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GBD Midnight 9456

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.

Breathing New Life into a Dr. Grabow Riviera

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I am refurbishing pipes I take the same care on older factory made pipes as I do on the more collectible ones. To me this is part of the stewardship of refurbishing. It does not matter what the original price of the pipe was – it is worth redeeming and bringing back to life. The refurbishing of the next pipe is one of those. It is an older Dr. Grabow Riviera. It was given to me by a good friend in Ponoka, Alberta. He gave it to me as a gift when I visited him recently. It is stamped Riviera over Dr. Grabow on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Adjustomatic over a patent number – PAT. 2461905 on the right side of the shank. The stinger apparatus in this one is an insert into the metal tenon. It is tube with a scooped portion on top that has a hole in the bottom of the scoop. The air/smoke circulates in the shank and is drawn into the stem by the smoker. The surface area of the apparatus acts as a condenser and filter. The beauty of this design is that it can be removed. The stem was badly oxidized and also had tooth dents on the top and bottom near the button. The finish was shot and the varnish was peeling from the bowl and shank. The rim was darkened and dirty and had a small crack on the top left side. The four photos below show the state of the pipe when I brought it home.

I love doing research on old patents and with US made pipes it is very simple. The following website is a simple way to find data and diagrams. http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm In the search parameters you enter the patent number from the pipe and click on the search button. Generally, these older patents have been made into PDF files that can be downloaded. Here is a copy of the information I found there. It is a patent for the Adjustomatic connector. I always find reading through these patent application documents gives me a feel for why the designer came up with invention. This proved true of this application as well.

After reading through the patent information I was ready to restore this old pipe. It appeared to be made somewhere around the time of the Patent as it had the patent number stamped on it. That dated it somewhere around 1949 after the patent was given. I began by reaming the bowl with the PipNet reaming set to clear up the uneven and broken cake. I decided to work on the externals first. I wiped down the bowl and shank with acetone on a cotton makeup pad to remove the finish. There was some very nice grain poking through the mottled finish and very few tiny fills that made it even more attractive to me. The acetone removed the varnish very well and also took away the dirt and filth on the exterior. The first two photos below show the process of wiping down the bowl. The old finish is visible on the cotton pad.

Once the finish was removed from the bowl as much as possible with the acetone, I sanded it down with 340 grit sandpaper and a fine grit sanding sponge to further remove the finish. The next series of four photos show the bowl after the acetone wash and the sanding. The grain on this one is very nice. The inner rim would need to have some attention to smooth out the rough edges and the darkening.

I sanded the metal shank band as it had some deep scratches and gouges in it. I could not remove the damage but I minimized its look. I worked on the tooth marks in the topside and the underside of the stem surface. I heated the stem with a Bic lighter – passing the flame over the tooth marks to lift them to the surface. I then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining marks that were present (Photos 1 – 4 below). I followed that by sanding with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper (Photos 5 – 6 below).

I sanded the entire stem with the sanding sponge to remove the oxidation from the vulcanite. I took the pipe apart and cleaned the stinger apparatus with a cotton swab and alcohol. The next two photos show that design of the stinger. It is a two part piece and the extended tube can be removed from the screw in metal tenon. I cleaned the inside of the stem and also the inside of the stinger to remove the buildup of tars and oils inside.

I sanded the bowl with 1500 – 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads, being careful around the stamping on the shank. Once the scratches were removed and the bowl was smooth I restained it with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. Doing this makes the stain less opaque and also several shades lighter. I wanted to highlight the grain not hide it so this was the perfect mix to do that. I applied the stain with a cotton swab, flamed it with a lighter to set the stain and then repeated the process a second time. The next three photos show that process. You will note that I also cleaned up the inner edge of the rim with the sanding process noted above. Most of the roughness is removed. A small crack remains on the top of the left side of the bowl rim.

I set the bowl aside and worked on finishing the stem. I sanded it with 1500 – 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads until it was smooth and finished. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil to protect and remove the oxidation. I reattached it to the bowl and buffed the stem and bowl with White Diamond on the buffer. I gave the entirety several coats of carnauba wax to bring out the shine and protect it. The final four photos show the finished pipe – cleaned, restored and ready to smoke. The photos show tinges of brown/oxidation still remaining in the stem under the flash of the camera. To deal with that I polished the stem some more and gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil and let it soak in. Upon finishing I buffed it again with carnauba.

An OxyClean Experiment

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Blog by Greg Wolford

Not long ago I was involved in a discussion about what I do when I start restoring an estate pipe. The subject was on removing oxidation from stems so I stated that the first thing I do is an OxyClean bath, soaking for an hour to overnight. One of the folks involved thought I meant that I put stummel and all in the soak and asked what it did to the briar. I explained that I didn’t put the stummel in, only the stem. But this got me wondering what would happen if I put the whole pipe in … this this experiment.

I picked this little pipe up in a lot and thought at first it was just a “toy” but closer inspection showed it had been used by its former owner – a lot. The cake was surprisingly thick and I figured it must have been his short smoke pipe. This unmarked little guy would be my Guinea pig.

I dropped the separate pieces into the Oxy bath and left it overnight, doing no reaming, acetone wipe, or anything else before so. It sat overnight as the OxyClean did its work.

When I returned to it the next day I retrieved the stem first and saw the soak had done its job on bringing up the oxidation. And I was a bit surprised how much oxidation there actually was. But onto more pressing issues: What did the briar look like?

So I reached in and pulled out the stummel and immediately felt the slick, almost slimy feeling that an OxyClean soak gives stems was on the briar, too. I began wiping it dry and noticed immediately that almost all the finish and a fair amount of the stain was gone. There was one patch that didn’t seem to be too effected by the soak, maybe it was not fully submersed; I don’t know.

The next thing I noticed was the cake, or lack thereof. The OxyClean bath had removed pretty much all of the buildup in the bowl and on the rim, which wasn’t to bad to start with. It would most likely not need any reaming after it was dry from looking at it.

So, what do I think about soaking the whole pipe in OxyClean now? I think that of removing the finish and stain are your goal and it has a fair or greater build up of cake/tars, this probably a pretty viable option. I still need to get the rest of the finish off and sand the stem and stummel; it is nowhere near finished. But I am leaning toward this experiment being called a success. Of course after the pipe has dried well and I finish the work on it I’ll have a better idea of what the pros and unknown at this time cons are so more experimentation is needed to say for sure. But at this stage I think I have new weapon to use (really an old one in a new way) for certain situations. Time will surely tell.

LJ Perretti Straight Grain Rejuvenated

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I picked up a seven pipe lot on EBay all because there were at least two of the pipes that were stamped LJ Perretti. One of them is the little pot/billiard pictured in this article. I say pot/billiard because the proportion of the bowl and shank more accurately fit a billiard but the height of the bowl is more like a pot. Ah well whatever it is it showed promise even in the seller’s photos on EBay. I bid and won. There is another Perretti that I will write about as I rework it but this one is stamped L.J. PERRETTI over IMPORTED BRIAR on the right side. It is stamped Straight Grain on the left side of the shank. The grain is quite nice and there are no fills in the briar that are visible. It was a dirty pipe – the finish was darkened and grit and oils were ground into the outside of the bowl. The rim had a serious cake of lava on it and the bowl was packed with a cake. The inside of the shank was so dirty and gritty that the stem would not sit all the way in the mortise. The stem was oxidized and had a rubber softy bit guard that was stuck on the stem. There was a cursive P on the left side of the stem. The Perretti pipes are shop pipes that may have been made by a variety of carvers or by Robert Perretti himself. These are old enough that they may well be done by Perretti. The stamping on the side of the shank that says Imported Briar seems to point to the pipe being American made. The first series of three photos shows the state of the pipe when I took it to my work table.

I cut off the rubber softie bit guard with a knife and peeled it free of the stem. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the buildup of carbon. I cleaned out the stem and the shank with pipe cleaners and Everclear until the pipe cleaners came out as clean as they went in. It never ceases to amaze me how many pipe cleaners it takes to clean out the inside of the pipe and stem. Once the internals were clean the stem fit into the shank with no interference.

I wiped won the outside of the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad (Photo 1 below). I wiped down the rim with acetone as well and then decided to lightly top the bowl (Photos 2 – 5). I used a medium grit sanding sponge to top the bowl on this one. I just wanted to remove the carbon build up on the rim and leave as much of the stain intact as I could. Once finished I wiped it a second time with acetone. I also used the drill bit from the Kleen Reem reamer to clean out the airway from the mortise to the bowl. I recleaned the shank with pipe cleaners and Everclear afterwards (Photo 6 below).

I set the bowl aside and then worked on the stem. I inserted it in the ebony block that I drilled as a mortise to work on the oxidation. I sanded it with 320 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and remove the calcium buildup that was under the softee bit. There were also some tooth chatter and marks that needed to be worked out. These were not deep so all I did was sand them with the 320 grit sandpaper. The next two photos show the work on the stem.

I reinserted the stem on the pipe and then continued to work on the stem and clean up the oxidation. I sanded around the edge of the stem/shank junction. I used 320 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded with 2400-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. The next three photos show the progress of the sanding with the pads. I selected three to show the progress but could easily have shown the lot. The main idea is to show the development of the shine on the stem. I finished sanding with 12,000 grit and then wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and buffed it by hand with some carnauba wax.

I restained the pipe with dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I flamed the stain and then restained it and reflamed it. I applied a third coat of the stain to the rim and flamed that again as well (Photos 1 & 2 below). I then sanded the bowl and the stem with the 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads (Photo 3 below) and then took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond (Photos 4 – 6).

I finished by buffing the pipe with multiple coats of carnauba wax and then polished with a soft flannel buff on the buffer. The final series of four photos below show the finished pipe.

Restoring a Unique Edition of the Keyser Hygienic System Pipe

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I picked up this Keyser Hygienic on EBay because it caught my eye. I have three other Keyser Hygienic pipes and they are all very similar in terms of the system. They are briar bowls and shanks with an aluminum mortise with a tube in the centre running to the airway in the bowl. This is matched with a military mount stem with a tube with a down turn on it that fits into the airway in the mortise. The swirling smoke rolls around the inside of the mortise where the moisture in the smoke condenses on the sides of the aluminum mortise. The cooled air is drawn into the down turned tube in the stem and it delivers a cool, dry smoke. The system is fairly straightforward and simple. The genius of the design is that any stem fits any pipe of the same size. Replacement stems are easily purchased and all that is necessary is the size of the pipe and the replacement will be a ready fit.

But this new Keyser was unique in all ways. The system design seems like a prototype of the original or maybe a step toward the ones that I have. It is composed of a short shanked briar bowl and a metal tube that has a normal vulcanite tenon. This sits in the shortened shank. Inside the tube is a second tube that extends ¾ of the way up the barrel. The inner tube is the extension of the airway in the tenon. The stem is a short pressure fit stem with a shoulder that allows it to ride on the end of the outer tube. On the end of the stem is a down turned short tube that draws air in to the mouth piece from the condensing chamber of the tube. It is a fascinating design. It is that uniqueness that caught my eye – that and the stamping/engraving on the outer tube which reads as follows:

KEYSER HYGIENIC PIPE
Made By
Keyser Manufacturing Co.
Brighton England
Pat Appns Brit 34B20/47
US 6067474/48
Can 581101

The next series of seven pictures shows the pipe as it appeared in the EBay webpage. The seller did a great job describing the current state of the pipe and the areas of concern. The seller notes some of the scratches on the outer tube and the darkening of the rim. He also noted the tooth chatter and scratch marks on both the top and underside of the stem.

When the pipe arrived I unpacked it and examined it. There were indeed tooth chatter/marks on both the top and bottom of the stem. There was a cigarette burn mark on the bottom of the shank where it meets the bowl. It was not a deep burn and there was no charred wood just a dark mark. The rim itself also had some issues. While the surface was not charred there was a burned area on the front inside of the bowl and on the front outside of the bowl. It looked to be damage from a lighter used in the same place repeatedly over time. The remainder of the finish was in pretty good shape but the entire pipe would need to be stripped in order to address the burn marks on the rim and the side of the shank. The inside of the bowl and shank were very clean. The pipe had not been reamed but there was a light cake that smelled like an aromatic. The barrel was tight on the shank but I carefully was able to remove it. The vulcanite tenon on the end of the barrel was undamaged but the airway was closed in with tars. The way the tenon was attached to the barrel was interesting. The end of the barrel was bonded to a circular plug of vulcanite with the tenon an integral piece of the part. The stem was frozen in the barrel and could not be removed. The button on the stem was unmarked and the tooth marks were actually mid stem on the top and bottom sides. The vulcanite stem was oxidized and would need to be cleaned. The next four photos show the items that I have pointed out in this paragraph.

I was able to remove the barrel and tenon from the shank of the pipe by carefully twisting the barrel free of the shank. I always hold tightly to the shank with one hand right next to the shank and then twist with the other hand. I try to maintain equal pressure on all points so that the shank is not strained or cracked in the process. The next photo shows the tenon on the barrel. It is almost the same length as the shank and the airway is lined up very closely to the airway in the bottom of the bowl. I cleaned out the mortise with cotton swabs and Everclear and found that it was quite clean. I also cleaned out the barrel from both ends but was not able to get a pipe cleaner to go all the way through the pipe from button to tenon.

The next three photos show the front of the bowl and the extent of the burn marks on the front outside of the bowl and the front inside of the rim. These were two areas that would need to be worked over to minimize the burn marks on the finished pipe.

I used my PipNet reamer to ream out the soft aromatic cake in the bowl and then recleaned the shank and the inside of the bowl with pipe cleaners and Everclear to remove the carbon dust that came from the reaming process (Photo 1 below). I wiped down the outside of the bowl and shank with a cotton pad and acetone to remove the finish on the pipe (Photo 2 below).

The next series of fourteen photos show the topping of the bowl to remove the burned area on the inside of the rim and the front outside edge. The burn had rounded the outside edge and made it appear out of round when looking at it from the top. I wanted to top the bowl enough to bring the top view back into round, minimize the wood damage in both spots and clean up the sharp edge of the bowl. I used two different sanding sponges – medium grit (black coloured sponge) and a fine grit sponge (yellow coloured sponge) both pictured below to start the process. I went on to use medium grit emery paper on the hard board to further top the bowl and ended with 320 grit sandpaper on the board. I polished the finish of the topped pipe bowl with the fine grit yellow sanding sponge. I also worked on the burned area that extended down the front of the bowl with the two sanding sponges.

While I was working on the bowl I put the barrel and stem unit in the freezer to try to break loose the stuck stem. I have found that the varying contraction time of the metal and vulcanite will often loosen the stem. Once it was in the freezer for 30 minutes I could easily remove the stem and give the inside of the barrel and the stem a thorough cleaning with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in Everclear. I cleaned them until both came out clear. The next five photos show the broken down stem and the tube on the end of the stem that I was talking about above. There is one photo of the barrel but it is too dark to see the inner tube.

Once the stem and barrel was clean it was time to deal with the tooth marks and chatter on the stem itself. I sanded the top and the bottom with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the marks and the chatter. None of them were too deep. They were more of a ripple like effect on the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded them flat to the surface of the stem and then went on to sand the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grits. The next four photos show the progress of the shine.

After shining the stem with the micromesh I took it to the buffer and buffed the stem with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and finished it with a coat of carnauba wax. I put the stem back in the barrel and lined up the stem with the stamping on the side of the barrel. I gave the entire barrel and stem another coat of carnauba wax and hand buffed them. The next three photos show the assembled barrel and stem unit polished and ready to put on the bowl once it was restained and ready.

I sanded and resanded the bowl with fine grit sanding sponges and then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-3200 grit. I wiped it down with acetone between sandings and again when I was finished to prepare it for staining. The next three photos show the prepared pipe ready for staining. The burn mark on the bottom of the shank is gone with very little sanding and no change to the shank surface itself. The one on the front of the is minimized and the one on the rim is also virtually gone. The bowl is ready for a new finish coat.

I restained the bowl with an oxblood aniline stain, flamed it and restained and reflamed it. I rubbed it down with a cotton terry cloth to smooth out the stain and then took it to the buffer. I always buff with my thumb in the bowl to ensure that the buffer does not grab the bowl from my hand and launch it against the wall. I rotate it slowly in my hand and with a light touch buff the shank. I am careful not to apply too much pressure and round the shoulders on the shank. I normally do not buff with the stem off the bowl but in this case I did not want to risk buffing off the black paint on the barrel so I chance the buffing on the bowl alone. The next three photos show the buffed bowl before polishing.

I reassembled the pipe and then hand buffed it with multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished it with a shoe brush. The stem and bowl have a great shine and the bowl has some beautiful grain on it. I look forward to smoking this one and comparing it with my other Keyser Hygienic pipes. The final four photos below show the finished pipe. I have yet to do the research on the patent information on the barrel but I am hoping to find out a bit of history on this piece.

From the photo of the bottom of the bowl and shank above you can see that the burn mark there is eliminated in its entirety. Also in the photo of the rim above and the one of the front of the bowl below you can see that the burn mark is gone and what remains is blended into the stain.

Irwin’s (GBD Second) 9448 Refurbished

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Blog by Greg Wolford

I picked this Irwin’s 9448 up not too long ago expecting it to be an easy clean up, which was partly right and partly wrong, and knowing it was a GBD second it should be a great pipe for the money. From the seller’s photos I figured a little heat to lift the tooth dents, some light sanding and then micro meshing and the stem would be good to go. The stummel I figured would need to be cleaned, soaked in an alcohol bath and retained. Here are the photos from the seller:

Seller’s Photo

I forgot to take my own photos when the pipe arrived and during the process so only the seller’s before and my after photos will be shown. The process went as follows though:

The stummel was in better shape than I anticipated: it was dirty and did have a few dents to raise but was in really good condition overall. The stem was another story: the tooth dents were much deeper than the photos showed or than I had expected. I knew that this stem was going to require filling the dents and thought over a few options, which I have more to say on later here. So, I decided to start with the stummel.

After reaming the bowl and cleaning the shank, I began by wiping the pipe down with acetone on disposable cotton pads, and went through many of them. After get most of the dirt and wax off, I took some cotton swabs dipped in 91% isopropyl alcohol and began to work off the heavy build up on the rim. It was a slow process but as the layers came off I could see the rim was in very nice shape and didn’t need topped. Once all the gunk was off, I took a few more passes over the entire stummel with a couple more cotton pads wet with alcohol to make sure all the finish and dirt was removed. I then turned my attention to the dents: one on the front of the bowl, two on the bottom near where the curve of the bowl met the flat “sitter” area, and a couple on the rim.

I used my heat gun to heat up the end of an old kitchen “butter knife” and a wet scrap rag to produce the steam to raise the dents. All of them came out fairly easily except for one on the “sitter” portion and it took several applications of steam to get it out. But it did finally raise.

At this point I went to the buffer to see what the stummel looked like. I buffed it with some Tripoli and then again my hand with an old t-shirt. I saw then that the pipe had good color under all the dirt, it had just been hidden. And the steam had done its job very nicely, too, giving me a pretty well smoothed out stummel. There was one fill on the left side of the bowl but not a large one and it didn’t really stand out to my eye so I decided to leave it alone. I wiped it down with one more alcohol pad to remove any trace left from the Tripoli and then decided to not sand or re-stain it; the color was really nice and the grain showed in a nice contrast. So I set the stummel aside to work on the stem.

I began by heating the stem, with a pipe cleaner inserted to make holding, moving and not damaging the airway easier. The dents lifted some but, as I expected, were too deep to come anywhere near level. So now it was time to try some patching or filling of the dents.

A while back Al, another contributor here on the blog, had mentioned he had used cigar ash to fill in a few dents but that they were still visible repairs. I have been experimenting with a couple of ideas that so far have not made any great improvements over just using super glue alone. I thought that on this one I would try to make a patch with carbon reamed from the pipe. The carbon is much darker, a real black, than ash so I thought this might make a better repair. I worked in layers, packing in the carbon, applying a drip of super glue, allowing it to dry, sanding it back down with an emery board and repeating; I think I did three rounds on each side of the stem, trying raise the dents slowly and make them stronger in the long run. After the last application on the underside, I began to work with my needle files, then emery boards, 320 grit wet sand and finally onto micro mesh, wet sanding 1500-2400. I then applied the Novus 2 plastic polish, rubbing it on and off with cotton pads. The remaining grits of micro mesh I used dry through 12,000. Finally I used the Novus 2 again, applied the Mother’s Back to Black with my fingers and let it dry before buffing it off with another cotton pad. The final step was to polish it with the Novus 1 plastic polish. Now it was time to reassemble the pipe and take it back to the buffer. At this point I knew the patch wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be: it was better, I think, but it was also still noticeable.

I buffed the stummel with Tripoli again before I reassembled the pipe and buffed the entire pipe with white diamond. I then applied several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe and buffed it out with a new soft cloth wheel. This is what the pipe looks like now, cleaned up (except for the fact I smoked it before I took the photos) but without any new staining done to it.

After

The bit area does look a lot better and it is smooth, almost; apparently the layering technique wasn’t my best idea as a small piece of the top patch came off at some point, probably on the buffer. Next time I will not work in layers but more like a briar-dust fill and do it all at once, which be faster, too. I do wish it were less noticeable on the whole,though.

Before and After

I have a few other ideas about trying to get a less visible patch that I may pursue. However, now that I know I can get black super glue, already made, that may be my future course. But the “can I do it myself ” part of me wants to keep experimenting so we shall see. If any of you readers have any ideas on making these repairs less visible I’d be most appreciative if you would share them in the comments section.

Meerschaum Bowl Refurbished and Polished

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Blog by Steve Laug

I got this meerschaum bowl in the same pipe lot as the older CPF bowls and the meerschaum bowl I adapted to fit a Kirsten barrel. It is an intact meerschaum bowl from a gourd calabash pipe. I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet but I am brainstorming a few ideas. Sid Stavros has done some interesting looking pipes by converting a briar bowl to hold the meerschaum cup. Have a look at his blog and you will see what I mean. Here is the link: http://pipe-smoke.blogspot.ca/2010/02/meerschaum.html Anyway there is no end to the ideas that I am working on with regard to this bowl. Time will tell! In the meantime here is the cleanup process with photos.

When I received the bowl it looked like this. You can see the scratches and damage to the inner rim and the buildup of cake and tars in the bowl and on the rim itself.

The underside of the bowl was darkened but not tarred and caked. The airway was caked and reduced in size and would need to be opened up.

I sanded the rim of the bowl with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the tars and to minimize the scratches in the surface of the bowl.

I followed up by sanding it with a medium grit sanding sponge – pictured behind the bowl.

I then sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge. The marks and scratches are beginning to disappear.

Then it was time for the micromesh sanding pads. Pictured above are the 1500-2400 grit sanding pads.

I sanded the inside edge of the rim with the 320 grit sandpaper. I wanted to minimize the chipping of the inner edge of the bowl.

I then continued sanding with the micromesh sanding pads – 3200 – 3600 grit. The bowl top is beginning to be very smooth and uniform in texture and look.

I sanded the bowl top with the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads – 4000-12,000 grit. The chipped edge is still visible but not as rough. The inner edge of the bowl is also smoothed out.

I applied some white beeswax to protect the cleaned surface. The shine is very evident in the bowl. Now I have to determine what briar bowl it will grace.

Restored CPF Bent Billiard – A Reclamation Project

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This is the second CPF pipe bowl that was in the lot from EBay. It is a billiard and it was in very rough shape at first glance. It is an old timer. The rim cover and the band were badly oxidized to the point of being crusty with oxidation and a greenish hue. They were also rough to the touch which led me to believe that they were pitted underneath all of the oxidation. It came stemless but I found a stem of the proper age in my can of stems. The finish was rough but there were no deep dings or dents. There was a deep, almost black darkening around the bowl just under the rim cap. The darkening was such that made me think that the oxidation had oozed into the briar and would be interesting to remove from the finish. The same was true of the area around the shank cap. The rim cap originally had a hinged lid on it but that was gone. The shank cap was also loose and when I touched it, it came off. The briar underneath was thick with a reddish coloured glue but was also free of cracks or fissures. It was intact. After the initial examination I came to see that underneath the grime there was a pretty nice piece of briar. The first series of three photos shows the state of the pipe when I took it to my work bench to begin working late yesterday afternoon.

I decided to work on the oxidation on the shank cap and the rim cap. I wanted to see if either one was redeemable. I used a jeweler’s tarnish remover called Hagerty to work on the finish of both. I applied it with a cotton swab and scrubbed it with that until it was dry. Then I wiped it off with a cotton pad. In doing this I saw that the rim cap and the shank cap were both brass. The rim cap had two tears or cracks in it around the hinge that showed up once it was clean. The next two photos show the tarnish remover on the rim and shank caps.

After the initial cleaning of the two I decided to remove the cracked rim cap. This was not as easy as it appears in the photos as it was nailed to the rim and also was pretty tightly bonded with the tars and oils of the tobacco. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and a flat blade screw driver to lift the edge of the cap. I began at the hinge and lifted it from there. It came off with a bit of work and broke at the two nails that held it to the rim mid bowl on each side. The back half of the cap came off in one piece. I was able to lift the front edge carefully using the flat blade of the screw driver to pry the edge and work my way to the front. The nail on the right side came out with the cap while the one on the left side was stuck. I used the flat blade of the screwdriver to lift it from the surface of the rim without scarring the rim and pulled it out with the pliers. Underneath the rim surface was actually smooth and had a slight caking of oils that would come off easily. The two nail holes would need to be filled. The one on the right side of the bowl had been put in at an angle and would take a little more work to repair. The first picture below shows the torn rim cap on the work table next to the pipe bowl. The holes and the state of the rim are also clearly visible. The second picture shows the darkening that seeped down the edges of the bowl from underneath the rim cap.

I used briar dust and superglue to fill the two nail holes. It took several applications to get a smooth and even surface. I packed some briar dust into the nail hole with my dental pick and my finger. I wanted the briar dust to fill the holes so I tamped them down with the dental pick. Then I dripped in the superglue to bind the briar dust to the surrounding area. The first photo below shows the top of the rim after briar dust superglue patch has been done.

After patching the nail holes I worked on the stain line around the bowl. I removed the finish from the bowl with a cotton pad soaked with acetone. I continued to wipe it down until the finish was gone. After that I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge. The next six photos show the sanding process with the sponge. I also sanded the end cap with the sponge being careful around the CPF stamping that I had found under the oxidation.

The dark lines were better after the sanding but still very present. I was able to remove the indentation in the briar from the metal cap to a large degree but the black was stubborn. I decided to soak the bowl in an alcohol bath to see what would come out. I took the shank cap off to work on it while I left the bowl in the bath for about an hour. I was able to remove much of the oxidation on the shank cap. I scrubbed it with the tarnish remover and then sanded it with the micromesh sanding pads using 1500-2400 grit pads.

Once I remove it from the bath I dried it off and the lines were lighter than before. I sanded the bowl some more with the sanding sponge and glued the shank cap on with white glue. I wait to glue it on until I am done with the alcohol and acetone as I found out the hard way the glue is dissolved and has to be redone. After that I reinserted the stem and set up my heat gun to bend the stem to the correct angles. The next four photos show the bending of the stem from its beginning to the final look after bending.

I took it back to the work table and did some more sanding on the bowl especially working on the surface around the top sides near the rim. The black line was stubborn. I wiped it down with white vinegar to see if it would lift any of the stain as I remembered reading about that in an old book on furniture repair on how to remove dark rings from the wood. I also wet a cotton pad with bleach and wiped down the area as well. The result of all that work is evident in the two photos below. It was not going to come out so I sanded it with 1800-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads and then wiped it down with an alcohol dampened cotton pad to remove the surface dust and prepared to stain it. The two photos below show the bowl ready to stain. (Incidentally note the shine on the shank cap. It cleaned up amazingly well.)

I applied an oxblood thick aniline stain for the first coat. I flamed it and reapplied it and flamed it a second time (the first two photos below show the staining of the bowl with the oxblood stain). I then buffed it off to see what I had to work with. The black lines still showed so I restained the bowl around the top edge to see if I could darken that area and mask the black (photos three and four show this process).

I buffed it a second time to see where I was at with the staining. You can see from the next two photos the effect of that restaining around the top of the bowl. It did indeed darken the edge but the line was still visible and I did not like the look of the dark edge. So I buffed it yet again to see if I could smooth out that look a bit more.

I was not happy with the finished look after buffing. The darkening around the edge still showed both in the top edge of the bowl and around the end cap. I decided to restain the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain. So I applied the stain, flamed it and restained and flamed it a second time. The next two photos show the pipe after the stain had been flamed and had dried.

I buffed it to see how the second stain had covered the darkening around the top edge and near the shank cap. I was pleased by the overall look now. It was still there for sure but it certainly was less visible and blended in well with the finish. The next four photos show the pipe after restaining and buffing.

I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads 1500 – 12,000 grit to polish the stem. I put the stem back in the bowl and then took the pipe to the buffer and gave the entire pipe a buff with White Diamond and then gave both the stem and bowl multiple coats of carnauba. The finished pipe is picture below. It came out very well and the black line around the top edge seems to be less visible. The pipe is restored to a bit of its former glory!

Modifying an Old Meerschaum Bowl to Fit a Kirsten Pipe Barrel

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In a lot I picked up off EBay was a nice older meerschaum pipe bowl. I think it was originally made either for the WDC base that came in the lot or for a different metal or Bakelite pipe. The threads on the pedestal base were stripped out. As I was looking at it I thought, “Why not see if I can modify it to fit the Kirsten stem and barrel that I have waiting for a bowl”. In the first photo below is the lot of bowls I picked up on EBay. The Meerschaum bowl is in the bottom right corner. The base or nipple is visible in this photo.

The next series of four photos show the bowl before I began work on it I wanted to line it up and see if it would possibly work on the Kirsten. I wanted to see if it was awkward looking or would look feasible. I took photos of the bowl and pipe from different angles to get a feel for the look of the bowl on the pipe.

I decided to try the same process I use in topping a bowl to remove the nipple or base. I set up my sandpaper on a flat board and sanded the nipple to flatten it out. It seemed like it was going to take a long time to remove it so I took it to my Dremel and quickly removed most of it and then came back to the sanding board to finish it up. The next three photos show the process of removing the meer nipple.

Now the bowl needed to be cleaned up and shaped to fit the barrel of the Kirsten. I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the tar and finish of the bowl. Since I was going to reshape the bowl bottom I wanted to remove the old patina and dents as much as possible to make matching the bowl bottom simpler. The next three photos show the sanding of the bowl.

After sanding the bowl surface I used my Dremel to remove the material from the bottom of the bowl and to reshape the bowl to fit the Kirsten. It was a slow and repetitive process as one thing I have learned it you can always remove more material but you cannot put it back. I wanted to shape the bowl with a more rounded bottom on it and give the overall look of a brandy shape. The next three photos show the new shape of the bowl after the Dremel had done its work.

The next step in the process was to open up the hole in the bottom of the bowl in order to receive the bottom plate on the outside and the hollow screw on the inside. Kirsten bowls have a brass or vulcanite bottom plate that is inserted into the bottom of the bowl. This adapter or plate is cupped so I matched the bowl bottom to the cup on the plate. I had to drill slowly with increasingly larger drill bits until I had opened the airway enough for the plate to fit. Then I needed to open the bowl bottom enough to take the screw head. This particular bowl was a bit tapered so I needed to drill it so that the bottom was more flat on the inside so that the screw head would rest evenly on the bottom of the bowl. The outside drilling was ¼ inch when finished. The inside drilling was a ½ inch to let the screw sit evenly. The next three photos give an idea of the drilling and the end product. In the last of the three photos I placed the plate/adapter and the screw in the photo so that you can see where I was going with my drilling.

After drilling the bowl to fit the pieces I put it together to see if it all worked. The first three photos below show the bottom plate and the screw attached. I tried to photograph the bowl from a variety of angles in order to show the fit and feel of the bottom plate. The top down photo shows the placement of the screw. The other two photos show the fitted bottom plate. The last photo of the three shows the view from the bottom of the bowl with the screw centered in the bottom plate and the bowl ready to place on the shank.

At this point in my work I wanted to see how the bowl fit the barrel and stem. I wanted to determine if I needed to remove more of the meerschaum to ensure a good fit with the barrel. The next four photos give you a look at the pipe bowl fit at this point. There was still much work to do in making the fit perfect but I was getting there and the finished pipe had potential that it would look very good.

The internal screw was still not sitting flat and deep enough in the bowl to ensure a good tight fit to the barrel. I rode too high in the bowl bottom to really be able to tighten the bowl snugly against the barrel. So I took it back to the drill and inserted a larger bit in the drill and carefully drilled the internal bowl bottom to let the screw seat more deeply. This process took care as I did not want to go too deep into the bottom as that would weaken the bottom of the bowl. I went slowly and checked the seating often until it was the correct fit. The next series of two photos show how I did the drilling and the finished fit of the screw in the bowl bottom.

Once the fit of the bottom plate was correct it was time to sand the meerschaum bowl. This was a very messy proposition with the dust being similar to sanding Gyprock or drywall board after it has been taped and mudded. I had no idea that the sanding would be such a messy work. The dust was very fine and permeated everything, my hands and arms were covered with the fine white powder. Even my eye sockets were filled with the dust. I used 320 grit sandpaper to begin the process and sanded out the deeper scratches left by the Dremel and also the deeper gouges in the bowl from its previous history. I then used a medium grit sanding sponge to further remove those scratches and the finer ones left by the sandpaper. The next six photos show the sanding process and the increasingly smooth surface of the reshaped bowl.

I stopped sanding at this point and put the bowl back on the barrel to make sure that the edges and bottom of the bowl sat correctly against the top of the barrel. While it was on the barrel I sanded it further with a fine grit sanding sponge. The next three photos show the look of the bowl on the barrel after sanding. The shape and finish is beginning to appear in the process.

Once the fit and feel were correct it was time to work on the finish of the meerschaum bowl. Meer is pretty unforgiving in that it shows scratches in detail and as the bowl is smoked and heated any hidden ones suddenly will appear. I figured I would have to deal with that when it happened but in the mean time I would work to minimize that effect. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads. I used 1500-12,000 grit. The eight photos below show the progressive shine that developed in the bowl after each successive grit of micromesh was used. It was fascinating to me that as I sanded and polished the bowl more of the patina seemed to come to the surface and what was almost white in the newly sanded bowl began to yellow and darken around the top and bottom edges with the polishing.

The final series of four photos show the finished bowl on the barrel and ready to use. I am very pleased with the look of this old meerschaum bowl on the newer Kirsten metal barrel. The marriage of old and new is actually quite pleasant to look at. The feel in the hand is also very nice and the bowl has a natural shine to it from sanding with the micromesh. I gave it a coat of white beeswax after the sanding and hand polished it. I will continue to give it coats of beeswax as I use it.

One thing I have learned in the process of working this meerschaum bowl to fit the barrel is that there is always a use for what appears to be a throw away bowl. I will think long and hard before I discard a pipe bowl as junk because who knows what beauty lies just beneath the surface and what a pleasant new life can be resurrected from the old pipe.

GBD 9438 Virgin Restoration

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Blog by Al Jones

If you have followed my previous posts, you’ve noticed that I am a fan of the GBD 9438 shape. There is just something about the chubby Rhodesian shape that appeals to me. All of the 9438’s in my collection are excellent smokers and feel great in the hand. For the past two years, I’ve been on the lookout for one of the highest grades in that shape, the Virgin. I found this somewhat tattered 9438 Virgin with a Perspex stem on Ebay.

The pipe showed some bruising and nicks on the bowl, but the top looked in decent shape as did the Perspex stem. Photographing details of a Perspex stem is never easy, but this seller had plenty of good photographs.

Below are the pictures posted by the seller. You can see the handling marks on the bowl in the first shot.

The bowl had a light cake, which I reamed close to the briar with my Castleford reamer. I soaked the bowl overnight with Everclear and sea salt. I use a champagne cork to plug the shank end and try to work a little of the salt/Everclear slurry into the shank.

The stem was in pretty good shape, but had a tooth indention on the lower side and some scratches. I tried to lift the tooth mark with some heat, but the Perspex isn’t as resilient as Vucanite. I removed the scratches with some 1500 then 2000 grit wet 3M automotive grade wet sandpaper. Next I completed the stem work with 8,000 and then 12,000 grit micromesh sheets. I buffed it lightly with some automotive plastic polish. The draft hole isn’t heavily stained, which is a fortunate find on a Perspex stem. The tooth mark is on the bottom and the clear Perspex hides it nicely. (and makes it difficult to photograph)

My biggest concern about the briar was what appeared to be handling pinprick marks in several spots, probably from banging around in a drawer/box for a few decades. Using a torch, wet cloth and a pirated kitchen knife, I was able to lift a majority of the marks. The nomenclature was light, so I carefully buffed the bowl with first White Diamond then two coats of carnuba wax. That helped even out the color and hide some of the bruising. It’s not perfect, but has a nice level of patina.