Tag Archives: repairing tooth marks

Restoring a Comoy’s Tradition Shape 225 Bent Dublin

Blog by Steve Laug

The second Comoy’s I picked up on the recent hunt was a beautifully shaped 225 Tradition. It is a shape that I love for its graceful flow and bend. The stamping on it was weak but visible under a lens. The left side of the shank was stamped Comoy’s over Tradition and the right side was stamped 225. I looked up the shape on Chris Keene’s Pipe Pages and found this page on a 1960’s catalogue http://pipepages.com/64com19s.htm . It is the 225 shape at the bottom of the page.

When I picked it up the pipe the stain on the briar was slightly faded. The stamping was weak. On the side where Comoy’s Tradition was stamped it is very faint, though still visible with light. On the side of the shank where the shape number was stamped the 2 and the 5 are clear and the middle 2 is very light. The bowl was caked and the rim was caked with tars and carbon build up. The inner bevel was clean and undamaged though dirty with tars and the outer edge was also very clean. The exterior of the pipe had no dents of dings. The stem was a replacement and was missing the usual step down tenon that I have come to expect and the existing tenon was shorter than normal. The stem itself was oxidized and had a large bite through on the underside. Of the six pipes (GBD and Comoy’s) that I picked up all but the little bulldog have the same issue.

The photo below shows a closer look at the bite through on the underside of the stem. It’s size, the length of the stem and the fact that it was an obvious replacement stem made my decision of whether to try to repair the hole or to cut the stem back quite easy to make.

I used a Dremel and sanding drum to cut the stem back to solid vulcanite and remove the damaged spot and the button. This would necessitate recutting and shaping a new button on the stem as well as reshaping the slot in the button.

After cutting it off I took it back to the worktable to prepare it for the new button. I wiped the stem down to remove the dust from cutting and to clean the surface so that I could get a good clean line on the button.

I used files, a wood rasp and various needle files to cut an edge for the new button on both the top and the bottom sides of the stem. I also used the files to cut back the stem on the slope before the new button on both sides of the stem. The stem needed to be thinned down from the button forward to the shank for more comfort in the mouth and to keep the graceful lines of the shape intact. I used the needle files to carve back the stem thickness and smooth out the lines so that the button did not look choked and pinched at the line. Once I had a clean slope on the stem previous to the button I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to further highlight the angles of the button.

I sanded the end of the new button to give it a slope toward the slot and to remove the sharp edge look of the new cut. I opened up the button to give it a funnelled shape to the airway and also made it oval. The side profile photos give a clear look at the stem and the angle of the stem previous to the new button.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to get rid of the cake and to clear away the debris from the inner edge of the bowl. I cleaned the rim with saliva on a cotton pad and scrubbed until I had removed the tars and buildup from both the top and the inner bevel of the rim.

I sanded the stem to further define the button and shape it using 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge. When I was happy with the overall shape of the stem, I sanded its entirety to remove the oxidation. I finished sanding it with my usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

When I had finished sanding with the final grits of pads I put the stem in the shank and buffed it with red Tripoli to remove some of the scratches that still remained on the underside of the stem near the button and then buffed the whole stem with White Diamond. I lightly buffed the pipe as well before taking it back to the worktable to give it a top coat of red mahogany Minwax stain. I rubbed the stain on the bowl to bring back some of the reddish colour that I have found in my other Tradition pipes and used them to match the colour on this pipe.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to preserve the vulcanite. And when the stain was dry I gave it a light buff with White Diamond. I finished by giving the entire pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax to preserve and give it a shine. The finished pipe is picture below. It is cleaned and ready to continue a life of service.

Refurbishing a Comoy’s Tradition Shape 4 Bulldog

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When hunting for estate pipes I always am on the lookout for certain brands that feel like a win when I find them. I have found a few of them over the years. Some of those brands are Dunhill, Comoy’s, GBD and BBB. Added to that are a few older American brands such as CPF and GFB. On a current hunt I did exceptionally well and found four GBD pipes and two Comoy’s pipes. The first one I have been working on is stamped Comoy’s Tradition and is a shape 4 bulldog. In my mind Comoy’s knew how to make the quintessential bulldog so I was glad to find this one. However, the previous owner had modified the shape dramatically and made it almost unrecognizable due to his changes. I bought it anyway and went back to the books to see what the original shape must have looked like. In the brochure photo below it is the third pipe down labeled Tradition.

Now for the modifications. The next set of four photos show the pipe’s condition when I bought it. The briar is a beautiful piece with no fills or flaws in it. The grain is very nice with a mix of flame, straight and birdseye. The stain is the typical two stage stain that is present on the Tradition pipes that I have seen – a dark understain with a walnut brown stain over that. The bowl when I received it was slightly caked with a small build up of tars and cake that overflowed on the back edge of the top of the rim. There was a slight series of marks on the bevel above the rings where the pipe must have been dropped on concrete or gravel. I don’t believe the stem is an original as the shape is a bit different from the ones I have seen and it is missing the logo. It is also missing the step down tenon that I have come to associate with these pipes. The stamping is weak on the left side though visible. It is not present at all on the right side of the shank. The bottom of the bowl, shank and stem have been sanded flat to make the pipe a sitter. It appeared that the owner merely laid the pipe on a flat sander and never bothered to smooth out the scratches or refinish the bottom of the pipe. He knew what he was doing because he left just enough briar on the bottom of the shank to not go through into the airway and on the bottom of the bowl to leave it still thick enough to protect it from burning out.

The photo below shows the flattened underside of the pipe and the scratches that are visible in the briar and the vulcanite stem.

I reamed out the bowl with a PipNet reaming set beginning with the smallest cutting head and progressing to the one that fit the bowl. I cut back the cake to the bare wood so that I could build it up again evenly. It had tended to be thick around the top of the bowl and about half way down the bowl thinned out. I cleaned out the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and Everclear

I heated the surface of the stem with a lighter to lift the bite marks on the stem surface. The ones on the topside of the stem lifted quite well and a little sanding repaired them. The ones on the underside were deeper and required more work. Several of them lifted but one in particular was very deep and the fibers of the vulcanite were broken. This required a patch with black superglue. There was also a small divot out of the button on the top side that I repaired with the black superglue. I set the stem aside to dry while I worked on the bowl.

I wiped down the bowl and rim with a cotton pad and saliva. I scrubbed the tars and carbon on the rim with the cotton pad and saliva until it was gone. It took a bit of scraping and a lot of elbow grease to remove the buildup but once it was clean the stain was still in very good shape. I also scrubbed the bevel of the inner edge of the rim to clean it and polish it as well.

Once the superglue was dry I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and smooth out the surface of the patch. I sanded it until it was well blended into the surface of the stem. The next two photos show the patch after sanding with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding pad.

I sanded and stained the flattened bottom of the pipe with a medium walnut stain to blend it in with the rest of the pipe. I sanded the stem with my usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and then rubbed in a coat of Obsidian Oil into the stem.

I buffed the pipe and stem with multiple coats of carnauba wax and finished with a clean flannel buff to bring out the shine. The next series of four photos show the finished pipe. Though the previous owner’s modification certainly changed the profile of this old pipe, I think the finished product still looks very good and should continue to provide a good smoke.

After reading Al’s comment below, I did a bit more comparison work with Tradition colours both on line and in my own collection. They tended to be slightly more red than the walnut colour of this bulldog. Armed with that information I decided to give it a coat of Minwax red mahogany stain to bring out the reds a bit more in the briar. Below are the updated pictures of the pipe. In real time the addition of red brings the colour into the same spectrum as the other Traditions in my collection. Thanks Al for the nudge.

Restoring A Craft Briar Volcano/Poker

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Finding this old pipe comes with a tale that is just too good not to tell. I have written it up here for your reading and also to help me remember the tale.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the Vancouver Flea Market to see if I could add any more pipes to my stock of pipes to refurbish. I generally have had some good luck there picking up older pipes at a good price. There is one seller at the market that has some pipes that have always caught my eye but her prices have been unreasonable. She would not negotiate on prices at all so I generally walked away from her and bought from other sellers. However, this time I decided to play a bit of her game. I looked at the various pipes and asked her prices. She walked away so I did as well. I made a loop around the market and then came back to her. She had a twinkle in her eye when I came back and she asked, “Are you serious to buy or do you just look?” I laughed and said, “That my dear lady depends solely upon you!” Again she had that same look and she responded, “Which pipe are you wanting?” I started with the one furthest away from the one I wanted and asked her price. It was a Savinelli Autograph in very nice shape. She took it from the case and waxed eloquent about its beauty. Now I knew her price was based on how beautiful the pipe was to her. She spoke of how her father had smoked a pipe in the old country and she had prepared his tobacco for him. She got a faraway look in her eye.

That did not last long and she was back to business. “You want it?” she asked. I asked her price which was far more than I was willing to pay. So I moved her on to the other pipes in her display case. These she said were less beautiful and were priced accordingly. I carefully went over each pipe talking about how I restore them to their original beauty because I was a pipeman. I loved pipes and everything about them. I enjoyed the process of restoration. She was hooked! I finally got around to the pipe that I had had my eye one for quite a while over the past trips I have made to the market. I asked her the price. She replied that it was $49 but the other one she had shown was way better. She said I should not wait and think too long as opportunities move quickly in our world and who knew if it would be there the next time I came back.

While she spoke I checked out the pipe I wanted. It was stamped on the bottom of its triangular shank, Craft in a Germanic Script and next to that Briar. Stamped above Briar was the number 386. It had an unusual rustication patter on it, a smooth rim and smooth lines on the edges of the triangular shank, the end of the shank and around the rounded bowl bottom. The bottom of the shank was smooth as well. The stem was clean and well fit, with slight oxidation around the shank. There were deep tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem. The bowl was quite clean with a slight cake and the rim was relatively clean as well – a little tarry buildup at the back of the rim. There was no charring or burning. All of this was taken in while she waxed on about taking every opportunity to by the Savinelli.

When she paused for a breath I asked her the price on the pipe in my hands, knowing full well that there was a price tag on the underside of the stem. Without missing a beat she said, “You want that one? I will make a deal”. Ah, now I knew I could make an offer for the pipe. Too low an offer and she would be insulted but too little a variation from her price would insult her. What to do. I quickly came to a price in my mind and spoke it out, “I will pay you $40 cash right now. No tax and no more for this pipe of less beauty than the one you love so much.” She smiled and nodded her head. “We have a deal,” she said and held out her hand for the cash. I was ready and had two brand new $20’s in hand and laid them on her upturned palm. She smiled and told me to enjoy the new pipe but to not let the beautiful one pass without taking it home too.

I walked away and went to the coffee shop. I sipped a coffee while I did a bit of searching on the web regarding the Craft brand of pipes. Somewhere in the recesses of my memory it was a familiar name to me. The “o” logo on the stem looked familiar as well. I had a hunch the pipe was made by Julius Vesz, a Toronto pipemaker selling out of the York Hotel. I found a notation on the web that confirmed that the pipe was made in Toronto and sold out of a shop at the York Hotel. The address given on the site matched Vesz’ shop there. I was fairly certain that my hunch was correct. Another site stated that the Craft Briar Pipe Company’s principal was Julius Vesz. The identity of the carver was certified by the web.

I still wanted to take one further step in confirming that the pipe did indeed come from Julius Vesz. I googled his website and sent an email via the website to the webmaster. I also emailed him directly from the contact information given on the site. Here is the web address should you want to check out some of his pipes: http://www.juliusvesz.ca/

I have included our correspondence about the pipe in full below.

On Dec 29, 2013, at 6:44 PM, Steve Laug wrote:

Good evening Mr. Vesz
I came across a pipe that I believe came from your shop if my research is correct. It is stamped Craft Briar and 3B6 and has a white o on the triangular stem. I was wondering if you could confirm that it is indeed one of your pipes. I have several of yours and thoroughly enjoy them and was caught by the “o” logo on the stem and the great shape of this one. Thank you for your time.
Kind regards
Steve Laug

On Dec 30, 2013 Rob Vesz wrote:

Hello Steve
This is Rob Vesz, Julius’ son replying. I take care of my father’s email and website. Thanks for your message and kind words.

Yes, Craft is the name Julius stamped on his very early pipes. It is in fact still the name of his company, but he operates under “Julius Vesz”. That pipe would be around 50 years old. My father stopped stamping Craft around the mid 1960’s.

It would be interesting to see a photo if you don’t mind emailing one.

Thanks again.

Rob Vesz

There is was – the web confirmation was confirmed by Rob Vesz that the pipe was indeed crafted by Julius Vesz and gave a date when the stamping on the pipes changed from Craft Briar in the mid 1960’s. I wrote back to Rob and sent the requested photos of the pipe and asked for clarification on the number stamp on the shank of the pipe. I wondered if it was not a date stamp. Below is that correspondence.

On Dec 30, 2013, at 12:37 PM, Steve Laug wrote:

Hi Rob
Thank you for your prompt reply. I appreciate the information. I am in the process of restoring the pipe now. Soon I will write it up for the rebornpipes blog – a blog I run for refurbishing of pipes.

I have attached three photos of the pipe. It is in pretty good shape other than some deep bite marks on the stem, top and bottom near the button.

One more question – can you interpret the stamping for me? The number on it is 386 – does that give me date information?
Thanks
Steve

On Dec 30, 2013 Rob Vesz wrote:

Steve
The 386 should be a style # that my father used. Will speak to him to see if he has any further thoughts on that.

Rob

Below are three more photos of the pipe showing what it looked like when I brought it home to refurbish.

I took several photos of the end of the stem to show the tooth mark damage that was present. It truly was the only thing wrong with this pipe. The first photo shows the underside of the stem but does not show the size or the depth of the bite mark at the top of the photo.

I heated the stem with a heat gun to try to lift the tooth marks. The ones on the top of the stem lifted almost to the surface and a little sanding took care of the remnants there (Photos 1 and 2 below). The ones on the underside were deeper. Two of them lifted to the surface and with sanding disappeared. The one on the left side of Photo 3 was very deep and the surface of the vulcanite was broken so that it did not lift. It left a pit in the surface of the stem. I picked it clean with a dental pick.

I wiped the sanded area of the stem down with Everclear on a cotton pad to clean the surface before using black superglue to repair the deepest bite mark and to also fix a small one to the right of it. The next two photos below show the drops of superglue on the surface of the stem. I set the stem aside for the glue to cure and went on to clean the bowl and rim.

I scrubbed the tars on the rim with saliva on a cotton pad until they were gone. The photo below shows some of the buildup still remaining that took a bit more elbow grease to remove. I also wiped down the rest of the bowl with a damp cotton pad to remove grime and dust.

I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and Everclear to remove tars and oils left behind by smoking. I reinserted the stem in the shank and set the pipe down to continue to dry. There were two small marks left behind after I had sanded the top of the stem so I used the black superglue on them as well and set the pipe to rest on a dental pick while the glue on both sides of the stem dried.

Once it was dry I sanded the excess with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit sanding sponge and then micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. After sanding with each group of three grits I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and went on to sand with the next group of three.

When I had completed the sanding with the micromesh pads I wiped the stem down a final time with the oil and then buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. I completed the refurbishing with repeated coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel applied to the stem and Halcyon II wax hand applied to the bowl. I buffed the bowl and stem with a clean soft flannel buff for a final shine. It is nice to have a bit of history on an old pipe. The added story of the purchase is something that adds colour to the pipe and makes it unique in my collection.

I received an email from Rob on New Years afternoon giving some more detail on the date and stamping of the pipe. I include Rob’s note in full.

Hello Steve. Happy New Year!

I spoke to my father and have some more information for you. The “386” represents two things. The “3” is the price category. At that time Julius had 1 through 6 for pricing. Your pipe would have been in the middle. The “86” represents the style. I asked my father about the style associated with that number WITHOUT showing him the photos. He was able to describe it in detail, triangular shank/stem and all. He hasn’t made an “86” in a long time. It was his own custom shape. It looks somewhat like “poker” to me. Also, some other interesting bits of trivia- typically the “3” would would have been within a circle (ie- his pipes have been known as Circle 3’s, Circle 4’s etc., and continue to be known as such based on price). Your pipe is very old. Julius only made 200-300 “Craft” stamped pipes. Those that didn’t have circle around price number are even fewer and older. For awhile he didn’t have a circular stamp and that’s where yours fits in. So, you have a real gem and rarity! It looks great in the pictures. My father doesn’t use a computer, so next time I see him I’ll be sure to show him on my iPhone or iPad. He will enjoy seeing it and be glad that it’s in the hands of someone who appreciates it!

Hope this information had been helpful.

Sincerely,
Rob Vesz

Restoring an Older GFB Three Star Horn Stem Bent Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The pipe below is one I bought off EBay because it looked like a challenge, that and the fact that it was another GFB pipe. This is the third GFB that I have in my collection. I love the way they feel in the hand and the elegant look of the curves and angles they have. I went back and reread my previous two posts on the GFB pipes I had refurbished to remind myself of their history. There I described the process of hunting down information on the brand. I summarize that here for those may not have read the other two posts. (https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/restemming-and-reclaiming-an-older-unsmoked-gfb-briar-calabash/ , https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/restoring-a-gfb-bent-billiard-another-reclamation-project/)

The first thing I found was information that the GFB brand was an older French Trademark and that it came from Saint Claude, France. A more focused search for GFB French Briar Pipes led to information that the stamping GFB stood for Great French Briar – something about that did not seem right to me so I continued to look and finally came across the following advertisement from a Sears Catalogue. It shows a full page of GFB pipes and the header says GENUINE FRENCH BRIAR. That made much more sense to me, and all three of my GFB pipes match the pipes in the catalogue. It was good to be reminded of the old brand. I am pretty sure that all three of my GFB pipes come from either the late 1890’s or the early 1900’s.

This third pipe was a charmer to me. When I saw the photos I decided I would bid to win it. The elegance of the old pipe caught me. The bowl appeared to be in good shape and it had a horn stem. The striations and colour of the stem was beautiful even in its oxidized state. The three photos below were included in the EBay sale. The third photo shows the underside of the stem and the damage to the underside near the button. It looked to be more than tooth marks or chewing. It actually looked like “worm” damage. From the photos it appeared to be localized to that part of the stem and was worth a chance. Worst case scenario, I would sacrifice the stem and restem the old pipe with a vulcanite stem.

I find that photographing stem damage is difficult and my photos can be out of focus. But I now have a tripod to help with the clarity of the photos (did not get it until after I had started the repairs on this stem. Ah well sorry about the clarity of some of these). When the pipe arrived I took it apart and examined the holes on the end of the stem. Under the lens it was clear that it was not a worm hole at all. Rather it had been bitten and the stem had crumbled in that area. It did not go through into the airway so I think that the previous owner had scraped out the crumbled area of the horn stem for cleanliness and just kept smoking it. That was encouraging to me as it meant that I could repair and not worry about an old “worm” somewhere in the horn stem chewing his way out later! The next two photos show the extent of the damage to the area

I cleaned out the open area with cotton swabs and Everclear, careful to not use too much of the alcohol on the horn stem. Once it was clean of debris and dust I decided to fill the area with a superglue gel rather than the usual liquid superglue I generally use (Photo 1). My thinking was that the gel would sit better in the large area without running all over the stem. There were also nicks on the sharp edges near the shank that I also repaired with the superglue gel (Photo 2). I layered the glue into the hole to build it up gradually (Photo 3) as each previous layer dried.

Once the glued cured over night I sanded the area with medium grit emery paper to remove the high spots and smooth out the surface (Photo 1). I refilled the low areas on the fill to further level out the area. There was also a deep nick on the sharp edge of the shank. I cleaned that out and used the superglue to fill that as well. It would dry black but with the staining of the bowl that could be minimized and I wanted it smooth to the touch rather than the sharp cut of the nick that was previously present (Photo 2).

With everything glued I set the bowl and stem aside and went to work for the day. I would work on the patched areas when I returned home in the evening.

When I returned in the evening, the patches were dry and the pipe was ready to be worked on. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer. On this particular pipe the bowl was conical so it took three different cutting heads on the T handle to ream the bowl to the bottom. With down I cleaned the bowl, shank and stem with Everclear, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I wanted the pipe cleaned out before I worked on the exterior.

The next two photos show the stem after the patches had hardened. Though the photos are a bit blurry, the shininess of the spots where the superglue patches were applied is very clearly visible. Those areas would need to be sanded smooth to match the surface of the surrounding horn.

I sanded the patch on the shank of the pipe with 220 grit sandpaper and also medium grit sanding sponge to remove the excess glue from the patch. Then I wiped the bowl down with Everclear on a cotton pad. I decided not to use acetone as the stamping on the shank was filled with a gold paint and was still visible. I did not want to damage that stamping. I carefully worked the Everclear around the stamping so as not to get any in the grooves of the stars and GFB stamp.

I sanded the patch on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the patch. I continued to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit and dry sanded with the remaining grits up to 12,000.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond on the buffer and the finished stem is shown below. The patch still shows some small holes that need to be repaired with superglue. The sanding and polishing made them very apparent in the first photo below. The patch at the sharp edge near the shank came out very well and is invisible. The horn of the rest of the stem has a deep sheen to it after all the sanding and polishing.

I unscrewed the stem and set it aside while I stained the bowl. I used a medium walnut stain mixed with linseed oil to stain this pipe. The colour is a rich brown with a slight red in certain lights. It matches the colour of the other GFB pipes that are in my collection. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. Then I gave it a coat of carnauba wax and set it aside to work some more on the stem.

I was not completely satisfied with the stem patch so I sanded it next to the button some more and cleaned it out. I put some more of the superglue in the low spots and set it aside to cure while I went to work for the day.

When I returned the glue was hard and the patch a solid bubble on the surface of the stem. I sanded it with the medium grit emery paper and then 220 grit sandpaper to remove the over fill. I always over fill the spots as the glue shrinks as it dries. I have learned that it is easier to remove the excess than to continue to fill and sand repeatedly. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge and then went through the grits of micromesh sanding pads again from 1500-12,000 grit. When I had finished I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb. Once done I buffed it on the wheel with multiple coats of carnauba wax.

After buffing and polishing the horn stem I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish it then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to restore and preserve the shine on the horn and the briar. The finished pipe is back to usable with the stem patch taking care of the deep holes that were previously in the stem. The striated horn stem looks like new and the colouration of the horn goes amazingly well with the medium brown walnut stain. Other than the slightly visible patch the pipe looks like new. I intend to enjoy a bowl of some aged tobacco in a pipe that is far older than I am. I look forward to the day when I pass it on in trust to the next pipeman who will care for and cherish it. Sentimental? I don’t think so, just a realist who knows that this pipe has lived and will live longer than I.

Restoring a Bryson Metal Pipe with Two Bowls

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I picked up this metal pipe with two bowls in an eBay lot recently. The shank shape and the two bowls intrigued me. I had no idea who had made the pipe but I bid on it because of some other items in the lot.

I decided to do a bit of research on the metal pipe on the great Smoking Metal website. It is a gift to the pipe smoking community looking for information on particular metal pipes that they come across or may have in their collection. The web address is: http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=57
This is what I found out about the metal pipe pictured above: (credit given to the site above)

“This pipe was made by the Briarwood Corporation, Palo Alto, California; the BRYSON has number D120275 under the Bryson name on the pipe stem. There is a crosshead screw to attach the briar bowl to the stem. The end cap attaches to the mouthpiece by means of a rod through the length of the pipe, in which the air hole is close to the mouth piece. The stem is of polished duraluminum and hexagonal in cross-section.

The bowls are unusual in that they are not briar turned on a lathe, but briar wood, ground to a powder and compressed under very high pressure (no glue, heat or plastics are used, just pressure. It is claimed this produces a perfect bowl of aged briar every time with increased porosity. The varnished finish on the smooth bowl however is often very badly crazed.

Two bowls, one smooth and one rusticated, were supplied with the new pipe. The bowl retaining screw is ‘locked’ onto the bowl by a gasket and metal collar, enabling rapid replacement of the bowls without the need of a screwdriver. The corn cob bowl, in centre image, is another version, not sure if this was manufactured by Bryson, or a home workshop job.

The set here shown was available for $3.50 new, but in what year? Below that are pictures of adverts seen from 1946 magazine. The last photograph was of a possible derivative on eBay in 2003, although US patent D122042 seems to be this pipe, invented by Max Bressler, Chicago Ill 1940.

There are also other derivatives without the Bryson name stamped in the metal and variations on the shape and grooving of the stem. The pipe pictured with Pat Pend under the Bryson name has no grooves forward of the bowl and the front end cap is a larger thread than the other models, including my version with no name. 30 April 1940 US patent # D120275 Inventor Charles Rothman, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, assignor Briarwood Corp, also of Cleveland Ohio at that time.”

When the pipe arrived it was in pretty rough shape. The aluminum was oxidized on the barrel and the bowls were both very dirty and filled with cobwebs and built up grit. The rusticated bowl had not been smoked very much so it was clean on the inside underneath the dust and webs. There was no cake or tars. The smooth bowl was the exact opposite. The bowl was caked and the top of the rim was tarred and dented. In examining it I notice that the grain on the smooth one was peeling and fading in places – it was a decal and not truly grain. I could also see the composite make up of the pipe bowl as described above. This was strange looking material – similar to my Medico Brylon but also a lot like particle board that is used in building. This was going to be a fun piece to clean up and restore. The metal barrel was unstamped but the lines on the barrel match the photos above perfectly.

I was able to take it apart, which sounds normal but I have found that on these metal pipes that are in this condition the end cap and bowl are often welded together with tars that make breaking it free and taking it apart virtually impossible. The four photos below show the state of the parts once the pipe was disassembled. The bowl each had a screw in the bottom of the bowl with a hole in the center and a cap on the bottom of the bowl that was inset. The bowls thus could be quickly interchanged. The apparatus on the inside consisted of an end cap, a long pin that was threaded on both ends – into the cap and into the tenon on the stem, a nylon stem and in this case a paper filter slid over the pin. The pin was not hollow but acted as the connection that held the stem in place in the aluminum barrel. The end cap was inserted on one end with the pin extended the length of the barrel and the stem screwed onto the pin and tightening against the barrel. Without the end cap and pin in place the stem did not stay in place.

The inside of the barrel had a dark lacquer of tobacco juices that had hardened on the walls. The pin and inside the cap and tenon the same dark amber lacquer was hardened. This was going to be a challenge to clean up. The pressed briar bowls would also not be easy to clean as I was afraid of using alcohol on them for fear of decompressing the material with moisture.

I took apart the smooth bowl in order to ream and clean it. The next two photos show the parts of the bowl. You can see the hollow screw, the insert cap and a small washer. From all appearances the washer was an addition to the set up done by the previous owner. I appeared to me that the bowl had been over tightened and the cap pressed to deeply into the bowl for a tight fit. The washer took up the excess space and allowed the bowl to be tightened. In the second photo the top edge of the rim can be seen with the dents and damage visible.

I cleaned the screw and the washers with Everclear and cotton swabs to remove the lacquer buildup. I reamed the bowl with the largest cutting head of the PipNet reamer set as the bowl is quite large. In the first photo below the damaged finish is also visible. Once I had reamed the bowl I topped it with my usual method – a piece of sandpaper on a flat board. I twisted the bowl surface against the sandpaper until the damage was removed. Once done the composite nature of the bowl material was very visible.

Cleaning out the barrel and all of the metal internals was labour intensive. It took many pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and Everclear to get the pipe barrel clean. I used cotton bolls that I twisted into plugs, dipped in Everclear and rammed through the barrel – just like cleaning a rifle. In the photos below you can see some of the plugs and swabs that were used. Once I had scrubbed the surfaces clean inside the barrel I worked on the pin, tenon and end cap. I used 0000 steel wool to clean the aluminum surface and brighten it.

The nylon stem had a deep tooth mark on the top and on the underside of the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the tooth chatter and the calcification on the stem. I wiped it clean with Everclear to remove the sanding dust, cleaned the inside with Everclear and picked out the debris in the tooth dents. Once they were clean and dry I patched the dents with a drop of clear superglue. Because the colour of the stem is more of a grey black the black superglue did not match. The clear superglue was transparent and when dried and sanded was invisible.

I set the stem aside to let the superglue spot patches to cure before I sanded them smooth. While it was drying I restained the bowls with a dark brown aniline stain applied with a cotton swab. I applied it and flamed it to set it. I was not sure the stain would take on the smooth bowl as it seemed to have a varnish coat on the surface and the grain pattern was a decal. Once it was dry I would give it a light buff and see if it took.

I set the bowls aside and worked on the superglue patches on the stem. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and then followed that by sanding with a medium grit sanding sponge. The next series of four photos show the process of blending in the repair.

Once I had blended the patch into the surface of the stem it was time to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I decided to sand both the stem and the aluminum barrel at the same time. I wet sanded with the 1500—2400 grit pads to minimize the scratching on both and then dry sanded with the remaining grits. By the end of the process the patch was invisible and both the stem and the barrel shone.

Once I had finished with the micromesh sanding pads I reassembled the internals, stem and the barrel. I gave it a light buff with White Diamond. A light touch is necessary in order not to turn the buffing pads black with the metal as it is polished. I took it back to the work table and hand applied wax and hand buffed it with a soft towel. The next two photos show the finished barrel and stem.

When the bowls had dried I buffed them with White Diamond as well. The rusticated bowl worked well and the shine came up on it with no problem. The smooth bowl was another story altogether. As I buffed it the finish came off in pieces. The varnish coat lifted and along with it the decal. The grain coat disappeared. I then gave it a clean buff with red Tripoli to remove the coat in its entirety. I hand sanded the bowl with the medium grit sanding sponge. Once the surface was clean I wiped it down with an alcohol dampened cotton pad. I then used a permanent black marker to draw grain lines on the surface of the bowl. These looked horrible after I had applied them but with some sanding with micromesh sanding pads and the sanding sponge I was able to lighten them and they began to look more natural. I then restained the bowl with some linseed oil and cherry stain. The photo below shows the finished surface of both bowls.

When the bowls had dried I tried screwing each bowl to the barrel to make sure they fit well. I coated the rusticated bowl with Halcyon II wax and gave it a light buff with a clean flannel buffing pad. The smooth bowl I coated with carnauba wax and lightly buffed with the flannel buff as well. The finished pipe is pictured below with each of the bowls in place. I am pleased with how it turned out. In evaluating the amount of work to keep it clean, I am not sure I will ever smoke this one. It may well end up in the display cupboard as part of my oddities collection.

An Ultrasonic Stem Cleaning Experiment – AJ Verstraten (aka Bananabox-Ninja)

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What follows is another article by AJ on his use of the ultrasonic cleaning machine. He has written it in response to the many who asked to hear more about it after his first article here on rebornpipes. I wish to thank AJ for his contributions to the blog and to encourage him to continue to write for us. It is a pleasure to post his next contribution. Thank you AJ.

Greetings, when using a new technique I can’t help but experiment like a mad scientist. So when I heard of the ultra sonic cleaning from my fellow cleaner on the PRF (The Dutch Flemish pipe smoking forum) named ‘Meindert’ I dove into it, because science! One of the first try-outs was posted in my first article and I was carefully optimistic about the end result. During the course of this clean-up I learned why I was not completely happy about it.

When I read the comments on my first article, Mark Domingues mentioned the Oxyclean method. To be honest I never heard of Oxyclean but it triggered a mention done by another fellow PRF-er named ‘annie69’. Who once told me he used hand warm water and Oxi-Action to remove the heavy oxidation on a stem. I tried this method a few months ago, but was not very happy with the end results as it left the stems slippery and gooey, which in my eyes prevented the rest of the oxy-water reaching the stem.

As an ultrasonic vibrates the water I thought: “What if the water is in motion, would it remove the goo from the stem during the soak and so give a deeper penetration?” followed by: “What if I combine the oxy-method with the ultrasonic?” So I set up a test with two almost similar oxidized stems which are from my ‘bit-box’ of pipe heads and stems that are missing their counterpart.

Oh, I should mention I work for a company that supplies laboratory equipment and some of the tools are old stock that was distributed to personnel, hence the use of a magnetic stirrer.

First the stems: The one on the left for the ultrasonic, the one on the right for the stirrer.

The stirrer setup: A glass on a magnetic stirrer, hand warm water, stirrer, amount of Oxi-Action and the stem.

To keep the stem in the liquid I used a bent electric wire and hung it in the glass.

So I poured the hand warm water, the Oxi-Action, and the stirrer in the glass, hung the stem in the mixture and set the timer for 20 minutes.

What happens is that a rotating magnetic field lets the stir bar rotate in the liquid, creating a whirlpool inside the glass. Thus the water is in motion and hopefully rinses off the goo that is formed on the stem by the Oxi-Action.

When I retrieved the stem and it was as I expected, greenish brown from the Oxi-Action. But not as gooey as before, so it worked to some degree.

Then I put the stem to the grind wheel and it came out as normal.

The light brown patches are hard to reach for the wheel and I normally do those by hand.
To be honest, I was not really happy with the end result and did not finish all the way through with polishing and buffing the stem. In all it only saved me a little time and was a headache to set up right.

While I worked the previous stem on the grind wheel I let the ultrasonic do its thing. Again the setup: Warm water, ultrasonic with Oxi-Action and the stem.

The ultrasonic in action.

The stem just removed from the bath.

When I retrieved the stem I was blown away by the result, the stem came out cleaner than with the normal soak method and less gooey as with the stirring method. (However the photo did not show this, so I had to lighten it to make it clearer.) Also when I put the stem to the grind wheel I found that the liquid was a deeper brown colour instead of the golden light-brown colour I usually get when grinding.

The result after grinding.

Was I on to something or was it a fluke with this particular stem? I decided to leave the stems as is, find another stem in my ‘bit-box’ and try the ultrasonic again to see if I could duplicate the result. I found a stem without its tenon and dunked it in the ultrasonic.

While this was going on I Googled about ultrasonic cleaning and I stumbled on a very well written site: http://www.tmasc.com/qa%20process.htm by an unknown author. In it I found a certain line that made me stop the ultrasonic and reconfigure it, namely this:

‘Parts should be racked in a basket or work holder designed to handle your specific part. This is very important in high-end cleaning systems where you want the cleanest part possible. You should always use a stainless steel basket, as softer materials will absorb the ultrasonic energy. Never use plastic or other soft materials. If your part is easily damaged or scratched, stainless steel racks with Nylobond or Teflon coatings are available.’

Now if you look in the previous pictures you will notice I left the basket out of the cleaner thinking it was not needed for my purposes. Boy was I wrong. Having the stems in contact with the bottom meant that the sonic vibrations were interrupted and as such the cleaning was not optimum. Whoops. So I put the basket that came with the cleaner, put the stem in and let it go for 8 minutes. The end result really surprised me.

When I used the grind wheel on it the liquid was almost black. Here are the stems next to each other.

You can clearly see that the middle one has had more oxidation removed than the other two and in the case of the upper stem I blame my inexperience with the ultrasonic. Still the end result for me was quite exciting and I wanted to try it in a complete cleaning process. So I rummaged through my pipe- and bit-boxes to find almost equally oxidized stems. I found a ‘Belmont Grain London Style’ pipe and a loose stem.

First I cleaned the inside using 96% alcohol and pipe cleaners, they came out pretty clean indicating that the stems were not heavily used.

Then I set up the ultrasonic again with the Oxi-Action solution, warm water and the basket in place. The stems were placed in the basket and I let her go for 8 minutes.

When I retrieved the stems, the first thing I noticed was that they were not as gooey as I was used to and the water smelled rather…..well….like oxidation but more moist. There is no good way to describe it.

I put the stems to the grind wheel and the oxidation came off way faster than if I would not have soaked them. Also the liquid that came off the wheel and stems was way darker as I mentioned before. At this time I also sanded the hard to get edges with 600 grit paper wrapped around a modelling file.

Then I proceeded to empty the ultrasonic and put in the 50-50 alcohol and water mixture with a dash of disinfectant.

One of the positive things of the ultrasonic is that it goes on a timer and you have your hand free to do another thing until it is done, so I proceeded to clear the top of the bowl of its soot using a sock, salvia and the abrasive pads. Using the sock I got most of the soot build-up off the bowl and used the 1800 grit to get the thicker and harder pieces off.

Then it was time to retrieve the stems. They came out nice and clean and when dried were a little dull. I pulled pipe cleaners through them and as you can see they were only a little brown at the beginning (right side).

Replacing the stem on the pipe I used the muslin buff wheels and polishing wheels to buff the stems to get a nice shine on them.

And the final pictures of the tools used in the experiment and the cleaning.

So far I am optimistic and happy with the end results using the ultrasonic cleaner with the Oxi-Action cleaning solution. The oxidation gets off rather well using the grinding wheel and it saves me roughly 30 minutes of work. This means a relief for my tennis elbow I have in both arms. So for me it is quite a pleasant addition in the cleaning process.

The negative aspect so far encountered was that this particular model ultrasonic bath is not very drain friendly, in this I mean that getting the liquid out is rather a messy business. Also I have no idea what will happen in the long run with the stem if you use it for a prolonged time. As I read that some items can turn brittle when used too much in an ultrasonic cleaner. But so far I have not found any evidence this is happening with the stems. And there is of course the fact that Vulcanite tends to bend back to its original form when heated too hot, so far this has not happened but I can imagine that if using water that is too hot in combination with the ultrasonic vibrations that add extra heat it can happen.

All-in-all an experiment that opened my eyes to two cleaning methods and I hope it was as informative for you to read as it was for me to do.

Repairing Deep Tooth Marks and Bite Throughs on Vulcanite Stems – AJ Verstraten

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Blog by AJ Verstraten

It is with pleasure that I post AJ’s second post on rebornpipes. AJ is known to the online community as Bananabox-Ninja.

Greetings, today a small post about the use of black super glue on a few pipes I had previously cleaned and refurbished; before I found Rebornpipes. This did give me a small problem as I did not extensively take pictures of the process as I had no reason to share the process at that moment and as such I am missing a few ‘before’ pictures.

The pipes I revisited for this project were:
– 11 Wahl Filtro
– Lorenzo Elba
– Machiavelli Como
– BBB Medina
– Spitfire by Lorenzo Riviera
All of them had bite marks on the mouthpiece and the Riviera had even been bitten clean through.

Lorenzo is a good Italian brand that is quite popular in Germany. The BBB Medina is an old English made pipe that has a good reputation here in the Dutchlands. The Wahl and the Machiavelli pipes are a mystery to me. I can find some eBay listings for them but I cannot pinpoint their true origin.

First up the pictures I did have of the before process.

BBB Medina

Lorenzo Elba

11 Wahl

As these pipes had already been waxed I first removed the wax layer using my motor, water and grinding wheel. This only took a few moments, after which I used a cotton swab and some alcohol to really clean the surface of the mouthpiece.

The following steps I repeated a few times as I found I was a little impatient in the drying process, I advise to let the glue set for a night just to be sure it is dry to the core.

Using a piece of cardboard dipped in Vaseline (sorry no pictures) I closed the hole in the Riviera mouthpiece and with cotton swabs and toothpicks applied the glue to the bite marks on all the other mouthpieces.

When the glue had dried I used 600 and 1000 grit sanding paper wrapped around a model file to sand off the excess glue and smooth the mouthpiece.

I checked the smoothness using my mouth and tongue and although in all cases it felt smooth I noticed that in taking the pictures of the finished product the glue spots are visible. This bothered me, like when I sand a round shoulder or edge on the stem. A casual observer will not notice this, but I know it is there and it will bother me. However I decided against re-sanding them in the hopes of getting them perfect. Because in the end it is my lips and tongue that are handling the mouthpiece the most, not my eyes 

To finalize this short post here are the finished mouthpieces, pipes and the tools I used for this project.

11 Wahl Filtro

Lorenzo Elba

Machiavelli Como

BBB Medina

Spitfire by Lorenzo Riviera

Tools used during this project

Cleaning a Bristol Mat Geante – by AJ Verstraten (AKA Bananabox-Ninja)

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This post has been written by a Dutch reader of the blog, AJ Verstraten who contacted me a few weeks ago. Several emails later and we had exchanged a lot of ideas and tips. I thought it would be of interest for others here to read about AJ’s ultrasonic cleaner addition to the process. It was one I had not heard of before so I asked him to write up a piece on it with pictures of a pipe that he put through his process. AJ was graciously willing to write it up and submit it for posting here. Thanks AJ for your willingness to do this. It is great to hear from others about the methods they are using and how they work. The photos are well done and the words well written. Without further ado here is AJ’s article.

Greetings, my name is AJ and I hail from the Dutch city of Dordrecht. I go by the internet name of ‘Bananabox-Ninja’ and I am more easily found under that name then under AJ.

A few weeks ago I broke my knee in a motorcycle accident and it was put in a plaster cast with the instruction to let it rest and heal up. In this time I stumbled upon Steve’s website through ‘Het Pijprokersforum’ a forum of Dutch and Belgium pipe smokers.

As I like to refurbish pipes myself and I had time to kill I went through his whole website and learned many, many new things. In the weeks that followed I tried to get a hold of the things Steve used and tried them myself, like the black superglue and the grinding pads for example. Blown away by how well some things worked out I sent an email thanking Steve for all the tips and asking if he had ever used an ultrasonic cleaner. He replied that he had not but that he was interested to know in the workings and would I like to write about it?

So this weekend I cleaned a pipe from my ‘project-box’ and snapped pictures from beginning to end including the ultrasonic cleaning method I currently use. (The numerical key below the photo identifies the tools in the photo.)

These are the tools I tend to use in the cleaning/refurbishing of a pipe, currently I have some tools on order and they have not come in yet.

1 – Polishing wheels and waxes
2 – Sanding paper (600 & 1000), sanding pads (1500 to 12000) and modeling files.
3 – Ultrasonic cleaner
4 – Old socks (but clean)
5 – Vaseline and 96% alcohol
6 – Hard and soft bristled pipe cleaners
7 – Q-tips (cotton swabs)
8 – Pliers
9 – Assortment of drills
10 – Senior pipe reamer
11 – Games Workshop paint
12 – Electric motor (0-2000 RPM) with grinding wheel (1500)
13 – Toothpicks

The pipe I chose to work on and record is a nice straight, big chambered Bristol Mat Geante, I presume the Geante is for its size as the chamber is rather big or as we say in Dutch a ‘Speciekuip’ (mortar trough). As far as I can tell Bristol a B-brand from France but I am unable to pinpoint exactly. I personally like the bird’s-eyes all over the left and right side of the bowl.

As you can see the stem has oxidation all over and the bowl itself is rather dull. Not visible on this photo are the 2 bite marks on the stem.

First I cleaned the pipe on the inside with alcohol and pipe cleaners until they came out almost white. If there is a thick layer of tar in the air canal I use the drills to scrape the inside out lightly using drills of various diameters. Tar will give way far more easily than the ebonite or acrylic it is in.

In this case it was not needed as the pipe’s previous owner was very tidy or had not smoked it much.

Then with just water and the grinding wheel I removed the heavy oxidation from the stem, careful not to create a round shoulder or to grind off too much for it to create a ridge.

Using the sanding paper wrapped around a file I removed the hard to reach oxidation on the mouth bit.

And afterwards to fill the bite marks using the superglue, q-tips and toothpick.

Now the stem was ready for the ultrasonic bath. This is a new method I have only recently started using and so far I am positive on the results. Using a mixture of 50-50 water and alcohol with a teaspoon of disinfection agent, place the stem in the liquid and let the bath go at it for 8 minutes.

This bath can also heat up to 40 degrees but seeing as ebonite tends to bend back to it’s original shape if heated too much I leave that feature off.

You’ll notice in the last picture that the stem looks almost the same as it went in, however when you pull a pipe cleaner through it, there will be some mild discoloration coming out of the stem.

This method of cleaning is a good way to get the last remaining specks of dirt out of those hard to reach places, I myself was skeptical at first but I was swayed when I pulled the pipe cleaner through it after the bath I found that it did do its job.

It does not however remove oxidation completely, I tried with an unprepared stem and it came out browner than going in.

So as an extra step I find it a great addition to my cleaning process.

In the mean time I cleaned some of the soot from the top of the bowl with some spit and the old sock. Especially the part of the sock that fits over your ankle is rather coarse and excellent for this process. The chamber had a nice smooth coal layer in it so I left it in there.

After the bath I gave the inside of the stem few more scrubs with the pipe cleaner and the outside another run with the grinding wheel.

Then I started polishing with the wheels and the waxes.

First a pre-polish with brown, followed by white, a coat of carnauba wax and a final buff.

The end result as you can see below:

Parker Super Briar Bark Cherrywood Restored

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Blog by Steve Laug

The first of the latest lot I picked up on my trip to Northern Alberta was brought to the work bench this afternoon. I decided to work on little Parker Super Briar Bark Cherrywood. It is stamped on the underside of the shank Parker over Super in a diamond over Briar Bark. Next to that is Made in London England with both a size number – 4 – and a shape number – 283.

The bowl had a lot of cake build up in the bowl and had some nicks in the briar around the outer edge of the rim. The finish was dirty with grime in the deep crevices of the sandblast on the outside of the bowl and a buildup of tars on the top of the rim. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth damage on both the top and bottom sides near the button. The Parker logo “P” in a diamond was partly visible on top of the stem. It was merely a painted on logo and not stamped in the vulcanite so it would be hard to clean and leave in place.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer – a T handle and different cutting heads. The smallest diameter cutting head trimmed back the cake to a thin coat. I dumped the carbon buildup in the rubbish and then cleaned out the bowl with a cotton swab dipped in Everclear to remove any leftover loose carbon.

I removed the stem and found that the pipe had an inner tube like the Dunhill Inner Tube that was used as a method of keeping the shank clean from tar buildup.

I scrubbed the surface of the bowl and shank with a soft bristle tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it until the soap was dirty and then rinsed it off under warm running water and patted it dry. I kept the water out of the bowl and the shank as I did not want those areas wet.

I cleaned out the shank and the bowl with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear. Once the inside was clean I worked on the oxidized stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the calcium buildup around the button area and to also minimize the tooth marks on the top and the bottom side of the stem. After the initial sanding I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 to remove the surface oxidation and to soften the oxidation deep in the stem.

I scrubbed the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners and Everclear and used 0000 steel wool on the aluminum inner tube. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I wet sanded with the 1500 and the 1800 grit and afterward applied some white out to the area of the logo. I decided to try and build it up a bit. The logo appeared to be stamped in the stem but as I looked at it I could see that it was a painted on logo. In the polishing of the stem I sacrificed the logo. I dry sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh from 2400-12,000.

When the sanding was completed I gave the stem a rub down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak into the vulcanite. I buffed it with a soft cloth and gave the stem a coating of carnauba wax by hand. I restained the bowl with a dark brown stain that had been diluted with one part alcohol to one part stain. I wanted to cover some of the nicks in the outer rim and some of the light spots on the shank that showed wear and tear. I applied it with a cotton swab and then flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied the stain and reflamed it until I had the colour match I was looking for.

I reinserted the stem and gave the bowl and the stem a coat of Halcyon II wax and hand buffed it with a soft cotton cloth and a shoe brush.

To finish the pipe I buffed the stem with White Diamond and lightly buffed the bowl with the same. After the buffing I gave it a light coat of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is pictured below and awaits its inaugural smoke.

A Unique Vertical Oval Shank Meerschaum Reborn

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I saw this old Meerschaum pipe bowl on Ebay and decided to put a low bid on it. I was not surprised to have won it and paid for it quickly. The seller packed it very well and shipped it off to Vancouver, Canada. Below are the Ebay photos that caught my attention. I think the thing that intrigued me the most was the vertical oval shank on the pipe. To restem that pipe would be a great challenge – find a stem large enough to work with and shape it until it fit. I thought I had just the stem in my box – a gift from a friend on Pipesmokers Unleashed Forum, Robert.

From the photos it looked to be in rough shape. The pipe case said it was a WDC but I have no way of knowing if that is true. The gold filigree on the band looks like the old WDC pipes of the late 1890s but I am still uncertain as to the maker. It was in rough shape as can be seen from the photos. There were many scratches and gouges around the outside of the bowl. The shank had marks on the top that looked like someone had taken a file to it. The rim was probably the worst. With the rough edges on the back right side of the bowl the rim/top appeared to be angled to the right side and worn down. The tar build up was heavy in the bowl and on the rim. The tenon was broken off in the shank. It appeared to be an old bone tenon and a bone insert in the mortise that was threaded to take the screw in tenon. I am assuming the pipe probably had an amber stem in its first appearance in the shop but that was long since broken and lost. The WDC case was also very rough – the edges were worn away, the wood broken and a hinge dangling unused. The inside was badly stained.

Yesterday afternoon I came home from work early and found a package awaiting me – I knew that the meer had arrived. I had to laugh when I cut open the box – it had a previous label a Funeral Home in Ohio. I don’t know if that was a commentary on the pipe bowl that resided inside the box or if a funny coincidence. I cut the tape and opened the box. The pipe inside was both in worse shape than I had imagined from the seller’s excellent pictures and in better shape. The meer under the band was cracked as can be seen in the photo above and that was as it was when it arrived. The scratches in the surface of the bowl were not as deep as they appeared in the photos and the pipe when place on the rim on a flat board was actually not slanted to the right – the damage to the outer edges of the right back side made it appear worse than it actually was in reality. The next photos show the pipe on the work table just out of the box.

After examining it carefully with my lens and a dental pick I decided to begin the clean up by trying to remove the tenon. I used the screw that I generally use to remove a tenon to no avail. The threads in the mortise were locked tight around the tenon. I picked at it with the dental pick and was unable to remove it that way either. I decided to drill out the old tenon. So I set up a cordless drill with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway in the broken tenon. I slowly drilled the airway with the bit and exchanged it for increasingly larger bits until I had the airway cleared of the debris. I then used a ¼ inch bit to open the mortise and clear out the remaining debris of the mortise and tenon. The second photo below shows the mortise after I opened it up. I used a dental pick to clean out the remaining pieces and hand turned the quarter-inch drill bit into the mortise to smooth out the walls of the airway and open it to receive a new tenon.

I took the pipe bowl back to the work table and set up a coarse sanding block on my worktable to top the bowl of the meer. I have used this block in the past with good success on the softer meerschaum material. I placed the bowl, rim down on the surface of the block and sanded it in a clockwise direction (no reason for that other than I am right-handed). I sanded it, checking often to see how the rim was cleaning up until the surface was clear and the top of the bowl once again level. Surprisingly I did not have to remove too much material from the rim to clean up the surface.

When I had finished the sanding, I used micromesh sanding pads to sand the top smooth once again and remove the scratches from the coarse sanding block. The micromesh sanding pads from 1500 – 12,000 grit bring a shine back to the surface of the meer and prepare it for rewaxing once the pipe is finished.

At this point in the process I decided to see if I could fit a new stem on the pipe. The diameter of the oval shank was quite large and would require a large diameter round stem. To make it an oval stem would require that much of the existing vulcanite of the stem would have to be removed in the shaping process. I had an old Brebbia stem that a friend on Pipe Smoker Unleashed Forum sent me for an old Peterson that I was restemming. The tenon was too small for the Pete but too large for the old meer. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess material from the tenon until the fit was very close. The remainder of the fitting was done with a wood rasp and sandpaper. Once the tenon was finished I pushed the stem into the old meer to check on the fit of the tenon in the newly opened mortise. As can be seen in the photo below, the fit was perfect. You can also see from that photo how much work would need to be done to fit the stem to match the shank of the pipe.

The stem had deep bite marks on the top and the bottom near the button. They did not break the surface of the vulcanite. I decided to heat the surface of the stem with a heat gun and try to lift the dents from both sides as much as possible. I also wanted to straighten the stem significantly to give a better profile to the pipe. The heat gun worked to achieve both aims. The tooth marks lifted quite a bit and would have to be filled with black superglue to finish the work and the bend straightened to the angle I wanted for the new stem.

I sanded the initial excess vulcanite off the diameter of the shank with the sanding drum on the Dremel. Once I had removed a large portion I took it back to the work table and used a rasp to continue to shape and reduce the stem to the right proportions. The next series of eight photos shows the effectiveness of the rasp in shaping the stem. (In the midst of the shaping my daughters brought down a bowl of popcorn for a snack while I worked – that appears in several of the photos.)

I removed the stem from the shank and cleaned up the tooth dents so that I could fill them with black superglue. The glue takes quite a bit of time to cure so I waited until I was finished for the evening and then filled the dents and set the stem aside to cure over night.

This morning I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also sanded the superglue patch on the underside of the stem. The next four photos show the stem as it begins to take shape and the repaired spot on the underside of the stem. The oval is coming along nicely but there was still a lot of excess material that still needed to be removed.

I continued to sand the stem to further tune the shape of the oval to match the shank. I used 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and shape the stem. I worked on the superglue patch on the underside of the stem with the 220 grit sandpaper as well. In the next series of three photos you can see the shape I am aiming for with this stem. You can also see the size of the patch on the stem. The patch is still larger than the marks it covers so more sanding will need to be done on it to blend it into the vulcanite.

I cleaned up the bite marks on the top of the stem and applied the black superglue patch to that surface as well. I set it aside while I worked on the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on a cotton pad to clean off the grime on the surface while leaving as much of the old patina as possible. The first photo below shows the superglue patch. I applied it and used a dental pick to push it around the surface and also build up a few tooth marks on the edge of the button. The second photo below shows the patch after it had dried and I had sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper.

While working on the stem I decided to open the button to make it simpler to insert a pipe cleaner. I used needle files to make the slot larger. The second photo shows the opened slot in the button. I sanded the inside of the slot with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth the surface and polish the slot.

I took the pipe back to the Dremel and sanding drum to remove more of the excess vulcanite. I had the basic shape in hand and just wanted to get it closer to the size of the shank before doing the finish sanding. I brought it back to the work table and sanded with 220 grit sandpaper until the fit was right. The next four photos show the progress in the fitting of the stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sponge backed sanding pad. It helped to remove the scratches left behind by the 200 grit sandpaper. Then I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to polish and shine the vulcanite and the patched areas. The white Lucite band that was a part of the stem began to take on a shine as well in the process. The next nine photos capture what took about an hour to achieve in the sanding process. I wet sanded with the 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and a blue plastic polishing compound to bring out the final shine on the stem. I hand waxed the meerschaum with beeswax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. The next four photos show the finished pipe with the new stem. I like the marks and scratches in the meer as they seem to speak of the long journey the pipe took to get to me. The white Lucite band on the stem fits nicely in my thinking against the gold of the filigree band. The slight bend it the stem works nicely for me. From the last two photos you can see the oval shape of the stem now that it is completed. It has come a long way from the round stem I received as a gift from Ron.

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