 3, second numeral, 2, identifies the style of mouthpiece as being a saddle stem and the digits 04 indicates Bulldog shape. With this information, I proceed ahead with the restoration of this handsome pipe.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber is clean with a thin layer of cake which indicates that the pipe has been kept clean by its previous Steward; however, the reaming has been done unevenly. From what I can see, the chamber walls appear to be without any damage. The chamber is odorless. It is the rim top, including the outer and inner rim edge that shows significant damage on the left side in 11 o’clock and 7 o’clock directions. This must have been caused due to hammering of the edge against a hard surface to remove dottle!! There is not even a millimeter of surface on the rim top surface which does not show signs of severe damage. All in all, it appears like this pipe’s rim top was used by the previous Steward as a hammer while giving vent to his/ her anger, and if this is true by any stretch of imagination, HE/ SHE SHOULD ENROLL FOR ANGER MANAGEMENT TREATMENT!! Darkening of the outer rim edge is also seen all along the left half of the rim top, most significantly in 11 o’clock and 7 o’clock directions. I just hope that it does not go deep in to the briar!!  Being a Dunhill, any issue of fills is never to be expected and hold true for this pipe too. However, there are a number of scratches and dents that can be seen on the stummel surface. These dents and ding are probably caused due to uncared for storage by the previous Steward and further contributed to by the trash collector who had sold the pipes to me. The stummel is covered in dirt and grime. The briar looks lifeless and dull which is nothing serious to address.I am very pleased with the condition of the stem. The diamond saddle type vulcanite stem shows minor damage to the button end and the lip edges. Light scratches can be seen extending upwards from the button end towards the saddle. The quality of vulcanite is good. These issues should be an easy fix. The mortise is clogged and will have to be cleaned. In this project, repairs to the damaged outer edge and rim top surface will be a major challenge. While restoring the Dunhill Bruyere # 51671 (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/13/reconstructing-a-broken-stem-on-dunhill-bruyere-51671/), I had faced difficulties in blending the repairs to the outer rim edges and these could be seen even after I had stained the stummel. Similar set of difficulties are envisaged on this pipe too!!!! I have learned my lesson and will follow the advice and suggestion received from readers of rebornpipes.com.

THE PROCESS
Since the stummel has significant damage, I start this project by tackling the stummel repairs first. I reamed the chamber with size 2 head of a PipNet reamer. The cake was thicker at the bottom and using my fabricated knife, I scraped out all the remaining cake. I further used one folded piece of 180 grit sand paper to sand out the last traces of remaining cake and expose the walls of the chamber to ascertain that there are no cracks/ heat fissures. I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol to remove the carbon dust left behind by all the reaming and sanding process. The walls of the chamber were solid with just very fine superficial web of lines seen on one side. This was followed by cleaning the mortise by scraping away at the dried gunk with my fabricated spatula and followed it up with further cleaning using cue tips, pipe cleaners and shank brush dipped in isopropyl alcohol. With the thin sharp edge of my fabricated spatula, I cleaned in between the edges of the cap ring separating the cap from the rest of the stummel. Continuing with the cleaning regime, using a hard bristled tooth brush dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap, I very deliberately scrubbed the surface of the stummel and the rim top. The original reddish dye was also washed away to some extent. The dirt and grime on the stummel surface was so stubborn that I had to resort to using a scotch-brite pad to get rid of it. While scrubbing the stummel, I paid special attention to areas where significant darkening was seen just below the rim outer edge. Thankfully, the burn marks were superficial and cleaned out nicely. However, a dark spot was revealed just below the cap ring and is marked in a red circle. The damages to the outer rim edge, uneven inner rim edge and stummel dents and dings are now clearly visible in the above pictures after the cleaning. I had a close, hard look at the darkened spot seen and marked in red. The briar on and around the spot was hard and solid with no deep heat fissures on the corresponding inner surface of the chamber. This ruled out the possibility of a burn out!!!! Phew, what a relief this was!!!! This external darkening, most probably, appears to have been caused when the pipe was placed in an ash tray alongside a smoldering cigarette butt, just a hypothesis!!! This will be addressed (hopefully!) when I sand the stummel surface to get rid of all the scratches and dents.

With the stummel now dried out, I got around to address the rim top and outer rim damage. The extent of the dip or trough caused due to banging the rim edge against a hard surface was deep and would necessitate heavy topping off of the rim surface, and I for one, absolutely wish to avoid any loss of briar!!!!! So, I decided to try out something different. I planned on first filling up the deep troughs on the rim edge using briar dust and superglue to roughly match the rim surface and some more and then topping it to achieve a smooth surface. Theoretically, this sounded logical.

I resorted to the layering method again; first I layered superglue over the damaged surfaces on the front and back outer rim edges, followed by sprinkling of briar dust, another layer of superglue followed by a final layer of briar dust. This final layer of briar dust reduces the probability of air pockets. In the last picture, you can see that the layering has been done to the level of the rim surface so that it sits evenly on a flat surface without showing any gaps. I set the stummel aside to cure. While the stummel fill was being set aside to cure, I tackled the stem repairs by first flaming the surface with a Bic lighter flame to raise the bite marks to the surface. This was followed by sanding the stem surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper. This step has a twofold purpose; firstly, it helps to roughly blend the raised bite marks with the rest of the stem surface and brings to fore the spots which require filling and secondly, it helps to rid the oxidation from the stem surface which helps subsequently in better finish after polishing. I cleaned out the surface with a cotton pad dipped in alcohol to remove all the dirt and grime. Once the surface was clean, the lip edges and the bite marks were filled with a superglue and activated charcoal mix and set aside to cure overnight. The fill repair to the outer rim edges had cured by this time and with a flat head needle file, I roughly sand the fills to match the surrounding surface. Using a folded piece of a 220 grit sand paper, I further blended the outer filled edges with the rest of the edge and created a slight bevel to mask the uneven inner rim edges. The rim top surface was topped on a piece of 220 grit sand paper to further blend and even out the rim top, checking frequently the progress being made. Personally, I prefer to avoid topping as I do not appreciate loosing even one mm of briar estate, but in this instance, I was left with no recourse but to top the rim. I lightly top it on 600 grit sand paper to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the 220. However, a few air pockets revealed themselves (marked in red-orange circle) at this stage which necessitated reapplication of briar dust and super glue. Sorry, missed out taking pictures of this stage!! While the second fill to the rim outer edge was curing, I turned my attention to work on the cured stem fills. Using a flat head needle file, I roughly matched the fills with the rest of the stem surface. For a better blending, I further sanded the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 600 and 800 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rehydrate the vulcanite. The repairs have blended in very well and the stem now looks a shiny black and beautiful. The internals of the stem was cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners. The finished stem is shown below. The next evening, the repairs to the edge had completely cured and I move ahead by filing and rough shaping with a flat head needle file. I further fine tune the blending by sanding it down with 220, 320, 600 and 800 grit sand papers. Here is how the repaired area appears at this stage. I am very pleased with the way this repair progressed. I sand the entire stummel using 220, 400, 600 and 800 grit sand papers. The little dents and dings that remained on the stummel and outer rim edge were also evened out under this sanding process. This was followed by polishing with micromesh pads. I wet sand the stummel with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and follow it up by dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the surface with a moist cotton cloth after every wet pad to check the progress. The repaired rim edge appears, in picture, as though it is patchy with air pockets. However, that is not the case. The fill is smooth and solid and should get masked after I have stained it. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. I had hoped that the balm would work its magic on the filled area and help in blending it a bit, and that did happen!! I am very pleased with the way these repairs have turned out. And now on to staining and polishing… After Mr. Steve had uploaded my write up on the Dunhill Bruyere Horn shaped pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/13/reconstructing-a-broken-stem-on-dunhill-bruyere-51671/), the feedback and responses were very educative and I had decided to incorporate these suggestions while working this project. Mr. Roland Borchers brought out that the original color of Bruyere was achieved by first staining with Dark Brown stain followed by Cherry red stain. Mr. Steve also concurred and then there was no turning back!! I stained the stummel in DB stain first. I use the powder variety of stain and mix it with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I heated the stummel surface with a heat gun and applied the stain with a folded pipe cleaner. As I paint the stummel with stain over sections at a time, I burn the dye using a Bic lighter that combusts the alcohol in the aniline dye and sets the dye pigmentation in the wood.  After fully saturating the stummel and covering the whole surface, including the rim top, I set the stummel aside to rest for several hours. By next evening, the stain had set nicely. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel (because I do not have felt cloth buffing wheels!!) on the Dremel and set the speed at about 40% of full RPM and apply white compound to the stummel. This does help in revealing the grains gradually. This time around, the repaired area had blended very nicely in to the rest of the stummel surface. Here is another lesson that I have learned; it is advisable to use white compound after staining and not red Tripoli as I used to, for the reason that the red Tripoli compound is more abrasive and does not make sense to use after polishing by 12000 grit micromesh pad!! I followed this polish by re-staining the stummel with Cherry red stain. I set it aside to let the briar pores absorb the stain pigments. To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to my local machine which is similar to a Dremel, set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe looks lovely, fresh and vibrant; the photographs in this case, do not do justice to the appearance of this beautiful pipe. I cannot thank enough my friends and gentlemen who painstakingly identified my mistakes and suggested remedial measures after reading the write up for helping me to hone my skills while gaining experience.

A Challenging Restoration of my Grandfather’s WDC Stratford Pipe

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

This is the third pipe which I received from Abha, my wife, which has been cleaned, reamed and with no “before” pictures!!

I have inherited a large collection of my grandfather’s pipes; a few of them are unique and quite collectible. There are many WDC pipes in this collection and the one now on my work table is a “WDC STRATFORD” in its original case (in fact there are quite a few pipes in their original cases!). This smallish bent billiards displays gorgeous densely packed straight grain all round the stummel, including the shank and a sterling silver band adorns the shank end. It is stamped on the left side of the shank as “STRATFORD” in sentence case over the trademark “WDC” in an inverted equilateral triangle. The sterling silver band bears the American hallmarks of a STAR, EAGLE AND LETTER ‘D’ over “STERLING”. There are no other stampings visible on the entire pipe. The leather case, though worn by age and weather, is still solid and the inner golden hued felt lining is intact. This lining is stamped in deep red square with black border on the lid as “WDC” in a triangle and “STRATFORD”.INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
This pipe is third pipe that Abha, my wife had sent me after she had reamed the cake back to the bare briar and cleaned the stummel exterior and rim top surface with Murphy’s oil soap. She had also cleaned the sterling silver band using Colgate toothpowder. She followed it up with cleaning the mortise and the shank using regular and hard bristled pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. The felt lining inside the case was painstakingly cleaned up by repeated wiping with a cloth and warm soap water. The cleaned up pipe on my work table now, can be seen in the following pictures. It really feels nice to work on a clean pipe; I must admit and cannot help but thank her for doing all the dirty work. Unfortunately, she did not click any pictures of the condition of the pipe before she worked her magic on them. When I enquired about the condition before she had cleaned it, her one line reply was “it was in the worst of condition of all the pipes seen till date!!!” For those who have been reading my previous write ups would recollect that my grandfather never really believed in cleaning his pipes, he would rather buy new ones when the old pipes clogged up and became unsmokable.

The cake was so thick that even her little finger would not go in and there was heavy and sticky overflow of lava all over the stummel and shank. This lovely little pipe must have been his favorite and has been extensively used. There are a few issues which are immediately noticed. Firstly, the stem is shorter than the case and does not sit flush in the mortise. The tenon end of the stem appears to be unevenly cut. Secondly, the brass tenon, though it fits snugly in to the mortise, is clearly not original to the stem. The tenon end is also uneven (circled in violet).Thirdly, there are two dings on the right side of the stummel and this will have to be addressed. There is not a single fill on the entire stummel.Fourthly, the bowl is completely out of round with the left side of the rim and chamber wall thinner than the right side. Topping the bowl rim surface should address this issue to an extent. As regards the comparatively thin wall on the left side, I shall decide once I reach that stage of restoration.Fifthly, the vulcanite stem has a round slot which is correct for the vintage of this pipe. However, from the shortened length, the brass tenon and the fact that the stem does not sit flush with the shank end are all pointers to the fact that the stem has undergone extensive repairs at some point in its existence. My assumption is that this pipe must have fallen down on a hard surface and the tenon must have broken at an odd angle. While fitting a new brass tenon, the repairman had to cut a small portion of the stem at the tenon end, drill a new hole for the shaft of the tenon and fix it afresh. Even though the cut to the stem is not a clean one, the repairs are solid. This, and the assumption that this pipe was my grandfather’s favorite, is evident from the damage to the upper surface of the stem. There are two large gaping holes, one near the lip edge (which is understandable and attributed to clenching) and the other is nearly half way down the stem towards the tenon end (and can neither be explained at this stage!!). The stem is oxidized. THE PROCESS
Since in this project, the stem has the most number of issues to be addressed, it is where I start the restoration. I flamed the surface of the stem with a Bic lighter to raise the tooth indentations and scratches on the stem. The heat from the flame of Bic lighter causes the vulcanite to expand and regain its natural shape, reducing the marks. I wiped the stem surface clean with a cotton pad dipped in alcohol to remove all the dust and dirt from the surface. I had a closer look at the tenon and its fit in to the mortise. I realized that the length of the tenon is slightly longer than the mortise and that is the reason why the stem did not sit flush with the shank end. Also the tenon end was uneven as can be seen in the above pictures (circled in violet). I addressed this issue by grinding the tenon end on a grinding disk, frequently checking the seating joint of the stem and the shank end. Before proceeding with any further stem repairs, I decided to run a pipe cleaner through the stem to clean out the fine dust left behind due to grinding of the tenon end and it was then that I understood the possible reason for the second hole on the stem upper surface. The pipe cleaner did not pass through the airway cleanly!! There seems to be some kind of protrusion in the airway. On further close scrutiny, I realized that the tenon end inside the stem airway was thicker than the airway and thus obstructing the passage of the pipe cleaner through it causing repeated slamming of the pipe cleaner on the stem upper surface. That explained the probable cause of the second hole!!

I decided to smooth out the inside of the tenon to match the stem’s airway. Using a drill bit which was slightly larger than the tenon opening, I increased the tenon bore. With a round needle file, very carefully I filed the tenon end inside the stem till the pipe cleaner passed through it very easily. This was followed by sanding the stem surfaces with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation. I again cleaned the internal and external surface of the stem and proceeded to reconstruct the damaged upper surface of the stem. Once I was satisfied with the internal cleaning, I wiped the stem surface, particularly the damaged area, with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove any traces of dirt and grime. To begin the stem repairs, I smeared a pipe cleaner with petroleum jelly and inserted it in to the stem airway. I prepared a mix of CA superglue and activated charcoal and generously applied it over the gaping hole in the button of the stem and set it aside for curing overnight. While the stem repairs were curing, I decided to address the two dings on the stummel. I wiped the area with a moist cloth to remove the dust from the surface and spot filled it with a mix of briar dust and super glue. I use the layering technique, first fill with briar dust followed by super glue and again a layer of briar dust. I use this method since the moment super glue comes in contact with briar dust, the mix hardens instantaneously. I set the stummel aside to cure overnight and call it a day!!Once the filling of charcoal and CA superglue had cured, using a needle file, I sand the fill to match the surface of the stem. For a better blending, I further sand the entire stem with 220. At this stage, I observed air pockets in both the fills. This is the most dreaded observation for me as addressing this issue costs me more time and repeat of the entire process. Nevertheless, I again coat the damaged surface with clear super glue. While the fill was curing, with a flat needle file, I sand the stummel fill to achieve a rough match with the rest of the stummel surface. I further blend the fill with a 220 grit sand paper. This fill turned out satisfactory. I shall completely blend this fill during the micromesh cycle.Next issue to be addressed was the out of round rim top and the comparatively thin left side of the chamber wall. I approached this issue by first topping the rim on a 220 grit sand paper. This process also addressed the thinning of the rim observed on the left side to some extent. To further even out the inner rim edge, I created a bevel using a 220 grit sand paper. I am pretty satisfied with the way the rim surface appears at this stage. The uneven thickness on the left side is still apparent and to address this I had an option of increasing the thickness by lining the chamber wall with J B Weld followed by coating with a mixture of activated charcoal and yogurt. However, since I am not going to smoke this pipe ever, I decided to keep the appearance as it is, which incidentally does not look as glaring as it appears in the description.The next step in the process was to bring out the shine and highlight the beautiful grain on the stummel. I had an option of using more abrasive 220 grit sandpaper followed by micromesh pad cycle and loose the patina or straight away go to the micromesh cycle. Using the more abrasive sand paper, minor dents and dings would be further addressed but I would lose out the old sheen which the briar has taken over the years.  I decided on keeping the old sheen and went straight for the micromesh cycle. I wet sand the stummel with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and follow it up by dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. The stummel, at this stage, looks absolutely stunning with the straight grain popping out from every inch. The natural finish and hues on this pipe is something that I have not seen before on any pipes. The very dark brown hued straight grains contrast beautifully with the dark browns on the rest of the stummel giving it a very antique appearance. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to briar and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. In my enthusiasm to finish this project, I forgot to take pictures of the results at this stage.

Once the second filling of charcoal and CA superglue had cured, using a needle file, I sand the fill to match the surface of the stem. This time around the results were much more disastrous!!!! The entire filling collapsed in to airway, leaving the same gaping holes on the stem surface. I was so frustrated that I just did not have the heart to take pictures. To cut the rambling, I again repeated the procedure and made a fresh filling for both the holes and set it aside for curing. Once cured, I file the fillings with a needle file. For a better blending, I further sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 600 and 800 grit sandpaper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil. The internals of the stem was cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners. The finished stem is shown below. To finish the restoration, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel (actually it is not the brand machine, but a local machine which is similar).  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further.The completed pipe looks fresh, vibrant and ready for its next innings with me. This piece of briar will find a place of pride in my collection, if not as part of rotation, as a part of the memories left behind by my grand old man. If only it could tell me stories it had witnessed and why did my grandfather love this pipe so much?!! PS:  There is one contentious issue which I have deliberately raised and left it open for discussion. I would like to encourage the readers to express their views in a frank manner as it will help me in understanding the minds of the esteemed readers while clearing my own thought process. The issue that I am talking about is my decision (temporary!!!!) to let the unequal thickness of the chamber wall on the left side to remain addressed to the extent I have managed and not address it completely as well as the way I had thought of completely addressing it, if at all I decide to do so. Cheers……….!

RESTORING MY GRANDFATHER’S PIPE; “THE DOODLER”

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

The early Transition Era Barling #2639 that was recently restored was a breeze to work on and finished in real quick time, including the write up. The next pipe now on my work table has a lot of similarities to the Barling #2639; it is cleaned and spruced up by Abha, comes from my inheritance of pipes, has no serious issues to address (apparently) and in this instance too, she has not taken pictures before she commenced her cleaning regimen!!

“The Doodler” pipe on my work table is definitely not a looker by any stretch of imagination!!!! It is a simple straightforward billiard with a vulcanite saddle stem. What is unique though, is its design contribution in the ever progressing quest in the pipe world for a cool smoke and the man behind its design and development. The characteristic features of this pipe are a Custom-Bilt like worm rustications on the heel and shank, even and equally spaced out drilled holes and vertical slats which can be seen through the three rings of briar. From the design itself, it is apparent that all these features that have been incorporated in construction is with one and only purpose and that is to increase the dissipation of heat from the chamber while providing a nice cool smoke. The only stamping seen on this pipe is “THE DOODLER” in fancy block letters over “IMPORTED BRIAR”, on the right side of the shank. The saddle straight vulcanite stem is devoid of any logo.While restoring one of the 5 (or 6) Custom-Bilt from my inherited pipes, I had read about the legendary pipe maker from America, Mr. Tracy Mincer and his second innings after Custom-Bilt, The Doodler!!! To refresh my memory, I revisited rebornpipes.com and pipedia.org. These sites have all the information that one is looking for on “THE DOODLER”. Here are the links from these sites; https://rebornpipes.com/2013/05/22/a-unique-piece-of-pipe-design-history-doodlers-by-tracy-mincer/

https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_Doodler

From both the above articles, it is amply evident that the pipe that is on my work table is from the 1953 to 1960s era and is an integral part of history in mankind’s eternal quest for a cool smoke!!!!

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
This pipe is another that Abha, my wife had sent me after she had reamed the cake back to the bare briar and cleaned the stummel exterior and rim top surface with Murphy’s oil soap. She had also cleaned out all the nooks and crevices resulting from the design of the pipe. She followed it up with cleaning the mortise and the shank using regular and hard bristled pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. The cleaned up pipe on my work table now, can be seen in the following pictures. It really feels nice to work on a clean pipe; I must admit and cannot help but thank her for doing all the dirty work. Unfortunately, she did not click any pictures of the condition of the pipe before she worked her magic on them. When I inquired about the condition before she had cleaned it, her one line reply was “surprisingly different from his (grandfather’s) other pipes!!!” For those who have been reading my previous write ups would recollect that my grandfather never really believed in cleaning his pipes, he would rather buy new ones when the old pipes clogged up and became unsmokable. However, in this case, there was a very thin layer of cake and the stem was in good condition. From the present condition of the pipe, there are only two issues that I would need to address on the stummel; a heat fissure on the wall of the chamber and the heel has thinned out (or so it appears to me). To err on the positive, I intend to coat the chamber wall and heel with a mix of activated charcoal and yogurt. This coat will not only protect the chamber wall from direct heat, but will also aid in faster build up of the cake.

The vulcanite stem is surprisingly clean with only a slight damage to the lip on the upper surface. This issue should not be a major headache to address. The lip edge on both sides is distinct but will have to be sharpened. Also, the upper surface of the slot has thinned out. Why, I fail to comprehend!! The quality of vulcanite is good. The fit of the tenon in to the mortise is slightly loose. This is usually observed in pipes where the mortise wall has dried out due to non usage for a long time. THE PROCESS
Since in this project, the stem has the most number of issues to be addressed, it is where I start the restoration. I wiped the stem surface clean with a cotton pad dipped in alcohol to remove all the dust and dirt from the surface. To address the issue of thinned out upper surface of the slot, I layered the upper lip edge with a mix of activated charcoal and clear CA superglue and I set it aside to cure overnight. I applied a layer of this mix to the lower lip edge to ensure an even thickness on both surfaces.Once the filling of charcoal and CA superglue had cured and I was satisfied with the thickness, using a needle file, I sand the layers of the fill to match the surface of the stem. For a better blending, I further sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 600 and 800 grit sandpaper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil. The internals of the stem was cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners. The finished stem is shown below. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to briar and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. To finish the restoration, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel (actually it is not the brand machine, but a local machine which is similar).  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further.The completed pipe looks fresh, vibrant and ready for its next innings with me. This piece of briar will find a place of pride in my collection, if not as part of rotation, as a part of history of pipes. If only it could tell me stories it had witnessed and why did my grandfather not smoke it as heavily as his other pipes?!!!! Thank you for having the patience to reach this far while reading the write up. PS:  The only issue that needed to be addressed was that of the thin line of heat fissure. I mixed activated charcoal and yogurt to a consistency where the mix is thin enough to spread evenly but thick to the point that it is not runny at all. Using my fabricated bamboo frond, I apply an even coat all along the chamber wall and drop a thick blob of the mix over the heel. I tap the foot of the stummel with my fingers to ensure an even spread of the mix over the heel and expel air bubbles.

 

A Simple Restoration of an Early Transition Era Barling 2639

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

Having worked on a few difficult projects from my Mumbai Bonanza, involving major stem reconstruction and addressing flaws in the stummel (read refreshing fills!!) taking a lot of time and heartburn and efforts which had left me drained, I decided to work on something simple and relatively quick refurbishing of pipes from my inherited collection.

The Barling pipe on my work table is an exquisite bent billiards with beautiful and very tightly packed bird’s eye grains on either side of the bowl and shank, extending over to more than half of the front of the stummel. Equally tightly packed cross grains are seen on the front left and back of the bowl and also on the upper and bottom surface of the shank. It is stamped on the left side of the shank as “BARLING” in script hand over the numeral “2639” over “LONDON ENGLAND”. There is no other stamping seen on the stummel. The double bore vulcanite saddle stem bears the trademark Barling stamped in cross on the upper surface of the saddle.Even though there are quite a few Barlings in my grandfather’s collection, this beauty is the second of the Barling’s that I shall be restoring. During my reading while working on my first Barling, I had read about this brand, its passage through times and pointers towards their dating. To refresh my memory about the brand, the lines offered by the maker and attempt to date this particular pipe, I visited Pipedia which has a wealth of neatly cataloged heading-wise information on Barling’s pipes. From the stamping seen on this pipe and correlating it with my information, it was immediately apparent that this one is definitely not a Family Era pipe, but a later era pipe. Luckily, on the same page, towards the end, there is a link to 1962 Barling catalog, courtesy Yuriy Novikov. This catalog, on page 7 shows the pipe which is on my work table, here is the link to this catalog: https://pipedia.org/images/d/d9/BARLING_CATALOG_1962.pdf

From the above information, it is conclusive that this piece is a size 2, flat bent billiard from the Transition period/ Corporate era and was made during 1962. The minimalist stamping and the double bore stem indicate that this pipe was intended to be sold in the local markets.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
This pipe was one of the pipes that Abha, my wife had sent me after she had reamed out complete cake back to the bare briar and cleaned the stummel exterior and rim top surface with Murphy’s oil soap. She had also cleaned out the mortise and the shank using regular and hard bristled pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. The cleaned up pipe on my work table now, can be seen in the following pictures. It really feels nice to work on a clean pipe; I must admit and cannot help but thank her for doing all the dirty work and saving me time while sharing my hobby. Unfortunately, she did not click any pictures of the condition of the pipe before she worked her magic on them. When I inquired about the condition before she had cleaned it, her one line reply was “no different from his (grandfather’s) other pipes!!!” For those who have been reading my previous write ups would recollect that my grandfather never really believed in cleaning his pipes, he would rather buy new ones when the old pipes chocked up and became unsmokable. From the present condition of the pipe, there are only two issues that I would need to address on the stummel; one is the darkened rim top surface with an uneven inner rim edge and the other is slightly deep gouges on the chamber walls. The vulcanite stem is heavily scratched and shows deep oxidation on the surface. Some heavy tooth chatter is seen on both surfaces of the stem towards the lip with few deep bite marks on the upper and lower surfaces. This issue should not be a major headache to address. The lip edge on both sides is distinct but damaged showing tooth marks. The quality of vulcanite is good.THE PROCESS
I flamed the surface of the stem with a Bic lighter to raise the tooth indentations and scratches on the stem. The heat from the flame of Bic lighter causes the vulcanite to expand and regain its natural shape, reducing the marks. I followed it up by sanding the entire stem surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to reduce the tooth chatter while removing the oxidation from the area to be filled. I wiped the stem surface clean with a cotton pad dipped in alcohol to remove all the dust and dirt from the surface. The tooth marks which were visible after the flaming and sanding were filled with a mix of activated charcoal and clear CA superglue and I set it aside to cure overnight. While the stem fill was set aside for curing, I decided to address the darkened rim top surface and the uneven inner rim edge issue observed on the stummel. I did not resort to topping straight away, but decided to try scrubbing the rim top with Murphy’s oil soap and scotch brite pad. The result of this scrubbing far exceeded my expectations. The rim top is now clean and there are no traces of rim darkening. To address the issue of an uneven inner rim edges, with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper, I created a slight bevel to the inner edge. The rim top and inner edge issues are now pristine. The next step in the process was to bring out the shine and highlight the beautiful grain on the stummel. I had an option of using more abrasive 220 grit sandpaper followed by micromesh pad cycle and loose the patina or straight away go to the micromesh cycle. Using the more abrasive sand paper, minor dents and dings would be further addressed but I would lose out the old sheen which the briar has taken over the years.  I decided on keeping the old sheen and went straight for the micromesh cycle. I wet sand the stummel with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and follow it up by dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. The stummel, at this stage, looks absolutely stunning with the grain popping out from every inch. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to briar and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. Turning my attention to the stem, I first covered the stamping on the stem with whitener using a whitener pen. The filling of charcoal and CA superglue had cured and using a needle file, I sand the filling to match the surface of the stem. For a better blending, I further sanded the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 600 and 800 grit sandpapers. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil. The internals of the stem was cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners. The finished stem is shown below. To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel (actually it is not the brand machine, but a local machine which is similar).  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe looks lovely, fresh and vibrant; the photographs in this case, do not do justice to the appearance of this beautiful little pipe. This beautiful piece of briar, without a single blemish to the stummel, will find a place of pride in my collection. If only it could tell me stories it had witnessed and experiences, trials and tribulations and joyous moments in my grandfather’s life journey!!!! Thank you for having the patience to reach this far while reading the write up. PS: This project was a welcome break from the previous difficult stem reconstruction and stummel restoration projects that had posed a challenging obstacle at every stage in the process. I must thank my wife, Abha, who had done all the dirty work and presented a simple and quick refurbishing project.

 

Reconstructing a Broken Stem on a 1964 Dunhill Shell 253 f/t

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Blog by Paresh Despande

I had just finished a second of the 30 pipes from my Mumbai Bonanza find, a 1979 DUNHILL BRUYERE 51671; here is the link to the write up; https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/13/reconstructing-a-broken-stem-on-dunhill-bruyere-51671/

I was fortunate enough to have heeded to the advice of my dear friend and mentor, Mr. Steve, and struck a deal with a trash collector from Mumbai. He did not know what he was selling and I did not know what I was buying as we reside in different cities!! The argument that Mr. Steve presented was that if not anything, I shall at least have some spares and this was logical. I struck a deal and here are pictures of the pipes that I received in this lot. This lot contains some very nice collectible pipes, a few well known brand pipes and some mediocre pipe brands. Overall, with seven Dunhills, a Preben Holm #1, a couple of Made in England Pete System pipes, Charatan’s, Custom-Bilt, Stanwell and other assorted pipes, I would say that I had hit a huge jack pot!! Hence, I like to call this find as “Mumbai Bonanza”.

The pipe that I decided to work on next from this find is another Dunhill, a 1964 Shell Briar billiard, and is marked in an indigo circle in the picture below. It is stamped on the heel and the underside of the shank with the shape number 253 over a star followed by F/T followed by DUNHILL over Shell Briar over the COM stamp Made in England 4 which dates it as being made in 1964. This is followed by Group size number 4 in a circle and letter S for Shell. Dunhill White Dot adorns the top of the vulcanite stem. The stampings are deep, crisp and clear. I tried to search on pipedia.org for the significance of the star on the heel. However, the information available did not match with the stampings on the pipe on my worktable. I approached members in my group on FB. Their learned response indicated that Dunhill stamped their replacement stummel with a star at the bottom of the heel. They also assured me that these replacement bowls are intrinsically original with same quality as the original and that this does not affect the value of this pipe.

With assurance, I move ahead with the restoration of this beautiful medium sized and sandblasted Dunhill billiard.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber is clean with a thin layer of cake which indicates that the pipe has been kept clean by its previous Steward. From what I can see, the chamber walls appear to be without any damage. The chamber is odorless. There is an overflow of lava on the rim top surface. The inner rim edge show minor unevenness which should be easy to address. It is the outer rim edge that shows significant damage in the form of dents, dings and scratches, all along the circumference. This must have been caused due to hammering of the edge against a hard surface to remove dottle!!!!! This being a Dunhill Shell, it will be a challenge for me to fix these dents. The mortise is clean and so is the shank airway. The condition of this pipe is very similar to the earlier Dunhill Bruyere that I have restored and makes me wonder if these could have come from the collection of the same Steward. The stummel boasts of some beautiful sandblast patterns, a mix of straight and cross grain all around. It is dirty with grime and tar filling in much of the craggy finish. The briar looks lifeless and dull which is nothing serious to address. The round shank of the Billiard flows into a long tapered stem which has a flare, like a fish tail, at the button end and hence the stamp F/T. The vulcanite stem shows significant damage to the button end, in fact, there is no button at all, similar to the Dunhill Bruyere that was restored earlier!!!!! This convinces me that there is a high probability that these have been previously enjoyed by the same Steward. The stem end is missing, well, about an inch of vulcanite. This pipe would have been his favorite and he had continued to enjoy bowls of his favorite tobacco long after the button end had been chewed off. This is evident from the significant tooth chatter on both the surfaces of the stem. I intend to reconstruct/ rebuild this portion of the stem, including the slot, while maintaining the stem and general profile of the pipe. This will require major repairs. The quality of vulcanite is good. The condenser tube inside the stem however will have to be cleaned and sanitized. In this project, repairs to the damaged outer edge and stem rebuild will be a major challenge, the stem more so, as achieving the fish tailed profile of the stem will need to be adhered to for overall aesthetic appeal of this piece of briar. Having just finished the tedious restoration of the Dunhill Bruyere, I am aware of the challenges this restoration will present en-route.

THE PROCESS
Since the stem has significant damage, and from my experience of stem repairs this will be time consuming and laborious part, I start this project by tackling the stem first. I had decided to rebuild the entire stem including the button and the slot, while giving the button end a slight flare which is the trademark of a fish tail stem. This decision was partly dictated by the fact that I do not have a rotary cutting blade to cut the damaged button end and partly to my innate desire to maintain the originality of the pipe. It’s a Dunhill after all!!

Now that I was clear about the path to be followed, I first flame both the surfaces of the stem with a Bic lighter. The heat from the flame raises the vulcanite to the surface and takes care of the tooth chatter that was seen earlier. I sand the stem end with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to erase the scratches and provide a smooth surface for the intended fill. I cleaned out the internals of the stem with hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Once I was satisfied with the internal cleaning, I wiped the stem surface, particularly the damaged button end, with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove any traces of dirt and grime. To begin the stem repairs, I smeared a folded pipe cleaner with petroleum jelly and inserted it in to the stem airway. I prepared a mix of CA superglue and activated charcoal and generously applied it over and extending beyond the broken surface and set it aside for curing over night. I have not researched and measured the exact length that I had to reconstruct, but eyeballed the length using the longer right side of the stem where a portion of the button was still intact. Before moving ahead, I would like to mention here that I had applied this mix in layers, over the week, to achieve sufficient thickness which would help during the filing and sanding while shaping the button and achieving the correct stem profile. While the stem repair was set aside to cure, I moved ahead to deal with the stummel repairs. There was practically no cake in the chamber and so I directly used a folded piece of 180 grit sand paper to sand out the traces of cake and expose the walls of the chamber to ascertain that there are no cracks/ heat fissures. I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol to remove the carbon dust left behind by all the reaming and sanding process. The walls of the chamber were solid with no damage. This was followed by cleaning the mortise by scraping away at the dried gunk with my fabricated spatula and followed it up with further cleaning using cue tips, pipe cleaners and shank brush dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This eliminated all traces of old smells from previous usage.Continuing with the cleaning regimen, using a soft brass wired brush I gently scraped away the thick lava coat in the blast of the rim. With a hard bristled tooth brush and dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap, I very deliberately scrubbed the sandblast finish on the stummel and the rim top. The stummel and rim top was dried using paper napkins and soft cotton cloth and set it aside to dry out naturally. The stummel looks fresh and clean. The damages to the outer rim edge are now clearly visible in the above pictures after the cleaning. At this point in the restoration, I was faced with the dilemma of whether or not should I top the bowl to address the rim damage. The issue was recreating the sandblast on the rim top after topping. I put this question to my friends from pipe restoration community on FB. Mr. Steve and Mr. Mark Domingues suggested that I stain the damaged areas with a stain pen and if this does not work, topping is the only recourse available. I went ahead with the suggestion and stained the damaged rim edges and rim top using Mahogany color stain pen. After it had dried completely, I again stained it with dark brown stain pen to darken it further. I set it aside for several hours before working on it any further. Here is how the rim appeared at this stage. Next, I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful contrasting hues colors that are unique to this sandblast pipe, on full display. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. I had hoped that the balm would work its magic on the filled area and help in blending it a bit, and in this instance, the blend was perfect. The damaged surface has blended to an extent that it appears like a sandblasted surface. Sometimes in life, the most difficult issues have the simplest solutions!! I set the stummel aside and turned my attention to the stem repair. The fill had cured nicely and I moved ahead and began the process of filing and shaping the button end with a flat head needle file. This time around it was more  challenging as I had set for my self the aim of creating a fish tail shape (or rather as close a match to fish tail as possible), a straight thin slot and a concave shape to the button end as seen on original stems. Learning from past mistakes, I marked a straight line for the slot orientation and using only the tip of the pointed needle file, I carved out the slot. I followed it up by sanding with folded pieces of 180 grit sand papers to laboriously shape and widen the slot, always taking care to maintain a straight line. Once I was satisfied with the profile of the slot, I went ahead and shaped the button by first achieving a rough shape with a flat head needle file and there after fine tuning it by sanding it down with a 220 grit sand paper. Unfortunately, being so engrossed in this process made me forget to take pictures of the progess of these stages.

For a better blending, I further sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 600 and 800 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rehydrate the vulcanite. The repairs have blended in very well and the stem now looks shiny black and beautiful. The internals of the stem was once again cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners to clear the airway of all the debris resulting due to the sanding. The finished stem is shown below. To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to my local machine which is similar to the Dremel.  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe looks lovely, fresh and vibrant. I cannot thank enough my friends Mr. Dal Stanton, Mr. Sam Vior, Mr. Victor Naddeo and Mr. Steve for helping me to research and complete this lovely 1964 made Dunhill Shell billiard.

 

Reconstructing a Broken Stem on Dunhill Bruyere # 51671

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had just finished the first of the 30 pipes from my Mumbai Bonanza find, a Stefano “EXCLUSIVE”; here is the link to the write up; https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/11/mumbai-bonanza-stefano-exclusive-restorationa-month-long-project/

How did I land up with this lot makes for an interesting read and one which I have written about in the above restoration. Here are pictures of the pipes that I received in this lot. This lot contains some very nice collectible pipes, a few well known brand pipes and some mediocre pipe brands. Overall, with seven Dunhills, a Preben Holm #1, a couple of Made in England Pete System pipes, Charatan’s and other assorted pipes, I would say that I had hit a huge jack pot!!! Hence, I like to call this find as “Mumbai Bonanza”.

The pipe that I decided to work on is from this find and is marked in a red circle in the picture below. The stummel surface boasts of some beautiful bird’s eye grain on either side of the stummel while densely packed cross grain adorns the front and back of the stummel and also the shank top and bottom surface. It is stamped with “# 51671” towards the bowl and followed by “DUNHILL” over “BRUYERE” on the left side of the shank while the right side bears the COM stamp “MADE IN” over “ENGLAND” followed by underlined numeral “19”. Dunhill White Dot adorns the top of the vulcanite stem. The stampings on either side is deep, crisp and clear. The dating of this pipe is very straight forward and dates to 1979 (1960+19). However, deciphering the shape code, 51671, proved to be a challenge. The first digit 5 identifies this pipe as being Group size 5, second numeral, 1, identifies the style of mouthpiece as being tapered and this is where the ease ends and led to a lot of confusion with the next two digits. Though the shape appears as Zulu, it is not so since the shank is rounded. The profile of the pipe points towards it being a Horn shaped, but the shape code supports neither a Zulu nor a Horn!!! Well, another mystery which is likely to remain unresolved!!

With this information, I proceed ahead with the restoration of this handsome pipe, my first ever DUNHILL!

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber is clean with a thin layer of cake which indicates that the pipe has been kept clean by its previous Steward. From what I can see, the chamber walls appear to be without any damage. The chamber is odorless. The inner rim edge show minor unevenness which should be easy to address. It is the outer rim edge that shows significant damage on the left side in 7 o’clock and 11 o’clock directions. This must have been caused due to hammering of the edge against a hard surface to remove dottle!! The rim top surface has a number of dents due to the same reason. The mortise is clean and so is the shank airway. The stummel surface is peppered with numerous dents and dings and scratches. Being a Dunhill, any issue of fills is never to be expected and hold true for this pipe too. These dents and ding are probably caused due to uncared for storage by the previous Steward and further contributed to by the trash collector who had sold the pipes to me. The stummel is covered in dirt and grime and is surprisingly slightly stick to the touch. The briar looks lifeless and dull which is nothing serious to address. The vulcanite stem shows significant damage to the button end, in fact, there is no button at all!! The stem end is missing, well, about half an inch of vulcanite. Heavy and slightly deep scratches can be seen extending upwards from the broken button side. The stem surface is very thin at the place where it has been chewed off by the previous owner. I intend to reconstruct/ rebuild this portion of the stem, including the slot, while maintaining the stem and general profile of the pipe. This will require major repairs. The quality of vulcanite is good. In this project, repairs to the damaged outer edge and stem rebuild will be a major challenge, the stem more so, as maintaining the tapered profile of the stem will need to be adhered to for overall appeal of this piece of briar. Having just finished the tedious restoration of the Stefano, I am aware of the challenges this restoration will be presenting enroute.

THE PROCESS
Since the stem has significant damage, and from my experience of stem repairs (Stefano nightmare!) this will be the most time consuming and laborious part of this restoration, I start this project by tackling the stem first. I was faced with two options in my approach to this stem repair; first was to recreate a new button around the broken part and maintain the existing stem profile with a straight slot and the second option was to cut away the damaged button and reconstruct an entirely new button with a straight horizontal slot, sacrificing the overall length of the pipe. I decided to take the former approach. This decision was partly dictated by the fact that I do not have a rotary cutting blade to cut the damaged button end and partly to my innate desire to maintain the originality of the pipe. It’s a Dunhill after all!!

Now that I was clear about the path to be followed, I sand the stem end with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to erase the scratches and provide a smooth surface for the intended fill. I cleaned out the internals of the stem with hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Once I was satisfied with the internal cleaning, I wiped the stem surface, particularly the damaged button end, with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove any traces of dirt and grime. To begin the stem repairs, I smeared a folded pipe cleaner with petroleum jelly and inserted it in to the stem airway. I prepared a mix of CA superglue and activated charcoal and generously applied it over and extending beyond the broken surface and set it aside for curing over night. To be honest, I have not researched and measured the exact length that I had to reconstruct, but eyeballed the length using the longer left side of the stem (where a very tiny raised portion of the button is still visible) as a guiding length. Before moving ahead, I would like to mention here that I had applied this mix in layers, over the week, to achieve sufficient thickness which would help during the filing and sanding while shaping the button and achieving the correct stem profile. Once I was satisfied that the fill had cured nicely, I moved ahead and began the process of filing and shaping the button end with a flat head needle file. And then this happened… As you can see in the following pictures, not everything was lost. There remained a portion of the fill which was intact. Not one to give up and having the experience of the Stefano behind me, I persisted with the reconstruction. I made a fresh mix of activated charcoal and CA superglue, this time around increasing the amount of superglue, and reapplied it over the broken button end after inserting a petroleum jelly smeared a folded pipe cleaner. I continued with the layering technique of building up the fill.The next set of pictures show the progress of the stem rebuild using the layering technique. Slowly but surely, I am getting there!Once I had achieved the desired thickness and having let the fill cure for a few days, I proceed with shaping the button using flat head needle files. I am quite pleased with the way things are progressing at this point in restoration. However, fingers remain crossed and mentally remained prepared for disaster to strike anytime. At this stage, I am pretty satisfied with the profile of the stem, the thickness of the button and, in general, the overall progress on the stem rebuild. Also glad that there have been no further setbacks!!!! With this I proceed to shape the horizontal slot for the button. It is a long drawn process and a tedious one at that!! The inside of the slot needed to be smoothed out while maintaining the thickness of the button edge on either side. I build up the insides of the slot by layering it with superglue, letting it cure, sanding and then applying a fresh layer. I must have repeated this process for good about a week plus!!!! The external surface of the slot was also developed the same way and this helped in maintaining the thickness of the button edge.While the stem repair was progressing at its own pace, I moved ahead to deal with the stummel repairs. Given the size of the chamber, I reamed the chamber with size 4 head of a PipNet reamer. The cake was thicker at the bottom and used the size 2 head to remove the cake. I used my fabricated knife and scraped out all the remaining cake. The amount of cake reamed out of the chamber really surprised me as I was expecting minimum cake. I further used one folded piece of 180 grit sand paper to sand out the last traces of remaining cake and expose the walls of the chamber to ascertain that there are no cracks/ heat fissures. I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol to remove the carbon dust left behind by all the reaming and sanding process. The walls of the chamber were solid with no damage. This was followed by cleaning the mortise by scraping away at the dried gunk with my fabricated spatula and followed it up with further cleaning using cue tips, pipe cleaners and shank brush dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This eliminated all traces of old smells from previous usage. Continuing with the cleaning regime, using a hard bristled tooth brush dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap, I very deliberately scrubbed the surface of the stummel and the rim top. The original reddish dye was also washed away to some extent. The stummel and rim top was dried using paper napkins and soft cotton cloth. I set the stummel aside to dry out naturally. The damages to the outer rim edge, uneven inner rim edge and stummel dents and dings are now clearly visible in the above pictures after the cleaning.

Next, I decided to address the dents and dings on the stummel surface and the damage on the rim outer edge by steaming them out. I heated my fabricated knife over the flame of a candle, placed a wet Turkish hand towel over the damaged areas and steamed out the dents by placing the heated knife over the towel. Though some dents were still observed, these were greatly reduced when compared to before steaming. The steaming method had raised to the surface all the major dents and dings. However, the outer edge of the rim still remained unaffected. The steaming method having failed to address the issue of the damaged outer rim edge, I decided to use a more aggressive method of topping the rim top. Personally, I prefer to avoid topping as I do not appreciate loosing even one mm of briar estate, but in this instance, I was left with no recourse but to top the rim. I topped the rim on a 220 grit sand paper, checking frequently the progress being made. The damage to the outer rim was so extensive that the even after what felt like ages of topping, the damage was still apparent. Finally, I just did not feel like topping any further and hence decided on another course of action. I would rebuild the outer edge with briar dust and superglue. Having decided on this course of action, I lightly top it on 600 grit sand paper to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the 220. The only benefit derived from this topping was that the inner rim is now perfect and I collected some briar dust!

I tried mixing briar dust with superglue, but to no avail. The moment the two came in contact with each other, the mix hardened. So I resorted to the layering method again, first I layered superglue over the damaged surface followed by sprinkling of briar dust and one final layer of superglue. I set the stummel aside to cure. The only problem with this method is the high probability of presence of air pockets.The next evening, the repairs to the edge had completely cured and I move ahead by filing and rough shaping with a flat head needle file. I further fine tune the blending by sanding it down with 220, 320, 600 and 800 grit sand papers. Here is how the repaired area appears at this stage. I am very pleased with the way this repair progressed.Steaming out the dents and dings from the stummel surface had necessitated that the surface of the stummel be evened out by sanding. I sand the entire stummel using 220, 400, 600 and 800 grit sand papers. The little dents and dings that remained on the stummel and outer rim edge were also evened out under this sanding process. This was followed by polishing with micromesh pads. I wet sand the stummel with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and follow it up by dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the surface with a moist cotton cloth after every wet pad to check the progress. The repaired rim edge now appears shiny and glossy. This has got me a bit worried as it stands out from the rest of the stummel surface. I fervently pray that this is masked after I have stained it. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. I had hoped that the balm would work its magic on the filled area and help in blending it a bit, but that did not happen. I had simultaneously been working on the stem reconstruction by building up the slot and button using the layering technique. Though tedious, I have reached a satisfactory stage from where I can fine tune the slot and button edges. What followed were hours of tedious, back breaking and nerve wracking process of sanding and shaping of the slot and the button. Though the slot is not a perfect horizontal straight opening, rather a slight oval, I have managed to match the profile and dimensions of the original stem and the pipe is definitely smokable. Here are pictures of the progress.For a better blending, I further sanded the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 600 and 800 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rehydrate the vulcanite. The repairs have blended in very well and the stem now looks a shiny black and beautiful. The internals of the stem was cleaned out using alcohol and pipe cleaners. The finished stem is shown below. I kept the stem aside to let the stem absorb the oil and turn my attention towards the stummel. I decided to stain the stummel in cherry red stain which was the original stain true to the Bruyere line of Dunhill pipes. I use the powder variety of stain and mix it with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I heated the stummel surface with a heat gun and applied the stain with a folded pipe cleaner. As I paint the stummel with stain over sections at a time, I burn the dye using a Bic lighter that combusts the alcohol in the aniline dye and sets the dye pigmentation in the wood.  After fully saturating the stummel and covering the whole surface, including the rim top, I set the stummel aside to rest for several hours. By next evening, the stain had set nicely. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel (because I do not have felt cloth buffing wheels!!) on the Dremel and set the speed at about 40% of full RPM and apply red compound to the stummel. This does help in revealing the grains gradually; however, my fears had come true. The repairs to the outer edge of the rim did not absorb the stain and is encircled in yellow. To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel (actually it is not the brand machine, but a local machine which is similar).  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe looks lovely, fresh and vibrant; the photographs in this case, do not do justice to the appearance of this beautiful pipe, my first Dunhill. I cannot thank enough my friends Mr. Dal Stanton, Mr. Sam Vior, Mr. Victor Naddeo and Mr. Steve for helping me to research and complete this mysteriously stamped Dunhill pipe. PS: The readers would have observed the fact that the rim repair could not blend completely in spite of my best of efforts and still I have highlighted the flaw while the general tendency is to hide it. True, there are reasons for me highlighting the flaws; firstly, if I cannot hide it from myself, than why attempt to pretend it’s not there and secondly, the highlighting will encourage you to have a closer look at the flaw and maybe you could have an explanation for it in the first place and share it with me. This will help me in avoiding these mistakes in my future restorations. Third and most important reason is that a newbie somewhere who is not so fortunate like me to have friends and mentor that I have will also benefit from my mistakes.

 

Mumbai Bonanza: Stefano “Exclusive” Restoration…a month long project

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I was on leave a few months back. Two days before I was to rejoin my work place, I received a call from a friend in Mumbai saying that he had come across a person who collects trash and unwanted items from all posh bungalows and apartments in the area and that he had a seen a few pipes, similar to the ones I restore, in his cart. This friend had taken down his contact number and shared it with me. Now the readers of this write up must understand that we do not have a “Pipe Culture”!! During colonial days, smoking a pipe was common and after the British left, in next few decades, it died its natural death. Today, pipes are not available here and neither is pipe tobacco!! So with this background, it came as a big surprise to me that a trash collector had pipes. I had nothing to lose by giving him a call and this is exactly what I did. While I was speaking to him, it dawned on me that this person did not know what he was selling, could not read or text me the stampings on the pipes. The conversation that I had with him in my local dialect was nothing short of being hilarious. I could not make out what I would be purchasing and he did not know what he was trying to sell!! He had 30 pipes for sale. I am very pathetic at any form of gambling and in such case bad luck follows me like a shadow. I shared this dilemma with Mr. Steve who suggested that I should go ahead and strike a deal. If nothing else, I shall have some spares!! That sounded logical and I struck a deal with the “kabadiwala” (this is what a trash collector is called here in local parlance) for all 30 pipes. The next day I joined my work place and the parcel reached Abha, my wife, after about 10 days. Here is what she received in the parcel. This parcel contained some very nice collectible pipes, a few well known brand pipes and some mediocre pipe brands. Overall, with seven Dunhills, a Preben Holm #1, a couple of Made in England Pete System pipes, Charatan’s and other assorted pipes, I would say that I had hit a huge jack pot!!! Hence, I like to call this find as “Mumbai Bonanza”.

The pipe that I decided to work on is from this find and is marked in a red circle in the picture below (little did I know what I was getting in to at this point!!!). It’s stamped as “Stefano” in small italics over “EXCLUSIVE” in block letters on the left side of the shank and on the right side of the shank it is stamped as “SELECTED” over “BRIAR”. The stummel shows some lovely straight grain which contrasts with the rest of the swirls on the stummel surface. The quarter bent tapered saddle vulcanite stem bears the “crown” logo on the top surface and is designed to take a 9mm filter.

To research this pipe, I turned to pipedia.org and the search for “Stefano” led me to the page on Stefano Santambrogio,  here is the link to the page; https://pipedia.org/wiki/Santambrogio

The information gleaned from this page is that this is an Italian manufactured pipe by Santambrogio family who are in to pipe manufacturing since 1912!! The present owner, Mr. Stefano Santambrogio has been at the helm of affairs since 1981. What really baffled me was the stem logo which was very different to what I have on the pipe in front of me. I decided to narrow down my research for the stem logo and turned to another site which I frequent, pipephil.eu.

I specifically searched for stems with crown logo and there it was at the end of the list marked as “Stefano”. The match was perfect. One click on the link led me to http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s3.html#santambrogio

Here the information available was more or less similar to that on pipedia.org, however, it was mentioned that Stefano could be a Santambrogio second. Another click on Stefano took me to a page which had pipes with identical stamping on the shank and stem logo to the one I was working on. It was revealed that Stefano was indeed a Santambrogio export for the German market!!

With this information, I proceed ahead with the restoration of this handsome pipe.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber is clean with a thin layer of cake which pleases me no end as this would be a first for me. From what I can see, the chamber walls appear to be sans any damage. The chamber smells of a strong aromatic tobacco and needs to be addressed.The stummel is stained in an orange dye which has worn out in time. At places, it appears like a patch work. The stummel surface is peppered with numerous dents and dings, and a large number of huge fills on the right side of the stummel and the shank. These fills need to be refreshed. I intend to sand the stummel surface with grit papers with two-fold aim; first is to get rid of the orange stain color and second is to minimize the dents and dings from the surface. The plateau rim top surface has little traces of lava overflow and should be easy to deal with. The mortise is surprisingly filthy given how clean the chamber and the rim top appear to be. The vulcanite stem shows significant damage to the upper button, side wall and the round slot, but it is not oxidized. The pseudo p-lip style bit has a through and through hole exposing the airway. This will require major repairs. The quality of vulcanite is good.

THE PROCESS
Since the stem has significant damage, and from my experience of stem repairs this will be the most time consuming and laborious part of this restoration, I start this project by tackling the stem first. I was faced with two options in my approach to this stem repair; first was to recreate a new button around the broken part and maintain the existing stem profile with a round slot and the second option was to cut away the damaged button and reconstruct an entirely new button with a straight horizontal slot, sacrificing the P-lip shape. I decided to take the former approach. This decision was partly dictated by the fact that I do not have a rotary cutting blade to cut the damaged button end and partly to my innate desire to maintain the originality of any pipe.

Now that I was clear about the path to be followed, I cleaned out the internals of the stem with hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol. I also cleaned the wide tenon with q-tips dipped in alcohol. Once I was satisfied with the internal cleaning, I wiped the stem surface, particularly the damaged button end, with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove any traces of dirt and grime. To begin the stem repairs, I smeared a pipe cleaner with petroleum jelly and inserted it in to the stem airway. I prepared a mix of CA superglue and activated charcoal and generously applied it over the gaping hole in the button of the stem and set it aside for curing over night. Before moving ahead, I would like to mention here that I had applied this mix in layers, over the week, to achieve sufficient thickness which would help during the filing and sanding while shaping the button.While the stem repair was progressing at its own pace, I moved ahead to deal with the stummel repairs. Given the size of the chamber, I reamed the chamber with size 4 head of a PipNet reamer. I used my fabricated knife and scraped out all the remaining cake. The amount of cake reamed out of the chamber really surprised me as I was expecting minimum cake. I further used a folded piece of 180 grit sand paper to sand out the last traces of remaining cake and expose the walls of the chamber to ascertain that there are no cracks/ heat fissures. I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol to remove the carbon dust left behind by all the reaming and sanding process. The walls of the chamber were solid with no damage. I gently scraped the plateau rim top surface with a sharp knife to remove the lava overflow. This was followed by cleaning the mortise with cue tips, pipe cleaners and shank brush dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This further eliminated traces of old smells from previous usage. The old smell was still strong, though. Continuing the cleaning regime, using a hard bristled tooth brush dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap, I very deliberately scrubbed the surface of the stummel. I cleaned the plateau rim top with a brass wired brush. The original orange dye was also washed away to some extent. The stummel and rim top was dried using paper napkins and soft cotton cloth. The old fills are now clearly visible and appear like festering flesh wound, ugly in appearance. This will have to be addressed. I set the stummel aside to dry out naturally. To completely eliminate the smell, I decided to resort to alcohol bath. I packed the chamber, just below the rim, with cotton balls. I stretched a cotton ball into a thick wick, tapering at one end, and inserted it in to the shank and pushed it as far inside as I could along with a regular pipe cleaner. I topped the bowl with isopropyl alcohol using a syringe. I know that it is generally a practice to use Kosher salt for this procedure, but since Kosher salt is not easily available here, and when available, it’s very expensive, I use cotton balls. I find that cotton balls work just fine in drawing out all the tars and smells from the mortise and the bowl. I topped the bowl with alcohol again after 30 minutes when the alcohol level had gone down and set it aside overnight for the cotton and alcohol to do its intended job. The next day, the cotton and alcohol had fulfilled its intended task. The pipe cleaner had also drawn out all the stain from within the mortise. I removed the cotton balls and ran pipe cleaners through the mortise to clean out all the loosened tars and gunk. The internals of the stummel is now clean and fresh and the ghost smells are history too.The stage is now set for repairs to the stummel surface. I address the fills, first by gouging out the old fills with a sharp knife and cleaning the surface with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This was followed by filling these gouges with a mix of briar dust and CA superglue. I always over fill the gouges so that when I sand them down they are smooth and I can feather in the fills with the rest of the briar. I set the stummel aside to cure overnight. I would like to remind the readers that all these days, layering of the stem button with charcoal and superglue had been in progress and now I was satisfied with the thickness of the layering. Using a needle file, I sand the filling to match the surface of the stem. However, disaster struck within a few moments of filing!! The filling broke away from the intact portion of the button. It was, in all probability, due to higher content ratio of activated charcoal in the mix (though I am not convinced entirely) or could be lack of adequate curing (most likely). The bottom line remains that I had to repeat the entire layering process on the button end again…..frustrating to say the least, thus NO PICTURES OF THE DISASTER TAKEN!!Well, what was to happen has happened!! Moving on, the stummel fills had cured and I proceeded to sand the fills with a flat head needle file and 180 and 220 grit sand papers to achieve a rough blend of the fills with the rest of the stummel.  For a better blending, I further sanded the entire stummel with 220 followed by 400 and 800 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stummel with a moist cloth after each wet pad. The fills are still looking ugly and somehow I have a gut feeling that this pipe is not yet done with me!! This pipe is really testing my skills and patience!! I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. This is when I observed that there are air pockets in two fills (marked in yellow circle) and the plateau rim top is still not clean! Aargh…both my faults, I know. I will address them all over again. I would like to remind the readers that all this while the layering of stem is still a work in progress!! I spot fill these air pockets with superglue and let it cure for complete two days. Finally, the button construction appears solid and I progress with filing with a flat head needle file and followed it up with sanding and finer shaping using 220, 320, 600 and 800 grit sand papers. I shaped the round slot by gentle use of a round needle file. I liberally rub some Extra Virgin Olive oil to rehydrate the vulcanite stem. But readers please do not rejoice just yet!! The repairs show a white edge in the repairs near the round slot indicating that the repair is not solid and likely to fall apart and also presence of the dreaded air pockets!! This pipe is just not willing to take repairs. It’s now becoming a fight of WILLS between us. I kept up the self conviction and self confidence, which was constantly assuaged by the encouraging words of my mentor, Mr. Steve. I persisted with the repairs and filled these areas with clear superglue and keep it aside for curing. Not wanting to waste time, I picked up the stummel again and went through the complete process of filing and sanding the fills and ending with the micromesh cycle. The fills are nice, solid and even. I even cleaned up the plateau rim top by scrubbing it with a dry brass wired brush till clean. Here is the picture of the fill at this stage. Now the only thing that remains is to blend these fills with the rest of the stummel. I intend to stain it in dark brown dye.I use the powder variety of stain and mix it with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I heated the stummel surface with a heat gun and applied the stain with a folded pipe cleaner. As I paint the stummel with stain over sections at a time, I burn the dye using a Bic lighter that combusts the alcohol in the aniline dye and sets the dye pigmentation in the wood.  After fully saturating the stummel and covering the whole surface, including the plateau rim top, I set the stummel aside to rest for several hours. Now with the stummel surface absorbing the stain, I turn towards the stem repair again. I followed the complete regime, as previously described, till I reached the stage which required micromesh sanding to bring deep shine to the vulcanite. All looked good till this stage. I sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 400 and 800 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil. Once I was through with the micromesh cycle, this is what I saw…DO NOT LOOSE HEART, I kept reminding myself and proceed to redo the entire button repair again for… I do not even remember the number of times!!! After going through the entire stages again, these repairs turn out to be good enough. But I forgot to take pictures!!!

Once the stem repair was completed, I turned my attention to the stummel. The stain had set nicely. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel (because I do not have felt cloth buffing wheels!!) on the Dremel and set the speed at about 40% of full RPM and apply red compound to the stummel. This does help in revealing the grains gradually while masking the darker fills.

To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel (actually it is not the brand machine, but a local machine which is similar).  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to the entire pipe. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe looks lovely, fresh and vibrant; the photographs in this case, do not do justice to the appearance of this beautiful little pipe. Thank you for having the patience to reach this far while reading the write up, which I felt was boring and a drag while typing. So these thanks are well deserved for you. PS: – I agree with all who have observed that the stummel fills are still visible. I have observed it too, but no amount of stain pen usage, re-staining and polishing made any difference. Some fills just do not blend for whatever reason. An interesting definition of a Fill in glossary page on pipedia.org means: “A void, pit or flaw in the briar which is made level with the surface of the pipe with either putty or a mix of briar dust and cyanoacrylate glue and which, despite staining, is often visible on close inspection”.

 

 

Restoring a Tim West Pipe!!

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

Tim West with a couple of his pipes

This sure is going to be an embarrassing while being a challenging project. Why? It’s embarrassing because the pipe that I have decided to work on now is made by a living legendary pipe repairman and a pipe maker from USA and here I am one who has just embarked on a journey into the world of pipe restoration with minimum of equipment, materials, spares and experience!!! It’s challenging because he is very well known to my friend and mentor, Mr. Steve Laug and living up to their standards is always a huge challenge. The project that I have selected to work on is a huge freehand pipe from Tim West!!

No, this pipe did not come to me in inheritance, but was purchased on eBay about 9 months back. Boy, am I glad that I made this purchase!! It’s a huge and heavy piece of briar with beautiful straight grain all around, including on the shank, with a plateau rim top and a vulcanite shank extension in to which fits a fancy, straight vulcanite stem. It has a shiny ring insert (or so it appears) between the shank and the shank extension. The shank extension helps in breaking the monotony of the briar while easing the flow of the humongous stummel in to the stem. The pipe has minimalistic stamping with “TIM WEST” in a slight arch over “PIPE” on the left side of the shank.I was keen to know more about Tim West, the carver and repairman, his pipe making techniques and philosophy. I searched pipedia.com and there is a very nice write up on him. I reproduce snippets information available on pipedia.com from his interview in December 1995, for a quick read.

Tim made his first pipe in 1967 and went full-time as a pipe maker in 1975. Only the best quality fully cured natural Greek Briar goes into a Tim West Briar Pipe. Tim’s designer shapes are designed for eye appeal and a great smoke. All processes, step by step, are natural processes insuring a sweet cool smoke for every recipient of a Tim West Briar Pipe.

In 1980, Tim opened Tim West Pipes, a retail shop in the Ohio Center near downtown Columbus. He closed the shop in 1991 and moved the entire business to his home workshop to concentrate on wholesaling. The workshop takes up most of the basement of his house, but it isn’t very big–some tools, racks of briar blocks, cabinets full of stems and boxes of half-finished pipes. To this day, Tim believes that he is much less mechanized than most pipemakers he knows of. He does have a top turner and a frazer, but they’re not hooked up, and the top turner is his television stand.

Tim acknowledges that, as a pipemaker, he is entirely self-taught, having learned through trial and error. He believes that pipemakers who have had the chance to study pipemaking or to work with established pipemakers are lucky because ‘it just mystified me for years wondering how they did it–while I was doing it.” And though he does use some power equipment today to drill, shape, sand and buff, everything is still set up, guided and shaped by hand.

When I asked Tim about his philosophy of papermaking, he laughed for some time. We talked further about the changes in his pipemaking over the years, and he allowed as how, during his first year at Monkey’s Retreat, a good 50 percent of his pipes were sculptured (piano pipes, toilet pipes, guitar pipes, etc.) because he had lots of time and could take a week to carve a pipe for someone. It might be his only sale for a week but would still provide enough cash to keep him in business. As his popularity grew, he needed to make more pipes and thus increasingly produced smooth shapes, either freehand or standard.

The entire interview makes for a very interesting read and is a highly recommended. Here is the link to the interview: https://pipedia.org/wiki/West

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The stummel surface of this pipe boasts of beautiful straight grain all along the stummel surface as well as on the shank. The stummel surface is covered in heavy overflow of lava which in turn has attracted a lot of dust and grime and has a few dents and dings likely due to uncared for storage. The briar is dull and lifeless and has taken on a layer of aged patina, through which one can make out the beautiful grains all round. This beautiful piece of briar will definitely clean up nicely. This pipe must have been a favorite of the previous Steward (I really like this address of a pipe smoker as coined by Mr. Dal Stanton and his reasoning for calling them as ‘Steward’) and has seen considerable use as evidenced by the thick layer of cake in the chamber. The condition of the inner walls of the chamber can be ascertained only after the cake has been removed completely and taken down to bare briar. However, the bowl feels robust and solid to the touch from the outside. This issue should be a breeze to address. There is a very strong but pleasant smell in the chamber.The plateau rim top has darkened considerably, due to frequent lighting, on the back side of the rim. There is a very heavy overflow of lava on the plateau rim top and covers the surface completely. This can be seen in pictures above and below. The condition of the inner edge and rim top can be commented upon only once the rim has been cleaned. The vulcanite shank end extension is heavily oxidized and is also covered in oils and tars and grime from previous usage. The mortise does show heavy accumulation of dried oils, tars and remnants of ash, greatly restricting the air flow. The vulcanite stem on this pipe is where the maximum damage is seen. The previous Steward must have been very fond of clenching his pipes while smoking. This is apparent from the damage that is seen towards the end of the stem. The stem has significant damage in the form of deep bite marks and cinching on the upper stem surface near the edge of the lip, while the lower surface has a through hole, exposing the stem’s airway. The stem’s surface around the damaged portion has become very brittle and considerably thin. The tenon on stem is covered in dried oils and tars and so is the airway. The button end hole is completely blocked save for a small opening, greatly constricting the airflow. The air flow through the stem is laborious to say the least. The fit of this stem in to the mortise is very tight and the stem does not seat completely in to the mortise (marked in yellow circle). This issue may get addressed after the mortise and tenon have been cleaned. All in all, restoring the stem will be the biggest challenge in this project. THE PROCESS
I embarked on the journey of restoring this pipe by addressing the stem first since it was damaged the most and would take considerable time to repair. First thing to do was to clean up the external surface and the internals of the stem. Since the button hole was clogged up, I used all the tools available to me in clearing up the button hole. It was not surprising at all to see chunks of dried gunk which had accumulated in the airway coming out of the airway. Once satisfied with the internal cleaning, I wiped the external surface of the stem with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol to get rid of all the dirt and grime accumulated over the surface. The number of pipe cleaners used does not tell the real story of how difficult it really was to get the internals of the stem cleaned up.I followed up this cleaning regime by gently removing the thin and cracked chips of vulcanite from around the damaged stem surface till I reached the solid vulcanite. I did so because I planned on anchoring the stem fill on solid surface. To begin the stem repairs, I smeared a pipe cleaner with petroleum jelly and inserted it in to the stem airway. I prepared a mix of CA superglue and activated charcoal and applied it over the gaping hole and cinched surface of the stem and set it aside for curing over night. For the discerning reader who would have noted that I did not resort to the trick of using the Bic lighter, the answer is that I was apprehensive that the heat from the flame of the Bic lighter would put additional stress on the expanding vulcanite resulting in greater damage to the stem. What followed this stage were endless hours and days spent in sanding, layering with a coat of charcoal and superglue mix and again following the same sequence till I achieved a solid fill. I am afraid that I have not taken enough pictures to show the progress as I had three beautiful pipes, all with their button end chewed off for about an inch and inch and a half, being worked on simultaneously. These projects were also proving to be very difficult and tedious.While the stem fillings were curing, I worked on the stummel. I started by reaming the chamber with size 4 head of PipNet reamer. The size of the chamber was so huge that I had to use the Kleen Reem reamer also. This is where I hit the second hurdle in the restoration of this pipe. There was a bump (circled in red) on the chamber walls that had hardened to an extent that the blades of the PipNet or Kleen Reem reamer could not cut through it. I began wondering with wrenching guts, if the bump is not a JB Weld repair. To further probe this bump, using my fabricated knife, I gouged at the corners and realized that it was not a JB Weld repair but just a very, very hard accumulation of cake.  I decided to soak the chamber in alcohol to loosen the cake. I packed a few cotton balls half way in to the chamber and soaked it in isopropyl alcohol for a few hours. A few hours later and the hardened cake came off easily. I used a 220 grit sand paper, pinched between my thumb and forefinger, to sand the inner walls of the chamber. Once I had reached the bare briar, I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This removed all the residual carbon dust. However, in spite of the alcohol soak and removing all the cake, the ghosting was still all too pervading!! Hopefully after the completely choked mortise has been cleaned, the smells will also fade away to oblivion. I followed up the reaming by cleaning the mortise and air way of the pipe, using hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners, q-tips and shank brush dipped in alcohol. The mortise and the draught hole was so chock-a- block with all the dried tars, oils and gunk that I had to use my fabricated spatula and the drill bit from the Kleen Reem pipe reamer!!!! Chunks of the gunk that were removed from the mortise are a testimony to how badly this pipe was abused by the previous Steward. I gave a final clean with shank brushes dipped in alcohol and dried the mortise with a rolled paper napkin. The shank internals and the draught hole appear to be clean. But the strong ghosting still persists. I shall address this issue later by giving the chamber an alcohol bath.Before progressing any further, I had to get the stummel all cleaned up. Using a hard bristled tooth brush dipped in undiluted Murphy’s oil soap, I very deliberately scrubbed the stummel, cleaning the surface thoroughly. Special attention was paid to scrub out all the dirt, dust and lava from the crevices in the plateau rim top with a brass wired brush. The stummel and plateau rim top were dried using paper napkins and soft cotton cloth. To eliminate the ghost smells from the pipe, I had decided to treat it with salt and alcohol. I do not use Kosher salt as it is not readily available here and if available, it’s very expensive. I use cotton balls which is an at par substitute as I have realized over the last year or so. I draw out a wick from the cotton and along with a folded regular pipe cleaner; insert it in to the mortise and through the draught hole in the chamber. Thereafter, I pack the chamber with cotton balls to about quarter of an inch below the rim inner edge. I soak the cotton balls with isopropyl alcohol up to the brim. About half an hour later, the level of alcohol has gone down, having being absorbed by the cotton. I top it up once again and set it aside overnight. By next afternoon, the cotton and alcohol has drawn out all the remaining oils and tars from the chamber and mortise and the cotton and alcohol had fulfilled its intended task. I removed the cotton balls and ran pipe cleaners through the mortise to clean out all the loosened tars and gunk. My, was I surprised to see that the pipe cleaners come out all sticky, black and dirty. I persisted with the cleaning till the pipe cleaners came out clean!!!! The next set of pictures tells the story by themselves. Finally, after hours of toiling and large number of pipe cleaners, I can say that the mortise is now well and truly cleaned. Also the ghosting is now consigned to history.Now that the internals of the stummel are clean, I work the external surface. I sand the vulcanite shank extension with 220 and follow it up with 320 and 600 grit sand papers and got rid of all the oxidation. I wanted to further highlight the grain seen on the stummel. To achieve this aim, I sand down the stummel using micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. The stummel now has a deep shine with grains popping out with magnificent contrast. Though this part of restoration is the second most time consuming and laborious, the end results are also the most satisfying. The play of grains, the contrast and the smooth surface are well worth the efforts. I rub a small quantity of Extra Virgin Olive oil in to the shank extension and set the stummel aside for the oil to be absorbed by the vulcanite shank extension. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to briar and let it rest for a few minutes. I took some extra efforts to work the balm in to the plateau rim top of the bowl. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. With the stummel nice and clean and attractive, I worked the stem of the pipe. The fill on the stem had cured nicely and I sand it down with a flat head needle file. I sharpened the lip edges using a needle file and sand the entire stem with 220 followed by 400, 800 and 1000 grit sand paper. This helps to reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive 220 grit paper. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem and the tenon, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with alcohol after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil. The pictures of the final results are shown below. What is not stated and pictured here is the fact that the fills on this stem had caved in thrice and that many times I had to rebuild it from the scratch. Every time I tried to match the fill to the surrounding surface, the fill area would get thinned out and break apart. In the end, I left the fill slightly higher than the rest of the surface and was better masked during the micromesh cycle. At this point, I check for the seating of the tenon inside the mortise the find that the stem sits flushed in the mortise. To finish, I re-attach the stem with the stummel. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my local machine which is similar to a Dremel.  I set the speed at about half of the full power and applied White Diamond compound to each of the three pipes. I wiped/ buffed the pipe with a soft cotton cloth to clear it of any leftover compound dust. I then mounted another cotton cloth wheel on to the polishing machine and applied several coats of carnauba wax over the stummel and the stem of the pipe. I finished the restoration by giving the pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The completed pipe, with the dark brown hues of the stummel contrasting with the shiny black shank extension and stem, looks lovely, fresh and vibrant; the photographs speak for themselves. The beauty, size and shapes of this pipe make it one of my favorites and will find a place of pride in my modest collection. If only the pipe could tell some of the stories and techniques used by Mr. Tim West while carving pipes….Cheers!!