Tag Archives: refinishing

GBD New Standard Reborn

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Blog by Greg Wolford

I picked up the GBD New Standard recently because of its shape mostly: a thick-walled pot. It is stamped GBD in the oval over New Standard on the top of the shank. The bottom of the shank is stamped London England over 9682 with a “P” below and to the right of that.

When I got the pipe it was in pretty good shape: dirty, oxidized, the normal stuff. But it seemed lightly smoked with no cake and no real issues and only light chatter. IMG_5241IMG_5242IMG_5243Nomenclature

You can see in the top a pipe cleaner sticking through the drought hole, showing a well drilled pipe.

You can see in the top a pipe cleaner sticking through the drought hole, showing a well-drilled pipe.

The pipe has a few fills but the are mainly on the bottom – out of sight, out of mind – and I wanted to keep this pipe as original as I could so I didn’t bother with them.

I started with putting the stem into a OxiClean bath; I let it soak for about 45 minutes I believe. While the stems (I actually was doing two pipes at a time, as I often do) soak I did a cotton ball and alcohol treatment on the two bowls. Usually I use coarse salt, not cotton balls, for this but since this bowl appeared to be so lightly used and the second bowl was fairly gunky I thought this would be a good time to experiment with the new-to-me cotton ball treatment. I put one large cotton ball into each bowl, plugged the shanks with cotton swabs and set them up on a steel drainer I have in my kitchen. I then filled the bowls with 91% isopropyl alcohol, slowly, with an eye dropper.

The photos below show the progression of black “stuff” drawn out of the GBD bowl; you may also see some of the tars (brownish-yellow stuff) in the cotton ball from the other pipe. This process started within a minute, the first photo, and then each picture after is after about 15 minutes, with the final result at about one hour.

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I don’t know what the black “stuff” was but it sure removed a lot of it in the treatment! As a side note, I found the cotton balls easier to deal with than the salt and it seems to have done as good a job, too. I will probably continue to us this method in the future.

The stems had been soaking for about an hour, maybe 45 minutes, at this time and were ready to come out of their bath. As you can see, quite a lot of oxidation was raised and loosened by this soak.

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I then washed the stems in dish liquid and scrubbed them with Bar Keepers Friend and an old toothbrush; this took about an hour, making a paste of the powder and scrubbing, rinsing and wiping, then repeating. The results from that looked like this:

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Still a lot of oxidation and work left to go. Next came sanding and polishing with wet/dry paper and micro mesh. I used 320 & 400 wet/dry paper before moving on to the micro mesh. Before the mesh, though, I used the Novus 2 plastic polish on the stem to take off some of the scratches and a little more left over oxidation. I wet sanded with micro mesh 1500-4000 and then polished with the Novus 2 again. I now dry sanded/polished with the remaining grits of 6000-12000, then polished with Novus 1 plastic polish to get to this look

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Now I applied my “secret substance” before setting the stem aside to work on the bowl. This is how the stem looks at this point:

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What, you may ask, is my “secret substance”? Obsidian oil maybe? No. It is Mothers Back-to-Black automotive polish.

The bowl was really very easy since I didn’t plan on totally refinishing it. I wiped it down several times with acetone to take off the old finish and get the grime off of it. I then wiped it down a few times with cotton pads dampened with alcohol. I lifted a small amount of stain in the process but not enough to really change the color of the pipe, only enough to let the grain pop a bit more. The most time-consuming part here was rubbing, with alcohol then saliva on cotton swabs, to clean the rim. There were a couple of small dents I lifted with steam ( I heat an old “butter” knife with a heat gun and apply it to a dampened cotton towel that is laying over the dent) but can’t actually recall how many or where they were they were so incidental. The next photos show the stummel before taking it to the buffer:

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I then buffed the stummel with Tripoli before reassembling the pipe and buffing the whole thing with white diamond and then carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe:

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This photo is slightly over exposed

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Dr Grabow Restoration and Stem Repair

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Blog by Greg Wolford

I picked up this Dr Grabow Freehand at an antique mall about a month ago when I got the Wally Frank that is visible in the photos, too. It was scratched to heck on all the smooth briar and the stem was chewed completely through. But I went ahead and bought it for three reasons:

– I’ve  never had a freehand
– I have been wanting to restore a stem with a hole or, in this case, a lot of damage
– I got a pretty decent price
So, I picked it up.Greg1

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Greg5 I decided to deal with the bowl first, by stripping it with acetone and soaking it overnight in an alcohol bath; I also put the stem in a OxiClean soak at this time.  After removing the bowl from the alcohol bath I then used a brass bristle brush to get all the tar and gunk out of the rusticated top grooves. Then I sanded it to remove all the scratches from the smooth briar and take the old stain off the high points using 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.Then I used some water based black leather dye on it, getting into the recesses well and wiping of the smooth portions as I went; I wanted to keep that darker contrast in the grooves. After I had it covered to my liking I dried it with the heat gun. Next I went back to 400 grit to take down the high points and smooth areas to remove the small amount of black color from the water based dye. When that looked good to my eye I polished it with 600 grit, wiped it down with 91% isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to remove any left over dust and dirt.  I heated it with the heat gun again to make sure the briar was good and dry. When it was nice and warm I applied Fiebing’s dark brown spirit-based leather dye, diluted 2:1 with 91% alcohol and flamed it in; I did this twice. The color was a bit too dark now so I wiped the pipe down, taking care to not soak my cotton pad too heavily or get into the recesses too much, with alcohol until it looked right to me. I then set it aside.Greg6

Greg7 When I soaked the bowl in the alcohol bath I also left the stem in a OxiClean soak overnight. I had removed and washed it well before starting on the bowl so it was ready now to work on.Greg8 I decided to shorten and reshape the stem instead of replacing it or trying to fix the gaping holes. I used a coping saw to cut off the end, saving as much of the stem as I could. The bottom hole had also cracked so it required removing quite a lot of the stem to get most of the crack out. The next step was to grease a pipe cleaner with petroleum jelly and insert it into the stem. I then dripped some Super Glue into the crack and let it set up while I worked on something else.

When I came back to it, the glue was hardened and I was ready to move on to the next step: making a new button. I began this process by scoring a line along the top and bottom of the stem where I wanted the button with a cutoff wheel on my Dremel. After I had the new button laid out, I then started to shape it with various needle files. I began shaping from the button back, forming it into shape with the rest of the stem. This took considerable time to get it even and “natural” looking. When I was satisfied I then began to shape the end of the button.Greg9

Greg10 I shaped the bit with needle files, too, again using several to get the shape right. The first step for this was getting the angle to look right on the top; this didn’t take as long as I expected. I then began to form the bottom of the bit, trying to match the shape of the top as close as I could; this took more time and effort than I’d expected.

Making a new drought hole was something new to me. And was not without its challenges either. I used my needle files, again, to start shaping the new hole, making it a bit taller as well as wider than the hole that was left in the cut off stem. I took the extra time to fan the drought hole, too, partly because I wanted to and partly to see if I could do it. This ended up being some of the most time-consuming and tedious work of the entire project: I needed to make sure I didn’t go too thin in any direction but I wanted the hole to really funnel out well. I am pleased with the results and the way it smokes and would say it was worth the extra time and effort to accomplish it.Greg11

Greg12 After all the shaping I wiped the stem well with alcohol to clean it off for a test fit – to my mouth. The test failed; the bit was too long and too steep. So back to the files I went. I filed, tested, filed, tested a few times until it felt comfortable in my mouth and looked good to me. Now time to get it shiny again.

I began with a fine/medium grit sanding sponge. It worked very well to get in and around the bit to smooth it a bit more and to take out the file marks. I then began wet sanding with grits 220/320/400. At this point I applied some Novus 2 plastic polish. The Novus line come in three grades: 3 – the most course, 2 – the second, and 1 – the final polish. I began using this product on my motorcycle windshield a few years ago and loved it. I have numbers 1 & 2 but have yet to try 3.

After using the Novus, I began with the micro mesh, wet sanding with grits 1500/1800/2400/3200/4000 (I’m not looking at the numbers but I believe that was the correct grit numbers. I applied the Novus 2 again and then polished with micro mesh 6000/8000/12000. Now it was off to the buffer with pipe and stem.

I buffed the pipe several times around with Tripoli to get the color just where I liked it. I then moved onto the white diamond for both the pipe and stem. I took a little extra time on the stem to make sure I fine tuned the button a little more, testing it every so often. After buffing the pipe and stem with white diamond I changed to a metal buffing wheel with blue rouge to polish the metal tenon on the stem; I hate a nicely polished stem that hasn’t has the metal (if there is any) not polished, too.Greg13

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Greg15 Several coats of carnauba wax was then applied to both pipe and stem. I did the final buffing with my “mushroom” on my cordless drill. I like the control I have with it and also the fact it’ll reach almost anyplace with little effort. The final touch was to polish the rustication with a soft toothbrush to make sure I didn’t have any wax residue left.Greg16 There were, and still are, some fills in the pipe but I wasn’t particularly concerned with them. Several are on the shank and it would have been “dicey” to try to fix them without ruining the nomenclature. There was one fill on the side that fell out, presumably from the softening of the putty in the alcohol bath. I missed that one until after I had already started smoking it.  If I’d seen it earlier in the process I would have fixed that one but now it’s there for the duration.Greg17 (I couldn’t get a good focused shot of the finished button.)

Refurbishing a horn stemmed Bruyere Garantie Beautiful Swan Necked Pipe

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I picked this old timer up in an antique shop near Vancouver, quite a few years ago now. When I got it the bowl was almost black and dirty. The rim had a good 1/8 inch of grime and tar built up so that it looked like a plateau top. The finish was so opaque that you could not see the grain through it. The stem was dirty and to be honest with you all, when I got it I had no idea it was a horn stem. I worked hard to get the oxidation off it and all I got was more of the brown tones coming through. There was tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem. The chatter was kind of white coloured. I asked several guys about the stem and they also did not even think about a horn stem. I had the pipe in my collection for about 5 years or more before it dawned on me that it was a horn stem.

This is a big pipe and it is elegant. It is 8 inches long and the bowl is a little over 2 inches tall. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Bruyere in an arch over Garantie. On the right side it is stamped St. Claude in script over Bruyere. Once I stripped it down there are a few visible fills in the briar but they blend in quite well surprisingly – no pink putty on this one. I cleaned the rim meticulously by hand with warm soapy water on a damp paper towel. I scrubbed it until it was clean. I then sanded the bowl to remove the varnish coat and grime. I had not learned many of the tricks I use now so it was one of the first old timers that I refurbished. I wiped the bowl down with Isopropyl alcohol once I had sanded the majority of the finish coat off the pipe. It took quite a bit of time to carefully wipe away the finish around the stamping without damaging that. The bowl was finally cleaned and smooth – I remember sanding it with 1200 wet dry sandpaper to finish. Then I stained it with a medium brown wood stain – I have no idea if it was an alcohol stain, it well could have been Watco Danish Oil for all I know!

The stem took quite a bit of work to sand it smooth. I cleaned it up twice. Once when I first got it and then again when I figured out it was a horn stem. It is a big piece of horn and quite pretty in terms of the sheen and depth of colouration in it. I used the method I spelled out in a previous post on polishing horn stems and it is like new. I sanded it with wet dry sandpaper up to 2400 grit and then buffed it with lots of carnauba wax. Later I used the micromesh sanding pads on it and really gave it a depth of shine. The pipe is a great smoking pipe and is definitely a sitting pipe. It is a handful. The first picture shows the finished pipe. I wish I had some before photos but this was found in the days I never thought of doing that. So all I have is finished photos. The next series of photos show the size of the pipe in comparison to a nice little bent billiard that is about a group three sized pipe. The grain is quite nice. Nothing striking in terms of straight grain but there are several spots with nice birds eye and then the rest is swirling grain that almost seems to have movement to it. The stem is multicoloured and has the old orific (round) airhole in the button.

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A New Stem and a New Look For a Larsen Special

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I got this Larsen Special in a lot I picked up for a very cheap price. The stem that was on it is in the bottom of each picture to give an idea of what it looked like. The shank extension is made of vulcanite and was very oxidized when it came to me. The stamping on the pipe is actually on the extension and it is faint. It is visible with a jeweler’s loupe and is stamped Larsen Special and Handmade in Denmark. The bowl was badly cake and the finish was almost flat with dark soiled spots of grime on the surface. The rim was covered with a lava overflow of tars and oils. I decided as soon as I saw it that the stem had to go. I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I knew it was history.

I cleaned the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap undiluted on a soft cotton cloth and cut through the grime and grit on the surface without damaging the finish at all. I used the same thing on the rim and was able to remove the lava. There was a bit of darkening that remained but no burn or charring. I used micromesh and Oxyclean on the vulcanite shank extension. I avoided sanding around the stamping as it is very light and I did not want to compromise it any more than it was. I was able to get the majority of the oxidation cleaned off the end and then coated it with some Obsidian Oil and let it sit for a while. Once it had dried I rubbed it with a soft cloth and then took the pipe bowl to the buffer and gave it a good buff with White Diamond, carefully avoiding the stamping. Then I coated the bowl and shank with carnauba wax and buffed with a soft cotton buffing pad. The grain on this pipe is absolutely beautiful. I really like the look of it. The bowl is quite large and it is clean and trouble free once it was reamed and cleaned.

I looked through my stem can and found this Lucite/amberoid stem that I thought would look perfect with the pipe. It is a military style bit so I sanded it enough to give it a snug fit and then used micromesh sanding pads 1500-12,000 grit to sand and polish the stem. I opened the slot and made it into an oval shaped flared opening in order to better disperse the smoke. The old stem is still in the box. I am not sure what I will do with it but it will not find a home with this old Larsen ever again.

Oh this one is a keeper by the way and is regularly in my rotation. It smokes English and Balkan tobaccos like it was made for them. I think I will go and fire up a bowl now.

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A Classic Rework of A Royal Duke Supreme

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Blog by Steve Laug

I had this old Royal Duke bowl in my box. It had some promise to my eye but it needed some work. The first thing I did was drill out the metal mortise that took a threaded tenon. I did not have any stems that fit it anyway and I wanted to try something new. The issue that remained once it was gone was the fact that the mortise rough inside and the end of the shank was not square so that there was no way to get a new stem to fit it seamlessly. The finish was very rough as can be seen in the photos below. The varnish on the outside of the bowl had bubbled and blistered. The front edge of the bowl was actually darkened as the varnish seemed to have burned or at least coloured. There were dents in the bowl and the rim was rough. I turned a precast stem with my tenon turner and got it close. I had to custom fit it as the shank was a little tapered toward the end.

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The stem fit fairly well but would take a bit of customizing to get a good tight fit to the shank. It would also need a good cleanup to trim off the castings on the stem. The vulcanite was fairly decent quality as I have had it a long time but it showed no oxidation.

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I decided to work on the bowl first to clean up the remaining finish and remove the varnish from the bowl. I also wanted to see if I could remove the darkening around the front and back of the bowl. I washed the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad and cleaned off the finish. It took repeated washing to break through the varnish coat and also the burned and bubble finish. The next two photos show the pads after the wash. You can begin to see the grain coming out on this beauty. That is what drew me to the pipe in the first place and I was glad to see that it was truly there.

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I repeated the washing until the pipe was clean and had no remaining finish coat. The dark undercoat of stain still remained and light brown topcoat also was still present. This is clearly seen in the photos below. I worked on the fit of the stem and tapered the tenon enough to get a good snug fit to the bowl. I also used my Dremel to remove excess vulcanite from the top and the sides of the stem so that it lined up smoothly with the shank of the pipe. It was at that point I decided to pressure fit a nickel band to the shank to square things up a bit. There was no way that the stem and the shank would meet squarely as the shank was a bit angled and dented from the metal inserted mortise. The previous mortise had been threaded in and it had a thin band or flat top on it that sat against the briar. It was also patched a bit with putty to make the flow from the shank to the insert smooth. I fit the nickel band with heat and pressed it into place. I liked the finished look of the band and it gave me a straight edge to work with on the new stem. I again used the Dremel with a sanding drum to shave off more of the vulcanite and make the stem fit against the band inside edge. The next two pictures below show the stem after the fit and the shaving with the Dremel. You can see the rough surface on the saddle and the cleaned up edges of the cast stem and the button.

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I then sanded the bowl and the stem with 240 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches in the briar and also on the vulcanite stem. It took quite a bit of sanding to smooth out the saddle of the stem. The next five photos show the progress of the sanding on the stem. I also sanded the bowl to remove the remaining finish and scratches. I topped the bowl and smooth out the inner and outer rim to remove the damages to them both. I also used my heat gun to put the bend in the stem. I have a curbed dowel here that I put the heated stem on to ensure that the bend is straight and that I do not crimp or bend the stem unevenly.

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Once the sanding was at this point I wiped the bowl down with Isopropyl alcohol. I find that it removes any sanding dust and also the wet look shows me places where I still need to sand the bowl and stem. Once that was done I sanded the bowl again with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sand paper and water. I progressed through micromesh sanding pads 1500-12,000 grit – the first four pads with water and the remaining ones dry sanding. Once it was completed and smooth I wiped it down a final time before staining it.

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While I was sanding the pipe and working on the stem I tried to visualize what stain I wanted to use on this pipe. At this point remember I was not trying to restore the original Royal Duke colouration. I was working a new pipe out of this piece of briar even though I left the stamping. I decided to go with an oxblood aniline stain. I applied it with a cotton swab, flamed it and then took it to my buffer and buffed it with White Diamond.

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The next three photos show the pipe after the buffing with White Diamond. I had not applied any wax at this point nor was I finished working on the stem. The colour came out better than I imagined. The dark under notes of the grain come through nicely in the finished pipe. The light areas have a reddish brown hue that is a bit lighter as the pipe has been waxed and buffed.

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Once the pipe was stained I coated the bowl with multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the new stain while I worked on the band and the stem. The nickel bands shine up really well with the higher grit micromesh sanding pads. I sanded the band with the 6000-12,000 grit pads and then polished it with some wax as well. I moved on to the stem. I sanded it some more with 240 grit sandpaper to remove some more of the scratches in the saddle area left by the Dremel. I then sanded it again with the 400 and 600 grit wet dry and water to smooth out the lesser scratches left behind by the 240 grit sandpaper. I went on to use 1500-3200 wet micromesh sanding pads to polish up the stem some more. These early grits of micromesh leave behind a matte finish as they sand out the scratches. It takes the grits above 4000 to really see the depth and polish that is there when finished. Once I used the lower grits I then polished the stem using Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 polish and rubbed it on with a cotton pad and polished it off. I buffed the stem with White Diamond following this to see what I needed to work on.

I took the stem back to my work table and used the higher grits of micromesh. I started with 3600 and worked through 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12,000. Once I finished I buffed it again with the White Diamond and then coated the stem with Obsidian Oil and let it sit while the oil soaked the stem. I hand buffed the oil with a soft cotton cloth and then polished it with some carnauba wax paste and then buffed the entire pipe with several coats of carnauba. I buffed it with a clean cotton buff between coats of wax. The final photos are of the pipe as it stands now.

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Cleaning up a Swedish Bromma Dollar System Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this old Swedish Pipe in a little town in Northern Alberta, Canada. It was an antique mall, the only one in town and I was able to pick up this one for about $10 so I did not feel too bad about it. I had not seen one of these pipes before. It is stamped BROMMA over Sweden on one side of the shank. On the other there is an Elephant logo in a circle and inside the circle is the word DOLLAR. The bowl is briar and the rest of the pipe seems to be either plastic or Bakelite. It is interesting. I was able to take the stem out when I picked it up but the bowl would not budge. It was definitely a screw on bowl as it was on crooked and at somewhat of an angle. The stem had tooth chatter on the top and bottom but no tooth dents. I sprayed some solvent on the bowl stem connection to try to loosen it. I twisted it carefully but it would not budge so I set it in my box of pipes for repair.

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Today was my day to work on it. I took it out of the box and gave the bowl a twist and it would not budge. I used the sanding board to top the bowl and once it was smooth and clean I wiped the entire bowl with acetone. I was careful not to get any on the shank or bottom of the part. I then used Isopropyl and a cotton swab to swab alcohol around the bowl and the bottom portion of the pipe – the keeper for lack of a better word. I repeated this several times and tried to carefully twist the bowl off the keeper. I repeated the swab and alcohol until finally I was able to twist it off the keeper. The next two photos below show what I found inside the keeper portion of the pipe. This is amazingly like the stem portion of the Falcon pipes. The difference is the material it is made of. It is incredibly lightweight and resilient. The base was absolutely full of hardened tars and sludge. My guess is that it had never been taken apart after the initial purchase and after the bowl was put on and misaligned. This would take some work to be sure. The stuff was as hard as rock and would not budge with a pipe cleaner.

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I decided to drop the bowl into the alcohol bath and let it soak away while I worked on the stem and base portion. I used my dental pick and Isopropyl alcohol to work at the rocklike tar in the base. I soaked the tarry stuff with alcohol and picked at it with the dental pick. Once I had some of it loose I would use the cotton swabs to daub out the gunk and alcohol and then repeat the process. The next series of three photos show the process of picking away the tar and the results after wiping it clean with the swabs. I probably used about 60 or more swabs and removed a lot of the gunk from the bottom of the base. I soaked it and kept at it. I used 0000 steel wool to scrub the tars once I had the majority of the material picked free. Then I took it to the sink and used a microfiber cloth to scrub the base with hot water and degreaser.

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The next two photos show the inside of the base after it has been thoroughly cleaned. The shank itself was almost like a Kirsten barrel and need lots of soft tissue and cloth run through it until it was clean and shiny on the inside. The photos are slightly out of focus but the cleanness of the base is very visible.

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I then removed the bowl from the alcohol bath and went to work on it. I picked out the two putty fills with my dental pick. I also followed the threads with the dental pick to remove the grime and grit that filled the threads and did not allow the bowl to be threaded on correctly. I also used a bristle tooth brush and alcohol to scrub the bottom of the bowl from the threads down to the nipple like structure on the bottom. The next four photos show the bottom of the bowl and the threads after cleaning them. There is an inset portion of the bowl bottom that is like a moat around an island that has the moutainlike nipple in the centre. This took quite a few cotton swabs to clean the grime out of the channel. Once it was clean there is a patent stamp on it. It reads Pat. S. I am guessing it is a Swedish Patent mark. The portion of the bowl that is threaded seems like it is made of the same kind of material as the base of the pipe. The mountain in the middle is briar. It is an interesting and unique design. I am looking forward to firing it up and giving it a smoke once it is finished.

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Once the bowl was clean I decided to replace the fills with briar dust and super glue. The next series of photos show that process. I had already picked out the putty fill. I used a dental pick to tamp briar dust into the pits on the bowl. The first picture shows the briar dust before I wiped it smooth and added a few drops of super glue to the mix. The second and third photo are a bit out of focus but show the repaired fills after I sanded them down with sandpaper to smooth the surface to match the surface of the bowl.

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The bowl was now ready to be stained with an oxblood coloured aniline stain. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and then flamed it and buffed it off. The first two photos below show the stain applied and ready to be flamed with a match. I held the bowl with a dauber so that I could manipulate it to apply the stain.

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The next two photos show the bowl after a buff with Tripoli. I had not polished them at all at this point I merely buffed off the stain to get an even coat on the bowl sides and rim. The great thing with the briar and super glue fill is that it takes the stain and darkens with the finish coat. It is far more attractive to me than the pink putty fills that were originally present.

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The next two photos show the pipe taken apart. There is the bowl base and long shank that is made of the plastic or Bakelite material, the bowl itself. It has a small burn mark on the top of the rim but I left it rather than take it down any deeper into the surface. The third portion is the stem unit with a four finned stinger apparatus. The airflow is straight through from the bottom of the bowl to the slot in the button. The stinger with cooling fins is designed to cool the smoke and trap the tar and oils along the fins. This portion and the inside of the stem took work to clean. It is open enough to take a pipe cleaner through it with no problem.

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The final four photos are of the complete pipe reassembled and ready to smoke. I coated the bowl base and stem with Obsidian Oil and then hand waxed it with Halcyon II wax and buffed it to a shine by hand as I did not want to risk it on the buffer. I have had this kind of material melt when buffed so I am shy to try it on this pipe. The stem was sanded with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit and then polished with Maguiar’s Plastic polish as I have been doing on all of the pipes lately. I put some carnauba wax on the threads of the bowl to lubricate make the threads as I screwed on the bowl.

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New Life for a Wally Frank Super Delicious Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have become familiar with many of the Wally Frank lines of pipes but this was one I had not heard of before. It almost sounds like something to eat rather than smoke. It is stamped Wally Frank Ltd on the left side of the shank and on the right Super Delicious – interesting stamping indeed. The pipe was one of the bowls that I had in my box needing to be restemmed. It also had a cracked shank that was present before I matched a stem to it. Often a shank will crack like this if a tenon that is oversized is forced into the shank. That obviously had happened to this old pipe sometime in its life. I found a stem that fit the shank and inserted it enough to show the crack in the shank for the first photo below. The crack approximately ½ inch long and was in a portion of the shank where it was thinner than the other side. One of the challenges in restemming these older pipes is the fact that the shank is very often out of round and the stem has to be shaped to match it accordingly. The bowl has some nice grain on it and was well worth restoring. The remaining three photos in the first group of four show the grain and shape of the pipe. Note that rim was not only darkened but was worn on the front edge of the outer rim.
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I reamed out the bowl and removed the cake that was present only in the top half of the bowl. It seemed that the lower portion of the bowl was not even broken in. The top of the bowl needed to be topped to even out the flat top of the bowl. The way the angle was after the tars and grime were removed was d a slight slant toward the front of the bowl and the front edge was rounded from tapping out the bowl repeatedly on a hard surface. I used the board and sandpaper to top the bowl and even out the top. I also made certain that the bowl was held against the board to even out the angle and make the top smooth and flat. The first photo below shows how out of round the shank is in proportion to the mortise. Notice the difference in thickness all around the shank diameter. The crack in the shank is at about 3 o’clock on the shank. The next two photos show the bowl after it has been topped and is even with no slant toward the back or front of the bowl.
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After I had topped the bowl and evened things out I wiped the entirety of the bowl down with acetone on a soft cotton pad to remove the grime and the remaining finish on the bowl. It came off almost black when I was finished cleaning it. I then needed to band the crack shank. I opened it with the stem and then dripped a bit of superglue in the crack before pressure fitting the band in place. The first photo below shows the shape of the shank and makes the thin area very clear. This would require quite a bit of shaping to make the stem fit the shank correctly. The next two photos show the banded stem and how it fits on the shank. I kind of like the look of the band against the natural colour of the briar.
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The next two photos below show the stem shape after I had removed much of the material at the top left corner of the picture. The stem is round at this point but the tenon is no longer in the center of the stem. It is proportionately toward the top left of the picture and on the top bottom when it is in place in the shank.
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At this point in the process I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain that I thinned with isopropyl alcohol so that it would match the colour of the bowl. My goal was to match the rim that I had topped and was raw briar to the natural patina of the bowl and shank. I mixed the stain until it was the colour I was aiming for and then stained the entire bowl with multiple applications of the stain to the rim. I flamed the stain and reapplied it to the rim, flamed it again and then took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Tripoli and White Diamond. Once I was done with that I buffed the bowl and shank with multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring depth to the shine and also to blend the rim and bowl together.

I then worked on the oxidation of the stem. I had shaped it to fit the shank with my Dremel and when it fit well I sanded the stem from front to button with 280 grit sandpaper and then 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the oxidation and scratch marks from the Dremel. Once it was smooth I progressed through the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. In between 4000 and 6000 grits I polished the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 and then finished sanding with the micromesh. I finished the stem with a coat of Obsidian Oil and then multiple coats of carnauba wax to give it shine. The next series of four photos show the finished pipe. It is shined and ready to smoke.
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Reworking a Dr. Grabow Viscount

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I had this old bowl in my box of pipes to refurb. It needed a stem and it needed a good cleanup. When I took it out of the box to match a stem to it, I noticed that it had some pretty nice grain under the cherry red stain. It seemed like it had a nice dark contrast stain added to bring out the grain and then the red stain was over that. On top of the red stain was a coating of varnish or lacquer of some sort. That topcoat was peeling and the red beneath it was also rubbed off. It seemed like the red stain was more of a wash on top of the bowl rather than one that permeated the bowl. I went through my can of stems and found an old saddle stem that fit quite well. It was badly oxidized but I liked the overall look of the pipe with the saddle stem.
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With the state of the finish I decided to wipe it down with acetone to remove the varnish/lacquer finish and see what I could do with the stain. I was not overly concerned as I figured I would need to remove the red topcoat and start over. The wiped off portions of the finish would require a restain. I just was not sure what was underneath the topcoat. Sometimes on these older Grabows there are a lot of fills hidden under the opacity of the topcoats. I was hoping that this would not be the case with this one. I used a cotton pad wet with acetone to wipe down the finish on the bowl. The rim took a bit more work to remove the tars and build up. I used a fine grit sanding pad and carefully removed the grime while leaving the finish intact. I wipe the bowl down with about three pads and acetone. The result is seen in the photos below. The grain and the stain on this one was beautiful. It has a great contrast stain that makes the grain pop and the lighter reddish brown stain provides a soft canvas to highlight the grain. Once the red finish was removed I left the bowl as it was. I buffed it with White Diamond to polish and remove any remaining red portions of the stain. Then I waxed it with multiple coats of carnauba wax. I put the stem in an Oxyclean bath to soak while I continue to polish the bowl and finished cleaning out the interior of the shank and bowl.
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The stem took a lot of work as the oxidation was very deep. I soaked it twice in the Oxyclean bath and sanded it with micromesh 1500 and 1800 grit sanding pads between soaks. There was some deep, stubborn oxidation on the flat portion of the blade – about mid stem. It was very hard to remove. I sanded it with 2400-3600 grit micromesh and then polished with Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 polish repeatedly. Eventually the stubborn oxidation came to the surface and I was able to remove it. I then continued to sand on the stem with the higher grits of micromesh sanding pads – 4000-12,000 grit. I find that the higher grits really deepen the shine of the stem. Each successive grit of micromesh pad brought more of a polish to the stem. The hardest spot at the end was the saddle area. In the photos below there still remains a bit of oxidation that I am still working on – this is particularly clear in the photo of the underside of the pipe.

Ah well – here is the reworked Dr. Grabow Viscount. It is ready to load up a bowl for its new inaugural smoke.
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GBD Bulldog #549 New Standard Restoration

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I picked up this New Standard GBD bulldog on Ebay recently.
They briar had quite a build-up of what I hoped was just tars on the bowl top and the stem had a small amount of chatter that I thought could be removed.

I reamed the bowl and soaked in in 91% isopropyl alcohol and sea salt.  The stem was soaked in a 3:1 solution of Oxyclean and water.  I put a dab of grease on the brass GBD rondelle.  Here is the bowl soaking in oxyclean.

After a few hours of soaking in the Oxyclean solution, the stem was ready for sanding.  I removed the teeth chatter with 800 grit wet paper. One tooth indention remained, but it was small enough I didn’t bother trying to fill it.  1500 and 2000 grit wet papers were used next to bring up the shine.  The stem looked like this after the 1500 grade paper:

I then buffed it on a machine with tripoli rouge which removed most of the oxidation.  Then, back to the micromesh papers, using the 8000 and 12000 grades of paper to bring up the shine.  The stem was then finished with white diamond on the buffer followed by an automotive plastic polish.

After the bowl was done soaking, I turned my attention to it.  It was buffed on the wheel with tripoli, white diamond and finally several coats of carnuba wax.  Despite the heavy cake and tar buildup, inside the  shank was really clean inside.  So, I anticipate no ghosting.
Below is the finished pipe, which is being enjoyed by its new owner who lives in Norway and happens to be a reader of this blog – Enjoy!

An Interesting Weatherproof Wally Frank “Pepper Shaker”

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I picked up this interesting piece of tobaciana somewhere though I no longer remember where it came from. It is an oval bowled pipe by Wally Frank and it has a briar wind cap that is attached via a brass peg. To me it looks like a Pepper shaker so that is what I have named it. I have a few other ones like this but the cap is made out of Bakelite and is on a side pin that allows it to flip forward. This one spins to the side or can be removed should the pipeman not want to use it covered.

It came to me unsmoked and clean on the inside. The finish was very poorly done. There was a coat of varnish or lacquer on the pipe. It was spotty and in some places seemed to have bubbled or ran when it was applied. The stain that was underneath obscured the grain on the pipe. I decided to refinish the bowl and give it a new stain. I soaked it in an alcohol bath and then wiped down the bowl with acetone to clean the finish off. Once it was removed I sanded it with micromesh pads to get it smooth. I restained it with a nice cherry aniline stain. I flamed the stain to set it in the grain and then buffed the bowl to remove the excess and surface stain. The stem and pipe were buffed as a whole with white Diamond and then several coats of carnauba. Here is the finished product.
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