Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had been working on a pair of meerschaum pipes that came in a beautiful well preserved case. I have completed refurbishing the first pipe, a straight Dublin. Though I had worked on both these pipes simultaneously, I have done the write up in two parts.

For detailed information on the brand and other general information about the pipe, please read PART- I of this series.

Part- ll: Straight Billiard

Initial visual inspection
Of the two pipes in this set, this Straight Billiards appears to have seen the max abuse as well as use. The chamber has a thin layer of cake while the rim top surface has a couple of dents and dings. The inner rim edge has a couple of nicks and darkened in couple of areas. The stummel surface is marked by a number of scratch marks and is dirty with grime rubbed in to the surface. The Amber stem is badly damaged with cracks towards the tenon end and tooth indentations in the bite zone. The seating of the tenon in to the mortise is loose. The shank end has white silicon or some such tape sticking out and was likely used to tighten the fit of the stem in to the shank. Here is how the pipe looks as it sits on the worktable. Detailed Inspection
Both the pipes in the set appear to have been reamed prior to storage as is evident from the very thin layer of carbon in the chamber of both these pipes. The rim surface is clean of any lava overflow with slight darkening in 5 o’clock direction. However, there are a number of scratches and a couple of slight gouges (encircled in green) along the rim surface. The inner and outer rim edges have a few minor dings and would need to be addressed. The draught hole is right in the center and at the bottom of the chamber making these pipes a fantastic smoke. The stummel is peppered with minor as well as some slightly deep scratch marks. These scratches are predominantly on the right side of the stummel surface. There is a ton of grime and dirt over the surface. The shank end has a brass band and close scrutiny confirmed that the band is not a repair band. The white silicon (?) duct tape that is seen along threads inside of the mortise is indicative of having been placed to tighten the seating of the tenon in to the mortise. The mortise is severely clogged with tobacco ash, oils and gunk making the draw labored. Notwithstanding the present appearance of this pipe, I think that this pipe has some really beautiful coloration hiding beneath all the dirt and grime. The butterscotch yellow Amber stem with its threaded bone tenon sits very loose in to the mortise. I also noticed that the bone tenon is on the shorter side and does not extend all the way in to the mortise. Amber is a highly brittle material and with age and use is highly prone to develop cracks. This Amber stem is no exception. There is major fault line starting from the top surface of the stem at the tenon end, moving down for about an inch and branching off towards either sides of the stem. The crack line on the left side takes an upward turn on the lower surface and extends towards the stem face again. These cracks appear to have been repaired by gluing them together.  All these cracks are indicated by red arrows. The bite zone on either stem surface has tooth indentations with chipped surfaces and these would need to be filled up. The round orifice has chipped areas around the edges. The leather covered case is in very good condition. The inside of the case is lined with deep maroon velvet that shows signs of being worn down, but intact. The intact outer leather covering is dirty and looks dull and lifeless with the brass pins and latches/locks all in working condition. This leather case should clean up nicely and be ready to accept these freshly refurbished pipes soon. The Process
I started this project by first reaming the chamber to rid the walls of the little cake that was visible. I used my fabricated knife to gently scrap off the cake. I followed this up by sanding the walls of the chamber with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper. This sanding not only helps to completely remove the cake but also helps to even out the wall’s surfaces. A wipe using 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab ensured that the carbon dust that remained is completely lifted from the wall surface and the ghost smells are eliminated.I followed the cleaning of the chamber with cleaning the shank and mortise. If you recollect, I had mentioned that the draw through the mortise is heavy/ labored and assumed that it was due to accumulation of oils/ tars and gunk. However, during the cleaning, I was unable to get a pipe cleaner in through the airway and out through the draught hole. It was at this point that I handed over the stummel to Abha, my wife to see if she could clear the air way. By the late afternoon, when I came back from some work, Abha had removed the blockage from the shank air way and it was a solid piece of wood (clearly seen in the picture). She ran a few hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in 99.9% isopropyl alcohol  through until the shank and mortise was spotless clean and disinfected. Close inspection of the piece of wood extracted from the mortise makes me believe this piece to be remnants of a 6mm Balsa filter. How and why would anyone even think of doing so, let alone do it, is beyond my comprehension.With the stummel internals all cleaned and spruced up, I cleaned the external surface of the stummel with cotton swab and oil soap. Once the grime was cleaned, I wiped the surface with a moistened cotton swab to completely remove the residual soap and grime from the surface. The scratches are now distinctly visible all across the surface. Also, the color at the foot of the stummel and over the shank surface is succinctly visible. With this external cleaning, the damage to the rim top is now clearly visible. I topped the rim surface on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper, frequently checking for the progress. Once I was satisfied that the damage is sufficiently reduced, I stopped the process of topping. Though the damage to the rim top is still visible, it is now in much better state than before. I think I shall let these signs of damage remain as a part of this pipe’s journey to date. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the entire stummel with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the dust that was left behind by the sanding. While I was working on the bowl top I also worked over the sides and bottom of the bowl to polish them as well. I wanted to minimize the scratching but not necessarily remove them all. These lacerations and dings must have had a history and I wanted to preserve it. I like the appearance of the stummel at this stage of restoration. I set the stummel aside and started with refurbishing of the stem. I cleaned the stem internals using anti oil detergent and thin shank brushes and rinsed it under warm water. I also cleaned the external surface of the stem using the soap and Scotch Brite pad. I further cleaned the stem airway with pipe cleaners and 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol. I filled the tooth chatter with clear CA superglue and set the stem aside for the fill to cure.While the stem repairs were set aside to cure, I started with cleaning the leather covered case that housed the pipes. I used a hard bristled toothbrush and warm soap water to clean the maroon velvet lining the insides of the case and wiped it completely dry using paper towels. I cleaned the external surface of the case using cotton swabs and Murphy’s Oil soap and set it aside to dry out naturally.I checked the repairs over the stem and found that the fills had cured completely. Using a needle file, I roughly blended the filled surface with the surrounding surface. With a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper, I further fine tuned the blend by sanding the filled areas to match with the stem surface. The progress so far is good.To bring a deep shine to the stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, dry sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. Though the repairs are visible, they are meant to be as it is after all a repair. I have made peace with this.With the stem repairs and polish completed, I checked the leather case. It had dried completely. Next, I applied a liberal coat of Neutral color shoe polish over the leather and kept it in the sun for the leather to absorb the wax from the polish. I followed it up with a nice polish using a horse hair shoe brush. The leather is now nicely hydrated and taken on a nice shine.At this stage, the stummel has been polished with micromesh pads, the stem repairs and polishing is completed and the leather case has been cleaned and polished. I decided to address the loose seating of the tenon in to the mortise. I thought of using clear CA superglue to coat part of the tenon surface at the stem end and fit it in to the mortise. The rotation of the coated tenon within the mortise would create a thread pattern on both the tenon and mortise wall. I gave a few in and out rotations for the threads to set in to the coat. Once I was satisfied with the seating and alignment of the stem, I set it aside for the glue to set. I seem to have lost pictures of the process at this stage or may have not even taken them as after this complete project went in to a downward spiral….

Once the tenon coating had completely cured, I checked the seating of the stem in to the mortise again and heard a small cracking sound (though utterly deafening to my ears) and I knew that I was in trouble, rather huge trouble. The Amber stem cracked exactly along the fault lines that I had indicated early on. The pain, frustration and the agony is indescribable!! I decided to set the carnage aside and took a break.A couple of days later, I had a fresh look at the broken stem and worked out a POA to address the damage. I decided to replace the old tenon with a fresh bone tenon from my cache of spare tenon and glue the broken stem pieces together. I would further stabilize and strengthen the cracked portion of the stem with a sterling silver band. This replacement of the tenon would also address the issue of shorter tenon that I had mentioned above.

I selected a bone tenon that would fit snugly in to the mortise as well as in to the broken stem. I fixed the tenon in to the remaining intact part of the Amber stem using superglue. Once the glue had cured, I fixed the broken parts of the stem around the tenon with superglue and set it aside for the glue to cure completely. Once the glue had cured, I sand the repaired surface with a piece of 320 grit sand paper to match with the rest of the stem surface. Thereafter I attached a sterling silver band, which I had got specifically made for this stem, using superglue. The repairs are solid and I am quite satisfied with the progress being made.The gentleman who had commissioned this set had made it amply clear that the scratches/dents and dings over the stummel surface should remain as it is a part of the pipe’s past journey. I too agreed with the new owner and decided to move ahead with polishing and waxing of the stummel with beeswax. I brought a deep shine to the surface by dry sanding with micromesh pads and followed with a microfiber cloth. I assembled the equipment and materials that would be needed during the waxing process viz heat gun, paper towels, q-tips and a steel container graciously lent by Abha from the kitchen and of course, beeswax. I stuffed the chamber with cork and the shank end with folded pipe cleaners to prevent inadvertent seepage of the melted beeswax into either. Next, I melted a sufficient quantity of beeswax using my heat gun and thereafter heated the stummel. Using the a folded pipe cleaner, I completely coated the stummel with the wax and continued the application till the surface was saturated and set the stummel aside to absorb the wax. I reheated the stummel with the heat gun about 20 minutes later and let the excess wax either be absorbed or drip off from the stummel surface. I rubbed off the excess wax with a soft cotton cloth and. The deep golden brown coloration that the meerschaum has taken is a visual treat. With the stummel now completed, I was through with repairs and refurbishment of this cased pair. I reattached the Amber stem with the stummel for a final inspection and polish. Unfortunately, this was not the end of the journey with this pipe!!! As I reattached the Amber stem, the shank band broke free and fell on the table along with a small portion of the threads. Luckily, the concave surface of the shank face and the convex surface of the band were intact and I decided to glue them up again as was done originally.Since the threads were now damaged, I decided to do a complete stem replacement and shortlisted a near matching sized stem as a replacement to the Amber stem. The two aspects that I needed to match was the stem face diameter and the second was the matching of the taper and width with the Amber stem.This decision to replace the stem on this pipe has now necessitated that I consider replacing the replacement stem on the Dublin from this set. All the efforts that had gone in to fabricating and shaping the acrylic stem on the Dublin are for naught!! I did the replacement of the acrylic stem on the Dublin and the end results are more than satisfying (you can read all about it in Part-I of this restoration).

Using needle files and folded piece of sandpaper, I evened out the threads inside the mortise wall. This would make it easier for the mortise to accept a push pull tenon type.Next I tackled the sizing of the tenon. I first did the major hard work by sanding the tenon with a 150 grit sanding drum mounted on a hand held rotary tool. The challenge of achieving a perfect fit of the tenon in to the mortise was achieved by sanding the tenon using sandpaper. It did take a few man hours, tons of elbow grease and patience to achieve perfect fit.With snug seating of the stem in to the mortise ensured, it was time to adjust the length and other parameters of the replacement stem. I wanted an old style stem with an orifice to match the correct time period of 1920s. I marked the length of the stem that would fit in to the case and cut off the excess with a blade. This cutting off of the stem provided me with a rounded slot and a taper that nearly matched the required shape.I cleaned out the stem internals using shank brushes and anti oil dish washing soap. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners through the airway to further clean and dry out the stem internals.I firstly evened out the slot end of the shortened stem by topping on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Thereafter began hours of hard and laborious task of shaping the stem to match the shape and rebuild buttons on either stem surface using needle files and sandpapers. It did take hours of work and eyeballing to get the shape I desired and most importantly, the slot end. I am pleased with the results achieved. Next, I wet sand the entire stem with 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. This progressive use of higher grit sandpapers helps to, firstly,  reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive ones, secondly, completely eliminate the oxidation while imparting a clean shine to the stem surface. Thirdly, this also helped to even out the sanding marks left behind by the flat needle files. I applied a little EVO and set the stem aside for a few minutes.This was followed by wet sanding the stem with 3200 to 15000 to bring a deep shine and smooth finish to the stem. I applied a small amount of EVO and set it aside.To put finishing touches to this pipe, I polished the stem with Blue Diamond compound and subsequently with carnauba wax using my hand held rotary tool and vigorously buffed the stummel with microfiber cloth to bring a deep shine. This pipe looks absolutely stunning and I am sure that my friend will like it too.

Blog by Paresh Deshpande

Recently I had purchased a few pipes on eBay and this time the delivery was effected without any issues from the Seller. All the Sellers had described the pipes just as they are received, items were well packed and shipping was record quick making this a nice experience (far cry from all my previous experiences on eBay!). I shared the pictures of the pipe haul with members of my Pipe Club and this pair of cased Meerschaum called out to one of the founding members of the club and more importantly a dear friend of mine.

Looking at the pipe set, it is apparent that these pipes had seen many a summers, many a number of repair jobs more so to the stem including splicing and many ages of (mis?)use. The case consists of two Meerschaum pipes; a Dublin and a Billiard (or maybe a Tulip or even an Apple shape!!!). There are no visible stampings or markings either on the pipe or on the hard leather case except a small note with c.1920’s written on it (well, again veracity of this note cannot be established and needs to be considered with a pinch of salt, or rather a handful of salt!). This makes it impossible to firmly establish the provenance of this pipe set. However, the overall feel, appearance and quality make me want to believe that small little note. Here are a couple of pictures of the cased set of meer as it sits on my table. Though both the pipes were worked on simultaneously, for the sake of brevity and convenience of explaining the process and how issues that cropped up on one pipe affected the other, I shall divide the write up in to two parts.

Part 1: Dublin
The Dublin shaped meerschaum pipe is in pretty good condition with a thin layer of cake in the chamber. The rim top surface is clean and in good condition with no dents or dings over the rim edges. The major issue on this pipe is with the stem. Somewhere down the line during its previous innings, the Amber stem on this pipe must’ve broken in half and was repaired using a multicolored acrylic or cheap plastic stem spliced in to place at the tenon end. The seating of the tenon in to the shank end is very loose and barely holds the walls of the mortise. This seems to be the main reason why this pipe was so sparingly used as evidenced by the thin layer of cake in the chamber. The following pictures will give a general idea of the condition of this pipe as it sits on my workbench. Detailed Inspection
The chamber is clean with a thin layer of even cake. The rim top surface is clean and in pristine condition without any dents and dings over the rim top. The inner and outer rim edges are smooth, even and without any darkening along the edges. The rim appears thinned out in 12 o’clock direction along the outer rim edge. I think it is the design feature which has the stummel in a slight inwards turn near the upper surface. However, the chamber itself is perfectly rounded. The stummel surface shows a few scratches, but none serious enough to draw away your attention from the beauty of the bowl. The inward turning shape to the upper surface of the stummel that I have mentioned above is indicated by green arrows. There are a couple of dark spots over the stummel surface and encircled in pastel blue. The shank end shows residual white tape and is indicative of an earlier repair work to the shank end. The band, though identical to the other pipe in this set, appears to be fixed after the pipe was completed. The white Teflon tape, in all probability, was used to tighten the seating of the threaded tenon in to the mortise. However, this was an utter failure as the tenon is too loose in the mortise and is the reason for this pipe being so sparingly used. The stem is where maximum repair work is required. The stem has been spliced and repaired previously with the rounded slot end made of Amber while the tenon end is a similar colored variegated acrylic or plastic stem. The joint is easily discernible and is encircled in Red. Though the stem airway is aligned, the stem shape is not. The mismatched stem shape is indicated by green. The tenon is too short and filthy and very loose fitting in the shank. The slot end has tooth indentations and chipped surface. Given the present condition of the stem and its seating in to the mortise, I shall be replacing the stem itself to make it both functional and aesthetically appealing to the eye (that’s what the intention is!). The Process
I started this project by reaming the chamber with my smaller fabricated knife and scraped out all the carbon from chamber. I used a 220 grit sand paper, pinched between my thumb and forefinger, to sand the inner walls of the chamber of the pipe. Once I had reached the bare walls, I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This removed all the residual carbon dust and also rid the chamber of all ghost smells. I followed it up by cleaning of the mortise and air way of the pipe using hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners, q-tips dipped in alcohol. The mortise and the draught hole were given a final clean with shank brushes dipped in alcohol. I dried the mortise with a rolled paper napkin. The shank internals and the draught hole are now nice and clean with an open and full draw.I cleaned the external surface of the Meerschaum bowl with Murphy’s Oil soap and cotton swabs. I wiped the bowl surface with a moist cloth to remove the soap and grime that remained on the surface. The stummel surface cleaned up nicely. The scratches and dents and dings over the stummel surface are now clearly visible and will be addressed to an extent when the stummel is polished using the micromesh pads. I polished the rim top surface and rim edges with micromesh pads. I then went on to dry sand the entire stummel with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the dust that was left behind by the sanding. I had planned to minimize the scratches but not necessarily remove them. These lacerations and dings must have had a history and I wanted to preserve it. Once I was done with the micromesh cycle, I applied a small quantity of Paragon wax and vigorously polished it off with a microfiber cloth. The stummel now has a nice deep shine to it. Next I decided to address the stem repairs or rather stem replacement since the damage to the already repaired stem was far too extensive and yet it would not make this pipe fully functional since the tenon was too loose and too short. The stem that I selected is a beautiful yellow acrylic stem that perfectly matched the shank face diameter. I selected a Delrin tenon that perfectly threaded in to the mortise for a snug fit.Now it was necessary to down size the smooth end of the tenon to fit in to the stem face. I mounted a 150 grit sanding drum on to my hand held rotary tool and sand down the smooth end of the tenon till I had achieved a rough seating of the tenon in to the stem face. My previous experience has taught me an invaluable lesson; “SAND ONCE AND CHECK TWICE”!! Once I had achieved a rough seating, I got down to the arduous and time consuming task of manually sanding down the smooth portion of the tenon with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper till I had achieved a perfect seating of the tenon in to the stem. Here I was extra careful and vigilant while sanding the sides of the tenon and frequently checked the alignment of the tenon airway with the stem airway and finally through the shank airway and right through the draught hole.   Once I was sure that the tenon, stem and shank face and airways are all aligned and seated flush, I glued the tenon in to the stem. I took some time to admire the overall appearance of the pipe and I like it very much.Next on the agenda was to match the length of the replacement stem with that of original stem. Using needle file and 150 grit sand paper, I sand the slot end of the replacement stem till I achieved a perfect length match. Even though it took me a few man hours and lots of efforts, I was able to achieve the desired length. I checked the seating of the pipe in to the case and noted with satisfaction that the case closed without any gaps. However, in achieving the desired length, the button edges on the new stem were sanded down. This necessitated rebuilding of button edges on the new stem.With clear CA superglue, I rebuild the buttons using layering technique. Once the glue had hardened, using a needle file, I roughly shaped the buttons and further fine tuned the buttons using a piece of 330 grit sandpaper. The slot end at this stage is rounded and the horizontal slot needs to be carved. I marked the center line on either sides of the orifice and using a slot file, I carved out a horizontal slot. The stem looks good at this stage.Next the stem was subjected to a full cycle of polishing using micromesh pads.With the shaping and polishing of the replacement stem completed, I turned my attention back towards the stummel. I gave a beeswax polish to the meerschaum bowl. I assembled the equipment and materials that would be needed during the process viz heat gun, paper towels, q-tips and a Katori, a steel container graciously lent by Abha from her kitchen and of course, beeswax. I stuffed the chamber with cork to prevent inadvertent seepage of the melted beeswax into it. Next, I melted a sufficient quantity of beeswax in the katori using my heat gun and thereafter heated the stummel. Using a folded pipe cleaner, I completely coated the stummel with the wax and continued the application till the surface was saturated with the beeswax and set the stummel aside to absorb the wax. I reheated the stummel with the heat gun about 20 minutes later and let the excess wax either be absorbed or drip off from the stummel surface. I rubbed off the excess wax with a soft cotton cloth and brought a deep shine to the surface with a microfiber cloth. With the replacement stem all shaped and aligned and the bowl waxed and polished, I had completed the refurbishing of this pipe from the cased pair and set the pipe aside.

However, little did I know at this stage that all the man hours and efforts that I had put in making this replacement stem to make this pipe aesthetically beautiful and functionally sublime would come to a naught due to certain challenges that I was presented with while working on the second pipe from the set. I shall cover those aspects in Part- II of the write up. It will suffice to say here that I had to discard this stem and fabricate a new vulcanite stem from scratch.

PART-I (B)
Now that I have decided to match the stem on this pipe to the vulcanite stem that I had fabricated on the second pipe from the set, I first selected a vulcanite stem that would more or less be a perfect match to the butterscotch yellow acrylic stem that was made earlier. I would need to shape the flare at the slot end to a nice smooth taper (indicated by yellow lines), reshape the slot end to an orifice with old style rounded buttons and would need to greatly reduce the diameter of the tenon (indicated by red arrows) for a snug fit in to the mortise. Once that was achieved, I would need to clean and polish the vulcanite to a nice black shine. Here is a picture to give you an idea of both the stems.First I removed the metal stinger from the tenon end by heating it with the flame of a match light and pulling it out with a pair of nose pliers. I followed this with cleaning the stem internals using anti-oil dish washing soap on a thin shank brush and rinsing it under warm running water. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners through the airway to completely remove any residual traces of soap and also to dry it out. With a 150 grit sanding drum mounted on my hand held rotary tool, I sized down the tenon to achieve a rough match with the mortise size. I fine tuned the seating of the tenon in to the mortise by sanding it further with a 180 grit sand paper till I had achieved a snug fit.As I was trying out the seating of the tenon in to the mortise a second time, the brass ring separated from the shank end with threaded portion of the mortise while revealing a minor crack at the shank end (unfortunately, in my haste to address the newly presented challenge, I missed out on taking pictures of the damaged shank end). The problems are continually mounting unabated!!

Luckily, I had a Sterling silver band that I previously got made from a local silversmith which perfectly fit the shank end. I filled the crack with thin CA superglue. Once the glue had seeped in to the crack and hardened completely, I attached the band over the shank end with CA superglue and set it aside for the repairs to cure.Now I turned my attention back to the stem. The tenon mod was completed and next I decided to address the extra flare at the slot end of the replacement stem. I wanted an old style stem with an orifice to match the correct time period of 1920s and had achieved it to a certain extent on the billiards pipe from the set. I cut about half an inch off the slot end. This achieved two aims; firstly, the flare was reduced and secondly, I now had an orifice at the slot end. I further evened out the cut surface by sanding the surface over a 220 grit sand paper.Thereafter began the arduous task of eyeballing and filing with flat/ semi-circular needle files. It did a take long time and lots of elbow grease to achieve a rough desired shape. I further fine tuned the rough edges and shape by sanding the stem surface using a 220 grit sand paper. Next, I wet sand the entire stem with 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. This progressive use of higher grit sandpapers helps to, firstly,  reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive ones, secondly, completely eliminate the oxidation while imparting a clean shine to the stem surface. Thirdly, this also helped to even out the sanding marks left behind by the flat needle files. I applied a little EVO and set the stem aside for a few minutes.I went through the 1500 to 12000 grit micromesh pads to wet sand the stem. The stem now has a nice deep shine along the entire stem surface. I rubbed a small quantity of EVO and set the stem aside for the oil to hydrate the stem surface.To finish the restoration of this pipe, I polished the stem with Blue Diamond compound and subsequently with carnauba wax using my hand held rotary tool. I once again vigorously buffed the stummel with microfiber cloth to bring a deep shine. The finished pipe actually looks much attractive in person than in the pictures below.