Tag Archives: removing tooth marks

A Kaywoodie Supergrain 5102 Poker Clean Up

Blog by Troy Wilburn

I got this pipe in a lot of pipes I received from a friend on Facebook. It’s a pre 1936 four digit (5102) stamped poker with the 4 hole stinger. It was in terrific shape, so being at least 78 years old I wanted to keep it as original as possible. I basically just gave it a good cleaning with little else needed.

Here is the pipe before:

I scraped out old cake (which there wasn’t much of) and gave the shank a good cleaning. I cleaned off all the old grime with a cotton ball and a small amount of Oxy Clean mixed with warm water. I cleaned the rim with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab followed by scrubbing it with oxy/water with a Scotch Brite pad. Mineral oil will bring the color back out.

I soaked the stem and stinger in isopropyl alcohol for about 45 minutes to loosen up the stuff on the stinger. I cleaned stinger and inside stem with steel wool and isopropyl alcohol. Once finished with the scrubbing it was ready for wet sanding.

I had to file out some very minor tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button. With the bowl cleaned and stem wet sanded I put the pipe back together for inspection. I wiped down the pipe and stem with mineral oil to condition wood, bring color back out and then did some final inspecting before buffing. Once the oil absorbed into the wood and vulcanite it was ready for a little buffing.

Here is what the pipe looked like after I was finished.

An Easy Restoration – A Dr. Plumb Flat-Grip 422 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

After the latest struggle with the Savinelli I decided to work on one that I thought would be an easy restoration. But given my track record with the last one I was not sure. Time would tell if it would be easy or if the work on it that I did would make it hard. This little billiard came to me in the gift box of pipes to rework. It is stamped on the right side of the shank Dr. Plumb in a script over – Flat-Grip. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shaper number, 722. On the underside of the shank there is a horizontal stamping next to the stem that reads FRANCE.

The pipe was in good condition. The finish was dirty but had no damage. There was one fill on the bowl on the back right side. The stain was even and not faded at the shank stem union or on the sides of the bowl. The rim had some build up and darkening but did not have damage to either the inner or outer edges. It had a slight bevel inward to the bowl that is often found on older billiards of this era. The shape bore all the marks of the GBD line that is sprung from. My guess is that the one fill on the back right moved it from the GBD line to the Dr. Plumb line. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. The bowl was caked and had a few spots that looked like mould on the inside of the bowl. I scraped one and looked at it under the light to see if it was mould. For all intents and purposes it was. Now the question was how deep into the cake did it go and would a complete ream of the bowl remove it from the pipe. Maybe this pipe would not be as easy a restoration as I had thought.

The stem had the Dr. Plumb red dot on the top of the stem with the word PLUMB stamped over the top in white. The Plumb stamping on the stem would need to be touched up.

I have included two close-up photos of the bowl rim and the white mould in the bowl. I was very curious to see if a good ream would remove it. Would the mould go deeper into the bowl than the cake? Would it be in the briar itself? I certainly hoped not but a reaming would disclose the depth of the problem.

I reamed the cake back to bare wood. I wanted to remove all signs of the mould. I scrubbed off the cutting head before putting it away. I examined the bowl to make sure I had removed all of the signs of the mould. The wood was clean and bare. It was so it looked as if the mould had only been on the surface. I scrubbed the surface of the walls with alcohol and cotton swabs to make sure that none of the spores survived.

I scrubbed the darkening and build up on the rim with cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove it. I use cotton swabs with alcohol as a follow up on the rim and when I was finished the rim was dull but clean.

I scrubbed out the shank with cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners to clean out the airway in the mortise and the stem. I put the stem back in the mortise and took a few photos of the pipe at this point.

The Dr. Plumb Flat Grip stem is unique in its design. It has a different style of taper that allows it to have what GBD called a flat surface. Instead of a crowned, rounded stem top and bottom there were slight taper from the edge of the surface to the side of the stem on all sides top and bottom. On this stem these were slightly rounded from use. I used a 220 grit sandpaper to break through the surface of the oxidation, remove the tooth marks and chatter and also clean up these tapered edges.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches and clean up the stem surface further. I wet sanded the stem with 1500 grit micromesh and then used a liquid paper/Whiteout to touch up the PLUMB stamping on the top near the shank.

I put the plastic washer on the tenon and inserted it into the shank so that I could sand the edge without rounding the shoulders of the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the light oxidation that still remained on the shoulders. I repeated the wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I rubbed it down a final time and let it sit until it was absorbed into the vulcanite.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond to finish polishing it and raise the shine. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to finish the stem.

I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and Blue Diamond to polish the briar and stem. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is cleaned and there is no sign of the mould that once was in the bowl. The pipe smells clean and new. It is ready to load up and smoke the first bowl.

A Savinelli de Luxe Milano 431KS Reborn Twice – PART 1: reshaping a broken stem.

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Blog by Steve Laug

You will see by the end of this blog why I say the pipe was reborn twice. Suffice it to say in this opening paragraph that a near pipe repair tragedy occurred when I had all but finished the first rebirth.When I picked up the pipe it was one of two that I found while on a pipe hunt in Bellingham, Washington with a friend. The other pipe was a Custom Bilt that I have already blogged about. The grain on this pipe attracted my attention and made me want to see what I could do with it. When I brought the pipe to the work table most of the issues were with the stem. The bowl had originally had a natural finish so it was dirty but not stained. There was no finish on it or varnish that needed to be removed so the clean up would be quite simple. The rim was caked with a thick tar and oil buildup that was shiny and hard. The bowl had a cake of the same material and had the sweet smell of an aromatic – lots of vanilla. The main issue with the stem was twofold. The top surface of the stem from the button up the stem about 1 inch there were many dents and bite marks. The underside of the stem had a large piece of vulcanite missing from the stem and the airway had been clamped down by biting. It also was oxidized and calcified. The fit against the shank was fairly decent with a slight gap on the left side, top and bottom at the shank.

The next two close up photos of the stem show the damage to the top and bottom side of the surface next to the button. The underside is the most damaged with a huge chunk missing. The second photo shows the top of the stem with the many tooth marks and bumps that created a thin surface on the top of the stem.

I took the next photo to show the rim. All edges are intact but the surface is coated with a thick, hard coat of oils and tar. The tenon had an inner tube insert in it. I have had several of these Savinellis but never had one with the tube. It would turn out to come in handy later. I weighed my options with the stem for several days before I decided to cut off the damaged portion of the stem. I used my Dremel with a sanding drum and took the stem back to solid material.

The next four photos show the look of the pipe with the shorter stem. Personally I like the more compact look of the stem as it seems to fit proportionally well with the pipe.

I decided to work on the button on the pipe before turning to the bowl. You can see from the photo below that the underside of the area where I would cut the button was quite thin. I did not want to cut back the stem any further so I built up that area with black super glue. I applied the glue and set the stem aside to cure. It would take several coats before the button was built up.

While the glue cured and hardened I worked on the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to a head that would cut back the cake to bare briar.

With the bowl reamed back I could tackle the top of the bowl. Even using the reamer did not chip or crack the buildup on the top of the rim. It was like rock. I scrubbed the rim with oil soap and a tooth brush. I picked at it with a dental pick and was not able to break through the rock. I decided to lightly top the bowl to remove the buildup. The idea was not to remove any briar but merely to take of the rock hard tars on the rim. I used my topping board and 220 grit sandpaper and worked the rim carefully to ensure that I only took the rim down to briar. Once I broke through the rock I took several more turns on the sandpaper to finish up the rim.

I scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the soiling and oils in the briar. It did not take much to bring the briar back to its natural state.

I decided to rub down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil to protect the briar and give it some life. I applied the oil with a paper towel and rubbed it in and rubbed it off. It also served to highlight the grain and make it stand out.

I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol until they came out clean. For the amount of build up of tars and oils on the rim the shank was quite clean. I decided to use a cotton ball and alcohol soak on the bowl to remove the sweet smells of the aromatics that had been smoked in the bowl. It had a thick vanilla smell that needed to go in my opinion. I set the stuffed bowl in an ice cube tray and used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I let the bowl soak overnight to leach out the oils in the wood.

By the time I had finished setting up the bowl I called it a night and went to bed. The next morning I worked on cutting and shaping the new button on the stem. I used my usual knife blade file to make the initial cuts and shave back the slope of the stem.

When I had the slope and look right I sanded the newly shaped button and stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I then repaired some of the low spots with clear super glue. I recut the button with the needle files and sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the edges.

With more sanding and shaping I had it where I wanted it and then sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to clean up the scratches in the vulcanite.

With the button shaped in I worked on the slot in the airway. I used my usual three needle files – a flat oval, an oval and a round file to work on the slot. I always start with the flat oval and work to the round file.

I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the inside of the slot. At this point I worked some more on the surface of the button. It still was too rough to my liking. I sanded and filed it to reshape it. The next two photos show it before I worked it over with files and papers.

Once I had the button shaped to my satisfaction I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads, rubbed down with Obsidian Oil and then set it aside to dry. I was pleased with the overall effect of the new button and could not wait to finish polishing it. This is where I made the first mistake in this repair.

Instead of leaving it on the work table and calling it a night I brought the pipe upstairs with me from the basement work area. I wanted to show the girls in my family the result of my work. I know that they are not that interested but they attempt to humour the old man. I stopped at the fridge to get some water and that is when the disaster struck. I could not believe it. The pipe simply slid through my fingers and hit the hardwood floor in our kitchen. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened with no issues. But this time there was going to be a major issue and it came with a vengeance. When it hit the floor, really only 2 feet as I was bending over, I heard the awful click and the stem and bowl separated. The tenon snapped at the shank. All that work done and now what to do? I was sick with the thought of starting over. I carried the broken pipe down the stairs to the work table and left it in the dark and went to bed – just a tad frustrated. If you are interested in seeing what I did to try and redeem this disaster make sure to read Part Two of the work on this pipe.

Restoring a Dr. Grabow Starfire Wirecarved 85 Poker

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Blog by Troy Wilburn

This pipe is a Dr . Grabow Starfire Wirecarved shape no.85 I picked up recently from an online auction. This is my favorite Dr. Grabow shape and I own several poker model 85s. Most of them are from the RJ Reynolds coupon era. Although the Starfire wasn’t a coupon pipe the quality was just as high on them as the RJ Reynolds pipes. I’m a big fan of the black wirecarved finish on the Starfires and Belvedere’s.

The pipe was in good shape although the wire carving was a little worn and the stem, an Adjustomatic, was stuck from corrosion. I did manage to get it unstuck after twisting on it several times really hard with hands and did not have to freeze it over night .

Before photos:

After cleaning out bowl and shank I soaked bowl in alcohol and scrubbed it many times with a tooth brush trying to get as much dirt and residue as I could out of wire carving to make it crisper looking. After a good soak in some OxyClean I managed to get stinger removed from stem and do some scrubbing on it with a scotch brite pad. I also oiled and heated the Adjustomatic and got it working correctly again. With the bowl and stem cleaned, buffed and sanded I was ready to stain the bowl. I decided to try a two part stain, so I mixed up some purple and black. The finish on Starfire and Belvedere wirecarved pipes is not a true black but black with purple undertones. I applied three coats of purple dye letting it dry between coats. Then I applied three thinner mixed coats of black.

With the staining done I now needed to let it dry for a bit. The next photo shows the pipe back together and rubbed with mineral oil. It is ready for buffing after it dries some. After photos:

This particular poker is also a less common shape stamped model.

It is a good pipe to smoke my favorite Old Codger Burleys OTCs in.

Restoring one of my favourite pipe shapes – an Edwards Author 722

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Blog by Steve Laug

This Edwards Author 722 came to me in the gift box I received. The shape has always been one of my favourites. This one is stamped Edwards in script on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped Algerian Briar over 722. I am guessing that the 722 is the shape number. I have looked but cannot find any information on the Edwards shapes. On the underside of the shank it is stamped with a large number 5. On the underside of the stem was stamped the word FRANCE.

From what I could find Edwards left all of their pipes with a natural finish, as was the case with this one. It was dirty and had darkened from smoking but it did not have a finish or stain on the briar. The bowl had been reamed and cleaned and the shank was clean. The briar had fills on the topside and the underside of the shank and on the left side of the bowl. They were white putty and some of them were shrunken and missing bits of the putty. The rim was dirty and slightly damaged.

The stem was very tight in the shank and I carefully twisted it slowly from the shank. There was a yellow waxy substance on the tenon like old and dried beeswax. The mortise area was clean briar and was unstained by tars or oils. The fit of the stem to the shank was perfect. It was a smooth transition with no ridges or gaps.

I wanted to know more about the brand. I have had several Edwards pipes over the years and still have them. I checked out my two usual sources Pipedia and PipePhil’s site. Reading on Pipedia I found the following information that I quote. http://pipedia.org/wiki/Edward%27s

“Edward’s pipes were originally produced in St. Claude, France when France actually was a world-class pipe maker with longstanding business & political connections to Colonial Algeria that allowed them to obtain the finest briar. During the tumultuous 1960’s, Edward’s created a business model to offer the finest briar available in both Classic and Freehand shapes – all at a fair price. They bought the company & equipment and cornered the market on the finest, choice Algerian Briar just before the supply vanished in political turmoil of Algeria’s independence. Edward’s packed up both machinery and briar-treasure to America, safely caching the essentials to create a new pipe-making dynasty. This was a coup, for the 70’s and 80’s were grim years for pipe smokers as quality briar all but disappeared.”

“Edward’s Design Philosophy is hard to pin down, think of their style as the “American Charatan” with unique & clever twists all their own. Today, they fashion pipes in several locations across the USA. All of Edward’s pipes are Algerian Briar – a fact very few pipe companies can claim, and all are oil-cured utilizing natural finishes – no strange concoctions are used to interfere in your tastebud’s dance with the briar. Algerian, Calabrian, Sardinian, Corsican – take your pick, but Algerian Briar is generally considered the finest smoking briar ever used. When combined with oil-curing, Algerian takes on a magical quality that even Alfred Dunhill recognized as far back as 1918 as the choice for both his Bruyere and Shell.”

There was also a non-working link to http://www.otcpipes.com that reference a collection of vintage Edward’s pipes and scans of Edward’s catalogs. I wish I could get that link to work. (If anyone has information on this please let me know as I would love to view this site and its information.)

I found a bit of additional information on the PipePhil site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-e1.html). I quote it here as well.

“Edward’s Pipes, headquartered in Tampa, FL, got its start importing pipes from France and continued to do so from 1958 to 1963 when it started producing pipes in Florida from prime Algerian Briar, a practice they continue to this day (2010).”

I also found an interesting exchange on the Pipes Magazine site regarding Edwards that was posted three years ago. http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/edwards-pipe I have copied one portion of that interchange by a poster named cypresspipe. He adds a personal dimension to the information having worked for Edwards in the 70’s. I quote him in full below.

“I worked at an Edward’s Pipe Shop in Jacksonville in the 70’s and I can provide more information about Edward’s pipes. Edward’s still exists with a few remaining shops around the country. Like the rest of the industry, they are primarily cigar stores and gift shops now. Edward’s pipes were and are their house brand and they were made in their factory in Tampa. I visited the Tampa store several years ago and they told me that Edward’s pipes are now made in Spain. They also told me that they were running out of Algerian Briar and, as a result, many of their pipes were no longer carrying that stamping.”

“If you are familiar with Randy Wiley pipes, he started out making pipes in the Edward’s factory in Tampa back in the 1970’s.”

“The models Skylark, Skipper, Royce, Benton, etc. are fairly recent name categories, probably starting in the 90’s. They didn’t use these names when I worked there, except the “Skipper” was a pipe with a particular style of etching on it. At the time they made some very nice high-grade freehands that sold in the $100-150 price range (several hundred dollars today).”

“While the individual Edward’s shops are franchisee-owned the parent company is FGT Enterprises of Tampa, Florida. The company makes pipes under the “Benton” brand for other shops around the country, and makes private label pipes for some shops as well. They are a leading wholesaler of smoking accessories. You can go to their website and download their catalog (www.fgtenterprises.com–you might want to check out the “About Us” page on the site. FGT at one time did not stress their connection to the Edward’s shops, as they wanted to downplay the fact that they were associated with stores that were competitors to some of their other customers.”

“I have about 20-30 Edward’s pipes from the time I worked there and they have always been good smokers. The only problem with them is that pipes in the 70’s tended to be smaller (about group 3) than they are today.”

“As far as I know, there are still Edward’s shops in Los Altos (CA), Englewood (CO), Tampa, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Dallas. In case you are interested Edward’s was named after Edward Rowley, a Tampa TV personality of the 50’s and 60’s who founded the company in partnership with Frank Smith (“Smitty”). Rowley was essentially the “face” of the shops while Smitty was the tobacco and pipes guy. Smitty bought out Rowley’s interest in the company sometime in the late 70’s or early 80’s.”

Armed with that information I went to work cleaning up the pipe. I started by topping the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to smooth out the rim and even out the smooth surface. I followed that by sanding it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

I picked out the ugly pink/white fills with a dental pick. I scrubbed the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the dust from the fills. When the bowl was clean I refilled the sand pits with briar dust from the rim and clear super glue. I have learned that these turn almost black but that is far easier to work with than the pink/white putty.

I sanded the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I followed that by sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I have a dark alcohol bath – I filter out the sludge monthly but leave the alcohol dark. I have found that a soak in it not only removes the finish but also gives a patina to the briar. It tends to make blending the repairs and the topped rim much easier. While the bowl soaked in the bath I turned to the stem. I sanded the tooth marks and tooth chatter on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove it and smooth out the surface.

By the time I finished the initial sanding of the stem it was time to remove the bowl from the bath. I dried off the bowl and took the photos below to show the colour that the bath added to the briar.

I set it aside and finished working on the stem. I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and lightly buffed it with a flannel buff. I am always careful when buffing the stem without the bowl (in fact I rarely do it) because it is very easy to round the shoulders on the stem making a tight fit against the shank impossible.

I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and White Diamond to remove the surface scratches around the patches. I buffed the rim carefully with the same product. I took the next two close-up photos of the rim to show the repaired and polished rim.

The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rich patina is only from the alcohol bath. I used a stain pen to touch up the light spots around the patches on the right side of the bowl and shank. I gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise a shine. All that is left to do is to load the bowl and fire it up. Something I hope to do before the end of the week.

Restoring an old Wally Frank Ltd. Huntleigh Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

I gravitated toward restoring this old Pot shaped pipe next because it looked rough with a worn finish and what I thought was an oversized band on the shank. When I took it out of the box and looked at it more closely my first impression was that someone had banded it post manufacture. It covered the stamping on both sides of the shank so that on the left the HUNTLEIGH stamping only read HUNTLEI and the Wally Frank Ltd. on the right only read ally Frank Ltd. On the flat bottom of the shank it is stamped Imported Briar in a Germanic Script. You can imagine my surprise when I found that what had appeared as a band was not. It was metal mortise and cap fitting that held a threaded screw mount stem and tenon. The tenon had a stinger apparatus that extended into the shank. Now the mystery – I don’t know if this was how the pipe was shipped from Wally Frank or if it was a later addition to a favourite pipe. The saddle stem appears to be original and fits against the cap perfectly. It is the same diameter as the shank of the pipe.

The finish on this old boy was very tired. The finish on the top half of the bowl was worn off while on the lower half it had an old varnish coat that was peeling away. The outer edge of the rim was not beat up or worn at all. The inner edge was slightly damaged and had nicks in that made the bowl out of round. The top of the rim was damaged with small pin prick holes that look like they came from knocking out the pipe on a rough surface. The end cap/mortise insert was polished aluminum and it was oxidized. The stem had a lot of tooth chatter on both sides from the button up the stem about an inch. The button itself had nicks in it and there was a small tooth mark on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button in virtually the same spot. The stinger was quite clean. The bowl had been reamed out recently.

I decided to start with cleaning up the finish on the bowl. The peeling varnish and overall worn and tired appearance bugged me so I started there. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove as much of the finish as possible.

I mentioned above the damage to the rim surface so I have included the first photo below to show a close up view of the damage. I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board and removed the damaged surface. I sanded until the rim was smooth and the pinpricks were gone.

With the rim clean and the finish partially removed I decided to drop the bowl in my alcohol bath and let it soak awhile. I figured the alcohol would loosen what remained of the finish and also lend a patina to the sanded rim and the bowl. When I removed it from the bath after an hour of soaking it looked pretty good – as long as it remained wet!

Once I dried it off I could still see the line around the bowl where the finish had been and where it had worn off. This was a stubborn bowl. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I also repaired some of the fills that were pitted with super glue and briar dust. The next two photos show the bowl after I had sanded the finish off. It was finally getting to the point where I could start again with the finish. There were many imperfections and fills in the bowl and shank. This one was going to be a challenge. I knew I could not remove all of them but I wanted to give the old pipe a bit of dignity and take away the tired looking finish.

While I reflected on what to do with the bowl I worked on the stem. I sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the tooth marks and chatter. The stem would clean up nicely.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. The stem surface was free of marks now but still needed to be polished to bring back the shine to the vulcanite.

I cleaned out the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. The dirty portion of the shank was the grime in the threads of the mortise. The airway ahead of the metal mortise was clean. It took a bit of scrubbing but I was able to clean out the grime. The internals of the shank were clean. I ran pipe cleaners through the stem and stinger. I was surprised that I could easily run a pipe cleaner from the slot to the bowl without major issues with the stinger. Once it was clean I threaded the stem on the shank to see what the pipe looked like so far. It had come a long way and had the potential to turn out to be a good looking pipe. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth and then worked it over with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-3200 grit pads this time and then dry sanded with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I also used the later grit pads to polish the aluminum of the mortise insert. After sanding the stem with the 12,000 grit pad I rubbed it down a final time and let it soak in before taking it to the buffer.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and a blue plastic polish bar that I picked up. It really gives the stem a deep shine.

I stained the bowl with several coats of a cherry aniline stain and flamed it. In the photos below the pipe is shown after a light buffing with a soft cloth. (These photos were taken before I polished the stem.)

I sanded the bowl with the 6000-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed it with White Diamond. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. I have also included a photo of the reworked rim and the tenon and aluminum mortise just to show the finished pipe in all of its parts. It should make someone a good smoking pipe if the original condition was any sign of the smoke-ability of this pipe.

Cleaning up a Dr. Grabow Silver Duke Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

This old Dr. Grabow Silver Duke Bulldog is a bit of a variation on a restoration for me. Someone earlier had replaced the Adjustomatic stem with a push stem. Whoever made the stem did an amazing job cutting it to fit perfectly with the angles of the shank. I say it is amazing because on these old pipes none of the angles are the same and matching all the points of the diamond shank is a lot of tedious hard work (at least for me and I have done a few of them). Add to that the stem was converted to a push stem instead of the normal threaded stem. It is a high quality vulcanite also as it did not have any oxidation.

All I would have to do was sand out the blade or file marks on the stem and the metal mortise cap. The finish was very shiny and had some bubbles on the rim along with a tar build up. It was like a thick varnish. I always remove these top coats and wax and oil the bowl to make the grain stand out. The briar was pretty clean with only two recognizable fills that I could see, though well blended into the stain coat on the pipe. The bowl had a thin uneven coat of cake that would need to be reamed.

The pipe was stamped Silver Duke over Dr. Grabow on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Adjustomatic in script over Pat. 2461905. That confirmed the replacement stem. The only thing wrong with the stem was that it had lots of marks in the surface left from either a saw that was used to cut the angles or the files. The stem was not smooth and shiny like the bowl but was rough to touch with small ridges on the surface from the cut marks. The metal mortise insert had matching marks so it looks to me that the stem was cut on the shank. The thin button is perfect. A taper stem on a bulldog is something I have always liked better than a saddle so this one looked great to me.

The tenon was also ridged. I have found that when the adjusting screw is loose on my tenon turning tool I get a tenon that looks like this one. It also has a slightly deeper groove next to the bottom of the tenon where it joins the stem. These issues would need to be addressed. It would take a little bit of finessing to clean up the ridges and keep the fit of the stem snug in the metal mortise but it could be done.

I could see some nice grain under the shiny varnish coat. It was cloudy and the rim had a slight build up of tars and oils. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. The varnish came off and left the pad orange. I had to keep the acetone pads wet otherwise the varnish gummed up on the surface and the pads stuck to the briar. After a lot of scrubbing (three pads and much acetone to keep a wet edge) the finish was gone and the grain stood out in its beauty.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to the bare briar in order to provide a smooth surface for a new cake to be developed.

I scrubbed out the shank and airway with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed until it was clean. In this case the deepest part of the mortise was clean quickly. Most of the oils and tars came out of the metal threads of the Adjustomatic tenon insert. Even cleaning that did not take too many pipe cleaners before it was shiny. I also scrubbed the end of the shank insert to remove the varnish and tars left on the end. I sanded the scratched aluminum mortise insert/cap with a fine grit sanding block to minimize some of the scratches and remove the cut marks left behind from the manufacture of the stem. It took a bit of sanding but I was able to remove the deepest ones. The rest would polish out with sanding sponges and micromesh sanding pads.

I sanded the stem with the sanding block and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I sanded until the deeper scratches were minimized and the surface was free of the earlier ridges. I also sanded the area around the top and bottom surfaces next to the button to remove the tooth chatter that was there.

I rubbed the briar down with a folded paper towel lightly coated with olive oil. I wanted to highlight the grain and give some life to the finish before waxing it so I used the oil. Once it is wiped on and absorbs it has a glow that I like. I cover that with carnauba in the end and the finish shines and has warmth that was lacking in the previous varnish coat.

The stem did not seat well in the mortise. The flat surface of the aluminum insert needed to be beveled to let the tenon sit right in the mortise. I used a sharp knife to bevel the inner edge of the mortise to accept the tenon correctly and close up the gap between the stem and shank.

I put the stem back on the bowl and the fit against the shank was now snug with no gap. The beveling of the inside of the mortise achieved what I was hoping and the fit was perfect.

When the shaping of the replacement stem had originally been done the blade or file had rubbed against the shank in two places on the bottom sides of the diamond. It looked to me that it had rubbed off the varnish coat and also some of the stain so that the spots looked lighter than the rest of the shank and bowl. I used a dark stain pen to touch up these areas on the shank and blend them into the finish of the rest of the pipe. With the first steps in refinishing the bowl done I wanted to remove the ghosts that were in the bowl. There was an aromatic smell that I wanted to remove. I stuffed cotton balls into the bowl and set the bowl upright in an old ice cube tray. I use an ear syringe to fill the bowl with isopropyl alcohol. The bowl would sit for the day absorbing the oils from the briar into the cotton and alcohol. As the alcohol evaporated the tars would remain in the cotton.

I let the bowl sit and while the cotton and alcohol did its magic I worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads to remove the remaining surface scratches and begin to polish the vulcanite. I used some clear super glue to fill the ridges on the tenon and smooth it out before going on to sand the stem with the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after the first set of three pads and then again after the second set. I find that the oil helps the higher grit pads to really cut into the surface and help polish the vulcanite.

The bowl had been sitting for about three hours so far. I took a picture of the cotton to show the colour that was beginning to leach into it from the bowl. I let the bowl soak for another hour and very little more came to the cotton. I pulled the cotton pads out of the bowl and ran a cotton swab through the bowl and shank to clean up the remaining alcohol there. I ran a pipe cleaner through the airway into the bowl to dry it out. I put the stem on the bowl and took it to the buffer. I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below.

While I worked on this pipe I have been posting updates and asking for information on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum (http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/index.php) and gotten a lot of information from the folks there. I found out that I can order an original stem for this pipe by sending them the bowl and some money for the stem and shipping. I may well do that one day. I raise a bowl to them and dedicate this blog post to the members of that site. Thanks for the help.

Restoring an Old Yello Bole 2033 Apple

10 Replies

Blog by Troy Wilburn

This is the other pipe I got with the Doc Watson. Both came from the same owner estate sale – an old gentleman that had them has since passed on to glory. The two pipes have been together longer than I have been alive. It’s an early Yello Bole in that it has the Imported Bruyere stamp but no “Honey Cured Briar” along with the 2033 four digit shape stamp. I’m guessing 1930 – 1933 roughly.

The pipe as it was when I got it.

I started out by removing most of the cake, then sanding inner bowl with some rough grit paper leaving a thin coat of cake. Next I cleaned out inner shank and stem with 91% alcohol. On these large airway YBs I like to twist 2-3 shank brushes together for better scrubbing. I also scrubbed outer stem with 91% alcohol and a Scotch Brite pad to remove grease, oil, wax etc. This is easiest way I’ve found to remove rim cake. I mix up some Oxy Clean and warm water. Dip a piece of Scotch Brite pad in it leaving it not quite dripping wet. Lay it flat on surface and move rim along lightly. It takes it off pretty fast and will not harm under finish if you are trying to save it. It will leave it discolored but a little mineral oil will bring the color back to original.

Next I went ahead and scrubbed bowl and stem with same pad and Oxy Clean solution. It will remove contaminants and not hurt the finish just dull it. It will remove any light oxidation from stem that might be present. I scrub the stem harder than the bowl. Next I went ahead and scrubbed bowl and stem with same pad and Oxy Clean solution. It will remove contaminants and not hurt the finish just dull it. It will remove any light oxidation from stem that might be present. I scrub the stem harder than the bowl. After getting a good look at the bowl after old dirt and such was removed the finish looks toasted. Sadly it cannot be saved.

So I went ahead and sanded bowl with 400-2000 grit sandpaper. Never touching the stampings with any grit sandpaper less than 1200 grit. I will leave a defect or mark near a stamping just so it won’t be harmed. Luckily the stain I had left over from the Doc Watson was a good match so I was able to use it. I applied three coats letting in dry in between. After third coat of stain I like to apply mineral oil to help the grain stand out and condition the briar. The mineral oil lets you see any defects in the finish and what the bowl will look like when waxed. I set it to the side and let it air dry. I had to do some filing on the stem and button to remove some tooth marks. If you noticed in before pic the stem did not fit tight to the shank, so I filed down tenon a little at a time until it fit tight.

I wet sanded the stem again using 400-2000 grit sandpaper. I put the bowl and stem back together and it is ready for some buffing and wax. On bowls I’ve stained I put about 3 coats of base wax then go back over with white Tripoli then go back to wax .

On the stems I use brown Tripoli, white Tripoli and then wax. Here are pics of the finished pipe.

It was missing a stinger so I dug out an extra I had and cleaned it up.

It should make a fine daily smoker and better than most any pipe I could buy today for under a 100 dollars. I have less than 12 dollars in it.

Giving a Large No Name Imported Briar Cutty a New Look

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

In the box of pipes that I was gifted was a large cutty shaped pipe that looked to be in pretty decent shape. It appeared that it did not need a lot of work to bring it back. The finish looked pretty good with birdseye on the sides and cross grain off to one side of the front and back of the stem. The grain followed a similar pattern on the shank. The bottom of the bowl had some mixed grain patterns. The stem was not oxidized. The bowl had a minimal cake in it. The only issue appeared to be the outer edge of the rim. On the back side it was very beat up and the briar was broken and nicked. All of this is what I assumed when I took it out of the box and took a closer look at the pipe.

The pipe is large, at least for me. It is seven inches long from button to the front of the bowl. The bowl is 2 ¼ inches tall. The chamber is ¾ inch in diameter. Proportionally it is a well made pipe. There are no fills in the briar. There are no sandpits. But there were issues! The bottom of the bowl had been flattened but the flattened portion was not centered on the bowl and shank bottom. It was off to one side. This gave the bowl and pipe a distinct cant to the right. The damage to the rim was deep on the back outer edge. The stem had tooth marks on the top and bottom sides next to the button. All of these would need to be addressed in a restoration of this pipe.

I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer. I seem to default to this T handled reamer as first choice in most of the refurbishing that I do. It is an easy tool to use. The T handle is small enough in diameter at the junction of the cutting head that it can be pushed deep into the bowl which was necessary with this pipe. Since I was planning on topping the bowl to repair the rim damage I decided to remove the finish from the pipe so that matching stain would not be necessary. I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads. The finish dulled but it did not completely come off the bowl. It has the feel of a Urethane coat. Once I topped the bowl I would deal with that issue.

I set up my usual topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I would need to remove quite a bit of briar from the surface of the rim to take care of the damage. I also found that the cant on the bowl and shank left me with a canted bowl top as well. I sanded the bottom of the shank until the pipe sat upright and then had to work on the rim to make it horizontal without a slant. As usual I collected the briar dust for later use on fills and repairs.

I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the inner edge of the rim and lightly bevel/chamfer it and remove the charring.

I sanded the bowl and shank with a medium grit sanding sponge to break through the urethane finish. I wiped it down further with acetone until it was gone. I decided to drop the bowl in my alcohol bath to soak while I worked on the stem. I have found that the stain darkened alcohol bath works really well to give some patina to briar once the finish has been opened up. For such a large piece of briar the bowl was surprisingly light weight and it floated on the surface of the bath. I sanded the bite marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until they were removed. I followed that by sanding the stem surface with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches in the stem.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside. I took the bowl out of the bath. The finish had completely disappeared with the soak and the entire bowl, including the rim had picked up a nice patina. The grain just popped in the clean surface of the bowl. It would be easy to stain and polish.

The colour of the topped rim matched the bowl colour perfectly – in fact it matched so well that I was unsure that I would even stain it. The next photos show the bowl as it stood after the soaking and drying. I love the way that the grain stood out.

I ran a few pipe cleaners and cotton swabs soaked in isopropyl alcohol through the shank to clean it out. I was surprised with how dirty the shank was. The buildup of tars and oils was heavier than I expected. I set up a retort and boiled alcohol through the pipe until the alcohol came out clean.

After the retort I used a few pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the alcohol and remaining tars from the shank. With the bowl and shank clean and ready to go it was time to finish the stem. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I finished sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry.

I gave the bowl a light coat of olive oil to highlight the grain. I did not stain the bowl as I really liked the natural look of the briar. I gave it a buff with White Diamond and did the same with the stem. I then gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax and a buff with a soft flannel pad. I took the photo below to give some idea of the size of this pipe. It is sitting next to the Kaywoodie Prime Grain Lovat that I finished restoring recently. The finished pipe is shown below. The first four photos show the overall look of the pipe. The last three photos give a close up view of the bowl and stem. The pipe is like new. The new finish is far better than the one that came with the pipe. The look of the grain and the way the bath and olive oil highlights it is quite stunning. This pipe will make someone a great addition to their rack and should be a great smoking pipe. It is too large of a pipe for me at this phase of my pipe smoking. I am much more drawn to smaller bowls and lighter pipes, but that being said, the grain on this one makes it very tempting.

A Restorfurb of a Doc Watson SR Billiard

12 Replies

Blog by Troy Wilburn

I have read about some of Troy’s refurbs on Pipe Smokers Unlimited and on the Dr. Grabow Collector’s Forum so when I saw his work on this old Doc Watson and the unique stamping it had I wrote and asked him if he would be willing to post it on rebornpipes. It is a pleasure to have some of Troy’s work here. He did an amazing job on this particular old timer with the distinct purpose of trying to keep the original finish as much as possible as he worked on it. Thanks Troy for taking the time to send me this blog. I am glad you were willing to post it here. Welcome to rebornpipes as one of the contributors. It is great to have you here. You have shared not only a great restorfurb but some tricks that I will have to use in the future. We would love to read about and look at more of your work. Thank you. – Steve

Hi everyone, my name is Troy Wilburn and I live in rural Virginia near Roanoke. I have been a dedicated pipe smoker for a little over a year now and refurbishing my own pipes for about 8 months. I mostly hang out on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum. My collection is mostly American made pipes. My favorite shapes are pokers, billiards and Canadians. Pokers are my most favorite with nearly 40 of them last count. I have kind of a tight budget to work with on my pipe smoking, pipe purchasing and pipe refurbishing. That’s why I got into refurbishing my own pipes. I’m always trying to find a bargain on pre 50s pipes as they are my favorite. Linkmans and Yello Boles are my most common pre 50s pipes with three Marxman’s thrown in. I do have a hard to find Marxman poker that is one of the prides of my pipe collection and is 100 % original finish.

I have browsed Reborn pipes for information and refurbishing info for a while.

This is my latest one and the pipe that got me here. It’s a Doc Watson pipe shape #51. I know from researching this pipe that Steve had restored a couple so I thought he might know some info on the odd stamping’s mine has. He invited me here to post my work on this pipe.

I got this one and an early Yello Bole apple from a woman who got them at the same estate sale. They both came from the same owner. The Doc Watson’s were made by KBB and though I have seen a few, mine has odd stamping of a P in a shield and mine has the name SR applied. The others I’ve seen are stamped just plain Doc Watson and with the KKB in a cloverleaf. I know this is a KBB as it has the same shape number as KBB, YB and KW charts. The stem has the same logo as the KBBs. KBB stamped Watson’s are all marked Italian Bruyere not Algerian like this one is. I’m guessing this pipe is dated between 1936-1940 as it has the Bruyere stamp but lacks the four digit code.

Pipe as I got it…

After a reaming and a good cleaning I noticed that it had some discoloration spots from heat and the finish was all but gone on these spots. Also there were lots of scratches on the surface and some were deeper. So instead of stripping the whole thing I decided to try and blend in the spots with the original finish, to keep it as original as possible.

So after sanding the bowl down with some 600 grit sandpaper very lightly, being careful of the stampings and the stem with 1000 grit, I applied a matching dye that I mixed up to the spots. The dye pretty much only stuck to the bare finish parts and the excess rubbed off after I wiped it with a rag. After three coats I applied some mineral oil. I had to file out some tooth marks on the stem and button and then wet sanded the stem.

Below is a picture of the bowl and stem back together and ready for some base wax. After waxing the pipe late last night I saw some file marks still visible and the spots were not quite as well blended in as I would have liked. It was more visible in person that it is in the pic shown here. So I decided to back up and punt. After some sleep, morning caffeine and some Vitamin N from some Haunted Bookshop I was ready to go at it again. I sanded the whole pipe and stem with mineral oil and 1000, 1400 and 2000 grit sandpaper. Then I applied a thin coat of red sharpie as toner and buffed off the excess with a loose pad. It left just a red tint and helped blend the dye with the original finish. I lightly waxed the bowl to seal it in. The pipe is about 70-75 percent original finish with some slight blending and tone work. It still has some minor dings around the stampings but I didn’t want to damage them or buff them out any more than I could help. I guess you would call it a Restorfurb.

After several more coats and buffing…

Sadly the stinger is missing on this one. The Doc Watson pipes have a pretty near stinger. Here is a pic of one that I got off the web. I’ll try to find one for it but it may be difficult as these are not that common of a pipe and they were only made for a short time.

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