Tag Archives: polishing

K&P London Made Found in a Bargain Shop

Blog by Steve Laug

Yesterday afternoon I went with my eldest daughter to Walmart here in Vancouver. Across the street is a bargain shop that sells lot of movie set items and other things that are collectible and antique. I have found quite a few good pipes there over the years. I went to the shop while she was in Walmart and looked over the lot they had this time. There were quite a few pipes in the case and most of them while interesting just did not capture my attention. Then I moved a few of them out of the way and underneath was this little P-lip apple. I could tell it was a Pete and an older one because of the thick shank and stem. I held it up to the light and my guess was confirmed. It was a Peterson. It was marked $28 and I offered $25 for it. They accepted the offer and I paid the bill and put the pipe in my pocket. I picked up my daughter and headed home to check it out.

I wiped off the shank with a cotton pad dampened with saliva and found that it was stamped K&P LONDONMADE on the right side of the shank. On the left side it was stamped 215 and A “PETERSON’S PRODUCT” Made In London. So I had found an English made Peterson’s shape 215 pipe. The band was silver and was badly tarnished but I could see from the hallmarks that it was also stamped with English hallmarks. The first was an anchor which told me that the band was made in Birmingham. The second was a reclining lion which is the stamping for Sterling silver. The third mark was hard to see with the grime and tarnish but looked like an animal face in the cartouche. Closer examination would have to wait until I had cleaned up the tarnish.

The pipe was in fair shape. The bowl had nicks in the sides in several places as well as a very rough rim. It looked as if it had been hammered about and was damaged. It would require topping to remedy that problem. The bowl had been reamed and was slightly out of round and then smoked again for some time – long enough to build up an uneven cake with most of the cake at the top of the bowl and the bottom of the bowl was bare wood. The silver band was loose and had turned about a quarter turn clockwise. The stem was very tight in the shank – which thankfully had kept the band in place on the pipe. The stem had many bite marks and tooth dents up the shaft from the button for about an inch. It looked as if the individual who had smoked it held it far back in his teeth. Both the underside and topside of the stem were damaged with tooth marks and a series of grooves from a tool. The button itself and the ledge on the underside were in very good shape. The round opening in the button was elongated from years of pipe cleaners.

I was able to carefully remove the stem and the inside of the shank was darkened with tars but not terribly dirty. The end of the tenon is stepped down and the fit in the shank was very snug. After cleaning the stem would fit well. There was no stamping on the oxidized stem and appeared to be no remnant of stamping. The oxidation on the stem was heavy at the shank stem union and also around the button on the top and bottom.

I wrote about the stamping to Mark Irwin who is my Peterson’s go to contact for information on Peterson pipes. He is a wealth of information that I have been unable to find in other places. He was on the road but sent me the following information. “…The “Peterson Product” indicates the pipe is a lower line. They began using this stamp in the 1930 catalog for their “K” pipes, but if it was this, you should’ve seen a “K” on it. There were several “200” series shapes, but the “215” is not in a catalog I have here. The London factory was much smaller than the Dublin, but I’ll have to ask Gary about the hallmarks, as I’m unfamiliar with the Brit system. Best my guess tonight is that the pipe dates anywhere from 1920-1940. I have photos of a thick-shanked and thick-stemmed straight apple hallmarked Dublin 1920–I can send you a .gif when I get home if this sounds like the pipe. If so, the shape itself goes back to at least that year.”

That was helpful information on the dating of the pipe. I sent Mark the photos last evening and then this morning received this reply concerning the pipe. “… Gorgeous! Yup, it’s the same shape as the photo I have, which means the shape itself goes back to at least 1920.” In the mean time I had cleaned up the band with silver polish and scrubbed it with a soft cotton pad. I reset it with white glue on the shank and examined the hallmarks under a bright light with a jewelers loop. It became clear that the last of the hallmarks was not an animal but rather a letter in the cartouche. It was well worn but from the outlines on the mark it appeared to be the letter “T” which dates the pipe to 1943.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head and the next size as well. I removed the cake back to the wood to even out the broken cake. I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs to remove all the tars and oils in the shank. Once I had cleaned out the shank I also cleaned the stem with pipe cleaners. I used Everclear with cotton swabs on both. When it was finished I put the stem back in the shank and the fit was snug.

I topped the bowl with my usual method – 220 grit sandpaper on a flat board and turned the bowl clockwise as I pressed the rim into the sandpaper. I sanded the top until the damaged portion of the rim was removed. One side benefit of the process was that it also removed some of the damaged inner rim as well bringing the bowl back into round.

To prepare the bowl for restaining I wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad. I wanted to remove as much of the finish as possible so that I could more easily blend the new stain on the rim with the stain on the bowl. I have found that if I thin down the original stain on the bowl I can generally make a good match with the rim when I stain the entire pipe. The rim always takes several more coats of stain than the bowl but the match comes out very well. I wanted to end up with a stain colour that matched the original stain colour as much as possible. Between each coat of stain I flamed the stain to set it in the grain of the briar. The stain I used was an aniline stain in a dark brown that I thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. Once it was dry I hand buffed it with a shoe brush to blend the colours of the stain and give me a clear look at the stain to make sure it was evenly applied.

I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the stem with medium grit emery paper to remove the oxidation and also clean up the vulcanite around the tooth dents. Once clean, I heated the dents by passing the flame of a lighter across the tooth marks. The heat of the flame lifts the dents to the surface. The key is to keep the flame moving quickly and not allow it to sit in one place too long or the stem will burn. The first photo below shows the tooth marks on the top side of the stem. There were matching tooth marks on the underside. The second photo shows the stem after the heating with the flame. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and remnants of the dents. I filled the two remaining dents with super glue, sanded the glue down to match the surface of the stem and then finished the sanding with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit (Photos 3 – 5).

Once the stem was sanded with the 12,000 grit micromesh pad I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and when dry rubbed it into the stem. I gave the stem several coats of wax and returned it to the bowl. I polished the silver band a final time and also waxed that. I buffed the pipe lightly with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is pictured below. It has some beautiful grain on it. There are also some flaws in the briar that I chose to leave as I find they add character to the pipe.

Father Tom’s Briar – Reborn – by Al Jones

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Blog by Al Jones

Followers of this blog are no doubt very familiar with Steve Laug’s wonderful “Father Tom” short stories. For those not familiar with Father Tom, he is fictional well seasoned, pipe smoking minister.

On the “Brothers of Briar” pipe forum and we are fortunate to have a real life “Father Tom” as a member. Father Tom is an Episcopal priest in Northern Indiana. He taught for 32 years before leaving the classroom for full-time parish work. He has been a pipe smoker since college, and most of his college pipes are still in the rotation. The pipe is one he bought in the late 70’s in South Carolina. Tom posted a picture of this pipe earlier this summer on the forum and wondered if the finish could be restored. Tom had recently returned from a church assignment to the Honduras. The pipe was very much well-loved and the varnished finish was worn off in the handling areas. The stem was also heavily oxidized. Tom reported that it smoked Granger quite well. Here is the pipe as it was delivered.

Steve sent me some information on a Wellington brand pipe and this one appears to be a reproduction of that and the Peterson system pipe, including a p-lip military stem. The pipe is stamped “Pietro”. Steve told me that these stems had a reputation of being drilled close to the edge of the stem near the bend. As such, over time, the use of a pipe cleaner wears the stem material thin. Sure enough, after I started to remove the oxidation, there was a small hole and crack on the top of the stem bend. I wasn’t sure the stem could be saved but I thought that perhaps several layers of black superglue blended in would rebuild that area. In total, I applied four light coats of the superglue, raising the surface about 1 mm and covering the hold. The crack still shows thru the material but I think it should hold up to some use. But, I advised Father Tom to be careful clenching that one. At some point a new stem will have to be made for the pipe.

This shows the repair in progress with the black superglue (purchased from Stewart-Mac, a guitar repair supply house).

I finished the stem by removing the heavy oxidation first with 600 grit wet sandpaper, than moving to the 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grades. I used 8000 and 12000 grades of micromesh to complete that step. Than, with the stem mounted in the briar, it was buffed with white diamond rouge, than a automotive plastic polish.

I then moved my attention to the briar. I first soaked the briar in an alcohol bath in an attempt to soften the varnished finish. That had some effect, but it was necessary to sand most of the shiny varnish off by hand. I used 600 grit paper and progress up to 1500 grade wet paper. There was one large gash on the bottom of the bowl and one large fill spot, where the putty had fallen out. Not surprisingly, there were other fills on the briar under that finish. I was able to lift out the dent using a heated kitchen knife and steam. I repaired the fill hold with some of the black superglue. Sometimes I think covering the fills looks worse than leaving them and I thought the others lent some character to the pipe that Tom had given the briar (they might have also been handling dings, etc.)

I used a two step process to apply the stain to the briar. First I warmed the bowl with a hair dryer and then brushed on a coat of black stain. I lit the stain with flame to set it into the grain. The black stain was then sanded off with a series of sandpaper, starting again at 800 grit. I then applied a very light, almost neutral brown stain over the black. The bowl was then buffed with white diamond rouge and several coats of carnuba wax. While hand buffing the carnuba wax, I almost had a tragic accident with the pipe – it slipped out of my hands and bounced off my concrete workshop floor. I was horrified but was somewhat relieved to see no visible damage. It was only in the final hand polishing did I notice that the fall had put a dent in the metal cap. Steve shared with me a technique to heat the cap (once removed) and use a wooden dowel shaped into the half-circle to work out dents. Unfortunately, even using heat, I was unable to remove the cap. After discussion with the gracious Father Tom, it was decided to leave well enough alone. I will be picking up a padded piece of carpet to place in front of my work bench.

Below is the finished pipe. My grandfather was also a minister, but didn’t smoke a pipe. I would often watch him in his study poring over notes for his next sermon or wrestling with the day-to-day issues that a pastor faces. While working thru this restoration, I could picture Father Tom thoughtfully puffing on pipe as he completed his pastoral duties. I imagine it has been with him thru many weighty challenges faced by a modern minister. I hope this reborn pipe will be with him for many more years and help work thru the challenges of that endeavor.

Refurbed No name Dublin

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I am once again down to the remnants of the box of pipes to refurbished. This one is a no name Dublin with a large bowl and a long stem. The only stamping on the pipe is the words Imported over Briar on the left side of the shank. It is a screw mount metal tenon but the condenser attachment is missing. The stem was oxidized and had tooth dents on the top and bottom near the button. The inside of the stem was sticky black tar and smelled of sweet aromatics with goopy topping. The bowl was caked but not too badly so. There were flakes of tobacco stuck to the walls of the bowl. There was some darkening to the briar on the outside that made me wonder what I would find underneath the uneven cake. The exterior of the bowl was very dirty. There was a lot of oil ground into the finish on the smooth parts of the bowl and the carved feathers/leaves had dirt built up in the grooves. There was also a large drop of green paint on the lower left side of the bowl. The rim was caked and dirty and was slightly out of round.

I reamed the uneven cake from the bowl with the PipNet reamer set. Underneath the surface of the cake there were some fissures in the surface of thin cake I left on the wood of the inside of the bowl. The pipe may be a candidate for quick bowl coating or pipe mud to protect it from any damage or burn out. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone wetted cotton pads. It took many pads before I was down to the clean surface of the briar. I topped the bowl with a medium grit sanding block to remove the buildup on the surface. I followed up on this with a fine grit sanding block to remove the scratches and then with a fine grit sanding sponge. I used a tooth brush and acetone to clean out the grooves of the carvings.

I sanded the entire bowl and shank with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the remaining finish. I also sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then followed up with the same sanding sponge. I heated the bite marks with a Bic lighter to lift them and then sanded the surface smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded that area of the stem with fine grit sandpaper and a sanding sponge. Once the bowl was sanded and ready to be stained I wiped it down a final time with an acetone wetted cotton pad to remove the sanding dust from the grooves and carvings.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to bring back the shine. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and buffed it with White Diamond. I coated the stem with carnauba wax and hand polished it with a shoe brush.

I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain that I mixed with isopropyl alcohol in a 2:1 ratio to get it to be the colour I wanted for this pipe. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and flamed it to set it in the grain. I repeated the staining until the colour was on target and even around the bowl. Each time I flamed it to set it in the briar. Once it was dry I buffed the pipe and stem on the buffer with White Diamond and then gave it repeated coats of carnauba wax and buffed in between with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is pictured below.

It appeared to be a hopeless case, but was it really?

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe was posted on Smokers Forums as one that was in rough shape. http://www.smokersforums.co.uk/showthread.php?273-Whew! As soon as I saw it I thought it would be fun to take on as a challenge and see what could be made of it. It was truly in very rough shape. So I put in a low bid on EBay and it was mine. Only the wait remained before I would see what I got myself into.

When it arrived I opened the box and took it out to see what I had to deal with on it. The stem was stuck in the shank and it was off center. I made a guess that it was a screw in stem – metal tenon and some kind of condenser. The finish was absolutely ruined. There was an opaque film all over the bowl and shank of varnish that had gone bad. There were crackles in the finish. The shank was crack badly and the shank was no longer square – the crack had expanded away from the angles of the pipe. The rim was invisible and the bowl was caked with a thick cake but upon examination it was full of cracks and crevices rather than a hard cake of carbon. Looking at what I could see of the inner edge of the rim it seemed like it was not damaged – at least not by reaming! There were several burn spots on the outside of the bowl around the rim and left side of the bowl from laying the pipe in an ash tray with a cigarette. It would indeed be a challenge and one that I wondered seriously about for a few moments.

I immediately put it in the freezer for a half an hour to see if I could loosen the stem from the shank. Once I took it out I was able to twist off the stem and remove it from the shank. I took it to my work table and examined it to see what I had to work with. I was quite happy to see that the shank had a metal tube inside that was threaded to receive the tenon. The tube extended into the shank about an inch. This would make a repair on the crack quite simple and not require that I band the pipe. The stem was overturned and the tenon would need to be heated until it was loose and then realigned on the shank. The insert in the shank extended further than the end of the shank and kept the stem from seating correctly against the shank. I also noted that the stamping did not read Worchester as the seller had listed it but that it read Dorchester and underneath that Algerian Briar. There was also damage on the shank near the bowl on the right side where the edge was pretty chewed up by what looked like a pair of pliers used to try and remove the stem from the shank. The slot in the button was clogged with oils and tars so I was assuming that insides were the same way. The stem had white spots on it that at first appeared to be paint but were actually pits in the stem. It appeared to be made of something other than vulcanite. I was not sure what it was but it was not rubber. All of the issues with this pipe, and they were many, but it was very repairable.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head first and gradually working up to the diameter of the bowl. I wanted to ream the pipe back to bare briar to give a fresh start and be able to see if there were any burn out issues in the bowl. There were none.

With the bowl reamed and the cake gone it was time to clean the exterior of the bowl and rim. I wiped it down with acetone to remove the finish and break up the crackled varnish that is visible in the above photos. I also lightly topped the bowl with a sanding block to remove the crumbly build up on the rim. I was guessing from my examination that the rim itself was not damaged so a light topping to remove the buildup would be all I would need to do. The next series of photos show the process of wiping down the bowl, topping it and wiping it down a second time after topping. While most of the varnish finish was gone, not all of it would come off with the acetone wash. So in the last picture below you can see the crackly finish on the shank and at the bowl junction.

I decided to drop the bowl in my alcohol bath to soak while I worked on cleaning up the stem. I use an alcohol bath to soak the pipe bowl and get underneath the varnish coat. Once it comes out of the bath it is relatively simple to wipe off the remaining finish. While it soaked I scrubbed the stem with Everclear and a soft bristle tooth brush. I scrubbed off the surface grit and grim and also worked on the button and slot to loosen the grit. I scrubbed the condenser as well with the Everclear and also used 0000 steel wool to polish it. I cleaned out the inside of the stem with thick and bristle pipe cleaners. Once it was clean it was time to take the bowl out of the bath.

I removed the pipe from the bath and scrubbed it with the tooth brush. I worked on the grooves in the bowl and also at the shank bowl junction. I dried it off and prepared it for work on the cracked shank. The crackled finish was finally gone and the pipe was clean.

I scrubbed the area around the crack in the shank and picked out dust and particles with a dental pick. I dripped clear superglue into the crack and packed in briar dust with a dental pick. I clamped the cracked area and set it aside to cure for about a half hour.

Once I removed the clamp the crack was sealed and the shank was returned to its original shape. I sanded the shank area to remove the excess superglue and the briar dust that was on the surface. The photo below gives a clear picture of the end view of the repaired shank and how it was squared up.

The next step in the repair process was correcting the overturned stem. I removed the stem and sanded the metal end of the mortise insert flush with the shank end. Then I heated the tenon over a heat gun and when it was warm screwed it on to the shank and turned it until it lined up well with the shank.

With the stem and shank aligned I sanded the shank area to clean up the damage to the right side where the marks were from someone’s pliers. I also sanded the stem shank junction and the repaired crack with a sanding block until the sides were all smooth in their transition from stem to shank. I wiped it down with an acetone wet cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and prepare it for staining. I used a black permanent marker to cover the fills in the bowl. I have found that when I follow the grain pattern with the marker before restaining the stain works well to mask the fills.

I chose to do a contrasting stain on this pipe, a black understain and an oxblood/mahogany top stain. I heated the briar and then applied a black aniline stain to the pipe. I applied it with a cotton swab and flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied the stain and also flamed it again to set the stain in the briar.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone to lighten the black stain and make the grain stand out on the pipe. I also sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge.

From the above photos you can see the coverage of the black stain and the way in which the black permanent marker blends into the grain of the pipe. I wiped the pipe down repeatedly until it was the colour I wanted before I put on the next coat of stain. For the top coat I chose to use an oxblood or mahogany coloured aniline paste stain. I rubbed it on with cotton swabs and wiped it off with a soft cloth.

At this point I wiped the bowl down a second time with acetone wetted cotton pads and lightened the reddish finish. The fills are slightly visible but once the pipe is buffed and polished they will be blended in better. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to remove more of the excess stain and help the contrasting under stain to show. I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding pad, and then with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit until it shined. I then gave it a rub down with Obsidian Oil and finally with multiple coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe. It is ready to smoke and will in all likelihood last longer than I will. The lightweight aged Algerian briar evidently made this a great smoking pipe for the previous owner and it will remain that I am sure for the owners to come.

Restemming a Bruyere Krone Billiard

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I am just about finished restemming the lot of pipe bowls I picked up on EBay. This is one of the last two pipes that I have left in the lot below. It is the fourth pipe down in the left column. It has an interesting rustication pattern that reminds of one that is done on Saseini pipes. It is striated around the bowl and then tapers up from the bottom to a striated pattern around the shank. It has a flat bottom on the shank that is smooth and stamped Bruyere in a crown with a large R in the centre of the band on the crown. Underneath the crown is an unfurled banner that is stamped K R O N E. I have no idea of who the maker is or when and where it was made. The stamping is faint so I may be missing a few letters but I think this is an accurate rendering of what is stamped. The finish was pretty dirty with grime in the grooves on the bowl and shank. The rim was caked with a tarry buildup and the grooving on the rim was not visible. There were also place on the finish where the stain was missing and the briar underneath exposed. The inside of the bowl had dust and cob webs and a pretty large cake buildup that would need to be removed. The bowl came without a stem and fitting one would take flattening of the stem on the underside to match the shank.

I went through my box of estate stems and found one that was a good fit to the shank. Once the cleanup of the stem was done and a flattening of the underside of the stem the pipe would look like it came with that stem. The stem had a calcified buildup around the button and some tooth marks as well. The oxidation was not too bad but was present.

The clean angles of the button against the stem were gone so I recut them with needle files to clean up the edge. I reamed the bowl back to bare briar with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and progressing to the one that was the diameter of the bowl without the cake. Once it was cleaned out I scrubbed down the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a soft bristle tooth brush to remove the grime. I scrubbed the buildup on the rim with a soft bristle brass tire brush to remove the tars. Once I had scrubbed it I rinsed it with warm water to remove the soap and dried it off with a cotton towel. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad and prepared it to be stained. After heating it with a heat gun I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I used a permanent black marker to touch up the raw briar areas where it was scratched or damaged. I reapplied the stain and flamed it. The newly stained pipe is shown in photos 2 and 3 below.

I sanded the stem with medium grit emery paper to remove the calcification around the button and also heated the tooth marks with a Bic lighter to lift them as much as possible. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame to burn off the sulfur of the oxidation that I had loosened by sanding. I repaired the tooth marks on both sides of the stem with black superglue and set it aside to dry overnight.

The next morning I cleaned out the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and Everclear. I sanded the stem and the superglue patch with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to clean up the scratches in the finish. I put it back on the bowl to get an idea of the overall look of the pipe and see if the diameters of the stem fit the shank. I needed to flatten the bottom of the stem some more to match the bottom of the shank and also removed some more of the material on the diameter of both sides to bring it into line with the shank. Once the stem was well fitted I moved on to sanding with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and a Blue polish. I gave the bowl a light buff with White Diamond to bring up the shine. I gave the bowl a coat of Halcyon II wax and buffed it by hand with a shoe brush. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba and buffed it on the buffer with a clean flannel buff. I think the pipe came out well. Does anyone know anything about the brand?

Making a New Stem for a Peterson’s Kildare XL999

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The Peterson’s Kildare is the second pipe down in the left column in the photo below. The second and third photos are of the pipe bowl apart from the lot. The externals were in pretty decent shape but the rim has a heavy buildup of tars and the cake in the bowl is quite thick and hard. To give an idea of the thickness of the cake I was unable to put my little finger in the bowl. The shank was quite large – the tenon is ½ inch in diameter for a snug fit in a clean tenon. The shank itself is 7/8 inches in diameter. It is a large mortise and airway. The pipe is stamped Peterson’s “Kildare” on the left side of the shank and Made in the Republic of Ireland XL999 on the right side of the shank. The finish is quite clean. The top will need to be topped to remove the buildup and dents. I also will need to chamfer the inner edge of the rim to repair the damage that is present on the surface of the rim.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet Reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head on the T handle and working up to the diameter of the bowl. I carefully ream the cake so as not to damage the bowl roundness or the inner edge of the rim any more than it already is. I emptied the carbon out of the bowl repeatedly until it was clean and empty. I reamed the cake back to bare wood to begin to rebuild on a clean surface. I scoured the bowl and shank with Everclear and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners.

Once the inside was clean I decided to gently top the bowl. I used a medium grit sanding sponge flat on the table top and worked the rim against that to remove the buildup of tars. The first photo shows the set up and the second the result of the topping. Very little briar was removed from the rim, mostly tars. The finish however also was removed so the rim would need to be restained. The third photo shows how I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bevel/chamfer the inner rim to repair the damage that had been done to the rim.

I sent out several emails and private messages to folks on the online forums to see if I could find a Peterson stem with these dimensions. I received many answers and several possible stems that could work for this pipe. Thanks to those who sent them. For the most part they were either too long or the diameter of the stem was not large enough to fit the shank. Chuck (desertpipe on SF) sent me several that would work. I also have a piece of brindle rod coming that Todd (Sasquatch on SF) was willing to cut for me. So in the end I will have two different stems for the pipe. While awaiting the arrival of the Cumberland stock I decided to turn the tenon on a vulcanite stem blank from Chuck. I turned it with a PIMO tenon tool and fit it to the bowl. The end fit was a ½ tenon for the mortise so I did not need to remove much of the existing vulcanite on the cast stem to make it fit well. To fit the stem on the tool I drilled the airway so that it slid easily over the pin on the tool but did not have too much play. I held the stem and ran the drill over the tenon for a first pass (second photo below) I adjusted the cutting tip and spun it several more times until the fit in the mortise was close. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to take off more of the material and fine tune the fit (third photo below). I spun it one last time to clean up the face of the stem where it sat against the shank. I want that surface to be smooth and seamless in its fit.

After fitting the tenon to the mortise I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess vulcanite on the diameter of the stem. I carefully sand with the Dremel and bring the stem as close to the diameter of the shank as possible without nicking the briar. I also sand down the sides of the stem to remove the casting overrun on the stem and button. The idea is to get as close as possible to the stem diameter and then sand the rest of the fit by hand with medium grit emery cloth and 220 grit sandpaper.

I took the pipe back to my work table and removed the stem and sanded it until the fit was perfect and the marks left by the Dremel were gone. The hand sanding is probably the longest part of the process of fitting a new stem. I sanded it repeatedly with emery paper and 220 grit sandpaper until it was smooth enough to move to the next step in the process. At this point I am not looking for a smooth and perfect fit but one that is getting close. I then heat the stem with my heat gun in order to bend the stem to fit the flow of the pipe. I heated it until it was pliable and then bent it over the rolling pin and cardboard tube that I use for getting the curve of the stem smooth and correct.

I took the pipe back to my table and showed it to my sidekick and helper, Spence for his approval. He gave it a sniff and looked it over. It passed his inspection so I continued to sand and shape the shank/stem union. Lots of pieces of sandpaper and emery paper later the stem is getting closer and closer to a good fit.

The button was very tight and I was not able to push a pipe cleaner through the slot so I opened the slot with needle files and reshaped it into an oval that was open and flared back to the airway in the stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. Each step of sanding brought both the fit and finish closer to the look I was aiming for with the finished stem.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish and prepare the bowl for a new coat of stain. I have found that if I do not remove the stain then it is very hard to match the rim to the colour of the bowl. With the finish gone the staining is very simple.

I thinned the stain, a dark brown aniline stain, with isopropyl alcohol – 1 part stain to two parts alcohol. I had picked a stain that matched the previous colour of the bowl and also matched another 999 Peterson that I have here. I heated the surface of the bowl with my heat gun to warm the briar and open the pores in the wood. Once it was warmed I applied the stain with a cotton swab and repeated until I had good coverage over the entire surface. I flamed the stain, repeated the application and flamed it a second time. Once it was dry I took it to the buffer and gave it a light buff with White Diamond to even out the stain coverage and remove the excess on the surface of the briar. I wiped down the inside of the bowl where the stain ran in with a cotton swab dipped in Everclear.

With the bowl finished and ready to buff it was time to finish the work on the stem. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit. Each successive grit brought more of a shine to the stem and removed the scratches left behind by previous sanding.

I worked on the slot with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the surface of the inside. I also shaped it with the sandpaper until I had the look I wanted. The oval slot now easily took a pipe cleaner no matter how fluffy.

After much sanding and fitting, the vulcanite stem is finished. The pipe is smokeable while I wait for the Cumberland/brindle rod stock to come from Todd. I like the look and feel of the pipe as it is very close in size and design to the GBD 9438 with a tapered stem. The finished pipe is pictured below after buffing with multiple coats of carnauba wax and with a clean flannel buff.

Reborn Huckster Pipe – Is It a GBD 9438?

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When I hear the word Huckster I think of an aggressive salesperson or a promoter, a snake oil salesman or someone not to be trusted. The definition from the dictionary is one who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product. The stamping on this pipe is HUCKSTER on the left side of the shank. On the right side of the shank it is stamped LONDON ENGLAND. The pipe is clearly either made by GBD or by someone doing an amazing copy of the GBD 9438 shape. The shape is perfect in comparison with my GBDs of this shape number. I have been researching on the internet to see if I can find out who the pipe was made by/for and develop some background on it but so far I have found nothing.

The five pictures below were included in the EBay sale by the seller of the pipe. While they are out of focus they gave me a clear enough picture to place the bid. I was one of a few bidders on this one so I picked it up for a very good price in comparison to that of GBD 9438s. When it arrived I was happy to see that the seller’s photos actually were poor in comparison to the pipe that I held in my hand. The grain is extremely nice – the left side and the bottom of the shank and bowl have some beautiful birdseye grain. The right side has great flame grain. The front of the bowl has a bald spot with a well hidden fill in the grain (In the photos it is just above the lighter spot on the front of the bowl. There were a few dents that would need to be steamed out of the finish but the stain and finish was impeccable. The rim was unblemished with no burn marks. There were a few small sand pits in the bowl above the double rings. The bowl had a slight cake in the bottom half but the shank is clean and spotless with some raw briar that has not been stained with smoking. If it weren’t for the slight cake in the bottom of the bowl it would appear to be unsmoked. The stem was badly oxidized and did have one slight tooth dent on the underside near the button. I think that the seller must have cleaned up the pipe before selling as there were also scratches from sanding on the stem – top and bottom sides.

When it arrived I took the next four photos to show what the pipe looked like before I worked on it. My description above formulated by and large from the photos online was accurate though in fact the pipe was very clean.

The bowl did not require any work other than a quick cleaning of the shank – more by habit than necessity. The stem on the other hand required a lot of work. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge to break up the oxidation. I also used the flame of a Bic lighter to paint the surface of the stem. The flame from the lighter also raised the slight tooth indent next to the button. This combination of methods removed a large portion of the oxidation as can be seen in the next four photos below.

I then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit sanding pads. I wet the pad by dipping it in a bowl of water and then sand the stem with it. Once I had wet sanded with those grits of micromesh I followed by dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh pads. The next series of five photos show the progress of the sanding. I took it to the buffer after the wet sanding and buffed it with Tripoli to get an idea of where I stood with the oxidation. I also ran the flame over the hard to get angles on the saddle and against the button to further remove hard to get oxidation.

After I was finished sanding with the final grit of micromesh I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and once it was dry buffed it with White Diamond. I then buffed a final time with a blue plastic polishing bar. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft, clean flannel buff to raise the shine on the bowl and stem. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

Here are a few more shots with a different background

Big Ben Freehand: Re-Stemmed and Reborn

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Blog by Greg Wolford

This stummel was gifted to me by a friend from Louisiana. We met via one of the pipe smokers forums probably near a year ago and he recently sent me two stemless pipes, this one and one I have yet to get to, to restore. These are interesting pieces, in my opinion, because of their history, a little of which I will share with you before I get into the “meat and potatoes” of the work.

RJ, my friend, inherited a large quantity of pipes, near 100 if memory serves me. They were given to him by an aunt, I think it was, after her father passed away. Her father was Major in the US Army and served overseas in World War 2 (again, some of these details may be a tad off but they are close enough for our purposes). He was an avid pipe smoker and acquired many of his pipes while deployed overseas.

The Major’s wife was involved in a serious car accident many years ago. Her injuries were serious, leaving her with diminished mental, and to a lesser extent, physical capabilities. THe Major, as they affectionately called the man, took care of her himself after this accident. Sadly, the Major began to develop Alzheimer’s with dementia in his latter years, though he continued to care for his beloved wife; they were separated from their daughter, who gave the pipes to RJ, by miles, geographically.

The Major called his daughter the day after Valentine’s Day, 2005, and told her, quite confusedly, that her mother had gone missing. After much questioning, she called the police, local to her parents, and they dispatched a unit to the couple’s home. Shortening the story some, the Major had, in a state of mental confusion brought on by his disease, killed his wife. He was never found competent to stand trial for the killing of his wife 50-years. As far as I understand it, he was in a mental hospital for the rest of his life. A tragic story to be sure but an interesting one to go along with these unique pipes!

When the stummel arrived it was dull and dirty and, as I said, without a stem. The bottom of the pipe is stamped “Big-Ben” over “Handmade” and the stamping is pretty good overall. Doing a quick search on http://pipephil.eu, it seems that the Big-Ben brand is a brand of the Elbert Gubbels & Sons -Royal Dutch Pipe Factory. Here are a few photos of it before I began any work.

I actually began this restoration with the stem, finding the pipe a new one that is. I had planned on using an acrylic stem but changed my mind for a couple of reasons: I was turning my first tenon with my brand new Pipe Makers Emporium tenon turner and know that acrylic is more finicky than vulcanite and I thought, after looking at it, that the rubber stem would look better on this stummel.

The PME tenon tool is, by all accounts, essentially the same tool as the one offered by PIMO. I chose the PME tool because it was about $10 cheaper and they happened to have a couple of acrylic stems I liked on clearance for cheap. I plan on writing about my thoughts on the tool in a separate article.

I choose a pre-formed Italian ebonite freehand-style stem for this stummel. To my eye it looked like it would be something very close to what the pipe would have originally had. I took my time turning the tenon down to fit since it was the first time I had done this and I didn’t have another stem like this one to use if I fouled up. After I got the tenon very close with the tool I hand sanded the tenon to get to the final fit; I know from reading Steve’s articles that it is easy to over-turn a tenon and you can’t put the material back on once it is gone! Here is a photo of the stem placed in the stummel after getting it fit:

I decided to not bend the stem until after I had sanded and polished it. In retrospect, I probably should have bent it before I did all the sanding; there are some very small “marks” on the stem where the bend is now that I had not anticipated. Next time I will bend after the initial sanding is done I think,

I began the sanding with 220 grit sandpaper to take out the casting/molding lines on the sides. I forgot to photograph the stem before I had started to sand it. This shows it early on and beside a smaller ebionite stem from the same lot to try to give you an idea of what the lines looked like from the start:

I sanded out the marks with 220 then 320 grit paper. The stem had some, but not many, small sots on it that made me decide to go head and use the 320 wet/dry paper on the entire stem. I progressed to 400 grit wet/dry and then micro mesh 1800 through 12000 (I also used the plastic polish several times between grits to make sure I wasn’t missing any scratches). Here is a progressive photo along the way from rough through 12000 grit micro mesh.

The stem didn’t fit flush at the top and bottom due to the angle of the shank so I had to do a considerable amount of file work to get it almost completely flush to the shank on the top and bottom. At this point I stopped working on the stem and turned my attention to the stummel.

I wiped the pipe down with an alcohol soaked cotton pad. There was little wax left on the pipe and the wipe down removed what remained as well as some surface dirt. While the pipe was wet with the alcohol I could see there was a nice grain hiding under there, one that I hoped to bring out with a contrast stain. But first it would need an alcohol bath. So, I soaked the stummel a couple of in an alcohol bath. When I removed it I realized that the rim had a lot of build up on it; the rim, I thought, was stained black but that was just dirt, grime, and tar, and it was actually not stained black. I then scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle brush lightly to loosen the grime, with not a lot of success so I put the pipe back in the alcohol bath and left it overnight. The next afternoon I removed it from the bath and wiped it down then took it over another container of alcohol that I use for cleaning and dipped in my wire brush and started to scrub gently again. This time I saw much more removal of grime; the extra time in the alcohol has paid off in really softening the buildup. I switched to a toothbrush and scrubbed out all the remaining grime. I found that there were some rim char under there that the gunk had hidden. Below is a photo of before and after the 12-plus hour soak and scrubbing.

The charring made me decide that the rim would need to be stained black now. The large shank end was stained black so this would match and look good I was sure. But there was also a fairly large burn on the back, left side of the bowl that would have to be addressed. There were two fairly large fills near the burn but I didn’t plan on removing and/or refilling them; I planned on leaving them and seeing how they covered with the contrast stain. I had recently read a post suggesting that fills should be done with carbon dust, not briar dust, and super glue. The idea was that the pipe would darken over time with use and the black fills would blend in more naturally. I don’t know if that is a fact but I thought on this pipe I would stain the existing fills black and see how it ended up looking. Here are a few photos:

It was at this point that I decided to clean and ream the pipe. Knowing this pipe had more or less been in retirement for almost a decade, I expected it probably would be fairly dirty; I was right. The alcohol bath had softened the cake some, I suspect, and it was fairly thick and not very even so reaming was definitely in order. I used a Castleford reamer to do the job, using the second largest bit to ream the bowl; the two smaller sizes didn’t touch the cake in this large bowl. After reaming I began to clean the shank, which was terribly gunked up. I used the drill bit-tool on my Kleen-Reem to open up the shank, both with and without pipe cleaners on it. After many pipe cleaners, both on the drill bit and doubled over off of the bit, I finally decided that I needed to do an alcohol and cotton ball treatment; this is the same as a salt and alcohol treatment only you use cotton balls instead of salt. I put two large cotton balls in the bowl and, using an old medicine syringe, I filled the bowl with 91% isopropyl alcohol. Then I took the syringe and filled the shank; since this pipe is a sitter with such a large shank this idea worked very well and was quite easy to do. I topped off the bowl with a bit more alcohol and left it till morning. This is what the cotton balls looked like when I came back the next day:

The photos don’t really show how much tar leached out into them; they were really quite brown. The shank was much cleaner now as I went back to it, only taking less than a dozen pipe cleaners to get it clean now.

Back to the burn on the bowl, I started out with some course emery boards to remove some of the charred area. I had three different grits, from a package I bought at the local dollar store, and I worked through all three grits on it. The burn mark was reduced in size a fair amount but would need more, which I planned on doing with sandpaper. I thought the emery boards would be a good way to keep the more coarse sanding confined to a smaller area and it seemed to work fairly well.

From here I went to 220 grit paper and got out the biggest part of the burn, feathering out the sanding a little, too. I then went to 320 wet/dry paper and sanded the entire pipe, except for the bottom; I didn’t want to sand any where the nomenclature was if I could keep from it. I then moved up to 400 wet/dry paper, wiping ever so often with an alcohol pad to see how the pipe looked, making sure it was smooth and scratch free. After I got the pipe to where I thought it would be good I took it to the buffer and buffed it with black compound; I find that this buffing highlights any small scratches or dents that may have been missed during the sanding. Here is what the pipe looked like at this point:

I saw one small scratch I had missed so I took the 400 grit paper to it and got that one out, along with lightening the burn mark a bit more. Now it was time to bend the stem.

I heated the stem with my heat gun on low until it was pliable, after putting a pipe cleaner in the stem to keep from closing off the airway accidentally. I had set up my maul as my bending guide on my table. I heated and bent it and eyeballed it; it wasn’t quite what I wanted. So, I heated it again and bent it a little more and looked it over carefully; now it was more to my liking:

I used Fiebing’s USMC Black leather dye to the rim and shank end, since I knew these would need deeper penetration of color since they would remain black. I applied the stain, flamed it in and then repeated. I then heated up the stummel, setting the stem aside, to start the contrast staining. I got the stummel nice and warm, wearing leather gloves to protect my hand. I then applied the dye to the entire pipe, flamed and repeated. Next I hand buffed the pipe with an old cotton t-shirt leaving it at this point:

After the pipe had cooled for 10-15 minutes and was no longer warm I began to sand off the black; I wanted to remove the majority of the black but leave it in the grain areas as much as possible. I also wanted to try to blend in the burn as much as possible. I sanded and wiped it clean with a dry cotton pad until I thought I was getting close to where I wanted it to be; I didn’t want to use an alcohol pad until I had to in order to not lift any stain that I wanted left on the pipe. I think I sanded it over about three times before I wiped it with an alcohol pad. As the dust came off the alcohol wet pipe began to look more like what my mind’s eye had thought it would:

Now I applied a brown stain that I had mixed up earlier for another project; to be honest, I don’t recall what color I used or what I diluted it to. I applied the stain, flamed and repeated. After buffing it off with the old t-shirt I realized it was too dark for what I had wanted so I took an alcohol pad to it and removed some stain. But it was still too dark so back to the 400 grit I went. I sanded it over, wiped with an alcohol pad, and repeated until I was happy with the color; I think it took about four cycles to get it where I left it. I then buffed it off with the t-shirt one last time before heading to the buffer.

I buffed the stummel with Tripoli and then the stummel and stem, separately due to the way this pipe is made, with white diamond. Both parts then got several coats of carnauba wax, buffed on a clean soft wheel and finally hand buffed with my flannel gloves; I don’t know the flannel glove-buff is needed but it seems it adds a little “something” though it may only be in my head. But since it only takes a few extra minutes, and gets any stray threads of the pipe that the wheel may have left, I almost always finish this way.

I am really happy with how this old pipe came out. The new stem was a success, both in fitting it and in the look, and I really like how the contrast staining came out. The rim looks much better now stained black with dye not tar. The fills didn’t hold the stain as well as I’d hoped but are much less noticeable now. And the and burn mark is almost invisible, which really pleases me. The only thing that I am not happy about, really confused about more than unhappy, is that the stem has loosened from the tight fit it had the day I turned it. I don’t know if the humidity (it had been extremely humid here the last two weeks), the alcohol soak, the extended time of separation for stem and stummel or what caused that. Hopefully a few days seated together and/or some use will remedy that. If not, I’ll likely heat and gently expand the tenon a tad to get the fit better. At any rate, here is the final result:

Italian Made Sandblasted Canadian Brought Back to Life

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This pipe is another that came in that EBay lot of bowls that I purchased. Once I was finished with this one I have two more left to restem. It is a large oval shanked pipe with a large bowl. The sandblast is not deep and is particularly shallow on the shank where it meets the stem. The bowl was heavily caked and the finish was dirty and faded. There was a deep divot out of the left side of the bowl toward the bottom. It was a chipped out spot that looked like the pipe had been knocked hard against something when it was dropped. There was also a chip on the edge of the front right side of the outer rim. It is pictured below in the first photo and is the first pipe in column one on the left. The second photo shows the state of the bowl when I started working on it. The cake was hard and thick.

I sorted through my box of stems and found a wide oval stem blank that would fit the curves and width of the shank. The first photo below shows the new stem before any work was done on it. The second photo below shows the tenon being turned on the PIMO tenon turning tool. I removed enough material from the tenon to get it close to fitting. I hand sanded it to get a snug fit in the shank. The tenon turner literally peels the vulcanite back to the right diameter. The third photo below shows the newly turned tenon before the hand sanding to fit it in the shank. The fourth photo shows the fit of tenon. It still needed to be shaped to match the diameter of the shank but the fit was good and tight.

I removed the excess of vulcanite and shaped the stem close to the diameter of the shank with a Dremel with a sanding drum. I carefully worked the drum against the stem and worked to get it as close to the shank shape as possible without damaging the shank. Once I had it close I worked on the fit with emery paper to remove the marks left by the sanding drum. The next series of four photos show the shaping of the stem to fit the shank with the Dremel and the emery paper.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I started with the smallest head on the T handle and worked my way up to the largest head that would fit the bowl. The next series of three photos shows the reaming of the bowl and the finished reamed bowl.

I cleaned out the divot on the side of the bowl with a dental pick and then packed in briar dust with a dental pick and added drops of super glue. I created a briar dust and super glue fill for the divot. The next series of five photos show the progress of the patch. Once it was filled and even with the surrounding area I used a dental pick to scratch in grooves and crevices to match the sand blasted finish of the surrounding bowl. I wiped down the surface with Everclear and scratched the surface until the finish matched.

I wiped down the entire bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to clean up the finish on the bowl and prepare if for the new stain that I would add once the surface was clean. Note how well the patch on the left side of the bowl matched the grain of the sand blast on the rest of the bowl in first photo below.

I chose to restain the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain that I thinned with two parts isopropyl alcohol to one part stain. From experimenting I had found that this colour matched the original stain on the bowl. I heated the bowl with a heat gun, applied the stain, flamed it and stained and flamed it a second time. I put more stain on the shank near the stem as the smoother portion of the finish seemed to not hold the stain as well as the blasted areas. There had also been a black under stain on the bowl from the original and the thinned dark brown worked well with that under stain to give some depth to the finish of the bowl. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush to give it the initial shine.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to polish the stem. Each successive grit of micromesh deepened the shine of the stem. Between the 2400 and the 3200 grit micromesh I polished the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 – a plastic polish that I have used to polish stems. I then sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh.

After sanding, I buffed the bowl and stem on the buffer with White Diamond and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I used Halcyon II wax on the sandblasted finish on the bowl and shank. I finished the pipe by buffing it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine of the wax. The finished pipe is pictured below.

The final photo below shows the repaired divot on the bowl. It is utterly merged in the side of the bowl and the finish and stain make it invisible.

GBD Midnight 9456

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Blog by Greg Wolford

The last few months have been extremely busy for me. It is amazing how much a disabled, non-working person can be obligated to do; I think I had more “free time” when I was working full time in the car business! Ah, but I digress …

By chance, I found myself today with no obligations, no chores, no appointments, just a day to myself. Unfortunately it also stormed badly which flared up my arthritic joints but I was able, finally, to get to a project, if only a simple one.

I picked up this GBD Midnight about two weeks ago. It was a fair price and an interesting pipe to me; all of the Midnight models I had seen before had acrylic stems and this one had vulcanite. Some later research led me to believe that there were at least two productions of this line: the first with vulcanite stems shortly after the merger and another some time later with acrylic stems.

Although I forgot to take “before” photos the seller’s were quite accurate except for the oxidation was a bit more than I anticipated: it wasn’t thick or heavy but was even, all over brown. The seller said he had only smoked it a few times over the years and didn’t like it; he prefers a 9 mm filter pipe. He said there were a few tooth dents but not bad ones and that he had cleaned it; these things were accurate, if he meant cleaned the inside.

The too had a fair amount if tar build up but not thick. The stummel was dirty but not in bad shape at all. And the dents were mild as be had said.

I began with an alcohol soaked pad, wiping down the stummel, paying extra attention to the rim’s build up. It didn’t take a lot to get it cleaned up and the rim smoothed out. I then reamed the bowl, which needed it but wasn’t badly caked. I set the stummel aside and began to work on the stem.

I started by rubbing the entire stem well with Back-to-Black, which removed a lot of oxidation. Then I took some automotive rubbing compound and cotton pads and polished away almost all of the remaining oxidation. After the rubbing compound I took the stem to the heat gun to raise the dents. They came up pretty well but not completely. But they were now slight enough I decided to not sand them smooth; I wanted to finish this pipe and write this blog tonight, those things and the small dents left made this decision for me easy. I did wet sand the stem with 400 grit wet/dry paper to remove the last of the oxidation and the few scratches I saw.

I reassembled the pipe and went to the buffing wheel. I like to buff the shank-stem union together so as to keep a nice fit. I began with black buffing compound, about an 800-grit I believe. After the union was buffed I took the stem and stummel apart and buffed each piece. I moved onto brown tripoli, then white diamond doing the same process.

I had a small deviation at the end of the white diamond buffing: the wheel grabbed the stummel and bounced it off my table. It left two dents, the bounce across the garage, that totally irritated me. I then had to steam the the dents out; thankfully the dents weren’t bad and came out. I went back to the white diamond and re-buffed the stummel.

I reassembled the pipe and gave it several coats of carnauba wax, buffed it on a soft, clean wheel and, finally, hand buffed it wearing a pair of linen gloves I bought just for that purpose.

The pipe came out quite well I think. After cleaning and buffing it is a bit lighter on color, which I am very happy with; the grain, especially the Birdseye on the front of the bowl really pops now.

Hopefully the frantic pace of life will slow some over the coming weeks; I have many more wonderful old pipes that are patiently awaiting being brought back to life. And I am anxious to do the work an share it with you.