Tag Archives: pipe refurbishing

Refreshing a Delicate Comoy’s Made Sunrise Amber Grain Bent Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

The last pipe that came to me in the Smokers Forum Donation Sale was a beautifully shaped little Sunrise Amber Grain Bent Billiard. The shape and the feel of this little pipe are very delicate. It is almost a bent pencil shank – in fact I am not sure how much thinner it would have to be to actually be called a pencil shank. The pipe is 5.5 inches long, 1.75 inches tall with a small bowl with a chamber diameter of .75 inches. It is stamped Sunrise over Amber Grain on the left side of the shank. On the right it is stamped Vintage Briar and shaped number 13. On the underside of the shank next to the stem junction it is stamped France. The Sunrise line was made by Comoy’s as is identified also by the shape number. As it was made in France it does not have the familiar Com stamp that appears on British made Comoy’s.

This pipe was in decent shape in terms of the exterior finish. There were no dents or dings in the surface of the bowl or shank. The stamping was light on the right side of the shank and the Sunrise stamp was lighter than the Amber Grain stamp. I would have to be careful in the clean up not to damage these already light stamps. The stem was oxidized and there was a small bite through with a crack going toward the button on the underside of the stem.

The rim was in great shape with some light scratching. The inner bevel was still present and darkened but there was no damage to it. The bowl was still in round. There was a rough cake in the bowl that was uneven and would need to be removed. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer to take the cake back to the bare wood.

I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was amazingly clean. I am guessing that the previous owner cleaned this one up before setting it aside. I cleaned out the bowl and lightly sanded the bevel on the inner edge of the rim to remove the light build-up that was present there. I wiped the bowl down with a cotton pad and some alcohol and then gave it a light coat of olive oil. I buffed it on the buffer to give it a shine. It has some great grain on the bottom of the bowl and the left side. The grain on the front of the bowl and the right side is mixed with a few bald areas. The sides of the shank are full of birdseye grain and the top and bottom are cross grained.

The stem was oxidized and the underside bite through and small crack needed to be addressed.

I picked the debris out of the crack and bite through and examined it with a lens. It was clear that the bite through was very small and that the crack ended at the bite through and went back to the button. The bite through effectively stopped the crack from spreading forward along the stem. I wiped the stem down with acetone on a cotton pad to clean it up. I then spread some black super glue on the crack and bite through with the tip of a dental pick. I set the stem aside to cure for about an hour.

Once the super glue had cured I sanded the repair and the rest of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to both remove the oxidation and to blend the patch into the surface of the stem. I sanded with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to further remove the scratches and oxidation. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and rubbed stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then buffed it with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave it another coat of oil and then sanded with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I polished it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Thanks for looking.

Breathing new life into an LHS Park Lane De Luxe Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I repaired Troy’s LHS Park Lane Lovat he gifted me this little beauty as a thank you. It is a small billiard and is stamped on the left side of the shank, Park Lane in an arch over the LHS Diamond and underneath the diamond it is stamped De Luxe. On the right side it is stamped with US Pat. 1,908,630. The shape number 19 is stamped on the underside of the shank. The finish was dirty and chipped all around the bowl. The rim had a buildup of tars and lava and the cake in the bowl left the bottom virtually conical. The stem was under clocked slightly. The stem (Bakelite?) was oxidized and had some small tooth marks near the button on the top and bottom sides. I love the swirl patterns of the stem material. They really give the pipe a look of class. When I removed the stem the stinger itself was black with tars and the inside of the shank was also dirty.

I looked up the patent number on the US Patent information website and found out that the patent was filed for the stinger and tenon apparatus in 1933. The one in the diagram is shorter and slightly different from the one in this pipe so I am thinking that it is a later modification that was introduced. That combined with the dates for Bakelite I would put the dates on this pipe in the late 1930s or early 1940s. It is in pretty decent shape for a 75-80 year old pipe.

I took the next three photos to give an idea of the state of the rim. I was uncertain of the condition of the inside edge of the rim because of the thickness of the build-up. The stamping was weak in the middle and the LHS diamond also quite weak. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I find that I use that reamer for almost all of the refurbs that I do. The four different sized cutting heads, the T-handle and the carbon steel blade make short order of the most difficult cake. In this case I reamed it back to bare wood. I really wanted to see what the interior looked like as there was significant darkening around the top half of the bowl. The rim itself was just slightly out of round so it would be no issue to clean up. I used a brass bristle tire brush on the long aluminum stinger to clean off the tars. I wanted it clean before I heated it to reclock the stem. With it clean I heated the stinger with the lighter to loosen the glue in the stem. Once it was loose I was able to align the stem correctly. I let it cool in place. With everything aligned I decided to try to pull the end of the stinger to get it to line up with the top of the stem. I wanted the slot in stinger to match the white bar in the stem material. I wrapped the jaws of a pair of needle nose pliers with cellophane tape to protect the aluminum from damage when I clamped them on it. I gently twisted on the end of the stinger and to my surprise the entire tenon unscrewed from the stem. That was a good thing by the way as it made cleaning the stem far simpler. I cleaned the inside of the stem and the stinger with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. I had already tested the stem material and I knew that it would not dissolve with the alcohol. With the inside of the stem clean I put the tenon back in place on the pipe and worked on the exterior. I sanded the surface and particularly the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper until they were smooth and blended into the stem surface. I decided to work on this pipe from the opposite direction of my normal practice and finished working on the stem first. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then gave it another coat of oil. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside and let the oil dry.

I cleaned out the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until it was clean and smelled fresh. I thought about using the retort on it but I am just not certain what the hot alcohol will do with this stem material. Once the rim was cleaned I could see the chips and damage to the surface so I decided to lightly top the bowl. I decided to do some experimenting with Dave Gossett’s method of stripping a bowl finish. I read about it on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum. He uses Oxyclean and alcohol he said. I had no idea how he went about it and fired him an email. Due to my impatience I did not wait and just jumped in. I tried to mix the Oxy with the alcohol. It did not work! It made a grit paste but I decided to give that a try anyway. I scrubbed and scrubbed and succeeded in removing a lot of the finish. The mixture left a white/grey ghost on the briar.

I happened to check my email and saw that Dave wrote back. He said that he dissolved the Oxy in hot water and then added the alcohol. He said to be careful of the stamping as the mixture had a tendency to raise the stamping in the weak areas. Boy I wish I had not been impatient. I lost some clarity on the week areas of the stamping. I did the mixture as Dave suggested and wiped down the bowl with it and was able to get some more of the finish removed. There were some deep cuts in the surface of the bowl. I steamed out the dents but these did not raise. I repaired them with superglue and briar dust. I sanded the repaired areas smooth to match the surface of the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol to remove the dust. I heated the briar with a blow dryer and then stained it with a Dark Brown aniline stain thinned with 3 part alcohol to 1 part stain. I flamed the stain and set it in the briar. I buffed it with White Diamond and found that even with the thinning it was too dark to my liking. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of the stain and make it more transparent. The grain showed through nicely and the colour once it was waxed would look good with the stem material. I buffed with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then with a microfibre cloth by hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Thanks for looking.

Silver Linings: Restoring a Savinelli Silver 320KS

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Blog by Anthony Cook

A friend from the Pipe Smoker Unlimited forum recently gifted me a batch of pipes that need a little TLC. In exchange, I offered to do some repair and restoration work on a couple of their own pipes. Believe me when I say that I received the better end of that deal. So, I wanted to go the extra mile on these if I could.

The first of my friend’s pipes that I chose to work on was this Savinelli Silver 320KS. I love the shape of the 320. When I hear “Savinelli,” this is the shape that I think of. Unfortunately, somebody had gotten to this one before me and it wasn’t better for it.

The initial request was just to repair the deep scratches that ran all the way around the rim. However, as I looked the pipe over, I could see that it had a few additional issues. The bowl rim was uneven and looked like it had been heavily buffed. The pipe should have had a deep, cherry red stain from the factory, but this one appeared to have been partially stripped and the stain was uneven and closer to the color of red clay. The silver shank band was loose and it had a couple of small dents on the right side. Finally, the shoulders of the stem face had been rounded with a buffer, which created a thin trench all the way around the stem where it met the band.

Oh, there was one more thing, but for reasons that I can’t explain, I hadn’t noticed it yet. I’m sure that you’ll see it in these photos of the pipe as it was on arrival.

Nomenclature and logo details (notice the “trench” on the stem next to the band): This 320 appeared to be pretty clean, but there’s no such thing as a pipe that’s too clean. So, I gave the internals of the stem and stummel a bit of a scrub with isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, a shank brush, and a percolator cleaner (the fat brush in the upper right). I’m glad that I did. As you can see below, there was still grime to be removed. After that, I gave the surface of the stummel a scrub with acetone on cotton pads to remove the old, spotty finish. I took a few photos of the rim damage, and after seeing them enlarged a few hundred times on the big screen, I noticed that the edges of the marks were rounded. That seemed to indicate that they were more like dents than scratches. So, I decided to see what a little bit of steam would do for them. I used a tea candle to heat the end of a flat-head screwdriver. Then, I placed a wet cloth over the dents and pressed it into the cloth. The steam worked well on the marks, although I had to repeat the process several times to lift the deeper ones. After I had worked my way all the way around the bowl, the rim was in much better shape. It would still need some sanding, but not nearly as much as it would have taken before to get it smooth. I sanded out the remaining dents with 220-grit paper before addressing a couple of small pits that were possibly missing fills on the bottom front of the stummel. I refilled them with a mixture of briar dust and CA, and then sanded them out with 220-grit as well. Three more fills were present on the front of the bowl, but they looked like they were in good shape and I had confidence that they would blend in with the final stain.
Next, I topped the bowl to level it out and chamfered the inner rim to match the original, factory shape with 220-grit paper. Then, I started cleaning up some of the light scratches and blemishes on the stummel with 320-grit. I then heated the stummel to open the grain and prep it for the first stain. I applied a mahogany stain thinned 3:1 with isopropyl alcohol. Mahogany is a nice dark color that gives contrast to the grain and it would play well with the red tones that would come later. After flaming the stain, I hand-buffed it with a soft cloth to remove the excess, and then wet sanded the stummel with 400-grit to remove most of the stain except for what had set into the soft grain.

To start bringing in those red tones I mentioned, I applied a 50/50 oxblood and medium brown stain thinned to the same ratio as the previous application. I again flamed and hand-buffed before lightly wet sanding with 600-grit and 1200-grit paper, and then polishing with Micro-Mesh pads 1500-2400.

I applied a third stain, red this time, and hand-buffed before giving the pipe a Tripoli buff on the buffing wheel. Then, I polished with Micro-Mesh pads 3200-4000. At that point, I didn’t like how bright the red was. So, I decided to darken it up with a thin stain wash. I can’t tell you the exact mix, because I just eyeballed it until it was what I wanted. I can say that it was at least 50% red mixed with a small amount of oxblood for richness and an even smaller amount of dark brown to darken it. I thinned it until it was about the same color density as Kool-Aid and applied it with cotton swab. After that, I hand-buffed the excess off and continued polishing with the remaining grits of Micro-Mesh pads. That finished up the work on the stummel. So, I thought I’d try to do something about those rounded shoulders on the stem face. In a scrap piece of wood, I drilled a hole large enough to easily accommodate the tenon. Then, I clamped a strip of sandpaper over the block and cut a matching hole with an X-Acto knife. I inserted the tenon into the hole and rotated it while applying firm but gentle pressure to keep the plane level. I started removing material with 220-grit and worked up to 600-grit. All in all, I probably removed 1/16 of an inch or less from the end of the stem. It wasn’t enough to completely correct the problem, but it did make it a great deal less obvious. The shoulders were nice and sharp again and I didn’t compromise the flow of the joint by creating a “step” down to a smaller diameter stem. You can see for yourself in the photos below. To be honest, I thought I was done at that point. It wasn’t until the pipe was reassembled and I was preparing to give it the final buff and wax that I noticed the glaring damage that I’m sure you’ve already seen. For the life of me I can’t figure out how it had escaped my attention, especially since I had just done work on the stem, but the button had been severely worn away by overbuffing. There was barely a button left at all. Of course, that wouldn’t do at all. So, after getting permission from the pipe’s owner to do some extra work, I began to create a new button.

I used 220-grit paper to rough up the surface of the damaged button and also a bit of the surrounding area. Next, I applied thin layers of black CA glue to the button to build it up. I lightly sanded between each layer with 220-grit to roughen them and ensure that the next layer had a good surface to cling to. Once the mound of CA was slightly higher than I wanted the button to be, I used 220-grit paper to start shaping the button, needle files and sanding files to carve a sharp edge at the back, and 320-grit paper to refine the shape. I continued to refine the shape and smooth the surface through 400, 600, and 1200-grit paper. Then I polished the button and the rest of the stem with the full range of Micro-Mesh pads and applied a drop of Obsidian oil to wrap up the stem work.

Before reassembling the pipe, I tried to lift the dents in the silver band by placing it over a wooden dowel, pressing firmly, and rotating it from side to side. My attempt was mostly in vain though. I was able to lift them slightly, mostly the one at the edge, but stopped when I began to worry about raising the stamping or tearing the band. I polished the band with Semichrome polish and placed it back on the shank with a small drop of CA to fix the looseness.

Finally, I put the pipe back together and buffed it with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. After buffing again with a clean wheel to remove any excess compound, I gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax to complete the work on the pipe. The end results can be seen in the photos below.

I think the lines of a 320 are iconic and it is a fine example of the author shape. I’m glad that I was able to restore this one to at least a bit of its former glory and get it back into rotation. Thanks for looking!

A Tale of an Ugly Duckling & His Virtually Invisible Swandom

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Blog by Steve Laug

All of you are probably familiar with the tale of the ugly duckling. The poor bird hatched from a clutch of duck eggs that came out gangling and very unducklike. His appearance left much to be desired when he walked beside his siblings toward the pond following his “mom’. He was always laughed at and misunderstood. He sat with his head down in shame at how much he did not fit. Each day passed and the down of the ducklings was replaced by feathers. This went on until one day the duckling looked at his reflection in the pond and found that he was not a duck at all but a regal and majestic swan. He had always been a swan inside but the fact of his swandom was not visible to any who beheld him. Instead they saw what they wanted in the misfit duckling and wrote him off as ugly. They never once saw the swan inside until it came out in all of its glory. This tale really captures the pipe that I worked on next.

I have had a really rough older Canadian pipe sitting in the refurb box for a long time now. I have taken it out of the box and looked it over time and again but never took the step of cleaning it up. I have no idea who the maker of this old pipe is but it is a rough piece of wood. I say wood because it is clearly not briar. It is lighter and the grain pattern is quite different from briar. It has a Kaywoodie mortise insert and a Kaywoodie stem that has the stinger clipped off. I don’t know if it came that way or some creative soul made it happen. The wood was roughened and not sanded smooth. It looked as if it was rough shaped with a file or wood rasp and then just smoked. Somewhere along the way someone had put a coat of shiny urethane over the entire pipe. The shine hid none of the flaws but actually accentuated them. It had a significant fissure near the shank bowl joint on the left side that needed attention. The roughened finish had file marks going in every direction. The effect was a mess for a finish. The stem had some cardboard or thread pushed on to the threaded tenon that allowed the stem to line up correctly. I cut off the cardboard or thread washer and the stem was seriously overclocked. The bowl had a cake in it that was crumbly and uneven. The interior edge of the rim was not too badly out of round. The outer edges would need some work to smooth out before I could see if they were in round.

I took some close-up photos of the bowl and the shank to give more of an idea of the kind of finish that the pipe had when I started. You can see the file marks and lines going in every which direction that were left behind in the initial shaping of the pipe. The overall look was very rustic and actually quite ugly. It was truly an ugly pipe. The beautiful Canadian that resided below the ugly exterior was virtually invisible. It would easily been put up there with “folk art” in terms of the rustic and rough finish to the pipe. Yet there was something about that seemed like raw charm that shone through the mess that sat on my table. This evening when I took it out I took more time to sit and look at it for a while before beginning to work on it. The more I looked at it the more I have to tell you that the second thoughts I was having almost caused me to put off working this old timer and just burying it in the box. I really was unsure whether I could do anything with it or that it would even be worth doing the work. I was not convinced that what I had when I was finished would be worth the time and energy that would go into reworking it.

I cleaned off the debris (cardboard or thread) that was on the tenon and then heated the tenon with a lighter to reclock the stem. I heated the metal carefully keeping the flame away from the vulcanite stem. It did not take long before the heat softened the glue that held the tenon in the stem and I was able to turn the stem back into the shank and twist it until it lined up correctly.

I lightly sanded the bowl surface and then stopped to ream it with a PipNet reamer. I decided to take the cake completely out of the bowl so that I could check for cracks in the walls of the bowl.

With the bowl reamed out I turned my attention to the finish on the exterior. I sanded the bowl and shank with emery paper and with 180 grit sandpaper to remove the roughness of the finish and to sand out the file marks. I wanted to sand the bowl and shank smooth to address the generally poor appearance of the pipe. It took quite a bit of sanding to even start to make a difference in the surface of the pipe. I also sanded it with a rough sanding block to smooth out more of the scratches. I filled the flaw at the union of the shank and bowl on the left side with clear super glue and briar dust. I sanded that repair smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the pipe. There was a dark spot on the outer right edge of the rim that did not seem like a burn. I had the appearance of a stain. It was hard and did not affect the shape of the bowl edge so I left it. I lightly topped the bowl to clean up and flatten out the rim surface.

The more I sanded the grain began to come through the smoother finish of the pipe. It was clearly not briar. My guess is that it is Mountain Laurel or Manzanita. Once I get it sanded smooth and get a better look at the grain and colour I will be able to give a better assessment. The good thing was that a nicely shaped Canadian was emerging from the rough cut pipe that I started with. The shape was well executed and once I finished sanding and smoothing things out this alternative wood Canadian would look really good. My initial reticence gave way to curiosity to see what would emerge when the sanding was finished. You can see for yourself in the next set of photos below what is coming out as it is sanded.

I continued sanding with 220 grit sandpaper and worked on the shank bowl junction. There were some deep cuts and file marks there that needed to be addressed. I sanded until the surface was smooth to touch. There were still a lot of scratches in the wood but the surface was getting smoother. I sanded it with a coarse and a medium grit sanding block to flatten out the shank and to smooth out the bowl sides, bottom and rim. I used a black permanent mark to cover the fill and line it up with the grain at that point. Once I sanded it more and blended it into the grain of the shank it would become less visible than it is in the photos below. I sanded more with the sanding blocks and then gave the pipe a light coat of olive oil to see what the grain would look like when I was finished. The wood had a red hue to it and some nice looking grain. There is a lot more sanding that needs to be done at this point but it is progressing.

I have included a few more close-up photos to show the progress of the sanding on the surface of the bowl and shank. There is some nice looking grain coming through in the photos of the bowl sides and shank.

At this point I sanded the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads and the oil to give me some traction while sanding. I find that the oil allows the micromesh to cut more deeply and work more effectively. I sanded with older 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads that I reserve for working with oil sanding. Unfortunately I got into the flow of things and did not take photos of this part of the process.

Once I had finished sanding the bowl to this point I worked on the stem. The same file marks went across and the length of the stem. There were gouges and marks and two deep tooth marks near the crease on both the top and bottom of the stem. The next two photos show the scratches and the tooth marks.

I used an emery board to sand out the scratches and the tooth marks. I was able to remove most of the scratches and gouges with the board and then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove some of the deeper scratches and blend in the board marks. I also used the topping board to even out the end of the clipped stinger so that it was not rough. The tooth mark on the top needed to be repaired. I cleaned up the sanded area and then filled the remaining tooth mark with clear super glue. When the glue dried I used the emery board and the 220 grit sandpaper to blend in the repair with the surface of the stem. Once the scratches and marks were gone and the patch smoothed into the surface I went on to wet sand the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads before giving the stem another coat of oil. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and then a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I let it dry before taking the pipe to the buffer.

I sanded the bowl and shank down with all of the grits of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12000 grit. By the time I was finished the scratches were virtually gone. The repair on the shank/bowl junction though showing is smooth to the touch. The ugly duckling had become a swan. The Canadian hidden beneath the file marks and rough finish gave way to the beauty of the alternative wood. The finished pipe was truly a thing of beauty.

I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond Polish on the wheel. I worked it until the remaining scratches disappeared. I gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax and then buffed the pipe with a soft flannel buff. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The change in appearance is significant and the feel in the hand is much better. I am still pretty convinced the pipe is Mountain Laurel but could be convinced otherwise if some of you know. Thanks for looking.

A Peterson 301 System Pipe Reborn

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have this pipe and one other left to clean up of the donated pipes for the benefit of Smokers Forums. This one is a Peterson’s System Standard Bent Pot. It is stamped Peterson’s System Standard on the left side and on the right side it is stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland over 301 which is the shape number. The finish was shot, worn and stained with most of the colour faded out. The nickel ferrule was oxidized and dull. The rim was dirty and nicked on the top surface but undamaged on the inner or outer edge. There were some deep scratches on the underside of the bowl that went across the surface of the briar. They were ragged and I knew that steaming them would not raise them. There was also some road rash on the right side of the bowl where it looked as if the bowl was dropped on concrete. The bowl had a thick cake that was soft and crumbly. The stem was oxidized and dirty with some tooth chatter on the top side and the underside near the p-lip. The interior was also dirty with grit. The inside of the shank/mortise was surprisingly clean with dust and tobacco residue but little tar and oil. The inside of the stem was also dirty. The hole in the end of the button was in great shape.

I took a close up of the rim and bowl to show the thickness of the cake. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the soft cake back to bare briar so that a new hard cake could be developed by the new owner of the pipe.

I sanded out the bowl to remove the ridge that appears in the photo below. You can also see the dents and nicks in the surface of the rim. I lightly topped the bowl with a topping board to take out the damaged surface of the rim and clean up the top. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and the grime in the grain of the briar.

I filled the deep scratches in the bottom of the bowl with clear super glue and also filled the road rash nicks on the right side of the bowl. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and then sanded them with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I also sanded them with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the scratches. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain that I thinned with 3 parts alcohol to 1 part stain. I flamed the stain to set it deep in the grain. To make the stain more translucent I scrubbed down the surface with alcohol to lighten the stain and make it more transparent. I put a light coat of wax on the bowl to protect it while I cleaned the inside of the pipe. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the shank and mortise area. I polished the nickel ferrule with a silver polishing cloth and was able to remove the oxidation.

I let the stem soak in Oxyclean for several hours while I worked on the bowl and then gave it a vigorous rubdown with coarse cloth to remove the loose oxidation. I then sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to further remove the oxidation. Once it was gone I buffed it with red Tripoli and then moved on to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads, rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanding with 3200-4000 grit pads and giving it another rub down. I buffed it with White Diamond and then finished with 6000-12000 grit pads before giving it a final coat of oil and letting it absorb into the stem.

I finished by buffing the pipe with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then giving the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed with microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below.

Restemming a Brian Doran Nosewarmer Poker

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

In the gift bag that I received while traveling was a poker made by Brian Doran. I did some reading on Brian’s Facebook page and cannot find out when the pipe was made. I know that this one was originally a nosewarmer poker. I had the pieces of the pipe as it had been dropped by my friend. The tenon broke off in the shank. The tenon would need to be pulled and a new tenon put in the stem or the pipe would need to be restemmed. The bowl was large and the rustication was very nice with a contrasting stain between the rim and bowl. The bowl was a dark brown/black with the smooth rim and bottom stained with a medium brown. The bowl was attractive and the drilling was spot on. There was a large silver band with two black rings around it on the end of the shank that added to the weight of the piece. I put the stem up against the bowl to get an idea of how it originally looked before the break. The piece of briar was quite large and heavy and the small mouth piece that had been on it made gripping it a challenge. I could see why my friend had dropped it. The mouth piece itself was smaller in diameter than the shank of the pipe and did not look quite right to me. The button was rough – not sure if it happened during the drop or if it came that way. It had chips out of the edges, top and the face of the button and the inside of the slot was also roughly shaped. The shortness of the blade on the stem did not give much to work with. I used a screw to pull the broken tenon out of the shank. I twist it in with a screwdriver until it catches and then wiggle the screw while pulling on it. It generally comes out very easily. I was thankful that this time it came out without a problem. I cleaned up the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. With the tenon pulled I needed to make a decision regarding the pipe. After spending some time with the mouth piece I decided that the damage to the button would take more work than I was willing to put into it. I personally did not like the short stem and found that it was uncomfortable in the mouth and the pipe was too heavy to make it practical. That meant that I needed to restem it. I looked at short stems of the same diameter – both saddle and tapered and just did not like the look. I went through my stems and found a saddle stem that was the same diameter as the shank but was not happy with the overall look. Then I found this smaller tapered stem. It was one I had scavenged from somewhere and the tenon was a perfect fit. It sat in the shank just like the little saddle stem had and showed the stained briar ring inside of the silver band. The appearance at the shank was almost the same. It was slightly bent and I would need to straighten it but I kind of liked the look. It would be worth working on. If I should decide otherwise later I can always restem it again. I set up the heat gun and straightened the stem leaving a very slight bend. I took the next series of photos to show what the pipe looked like at this point in the process with the longer stem.

I reamed the bowl to take back the uneven cake. I scrubbed the rusticated bowl and the tars on the rim with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed the bowl with water and then dried it off with a soft cloth. I further worked on the darkening of the rim with a cotton pad and saliva until I had the majority of it removed. I also scrubbed the bottom of the bowl with the cotton pad and saliva as well. I buffed the rustication with a shoe brush to give it a slight shine. I gave the bowl a light wipe down with olive oil and hand buffed it with the shoe brush to raise the shine. The stem was in very good shape with no tooth chatter or oxidation so it needed only to be cleaned and polished. I buffed the rim and the base along with the stem with Red Tripoli, White Diamond and Blue Diamond. I then gave the rim, base and stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a soft flannel buff. I finished by hand buffing with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below. I like the new look with the longer stem. The pipe now works as a sitter and balances on the desk with no issues. What do you think?

Get Me to the Church on Time: Restoring a Longchamp Billiard

8 Replies

Blog by Anthony Cook

I was browsing through Reddit’s /r/PipeTobacco sub-forum when I saw a post from a member looking for someone who could restore an old, leather-wrapped Longchamp pipe. He wanted it in time for his wedding day, which was a couple of weeks away. I could see in the accompanying photos that the pipe had a chip out of the rim and a bite through on the stem, but otherwise it appeared to be in good condition and both the leather and stitching looked solid. So, I contacted him and offered to take care of it.
The pipe arrived at my door a while later. I was happy to see that there were no hidden “gotchas” and the condition of the pipe was pretty much as it had appeared in the photos.

Here are a few photos of the pipe on arrival:

Notice in the image below that the stem has almost no tooth chatter despite the massive bite through. What’s up with that? Weird. The next image shows some detail photos of the stamping and the rim damage on the pipe. The pipe needed to be cleaned up before I tackled any of the damage. This is my “getting to know you” time with the pipes that I work on. I learn a lot about the pipe as I’m cleaning it and I often discover things that I hadn’t noticed previously.

I used a very lightly damp rag to remove the tar and soot from the rim. It came away easily. You can see some light spots on the rim in the photos above. I had been afraid that they were fills (that would be a nightmare), but they turned out to be… something else. Whatever it was, it came off with the rest of the grime and I could see that the rim was in good condition other than the noted chip.

Then, I cleaned out the interior of the stem and stummel with a few cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, a shank brush and some isopropyl alcohol. The pipe was already pretty clean. So, it didn’t take much work. I then gave the pipe a retort just to be sure and another quick scrub to remove anything that the retort had left behind. To prevent any lingering tobacco ghosts, I stuffed cotton balls into the chamber and used a dropper to drip in alcohol until they were saturated. I then sat the stummel aside overnight to let the cotton balls and alcohol do their job. The image below shows a photo of the bowl just after adding the alcohol, another taken about three hours later, and another at about twelve hours (just before I removed the cotton).

Meanwhile, the stem had been soaking in a bath of Oxyclean and warm water. I removed it from the bath and scrubbed it with cubes cut from a Magic Eraser until all of the yellow-brown oxidation was gone and the stem was restored to a satin-black finish. Using needle files, I cleaned up the edges of the bite through hole to remove any loose material and scored the surrounding surface to prep for the patch. Then, I inserted a wedge of thin cardboard wrapped in clear tape through the slot making sure that it completely covered the bottom of the hole. I applied several thin layers of black CA glue over the hole. I allowed each layer to dry and lightly sanded with 220-grit paper between layers to give the next one a good surface to bite into. The patch was ready to be blended in when it was slightly higher than the surrounding surface. I used needle files to carve a sharp transition at the back of the button and sanded back the patch and much of the tooth chatter with 220-grit paper. I followed that with 320-grit and 400-grit paper to further smooth the surface, and then I lightly sanded the entire stem (carefully avoiding the logo impression) with 600-grit paper.

I wanted to repaint the stem logo to give the pipe a more complete look. So, I used a silver leaf paint pen to paint over the logo and fill the impression with paint. Once it was dry, I carefully sanded the paint from the raised surfaces with 1200-grit paper leaving behind only what was left in the impression. Some of the impression had been worn away until it was nearly level with the surrounding surface. So, I had to try to shape those by hand using a printed photo reference of the logo. I lightly sanded the rest of the stem with 1200-grit paper, and then polished with Micro-Mesh pads 1500-grit to 12000-grit. Somehow, I forgot to get a shot of the completed stem, but you can see it in the photos of the finished pipe.

The stem was finished. So, it was time to take care of the stummel. I filled the chip in the rim with briar dust and CA glue, let it dry, and then sanded the patch back with 220-grit paper. It’s just about impossible not to sand away some of the surface surrounding a patch. So, there was a very slight depression in the patched area. To even the rim out, I lightly topped the bowl, first with 220-grit, and then with 320-grit paper. To bring the color back and blend the patch, I applied Fiebing’s dark brown dye to the rim with a cotton swab, flamed it, and sanded the rim with 400-grit and 600-grit paper. Then I stained with medium brown and sanded with 1200-grit. I polished the rim with Micro-Mesh pads 1500-grit through 2400-grit before giving the rim a final buckskin stain, and then polished with the remaining Micro-Mesh grits. Again, I forgot to get photos of any of this. Sometimes, you just get caught up in the work, you know?

All that was left to do to get this pipe ready for the wedding day was to spiffy up the leather a bit. I used a hairdryer set to high heat and low flow to heat the leather and raise the dents. I used my fingers to knead and stretch the leather around the deeper ones to help lift them. Then, I used Fiebing’s buckskin dye to restain the scratches and a small tear on the right side of the bowl. The tear itself was then patched with a bit of leather glue. Finally, I used Fiebing’s 4 Way Care to clean and condition the leather wrapping before burnishing the ends of the leather and edging the seams. The pipe work as finished and it was ready to be sent back for the big day. Here are a few photos of the finished pipe:

Thanks for looking and CONGRATULATIONS, NATE!!!

Rejuvenating a Peterson’s System Premier 307

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe that is on my desk came to me from a friend on Smokers Forums who wants me to clean and sell them for the support of the forums. It is a nice Peterson’s Premier System Pipe in the 307 shape. It is stamped on the underside of the shank Peterson’s System Premier 307. The silver ferrule is stamped as normal with Petersons of Dublin on one side. Underneath it is stamped Sterling Silver and there are hallmarks that give the date of the pipe. The stamping of the hallmarks was as follows: Hibernia, Lion (denoting that the silver is .925) and the letter “b” which denotes that the pipe was made in 1969. I have included the Peterson’s Hallmark chart below as it is a very helpful tool that I have used repeatedly to date my Peterson pipes. The pipe was dirty and the silver was oxidized enough that the stamping was hard to see. The rim was darkened by in pretty decent shape. The sandblast finish had a lot of grime in the grooves and there was some white paint of dried wax in the grooves. There was a light cake in the bowl that was thicker toward the middle of the bowl than it was at the top or the bottom. The stem had a rough finish from the oxidation and there were some small tooth marks on the top and the bottom edge of the stem near the P lip. The airway on the button was in excellent shape and the crease was still well defined.

I took a close up of the bowl to show the cake that was in the bowl. There was a small nick on one side of the inner edge of the bowl on the right side but it looked like it would clean up very nicely. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to the bare wood. I wanted a good even base so that the new owner could build a solid hard cake evenly in the bowl. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the nick on the right side.

I took the stem out of the shank and removed the Bakelite/wood extension that screws into the tenon on Peterson Premier pipes. The photo below shows the pipe taken apart. I took the next series of photos to show the grime and white wax in the grooves of the sandblast.

I scrubbed the bowl with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean out the grooves of the blast. I worked on it until I was able to remove the grit. I followed up with a light scrub of the rim and the grooves with a brass bristle tire brush to finish the cleaning. I rinsed the bowl under running water to remove the soap and the loosened dirt. I dried it off with a soft cloth and then took the next set of photos.

I polished the sterling silver ferrule with a jeweler’s polishing cloth and was able to remove the tarnish. The silver began to shine and the stamping became very clear as I cleaned it.

I rubbed some microcrystalline Conservator’s Wax on to the bowl surface with my fingers and then buffed it with a shoe brush. The result was a warm shine on the bowl. I don’t like to use a buffer on deep blasts as it tends to flatten the blast and wear it down. Hand buffing it with a shoe brush preserves the blast.

I cleaned the interior of the stem and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I was surprised at how clean the shank and the stem were. It took very few cleaners to clean up the interior of the pipe. I soaked the stem in Oxyclean for about 30 minutes and then dried it off and sanded the oxidation with 220 grit sandpaper and also a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the loosened oxidation. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh and gave it another coat of oil. In each of these steps I did not let the oil absorb but rather used it to give traction to the micromesh pads. I buffed the stem with Red Tripoli and with White Diamond on the wheel to remove the stubborn oxidation that remained. I finished by sanding the stem with 6000-12000 grit sanding pads. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it absorb into the vulcanite.

I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and give it a shine. I then buffed it with a soft flannel buff and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beautiful sandblast system pipe that will make someone a great addition to their rack. If you are interested in this pipe contact me via Facebook of comment on the blog. All proceeds will go toward supporting Smokers Forums.

A West German Mystery: Refurbishing a Merkur 2000 720

10 Replies

Blog by Anthony Cook

A friend from the Pipe Smoker Unlimited forums recently picked up a volcano-shaped Merkur 2000 pipe as a birthday gift to himself (we all know that those are the best gifts). He was drawn to the shape and the bit of nice grain that he could make out beneath the grime and dark stain. He mentioned in a comment that it was going to need a little cleaning up. So, I offered to take care of that for him and he accepted.

I gave the pipe a good look over when the pipe arrived some time later. I was immediately impressed by how light it was for its size. It appeared to be in good, clean condition too. The stem had barely any tooth chatter, but it had some reddish oxidation that almost matched the stummel stain and there were strange bands of raised vulcanite in some areas. My best guess is that something had lain across the stem for a very long time to cause the warping. The stummel appeared to have a few scratches, including one on the rim that was the most pronounced, but they were small and looked shallow. So, I was confident that they could be easily removed.

Here’s the pipe as it was on arrival: In the photo below, I don’t know what that is in the chamber. It’s best not to think about it too much.

The actual manufacturer of this pipe is a bit of a mystery to me. It’s stamped “MERKUR 2000” along the left shank, “REAL BRIAR” along the right, “WEST-GERMANY” and “720” along the bottom, and there is a slanted “H” logo on the stem. Pipephil has a listing for a Blackwood pipe with a matching stem logo and “2000” in the same location and typeface. It’s my guess that neither Merkur nor Blackwood is a manufacturer brand name, but rather they are either model names or shop-branded names. Whatever the case may be, the “WEST-GERMANY” stamping is a clear indication of the country of origin and that the pipe was made sometime before the 1990 German reunification.

Here are a few detail photos of the stamping in question and also the Blackwoods pipe from pipephil:

When I asked my friend what he wanted done with the pipe, he said that he would like me to lighten the color a bit and make the grain “pop.” So, to begin, I wiped the stummel down with acetone and cotton pads to remove the grime and lift some of the old stain. I think a good, internal cleaning is the foundation of any estate pipe work. So, I scrubbed out the stem and stummel with a few pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, and a shank brush. Next, I set up the retort for some deep cleaning (kind of like steam cleaning the carpet). I flushed the stem and shank 10-12 times with the boiling alcohol, let the pipe rest for about 10 minutes, and the flushed it 10-12 times again with fresh alcohol. After the second retort the alcohol in the vial was almost as clear as when it was fresh (the debris seen in the photo is bits of carbon build-up on the outside of vial from the candle flame). So, I gave the pipe a final scrub to remove anything left behind from the retort. The stem was dropped into a bath of Oxyclean and warm water for about an hour, and then I removed the softened oxidation by scrubbing with cubes cut from a Magic Eraser pad. I sanded down the tooth chatter and warped bands on the stem with a progression of 220, 320, and 400-grit paper and the entire stem was lightly sanded with 600-grit paper to get rid of the pitting and smooth the surface.

I already knew that I couldn’t completely restore the stem logo; the upper-right portion of the “H” was almost entirely worn away. I thought that it would look better with something there though. So, I painted over the logo with a grout pen, let the paint dry, and then very carefully sanded away the excess with 1200-grit paper to reveal the partially restored logo. Then, I sanded the rest of the stem with 1200-grit and polished with the full range of Micro-Mesh pads to wrap up the stem work. The scratch on the rim didn’t seem too deep. I thought that I would be able to remove it with just a light topping. It didn’t take much sanding with 220-grit before I noticed that the “scratch” was widening and realized that it wasn’t a scratch at all, but a small pit. I thought that it might still be shallow enough that I could sand it out, but when the pit was still there after a bit more sanding I decided to cut my losses and patch it with a briar dust and CA glue patch. Then, I topped the bowl with 320-grit to even everything out.

Unfortunately, that pit wasn’t the last one that I encountered while working on this pipe. At least two more revealed themselves along the rim and a few more on the rest of the stummel. Now, before I tell you about how I did the rest of the stummel I have to issue an apology. I failed to take any more photos before finishing up the pipe. I’ll lay the blame on the previously mentioned pits that kept cropping up, which caused me to backtrack at almost every stage and redo sections of the work. However, I’m sure that you can follow along with no problems. I won’t detail any of the pits, since they were all addressed in the same way as the one above.

In order to honor the request to make the grain “pop,” I heated the stummel with a heat gun to open the grain and applied a dark brown stain thinned to one part stain to three parts isopropyl alcohol. After flaming the stain to set it into the grain, I hand-buffed with a soft rag to remove the excess, and then sanded the stummel with 400-grit. This removed most of the light scratches as well as much of the surface stain, which gave the grain some nice contrast.

I heated the stummel again before applying a medium brown stain thinned the same as before. I flamed and hand-buffed again before lightly sanding with 600-grit and 1200-grit papers. I also began polishing with Micro-Mesh 1800-grit to 2400-grit.

Next, I applied a light brown stain, flamed, hand-buffed, and reattached the stem to give the stummel a Tripoli buff on the buffing wheel. I don’t buff the stem with Tripoli, but it’s good to have it in place to prevent the buffer from rounding the shoulders of the stem and shank faces. I use a rubber tourniquet tightly wrapped around the end of the stem to protect it from the wheel.

I polished the stummel with 3200-grit through 4000-grit paper before giving it one final stain of British tan thinned by eye until it was just weak wash. Then, I polished with the remaining Micro-Mesh grits before buffing the entire pipe with White Diamond and applying several coats of carnauba wax to finish up the pipe.

The final results are pictured below.

I think the pipe will now be a proud addition to my friend’s collection and I’m sure that it will serve him well for many more birthdays to come. Thanks for looking.

Cleaning up a Briar Bird Bent Poker or Cherrywood

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

A friend of mine here in Vancouver dropped off a bag of pipe goodies for me while I was in Europe. When I got home and opened the bag there were four jars of tobacco, a Peterson ceramic three pipe stand, a two pipe travel bag, some pipe cleaners and three pipes – a pipe that I had sold him, a Briar Bird Bent Poker or Cherrywood with a blue/gold acrylic stem, a Poker with a broken tenon stuck in the shank. I decided to clean up the easy pipe – The Briar Bird Poker. I emailed the giver to express my thanks at his generosity and ask him some questions about the two pokers. He answered that the broken stem pipe was a pipe made by Brian Doren. He also told me that the Briar Bird pipe by J. Cochey was one of his early works.

At first glance it looked like it would clean up easily and I could add it to the rotation quickly. It had a rusticated finish that was too my liking, a wedding ring style band and a blue and gold stem. The bend was good in the stem and the pipe felt good in the hand. The button seemed like a good size. The slot was open and the airway clear. The inner dimension of the bowl was smaller than I normally use but it would work. The finish was dirty and the rim had some light build up in the rustication. The bowl would need to be reamed back to keep it from becoming even smaller in diameter than it was.

When I removed the stem to have a look at the drilling and the fit against the shank the band fell off in my hands. It had been glued to a thin smooth band on the end of the shank and extended beyond the end of the shank. I acted as a tube that the stem sat in. Examining the stem I saw that the maker had also stepped down the end of the stem to accommodate the band as well. In essence the band sat suspended over the stem with a small fit on the shank. I cleaned up the shank end and reglued the band on the shank. Before I glued it I debated whether to properly seat it on the shank – removing some of the shank briar and seating the band further back. I decided against that. When I put the stem in place on the shank without the band, the tenon was too long to allow the stem to seat against the end of the shank. I could drill the mortise slightly deeper, shorten the tenon or just reglue and leave things alone. I obviously chose to just glue it and leave it alone. The slot in this stem was drilled beautifully and the oval opening flared back to the airway properly. The draw on the pipe was excellent. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare walls. With the narrow bowl I would keep this pipe very clean and develop the thinnest of cakes so as not to constrict the bowl.

With the bowl cleaned the rim needed some attention. There was some oil and tar built up in the rustication. I used a brass bristle white wall tire brush to clean out the rustication. Once I had it cleaned out I rubbed the bowl down with some Halcyon II wax and then buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. With a rough rusticated pipe like this I don’t buff it on the buffer as I want to keep the sharp edges of the rustication as they are without smoothing them out. I scrubbed out the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and polished the band with a jeweler’s cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for its inaugural bowl since coming to my rack. If you are interested in seeing some of the newer work of Briar Bird Pipes I have included a link to the website. http://www.briarbirdpipes.com