Tag Archives: repairing a cracked shank

Midterm Exam #4: Re-Refurbishing an Unknown Bulldog

9 Replies

Blog by Anthony Cook

It’s time for the fourth and final midterm exam! This one is an “unknown” bent bulldog that I picked up from eBay. I snagged it because I liked the shape and it was cheap. What I didn’t know at the time, but became immediately apparent when the pipe arrived, was that the end of the shank had been shattered into at least three pieces and glued back together. There was no stamping on the pipe, but I don’t think that was always the case. It was likely sacrificed during the shank repair. The repair is fairly obvious in my photos below, but I assure you that it was not nearly so in the seller’s. The right combination of lighting and angles can cover up a multitude of sins, folks. Caveat emptor.

The exposed cracks weren’t the worst part of the story though. The repair did as much damage to the pipe as the crack did. An alarming amount of material had been taken off while sanding out the excess glue. It’s difficult to see in the photos, because from any one angle everything looked correct. However, if you held the pipe in hand and rolled it around you would notice that no two faces on the shank were equal. The shank was no longer a diamond shape; it was a trapezium. The repairman hadn’t paid much attention to keeping the surfaces level either. So, there was a subtle undulation to the line of the shank as it went from thick to thin and back again several times along its length. There was also very little effort made to blend the repaired area into the rest of the pipe, and several shallow “steps” were visible where the two surfaces met. There was at least an attempt to match up the stem to the shank, but that only gave the stem the same odd angles and even they didn’t quite match up to the ones on the shank. All in all, it was a bit of a travesty. Here are a few photos taken just after it arrived.Anthony1

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Anthony3 That was all far more than my tender, noobie hands could handle at the time. So, I cleaned the internals of the pipe and put it away for later, but not before adding a bit of bend to the stem that it seemed to have lost over time.
I’ve finished up work on all the rest of the pipes in that first batch. So, this week it was time to put a collar on that dog and turn in my final midterm.

I started (or restarted I should say) by dropping the stummel into an alcohol bath for a couple of hours to soften any coating that might be on the pipe. I had quite a surprise when I removed it later on. It looked fine when it was fresh from the bath, but a hazy, white glaze began to form on the surface as it dried. I hadn’t seen anything like this before and I’ll admit to a brief moment of panic. I assumed that this was probably the result of some type of coating reacting to the alcohol. So, I wiped the stummel down with acetone taking extra care around the shank repair, since acetone will break down superglue. That did the trick and the stummel cleaned up nicely.Anthony4 I set up the retort to see if I could remove any more tar buildup from the pipe. I flushed the shank about 10 times with boiling alcohol before allowing the pipe to cool. I noticed that the vial appeared to be losing a lot of liquid during the retort. The cotton wasn’t discolored. So, it wasn’t gassing out through the bowl. It really had me scratching my head until I saw a spot of moisture on the shank when I was removing the retort. For some reason, it wasn’t sealing well at the mortise and I’d need to look into that before I went much further.Anthony5 I gave the pipe a post-retort scrub of the stem and shank, and then inspected the crack repair for gaps. The surface of the glue joints looked airtight, but I noticed that the glue hadn’t penetrated very deep. The joints left shallow fissures inside the mortise and along the shank face. I used a small pushpin to place a little super-thin CA glue directly into the fissures, and then used a toothpick to apply a thin layer of the CA around the end of the mortise to create a seal inside as well as out.

When the glue was dry, I sanded out the interior patches with sanding needles and a piece of 400-grit sandpaper wrapped around a small dowel. I refaced the shank on my topping surface in a manner similar to how I would top a bowl (pressing lightly into the paper and using a circular motion). The following pictures show the patches when fresh and after they had been sanded out. You can also get some idea of the irregularities in the shank by comparing the differences in the face angles and wall thickness around the mortise.Anthony6 After that, I reattached the stem and ran a retort through it again to test for leaks. The outside of the stem and shank stayed dry as a bone through the whole process. So, I began addressing the pipe’s cosmetic issues.

I lightly topped the bowl and chamfered the inner rim to remove the scratches and dings. Then, I steamed a few dents out of the finish by pressing a screwdriver that had been heated over a tea candle into a wet cloth placed over the dents. Finally, I used CA glue and briar dust to patch a few, small gouges and missing fills and sanded them out with 220-grit and 320-grit sandpaper.Anthony7 While I worked on the stummel, the stem had been soaking in an Oxyclean bath. I removed it and scrubbed it down with a Magic Eraser to remove any oxidation. I used black CA glue to fill the tooth dents on the top and bottom of the stem. Once that had dried I sanded it down with 220-grit paper.Anthony8 The stem button needed to be rebuilt since it was worn and dented. I wrapped several layers of clear tape around the stem just below the button to create a form to make a crisp edge and also inserted a Vaseline smeared wedge of cardboard into the slot to seal it. Then, I applied thick, black CA glue in several layers to the end of the stem to begin building the new button. It wasn’t a pretty thing to look at when I removed the tape, but the edge was sharp and there was enough material to work with. I trimmed away the glue artifacts created by the tape molding with an X-Acto blade and rough-shaped the new button with 220-grit paper.Anthony9 Once the button started taking shape, it was time to do something about the other end of the stem and also the deformity of the shank. This was the part of the exam that I had not been looking forward to. Up to this point, everything had been the equivalent to multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions. There were a couple of challenges, but nothing too rough. The next part was more like the essay section.

After a lot of thought, I finally decided that there just wasn’t enough material left around the stem to square everything back up. So, I thought I’d try some trickery of my own. If I couldn’t make everything right, maybe I could use a little more finesse and subtlety than the original repairman did to make it at least look “righter”. If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

I used 220-grit sandpaper to start carefully nudging the edges of the shank and stem saddle this way and that to give them an appearance of alignment. All the while I paid special attention to keep the faces as level and even as I could. There was very little technical skill involved. I was basically just freehanding. Once I had corrected the lines as much as I could, I began blending the reworked areas into the rest of the pipe with 320-grit. The photo below shows the progress somewhere early in the reshaping phase. Honestly, I was at this for a while and kind of lost myself in the middle of it. So, I didn’t get many photos.Anthony10 When I was as satisfied as I was likely to be with the shape of the shank and saddle, I went back to work on the rest of the stem to finish it up. I continued shaping the button with 320-grit and 400-grit paper. Then, I smoothed the entire surface by lightly sanding with 600-grit and 1200-grit paper. Finally, I polished the stem with micro-mesh pads 1500-12000.Anthony11 The stem work was wrapped up. So, it was time to do the same for the stummel. The off-kilter shape of the shank made it difficult to find a band that would fit well. It took three attempts before I found one that would work. I used a method for shaping a round band for the diamond shank similar to what Steve has previously written about here, but it took quite a bit of reworking to get it to conform to the now strange dimensions of the shank. I’m still not quite happy with how it fits, but I’m not sure what I could have done differently.Anthony12 There was nothing left to do at that point but to address the finish of the stummel. I wanted the final color to be close to the original but a little darker to help hide the bit of crack repair that was still visible. I heated the stummel over the heat gun to open the grain and then applied Fiebing’s black dye to the stummel. I then sanded down the surface with 400-grit paper to remove the remaining scratches and most of the black stain, except for what had set in the grain and recesses of the rings. Next, I applied a mahogany stain before sanding with 600-grit and 1200-grit paper. I took the stummel to the buffer and gave it a quick Tripoli buff, and then applied a final stain of British Tan.

The stummel was polished with micro-mesh pads starting with 3600-grit and working through to 12000-grit. I then buffed the entire pipe with white diamond compound and gave it several coats of carnauba wax to finish it up.

I leaned back in my chair and checked the clock on the wall. There were only minutes to go and most of the other seats were already empty. I had to admit that this was really as good as it was going to get. So, with a sigh, I stood up from my chair, gathered my exam materials, and delivered them to the desk at the front of the room…Anthony13

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Replacing a Broken Tenon and Repairing a Cracked Shank on an Old KBB Yello Bole Billiard

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Troy Wilburn and I have been corresponding for a few months now about pipe restoring and the fun of the hobby. He has posted some of his work here so he is no stranger to pipe restoration. I had not heard from him for a while so I sent him and email to check on him. I know he loves the older Yello Bole pipes and I wondered if he had worked on any recently. I am including a portion of the email he sent me in response to mine. He wrote:

“Funny thing you have contacted me as I do have a couple of Yello Boles I need tenon repairs on. One is an old favorite of mine that snapped off. I have tried to repair it and it failed. The other is an odd shaped NOS (I can’t find the shape on any KW chart. It’s a large bowl billiard with a short oval shank and short straight stem) pipe that I purchased with a broken tenon already but I can’t get the broken piece out (it’s really stuck!) So it might need to be drilled out and a new tenon made, I don’t know.”

“Tenon repair is something I’m not that experienced on and they are both very nice old KBB YBs and would like nice repairs done on them, so I was thinking about sending them to someone more experienced in those types of repairs. I was gonna ask Ed but I know he is always swamped with projects, so I was thinking about asking you if you would be interested in repairing them for me…”

I replied that I would gladly have a look and them and give them a go if they were something that I could fix. When they arrived last week I unpacked the box that Troy sent. I have to tell you he did a masterful job of packing these old pipes. They were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and then placed in small plastic containers. Then the plastic containers were put in bubble wrap and put in a box. There was no movement or rattle in that package.

When I took the pipes out I could see what Troy was talking about. The little odd shaped NOS Canadian was strange. It had a metal tenon. Upon observation I could see that someone had left the broken tenon in the shank and then made a metal tenon that slipped inside the broken tenon. Deep in the shank was the stinger rattling around free in the airway between the broken tenon and the bowl. The billiard that I chose to work on first was another matter. I think Troy tried to epoxy the stem on the tenon but it did not hold. The face of the stem was spotty with glue. The shank on the pipe was clean but I did not spend too much time checking it out to see if there were cracks or problems. Even though the tenon snapped I just by passed my normal observation and went to work. That was a decision I would regret shortly… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet.

I faced the surface of the stem and smoothed out the broken area on a topping board. I started with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway and worked my way up to a large enough drill bit that I could turn a tap into it to thread it for the new threaded tenon. This has to be done very slowly and carefully to not drill to deeply into the stem or to angle things so that the tenon does not sit straight in the shank once it is in place. The stem had some spots of glue on the surface and some marks around the end where the tenon had snapped off that would need to be addressed once I got to that point.tenon1 I generally have a few threaded tenons to work with around here. Wouldn’t you know it all of my ¼ inch tenons were gone and all I had left were these large ½ inch ones. It would have to work for this repair. I used a tap to thread the newly drilled stem. I fit the tenon in place and twisted it down until it sat flat against the stem. I then twisted it free and put some glue on the threads and twisted the new tenon into the stem. I cleaned up the excess glue around the junction so that the fit of the tenon was smooth and tight.Tenon2 Once the glue set in place I set up my PIMO Tenon Turning tool on my cordless drill and took down the tenon slowly until I had removed enough of the excess Delrin to get it close to a fit. Because there are no micro adjustments on the tenon turning tool I always get as close as possible with the tool and then use the Dremel and sanding drum and to strip it more and then finish it by hand with sandpaper.Tenon3 I love the way the Delrin spins off the cutter on the tool. Here is the new tenon sitting among the Delrin scraps ready to take to the Dremel and then hand sand.Tenon4 I used the Dremel to take the tenon down some more. I then sanded it by hand until the size was the same as the shank. When I slid it in place the fit was perfect. I was happy to have finished what seemed to be an easy repair. I slipped the stem out of the shank to clean and polish the tenon. When I slid it back in place the sound that makes me cringe was heard. It was just a slight low pop. I removed the stem and could see a small crack had either appeared on the shank with the new tenon in place or the new tenon had made the crack appear. I will never know for sure as I did not check it before. I cleaned off that area of the shank and examined the crack. It was just under ½ long and curved up through the stamping on the shank. I was sick.

I wrote Troy a quick email and told him the situation as it stood – great fitting stem, repaired tenon and now a cracked shank. I asked if it was cracked before or if I had cracked it. He was not sure either. Ah well no matter. I was hoping he would confirm that it was previously cracked but he didn’t know. I asked about banding the shank and he said he would rather not as he did not like bands. But if I had to a thin one would do. The problem was twofold – I did not have a thin band and a thin one would not fix the crack. I suggested that maybe I could do an internal repair and thin down the new tenon to fit inside of the tube that would be used to repair the shank. He said to go for it and see what I could do.

So I did a bit of looking through my parts bin to see if I could find either a piece of Delrin tube that I could drill and fit or a piece of metal that would work for the repair. I found I had a metal tube that would work. I cut off a piece the length of the mortise. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to roughen the surface of the tube and to reduce the diameter slightly. I wanted a good snug fit in the shank but did not want to open the crack or crack it further. I spread the crack slightly and put super glue in it and clamped it until it set.

While it was drying I used the Dremel to reduce the diameter of the tenon until it would fit inside of the metal tube. I figured it would be easier to do that fitting with the tube out of the shank than when it was inserted in the cracked shank. Again I sanded with the Dremel and then finished by hand sanding until the fit was a nice snug fit with the tenon all the way into the tube.tenon5

Tenon6 I sanded and smoothed the ends of the tube and made sure that the surface was rough enough to bond to the inside of the mortise. I roughened the walls of the mortise with a dental pick so that it was scored. I wanted to make both surfaces rough enough for the glue to bond to and make the tube secure in the shank. It would have to be a tight fit as I did not want the tube to come out with the stem when Troy took it off the pipe to clean it. I coated the outside of the metal tube with glue and let it get tacky. When it was tacky I pressed into the shank with the sharp end of a pair of needle nose pliers. I pushed it in until it sat against the end of the mortise in the shank.Tenon7 With the tube in place in the shank I still needed to flare the end so that it would fit against the bevel of the mortise end. I probably could have shortened the tube slightly but beveling the end would take care of that.Tenon8 I pressed the end of rounded tip of the needle nose pliers into the end of the tube and worked on the flare. It took some work to mould it to shape. I then use a small round needle nose file to smooth out the flare and match the angle of the bevel.Tenon9 I stained the end of the shank with a stain pencil and also touched up the cracked area on the shank. I will need to polish that to get it to match the shine on the bowl but you can see the fit of the stem against the shank and look of the shank.Tenon10 With the shank repair completed I needed to work on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches and glue build up that was on the surface of the stem. I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. Then it was time to sand it with micromesh sanding pads. Instead of wet sanding I used a little olive oil on the stem and sanded with the micromesh with oil. I did that with 1500-2400 grit pads. I continued with 3600-12,000 grit pads without adding any further oil to the surface of the stem. With these older Yello Bole stem I find that wet sanding does not work well but to sand with oil is perfect and will raise a nice shine. I also am careful about buffing them as they have a pretty low melting point and are easily damaged. This particular stem does not appear to be vulcanite so I was careful.Tenon11

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Tenon13 The next two photos show the shank end. The stain got on the flare of the metal tube and I will need to wipe it out with a bit of alcohol. However you can see the flare of the metal and the briar to take the new tenon and hold the stem tight against the shank. The airway has what appears to be a loose piece of metal on the second photo at the bottom of the shank. I blew out the shank with air and the dust and fibres that were present disappeared.tenon14

tenon15 The next four photos show the finished pipe and stem. The newly fit stem sits nicely against the shank. The repair to the shank is solid and the crack is closed. With the metal insert it should be free from further cracking and the tenon slides in snugly to the mortise.tenon16

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tenon19 The next two photos give a close look at the shank/stem junction. It is good and tight. The final photo shows that the new tenon sits tight against the stem and looks like it was when it left the factory – just narrower in diameter to fit in the metal tube.tenon20

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tenon22 The first pipe is finished Troy. Hopefully the second one will be much simpler. This one is ready for you to load up and enjoy once again.

It appeared to be a hopeless case, but was it really?

8 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe was posted on Smokers Forums as one that was in rough shape. http://www.smokersforums.co.uk/showthread.php?273-Whew! As soon as I saw it I thought it would be fun to take on as a challenge and see what could be made of it. It was truly in very rough shape. So I put in a low bid on EBay and it was mine. Only the wait remained before I would see what I got myself into.

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When it arrived I opened the box and took it out to see what I had to deal with on it. The stem was stuck in the shank and it was off center. I made a guess that it was a screw in stem – metal tenon and some kind of condenser. The finish was absolutely ruined. There was an opaque film all over the bowl and shank of varnish that had gone bad. There were crackles in the finish. The shank was crack badly and the shank was no longer square – the crack had expanded away from the angles of the pipe. The rim was invisible and the bowl was caked with a thick cake but upon examination it was full of cracks and crevices rather than a hard cake of carbon. Looking at what I could see of the inner edge of the rim it seemed like it was not damaged – at least not by reaming! There were several burn spots on the outside of the bowl around the rim and left side of the bowl from laying the pipe in an ash tray with a cigarette. It would indeed be a challenge and one that I wondered seriously about for a few moments.

I immediately put it in the freezer for a half an hour to see if I could loosen the stem from the shank. Once I took it out I was able to twist off the stem and remove it from the shank. I took it to my work table and examined it to see what I had to work with. I was quite happy to see that the shank had a metal tube inside that was threaded to receive the tenon. The tube extended into the shank about an inch. This would make a repair on the crack quite simple and not require that I band the pipe. The stem was overturned and the tenon would need to be heated until it was loose and then realigned on the shank. The insert in the shank extended further than the end of the shank and kept the stem from seating correctly against the shank. I also noted that the stamping did not read Worchester as the seller had listed it but that it read Dorchester and underneath that Algerian Briar. There was also damage on the shank near the bowl on the right side where the edge was pretty chewed up by what looked like a pair of pliers used to try and remove the stem from the shank. The slot in the button was clogged with oils and tars so I was assuming that insides were the same way. The stem had white spots on it that at first appeared to be paint but were actually pits in the stem. It appeared to be made of something other than vulcanite. I was not sure what it was but it was not rubber. All of the issues with this pipe, and they were many, but it was very repairable.

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I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head first and gradually working up to the diameter of the bowl. I wanted to ream the pipe back to bare briar to give a fresh start and be able to see if there were any burn out issues in the bowl. There were none.

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With the bowl reamed and the cake gone it was time to clean the exterior of the bowl and rim. I wiped it down with acetone to remove the finish and break up the crackled varnish that is visible in the above photos. I also lightly topped the bowl with a sanding block to remove the crumbly build up on the rim. I was guessing from my examination that the rim itself was not damaged so a light topping to remove the buildup would be all I would need to do. The next series of photos show the process of wiping down the bowl, topping it and wiping it down a second time after topping. While most of the varnish finish was gone, not all of it would come off with the acetone wash. So in the last picture below you can see the crackly finish on the shank and at the bowl junction.

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I decided to drop the bowl in my alcohol bath to soak while I worked on cleaning up the stem. I use an alcohol bath to soak the pipe bowl and get underneath the varnish coat. Once it comes out of the bath it is relatively simple to wipe off the remaining finish. While it soaked I scrubbed the stem with Everclear and a soft bristle tooth brush. I scrubbed off the surface grit and grim and also worked on the button and slot to loosen the grit. I scrubbed the condenser as well with the Everclear and also used 0000 steel wool to polish it. I cleaned out the inside of the stem with thick and bristle pipe cleaners. Once it was clean it was time to take the bowl out of the bath.

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I removed the pipe from the bath and scrubbed it with the tooth brush. I worked on the grooves in the bowl and also at the shank bowl junction. I dried it off and prepared it for work on the cracked shank. The crackled finish was finally gone and the pipe was clean.

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I scrubbed the area around the crack in the shank and picked out dust and particles with a dental pick. I dripped clear superglue into the crack and packed in briar dust with a dental pick. I clamped the cracked area and set it aside to cure for about a half hour.

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Once I removed the clamp the crack was sealed and the shank was returned to its original shape. I sanded the shank area to remove the excess superglue and the briar dust that was on the surface. The photo below gives a clear picture of the end view of the repaired shank and how it was squared up.

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The next step in the repair process was correcting the overturned stem. I removed the stem and sanded the metal end of the mortise insert flush with the shank end. Then I heated the tenon over a heat gun and when it was warm screwed it on to the shank and turned it until it lined up well with the shank.

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With the stem and shank aligned I sanded the shank area to clean up the damage to the right side where the marks were from someone’s pliers. I also sanded the stem shank junction and the repaired crack with a sanding block until the sides were all smooth in their transition from stem to shank. I wiped it down with an acetone wet cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and prepare it for staining. I used a black permanent marker to cover the fills in the bowl. I have found that when I follow the grain pattern with the marker before restaining the stain works well to mask the fills.

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I chose to do a contrasting stain on this pipe, a black understain and an oxblood/mahogany top stain. I heated the briar and then applied a black aniline stain to the pipe. I applied it with a cotton swab and flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied the stain and also flamed it again to set the stain in the briar.

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I wiped the bowl down with acetone to lighten the black stain and make the grain stand out on the pipe. I also sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge.

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From the above photos you can see the coverage of the black stain and the way in which the black permanent marker blends into the grain of the pipe. I wiped the pipe down repeatedly until it was the colour I wanted before I put on the next coat of stain. For the top coat I chose to use an oxblood or mahogany coloured aniline paste stain. I rubbed it on with cotton swabs and wiped it off with a soft cloth.

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At this point I wiped the bowl down a second time with acetone wetted cotton pads and lightened the reddish finish. The fills are slightly visible but once the pipe is buffed and polished they will be blended in better. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to remove more of the excess stain and help the contrasting under stain to show. I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding pad, and then with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit until it shined. I then gave it a rub down with Obsidian Oil and finally with multiple coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe. It is ready to smoke and will in all likelihood last longer than I will. The lightweight aged Algerian briar evidently made this a great smoking pipe for the previous owner and it will remain that I am sure for the owners to come.

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Restemming and Reclaiming an Old, Unsmoked Rex Bulldog

2 Replies

This is the second of the old unsmoked pipe bowls I picked up on EBay. It is one that I can find absolutely no information on anywhere. Some have thought it was a Barclay Rex but I can find nothing that would link it to that shop in NYC. It is stamped Rex in cursive script on the right side of the shank and also stamped Rex over Sterling on the band. It has the look and feel of an older English-made pipe. But I am not sure. The seller said it was from the late 1800’s but all attempts to contact them on the source of that information have remained unanswered. So it remains a bit of a mystery to me. It is one though that I will continue to hunt down until I can come up with something. This shape is what is called in some of the older catalogues a Bulldog. I personally am not sure what to call it. It has the shape of a bulldog on the bowl and the double ring separating the bottom of the bowl from the cap. The shank however, is oval. It has a factory installed band on it that is also stamped Rex. The script on the shank is in gold leaf. The bowl is very clean. There was a small crack in the shank on the shank at about one o’clock looking toward the bowl. This may have been the reason for the band or the band may have been decorative. There was no stem with this pipe so I was not sure of the length of the stem to make for it. The drilling is very interesting. It is drilled like some of the calabash bowls or bowls that were screwed onto Bakelite shank and bases in the late 1800s. It is directly in the bottom of the bowl and seems to have a small hollow chamber under the hole. The airway meets it directly underneath. I have not seen this drilling on briar pipes of newer eras. The bowl is smooth inside and almost polished. The briar is quite nice and sports mixed grains from cross grain to birdseye to flame around the bowl. The double cut rings are clean and are not clogged with wax or dirt. There appears to be a thin coat of shellac on the outside of the bowl to give it a shine as it shines with or without the application of wax. The silver band is interestingly shaped as well. It is somewhat conical – wider toward the bowl side and narrower on the stem side. There is also a stepped down lip on both sides of the band. Where it is on the bowl is stepped down to a small ring around the shank. On the stem side it is also stepped down. This would make fitting a stem to the shank a challenge. It was not too badly oxidized so it would clean up very easily. The first series of five photos are those taken by the Ebay seller and give a good idea of the look and condition of the pipe. The one thing not clear to me was the size of the pipe. I took a chance on it as the apparent age and the assumed age stated by the seller made the likelihood of it being smaller was very high. When it arrived it was indeed quite small. The bowl and shank are roughly 3 inches long without the stem. The height of the bowl is 1 5/8 inches. The inside diameter of the bowl is ¾ inches and the outside diameter is 1 ¼ inches.

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Once I started working on it the first decision that needed to be made was on the type and length of the stem to be used. I fitted several oval stems to the bowl – a standard length billiard type stem, a thicker and a thinner oval Canadian stem and a Lovat style saddle stem. The longer stem did not work well with the longer shank on the pipe. The thicker Canadian stem also made the stem look quite chunky and large as did the saddle stem of the Lovat. The stem I settled on was the thinner Canadian oval. Even this one would require considerable thinning to make for a proper fit against the bevel of the band. The first photo below shows the two Canadian taper style oval stems. I chose the bottom stem in the photo.

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I used the PIMO tenon turning tool to turn the tenon so that it would fit in the shank. The next three photos show the initial fit of the stem. You will note in the photos the gap where the bevel of the band lies. I had to make a decision to either leave the gap or work on the stem size so that it fit against the bevel and thus was slightly thinner than the shank prior to the band.

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I decided to thin the stem to fit against the bevel. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to bring it close to the finished size. I then sanded it with medium grit emery paper to smooth out the scratches and grooves from the Dremel. Once I had most of the scratches removed I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge to further shape the stem and remove excess material. The next series of three photos show the fit of the stem after it was sanded with the sanding sponge (pink square in the photos).

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At this point in the process I had to take it back and sand off some more material with 340 grit sandpaper. It still was too thick to fit well. I also had to finesse the fit against the band with needle files as in some places it was not quite straight. When I had it fitting well I moved on to sanding with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad (the next two photos). I also did a small repair on the crack in the top of the shank. I pried it open slightly and dripped some clear super glue into the crack. It did not go all the way through into the shank which was interesting. It seemed to be a surface crack. The repair worked well. I polished that portion of the shank with the 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad as well to remove the slight excess of glue left behind (third photo below).

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After the repair I continued sanding and polishing the stem with 1800-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads. The next four photos highlight the sanding/polishing process. Notice the slight hip on the stem at the band edge. In the photos this appears to be more drastic than it is in actual life. The fit is more of a pinched look.

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The final series of four photos show the finished pipe. I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I really like the stem and fit against this long shanked “Bulldog” bowl. The pipe glows with an age and patina that calls out to be smoked. This is yet another who will soon fulfill the purpose for which it was made.

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Redeeming a Disaster – A Repair with a Happy Ending

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On Christmas Eve I decided to start working on a little acorn shaped pipe bowl that I have had here for quite awhile. It sat in my repair box in wait for the right moment for me to take it to the work table. It needed a stem and the shank was set up for a metal screw in tenon. I did not have any metal threaded tenons that fit the shank well or I could have made a stem for the pipe and inserted the threaded tenon. The time was right and I wanted to try something a bit different on this one. It did not matter if it worked or not really as it was truly a disposable pipe. With that freedom in mind I decided to fit the bowl with a push tenon stem. To make that work involved removing the metal insert from the shank. I reamed the bowl and cleaned out the shank to get it ready for removing the insert. I tried to twist if out as I figured that it was screwed into the shank. No such luck. It was tight and I could not remove it after using heat or putting it into the freezer to cause it to contract and loosen. I made a decision at that moment that did not end well – at least in the short term.

I set up my cordless drill with a bit that would open up the shank. My thinking was that if I could not removed the insert I would drill it open and smooth so that it would take a regular push tenon with no problem. I started with a drill bit virtually the same size as the airway and then planned on moving up to larger drill bits as the work progressed. The initial drilling worked well and the threads were smoothed out. So far so good! I was pretty excited to watch the airway smoothing out and opening up. Then I changed the drill bit for the next size up and drilled it a second time. I progressed slowly holding the bowl in my hand as I drilled the shank. I have done this before and did expect any problems. You know the thinking right – it worked well in the past so I could expect it to work the same this time around. So with full confidence I worked away. Then disaster struck. A few moments after starting to drill with the slightly larger bit the shank literally shattered in my hand. I was left holding four pieces of broken briar in my hand. The bottom half of the shank remained intact but the upper half was in three pieces. The metal insert remained unmovable in the bottom portion of the shank.

I was a bit stunned and almost binned the broken briar. What had at first appeared to be a good idea was reduced to something that I was ready to throw away and write off as a learning experience. However, I stopped and looked at the pieces for awhile. I thought about cutting the shank off and adding a shank extension to do one of Piet’s Hot Rods. I weighed the pros and cons of that and still was not certain whether I wanted to go to that trouble for this pipe. I took the pieces and puzzled them together to see what the damage looked like when it was put back together. I examined it closely and could see that the break was at least very clean and the surface was not chipped or damaged. I used a dental pick to remove the metal insert from the shank. I decided to get out the super glue and put the pieces back together for a look. With all the pieces in place the pipe looked okay. I sanded off the excess glue from the shank and used some acetone to clean off the stain that was on the shank and bowl. It looked like there was some promise. I decided to strengthen the bond with a nickel band. I heated a nickel band with my heat gun and carefully pressure fit the band on the shank. The repaired pipe was going to be workable.

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I sanded the bowl and the shank and wiped it down repeatedly with acetone. The idea was to remove all of the remaining lacquer finish and even out the stain. I wanted to get the bowl back to bare wood as much as possible before restaining. Once I had it clean I sanded it again with a fine grit sponge backed sanding pad. I continued to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to prepare it for staining.

I had an old saddle stem that would fit the shank dimensions in my box of scavenged stems. I turned the tenon to fit the newly cleaned shank and did the initial sanding to remove the oxidation on the stem. I used the same sponge back sanding pad I used on the bowl as it allows good access to the saddle areas of the stem. The photos below show the newly fit stem. I have quite a bit more work to do on the stem and bowl to bring the pipe to a finished condition but the promise is definitely there. In the second and third top view photo below you can see the repaired shank. I am pretty confident that it will be pretty well hidden by the staining.

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Before restaining the bowl I decided to work on the stem and get it polished and smooth. I used the 1500 and 1800 micromesh pads to do the sanding and polishing before using the Maguiar’s polishing compound. I have started to use it after the first two or three micromesh sanding grits. I rub it on by hand and then scrub it with a soft cotton pads before wiping it off. I repeat this polishing process with the compound two times before proceeding to working through the remaining micromesh grits. I sanded the stem with 2400 and 3200 grit and took it to the buffer and used Tripoli to buff away the scratches and the oxidation that remained at this point in the process. I also buffed the bowl with the Tripoli. Once back to the work table I used 3600 and 4000 grit before giving the stem a rub down with Obsidian Oil. The four pictures below show the pipe as it looks at this point. The bowl is ready to stain and the stem is getting close to the finished look. There is still some oxidation around the saddle area that will need some more work.

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I decided to use an oxblood coloured aniline stain on the pipe to try to minimize the visibility of the repair to the shank. I used a cotton swab to apply the stain, flamed it and then buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth before taking it to the buffer and buffing it with White Diamond. After buffing I waxed it with several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine.

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I also finished the polish on the stem using White Diamond on the buffer before finishing with the remaining three grits of micromesh pads – 6000, 8000 and 12,000. I gave it a final buff with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil. I finished the stem with several coats of carnauba wax. The four photos below show the finished pipe. The repair to the stem is visible if you look closely but the redemption of this broken pipe is complete and it is ready to smoke.

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Restoring a unique Peterson 10

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I picked up this old Peterson shape number 10 at a flea market for about $12. This one needed cleaning inside and out as well as reaming. The finish was quite good. I just used a soft bristle tooth brush to get into the crevices. The shank had a crack in it so I banded it with a silver band. The bowl was caked and very narrow. I used a battery terminal brush and an old adjustable reamer to get inside of it. The stem on it was obviously not the original but a smaller diameter replacement stem that did not fit well. The shank had been sanded smooth but was not tapered to meet the misfit stem but it was perfect for setting the band. Before doing that I used some super glue to squeeze the crack in the shank together. I held it until it was dry. I then heated the band with my heat gun and pressure fit it on the shank. I flattened the bottom edge of the band to match the flat bottom where the stamping is. I fit and shaped a new stem. Once it was fit I bent it to a comfortable fit for the mouth. Then I sanded and polished it with my usual regimen of micromesh pads from 1500-6000 grit.

Repairing a cracked shank

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Blog by Steve Laug

I received this older BBB Tortoise that was in pretty good shape. I did a topping on it and a restain that is posted in a separate blog posting. But in the cleaning process I also found that the shank had a crack in it. In the picture below you can see that the crack is quite long and is open. I know that others repair these with a shank insert and glue the crack together, but I have not ventured into that avenue as yet. On this kind of crack in the shank my normal process is to glue the crack with super glue and then band the pipe. In this essay I want to describe that process for you.

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I removed the stem from the shank and cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I want the surface to be grime free. I also wiped down the crack with an alcohol wipe to make sure the outer surface was also grime free. I then pried the crack open by inserting my dental pick in the mortise and giving it a small bit of pressure to open the crack. The key at this point is not to apply to much pressure as it will continue to crack. Being gentle and taking your time is critical at this point or you will make the problem a bigger one. Once the crack is open I drip super glue into the crack and then hold it together with the stem removed in order for the glue to bind the crack. Once that is done I wipe off the outside of any excess glue that will extend beyond the width of the band and set it aside.

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I heat the band with my heat gun and pressure fit it onto the shank of the pipe by pressing the band and shank into the piece of carpet pictured in the photos. It is important to keep the pipe absolutely vertical and straight as you press the band into place. You will want to press the band on the shank until the lower edge is flush with the end of the shank so that the stem fits properly. With the band heated this is not difficult to do. The band will pretty easily slide up the shank with the pressure you apply. Check for a good fit and then let it cool for a few moments.

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Once it is cooled the stem can be fit to the shank. I find that with the band the tenon will need a slight bit of sanding to fit correctly. I use some 220 grit sandpaper to remove a little of the material. I make one pass with the paper and then try it for a fit. It should slide in snugly so you must be careful not to remove too much material. Often just one pass is enough and the stem should go in perfectly.

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With the stem refit the pipe is ready for a buffing and polishing. Avoid buffing around the band on the buffer as it will cause the pad to go dark and leave a black/grey haze on the briar around the shank and band area. I buff the shank avoiding the band and then polish the entirety with a light touch on the carnauba wheel. Below is the banded and repaired pipe.

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