Tag Archives: refinishing

Spotlight: Ladies Pipes, Part 2/7, a Clinton Straight Oval

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipesnm.biz
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author lady1

INTRODUCTION
I came across a more subtle but still rather sexist yet humorous comment concerning the perceived relationship of women to pipe enjoyment, this time in the older ad above for Flying Dutchman tobacco. No longer in production, it was an aromatic blend of Kentucky Burley, Cavendish, Virginia, Oriental Turkish and “Other/Misc.” Sounds pretty good to me. But it makes me flash on an email I received from a friend on Smokers Forums UK. Her name is Liz. She wrote:

“I always wanted to smoke a pipe even when I was a child. I had seen photos of my dad smoking a pipe but he had quit smoking by the time I was born. I started smoking cigarettes in my early teens and the desire to smoke a pipe became stronger once I became an adult and started to do a lot of camping. I thought it would be very nice to sit by the campfire and smoke a pipe.”

Here comes the sad crux of Liz’ response. “But as a woman, I never felt comfortable or confident enough to go in a store and buy one. Finally in 2004 I got the nerve to go in the tobacco shop and buy a pipe. I used the excuse that I was buying it for my brother. [Emphasis added.] …I had no one to teach me anything about smoking the pipe so what I learned I found on the internet.”

I was struck by the eloquent and poignant plight of a woman I have come to think of as supremely confident and self-assured in all matters, albeit that our friendship is based in the ether world. This is a woman I should very much like to meet some day in person. Liz’ reluctance to purchase a tobacco pipe, at a tobacconist, for herself as a woman who had always wanted to partake of the pleasures she rightly imagined she would discover (around a campfire, no less, and as an alternative to the pernicious and addictive additives in cigarettes), plucked a mournful acoustic chord in my heart like listening to Albinoni’s Adagio for guitar alone on a torrential night.

This in turn sparked a connection to the woman in my previous blog of this series, the person who inspired me to tackle the subject in the first place with her soft-spoken, somewhat tentative inquiry to Chuck, at my local tobacconist, asking if he had any ladies pipes. After I read with delight and growing admiration for the fine woman Liz’ responses revealed her to be from the several questions I posed to her as a preliminary breaking of the ice in an ongoing interview process, I played back my mental tape of Chuck’s encounter with the good lady in search of a suitable pipe, and doing so recalled the trepidation in her voice and body language. With some amazement, I realized that she had probably worked herself up for untold years to that moment when at last she was determined to ask for that which she had always wanted!

As a man, I am compelled to declare that this clear and present state of social antipathy toward women who wish only to savor a pipe – and indeed the attitude must be widespread, or else I could not have come in contact with two ladies in hardly a month with the same reluctance to buy something so basic that they fancied obtaining – is intolerable. I mean good Lord, have we come so short a distance from the days when women on their own volition and in the strength of groups protested the double standard of cigarette smoking as chic by men while the practice was viewed as vulgar by females? Alas that science was not what it is today, and many beautiful pioneering civil rights women perished early from the intrinsic impurities and carcinogens of cigarettes. And let’s not forget the infamous bra burning demonstration so popular when I was a youngster (and to my natural titillation, no pun intended). With hope, therefore, these blogs will help to alleviate the barriers.

VARIOUS BRAND LADIES PIPES
I noticed Peterson’s had at least one ladies pipe, and reader/blogger Mark Irwin, who read my previous blog on this subject, urged me to include some of them during the course of the series. Here are several samples of fine ladies pipes, starting with a Peterson I found offered in Italy, per Mark’s suggestion.lady2Paddy of SF let me know that his wife has a sweet collection of Savinelli 606 pipes, at least one for each day of the week, like the following example. BTW, Paddy writes, the missus also has “one Castello of a similar shape which she received as a gift.” Good company, indeed.Lady3 lady4And now, here is the Clinton Real Briar Oval as it came to me.Lady5 lady6 Lady7 Lady8RESTORATION
The Clinton, as well as the FRASA I restored for my first of these seven blogs, has an unusual stinger tenon, heightening my surprise that neither of them seems to have any discernible history, not even as seconds. In addition to the tenon, the Clinton also has a distinctive upside-down C on the bit.Lady9By way of synopsizing the pipe’s chief and obvious problems, the bit was badly discolored, there was a crack on the upper left side of the bowl extending from the rim downward (but not penetrating into the chamber), and the stain was far too dark for my taste, given the apparent decency of the obscured grain. And so I began by soaking the bit in an OxiClean bath and the stummel in some used Everclear I keep on hand for such occasions.Lady10The bit was ready first, about a half-hour later, and I removed it from the soak and rinsed it, then took out the stinger and ran a soft cleaner through the airway. I wiped the stinger clean with a soft cotton gun cleaner square and sanded both sides of the bit’s lip end with 200-grit paper. Then I wet micro-meshed the entire bit from 1500-12000 and had a nice bowl of D&R Two-Timer Gold in my Peterson Killarney Straight Bulldog Dress Pipe. I ordered the beautiful black “ebony” pipe online during a brief overwhelming fixation on these pipes that also landed me a sleek Nat Sherman. Both remain favorites.

That Everclear strip lasted just long enough for my consummate Burley mix to work its way down to a fine ash – or maybe I made it last the proper time, as was my prerogative! Whichever the case may have been, I had a couple more handy cotton cloth squares ready, one to stuff into the chamber with a pinkie and twist so I could clean out any residue there and hold the body in place while I scrubbed the still wet outside of the wood with the other. Look at the scum that would have ended up trapped below the stain I later applied. Some would ask what it would matter. I like to think the devil is in the details.Lady11With considerable difficulty given the tiny chamber diameter (1” in length and 1” deep but a mere 0.5” across), I coaxed a small, limp piece of 150-grit paper inside and somehow worked it up and down enough to make a difference, then switched to 200- and finally 500-grit., finishing with a cotton cloth square with a squirt of purified water to remove the extra char. On the outside, I used 200-grit paper to clear away the stubborn remaining stain and residue from the Everclear soak.Lady12 Lady13 Lady14I micro-meshed from 1500-12000.Lady15 Lady16 Lady17I was ready at last to consider the crack.Lady18It looks pretty nasty, doesn’t it? Again, the consensus was to shave down the rim. Having Executive Power of veto, I opted for a fix I never tried before with a little concerted sanding of the rim with 150-grit paper, it comes down appreciably.Lady19Then I got a wild hair to do the unthinkable. I retrieved my file, an old, wrecked briar stummel I’ve kept for several years knowing I would never dare to try restoring it and some Super Glue, and scrape off enough of the wood to make a nice pile of super fine particles. I’ll tell you right now, the first two attempts at mixing Super Glue with the briar particles and then moving the ultra-fast-drying gloop to the top hole in the Clinton didn’t turn out well. Eventually I conclude the trick is sprinkling some of the fine wood into the gap and then sealing it with a kiss of glue.Lady20I did hasten to scrape some of the excess glue into the hole and remove the rest using the edge of a business card. When it was dry, which was in almost no time at all, I retorted the pipe Before the finishing touches, I sanded it down to smoothness with 200-grit paper and re-micro-meshed.

Afterward, taking the matter under full advisement and consideration, I mulled over Lincoln Marine Cordovan (burgundy) to stain it, which might have been overkill, and a mix with that and two or three times more Feibing’s Brown. I chose the latter, of course. I mixed the two stains in my small Tupperware. Lady21Staining the surface of the Clinton stummel for the most part had a nice effect, not counting the serious accentuation it gave to the small remaining hairline crack beneath the one I sealed on the rim. Therefore, following the same process I so painstakingly learned before, only going straight to the effective method, I prepared more briar shavings and, Super Glue at the ready, set the stummel down left side up and sprinkled the dust over the area where the crack was forming. After using another business card (what else are they good for?) to get the most of the particles, I squeezed a nice precise dot of glue over the spot and spread it out to let it dry in a thin coat.Lady22Of course I was forced to sand down the resulting obnoxious big round shiny bump, and in the process some of the surrounding stained surface, but it was worth it knowing the integrity of the pipe would be sound and none of my pipe aficionado friends with their eagle eyes would spot the former crack. Here is after sanding and before touch staining.Lady23And now for the finished product, after buffing with white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba. Red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba gave this bit a higher than usual shine.Lady24 Lady25 Lady26CONCLUSION
However lighthearted the ad with which I opened this installment of the series was intended to be, women are not here to be led around by the nose in the pursuit of so-called manly pleasures. Granted, no doubt, for the most part the pleasure of partaking of tobacco pipes has always been more the purview of men, but to think that women are incapable of such finer sensibilities of life is sheer sophistry, and shamefully self-deceptive and fallacious reasoning at that.

Furthermore, women need not have masculine qualities to favor the subtle qualities of pipe appreciation. And although most humans are capable of normal synaptic reflexes, the electrical impulses generated do not produce identical stimuli tickling the pleasure centers of the brain and kicking out uniform reactions. On the contrary, the magnificence of the human brain is that everyone’s reaction to a given stimulus is unique.

Why, then, should anyone be deprived of the deeply personal reflections facilitated by the mere puffing of a favorite tobacco in a like pipe? These are propositions that we hold to be self-evident, that all people are created equal. I would no more give up my pipes than my gun. Call me a radical or a revolutionary, but don’t call me a redneck or late for dinner.

SOURCES
https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/top-pipe-picks-for-ladies Ladies pipes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo7IJY4ZjCU The Ladies of the Youtube Pipe Smoking Community

 

 

Spotlight: Ladies Pipes, Part 1/7, a FRASA French Bent Billiard

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipesnm.biz
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

LadyA pipe in the mouth makes it clear that there has been no mistake–you are undoubtedly a man.
— Alan Alexander Milne (1892-1956) – English author, playwright, poet essayist and storyteller best known for Winnie the Pooh – from “Smoking as a Fine Art,” in Not That It Matters, 1919, a collection of wide-ranging and manly essays

INTRODUCTION
I admit, my choice of the above quote was calculated, but not to raise the ire of any female smokers I indeed admire and whose attention I hope to draw to this forum and others, with the goal of opening a dialogue between the genders who share at least one common love. Of course, as with all well-meaning attempts at good natured humor mixed with more than a grain of satire, I should not be surprised if this one, in the spirit of political incorrectness, backfires in my face like a good ole boy’s sawed-off shotgun packed with too much rock salt.

But no, I think my message is clear. A.A. Milne was a good man and without doubt one of the most celebrated and creative writers of children’s stories of his time, albeit the product of the languid ease and floating, hypnotic comfort of his youth in the English countryside and predetermined defining crucible at Cambridge’s Exeter College at a time when his contemporaries were such traitors as Guy Burgess and Kim Philby to name but two. Yet Milne chose the right path, whatever unavoidable world-view of woman and their “rightful places” in the homes and gardens and still grander scheme of the universe. Milne escaped the abyss of prison, execution or exile to a dacha on the steppes of Mother Russia – outside of his day-to-day harrowing home life. All in all, notwithstanding the opening and somewhat tasteless quote, Milne turned out a bit alright.

So now, a few words about the earth-shattering day at the Stag Tobacconist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US of A, deep in the Land of Enchantment. How â propos is that, I ask? Holy Shades of a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Batman! You see, I was sitting in my customary spot with a view of the entire room against the unlikely and therefore ever-present threat of imminent attack by unknown sinister forces, which seem to lurk in every corner of this wannabe city. The place continues to groan and grumble with unnatural growing pains.

I was sitting there in my comfortable cushioned chair in the smoker’s lounge, working on my laptop, when I overheard a woman who had come in looking for a “lady’s pipe.” I wasn’t eavesdropping, I just couldn’t help overhearing, along with the rest of the conversation, although my interest was piqued and my ears pricked. From her demeanor, I guessed it was her first visit to the shop. She was a rather large lady, dressed in a heavy long black coat. I knew right off that I had exactly what she was looking for at my apartment in an assortment of nice smaller pipes that nevertheless were not minis. I knew not to interfere with Chuck Richards, my friend and mentor, who had engaged the good woman

Scanning my mental knowledge of the shop’s inventory, I settled on a few of the no-name Italians and some mini carved meerschaums in the glass case below where Chuck and the lady stood at the end of the service counter, only a few yards from my curious ears and eyes. To my immense surprise, I watched Chuck (whose lips were pulled back in a look of distaste I recognized, whether or not the woman detected it) as he produced with appropriate care the open box of one of the meerschaums. The woman made a definite sound of pleasure that was stifled by Chuck’s masterful discourse on the pros and cons of meerschaum minis. He went on about the quality of the material and their ability to burn any type of tobacco without a lingering taste; their fragility and special precautions needed to use them, and in particular their construction with small push-in tenons that can be difficult to maneuver the vital cleaners through. He demonstrated and then explained how the cleaner would also be inserted into the shank after smoking but that he couldn’t handle the surface of the pipe because of its porous nature that absorbs skin oils and dirt, leading to serious damage.

Choking back a laugh, I thought I could not have discouraged a sale better if I had tried! I happen to know Chuck despises fancy, carved meerschaums for his own collection but would never hesitate to sell one to the right person. And so he moved on to several nice, shiny, natural finish no-names of medium length and bowl size. My excitement was growing. I decided if and only if Chuck proved unsuccessful in matching the female customer with a pipe – a wholly unlikely event – would I scurry out the door after her and offer the prospective customer my card and services.

But of course, Chuck sold her a very nice pipe, albeit twice the size of those I will show in this series. Thus was conceived the idea for this series, which, in my original plans, I envisioned, as usual, in a single blog. After a mere glimpse at the boggling research needed to undertake the endeavor, however, not to mention the difficulty of blogging seven restores in one space, I had the brainstorm of splitting the project into a series.

My friend on the Smokers Forums UK (http://www.smokersforums.co.uk/), who goes by the username “im2for1” there, is a Team Member at the Forums and owner of Ladies of the Briar for women only on Yahoo Groups and Friends of the Ladies of Briar of Facebook. She is also vice president of New Jersey Fellowship of Pipe Smokers on Yahoo and Facebook. With some careful, specific prodding, I hope to elicit some invaluable intelligence from Liz as this series progresses.

Here are some pictures of the seven pipes, which I relegated to a special pile on the big work desk in my office. I automatically segregated them for their unusual small sizes but had no idea that distinction would someday come in handy.Lady1 Lady2Now, for a description of my first foray into a so-called Ladies Pipes, although it could be smoked without shame by a man (if I didn’t already sell it to one of my best customers, known to some readers here as Ashley and going back to my first real restore). This is a FRASA (from the brand mark on the shank), a French piece of work about which I can find no background. Lady3I wonder if the larger capital letters indicate an acronym. It’s a lovely, little, delicately curved, natural, dark red briar billiard.Lady4 Lady5 Lady6 Lady7 Lady8RESTORATION
This was one of the cleanest pipes I’ve ever come across in a lot, but I’ve never seen one yet on which I couldn’t improve. I showed all of the pipes I’m restoring for these blogs to Ashley at one of our weekly pipe meetings a few weeks back, and I had a good idea which one she would like best. I’ve come to know her tastes, having sold her several pipes, not to mention one to her husband, Stephen. Her hand went straight for the FRASA and her eyes sparkled with P.A.D. I knew I had her. I pointed out the clean but slightly rough to the touch chamber, which took a flashlight to determine that it had indeed been lightly smoked. Then there were some minor blemishes on the bowl. I also said I’d like to lighten it up a bit, unless she liked it the way it was.

“Go for it!” she said.

And so I tossed the bit in an OxiClean bath.Lady9Moving to the stummel, I wiped it down with purified water and soft cotton cloth gun cleaners before using 320-grit paper gently and evenly before micro-meshing from 1500-12000.Lady10 Lady11 Lady12Removing the bit from the OxiClean and rinsing it, I wet micro-meshed it to a nice dark shine.Lady13I sanded the small chamber with 200- and 320-grit papers and retorted it just to be thorough, but I didn’t expect to find anything, and I didn’t. Now, that’s a clean pipe!

I finished by buffing the stummel with white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba, and the bit the red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba.Lady14 Lady15CONCLUSION
In the next installment, I plan on getting more to the meat and potatoes issues of relative numbers of women who partake of the magic instrument of divine contemplation – recognizing, of course, the futility of trying to get anywhere near exact numbers. I also hope to have feedback from Liz and others like her who are as active as any men in their smoking communities, with some insights into the kinds of pipes they actually enjoy, whether “ladylike” or more “manly.” Yes, sir (or ma’am), the times, they are a-changin‘.

I’ll leave you with these parting shots of two lady smokers, one real and one – ahem – well, never mind.Lady16 Lady17

The Lot arrived and in it was a Small Dunhill Chestnut Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother sent me a link to a lot of pipes on Ebay and I loaded and viewed the pictures in full size. There in the lot was a small bent billiard. In the photo below it pipe at the bottom of the photo circled in red. To my eye it looked for all things like a small Dunhill pipe. There were some other nice pipes in the lot but that is the one that caught my eye and made me suggest that we go for the lot. It was a bit of a bidding war and at the end the pipes were ours. When I was recently in the states to visit my mom and dad I stayed with my brother. The pipes came in the mail and I could not wait to open it.Dunhill1I could not believe my eyes when I unpacked the pipes. Sure enough the little pipe in the photo was a Dunhill. It was stamped 2102 next to Dunhill over Chestnut on the left side of the shank. The four digit numeric code tells a lot about the pipe. The first digit, in this case a 2 tells me that the pipe is a Group 2 sized pipe. The second digit, in this case 1 tells me that the stem was originally a tapered stem. The third and fourth number, in this case 02 tells me the shape of the pipe – a bent billiard. The Chestnut finish also had a Cumberland stem and there under the grime on the stem was Cumberland. On the right side it was stamped Made In over England with a superscript underscored 31 after the D. From my calculations that made it a 1991. I arrived at that date by at the superscript number to 1960. The Chestnut finish with the Cumberland stem was first released by Dunhill in 1982 so this is a later version of the finish.

I took some photos of the little pipe once I got it to the work table back home in Canada. It was a beauty. The Chestnut finish was dull and dirty but looked good under the grime. The rim had a coating of lava and was slightly out of round. The bowl had a cake that was soft and broken. The stamping on the shank was crisp and distinct. The stem fit perfectly and was oxidized. The first inch of the stem from the button forward looked as if the stem had sported a rubber softee bit. There was a thick coat of calcification and crud (technical term) where the rubber bit had been. The oxidation on the stem pretty well hid the Cumberland material – the striations of colour on the stem were almost invisible. The inside of the pipe was dirty and tarred. The slot was filled in partially with debris.Dunhill2 Dunhill3 Dunhill4 Dunhill5I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim. The picture below shows the tars and lava on the rim. I had reamed the bowl when I was staying at my brother’s so I have no picture of the cake. I would need to clean up the reaming with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. You can also see damage to the inner edge of the bowl where it is out of round. I also took two photos of the stem – the topside and the underside near the button.Dunhill6 Dunhill7 Dunhill8The next two photos show the stamping on the right and the left sides of the shank.Dunhill9 Dunhill10I scrubbed the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 on cotton pads and removed a lot of the oxidation and the calcification. The area under the calcification was lighter than the rest of the stem so I would need to polish and sand it to blend it into the stem.Dunhill11 Dunhill12I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the areas of the stem. Once I had sanded away the tooth marks and the damage on the stem it was ready to polish with micromesh.Dunhill13I cleaned out the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I also cleaned out the mortise with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The fit of the stem in the shank was very tight so cleaning it out would make it fit well.Dunhill14 Dunhill15To repair the out of round inner bowl edge I wrapped a piece of 220 grit sandpaper around my KleenReem pipe reamer and sanded the bowl. The size of the reamer and sandpaper was the same size as the bowl and twisting it around the inside of the bowl quickly brought the bowl back into round and cleaned it up.Dunhill16I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads, gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.Dunhill17 Dunhill18 Dunhill19I carefully scraped the surface of the rim with a sharp knife blade to remove the lava and then scrubbed the rim with a cotton pad and saliva to remove the darkening and smooth out the rim. I did not want to top the bowl but try to preserve the finish. I scrubbed until the surface was smooth and clean. I touched it up with a stain pen along the outer edge to even out the colour. I hand buffed it with a cloth. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and smoothed out all of the marks on the finish. I buffed with multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below. It is a beauty. Thanks for looking.Dunhill20Dunhill21Dunhill22Dunhill23Dunhill24Dunhill25Dunhill26Dunhill28

Fixing a Citation Squat Bulldog

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipesnm.biz
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

INTRODUCTION
I thought I found the maker of this Citation on Pipephil, but should have taken a closer look at the nomenclature. As it turns out, the cursive style used by the U.S. manufacturer was a clear mismatch for the block letters on my squat bulldog. For now, I’m stumped. Here is the pipe as I received it.Citation1 Citation2 Citation3 Citation4The unusual cleanliness of the pipe tends to hide the need for serious work on the entire surface of the stummel, in particular a bad ding in the rim.Citation5RESTORATION
First, I tossed the bit in an OxiClean bath.Citation6While it started soaking, I used 150-grit paper evenly around the curved rim until the ding was gone and it was even all around. I also smoothed a rough spot on the right side of the top curve of the shank.Citation7Continuing just below the rim with 320-grit paper, I almost immediately realized the scratches were so pervasive and the grain so clear and fill-free that an Everclear strip was warranted. After the bit had soaked about 30 minutes, I dumped the OxiClean, rinsed the bit and ran a cleaner through it. Then I poured a jar of used Everclear in the Tupperware tub and dunked the stummel in.Citation8 Citation9

The bit was in good shape, and wet micro-mesh from 1500-12000 made it black and smooth again.Citation10I removed the stummel from the Everclear when it had soaked for an hour and wiped the chamber with a cotton cloth square before sanding the dried alcohol from the wood with 200-grit paper.Citation11 Citation12 Citation13Although I can’t explain how it works, my experiences stripping pipes with Everclear and then sanding and micro-meshing them had prepared me for the radical change in color I would notice after the full scale of micro-mesh.Citation14 Citation15 Citation16

Still, this is the first time I can remember where the grain was good enough that I didn’t need to use any stain. All I needed to do was sand the chamber and retort the pipe, the latter of which proved almost unnecessary.Citation17This is the finished pipe, after buffing with white Tripoli, White Diamond and Carnauba. I used red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and Carnauba on the bit.Citation18 Citation19 Citation20

CONCLUSION
Bulldogs always sell fast, even no-names or relatively unknown brands. But I still don’t know why I put off restoring this pipe for so long. Working on it was a real pleasure, and I did it overnight.

Refinishing an English made Comoy’s Gold Bark 87S Zulu

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Blog by Steve Laug

Quite a few years back now, my daughters gave me this little Comoy’s Golden Bark Zulu as a birthday gift. They had dutifully hunted for the pipe and then picked it up at a local pipe shop. I loved the look and the shape of it as it reminded me of an older one that I had smoked from time to time. I loaded a bowl and smoked it just twice because the finish bubbled and blistered in the sandblast on the back, front and sides of the bowl. I talked with others about what to do and found out that really there was nothing left to do but refinish the pipe or return it to the shop. I looked into returning it to the shop but found that it was one of a kind so I kept it. I put it in the pipe cupboard and there it remained for many years. In the photos below you can see the blistering in terms of discolouration on the sides of the bowl. The underside of the shank had also faded and was significantly lighter than the rest of the pipe.Bark1 Bark2 Bark3 Bark4Fast forward to several weeks ago. On Facebook I was following a conversation that Chuck of Stag Tobacco in Albuquerque, New Mexico was having with one of the Stokkebyes and found that they were talking about Comoy pipes. I wrote a real time question on the thread there and found out quickly that what I had in hand was an English Comoy and that it was significantly older than I had originally imagined. Somehow I thought it was made during the period when the Italians made the pipes during the Cadogan era. I was wrong it turns out. The stamping on the underside of the shank reads COMOY’S over GOLD BARK over the round COM stamp with Made in London in a circle with the in residing in the center of the circle. Underneath the circle is a straight line reading ENGLAND. Next to that stamping is the 87S shape number and then along the edge of the shank stem joint is stamped 004.

I decided then that it was time to address the finish on the pipe. I took a few close up photos to show the blistering of the finish to give you an idea of what I was working with.Bark5 Bark6 Bark7The rim also had a little darkening from the little bit I had used it and there was the beginning of a light cake in the bowl.Bark8To begin stripping the bowl I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads and found that it worked to remove the finish on the high spots of the blast but left a lot of the shiny bubbly finish in the deep grooves.Bark9 Bark10 Bark11 Bark12To deal with the bubbly finish in the grooves of the blast I used a brass bristle brush and then wet the bowl down with acetone to keep the surface wet while I scrubbed it with the brush.Bark13 Bark14 Bark15 Bark16I finished removing the finish with more acetone on cotton pads until the finish was clean. I took a few photos of the pipe at this point to show the new look of the finish. The lighter colour of the shank was beginning to blend in better with the rest of the pipe.Bark17 Bark18 Bark19 Bark20I gave the bowl a light coat of olive oil to highlight the red tones in the finish and then buffed it lightly with a clean buffing pad. I gave it a coat of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The colour of the blast and the look of the pipe exceed what I thought it would look like when I was finished. The grain on the pipe shows through the blast and gives the pipe a beautiful look in my opinion. Thanks Chuck for the impetus to get this pipe cleaned up. I am once again looking forward to using this pipe and enjoying the gift from my daughters. Thanks for looking.Bark21 Bark22 Bark23 Bark24 Bark25 Bark26 Bark27 Bark28

Restemming and Restoring a Potpouri Author

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a growing box of bowls that came to me without stems. It seems each time I clean it out and restem the pipes I inherit more of them. This is not a complaint as I actually enjoy restemming pipe bowls. It is always a challenge to get a new stem to align properly with the shank and to deal with cracks or damages to the bowl or the shank. This bowl came to me and I immediately fell for the rustic rocklike features of the rustication. It was gnarled and rough looking and felt great in the hand. The bowl was dirty and the deep grooves of the rustication had a lot of dirt and grime build up in them. The rim was caked and the rustication pretty much filled in the grooves making the rim surface smooth. The bowl had a rough cake in it and looked as if someone had started reaming the bowl but did not finish. There were some small fissures like cracks in the sides of the bowl near the entrance of the airway and on the bottom and the top of the airway. Someone had cleaned out the shank so it was not too dirty. There was a small crack on the top of the shank that was about 1/8 long. I could open it slightly with a wedge so it would need to be glued and banded. The pipe showed a lot of promise though and I could see it come alive if I had the correct stem for it.Pot1 Pot2In the photo below there is a small crack barely visible in the middle of the shank end between my fingers. I have circled it with red to focus your eye on it. The tip of the red arrow is on top of the crack in the shank. It extends about 1/8 to ¼ inch.Pot3 Pot4I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim to give you an idea of the state of things when I started. It is hard to see but at this point I could see some small cracks around the entrance of the airway to the bowl.Pot5I went through my can of stems and found a green acrylic stem that would do the trick on this pipe. It would go well with the rustication and the length and width of the stem would carry through the thickness of the bowl. I sanded the tenon with the Dremel and sanding drum until it was a close fit to the shank. I finished sanding by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. It fit well in terms of the width of the shank but it was slightly thicker on the top and the bottom where it met the shank. I was careful inserting it as I did not want to crack the shank further.Pot6 Pot7 Pot8I used the Dremel and sanding drum to remove much of the excess thickness on the top and the bottom of the stem at the shank junction. I do this carefully with the stem in place in the shank so that I can get it as close as possible without damaging the finish on the shank. You can see in the next two photos that the junction is pretty smooth now and the thickness is almost a match.Pot9 Pot10I finished the fit with a file and took off the remaining thickness that had to go. I also used the file to remove the tooth indentations on both sides of the stem near the button.Pot11 Pot12With the fit nearly perfect it was time to sand out the filing marks and smooth out the stem. I have a medium grit sanding stick that works perfect for this application and I sanded with it until all of the file marks were gone and the transition between the shank and the stem was smooth.Pot13 Pot14With the stem fit roughed in I turned my attention to the bowl and shank. I wanted to have the shank and bowl clean so I could deal with the repairs to the airway in the bowl and the crack on the top of the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the largest cutting head. I cleaned up the remaining cake with the Savinelli Pipe Knife.Pot15 Pot16I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush on the sides, shank and the bowl of the bowl. I scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle brush until all of the lava that filled the rustication was gone.Pot17I rinsed off the soap with warm water and dried the bowl with a soft towel. The cleaned and reamed pipe is shown in the photo below.Pot18With the bowl reamed and the finish clean I turned to the internals. I cleaned out the mortise and airway into the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It did not take too much to clean out the pipe. I cleaned the stem the same way and used a dental pick to clean up the slot in the end of the button.Pot19 Pot20I lightly sanded the crack on the top of the shank and spread it open with a dental pick. I used a tooth pick to push super glue into the crack and then held the crack together until the glue set. Once it was dry I found a round band that had the right circumference to fit the shank and heated it with a lighter and pressed it onto the shank of the pipe.Pot21 Pot22With shank repair complete and the bowl cleaned and ready I put the stem in place in the shank and took some photos of the pipe. I really liked the look of the band breaking up the rustic bowl and the smooth green stem. The band fit perfectly and did not cover the stamping on the underside of the shank. I still needed to sand the stem some more to get a shine but you can see what the pipe will look like at this point. Pot23 Pot24I mixed a batch of pipe mud (cigar ash and water) and used a dental spatula to apply it to the bottom of the bowl. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway and used the spatula to apply the mud to the small cracks and fissures around the airway. Once the mud cured the pipe bowl would be in good shape until a new cake was built.Pot25I heated the stem in a cup of water in the microwave until it was pliable and then put a gentle bend in it to give it a more elegant look and comfortable feel.Pot26 Pot27I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then finished with 6000-12000 grit pads. I rubbed away the sanding dust with a damp cloth.Pot28 Pot29 Pot30I gave the pipe a light buff with Blue Diamond on the wheel to bring some deep shine to the stem. I then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The green acrylic stem works well with the rough finish on the bowl. I like the finished look. What do think? Thanks for looking.Pot31 Pot32 Pot33 Pot34

An Amazing Find – A Corsica Cavalier with a Horn Stem and End Cap

3 Replies

Blog Steve Laug

This is yet one more of my brother’s amazing finds. It is a beautiful Cavalier with a horn stem and end cap. It is stamped in classic late 19th Century fashion with gold leaf on the left side of the shank. It reads CORSICA in and arch over two stars around a capital V with what looks like an elongated 0 in the middle of the V. Underneath the *V* is VIEILLE RACINE stamped in a reverse arch. The words form and oval. It is my understanding that the Vielle Racine stamp translates literally as Old Root. The band is stamped 14K and is almost a rose gold. It is fitted to the shank and also is beveled inward covering the shank end. The horn end cap has a threaded short bone tenon that screws into the briar. It has a large bowl.

When the pipe came to me it was dirty but the bowl had been reamed. The rim had a slight build up and the inner edge had been slightly damaged when it had been reamed. The gold band was tarnished. The finish was dirty and spotted with sticky dark spots on the end cap and in the bend at the top of the shank bowl junction. The bowl had been coated with shellac that was spotty and cloudy in places. The stem looked really good at first glance but I would have to examine it more closely once I started cleaning it up. The grain on the briar was beautiful and I could not wait to clean it up and see what lay beneath the grime and the shellac.Cor1 Cor2 Cor3 Cor4I took several close-up photos to highlight different aspects of the pipe. The first of these is the state of the rim and bowl. The rim photo is a bit blurry but gives a pretty good idea nonetheless of the state of the bowl and the tars on the rim. The second photo is of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It still had the gold leaf in the stamping to highlight it.Cor5 Cor6I took the pipe apart and photographed the parts. I also took a photo of the end cap so that the bone tenon in visible.Cor7 Cor8The horn stem looked really good but looking at it up close I could see a crack along the top of the stem following the curve and a small group of them on the right side of the stem. There were also a few chips missing on the underside of the stem near the shank junction. The tenon had a unique look to it – almost a nipple on the end of it. It was coated with a little varnish as well so it much have someone’s attempt to tighten it as it was currently quite loose in the shank.Cor9 Cor10Before I started to work on it I decided to do a bit of research to fill in the gaps on another pipe brand that had not heard of before seeing this one. I was familiar with briar coming from Corsica but had not run across the pipe brand of that name. I resorted to the pipephil site to see if he had any information on the pipe and who may have made it. The site did have the brand listed. It turns out that Corsica is a brand of Henri Vuillard of Saint Claude, France. This Vuillard was not to be confused with E. Vuillard & Cie also of Saint Claude. Reading that information helped me to make sense of the large *V* in the centre of the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. Here is the link to the information: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/hvuillard-en.html. The site included the following photos of several pipes in this line. The cursive form of the Corsica stamp is very similar to the stamping on my pipe.Cor11The link also included a sub link to a secondary page on the history of the brand. The following is an abstract of the information that I found regarding the maker of this pipe. At the end of the 19th century the Vuillard house managed by Paul Vuillard and established at Chemin de la Coupe (Saint Claude) produced match boxes and cases for spectacles. At the beginning of the 20th century on Henri’s (son of Paul Vuillard) initiative the factory is converted to the production of briar pipes which were marketed under the “Corsica” brand.

From that information along with the materials and the design of the pipe I am pretty confident in saying that it was made in the early 20th century when the company was managed by Paul Vuillard who took the initiative to start making pipes. An interesting note is that from 1914-1918 The Henri Vuillard Factory produced pipes for the French Army. The article says that at that time they had between 170-180 employees.

Armed with this new knowledge and an estimate of the age of the pipe I began to clean it up. The cake had been reamed already so I just cleaned up the walls of the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I had removed the stem and the end cap so it was easy to hold the bowl and ream it.Cor12I cleaned the shank from the mortise to the end cap with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The oils and tars that came out were not very dark and they did not smell like tobacco. It was almost as if they were the stain from the outside of the bowl. It did not matter though it took quite a few before the shank was clean all the way through.Cor13I cleaned the airway in the stem as well. It also was dirty. But as I cleaned off the exterior the cracks became more noticeable, particularly the one on the topside.Cor14I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the shellac coat. I was careful around the gold leaf in the stamping as I did not want to damage that area of the bowl.Cor15 Cor16 Cor17 Cor18I put Vaseline on the threads of the bone tenon on the end cap and carefully turned it into the end of the shank. I polished the bone of the end cap with 1500-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out. I rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil and let it dry. Cor19In the photo below you can see the fine cracks in the stem near the tenon end. This is also where the chips were. I drilled a tiny hole at each end of the crack on the top of the stem with a micro drill bit. I filled the holes and the crack with clear super glue. I used the clear super glue to also stabilize the other cracks on the sides of the stem and to build up the chipped areas on the underside of the stem.Cor20 Cor21 Cor22When the glue dried I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs and to begin to polish the stem.Cor23 Cor24 Cor25 Cor26 Cor27Once the repairs were smooth I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I know the oil is made for vulcanite but I wanted to bring a little life to the horn. I finished sanding the stem with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil.Cor28 Cor29 Cor30 Cor31 Cor32 Cor33I polished the gold band on the shank end with a jeweler’s cloth until it shone. I gave the briar several coats of Conservators Wax and hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush when it dried. Cor34 Cor35I decided not to buff this pipe on the wheel because I did not want to damage the gold leaf or the horn. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth and polished it until it shone. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It truly is a beautiful old pipe. I only wish that the horn was more perfect. The stem glows but I see the repaired cracks. Ah well it is better than having the stem splinter apart while using it. It should be good for another hundred plus years now. Thanks for looking.Cor36 Cor37 Cor38 Cor39 Cor40 Cor41 Cor42 Cor43 Cor44 Cor45

Introduced to a Bamboo Briar of Spain Oval Shank Billiard

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I don’t know why but I keep taking out some unique pipes from the box my brother Jeff sent me. He has an uncanny ability to find the unusual and interesting pipes for me to restore. This one is one I had never heard of before. I have seen other bamboo rusticated pipes but not one that had the stamping that this one does. It is stamped on the underside of the bowl with the words BAMBOO BRIAR in an arch over the word Spain. The carver did a marvelous job of replicating the look of bamboo in the briar. The nodules, lines and grooves that he/she put in the briar really look like bamboo. To give it even more of an interesting look they left the briar natural to highlight the subdued grain of the briar coming through the smooth areas of the bamboo and the carved nicks in the surface. It is really beautiful.

When I took it out of the box the bowl had a thick cake of carbon built up in the bowl. The rim was thickly caked as well with lava. The outer edges of the bowl had some nicks in it and there was a small burn mark on the front right inner edge of the bowl. The stem did not fully seat in the mortise because of the tars and oils there. The exposed portion of the tenon and the stem were badly oxidized. There was some light tooth chatter on the stem but overall it was in decent shape underneath the oxidation.Bamboo2 Bamboo3 Bamboo4 Bamboo5I took some close up photos of the rim and the bottom of the bowl. The picture of the rim shows the thickness of the cake and the state of the top of the rim. This old pipe was pretty clogged up with cake and tars. The picture of the bottom of the bowl shows the stamping. It reads Bamboo Briar over Spain.Bamboo6 Bamboo7Bamboo1I removed the stem and dropped in a jar of Oxyclean to soak the heavy oxidation for several hours. Before working on the bowl I did a little research on the brand and found that on my go to site, Logos and Stampings, or pipephil there was a notation. Here is the link: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html#bamboobriar.

On that site the pipe is described as follows: The bamboo like decorative carving was typical of Valencia’s manufacturers since the early 20th century. However it’s difficult to say who exactly the maker was.

With that information in hand I went to work on the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head and working up to one that was the same diameter as the bowl. I removed the cake and took it back to bare wood. I finished the reaming and cleaned up the bowl walls with the Savinelli Pipe Knife.Bamboo8 Bamboo9 Bamboo10The outer edge of the rim was rough and the top had some nicks in the briar that made topping the bowl necessary. I topped it to remove the damaged areas of the rim using a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper.Bamboo11 Bamboo12I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone (fingernail polish remover) on cotton pads to clean up the dirt and oils from the natural finish of the briar.Bamboo13 Bamboo14 Bamboo15 Bamboo16I sanded the topped rim with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then used a light brown stain pen to stain it to match the patina on the bowl. I used a black Sharpie pen to touch the “root nodules” of the simulated bamboo. Bamboo17I hand applied some Conservators Wax to the bowl and once it dried hand buffed it with a shoe brush.Bamboo18I took photos of the pipe after buffing it. The colour of the rim and the patina that came out on the bowl with the wax gives it an aged bamboo look that I really like.Bamboo19 Bamboo20 Bamboo21 Bamboo22I cleaned out the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the tars and oils. I was quite surprised by how little came out of the shank with the cleaning. I expected it to be far worse.Bamboo23The stem had been soaking in Oxyclean for about four hours so it was time to work on that. I set the bowl aside and removed the stem from the Oxy soak. The soak had softened and removed much of the oxidation from the surface. It had also brought the deeper oxidation to the surface.Bamboo24I rubbed the stem down to remove the softened oxidation and then used needle files to clean up and define the edges of the button.Bamboo25I used pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean out the inside of the stem and again was surprised by the lack of real oils and tars.Bamboo26I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the file marks and to remove the oxidation on the surface. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.Bamboo27 Bamboo28 Bamboo29I buffed the stem on the buffer with Blue Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used a light touch on the bowl and shank so as not to clog up the nodules or grooves in the bamboo carving with too much wax. I raised the shine with a clean flannel buff on the buffer and then gave it a hand buff with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the patina of the briar and the carvings on the bowl and shank give the pipe a look of aged bamboo. The unknown Spanish carver did a great job on this one in my opinion. Now I have to decide whether to keep this one or not. It is so unique that I think it deserves a place in my collection. Thanks for looking.Bamboo30 Bamboo31 Bamboo32 Bamboo33 Bamboo34 Bamboo35 Bamboo36 Bamboo37

A Challenging Yello-Bole Chesterfield

19 Replies

Blog by Aaron Henson

Although this is a standalone write up, it is also part 2 of an adventure I started with the rustication of a bent billiard about a month ago.

I found this Yello-Bole Chesterfield at a local flea market in town. It was part of a large estate collection, most of which were unsmoked uniquely carved pipes. My eye, however, was immediately attracted to the Peterson-like shape with military bit and P-lip stem and I was surprised to see that it was a Yello-Bole. The pipe was a bit grimy and oxidized with burn marks but after some talking we agreed on a price and I took it home.Chesterfield1The stampings on the bowl were very clear and deep, some of the nicest I have seen on an estate pipe that is as well used as this one. The left side shank read YELLO-BOLE over HONEY CURED BRIAR over CHESTERFIELD with the KBB inside the clover leaf on the left. The band was stamped with KB&B inside the clover leaf over NICKEL PLATED. The right side shank was stamped with shape number 2816C. The stem had the Yello-Bole yellow circle inset in the top and SOLID RUBBER stamped deep into the underside of the stem.

A quick search online and I was able to use the markings to date the pipe to the 1933-1936 time manufacturing period.

The briar was in great shape with beautiful bird’s eye pattern. The pipe was dusty and grimy and after wiping down with an alcohol soaked cotton pad I continued with my assessment. The rim was coated with a heavy crust of tar and there was a deep burn mark on the outside of the rim (major issue number 1). The bowl did not have a large amount of cake so I had to assume that the previous owner had reamed out at some point. And perhaps it had been over reamed, because the air hole entered the bowl about 2/3 the way down the chamber wall. This would lead to a mouth full of hot ash when you were half way through the bowl (major issue number 2). There were some minor bumps and scratches in the surface of the bowl but nothing that could not be buffed out.Chesterfield2 Chesterfield3The stem was in great shape. It was heavily oxidized with some minor tooth chatter but the airway was clear and the stinger was intact and in great condition.Chesterfield4I set the stem to soak in a Oxiclean solution and turned to the stummel. First I reamed the chamber back to bare wood. Next, I tried to clean the rim with Oxiclean on a wet green pad but the tar was just too stubborn so I resorted to a topping board and lightly sand away the tar build up. This is where I made my first mistake: I scuffed off a bit of the nickel plating when topping the bowl (I still don’t have a fix for this!). I have thought about taking the ring off and having it re-plated but several attempts to remove the ring with heat have not been successful.

To address the burn mark on the rim I used a worn piece of 220 grit sand paper I removed the burned wood trying not to remove any of the sound briar under the burn. I was surprised to see how deep the burn went and was at a bit of a loss on how to address it. As you can see below, a significant amount of wood as damaged.Chesterfield5I figured I had two options: 1) replace the burned material with glue/briar dust or 2) sand the rest of the rim to match and change the shape of the pipe. In either case I was going to need to refinish the briar so I wiped it down with acetone to remove as much of the finish as I could while I decided what I was going to do.

Looking into the chamber again, I listed out my options for addressing the air way issue. Again I came up with two options; 1) fill in the bottom 1/3 of the bowl with pipe mud, or 2) drill a new airway that comes out at the bottom of the chamber. I didn’t like either option. The first would have been a very large fill and volume change for the pipe and the second was fraught with potential problems – chiefly aligning the drill bit to come out at just the right point in the bottom of the bowl

So I figured it was time for some consultation. I outlined the issue in an email and included some picture and sent them off to Steve – our worthy “Professor of Pipe-ology” and blog host.

While I waited for Steve’s response I cleaned the inside of the shank and with alcohol soaked cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until then came out as clean as they went in. I also took the stem from the Oxiclean bath and removed the loose oxidation with a magic eraser. I cleaned the internals of the stem then polished it with micromesh pads 1500 – 12000. I used mineral oil every three pads to freshen the vulcanite and give the pads some traction. There was only one minor tooth mark that didn’t raise with heat and I filled it with a dab of black super glue and sanded it smooth with the 1500 mirco-mesh pad.Chesterfield6 Chesterfield7Steve responded with the recommendation of building up the burn spot with super glue and briar dust confirmed that I had the right idea. I was hoping that he had another trick up his sleeve because I knew that the repair would have to be covered up with either a very dark stain or rusticated. I applied three separate layers of clear super glue and briar dust to build up the rim then carefully sanded the repair to blend it into the shape of the rim. Chesterfield8 Chesterfield9I came across and older post where Kirk Fitzgerald rusticated a Peterson that looked very similar to my Chesterfield. Taking some note, I decided to try a similar type rustication. I lightly mark a ½” band around the top of the bowl with a pencil and corresponding area on the bottom of the bowl to balance the appearance. Using the 1/8” carving tool on a Dremel I added a dimpled texture in offset rows. I was glad I had tried using this tool on the previous project because the carving tool did have a tendency to skip on the harder grain. Chesterfield10The final texture hid the repair and was not so extensive as to hide the grain. I sanded the outside of the bowl with micro mesh pads 1500 – 3600 to smooth out the scratches.

Instead of drilling a new airway, which posed the risk of additional misalignment, Steve recommended using a needle file to elongate the opening so it extended to the bottom of the bowl. The excess space could then be filled with plaster creating a new airway. This proved to be tedious work. Below are two rough cross-section of the pipe. On the left is the airway as it was and on the right is the revised airway (in theory).Chesterfield11Filing was a slow process and it took some effort to keep the elongated hole from drifting off course. I went slow and checked the progress often. Once the hole was about where I thought it should be I used the stick of a cotton swab as the place holder for the new airway. It was the rolled paper type stick that could be bent to match the curve of the bowl. Holding stick in place with a rubber band around the rim I mixed a batch of thick plaster and pushed it into the elongated hole with my finger. When plaster came out the top of the hole I removed the excess from inside the bowl and set it aside to dry for 24 hours. Chesterfield12In my first attempt at this repair, I did not have plaster so I used pipe mud (a slurry of cigar ash and water). This did not work at all. It is great for filling in the bottom of a bowl but it was too loose to stand on its own as a fill/patch. I removed the pipe mud and started over with the plaster.

The next evening, I used 100 grit sand paper wrapped around a ¼” dowel to remove the excess plaster and smooth out the repair. I carefully twisted the swab stick and it came free without damage to the patch. The next time I do this I will coat the stick with wax before securing it in place. The wax should help the stick pull free without bonding to the plaster.

It was time to finish the bowl. I chose to use straight Fiebing’s dark brown stain on the rusticated areas and then wiped it down with alcohol pad. Chesterfield13Next I applied straight light brown to the rest of the bowl. After setting the color with heat I wiped the entire bowl with an alcohol pad to blend the colors. Happy with the results I took the pipe to the buffing station. I buffed the stem and stummel separately so I could get to all the area a little more easily. I started with white buffing compound then finished with multiple coats of carnauba wax.

With the outside of the pipe complete I wanted to cover up the plaster patch inside the bowl so I applied a bowl coating. Using my finger I spread a thin coat of maple syrup evenly over the inside of the bowl then poured in the contents of a dietary charcoal capsule. I put my palm over the top of the pipe and shook the pipe so the charcoal powder covered the inside of the bowl. I set the pipe aside to dry for 5 days before emptying out the loose powder.

I want to say “Thank you” to Steve for his advice on this one… and thank you for reading.Chesterfield14 Chesterfield15 Chesterfield16 Chesterfield17 Chesterfield18