Tag Archives: restaining a bowl and rim

John’s First Restoration – A Danish Sovereign Peewit #30

When John and I got home from our pipe hunt we spent the evening and the next morning working on the pipes he had found. We figured that the best way for him to learn how to refurbish pipes was to work on this lot together. That way he would learn as he worked with me on the pipes and we could discuss any issues that might arise during the process of the cleanups. He was intrigued with the idea and liked working with his hands so it seemed like this might be a part of the pipe smoking hobby that he could use to unwind and clear his thoughts from the heavy work of his day to day work as a Presbyterian minister. For his first pipe to refurbish he chose to restore a Danish Sovereign Peewit Shape #30. It is shown in the picture below and is the second pipe in the first row at the top. Walking through the entire process with him on this pipe and one of the others that he did taught him everything from removing the cake, cleaning the finish on a bowl and restaining it to cleaning and polishing a stem to the point that it shone. Once again I forgot to take photos of the pipe before we started but remembered after I had reamed it with a PipNet reamer. The bowl was badly caked and the rim had a thick buildup of tars and oils. The briar had a nice blast on it and the stain was worn in quite a few spots. The stem was odd on this particular pipe. The tenon had a sleeve on it that added diameter. It appeared that somewhere along the way the shank had been redrilled larger than the original tenon so the sleeve was a necessity. The bowl was drilled way off centre to the right so the airway entered the bowl on the right side of the bottom of the bowl. The bowl itself was round but the pipe itself was way out of round with far more briar on the right side than the left. John scrubbed the bowl with a tooth-brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and the old finish. He used a dental pick to remove the remainder of the buildup on the top of the rim. He rinsed it under running water to remove the soap and grime and dried it with a soft cloth. He used a dark brown stain pen (thanks Greg) to match the stain on the bowl in those areas on the shank and rim where the stain had worn off. He buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. The stem needed a lot of attention. There were some tooth dents in the surface of the stem on the top and bottom side. We set up the heat gun and heated the vulcanite to lift the dents. We also adjusted the bend in the stem while we were at it with the heat gun. The next photo of the end of the tenon shows the sleeve that had been added to the tenon to increase the diameter. John sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification and the oxidation. He also used that to sand out the remnants of the tooth marks after we heated the stem. He then sanded the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratch marks left behind by the sandpaper. Once finished he moved on to sand with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I had him rub the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. He buffed the stem with White Diamond and then we waxed it with some Renaissance Wax (he will not have access to a buffer at home so I was trying work as much as possible without one). I had John give the pipe another coat of Renaissance Wax and buff it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below in all of its new sheen. I think John will enjoy smoking this one. I know when I refurbished my first pipe it seemed to smoke exceptionally well. I think it is the time spent bringing it back to life that makes this happen. Great job on this one John, it is a refurbished pipe to be proud of. Be sure to let us know how it smokes when you fire it up.

Got Today’s Apple! Restoring an Imported Briar Apple

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Yet another gift pipe bowl that I had in my box was a no name Imported Briar Apple. It had a threaded tenon and I just “happened” to have a stem that fit it perfectly in my can of stems. (One day I need to get the stems sorted and organized more. Currently I have a can of round stems and a can of everything else stems. This necessitates emptying the entire can on the work table each time I need them and sorting through to find what I need.) The stem was a used Grabow stem that was missing the stinger but the tenon was intact. It was oxidized and dirty but very functional. There were no tooth marks or bite marks on the surface. When twisted onto the pipe it was slightly overturned. The bowl had an interesting finish in that the briar was smooth around the rounded rim and down the bowl. Then there were grooves or what I call worm trails cut vertically down the sides of the bowl and horizontally on the shank. The all culminated in rusticated pattern on the bottom of the bowl. The finish was shot and the worm trails had all nature of detritus packed into them. The grooves were full in some places. The stain was present but worn. If there had ever been a varnish coat it too was gone. The aluminum mortise insert was well oxidized. The bowl had a thick buildup of cake and loose pieces of tobacco handing on the sides. The rim was dirty but did not have any damage. I heated the tenon with a Bic lighter and straightened the overclocked stem. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then scrubbed the bowl down with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with lukewarm water and dried it off. I scrubbed the buildup on the rim with a cotton pad and saliva and then used isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad until I had broken through the tough outer coat. I used a medium grit sanding sponge to sand off the rest of the buildup and then wiped it down again with alcohol. I wiped down the exterior of the bowl and shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the remaining finish. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the calcification buildup at the button. I worked in the creases with a sanding stick. Once I had cut through the oxidation I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. Once I had removed the finish and did the initial sanding on the stem I cleaned out the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol until they were clean. I sanded the aluminum mortise insert with medium and fine grit sanding pads. I stained the bowl with a Danish Oil Walnut stain. After I had stained the pipe I put a cork in the bowl and set it aside in an old candle stick holder to dry while I worked on the stem. I sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three sanding pads and gave it a final coat of the oil after sanding with the 12,000 grit pad. I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond. When the stain on the bowl had dried I put the stem on the pipe and then gave the entire pipe another buff with the White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine on the bowl and stem. The finished pipe is shown below. The stem actually looks like it is the original stem and the pipe looks as good as new. It is ready for a long life in the hands of the next pipeman who takes it home to join his/her rack.

Restoring a Jobey Stromboli 160

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I have been looking for a Jobey Stromboli for quite a while now but never found the shape I wanted. I love the rustic almost Sea Rock look of the Stromboli finish and the Jobey link system has intrigued me. So when I saw this one on EBay it only took a minute to make a bid and lock in the end price I was willing to pay for the pipe. The shape, the wavy rim surface and the flow of the stem attracted me. The Lucite stems on many of these pipes was quite thick and cumbersome looking but this one is nice and streamlined looking and reminds me of the GBD chairleg stems on some of their pipes. The seller says that it was in good shape and that the stem was a green colour. The bowl exterior looks odd to me and definitely the finish has taken a bit of a beating. The rusticated finish is quite forgiving however so I am hopeful that a good scrub and restain will do the trick. The stem appears to be in good shape with minimal tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides near the button. The six photos below were included by the seller in the EBay listing. Since I know next to nothing about Jobeys in general and more specifically about their claim to fame Link System I decided to do a bit of digging on the web. I have included a picture of the link taken from the web to give an idea of what the actual part looks like. Chris beat me to it and posted this patent applied for and issued for the bowl and shank connection I have included the entire patent document in the text of this article because it is fascinating to me to read how the designer worded his application and how the cutaway pictures show the connector both in terms of side views and end views.

Smoking pipe bowl shank and stem connection
US 3537462 A
Images(1) Description (OCR text may contain errors)
United States Patent Peter V. Genna Inventor Brooklyn, New York Appl. No. 802,170 Filed Feb. 25, 1969 Patented Nov. 3, 1970 Assignee Wally Frank, Ltd. New York, New York a corporation of New York SMOKING PIPE BOWL SHANK AND STEM CONNECTION 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figs. US. Cl 131/225 Int. Cl A24f 1/00, A24f 7/02 Field of Search 131/225 [56] References Cited V UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,168,481 l/1916 Combs 131/225 2,461,905 2/1949 Lavietes 131/225 3,044,472 7/1962 Keyser 131/225 FOREIGN PATENTS 274,743 7/1927 Great Britain 131/225 Primary ExaminerJoseph S. Reich Attorney-Harry B. Rook ABSTRACT: A coupler to separately connect the bowl shank and the stem of a smoking pipe, has one end threaded to screw into the shank bore. The other end portion is cylindrically smooth and the stem is frictionally longitudinally and rotatablyslidable thereon. Between said end portions the coupler has a circumferential flange that is disposed wholly in a counterbore of said shank and firmly seats on the bottom wall of the counterbore.

SMOKING PIPE BOWL SHANK AND STEM CONNECTION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In one type of shank and stem connection, the stem has a cylindrical tenon at one end which is longitudinally slidable and rotatable in a bore in the shank.

Another type of shank and stem connection comprises a screw threaded tenon on the stem and a complementary screw-threaded bore in the shank.

The first-mentioned type of connection has the objection that it is difficult to obtain a tight nonseeping joint between this shank and the stern, and it is practically impossible to maintain a snug connection between the parts because of the wear incident to frequent removal and replacement of the stem.

The second-mentioned connection has the objection that due to wear of the screw threads looseness in the connection of the parts occurs and results in seepage of moisture through the connection. Also attempts to tighten the connection by screwing the stern more firmly into the shank results in a displacement of the bit or mouthpiece of the stem with respect to the bowl and sometimes causes a stripping or damaging of the threads in either or both of the shank and tenon.

SUMMARY
One object of the present invention is to provide a connection between a bowl shank and a stem which shall overcome the above-mentioned objections to the prior art.

More particularly the invention contemplates a construction and a combination of a bowl shank, stem and coupler wherein the coupler has one end screw threaded into the bore, and the stem is frictionally longitudinally and rotatably slidable on the other end portion of the coupling; and said coupler has a circumferential flange between said end portion that is disposed wholly in a counterbore of the shank and firmly seats on the bottom wall of the counterbore, whereby the stem can slide longitudinally and rotate on the coupler and the coupler can be tightly screwed into the shank bore without danger of stripping the threads and with practical insurance of a seepage-proof joint between the coupler and the shank.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a complete understanding of the invention, reference should be had to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a central vertical longitudinal sectional view through portions of the bowl shank and stem and showing the coupler in side elevation;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged central, vertical longitudinal sectional view with portions of the bowl and the stem omitted;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the coupler; and

FIG. 4 is a similar view on the plane of the line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
The reference character A designates the smoking pipe bowl which has a shank B provided with a smoke duct 1 and a bore 2 to receive the coupler C which serves to separately connect the shank B to the stem D.

The shank bore 2 is entirely screw threaded at 3-to receive the threads 4 on one end portion of the coupler C the other end portion of which is smoothly cylindrical as indicated at 5 and on which is longitudinally slidable and rotatable the stem D. Preferably the coupler is formed of a moldable plastic material, for example hard rubber or Bakelite, and the stem is preferably formed of the same material. Between its said end portions, the coupler has a circumferential flange 6 which is adapted to be wholly disposed within a counterbore 7 at the end of the bore in the shank. The depth of the counterbore is greater than the thickness of the flan e. When the screwthreaded end of the coupler IS screwed into the bore of the shank, the flange 6 firmly or tightly abuts the bottom wall 8 of the counterbore. For convenience in screwing the coupler into the shank and unscrewing it from the shank, the coupler is provided with a diametrical kerf 9 in the stem-receiving end thereof.

However, in accordance with the invention the stem has a sufficiently tight frictional fit on the coupler so that the coupler can be screwed into and out of the shank bore by simple rotation of the stem. The stem has at one end a cylindrical smooth-walled socket 12 which receives the cylindrical end 5 of the coupler and the stem and is frictionally rotatable on the coupler so that the stem can be easily adjusted into the proper relation to the bowl, and the stem is also longitudinally slidable on the coupler so that the inner end 10 of the stem can be kept in neat and tight abutment with the end surface 11 of the shank. FIG. 2 shows the stem slid away from the end of the shank while FIG. 1 shows the stern and shank in their normal relation to each other.

It will be seen readily that the flange-limits the screwing of the coupler into the shank and thus protects against stripping of the threads. At the same time, the flange abutting the bottom wall of the counterbore provides a seepage-proof joint between the coupler and the shank. To compensate for wear of the threads or of the abutting surfaces of the flange and the counterbore, the coupler can be screwed farther into the bore, and the stem can be slid on the coupler to maintain the neat and tight joint between the end 10 of the stem and the end 11 of the shank.

Claim:
l. A smoking pipe comprising a bowl having a shank which has an internally screw-threaded bore at the outer end of which is a counterbore, a stem having at one end a cylindrical smooth walled socket providing a bottom wall therein, and a coupler having a cylindrical smooth end portion frictionally received in said socket for relative longitudinal movement and rotation, said coupler having its other end portion screwthreaded to mate with said screw-threaded bore and having a flange between said end portions wholly disposed in said counterbore and in firm abutting contact with the bottom wall of said counterbore, the depth of the counterbore being greater than the thickness of the flange.

Classifications
U.S. Classification 131/225
International Classification A24F7/00, A24F7/02
Cooperative Classification A24F7/02
European Classification A24F7/02

Further digging led me to learn that Jobey has had three homes throughout its existence. The pipes were originally made in England circa 1920 and then the company moved to the US. The Jobey Dansk version of the pipes was made in Denmark. Now the pipes are produced in Saint-Claude, France by Butz-Choquin since 1987. Under these broad time lines I was able to find a listing of the owner/distributor and manufacture of the brand during the time period that the brand was in the US.The list below was what I was able to find in several spots on the web. Each time I read the list it was cited that the dates are/were approximate.(The majority of the information below comes from Pipedia.)

Owners/Distributors/Manufacturers of Jobey Pipes from 1942-the late 80s
George Yale Pipes & Tobacco, New York (1942)
Norwalk Pipe Co., New York (1949)
Arlington Briar Pipes Corporation, Brooklyn (when?)
Hollco International, New York (1969).
Weber Pipe Co., Jersey City, NJ (1970’s)
The Tinderbox (1970’s – 80’s).

“Throughout decades Jobey pipes were mainly sold in the USA, Canada and England but remained almost unknown in continental Europe. The bulk of Jobeys was predominantly made according to classical patterns and mainly in the lower to middle price range. The predominant judgment of the pipe smokers reads: “A well made pipe for the price.” So there is hardly anything very special or exciting about Jobey pipes although a flyer from ca. 1970 assures: “The briar root Jobey insists upon for its peer of pipes is left untouched to grow, harden and sweeten for 100 years. […] Jobey uses only the heart of this century old briar and only one out of 500 bowls turned measures up to the rigid Jobey specifications.”99.80% of cull… that makes the layman marveling!”

“Yet then there are partially really exciting Freehands mainly in the seventies, that Jobey – Weber owned back then – bought from Danish pipe genius Karl Erik (Ottendahl). These pipes were offered as Jobey Dansk – ’70’s pure! (BTW waning sales caused Ottendahl to discontinue exports to the United States in 1987.)”

In the very same year – obviously only as a ghost brand – Jobey was transferred to Saint-Claude, France to be manufactured by Butz-Choquin.

There must have been an abandonment of the fabrication, because in 2002 the message was spread, the current proprietor of the brand F&K Cigar Co. from St. Louis, MO had recently re-introduced the Jobey very successfully again…”

I thought that the information might give me some idea as to when the pipe I had was made. However there was no information on the stamping distinctives of the various makers. Judging from the style of the stem and the thick, coloured Lucite it is made from my assessment would be that the pipe came from the period of the late 60s or 70s. It is not a Danish style Dansk so it is not from the period that Ottendahl carved the pipes so that would preclude it being Danish made. I am thinking it was American made. That is about as certain as I can be on the dating of this pipe.

When it arrived I was pleased with the overall look of the pipe. The deep rustication reminded me of Castello Sea Rocks. The finish was worn and the stain was missing on some of the high spots on the rustication. The rustication on the rim was filled in with a buildup of tars and oils. The bowl had been reamed and was clean. The photos from the seller had an almost green tint in some portions of the bowl. I was glad to see that the finish did not have any mold problems. The interior of the shank was quite dirty. The threaded mortise was filled with black tars and oils. The stem had tooth chatter on the top and bottom near the button but there were no tooth marks or dents that were deep in the surface. The fit of the stem to the shank was clean and tight. I am not sure whether the threaded tenon actually is to remain in the shank or the stem. I was unable to remove it from the stem so it acts like a threaded tenon fixed to the stem. The tenon had the same black buildup around the base of the piece and the threads had the same. The pipe was in fair shape and needed a thorough cleanup. The pipe smelled strongly of aromatic tobaccos.

I began the cleanup by scrubbing the exterior of the pipe with a tooth-brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. I used it undiluted and scrubbed until the soap was dark. I picked the buildup on the rim with a dental pick and cleaned out the grooves there. I rinsed it with lukewarm running water to remove it from the nooks and crannies of the finish. Once it was rinsed off I dried it with a cotton towel. The state of the finish is shown in the next three photos. There are spots where the stain is gone but the finish is very clean and ready to be stained. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed out the threaded mortise with the cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. The airway ahead of the threaded mortise was scrubbed with pipe cleaners. I also gave the stem an initial cleaning. Once the grime was off the stem the tooth chatter was very evident on the top and bottom sides of the stem. I would need to sand the stem to remove the tooth chatter and restore the shine to the stem. The airway would also need to be cleaned out thoroughly as when I held it to the light it was still black on the inside. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol to prepare it for staining. I used a Dark Brown Aniline stain and applied it with the provided wool dauber. I flamed the stain and repeated the process until the coverage was even across the bowl. While the bowl was drying I sanded the tooth chatter on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the marks from the surface of the Lucite. Once the tooth chatter marks were removed I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratching left behind by the sandpaper. The third photo below shows the stem after the sanding sponge has been used. The next step in the sanding process for me has always been to sand with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Each successive grit of micromesh brought a deeper shine to the auburn/hazel coloured Lucite. Once the stain was dry on the exterior of the pipe I wiped it down with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to lighten the finish slightly. I then gave the pipe a light buff with White Diamond and a shoe brush to raise the shine. I rubbed on some Halcyon II wax to protect the finish from my next step in the process. No matter how much I cleaned the pipe it still smelled of heavy “caramel like” aromatic tobacco. I decided to give it the cotton ball and alcohol treatment. I pressed two cotton balls into the bowl making sure they were not touching the rim and used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with isopropyl alcohol. I wanted to leach out the tars and oils that were in the briar and eradicate the smell. I filled the bowl and set it in an old ice-cube tray overnight. Within the first 30 minutes the cotton was already turning brown along the edges. This told me that the process was working. In the morning when I got up the cotton was a medium to dark brown as shown in the photo below. I picked it out carefully with a dental pick. The alcohol had evaporated so the cotton was not soggy, just damp. I wiped out the bowl with cotton swabs and cleaned out the shank once again with pipe cleaners to remove any of the remaining oils and tars from the surface. I lightly buffed it once more with a soft flannel buffing pad to polish the briar and stem. The finished pipe is shown in the final four photos. It has been waxed with Halcyon II Wax and buffed with a shoe brush and lightly with a soft flannel buffing pad. The stem has multiple coats of carnauba wax and also was buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad. I generally let a bowl that I have given the cotton ball and alcohol or salt and alcohol treatment dry for several days before loading it up and giving it an inaugural smoke.

Rebuilding a Dr. Grabow Regal Adjustomatic Patent Billiard

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One of the few pipes with a stem included in my gift box of bowls was a nice little Dr. Grabow Billiard. It had a long stem that clearly fit the shank of the pipe and gave it an elegant look and feel. At first glance I figured this one would clean up quite easily. The varnish finish on the bowl was worn and spotty with pieces of the varnish coat peeling off the surface of the briar. The rim was coated with a thick layer of tars and oils but looked sound. The bowl had a thick cake particularly from mid bowl to the bottom of the bowl. It was very hard and was not crumbling at all. It had however, closed the bowl to a large degree. The mortise was part of the aluminum band on the shank. It was a threaded cast piece that was fitted against the briar and was oxidized. The internals were quite clean. The bowl was stamped on the left side: REGAL over Dr. Grabow. On the right side it was stamped Imported Briar over Adjustomatic over PAT. 2461905. I have written about the patent on the Adjustomatic tenon/stem in an earlier post on rebornpipes: https://rebornpipes.com/tag/dr-grabow-adjustomatic/ I included patent information and diagrams on that page so I will not repeat that material in this post. The stem had thick calcification on the top and bottom sides of the stem and looked like it had one time sported a softie bit. When I turned the stem over there was a large hole in the underside from the button forward. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the damaged varnish and prepare the bowl for possible restaining once the rim had been cleaned off. It took some scrubbing but I was able to get rid of the varnish from the surface and out of the grooves in the carved leaves on both sides of the bowl. It turned out that underneath the peeling varnish there was some very nice grain on the pipe. The top and bottom of the shank and the front and back of the bowl were really nice cross grain. There was a small nick in the back of the bowl near the top of the rim that had a small fill otherwise the briar was flawless. The sides were very nice birdseye grain. This was going to be a stunning pipe once it was finished. I wiped down the buildup on the rim and was unable to even dent the hard tar. I lightly topped the bowl on a topping board to take of the buildup and not affect the rim itself. I carefully removed the tars, checking every move across the sandpaper to make sure that I was not damaging the surface of the rim. Once I had cut through the buildup the briar was in very good shape. I used a PipNet reamer with the smallest cutting head to remove the carbon cake in the bowl. Even the smallest head was hard to turn against the rock hard cake of this bowl. I carefully worked it back and forth, being careful not to tip the cutting head to either side and lose the roundness of the bowl. Once I had gotten the head in as far as possible I used a pen knife to work on the bottom portion of the bowl and then reworked the reamer in that area. I decided to try to patch the hole in the stem. I cleaned hole and put Vaseline on a pipe cleaner. I inserted it in the airway then sprayed accelerator on the stem, put black superglue on the hole and let it sit. The hole was quite large and I was not sure that the repair would hold. I applied the glue in several layers building up the patch until it was quite thick. I sprayed it with the accelerator each time to speed the drying time. I sanded the patched area with 150 and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the patch and then reapplied more black super glue and accelerator. I set the stem aside and let it cure. In the morning I sanded the stem patch until it was smooth in the process my fingernail went through the stem above the patch. I explored the thickness of the stem up the stem and found that I could push through the airway quite a distance up the stem (Photo 1 below). After that fiasco I noticed that the patch was also quite unstable. I was able to push out the patch with my fingernail. The stem after patching and pushing through the repair is shown in Photo 2. At this point it was clear that a stem patch would not work on this stem. With the thinness of the vulcanite extending up the stem about an inch it was not clear how far that would go. I was going to need to do something different. I cut off the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum. After cutting it off I could see the problem – airway was drilled very high in the stem. There was no room for cutting a new button on the stem and opening up the slot. The top of the stem was thin for another inch toward the tenon. I had to come up with something very different to address this issue. I had an old Kaywoodie stem in my can of stems that was about the same diameter as the damaged one. It was missing the club logo in the side of the stem but had a club shaped hole. I heated the stinger on the KW stem with a lighter and then was able to remove it with a pair of needle nose pliers. I also heated the Grabow stem with the lighter and worked on it with the pliers. It came out slowly. I finally screwed it into the bowl and turned it until the stem came off. I then unscrewed the tenon from the bowl. I tried it in the KW stem and it was just a little bit bigger than the hole in the stem. I would need to drill it one size larger to get a fit. I used my cordless drill to drill it out. It had to be slightly larger and slightly deeper than the KW stinger apparatus. To make room for the lip on the aluminum piece I used a sharp knife to bevel the inner edge of the hole to accommodate the lip. The Grabow tenon/adjustomatic apparatus fit in the shank and I pressed it into place to see if the fit was correct. I then removed it and used a white all purpose glue to hold it in place. There was a removable stinger end for the tenon so I reinserted that in place and the new insert was ready. The fit of the stem against the shank was perfect. The diameter of the stem was slightly larger than the diameter of the shank so I would need to sand it to make them match. I tried to remove the Grabow insert from the old stem so that I could use it on the new stem. I tried to pick it out with a dental pick but was not able to remove it. I filled the club hole with black superglue and then sanded it smooth. I used 220 grit sandpaper to work on the diameter of the stem. I also sanded the end of the stem around the button to remove the tooth marks and chatter. The next series of four photos show the stem after all of the sanding and shaping. The new stem looked quite good with the bowl. The fit was perfect and the lines and flow of the angles was exactly what I was looking for when I started. I sanded the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and then refilled the small holes around the patched club logo with more superglue. I sanded the patch down with 220 grit sandpaper and resanded it with the sanding sponges until it was smooth. The photo below shows the two stem side by side. I sanded the stems with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three grits of micromesh. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to work on the bowl. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and carefully buffed around the stamping on the sides. I polished the aluminum shank band with the higher grades of micromesh pads and then a polishing cloth to remove the scratches and bring up the shine. The next series of four photos show the polished bowl before I worked on it with some 8000-12,000 grit micromesh pads. I gave the bowl a wiped down coat of Danish Oil and walnut stain. I wanted to give the briar a shine coat but not add much colour to the finish. It really made the grain pop on this one. Once the oil had dried I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff. I put the stem back in place and gave the bowl and stem several more coats of wax and buffed to a shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The look and feel of the pipe is like new. It is cleaned, restemmed, refinished and ready to fire up with its inaugural bowl of tobacco. It should last a long time and serve its owner well – whether I keep it or pass it on to another pipeman. (I decided to take these final photos on a piece of marble counter top to see if I could get a good contrast on the photos.)

What is a Mountain Root Pipe with a Glasschaum Bowl?

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Another of the gift bowls that I received was an apple-shaped bowl stamped Mountain Root on the left side of the shank and on the right side Glasschuam Bowl. The Glasschaum Bowl stamping had remnants of silver paint in the indentations. The finish was rough with many scratches in the briar. The shank internally was very black and tarry. The bowl inside was dirty with a thin build up of cake. The internal edge of the meerschaum lining was chipped in several places but there were no cracks in the bowl. The Mountain Root stamping and the Glasschaum Bowl stamp were both new to me. I looked in “Who Made That Pipe” for the Mountain Root brand and found nothing with that stamping. PipePhil did not have it on his site either, so I looked further on the web and found several posts on the brand on the Grabow forum. The link is: http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/about4008.html&highlight=

At that site a pipeman had posted about a pipe he purchased on Ebay: “I purchased this “Mountain Root” pipe on Ebay. Right shank is stamped “Glasschaum Bowl” and the inside of the bowl is lined with something similar to how Yello-Boles are lined with a yellow colored coating. The stinger is wooden and the stem inlay is a white or faintly yellow ring on top of the stem similar to Yello-Bole stem rings of the ’40’s except for the color.”

My pipe bowl looked just as he described though I would have said it had a meerschaum like bowl insert rather than the yellow coating on the Yello-Bole pipes. It was significantly thicker than the yellow painted coating. Mine also came without a stem so there was no wooden stinger apparatus or yellow ring on the stem.

He went on to inquire if anyone could help him with information on the brand. He received quite a few helpful replies to his query. One that summarized the lot is included below.

“Mountain Root probably refers to Mountain Laurel. That was one alternative wood used in WWII for pipes, when briar was not available or in very short supply. The wood stinger also suggests that era.”

This coincided with what I was thinking in terms of the link to Mountain Laurel and the WWII era pipes. I was not alone in thinking that I was dealing with a pipe from that era made from Laurel. The confirmation of that was not 100% certain and the next details make me wonder about that. I looked up Glasschaum Bowl pipes online and found that Ben Leibowitz, an American pipe maker marketed the Glasschaum pipe in 1941 and quickly disappeared off the scene. This reference was also confirmed in Who Made That Pipe. If it was indeed a Liebowitz pipe it would have been stamped Glasschaum Pipe with no other stamping. This one however had the Mountain Root stamping as well and it led me to believe I was dealing with something other than an American made Leibowitz pipe. Further digging was necessary.

I often turn to EBay to see if I can find a particular brand of pipe for information when it does not show up other places. In looking through the various pipes on EBay that bore the Glasschaum Bowl stamping I found several that had the identical stamping on the right side of the shank. Some of them had Mountain Root (1st photo below) on the left side the same as the bowl I have, while others were stamped Gordon Deluxe in a Diamond on the left (2nd photo below). I looked in “Who Made That Pipe?”and found that Gordon pipes were made by Villard & Strauss as well as Dan Jacobs/Comoy’s/R. Jack & Sons and Samuel Gordon (1918), all in made in England. There was also confirmation that The Samuel Gordon pipes had Gordon in a diamond logo. The fact that these were English made pipes made me question the Mountain Laurel wood comment above. The bowl also did not look like the wood on other Mountain Laurel pipes that I have in my collection so I am not at all certain of the assessment.

The information I had found made me lean toward the maker of this pipe being Samuel Gordon a London pipemaker. That meant that the pipe was English made. I don’t have a clear idea of the date of the pipe but looking at others on EBay that had the same stamping of the Gordon Deluxe stamping my thinking is that the pipes came from the 40s or 50s.

I went through my can of stems and found one that fit well in the shank with minimal sanding. When I chose the stem I had not done the research on the brand and found that the stem had a light yellow O on the top of the stem and the one I chose had a brass O on the top. Such is the one of the happy coincidences of the repair. I lightly sanded the tenon of the stem until it fit snugly in the shank. I cleaned out the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners before beginning the shaping. The diameter of the stem was larger than the diameter of the shank. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the majority of the excess vulcanite on the stem. I carefully do this with the stem in place and try to get as close as possible to the same diameter as the shank. I try not to nick the shank while I am working on it. I used a sharp pen knife/letter opener to scrape the inside of the bowl. I wanted to remove the carbon build up around the middle of the bowl particularly and also on the upper sides of the bowl. The bottom half and the bottom of the bowl were quite clean. After scraping the bowl clean the chips around the edges of the rim were visible. They were deeper on the back side of the bowl at about 5 and 7 o’clock. I needed to top the bowl to remove the damaged areas on the rim and bring the top closer to the edge of the meerschaum insert. I set up a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper and sanded down the rim. With topping of the rim done the chipped areas were very clear. I sanded the inside edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the areas that were not chipped and to bank the inner edge slightly. With this done the repairs to the insert edge would be quite simple to do. Once I had the stem diameter close I took it back to the table and hand sanded it with 150 grit sandpaper until the angles and flow of the stem was also correct. I worked so that there was not a bulge or hip at the junction. I also sanded the button on the stem as it was very thick. I sloped it toward the end of the stem. When the fit and flow were close to what I wanted I removed the stem from the shank and sanded in long strokes from the tenon end to the button to smooth out potential scratches.

I put the stem back on and sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining excess and some of the heavier scratches. At this point I also sanded the shank of the pipe at the same time to make sure that the transition between the briar and the vulcanite was smooth and seamless. This took quite a bit of sanding. I did not want to remove too much briar as I did not want to change the look of the shank or the diameter of the shank. I was more concerned with getting the flow and lines smooth. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge once I had the fit perfected. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and shank. I have found that this makes staining the rim and shank much easier to achieve and matching the stain is not a problem as it is all quite light. I wiped down the inside of the bowl edges with a wet cotton pad to remove loose particles of the liner and also any dust that was present from the sanding. I mixed a small batch of Plaster of Paris to work on the chipped edges of the insert. I mixed it into a thick mud consistency that was still wet but did not clump. I pressed into the chipped areas with the cuticle tool that I cleaned up. The curves on the spoon end are perfect for pressing the mud into the chipped areas of the bowl. The next two photos show the repaired area of the bowl insert. I purposely put the plaster on heavier than necessary and then shaped it with the spoon end of the tool. I set it aside to dry. When the plaster was dry to the touch I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. There was some paper stuck to the inside of the shank from what appeared to be a washer that some previous owner had used to hold the stem tightly in place. I sanded the bowl and shank, carefully avoiding the stamping with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-3200 grit to smooth out some of the scratches that were on the surface of the briar. I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the dust from the finish. Looking at the bowl in this unfinished state it is clear that this is a piece of briar and not a piece of Mountain Laurel. The birdseye and cross grain are quite nice. I cleaned up the top of the bowl and left the inside edge untouched at this point. I wanted the plaster to cure over night before I sanded it and cleaned it up on the inside. The next series of three photos show the work I did on the repair to the edge of the insert. The first shows the repair after it dried over night. It was hard and quite thick. The second photo shows the area after I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out, bevel it slightly to match the rest of the rim edge and feather it into the surface of the bowl. The third photo shows it after the bowl has been wiped down with a damp cloth to clean up the dust from the sanding. The bright white areas are the repaired portions. After a few smokes this will blend in very well with the rest of the insert and will be unnoticeable. I wiped the bowl and stem down with olive oil on a paper towel. I wipe it on and wipe it off again to give me a clear picture of areas of the bowl that still need work. It shows the scratches very clearly and also gives some colour and life to the bowl highlighting the natural grain. I am still undecided as to whether or not I will give it a coat of a light brown stain. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. In between each set of three grits I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when dry continued sanding the stem. I buffed it with White Diamond and gave it a final wipe down with Obsidian Oil before setting it aside to work on the bowl. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on a cotton pad and then gave the bowl a light coat of Danish Oil and walnut stain. I wiped it on the bowl and then wiped it off and set it aside to dry over night. In the morning when it was dry I lightly buffed it with White Diamond on the wheel and then put the stem in place and repeated the buffing. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is restored and ready to be smoked. It should last for many more years ahead and provide a typical meerschaum lined smoke for the pipeman who smokes it next.

Restoring a Dr. Grabow Meerschaum-Lined Stack

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Blog by Steve Laug

Another of the bowls I was gifted was a tall Meerschaum lined rusticated stack with a smooth spot on both sides of the bowl and the end of the shank. It is stamped on the underside of the shank, MEERSCHAUM-LINED over Dr. Grabow. The bowl exterior had some darkening on the back side of the bowl and the grooves of the bowl were caked. The rim had damage and the meerschaum lining was rough on the inside edge of the bowl. There were cracks in the meerschaum bowl insert on the rim. The bowl itself was cracked and missing from about mid bowl to the bottom of the bowl. The meerschaum pieces were lying in the bottom of the bowl and there was no stem for the pipe.

I did not know anything about the meerschaum lined Dr. Grabows and this one had a distinct look of an Italian made pipe. I went to my source on line for Grabow information the Dr. Grabow Forum (http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/sutra238.php). There I found a post on the meerlined pipes. It read in part as follows… “Meerschaum lined pipes were originally imported from M. Gasparini in Italy for Grabow. Sparta finally figured out how to do them and only imported the “plugs”. Early Grabow Meerschaum lined pipes were stamped Italy with no spade. After 1989 Dr. Grabow got rid of Italy and added the spade.” So, my sense of it being Italian was correct. It also dates this pipe as pre-1989. I had an old stem in my can of stems that would be a good fit for this pipe. I needed to sand the tenon slightly to get a snug fit against the shank. The diameter of the stem was slightly larger than the diameter of the shank and would need to be sanded down to make a matched fit. I used a pen knife to clean up the inside of the bowl. There was carbon build up on the lower part of the bowl about mid bowl that was holding together the broken pieces of the meer lining. I scraped away the carbon and removed the broken pieces of meerschaum that remained on the lower edge of the bowl insert. I topped the bowl with a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the rim and the lining top. I did not remove much of the bowl top but took off enough to make the bowl top and the rim top flush and smooth. In the photo below the cracks in the bowl insert are visible around the top edge of the bowl. I used clear superglue to fill the cracks on the top edge of the insert and sanded them down. I mixed a batch of plaster of Paris and used the dental pick, the cuticle tool that I was gifts and a pipe nail to build up the interior of the bowl and replace the bottom half of the insert that was missing. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the shank and then packed in the plaster around the airway and tamped it in place on the bottom with the pipe nail and on the sides with the cuticle tool. I used one of the stain pens that I have to stain the rim to match the bowl. I inserted my damp index finger into the bowl and rubbed down the sides of the bowl to smooth them out. I also pushed the plaster on the bottom of the bowl to more thoroughly pack it in place. I sanded the stem with 150 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the stem and then 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the stem. I scrubbed the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish and clean up the exterior of the bowl. I then rubbed it down with olive oil and let it soak into the finish. I also rubbed down the stem with the oil as I find that it makes sanding the stem easier to do. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I wiped it down between each of the sets of three pads with Obsidian Oil. Once it was dry I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then with carnauba wax. I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it with White Diamond. I lightly buffed the bowl with carnauba wax and the stem more heavily. I finished by buffing the pipe with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The thin shank and the thin diameter of the stem give the pipe a delicate look. It is very light weight and fits well in the hand. I am going to let the plaster of Paris repair dry and cure for several days before I load a bowl and give it an inaugural smoke.

UPDATE: I just smoked this one after it had cured for two days. I loaded a bowl of The Malthouse Founder’s Reserve in the bowl and smoked it to the bottom of the bowl. It smoked cool and dry. The plaster of Paris is darkening nicely and will soon match the rest of the meer lining of the bowl.

Rejuvenating a Willard Straight Rhodesian

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Another of the bowls from the gift box was this Willard Rhodesian. It was in pretty good shape other than being dirty and stemless. The bowl had a broken cake at the top of the bowl and remnants of tobacco left in the bowl. The rim was dirty and lightly caked with some damage caused from tapping the rim on something. The outer and inner edges of the bowl were undamaged. The interior of the shank was dirty. The shank was fitted with a threaded mortise that would take a threaded stem. I had a stem in m can of stems that fit well in the shank, was overturned but workable. The diameter of the stem was larger than the shank. The photo below shows the stem on the pipe in the middle of the threesome. I set up a heat gun and held the stem about three inches above the heat. The first photo below shows the stem in place. To heat it I removed it from the bowl and heated the metal tenon. When it was warm I screwed it back in place and twisted it. I had to reheat it several times to get the alignment correct. The second photo shows the aligned stem. I sanded the stem with 150 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the stem. I also sanded the slope to the button to highlight the tooth marks on the stem. I used a needle file to sharpen the inner edge of the button and make the angles more distinct. I wiped down the bowl with acetone to remove the grime and clean up the finish. I did not want to lighten the finish as much as to clean off the light coat of varnish on the briar. I lightly topped the bowl to clean up the rim damage. I used a sanding board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damaged briar and then followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding block. I continued to sand the stem to match it to the diameter of the shank. I used 220 grit sandpaper to finish the sanding and shaping of the stem. I worked on the tooth marks on the top side and underside of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until they were no longer visible. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head and working up to the one that was the same diameter as the bowl. I reamed the bowl back to bare wood. I sanded the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to reduce the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. There was one stubborn tooth mark that I could not get out on the underside of the stem next to the button. I cleaned the area with alcohol and then used clear super glue to repair it. I sprayed the path with an accelerator so that I could sand the patch sooner. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil between each group of three micromesh sanding pads and then when I finished sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I buffed it with White Diamond. I buffed the bowl and shank with White Diamond and then gave it a coat of Danish Oil and walnut stain to protect and preserve the finish. When it was dry I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The new stem fits well. In fact it looks like it came with the pipe. The repairs to the stem are not visible. The bowl itself dried well and buffing the finish gave it a softer look. The finished pipe was given several more layer of carnauba wax and then buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad. It is now ready for many more years of service to another pipeman.

Giving New Life to a Kaywoodie Connoissuer Dublin Shape 45C

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This is the third old-timer I received in my gift box from Jim. It is stamped Kaywoodie over Connoissuer on the left side of the shank and 45C on the right side near the bowl. It was in rough shape. The finish was gone and the bowl was almost black with grit and grime. There were places on the sides and bottom of the bowl that had black spots of a sticky, oily substance. The rim was heavily caked and damaged as well. There were rough outer edges on the rim on the back right side and the front as well. The bowl was badly caked and appeared to be out of round from reaming with a knife. The stem was in pretty decent shape however. There was a buildup of calcium on the end of the stem about ½ inch from the button forward but there was only minimal tooth chatter and no deep bite marks. The stem even fit correctly and was not over turned in the shank. I looked up an old Kaywoodie shape chart to make sure the shape number 45C was indeed a Dublin, in fact a Large Dublin. I found it in the second column, third entry down that column in the chart below. I think that the name is quite relative as the size is not that large and would easily be a group 3 sized bowl in Dunhill terms. I also found that the Connoisseur line was the top of the line (at least in this chart of pipes). Read the notes on the bottom of the page, the last line that shows a price of $27.50 – the highest priced KW on this chart. When I removed the stem the stinger was black with buildup but was not damaged. It only had two holes in it, a flattened head rather than a ball and a space on the top of the stinger where the air went through. This was obviously a pre-Drinkless stinger. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and used a dental pick to clean out some of the scale around the edges of the airway. I started with the smallest reaming head and worked up to one approximately the size of the bowl. I wanted to try to minimize the rim damage and bring the bowl back to as close to round as possible with the reamer. The amount of damage to the edges of the outer rim and the broken spots on the inner rim required that I top the bowl. I set up a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper and sanded the top of the bowl. I press the bowl into the sandpaper, taking care to keep the rim flat against the board so as not to slant the top of the bowl. I worked it until the top was clean and the outer edge was sharp once again. The second photo shows the topped rim and the damage down to the roundness of the bowl inner edge. It was going to take some work to work this back to round as much as possible. I sanded the inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to even it out and give it more of a round shape once again. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton balls to remove the grime on the finish. I decided against using the oil soap this time around as the finish was basically gone any way so the acetone would make short work of removing the finish. I scrubbed it longer and harder than I expected to remove the grime. The next series of photos show the bowl after scrubbing. There was some nice grain under the blackness. I sanded the bowl and the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and fine grit sanding block to further clean things up on the surface of the bowl and stem. The photo below shows the bowl after the work on the inner edge of the rim. It certainly has come a long way from the beat up inner edge pictured above. I dropped the bowl into the alcohol bath to soak out some more of the grime from the briar. I turned my attention to the stem. I cleaned up the stinger with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton balls until the aluminum shined once again. I continued to sand the stem with the medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the surface scratching. I cleaned out the area around the slot with a dental pick and finally after many pipe cleaners was satisfied with the cleanness of the internals of the stem. I sanded the stems with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stems down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and polished it with a coat of carnauba wax to raise a shine. I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and dried it off with a cotton cloth. I sanded it lightly with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the last of the grit and grime softened by the bath. The bowl is shown in the photo below. It is cleaned and ready for staining. There were two areas that were dark on the bowl – the left side midbowl toward the front and the right side midbowl toward the back. I cleaned and stained the bowl with some Danish Oil and walnut stain and in the dark spots two small minor cracks showed up. At this point the cracks are not visible in the inside walls of the bowl. They may well be there and not seen in the darkening of the interior walls. Once the oil dried I exposed the two cracks with a dental pick to make them accessible. I then used superglue and briar dust to repair the cracks. I overfilled them with the glue and briar dust to ensure that the repair is solid and would have no pits in the surface once I sanded them. I sanded the repairs with a well used piece of 220 grit sandpaper and followed that with a fine grit sanding sponge and 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads. I wiped the sanded bowl down and then gave it a coat of Danish Oil with Walnut stain to touch up the repairs and the entire bowl.
When the pipe was dry I buffed it with White Diamond and polished the bowl and stem. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and give it a shine. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The pipe is finished. It has come a long way from the pipe that I started with when I took it from the box. The repairs, though visible look pretty good. I expect them to hold for a long time and provide a quality smoke in an old Kaywoodie for whoever ends up with this old pipe. It is cleaned and ready for the next pipeman.

Restoration of a Barclay Rex HGP Briar Root Labelled “THE DUKE”

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I read a post by dmcmtk on Pipe Smokers Unlimited Forum regarding a pipe he picked up that was a Barclay Rex with a white spot on the stem. He had written to the store and received a response that the pipe was made for them by Dunhill. I had no idea that Dunhill had made pipes for the NY shop so I began to hunt down some of these pipes looking for the tell-tale white dot on the stem. I found some on Ebay under the Barclay Rex shop store there and one stood out to me and seemed to call my name. The write-up on the ad read:

“This is a HGP Stubby Briar Root estate pipe that has been carefully restored on-site.The stem is in excellent condition and has very little visible wear; there are a few nicks on the bowl. This pipe was made by hand for Barclay Rex and likely dates to before 1960. The letters HGP actually stand for the craftsman’s initials.”

The story and the shape intrigued me and it had the white spot on the stem. I was hooked. It had a buy it now price so I went for it. I contacted the store and paid the bill and the pipe was mine. I was not too concerned about the condition as I would work on it anyway. The ad said that it had been carefully restored on-site so I would see what that meant when it arrived. The photos below were on Ebay and give a good idea of why the shape caught my attention. I wrote to Barclay-Rex to find out a little background information on this pipe and the stamping it showed in the pictures. I received this email response:

Dear Steve,
This was made by a pipe maker who worked for Barclay Rex for a time in the mid-20th century. His initials were HGP and he would stamp his pipes as such. We are unsure why the maker decided to place a white dot on his stem, but we have come across one or two more of his with the same combination. Unfortunately, his full name has been forgotten with time.
– barclayrex1910

When the pipe arrived it was in good shape. The stamping indeed was HGP over Briar Root on the left side of the shank and The Duke on the bottom of the shank. Part of the shank and bottom of the bowl was flattened so that it was a sitter. I took it apart to examine it more closely. It was anything but cleaned and restored. The stem was rough – there was oxidation next to the band that went quite deep. There was a gouge on the right side of the stem that was quite deep. The top and the bottom of the stem from the taper to the button had obviously been modified to make a more pronounced taper. The file marks were still evident in the vulcanite. The width of the button end of the stem had also been modified and was narrower than originally designed as the sides of the stem also showed file marks. The button itself had a orific opening but someone had modified it into a poorly shaped slot. The stem had deep tooth marks on the surface of top and bottom near the button. There was a bite through on the top side next to the button. The angle of the taper was very abrupt and sharp with distinct cut marks. The tenon was fit for a filter by the appearance of it and the inside was very tarry. A filter would not have fit with all of the buildup in the stem. The bowl was another story. It was out of round with burn marks on the inner edge that needed some work. It had been reamed so that was not an issue. Then inside of the shank was filthy. The tars and oils were thick against the end of the mortise.

I decided to work on the stem first. I wanted to address the taper of the stem and cleanup the file marks and gouge in the top portion. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches and reshape the taper. This took quite a bit of sanding to reshape the angles and edges of the stem. There was a slight hip on both sides of the stem that needed to be sanded out to get a smooth flow to the lines of the sides. The next series of photos show the progress in reshaping and repairing the stem. I worked on the taper first to remove the sharp angles of the sides and top of the taper and work on a flow to the profile of the stem. I sanded the gouge on the top right side of the stem until it disappeared and also worked on the transition from the flattened top and bottom of the taper and the round end next to the shank. The wet spot on the first photo next to the button highlights the spot where the small hole in the top of the taper was. At this point the taper is smooth and the transition is beginning to look right. The profile shot below shows the work that has been done. I continued to sand and smooth out the taper to give it a look similar to a Peterson tapered stem. The first photo shows the taper after all of the shaping. I rubbed some Vaseline on a pipe cleaner and inserted it in the orific slot in the button so that I could patch the hole in the top side of the stem. The second photo below shows the size and placement of the hole. I used black super glue for the repair and sprayed it with the accelerator to harden it more quickly. I found that the accelerator allows me to sand more quickly but curing actually takes longer. I sanded it with sanding sticks to smooth it out and then build it up several more times to give more thickness to the stem at the button. I reshaped the sharp inner edge of the button with a needle file. After sanding with the sticks I sanded the patched area with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to smooth out the scratches and blend in the superglue patch with the rest of the stem surface. I finished sanding the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each three grit sequence of pads and let it sit until absorbed before continuing with the next set of three pads. When I finished sanding with the last three grits of micromesh I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and when dry put the back on the pipe and gave it a buff with White Diamond. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I decided to top the bowl to even out the rim as most of the inner rim damage did not go too deeply into the bowl. Topping it would smooth out the rim and allow me to correct the damage that made it out of round. I set up the topping board with the 220 grit sandpaper and sanded the top until the rim was smooth and the burn damage was minimized. I sanded the inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to further mask the damage to the inner rim. I sanded the topped bowl with medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then with 1500-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I cleaned out the sanding dust from the bowl with a damp cloth and wiped down the top of the bowl with an alcohol wipe to prepare it for restaining. I decided against restaining the whole bowl and to just stain the rim. Thanks to Greg I have a set of staining pens that make this kind of thing quite easy. I started with the lightest stain pen and then used the medium stain pen to match the colour of the bowl. I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave the bowl and rim a quick buff with carnauba wax. After the buffing I sanded the band with the micromesh sanding pads and then polished it with a polishing cloth. The finished bowl is shown in the photos below. The next photo shows what I did next, though in retrospective I probably should have done this first, I did not. I cleaned out the inside of the shank with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the tarry buildup in the mortise and airway of the pipe. Once I finished cleaning out the inside of the pipe I gave it a quick buff with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax, buffing with a soft flannel buff between coats. The finished pipe is shown below. The restoration and refurbishment are complete and now it can be honestly said that it has been “restored”. The amount of work it took to bring this pipe back to a finished look was far more than I expected when I bid on it. I honestly was surprised at how dirty and unfinished it was when it arrived. Now I have a pipe that I can be proud of and enjoy smoking. The look and feel in the hand is exactly what I like and I look forward to firing up the first bowl in it very soon.

Yet Another Frankenpipe – A pipe made from assorted pieces

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Frankenpipes are born out of having no more pipes in the refurb box to work on. I have many in transit at the moment but none with which to sit and unwind. That always is a recipe for me to dig in the boxes of parts and see what I can come up with to keep the hands busy. The pipe that follows was born of fiddling with parts in my parts box. The part I started with was an old bowl that I received in a gift box recently that did not have a pipe to go with it. It was a pressure fit bowl that obviously sat on a base of some kind of system pipe. I searched the Metal Pipes website to see if I could find out any information but did not find any likely candidates for this mystery bowl. It had some nice grain on it so it seemed like a shame to just let it sit in the box and wait for a potential pipe for it. I also I had a cut off shank piece that I had made for another purpose, a stem that fit the shank nicely and a block of briar that was too tiny for a pipe. The small block is one that I have been scavenging pieces off of to make plugs for burnout repairs. As I looked at the pieces I had an idea for putting them together into an interesting pipe that had kind of art deco feel to it. Now it was time to bring the pipe together and actualize my vision. I measured out the drilling areas for the block. I needed to drill the airway large enough to insert the briar shank. I would use the Missouri Meerschaum concept of inserting the shank into the briar block. I started by drilling the first hole in the end of the block. I drilled the mortise area first. I did this in stages as it needed to be big enough for the shank piece to be pressure fit into place. Afterward I drilled the rest of the airway in the block. I decided to drill it all the way through to the other side of the block so that I could put in a funky plug on the front end. I looked around for what I would use and had several ideas. Time would tell which I would choose in the end. I moved through several drill bits until the bit that was the size of the shank piece. I drilled it deep enough to inset the shank quite deep in the hole. I marked the airway exit on the top of the block with a permanent marker and drew a line to show the track of the airway. I marked my drill bit to the depth of the top of the airway and drilled the hole in the top of the block. I wanted the hole to be the size of the nipple on the bottom of the bowl so that it would pressure fit into the hole. I wanted the hole to go through to the top of the airway so that the nipple on the bowl would sit on top and create good airflow from bowl to stem. I pressure fit the bowl in the top of the block and the shank in the end of the block for the next two photos. I wanted to see if the parts all fit together well. I gave the shank a slight angle upward and would later bend the stem if the look was correct. Everything worked well at this point. For the plug on the end of the block I decided to do something simple. I wanted a plug that would be like a coloured dot on the end of the base. I cut off a piece of knitting needle and inserted it in the airway at the end of the block that is not showing at this point. I glued it in place and used the Dremel to take the overage back flush with the block. The height of the block was too much so I wanted to cut it in half. I do not have power tools to do that kind of thing so a bit of sweat equity and a small hack saw did the job. I sliced off the bottom half of the block to be used in making bowl plugs at a later date and now the height was more suitable to this little sitter. I glued the shank into place in the block with epoxy and angled it the way I wanted it to be when I finished the work on the base. I used the Dremel and a sanding drum to begin to shape the block into a base for the pipe. I wanted a slope upward to the bowl – the sides would also slope upward. My idea was to have the bowl sitting on top of a volcano like base. It took a lot of sanding to get the shape even close to what I had envisioned and in the process I ran into my first problem. The joint of the block and the shank could not be sanded smooth or the walls would be too thin and the shank would break too easily. I probably should have used a Delrin tenon to connect the two parts but as usual looking back is not overly helpful. So I had to improvise with this one. I had a small brass pressure fitting that would look kind of interesting on this little Frankenpipe so I worked the joint area to accommodate the brass fitting. The photos below show the pipe taking shape with the brass band high on the shank. (At the time of these photos I had not yet glued the band on the shank.) I filled in the openings around the edges of the fitting where the shank joined the block with briar dust and wood glue packed into place with a dental pick. I sanded the ridges on the fitting with 150 grit sandpaper to remove them. I would have to do more work on the look of the band as I worked out the details later. I took the following photos after I had done more shaping of the base and glued the band in place. While the band is not beautiful it certainly strengthens the joint on the shank of the pipe and makes up for my lack of planning! The photo below shows the base with the bowl removed. You can get a clear picture of the base without the bowl and how the bowl looks from the bottom. The hole in the base is the same size as the nipple on the bowl. I sanded it for another hour before calling it a night and then wiped it down with some light olive oil to get an idea where the scratches were that I needed to do more work on and also to see the grain. The next four photos show the pipe at this point in the process. There is still more sanding to do on the base and shank as well as some minor shaping. The idea though is clear – and the pipe is smokeable. The draw is very good and there are no leaks around the joint where the bowl presses into the base. So far so good. I set up a heat gun and bent the stem over the rounded handle of the heat gun to get a slight bend in it. I set the bend with cool water. With the bend the pipe is a sitter. The bend pulls the weight backward and the pip sits nicely on the button and the flat bottom of the base. I did quite a bit more sanding and shaping of the base with 150 and 220 grit sandpaper. Once I had the shape to where I wanted it I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I gave the bowl and shank a wipe down with a cloth that was dampened with olive oil. Other than that the bowl and shank are not stained. While the shaping was finished there was still a lot of sanding to do to remove the scratches that remain in the briar. I also want to do some sanding on the band to remove scratches and polish it as well. The vulcanite stem also needs sanding and polishing. I took the pipe apart and sanded all the pieces with micromesh sanding pads. I sanded all of them with 1500-2400 grit pads and then finished sanding them with a 6000 grit pad. I buffed the parts with red Tripoli and then White Diamond and gave each part of the bowl and base multiple coats of carnauba wax. I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding sponge and then with the various grits of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond, rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and finished by giving it a buff with carnauba wax. I sanded the brass band with the micromesh pads to polish it as well. When I had finished I gave the pipe a final buff with White Diamond and then applied carnauba wax to each part. I buffed them with a soft flannel buff to finish the shine. The final photo is of the front of the pipe. The knitting needle plug that I used is a bright reddish orange circle that sits at the base of the pipe on the front. The colour of the pipe is the red of the previous four finished photos. The last photo was taken with my cell phone and is a bit washed out.