Tag Archives: polishing a stem

Found an Old Patents Pending Generation 1 Kirsten A

Blog by Steve Laug

Another pipe from the treasure trove my brother Jeff sent me was an early Kirsten. The metal barrel is stamped Kirsten in script on the left side of the barrel and on the underside it is stamped Pats. & Pats. Pend. – A. When I received it the bowl would unscrew from the barrel and it had no metal cap on the bottom. It was a wooden bowl without the cap which along with the stamping pointed to an early Kirsten. The stem and rod were stuck in the barrel and the adjustable valve on the front of the barrel was frozen solid. The valve had evidently been frozen for some time as someone had used pliers on it to try to remove it. They had left behind the tooth marks of the pliers on the aluminum valve cover. Because of the vulcanite lip on the stem that sat against the barrel that there would not be a rubber grommet between the stem and the barrel. The bowl had a thick, rock hard cake and the bottom of the bowl was not visible to see what the condition of the screw head was like. I have no idea how the pipe man ever drew air through this pipe as the bottom of the bowl was solid. The finish on the bowl was dull and lifeless with no grain visible through the grime. The top of the rim was covered with over flow from the cake in the bowl. It was a large bowl initially so once the cake was gone it would be an inch in diameter. I looked up information to see if I could find a cut away drawing of the Kirsten and found this one and a bit of history and information on the concept of the Kirsten pipe. The following is from the Kirsten website https://www.kirstenpipe.com/page_pipestyles.shtml and https://www.kirstenpipe.com/page ourstory.shtml “It is by no means merely puffery to say that Professor Frederick K. Kirsten was a genuine American original. He first sailed to this country in 1902, as a cabin boy from Hamburg, Germany. After successfully rounding the Horn and eluding the shanghai gangs of the West Coast, he navigated the educational system at the University of Washington to become a Professor of Aeronautical Engineering. Here, his inventive spirit took wing. He created the world-famous Kirsten Wind Tunnel, Air-washing equipment for factories, an air-cooled Utopian Bed, and, most notably, a revolutionary propeller which enables boats to stop and turn on a dime. Today, in the same waters where he jumped ship almost 100 years ago, ocean-going vessels are landed by sturdy tugs driven by Kirsten cycloidal propellers, piloted by equally sturdy captains smoking cool Kirsten pipes.”

“Rightly called the coolest pipe in the world, this latter innovation came about when a doctor advised Professor Kirsten to switch from cigarettes. He quickly dreamed up a way to trap the moisture, tars and tongue-biting acids which attack the users of briar pipes. After 50 years and counting, Kirsten pipes are still produced by the Kirsten family, faithfully following the basic designs of this father of invention.”

“Professor Kirsten revolutionized pipesmoking by creating the Radiator stem. When tobacco, which is 30% to 60% moisture, is lit in the bowl, it creates steam. As the smoke is drawn through the stem, the steam is cooled and condenses into a liquid. This bitter-tasting liquid is trapped in the stem, along with tars, nicotine and tongue-biting acids.”

“Only clean, cool, moisture-free smoke passes through the intake tube to the mouthpiece. To remove the trapped liquid, you simply remove the valve. You can clean a KIRSTEN in seconds by pushing a tissue through the bore of the stem, exactly as you would clean a gun barrel.”

The cleaning in seconds must not have been something that the previous owner of this pipe ever read or understood. I decided to work on the bowl first as it was the only part of the pipe that I could remove at that point in the process. I took the photo below to give an idea of the thickness of the cake and the minimal size of the air hole at the bottom of the bowl. You can see that it is virtually clogged and the airflow would be very restricted. The lack of a cap on the bottom of the bowl can be seen in the next three photos. The first two photos show the state of the finish. In the second one you can see the grain peeking through the grime on the finish. In the third photo you can see the stamping on the bottom of the bowl. It reads Kirsten Pats Appl For.

I put the barrel and stem in an alcohol bath to soak overnight to try to loosen the frozen stem and rod. I reamed the bowl with the largest cutting head on the PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. I used a pen knife to work on the bottom of the bowl and was finally able to see the characteristic Kirsten screw. I sanded the inside of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and used an ice pick to remove the screw. From the underside of the bowl I inserted the ice pick into the drilled centre of the screw and tapped it gently and the screw came free from the bowl.

I lightly topped the rim on a topping board to remove the damage and the build up on that surface.

I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl and rim with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the remaining finish. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the grain that was revealed in the process.

I cleaned the inside and the outside of the screw with a tooth brush and alcohol until it shone.

I sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding block to clean up the scratches and smooth out the finish on the sides and top of the bowl. I wet sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads.

I took the barrel out of the bath and put it in a cup of boiling water. I dipped both ends into the boiling water hoping to break one of the frozen ends loose. I was able to remove the stem and the rod assembly after the alcohol bath and the boiling water dip. The stem and the rod were quite brown with the shellac of old tobacco juices. Of course dipping the stem in the boiling water caused the oxidation on the stem to come to the surface.

I scrubbed the rod assembly with 0000 steel wool and alcohol to remove the shellac coat that had built up and polish it. There was some corrosion that came to light at the middle of the rod. I would need to work on that once I had cleaned up the stem. I sanded the stem and rod with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches.

I worked on the stem and rod with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbing down the stem with Obsidian Oil. The micromesh pads removed the last of the corrosion on the rod and polished it. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave the stem another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I failed to take photos of the final steps in the micromesh process but it is the typical procedure and each successive grit of pads gave more of a polish to the vulcanite. I cleaned out the stem and tenon with alcohol and pipe cleaners inserted from both ends. I was able to clean out all of the oils and tars and the cleaners came out clean. Now the bowl and the stem unit were cleaned, polished and ready to go once I was able to remove the valve from the end of the barrel. This was proving a very difficult task. I had put the barrel in the freezer overnight hoping to loosen the valve – no luck. I had boiled it multiple times – no luck. I had given it several alcohol baths – no luck. I let it sit with penetrating oil in the barrel to try to loosen the valve end. I tried to drive it out with a round end file and a small hammer. Nothing worked. I posted that on rebornpipes and got a response from Old Man in the Cave suggesting that I heat it with a heat gun.

I geared up for the process. He had suggested setting the barrel in a wood vise which is a tool I don’t have yet. I chose instead to hold the barrel with some insulated leather gloves over the heat gun. I heated the barrel with gun until it was hot. Then I used a pair of pliers that had cotton pads on the jaws and gave it a light twist and the valve came free. I don’t know if the heat from the gun finally did what I should have done in the first place or if the combination of methods finally came together and it worked. It does not matter as the valve finally came free. I now know why the later models of Kirsten pipes came with a rubber o-ring around the valve and the stem so that it provided something between the two metal pieces and the barrel. Somehow the combination of tobacco juice and saliva left to sit becomes shellac or lacquer that is almost impossible to break free. Thanks to Old Man in the Cave the valve is free and I could finally clean out the barrel and put the pipe back together. The next photos show the condition of the valve once I was able to remove it from the barrel. You can see the tapered angle of the top portion of the valve (on the right below the cap). The lacquer or shellac that bound the valve in the barrel is also very evident. I am guessing that there would have been much more if it had not been sitting in alcohol and been heated so much. But even that little band held the valve tightly in place.

I scrubbed the valve and the inside of the barrel with 0000 steel wool. I ran the steel wool through the barrel to clean out the build up inside and then used a wooden dowel to push alcohol soak cotton pads through the barrel to clean it until it shone. I cleaned out the inside of the valve with alcohol and cotton swabs. I was able to get everything shining again. It took some work to remove some of the tooth marks that were on the valve end from previous owners who had attempted to turn it but I was able to sand them smooth with micromesh sanding pads. They are still present but not as obvious.

Once all the parts were clean and polished I greased the valve and the end of the stem and rod unit with Vaseline so that it would slide into the barrel with less resistance. I know that it will not stop the buildup of tars but it will at least slow it down. The next photos show the disassembled pipe and then the pipe put back together. The valve turned easily and I aligned the hole in the valve with the hole in the top of the barrel where the bowl screwed in place. The airflow was clear and unrestricted.

I hand buffed the barrel with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 to remove the scratches and give it a shine. I rubbed on some Conservators Wax and then hand buffed the barrel with a shoe brush. I buffed the briar bowl with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buff. Once I had finished I screwed the bowl in place and buffed it a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

I took the pipe apart so that I could take the next two pictures to show the cleaned and polished parts. Everything is once again in working order. It was clear looking at all of the parts that I was dealing with a Generation 1 Kirsten. These were made between the years 1936-1958. The wooden bowl on this generation connects directly to the metal barrel and there is no metal cup spacer. It is a pretty flush fit that goes flat against the barrel. On the underside of the metal barrel it is stamped with one or more of the following “Pat. Appl. For” (1936-38) and “Pats. & Pats. Pending” (1938-1958) over “Made in USA” – S” (or applicable size – S, M, L). There are no O-rings on the bit or metal shank insert.

A Surprise when working on the Citation 812 Canadian

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This Citation (second pipe down in the first column in the photo on the left) is a sister pipe to the Savinelli Classica 812 Canadian that I just restored. It is stamped Citation and 812 on the bottom of the shank. The sand blast is nowhere near as beautiful as the Classica but it has a charm all its own. It appears to be a combined blast and rustication – hard to explain but it is just too consistent to be a normal sand blast. It appears to have been rusticated and then blasted lightly. It has a dark brown stain as an undercoat and a light brown over the top. The high points on the finish are lighter brown and the smooth portions are also lighter brown.

The bowl had a pretty heavy cake and the lava had overflowed onto the rim. The finish was dirty but otherwise in decent shape under the grime. The rim appeared to be in good shape under the grime and there were no nicks or dings in the outer or inner edge of the rim. The stem that came with the pipe was not the original and it had been poorly fit to the shank. It was narrower than the shank and pinched at the saddle portion. It still had all of the fill marks from the person who had fit it to the shank. The underside of the button and a large chunk of the underside of the stem were missing. I would not be sad to throw away this poorly cut broken stem.

Inside the shank was pretty dirty and plugged. I could not blow air through the pipe and did not dare to try sucking on the shank. Who knows what might end up in my mouth! I would need to remedy that situation and I would need to make a stem for it. This would be a beautiful little pipe to go with the Savinelli Classica once it was finished – kind a light and a dark version of the same shape. At this point little did I know what kind of surprise lay ahead for me as I cleaned it up and restored this little pipe. The photo below shows the two pipes together. The next four photos give a clear picture of the state of the pipe – its finish, broken stem and tarred and cake rim and bowl. You can also see what I mean when I say that the finish is far to uniform for a sand blast but looks to have both a blast and a rustication. Someone help me out on this if you have any information.

I went through my can of stems and found a clear acrylic taper stem that would work perfectly with this pipe and with a little shaping would go well with the dark look of the finish. The tenon almost fit perfectly from the start. I only needed to lightly sand it to get a snug fit against the shank. The diameter of the stem was a little bigger than the shank of the pipe all the way around but would easily be shape to fit well.

I took a close up photo of the rim to give an idea of what I was working with on this bowl. The second photo below shows the stamping on the pipe.

If I had known what I found out later in the refurbishing process I would never have taken the next steps in the clean up. But I was oblivious so I did them unwittingly. I used the smallest PipNet reamer cutting head to take back the cake to what I thought was bare briar. I used a small pen knife to even up the job of cutting back the cake to smooth.

I scrubbed the outside of the bowl and the rim with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and fine bristle brass tire brush to clean off the tars and lava that had overflowed the top of the bowl. I rinsed the pipe under warm water to remove the soap and the grime and dried it off with a cotton towel. The cleaned finish even more clearly looks to be a manufactured look to approximate a sandblast finish. But it was a great tactile finish and once polished would look great.

I gave the bowl a light rubdown of olive oil like I had on the Classica. It brought the colours in the briar to the front and it is going to be a beautiful pipe.

In the photo above you can see what looks like a smooth ring around the inside of the bowl. This was my first clue that things were not necessarily as they appeared. I went back to read a post on Facebook by Geoff Carmell about a Citation pipe he had found. Sure enough the finish was the same and the ring around the inside edge of the bowl was a meerschaum lining. With the way I had man handled it – reaming and scrubbing with the brass bristle brush it is a wonder that I had not damaged the bowl. I would do some work on cleaning that edge a little more gingerly later. Now I had to fit the new stem.

I sanded the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum carefully working it down to the same diameter as the shank and fitting the flow of the curves on the oval shank. This has to be done carefully and with a steady hand or you have to repair the damaged shank or cut another stem to fit. I proceed carefully and slowly. The photos below show the rough fit of the stem after the Dremel and sanding drum work.

I sanded the rough fit stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the scratches and fine tune the fit to the shank. I also sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to further fine tune the fit.

The next photos show the newly fitted stem and what the pipe will look like with the clear stem. It still needs a lot of sanding including file work on the airway and the button. It has a small airhole in the end of the button but I will need to cut and shape a slot.

All of the internal work and the work on shaping a slot are done with my collection of needle files. It looks like a lot of files but I usually only use three different files – a round, an oval and a flat oval. I use both the larger and the smaller files in these three shapes.

The slot is progressing from a round hole to more of an oval shape that matches the shape of the button. Still a lot of filing to do to get it finished. I worked on the button, slot, and airway to smooth things out and open them up with the smaller files as well. When I drilled the airway to turn the tenon the drill left a ridge on the inside of the airway in the stem that is a bear to sand out. I worked on it until it was as smooth as I could get it. There is still a small line in the airway but it is smoother than it was when I started. I am going to have to get some tapered drill bits. That would have made this task a minor hiccup in the process rather than a several hour ordeal. The airway is wide open and takes a fluffy pipe cleaner with ease.

I sanded the end of the button and slot with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches and then went through the micromesh pads to polish it. I worked the stem over with micromesh sanding pads, wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the remaining pads 3200-12000 grit.

With the stem done I figured I could put it off no longer. I had to work on the airway. It was seriously clogged. I could not push a paper clip through or even an ice pick. I used the drill bit on the KLEENREEM and could not get it through. I had to soak it with an alcohol wetted pipe cleaner to soften the plug and then I used a paper clip to push through the plug finally. Then I had to work through the drill bit and the pipe cleaners to get all of the gunk out. Finally I have good airflow. I cleaned out the shank with alcohol and pipe cleaners until they were clean. I cleaned the meerschaum lining on the rim with micromesh sanding pads and patiently just sanding the meer edge and the bowl. I was able to get much of the tars off the meer and now it shows golden. There are several spots where it is stained very dark. I buffed the bowl and rim with Blue Diamond and did the same to the stem. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the hand waxed the bowl with Conservators Wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff and then with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I like the way it came out. (In the photos of the full pipe the stem came out looking opaque but it is absolutely clear as can be seen in the close up photo.)

I took a photo of the two pipes together to show the finished product. Thanks for looking.

Restemming a Beautiful Savinelli Classica 812 Canadian

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug
In the pipes that my brother Jeff sent me from his Montana find was a pair of Savinelli made 812 shape pipes. The first is the second pipe down from the top in the picture to the left. That pipe is stamped Citation 812 and made in Italy on the underside of the shank. The stem is a refit and is poorly done. Fortunately it is beat up and missing a large chunk on the underside near the button. The second one is shown in the picture in the second column and is a sandblast without a stem. It is stamped Savinelli Classica with the Savinelli shield and 812 Italy on the underside of the shank. The first is a two toned dark brown and the second is a lighter two toned medium brown.

The pipe I chose to work on first was the Savinelli Classica – the stemless one. It was in pretty decent shape. The finish was dirty but was not worn. It had a great sandblast. The left side of the bowl had a circular grain pattern and the right side was blasted birdseye. The shank had long swirls on the top and sides. The rim had some build up on it and the bowl had a thick cake that plugged the airway and closed off the lower portion of the bowl.

I took a photo of the two pipes together to show the similarities and the differences. The Classica is a bit shorter in terms of shank length and the finish is much more distinctive. The Citation had a nice blast on it but when compared with the Classica it had nothing to compare. Both pipes were the same height. The bowls were the same diameter and the mortise of both held the broken stem with no trouble.

I looked up the Savinelli 812 shape online and found that it originally had a taper stem and that the stem had a slight bend in it at the button. I am not sure if I like the look of it on the Canadian but will think about it as I restore the Classica. I took the next photos of the bowl to show the distinctive sandblast on the bowl. It truly is a beautiful piece of work. The way the bowl was stain highlighted and emphasized the blast rather than muted it. Once I cleaned it up I would need to maintain that look.

The next two photos show the grain on the shank and the tar buildup on the rim. I am pretty sure that the blast is underneath the tars and will look good once it is scraped off. The third photo shows the underside of the shank and the smooth portion that bears the stamping.

I went through my stem can and found the candidate for the tapered Canadian stem for this pipe. I used the PIMO tenon turning tool to take down the tenon to the point that it almost fit the shank. I hand sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to bring it to the correct size. I did not want to crack the shank so I went slowly, checking for the fit often. Once the stem was in place I took some photos to show the excess in diameter on the top and sides and the shaping that would need to be done to get a good match to the shank.

I rough shaped the stem fit with a sanding drum on a Dremel to get it close to the shape of the shank. I have found that if I move slowly and carefully with the Dremel it saves a ton of hand sanding on the stems. Once I had it rough shaped I did the rest of the shaping by hand.

I fine tuned the shape with 220 grit sandpaper and brought it to a smooth transition between the shank and the stem all the way around. I worked on the button area and cleaned up the castings and marks on the slot and the button edges with the sandpaper.

With the new stem fitting and only needing more fine tuning and polishing I decided to ream the bowl and work on the rim. I used a PipNet reamer and a KLEENREEM reamer and a pen knife to cut away the cake in the bowl. It was as hard as the cake in the other two bowls that my brother sent me.

I scrubbed the sandblast with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and the caked rim with the soap and a brass bristle tire brush. Once the grime was scrubbed off I rinsed the bowl in warm running water and cleaned out the brushes. I dried off the bowl with a towel.

I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, alcohol and cotton swabs. It was plugged in the airway to the bowl so I used the drill bit on the KLEENREEM tool and was able to clear out the gunk in the airway and open it up all the way to the bowl. I wanted to keep the contrast stain on the pipe and not restain it so I gave it a light coat of olive oil to bring life back to the wood. I have found that dry briar absorbs the oil quite quickly and that the oil gives it some colour and life back without masking the original stain.

I wiped the bowl down and rubbed it vigorously with a clean soft towel to remove any of the surface oil and to give it an initial buff. I went to work fine tuning the stem fit. I used micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-400 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the stem and lightly buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the bowl with Conservators Wax and a small shoe brush to bring out a shine to sand blast finish. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The straight new stem works for me. The pipe is once again a work of beauty. Thanks for looking.

Rescuing a Tinderbox Monza Horn – Restemming and Refinishing

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Another of the pipes that my brother Jeff sent me was a horn shaped pipe that was stamped Tinderbox Made in Italy in a circle with Monza in the centre of the circle. It is stamped on the underside of the shank. The shape is quite unique. The bowl had around 10-12 fills in it that went from tiny spots to huge plugs in the briar. The finish was a heavy urethane coat that made the pipe very shiny and really highlighted the fills around the bowl and the shank.

The shank had a split in the underside of the shank that went from under the band up the shank for one inch on the bottom side. It had just turned slightly upward and if left alone would have continued to the bowl. The rim was heavily damaged and there was a thick hard cake in the bowl that hurt my hand when I pushed the various reamers that I had trying to remove it. The bowl looked like it was conical in shape but was so thick that there was very little room in the bowl for tobacco. The stem was a replacement, like many of them in the pipes my brother sent me. It was a saddle stem and was missing a huge chunk on the left side of the button and up the stem about ½ inch. The person who had made the replacement had cut an angled end on the tenon which in my opinion was careless and not necessary. The airway into the bowl from the shank was plugged and when I blew into the end of the shank I could not get any air through it.

The next four photos show the pipe as it appeared when it arrived in the box from my brother.

I took a close up photo of the bowl and rim to show the damage and the cake in the bowl. The second photo below shows the broken stem. The stem was pretty much a throw away as it is very narrow after the broken button.

I started to ream the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I started with a small cutting head and soon gave up. I used the largest head that would fit the diameter of the bowl and still found the cake too hard to cut through with the reamer. I dropped it in an alcohol bath to soak to soften the cake and to soften the urethane coat on the bowl. After it had been soaking an hour I took it out of the bath.

In my can of stems I had one with the same diameter as the shank and a tenon that would work with some adjustments. The tenon was too long so I would need to trim it back and also adjust the diameter to get a snug fit in the shank. The alcohol bath did not even make a dent in the finish. As I expected the only way to remove a urethane finish is to sand it off. I did not mind as it was covering a lot of damage to the rounded rim and the sides of the bowl. I fit the new stem in the shank and took a few photos to get an idea of the look. The stem was a little too bent to my liking so that would need adjusting but the taper worked well with the horn shape. The last photo of the underside of the shank shows a dark area. That is where the stamping is present and also the crack in the shank.

I put the stem aside and used a pen knife, a KleenReam and a PipNet reamer to work on the hard cake. It was still rock hard but I was able to chip away at it until I had removed it from the bowl. I used the drill bit from the handle of the KleenReem to open up the airway into the bowl.

I sanded the bowl some more with some medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I wanted to clean up the cracked area on the shank bottom so that I could repair it. I took the photo below to show the crack in the shank. I used a micro drill bit on my Dremel to drill a small hole at the end of the crack to stop it from spreading further up the shank.

I packed some briar dust into the hole and then dripped super glue on top of that and then more briar dust and some more glue. I ran a dental pick along the crack to open it slightly and then put some glue along the crack to the band as to preserve that as well.

I sanded the repair to smooth it out and blend it into the shank and avoided the area inside the stamping. I heated the stem with a heat gun to take a bit of the bend out of it. Once it was pliable I bent it to match the flow of the curve of the horn. I wanted it to sit with the rim and the bend in the stem flat on the table when laid down. That angle would make it sit correctly in the mouth when it was smoked.

I worked on the curve of the rim and top with sandpaper and sanding sponges to get the flow of the rolled rim even all the way around the bowl. I worked on the inner edge of the rim as well to make it flow into the bowl rather than be an abrupt edge. I sanded the bowl with medium grit sanding sponges and fine grit sanding blocks to remove the scratches from the briar and to work on the oxidation on the stem. The grain was beginning to show through. I wiped it down with a tack cloth to remove the sanding dust in preparation for staining the bowl. The bowl had a lot of fills so I decided to try a contrast stain to both hide the fills and to bring out the grain. I started with a black aniline stain and finished with a brown. I stained the bowl with the black and flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I reapplied and reflamed it until the coverage was even. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol and cotton pads to remove the excess black and leave it only in the grain of the briar. I wanted it to show the grain and highlight the beauty. I also wanted to mask the fills to some degree.

I used a black Sharpie permanent marker to draw grain lines through the huge fills on the bowl to further blend them into the briar.

With that preparation done I gave it a top coat of dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated until I was happy with the coverage.

I hand buffed the bowl to check out the coverage of the brown and the contrast of the black and the black Sharpie marks. By and large I liked what I saw. There were some spots that needed some more work but it was looking good.

I worked the stem over with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then giving it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and then gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine and then with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It exceeds my expectations when I began the reclamation work on it. The fills on the sides, shank and back of the bowl have all but disappeared in the blend of stains and Sharpie pen. The large ones on the bowl front look better but are still somewhat visible. Overall I am happy with the results. Thanks for looking.

My Courtship of a Comoy’s Pebble Grain Panel Brandy

A Simple Mistake Forced a Restem on a Meerschaum Billiard

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I found these two no name meerschaum billiards on one of the web forums that I frequent. The seller gave me a decent price on the two. The top pipe was older than the bottom one and I chose to work on it first. The stem was Bakelite and had a metal tenon. It did not fit in the shank either in terms of the diameter of the tenon or the diameter of the stem. It fit very loosely and wobbled in the mortise. The stem itself was about 1/8 inch in some places and 1/16 inches in others smaller than the shank of the pipe. The pipe was dirty and in need of some effort to clean it up and restore it. The next three photos show the pipe from different vantage points.

Once the pipe arrived I was able to have a clear look at it. The rim on the bowl was tarred and the outer edge was chipped. The bowl surface itself was dirty and spotty looking. It had a light brown patina under the dirt. The tars on the rim ran down the outside of the bowl. The shank also was dirty on the outside. The inside of the bowl had been reamed and cleaned. There was some wax in the bottom of the bowl. The airway entering the bowl was damaged and had been worn upward about ½ an inch to form a trough along the back wall of the bowl. The inside of the shank was clean and still undarkened by smoke. There were no threads or marks on the inside of the shank so I was pretty sure that the original stem had been a push stem. It may even have been a Bakelite stem like the one that had been substituted on this pipe. But I was pretty certain that I was working with a replacement stem and poorly fitting one at that.

The close up photo of the rim shows the rim damage and the damaged airway in the bottom of the bowl. The next photo shows the oxidized aluminum tenon on the stem. I thought about adding a coating of superglue to the tenon to tighten the fit but that would not do anything for the diameter issue. I was pretty sure that I would have to restem this pipe to get a good fit on the stem and shank union. In the mean time I cleaned up the bowl. I should have paid attention to my initial thoughts here and just set the stem aside but I did not and would regret it soon enough. In the mean time I cleaned up the bowl. I used a medium grit and a fine grit sanding block to remove the tars and deposits on the rim. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime on the surface and leave as much of the patina intact as possible.

I decided to put a coat of superglue on the tenon and see if I could build it up for a snug fit. I should have left well enough alone. Needless to say my “quick fix” did not work. I got the fit correct or what I thought was correct and when I removed it from the shank I heard a popping sound and noticed that I a small chunk of meerschaum had cracked and come out of the shank. I was sick with having broken a chunk out of the shank because I had not gone with my first instinct of cutting a new stem. Now I had made work for myself. I glued the chunk back in place on the shank with some epoxy and then cleaned up the repair so I could band it. I had used some brass pressure fittings on some meerschaum pipes I had restemmed earlier and like the look of them so I found one that was the right diameter for this shank as well. I heated it with a heat gun and pressed it in place on the shank. I covered the majority of the repaired shank and protected it from breaking further.

I found a stem that was the right diameter for the shank of the pipe in my can of stems. I sanded the tenon to get a snug fit in the shank and put it in place. The photos below show the stem before I had put the finishing touches on it and cleaned it up. They do give a good idea of how the new stem will look with the band.

The stem style is wide at the button and more tapered than the one that had probably graced the pipe originally but I liked the new look of it. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and tooth marks at the button. I also sanded to remove the oxidation. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads- 1500-12000 grit and polished it by hand.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down after each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil and then kept sanding. When I finished with the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry.

When it was dry I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel until it shone. Then I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it by hand with a microfibre cloth. I gave the bowl several coats of white beeswax paste that I have here and then buffed it as well. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am actually happy how the finished pipe turned out. The issues that arose during the clean up worked out better than I had expected. For that I am thankful.

The meer polished up nicely and the spotty brown colouring was a nice contrast with the brass and the black vulcanite. I like the look of the band on the shank and only wish that I had not cracked the shank and made it necessary and not just cosmetic. Ah well it is nearly invisible and it will still give a good smoke. I need to figure out some way to repair the airway on the inside of the bowl. I am still puzzling over several options but will probably use a natural plaster of Paris to build up the groove on the back wall of the bowl. Time will tell. I will add that repair to the end of this blog once I decide how to do it. Thanks for looking.

An Interesting Welsh Pipe Find: A C.A. Sander Sandhurst Bent Bulldog

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I came across this beautiful sandblast bent bulldog on Ebay and put a bid in for it. I was the sole bidder and won it for a decent price plus reasonable shipping from Great Britain. The pipe is stamped on a smooth spot on the bottom left side of the shank. It reads SANDHURST #16 and next to that it is stamped C.A. SANDER over SWANSEA. The seller stated that the pipe was in a good used condition, and had some wear. He also said that the measurements of the pipe are 135mm or 5.5 inches long, bowl size 35mm or 1.4 inches x 28mm or 1.10 inches. From the photos he included in the sale the finish on the bowl looked to be in excellent shape. The rim was very clean. I could not see the inside of the bowl but the way the rim looked I was guessing that it was very clean. The sandblast was nicely done with some deep craggy ring grain. There was no ring around the cap on the bowl. The stamping on the shank was clear but was weak in spots. The stem was lightly oxidized but had no tooth chatter or bite marks.

I knew next to nothing about the maker of the pipe. I could ascertain from the stamping that the pipe was made by a C.A. Sander in Swansea. I remembered that Swansea is in Wales so I had something to start with. I looked in Who Made that Pipe and also in Lopes book and could find nothing listed for that maker. I used Google to see if I could find any information on the company and looking a company of that name in Swansea, Wales. I actually found out that the company started in 1977 and closed in 1998. It appears from the information that I found to have been a family owned and operated company with broad interests. There was no mention of pipes in any of the company documents that I could find. I wonder if the brand was not just one of many avenues for the company to expand its horizons. I found two pipes online with the CA Sander stamping these included the Oxford and the Sandhurst. Both the Oxford and the Sandhurst are sandblast finish pipes with a dark stain. There was no other information available that I could find listed online. Does anyone have any information on the brand? (I have included a photo of the stamping on a stemless Oxford Bulldog that I just purchased on eBay for comparison.) When the pipe arrived it was in far better shape than the seller intimated. The bowl was lightly smoked if at all. There was no cake and the darkening did not extend to the bottom of the bowl. I ran a pipe cleaner through the shank and the stem and it came out clean. There was dust in the shank that came out but no tobacco oils or tars. The stem was actually less oxidized than I expected and would clean up very easily. There were some tiny tooth chatter next to the button on the top and the bottom side of the stem. There were some small nicks in the vulcanite on the top right side midstem.

I took a close up photo of the rim and bowl to show the excellent condition of the rim and bowl. The second photo below shows the nicks in the stem that I spoke of above. This should be an easy clean up.

The slot in the button was very thin and I was unable to get a pipe cleaner into the airway from that end. I used three different needle files to open it wide enough to take a thick pipe cleaner easily. Once it was open I sanded the inside of the slot to make it smooth. The draw on the pipe is much better after opening the slot. The narrowness of the slot makes me wonder if that is why the pipe was not smoked more.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation, smooth out the tooth chatter and the two nicks on the right side. Once they were gone and the stem was smooth I used a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to begin to minimize the scratching. I put a plastic washer between the stem and the shank to keep the shoulders sharp and protect the shank while I was sanding.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. The oxidation is disappearing and the dark black of the rubber is beginning to stand out. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads, gave it another coat of oil and finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and then set it aside to dry.

I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I polished the pipe with a clean flannel buff and then gave it a final buff by hand with a microfibre cloth. The stem cleaned up amazingly well. The pipe is ready for a inaugural smoke. The draw is wide open and easy! Thanks for looking.

Addendum: 06/06/18 I received an email from Andrew in answer to a question I asked in my two blogs on CA Sander pipes. I quote in full his email because of the information that it includes.

Comment: You asked about C A Sander

C A Sander were tobacconists based in Wind Street Swansea. I don’t know exactly when the business started but it it passed to my Grandfather from his father (both were C A Sander) and by the 1920 was a successful and well established retail business with shops all over south wales. They were importers and blenders (if that is the term) of tobacco and the shops sold smoking paraphernalia. At my grandfathers retirement late 60’s to business went to my uncle again C A Sander but known generally as Jim. He developed a business supplying cigarette machines around South Wales and moved out of retail he eventually sold the business to Rothermans and went into other business ventures, I expect that was when the limited company you found was formed. Uncle Jim has now retired but still lives in the area.

Hope this helps with your research.

Andrew I received this followup email from someone who would like to get in touch with you. Here is her email

Hi there – I stumbled upon your website when looking for anything to do with C.A. Sander tobacco shop and I saw the pipe you restored – which is amazing! and then saw the comment below left by Andrew. Since that shop was owned by my grandfather, and Andrew’s grandfather – it would seem that we are cousins – but we have never met. I would love to get into contact with Andrew. Would you be able to assist in that? If possible, could you ask him to contact me at my email address pianokey88@hotmail.com?
Many thanks for your help! Georgina

Reworking a Lucite stem on a Sasieni Litewate Deluxe 71F Long Shank Dublin

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe caught my eye as I was browsing through the for sale section of the Dr.Grabow Collectors Forum. It was in very clean condition. The finish on the bowl and rim were like new. The pipe was stamped Made in England in a circle on top of the shank next to the stem and in the center of the shank it was stamped Litewate over De Luxe. On the underside of shank near the stem was the shape number 71F. The pipe was barely smoked and was very clean. The stem was obviously a replacement Lucite stem in a bright yellow swirl pattern. In the photos it looks more green than it truly is. In reality it is very yellow.

I looked up the brand on the pipedia site and found that the Litewate was produced by Parker and also sold by R.M. Littaur & Co. Ltd. It was also made by Sasieni. The circular com stamp on the shank and the shape number identified this particular pipe as a Sasieni made pipe. http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Litewate I copied the next photos from the PipePhil stamping and logos site. The stamping on the pipe I have is exactly like that on these photos. He also noted there that brand was solely distributed in the US Market. When the pipe arrived I was surprised by the sheer size of it – I knew it was small but I had no idea that it would be this small. It was very light weight and reminded me in both the size and the weight of the Stanwell Featherweight series. I unpack it and looked over the stem. It was chunky and thick. The descent of the slope to the button was not even and had a slight flat spot about ½ inch from the stem/shank joint. The button was sloppily cut and the stem was very thick in front of the button. The button itself was thick both in terms of height and in terms of width from the outer edge to what should have been a sharp angle to the slope of the stem. It did not have that angle but was rather another slope to the top of the button. Where there should have been a slot in the stem there was merely an airway – a single hole in the end. This is the way that stem blanks arrive before they have been shaped and fit to the pipe. Overall it looked like a quickly done stem to make the pipe useable. I took some photos of the pipe when it arrived. The next photos show the stamping on the top of the shank and the rim. Whoever did the restem did a great job fitting the stem against the shank. It is a great snug fit that shows no light. The bowl is clean and lightly smoked. I took a few photos of the stem that shows the chunkiness of the button and the thickness of the angle from shank to button. The third photo below shows the single hole airway in the end of the button. I used three different needle files to cut a slot in the end of the button and shape it and the Y in the airway. I used a round, a slight oval and a flat oval file to cut and shape the slot. I straightened the edge on the button and thinned out the button with a flat needle file. I wanted a 90 degree angle rather than the slope that was there originally. I sanded out the newly cut slot with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I reworked the taper on the stem and thinned it out with 220 grit sandpaper. In the photo above you can see the overall thickness of the stem and the short taper from the hip of the stem to the button. This needed to be thinned and the taper increased. I sanded and shaped the button and cleaned up the straight edge against the stem body. I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and finish the initial reshaping with 400 grit sandpaper. I sanded out the inside of the slot with a folded piece of 400 grit wet dry paper.

I polished the Lucite with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads.

I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then by hand with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The newly shaped stem is far more comfortable in the mouth now that the taper is more flattened and the thickness reduced. Thanks for looking.

Repairing Cracks in a Large WDC Wellington Bent

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Through Facebook I connected with a new friend Warren. He wrote me about how to repair a crack in a pipe that he was reworking for a friend of his. As I described the process he asked if he could send it to me to work on. At that point my refurbishing box was getting low as I had repaired and moved out a lot of the pipes that had been there. So I agreed. Last week it arrived here. A funny side note is that I have a stem for the same pipe and have been looking for a bowl for the stem for a while now. Now I get the opportunity to work on a pipe with the same stem. It is stamped WDC in a triangle on the stem with Wellington arced below the triangle. It is also stamped on the left side of the shank with the WDC triangle and Wellington in script to the right of the triangle. Underneath the script it reads Imported Briar. There is no other stamping on the pipe. It is a large pipe with a length of over 10 inches and a bowl height of 2 inches. The diameter of the bowl is 7/8 inches. The third picture below shows a comparison of a 5 ½ inch long pipe and average bowl so you can see how big this pipe truly is.

The briar had some attractive grain in it but there were some issues as well. It had a lot of fills on the front left, front right and bowl front. There was some damage to the surface of the rim that looked as if the pipe had been dropped on concrete. The outer edge of the rim on the front had some damage and was rounded over and the inner back edge of the rim had burn damage that made that portion out of round. Fortunately it was not a deep burn and would be relatively easy to address. There was also a ¾ inch crack on the underside of the shank that had one ¼ inch branch going toward the left side of the shank.

I took a series of close up photos to show the damaged areas of the pipe. The first shows the damage to the rim surface and edges. The second shows the crack in the shank. The third photo shows the missing fills and divots in the bowl sides.

I decided to address the crack in the bottom of the shank first. I used a micro drill bit on my Dremel to drill some small holes at the end of the crack and the branches of the crack to stop the damage from spreading further. The bit is very tiny as can be seen from the holes that are left behind after drilling. I drill two holes on each end because after the first hole I examined it with a lens and could see that extended slightly beyond my first hole. I picked out the damaged putty fills with a dental pick and wiped the bowl down so that I could repair the crack and the fills. I used a clear super glue and fine briar dust to replace the fills and to fill in the drill holes on the shank bottom. In each case I over filled the holes so that as the glue and dust were sanded I would not need to repeat the process due to shrinkage.

My intention was to restain the entire bowl so I sanded the bowl and the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs. I followed that by sanding the bowl and repairs with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the head that would fit and working up a head that took the cake back to bare briar. In looking at the back side of the bowl I could see a small hairline crack and I wanted to know if it went all the way through.

I topped the bowl with the topping board and took off all of the damage to the inside and outside rim as well as the rim surface. I sanded it with the medium and fine grit sanding sponge as well to smooth out the scratches.

After sanding and topping the bowl I could see that indeed there was a hairline crack that went across the rim at 5 o’clock and went down the back side of the bowl about ¾ of an inch. It was small and did not separate. It looked like it went all the way through to the inside of the bowl but upon examination appeared to only extend about 1/16th of an inch into the bowl. I topped it a little bit more to take care of the internal crack. I drilled the back side of the bowl at the bottom of the crack to stop it from going further down the bowl. I wiped down the bowl side and then picked out the crack with a dental pick. I filled it with super glue and briar dust and sanded it down with 220 grit sandpaper and the medium and fine grit sanding sponges until it blended into the surface of the bowl. I picked out the rim crack as well and filled it with the same mix. I sanded it with the topping board once again and then with the medium and fine grit sanding sponge.

I scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the remaining finish on the briar and to clean up the dust from all of the sanding of the fills. There was some beautiful grain that was showing through. The patches and fills actually looked much better.

I cleaned out the shank, bowl and airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge being careful not to damage the stamping. I went over that area with a 1500 grit micromesh pad. I then use an antique gold oil based product called Rub and Buff to fill in the stamping. The next photo shows the finished rework of the gold in the stem stamp. I put the stem in place on the bowl to get an idea of the improvement that the repairs, fills and stem work had done. I wanted to see what the pipe would look like as I finished.

I wiped the bowl down with a final wash of isopropyl alcohol and then heated it so that I could give it a stain coat. I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain thinned by 50% with isopropyl alcohol. I applied it and flamed it. I reapplied the stain and flamed it again and then set it aside to dry.

When it had dried I gave it a light buff with a microfibre cloth to see what the colour looked like. It was still a bit dark to my liking but the coverage was good. The repairs and fills while visible looked far better than when I started.

I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to make it a bit more transparent and make the grain shine through. It did not take much to coax the grain to the surface and highlight the beauty of the pipe.

I worked on the long stem. To clean it thoroughly I had to wrap pipe cleaners together to extend the length of the stem. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to clean up the oxidation and scratches in the stem. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil afterwards and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads. I gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of the wax and set aside to dry.

At this point I laid the pipe on top of the current issue of the Pipe Collector and took a series of photos to show it before I buffed it.

I polished the nickel ferrule with a silver polishing cloth and gave it and the bowl several coats of carnauba wax. A light touch is imperative on the nickel as it will darken the buffing pad and then transfer to the bowl. I hand buffed the bowl and ferrule with a microfibre cloth. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave it several coats of carnauba as well. I buffed the stem with a clean flannel buff and then with the cloth as well. The finished pipe is shown below. It is repaired and serviceable for many years to come. Thanks for looking. Thanks for the challenge Warren.

What a Mess – A Vanguard Reg’d. Lumberman with a Bit of History

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I recently came across an EBay lot of bowls without stems and broken tenons still in the shanks. In the lot was one that intrigued me. It was the only one with a stem. The stem was short and tapered. It was very narrow and the button and slot made me think that it was old. The lot had the look of older English pipes but there was no information on the stamping. When the lot arrived in Vancouver, the stemmed pipe was stamped Vanguard over Reg’d on the left side of the shank. All other stamping, if there had been any, was lost. The bowls finish was gone. The colour was almost grey and there were spots all over this bowl and the others as can be seen in the photo below. From the third and fourth photo provided by the seller I could see that the shank was cracked and would need to be addressed. The rim appeared to be very thickly covered with lava and the outer edge had been damaged and rounded. The next photo shows the large crack that was present in the shank of the pipe. It had started to open and the edge of the shank where it met the stem had some nicks. When the box arrived the pipe was actually in worse shape than the photos had shown. The bowl rim was not all that was caked with tars. The bowl itself was almost 1/3 full of half burned tobacco, dottle that was rock hard and filled the bottom of the bowl. The cake on the rest of the bowl was not thick but was very hard. The finish was not only grey and spotty but was dented and rough to the touch. I could feel the ridge where the sides of the crack in the shank had separated. The rim edges were not only damaged and rounded but were also rough from banging out the burnt tobacco against something hard. The stem had tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem at the button. The button and slot were intact. The stem appeared to be as old as or older than I first thought. This was going to be a challenge to bring back to life but the age of it made it something I could not wait to tackle.

I took some close up photos of the state of the rim and cracked shank once the pipe arrived. It was a mess that is for sure. The rim and bowl were in bad shape and smelled awful. The shank crack was worse than I had imagined. The first photo of the cracked shank is from the top and the second photo is from the side.

I looked up the Vanguard name in Who Made That Pipe and found that there were two makers. There was a French maker and an English maker. The French pipe was made by Marchal, Rouchon 1907 and the English one was made by A. Oppenheimer/Bernhardt & Meyers. Given that I cannot be definitive as to which maker crafted this pipe. But the interesting thing is that the Marchal & Rouchon Cie which later became GBD France came under control of Oppenheimer in Great Britain. So you can see that though I may not know which one ultimately made the pipe the fact is that the two brands came together in 1902 when Marchal & Rouchon Cie sold out to Oppenheimer. I now have in my collection a pipe which may well have bridged the union of the two companies. The Vanguard thus could easily bear both the French and the English stamping. The lack of a “Made in…” stamp may well signify the years that the companies joined. That in itself made cleaning up and restoring this old-timer interesting for me.

I decided to start the clean up by reaming back the cake and cleaning out the dottle from the bowl. I used a PipNet reamer and started with the smallest head and worked up to the one that fit the bowl. I took the cake back to bare wood to check for damage to the inside walls of the bowl. With a pipe this worn I find that this is extremely necessary. I do not want any surprises after I have cleaned it up.

To repair the damaged shank I opened the crack as much as possible without making it worse and used a dental pick to push super glue into the crack. I pressed it together until it dried. I then used the sanding drum on the Dremel to take down the shank slightly so that a band would fit snugly on the shank and hold the crack tightly together. I pressed the band onto the end of the shank and took the picture below before I heated the band and pressed it into place. I heated the band with a heat gun and then pressed it against a flat surface until the band was in place on the shank. I pressed it onto the shank and then used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the edge of the band and shank. I left about 1/8th of an inch of the band extending past the shank to deal with the chipped and damage shank end. The stem would not have had a clean fit against the shank because of the damage. When the stem was in place it fit inside of the band against he shank and looked great.

With the band in place the shank was repaired and the tenon would no longer fit in the mortise. The contraction of the briar by the band cleaned up the crack and tightened up the loose fitting stem. I lightly sanded the tenon with a sanding drum on the Dremel and then by hand to get a snug fit in the shank.

I scrubbed the surface of the briar with acetone and cotton pads to remove the grime, spotting and remaining finish. There was some interesting grain under the grime.

The damaged rim surface and outer edge required that the bowl be topped. I used the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damaged surface and sharpen the edge of the bowl.

I scrubbed the surface of the bowl down again with acetone and cotton pads to remove the dust and grime from topping.

I cleaned the inside of the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used the drill bit from the Kleen Reem pipe reamer to clean out the airway from the mortise to the bowl. When I was finished I swabbed out the bowl with cotton swabs and alcohol and was pleased to find that the rank smell was gone. I sanded the bowl and stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the tooth marks on the stem and scratches in the briar. I steamed the dents in the briar with a knife blade and wet cloth.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each grit and then continued sanding until I had worked through the lot of pads.

I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and then sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then continued through the rest of the grits of pads. I continued to polish the bowl with the remaining grits of micromesh.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It came out well for a pipe that potentially was made 108 years ago. Thanks for looking.