Tag Archives: repairing a burned rim

Repairing a Trio of His Dad’s Pipes for a fellow here in Vancouver – Part Two

Blog by Steve Laug

Last week I received a call from a fellow pipeman, Keith here in Vancouver who had been referred to me by City Cigar, a local pipe and cigar shop in the city. He was a soft spoken gentleman who had a request for me. In January this year his Dad died and he had three of his Dad’s pipes that he wanted restored in memory of his Dad. He also was a pipe smoker so he fully intended to enjoy them for a long time as he smoked them in his Dad’s honour. I told him to send me some photos of the pipes so I would know what I was dealing with.

I received the email below from Keith that included the photos of the pipes that he wanted me to work on. He even went to the trouble of marking the trouble with each of the pipes that needed work.

Hi Steve,

Glad your call back today, my name is Keith, I got your contact from City Cigar. My dad has three pipes include two Dr Plumb DINKY and one not sure brand. My dad passed this year January and I looking for fix those pipes which had broken and cracked, understand they are not expensive pipes but for me is priceless memory…

…Have a wonderful day!

Best regards

Keith

I called him as soon as I received the photos and talked over what I saw when I looked them over. We struck a deal and he dropped them off to me late on Friday afternoon and I started to work on them a bit over the weekend. All three pipes needed varying degrees of work on them. Two were Dr. Plumb Dinky Bent Billiards and one was a Real Briar Dublin. I decided to work on them in the order of the photos that he sent me. I completed the restoration of the first one and posted the blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/03/16/repairing-a-trio-of-his-dads-pipes-for-a-fellow-here-in-vancouver-part-one/). Give it a read.

The second Dr. Plum Dinky Bent Billiard was in better shape than the first one. There were no cracks in the bowl or shank. The issues on this pipe were caused when Keith smoked it and lit it with a cigar torch lighter. The rim top was damaged on both the right and the left sides and there was a thick cake in the bowl. In the first two photos show what the pipe looks like as a whole. On the second you can see some darkening on the right side of the outer edge of the rim. It is identical in make and shape to the previous repair. The third photo Keith included show the damage to the rim top – he identifies it as ring damage. I took pictures of the pipe when Keith dropped it off before I started my clean up work. It was much dirtier than the first pipe. The bowl had a thick cake in it and the rim top was damaged on both the right and left top and inner edges. I took a close up photo of the rim to show the condition of the bowl and the rim. You can see the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl as noted above and shown in the photo below by the red arrows. I also took photos of the stem to show the general condition as noted above. There is also a deep tooth marks on both the top and the underside of the stem near the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank – it read the same as the first of the trio that I worked on – Dr. Plumb [over] Dinky and was clear and readable.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe. There is something quite winsome about this tiny pipe.I have included some information on the Dr. Plumb brand and the history in the previous blog on the first Dinky pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/03/16/repairing-a-trio-of-his-dads-pipes-for-a-fellow-here-in-vancouver-part-one/). Give the blog a read if you are curious about the background.

Now it was time to work on this pipe. It was more used and dirty than the previous pipe and had different issues that I would need to address. I reamed the bowl with a PipeNet pipe reamer to remove the thick cake. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. It came out looking significantly better.I cleaned the rim top with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. I rebuilt the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top using clear CA glue and briar dust. I layered it on a layer of glue, a layer of dust and repeated the process until it was even with the rest of the rim top. I used a brass bristle brush while it was still curing to match the rustication on the rest of the rim top and edge. I am happy with the way it turned out. I stained the finished rim top with a Maple stain pen to match the colour on the bowl sides. The CA and briar dust dries darker so the rim top looks darker than the over all bowl in the photos but it is not as dark as it appears. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the bowl and shank with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. As I looked at these photos it dawned on me at this point that I had not cleaned the shank. I had been so busy working on the rim edge and top that I had not stopped to clean out the bowl and shank. I scrubbed it with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It was quite dirty so I am glad I remembered. I wiped out the bowl with alcohol and cotton pads to remove the briar dust from the repair.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I removed it from the deoxidizer bath and it did not really look much better. It had the same heavy oxidation as the previous stem. I scrubbed it down with Soft Scrub and a cotton pad. I found that the oxidation was significantly softer and came off quite easily.I scrubbed out the airway in the pipe with alcohol and pipe cleaners until it was clean. It was a well used pipe. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth dents in the vulcanite. I was able to lift the majority of them and I filled in the remaining marks with clear CA glue. Once the repairs cured I sanded them smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend them in the rest of the stem surface. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. With the bowl and the stem finished I put the second tiny GBD Made Dr. Plumb Dinky Bent Billiard back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 4 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ inch. The weight of this small pipe is .85 ounces /24 grams. This second small Dr. Plumb Dinky is another great reminder for Keith of his Dad’s Pipe smoking and one that he can enjoy for a long time. Once I finish the last of the pipes I am sure he will be excited to load them with a memorable tobacco and slip back into the memories of his Dad. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Reworking a Burned Rim on a Savinelli Oscar Lucite Prince

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother bought me a beautiful little Savinelli Prince when I was visiting. It is stamped Oscar Lucite on the left side of the shank and has the Savinelli shield and shape 313 over Italy on the right side of the shank. On the underside it is stamped Savinelli Product. The stem bears the embossed shooting star logo that is a familiar mark on the Oscar line. We had looked at it several hours earlier and I had passed on it because of the rim damage. I just did not feel like dealing with that as I looked at it and I felt the seller was asking too much for the condition it was in. But throughout the day it nagged at me and I kept thinking I should take another look at it and make an offer just to see if I could get the price down.

So we went back late in the afternoon and I picked up a few other pipes there and my brother got the shopkeeper to take the pipe out of the case so we could look at it again. I examined it and could see that not only the top of the rim was damaged but the inner edge had significant damage from the burn. It seemed that the previous owner had not smoked the pipe much as it was in great shape other than that damage. The bowl was not even caked or darkened from mid bowl to the bottom. I removed the stem and checked out the mortise to see what it looked like. It was actually very clean. I examined the airway and slot in the stem to see what they looked like in terms of use. The stem was in great shape with no tooth marks or damage. All those things made me wonder if he used a torch lighter, fired it up once or twice – just enough to char the rim and damage it and then decided that either this particular pipe or pipes in general were not his cup of tea. Either way the pipe was in decent shape except for the burn on the back right side of the rim.

I put it back but my brother said he would buy it for me so it came back to Canada with me. I have been home for over a week now and have cleaned up several of the pipes that came back with me. I picked the Savinelli up several times over the weeks and always put it back as I just did not feel any push to work on it. On Sunday I talked with my brother on Face Time and he asked if I had worked on it yet. I said no but it would be next on the agenda so last evening I took it from the box of refurbs to deal with it. I sat at the work table for a while examining it and looking at how deep the burn mark went into the briar. It was deep but I knew that topping it could remove much of the rim damage on the surface. I was concerned about the inner edge of the rim and wondering how I could bring that edge back into round with the rest of the bowl. I scraped out the bowl with a pen knife to remove the tobacco debris from the surface and then removed the stem to prepare it for topping. To begin with I used a worn piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work on the rim. I faced it into the sandpaper and turned it until I removed a lot of the surface damage. I continued to work it until the sandpaper did not remove any more. I then changed the topping paper for a new piece of 220 grit sandpaper to finish the process. I sanded it until the surface was smooth and the slope of the burn from the surface to the inside of the bowl was minimized. I should have measured how much material I removed from the surface but I just kept sanding until most of the burn mark was gone. I am still surprised that it did not change the shape dramatically – such is the mercy that the burned rim was on a prince. I sanded the rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and then with micromesh sanding pads using 1500-4000 grit pads to remove the scratch marks left behind by the sandpaper. Once the rim was smooth I stained the rim with a light brown stain touch up pen and blended it to match the colour of the rest of the bowl. I buffed it with red Tripoli and then White Diamond to smooth it out. I then folded a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and worked on the inner edge of the rim. I wanted to bevel like it had been originally. A gentle slope on the rim toward the bowl would work to hide the burned edge and bring the rim into round once again. I sanded it with the sand paper at the same angle the entire way around the bowl edge. I repeated the circuit around the bowl repeatedly to keep the angle consistent the entire circumference of the inner edge. I sanded it until it was canted to the angle that had originally been present on the bowl. Once the sanding was done I used a dark brown stain touch up pen to darken the bevel on the rim. I figured that by darkening the entire bevel I could mask the effect of the burn mark. I cleaned out the shank and the inside of the bowl with alcohol and cotton swabs to remove the debris and to blend the darkening of the bowl with the dark brown stain of the rim. I wanted the transition between the rim edge and the dark of the bowl to flow together.

I restained the rim with a light brown stain and then buffed the bowl. I gave it a light coat of olive oil and then buffed it with carnauba wax. The repaired rim is shown after all of the polishing and buffing in the next photos. The darkening of the bevel on the rim does a pretty decent job hiding the burn mark.

I cleaned up the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol to sanitize and refresh it. I used the micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel to raise a final shine. I gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a clean flannel buff. I finished by hand buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I was able to minimize the burn mark and its effects on the rim top and edge. The pipe looks great and is ready for a real pipeman to take care of it and enjoy it.