Tag Archives: removing oxidation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extending the Life of a Hard Used Kaywoodie Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

In the box of pipes that a friend sent for me to fiddle with, was a tired old Kaywoodie Bulldog. The stamping was worn off and with a loupe I could read that it was stamped Kaywoodie on the left side of the shank with something illegible below that followed by an R in a circle. On the right side of the shank was the remnant of a shape stamp the looked like it had four digits ending with the bottom curve and tale of an S. The pipe was in rough shape. The bowl was reamed out of round with the rim having taken a beating. The right side of the inner edge was very thin and had been scored down toward the bottom of the bowl. The rings around the bowl were rough and damaged. There was a cut mark on the top of the shank where it joined the bowl and a small crack above the shank insert on both the top and the bottom of the shank. The junction of the stem and shank showed damage as well from what appeared to be pliers. The stem was overclocked. It had some tooth damage on the top and bottom surfaces and was oxidized. I looked at the pipe as it sat in the box and removed it and turned it over in my hand many times during the past three months since it arrived. I just was not sure that I could salvage it. I figured it might make a good delegate to cannibalize for parts or for another Frankenpipe but I was not sure it was redeemable. I took the next close up photos of the rim and the gouge in the shank to give you an idea of what I needed to deal with if I tackled this pipe as a project. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the pipe and decided it would be worth a try to see if I could improve it and make it functional. It would never be a pipe of beauty but the old warrior deserved another lease on life. I could certainly make it look better. So with that resolve I heated the metal stinger and tenon with a lighter to loosen the glue so that I could re-clock the stem. It did not take too much heat or time to loosen and then adjust the fit of the stem to the shank. I set it aside to cool and set the glue once again.I decided to top the bowl to even out the height of the bowl around the rings. Currently it was taller in the front than the back and taller on the right than the left side. I worked to take off that excess and minimize some of the damage to the rim as well. I used a knife blade needle file to redefine the twin rings around the bowl and to sharpen up the definition on the top and the bottom of each line.With all of the adjustments done I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the remaining finish and the ground in grime that was on the bowl. I reamed the cake back to bare wood so that I could see the extent of the damage to the walls of the pipe. I used a PipNet reamer to take back the cake. I cleaned up the remaining cake with a sharp pen knife to clean off all of the debris. I then sanded the rim with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage and prepare it for the plan I had for it. I wiped it down with alcohol and then packed briar dust into the rim damage. I place drops of super glue on the briar dust to form that patch. While I did that repair I also repaired the gouge in the shank bowl junction. I sanded the cured patch with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and to level out the surface with surface of the bowl and shank. The first two photos below show the repaired shank damage and the third photo shows the repaired rim. I set the bowl aside at this point and worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. Then I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-4000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil between each successive grit to give the micromesh pads more traction as I used them. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to raise the shine. Then it was time to stain the bowl. I decided to use an opaque oxblood aniline stain. It is a stain that is thicker in consistency to the Feibings and gives good coverage on damaged briar repairs. I applied the stain and flamed it. It gave the old warrior some life while not hiding the repairs that it would wear proudly over the years ahead to witness to its hard life. I buffed off the excess stain once it was set with a quick buff of Blue Diamond polish on the buffer. I then worked some more on the stem working back through the previous grits of micromesh to reduce the stubborn oxidation on the stem. I used a lighter flame to paint the surface of the stem to burn off the oxidation as well. I finished by sanding it with 6000-12000 grit micromesh pads and then buffed the entirety with Blue Diamond on the buffer.I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a clean flannel buff. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to give it some depth. The finished pipe is shown in the pictures below. While the pipe certainly is not a thing of beauty there is some restored dignity that will serve it well in the years ahead. It should serve the pipeman whose rack it graces with a good solid smoke for a good long time.

Another dressed for the Prom… maybe the Prom King – Cheap Meer Given a New Look

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Blog by Steve Laug

In the box of pipes to experiment with and refurbish as I can I had the mate to the little meerschaum apple that I restored a few days ago. https://rebornpipes.com/2015/08/28/prom-night-dressing-up-a-cheap-meerschaum-apple/ This one is a Meerschaum billiard. It had the same plastic (nylon) stem (it is not acrylic – way too soft). It had been smoked about the same amount as the other one – in fact the detritus in the bowl was identical. The stem had a crack on the underside from the button forward about 1 ½ inches. The finish had some dings and scratches in the surface but was very redeemable. I thought since I had to restem it anyway I might as well make it a match to the apple.

I took the next close-up photo to show the fit of the stem to the shank and also the crack in the underside. The next series of photos show the brass band that I chose to put on this one to match the other. It is a pressure ferrule and I have used them a lot in the past as they make a great looking band. Sometimes I grind out the rings and other times I leave them as I did in this case. Note the different tenon set up on this stem. The other stem had been drill out and the shank had a Delrin insert to accommodate a push stem. This one has a stainless steel tube glued solidly in the shank of the pipe. I heated it and pulled it but I am not able to remove it so I decided to leave it alone.

To make the shank ready for the band I needed to sand it back the width of the band. I used 220 grit sandpaper and carefully worked it back evenly to make fitting the band simpler. My normal pressure fit method of pressing a band would need to be modified on this one because of the metal tenon locked in the shank. It would still work but just need modification. I heated the band with a lighter and then pressed in place a little bit at a time working my way around the tenon.

With the newly banded shank finished it was time to work on a new stem. I toyed with the idea of using the nylon one from the other pipe. It did not take me long to put that idea aside. I had a stem in my can of stems that would do the job – an old taper vulcanite with a very straight profile would look great on this meer billiard. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to take back the existing tenon and flatten it against the face. I forgot to take a photo of the stem to begin with so I stopped mid stream after I had removed about half of it to take the photo below. Once I had removed the tenon I needed to drill out the airway to accommodate the metal tenon. I would in essence make a reverse tenon set up on the stem. I started with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway and hand twisted the stem onto the bit. I have found this is far safer that using a power drill to do this finicky work. I worked my way up to a bit the same diameter as the tenon and hand turned the stem onto the bit. I put a piece of tape on the bit so I would know when to stop turning the stem. That marked the depth of the tenon. Once I got to that place the stem would push onto the tenon flush against the shank end in the band.

The next photo is an end view of the newly drilled airway. It is a little rough and will need to be sanded smooth to remove all of the scratches. I pushed the stem in place on the pipe to get an idea of the final look of the newly dressed prom king. The photos below show the stem before I did the final adjustments to the diameter and flow.

I liked the new look a lot. It had the same touch of class as the meerschaum apple does. It would come out looking pretty slick once it was finished. I sanded the diameter of the stem with the Dremel and sanding drum to take off a fraction so that it would sit flush in the band with no gap around the edges. I then hand sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to further fine tune the fit.

I sanded the newly fit stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to clean up the vulcanite and remove all of the scratches from the sanding drum and 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 4000-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and then after the 12000 grit pad I let it dry before going to the buffer. I also sanded the bowl with the micromesh pads to polish the meerschaum.

I buffed bowl and stem with Blue Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise a shine and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to put on the final touches. The finished pipe is shown below.

The next two close up photos show the detail of the stem. They also show the way the air hole has been opened to accommodate the metal tenon.

The final two photos show the two meers, dressed and ready to head out to the Prom. They look like royalty – maybe Prom King and Queen. Ah well so much for an old guys memory of things long past in the recesses of the high school years file.

Restoring a Dr. Grabow Westbrook 42

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Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prom Night – Dressing up a Cheap Meerschaum Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was given a batch of pipes from a friend on one of the forums that he had lying around a long time. He was pretty certain that they were not worth much but he thought they might be fun for me to fiddle with. One of them was a meerschaum apple-shaped pipe with a plastic stem. The draw on it was awful, like sucking air through a coffee stirrer. The bowl had a few issues at first glance. There were some gouges in the meer on the sides of the bowl and the shank. There were some small cracks in the shank from the end forward near the top. There was a Delrin sleeve so these may or may not be a problem. The tenon itself was small and rough. The stem had some damage from what appeared to be melting at some point in its life. But it was barely smoked and there was something about it that caught my eye. I could see some promise in it so it would be worth the fiddle.

On the bottom of the exterior of the bowl there looked like there was a crack that ran for the length of the bowl. I examined it with a lens and it turned out to be a gouge in the surface of the meerschaum. It may be a crack but it did not go deep in the material so it was salvageable.

I took a close-up photo of top and inside of the bowl. You can see that it is barely smoked and the crack does not appear to go into the bowl. The plastic stem just bugged me. I could find nothing redeeming in the shape of it at all. The taper was wrong and it was pinched at the shank joint. The faux amber look of it was really fake looking. The material was very soft and I could scratch it with a fingernail.

Everything about the way the pipe looked when it arrived made me think it would be one that I would clean up, polish and turn around and get rid of. I probably would not sell it but would pass it on to someone wanting a meerschaum pipe. I cleaned the inside of the bowl with a cotton swab and water. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I had finished the cleaning and had lightly sanded the bowl with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper to minimize the scratches and dings in it. I was done with the pipe and took it to the buffer to lightly polish the stem and bowl.

It has been a long time since a pipe got away from me when buffing but this one did. The Blue Diamond polishing wheel is a bit touchy and it grabbed the plastic stem and took the pipe out of my hand. It hit the tile floor right in front of the buffer and the stem snapped off at the shank. The tenon was stuck in the shank and the other end was glued in the stem. I was very fortunate as the pipe hit directly on the stem and not on the meer bowl or it might have been ruined. As it was it meant I had a good excuse to throw away the plastic stem and make a vulcanite one. I pulled the tenon out of the shank with a screw. It came out easily. I tried to pull the glued end out of the stem but putting in a screw and heating the screw but the glue held. I put the stem away and went on a hunt in my stem can for a suitable vulcanite stem for the pipe.

I found just the right donor stem. It was a bent round stem that came from an old-timer somewhere along the way. It was thick and the diameter was close to that of the shank. I took the tenon down with the Dremel and sanding drum and finish it by hand with sandpaper to make a snug fit in the Delrin sleeve in the shank. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to take off the excess diameter of the stem and then hand sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to make the shank and stem match. While I was working on it I examined the two small cracks in the shank. They bothered me. While they would not go anywhere as the Delrin sleeve was glued and held them together, they still bothered me. I used a small micro drill bit on the Dremel and put a hole in the end of both cracks on the shank. I put a drop of super glue in the holes to seal them. I then remembered that I had some brass plumbing pressure fittings that make interesting bands. I heated the brass with a lighter and pressed it onto the shank to cover the cracks and give the pipe a little more bling.

I finished shaping and fitting the stem and took the photos below to give an idea of what the pipe would look like when finished. The bend in the stem is a little too much at this point and I would need to take some of the bend out. The bowl looks good with the brass fitting and the stem length works with this bowl.

I was able to sand out the gouge on the bottom of the bowl and it looks smooth and fresh now. I will need to sand the entire bowl with micromesh to polish the meerschaum and give it a shine. I heated the stem with a heat gun to take out some of the bend. When the stem was flexible I pressed it against table surface with a towel to take out some of the bend. I cooled it with water to set the new bend. The second photo below shows the newly bent stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to take out the scratches and work on the oxidation that was deep in the edges of the button.

You can see in the photos above that the stem did not quite seat properly in the shank. I used a sharp knife to bevel the inner edge of the mortise so that the stem would sit properly against the shank. I sanded the bowl and shank with 3200-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to minimize the scratches.

I wet sanded the stem and the tenon with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then rubbed them down with Obsidian Oil. I continued by dry sanding the stem with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and the giving it another coat of oil. I finished by sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. When it dried it was ready to buff.

I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond Plastic polish on the wheel and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl two coats of white beeswax and the buffed it as well. I buffed both with a clean flannel buff and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

A Straight Forward Rejuvenation on a Butz Choquin Calabash Churchwarden

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe came to me from a friend who wanted me to sell it for him and give a donation to the SA Foundation’s work in Kathmandu, Nepal. Having just come home from there I thought it was time to work on this one. I have a buyer for it already so it is just a matter of cleaning it up and then sending it off. It is a Butz-Choquin Calabash Churchwarden and it is in pretty decent shape. It is stamped Butz-Choquin over Calabash on the left side of the shank and St Claude arched over France on the right side. The finish was quite nice and just had some build up and oils on the surface. The bowl had a thin cake that was running over the rim. The finish while dirty was in decent shape. The stem was stamped with the BC logo and was lightly oxidized. It would not take a lot of time or energy to clean up and get it ready for its new owner.

I scrubbed down the rim with saliva and cotton pads until it all came off and left the surface fresh. I gave the bowl a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it lightly by hand. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to a very thin coat (almost nothing) as it will give the new owner the opportunity to build his own cake.

I cleaned out the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove carbon from the wall of the bowl and the tars and oils that were trapped in the shank and airway. I also cleaned out the airway in the stem at the same time. I sanded the stem down with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and then wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil before progressing to dry sanding with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and then finished with 6000-12,000 grit micromesh pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

Once it was absorbed into the vulcanite I buffed it with White Diamond and then Blue Diamond to polish it and remove any remaining oxidation. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and then buffed with a clean flannel buff. I finished by hand buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Tomorrow it will be mailed out to the new owner. I think he will enjoy this long stemmed pipe. It is truly a beauty.

Crafting a Interior Shank Repair for a Cracked Shank Peterson Churchwarden

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Blog by Steve Laug

A friend of mine stopped by with a pipe he wanted me to take a look at. It was a beautiful Peterson Churchwarden with a shapely long bent stem. The Dublin shaped bowl was perfect for this pipe. He showed me the issue – a cracked shank. Now that is typically an easy repair – just drill a pin hole at the end of the crack, glue and band the shank. But John being who he is does not like bands or bling on his pipes so he wanted me to see if I could band it from the inside! I thought it would be worth a try as I had done it before using a Delrin tube glued inside the shank to stabilize the cracks and then super glue into the cracked area and clamp until it sets. The issue with this crack was not as straight forward as the two photos below show. It was actually cracked in two places on the top of the shank – about a half-inch apart. The two cracks joined and if I had wanted to I could have removed a triangular piece of briar from the shank. The good news with this was that the joining of the two cracks had stopped the crack from going further up the shank so a repair would be straightforward.

Now the challenge begins. I did not have any Delrin tenons that I could repurpose so I looked in my parts box and found the shank end of a replacement push tenon insert for meerschaum pipe repairs. Long ago I had used the stem end for something else and saved the shank insert knowing that one day I would be able to use it. Today was the day. I used my Dremel and sanding drum to sand off the edges of the thick end and to take down the threads on the insert. When I was finished sanding I had a rough surfaced tube insert that would sit in the shank of the Peterson with little effort. I opened the crack in the shank and put clear super glue into the opening. I pressed it together until it set. Then I coated the exterior of the tube with viscous super glue that was slow drying and pressed it into the shank. I set it aside to dry while I worked on the diameter of the tenon to reduce it enough to fit in the repaired shank. To me this is always the tricky part. I was sure I could take the tenon down some without weakening the strength of the tenon too much. With the size of the airway I only had one chance to get it right. When the insert was set, I used a drill bit and turned it into the shank to remove excess thickness and maximize the room for the tenon. I also used a knife to bevel the end of the tube insert and flare it to fit the bevel of the briar. I put the stem in place and the fit was good! I sanded the shank to clean up the repair glue. I sanded carefully around the nomenclature so as not to harm it but I wanted it to blend with the rest of the shank.

Once I had the shank/stem fit the way I wanted it I stained it with a medium and dark stain pen to blend it in with the rest of the briar. I also scrubbed the rim with saliva and a cotton pad to remove the tars on the surface. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond and then gave the bowl several coats of carnauba wax.

Though still visible on the exterior of the shank the crack is sealed and repaired. I worked on the stem to give it a polish. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. In between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. After the final sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I let the oil soak into the vulcanite before buffing the stem with Blue Diamond.

I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I polished it with a clean flannel buff and then rubbed it down by hand with a microfibre cloth to give it a final shine. The finished pipe is shown below.

Breathing New Life into an LHS Sulgrave

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have become a fan of older LHS pipes and restored quite a few of them lately. I am always on the lookout for different LHS lines that I have not seen. Recently I picked up this LHS Sulgrave from a fellow on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum for $15. It is a line that I had not heard of before. He described it as a lightly smoked briar pipe. When I saw it I wanted it as it was my kind of shape. Never sure what to call this shape – bent banker, squat apple – not sure but I like it. He gave the following description in the sale listing. The shank is stamped Purex Sulgrave arched over LHS in a Diamond on the left side. The stem has two light coloured dots on the left side. The pipe is 5 1/8 inches long from the bottom of bowl to end of bit. The bowl chamber diameter is 7/8 inch and bowl depth is 1 1/4 inch. There is light caking in bowl. There is light tooth wear on end of the stem near the button. It has normal wear and tear (dings, oxidation and scratches) for an estate pipe. Nice overall shape and condition. Here are the photos that he included when I emailed him for details.

When the pipe arrived I was not disappointed. The shape was perfect. The description was accurate and the only variation that I could see was that the stamping did not include PUREX on the shank. Not a big deal in my book. The bowl was unevenly caked and appeared to have been reamed. The back side of the bowl had a thicker portion of cake that gave the inside wall on the back side an uneven and out of round look. I was pretty certain that with a good reaming and a light sanding the rim would look better. The stem was over bent and there was a slight crease on the underside of the bend. There was a coat of wax or some kind of coating on the stem and bowl. The stem was oxidized. In the first photo below you can see slight imperfection in the vulcanite stem. I have circled it to highlight it in the photo below. It is not a hole or worn spot, it is actually a thread of cord in the rubber. Its presence gives some idea of the date of manufacture as recycled rubber was used in WWII pipes.

The stem also had a lot of tooth dents and chatter along both top and bottom with some very deep marks on both. I tried to capture them in the next two close-up photos but they are still not very clear. The odd thing was that the dents went up the stem over an inch. The slot in the button was not centred and appeared to have left the factory that way. The dents were deep enough that I was concerned regarding the thinness of the stem surface over the airway. The mortise and airway in the shank were dirty and the end of the mortise was chipped away. It looked as if there had originally been a stinger in the tenon but it was no longer with the pipe.

I also have included the next close-up photo of the rim and the bowl interior to show the cake that gave the bowl an out of round appearance. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the largest cutting head. I took the cake back to bare wood to even out the inner edge of the bowl. I wanted to get rid of the cake so that I could smooth out the edge.

I folded a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out inner edge. It took a little effort remove the inner edge damage and clean up the roundness of the bowl.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the tars and the wax coat on the briar. With them removed the outer edge of the bowl showed damage as well. The bowl had been knocked about on the front edge particularly. The grain on this pipe was lovely.

To minimize the outer edge damage I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I sanded it to remove the damage to the top of the bowl and clean up the outer edge of the bowl.

I cleaned out the shank and the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the grime inside. It took quite a few of both to clean out the shank but finally they came out clean. I heated the stem with a heat gun to try and lift some of the dents to the surface and to also take out some of the bend. I also wanted to smooth out the sharpness of the bend on the bottom side.

I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The heat had raised most of the dents significantly. The ones that were left in the stem needed to be sanded out and then filled to take care of them. I used 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface. I also worked on the curve on the underside of the stem to make it less sharp looking.

The dents in the stem needed to be filled to bring the surface back to smooth flowing condition. I used a black super glue to fill the surface and set the stem aside to dry for several hours. Once dry, I sanded the fills with 220 grit sandpaper and then used a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to feather them into the surface of the stem.

I used a needle file to clean up and sharpen the edge of the button and give it more definition. I sanded the sharp edge with sandpaper and then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and then let it dry after sanding with a 12,000 grit pad.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish and remove the slight remnants of oxidation that had come to the surface. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad. I brought it back to the table and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Rescuing a Kaywoodie Flame Grain Meerschaum Lined Doggie

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Blog by Andrew Selking

To paraphrase Samuel Clemmons, reports that I’m no longer messing with pipes are greatly exaggerated. Between a cross country move, a new house, renovations to said house, and trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I have not spent as much time working on pipes as I would like. I did manage to squeeze in this nice Kaywoodie Flame Grain Meerschaum lined doggie.

According to a Kaywoodie brochure from the era, Flame Grain pipes were made from “200 to 400 year-old briar burls…the last of their kind to be found in the world.” The meerschaum inlaid Flame Grain is a “superb Flame Grain Kaywoodie with an inlaid inner bowl of imported Turkish meerschaum. This pipe combines the outstanding qualities of the two best materials in the world in which to smoke tobacco.” This pipe represents the pinnacle of American pipe making. As a point of reference, in 1947 this pipe would sell for $12.50 while Dunhill pipes started at $10.00.

As you can see, it took some imagination to see a pipe that might compete with a Dunhill.

The stem was under-clocked and heavily oxidized. The bowl had very thick cake and a buildup of tar on the rim. There was some kind of protective finish on the bowl that left a film after the alcohol bath. Additionally, the stinger was cut. On the plus side, I could see some really nice grain and the stem was virtually unmolested.

The first thing I did was soak the bowl in alcohol. I was hesitant to do that, because I was afraid the alcohol would cause the meer lining to deteriorate. At the same time I was also worried that if I didn’t soften the cake first, just using the reamer might damage the lining as well. I compromised and soaked it for about two hours and the cake came out nicely.

While the bowl was soaking, I used Oxyclean and warm water to soak the stem. Since it was missing the end of the stinger, it was easy to get the worst of the gunk out with a pipe cleaner. As I mentioned, the stem was under-clocked. To fix this problem I usually heat the stinger with my heat gun until I can easily rotate back into place. As the tip of the stinger heats up it transfers heat into the stem and loosens the glue. The whole heat transfer thing wasn’t working very well with this pipe, so I stuck a small nail in the stinger. That worked like a charm.

Next I did a retort on the bowl and stem.

After scrubbing the insides with brushes, q-tips, and pipe cleaners, it was time to tackle the exterior issues. I used 0000 steel wool with acetone to remove the tar build up on the rim.

I continued with the 0000 steel wool over the rest of the bowl to remove the film on the finish. After cleaning the bowl, I used 3200-12000 grit micro mesh to polish the bowl. This is what it looked like afterwards.

I used 400 grit wet/dry with water to remove the oxidation from the stem, followed by 1800-2400 grit micro mesh with water. I finished the stem with a progression of 3200-12,000 grit micro mesh.

I set up my buffer and polished the bowl with white diamond and carnauba wax. I used my variable speed rotary tool with white diamond and carnauba wax for the stem. Here is the finished pipe. Thanks for looking.

Refurbishing a Dr. Grabow Westbrook 84L Smooth Canadian

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Blog by Troy Wilburn

I got this pipe in a trade. I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up it was an 84L and not a regular 84. The stampings are crisp. The rim did have some dings so I had to lightly top it and restain it. There are still some very light dings on pipe but I let them go as the factory finish and color was excellent. So I just cleaned and buffed it other than rim. The stem still has some teeth marks I could not get out fully. The old bowl cake came out easy and the shank was not that dirty and I’m glad because these Canadian shanks are a pain to clean lol. It has zero fills too, which on that much briar was a nice surprise. All and all I’m very happy with it.

Here is the pipe when it arrived.