Tag Archives: polishing stems

Repaired a couple of Brighams for a friend

A Trio of Peterson Stems

Blog by Al Jones

These three Peterson’s belong to a fellow member of the Frederick Pipe Club (Maryland). He asked me if I could remove the oxidation on the stems. I tackled all three this afternoon and they are ready to deliver on the next club meeting.

First up was this Shape 999 Killarney

Before

After

I used my typical routine of 800 grit wet paper, followed by 1500 and 2000 grades. Next up was 8000 and 12000 grade micromesh. I followed this by polishing on my buffer White Diamond and then Meguiars Polish. The brair was in good shape so I only gave it a buff with Carnuba wax.

I followed the same stem regimen for the other two pipes.

Next up this Peterson Limerick. I forgot to take a “Before” picture until I was almost done with the 800 grade paper. This one has the most heavy coat of oxidation. The nickle band was polished with some Blue Magic metal polish. I gave the briar a light buff with White Diamond and then several coats of Carnuba wax. This one has some very nice cross grain and birds-eye.

Last up was this Meerschaum pipe with a Sterling Silver military style stem fitment. The oxidation on this one was stubborn, particularly around the P-lip button creases. To remove the oxidation in this area, I wrap each grade of paper around a very thin knife.

Putting another new stem on a Peterson’s K&P Dublin 207 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have had this 1940s era Peterson’s pot for quite a while now (stamped with a com circle Made in Ireland). I found it at a flea market here in Vancouver. It was a mess and missing a stem when I found it. There was a spring windcap welded to the top of the bowl by the carbon and the cake buildup. I did a write up on the restoration and how I made the stem that is on it in the photos below. You can read about it by clicking on the link below.
https://rebornpipes.com/2012/06/07/fitting-a-pipe-with-a-new-stem-photo-essay-20/

From the moment I finished restemming it in June of 2012 I did not like it. It went into my box of pipes for sale. It is a beautiful piece of briar and the original band is clean and readable – it says K&P Sterling Silver. But the stem – even though it looked okay – did not do it for me. Since I am on this binge of reworking old pipes these days, pipes that just did not make the rotation even though they were workable and smokeable, this one was next on the hit list. I held in hand and looked it over. I was going to do some work on the stem shank fit but even as I looked at it I knew that would not change my mind.

Then the lights came on and I understood what it was that bugged me about this pipe. The stem was just too long to my liking. No amount of reshaping it would change that overall feel for me. The stem would need to go. I remember going through my can of stems when I restemmed it and this was the only one that I had that was even remotely close to working. However, recently I had purchased some old stems that only needed to be cleaned and repurposed. I was certain there was one in the can that would work. There was one that was about ½ inch shorter than the existing one. It was the perfect diameter for the shank. The tenon was a little big but a quick work over with the Dremel and sanding drum followed by hand sanding with 220 grit sandpaper took care of that problem. The stem fit well. It needed to be cleaned up and the oxidation removed from the surface but it was going to be a better looking stem in my opinion once I finished working it over.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then a fine grit sanding block to remove the oxidation on the stem. I could have let it soak in oxyclean but chose not to as I wanted to work on it without waiting. I also did not have any stamping on the stem that I wanted to preserve so sanding would do no harm. I worked on the button edges to sharpen them. I then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem in between the 4000 grit pad and the 6000 grit pad with White Diamond. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it was dry gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished stem is shown in the photos below. I really like the new look of the pipe and am glad I replaced my first replacement stem. It will probably stay in the rotation for awhile now.

You may be wondering when this “urge” to rework previous work will end. I am not sure I can give you a clear answer to that question. I am going through the pipes I am preparing to sell so there may well be others that come under scrutiny. As I rework them I will let you all know. Maybe it will end when I get the pipes I have picked up on Ebay finally arrive. It may well be a case of too much time during the holidays and the ladies in my life disappearing to do shopping that keeps me looking for ways to stay busy.

Restemming and Rejuvenating a Pipe for my Son-in-Law

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Last evening my daughter and her husband had us over for a wonderful meal of pulled pork and salads. My daughter is a great cook but this time around her husband made the main course. My daughter called just before we went and asked that I bring my pipe and some tobacco to share. I could relax on the back porch and her husband, Lance and I could share a few bowls. It was a great evening and we shared a few bowls. I looked over his pipes and realized that most of them had come from me. In fact the first pipe he had ever smoked came from me – many years ago now. His brother had worked for me and I had introduced them both to the pipe. Anyway, as we spoke he said he had one with a broken stem. The pipe was an Italian basket pipe and had a hard Lucite stem. Somehow he had stepped on it and the stem had snapped in half. In the photo below you can see the break in the stem. It had been sitting with the stem out of the shank for a long time and the tenon no longer fit into the shank. The edges of the stem had been rounded to give it an interesting look, but it did nothing for me. The shank itself was also rounded so it would not take a stem the same diameter as the shank. To take out the rounded end would have shortened the shank by almost ½ inch so I decided to leave that detail alone and restem it with a stem similar to the original. I also decided to use vulcanite instead of Lucite. The new stem is shown below. It is the same diameter as the previous stem and would have a similar look to it. I would not round the end of the stem but rather leave it flat to sit flush against the top of the crowned shank. The stem was one from my stem can that had previously been on a different pipe. It was bent the proper angle already so I would not need to bend it or shape it. I just need to clean it up and remove the oxidation from the outside and clean out the interior as well. I also use some 220 grit sandpaper and worked on the tenon so that it had a good snug fit in the shank. I twisted it into place in the shank and took the photo below to get an idea of the new look. The next two photos give a picture of just a few of the pipe cleaners I used to clean out the stem. I also used a sharp knife to bevel the end of the tenon into a funnel. The previous stem had been drilled off centre and did not match the airway in the end of the mortise. It was well drilled and centered so the funnel on the tenon end would encourage good airflow through the pipe. A quick draw on the stem demonstrated that the draught was good and open now as opposed to the tight draw that it had before. I sanded the calcification on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the scratches and the oxidation at the end of the stem. I took the pipe to the buffer and gave it a quick buff with Tripoli and White Diamond to clean off the rim and also clean up the stem some more. I still need to sand the stem around the shank junction to remove stubborn oxidation and then polish it. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the oxidation near the shank. Then I used my usual array of micromesh pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-15,000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it dried I buffed it with red Tripoli and worked on the area near the tenon. I buffed it with White Diamond after than to polish it. Then I took it back to the work table and sanded it with the last three micromesh sanding pads. I polished the stem with Meguier’s Scratch X2.0 and then buffed a final time with White Diamond. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. I lightly buffed the bowl with wax and a soft buff as well. The finished pipe is shown below. On Wednesday evening I will deliver it to my son in law so he can fire it up after several years of not using it. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of the new stem.

Yet Another Frankenpipe – A pipe made from assorted pieces

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Frankenpipes are born out of having no more pipes in the refurb box to work on. I have many in transit at the moment but none with which to sit and unwind. That always is a recipe for me to dig in the boxes of parts and see what I can come up with to keep the hands busy. The pipe that follows was born of fiddling with parts in my parts box. The part I started with was an old bowl that I received in a gift box recently that did not have a pipe to go with it. It was a pressure fit bowl that obviously sat on a base of some kind of system pipe. I searched the Metal Pipes website to see if I could find out any information but did not find any likely candidates for this mystery bowl. It had some nice grain on it so it seemed like a shame to just let it sit in the box and wait for a potential pipe for it. I also I had a cut off shank piece that I had made for another purpose, a stem that fit the shank nicely and a block of briar that was too tiny for a pipe. The small block is one that I have been scavenging pieces off of to make plugs for burnout repairs. As I looked at the pieces I had an idea for putting them together into an interesting pipe that had kind of art deco feel to it. Now it was time to bring the pipe together and actualize my vision. I measured out the drilling areas for the block. I needed to drill the airway large enough to insert the briar shank. I would use the Missouri Meerschaum concept of inserting the shank into the briar block. I started by drilling the first hole in the end of the block. I drilled the mortise area first. I did this in stages as it needed to be big enough for the shank piece to be pressure fit into place. Afterward I drilled the rest of the airway in the block. I decided to drill it all the way through to the other side of the block so that I could put in a funky plug on the front end. I looked around for what I would use and had several ideas. Time would tell which I would choose in the end. I moved through several drill bits until the bit that was the size of the shank piece. I drilled it deep enough to inset the shank quite deep in the hole. I marked the airway exit on the top of the block with a permanent marker and drew a line to show the track of the airway. I marked my drill bit to the depth of the top of the airway and drilled the hole in the top of the block. I wanted the hole to be the size of the nipple on the bottom of the bowl so that it would pressure fit into the hole. I wanted the hole to go through to the top of the airway so that the nipple on the bowl would sit on top and create good airflow from bowl to stem. I pressure fit the bowl in the top of the block and the shank in the end of the block for the next two photos. I wanted to see if the parts all fit together well. I gave the shank a slight angle upward and would later bend the stem if the look was correct. Everything worked well at this point. For the plug on the end of the block I decided to do something simple. I wanted a plug that would be like a coloured dot on the end of the base. I cut off a piece of knitting needle and inserted it in the airway at the end of the block that is not showing at this point. I glued it in place and used the Dremel to take the overage back flush with the block. The height of the block was too much so I wanted to cut it in half. I do not have power tools to do that kind of thing so a bit of sweat equity and a small hack saw did the job. I sliced off the bottom half of the block to be used in making bowl plugs at a later date and now the height was more suitable to this little sitter. I glued the shank into place in the block with epoxy and angled it the way I wanted it to be when I finished the work on the base. I used the Dremel and a sanding drum to begin to shape the block into a base for the pipe. I wanted a slope upward to the bowl – the sides would also slope upward. My idea was to have the bowl sitting on top of a volcano like base. It took a lot of sanding to get the shape even close to what I had envisioned and in the process I ran into my first problem. The joint of the block and the shank could not be sanded smooth or the walls would be too thin and the shank would break too easily. I probably should have used a Delrin tenon to connect the two parts but as usual looking back is not overly helpful. So I had to improvise with this one. I had a small brass pressure fitting that would look kind of interesting on this little Frankenpipe so I worked the joint area to accommodate the brass fitting. The photos below show the pipe taking shape with the brass band high on the shank. (At the time of these photos I had not yet glued the band on the shank.) I filled in the openings around the edges of the fitting where the shank joined the block with briar dust and wood glue packed into place with a dental pick. I sanded the ridges on the fitting with 150 grit sandpaper to remove them. I would have to do more work on the look of the band as I worked out the details later. I took the following photos after I had done more shaping of the base and glued the band in place. While the band is not beautiful it certainly strengthens the joint on the shank of the pipe and makes up for my lack of planning! The photo below shows the base with the bowl removed. You can get a clear picture of the base without the bowl and how the bowl looks from the bottom. The hole in the base is the same size as the nipple on the bowl. I sanded it for another hour before calling it a night and then wiped it down with some light olive oil to get an idea where the scratches were that I needed to do more work on and also to see the grain. The next four photos show the pipe at this point in the process. There is still more sanding to do on the base and shank as well as some minor shaping. The idea though is clear – and the pipe is smokeable. The draw is very good and there are no leaks around the joint where the bowl presses into the base. So far so good. I set up a heat gun and bent the stem over the rounded handle of the heat gun to get a slight bend in it. I set the bend with cool water. With the bend the pipe is a sitter. The bend pulls the weight backward and the pip sits nicely on the button and the flat bottom of the base. I did quite a bit more sanding and shaping of the base with 150 and 220 grit sandpaper. Once I had the shape to where I wanted it I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I gave the bowl and shank a wipe down with a cloth that was dampened with olive oil. Other than that the bowl and shank are not stained. While the shaping was finished there was still a lot of sanding to do to remove the scratches that remain in the briar. I also want to do some sanding on the band to remove scratches and polish it as well. The vulcanite stem also needs sanding and polishing. I took the pipe apart and sanded all the pieces with micromesh sanding pads. I sanded all of them with 1500-2400 grit pads and then finished sanding them with a 6000 grit pad. I buffed the parts with red Tripoli and then White Diamond and gave each part of the bowl and base multiple coats of carnauba wax. I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding sponge and then with the various grits of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond, rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and finished by giving it a buff with carnauba wax. I sanded the brass band with the micromesh pads to polish it as well. When I had finished I gave the pipe a final buff with White Diamond and then applied carnauba wax to each part. I buffed them with a soft flannel buff to finish the shine. The final photo is of the front of the pipe. The knitting needle plug that I used is a bright reddish orange circle that sits at the base of the pipe on the front. The colour of the pipe is the red of the previous four finished photos. The last photo was taken with my cell phone and is a bit washed out.

I Found the Black Box – Bill Tonge

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I recently was gifted a box of Brigham pipes from someone on eBay who bought one of my pipes. The one in this particular write up is the fourth one down which is a 429 Author shape.
I pulled the pipe apart and did my usual cleaning which entails the bowl, shank and lightly sanding it for some contrast. Then I went at the stem. I did my Oxi-Clean and Magic Eraser to the stem and then used the micro mesh pads. When I finished I noticed that the stem was still brownish in spots. So I went out to the shop and dug out my Black Box from when I had my black car. I used it exactly the same way you use it on your car following every step. The first step involves the scratch remover and the second step is the black carnauba wax. I just dabbed it all over the stem and let it sit until it turned to a gray haze. The next set of pics shows the stem covered in the black wax. The final step is to buff it up. As you can see from the pics it covers the brown pretty well. And of course a pic of the final pipe cleaned, waxed and back together. Another happy Brigham.

Restoring and restemming a second Television Pipe – a Prince

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The second Television Pipe I received was a prince shape bowl without a stem. From the previous post I found out that it was an English Brand with a long stem. The brand was sold by A. Grunfield Co. and was produced by Gasparini. That bit of information came from Jose Manuel Lopes – Pipes Artisans and Trademarks. The bowl had a thick coat of varnish and a large fill on the front of the bowl. It appeared to be a deep fill and went from the top edge of the rim down about a third of the bowl. It did not go all the way through the briar to the bowl itself. There was also a smaller fill on the bottom of the bowl near the shank bowl junction. The grain was very mixed. On the back side and on the left and right sides there was some nice straight grain. The front of the bowl looked bald with the fill in the middle. The rim had a tarry buildup and was rough. The bowl had an uneven cake on the inside. Since there was no stem with the pipe and I did not have any church warden stems on hand I had some choices to make on the stem. I had a vulcanite stem and a clear Lucite stem that had potential. They were both longer than a typical prince stem but still not a church warden style. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the varnish and the grit that was in the finish. I set up my topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to top the bowl and smooth out the surface. With the fill going from the rim down the side I wanted to clean off the surface to see what repairs would need to be done. Once the top was cleaned off the fill looked like it was a crack that ran from the inside to the outside of the bowl. Upon examination with a loupe I could see that it was not a crack but the edges of the putty fill. I decided not to remove the fill at this point as I did not want to destabilize the bowl so I left it. I reamed the cake back with a PipNet reamer. I decided to use the clear Lucite stem that I had so I turned the tenon down with the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool on a cordless drill. I fine tuned the fit in the shank with 220 grit sandpaper. The diameter of the stem was wider than that of the shank so I sanded it with 150 grit sandpaper to bring it down in size. When I got it close to the proper diameter I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches in the Lucite. I sanded the shank to match so I had a smooth transition. I intended to restain the pipe any way so this was not a real problem. I liked the overall look of the new stem and with a slight bend it would look like a long stemmed prince. The Lucite stem did not have a slot carved in the end – merely a drilled airway so that I would need to use needle files to open and shape it into a funnel. The next four photos show the progress of the shaping of the slot. I apologize for the blurriness of the last two photos but they do give a rough idea of the shape of the slot at this point. To bend the stem I set up my heat gun and heated the Lucite until it was pliable and then bent it over my rolling pin. It took a few tries to get the bend that I wanted but eventually I set it with cool water. The next series of five photos show the bend in the stem. I still needed to do some sanding on the underside of the bend to thin it and shape it more cleanly. The angle appears a little abrupt but some sanding and shaping would take care of that. I also rubbed down the bowl with a cloth and olive oil to darken the briar to get a better idea of the grain patterns. I often use this method to show the grain but I am careful to not put too much oil on it. To polish the inside of the stem/airway I used a pipe cleaner dipped in Bar Keepers Friend (a cleanser). I have found that the grit of the cleanser polishes the inside of the airway. I sanded the stem to thin it on the top and on the underside of the bend with 220 grit sandpaper and when it was an even taper I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I sanded with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond to raise the shine. I put cotton balls in the bowls of the prince and the other Television pipe and used an ear syringe to put isopropyl alcohol in them to draw out the tars and oils of the tobacco. I set them in an old ice cube tray overnight. In the morning the alcohol had drawn out a lot of oils and the cotton was dark. I removed the cotton and cleaned the bowl and shank with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I rubbed down the bowl with some walnut stain in a Danish Oil and put it on a cork to dry. I know that many may question the use of linseed oil on pipe bowls but I use it sparingly on a few specific pipes that I want to give protection. In the case of this particular pipe, the large fill in the front seemed like it needed the extra protection. I buffed the finished pipe with White Diamond and gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is drying on a pipe stand to let any residual alcohol from the cotton ball and alcohol soak to evaporate. After than it will be given an inaugural smoke to make sure the draw is correct and the stem is comfortable. Who knows I may even reheat the stem and experiment some more with the bend.

Restoring an older KB&B Borlum Dublin

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I was gifted a small KB&B Dublin from a friend on Smokers Forums. I always like to know what I am working on when restoring old pipes so I did a bit of digging into the stamping on the pipe and found the following information. I already knew that Kaufmann Brothers and Bondy was the oldest pipe company in the USA, established in 1851. The Club Logo predated Kaywoodie with the “KB&B” lettering stamped within the Club, and a multitude of KB&B lines were in production long before “Kaywoodie” first appeared in 1919. So I knew that the pipe I had was a pre-1919, pre-Kaywoodie KB&B Made BORLUM Dublin.

It is stamped BORLUM in an arc over KB&B in a cloverleaf. Underneath it is stamped ITALIAN BRIAR in a reverse arc. All of the above is stamped on the left side of the shank. On the right side of the shank it is stamped UNBREAKABLE BIT. It was made before Kaywoodie became the flagship name for pipes from Kaufman Brothers & Bondy (KB&B). It was made before the Kaywoodie invention of the “Stinger” was added, and even before shank logos, model stamps and other features invented by Kaywoodie came to be standards of the pipe making industry. It comes from the time when names like Ambassador, Heatherby, Melrose, Suez, Rivoli, Cadillac and Kamello dominated the pre-Kaywoodie scene. Borlum is one of those vintage names.

The Borlum pipe featured some innovations which were new for the time but commonplace to us: (1) A solid rubber bit (vulcanite, ebonite), (2) aluminum inner-tube construction in the stem thus marked “Unbreakable Bit” on the right side of the shank, (3) a standard nickel plated band (marked KB&B) to strengthen the shank connection for the stem. The stem features the older style more rounded bit tip/orific button, and you can see the aluminum inner-tube fitting just inside the tip.

I have included several pictures that I found on the internet to show the unique stem tube that the Borlum has. The first photo shows the type of stem the pipe has. My little Dublin has a stem that is shaped like the second stem from the left but includes the same metal tube that shows in the bent stem, third from the left. The second photo shows the tenon end of the stem and the other end of the metal tube in the Borlum stem. It is the inclusion of the tube that gives rise to the claim that is stamped on the shank – Unbreakable Bit. The third photo below is a Borlum display and sales card. What is particularly interesting to me is the diagram at the top of the card showing the interior of the stem in place in the shank. It also includes the claim, “Guaranteed against Breakage”. I love these old pipes and the prices they sold for back in the day. Note the $1 and up tag on the sales card. The pipe that was a gift to me is similar to the Dublin at the bottom left of the above card. It has the same shape and straight shank. It also has a similar profile. The difference is that min has a shank band which is also part of the unbreakable system of these pipes. I guess they found that an unbreakable stem can still leave a breakable shank. The band stabilizes the shank and makes the pipe more indestructible. The band is stamped with the Club/Cloverleaf with KB&B in the center and under that Nickel Plated. It adds a touch of class to this little Dublin. The pipe was gifted to me by Jim Wagner from Smokers Forums. I recently refurbished an older KBB Yello-Bole and Jim said he had this one. It came this week and I took it on today. The pipe was in good shape when I took it out of the shipping package. The finish was clean but the rim had a few minor issues. There was a slight darkening near the back of the bowl and there were some ripples in the varnish finish on the rim. The cake was thin and even. The bowl was in round. The nickel band and the stem showed oxidation. I really like these old timers with the orific buttons. They are more rounded than the modern flat stem but are very comfortable in the mouth. Jim had mentioned that the stem was a hard material. In cleaning it up I found that it was indeed vulcanite or vulcanized rubber. It was hard but not as hard as an acrylic stem. There were no bite marks in the stem and minimal tooth chatter near the button. It was a beautiful old pipe that truly did not show it 100+ year age. I reamed the bowl lightly with a PipNet reamer to smooth out the thin cake. I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. I kept at it until the cleaners came out the same way they went into the shank – white. In order to address the issues with the rim I wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad and then gently sanded it with an extra fine grit sanding sponge. My intent was not to top the bowl but to smooth out the ripples of the varnish and remove some of the darkening. In checking it out the darkening was not deep in the briar but merely on the surface so this method would remove the damage. I wiped the bowl and shank down with the acetone and cotton pads to clean off the slight darkening of the finish. I wanted to remove the varnish coat so that I could use just wax on the bowl. I did not want to remove any of the colour/stain. I wanted to leave the colour/patina intact with no change. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I shone a flashlight on the stem to highlight the oxidation and continued to sand with this combination until the brown/green hue was gone and the stem was a dull black. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then sanded it with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with the Obsidian Oil after each set of three micromesh pads. I polished the nickel band with a silver polishing cloth and then used the higher grits (6000-12,000) of micromesh on it to polish it further. I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax, buffing with a soft flannel buff between applications of the wax. The finished pipe is shown below. It has been restored with little intrusion into the original shape or finish and is ready for many more years ahead. Thanks Jim for the beautiful little Dublin that you have added to my collection.

Restoring a Tracy Mincer “The Doodler”

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A pipe I picked up on a recent trip to La Conner, Washington was a billiard that has the drilled flutes from the top to the bowl of the bowl all the way around. It is stamped “The Doodler” over Imported Briar on the left side of the shank. On the right side of the bowl is a burn mark that covered two of the rings. The finish was in good shape. The outer edge of the rim had cuts and broken edges from hitting the bowl to empty it. On the back side of the bowl one of the rings have two notches out of the lower edges. The inside rings of the bowl were unstained. Usually on a Doodler there is a scoring ring around the top of the rim. On this rim that was missing on most of the rim. The bowl had a poorly developed cake and the shank was dirty. The rustication on the bottom of the bowl was rough in the grooves and smooth on the surface. The stem was original and had a stepped down tenon. There was also some oxidation on the stem and tooth chatter on both sides near the button.
I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish. It took some scrubbing to remove the finish and the buildup on the rim. Once the finish was removed the burn on the right side was very clear. It fortunately was not too deep in the briar and would be less problematic to minimize when I refinished the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I used the third cutting head and took back the cake to the bare briar. I had to also use the second head to remove the cake from the bottom of the bowl. I cleaned out the shank and the bowl with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used many of each and was able to remove much of the tars and oils in the shank. The pipe cleaners and cotton swabs came out very dirty so I decided to set up a retort and boil out the shank and airways with hot alcohol. The alcohol in the test tube was heated with the votive candle and the boiling sent the hot alcohol into the shank. I had plugged the bowl with a cotton pad. I repeated the process until the alcohol came out clean. Once I removed the retort I cleaned out the interior of the stem and shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and more isopropyl. The remainder of the oils came out with this cleaning. I sanded the bowl with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the damage to the rim and the burn area. I followed that with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. After sanding I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad. I stained the bowl and shank with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl. I flamed the stain and then repeated the process until the coverage was even. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I followed that by sanding it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to shine and protect. I buffed it with soft flannel buffing pads to give it a final shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is now joins my other Doodler and Holy Smoke Pipes in my pipe cupboard. If it is anything like the others it will smoke very well and stay cool throughout the entire smoke due to the drilling all around the bowl.