Tag Archives: pipe refurbishing

The Building Of A Buffing Station Part 1 – Alan Chestnutt

This afternoon I received an email from Alan Chestnutt of reborn briar regarding a post he made on Pipe Smokers Unlimited regarding a new buffing setup he had put together. He gave permission to post it here for folks to read about and also use for their own buffing stations. Thanks Alan for your work on this and for writing it up for us to read and see. It is much appreciated. Alan has a website http://www.estatepipes.co.uk/ where he sells some of the beautiful pipes he refurbishes. Have a look at the work he does. He also is available for working on pipes that you may not want to tackle on your own. Without further introduction here is Alan’s post.

My workshop is in the garage of the house which is detached. It is a concrete block build with a tiled roof. Inside is the bare concrete block, a concrete floor, and it is open to the roof. Not a very pleasant place to be in the winter! Last winter the cold was unbearable, and even though I had a gas heater on full set beside me, it could not warm the garage. The buffing polish blocks were rock hard and virtually unusable, as were my hands at the buffing wheels! So this year I had to make some changes and install some insulation. Here is a picture before the work started:

The workbench was secured to the wall plate and the rafters, to provide storage shelves above. The vertical uprights were a bit of a nuisance, so the plan was to extend the workbench space down the entire side towards the washer and dryer. On each side of the old workbench below the lights, I had set up 2 bench grinders with tapered pigtail adapters for the buffing wheels. While the work was being completed, I wanted to install a custom buffing station driven by a motor.

The first task was the insulation of the garage and installation of the workbenches. Having spoken with a local handyman, he advised the easiest method was to use thermal insulated backed plasterboard. Next is a picture after the insulation work was completed. The plasterboard has 2 inches of special thermal insulation attached to the back, and this was able to be attached directly to the concrete blocks. The same material was used to block in the roof cavity. The floor has been laid with interlocking rubber foam tiles and the benches have been started to be put in place.

The idea for my buffing station was to drive 4 buffing wheels from a single motor. I picked up a second hand motor from eBay for £30. It is a 1hp single phase motor running at 1400rpm. I wanted the area around the buffing wheels to be boxed in to catch and reduce the dust created with the idea of eventually installing dust extraction. The buffing wheels were to be mounted on 12mm threaded steel rod. The wheels would be 8 inch by 1/2 inch. I had been using 1 inch wheels before, but whilst this can speed up the process, they are not good for buffing into the bend of bent pipes. The 1/2 inch wheels make this area much more accessible. I had a motor arbor made locally which would attach to the shaft of the motor with a 12mm tapped hole. The drive shaft would screw into this providing a direct link to the motor. It was going to take a 1m length of drive shaft for the 4 buffing wheels. I decided to get 4 lengths of 250mm rod, so that it would be easier to dismantle and change a buffing wheel. The buffing wheels come with thick leather washers, which when drilled to 12 mm will thread unto the rod. They are then clamped each side with the large cup washers that came with the angle grinders holding on the grinding wheels. The sections would be joined together with 12mm threaded bushes with a 25mm outer diameter. Each of these bushes would be supported in a block bearing. Everything would be locked in place using locking nuts at each side of the bushes and each side of the buffing wheels.

Now whilst this idea was all in my head, it was a work in progress to see how it would work, as I have no particular engineering background. The handyman got to work under my instructions. The motor was mounted to the correct height to leave plenty of working space, and also the block bearings were mounted to the same height from the workbench. The motor itself was also boxed off from the buffing wheels to reduce dust contamination. The lower central section of the workbench is a place where I can sit while working on pipes. The far end is for my future work. I would like to move on to start making pipes and this area will be for the additional machinery. Here is Mark I of the buffing station.

Before even using the new buffing station, I knew there would be a problem. The blocks on which the bearings were mounted were going to be an obstacle when buffing the pipes. We put our heads together to think of a solution. We then decided to install vertical mounts which would be secured to the back of the boxed area and the bearings would be attached to these, leaving the front of the buffing wheels unfettered.

Here is the result after the rearrangement. The wiring has been completed and the lights installed with daylight bulbs for good vision.

The whole thing runs like a dream. I have since installed a machine switch below the motor and will also install an emergency stop button. After getting the feel of buffing at a slower speed, the only further change I will make is to upgrade to 10 inch wheels when the current ones need replaced. I can now run the heater on 1 bar from the far side of the garage and it heats up the room beautifully and retains the heat. This year I will be able to work in comfort.

Part two can be read at this link: https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/the-building-of-a-buffing-station-part-2-alan-chestnutt/

Reworking a Stetson Sport Zulu

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This pipe was gifted to me in exchange for a bit of stem work that I did recently for a friend of mine. It came in a box with the pipe to be repaired and two others. It was a brand that I knew absolutely nothing about. The pipe was obviously American made and had a coat of thick varnish on the bowl that was beginning to flake and peal. I decided to do a bit of research on the brand to see if I could find any information on it.

I found a document online for the John B. Stetson Company. Stetson is the manufacturer of Western hats but I was not aware that they also made pipes. One source seemed to point to the fact that the pipes were made by Marxman Pipe Company and branded with the Stetson name.

The document was written as a brand page for the company in application for a trademark. I have included that document below as I find the historical detail quite interesting. The source of the information is this website: http://www.legalforce.com/stetson-78583631.html I quote the following information in part from that site.

“John B. Stetson Company

Absorbent paper for tobacco pipes, ashtrays not of precious metal, chewing tobacco, cigar bands, cigar cutters, cigar humidifiers, cigar tubes, cigarette cases not of precious metal, cigarette lighters not of precious metal, cigars, cigarillos, hand-rolling tobacco, humidors, match boxes not of precious metal, match holders, matches, non-electric cigar lighters not of precious metal, pipe pouches, pipe tampers, pipe tobacco, tobacco, rolling papers…

This is a brand page for the STETSON trademark by John B. Stetson Company in Mt. Kisco, NY, 10549. Write a review about a product or service associated with this STETSON trademark. Or, contact the owner John B. Stetson Company of the STETSON trademark by filing a request to communicate with the Legal Correspondent for licensing, use, and/or questions related to the STETSON trademark.

On Wednesday, March 09, 2005, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for STETSON by John B. Stetson Company, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549. The USPTO has given the STETSON trademark serial number of 78583631. The current federal status of this trademark filing is ABANDONED – NO STATEMENT OF USE FILED. The correspondent listed for STETSON is BARRY A. COOPER of GOTTLIEB, RACKMAN & REISMAN, P.C., 270 MADISON AVE FL 8, NEW YORK, NY 10016-0601. The STETSON trademark is filed in the category of Smoker’s Products . The description provided to the USPTO for STETSON is Absorbent paper for tobacco pipes, ashtrays not of precious metal, chewing tobacco, cigar bands, cigar cutters, cigar humidifiers, cigar tubes, cigarette cases not of precious metal, cigarette lighters not of precious metal, cigars, cigarillos, hand-rolling tobacco, humidors, match boxes not of precious metal, match holders, matches, non-electric cigar lighters not of precious metal, pipe pouches, pipe tampers, pipe tobacco, tobacco, rolling tobacco, smokeless tobacco, smoking pipe cleaners, sm.”

I also found the following stamping photos on Pipephil’s Stamping and Logos site: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s12.html

Armed with the information I found I tackled the cleanup and restoration of this American Pipe from John B. Stetson! The pipe is stamped Stetson over Sport on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Italy on the right side of the shank. The finish was very rough and peeling off the surface of the briar on the bowl where the hands held it. The rim had a thick cake of tars and oils. The inner edge of the rim was nicked and burned and was slightly out of round. The bowl was heavily caked with a soft carbon cake that was crumbling in places. The stem had screw on tenon and was over turned to the right. It had tooth marks on the top and the bottom side of the stem and oxidation on the entirety. There was an S logo stamped in the left side of the saddle. The stinger apparatus in the stem was tarred and dirty and the inside of the stem was slightly clogged with tars.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to take the cake back to bare wood. The crumbling cake toward the bottom of the bowl made this necessary so that the next owner can build up their own hard cake.

I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a board and took off the damaged surface of the rim. I also cleaned up the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper. I wanted to smooth out the damage to the inner edge and repair the out of round shape of the bowl.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad. The thick coat of varnish was hard to break down with the acetone. I wiped it until I had softened the varnish and then sanded the bowl and shank with the 220 grit sandpaper and then a sanding sponge. The putty fills were shrunken and formed small divots in the bowl. I filled these with superglue and briar dust and then sanded them down when I sanded the bowl. After sanding the bowl down I wiped it again with acetone to remove the sanding dust.

I sanded the bowl with a fine grit sanding sponge and then wet sanded it with 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh sanding pads. Once I had a smooth surface to work with I stained the bowl with a black aniline stain and then flamed it with a lighter. I wanted to set the stain deep in the grain.

When the stain was dry I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the excess stain. I wanted the black to remain in the grain and highlight that while masking the fills.

I sanded the stained bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the excess. The next two photos show the bowl after sanding and then buffing with red Tripoli and White Diamond. The grain is standing out nicely from the black stain.

I restained the bowl with an oxblood coloured aniline stain and flamed it. I repeated the process until I had an even coverage on the bowl and shank. The next three photos show the bowl after staining with the oxblood.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks on the top and bottom side of the stem. I followed that by sanding with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

I put the stem back on the pipe and took it to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli. I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond. The next photos show the pipe after the initial buffing.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then dry sanded with the remaining grits from 3200-12,000. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and the waited for it to soak in. Afterwards I hand buffed with carnauba wax.

The next series of four photos show the finished pipe. The interior is shiny and new looking and the pipe bowl has a good contrast stain. The stem is shinier and the oxidation is pretty well gone. The photo of the stem looking down on the top shows a little oxidation around the saddle area. That area has been problematic on this pipe. In the daylight the stem looks better than this night photo with lights. My guess is that the oxidation is still there and in the glare of the flash it is very visible. This pipe will make a nice addition to someone’s rotation.

Reworking A Previous Refurbishment – A Genod Rhodesian

The Pipe Hunt – Rule # 6: Never let them see your excitement

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Growing up I remember a wrestling coach in high school giving us his wisdom regarding our opponents from a particularly tough school. “Never let them see you sweat” was his rule about setting a climate in which you could win over an opponent. For me Rule #6 is a variation on that adage. While a seller is not an opponent they are nonetheless your opposite in the purchase of a particular pipe. To put it simply Rule 6 is “Never let a seller see your excitement about what you have found”. I know this goes contrary to everything in me that wants to shout when I have found a super deal. When I turn over a pipe of a certain shape or colour, or move a pipe from underneath several others I can feel the adrenalin rise as my instinct about the pipe is met with an affirmative. It is at that moment that I hold back my exclamatory “yes” and carefully add the pipe to the lot I am carrying around the shop or have the seller carry it to the cash register to hold until I finish my hunt through the shop. I hold “yes” in and save the exulting until I am in the car or on the pipe forums!

Truthfully, this rule should probably be moved somewhere toward the top of the list of things I keep in mind when on a pipe hunt, because it has become a part of me on the hunt. I am quiet as I move through the store with the clerk as they unlock the cabinets that hold the pipes that I want to see. To help tame my enthusiasm I pick up pipes from the pipes on display that I have no intention of purchasing and “carefully” look them over and make quiet comments. Finally when I have gone through the lot I pick up the object/s of my attention and make a few general comments about the condition. Typically the clerk then carries it to the front for me and I am free to keep looking for more pipes. Though sometimes I carry the new find around the shop with me while I look at other pipes.

Even at the cash register I do not let on about my excitement over a find. I keep up the banter if I am in the mood or just quietly pay the bill and leave the shop. I have found that most sellers in shops or antique malls have no idea regarding the value of their old pipes and rather see them as stage props – hence a high price, or as dirty items that have a minimal value – hence a low price. The only time I talk about the prices is if the prices are outlandish. For instance recently I was in a Northern Alberta town here in Canada and the owner was selling a relatively new Grabow with a chewed stem for $120. I showed her on my phone what a new cost and she shrugged and said that in her town the local theatre guild and actors pay the prices she has for these items to use in their plays. Needless to say I kept my coin in my pocket and shook my head as I walked away.

I am looking for seller who sees the pipes they have as old and dirty items that they hope will sell but are not holding their breath over. I have found some great deals this way. I will give three examples from different times and years of my pipe hunting to illustrate the point. I found a nice mid 50’s Dunhill Shell billiard at a local thrift shop for $12. The sticker covered the white dot on the stem but the shape and blast caught my eye.

I found a small group 2 sized saddle billiard Dunhill Tanshell from the 60’s for under $20 in an antique mall in the US. It was hidden in a box of old junk pipes in a far corner of the shop. It was not locked in a cupboard but rather in an old porcelain jar with the stems inserted in the jar and the bowls sticking out the top. The blast on the pipe caught my eye so I pulled it out of the jar for a better look and found that I was holding a Dunhill.

More recently I came across a beautiful Comoy’s Gulidhall Liverpool for $30 in a shop in the Edmonton. It was on a shelf with other old beat up pipes and ratty pipe bags, broken pipe racks and old tins. It was toward the back of the shelf but the grain on this pipe caught my eye and it came with me the rest of the hunt in that shop.

The trick to this rule is to look and when you see them either pick them up and carry them with you or if the case is locked, note the case number and get the dealer to take them out of the case for you to examine. If the dealer unlocks the case for you then they typically want to carry them to the front for you. Play it cool with this and say that you will continue walk about the shop to look and “think” about your purchase.

You might wonder about the necessity of this rule but I can tell you it is critical in working deals and ongoing future deals with sellers. They key is to know that when you walk away happy with your amazing find, that they also are more than happy to have rid themselves of what they see as an eyesore. I have watched the price change drastically when a seller picks up on my excitement about the great price on a particular pipe. They read my reaction and I have seen the prices both escalate and de-escalate based on my response. I have had them decide quickly to not sell the pipe and when I came back at a later date the price was pushed through the roof and no longer something I would buy. I have also had them immediately back peddle and raise the price while I was standing there with excuses of mismarked prices or mistaken identification. It is critical to play your cards close to your chest when working a deal on these pipes. The words of a Kenny Rogers song, the Gambler hold true here; “You have to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.”

I have learned the lessons of this rule the hard way. It is very difficult to contain my excitement when I find highly valuable, collectible pipe. It is hard to not get worked up with the joy of the find. But I have found that if I do not let the cat out of the bag while I am looking the seller will let go of it at a bargain price of even less than it is marked or at the very least will not jack up the price so that next time you pass through the pipes are marked double and triple the price you paid for the first one. This rule is well worth remembering and practicing as you work the hunt.

Good hunting!

Restemming and Refinishing a Tiny Bulldog

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I had one more miniature pipe bowl in my box of pipes for refurbishing and I thought I would finish up the third of the lot. It needed a diamond shaped saddle stem to match the shank on this little bulldog. The bowl was coated with a thick coat of varathane or some kind of plastic coat. It had a small crack in the shank under the brass band. I also was without a stem. The trouble with these little pipes is being able to turn a tenon down far enough to fit the shank.

I went through my box of stems and found a diamond shank saddle stem that would do the trick. I turned the tenon down as far as possible with the PIMO tenon turning tool and then used the sanding drum on the Dremel to get the tenon size close. I hand finished the fit with 220 grit sandpaper until I had a snug fit on the stem. The stem was a regular sized stem to fit a group 4 bulldog so it was about ¾ inch per side. I reduced the diameter a side at a time with the Dremel until the stem sides were roughly 3/8 inch per side. The Dremel and sanding drum took off the majority of the excess material and then I hand sanded it to fine tune and adjust the angles of the stem and sides.

The band was loose so I removed it while I sanded the stem to match the shank. Since I planned on stripping the finish off the pipe and refinishing it I sanded both the shank and the stem in the process. Once I had a clean smooth fit I reglued the band in place on the shank with wood glue and pressed it into place.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to try and break through plastic finish on the pipe. It did very little to break down the finish. I sanded the bowl and rim with 220 grit sandpaper and then with 1500 grit micromesh to remove the finish. I repeated the acetone wash after sanding and found that it was more effective once the plastic coat was broken down.

I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set the stain. I repeated the process until the coverage was what I was aiming for with the undercoat of dark brown stain. I then gave it a top coat of oxblood aniline stain to get better coverage for the sanded bowl. There were still problems with the stain coat but I set it aside for the time being and turned my attention to the stem.

The stem was too long in the photos above and gave the pipe an awkward disproportionate look rather than refined look of a miniature bulldog so I cut it down with a sanding drum on the Dremel. I removed slightly over one inch of the length – cutting the stem back to the end of the bend. I cut it straight and made sure that the line of the end of the stem was squared both vertically and horizontally.

With the length cut back I then recut the button on the end of the stem with needle files. I began by cutting in the line of the button on the underside and the topside of the stem and then used the files to trim back the thickness of the stem from the saddle to the new line of the button. I used a rasp to thin down the thickness of the stem as well. I wanted a graceful flow to the taper of the blade of the stem so I worked it until it was thinner on both the top and bottom sides of the stem from the saddle to the button.

The next series of seven photos show the gradual transformation of the thick and chunky stem after I had first cut the button to the sleeker look of the stem after the file work. I continue to shape the blade with the needle files until the flow looked right and the edges of the stem were tapered with the line of the diamond saddle.

I reshaped the slot in the button with the needle files into an oval and opened up the airway into a funnel into the blade of the stem. I sanded the end of the button and the opened slot with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the airway.

I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper and to give shape and form to the button. The next series of four photos show the shortened and reshaped stem. The length now matches the proportion of the pipe and the angle of the bend and the shape of the button are finished. All that remains is to continue to sand and polish the stem.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to remove the scratches and fine tune the shape of the stem. Each grit of pad gave a more refined look to the newly formed stem and button.

I sanded the bowl with the micromesh sanding pads at the same time as the stem and when finished I restained and flamed the bowl with the dark brown aniline stain until the coverage was better than previously. I buffed the pipe and the stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing wheel to bring up the finished shine. The final photos below show the finished pipe. It is finished and ready for its inaugural smoke.

I have included some pictures of the pair of tiny pipes that I restemmed – the little Rhodesian and now the little bulldog. They make a nice pair of little pipes.

A Complete Reworking of a Zettervig Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was chatting with a friend on one of the pipe forums that I frequent and he asked me about restemming an older 60’s vintage Zettervig freehand for him. I had a couple of stem possibilities sitting here so I figured why not. He sent the following pictures to show how the previous owner had pressed a Dr. Grabow metal mortise into the mortise of the Zettervig and then cut back a Grabow screw on tenon and added a metal washer as a spacer and screwed in the Grabow stem. He had reamed the pipe and done an internal cleaning before he sent it to me. But the externals looked pretty much the same as it does in the photos below. The plateau on the shank end was dirty and faded and the plateau on the rim was the same with a buildup tars that made the crevices and grooves in the plateau almost non-existent. It too was faded and worn looking.

I had no idea about the brand and not read anything about it. I did a bit of digging to see what I could learn about it. I am always curious about learning about brands that are unfamiliar to me. The following comes from Pipedia
“In the 1960’s and into the early 1970’s Ole Zettervig had a shop in Copenhagen, Denmark where he was carving high quality pipes equal to Stanwell, Larsen, Anne Julie, Thurmann, Bang and others. These early pipes were marked “Copenhagen” and are very collectible. He sold his shop at some point in the 70’s and moved to Kolding and continued to produce pipes as a hobby, but the quality of briar and workmanship is said to not equal the early production. The later pipes he now marked as Kobenhaven rather than Copenhagen, and these were sold by Ole at flea markets throughout Europe.” http://www.pipedia.org/wiki/Zettervig
When it arrived I drilled out the metal insert in the shank and cleaned up the shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I then sorted through my stems and found several possibilities. I sent him the following two photos of the stem options and he chose the one that is inserted in the pipe. It actually came from a Danish Freehand that I had here and restored. I like less chunky stems so this one went to the parts bin. He liked it so it was the stem that I would work on for this pipe.

I gave the pipe a cleanup reaming with the PipNet reamer and cleaned out the shank one last time. I scrubbed the bowl and the plateau on the shank and rim with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a brass tire brush to break away the tarry buildup. I rinsed it under running water to remove the soap. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the remaining finish and then sanded the bowl and the shank with micromesh sanding pads 1500-2400 grit to polish the minute scratches that were present. I stained the plateau portions of the pipe with a black aniline stain and then wiped them down with a cotton pad wetted with Everclear to give the black a little transparency. I gave the rim and shank end a light buff with White Diamond. The newly stained plateau is visible in the photos below.

I also stained the bowl with an oxblood aniline stain. I applied and flamed it and reapplied and reflamed until I had the coverage that I wanted on this pipe. The photo below gives a side view of the pipe.

I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond. I then took it back to the work bench and sanded the stem and the bowl with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to give the finish on the stem and bowl a deep shine. Once I had finished that I took to the buffer and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and shine it even more. The finished pipe is in the photos below. It is now on its way back to its owner.

A Tiny Rhodesian Restored and Restemmed

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Here is another pipe from the bottom of the refurbishment box. It is a little Rhodesian that I had ignored for a while. It measures 4 3/8 inches long stem included. The bowl is 1 ¾ inches long and 1 inch tall. The inner diameter of the bowl is ½ inch and the bowl depth is ¾ inch. The bowl was in pretty decent shape and was unsmoked. There was a fill on the left side of the bowl and a slight divot on the shank next to the bowl. The end of the shank had some pretty deep nicks in it and would make a tight fit between stem and shank impossible. Half the battle in restemming these small pipes is finding a stem that will work and then turning the tenon to fit the small mortise. This one was no exception. I had a stem that would work it was 2 5/8 inches long and was made out of nylon. It was an old WDC pipe stem. The shoulders were well rounded and the tenon was short.

I reduced the diameter of the tenon with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I laid the sanding drum against the surface of the tenon and let it ride around the tenon until the diameter was close. Then I sanded it until the fit was snug. The mortise was not that deep due to the size of the pipe so I needed to shorten the tenon to the same depth as the mortise. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to achieve that as well.

Once I had a good tight fit on the stem I sanded down the bowl and wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish. I pressure fit a small nickel band on the shank to provide a smooth transition between the bowl and stem and to cover the deep nicks or gouges on the end of the shank. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess material on the diameter and make a good fit against the end of the tenon.

I sanded the area around the divot in the shank and cleaned it with acetone. I then filled the divot with clear superglue and sanded it again once the glue had dried. I wanted to have a smooth transition between the bowl and shank without the divot showing. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge. I also sanded the stem at the same time and then wiped the entirety down with acetone.

I sanded the bowl and the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. When finished I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then took it to the buffer and lightly buffed the stem with White Diamond. I say lightly because I have learned that a heavy hand on the buffer will make a mess out of a nylon stem and you will have to start over with the sanding process.

I took the pipe back to the worktable and stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed the pipe several times until I had an even coverage on the sanded areas and they blended in well with the rest of the pipe.

I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it a top coat of oxblood stain. I have found that the combination of the two stains helps hide the fills that were present as well as the repairs that had been done with superglue.

I buffed the entire pipe again with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring the shine out on the pipe. In order to help you appreciate the small size of the pipe I have included the next two photos. The top pipe in the photos is group 4 sized. In contrast, the tiny Rhodesian is a group 1.

The finished pipe is pictured below and I think it will be a nice little flake pipe for the Virginia smokers in the lot.

I received two comments below about giving the stem a slight bend so this morning I did just that. Below is a photo of the new look! Thanks Greg and Chiz.

A New Look for an Italian Made Billiard – Restemmed and Reworked

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This is yet another bowl from the bottom of the box of pipes for refurbishing. This one is an Italian made no name basket pipe. The stamping merely says Imported Briar Italy. The finish was spotty and peeling from the bowl. It almost looked like a dark brown opaque stain coat and then a thick varnish coat over that. The bowl was badly caked, the shank was filthy and the rim caked and peeling. There were some large fills on the left side of the bowl that were coming out of the holes and were peeling around the edges. The bowl did not have a stem so I found one in my box of stems that fit with a little adjustment to the tenon.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. The bowl and shank smelled heavily of aromatics with a fruity overtone and I wanted to remove that so that the new owner could form a cake of his/her own choice.

The stem was too large in diameter at the stem shank junction. So I sanded it back with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I have found that a Dremel run a medium speed can be carefully used to take back the diameter of a stem to almost match the shank with the stem in the shank. Care must be exercised so as not to nick the briar of the shank with the sanding drum.

I took the pipe back to the work table and sanded it until it fit well with 220 grit sandpaper. I also decided to sand the shank with the sandpaper as well to achieve a good flow from shank to stem. I also wanted to remove the heavy black/brown finish on the pipe so removing it from the shank was not problematic.

Once I had sanded the transition smooth I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the remainder of the finish on the bowl.

After wiping it down I gave it a buff with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel to remove the remainder of the finish and give me an idea of what would still need to be done with the bowl.

I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge and then picked out the large broken fills on the left side of the bowl. I wiped it with acetone to clean it one more time before packing the fills with briar dust. I packed in the briar dust with a dental pick and then tamped it down with flat head tamper to make sure the pack was good and tight. I dripped some superglue gel into the briar dust and then more briar dust on top of the glue. I tamped it another time to get a good solid fill. I sanded the excess briar dust superglue mixture with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge.

I stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol as the undercoat on the pipe. I stained and flamed the stain repeatedly until the coverage was even and solid over the entire pipe. The patch on the side is still visible but in no longer flaking and falling out the fill. The surface remains slightly rough but I will continue to sand it before giving it another coat of stain.

I buffed the bowl with Red Tripoli and then with White Diamond in preparation for the next coat of stain. I sanded the fill area with a fine grit sanding sponge and then sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads 1500-2400 grit. I then restained the bowl with a oxblood stain as the second coat on the bowl. I applied it and flamed it until the coverage was even. Then buffed it with White Diamond.

During this second staining I removed the stem and examined the end of the shank and saw small hairline cracks in several places. They did not go through to the surface of the shank but they were troublesome enough to me that I decided to band the pipe. There were also several nicks in the outer edge of the shank that made a tight fit relatively impossible to attain. I heated a nickel band with a heat gun and pressure fit it in place on the shank. I had to reduce the tenon slightly to get a good fit on the stem. I also sanded the stem around the junction so that it would fit properly against the banded shank.

The fills still needed more work but for the time being I worked on the stem some more. I sanded it 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 and I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax.

I decided to do some more work on the areas of the fills. I sanded the areas of the fills down with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge. I then sanded the entire bowl and shank with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the finish. I wiped it down with a cotton pad and Everclear to remove the last of the finish and also the sanding grit. I used superglue to refill the fills and even out the surface and dips that still remained after the first reworking. I then sanded the spots with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and blend the fills into the surface of the bowl.

I stained the bowl with a 2:1 mixture of aniline dark brown stain and isopropyl alcohol. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and flamed it. I reapplied and reflamed it several times until I had a good even coverage on the bowl and shank.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond to smooth out the surface of the bowl and then gave it a top coat of oxblood stain. I wiped the stain on with a cotton pad and flamed it repeating the process until I was happy with the coverage on the bowl. I was much happier now with the fills as they were smooth to the touch and there were no more pits or divots in them.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond one more time. It brought a deep rich shine to the bowl and the stem. I then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish the pipe. The four photos below show the finished pipe. It is ready for someone to load it and fire it up. It should provide a reliable and lightweight pipe for someone’s rack.

Refurbishing and Restemming an Unsmoked Small Paneled Rhodesian

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I am scraping the bottom of the box for pipes to refurbish. It is clear that I am going to have to go on the hunt again soon. At the bottom of the box I have a few small/tiny pipe bowls that have come to me from a variety of sources. I believe this little one came from Mark Domingues as well. It is unsmoked and stemless. The bowl was in pretty fair shape though the finish coat was varnish of some sort. The stain was spotty under the varnish coat. There was one dominant fill on the left side of the bowl on one of the panels. The drilling is a bit of centre in the bottom of the bowl – slightly to the left of centre. The drilling was wide open and the draught on the bowl was very good. The bowl did not have a ring around the top before the bevel to the rim. It was a smooth transition. I have had several of these older Rhodesian and Bulldogs in the past and they generally had horn stems. This one did not have any stamping on it so I have no idea as to the maker. There was also no stem present. I had a smaller nylon stem in my box of stems that took very little work on the tenon to make for a snug fit in the shank.

Once the stem fit well in the shank I sanded the shank and stem to get a good smooth transition between stem and shank. I used 220 grit sandpaper to do the rough work and then used a medium grit sanding sponge to clean up the shank and stem. The stem had casting marks on both sides of the stem and also heavy tobacco stains around the button and in the slot. The airway was virtually clogged and I could barely get a straightened paper clip through before I worked on it with Everclear and bristle pipe cleaners.

I decided to sand the stain off the shank and rework the taper on the pipe from button to bowl. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess briar and nylon and smooth out the taper. What I wanted was a clean smooth line from button to bowl. The next four photos show the shank and the stem after sanding with the 220 grit sandpaper. The flow is smooth and even and the lines are very graceful. The casting marks are gone from both sides of the stem and the button is cleaned of the majority of the stains.

I wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the varnish finish and some of the stain on the bowl in order to make it easier to match the stain on the newly sanded shank and the bowl. I also sanded the bowl, shank and stem with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove scratches left behind by the sandpaper and to prepare the stem for sanding with micromesh sanding pads.

I sanded the entire pipe and stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem and the bowl with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded the bowl alone with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I did not want to make the briar to smooth to take a good coat of the stain.

I stained the bowl with a medium brown aniline stain mixed 2 parts stain with 1 part isopropyl alcohol to get the colour I wanted. I was going for more of a wash than a deep coat. I wanted the grain on the shank and bowl to come through the colour. I used a black permanent mark to draw grain marks on the two fills and to make it easier for the stain coat to blend in and hide the putty marks.

Once the stain was dry I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to give it a shine and then reinserted the stem and lightly buffed the stem with White Diamond as well. The nylon stems take a very soft touch or they are easily damaged. I gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax to protect them and then lightly buffed the pipe a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is pictured below. It is not a big pipe in any sense but should be a great flake pipe. The second photo below gives an idea of proportion by the inclusion of my hand with the pipe. The yellow nylon stem approximates the unique colour and look of the horn stem that must have originally graced this little bowl. The stem is thin and the new taper gives a very delicate look to the new pipe.

Repairing a Burned Through Bowl

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Blog by Steve Laug

There are many times I take on the challenge of repairing a pipe totally for the learning experience. When I begin working on it there is nothing of redeeming value in the pipe itself. It is not beautiful or worthy of keeping. Rather it provides a unique learning opportunity for me to work on a skill in my refurbishing hobby. The pipe below is exactly that kind of pipe. Mark Domigues sent it to me along with other bowls when I was working on the shank repair on his old Peterson pipe. It is a no name pipe with a rustication pattern that I did find particularly attractive. In fact I put off working on it as it just did not appeal to me. I can’t tell you how many times I picked the bowl up and carried it to the recycle bin (a bin I used for briar parts) and then carried it back to the “to be refurbished” box.

Finally, Monday the challenge called me. I took the bowl out of my box and looked it over. As I looked at it, the shape kind of grew on me. It is a brandy glass shape and the shank actually has a flare to it as well. The rustication is a bit striated but as I cleaned up the exterior it is a lot like tree bark. The stain is a contrast stain – a black undercoat in the grooves and a brown top coat. It was worn but could be salvaged. The shank stem junction was also worn but a band would clean up that part of the pipe. The interior bowl sides were clean and solid. The rim was in good shape. But the glaring problem is visible in the photo below – a large, ½ inch diameter burnout on the flat bottom of the pipe. The surrounding briar was solid. The burnout was very focused. The burn did not extend into the rest of the bottom of the pipe. In fact the wood around the edges of the hole was clean and solid. There was none of the darkening around edges of the burnout or on the bottom of the bowl. It looked like it might be a great candidate for practicing a repair. I have done one other repair on a burn out which involved inserting a briar plug and this looked like it was another candidate for that repair. The difference in this one was the solidness of the briar around the hole.

As I worked up the chutzpah to tackle this repair I decided to work on the shank. I sanded the shank smooth in preparation for the band. I like to have a smooth surface under the band rather than a rusticated pattern. I find it gives a good smooth fit to the band. I sanded out the rustication to the width of a nickel band. Once it was sanded smooth, I heated a band over a heat gun and then pressed it into place. I liked the finished look of the band.

I am sure that you can tell at this point that I am procrastinating in addressing the main issue of the bowl with all of the other random work on the pipe but that went on a little longer. I found a stem in my stem box that fit the shank quite well. The mortise had originally had a screw in fitment so it was threaded. The threads were well worn so I decided to use a regular style push stem. I sanded the tenon to get a good tight fit on the stem and then sanded the stem to get a good fit against the shank and band. The slight bend in the stem looked good but it was a bit crooked so I would address that issue later. The finished look of the stem and band with the bowl was quite nice…maybe there was something redeemable about the bowl after all.

I have a few pieces of scrap briar that I have scavenged from pipe maker friends that I had put away for this kind of repair. So I found one that had enough briar left that I could carve it into a plug for the bottom of the bowl. I trimmed it with a hack saw to reduce the size of the plug.

In the first photo below you can see what the hole looked like after I had cleaned it up with a pick and Everclear. I had also reamed the inside of the bowl to remove all of the cake from the sides and the bottom of the bowl. The second photo shows the hole after I had drilled it out. I used a cordless drill with a ½ inch drill bit to round out the damage area and remove any further damage around the burnout. I chose the ½ inch bit as that was the diameter of the hole at the widest part of the hole.

I shaped the briar plug with a Dremel and sanding drum. The next series of photos show the progress of the shaping. I took the rough briar from a wedge to a circular plug and then shortened it to a round plug. I shaped a cap on the plug to the inner diameter of the bowl. Also originally I envisioned pushing the plug through from the inside of the bowl and then cutting off the portion that extended beyond the bottom of the bowl. I would then redrill the airway to finish the repair.

I continued to reduce the diameter of the plug until it was the same size as the hole in the bowl. The inside bowl bottom was hard to match with the cap of the plug. I continued to shape it until it was cup shaped. It seemed no matter how I shaped it however, it would not fit in the bowl bottom as the burnout was not centered in the bowl bottom. It was toward the front of the bowl bottom. I finally decided to use a different tact. I would forgo inserting it from the inside and go the other direction. I would insert it from the outside in. I measured the thickness of the bowl bottom (which was actually in good shape other than the burned portion). I then shortened the plug until it was relatively flush with the bottom of the airway. I coated the plug with superglue gel which gives me a bit more time before it sets and pushed it into the drilled hole. I pressed it against the table top to get the plug in place solidly.

Once the glue set I sanded away the excess briar with a Dremel to match the surface of the bowl. I was not worried about the rustication as I would duplicate that after I finished working the plug into place. The next two photos show the plug and the bowl surface are smooth and the plug is tightly in place.

The next photo shows the interior of the bowl. The plug is even with the entrance of the airway. There is difference in bowl depth around the left edge. I plan to give the bottom of the bowl a thick coating of pipe mud to both protect the new plug and to even out the slight trough on the left front edge of the plug.

I rusticated the bottom of the bowl with the Dremel to match the tree bark look of the rustication on the bowl (Photo 1 below). I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and then also gave the bottom of the bowl a second coat with black stain to emulate the effect of the stain coat on the rest of the bowl (Photos 2 and 3 below).

I stained the rest of the bowl with the dark brown stain to freshen it up and blend in the stain on the bottom of the bowl. I buffed it with red Tripoli and White Diamond to raise a shine and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax on the buffer. The finished exterior is visible in the first close up below and the following four photos of the pipe.

With the repair finished on the exterior of the pipe I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to clean up the oxidation and scratches on the vulcanite. I heated the stem with a heat gun to straighten it and then rebent it over a rolling-pin to give it a slight bend. I set the bend under cool water and then gave the stem a quick buff with Tripoli before taking it back to the work table to further sand the stem.

I continued to sand the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to bring a shine to the vulcanite. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. When I finished sanding with the pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry then buffed it with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax.

With the externals repaired and finished it was time to make up some pipe mud to coat the bottom of the bowl and give a protective coat over the bowl plug. I sacrificed a nice little Cohiba Cuban cigar for the purpose of making the mud of the ash. When the cigar was finished I had a nice bowl of clean ash.

I mixed the ash with a small amount of water to make a paste. I inserted a pipe cleaner into the airway and then applied it to the bottom of the bowl, tamping it into the crevices around the plug and building up the bowl bottom. As the pipe mud dried I added additional layers of mud to the bottom of the bowl and around the lower sides of the bowl. The next series of three photos show the progressive build up of the mud in the bottom of the bowl.

When the mud had dried to touch I buffed the pipe a final time with White Diamond and then gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax to protect and give it a shine. I then used a clean flannel buff for the final buffing. The restored pipe is pictured below. I will let the pipe mud cure and harden for a few days before loading up the pipe and smoking the inaugural bowl.