Tag Archives: removing oxidation

New Life for a P. Jackson Co. of Singapore Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

This P. Jackson Canadian is the second pipe that my friend in Calgary messaged me about when he found a pair of pipes at a little flea market in Winfield, B.C. The first one was a Peterson’s Lovat that I wrote about in a previous blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/09/01/cleaning-a-winfield-b-c-find-a-republic-era-petersons-kapruf-lovat-75/). He sent me the photo below showing both of the pipes. He asked if would be willing to refurbish them for him. I wrote back and told that both were nice pipes and I would be happy to work on them for him. He laughed and said they were on their way to Vancouver. The pipes arrived early this week and I unpacked them both. The second pipe above was a virgin finish Canadian. The stamping is centered on the topside of the shank with the script name P. Jackson Co. and underneath that it reads Singapore. The brand was one that I was unfamiliar with and I could not find information on in my usual sources. The pipe looked very English to me – there was something about it that looked like a Comoy’s Canadian but I could find nothing to prove or disprove that assumption. The finish on the pipe was not as worn or dirty as the little Peterson’s Lovat. The finish was dull and dry looking. The rim top was dirty but and had a lava overflow on the backside of the rim top. There was a thick cake in the bowl that was crumbling and soft – exactly like the other pipe. The stem was oxidized and dirty. The stem had the same tooth marks as the other pipe – a line across middle of the stem on both sides. The cake in the bowl, the tooth marks all told me that the pipe came from the same pipe man. This was another a good find. I took the following photos of the pipe before I started the cleanup work. I took a photo of the rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava build up. The inner and outer edge of the bowl looked undamaged but I would know more once I cleaned up the bowl and rim.The next photo shows the faint stamping on the shank. You can see what the stamping reads under the light of the flash. The script P. Jackson Co over the block print SINGAPORE is clear.The stem had the same marks and gummy substance as the previous Peterson’s Lovat – sticky from a price label. There was a lot of tooth chatter and the tooth marks mid stem that I mentioned above. The underside of the shank was stamped FRANCE – visible in the second photo below.I decided to look at things a little differently and researched the P. Jackson Singapore connection. I could not find anything on the P. Jackson Co. listed as a company or tobacconist in Singapore so that was a dead-end. I will continue to look for that Company through a variety of documents. I did find several other people on the forums had also found this particular brand of pipe but no one had a clue as to who made it. So I went a little further in my search. I entered P. Jackson Singapore to see if I could come up with leads. I was surprised when it returned a search category for P (Philip) Jackson who was a cartographer in Singapore. I followed those links and this is what I found.

Lieutenant Philip Jackson (b.24 September 1802, Durham, England–d.1879) was an officer in the Bengal Regiment Artillery, and served as Assistant Engineer, Executive Officer and Surveyor of Public Lands in colonial Singapore. An accomplished surveyor and draughtsman, Jackson produced a number of important maps, including one of the earliest maps of the town of Singapore and the earliest known drawing of Singapore – “Plan of the Town of Singapore”. He was also the first architect of the Singapore Institution (the precursor of Raffles Institution) building. http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_140_2005-01-20.html

I followed references in that link and found that Jackson had designed the plan of the Town of Singapore. Here is what I found on that link.

The Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan,[1], an urban plan of 1822 titled “Plan of the Town of Singapore”, is a proposed scheme for Singapore drawn up to maintain some order in the urban development of the fledgling but thriving colony founded just three years earlier. It was named after Lieutenant Philip Jackson, the colony’s engineer and land surveyor tasked to oversee its physical development in accordance with the vision of Stamford Raffles for Singapore, hence it is also commonly called Raffles Town Plan. The plan was formulated in late 1822 and published in 1828.[1] It is the earliest extant plan for the town of Singapore, but not an actual street map of Singapore as it existed in 1822 or 1828 since the plan is an idealised scheme of how Singapore may be organized that was not fully realised.[2] Nevertheless it served as a guide for the development of Singapore in its early days, and the effect of the general layout of the plan is still observable to this day.(ED. The endnotes are included underneath the map. I found that the map was interesting in itself so I included that as well.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Plan

[1] Bonny Tan. “Raffles Town Plan (Jackson Plan)”. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board.

[2] H. F. Pearson (July 1969). “Lt. Jackson’s Plan of Singapore”. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 42 (1 (215) Singapore 150th Anniversary Commemorative Issue): 161–165.

From this information I surmised that the pipe may have been issued as some kind of Commemorative Pipe to recognize the contribution of Jackson to the city of Singapore. I know I can’t prove that, but it is an interesting possibility. If any of you have information on the brand and could shed light on the origins of this pipe let us all know. Thanks ahead of time.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the thick cake. I started with the smallest cutting head and worked my way up to the second cutting head to remove the cake and leave the inside of the bowl bare. I wanted to be able to check the inside walls to see if there was any heat damage (once again I was glad to see that there was no damage).I removed the stem from the shank – it was a dirty mortise so the fit on the shank was very tight. I worked it carefully so as not to break or damage the tenon or the shank. I lightly wiped off the debris from the stem, wiped it down lightly with alcohol to remove the gummy substance and put it in the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to soak overnight along with the Peterson’s Kapruf stem.While the stem soaked, I worked on the stummel. I scrubbed it down with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I scrubbed hard to remove the lava from the rim top. There was a lot of dirt and grime on the virgin finish and the scrubbing removed that. I rinsed the bowl down with running water to wash off the soap and the grime. I scrubbed it under the running water with the tooth brush and when it was finished, dried it off with a towel. The pipe was looking pretty good at this point in the process. I scrubbed the internals of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the tars and oils that had collected there. It took a lot of scrubbing before the cleaners and cotton swabs came out clean.After I rinsed the bowl and rim I could see the two areas on the right top of the bowl that were sandpits. One of them had a large crumbling fill that went across the rim top (not quite as far as the inside edge of the bowl) and then curved down the side toward the back of the bowl. I cleaned the fill with a dental pick to clean up the putty. I repaired the fill with clear super glue and a little bit of briar dust. The photos below show the repaired areas. When the repair had cured I sanded the repairs smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished them with micromesh sanding pads to blend them in with the top of the rim and the back of the bowl. The photos below show the repairs after the sanding and polishing.I set the bowl aside for a short time and turned my attention to the stem. I removed it from the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and dried it off. There was still some stubborn oxidation in the vulcanite. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped down the stem after each pad with Obsidian Oil. After the final pad I gave the stem a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil to give life to the briar. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The stamping is still very readable. It is a good looking pipe and the P. Jackson Co. Singapore label is still an ongoing mystery.I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it lightly with the Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I buffed the stem harder than the stummel to polish the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and stem more coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It really is a nice long shank Canadian with beautiful grain and a natural finish. I think my friend in Calgary is going to enjoy this second pipe as much as the Peterson’s Lovat. Thanks for following along the restoration path on this one with me.

 

New Life for a C.P.F. Wellington Style Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on my work table is another C.P.F. from the virtual pipe hunt Jeff and I did in Montana. It is an interesting piece in that it has some age on it but to my thinking it is “newer” than the other C.P.F. pipes I have been working on from that hunt. This one has no stamping on the bowl but has the C.P.F. in an oval logo stamped on the ferrule underneath a set of the expected faux hallmarks.

To me it is very much like later C.P.F./KB&B post-merger Chesterfield pipes. KB&B acquired or started the C.P.F. line sometime between 1884 and 1898” (http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/archive/cpf__o_t__t_161.html). They operated the factory at 129 Grand Street, in New York City, New York. The ferrule and stem are not stamped with the dual stamp that later pipes had, so I think it is safe to assume that it is from pre-1900. I went back and read my blog post on the background of the brand and I think I was able to date this one a bit.

The C.P.F. brand was discontinued sometime between 1910-1920. I turned to a quote I found from Bill Feuerbach where he notes the following, which pins down the time frame of the discontinuation of the brand more specifically, “I have a C.P.F. Chesterfield in our office display that has a nametag from way before my time that says 1900 C.P.F. Chesterfield. It looks like most other Chesterfields you’ve seen, including the military type push stem, except this stem is horn and not vulcanite. As far as I have gathered the C.P.F. brand was phased out sometime around 1915” (http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/archive/cpf__o_t__t_161.html). Interestingly, he noted that the Chesterfield name and style was later introduced in the KB&B, Kaywoodie and Yello-Bole lines. He says that the 1924 KB&B catalog shows KB&B Chesterfields. (Here is a link to the full blog on the brand: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/04/14/some-reflection-on-the-historical-background-on-cpf-pipes/).

My brother Jeff took the previous and the following photos of the pipe before he cleaned it and sent it to me. It was extremely dirty with grime settled deep in all of the grooves of the rustication on the bowl. The nickel ferrule was oxidized and had turned and the stamping in the metal was not visible on the left side. The stem was oxidized and spotty looking and to my eye it had appeared to have straightened over time and lost some of the natural curve it originally had. This old pipe was in really rough shape. The rim was heavily covered in a thick lava coat and the bowl was caked with a hard carbon. It was thick against the walls with the cake thicker on the back side of the bowl. The way the cake was it was hard to tell what kind of condition the inner and outer edge of the bowl would be in until it was all removed.The next photo not only shows more of the rim and bowl but also the damage and heavy oxidation of the ferrule. It was rough to touch and there was a large piece missing on the end.The next photos show the dirt that was caked in the grooves and carvings of the bowl and shank sides. The curved area between the bowl and the shank was really dirty. The third photo below shows the heel of the bowl and the small crack that went across the width. It was hard to tell if it was just a flaw in the briar or a true crack. Once it was cleaned up I would be better able to tell. The one thing going for it was that there was no darkening to the exterior of the heel. The ferrule had come loose at some point in its life and had been reglued upside down. The C.P.F. in an oval logo and the faux hallmarks were on the bottom of the shank. The damaged spot on the ferrule had turned to the top of the shank. I wondered if the damage had been engineered when the shank had been drilled. Once again, I would know once we had cleaned it up and looked at it up close. When the stem was removed the end was wrapped up the stem about an inch with cord. This was often done to tighten the fit in the shank. I have found that on pipes this dirty that the sump below the airway in the mortise is generally filled and the sides of the mortise are so dirty that the stem no longer fits correctly in the shank. Jeff took a photo of the shank end to show the damage to the ferrule close up. It almost looks like it is notched. I am wondering if the turned ferrule (the notch) on the top of the shank rather than the bottom was not one reason for the misfit of the stem.The next two photos show the wrap as he began to unwind it from the end of the stem.The stem was badly oxidized and it was going to be hard to get all of the oxidation off the old vulcanite. The button end had a slight notch that opened up the orific airway. I was not sure if this was original or if it was damage. The stem was stamped on the underside with the words SOLID RUBBER and on the topside near the saddle with C.P.F. in an oval. There was some definite wear and tear on the stem but surprisingly no tooth marks. Once again, Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer, scraped the rim top with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clear off the lava build up. He cleaned out the internals – mortise, airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove all of the grime and grit in the finish and clean out the areas around the issue I had noted on the heel of the bowl. He rinsed the briar under running water and dried it with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to bring the oxidation to the surface and remove the grime. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it certainly looked different than it did when we picked it up out of the sale display in Montana. I did not take photos of the pipe before I started working on it but instead got sucked into the restoration process.

I heated the ferrule with a Bic lighter to soften the glue that held the metal to the shank end. It took a bit of heating a cooling before I was able to pry the ferrule off the shank end. In the photo below you can see the glue on the shank end and the notch in the face of the ferrule. I wiped down the finish with acetone on a cotton pad paying special attention to the glue on the shank end. I wanted the shank end clean before I reglued the ferrule on it. I painted all-purpose glue around the shank, aligned the ferrule so that the notch was at the bottom of the shank and the C.P.F. logo and faux hallmarks were on the left side of the shank as they had originally been when the pipe left the factory. I pressed the ferrule in place. Once it set on the shank I tried the stem and it fit better than previously. I put the stem in a bath of Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer for 24 hours to let the mixture do its magic on the badly oxidized stem.Once the bowl had been reamed clean it was clear that the cake had been reamed out before with a knife and the airway entered the bowl high. The bottom of the bowl was below the airway and because of that it made the bottom quite thin. While the bowl was not burned or damaged it was a candidate for that to happen. I mixed a batch of JB Weld and applied it to the bottom of the bowl and up the sides part way to raise the bottom of the bowl and protect it. The airway entrance was also to open so I built up the edges around it with some of the mix. I set the bowl aside to let the repair cure overnight, turned off the lights and called it a day. Work was so busy last week that I did not get to work on the pipe again until the weekend. The stem had soaked in the bath for 48 hours and I was hoping that the mixture had done its magic and remove the oxidation. I took it out of the bath and dried it off and ran pipe cleaners and alcohol through the airway in the stem.I put a pipe cleaners in the airway and heated the solid rubber stem with a candle to soften the stem enough to be able to bend it. I kept it high enough above the flame so that the rubber would not burn. Once it was soft and flexible I bent it to the point that when in the shank it sat properly in the mouth of the pipe man.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter on both sides of the stem in front of the button. I reshaped the end of the button to make it more round and remove some of the damage on the edges.I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove some of the deep remnants of oxidation. I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and once again rubbed it down after each pad. I gave it a last coat of oil after the 12000 grit pad and set it aside to dry. I examined the area on the heel of the bowl with a lens and could see that the bowl was not cracked but rather I was dealing with a flaw in the briar. I picked it clean and wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton swab to make sure that there was no debris in the crack. I pressed some briar dust into the flaw with a dental pick and spatula. I put clear super glue on top of the briar dust and let it seep into the flaw.I carefully sanded the repaired area with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repair. Once it was smooth I touched up the stain with a medium grit stain pen and buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I rubbed the briar down with Conservator’s Wax and when it dried, I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The next photos show the bowl at this point in the process.(An interesting note at this point. Looking down the bowl from the top you can see the JB Weld repair on the bowl bottom. Once this cures for about a week I will give the pipe a bowl coating of sour cream and charcoal powder.)I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several more coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine on the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Bowl diameter: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. Though the pipe is far from perfect, I think this old-timer has been given a new lease on life and should last the next pipe man for many years to come. The damages are repaired but in many ways still speak of the story of the old pipe. Hopefully the next pipe will keep the trust for this old pipe and pass it on to the next generation. Thanks for looking.

“Frankensteining” a Badly Damaged C.P.F. Cromwell Double stem pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the second C.P.F. Cromwell Double stem system pipe that I have worked on (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/07/01/out-damn-spots-a-c-p-f-cromwell-double-vertical-stem-bent-billiard/). This one was in very rough shape but the stem was in much better condition. Like other older C.P.F. pipes this one has some real charm that deserved to be repaired and brought back to life. Like the other Cromwell it is on the petite side of things – 4 ½ inches long and 1 ½ inches tall. It was a nice piece of briar, a mix of grains. The silver collar on the shank is stamped with the same faux hallmarks and the C.P.F. in an oval logo as the previous one. It is probably silver or at least plated but I am not sure. The stem is the unusual part of the mix. It has two silver plated spigot tenons that fit into openings in the silver collar. The twin stems merge into one single airway. In the previous blog I posted a line drawing on the pipe showing the flow of air through the bowl to the button. I include that below as it is quite unique to this particular pipe.He took photos of the pipe from a variety of angles to show the uniqueness and the condition. The finish was worn and the top of the bowl had been burned and sanded down by about half of the briar. It was uneven and broken looking. But I think that the pipe still had some life in it. I was toying with the idea of “Frankensteining” the pipe. I was thinking about bonding the upper portion of another pipe bowl to the damaged portion of this bowl. The left side of the shank is stamped in worn gold leaf C.P.F. in an oval over Cromwell in script. There is no other stamping on the bowl. The stem is also stamped on the left side and reads PURE RUBBER on the top stem and C.P.F. in an oval on the lower stem. This pipe is also from the virtual pipe hunt my brother and I did in Montana. The photos he took are shown below. The next two photos show that the pipe continued to be smoked even after all of the damage. It must have been someone’s favourite pipe as you can see the cake that is formed around the inside walls of the bowl. The rim top and edges are absolutely savaged and it looks like someone took a rasp or file to the top to try to smooth out the damage. A view from the front of the bowl shows the damage to the top of the bowl and how it dips dramatically at the front. The bowl sides are scratched and damaged as well.The next two photos show some of the nice grain that remains on the bottom and sides of the bowl.The stamping on the left side of the shank is very readable – C.P.F. in an oval logo over Cromwell in script format. The metal ferrule bears the C.P.F. in an oval logo flanked on the left by the same three faux hallmarks that were on all of the other C.P.F. pipes.The double stem inserted in the ferrule has end caps that are also metal and pressed onto the vulcanite. The stem is stamped Pure Rubber on the top stem and the C.P.F. in an oval logo on the lower stem. The stem is oxidized but it is in good condition.The stem surface at the top and underside near the button is worn and has tooth chatter and wear on the sharp edge of the button.When the stem was removed from the shank the inside of the mortise was dirty and had a lot of oxidation and buildup on the inside and on the stem caps. The airways were also dirty and almost clogged.Once again Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl and cleaned out the internals – both sides of the twin mortise, and the convoluted airways in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove all of the grim and grit in the finish and clean out the areas around the sandpits. He rinsed the briar under running water and dried it with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to bring the oxidation to the surface and remove the grime. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it certainly looked different than it did when we picked it up. I took the photos below to show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to the work table.

The briar was really a nice piece with flowing straight and flame grain running up the sides of the bowl and shank and birds eye on the bottom of both. The rim top was basically gone and what remained was very damaged with missing chunks of briar on the inner edge. The angle of the remaining rim was lower in the front than it was in the back. The bottom of the bowl was over reamed. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl. It was really damaged but it was clean. You can see the chips and missing chunks of briar in the rim top. The bowl is totally out of round and is rough with file marks on the top surface.The OxyClean soak had brought the oxidation to the surface of the vulcanite. It was evenly distributed over the entire stem surface. There was some tooth chatter and marks on the stem that showed up with the soak. They are not deep so they will easily cleanup.I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to clean up the dust from the topping process. I put the stem in the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to soak and turned my attention to working on my idea for the bowl repair. I went through a box of bowls and stuff I have here for repairing pipes and I found a bowl that originally came from a metal pipe that had an open bottom. It was solid with no fills and it was one I had around that did not fit any of the metal bases in my drawer. I decided it would work really well as the replacement for the top half of the bowl. It was time to begin “Frankensteining” the two parts so that they would fit together. I used the sanding drum on the Dremel to sand off the threads on the bowl base and also sand out the inside of the Cromwell base.I built up the top edge and rim top of the bowl with a combination of briar dust and clear super glue. I wanted to build an even surface for the base of the bowl to rest on. I wanted the bowl to anchor firmly in the base using the smoothed out threaded portion of the bowl.I took photos of the bowl top after I had topped it on the topping board. You can also see the sanding marks of the sanding drum on the inside of the bowl.I applied super glue to the edges of the top bowl and on the inside of the base and glued the bowl to the base. I held it in place until the glue set. When it had dried I filled in the gaps between the bowl top and base with super glue and briar dust as shown in the photos below. This is where I begin to shape the “Frankenpipe” and bring the two parts together. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to begin to blend the two parts together. I need to reduce the diameter and flow of the top of the bowl so that it would blend in with the sides of the base portion of the bowl. It was going to take a lot of sanding but I think it actually would work. At this point the bowl is quite tall and that would need to be shortened. I took the stem out of the Before & After bath and dried it off with a rough cloth to remove the oxidation and sludge that clung to the surface of the vulcanite. I cleaned out the airways in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I sanded out the tooth marks at the button on both sides and wiped the surface with Obsidian Oil. I was so intent on cleaning it up that I forgot to take photos of the stem work.I still needed to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads but I would do that later in the process.

I turned back to the bowl and continued to sand with the Dremel and sanding drum shaping the bowl top to match the flow of the base. I shortened it each time I sanded the sides but it was going to take some time. I put the stem back in the shank and took photos to see where I stood with the reshaping work. You can begin to see the shape of the new pipe emerging as I sand it. I removed more of the height off the top of the bowl and continued to sand and remove excess briar around the base and sides to blend the two parts together. The photos tell the story. I continued to shape and shorten the new bowl with 220 grit sandpaper. I worked on the inside of the bowl using the Dremel with a sanding drum to smooth out the joint of the two parts. I followed up by using 180 grit sandpaper. In the photos below the pipe is beginning to take shape.To protect the joint on the inside of the bowl from potential burn out or damage I mixed a batch of JB Weld and used a spatula to apply it to the inside of the bowl. I decided to stain the briar with a dark brown aniline stain to make the grain stand out on the briar. I would sand it all off but the dark brown would highlight things well. I would not be able to hide the connection between the two parts of the bowl so I was thinking that I could leave the shank darker, the bottom a shade lighter, the junction between the two black and the top portion lighter. It would have a contrast like a meerschaum. I stained it and flamed it to set the grain in the briar. I repeated the process multiple times. While the stain cured on the bowl I worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down with the oil after each pad. Once again I was so absorbed in working on the bowl that I forgot to take photos of the stem work. I set the stem aside to dry and went back to the bowl. I sanded the bowl with 180 and then 220 grit sandpaper to remove the stain coat on the bowl. The dark band is not even but it looks really good to me. I touched up the stamping on the left side of the shank with Rub’n Buff European Gold. I applied it with a cotton swab and buffed it off with soft pad. It is very readable and clear.With all of the touch ups finished and sanding finished on the bowl it was time to polish the briar. I really like to polish it with micromesh sanding pads as it brings the grain to the surface and gives the briar a deep shine. I work the same each time – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-120000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. I polished the ferrule and the stem ends with the micromesh pads at the same time. I wiped them down with a jeweler’s cloth to protect and give them a shine. I buffed the bowl and stem separately with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful around the joint of the two parts of the bowl and the metal end caps on the double stem. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth to deepen the shine on the bowl. The repaired pipe is shown in the photos below. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. In a few days I after the JB Weld has cured in the bowl I will give the bowl a coat of sour cream and charcoal powder to further protect it. What do you think of this Frankenstein pipe? Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Made in England Cumberland Acorn

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Blog by Steve Laug

The stamping on the next pipe that crossed my work table was faint but it read Cumberland over Made in England. There is no shape number and no other name on the pipe. There is nothing Cumberland about the pipe as far as I can tell – the stem is black vulcanite and appears to be original. The finish is sand blast and quite nice though there are some sand pits in the bowl that are quite large and have been filled in. The rim and bowl are in good condition. The stem was badly oxidized and had a few tooth marks but otherwise clean. Like I said nothing Cumberland about it. I looked on Pipephil’s site and as expected nothing with this name other than Dunhill. I looked at Who Made That Pipe and they list it as UNKNOWN. So the mystery remains. I have no idea who made this nicely shaped acorn but I know that it was made in England. Anyone have any ideas?

I received a comment on the blog and on my Facebook page both confirming what I asked regarding the maker of this pipe. Al Jones (upshallfan) and Dan Chlebove both figured it was made by Charatan. I did some searching online and found a Charatan Shape Chart on Al Pascia’s website. Sure enough, the shape was on the chart. It is the Salisbury Shape 173. Dan noted that it was an older one because it did not have the Double Comfort style bit on it. I think that the scar on the front of the bowl and the sandpit on the back make it a Charatan Reject. Thanks for the information gentlemen.My brother took the photo above and the ones that follow to show the condition of the pipe when it arrived in Idaho. The finish was very dirty and there was a lot of grime and dirt in the grooves of the sandblast. There was significant tar and darkening on the rim top and edges. The bowl had a thick cake and it had overflowed onto the rim top. The stem was lightly oxidized and very dirty with the slot almost closed off with tars. There were tooth marks and chatter on both the top and underside of the stem near the button and tooth damage to the sharp edge of the button on both sides.The next photo shows the cake and the overflow on to the bowl top. I have found that generally this kind of buildup protects the rim top as well as the inner and outer edges from damage.The next photos show the interesting sandblast finish on the bowl from various angles. Looking past the dirty finish it is an interesting blast. The first photo below shows the sandpit on the front of the bowl but future photos will give a better view of that spot.I have included both of the next photos because together they give a clear view of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The first one show the CUMBERLAND stamping though the Made in England stamp is blurry. The second is the reverse. The shank is stamped on the curve of the shank so it is hard to get a clear photo of both at the same time.The close up photos of the stem surfaces show the tooth marks, chatter and damage to the edge of the button on both sides.Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl and cleaned out the internals – mortise, airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove all of the grim and grit in the finish and clean out the areas around the sandpits. He rinsed the briar under running water and dried it with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to bring the oxidation to the surface and remove the grime. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it certainly looked different than it did when we picked it up. I took the photos below to show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. The finish looked amazingly clean. The rim top looked better without the tars and buildup. There was some darkening on the rim top but the edges of the rim looked very good.The OxiClean had done the job and the oxidation was on the surface of the vulcanite stem. It was pretty green. I dropped it in the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to soak for 24 hours while I turned my attention to the stummel. The “Harry Potterish” scar (flaw/sandpit) on the front of the bowl was quite deep but it was not cracked. To me it took away from the overall look of a nice sandblast. There was also a round sandpit on the back side of the bowl on the left toward the top edge that also needed attention. I used a brass bristle brush to scrub out the remaining debris in those areas. I filled them in with clear super glue to blend them into the surface of the briar better. When the repairs had cured I carefully wiped around the edges with acetone on a cotton swab to remove the excess glue. I have found that the super glue repairs leave a shiny spot on the finish if you don’t remove the overage. To blend the repairs into the briar even more I topped up the repaired areas with black super glue. It would blend in better with the final stain that I was planning on using on the briar. I cleaned up the areas with a cotton swab and acetone to remove any excess glue in the surrounding sandblast. I warmed the briar and stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed it several time until I had an even coverage on the stummel. I set the pipe aside for about an hour and worked on another pipe I have on the work table. When the stain had dried I wiped it off with alcohol on a cotton pad to make it more transparent and show some of the underlying grain. I like the contrast that happens in the finish when I wiped off some of the stain. Notice the repaired areas on the front and back side of the bowl. They blend in quite well with the darker finish. I gave the sandblast several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. I really like the new colour on the bowl and find that the repaired areas really do blend in quiet well with the rest of the finish. It also blends in the darkening on the rim top and gives the pipe a richer new look. I took the stem out of the Before & After soak and dried off the stem with a rough cloth to remove the remnants of the soak and the oxidation that it had lifted. The next two photos show the stem after the soak. There is still some deep oxidation that will need to be addressed but it looks far better than it did when I started.I put the stem on the stummel and took some photos to get an idea of where I was at with the restoration. The pipe is going to look good once I am finished. I used some black super glue to repair the edge of the button on both sides of the stem. Once the repair dried I sanded the repairs and the rest of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to shape the button and to remove the remaining oxidation. I worked on the saddle portion of the stem carefully so as not to round the edges where it met the shank of the pipe. It was looking better but more work was necessary to bring it to a full shine. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiping the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish to further remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12000 grit micromesh pads to deepen the polish. I wiped the stem down after each pad and set it aside to dry after sanding with the 12000 grit pad. I put the pipe back together and polished it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I find that Blue Diamond Plastic polish really takes out the scratches in the vulcanite stems. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished it with a clean buffing pad. I hand waxed the sandblast bowl with a final coat of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the bowl and stem with a microfiber cloth. The darker stain blended the repaired sandpits and the darkening on the rim top into the rest of the finish. It turned out to be a nice looking pipe – its dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If it interests you, send me an email to slaug@uniserve.com or a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

One of my favourite shapes – a Butz-Choquin Bourbon Rhodesian 1025

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I brought to the work table was a Butz-Choquin (BC) Rhodesian. The Rhodesian shape is one of my favourites and one that continually look for in my pipe hunting. My brother, Jeff found this one either on his eBay hunts or his antique mall hunting trips. The pipe is similar in shape to the GBD 9438 and also the Peterson 999 but there is a slight difference. The BC is squatter to my eye – less height from the bottom of the stummel to the top of the cap and a bit wider at the same time. It is still one of those shapes that sits well in the hand and just feels like it was made to clutch as you smoke it. This one is stamped Butz-Choquin in script over the word Bourbon on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped St. Claude over France over the shape number 1025.

The origin of the Butz-Choquin brand reaches back to 1858 when Jean-Baptiste Choquin in collaboration with his son-in-law Gustave Butz created their first pipe in Metz (France). Since 1951 Butz-Choquin is a brand of the Berrod-Regad group (Saint-Claude, France). Jean Paul Berrod managed the company from 1969 to 2002 when he retired and sold the corporation to Mr. Fabien Gichon. Denis Blanc, already owner of EWA, took over the Berrod-Regad group in 2006.

The finish on the bowl was in great condition, just dirty. There was some great grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The twin grooves around the rim were dirty and filled in with debris. The rim top had some dents and dings in the surface of the rim. The fit of the stem against the shank was excellent with no gaps or separation. The stem was lightly oxidized and dull but should clean up very well. The next photo is a close up of the bowl and rim. You can the thick cake in the bowl but it had not overflowed on to the rim top. You can also see the small nicks and dents in the surface of the curved rim top. The mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem were dirty and black with grime.The stamping on the left side of the shank appeared to be double stamped. The Butz-Choquin part of the stamp was clear. The Bourbon stamping was double and the letters appeared to be blurry when looked at without a light. The next photos show the stamping on both sides of the shank.The grain on the bottom of the bowl was quite beautiful cross grain that ran from the bottom of the bowl the length of the shank.The surfaces of both the top and bottom sides of the stem near the button had a lot of tooth chatter and a few tooth marks. None of them were too deep so they should clean up easily.Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer and tidied it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar. He scrubbed the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He scrubbed the externals with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime. He scrubbed the stem in the same way. He rinsed the pipe off with running water to rinse off the soap. When I received the pipe in the mail it looked really good. It did not appear to need too much work. I took photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl. I apologize that it is out of focus but you can see that the bowl and rim are clean. As the work progresses I will take further photos of the rim and bowl to show its condition.The stem looked really good – Jeff was able to remove the grime and clean up the oxidation on the surface. The tooth chatter really was quite light. There was one small tooth mark on the left side of the top near the button that would need some work. I sanded the tooth chatter with 220 grit sandpaper to remove it and the tooth mark to reduce it. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each of the pads. After the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. The pipe had a heavy cased tobacco smell that lingered in the shank and bowl even after cleaning it with alcohol. I decided to give it a cotton ball and alcohol soak. I stuffed the bowl with cotton balls until it was full. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with alcohol. I stuck a cottons swab and then a thick pipe cleaner in the shank to absorb the tars and oils that were in the shank and it would also wick the alcohol up the shank to help clean it. I set the bowl aside to let the alcohol and cotton do their work over night. In the morning when I checked the pipe the cotton pad was brown with the oils it had drawn out of the bowl. I removed the cotton pads and ran pipe cleaners through the shank to pick up any leftover oils. The pipe cleaners were surprisingly clean. I polished the briar and the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen it. It is a beautiful pipe whose dimensions are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 1 3/8 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. I am going to put this one on the rebornpipes store soon, even though everything in me wants to hang on to it. If you are interested email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Thompson Freehand 529 with Cumberland Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is a freehand with a plateau rim. It has a contrast black and red stain – red on the high spots of the rustication and black in the nooks and crannies. The rim shows the same pattern or reds and black. The shank has a band on it that is briar with brass on either side of it. The pipe was very dirty on the rim and the inside when my brother picked it up at an estate sale in Idaho. The rim had an overflow of the thick cake that filled the bowl. It had a Cumberland style acrylic saddle stem. The stem was in pretty rough shape with deep tooth marks on both the top and underside near the button and tooth marks on the button itself. There was also a bite through on the top side of the stem – mid stem just ahead of the button. It was not a large hole but it was a hole nonetheless. My brother took the following photos before he cleaned up the pipe for me.From a previous blog I wrote and one that Robert Boughton wrote I remembered that Thompson pipes were made for Thompson Cigar Company. This particular pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank with the words Thompson in script over the shape number 529 and Italy. I know that Thompson Cigar Company had pipes made in Italy, the Netherlands (Big Ben), and Turkey (the Meerschaum). Many of their Italian pipes were made by Savinelli. In checking the shape numbers of Savinelli pipes I did not find a listing for a 529 but there were others around that shape number.The photo Jeff took of the rim top and bowl shows the thick cake in the bowl and the lava overflow on the rim top. The insides of the pipe looked as if they had never been cleaned before. The beauty of the mess was that it probably protected the plateau top from damage.The underside of the bowl shows the rustication pattern on the briar and the cleanness of the exterior of the pipe.The next photo, though a little out of focus shows the stamping on the shank. It is very readable and clear.The Cumberland acrylic stem looks very good with the red and black of the stain on the rusticated bowl. The shank band or twin brass bands separated by a briar insert makes a stunning separator for the shank and the stem.The stem was in rough condition as mentioned above. The top of the stem had a lot of tooth chatter and the button was chewed down. There was a small hole in the middle of the stem just below the button. The underside of the stem also showed a lot of tooth chatter and bite marks.The rim top looked really good once he had removed all the built up tar and lava. The high spots and the valleys in contrasts of red and black.The stem was clean but the topside showed a lot of damage. There were tooth marks and the hole to deal with and the large dent in the top of the button edge on the stem top. The underside had some deep tooth marks and some chatter.I sanded the damaged areas on the top and underside of the stem to prepare for the repairs to the tooth marks and dents. I was able to remove much of the chatter and only left behind the deep marks in the surface of the stem.I coated a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it in the stem below the hole in the stem surface. The greased pipe cleaner would prevent the super glue repair from sticking to the pipe cleaner or clogging the airway. I filled in the hole and the deep tooth marks on both sides of the stem with clear super glue. I used my drilled block to hold the stem so both sides of the stem would dry without interference from my work surface. While the repair cured I buffed the bowl with a soft cotton buffing pad to bring up a shine. Once the repair had cured I used a needle file on both sides of the stem to bring the repair even with the surface of the stem. I sanded the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out and blend them into the surface of the stem. The photos below tell the story. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed it with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I buffed lightly to keep the polish from getting in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to polish out the remaining scratches. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I gave the rusticated bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. I buffed the entire pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding this one to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Cleaning up a Ropp Cherrywood and a Carved Cherrywood Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

I decided this afternoon to work on a couple of easy pipes – the first is a French Made Ropp Cherrywood and the second is also a Cherrywood but sports that carving of an alligator around the bowl front and sides. The Ropp is stamped on the bottom of the bowl with the typical Ropp circle stamp reading Ropp Cherry arched over Made in France. The “Gator” pipe bears no stamping at all. The Ropp is unsmoked but the stem seems to have marks that make me wonder if it was not a prop in a play or something. I am pretty sure that the stem is not original but a replacement. The “Gator” pipe appears to have been smoked at least once because there is a very faint darkening in the bowl but otherwise it too looks unsmoked. The stem is tiny but it too had some tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. That meant that for both of these I would only need to do the stem work. I took a close up photo of both of the bowls to show the condition. You can see that Ropp is unsmoked (NOS) and that the “Gator” also looks virtually unsmoked.The only thing that looked used on either pipe was the stem. The acrylic yellow stem on the “Gator” pipe had some tooth marks on both sides near the stem. The same was true of the vulcanite stem on the Ropp.I sanded the tooth marks on both stems smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. It did not take too much work to smooth out the tooth marks and chatter. I polished each of the stems 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 after each sanding pad and after the last pad I rubbed it down and set it aside to dry. I buffed the stems down with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed them with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I wiped down the bowls with a light coat of olive oil and gave them a coat of Conservator’s Wax. I hand buffed them both with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The finished pipes are shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipes are: ROPP – Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 5/8 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. GATOR – Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. I will be adding both of them to the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested they can both be yours for one price. Check out the shop if interested or email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking. I took some photos of the Gator carving on the one Cherrywood to give you a sense of what it looks like. The first photo shows the head and shoulders on the left side of the bowl. The second photo shows the front of the bowl with the rear legs and body. The last photo shows the tail of the Gator.

Breathing life into a Superior Real Briar Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

This older C.P.F. style bulldog with an ornate rim cap and shank end cap was another pipe that my brother and I found in our pipe hunt in Montana. That hunt yielded a lot of older C.P.F. and WDC pipes from between the late 1890s and the early 1900s. This one is certainly from that time period. The briar is very worn and the finish is gone. The metal rim cap and shank cap or ferrule are brass coloured but blackened with oxidation. The top of the rim is thickly caked with the lava overflow from the heavy cake in the bowl itself. The stem is either Redmanol or Bakelite and has some cracking near the shank/stem junction but nothing that affects the fit of the stem to the shank. There is some tooth chatter and tooth marks near the button on the top and underside of the stem. My brother took the photos that follow before he did his clean up.The pipe has some faint stamping on the left side of the shank. The photo below shows the condition of the stamping. It clearly reads SUPERIOR in a diamond. There seems to be other stamping that is faint underneath SUPERIOR in the diamond but I am unable to read it. On the outside of the diamond there is stamping on either side. It is faint but to the left under the edge of the diamond is faint stamping Real and under the right edge of the diamond it reads Briar. There appears to be something underneath the diamond going across the shank but it is not clear enough for me to be able to read.The next two photos show the pipe from two different angles to give an idea of what the pipe looked like in its entirety. There is some real promise with this old pipe.The rings around the cap on the bowl are in excellent condition. There is some debris lodged in them but there are no chips or cracks in the ring. The finish on the briar is spotty with small remnants of the original finish in place. The grain on the pipe is quite nice underneath the grime. The bowl has a thick cake in it and the lava has flowed over on top of the rim top. The metal rim top is blackened and has a thick cake of lava on it. It is hard to know what the inner edge of the rim will look like at this point because of the cake in the bowl. The carvings/castings in the metal rim cap and the shank end are dirty and have a lot of grime built up in the grooves and crannies. The Bakelite/Redmanol stem had tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem from the button forward about an inch. There were some small cracks in the shank end of the stem that would need to be addressed in the repair.Jeff did an amazing job of reaming out the bowl on this one and revealed that the metal cap was folded over and lined the inner edge of the rim thus protecting the rim from damage. He was able to ream the bowl back to bare briar without damaging this inner rim edge. He cleaned out the internals of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they were clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and the metal with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. This removed the grime in the nooks and crannies of the metal work and also cleaned the briar. He was careful around the already damaged stamping so as not to damage it further. When the pipe arrived in Canada it was clean and ready for restoration. I took photos of the pipe before I began my work to show what it looked like cleaned and ready for me. I love working on clean pipes! He was able to get all of the buildup off the rim cap but the surface was pitted and worn from all of the years of grime sitting on the brass. The bowl looked really good and the brass folded over the inside edge was darkened but undamaged.The stem was cleaned of the tars that were on the inside of the airways. The photos show the cracking at the shank end near the band. While the cracks were not rough to touch they were present. There were also many tiny little spidering cracks on the inside of the airway.I polished the metal rim cap and inner edge with micromesh sanding pads, wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads. I was able to remove much of the pitting and scratching on the surface and the blackening of the inner edge of the cap. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads to further polish the cap and edge.I laid the bowl aside for the time being and turned my attention to the stem repairs. I cleaned the surface of the stem around the largest and roughest feeling crack with a water dampened cotton pad. I sanded it with 1500 micromesh and wiped it another time to remove the sanding residue. I filled in the cracked surface with clear super glue and let it cure. When it dried I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and also sanded the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem at the button.I cleaned out the interior of the stem with pipe cleaners and water to remove more of the debris from the airway.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after sanding with each micromesh sanding pad, gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I turned back to the bowl to finish my work on it. I wiped the briar down with a cotton pad and alcohol being careful around the faint stamping on the shank. I was hoping that when it was wet it would be more readable. Sadly it was not. The SUPERIOR stamp was all that I could read. The briar has some nice grain. I decided to leave the nicks and scratches alone as they were well earned character marks on this 100+ year old pipe. I really like the look of the raw briar on this one so I decided to rub it down with olive oil to make the grain stand out and give the briar some life. The next photos show the grain on the oiled bowl. It looks really good to my eye. I gave the bowl a coat of Conservator’s Wax to protect the briar and when the wax dried I buffed it with a flannel cloth to give it a shine. I put the stem back on the shank and in doing so remembered that it was slightly overturned. The lines of the shank and the diamond stem did not align. I have found that on these old bone tenon and threaded mortises that they wear down slightly over time. A little trick I use to address the wear is to paint the tenon with a thin coat of clear fingernail polish that I swiped from my daughters years ago. It dries clear and just one thin coat was enough to align the stem perfectly when I screwed it into the mortise.I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to remove the tiny scratches that remained on the brass and the briar. I gave the briar portion of the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished them with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I polished the brass with a jeweler’s cloth and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the entire pipe with a microfiber cloth to put on the finishing touches. The pipe is shown in the photos below in all of its beauty. I love the look of these older pipes with all of the bling and the Redmanol/Bakelite stems. They really look elegant and show their era well. Thanks for coming with me on this refurb.

 

 

The Other Half of the Pair – a Wally Frank Sandblast Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

I purchased this little Lovat from Josh (misterzippo), a reader of the blog earlier this year. He sent me an email and photos some pipes that he thought I might want. As usual when you have incurable PAD there is always something that catches my eye. We fired some emails back and forth about the pipes and it did not take long to make a deal. I bought a Malaga Bulldog with a twist in the carving and a scoop in the top of the bowl that I restored earlier. I bought a pair of sandblast Wally Frank pipes shown in the photo below. Josh sent this photo and it shows the overall condition and appearance of both pipes. As I noted in the restoration of the bent billiard the deep ridges of the sandblast finishes intrigued me. Both pipes were dirty but that is never really a problem. The grooves in the sandblast on both were filled in with grit and grime and almost sticky to touch. The rims were caked with overflow of tars from the bowl and the grooves were filled in to the point that they almost were invisible. The stem on the bent billiard was in good shape with light oxidation and some tooth marks on both sides near the button. The stem on the Lovat was missing a large chunk out of the underside that would need repairing. The tape measure in the photo shows that the billiard is about 5 ½ inches long with a taper stem and the Lovat is 5 inches long with a saddle stem.Josh sent me a photo of the major issue with this pipe. There was a large portion of the stem and button missing on the underside. This issue would make me think through my options on this pipe. Should I repair the stem or should I restem the pipe? If I repaired it I could keep the Wally Frank original filter tenon. If I restemmed it I could get rid of that feature and give the pipe a regular push tenon. I would need to think through that issue as I worked on it.I asked Josh to send the pipes to my brother instead of too me in Canada. Jeff would do the cleanup work on it so it made sense to have it go directly to him. He took the following photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. As I looked at these photos I was really taken with the way the sandblast had revealed interesting grain patterns in the briar.You can see from the photos the overall condition of the pipe. The briar is dirty but still stunning. There was less cake in this little pipe than there was in the other Wally Frank that I worked on. There was light overflow and lava on the rim top but the inner and outer edge of the bowl was in excellent condition. The finish though dirty was not in bad condition under the grime.The next photos show the grain patterns around the bowl from various angles. The circles, starbursts, ring grain and birdseye make the sandblast finish one that really holds my interest as I turn in my hands. The rim top definitely has less tar and oil build up on the surface. The close up photo of the rim shows light cake in the bowl and the lava that is unevenly disperse across the surface of the bowl.There is a smooth, flat band on the bottom of the shank and the bowl that make pipe a sitter. It is where the pipe is stamped. It reads Wally Frank over Filter. The Wally Frank stamp is not as deep as the Filter stamp but it is still readable. The Wally Frank WF circle logo on the left side of the saddle portion of the stem was very lightly stamped. It is readable but there is no tactile sense of it left on the stem. It will be hard to preserve. The fit of the stem to the shank is very good. The aluminum band that separates the stem from the shank is an integral part of the aluminum tenon that is on the Filter pipes. The tenon is made to hold a paper filter. It is split so that it can be adjusted should it become loose in the shank. The stem shows wear on the topside with tooth marks and chatter on both the stem surface and on the button itself. The underside is where the problem lies. You can see from the photo the large missing portion of the stem from the button forward to the saddle. The third photos shows the surface of the top of the stem. You can see the pitting in the surface and the wear that is on the stem. Will it be a candidate for a repair or should I restem the pipe? Jeff cleaned the pipe once he received it. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet and a Savinelli Fitsall reamer taking the cake back to bare wood. He cleaned out the internals of the airway in the shank, mortise and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove all of the ancient build up. He scrubbed the externals with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean out the grooves and crevices of the sandblast finish. He rinsed off the soap with running water and dried off the bowl. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to break up the oxidation on the surface and remove some of the scaling that was present. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver I took photos of the pipe as it was when I first brought it to the work table. Jeff really did a good job on the bowl and rim clean up leaving the grain on the surface very visible. Like the bent billiard that I worked on the blast on the rim is unique. It has swirls and smooth spots as well as some grooves. It is an interesting blast.The OxyClean soak had really brought the oxidation to the surface and made the damaged stem really visible. It looks to me like someone either broke loose a piece of the stem while cleaning the pipe or possible bit through it and then broke it. Before I could work on the repair to the stem I needed to deal with the oxidation. I decided to use the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer that I have been trying out. I keep the mixture in a flat plastic tray with a cover. I dropped the stem into the mixture and made sure that it was completely covered. I put the lid on the tray and set it aside to soak overnight. I called it a day.

I have referred to the latest use of this product in previous blogs because I am putting it through its paces to see how the product delivers. I was skeptical when I first started using it but I have to admit that with each stem I soak in the product I am becoming less skeptical. I am including information on how to get ahold of the product if you are interested. I purchased the Deoxidizer and some Fine and Extras Fine Pipe Polish from a guy on Facebook named Mark Hoover and he is a member of the group there called The Gentlemen’s Pipe Smoking Society. He has a pen making and restoration site where you can email and order the deoxidizer and the polishes (http://www.lbepen.com/).In the morning I took the pipe out of the bath and dried it off. I was not too worried about the remaining oxidation at this point as I had significant repair to do before I addressed the left over remnants of oxidation. I was pleased to see that the edges of the damaged area were clean and ready for me to work on. The circle WF was gone from the left side of the stem. In preparation for the repair to the stem I cut a triangle of thin cardboard and wrapped it with clear packing tape. I have found that the repair mixture of super glue and charcoal powder will not stick to the packing tape. The triangle preserves the slot and airway in the stem once the patch is applied. I adjusted the fit of the triangle and inserted it into the slot of the stem. I laid out a piece of newsprint and the components of the repair mixture – clear super glue and food grade charcoal powder capsules. I opened two capsules and made a mound on the paper. I used a dental spatula to put a small dip in the top of the mound. I mixed in drops of super glue into the charcoal powder and stirred them together with a dental spatula. I made the repair thick enough that it would hold and give me enough material to reshape both the stem surface and the button. The photos below tell the story. I reshaped the button edges and surface with needle files to blend the repair into the surface of the stem and to make the transition to the button clean and sharp. I filled in some of the expected air bubbles with a coat of clear super glue. I will need to repeat this as I shape and sand the stem.I sanded the repaired area of the stem and button with 180 grit sandpaper to rough shape them.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to further smooth and shape the repaired stem. The repair is solid at this point. The area that I repaired shows air bubble pits in the surface of the stem and the button.I reshaped the slot in the end of the stem with a needle file to smooth out the repaired surface. I still need to sand it to remove scratches and nicks but it is taking shape. I filled in the air bubble holes with clear super glue and set the stem aside to dry.I sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it in with the surface of the stem and then began to polish it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad to give life to the vulcanite. It is fun to watch the stem begin to shine with the work of each micromesh pad. The photos below are arranged with the top photo first and the repaired underside of the stem second. The last two photos show the shine in the rubber of the stem. The last one shows that there are still some scratches remaining in the rubber that will need to be shined some more. I polished the stem some more with the last three grits of micromesh sanding pad to remove more of the scratches. When I was happy with it I set it aside and turned my attention to the stummel. Because of the diverse colours that came through on the briar I decided not to stain this pipe. I decided to leave it natural with the existing stain and try to maximize the contrasts in the grain and stain. I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil to bring life back into the dry briar. The colours of the stain in the briar began to shine through and the patterns in the grain really stood out with clarity. This was a beautiful piece of wood. I buffed the bowl with a clean buffing pad after the oil had dried into the briar. The key is to not push the briar too hard into the buffing pad. Doing so flattens the sandblast and ruins some of the definition in the grain patterns. The photos below show the contrast in stains that were originally used on the pipe. I put the stem on the stummel and buffed the pipe lightly with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand waxed the bowl with Conservator’s wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with a shoe brush as well with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a well-made, beautiful pipe that has a tactile feeling that is really nice in the hand. I think as it heats up during a smoke that sensation will only increase. Thanks for coming with me on this one.