Tag Archives: Repairing a vulcanite stem

Restoring the third of six pipes for a Vancouver Pipeman – No Name Bent Rhodesian

by Steve Laug

Earlier this week I received an email from Stephen regarding a few more pipe projects that he had for me to work on. He dropped them off here yesterday for me to work on. There were six pipes in the lot. Two were his that I had worked on a few years ago – a Mayfair 1005 rusticated tree stump and a Jost Supreme. Both were favourite pipes of his. One was a Savinelli Bent Billiard that he purchased on a trip to Italy. The final three were pipes that belonged to his father who would soon be visiting him in Vancouver – a Brigham full bent four dot 4244, a Savinelli Portofino Bent Pot and a Bent Rhodesian with no name stamped on the shank sides. Stephen texted me this photo of the pipes before he sent them.I decided to work on the second of Stephen’s father’s pipes. It is a smooth Bent Rhodesian. It is a beautiful grained piece of briar that I can appreciate why he chose it. The pipe is unstamped and does not appear to have even the remnants of any stamping. The briar is dirty from use with a moderate cake in the bowl and a lot of chipping and dents in the rim top and the twin rings on Bullcap on the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of and on the surface of the button. There is no stamping on the side of the stem as it was unmarked. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work and included them below. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in bowl and the lava overflow and the heavy nicking and denting on the edges and rim top of the bowl. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There is also a paper wash inserted in the mortise of the pipe to tighten the fit of the stem.I removed the stem from the shank of the pipe and took a photo of the parts to show the flow of the pipe. It has some great grain.I used a dental spatula to scrape out the paper washer from the inside of the shank. It had been glued to the right side of the shank to thicken the wall of the right side. It was not an effective way as the shank was not drilled evenly. It was straight but the shank was not round. The stem turned the same way the stem was.To address the damage on the rim top I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I took off the rim damage and smoothed out the top of the rim. It looked much better. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was dirty but it cleaned up very well. I cleaned the surface of the briar with a cotton pad and acetone to remove the grime and the remnants of the finish on the briar. It looked much better.There was a large divot on the bottom of the bowl that I decided to repair. I filled it in with some clear CA glue and pressed briar dust into the glue. I repeated the process until the damaged area was filled in. Once the repair cured I sanded it flat to blend it into the surrounding surface of the briar. It looked much better when I was finished. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. I polished the briar with 1500-12000 micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding the bowl with the pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It is looking much better. I left the nicks on the twin rings around the top of the Bullcap as they are a part of the pipe’s journey. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to work it into the rings around the Bullcap. The product works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks very good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite taper stem. I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub to break through the oxidation, calcification and clean up the tooth marks.I filled in the tooth marks on the stem surface and on the surface of the button on both sides with black CA glue. The glue I use has both rubber and carbon in the mix that harden as it dries but does not become brittle. Once it cured I flattened the repairs and reshaped the button edge with a flat needle file. I cleaned up the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. This No Name Bent Rhodesian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of brown stains really highlight the grain and the polished finish has depth. The nicks in the rings give a bit of character and history to the pipe. I put the vulcanite stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Bent Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 48 grams /1.69 ounces. I have three more of Stephen’s pipes to work on. Once I have finished I will get them back to him to enjoy with his father. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring the second of six pipes for a Vancouver Pipeman – Savinelli Portofino Rusticated Pot

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by Steve Laug

Earlier this week I received an email from Steffen regarding a few more pipe projects that he had for me to work on. He dropped them off here yesterday for me to work on. There were six pipes in the lot. Two were his that I had worked on a few years ago – a Mayfair 1005 rusticated tree stump and a Jost Supreme. Both were favourite pipes of his. One was a Savinelli Bent Billiard that he purchased on a trip to Italy. The final three were pipes that belonged to his father who would soon be visiting him in Vancouver – a Brigham full bent four dot 4244, a Savinelli Portofino Bent Pot and a Bent Rhodesian with no name stamped on the shank sides. Steffen texted me this photo of the pipes before he sent them.This afternoon I decided to work on the first of Steffen’s father’s pipes. It is a rusticated Bent Pot. It is a beautiful grained piece of briar that I can appreciate why he chose it. There is a mother of pearl acrylic disc sandwiched between two brass bands on the end of the stem that provides a separation between the bowl and the vulcanite taper stem. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and heel of the bowl and reads Portofino [followed by] Italy below and to the right [followed by] Savinelli [over] Product. The briar is dirty from use with a moderate cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the rusticated rim top. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. There is no stamping on the side of the stem as it was unmarked. It also looked to have been made for a Savinelli Balsa Filter. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I have included them below. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in bowl and the lava overflow on the edges and rim top of the bowl. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I also took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed. It is a great looking pipe.I cannot find any specific information on the Savinelli Product Portofino Rusticated Pot online. I found pipes for sale on Worthpoint and other sites that were both smooth and rusticated so the name does not imply rusticated pipes. Portofino is a village in NW Italy, SE of Genoa: tourist resort. The brand is thus part of a collection of pipes made by Savinelli named after villages in Italy. I have included a photo of the village from a tourist site.Now it was time to start working on the pipe itself. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl with a tooth brush and some undiluted Muprhy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed the bowl down with warm water to remove the debris and dust. The bowl looked muc better. I worked on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the debris on the rim top. It looked significantly better.I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was dirty but it cleaned up very well. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips. It works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks very good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite taper stem. I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub to break through the oxidation, calcification and clean up the tooth marks.I filled in the tooth marks on the stem surface and on the surface of the button on both sides with black CA glue. The glue I use has both rubber and carbon in the mix that harden as it dries but does not become brittle. Once it cured I flattened the repairs and reshaped the button edge with a flat needle file. I cleaned up the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good. The stem was drilled to fit a Savinelli Balsa System filter. I removed a new filter from the package of Balsa filters and fit one in the tenon of the stem. It fit well and looked good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. This Savinelli Product Portofino Rusticated Pot is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of brown stains really highlight the grain under the rustication and the polished finish has depth. I put the vulcanite stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Savinelli Product Portofino Pot fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 67 grams /2.33 ounces. I have five more of Stephen’s pipes to work on. Once I have finished I will get them back to him to enjoy with his father. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a Strangely Shaped Hilson Dromedary with an Oval Shank

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Blog by Steve Laug

My friend Alex stops by now and then with pipes that he has found on his pipe hunts in the city. Generally he has some very interesting pipes he picks up on these hunts. The other night when he came by he brought along a strange one made by Hilson after they had moved to Holland. It is called a Dromedary. I suppose it was named after the Arabian one-humped camel that was a light and swift breed trained for riding or racing. When I was in Jaipur, India I saw Dromedary camels pulling carts and wagons in the streets of the fabric district (see the photo to the left). The single hump clearly distinguishes them from the other 2 humped camel.

This Hilson was obviously named after that work animal from the East. The single hump on the shank while at first glance is ugly nonetheless fits nicely as a thumb rest for either right or left handed pipe smokers. I cannot find a timeline for the duration of the brand but I have seen them on EBay and other sale sites so I am assuming there are enough of them out there to still be in existence. It is the first one that I have had in hand and the first one that I have worked on. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. They show the general condition of the pipe.

The finish on the bowl is very dirty and grimy but you can see some interesting cross grain left side of the bowl working down to the underside of the shank. The back of the bowl show some of the same grain and on the sides there is a mix of birdseye and swirled grain. On the right side there is a small fill that has come loose from the briar leaving behind a divot. The rim top is very dirty with a thick coat of lava overflowing from the bowl. It also shows some damage on the inner edge – it looks to have been reamed with a knife and the gouges show even under the grime. There is a burn mark on the back ride side of the rim and going down the back of the bowl about a ¼ inch. The bowl has a thick cake that is uneven all around the bowl. The stamping on the shank is readable and the area around it is very dark. The stem is oxidized and dirty. There is a slight H mark on the top side near the shank stem junction but it is pretty shallow in the vulcanite.

The next closeup photos of the bowl and stem truly show the condition of the pipe before I started.You can see the lava build up and damage to the rim top as well as the cake in the bowl. The bowl had a fairly thick cake overflowing onto the rim. The stem was very oxidized and spotty with tooth chatter and marks on both the top and underside of the stem near the button. There is a faint Hilson H logo stamped on the top of the oval stem. I do not know if it is deep enough to salvage.

The pipe has some nice cross grain that is shown in the first photo of the left side of the bowl. The right side is a mix of grains – swirled, flame and cross grain. The top and underside of the bowl and shank show some interesting, almost undulating grain patterns. This is particularly visible on the top view moving up and over the hump. It is a great piece of briar that shows a lot of promise.

The pipe is stamped on the underside of the oval shank. It reads Hilson over Dromedary over Made in Holland. At the shank/stem junction it has the shape number stamp 712.The photo below shows that the stamping is readable. (The second photo shows the stamping after I had removed the dark stain and polished it carefully with the 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads.)

It has been awhile since I worked on a Hilson so I did a quick review of the history of the brand. This always adds some value to my mind when I work on a pipe. I remembered at some point Hilson had been sold to Gubbels who made the Big Ben pipe. At that time, it moved from being a Belgian made pipe to being made in the Netherlands/Holland. I turned to Pipedia and read the entry on Hilson there(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Hilson)and to Pipephil’s site to read what he had for information (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-h3.html).I have combined and summarized the pertinent information from the two sites.

In 1846 a German named Jean Knödgen started to produce clay pipe in Belgium. In the late 19th century Jean Hillen who married into the Knödgen family took over the company and changed the firm in order to manufacture briar pipes. Jean Hillen had 2 sons: Jos Hillen was responsible for sales and Albert Hillen was responsible for the production.After WWII Albert founded the HILSON brand (Hillen and Son) and exported his pipes all over the world.

…In the 1960’s and still throughout the 1970’s the brand Hilson of Broers Hillen B.V. (Hillen Bros. Co.) was quite successful in many European countries. They produced large numbers of machine made pipes covering the whole range of shapes and finishes. The pipes were well respected for good quality and craftsmenship at very moderate prices.

…in 1980 Hillen faced major financial problems. After having gone bankrupt, the Belgian brand from Bree (Limburg) wastaken over by the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory. The owner, Elbert Gubbels used the favour of the hour and bought the company…The Hillen plant in Bree was closed down shortly after and ever since then Hilson pipes are manufactured in Roermond, NL.

Given that the plant in Bree, Belgium closed around 1980 after Gubbels had purchased the company, I knew that the pipe I was working on had been made after that time.The Made in Holland stamp on the underside of the shank gave that information.I am not sure that I can get any closer in terms of a date for the pipe.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the cake and cleaned up after the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife (no photo, sorry!). I wrapped 220 sandpaper around a piece of dowel and sanded the inside of the bowl.

I topped the bowl on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board. I scrubbed the finish with a cotton pad and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grit and grime. I scrubbed the rim top at the same time to remove the sanding dust. I rinsed the bowl under running water and dried it off. The grain really is quite beautiful at this point in the process. There are some repairs that need to be done on the right side of the bowl but the bowl shows a lot of promise.

I sanded the burn mark on the back side of the bowl and filled in the damaged fill on the right side with a mix of super glue and briar dust. When the glue dried I sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the area into the rest of the briar surface. I apologize because I was on a roll so I forgot to take photos of the repairs. I wiped down the bowl with an alcohol dampened cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and smooth out the finish. The grain is looking really good. The burn mark, though still visible is better. The repaired area is also far better.

I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads –wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads.I wiped the bowl down with a damp cotton pad after each grit of micromesh was finished. The bowl is beginning to take on a real shine and the grain is becoming more prominent.

With the bowl polished it was time to address the lighter rim top and the repairs to the burn and the fill on the rear and right side respectively (result of sanding). I used an Oak Stain Pen to touch up the areas and darken them to match the rest of the bowl. Once the stain dried the match was really good and the pipe looked better.

I worked Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I let the balm sit for about 20 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like. The grain is quite beautiful and the colour of the briar is perfect to highlight it. I am happy with the look of the pipe.

I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. It was pretty rough looking and would take some work. I sanded the surface carefully with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter, marks and oxidation. While I worked on it I noticed I had not cleaned the inside of the stem and went back and looked at the shank and bowl… my goodness I totally forgot to even touch that part after reaming the bowl. I brought the stem sanding to a halt and turned back to cleaning up the internals. I cleaned out the airway in the stem and shank as well as the mortise with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. It was really a mess. I picked out the crud in the corners of the stem with a dental pick. Here are some photos of the cleanup. I feel better about the pipe now! Whew I can’t believe I missed that… been a hard week.

I returned to sand the stem some more. I was able to remove all of the chatter and all but one of the deep tooth marks on the underside of the stem. I heated it a little to raise it then filled it in with some clear super glue and set it aside to cure.

When the repair had cured I used a needle file to flatten the repaired area. I smoothed out and blend it into the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper.

I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then polished it with Denicare Mouthpiece Polish.

I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it further with Before& After Pipe Polish, using both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes to furtherprotect and polish out the scratches. When I finished with those I gave it afinal rub down with the oil and set it aside to dry.

With the stem polished I put it back on the pipe and buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This Hilson Dromedary 712 will soon going back to Alex. The dimensions are Length: 5 3/4 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. I am looking forward to seeing what Alex thinks of this one. I will be calling him soon to come and pick up the pair. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this old dromedary.