Tag Archives: pipe restemming

Replacing a Broken Tenon and Repairing a Cracked Shank on an Old KBB Yello Bole Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

Troy Wilburn and I have been corresponding for a few months now about pipe restoring and the fun of the hobby. He has posted some of his work here so he is no stranger to pipe restoration. I had not heard from him for a while so I sent him and email to check on him. I know he loves the older Yello Bole pipes and I wondered if he had worked on any recently. I am including a portion of the email he sent me in response to mine. He wrote:

“Funny thing you have contacted me as I do have a couple of Yello Boles I need tenon repairs on. One is an old favorite of mine that snapped off. I have tried to repair it and it failed. The other is an odd shaped NOS (I can’t find the shape on any KW chart. It’s a large bowl billiard with a short oval shank and short straight stem) pipe that I purchased with a broken tenon already but I can’t get the broken piece out (it’s really stuck!) So it might need to be drilled out and a new tenon made, I don’t know.”

“Tenon repair is something I’m not that experienced on and they are both very nice old KBB YBs and would like nice repairs done on them, so I was thinking about sending them to someone more experienced in those types of repairs. I was gonna ask Ed but I know he is always swamped with projects, so I was thinking about asking you if you would be interested in repairing them for me…”

I replied that I would gladly have a look and them and give them a go if they were something that I could fix. When they arrived last week I unpacked the box that Troy sent. I have to tell you he did a masterful job of packing these old pipes. They were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and then placed in small plastic containers. Then the plastic containers were put in bubble wrap and put in a box. There was no movement or rattle in that package.

When I took the pipes out I could see what Troy was talking about. The little odd shaped NOS Canadian was strange. It had a metal tenon. Upon observation I could see that someone had left the broken tenon in the shank and then made a metal tenon that slipped inside the broken tenon. Deep in the shank was the stinger rattling around free in the airway between the broken tenon and the bowl. The billiard that I chose to work on first was another matter. I think Troy tried to epoxy the stem on the tenon but it did not hold. The face of the stem was spotty with glue. The shank on the pipe was clean but I did not spend too much time checking it out to see if there were cracks or problems. Even though the tenon snapped I just by passed my normal observation and went to work. That was a decision I would regret shortly… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet.

I faced the surface of the stem and smoothed out the broken area on a topping board. I started with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway and worked my way up to a large enough drill bit that I could turn a tap into it to thread it for the new threaded tenon. This has to be done very slowly and carefully to not drill to deeply into the stem or to angle things so that the tenon does not sit straight in the shank once it is in place. The stem had some spots of glue on the surface and some marks around the end where the tenon had snapped off that would need to be addressed once I got to that point. I generally have a few threaded tenons to work with around here. Wouldn’t you know it all of my ¼ inch tenons were gone and all I had left were these large ½ inch ones. It would have to work for this repair. I used a tap to thread the newly drilled stem. I fit the tenon in place and twisted it down until it sat flat against the stem. I then twisted it free and put some glue on the threads and twisted the new tenon into the stem. I cleaned up the excess glue around the junction so that the fit of the tenon was smooth and tight. Once the glue set in place I set up my PIMO Tenon Turning tool on my cordless drill and took down the tenon slowly until I had removed enough of the excess Delrin to get it close to a fit. Because there are no micro adjustments on the tenon turning tool I always get as close as possible with the tool and then use the Dremel and sanding drum and to strip it more and then finish it by hand with sandpaper. I love the way the Delrin spins off the cutter on the tool. Here is the new tenon sitting among the Delrin scraps ready to take to the Dremel and then hand sand. I used the Dremel to take the tenon down some more. I then sanded it by hand until the size was the same as the shank. When I slid it in place the fit was perfect. I was happy to have finished what seemed to be an easy repair. I slipped the stem out of the shank to clean and polish the tenon. When I slid it back in place the sound that makes me cringe was heard. It was just a slight low pop. I removed the stem and could see a small crack had either appeared on the shank with the new tenon in place or the new tenon had made the crack appear. I will never know for sure as I did not check it before. I cleaned off that area of the shank and examined the crack. It was just under ½ long and curved up through the stamping on the shank. I was sick.

I wrote Troy a quick email and told him the situation as it stood – great fitting stem, repaired tenon and now a cracked shank. I asked if it was cracked before or if I had cracked it. He was not sure either. Ah well no matter. I was hoping he would confirm that it was previously cracked but he didn’t know. I asked about banding the shank and he said he would rather not as he did not like bands. But if I had to a thin one would do. The problem was twofold – I did not have a thin band and a thin one would not fix the crack. I suggested that maybe I could do an internal repair and thin down the new tenon to fit inside of the tube that would be used to repair the shank. He said to go for it and see what I could do.

So I did a bit of looking through my parts bin to see if I could find either a piece of Delrin tube that I could drill and fit or a piece of metal that would work for the repair. I found I had a metal tube that would work. I cut off a piece the length of the mortise. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to roughen the surface of the tube and to reduce the diameter slightly. I wanted a good snug fit in the shank but did not want to open the crack or crack it further. I spread the crack slightly and put super glue in it and clamped it until it set.

While it was drying I used the Dremel to reduce the diameter of the tenon until it would fit inside of the metal tube. I figured it would be easier to do that fitting with the tube out of the shank than when it was inserted in the cracked shank. Again I sanded with the Dremel and then finished by hand sanding until the fit was a nice snug fit with the tenon all the way into the tube.

I sanded and smoothed the ends of the tube and made sure that the surface was rough enough to bond to the inside of the mortise. I roughened the walls of the mortise with a dental pick so that it was scored. I wanted to make both surfaces rough enough for the glue to bond to and make the tube secure in the shank. It would have to be a tight fit as I did not want the tube to come out with the stem when Troy took it off the pipe to clean it. I coated the outside of the metal tube with glue and let it get tacky. When it was tacky I pressed into the shank with the sharp end of a pair of needle nose pliers. I pushed it in until it sat against the end of the mortise in the shank. With the tube in place in the shank I still needed to flare the end so that it would fit against the bevel of the mortise end. I probably could have shortened the tube slightly but beveling the end would take care of that. I pressed the end of rounded tip of the needle nose pliers into the end of the tube and worked on the flare. It took some work to mould it to shape. I then use a small round needle nose file to smooth out the flare and match the angle of the bevel. I stained the end of the shank with a stain pencil and also touched up the cracked area on the shank. I will need to polish that to get it to match the shine on the bowl but you can see the fit of the stem against the shank and look of the shank. With the shank repair completed I needed to work on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches and glue build up that was on the surface of the stem. I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. Then it was time to sand it with micromesh sanding pads. Instead of wet sanding I used a little olive oil on the stem and sanded with the micromesh with oil. I did that with 1500-2400 grit pads. I continued with 3600-12,000 grit pads without adding any further oil to the surface of the stem. With these older Yello Bole stem I find that wet sanding does not work well but to sand with oil is perfect and will raise a nice shine. I also am careful about buffing them as they have a pretty low melting point and are easily damaged. This particular stem does not appear to be vulcanite so I was careful.

The next two photos show the shank end. The stain got on the flare of the metal tube and I will need to wipe it out with a bit of alcohol. However you can see the flare of the metal and the briar to take the new tenon and hold the stem tight against the shank. The airway has what appears to be a loose piece of metal on the second photo at the bottom of the shank. I blew out the shank with air and the dust and fibres that were present disappeared.

The next four photos show the finished pipe and stem. The newly fit stem sits nicely against the shank. The repair to the shank is solid and the crack is closed. With the metal insert it should be free from further cracking and the tenon slides in snugly to the mortise.

The next two photos give a close look at the shank/stem junction. It is good and tight. The final photo shows that the new tenon sits tight against the stem and looks like it was when it left the factory – just narrower in diameter to fit in the metal tube.

The first pipe is finished Troy. Hopefully the second one will be much simpler. This one is ready for you to load up and enjoy once again.

Repairing and restoring a Paradis 1989 Freehand Dublin 93

Restemming & Working on New Staining Techniques on a Mastercraft Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe from the gift box is a Mastercraft Pot. It is stamped Mastercraft in a shield on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Italy on the right side. There are no shape numbers. There are a lot of fills on the bottom of the bowl and the right side of the bowl. The finish is a thick coat of what appears to be urethane – almost plastic looking. Someone had previous started refurbishing it – to bowl had been carefully reamed and the bowl topped. There was a large fill on the rim that was loose that ran from the middle of the right side of the bowl almost all the way across the rim. This pipe would be a great one to experiment with using different stains to blend the fills and highlight the grain. The urethane coat would prove a challenge to remove completely but once gone it would prove a perfect candidate for the new staining techniques I wanted to learn. The band on the shank is aluminum and is oxidized and dull. The stem is a replacement that is poorly fit. It is loose in the shank and does not fit against the shank well. The tenon is very short and almost conical in shape. I will break the work on this pipe into two parts: Part 1: Fitting a Stem and Part 2: The Staining Experiment and a Conclusion called Finishing Touches.

I took a few close-up photos of the rim and the stem. These will help to give an idea of the state of affairs when I brought the pipe to the work table.

Part 1: Fitting a Stem

I removed the stem and found two possible replacements in my stem can. The original replace in the one at the bottom of the photo below. The two options were a longer taper and a saddle stem. Both of them worked well with the length of the shank. They looked better than the one the pipe arrived with. I tried the bowl with each of the stems to get an idea of the look of the pipe. I made a decision for the taper once I had seen them both in place in the shank.

The taper stem was slightly larger in diameter than the shank so I would need to adjust the diameter. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to remove the tars and oils from the shank. Because someone had already started the process on this pipe it was not a long clean. It took very few cleaners before the shank was clean.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to start and then decided it was taking too much time. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum and quickly removed the excess material.

I brought it back to the work table and sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the marks left by the sanding drum. I needed to fine tune the fit but it was working with the bowl.

Part 2: The Staining Experiment

To prepare the bowl for staining I needed to do the repairs and remove the old finish. I decided to re-top the bowl to remove some of the damage and smooth out the area around the fill on the right side top and edge. I wanted to bring the top down to lessen the area that the fill intruded on. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the finish only to find that it did not work to cut through the finish. Before I intruded on the finish with my next measure I decided to repair the fill on the outer edge of the rim on the right side. I used briar dust and super glue to repair the fill on the side and top of the rim. Most of the fill had been smoothed out on the top but there was some of the fill missing on the edge of the rim. I cleaned and sanded the repair to blend it into the finish. When that was smoothed out I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to break the gloss of the finish and then dropped it into the alcohol bath. When I took it out of the bath the finish was dulled but still not broken. This top coat was a real bear to remove. I needed to do quite a bit more sanding on the coating to remove the finish. Once the finish was gone and I was at bare wood I decided I would use a three part staining process to try to hide the fills and blend them into the briar. I wanted to try something new as well with the staining of this pipe. I wiped it down a final time with acetone to clean off the dust and any remnants of finish, scrubbing hard around the stamping on the shank. I stained it with a medium walnut stain, flamed it and buffed it.

When the stain dried I gave it a light buff with a cloth and a shoe brush and then gave it the second coat of stain. This time I gave it a coat of oxblood coloured stain. I wanted to bring out the grain on the sides and front and back of the bowl and try to blend the fills more. I stained it and flamed the stain.

When that stain dried I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and wiped it down with isopropyl to even out the stain coat. I hand buffed it afterwards with a soft cloth. The bowl was beginning to take on the colour I wanted from these first two coats of stain.

Then it was time for the third coat of stain. I stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated the process until I had good coverage on the pipe. The dark brown looked opaque when first applied.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond on the wheel and gradually the grain began to show through the finish. The combination of stains gave the pipe precisely the colour I was wanting – a warm reddish brown with dark highlights in the grain patterns. The fills though still present, did not stick out as badly and seemed to blend into the finish.

Conclusion: Finishing Touches

With the finish on the pipe completed I worked on the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and then with micromesh sanding pads. I also sanded the band on the shank with the micromesh pads at the same time. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and sanded the band without the stem present. You have to be careful with the pads when polishing metal as they will leave a dark stain on the briar and the vulcanite. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and dry sanded the stem with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I polished the band with the same and also with a silver polishing cloth. After each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with the oil. When I had finished the stem I gave it a final coat of the oil and then let it dry.

The next photos show the finished pipe. It is a rich brown/red colour that has warmth and depth to it. The silver band and the new stem make the pipe look quite rich. I figure it is at least as nice or nicer than when it left the Mastercraft warehouse.

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

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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.

Pipe Resurrection – from a Broken Shank to another Frankenpipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

In my recent gift box was a broken shanked pipe that looked like an interesting challenge to me. It is the one pictured below in the lower right corner. It was stamped on the shank Dunbar over Filter Pipe. On the other side of the shank it was stamped 36B or 368 it was hard to read. Next to that was the circular com stamp with Made in London England. Researching the brand on the web I found that it was a Comoy’s Made pipe and was their filter pipe line. This one seems to have been snapped when someone tried to remove the stem from the shank. It was absolutely frozen solid and unmovable. I put the stem and shank in the freezer over night which usually works to break loose a tight stem. It had no effect. I also tried heating the shank and stem with hot water – also to no avail. It appeared that the stem was literally glued in the shank. To top it off it seemed that there was a broken piece of plastic – possibly a tenon insert that blocked the end of the metal tenon in the stem. I could not get air to move through the stem at all.

Finally I used a heat gun on the stem and shank and was able to remove the stem from the tenon. PROGRESS! I soaked the junction of the tenon and mortise with alcohol and even WD40 to see if I could get the tenon to pop free. Nothing worked. The metal tenon was a permanent feature of the shank piece of this pipe. I would need to go with another plan – PLAN B. I set aside the broken shank and tenon and decided to use piece from several other pipes and a chunk of briar to reconstruct a Frankenpipe from the nice apple bowl. In doing so I would lose the stamping altogether but I was not overly concerned with that as there was no way I could reconstruct the shank and bowl into a repaired Dunbar Filter Pipe. I cut back the broken shank on the bowl with a Dremel and a sanding drum. I squared off the shank so that I could attach something else to it. I finished by squaring it with my topping board and sandpaper. I had a chunk of briar in my repair box that would work nicely. It was the right thickness to match the shank. I drilled it out with a drill bit that left a hole the size of the metal tube that I would use to join the bowl and the briar. I drilled the airway all the way through the briar and used a slightly larger bit on the mortise end of the block. I had a taper stem in my can of stem that was close to the diameter of the shank so I thought I would use it on this pipe. I put the pieces together for the photo below to get an idea of the work I would need to do. I marred the surface of the metal tube with files and then mixed a two part epoxy and set the metal tube in the briar block. I did not glue it into the bowl at this point as I thought it might be helpful to have the block free of the bowl to be able to use the Dremel and sanding drum to remove the excess briar. While I was at it I also took out an interesting old metal sleeve that had come with a box of parts I bought on eBay. It was cross hatched with a smooth band on the mortise end. It had a saddle stem in it that was also stuck. Now I had a couple of options to work with on this old bowl. I could either have a briar shank and a taper stem and then rusticate the shank and at least the union of the bowl and briar or I could have a metal sleeve that would slide over a briar tube and have the saddle stem inserted. I did not need to decide at that moment so I set both stems aside and worked on removing the excess briar. I sanded the block with a Dremel and sanding drum until I had removed much of the excess and was left with a rectangular wedge that I would need to fit and shape to match the diameter of the shank. More sanding with the Dremel and sanding drum brought the block closer and closer to the diameter of the shank on the bowl.

There was still more sanding that needed to be done. The next four photos show the block getting very close to the size and shape of the shank. I put the stem in place and looked long and hard at it and still had not decided what to do. I sanded with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to further shape the shank.

I looked long and hard at the pipe with the stem in place and decided I really did not like the look of the pipe. I put the metal sleeve next to the pipe and shank to have a look at it and made up my mind. I would continue to sand the briar until it could be pressed into the metal sleeve. I would need to shorten the briar so that it would leave room for the stem in the shank. I went back to the Dremel and sanding drum and continued to sand the shank. It would need to be quite a bit thinner in diameter to be able to press the metal sleeve over the briar.

I also decided to reverse the direction of the sleeve and have the black band against the shank and bowl junction. I figured that once I glued the tube into the airway in the bowl I would reduce the collar of the shank at that point and the slide the metal sleeve over the joint and it would not only hide the connection but strengthen the joint. I used the Dremel with the sanding drum and wood files to cut the collar down on the shank on the bowl until it matched the diameter of the briar that I would press into the metal sleeve. I shortened the briar tube enough to accommodate the stem when it was inserted in the sleeve. I wanted the airway in the briar to hold the tenon on the stem and also step the stem down so that it would sit in the metal sleeve like a faux military mount stem. I finally was ready to attach the briar tube to the bowl so I put epoxy on the piece of metal tube that I used to join the briar shank and the bowl. I pressed it into the airway on the bowl and let it dry. Once it had set I was ready to press the metal sleeve onto the briar tube. This was the moment I was waiting for to see if my vision of the pipe in my head matched the reality of the one on the table. The photo below shows the briar tube is ready to slide into the outer cross hatched metal sleeve. I drilled out the inside of the metal sleeve to remove the step ridges and make the inside the same diameter from the bowl end to the stem end. I used a metal grinding bit on the Dremel to polish the inside. I heated the metal sleeve with a heat gun to expand it and then pressed onto the briar tube and up on the collar of the bowl. I worked quite well. I would need to do a bit of fine tuning on the fit of the bowl and the sleeve but I liked what I saw and it was a match to my vision of the pipe when I started.

I sanded the briar at the union of the metal sleeve and the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted the joint to be smooth and even all the way around. I did not want a ridge to show at that point. I filled slight gap between the two with clear superglue and briar dust.

Once the transition was smooth I turned my attention to the stem. I would need to go back and do more work on the bowl but that was good for the moment. I wanted to fit the stem and get a feel for what the finished pipe would look like. Because I reversed the metal sleeve I needed to adjust the diameter of the saddle stem to have it seat properly inside the sleeve. I used a Dremel with sanding drum and files to cut the step down. In the photo below you can see the rough fit stem. I would need to clean up the step with files and sandpaper to smooth out the newly cut portion of the saddle that would sit in the sleeve. My plan was that the tenon would sit inside the briar and the step down saddle would sit inside the sleeve. With a little sanding my plan worked. The tenon sat perfectly in the airway in the briar and the stepped down saddle sat snuggly in the sleeve. Now all I needed to do was clean up the stem and polish it for a final fit. The first photo below shows the position of the briar insert in the sleeve. You can see the depth of the section of the sleeve for the saddle part of the stem that I modified in this photo. You can also see the airway where the tenon inserts in the briar. The three photos that follow show the progress of the Frankenpipe at this point in the process.

I sanded the bowl and shank with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the finish on the bowl, rim and smooth out the sanding scratches on the shank. The bowl was covered with quite a few fills on the sides and I wondered how they would look once I had sanded the finish off. Fortunately the fills were not pink putty but brown putty that actually blended in quite well once I had removed the finish. When I had sanded it I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads. The first picture below shows the options I went through on this stem and the original broken shank.

The pipe was beginning to look like I had hoped. There was still more sanding to do on the bowl and the stem but it was coming along nicely. I used a file to clean up the edge of the step on the saddle so that I could get a good fit of the vulcanite against the metal edge of the sleeve. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove oxidation and scratches. I sanded the stem 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 sanding pads. I gave the stem a final rub down with oil after sanding with the 12,000 grit pad.

There was still some stubborn oxidation on the saddle and next to the button. I buffed it with red Tripoli and then with White Diamond. I had a pretty heavy hand with this stem. I did it without the shank and really pressed it into the pads. I wanted to strip away the remaining oxidation. Once it was gone I gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the stem by buffing it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished stem, both top and bottom sides, is shown in the next two photos below.

I decided to not use a stain on the bowl but to oil with a light coat of olive oil. The fills had blended in well and the grain was quite nice. The olive oil brought out a red tint to the briar. I rubbed it down and let it soak into the briar. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it to a shine with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below.

Now all that remains is to take it on its maiden voyage. The broken shank pipe has been reborn to another Frankenpipe. It has all the parts that pretty much make it certain that it will be a good smoking pipe.

Reshaping another one that needed a bit more work – a 1912 BBB Poker

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was going over some early blog posts and cleaning up the photos and adding an author line to each of them. Doing some end of year maintenance on the blog. As I was doing this I came across this blog that I wrote on a 1912 BBB Poker https://rebornpipes.com/2012/06/13/the-1912-bbb-poker/. While I like old pipes this one just never quite made it to the rotation. Not sure why until I took it out and looked at it today. Several issues are evident in just looking at the photos below. The briar is beautiful. The silver shank band is factory silver. The stem is a restem that I did earlier in my refurbishing days. The diameter of the stem at the silver band junction is too thick. It seems to bulge around the band instead of just flowing from the band smoothly. The taper was also thick at the button. Though it had an orific button on it the stem was still too thick at that point. The button also lacked the rounded edges of the early orific buttons that were on these old pipes. With those issues obvious to me today was the day that I needed to work on it.

I took it apart and blew through the shank – the airway was constricted. I blew through the stem it too was constricted. I used my KleenReem drill bit to open the shank airway and cleaned out and opened the airway. Blowing through the airway was no wide open. The stem was a different story. The tenon was nice and open. The issue lay in the round airway in the button. It was significantly smaller than the airway in the stem. I used a needle file on the airway in the button to open it up and flare it around the edges – while still maintaining the round look. Once that was complete the draw on the stem and shank were both open. Now I needed to work on the taper, the shape of the button and the diameter of the stem at the shank junction.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to shape the taper and to reduce the diameter of the stem. It took a lot of sanding to remove what in the pictures looks like very little overage of vulcanite. I did all of the sanding and shaping with the stem removed from the shank. I checked frequently to make sure that I did not over do the sanding and shaping by putting the stem back in place on the shank. The issue for me with this stem was not to round the edges at the shank while at the same time removing the excess evenly in terms of slope, width and diameter. It took me three hours to just shape the stem. At that point I had sanded with the 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I used a medium grit sanding block to keep the edges and slope straight so that I did not create waves or valleys in the top and bottom surfaces of the stem. The photos below show the stem after the shaping work is completed.

I worked the stem over with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads, wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. (Note to self – pick up some more of the 1500-2400 grit pads as I go through them far more quickly than the higher grit pads. Must be the water!) I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it had dried, gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The newly shaped stem is shown in the photos below. The draw is open, the shape more comfortable in the mouth and the lines look far better.

The Resurrection of an old KBB Yello-Bole Premier Panel

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a recent trade with Andrew Selking I received an older KBB Yello Bole Paneled billiard. When I removed it from the box there was something about the older KBB Panel that grabbed my attention. It was stamped on the left side of the shank with the familiar KBB logo and the Yello-Bole next to it. Underneath that it bore the stamp Reg. US Pat. Off. Directly below that was stamped Premier over Cured with Real Honey. The pipe had been repaired at some time in its ragged existence with what appeared to be a homemade repair job. The tenon had broken somewhere along the line and a previous owner had drilled out the stem and used a piece of stainless steel tubing to make a new tenon. The metal tenon was stuck in the shank of the pipe and the stem just sat loosely on it. The fit of the stem to the shank was off with the stem sitting high and to the right. The previous owner had tried to compensate for the off centered stem by sanding flat spots on the stem sides and bottom that broke the smooth lines of the square shank and stem. There were two small hairline cracks on the shank – top right and bottom left that would need to be repaired once the tenon was removed. The bowl was out of round with damage to the inner edge of the rim and a tarry build-up on the surface. The outer edge rim crown of the bowl was also compromised and would need some work. The stem was not too badly oxidized but it had tooth marks on the top and bottom near the button.

Background Information
I wrote about the history of the KBB stamped Yello-Bole Pipes. The following link will give you the details: https://rebornpipes.com/2014/07/21/renewing-an-old-kbb-yello-bole-honey-cured-briar-billiard/
Yello-Bole pipes are one of my favorite older US brands doing the research would be enjoyable. As with other early brands made in the states I have found that older is better. A KBB in a cloverleaf stamp will date them back to the ’30’s. I have found through my reading that the 4 digit shape numbers are older than 2 digit ones. The pipes with the logo on top of the stem are older than ones that have them on the side. That is just some of the information that I found with a cursory read through the forums and a variety of websites.

The SM Frank website http://www.smfrankcoinc.com/home/?page_id=2 gives a wealth of historical information on Kaywoodies, Yello-Boles and the merger between KBB and SM Frank and later Demuth. It was a great read and I would encourage others to give the website a read. I also wanted to find some help in dating my old Yello-Bole Pipes and I came across this link to the Kaywoodie Forum: http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/archive/dating-yello-bole-pipes__o_t__t_86.html . I am including some of the information I found there as it gives the only information that I found in my hunt to this point.
“…there isn’t a lot of dating information for Yello-Bole pipes but here is what I have learned so far.

– If it has the KBB stamped in the clover leaf it was made 1955 or earlier as they stopped the stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
– From 1933-1936 they were stamped Honey Cured Briar.
– Pipes stems stamped with the propeller logo they were made in the 30s or 40s no propellers were used after the 40s.
– Yello-Bole also used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 30s.
– If the pipe had the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it was made in the 30s this stopped after 1939.
– If the pipe was stamped BRUYERE rather than briar it was made in the 30s.”
Given the above information I discovered that the pipe I was working on was made sometime between 1930 and 1940. Thus it was an early Yello-Bole from the 1930s or 40s.

Restoration Process
I took the stem off the bowl and tried to remove the inserted metal tenon. It was firmly stuck in place and I could not move it even with pliers. I put the bowl in the freezer overnight hoping that the cold would contract the metal and briar differently (as is the case with the varied material and density). In the morning I took it out of the freezer and was able to turn the tenon out of the shank with pliers. Once it was removed it was clear to see that it had not been glued in the shank but merely stuck with the tars and oils of the tobacco in the shank. I found a threaded Delrin tenon in my box of tenon parts and it was a workable replacement for the metal tenon. I tapped the drilled out hole in the stem and screwed the threaded tenon into the hole. It was a perfect fit. I removed it once again and put some glue on the threads and screwed it into place and let the glue set. The diameter of the tenon would need to be adjusted as it was too big for the mortise. This was actually ideal in that I would be able to adjust the fit against the shank on the sides and the top. The bottom of the shank would take work to make a smooth transition.

I sanded the tenon with a Dremel and sanding drum to remove the excess Delrin. I hand sanded it with 180 grit and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out and fine tune the fit. I spread the hairline cracks with a dental pick and dripped superglue along the cracks and pressed them together until the glue set. The stem fit in the shank nicely. The photos below show the damage that had been done to the stem in the previous repair. It is especially visible in the photos of the pipe from the side and the bottom. The stem had been modified to the misfit of the previous tenon so work would need to be done to realign the fit against the end of the shank.

I sanded the bottom, top and right side of the shank until the transition between the briar and the vulcanite was smooth. The left side was touchier in that I did not want to damage the stamping. I sanded this area while covering the stamping. The trick was to smooth out the transition without making a drastic dip in the briar – it just needed to be re-tapered until it flowed naturally into the stem. Sanding the top of the stem also took care as it had the insert of the white propeller. Too much sanding on the top would damage and compromise the insert. The photos below show the newly sanded and tapered shank/stem. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges and a fine grit sanding block. I sanded the rim and curves of the rim with the same sandpapers. I folded a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and worked on the out of round bowl to clean it up as much as possible.

I wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish from the bowl.

I cleaned out the bowl and shank with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I cleaned out the stem as well at the same time. I sanded the bite marks on the top and bottom of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the damage and remove the tooth chatter. There were still some tooth marks that needed to be repaired.

I scrubbed the areas around the bite marks with alcohol to clean the sanding dust and grit from around them. I then used black superglue to fill the bite marks and sprayed it with and activator/accelerator to harden it.

When it dried I sanded the filled areas with 220 grit sandpaper to level them out with the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and a fine grit sanding block to further blend the patches into the stem surface. In the next two photos the patches are blended into the stem but the blackness of the super glue and the blackness of the unpolished stem do not match so they show up as spots on the stem.

I stained the bowl and shank with a medium brown aniline stain thinned 50/50 with isopropyl alcohol. I wanted a medium brown wash to highlight the grain and show contrast in the finish. The wash provided just what I was looking for.

I sanded the stem further with fine grit sanding blocks and also sanded the flat areas on the transition between the shank and stem to work towards a more seamless look. The next photos show the smooth transition and the smooth stem. The patches are fading more into the vulcanite of the stem as well at this point in the process.

I moved on to sand the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem between each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil and then continued sanding. I have found that sanding the stem while the oil is freshly applied allows the grit on the pads to cut into the finish and raise a shine.

The next two photos show the finished stem. After the final sanding I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak in before polishing it with the buffer. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax. The patches on the stem by this point are fully blended into the vulcanite and cannot be identified.

The next photo shows the reworked inner edge of the rim to show my repairs on the out of round bowl. I sanded until it was as close to round as I could get it by hand. I bevelled the inner edge of the bowl with the sandpaper to make the transition smooth. The finished pipe is shown below. Thanks to Andrew for sending me this challenge. I really enjoyed bringing this old timer back to life. It will occupy a special spot in my older American pipe maker collection and join my other KBB Yello-Boles as favourites that I enjoy smoking. I buffed it with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. All that remains is to sit back and enjoy a bowl of an aged Virginia tobacco and read a good story!

Giving new life to a Savinelli Product – a David’s Choice Canadian

An Old 1923 Adolph Frankau Billiard Restemmed and Restored

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Blog by Steve Laug

On a recent road trip to Alberta I drove over 3300 kilometres and stopped along the way at antique shops and antique malls to look for old pipes to add to my refurbishing box. I am always on the lookout for old pipes that show promise or will make good additions to my own collection. In one of the shops in Nanton, Alberta I found an old billiard and a Savinelli Made Canadian pipe bowl. Both bowls were missing their stems. The billiard bowl was stamped with a stacked lower case o and an N with C over the top of it. Above the stamped letters was a crown. There was no other stamping on the briar. I have looked around the web for this stamping and have not been able to find out who made the pipe from the stamping and the logo on the shank. The photo below gives a clear picture of the stamping on the top of the oval shank. If it looks familiar to any of you reading this article please post the information in the replies at the bottom of the page. There was also a band on the shank that was factory installed. It was not a repair band or one that was added at a later date. The sterling silver band also bore stamping. On the top of the shank band there was an AF in a hexagon stamped in the silver. That AF stamping seems to point to the pipe being made by Adoph Frankau and Company as far as I can ascertain. Stamped underneath the AF there were three hallmarks in the silver. These hallmarks included the following – each of them was in a cartouche. The first was a letter h, the second was a lion, and the third was a lion’s head. The stamping and the order in which they were stamped identifies the silver band on the pipe in the following order – the h is the year 1923, the lion is the stamp for sterling silver and the third stamp, the lion’s head is the stamp for the city of London. The close up photo below shows the stamping on the silver band.The finish on the bowl was worn and spotty but otherwise was in good shape. The rim was slightly darkened but did not have any tarry build up. The bowl interior was clean and appeared to either have been reamed or lightly smoked. The shank had a threaded mortise and would have taken a threaded tenon. I went through my can of stems and found a stem that was oval and of a similar diameter as the shank. It had a broken off tenon that needed to be sanded smooth to flatten it against the face of the stem. With some sanding and cleaning up it would fit the shank well. Once I had faced the stem I drilled the remainder of the old broken tenon out of the stem and fit a piece of Delrin tenon into the hole. The piece of Delrin was too long and I cut it off with a hacksaw. The tenon was not threaded to fit in the threaded mortise however the diameter would make a snug fitting push tenon. The diameter of the stem was slightly larger than the shank and band so it would need to be sanded to remove the excess material. I cut of the tenon piece and then glued it into the drilled out stem with superglue. I sanded the stem to adjust the diameter of the oval to make the fit more precise. When the stem was in place the fit was better with the logo side of the stem facing down. I decided to sand that side to fit it against the shank. The inlaid logo was not set too deeply into the vulcanite and with sanding it would be easy to remove. Once I had sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess vulcanite I fit it in the shank to get an overall look at the pipe with stem. More sanding would be necessary to get the fit perfect against the band and shank. To further shape the stem I removed it from the shank and sanded it some more with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I sanded the stem until the diameter matched that of the shank. I sanded the tooth marks next to the button on the top and bottom of the stem. The photo below shows the shaped and sanded stem. All tooth marks and damage to the stem was removed in the sanding and the stem was ready to polish. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the spotty finish on the bowl. It took some scrubbing to remove the varnish coat on the pipe. I scrubbed the silver band with silver polish and wiped it down with a silver polishing cloth. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I sanded the tenon smooth as well. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three sanding pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond to further polish it and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. I buffed bowl with White Diamond on the buffer and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish it. I then buffed it with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine. I put the stem back in place on the shank and the buffed the pipe a final time. The finished pipe is shown in the next set of four photos below. It is ready to smoke with its inaugural bowl. It will be a treat to fire up this lightly smoked pipe from 1923.