Tag Archives: restaining

Reviving a Peterson Dunmore 79 with my Son in Law

Blog by Steve Laug

This past weekend my son in law came over with the Peterson Dunmore pipe that he had purchased on a recent pipe hunt in the US. He picked it up for $15USD so it was a good purchase. We finally got around to working on it. In a previous post on the Dunmore line I had found that the line from Peterson really is a stripped down pipe. The one that we worked on this weekend was in essence a system pipe. The lack of a ferrule is made up for by a stylized carving around the shank end. The stem sits snugly against the end of the shank but is not flush with the diameter of the shank. The saddle on the stem has a slightly different flair than a regular Peterson pipe. It had a Plip stem. It bore the stamping Peterson’s over “Dunmore” on the left side of the shank and Made in the Republic of Ireland and the number 79 on the right side of the shank.

The pipe was in pretty decent shape under the grime and tars on the bowl and rim. It had some beautiful birdseye grain under the grime that would really stand out with a bit of work. The rim was damaged along the back outer edge with small nicks. The build up on the rim was hard and uneven. The bowl itself was out of round and would need to be adjusted. The stem was oxidized but under the oxidation on the saddle it bore the stylized P stamp. The top of the stem near the button had a few small bite marks and some tooth chatter. The underside of the stem near the button had a pin hole in it that would need to be patched.

While my son in law, Lance worked on the bowl scrubbing and cleaning it I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the tooth marks. I wiped it down with alcohol to clean the areas around the hole. I daubed Vaseline on a pipe cleaner and inserted it from the tenon end of the stem and then used black superglue to repair the hole. I gave it several coats of glue to build up the repair, sprayed it with accelerator and let it dry between applications. Once I had the patch solidly in place I set it aside and let it cure. After curing for about 30 minutes I sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the stem. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and further blend it.

Lance worked on the bowl while this was going on. He washed down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the remaining finish on the pipe. He softened the buildup on the rim surface and then lightly topped the bowl to remove the damage and the buildup. Once it was smooth, he sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and then wiped the bowl down with another wash of acetone. We gave the bowl a coat of medium walnut stain mixed with Danish Oil and rubbed it onto the bowl and off again with a soft cotton pad. The bowl looked good when I had finished wiping it down and buffing it with a shoe brush. The grain is quite stunning.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond to remove more of the oxidation. I rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil and set it aside for the pictures below. At this point in the refurbishing the stem is looking quite good. I still need to sand with micromesh pads and then reapply the gold in the P stamp on the left side of the stem.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. In between each set of three pads I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I finished by buffing the stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad.

After sanding it with 3200-4000 grit pads I used a gold paint and applied it to the P logo on the stem and then sanded it again with the same three grits of pad.

I put the stem back in the shank and buffed the entire pipe with carnauba wax and with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below. The first four photos give a close up look at the bowl so that you can appreciate the beautiful grain on the pipe. The last four photos show the pipe in its entirety. It is truly a stunning piece of briar with no fills or pits. It is ready for its inaugural smoke by my son in law. It looks as good as new and the stunning birdseye grain gives the pipe a rich look. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of his restored pipe and even more what he thinks once he has smoked it.

Radical Surgery, Amputation Extend Ben Wade’s Life

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Patient in Operating Room for 14 Days
by ROBERT M. BOUGHTON
RP Blogger

(Albuquerque, NM, USA) Two weeks after entering a restorer’s shop for a routine checkup, a tall billiard was released following emergency surgery to amputate more than half of its upper bowl and perform cosmetic adjustments, the restorer announced Wednesday.

Claiming the likely sole previous owner of the victim, a Ben Wade Standard, was suspected of chronic abuse of the English-born pipe for an unspecified number of years, the restorer, who wished to remain anonymous, said the identity of the perpetrator remained unknown.

“This is the worst, most depraved example of tobacco pipe abuse I have ever encountered,” the restorer said. “The briar pipe presented with first-degree burns on the rim and a chamber stuffed with carbon cake as well as acute scratches, pits, gouges and grime covering the outside of its body, and other mayhem of the stem.”

New Mexico law defines mayhem as the “malicious intent to maim or disfigure” any part of a body by means including cutting, mutilating or otherwise disabling.

Further examination revealed an almost fatal crack through the chamber to the outside of the bowl extending almost an inch downward from the right side of the rim, the restorer said, and added that was the wound requiring amputation of about half of the victim’s main body.

“Never before have I seen such a horrific case of compound commutated fracture,” the restorer said, showing photographs taken at the time of the initial examination.

“After the first look, the prognosis for this unfortunate former billiard was terminal,” the restorer said.“However, upon consulting some of my colleagues, we agreed that a combination of amputation, which was unavoidable if the pipe’s vital functions were to continue at all, and radical reconstructive surgery was the only viable course of action.”

Calling the complex work involved “a Hail Mary toss,” the restorer described the plan to remove half of the bowl and reshape the stump into a “squat pot.” Preliminary measures to determine the pipe’s structural ability to survive this highly invasive operation – including a thorough cleansing, soaking the chamber and shank with 190-proof alcohol and the beginning of a rigorous course of sanding the outside and the “mangled guts” – began immediately.

According to the restorer, the possibility that the pipe would reject the amputation and reconstruction was serious.

“Imagine if one day you awoke to find your head flattened to less than half its original size, but the rest of your body proportional to the way you had been,” the restorer said.“The shock of it could be devastating, dare I say catastrophic, not to mention the way you would stand out in public and the resulting open pointing, name-calling and general ridicule.”

The restorer said the ultimate decision to proceed with the surgery was his alone and based on a desire to save the pipe’s life if possible.

“Before I soaked the chamber and shank with alcohol, I drew incision lines downward at intervals around the rim, to the highest point of the bowl possible and yet still clear of the long scar of the crack, to guide me,” the restorer said. Choosing a hacksaw for the amputation phase, the restorer said no anæsthesia was used as the pipe was unconscious.

“Lopping off the dome of that tall, proud billiard was the most extreme measure I hope I ever have to take in the name of restoration,” the restorer said. “But the removal was clean, and the deed done, it was easy to see the problems I still faced to reshape the resulting bowl, from something that could not even be called a short billiard, into at least a passable pot.”

The restorer added that sanding down the shank until it was proportionate to the bowl was possible only by erasing Ben Wade’s identity, and therefore was never seriously considered.

“No, our friend Ben Wade will just have to learn to adjust to his new body,” the restorer, who was drenched in sweat and appeared haggard, said. “I have done everything possible, although there were complications.”

Using an electric Dremel for the first time, with a smooth sander bit and set at the lowest speed, the restorer began the process of increasing the curve of the bowl. He said he applied the least pressure possible to the wood but still noticed the tendency of the tool to remove uneven layers of briar.

When the restorer had made his first full circle of the bowl and observed the jagged beginning of the reshaping into what would become a very short pot due to the amount of wood on which he could work, he said he switched to a rasp for a fast initial leveling of the bowl’s underside to make it a “sitter.”

To finish the basic reshaping, the restorer said, he returned to the Dremel for a “touch-up of the rougher spots” before taking the rasp and using it with smooth, upward strokes from the bottom of the bowl to the top to make the shape still more curved.

“At the end of this phase, I was left with a very rough surface that I knew could be smoothed with sandpaper and micromesh pads,” the restorer said. “But the rim was uneven and required careful leveling. The hardest aspect of this part of the cosmetic work was moving the rasp in the correct direction to make the thickness of the rim uniform all around.”

The chamber was still coated with what the restorer called “never-ending cake.” He said he took a chance with the Dremel again and used it to loosen some of the carbon buildup.

“This was successful, but also revealed the beginning of another crack that in time was certain to work its way all the way through the bowl,” the restorer said and sighed. “This was when I knew the best I could do was to extend the life of the once whole and healthy pipe. Only God can say how long that life will be.” The restorer then sanded the remaining scratches from the bowl and made the chamber as smooth and free of the old cake as he could before starting what he thought would be the finishing touches: buffing the outer pipe with several grades of micromesh, re-staining the wood a dark red color and polishing the pipe with four kinds of wax.

“It’s funny how sometimes going all the way through the regular steps of restoration will reveal new problems,” the restorer said. “In this case, two blemishes in the forms of gashes showed up.”

The restorer explained how he used a black marker over the damaged areas to simulate the grain color and then applied small amounts of Super Glue, which he let dry. Once the glue dried and hardened, the restorer added, he rubbed it away with three grades of micromesh. The tenon of the replacement stem that was on the pipe when it arrived, despite the restorer’s attempts to fix it with Black Super Glue, no longer fit the shank.

“It was way too small, and I hated the idea of using beeswax to force it to fit,” the restorer said. “It is my belief that the previous owner, instead of cleaning the pipe regularly if ever, let the crud in the shank accrete until the stem became stuck and then sanded down the tenon to fit the goop. I guess it takes all kinds.” Finding a good Lucite replacement stem that fit the shank as if it were made for it, the restorer said he only needed to remove some minor scratches with high-grade micromesh and buff it with some waxes before re-finishing the bowl and shank.

“I decided to adopt the Ben Wade and care for it however long it has to live,” the restorer said with a hopeful smile. “But of course I wouldn’t dream of having its name legally changed to mine.”

http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

A New Pipe for me – a Diebel’s K.C. Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

There is a bit of a back story to this pipe. For as long as I can remember (you have to remember that may not be that long when you reach a certain age. Memory plays tricks on you) I have had two copies of Carl Ehwa Jr.’s The Book of Pipes and Tobaccos. One I am saving is pristine and one that graces my shelf. The other is for lending out and referring to when I am looking for information. It is a book I have read and reread and never tire of in the process. In a recent thread on Smoker’s Forums Ken posted to a thread on a review of the book some interesting information tying the book to a Diebel pipe that he had in his possession. He posted the pipe and then the information that Carl Ehwa Jr. was formerly a Master Blender at Diebels Tobacco and founder of McClelland Tobacco. He received several responses – one from Chris noting that the book’s dedication reads, “For my grandfather, Dr. W. C. McClelland…” I remember meeting Mary McNeil and sharing a limo back to the airport after the Chicago Show. In our conversation I found out that she was married to Ehwa when they started McClellands. He passed away and she married Mike McNeil who has always been a part of things there I believe.

Thanks to Ken I was given the impetus to try to find a Diebel’s pipe. I searched on Ebay and found one – a Diebel’s Canadian – to add to the collection. It should arrive very soon and when it does I will load a bowl of Christmas Cheer and read Ehwa’s book yet again. Adding a pipe to the read will be just one more dimension to the experience.

I was excited to receive the Diebel pipe in the mail so when it arrived I opened the box expecting to see the pipe above. I expected it to be a normal length Canadian with simply the Diebel stamping. When I unwrapped it I found a Diebel pipe but a different one than the one I had purchased. It was stamped DIEBEL’S K.C. on the top of the shank and had a Savinelli shield on the stem. It had a band of gold as part of the stem. On the underside of the shank it is stamped Italy and Savinelli Product. There were no shape numbers on the pipe but it was the long shank Canadian that is common with Savinelli. It measures 7 inches long. The briar was dirty and stained on the sides and the back of the bowl with oils. It was quite dark. It appeared to have a matte finish. The rim was darkened with tars and some scratches on the top front of the rim. The inner edge was darkened and had some burning.

The bowl had a thick cake that was rock hard. It significantly reduced the diameter of the bowl. The stem had two tooth marks on the top near the button and on the underside was a deep bite mark. I removed the stem and inside it had been drilled to receive the Savinelli balsa filter. There was a new filter in the tenon.

Examining the old Diebel’s stamped Savinelli left me with questions that needed answering. I wanted to know more about the Diebel’s pipe shop. I wanted to know if Savinelli made all of their pipes or if some were actually carved in the shop itself. I wanted to know if the other pipe, the one I had actually ordered was made by Savinelli as well or if it may possibly have had a different manufacturer. You can see that the pipe left me with many questions that would require some research to find answers.

I did some digging and found the Diebels web site. On the site was a section on company history. The link follows: http://diebelsg.com/stores/company-history/

In reading through that section on the history of the company I learned that Fred Diebel learned pipe making from a local pipemaker, Fred Metz. He carved in house pipe made the way he had learned to make them from Fred. He also imported Savinelli and English made pipes. I am including a short section from that portion of the company history.

“When Fred Diebel returned from his World War II duty as a U.S. Navy pilot of lighter than air craft (blimps), he knew he wanted to own his own business. Diebel, who earned a degree in mathematics from Kansas City University (now UMKC), saved for his life’s ambition while working successively for two venerable retailers in Kansas City: Rothschild’s and Montgomery Ward.”

“In 1950, Diebel capitalized on his first entrepreneurial opportunity, buying into Afflick & Co., a tobacco shop located at 11th and Walnut in downtown Kansas City. The company was re-named Afflick & Diebel. There, Diebel became an avid pipe smoker and developed an interest in the arcane craft of pipemaking. He sought a noted local pipemaker, Fred Metz, to teach him the craft. Initially, the elderly German native refused. But eventually, Diebel’s persistence paid off and Mr. Metz consented, saying, “Young man, I will teach you to make pipes on these conditions. You buy the proper equipment and you promise to do it my way, the right way.””

“In 1954, Diebel determined it was time to strike out on his own. He saw the Country Club Plaza as a shopping and business district on the rise. So with a bankroll of $1,000, he purchased two display cases for $100 each, tools, tobacco product, and signed a lease. Fred Diebel, Pipemaker, Tobacconist was born at 4625 Wornall, across from Putchs’s Cafeteria (now Houston’s) and next to Renner’s Shoe Repair. The enterprise was successful from the beginning, though not in the way Diebel expected. He underestimated the strong demand for pipe repair and found little time for the pipe making work necessary to supply his retail pipe business. In order to manage the growth demand for new pipes, he began importing pipes from England.”

“For more than a decade, Diebel specialized exclusively in pipes, pipe repair, and pipe tobacco. Customers requesting cigars or cigarettes were politely but firmly referred elsewhere. Mr. Diebel’s philosophy may have been guided more by personal disdain for any smoking related product that did not involve a pipe than by visionary marketing theory. Nonetheless, he became one of the early niche retailing pioneers…”

“…The company also began manufacturing pipe tobacco. Conditioning, cutting, casing, blending, pressing and packing operations occurred in a warehouse located in the caves at Bannister and Holmes. Manufacturing continued through the early 1980’s. The business continued to grow as a family business, with Diebel’s wife plus his two sons and daughter working in the shops and manufacturing facilities during their teen and young adult years.”

I love learning the history of a brand. Further reading on other sites led me to the information that Savinelli made Diebel’s pipes. With that information I went on to clean up the pipe. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer, starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to the second head. I reamed the cake back to bare wood. The cake and bowl smelled of a heavily cased aromatic. The inside of the shank and stem was black with tars.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the finish. The black grime came off easily with repeated scrubbing.

Once I had cleaned the grime and tars off the rim I could see the darkened damaged area of the top of the rim and the inner edge of the bowl. Though it is hard to see there were some deep scratches on the top of the rim on the right front side. They were quite deep gouges. The bowl would need to be topped to remove the damage and minimize the burn marks.

I set up a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper on top of it. I turned the top of the bowl into the sandpaper in a circular motion, clockwise until the damaged area of the gouges and burned area was gone. I sanded the rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to remove the burn damage on the inner edge of the rim. I sanded the bowl with the medium and fine grit sanding sponges to clean up the remaining dark areas. I wiped it down a final time with acetone on cotton pads.

With the bowl cleaned and ready to finish I set it aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage of the tooth marks.

The tooth marks on the top of the stem cleaned up nicely, leaving behind two small divots that I needed to repair with super glue. The damage on the underside was much worse – the dent was deep and needed a large fill. The first photo below shows the repaired underside tooth mark. The second photo shows the repairs of the marks on the topside. I used clear super glue and an accelerator to harden it. Some might ask why I used clear super glue instead of black super glue and to be honest I am not sure why, I picked up the tube of clear glue and used it as it was closest to pipe at hand. Both work equally well for me.

I sanded the glue patches with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I sanded until the surface of the patch was blended in with the surface of the stem. You can see from the photos that the clear glue worked well.

At this point in the process I gave the pipe a coat of medium walnut Danish Oil stain. I set the pipe on a cork to dry while I went to work for the day. When I came home I buffed the bowl and shank with White Diamond and then worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. Once it was dry I gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise a shine.

The finished pipe is shown below. It is cleaned and ready to smoke. The overall look of the pipe is clearly a Savinelli to me. It is distinctively Italian. The taper of the stem, the sharper edges on the sides of the shank and the bowl shape all say Italian. The band on the stem is various sizes of gold stripes that encircle the stem at the shank union. The walnut stain gives the pipe a contrast look and makes the grain stand out. The finish is warm an earthy in tone and the smooth feel in the hand is comfortable. I am looking forward to loading up a bowl and enjoying an inaugural smoke.

Now I am waiting for the arrival of the original pipe I purchased from the seller in Eastern Canada. I look forward to seeing if it is one of Fred Diebel’s own hand-made pipes. The look in the first trio of photos above is certainly different from the look of the Savinelli. When it arrives I will clean it up and do a write up on it and a comparison with the Sav.

A Sweet KBB Yello-Bole Honey Cured Bulldog – Robert M. Boughton

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

You can’t stop us on the road to freedom
You can’t stop us ’cause our eyes can see
Men with insight, men in granite
Knights in armor intent on chivalry
She’s as sweet as Tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as Tupelo honey
Just like honey, baby, from the bee — Van Morrison, Northern Irish singer-songwriter-musician, “Tupelo Honey” (1971)

INTRODUCTION
As my good friend and mentor, Chuck Richards, commented at a recent gathering of local enjoyers of the fair tobacco pipe in general, Kaufman Brothers & Bondy created the Yello-Bole line in 1932 as a less expensive alternative to its regular stable of Kaywoodie, Reiss-Premier and of course KB&B pipes.

Now the name Yello-Bole is synonymous with the terms second-rate and, worse still, just cheap, as though the measure of a good smoke were ever determined by its price. [See, for example, Peterson’s late great and noble attempt in years gone by to make pipes affordable to the Everyman.]

But its older products, such as the KBB Yello-Bole Imperial Bulldog of this discourse, “Cured with Real Honey” and with the KBB in a clover, as well as a tell-tale encircled “I” on the stem (might it be ambera?) – although crafted with briar deemed unsuitable for the older brothers of the family – nevertheless was still made from higher quality pieces of that fine wood than is, in general if ever, available today.

Also, the KBB Yello-Bole Imperial Bulldog is a definite vintage specimen (another present day determinant of value), based on the four key signs contained on the pipe, which date it to anywhere from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Beginning with the rim, I removed most of the blackening with a quick rub of purified water, and the rest except for one small, pernicious burn with a light touch of super fine steel wool that left no new scratches but also made clear the blemishes that were already present. I sanded the rim with 400-grit paper and micro-meshed with 1500, 2400 and 3600 grades. I later succeeded in removing the one remaining burn mark shown below. Moving on to the chamber, I was startled when most of the cake crumbled from the walls with a couple of turns of the reamer. Still more shocking was the sudden appearance of a thin coat of the original yellow product of honey curing. I knew I had a rare find and wondered at the short-term but intense enjoyment of the pipe that could have led to more than average cake but left the prominent yellowing intact. The rest of the cake came clean with gentle 400-grit sanding.

Staying with the 400-grit paper to remove scratches and dings on the beautiful briar, I lightened the color still more and found a few fills and other grain flaws that accounted for why this finely shaped bulldog didn’t end up with, say, a Kaywoodie stamp.

Using micromesh at an escalation from 1500 to 2400 and 3600 grades eliminated the remaining scratches.

The cleaning of this pipe was achieved with refreshing ease and the expenditure of few bristly cleaners soaked in Everclear.

In a difficult choice, I decided to re-stain the briar with a medium as opposed to the original light brown color. I applied Lincoln boot stain and flamed the alcohol out before removing the char with 2400 micromesh and smoothing it out using 3600.

To polish the prepped pipe, I used red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba, and after rubbing the wood with a cotton rag saw it needed another round on all of the buffers except the red Tripoli.

I finished the stem with red and white Tripoli before White Diamond.

CONCLUSION
This was a very pleasant and relaxing restoration, in particular following my Ben Wade and the Chamber of Horrors brush with terror.

Tonight and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday), before the monthly official meeting of my pipe club at the local Moose Lodge, I will attempt to power through as many of the easier prospects as possible from my recent online purchase spree. The highlights include what I believe is a Comoy’s Smooth Bent Satin Matt Short Brandy #1770 (Made in London in a circle); a Kaywoodie Silhouette Bent Rusticated Squat Apple; a Kaywoodie Smooth Bent Signet Billiard; an Ehrlich Rusticated Straight Billiard; a LHS Park Lane Smooth Straight Poker; a Reinhard’s Smooth Straight Billiard; an Amadeus Greek Bent Billiard; a Parker Tall Tan Straight Poker; a unique small Town and Country Round-Bottom Straight Squat Rhodesian; a no-name Gourd Calabash Meerschaum Lined; a trio of old Missouri Meerschaum corncobs…and another KBB Yello-Bole, this one a Straight Four-Panel, also with the KBB in a clover but a yellow circle on the stem.

The first person to post a response challenging my ability to pull off the restorations/refurbishes of the above pipes before tomorrow night, and willing to bet a free pipe from the loser to the winner, is on for the bet. I will post before and after shots in a blog on my business Website, noted at the top of this submission, by 9:00 p.m. MDT (U.S.) tomorrow.

Our host, I trust, will vouch for my honesty in this type of wager.

Restoring a 1935 Dunhill Shell – Andrew Selking

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Blog by Andrew Selking

This is my second Dunhill Shell, but like everything it has been a learning experience. I saw this orphan about to expire on eBay without a single bid. As they say, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I knew that it was a desirable patent-era Shell and from the markings it was made in 1935. I should have taken the time to look at a Dunhill shape chart, this pipe had been seriously topped. The good news is, I didn’t pay too much for it and it’s a handy little pipe, 4 15/16 inches long and .7 of an ounce! No wonder the stem didn’t have any tooth marks.

So here’s what the pipe looked like before the restoration.

The one thing that I really like about the Dunhill Shell pipes is the finish. The combination of deep reddish brown and darker brown/black is very pleasing to look at. That is why I treat rough finish pipes (rusticated, blast, fine line) differently than smooth finish pipes. I took a tip from Steve and use Murphy’s Oil Soap, which is made from vegetable oils and specifically formulated for wood. I took a small amount of the soap and applied it directly with a toothbrush.

As you can see the Murphy’s Oil Soap did remove some of the finish, but not nearly as much as the alcohol bath would have. The soap also removed the decades of accumulated grime. If you don’t take care to clean the outside of the pipe no amount of wax will make it shine.

My next step was to start the stem soaking in Oxyclean and soak the bowl with denatured alcohol. I packed the bowl with cotton balls, plugged the shank with some rolled up paper towel, and used an eye dropper to soak the cotton. After the cake loosened up, I reamed the bowl. This bowl is huge, I used my two largest reaming heads to clean it out.Instead of doing the retort multiple times, I used q-tips dipped in denatured alcohol followed by pipe cleaners. (I don’t technically use pipe cleaners. I use “fuzzy sticks”. That’s the innocuous name given to pipe cleaners used for crafts.) To maximize each cleaner, I used scissors to cut the dirty section off. As you can see I ended up with a decent size pile of q-tips and fuzzy sticks. Next I turned my attention to the stem. I did the retort first, then used pipe cleaners to finish the job. Fortunately since the stem is so short, it didn’t take long to clean. You will notice that I packed some paper towel into the end of the stem. Occasionally when you use the retort, the alcohol will boil over and spray everywhere. That does not endear you or your eccentric hobbies to your significant other, especially when the resulting mess makes the wall look like a Jackson Pollock painting.

I usually take extra time on stems as nice as this one. Instead of using 400 grit wet/dry I started out with 1000 grit wet/dry and water. It takes longer, but the last thing I want to do is change the profile of the stem or damage any of the details by using a lower grit sand paper. After the 1000 grit I used 1500-2400 grit micro mesh pads with water. While the stem dried, I began the staining/waxing process. In an attempt to replicate the Dunhill finish, I used the brown shoe polish followed by a thin layer of black shoe polish. The heat gun helps melt the wax so that it gets into all of the crevices and the brush brings out a nice shine.

Here is what the bowl looked like after the application of the second coat of wax and buffing with the brush.

Since shoe polish is a soft wax, I protect all of my rough finish pips with Halcyon II wax. I applied the wax with my finger tip (a little goes a long way) and let it dry for about 10 minutes. After the wax dried, I buffed it out with a soft cloth and applied a second coat. (The pipe cleaner is so I can hang the bowl up to dry.) Finally I finished sanding the stem, using a progression of micro mesh pads from 3200-12000 grit followed by a quick spin on the buffing wheel with some carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

Fitting a Maplewood Bowl to fit a Kirsten Pipe Shank

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Blog by Steve Laug

My son-in-law brought his Kirsten with him on the pipe hunt we went on recently and mentioned that the bowl was too small to his liking. We were talking about hunting for a bowl that had a airway drilled in the bottom of the bowl that could be modified to accept the fitting – screw and cap – on a Kirsten bowl. These fittings hold the bowl on the shank. I remembered that I had a Maplewood bowl in my box of pipe parts that could work really well. It had a nipple on the bottom of the bowl. The nipple ended at a rounded cap and then steps up to the bowl. The original bowl can be seen in the photo below. The bowl was clean and unsmoked. There was a varnish finish on the bowl and the wood was quite rough. Around the hip at the base of the bowl there was a rough band around one side of the bowl. The bowl had some really interesting grain on it. Around the top third of the bowl the grain went around the bowl horizontally. Below that there was some vertical grain. The combination was attractive. This bowl would work well once I modified it to fit the pipe. I sawed the nipple off the bottom of the bowl with a hacksaw. I sawed it flat against the bottom of the bowl to make that surface flush. With the nipple removed it was clear that the airway was slightly off centre and would need to be adjusted once I drilled it to open it up to hold the bottom cap from the Kirsten. I measure the diameter and the length of the insert to figure out how much of the bottom of the bowl I would need to remove. I drilled it out with a drill bit the same size as the insert on the Kirsten cap. I used a knife to open the air hole and move it more toward the centre of the bottom of the bowl. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum to shape the bottom of the bowl. I had to remove about ¼ of an inch or more from the bottom of the bowl. I sanded it bring it down and begin to round the edges. The next three photos show the progress of shaping the bowl bottom. The third photo shows the bowl after I also sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper.

I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches. I fitted the bottom cap to the bowl to see what more I would need to remove for a proper fit between the bowl and the shank. I fit the screw into the bottom cap and used a Philips screwdriver to tighten it in place.

I sanded the bowl more to remove the finish and fine tune the shaping the bottom of the bowl. I wanted the finished bowl to look like a brandy glass shape.

When I had fine tuned the bowl shape and the bottom of the bowl I fit it on a Kirsten shank from one of my pipes. The fit was pretty accurate and the look of the shape worked well with the pipe. I would need to sand the bowl some more, remove the remaining varnish and then stain the bowl once finished. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the rim. Though the pipe was unsmoked the rim was roughly finished.

I took the bowl apart and prepared it for staining. I wiped it down with acetone to remove the remaining varnish and dust from the bowl. I used a dark brown aniline stain to colour the bowl. I stained it and flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied and reflamed the bowl several more times until the coverage was even.

I wanted the finish to be light brown in colour with dark grain patterns on the bowl. I wiped it down with alcohol on cotton pads to thin down the finish. I continued to wipe it until the underlying maple showed through and the grain patterns were darkened. I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and also White Diamond. Once it was finished I sanded it with 1500-3200 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out. I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil and rubbed it into the finish. The bowl was complete at this point – I fit it back on the shank and took the next set of photos to show the look I was aiming for.

I took the bowl off the shank and buffed it with White Diamond once more. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The dark brown aniline stain had brought out the grain and contrasted nicely with the rest of the bowl. The horizontal and vertical graining makes this a nice looking pipe bowl.

I put the bowl back on the Kirsten shank and took the next set of photos to show the finished bowl and shank. It certainly fit the shank well and the larger bowl should meet my son-in-laws request for a longer smoking bowl for his Kirsten. He is away with my daughter for the weekend but when he returns home I look forward to seeing what he thinks of his new bowl.

Addendum: I was working my way through Ebay UK when I found a pipe that had the same bowl as the one used in this article. It is a tourist pipe from the Smokey Mountains National Park. It looks to be the same pipe bowl and looks identical to the one I used.

Restoring a Diamond Shank Bent – Andrew Selking

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Blog by Andrew Selking

I have been following Andrew’s refurbishing work on Pipe Smoker Unlimited Forum for quite some time now and decided it was time to ask him if he would be willing to write some of his work up with photos for the blog. I sent him a message and he responded that he was glad to do so. I am happy to be able to present him to the readers here. He has been doing some great work in restoring pipes and has some great adaptations and innovations in terms of tools and equipment used to restore pipes. Besides he also takes amazing photos compared to me! Thanks Andrew for being willing to write for us here. So without further words from me I turn it over to Andrew.

It was a great honor when Steve asked me to write up a restoration for his blog. This pipe came in a lot of three. It’s a very chunky, diamond shank pipe marked Made in London England. It has a couple large fills near the end of the shank, one on the bottom of the bowl, and one on the rim. It also has an amazing feel in your hand and some very pretty cross grain. I decided to do this one for myself.

The first thing I do with all of my pipes is soak the bowl in isopropyl alcohol, usually for at least 24 hours. This serves multiple purpose; loosens the gunk inside the pipe (especially in the shank), makes the cake easier to remove, and usually takes of the exterior finish and softens any fills. Here is the bowl taking a bath.While the bowl marinated, I soaked the stem in a solution of hot water and Oxyclean. After sitting for several hours, I rinsed the stem under running water, this removes some of the oxidation. Next I took a pipe cleaner and used the Oxyclean solution to remove the built up tar and tobacco from inside the stem. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. In the case of this pipe, the alcohol was not enough to remove all of the finish. When this happens, I use 0000 steel wool soaked in acetone. The steel wool is fine enough that it doesn’t damage the stampings on the shank, but aggressive enough to make short work of any remaining finish.Next I turned my attention to the bowl. I use a Castleford reamer (available on eBay for around $20.00) to remove the cake.I usually go down to the wood. I’ve found it’s better to use a reamer that is slightly smaller than the inside of the bowl to prevent damage to the wood.

Next I worked on the shank. I have some small brushes that I bought in the baby section at Walmart (normal people use them to clean baby bottles, but I find they work great for the shank of a pipe). Although the brush gets most of the gunk out, I use a retort to really clean the inside of the shank and the stem. I started using this method when I couldn’t fit the end of the rubber tube over the wide button on a pipe. The tenon was a perfect fit and the tube also fits perfectly into the shank. This saves a lot of time and pipe cleaners. After doing the retort, I run one pipe cleaner through the stem and a pipe cleaner and q-tip through the shank and it’s done. Now that the inside of the pipe is clean, it’s time to start working on the outside. For the stem, I used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water. This gets the majority of the oxidation out, the wet sand paper also makes it easier to get the underside of the button. Next I used micro-mesh pads (1500-2400 grit) with water. I wiped the stem dry and turned my attention to the bowl. I used a progression of micromesh pads, 1500-12000 grit. I also used the same progression on the stem. Now the pipe was ready for stain. This next part might be kind of controversial (I have never seen this method anywhere else). I use shoe polish for stain. Now before you dismiss this as crazy talk, consider this. It is very simple. I apply the polish, heat it with a heat gun, and buff it out with a shoe brush. I also protect the finish with carnauba wax and have never had any issues with the polish melting or coming off in my hand. Polish applied. After melting with the heat gun and buffing with a shoe brush. It is also very simple to even out the stain.Next up the heart breaker (also known as the buffing wheel). This little gem makes the difference between a really nice application of carnauba wax and an average looking pipe. It will also grab what you’re working on and fling it to the four winds and shatter the pipe you’ve just spent the last few hours working on. Hold what you’re working on with both hands, place as much padding as you can under and behind the buffer, and work on the stem and bowl separately. Sorry about the quality of the picture. I didn’t lose the pipe to the buffer and here’s the results. I anticipate that this pipe will pass on to my kids, or be part of the estate sale. I can’t wait to smoke it.

The Original Lonchamps Pigskin Pipe and the Restoration of One – Robert M. Boughton

The Sentimental Journey Continued – Restoring a Second Medico, a Smooth Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a previous post called a Sentimental Journey I wrote of why Medico’s always get attention when they cross my desk. Last evening I reached into my box of pipes to be refurbished and pulled out the next pipe to clean up and it too was Medico – this time it was a smooth billiard. The finish was worn and the varnish was peeling off the bowl. The rim was badly knocked around so there was damage on the outer edge at the front of the bowl and the back. There was a heavy build up on top of the damage and the bowl had a thick cake at mid bowl – not much at the top or bottom. The stamping was the same as the previous pipe – MEDICO on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar Italy on the right side. A bonus for me was that the stem I had work on for the little Rhodesian fit this one and only needed adjustment in the diameter of the stem. It had the metal tenon that was generally on Medico pipes and would hold the Medico paper filter as per design. The rest of the stem was vulcanite not nylon which was a bonus. I cleaned out the shank and fit the stem in place to see how much sanding I would need to do to match the diameter of the shank. It did not look like it would take very much to bring it in line. I would need to sand the aluminum band on the stem at the same time so I would need to be careful to not create dips or valleys next to it on the softer vulcanite when sanding. I sanded the stem with 150 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the stem.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head to clean it out.To clean up the rim damage I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to take down the rim and reduce the rough pitting on the outer edge. I also sanded around the edge of the rim to smooth out the remaining roughness.I wanted to get rid of the peeling varnish on the bowl so I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads to remove it. It took a lot of scrubbing as the varnish was very stubborn.I sanded the bowl and the rim with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove more of the finish and reduce the scratching on the bowl. I sanded it with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge before wiping it down one last time with alcohol. I decided to stain it with an aniline based oxblood stain. I applied it and then flamed it to set it in the grain. I rubbed the excess stain off with an alcohol dampened cloth and then hand buffed it with a shoe brush. This old Medico had some really nice grain and was a far better piece of briar than I had expected. I sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed it with White Diamond to smooth out the bowl further. I gave it a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it lightly. I finished the work on the stem fit and then sanded it 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 and moved through each successive set of three pads. Once I had finished sanding it I rubbed it down a final time with the oil and gave it a buff with White Diamond. I put the pipe back together and gave it a final buff with White Diamond and then multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to finish and polish the wax. The finished pipe is shown in the next series of photos. It is a small light weight billiard with fairly decent grain and a few character marks. The new stem fits well and it looks better than it did when it left the factory. It should provide a great smoke to another pipeman. This is one that I will inevitably gift to someone along the way.

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.