Tag Archives: pipe refurbishing

Renewed Brigham One Dot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This old Brigham One Dot was on the shelf at a Movie Studio Clearance Store – they sell old set items and materials from movies and television shows. Over the years I have found quite a few nice old pipes there for sale at a low price. I paid $12 for this one. From the photos below you can see its condition clearly. The stem was very oxidized and worse at the button end. I think that it probably had a rubber bit protector on it and it was cut off or fell of when they put it up for sale. The rustication was still crisp and sharp. The stain had faded from the top to about mid bowl and would need to be restained. The rim was tarred but not dented or damaged. The inside of the bowl was caked with an uneven cake that smelled of sweet aromatics.

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I reamed the bowl and cleaned the shank and inside of the stem with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and alcohol. I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl and rim with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and the tars on the rim. I have used oil soap for a long time now on the surface of pipes and found that it works best undiluted. I rub it on and rub it off. On the rim I use a soft bristle tooth brush to scrub the tars off. On this pipe since I was restaining it anyway I did not care about losing a bit of the stain or finish in the process. I finished cleaning the rim with an 1800 grit micromesh pad. I then restained it to match the colour of the smooth patch on the underside. I gave it a quick light buff with White Diamond to polish the stain.

I had put the stem in a bath of Oxyclean and hot water and let it soak while I was working on the bowl. I removed it and wiped it down and resoaked it. After the second soak I sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and then 1500-6000 grit micromesh pads to polish it. The Brighams have an aluminum shank that holds the hard rock maple filter tube. The filter tube was shot so I used a new one. The aluminum was tarry so it needed cleaning and a polish with 0000 steel wool. (The Brigham system is pictured in the graphic below.)

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When the aluminum was clean and polished I put the pipe back together took it to the buffer and gave the stem a buff with Tripoli to take off the remnant of oxidization. Then I used some White Diamond on it to give it a clean polish. I finished buffing the whole pipe lightly with carnauba wax. The finished pipe is pictured below.

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BBB Diamond shank billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

This older BBB Diamond Shank billiard was a pleasure to bring back to life. I love the older BBBs and this one has a place in my collection. It is only stamped BBB in the diamond on both the shank and the stem. There are no shape numbers of other features. I have no idea on what its age is but love the shape. The diamond shank and the way it flows into the bowl make it a unique among my BBB billiards. It is stained in a rich oxblood colour and it is a clean little pipe. When I picked it up off EBay it appeared to be pretty clean other than a bit of oxidation on the stem. Sure enough, when it arrived it was very clean. The bowl only needed a slight ream to be ready to smoke. I wiped down the outside of the bowl with a damp soft cloth dipped in Murphy’s Oil soap lightly so as not to disturb the finish but remove the grime. The top had some darkening and tar that came off easily with the Murphy’s Soap. I coated the bowl with several coats of carnauba wax and set it aside.

To deal with the oxidation on the stem I sanded it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper dipped in water to give it a bite. I finished that with micromesh pads – 1500, 1800, 2400, 4000 and then I took it to the buffer for Tripoli and a bit of White Diamond before giving it several coats of carnauba wax. It has a wide open bowl and draw.

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Refurb on an old Morell Mackenzie Bent

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Blog by Steve Laug

Yes a Morell Mackenzie. That is how the pipe is stamped and I had no idea what I was dealing with. I have a thing for collecting late 1800 and early 1900 pipes so when this one came up on EBay I just naturally hit the bid button. When it arrived I decided to do a bit of research on it and uncovered the following information. This is taken from a paper on BBB pipes by Jacques Cole:

“Probably one of the first filter pipes (paper filter) was the BBB “Sir Morell Mackenzie‘. That this pipe was made before 1900 is shown by a letter dated August 27, 1891 from Sir Morell Mackenzie regarding these models with longer mouthpieces. The brand survived into the 1960s.”

That is pretty clear information and fascinating as well. I had no idea of the time frame of the introduction of the paper filter in pipes. But this is a nice little pipe. It has the orific button on the mouthpiece (the round hole instead of the slotted airway). It is also a military mount stem. Inside there is a reservoir for the paper filter to sit in. It has a sterling silver shank cap and is stamped Morell Mackenzie. The briar is a nice flame grain and the bowl is well done and well drilled.

I cleaned out the reservoir and the airway to the bowl. Took a bit as I had to work a paper clip through the airway and then a shank brush and finally bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners. The shank and reservoir are now clean!! The stem was an interesting proposition. It was pretty clean as it is built to hold the other end of the paper filter. I cleaned and swabbed it out. The stem needed to be sanded to remove tooth chatter and oxidation. Then I sanded with micromesh pads and buff with Tripoli, white diamond and finally carnauba.

Here are pictures of the pipe before the cleanup:

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Here it is after the refurbishing

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Refurb on an old AD pipe from 1909

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Blog by Steve Laug

I finished refurbishing this old timer. I love the looks of it and wanted to share it with you all. It is a bit of a mystery in that it has no stamping on the bowl. The only marking is a hallmark that dates it to 1909 and the letters stamped in the silver of the band AD. The pipe is a cased little thing – just 4 inches long. The stem has a bone tenon but a slotted button instead of the orific hole on most pipes of that era. The ivory band is part of the stem and it inserts into the metal band. The bowl is stained an oxblood red. I reamed and cleaned bowl and shank. I cleaned the threads and the inside of the stem with a shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and fluffy cleaners. The silver band was polished with tarnish cleaner and a silver cloth. The stem was sanded to remove chatter and then I used Micromesh pads 1500,1800, 2400,3200 4000 and buffed with Tripoli and White Diamond. I rubbed down the case with some leather renewer and it definitely looks better.

The book, Who Made that Pipe attributes the AD stamping to Alfred Dunhill. The Silver Hallmarks site dates it as Birmingham Silver 1909 and the Makers Marks identify the work as being done by Arthur Downing Ltd. That sounds correct to me. The final attachment photo is the clip from the Hallmarks Site. So the mystery remains – is it a Dunhill or is it a nice older pipe banded by Arthur Downing Ltd? Who knows but it smokes great.

Here are the pictures of the pipe before I worked on it
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Here are some pictures of the finished pipe.
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And here is a picture of the logo on the silver band as found on the British Hallmarks site. It matches the stamping on the silver band exactly.
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Refurbed Piece of pipe smoking history – A Brittish Buttner Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked this pipe up on Ebay awhile back solely for my historical interest in this kind of pipe. I am drawn to creative pipe manufacturers and the search for a drier and cooler smoke. It is that interest that attracted me to the gadgetry of the British Buttner pipes. This is the second one that I have purchased on Ebay. The first one is older (patent is earlier)and has a yellow Bakelite stem and is a pot in terms of shape. I have also collected a Bakelite canister that holds an extra clay insert bowl. I saw this one and added it to the collection. It looks like a briar billiard but is not. It is a Bakelite bowl and Vulcanite stem. The tenon is long and extends to the air hole in the bowl. There is a clay insert that sits in the bottom of the Bakelite bowl. This one has a few chips out of it but is still workable. The rim unscrews and holds clay bowl (much like a gourd calabash. It is mounted on the rim and screws into the bowl. I cleaned the inside of all three parts and cleaned the stem and shank. I have polished it with wax and since have smoked it several times. It is a very different smoke – very similar to a calabash smoke; very cool and dry.

Here are some pictures of it taken apart before cleaning:

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Here it is cleaned and polished.

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Here are some pictures of the older British Buttner

 

Refurbed Breezewood Acorn

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I picked this old timer up in the ebay purchase that included the Bertrams author. It was almost black it was so dirty. It is incredibly light weight. Once I got the grime off I could see a wee bit of the stamping left and it read Breezewood. I reamed and cleaned the inside. The stem is a screw mount like the old Kaywoodies. It has been clipped of stinger contraption but it is a good open draw. I cleaned the stem and used the micromesh sanding disks on it. The bowl was soaked in an alcohol bath to remove the finish and grime and then sanded with 220, 400, 600 sand paper and then micromesh 1800, 2400, and 4000 grit pads. Here are the before and after shots. Below the pictures I have posted a write up of the history of Breezewood pipes by the late Mike Leverette (a friend and historian of things pipe).

The pipe is pictured in the top photo below of the two pipes.

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Here is a series of photos of the refurbished pipe.

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Here are some informational ads on Breezewood pipes

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I wanted to include this brief article by Mike Leverette as it gives background history that is not commonly known or available regarding these early alternatives to briar that came out during the war years.

“There were at least three pipe brands made from the Mountain Laurel; Trapwell, Breezewood and Custombilt. Trapwell pipes were made by D & P Pipe Works beginning on or before 1943. D & P Pipe Works, owned by D. P. Levitas (Ross 2005), began making pipes in 1938 (Wilczak and Colwell 1997) probably in New York City but relocated to Sparta, Alleghany County, North Carolina in 1943 (Sparta/Alleghany CoC 2006), in order to be closer to the huge population of Mountain Laurel in the area. Later, this company changed their name to Sparta Pipe Works and still later to Sparta Industries. I have one Trapwell World’s Best Briar pipe in my collection, a small billiard, and here again; it is a great little smoker. World’s Best Briar was their marketing ploy for Mountain Laurel. Trapwell’s ‘trap’ is a highly complicated condensing system when compared to most regular metal condensers. After the war, Trapwell pipes were made from regular briar wood, or “imported briar” until their demise.

According to a 1942 Life magazine advertisement, Breezewood pipes were made by The Breezewood Pipe Company, located at 630 Fifth Avenue, New York City, though Wilczak and Colwell state the Breezewood pipes were made by Kaufmann Brothers & Bondy (KB&B) beginning in 1941 (Wilczak and Colwell 1997). The Breezewood Pipe Company may have been a subsidiary of KB&B. To quote the 1942 Life magazine advertisement; “There, deep in the Great Smoky Mountains, they found it – found an uncharted virgin forest of burls, great old burls that had been growing there uncounted years. And from these old burls, pipes of astonishing lightness of weight are made – their name: Breezewood.”

At the present time, this is all I have been able to find on the history of Breezewood pipes. Here again, the one Breezewood pipe, a small billiard, I have in my collection is a great little smoker. I am not overly fond of metal condensers and this Breezewood pipe has a simple tube condenser similar to Dunhill’s “inner tube”.

 

Fitting a pipe with a new stem – photo essay

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this pipe bowl – a Pete 207 – an early Peterson from the late 40s. It was in need of a stem. I have a couple of cans of stems that are precast blanks. They need to have the tenons turned to make them fit correctly.

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I have a PIMO tenon turning tool like the one pictured in the diagram below. I have to drill the stems to fit the guide pin as they are generally very small. Once that is done with a bit on my cordless drill I then put it on the tenon tool and adjust the carbide cutter to the diameter tenon I want to cut. I always start large and work my way down. I have found that trying to cut too much off at once causes the tenon to chip or break. So I start large and work my way down until it fits the mortise. I found this YouTube link that gives a video presentation of the process so I have included that as well for your information http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drKxzteEEPk A quick look at the video will show you the process I use in turning the tenons. I generally turn the tenon until it is close to fitting and then finish the fit by hand. I have found it is better to proceed by hand from that point so as I don’t take off too much of the vulcanite and have a loose fit on the tenon. I will show that process from the point the tenon has been fit in this pictorial essay.

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Below is a stem blank that I picked up online from Pipe Makers Emporium. I have several coffee cans full of different sizes of blanks. I sort through them to find one that is close to the outside diameter of the shank. I find that it is not too difficult to get the two to match with a lot of sanding and fine work.

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Below is a picture of the bowl prepped and ready for the new stem. I cleaned the top and polished the silver band as I want nothing in the way of a tight fit for the stem. You will also notice in the photo that the tenon is partially turned for a fit. I stopped at this point to show the process. The large portion still remaining on the tenon shows the first turn of the tool to take off the first portion of vulcanite. I keep the tool turning so that the carbide blade removes the face of the stem as well so that the seat will be straight and flush at the union of stem and shank. I find that when I do this at the beginning of the turn it give a good clean finish. The step down in the tenon shows the next portion removed. I have adjusted the tool to take off that portion. After this photo I finished turning the tenon.

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The PIMO tenon tool took a bit of work for me to figure out the adjustments as I purchased the tool second hand without the instructions. The fellow I bought it from gave me some quick lessons on how to adjust it. He even threw in the hex keys!! So needless to say, I learned by trial and error how to adjust the cutting head and keep it straight for a straight cylinder cut on the tenon. Since then I have it has been pointed out to me that Kurt Huhn of Pipe Makers Forums has noted the tricks I learned the hard way.

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I will try to capture the trick in my own words, combining what I have learned the hard way with Kurt’s recommendations. The first step in the process is to adjust the cutting head. Start by removing small portions at a time. To deep a cut makes the cutter wobble and give an uneven tenon. To adjust the cutting head insert the adjustment hex key (larger hex screw on the tool) and the lock key (smaller hex screw) into their set screws. Do not turn them, just insert them. Push in lightly on the adjusting key and pull up slightly. Loosen the lock key a quarter or half turn. While maintaining the up and in pressure on the adjusting key turn it in increments of a half turn (think half hour on a clock). With steady pressure on it by pulling it up, the arm with the carbide cutting head is not loose and wiggling as it is adjusted. If it is loose while adjusting it, you will get non-cylindrical tenons regardless of the number of turns from zero. Do not let go of the adjusting key, tighten the lock key while the pressure remains on the adjusting key. Pull the adjusting key straight out, being careful not to turn or press down on it. Trim the stem and repeat as you need to get a good tight fit on the tenon.

The next sequence of photos shows the tenon finished and the fit clean and tight. I hold it up to the light to make sure that there is no light showing between the stem and shank. Also note the Dremel with the sanding drum in the photo. I use that to bring the outside diameter of the stem to a close match to the shank. I run the Dremel at the middle speed to allow me more control of the tip as I take off material. If I run it too fast I find that it takes off too much. Too slow and it leaves a chunky beat up finish that takes a lot of sanding to smooth out. As can be seen from the photos there is not much material that needs to be removed for a smooth fit.

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In the photos above I have used the Dremel and removed material to the point that the stem and the shank are almost level. I did it in stages with the stem on the shank and rotating the pipe to keep the perspective round and even. Once I got it to the stage above I move to my table and continue the rest of the work by hand. Sand paper in a variety of grades starting with 180 allows me to work the remainder of the material off and to get the scratches and grooves from the Dremel worked out of the stem.

Each of the next seven photos shows the progress of the stem toward the finished product with the different sand papers. Once I have removed the majority of scratches and grooves left by the Dremel with the 180 grit (pictures 1 &2) I move on to using 220 grit and 240 grit to take down more material. Care must be exercised to not scratch the band or the shank. The idea is to leave the shank exactly like it was without scratches or marks (pictures 3,4,5).
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Pictures 6, 7 & 8 show the stem after using 1600 grit wet dry sandpaper. Each sanding step removes more material and evens the flow of the stem to shank. It also removes scratches and prepares the stem for the finish sanding.

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The last four pictures show the pipe after sanding with micromesh pads – 1800, 2400 and 4000 grit. Generally each of the pads progressively polishes the stem. Any places that still show scratches send the stem back to the 600 wet dry sanding or even further depending on the depth of the scratches. When the polish is clean and smooth I take the stems to my buffer and buff with white diamond that raises a deep reflective finish on the stems.

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My Wife Says that I am a Scavenger…

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Looking at the picture below, you might agree with her and think that I have lost whatever was left of what few brain cells that remain in my 57 year old head. My wife and daughters are likely convinced that this is closer to the truth than I care to admit.  I will even agree that while both you and they may be correct, you need to understand that I intentionally bid on and won this lot from EBay recently. While nobody else wanted the lot I did!

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I just received them in the mail today. They came well packaged and labelled. In fact they were better packed than virtually every other pipe I have ever received from EBay shippers. The box was a solid 2”x4”x8” and stuffed with paper packing materials. The stems and pipes were then bagged and wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed in among the packing papers. It was as if the seller was trying to protect a rare treasure. I opened the box and cut the tape on the packaging to expose the pipes inside. Five of the six pipes had cracked bowls and the sixth had a cracked shank and stuck stem. The bag included 9 extra stems that were actually quite old and three of those were military bits for spigot style pipes. The five cracked pipes were admittedly firewood and beyond repair.  The sixth one, with the split shank, which was the cleanest of all, could be repaired with glue and a band. I set it aside for a rustication project. In examining the split bowls I noted that they all had the same problem – a huge amount of cake. I am talking about cake so thick that you can barely stand a pipe nail spoon end down in some of the bowls. The cake had erupted from the tops of the bowls and had exerted so much pressure that the bowls were split in multiple places, as you can see in the picture below. It is a shame really as two of them, the ones with the stems on in the picture below, are opera pipes with oval bowls.

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Now you might wonder why I would purchase this lot. It was not a surprise or a disappointment to me, after opening the box, because I had asked enough questions of the seller to know exactly what I was getting. I had been the sole bidder, no other competitors for the lot to drive the bid higher.  In the past, when no one else bid, it used to bother me because I asked myself what I was missing. You see I was not bidding on the pipes.  I could care less about these pieces of firewood that were beyond redemption. What I wanted in the lot were the older stems and I bid accordingly, and I ended up with 15 stems, once I took the pipes apart, added the stems from the lot and found an extra one in the box.  I could not have been happier because I prefer to use stems from a similar era to re-stem the older pipe bowls that I have. These stems provide me with a solid batch of stems and in the next few months they will have new bowls attached to them. The beauty of this lot is that none of the stems were chewed or gnawed, and only one has a very repairable tooth mark. In this sense the old stems were my real and intended acquisitions.

I am a scavenger of pipe parts. It only is a matter of perspective that enables one to see beyond burned out unsalvageable shells of pipes and identify the many salvageable parts they contain. There are always parts on the worst of them that I reuse – stems, bands, logos, etc. that can be scavenged and re-used.  I have a box of these parts that has come in handy more times than I can remember. But another good part of the lot is that once I clean up the older briar some of the shanks could provide the base for tampers and such. The rest may well go in the fire pit this summer but you never know. Part of my hunting through thrift shops, rummage sales, garage sales, and Craig’s List for pipes always includes the element of hunting for pipe parts. I have scavenged old broken KWs and Yello Boles and kept the stems to use on sister pipes. I have cleaned up chewed KW and GBD stems so that I could remove the logos and medallions and re-inserted them on new stems or stems missing the logos. Even these little parts are always removable and reusable. It only takes eyes to see the possibilities in old castoffs.

Only one final word… if you begin to pick up my scavenging ways make sure to leave some parts around for me. Also if you need someone to blame for your newly adopted bad habit I am more than willing to take the blame… for a small price – say a few stems and parts. That is it for now I am off to take apart those old pipes and strip them down.

 

Refurbed Social by Comoy’s

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This afternoon late the postie delivered the Social pipe made by Comoy’s that I picked up off Ebay a few weeks ago. I took it apart and went to work. The bowl was pretty caked and broken up inside… cake falling off the walls. The The top was tarred. I reamed and cleaned it. Interestingly this is an old timer. It has the old orific button as I show in one of the before shots of the stem. It has some kind of reservoir between then end of the stepped tenon and the the airway into the bowl. It is below the airway and the tenon is drilled with the airway high to match up.

I put the bowl in an alcohol bath and cleaned it up. The mess came off really well. I then sanded the bowl with 600, 1800, 2400 and 4000 grit and then restained it with a medium brown stain. The Stem was soaking in Oxyclean and when I removed it I cleaned the grime off of it. It was a bit oxidized so that came off no problem. I then buffed the entirety with white diamond and then Carnuba. Here are the before shots:

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You will note there are some pretty deep dents in the side of the bowl. These came out a bit but they remain as character marks. There were some on the underside of the shank as well. They too remain.

After refurbishing:

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Refurbed and old timer – WDC Bakelite

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I finished up a pipe that is stamped WDC in a triangle and Bakelite on the shank. The bowl is briar and by the way the stem is put together it is clear that it is an old timer. It has a screw mount stem with a bone tenon and the red Bakelite stem has an orific button.

The bowl was caked and had cob webs! (no kidding). The bowl and shank were cleaned and reamed as usual. The stem had bite marks and needed to be sanded and then finished with micro-mesh pads and finally a trip to the buffer and Tripoli and White Diamond. The bowl was re-stained with cherry and then buffed and polished. The stem was over turned a bit so heated the tenon water and it seemed to expand (?) a bit and loosen so I was able to straighten it out on the shank and it fit perfectly. I wonder if on these old bone tenons that the hot water may actually expand them a bit – not sure how that works but it certainly worked with both of the ones I did today.

Thanks for looking and all of your comments. It made for a great day and it is good to look back and see the work completed today!

Before:

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After:

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