Tag Archives: refinishing

Repairing a Broken Shank on an LHS Park Lane DeLuxe — Lovat 12

Blog by Steve Laug

I came home from a two-week work trip to Berlin and Budapest to find a package from Troy Wilburn waiting for me. It contained a beautiful little LHS Park Lane De Luxe Lovat shape 12 that we had been speaking about before the trip. I am a sucker for LHS pipes and really like the Park Lane series as they have a quiet elegance about them. The shank on this one had broken near the bowl. Fortunately it was a clean break and not splintered or chipped. The repair on these has become pretty straight forward for me. I have learned a few tricks in joining the parts of a broken shank together from the Frankenpipes that I have crafted. That was their purpose and their schooling has paid off on quite a few of these shank repairs for me. The Park Lane had a Bakelite stem (at least I think it is Bakelite as it feels and acts different from Cumberland). The next two photos show the snapped shank.

Just as I suspected I had a piece of brass tubing that was the perfect size and fit for the repair. I used a file to cut grooves into the tube and to roughen the surface for the glue to have something to hold onto when I glued it in the shank.

I cleaned out the airway on both sides of the broken shank to remove debris and to give a good clean surface for the glue to bond with. To check the size and the fit of the tube in the two parts of the shank I inserted it in the bowl end of the break and then twisted the shank end onto it. The fit was perfect and once glued the repair should be solid. I mixed some epoxy and applied it to the metal tube being careful to not get any inside of the airway. I inserted it into the bowl side of the break. I left slightly over half of the tube extending so that when I put the shank piece in place there would be enough of the metal tube to strengthen the repair on that end.

When the epoxy set and the tube was solidly in place I painted some more of the epoxy on the opposite end of the tube and a little on the briar surface of each side of the break. I have learned not to overdo the glue on the briar as it is a pain to remove from the wood when it dries. I twisted the shank piece in place, lined it up and pressed it in place against the bowl side. I held it firmly until the quick set epoxy set and that portion of the repair was finished.

I pushed some fine briar dust into the small space that remained around the surface of the crack and then filled it with clear super glue. I applied it with the point of a dental pick so as not to get too much glue on the briar.

I sanded the repaired area carefully with a folded piece of worn 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess glue and briar dust from the patch. Then I sanded with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches. I used a medium brown coloured stain pen to touch up the sanded area around the patch. I cleaned out the shank with a pipe cleaner to make sure that there was no glue in the tube.

The stem was slightly under clocked. I heated the stinger with a lighter until the glue in the stem softened and then carefully screwed it into the shank while holding the shank. I was able to align it perfectly with the shank. With that completed, the repairs to the pipe were finished. The stem was in the right position. The cracked shank repaired and strengthened with an inner tube. All that remained was to clean up the surface of the pipe and give it a coat of stain to blend in the sanded areas around the repairs. I also needed to do some work on the stem with micromesh to raise the shine and polish the Bakelite. (I rarely use the buffer on these older LHS stems as I do not want to risk it. I would rather polish them by hand than damage them.)

I wiped the bowl and shank down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the grit and grime on the surface of the bowl and to remove the remaining finish.

I cleaned off the tars on the stinger with 0000 steel wool. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I continued to dry sand the stem with 3200-4000 grit pads and then gave it another coat of oil. I finished with the final three grits of micromesh – 6000-12000 – and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. Once the oil dried I gave the stem some coats of Paragon Wax and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth.

I gave the bowl a rubdown with some olive oil and then buffed it out. I touched up the light areas of the stain on the repaired shank with a dark stain pen and then rubbed a little more oil onto the shank. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with the microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below. I am hoping to put it in the mail later today or tomorrow to get it back to Troy.

There was some light damage to the rim surface. I decided to leave it alone as it was not enough to top the bowl. It gives character to this old pipe.

A No-Account, Son-of-a-Gun, Sorry Excuse for a Bent Billiard

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

“Pipes are like dogs: the smokin‘ man’s best friend. Why, you can cuss at ’em, shout out loud about the state of the world to ’em, carry on all you like ’til yer blue in the face an‘ sore in the jaw about how great the whole place would be if only you was in charge, heck, even put ’em out of mind and ignore ’em altogether…for a while. In fact, a perfectly good, loyal pipe, same as an old coonhound, will even put up with a might mess of outright scandalous behavior an‘ never even consider turnin‘ on you – say, like as if the dog was to chomp off yer ignorant head or the pipe up an‘ went to dumpin‘ hot, burnin‘ ash in yer lap all on its own…But Heaven help the man that treats either his pipe or dog like garbage to be thrown in the dumpster or a bug to be stomped on. He’ll end up with a companion called Cujo if it doesn’t find a better master in time to escape. The pipe or the dog, that is.”
― The Author, in “Musings of a Mind Bored Silly by a Roommate with ADHD Who Just Doesn’t Know the Meaning of Silence Is Bliss,” today

INTRODUCTION
My friend, Phil, he’s a heck of a nice guy. He’s a real big fella – six-three, 280 pounds or right there in the ballpark – and one of the smartest dudes you could ever meet. Now by smart I’m not implicating he’s got some big old stuffy nansy-pansy degree from any of your fancy-schmancy Poison Ivy Universities, with a capital U, back east somewheres, or anyplace else, for all that matters. What would he need with some piece of paper, outside of hangin it one of his walls? Now that’s the day I’d like to see! And if he was the type to frame up a piece of paper all marked with gibberish scrawling like the tests I used to get back from my teachers when I was just a young buck, where do you suppose he’d hang it? I’ll tell you, I will! Right in the throne room, direct across from where he’d be sitting to ponder what the heck good it does him, and other earth-shaking notions and such.

No, boy! Phil’s smarts are part on account of he was born that way, with a genius IQ is my guess, and the other part from all the books and fancy magazines he reads. Plus old Phil, why, he never watches regular TV; doesn’t even own one, not counting this huge thin flat monster that rightly belongs on a wall like I’ve seen at some of the old-timey stores you can still find at the mall, only he connects it to his computer with nary a cord somehow, and that’s how he likes it. Hooks it up to his little old lap computer right through the air with what he calls Wi-Fi and something else that goes by Blue Teeth or Blue Fairy or whatever. Anyhow, whatever kind of magic it is he does to make all this confounded tech-nol-o-gy happen that bring all of his gadgets, not just the TV monster but his walk-around pocket phone and even this genuine Made in China nineteen-hundred and seventies-era Ghetto Blaster he has, work together – well, it’s something else, and how! Why, it’s like he’s at Carnegie Hall in New York City, or at least that’s what I hear tell. Personally, I went to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville once when I was a kid, and that was good enough for me.

Now, to get to the meat and potatoes of this little fireside story, my friend Phil, he’s a good man, and he’s also one heck of a carpenter. When it comes to woodwork, why, there aint a thing he doesn’t know about all the woods ever grown, and how to build a custom home, with balloon walls and the works, from the ground up – and up and up – and pretty much all by himself. He’s as comfortable with his tools, from his cat’s paw and level to a pettibone, as he is with his own big mitts. And when it comes to the strength and soundness of the whole enchilada, Phil just pretends to listen to all the back-seat drivers, even if it’s the new owner! And you can bet all the money in your sock old Phil won’t take any guff from some pissant, oil-palmed CCI snagger with his eyes out for left-over parts to pilfer more than finding any real faults with the job. Yessir, Phil knows his stuff, from cripples to “A” Braces, trimmers, bearing walls and joists. But…

Ain’t there always a but? Well, Phil’s but is that for all he knows about wood and carpentry, he doesn’t have a bull pucket of a clue about restoring tobacco pipes, even if it’s a fair shake he could whip one up that would be right-on engineering-wise and even show his own, one-of-a-kind style. He’s even told me a few of his ideas, and they sound pretty clever and original. Only, as far as using a wood that wouldn’t give him rashes or boils or even the Big C, and staining the shapely wonder with something other than a nice, thick, shiny, Chinese-style lacquer that would leave the wood Code Red as far as breathing goes, he’s, well, clueless. And then there’s all the taking care not to forget to tuck it away all safe and sound instead of setting it on his work table with all of his sandpapers and rasps and drill bits and other implements of construction that are, what you might say, not Kosher to keep around a frail work of art, plus dropping it and all around banging the thing every chance he gets.

To put it nice, Phil is pretty dang bullheaded when it comes to thinking he can do, make or fix anything, and what’s more, that he’s better than the experts that are here to do it right. And he wouldn’t budge when I suggested he must have had something to do with the billiard’s condition when I got a gander of it. He held to the story that he had nothing to do with it; never touched it, he said, other than smoking it. So I’m sure you all can use whatever cents you had to rub together when you were born and come up with a notion of how dramatic it was for him to – well, ask ain’t the right word – oh, snap! He intimidated that he could use “some advice” on how to fix this no-name, no country but probably Italian bent billiard. Okay, okay, I’m a nice guy, too, and I knew what he was driving at, so when he said it was one of the first pipes I gave him and I said I made it myself, I didn’t want to be rude, but I almost couldn’t help it. One thing is, I’ve never made a pipe in my life nor said I did, even if I have plans to soon; I even bought a nice square block of walnut with grain that’s the bomb and is big enough for two pipes. I figure I’ll go vertical with both of them, seeing as how once I cut it in half I’ll be all-in one way or the other. Anyways, to get back to what I was saying, the other thing is, I did finish a few pre-formed pipes I got my hands on and even made them look pretty smart, if I say so myself, but this here bent billiard wasn’t one of them, no way, no how.

So Phil, he hands the thing to me, and from the second he picks it up from the Blitzkrieg debris that his apartment was full of that day, I saw it was totally FUBAR. I mean, it looked like it was all that could be dug from the rubble of some poor Englishman’s former place of commode during the Battle of Britain after a buzz bomb attack where one of those nasty suckers stopped its buzzing and fell out of the night sky right through his roof before it went off. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating, but you get the picture. I’ll tell you, the real shocker to me was that Phil had somehow let this happen when he took real good care of all the other pipes I remembered giving him, including a su-weet, smooth Peterson Aran B11 Bent Brandy I fixed up from my collection and gave to him on his birthday or something after he’d developed a real taste for pipe tobacco. I threw in a sleeve, and he’s kept it the same as the day I gave it to him. Back to the sad billiard, while I’m turning it in my hands, forced to admire the almost total stripping of the wax I told myself had to be there when and if I actually gave him the once proud pipe, not to mention the unbelievable uniformity of scratches all over it that – I kid you not – looked to me to be the work of a man with a careful if twisted plan, Phil even uses that word, plan, just as I’m thinking it! I would have jumped if the awfulness of the billiard’s deformities hadn’t already made me numb all over, like. Here’s my favorite angle. Phil’s going on how he has some plans for it, like re-staining it some special, unknown color and yada-yada-yada, but he’s real quiet like he never gets unless he’s embarrassed and wants to ask a favor, which he doesn’t ever quite get around to doing. Well, I wasn’t born yesterday, and I just keep it in hand until I’m set to leave, and then I ask him all casual, “Hey, Phil, mind if I hold onto this to look it over some more?” And of course he just has to put on like he doesn’t want to, when that was the plan all along, but in the end I walked out the door with the mysterious, thrashed pipe still in my hand.

RESTORATION

I really like three of the things you’ll notice in the first of those photographs: the peculiar piece of cork used for some reason I won’t go into, the chamber chock-full of some leaf and the little improvised piece of paper on the tenon to make it fit right like it did when he got it (whoever gave it to him in the first place).

First off I scooped out all the stuff in the chamber and peeled away the sticky paper on the tenon. Without the paper, here’s a good general idea of how it looked. Now I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t abide with that ghostly remnant of stain, so I set to stripping all of it down to the bone and soaking the bit in an OxiClean bath. I took the wood out of the Everclear after a couple of hours and saw it still need some help removing the old stain. I used 500-grit paper and made the bowl and shank a little better.

And back to the stem for a minute. For a number of reasons, it clearly didn’t fit the shank, and so the motive behind the cover-up with paper. The OxiClean didn’t do much other than get rid of a whole lot of dirt and other mess inside and out, but this is a better view of the tenon and how someone had undercut it at the bottom and generally made a mess of the whole try at making it fit right in the shank. I suppose Phil had nothing to do with that, too.

Other than replacing the whole stem, a plan I wasn’t keen on seeing as how it was going to be for free, I figured I could mend it another way. I sanded it all over with 200-grit paper before putting the 400 to it and micro-meshing as far as I could go, from 1500-12000. With that a done deal, I put a liberal amount of Black Super Glue on the tenon, most of it on the undercut part, to make it all even again. Meanwhile, back to the bowl and shank. The stripping ferreted out more cover-up: the front of the pipe, no big surprise considering it wasn’t proud enough of the results to put a name to it or even the country it came from, had a nice little weed-like patch of holes that needed wood putty.

Since I had some time on my hands while the putty and Black Super Glue finished drying, I smoked my own pipe for a spell. Actually it was one heck of a long spell. But it came to an end, like everything else in this life.

I smoothed the putty real gentle with the old 12000 micromesh and used a brown indelible marker, then an orange one, to make it look a little more natural. Then I put just a thin coat of regular Super Glue over that. I had to get out of my place anyway, so while it dried I did some errands. Heck, yeah, even I have errands to run.

What with the swamp cooler on full-blast, by the time I got home again the Super Glue was good and hard and ready for a smoothing of its own. This time I needed something a little rougher and settled on 3200 micromesh with a respectful light touch. And I’ll be darned if it didn’t just do the trick! The rest of the wood I went the whole nine yards micro-meshing.

One of the ideas Phil had for doing it himself was to use a “different” color. After thinking on it a while, I came up with a mix of Lincoln Marine Cordovan and Fiebing’s brown boot stains – don’t ask me what was going through my head because I don’t remember. Anyways, it worked nice enough, so I flamed it and let it sit to cool before using the 3200 again to clear off the char.

Alright, now, hold your water! I know it! The front view here shows a need for more attention, which you’ll just have to trust me when I say I gave it because I forgot to snap a shot after. Also I sanded down the shank opening so the stem would meet it better. Again, I know it’s not perfect, but this was for free and besides, Phil was starting to breathe down my neck to get it back. Finally I just buffed it up on the wheels with a few waxes.

CONCLUSION
Phil is happy with the job I did – and the replacement cork that fit.

Repairing a hole in the stem of Dr. Grabow 36

8 Replies

Blog by J.D. Dohrer

I am glad to be able to post this first blog by JD Dohrer. He has done a masterful job in repairing this stem. I am hoping he continues to submit blogs to rebornpipes and we can continue to enjoy and learn from his work.– Steve

This is a Dr. Grabow Starfire wire carved large billiard #36. DG Starfires are one of my favorite lines/styles of pipes. I am quite keen on the models that have the metal shank extension. I snagged this one off of ebay for 10 dollars, delivered. I bought it specifically for the hole in the stem. I had been wanting to try my hand at a stem rebuild, especially after seeing the results that Steve and some others here on Reborn had completed.

The following pics are how I received it in the mail. It was actually in quite good condition. The stummel was in nice shape, with just some minor chips on the rim and the typical grime in the wire carving. The stamping was still nice, sharp and deep. The cleaner was even still in the tenon. The stem was in rather good condition even considering the hole that was chewed through the button. The hole was on the underside of the button. Which gave me hope, that if I mucked this up terribly, it would be on the less than visible side of the pipe.

The first thing I did was give the stem a good soaking in ISO 91% alcohol. I then cleaned the interior of the stem with pipe cleaners. Amazingly it only took a couple of pipe cleaners to get rid of the gunk in the stem. I then did some filing around the hole and inside the button. I also cleaned up the edges of the hole and expanded its size a bit. I let the stem soak in oxyclean for a few minutes. I then scrubbed the stem with a scotch brite pad and oxyclean. I wet sanded the stem from 400, 600, 800 and 1500 and got rid of all the oxidation. I took care of some other minor tooth chatter also at this time. I then finished with a good scrubbing and a magic eraser. I then re-cleaned the stem and hole area with 91% and scuffed up the hole.

At this point I made a cardboard backer that I wrapped in scotch tape. I made sure it was a nice and tight fit. As a precaution I also inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway just to cover my butt. Next I opened up a 250mg capsule of activated charcoal. I crushed up the AC as finely as I could, using a medicine measuring cup and a small wax carving spoon type tool. Next I poured a small puddle of black CA glue on a piece of scrap and mixed in some AC. I got it to a pretty thick consistency that didnt drip off my mini trowel tool. I applied in 3 quick layers. The last layer was pretty messy as it was starting to set up but, I got it smoothed out and set it off to the side to dry. The total amount of AC used was probably less than 100 mg. You can see the glue puddle next to the dime. The puddle is smeared around a bit, as this was when I was done applying the glue. Here is dried glue after 16 hours. I filed down the area and then did the same steps again with the wet sanding. The filings were very fine and powdery and the glue sanded very nicely. Now it was onto the easy part. I cleaned/reamed the chamber with a small round blade pocket knife and some 100 grit sandpaper wrapped lengthwise over a Sharpie pen. The caking was very light and I took it down just enough to leave the walls blackened. Now it was time for the draft hole and mortise/shank extension. I figured since the stem was such a breeze, this should be just as easy. I was dead wrong. I used ISO 91%, quite a few pipe cleaners, qtips, shank brush and a small bladed wax carving tool. It was definitely the worse job to do on this pipe. I cleaned the threads and exterior of the shank extension with 0000 steel wool. I then moved onto the cleaning of the exterior of the stummel itself. I used oxyclean and a scotchbrite pad to scrub the exterior. I removed a lot of grime and some of the dye on the higher points of the wire carving. I smoothed out and blended some of the smaller chips in the rim and redyed the stummel. I used 2 parts Fiebings Oxblood and 1 part Fiebings Cordovan. I gave it a couple of good quick coats of dye. I let dry for a few minutes and wiped off any excess. With all the heavy lifting done, it was time for the buffing and waxing. I used tripoli, white diamond and carnauba on the stem. I hit the shank extension with a bit of white diamond. I used a couple coats of Halcyon 2 on the stummel. I then finished up by buffing with a microfiber cloth. Below is the finished product with as good of a close up as I could get with my iphone.

I am pretty dang pleased with myself on how this pipe came out looking. When I started working on pipes, I always made sure that the pipe I was bidding on had a stem that was in good shape. But, after this project, I will seek those pipes out that need some stem work. In fact, I have 3 pipes on their way that need some intense TLC and stem work. I again thank Steve and all the rest on here and DGCF for their postings, tips and ideas. Truly appreciated.

I fired ‘er up last night and ran a bowl of Carter Hall, Chatham Manor and a burley/cavendish blend through it. It smokes just as well as my other Starfires. Its a keeper and it will join with my other 6 Grabow Starfires.

Thanks in advance for checking it out. My picture taking skills are a bit lacking and my iphone does not take the best close up pics. W

I don’t know if I improved this old meer or just made it worse

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Sometimes when I take on a project it is a no win situation. Or at least it appears that way! This is one of those times. In the box of recent pipes that I am working on cleaning up to sell was an older no name meerschaum calabash shaped pipe. The meer was in passable shape – some nicks and scratches and some run over on the rim but it should have been an easy clean up. If you look at the first set of photos below you may well wonder about the comments that follow. It actually looks far worse than the pictures depict. The stem shank joint does not match even though it the photo it looks great. If I went just be the photo I would have been better off to leave well enough alone — still even having the pipe in hand I may have been smarter to just polish and sell it as is.

Here is my diagnosis and the assessment I did that led me to the conclusions that it was worth fussing with the pipe to see if I could at least improve upon it. Starting with the bowl I could see that it was slightly out of round but I am not sure it did not come that way. The whole pipe has a bit of a lopsided look to it – a slant towards the left. I pulled the stem and there were more issues that needed to be addressed. Someone had installed a push tenon and mortise replacement. The mortise insert had not been set all the way into the shank but it had been epoxied in place. The tenon was deeply set into the hollowed out end of the stem to accommodate the lip that had been left on the mortise insert. The end of the push tenon had been cut off at an angle and the end was constricted from the cutter. This seriously hampered the clear airflow through the stem.

At this point you will have to trust my assessment because the pictures do not clearly show a pipe that fits this description. But honestly – the stem was slightly smaller in diameter than the shank so with the fiddling that had been done to the stem it was a loose fit. It was wobbly in the shank. The stem was bent in such a way that it was cocked to the left and just irritated me. Looking back after the fact I can honestly say that at this point I should have made the decision to just lightly clean this one up and let somebody have it as a bargain. I certainly would have saved me a lot of grief as you will see if you follow this tale to the end.

Sadly I have to tell you that what I should have done and what I ended up doing are two singularly different tales. I decided that I could definitely improve the draw on the pipe, clean up the tenon and mortise area, and maybe give the pipe a bit more distinguished appearance. So…I took the Dremel and sanded down the shank to slightly smaller than the diameter of the stem so that I could add a nickel band and dress this pipe up. This is where the first issue became apparent. It became clear that the bowl was pressed rather than block meerschaum. When I removed the “shiny” surface coat the underneath meerschaum was a different, almost tan colour. The shiny coat was like an egg-shell over the tan undercoat. What had been a simple project just changed. I had planned to hand shape the shank to the bowl and remove the new hump that I had created and make the shank a bit more delicate looking and in keeping with the flow of the band and stem. But now, the top shiny coat removal left me with a bit of a dilemma. If I removed more of the shape to bring it into line I would also remove more of the shiny coat. What to do? Honestly at this point I put the pipe back in the box and almost decided to just bite the bullet, buy it myself and scavenge a few parts from it. It looked that bad to me. I left it and cleaned up the Stanwell Volcano Sitter that I posted about earlier on the blog.

After I finished working on the other pipe, I decided to pull the meerschaum out and have another look at it. It was bad. No it was actually worse than that – it was downright ugly. However, I don’t give up easily – though I wonder if in this case I should have. You will have to ask if my stubbornness was a good thing in this case as you read the rest of the process. All I know is that each step I took to improve the pipe ended up making more work for me. Each adjustment led to more adjustments. But at this point, for better or worse, I decided to work on the shape and see what I could do. Maybe I could bring out the shape in such a way that it incorporated the different tan coloured portion of the bowl and the rim. I sanded the shank with 220 grit sandpaper to shape it and round it out. I smoothed out the roughness left behind by the Dremel and worked on the fit of the stem. It was still crooked but at least I could get it to sit straight against the shank and just inside the band. I also lightly topped the bowl to remove the tars and some of the rim damage.

I sanded the pipe outside in the yard while Spencer played so as not to make a mess of white dust all over my work area. I finished the rough shaping and went over it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and a fine grit sanding block before I brought it back inside. Once I had it back at the work table I sanded the shank with 1500 micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the surface and shape it even more. All the sanding was merely fine tuning. It turned out that the “shiny” coat was actually quite thin so you can see the flame like extensions up the shank toward the bowl. The nice thing was that the micromesh was giving the meer a bit of a shine. I worked on the scratches on the stem and fit in the band with the micromesh 1500 grit pad as well and the stem was beginning to shine.

So far what do you think of my major make work project? This is a refurb that did not have to go this way. Those of you who are refurbishing pipes learn from this tactical error and think twice before having the audacity of thinking you can make something better when really all it needs is a quick clean up. You will save yourself a lot of headaches if you learn from my poor example on this “deadly” meer.

Today after work I went back to the meer. I probably should never have touched it again. I am telling you this thing is a nightmare. I removed the stem so that I could heat it and rebend it. I set up things as normal and held the stem about 6 inches above the heat gun. I was worried about melting the plastic stem. I should not have worried about that because I never even had the opportunity to try to bend it. Within seconds I heard a small pop – the stem crack horizontally across the top about an inch from the button. I could not believe it. Now I would have to make a new stem for it. Ah well that should not be a problem. I took out some new push stems to see if they would work in the shank insert in the meer. They were too large. That meant that I would need to pull the shank insert and replace it with another one. The trouble was that it was epoxied into the shank and I could not turn it out of the threads.

That basically left me with one choice. I would need to drill out the existing mortise push insert so I could put a new one in place. I set up the drill with a bit that would work and hand turned the shank on to the bit. It did not take long to drill through the old insert but cleaning out the epoxy in the threads was another story. It was like rock. I decided to use the next size drill bit and just remove the threads. This pipe was now destined for a push tenon on a regular vulcanite stem. That would solve the draw and make the thing a lot better smoking pipe.

Here is a picture of the newly drilled out shank. It is open and clean. I used a small needle file to clear out the debris from the drilling and a wet cotton swab to remove the dust from the walls and base of the mortise. Now I had to turn a tenon to fit the mortise. Again that should have been quite simple. I found a stem in my can of parts that would do the trick and turned the tenon down to the measurements of the mortise. This finally was going great! I should have been warned that another ugly turn in events was about to happen. With the fit perfect I turned the stem into the shank and felt a pop on my fingers. I removed the stem and could see two small hairline cracks in the pressed meer. What made this humorous was that I had just read an email from Troy about how easily pressed meer crack under pressure. No worries the band had already been pressed into place and the crack was contained.

Then I examined it around the other side of the band and on the left side saw some fine spider web like cracks – so tiny that formed an arch from the edge of the band at the top and curved down the side to the bottom. The issues with this old pipe never seemed to end. I cleaned out the crack and used some of the meer powder and superglue to fill in the crack. I sanded the crack with micromesh pads to smooth things out once again. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to make the fit right. The next series of photos show the improved look – repairs and all.

I put the pipe away and called it a night. To say I was frustrated is probably an understatement. I can’t tell you how many times in this process I came close to throwing the pipe away and scavenging the parts for later use. In the morning I worked some more on the stem to make the stem/band junction smooth. I thought I would take the next two photos of the new stem along side of the original stem to show the changes. The first shows the deep inset of the push tenon in the original. The second photo shows the crack across the top of the stem. It appears as a white line.

At this point I think the pipe looks great! The new stem fits well and the look is improved – from a distance. You can see the repaired crack next to the band on the left side if you look carefully at both pictures. I think that this one will end up staying with me or being a giveaway. It is a shame really as the shape looks far better.

I worked over the stem and the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then continued to sand it through the next three grit pads. I finished the last grit and gave it a final coat of the oil and set it aside to dry.

I buffed the stem and the bowl lightly with Blue Diamond polish and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The photos below show all of the flaws of this old pipe. There is nothing hidden. The small web of cracks on the left side of the shank, the areas on the sides of the rim and on the shank where the shiny coat disappeared when I sanded it are all visible. It is a great looking shape. The stem and the flow of the pipe are greatly improved but it is sadly not one that will be for sale. My improvements ended up making the pipe different from the original. I think the verdict is still out in terms of if I made it better or worse. Maybe it is just a difference in terms of degree of worse! It certainly is a better smoking pipe now. The draw is easy and open so I gained that in the process. I think this one will end up being a shop pipe here. What do you think?

UPDATE: I just came in from sitting int he backyard with my dog giving this pipe an inaugural smoke. I loaded up a bow of Kohlhase & Kopp Easter Edition and enjoyed it for over an hour sitting and watching Spencer play with sticks. It delivers a flavourful smoke with effortless draw. The stem is comfortable in the mouth and I actually enjoyed smoking the pipe. Who knows what it will deliver over the days ahead. Worst case scenario I will have pressed meer to smoke that I will not care about damaging…

An Easy Refurb – A Stanwell Royal Danish 166 – Volcano Sitter

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Blog by Steve Laug

On to the next pipe in the lot that will be sold for the benefit of Smoker’s Forum online community. It is a beautiful Stanwell Royal Danish shape 166 which is a volcano sitter. It had a gold end plate and narrow band on the shank that was distinctive and tasteful but oxidized. The stem and the shank were drilled for a 9mm filter. It also had the gold S and crown on the left side of the shank. Underneath the surface dirt the pipe had some gorgeous grain. The finish looked to be in great shape with no dings or dents to be found. There are no fills or flaws visible in the briar. The rim had a slight build up of lava and the bowl was caked. It is a deep bowl but somewhat narrow and drilled at an angle toward the shank.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to a thin coat on the walls of the bowl.

The mortise and the empty 9mm tenon had some loose debris that led me to believe they would be extremely dirty. I used the 0000 steel wool on the rim and was able to clean off the tar build up and leave the rim spotless. I scrubbed down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads to remove the grime and get a good view of the grain on this beauty. It was something – not a fill and not a pit in the briar. It was a great piece of briar.

I cleaned out the shank and the 9mm tenon and was surprised how quickly they cleaned up. I expected them to be far worse but the debris was loose inside both and it took very little to swab them out and leave them clean. The stem also was not in bad shape. It is Lucite/acrylic and thankfully that does not oxidize. It had some sticky substance on it that was like the residue from tape and that came off with a little alcohol. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads.

I used the higher grits of micromesh to work on the gold band and plate until they shone. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond plastic polish on the wheel and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it to a shine with a soft flannel buff and then finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is one stunning pipe!

Restoring a Millville Premiere Large Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is another that will be for sale for the benefit of Smokers Forum online community. It is a truly beautiful piece of briar that is stamped Millville Premier on the left side of the shank and Made in London over England on the right side. I have had a few Millville pipes come across my table over the years but this is by far one of the most stunning. The grain on it is beautiful. When I got it the finish was dirty and the grain did not stand out clearly. The stem was rough and porous feeling and was oxidized. There seemed to have been a softee bit in place at one time on the stem as it had left behind the characteristic calcification on the vulcanite. There were two light tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem near the button. The fit of the stem is perfect to the shank and there is a very faint characteristic M that graces this brand of pipe. It is almost gone from over-buffing but I am hoping it will still show when I have finished cleaning up the pipe. The finish was lightened at the shank stem junction and would need to be darkened. The rim had what appeared to be a gouge across the top surface at the backside of the bowl.

I wanted to know more about the brand so I did a bit of searching on the web to see what I could find out about Millville pipes. Dennis Marshall started the brand in 1980. He had worked for Barling and Charatan for many years. His son John now makes all of the Millville pipes as Dennis is retired. Their pipes still very closely follow the artistic, freeform designs and grading of the old Charatan lines. The pipes are sold almost exclusively in Piccadilly, London in a stall in the market in front of St. James’s Church. Though you can sometimes find them online at British pipe sellers such as Bond’s of London. According to Pipedia the prices of their pipes “start at about 20 £ – hardly the price of a cheapish Stanwell. These were made from pre-turned bowls. The better pipes, entirely hand-made freehands in the old Charatan style, are made from a stock of very old briar, as John stresses. They use several grades like “Unique” or “Executive”. A “Bamboo” can make it up to 500 £.”

Below are some photos of the pipe when I received it. It is a beauty that needed some TLC but it would soon be shining again.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to take the cake back to the briar. I wanted to clean up the inner edge of the rim before I worked on the mark on the surface.

I took the next photo to show what appeared to be a gouge in the top of the rim. It went at an angle from the inside of the bowl across the back surface of the rim. I used some alcohol on a cotton pad to scrub down the surface of the briar. Once the grime was removed you can see the stunning grain on this beauty!

I spent some time examining the rim with a loupe to check how deep the gouge went and if I could steam it or if I would need to sand it to repair it. To my surprise I found that it was not a gouge at all but rather a fill. Somehow along the way the fill had shrunken and left the divot in the surface of the rim. I decided to top the bowl and see if I could minimize the divot. I started with a medium grit sanding sponge to see if that would do the job. I hate to use the extreme of topping the bowl with a full topping.

While it worked to some degree it did not remove the dip in the surface of the bowl. I decided to lightly top the bowl with the sandpaper on the topping board. In the next photo you can clearly see the fill in the rim. I was able to flatten the surface of the rim so that it is smooth to touch. I sanded the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the nick in the rim. Then it was time to clean out the bowl, shank and stem. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils in the pipe. It did not take a lot of scrubbing before the pipe was clean.

To smooth out the rough texture of the stem and remove the oxidation I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. For a change of pace, I turned my attention to the bowl finish. I used a stain pen to touch up the lighter areas of the finish at the stem shank junction and on the rim that I had topped. I blended two of the stain pens – the medium and the dark stain pen – to get the colour to match the bowl. I then buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the wheel to smooth out the blend. I would also need to use the micromesh sanding pads in the higher grits to bring the finish to a nice blend.

I worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. This time I let the oil dry on the stem before I took it to the buffer.

I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Cleaning up an Edward’s European Collection Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

The second Edward’s pipe from the box I received to clean up and sell to support Smokers was a beautiful smaller sized apple with an acrylic/Lucite stem. It is stamped Edwards in script on the right side of the shank and European Collection on the left side. There is no shape number on this pipe. The finish was dirty, the rim had less lava overflow than others that came with this collection but it was present. The bowl had a thick crumbly cake. All of these pipes tended to have stickiness to the cake that makes me think that the pipes were used for aromatics. The shank was dirty with tars and oils. The stem is black acrylic with dark green swirls throughout that are accentuated in the light. It is a bit thick which leads me to believe that the pipe came from the 70’s or 80’s era. It is a saddle stem with an integral tenon turned from the Lucite. It was dull from the oils and disuse. It would be interesting to see the colours once it was shined up.

I took a close-up photo of the bowl to show the cake and the state of the rim. Fortunately the rim had no damage on the outer or inner edge. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet pipe reamer and took the cake back to bare wood. Whatever the previous tobacco was the cake was soft and crumbly.

I dampened the rim and scrubbed it with 0000 steel wool to remove the lava that was on the top edges. It worked really well and the rim was clean in no time at all. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the grime and oil that was in the finish. It took off all of the grim and left me with some beautiful mixed grain around the bowl.

I scrubbed out the interior of the bowl and the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tar and oil. I did the same with the stem and the chamfered tenon end.

With the interior clean I turned my attention to the acrylic/Lucite stem. It had some light tooth chatter on the top and underside but was in pretty decent shape. The finish was dull and no longer smooth to the touch. I worked on it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond after I finished with the 4000 grit pad and then finished with the last three pads. As I polished it with the pads you could begin to see the colours come through the stem. It is a beautiful piece of Lucite.

I buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond Plastic polish on the wheel and was amazed at the shine. I then gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax to protect it and give it a shine. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with a mircrofibre cloth to raise depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I have to tell you that so far I really like the two Edward’s pipes that I have cleaned up out of this lot. They seem to be ringing all of my bells. It will be hard to part with either of them 😉

Cleaning up a Lovely Edward’s Algerian Briar Bent Dublin that came across my table

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Blog by Steve Laug
I received this pipe in the mail with a box of 11 others and it is the first one that caught my eye. The shape was well executed. The bowl had a round crowned rim. The bend of the shank and the curve of the stem looked elegant. The bowl had a thick, sticky and crumbly cake that needed to be removed. The rim was covered with a thick coat of lava that had overflowed the bowl. The finish was a typical Edward’s natural briar – I think that they must have used a light tan/brown stain at one point that highlighted the grain but did not mask it. The grain was mixed with cross grain on the front right and back left. There was birdseye on the sides of the bowl and swirling circles of grain on the underside and up the shank. There were two small fills on the right side of the bowl near the shank bowl junction – almost two dots one above the other. There was also a larger fill on the underside of the shank. The pipe is stamped Algerian Briar in block text on the left side of the shank and Edward’s in script on the right side. On the underside mid shank it is stamped with a large 5. On the end of the shank next to the stem it is stamped with a 31. The large 5 is the bowl size and 31 is the shape number, though current production shows the shape as a 731. The stem was lightly oxidized and would not push all the way into the mortise. The fit was very tight. The inside of the shank had a thick coat of tar and oil on the walls of the mortise.

One of the packing peanuts was jammed into the bowl so I used the dental pick to remove. It left some crumbling pieces in the sticky aromatic cake in the bowl. In the first photo below you can see the tars on the rim of the bowl and the generally dull finish of the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. I wanted the new owner to be able to build a cake of their own choosing.

I scrubbed the rim with 0000 steel wool to remove the lava on the top of the rim. I had seen Troy use that several times in his refurbs so I thought I would give it a go with this bowl. It worked extremely well. I wet the rim with a bit of water and then scrubbed it until the rim was clean. I scrubbed out the interior of the bowl and the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.

I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl with the steel wool and also wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad. I removed the wax and grime from the finish. Once the shank was dry the stem fit snuggly in the mortise. The stem had some light tooth chatter at the button that would clean up quite easily. With the stem fitting well I took the next four photos to show what it was about the pipe that caught my eye.

The stem did not need a lot of work to clean off the oxidation. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil after the third pad and then continued to dry sand the stem with 3200-4000 grit pads. I rubbed it down again with another coat of oil and let it dry.

I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and then gave it a final coat of oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem with Tripoli and with White Diamond to remove the remnants of oxidation. I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond Polish on the buffing wheel and then gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. I took it back to the work table and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below.

Overcoming Bit Bending Phobia for a Comoy’s 1983 Christmas Bulldog

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

Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Boy: Then you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
― From “The Matrix” (1999), starring Keanu Reeves, with Owan Witt as Spoon Boy

INTRODUCTION
Whatever some might think of me, I’m not so far off the deep end to space that when it comes to bending a pipe bit, there is, of course, the bit. The real truth behind this essay – how easy it is to accomplish the task, without tricks or special effects – bends the mind. I had dreaded and postponed the basic exercise in pipe restoration as something fearsome, once even passing the task to my mentor, Chuck Richards, when the rare opportunity to improve upon my first genuine renewal, of a Chinese Chicken Wing Wood churchwarden, presented itself a while back. Although I did the second makeover of the bowl and shank of that unusual specimen of wood and craftsmanship myself, using standard waxing techniques not available to me when I began learning this artful craft, and even polished the bit, I could just as well have bent the long piece of vulcanite had I known then that which I only just learned one morning this past weekend by perusing the web. More importantly, in so doing, I would have been done with the unpleasant feeling that comes with parting out work on a project.

However, the necessity of facing the dreaded deed finally presenting itself to me, and I at last concluding enough was enough with the shirking of responsibility, I resorted to browsing the Internet (“Read the instructions,” my dad would tell me) in search of a feasible method to achieve my goal without a high-powered torch. And where did I reach the end of my quest but here at Reborn Pipes, in a three-year-old blog by our host, which can be read at https://rebornpipes.com/2012/07/15/bending-vulcanite-stems/.

I should note that my surrender to the essential instruction in and practice of bending a pipe bit was not as easy as I make it seem above. Several weeks ago, at our Friday night pipe club get-together, a good friend and fellow restorer named Bob Kasenchak surprised me with the gift of a box of assorted pipes that needed various degrees of work, all leaning toward the critical side. There are 15 in all, including a Ropp Deluxe #809 natural cherry wood with a pronounced crack in the bottom of the bowl; an old Ehrlich Frankenstein billiard; a Kaywoodie Supergrain bulldog with a wicked Harry Potterish lightning crack in the bowl and the bit maybe incinerated; an interesting old Wellington Storm De Luxe sterling band pot with a bad gash on the rim, and a Trapwell Patented rusticated billiard. There is also something that appears to be a once fine, handsome Ehrlich sterling bulldog (at least judging from the style of the E on the bit) that will make a nice shop pipe someday, and which plays an important role in this narrative.

Most of these pipes have missing, broken or mangled stems, and only a few are free of fatal flaws, and Bob just doesn’t want to mess with them. Who can blame him? If I had Bob’s outrageously hectic schedule, I might not keep them, even for parts, either. But I don’t, and I’m a little touched when it comes to hording parts.

Then a funny thing happened on the way from the meeting to the shop, or my apartment. In fact, it occurred during the meeting, but it sounds better the other way. The clear jewel of the pipes Bob gave me, which I delayed mentioning, is a Comoy’s Christmas 1983 smooth bulldog.

I already had my heart set on keeping the Comoy’s to add to my budding Christmas Pipe collection, but a fellow piper in my club, who has a keen eye for sharp pipes and has bought two meerschaums from me, took an immediate shine to the bulldog’s sleek contours and exceptional subtlety of the bit curve, and offered to buy it when I was finished. We still haven’t discussed a price. At a glance, the Christmas Pipe was a beauty right out of the “scrap” box. The reddish brown briar was very pleasant, the chamber appeared to be well-kept and Bob told me he had started to clean it, the rim was in perfect, shiny shape that I also attribute to Bob, and there was only one small scratch on a side of the triangular shank. Then there was the bit. How can I best describe it? The vulcanite below the lip, on the bottom, appeared to have been chomped by the steel-toothed “Jaws” character (Richard Kiel, 1939-2003) of the James Bond movie series fame. The reason I note a continued difficulty in regard to learning about bending a stem is my dual desire to become more proficient in repairing those that are damaged, of which this, no one would disagree, is a worthy challenge, and doing the job right. And so I set upon a course of action I will neither illustrate nor chronicle here except to say with all honesty the project was going, well – well – but it was just taking too frigging long. And yes, I admit, I somehow took a bad hole and made it worse. Due to the fact that I already had a buyer waiting, time was of the essence; I couldn’t afford to satisfy my own aesthetic sense of propriety in hoping to preserve the original bit when the buyer wasn’t concerned. Besides, I’m sure the right Comoy’s will happen along in good time.

RESTORATION

As I mentioned before, Bob started the process of reaming the chamber. To my initial touch it felt smoother than almost any pipe I had ever started restoring. Still, there was some cake in it, and a few bumps, all of which came clean with minimal additional turns of a reamer and sanding with 150- and 320- grit paper. Not having to touch the rim was a rare treat, although I have to add I always enjoy removing the burns. I used micromesh on the wood from 1500-4000 and cleaned up the shank opening with super fine steel wool.

By then I was ready for the retort. Six test tubes later, full of Everclear boiled up through a temporary saddle bit with the right sized push tenon – a personal record – I was finished.

I needed to find a replacement bit. Searching with a hot glow of intense zeal through the dozens of old pipes awaiting restorations, I began to think I would never find one that had a push-in tenon, was straight, the right length and with the appropriate bulldog triangle size (5/8″; the length was 2-7/8″). Suddenly, there it was: a Bertram Bulldog #50, with a double stamp, and no mark on the straight bit. I actually had imminent plans for that great pipe, but they could wait.

The tenon was just a tad too big, so I took about a sixteenth of an inch off of it with 150-grit sandpaper and sanitized and cleared out the old grime in the air hole with bristly cleaners soaked in Everclear. I still need to invest in a tenon cutter, as will become apparent. Once the tenon fit and I thought it was “finished,” the bit pushed all the way into the shank, but was canted upward. I tried to adjust this by filing the flat edge of the bit around the tenon, and after considerable work, my efforts seemed to have paid off. I gave the bit an OxiClean wash, rinsed it and micro-meshed from 1500-4000.

Following the instructions for the oven method of shaping in the blog mentioned earlier, I pre-heated gas stove to the low end of 200-220 degrees and assembled what I would need as suggested, except that all of it was improvised other than the oven: aluminum foil instead of a baking pan, a small jar of wood putty rather than a spice jar, two wash cloths in place of cooking mitts and of course the bit. As it turned out, I spaced that I had a few spices in my sparse cabinet, but the round putty glass did fine. Inserting a soft cleaner through the airway before heating to prevent collapse, I had the distinct sensation of butterflies in my stomach as I placed the foil and bit on the center rack of the hot even, closed the door and…waited. Five minutes. Not good enough. Another five. To my amazement, holding the bit carefully with the wash cloths at both ends over the rounded edge of the putty jar and pressing down with all the gentleness my rough hands could handle, I in fact saw the vulcanite bend! I’m here to tell you, I have never been so surprised and full of trepidation at the same time in my entire life! In a minute, the job was done, and I removed the cleaner and rinsed the bit with cold tap water.

And so, other than the facts that I had already blown it again by sanding the base of the tenon so far that the whole thing could snap at the least provocation, and upon closer inspection the bit did not, in fact, line up seamlessly with the shank, the entire exercise produced a wonderful looking bit (in and of itself) and was an excellent though time-intensive and frustrating lesson about the intricacies of replacing a bit – and one I’ll never forget.

As a good friend from junior high through high school used to say at such moments (or their school day equivalents), and often with a yawn, well, hell. Then again, he was always much less uptight than I. My true reaction was frustration verging on despair. But that’s where my mind like a steel trap always springs shut and saves me. And my skull is so thick it can take running headlong into a concrete utility post and being pistol-whipped. I’m not kidding. The first happened to me as a young boy fooling around during summer vacation, and the second seven years ago during an armed home invasion after I beat one of the three intruders unconscious with a club – and he had pretty well messed me up with my own baseball bat – and one of his buddies hit me from the side with the butt of his 9mm. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes through the stupid monster mask when I turned on him and he took a step back.

Once again, as is my habit, I digress. I was illustrating how my stubbornness and downright thick-headedness has often saved me. The way this process worked last Wednesday, while I sat and collected my wits at my tobacconist where Chuck gave me the bad news about the tenon, was by telling me to go online and order a replacement. I crossed the Internet from Albuquerque to Phoenix in an instant and found Pipe Makers Emporium. I have placed several orders there, but only once before for a vulcanite churchwarden stem that was $3.99 because I didn’t understand why smaller stems, such as the one I needed for the bulldog, were priced so much more – in this case, $17.50. Even when the package arrived swiftly yesterday and weighed a pound, according to my estimation and confirmation on the label, I still didn’t get it until I peeled open the envelope and found a pack of 20. Duh! The churchwardens are sold individually because they’re not needed as often. Sometimes the thickness of my head can get in the way.

Now, back to the Ehrlich sterling bulldog with the E on the bit that came with Bob’s generous gift. Remember that? I tried to make apparent how important it would become to this restoration, and it’s lucky I recalled it before the new bits came, both because I was eager to continue work on the Comoy’s and the uncut tenons on the 20 bits that came in the mail are about a half-inch wide. In this photo, I had already sanded the E off the bit and given it an OxiClean bath. By the way, when I showed Chuck my progress on the Christmas pipe with the re-worked Ehrlich stem as of yesterday, he said it was looking good. Then I let him have a gander at one of the new bits, and he gave me his best, widest grin.

“This is why you need to get yourself a cutter,” he said, turning serious and with emphasis on need.

“I know,” I replied. “My God! Look at that tenon! It would take me a month of sanding to get it down to fit this pipe!”

We both enjoyed a good laugh, and we needed one, for our separate reasons.

Here is the Ehrlich bit as it originally presented, minus the E, and after sanding and micro-meshing from 1500-4000.

Thinking I was done with most of the restoration of the pipe – and at a glance it did look good – I buffed the stem on the wheels with red and white Tripoli, as usual. I had, after the first hour of this job, already buffed the wood with white Tripoli as well as White Diamond and carnauba.

But then I took the “final” photos and saw at once that the bit did not line up with the shank when the top lines of each were even, in particular gaps all around and misalignment of the bottom line of the triangle. Well, hell.

And so I got into the kind of detail work I had never done with any pipe. I filed the edge of the bit where the tenon connects. I started a lengthy process of gently sanding away and re-micro-meshing areas of wood around the shank opening. As shown in the last photo above, the only part of the problem that could only be solved with serious sanding of the shank was along the top left line leading into the bit (as shown in this view). Then I used micromesh on the one heavily sanded area of the shank and bit all the way from 1500 to 12000.

I stained the small area of the shank still a bit lighter than before with Lincoln Medium Brown and flamed it before micro-meshing with 4000 and 6000. At this point, after about three weeks of work on the pipe, the lines of the bit matched those of the shank, but there was still a gap between the two – and although it was in fact bigger, it was perfect in terms of uniformity. I broke out the file one more time and with the utmost care took a layer off the edge of the bit around the tenon.

At last, a nice, flush match. I touched up the waxing with another coat of carnauba.

CONCLUSION
Well…first of all, I can report, without doubt, that I have never been happier to be done with a restoration. This one was as full of a restore as I have ever had occasion to do, and I am full of it (not in the sense that I think I did it perfectly, because if anything, it taught me how much more I really do have to learn, and the equipment and supplies needed). But I do find nowadays that many times when I ask one of my trusted guides a question, it is to confirm that which I already more or less suspect, as in an email I sent late last night to Steve about a saddle bit with two holes in the lip that I wished I could somehow remove the space between them to make the draw hole a typical slit opening and therefore easier to clean for whomever buys the pipe I chose for it. I had already bent the tenon to fit the mortise using the oven method described in this blog, and so knew two cleaners were required to fill the airway before heating, and that something must be up with that, but Steve promptly replied that the design is meant to be a twin-bore “bite-proof” bit. Then I recalled Chuck once telling me something along the same lines. And when I showed Chuck the Comoy’s Christmas 1983 bulldog with the initial Bertram’s bit I wasted on it, I knew in my heart that the analysis he would have for me, though unpleasant, was necessary to confirm.

This essay, therefore, was not meant so much to be the usual restoration or refurbish piece as it was, rather, a horror story of the calamities that can befall anyone who engages in the art of taking a damaged pipe and making it better with the myriad processes that might present themselves toward that end. I am, perhaps somewhat wickedly, always pleased to hear the anecdotes of masters such as Steve and Chuck, and countless contributors to this forum, who have shared some of their own truly Gothic tales of the grotesque in their encounters with real Frankenstein pipes. By good fortune, my account herein was only one of a bowl and shank in excellent shape that merely needed a single appendage added, with a relative minimum of minor surgery to realize it.

Now I can hardly contain my excitement at being able to attack all the bodiless heads and headless bodies, to use a metaphor, that have waited patiently (I guess that’s personification) for my late but kind attention.

Restoring a Dr. Grabow Westbrook 42

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a box of pipes I was gifted there was a pipe stamped WESTBROOK over Dr. Grabow on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped Imported Briar over Adjustomatic over PAT. 2181833. I did some searching on the web and found that it was a shape number 42. I found plenty of photos of wire carved Westbrook 42s but only one of a smooth alongside of the wire carved. This pair was pictured on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum and belongs to Troy Wilburn. Mine is similar to the smooth one but the look of the stem is more of a true saddle like the wire carved one. The grain on it was beautiful under the peeling varnish finish. There was a lot of birdseye and swirls with some mixed flame and straight grain. There were small nicks on the left side near the rim and on the front edge of the rim. The stem was oxidized but otherwise clean. The internals were pretty clean. The bowl had some slight carbon build up. The stinger apparatus was missing but I have one thanks to Troy that will fit perfect.

I scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the bubbled and peeling varnish or lacquer coating. It took some elbow grease but it came out pretty well. With that coat gone you can begin to see the grain on the sides, top and bottom of the bowl.

I wiped it down a final time with isopropyl alcohol and took the next photos to show the grain on this little beauty! It is a great piece of briar and what appeared to be fill were not but rather just chips of varnish that came off.

The front edge of the rim and the left side nicks would need to be sanded to smooth them out. The entire bowl would also need to be sanded with micromesh to remove the bits of varnish stuck on the briar and also smooth out some of the scratches in the briar. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to just a thin coating. I left a little on the sides and bottom of the bowl to protect the bowl. I cleaned out the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the grime.

I sanded the rim of the bowl and bowl sides with micromesh sanding pads. I smoothed out the damage on the front of the bowl and on the side. I also worked on the stem. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil in between each set of three pads. I cleaned the metal threaded tenon with steel wool and then added the spoon stinger in the tenon to make the pipe complete.

The oxidation on this one was tough to get off the stem. I took it to the buffer and use some Tripoli, White Diamond and then Blue Diamond and I finally beat it. I took it back to the work table and sanded it again with the last three grits of micromesh – 6000-12000 grit. I rubbed it down again with Obsidian Oil and then gave both the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below.