Tag Archives: pipe refurbishing

Giving a Yorkshire Natural Billiard a new look – Restain & Cumberland Stem

Blog by Steve Laug

I am slowly but surely working my way through the gift box of pipes I received. The next one that I chose to work on was a billiard. It is stamped Yorkshire in an arch over Natural and another reverse arch with the words Algerian Briar. The stem on it was a replacement and did not fit well on the shank. It was slightly smaller in diameter and also had rounded shoulders. The angles and flow of the stem did not work well with the pipe in my opinion as the taper on the top of the stem was different from the one on the bottom side. The bowl itself was clean but and the finish dirty. The rim had been damaged around the outer edge on the front of the bowl rounding it slightly. The stamping was clear and distinct. From what I can find on the internet the Yorkshire brand is a US Made pipe that came from Barnaby Briars (smoking pipe retailer) that was located at 28 Powell St. in Brooklyn (NY). They also made pipes stamped Barnaby. The Germanic Script differentiates it from the other Yorkshire Brand that was made in Italy by Gasparini for Sears and Roebuck. The right side of the bowl had the only fills present on the pipe – and there were about five of them visible. The largest is almost in the middle toward the back. These fills were hard, smooth and tan in colour.

The close-up photo of the rim below shows the rounding of the edges on both the front and the back sides of the rim. I absolutely hated the look of the stem on this pipe so I went through my can of stems until I found one that would work well. It was a well broken in stem that had a lot of oxidation and calcification on the top and bottom of the stem. There were no tooth marks which were a bonus and the stem was Cumberland! Once I had cleaned up the bowl and the stem the combination would look really good.

The tenon was slightly larger than the mortise so I used a Dremel with a sanding drum and took some of the Cumberland material off the tenon. I worked on it until it was close to fitting. Then I took it back to the work table and use a folded piece of sandpaper to get a good snug fit in the mortise. I had no idea that there was a brass band that was a part of the stem until I began to clean it up.

When the stem was in place I sanded the stem and the junction of the shank and stem to make sure that the fit was smooth and the transition was as seamless as I could make it. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to even things out. As I did it I found that there was a brass coloured band that was a part of the stem. I removed the stem and cleaned off the face of the stem and found the band extended across the face of the stem like a washer around the tenon. I really liked the way the stem tapered quickly to from the shank to the button.

I topped the bowl on a topping board to remove the damage on the rim and clean up the outer edges. I wanted to remove the damaged, rounded edges. I also sanded the scratches on the underside of the bowl. I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I also sanded the brass shank adornment to remove the scratches and polish it. I wiped it down with a wet cloth to remove the sanding dust. The Cumberland is coming to life the more I sand it and remove the oxidation and buildup. The lines of red and burgundy flow through the stem horizontally along the taper and the sides.

I took a picture of the pipe and stem with the old stem beside it for comparison sake. The stem is about ¼ inch longer than the old one and the taper more radical. The Cumberland looked better with the briar than the old as well. I wiped down the bowl and shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the oils and grime that was on the surface of the briar. I wanted to bring the rest of the briar as close to the colour of the sanded rim and shank.

I cleaned out the shank and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol to remove the tars and oils.

I sanded the stem and shank with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I did not let the oil dry between rub downs as I find that the oil gives the micromesh some cut on the surface of the stem. The translucence of the Cumberland really shows through the shine.

I rubbed the bowl and down with olive oil and let it soak into the briar. The oil brought out the reddish brown tones of the briar and made the grain stand out. Sadly it also made the fills on the right side of the bowl stand out as well.

While the brown tones stood out well I wanted to bring out some of the red tones in the briar. To highlight the reds I stained the bowl with a coat of oxblood stain. Before I stained the briar I used a permanent black marker to darken the fills on the side of the bowl. When it had dried so that it would not rub off when I put the stain coat on the bowl. I applied the stain with a cotton pad and then flamed it. Once it dried I polished the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. The finished pipe is shown below.

The rich colours of the briar work really well with the reds of the Cumberland stem. The light brass band that separates the stem and the shank adds a light brass coloured horizontal line that breaks up the vertical Cumberland and the horizontal grain of the briar.

The sharp edges of the rim and the grain on the surface look far better than the round outer edge of the bowl.

Restemming and Restoring The Albany Pipe by ?Orlik?

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Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restoring a NATIONAL Washington DC Square Shank Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

Topside of the stem

Underside of the stem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restoring a Heritage Heirloom 94C Outdoorsman

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Blog by Andrew Selking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adding a Tiny Dr. Plumb Bulldog to an earlier find of a Tiny Dr. Plumb Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was gifted a tiny little Dr. Plumb Bulldog a few weeks ago by a friend and that reminded me that I also had a tiny little Dr. Plumb Billiard as well. I have no idea if these were salesmen pipes but they have the same size as many of those that I have seen over the years. Both were smoked and had a cake in the bowl. The billiard has the original stinger apparatus in it but the little bulldog is sans stinger. They are only about 4.5 inches long and incredibly delicate looking. All briar and vulcanite stems and very smokable. The next two pictures below show the little dog next to the Dr. Grabow I cleaned up earlier for comparison and to give an idea of the size.

The little bulldog is stamped Dr. Plumb Extra on the left top side of the diamond shank and is stamped France on the right bottom side of the shank. The pipe was in pretty good shape. The finish was slightly worn and the rim had a buildup of tars. The inner and outer edge of the rim was undamaged. The bowl had a light cake in it and it and in the bottom of the bowl there was a groove where the original stinger apparatus extended from the tenon the length of the shank. The stem was oxidized and there was tooth chatter on the top and the bottom of the stem next to the button. I took the next four photos to show what the pipe looked like when I started working on it. There is an understated elegance to this little bulldog.

To give another view of the smallness of the pipe I took a photo of it with my little finger inserted in the bowl. It was a tight fit for even the tip of my little finger. The bowl was so small that none of my reamers fit in the bowl. I used a pen knife letter opener to scrape the cake back to the briar.

I scrubbed out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean. I took out the tiny billiard that I also have and took a picture of the two pipes together. In the billiard’s bowl you can see the end of the stinger in the bottom of the bowl. While both pipes are tiny the bulldog appears to be a little bit smaller. I compare it to the size variation between bulldogs and billiards in general. The diameter of bowl bowls is identical. Both are ½ inch in diameter. The depth of the billiard is deeper than that of the bulldog.

I scrubbed the tars on the rim with cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove most of the buildup. I followed that by lightly sanding the stem with 1500 grit micromesh sanding pads. I sanded the stem lightly with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to break up the oxidation. I followed that by sanding with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and then gave it a final rub down with the oil once I had finished.

I was able to remove the oxidation and the tooth chatter with little effort. The stem has a deep glow to the vulcanite. The finished pipe is shown below. One day I will fire them both up with a nice Virginia flake for a quick and flavourful smoke.

Resuscitating a Kaywoodie Fine Line

A Kaywoodie Supergrain 5102 Poker Clean Up

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Blog by Troy Wilburn

I got this pipe in a lot of pipes I received from a friend on Facebook. It’s a pre 1936 four digit (5102) stamped poker with the 4 hole stinger. It was in terrific shape, so being at least 78 years old I wanted to keep it as original as possible. I basically just gave it a good cleaning with little else needed.

Here is the pipe before:

I scraped out old cake (which there wasn’t much of) and gave the shank a good cleaning. I cleaned off all the old grime with a cotton ball and a small amount of Oxy Clean mixed with warm water. I cleaned the rim with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab followed by scrubbing it with oxy/water with a Scotch Brite pad. Mineral oil will bring the color back out.

I soaked the stem and stinger in isopropyl alcohol for about 45 minutes to loosen up the stuff on the stinger. I cleaned stinger and inside stem with steel wool and isopropyl alcohol. Once finished with the scrubbing it was ready for wet sanding.

I had to file out some very minor tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button. With the bowl cleaned and stem wet sanded I put the pipe back together for inspection. I wiped down the pipe and stem with mineral oil to condition wood, bring color back out and then did some final inspecting before buffing. Once the oil absorbed into the wood and vulcanite it was ready for a little buffing.

Here is what the pipe looked like after I was finished.

An Easy Restoration – A Dr. Plumb Flat-Grip 422 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

After the latest struggle with the Savinelli I decided to work on one that I thought would be an easy restoration. But given my track record with the last one I was not sure. Time would tell if it would be easy or if the work on it that I did would make it hard. This little billiard came to me in the gift box of pipes to rework. It is stamped on the right side of the shank Dr. Plumb in a script over – Flat-Grip. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shaper number, 722. On the underside of the shank there is a horizontal stamping next to the stem that reads FRANCE.

The pipe was in good condition. The finish was dirty but had no damage. There was one fill on the bowl on the back right side. The stain was even and not faded at the shank stem union or on the sides of the bowl. The rim had some build up and darkening but did not have damage to either the inner or outer edges. It had a slight bevel inward to the bowl that is often found on older billiards of this era. The shape bore all the marks of the GBD line that is sprung from. My guess is that the one fill on the back right moved it from the GBD line to the Dr. Plumb line. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. The bowl was caked and had a few spots that looked like mould on the inside of the bowl. I scraped one and looked at it under the light to see if it was mould. For all intents and purposes it was. Now the question was how deep into the cake did it go and would a complete ream of the bowl remove it from the pipe. Maybe this pipe would not be as easy a restoration as I had thought.

The stem had the Dr. Plumb red dot on the top of the stem with the word PLUMB stamped over the top in white. The Plumb stamping on the stem would need to be touched up.

I have included two close-up photos of the bowl rim and the white mould in the bowl. I was very curious to see if a good ream would remove it. Would the mould go deeper into the bowl than the cake? Would it be in the briar itself? I certainly hoped not but a reaming would disclose the depth of the problem.

I reamed the cake back to bare wood. I wanted to remove all signs of the mould. I scrubbed off the cutting head before putting it away. I examined the bowl to make sure I had removed all of the signs of the mould. The wood was clean and bare. It was so it looked as if the mould had only been on the surface. I scrubbed the surface of the walls with alcohol and cotton swabs to make sure that none of the spores survived.

I scrubbed the darkening and build up on the rim with cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove it. I use cotton swabs with alcohol as a follow up on the rim and when I was finished the rim was dull but clean.

I scrubbed out the shank with cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners to clean out the airway in the mortise and the stem. I put the stem back in the mortise and took a few photos of the pipe at this point.

The Dr. Plumb Flat Grip stem is unique in its design. It has a different style of taper that allows it to have what GBD called a flat surface. Instead of a crowned, rounded stem top and bottom there were slight taper from the edge of the surface to the side of the stem on all sides top and bottom. On this stem these were slightly rounded from use. I used a 220 grit sandpaper to break through the surface of the oxidation, remove the tooth marks and chatter and also clean up these tapered edges.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches and clean up the stem surface further. I wet sanded the stem with 1500 grit micromesh and then used a liquid paper/Whiteout to touch up the PLUMB stamping on the top near the shank.

I put the plastic washer on the tenon and inserted it into the shank so that I could sand the edge without rounding the shoulders of the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the light oxidation that still remained on the shoulders. I repeated the wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I rubbed it down a final time and let it sit until it was absorbed into the vulcanite.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond to finish polishing it and raise the shine. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to finish the stem.

I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and Blue Diamond to polish the briar and stem. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is cleaned and there is no sign of the mould that once was in the bowl. The pipe smells clean and new. It is ready to load up and smoke the first bowl.

A Savinelli de Luxe Milano 431KS Reborn Twice – PART 1: reshaping a broken stem.

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Blog by Steve Laug

You will see by the end of this blog why I say the pipe was reborn twice. Suffice it to say in this opening paragraph that a near pipe repair tragedy occurred when I had all but finished the first rebirth.When I picked up the pipe it was one of two that I found while on a pipe hunt in Bellingham, Washington with a friend. The other pipe was a Custom Bilt that I have already blogged about. The grain on this pipe attracted my attention and made me want to see what I could do with it. When I brought the pipe to the work table most of the issues were with the stem. The bowl had originally had a natural finish so it was dirty but not stained. There was no finish on it or varnish that needed to be removed so the clean up would be quite simple. The rim was caked with a thick tar and oil buildup that was shiny and hard. The bowl had a cake of the same material and had the sweet smell of an aromatic – lots of vanilla. The main issue with the stem was twofold. The top surface of the stem from the button up the stem about 1 inch there were many dents and bite marks. The underside of the stem had a large piece of vulcanite missing from the stem and the airway had been clamped down by biting. It also was oxidized and calcified. The fit against the shank was fairly decent with a slight gap on the left side, top and bottom at the shank.

The next two close up photos of the stem show the damage to the top and bottom side of the surface next to the button. The underside is the most damaged with a huge chunk missing. The second photo shows the top of the stem with the many tooth marks and bumps that created a thin surface on the top of the stem.

I took the next photo to show the rim. All edges are intact but the surface is coated with a thick, hard coat of oils and tar. The tenon had an inner tube insert in it. I have had several of these Savinellis but never had one with the tube. It would turn out to come in handy later. I weighed my options with the stem for several days before I decided to cut off the damaged portion of the stem. I used my Dremel with a sanding drum and took the stem back to solid material.

The next four photos show the look of the pipe with the shorter stem. Personally I like the more compact look of the stem as it seems to fit proportionally well with the pipe.

I decided to work on the button on the pipe before turning to the bowl. You can see from the photo below that the underside of the area where I would cut the button was quite thin. I did not want to cut back the stem any further so I built up that area with black super glue. I applied the glue and set the stem aside to cure. It would take several coats before the button was built up.

While the glue cured and hardened I worked on the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to a head that would cut back the cake to bare briar.

With the bowl reamed back I could tackle the top of the bowl. Even using the reamer did not chip or crack the buildup on the top of the rim. It was like rock. I scrubbed the rim with oil soap and a tooth brush. I picked at it with a dental pick and was not able to break through the rock. I decided to lightly top the bowl to remove the buildup. The idea was not to remove any briar but merely to take of the rock hard tars on the rim. I used my topping board and 220 grit sandpaper and worked the rim carefully to ensure that I only took the rim down to briar. Once I broke through the rock I took several more turns on the sandpaper to finish up the rim.

I scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the soiling and oils in the briar. It did not take much to bring the briar back to its natural state.

I decided to rub down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil to protect the briar and give it some life. I applied the oil with a paper towel and rubbed it in and rubbed it off. It also served to highlight the grain and make it stand out.

I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol until they came out clean. For the amount of build up of tars and oils on the rim the shank was quite clean. I decided to use a cotton ball and alcohol soak on the bowl to remove the sweet smells of the aromatics that had been smoked in the bowl. It had a thick vanilla smell that needed to go in my opinion. I set the stuffed bowl in an ice cube tray and used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I let the bowl soak overnight to leach out the oils in the wood.

By the time I had finished setting up the bowl I called it a night and went to bed. The next morning I worked on cutting and shaping the new button on the stem. I used my usual knife blade file to make the initial cuts and shave back the slope of the stem.

When I had the slope and look right I sanded the newly shaped button and stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I then repaired some of the low spots with clear super glue. I recut the button with the needle files and sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the edges.

With more sanding and shaping I had it where I wanted it and then sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to clean up the scratches in the vulcanite.

With the button shaped in I worked on the slot in the airway. I used my usual three needle files – a flat oval, an oval and a round file to work on the slot. I always start with the flat oval and work to the round file.

I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the inside of the slot. At this point I worked some more on the surface of the button. It still was too rough to my liking. I sanded and filed it to reshape it. The next two photos show it before I worked it over with files and papers.

Once I had the button shaped to my satisfaction I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads, rubbed down with Obsidian Oil and then set it aside to dry. I was pleased with the overall effect of the new button and could not wait to finish polishing it. This is where I made the first mistake in this repair.

Instead of leaving it on the work table and calling it a night I brought the pipe upstairs with me from the basement work area. I wanted to show the girls in my family the result of my work. I know that they are not that interested but they attempt to humour the old man. I stopped at the fridge to get some water and that is when the disaster struck. I could not believe it. The pipe simply slid through my fingers and hit the hardwood floor in our kitchen. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened with no issues. But this time there was going to be a major issue and it came with a vengeance. When it hit the floor, really only 2 feet as I was bending over, I heard the awful click and the stem and bowl separated. The tenon snapped at the shank. All that work done and now what to do? I was sick with the thought of starting over. I carried the broken pipe down the stairs to the work table and left it in the dark and went to bed – just a tad frustrated. If you are interested in seeing what I did to try and redeem this disaster make sure to read Part Two of the work on this pipe.

Restoring an old Wally Frank Ltd. Huntleigh Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

I gravitated toward restoring this old Pot shaped pipe next because it looked rough with a worn finish and what I thought was an oversized band on the shank. When I took it out of the box and looked at it more closely my first impression was that someone had banded it post manufacture. It covered the stamping on both sides of the shank so that on the left the HUNTLEIGH stamping only read HUNTLEI and the Wally Frank Ltd. on the right only read ally Frank Ltd. On the flat bottom of the shank it is stamped Imported Briar in a Germanic Script. You can imagine my surprise when I found that what had appeared as a band was not. It was metal mortise and cap fitting that held a threaded screw mount stem and tenon. The tenon had a stinger apparatus that extended into the shank. Now the mystery – I don’t know if this was how the pipe was shipped from Wally Frank or if it was a later addition to a favourite pipe. The saddle stem appears to be original and fits against the cap perfectly. It is the same diameter as the shank of the pipe.

The finish on this old boy was very tired. The finish on the top half of the bowl was worn off while on the lower half it had an old varnish coat that was peeling away. The outer edge of the rim was not beat up or worn at all. The inner edge was slightly damaged and had nicks in that made the bowl out of round. The top of the rim was damaged with small pin prick holes that look like they came from knocking out the pipe on a rough surface. The end cap/mortise insert was polished aluminum and it was oxidized. The stem had a lot of tooth chatter on both sides from the button up the stem about an inch. The button itself had nicks in it and there was a small tooth mark on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button in virtually the same spot. The stinger was quite clean. The bowl had been reamed out recently.

I decided to start with cleaning up the finish on the bowl. The peeling varnish and overall worn and tired appearance bugged me so I started there. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove as much of the finish as possible.

I mentioned above the damage to the rim surface so I have included the first photo below to show a close up view of the damage. I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board and removed the damaged surface. I sanded until the rim was smooth and the pinpricks were gone.

With the rim clean and the finish partially removed I decided to drop the bowl in my alcohol bath and let it soak awhile. I figured the alcohol would loosen what remained of the finish and also lend a patina to the sanded rim and the bowl. When I removed it from the bath after an hour of soaking it looked pretty good – as long as it remained wet!

Once I dried it off I could still see the line around the bowl where the finish had been and where it had worn off. This was a stubborn bowl. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I also repaired some of the fills that were pitted with super glue and briar dust. The next two photos show the bowl after I had sanded the finish off. It was finally getting to the point where I could start again with the finish. There were many imperfections and fills in the bowl and shank. This one was going to be a challenge. I knew I could not remove all of them but I wanted to give the old pipe a bit of dignity and take away the tired looking finish.

While I reflected on what to do with the bowl I worked on the stem. I sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the tooth marks and chatter. The stem would clean up nicely.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. The stem surface was free of marks now but still needed to be polished to bring back the shine to the vulcanite.

I cleaned out the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. The dirty portion of the shank was the grime in the threads of the mortise. The airway ahead of the metal mortise was clean. It took a bit of scrubbing but I was able to clean out the grime. The internals of the shank were clean. I ran pipe cleaners through the stem and stinger. I was surprised that I could easily run a pipe cleaner from the slot to the bowl without major issues with the stinger. Once it was clean I threaded the stem on the shank to see what the pipe looked like so far. It had come a long way and had the potential to turn out to be a good looking pipe. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth and then worked it over with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-3200 grit pads this time and then dry sanded with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I also used the later grit pads to polish the aluminum of the mortise insert. After sanding the stem with the 12,000 grit pad I rubbed it down a final time and let it soak in before taking it to the buffer.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and a blue plastic polish bar that I picked up. It really gives the stem a deep shine.

I stained the bowl with several coats of a cherry aniline stain and flamed it. In the photos below the pipe is shown after a light buffing with a soft cloth. (These photos were taken before I polished the stem.)

I sanded the bowl with the 6000-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed it with White Diamond. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. I have also included a photo of the reworked rim and the tenon and aluminum mortise just to show the finished pipe in all of its parts. It should make someone a good smoking pipe if the original condition was any sign of the smoke-ability of this pipe.