Tag Archives: restemming a pipe

Reshaping and Restemming a no name Oval Opera Pipe

Blog by Steve Laug

I bought a group of pipe bowls on Ebay a while ago and one of them was an oval bowl Opera pipe. The stamping was non-existent, whether worn off by over buffing or never present it was no longer on the shank on either side. It is shown in the photo below marked with a red oval. It is an interesting shape and this one was a normal sized pipe. There was nothing of the typical small size of the pipes like this that I have worked on in the past. The stem was long gone and the broken tenon was stuck in the shank. The finish was rough and had deep dents and nicks all over the bowl. The cake in the bowl was thick and the rim was damaged on the inner edge and had burn marks on the front top and left side. There were two large fills on the bowl; one on the left side shank near the bowl junction and the other on the underside mid-shank. I pulled the broken tenon by my usual method. I use a drywall screw and insert it in the airway. I use a screwdriver to turn it into the airway just enough to be tight in the tenon. You need to be careful to not turn it in to far as it will expand the tenon and crack the shank. Once it is in place I use needle nose pliers to wiggle it free of the shank. It usually comes free with little effort. That was true in the case of this tenon.
I took the next set of photos to show the state of the pipe when I started this project. Note the damaged rim top and inner edge.

I went through my can of stems for a donor stem and found a bent saddle stem that I could straighten and fit to this pipe. I turned the tenon with the PIMO tenon turning tool to a close fit and hand sanded it to get a snug fit. The shank was slightly oval and the stem round so I would need to work on the shank to get a good fit.
I used 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the finish on the bowl and shank. I did preliminary shaping of the rim to clean up the damage at the top. I used a PipNet reamer to ream the bowl. I use the smallest head and work it in the centre of the oval first and then move it to the front and back of the oval to ream those areas. I cleaned up the reamed bowl with a pen knife to get rid of the cake. I needed to take the cake back to bare briar so that I could reshape the inner edge. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove as much of the damage to sides of the bowl as possible. You can see from the photo below the dip in the top edge of the bowl about middle. That is where the burn damage is on that side. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove any remaining finish and to see where I stood in terms of removing damage to the bowl.
The next photo shows the extent of the damage to the top and inner edge of the rim. You can see the rough cut marks on the inner edge from a previous owners attempt to ream the bowl. You can also see the burn marks on the left and right top and sides of the rim.
To remove the dips where the burn marks were in the rim top and to remove the damaged briar I decided to top the bowl. I would need to reshape the rim to match the original but I would deal with that later. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to shape the outside edge of the rim and bowl.
I put the stem in place in the shank, aligned it correctly and sanded the shank to clean up the fit. I wanted the shank to be more round and consistently shaped as it originally was not completely oval – it was only that shape on the left bottom side. The rest of the shank was round. I sanded until I had the shank rounded and matching the stem.
I continued to shape and sand the rim and flow into the bowl. I worked on the slight bulge in the stem at the saddle to get the alignment and flow right. Since I had a clean slate to work with on this old briar I figured to get it as close as I could to a clean flowing look. I wanted it to look better than before not just cleaned up. It would take a lot of sanding and shaping before I was finished with it.

The fill on the bottom of the shank was solid except for one small spot in the centre of the repair so I sanded it, wiped it clean and filled in the spot with clear super glue. Once it dried I sanded it smooth to match the rest of the shank. The small rough spot was gone and the fill was smooth and dark. I cleaned out the shank and airway with the KLEENREEM drill bit to remove the buildup in that area. The draw on the shank was constricted so this was necessary to open it and give an easy draw to the pipe.
I cleaned out the shank and the airway in both the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until it was clean. I sanded the edges of the stem and the scratches in the saddle portion with 220 grit sandpaper to shape and define the edge and fit of the stem. I left a slight bend downward in the stem when I had straightened it and like the look of it.

I put a cork in the bowl of the pipe and prepared to stain it with the black undercoat. I wanted to highlight the interesting grain and the black would bring that out. It would also serve to mask the repair on the shank and the fill next to the bowl. I applied and flamed the black stain and repeated the process to get good coverage on the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol soaked cotton pads to remove the stain that did not settle into the grain.

I sanded the bowl and shank with a medium and fine grit sanding block to further remove the black stain. The contrast is beginning to show and the grain stand out.

I sanded the bowl and shank with 1500-1800 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches on the briar.
I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad and then set it up for the top coat of stain. I chose to use a Cherry Danish Oil on the top coat. I applied it with a cotton pad and set the bowl aside to dry.
While the bowl dried I worked on the stem. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads to further fine tune the shape of the stem. I worked to remove the remnants of scratching left behind by the initial shaping done with the lower grits of sand paper. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

The bowl was dry by the time I finished with the stem so I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave both several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buffing pad and then hand buffed it with the microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the contrast stain came out and the way it hid the fills on the shank. The pipe really has some stunning and interesting grain all the way. Not one side looks the same. There is birdseye, cross grain and swirled grain. I think the finished pipe is a great improvement from when I started it. Thanks for looking.

My Second C.A. Sander of Swansea Bent Bulldog Restemmed and Restored

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I was working on the previous C.A. Sander of Swansea straight bulldog that I restored (https://rebornpipes.com/2015/12/13/an-interesting-welsh-pipe-find-a-c-a-sanders-sandhurst-bent-bulldog/) I was looking for information on the brand. In my search on the internet I came upon this small bulldog bowl on eBay. I had found that there were at least two different names stamped on these pipes – both the ones I found were sandblast finishes. The earlier one was stamped Sandhurst and this one is stamped Oxford. Other than that the stamping on both is the same – the name then CA Sander over Swansea. I wrote the seller to see if he had any information on the brand and he replied that he did not. I put a bid on the pipe and ended up winning it. It arrived here on Tuesday this week. I have included the photos that the seller had posted on eBay below. It appeared to be in very good shape even though it did not have a stem.

When the pipe arrived it was in excellent shape. The seller’s photos were absolutely correct. The bowl had a light cake in it and the rim was dirty with lava overflow and carbon. The shank was dirty and the finish had dust in the crevices of the blast. The stamping was exactly the same as the Sandhurst I restored other than the Oxford name that was present. I took the next series of photos to show the pipe on arrival before I started working on it.

I went through my can of stems to find one that would work on this bowl. Diamond shanks are notoriously hard to match a stem to as each side and angle is very individual and hardly ever align with used or estate stems. I would have to find one that had a close fit and modify it to match the angles. With that in mind I found several stems that could have worked. In looking at the tapered stems I pulled all seemed too long to go with the petite size of this bowl. None quite aligned at the shank and modifying them was not an option as one or more of the sides did not have enough material to modify. I had several saddle stems that had the same issues. Then in the bottom of my can I remembered that I had a Lucite saddle stem that might very well work. I took it out and measured the sides of the diamond. I have to tell you I was very surprised – this stem was almost a perfect fit. I would need to shorten the tenon slightly and take a little material off to get a snug fit. Only the bottom right side was a little larger than the shank. Everything else matched. The stem is a pearlised cream coloured Lucite that actually would go well with the colour of the bowl once I had it cleaned up. I used the PIMO tenon turning tool to reduce the diameter of the tenon to get a close match and finished the fit by hand sanding. I shortened the length of the tenon with a Dremel and sanding drum to the same length as the mortise. In doing so I removed the damaged end of the tenon and the rounded right side. Once I had the work done I put the stem in place in the shank and took the photos below. You can see the great fit that the stem had in terms of the width of the sides of the diamond. I was fortunate in terms of the amount of work that would need to be done to fine tune this one. It would take very little work to make a good fit.

I took a photo of the end of the shank and the end of the stem and put them side by side for comparison sake to show how close the two diamonds came to matching each other. This is a very rare occurrence in my experience. I sanded the bottom right side with 220 grit sandpaper to adjust the fit on that side. I needed to remove enough material to align the bottom of the diamond with the bottom of the diamond on the shank. All others point on the diamond aligned perfectly but this one. It did not take too much sanding before I had the alignment and the fit against the side of the shank perfect. I reamed the cake in the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took it back to bare briar. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush on the sides and bottom of the bowl and shank and with a brass tire brush on the rim.

I put the stem on the bowl, put a cotton ball in the bowl and then set up the retort to clean out the internals of the pipe. I boiled alcohol through the pipe and after two tubes of alcohol the airways were clean. The retort also removed some of the staining in the stem airway. I removed the retort and scrubbed the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the remaining alcohol and grime in the shank. In the end the shank and airway were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. I cleaned the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol and also pipe cleaners dipped in Bar Keepers Friend powder to scrub out the tar stains in the airway. It took a lot of scrubbing but I got the majority of the stains out. I did not want to darken the stain on the bowl but wanted to highlight the contrasts in the finish. The combination of dark brown and medium brown on the high spots worked well for me. To keep that and add life to the bowl I wiped it down with a light coat of olive oil and rubbed it into the blast pattern. I took the following photos with the stem in place on the bowl. The pipe is taking shape.

The stains at the button were stubborn and hard to remove. I found that there was a small lip where the slot in the button met the airway in the stem and it collected tars and oils. The pipe cleaners and scrubbing did not touch that as it did not reach into the small crevice there. I used a needle file to flatten out the lip at the junction. With that gone I was able to remove more of the stain from the stem. All that remain was a small spot on the top and the bottom that I could not get out no matter how hard I worked it. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads to polish and remove the scratching. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. As I sanded the stem with each successive micromesh pad it left a richer luster in the pearlised stem.

I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel (lightly on the sandblast bowl as I did not want to flatten the blast) and gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I hand waxed the bowl with Halcyon II wax and then buffed the bowl and stem with a shoe brush and a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a petite bulldog – only 5 inches long from bowl to button and 1 3/8 inches tall from rim to point on the bowl bottom. The drilling on the bowl is 5/8 inches. I like the contrast that the Lucite stem gives with the blast on the bowl. The colours work well for me. The stem length works on this bowl and the overall effect is a balanced small sandblast pipe that looks great. At least it does to me! Thanks for looking.

Addendum: 06/06/18 I received an email from Andrew in answer to a question I asked in my two blogs on CA Sander pipes. I quote in full his email because of the information that it includes.

Comment: You asked about C A Sander

C A Sander were tobacconists based in Wind Street Swansea. I don’t know exactly when the business started but it it passed to my Grandfather from his father (both were C A Sander) and by the 1920 was a successful and well established retail business with shops all over south wales. They were importers and blenders (if that is the term) of tobacco and the shops sold smoking paraphernalia. At my grandfathers retirement late 60’s to business went to my uncle again C A Sander but known generally as Jim. He developed a business supplying cigarette machines around South Wales and moved out of retail he eventually sold the business to Rothermans and went into other business ventures, I expect that was when the limited company you found was formed. Uncle Jim has now retired but still lives in the area.

Hope this helps with your research.

Andrew I received this followup email from someone who would like to get in touch with you. Here is her email

Hi there – I stumbled upon your website when looking for anything to do with C.A. Sander tobacco shop and I saw the pipe you restored – which is amazing! and then saw the comment below left by Andrew. Since that shop was owned by my grandfather, and Andrew’s grandfather – it would seem that we are cousins – but we have never met. I would love to get into contact with Andrew. Would you be able to assist in that? If possible, could you ask him to contact me at my email address pianokey88@hotmail.com?
Many thanks for your help! Georgina

Wm Wales Billiard Restemmed and Restored

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This is yet another pipe that my brother Jeff picked up in Montana and sent my way. It is stamped Wm Wales on the left side of the shank and on the right side it is stamped Grecian in script. The stamping though a different script than that found on the Carey Magic Inch pipes is similar in the way it is stamped and the stamping of Grecian on the right side of the shank. I did some digging on the internet and found nothing about the brand other than several pipes with the same stamping for sale. There is nothing about the brand on the various pipe information websites. There is nothing about the brand on Who Made That Pipe or in Lopes book so I am left with a bit of a mystery.

The pipe has some pretty decent grain on it. The sides of the bowl have some interesting birdseye grain and the front and the back of the bowl have cross grain on them. The stem is a mix of grains. The finish was worn and dirty. The rim had a cake of tar and grit on the top of the bowl. The inside of the bowl had a hard, thick cake that almost filled the bowl. The rim itself was undamaged and showed no burn marks or damage to either the outside edge of the rim or the inside bevel of the rim. The stem was at first glance workable but upon examination it had a crack in the centre of the button on both the top and bottom sides. There were also tooth marks that were deep and one split the button. The surface of the stem was wavy and rippled from the way it had been buffed. The slot in the stem was clogged and no air would go through the airway.

In the photo above to the left the pipe is the second one down from the top. The next set of four photos show the pipe as was when it arrived at my work table.

I took a close up photo of the bowl and rim to give a clear picture of what I started with in my clean up. The two photos following that give a good view of the stamping on the shank.

The next two photos show the damage to the stem. The more I looked at the damage the more I realized that a replacement stem would be less work than fiddling around with repairing the damage on that one.

I tried to ream the bowl with a PipNet reamer and found that the cake was so hard that reamer did not even cut into the surface of the cake. I tried a KLEENREEM reamer and made no headway either so I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath to soak. It would soften the cake and clean up the grime on the finish of the rim and bowl as a bonus. While it soaked I looked for a new stem in my can of stems and found one that would work quite well. It was a little larger in diameter but once I fit it to the stem some sanding and shaping would take care of that. In the morning I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and worked on it to ream it. I used the PipNet and the KLEENREEM reamer on the bowl. I also used a pen knife to work at cutting away the hard cake. In the process of reaming I found that the bowl was conical in shape rather than U shaped. I used the drill bit from the KLEENREEM tool to open the airway in the shank.

Once I had cleaned out the shank and the bowl with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs I fit the new stem to the shank. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the tooth chatter and the oxidation. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to further remove the scratching and oxidation. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil.

I scrubbed the briar with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and the remaining grime on the rim and bowl.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads on the briar and the stem and then rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished by dry sanding the stem with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil.

I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The grain really shines through in the photos. It is a beautiful piece of briar. I would love to know more about the history of the brand to give more depth to my understanding of the pipe.

I took a few close-up photos of the stem and the bowl showing the grain of the briar and the shape and look of the stem. Thanks for looking.

Taking a Swing at Reconstructing and Refurbishing an old CPF Meerschaum Bulldog

11 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

In a previous post where I wrote about repairing the overturned stem on the CPF Bulldog for Michael I referred to a Meerschaum Bulldog that he sent to me as a gift project. I had no idea what he meant about that until I took it out of the box and started checking it out. It really was a rescue dog operation. It is shown in the photo below (the pipe on the right). The picture does not show half of the story about the state of the old stem. When the pipe was unwrapped what met my eye fit well with Michael’s “take a swing at it” approbation. It was in rough shape. The Meerschaum bowl was scratched and dirty and the bling was worn and tired. The rim was pretty beat up with dents and scratches but the bowl was solid. There was a light cake in the bowl and that was a plus, as it could have been heavily caked and have a clogged airway.

The worst part of the entire pipe was the stem. I am pretty sure it is not amber – at least it does not feel like amber or even have the weight of amber. I am guessing an early version of Bakelite but I am not sure. It is almost fibrous like material – reminds of fibre glass. Somewhere during its lifetime the stem had crazed and cracked all through from one end to the other. It looked like fractured glass. It was barely holding together. There was nothing hold it onto the shank but tars, oils and what seemed like thread that was wrapped around the dirty tenon. I carefully lifted the stem off the tenon and laid it aside. The tenon was covered with a thick tarry substance and what appeared to be thread. I am pretty certain that the previous owner had glued the threaded tenon into the shank and I would never get it loose. Here are a few photos of the pipe, carefully taken so as not to further damage the stem.

I am a sucker for these old timers. This was obviously someone’s beloved pipe. There was a time when I thought a badly abused old pipe was a sign of lack of care. I have come to understand that it is not that at all. It was someone’s constant companion through the good and the bad times. It was one that was always close at hand – to my thinking it may well of road along wherever the pipeman went in the course of his day and was always ready to be loaded and fired up. It is a small bowl so it would not have been a long smoke but it was one that he obviously enjoyed to the point that the pipe was worn and repaired and worn more and repaired more. His repairs were just enough to make the pipe smokeable again but not to make it beautiful. I wish it could talk and tell its story. It lived through two World Wars, the Wright Brothers and the birth of air travel, the first man on the moon, space shuttles and microcomputers. It has seen the turn of two centuries and still survives. Those are the things that I think when I look at a tired old pipe now. I can’t help but wonder about the fellow who once held it in his hands. My repairs are dedicated to carrying on his legacy in this pipe.

If you are observant you will have noticed the black circular mark on the stem on both sides at the button. That black mark was a large hole, a bite through. That was another thing about the stem that made me pretty certain that it was not amber. I took a close up photo of both sides of the stem to show the size of the hole. It is quite large and centered on both sides. The button was also quite worn down and the slot had been opened leaving the top and bottom of the button very thin. You can see all of the cracks and crazing in the stem material in both photos. The airway and the area around the holes were black with tars. This old pipe was not stopped by the holes in the mouthpiece; the pipeman just moved it deeper into his mouth and carried on smoking his favourite pipe.

I took a close up photo of the rim to show the dents and darkening on the metal cap. The ornamentation on the top the rim was worn down from many years of a thumb rubbing over the top of the bowl and leaving behind the remnants of what must have been a continuation of the pattern on the sides of the cap. I decided to deal with the issues in the cracked and crazed stem. It was rough along the edges with what looked like splinters. I carefully worked to stabilize the stem material with clear super glue. I liberally coated the outside of the stem with clear super glue, filling the cracks and chipped areas and smoothing out the surface with the clear gel. Once I had it coated well I set it aside and let it harden. I have used the super glue before on Bakelite and it does a great job getting into the cracks and crevices in the material and hardening and preserving the original material. Once it was covered in the glue I had to figure out how to allow it to harden without sticking to everything it touched. I decide to put an ice pick in the airway and lay it across a box – suspended above the work top until it dried.

After the stem had been sitting for four hours and the glue had dried to touch, I decided to “take a swing” at repairing the bite through issue on both sides of the stem. I cleaned the hole and the airway with a cotton swab and warm water to remove the oils and tars. I wanted a clean surface for the patch. I sanded carefully around the hole to roughen the surface to give the patch something to bond to. Then I greased a thick pipe cleaner with Vaseline and pushed it into the slot in the button. I wiped the edges around the whole so there was no grease on them. I put the first coat of super glue on the hole on the underside and sprayed it with an accelerator to harden the first coat of the repair. I repeated the process on the top of the stem until both sides were repaired with the first coat. I removed the pipe cleaner and set the stem aside to cure. The photos below show the process of the repair to the hole. You can see from the photos that the holes patched pretty nicely. They are rough but they are no longer holes. I will need to do a lot of sanding on the stem to clean up the patches and reshape the button but it will be usuable.

After about an hour I gave it a second coat of glue on top of the repair and set it aside to cure again. While the repaired stem cured I went to work on the bowl. I used a pen knife to carefully scrape out the light cake in the bowl. I cleaned out the rings around the bowl with the pointed end of a round needle file. I wanted to get the gunk out of the rings before I scrubbed the surface of the bowl. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap on a cotton pad remove some of the grime and clean up the exterior of the bling. I used a cotton swab to soak alcohol around the threads of the bone tenon. I was able to pick out some of the thread that had been used to hold it in place. I am hoping that repeated alcohol applications will loosen the tenon so that I can unscrew it from the shank to do a thorough cleaning.

The repeating swabbing with alcohol did not loosen the tenon at all. I think that the previous owner must have glue it in the stem and just pressure fit the stem onto the tenon. I had to come up with a different way of getting the stem to fit the tenon as the threads on the inside of the airway in the stem were worn and the stem just wobbled now that it was clean.

I examined the inside of the cleaned and restored stem and could still see the threads. I thought of trying cork and wrapping the tenon with that but after trying that it was too thick to fit into the stem. I then thought of wrapping the end of the tenon with thread and then coating the thread with wood glue. I tried that and it worked well. I was able to twist the stem onto the tenon and the threads in the stem worked into the glue and thread mixture on the tenon. The fix was a success.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs. I took down all the high spots and bumps left behind by the super glue. I recut the edge of the button on both sides of the stem with a needle file and then sanded the hole repairs on both sides to blend them into the surface of the stem.

I reworked the button with files and cleaned up the slot with files as well. Once I had the look right I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. The crackle in the stem material where all the crazing was and now the glue bonding it together gave the stem a bit of a sparkling look. An added benefit of the crackling look was that the patched holes at the button blended in quite well.

I screwed the stem in place on the bowl and took a few photos to see what the finished look was going to be like. The repair makes the material sparkle. I really like the look that is coming together. I still needed to polish the stem with the micromesh sanding pads but you can see the finished pipe taking shape.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads to raise the shine in the material. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. It would not absorb but it would give some traction to the next grits of micromesh. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and applied several coats of carnauba wax to the stem by hand and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth.

The wax on the stem, polished by hand gives it warmth and a glow that is beautiful. The repairs to the bite through on both sides of the stem blended in quite well do to the crackling of the stem material. All combined the stem came out quite well considering where I started with it in this process.

I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads to give it a shine. I decided to leave the scratches and dings in the bowl as it adds character to the old timer and are part of its long history as someone’s favourite smoking pipe. I can almost see the old pipeman putting the pipe in his pocket and heading off to work or for a walk. It certainly was not coddled like a pampered thing that wisdom of the age taught about meerschaums. No white gloves or careful handling this pipe saw much in its long life and carries the scars and marks of the journey. Now it is good to go for the next portion of its journey, one in which it will have a bit easier life.

A Surprise when working on the Citation 812 Canadian

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This Citation (second pipe down in the first column in the photo on the left) is a sister pipe to the Savinelli Classica 812 Canadian that I just restored. It is stamped Citation and 812 on the bottom of the shank. The sand blast is nowhere near as beautiful as the Classica but it has a charm all its own. It appears to be a combined blast and rustication – hard to explain but it is just too consistent to be a normal sand blast. It appears to have been rusticated and then blasted lightly. It has a dark brown stain as an undercoat and a light brown over the top. The high points on the finish are lighter brown and the smooth portions are also lighter brown.

The bowl had a pretty heavy cake and the lava had overflowed onto the rim. The finish was dirty but otherwise in decent shape under the grime. The rim appeared to be in good shape under the grime and there were no nicks or dings in the outer or inner edge of the rim. The stem that came with the pipe was not the original and it had been poorly fit to the shank. It was narrower than the shank and pinched at the saddle portion. It still had all of the fill marks from the person who had fit it to the shank. The underside of the button and a large chunk of the underside of the stem were missing. I would not be sad to throw away this poorly cut broken stem.

Inside the shank was pretty dirty and plugged. I could not blow air through the pipe and did not dare to try sucking on the shank. Who knows what might end up in my mouth! I would need to remedy that situation and I would need to make a stem for it. This would be a beautiful little pipe to go with the Savinelli Classica once it was finished – kind a light and a dark version of the same shape. At this point little did I know what kind of surprise lay ahead for me as I cleaned it up and restored this little pipe. The photo below shows the two pipes together. The next four photos give a clear picture of the state of the pipe – its finish, broken stem and tarred and cake rim and bowl. You can also see what I mean when I say that the finish is far to uniform for a sand blast but looks to have both a blast and a rustication. Someone help me out on this if you have any information.

I went through my can of stems and found a clear acrylic taper stem that would work perfectly with this pipe and with a little shaping would go well with the dark look of the finish. The tenon almost fit perfectly from the start. I only needed to lightly sand it to get a snug fit against the shank. The diameter of the stem was a little bigger than the shank of the pipe all the way around but would easily be shape to fit well.

I took a close up photo of the rim to give an idea of what I was working with on this bowl. The second photo below shows the stamping on the pipe.

If I had known what I found out later in the refurbishing process I would never have taken the next steps in the clean up. But I was oblivious so I did them unwittingly. I used the smallest PipNet reamer cutting head to take back the cake to what I thought was bare briar. I used a small pen knife to even up the job of cutting back the cake to smooth.

I scrubbed the outside of the bowl and the rim with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and fine bristle brass tire brush to clean off the tars and lava that had overflowed the top of the bowl. I rinsed the pipe under warm water to remove the soap and the grime and dried it off with a cotton towel. The cleaned finish even more clearly looks to be a manufactured look to approximate a sandblast finish. But it was a great tactile finish and once polished would look great.

I gave the bowl a light rubdown of olive oil like I had on the Classica. It brought the colours in the briar to the front and it is going to be a beautiful pipe.

In the photo above you can see what looks like a smooth ring around the inside of the bowl. This was my first clue that things were not necessarily as they appeared. I went back to read a post on Facebook by Geoff Carmell about a Citation pipe he had found. Sure enough the finish was the same and the ring around the inside edge of the bowl was a meerschaum lining. With the way I had man handled it – reaming and scrubbing with the brass bristle brush it is a wonder that I had not damaged the bowl. I would do some work on cleaning that edge a little more gingerly later. Now I had to fit the new stem.

I sanded the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum carefully working it down to the same diameter as the shank and fitting the flow of the curves on the oval shank. This has to be done carefully and with a steady hand or you have to repair the damaged shank or cut another stem to fit. I proceed carefully and slowly. The photos below show the rough fit of the stem after the Dremel and sanding drum work.

I sanded the rough fit stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the scratches and fine tune the fit to the shank. I also sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to further fine tune the fit.

The next photos show the newly fitted stem and what the pipe will look like with the clear stem. It still needs a lot of sanding including file work on the airway and the button. It has a small airhole in the end of the button but I will need to cut and shape a slot.

All of the internal work and the work on shaping a slot are done with my collection of needle files. It looks like a lot of files but I usually only use three different files – a round, an oval and a flat oval. I use both the larger and the smaller files in these three shapes.

The slot is progressing from a round hole to more of an oval shape that matches the shape of the button. Still a lot of filing to do to get it finished. I worked on the button, slot, and airway to smooth things out and open them up with the smaller files as well. When I drilled the airway to turn the tenon the drill left a ridge on the inside of the airway in the stem that is a bear to sand out. I worked on it until it was as smooth as I could get it. There is still a small line in the airway but it is smoother than it was when I started. I am going to have to get some tapered drill bits. That would have made this task a minor hiccup in the process rather than a several hour ordeal. The airway is wide open and takes a fluffy pipe cleaner with ease.

I sanded the end of the button and slot with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches and then went through the micromesh pads to polish it. I worked the stem over with micromesh sanding pads, wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the remaining pads 3200-12000 grit.

With the stem done I figured I could put it off no longer. I had to work on the airway. It was seriously clogged. I could not push a paper clip through or even an ice pick. I used the drill bit on the KLEENREEM and could not get it through. I had to soak it with an alcohol wetted pipe cleaner to soften the plug and then I used a paper clip to push through the plug finally. Then I had to work through the drill bit and the pipe cleaners to get all of the gunk out. Finally I have good airflow. I cleaned out the shank with alcohol and pipe cleaners until they were clean. I cleaned the meerschaum lining on the rim with micromesh sanding pads and patiently just sanding the meer edge and the bowl. I was able to get much of the tars off the meer and now it shows golden. There are several spots where it is stained very dark. I buffed the bowl and rim with Blue Diamond and did the same to the stem. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the hand waxed the bowl with Conservators Wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff and then with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I like the way it came out. (In the photos of the full pipe the stem came out looking opaque but it is absolutely clear as can be seen in the close up photo.)

I took a photo of the two pipes together to show the finished product. Thanks for looking.

Restemming a Beautiful Savinelli Classica 812 Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug
In the pipes that my brother Jeff sent me from his Montana find was a pair of Savinelli made 812 shape pipes. The first is the second pipe down from the top in the picture to the left. That pipe is stamped Citation 812 and made in Italy on the underside of the shank. The stem is a refit and is poorly done. Fortunately it is beat up and missing a large chunk on the underside near the button. The second one is shown in the picture in the second column and is a sandblast without a stem. It is stamped Savinelli Classica with the Savinelli shield and 812 Italy on the underside of the shank. The first is a two toned dark brown and the second is a lighter two toned medium brown.

The pipe I chose to work on first was the Savinelli Classica – the stemless one. It was in pretty decent shape. The finish was dirty but was not worn. It had a great sandblast. The left side of the bowl had a circular grain pattern and the right side was blasted birdseye. The shank had long swirls on the top and sides. The rim had some build up on it and the bowl had a thick cake that plugged the airway and closed off the lower portion of the bowl.

I took a photo of the two pipes together to show the similarities and the differences. The Classica is a bit shorter in terms of shank length and the finish is much more distinctive. The Citation had a nice blast on it but when compared with the Classica it had nothing to compare. Both pipes were the same height. The bowls were the same diameter and the mortise of both held the broken stem with no trouble.

I looked up the Savinelli 812 shape online and found that it originally had a taper stem and that the stem had a slight bend in it at the button. I am not sure if I like the look of it on the Canadian but will think about it as I restore the Classica. I took the next photos of the bowl to show the distinctive sandblast on the bowl. It truly is a beautiful piece of work. The way the bowl was stain highlighted and emphasized the blast rather than muted it. Once I cleaned it up I would need to maintain that look.

The next two photos show the grain on the shank and the tar buildup on the rim. I am pretty sure that the blast is underneath the tars and will look good once it is scraped off. The third photo shows the underside of the shank and the smooth portion that bears the stamping.

I went through my stem can and found the candidate for the tapered Canadian stem for this pipe. I used the PIMO tenon turning tool to take down the tenon to the point that it almost fit the shank. I hand sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to bring it to the correct size. I did not want to crack the shank so I went slowly, checking for the fit often. Once the stem was in place I took some photos to show the excess in diameter on the top and sides and the shaping that would need to be done to get a good match to the shank.

I rough shaped the stem fit with a sanding drum on a Dremel to get it close to the shape of the shank. I have found that if I move slowly and carefully with the Dremel it saves a ton of hand sanding on the stems. Once I had it rough shaped I did the rest of the shaping by hand.

I fine tuned the shape with 220 grit sandpaper and brought it to a smooth transition between the shank and the stem all the way around. I worked on the button area and cleaned up the castings and marks on the slot and the button edges with the sandpaper.

With the new stem fitting and only needing more fine tuning and polishing I decided to ream the bowl and work on the rim. I used a PipNet reamer and a KLEENREEM reamer and a pen knife to cut away the cake in the bowl. It was as hard as the cake in the other two bowls that my brother sent me.

I scrubbed the sandblast with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and the caked rim with the soap and a brass bristle tire brush. Once the grime was scrubbed off I rinsed the bowl in warm running water and cleaned out the brushes. I dried off the bowl with a towel.

I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, alcohol and cotton swabs. It was plugged in the airway to the bowl so I used the drill bit on the KLEENREEM tool and was able to clear out the gunk in the airway and open it up all the way to the bowl. I wanted to keep the contrast stain on the pipe and not restain it so I gave it a light coat of olive oil to bring life back to the wood. I have found that dry briar absorbs the oil quite quickly and that the oil gives it some colour and life back without masking the original stain.

I wiped the bowl down and rubbed it vigorously with a clean soft towel to remove any of the surface oil and to give it an initial buff. I went to work fine tuning the stem fit. I used micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-400 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the stem and lightly buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the bowl with Conservators Wax and a small shoe brush to bring out a shine to sand blast finish. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The straight new stem works for me. The pipe is once again a work of beauty. Thanks for looking.

Rescuing a Tinderbox Monza Horn – Restemming and Refinishing

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Another of the pipes that my brother Jeff sent me was a horn shaped pipe that was stamped Tinderbox Made in Italy in a circle with Monza in the centre of the circle. It is stamped on the underside of the shank. The shape is quite unique. The bowl had around 10-12 fills in it that went from tiny spots to huge plugs in the briar. The finish was a heavy urethane coat that made the pipe very shiny and really highlighted the fills around the bowl and the shank.

The shank had a split in the underside of the shank that went from under the band up the shank for one inch on the bottom side. It had just turned slightly upward and if left alone would have continued to the bowl. The rim was heavily damaged and there was a thick hard cake in the bowl that hurt my hand when I pushed the various reamers that I had trying to remove it. The bowl looked like it was conical in shape but was so thick that there was very little room in the bowl for tobacco. The stem was a replacement, like many of them in the pipes my brother sent me. It was a saddle stem and was missing a huge chunk on the left side of the button and up the stem about ½ inch. The person who had made the replacement had cut an angled end on the tenon which in my opinion was careless and not necessary. The airway into the bowl from the shank was plugged and when I blew into the end of the shank I could not get any air through it.

The next four photos show the pipe as it appeared when it arrived in the box from my brother.

I took a close up photo of the bowl and rim to show the damage and the cake in the bowl. The second photo below shows the broken stem. The stem was pretty much a throw away as it is very narrow after the broken button.

I started to ream the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I started with a small cutting head and soon gave up. I used the largest head that would fit the diameter of the bowl and still found the cake too hard to cut through with the reamer. I dropped it in an alcohol bath to soak to soften the cake and to soften the urethane coat on the bowl. After it had been soaking an hour I took it out of the bath.

In my can of stems I had one with the same diameter as the shank and a tenon that would work with some adjustments. The tenon was too long so I would need to trim it back and also adjust the diameter to get a snug fit in the shank. The alcohol bath did not even make a dent in the finish. As I expected the only way to remove a urethane finish is to sand it off. I did not mind as it was covering a lot of damage to the rounded rim and the sides of the bowl. I fit the new stem in the shank and took a few photos to get an idea of the look. The stem was a little too bent to my liking so that would need adjusting but the taper worked well with the horn shape. The last photo of the underside of the shank shows a dark area. That is where the stamping is present and also the crack in the shank.

I put the stem aside and used a pen knife, a KleenReam and a PipNet reamer to work on the hard cake. It was still rock hard but I was able to chip away at it until I had removed it from the bowl. I used the drill bit from the handle of the KleenReem to open up the airway into the bowl.

I sanded the bowl some more with some medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I wanted to clean up the cracked area on the shank bottom so that I could repair it. I took the photo below to show the crack in the shank. I used a micro drill bit on my Dremel to drill a small hole at the end of the crack to stop it from spreading further up the shank.

I packed some briar dust into the hole and then dripped super glue on top of that and then more briar dust and some more glue. I ran a dental pick along the crack to open it slightly and then put some glue along the crack to the band as to preserve that as well.

I sanded the repair to smooth it out and blend it into the shank and avoided the area inside the stamping. I heated the stem with a heat gun to take a bit of the bend out of it. Once it was pliable I bent it to match the flow of the curve of the horn. I wanted it to sit with the rim and the bend in the stem flat on the table when laid down. That angle would make it sit correctly in the mouth when it was smoked.

I worked on the curve of the rim and top with sandpaper and sanding sponges to get the flow of the rolled rim even all the way around the bowl. I worked on the inner edge of the rim as well to make it flow into the bowl rather than be an abrupt edge. I sanded the bowl with medium grit sanding sponges and fine grit sanding blocks to remove the scratches from the briar and to work on the oxidation on the stem. The grain was beginning to show through. I wiped it down with a tack cloth to remove the sanding dust in preparation for staining the bowl. The bowl had a lot of fills so I decided to try a contrast stain to both hide the fills and to bring out the grain. I started with a black aniline stain and finished with a brown. I stained the bowl with the black and flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I reapplied and reflamed it until the coverage was even. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol and cotton pads to remove the excess black and leave it only in the grain of the briar. I wanted it to show the grain and highlight the beauty. I also wanted to mask the fills to some degree.

I used a black Sharpie permanent marker to draw grain lines through the huge fills on the bowl to further blend them into the briar.

With that preparation done I gave it a top coat of dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated until I was happy with the coverage.

I hand buffed the bowl to check out the coverage of the brown and the contrast of the black and the black Sharpie marks. By and large I liked what I saw. There were some spots that needed some more work but it was looking good.

I worked the stem over with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then giving it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and then gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine and then with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It exceeds my expectations when I began the reclamation work on it. The fills on the sides, shank and back of the bowl have all but disappeared in the blend of stains and Sharpie pen. The large ones on the bowl front look better but are still somewhat visible. Overall I am happy with the results. Thanks for looking.

Cleaning up Two Sisters – A pair of Beaver Cut Genuine Briar Pipes

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I received this pair of pipes from Charles Lemon of Dad’s Pipes Blog. He picked them up as part of an estate from London, Ontario, Canada. They are both stamped on the bottom of the shank on a smooth surface with the words Beaver Cut in script over a block script Genuine Briar. He did some hunting on the web and could find nothing that gave any sense of history of the brand. When I got them I did the same and found absolutely nothing. The Genuine Briar stamping tells me it is post WW2 and is made in the USA. I found another Beaver Cut for sale on Worthpoint but it also did not have any information. From what I can find that is the extent of the information available.

The top pipe in the photo is Prince. The rustication was dirty and a lot of dirt and debris had collected in the grooves. It had a rustication pattern that I had not seen before. It is like rows and rows of birdseye cuts in the surface of the briar. There is a smooth patch on both sides and on the bottom of the shank. The bowl had a thick cake and the shank had a lot of debris and oils in it. The rim had an overflow of lava and oils on the top of the bevel. The inner and outer edge of the rim was in great shape and the bowl was still in round. The brass band on the shank appeared to be factory as it was on both pipes and was identical. It was scarred and had tarnished. When it was installed the installer had made a mess of the shank. He had cut the shank back farther than the length of the band so that when it was installed it left a groove between the edge of the band and the rustication on the shank. It looked almost as if the band was an afterthought. I am pretty certain that it was sent out from the factory with that look. The stamping had been cut in two by the chopping of the briar to fit the band. The stem did not fit the shank due to the buildup internally. The stem was also missing a large chunk on the right side near the button and someone had cut a groove in the top of the stem to begin cutting a new button but had not finished the work.

The lower pipe is a Billiard with the exact same grain pattern. It was in a bit better shape than the Prince. The grooves in the unique rustication were actually clean. There was a varnish coat on the smooth parts of the bowl even though there were several sandpits in each smooth spot. The bowl had a thick cake and the rim had an overflow of tars and lava which obscured the bevel. The fit of the band to the shank on this one was better though looking at it from the end of the mortise it was clear that the shank was out of round. The brass was also scratched and marred on this pipe. The stamping on this one was clean and deep. The stem diameter extended further on the right side than on the left though the stem was of equal diameter all the way around. There were some light tooth marks on the top and the bottom of the stem near the button and there was tooth chatter. The stem was oxidized but was faintly stamped with a B in a circle.

I took a close up photo of the rim on each of the pipes. The first photo below shows the rim on the Prince and the second shows the rim on the Billiard. The buildup and the uneven cake are visible in both pipes. It is hard to see the bevel on the rim in the Prince but it matches the one on the rim of the Billiard.

I also took some close up photos of the stems on both pipes to show the state of the stem. The first two photos show the stem on the Prince. You can see the damage of the broken area on the side of the button and the cut off button. You can also see the groove or divot that had been cut in the stem to make the pipe useable. The third and fourth photos show the stem on the Billiard and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on the stem surface. It is also clear that it does not fit well against the side of the band.

I decided to restem the Prince so I found a stem in my can of stems that was the same diameter as the shank and slightly longer than the broken stem to account for the missing button. I turned the tenon with a sanding drum on a Dremel to get a close fit and then hand sanded until it push snuggly into the mortise. To deal with the badly fit shank band I cleaned the area with a dental pick and then pressed briar dust into the groove just ahead of the band. I dripped clear super glue into the briar dust and then as it settled add more glue and more briar dust. I wanted the transition between the shank and the band to be smooth. I sanded the repair with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches in the surface. I reamed both bowls back to bare wood with a PipNet reamer. I sanded the beveled rim on the Prince to clean off the oils and lava and to show the bevel. More work would need to be done on both rims.

I worked on the bevel of the rims with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the buildup and also to smooth out the bevel. It took quite a bit of sanding on both rims to get the angle consistent all the way around the bowl and also to remove the burn damage on the inner edge of both. I sanded both with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to finish the cleanup. I stained the newly cleaned surfaces of the rim with a light brown stain pen to approximate the colour on the smooth portions on the bowl sides and bottom of the shank. I sanded them both with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to smooth out the remaining scratches that showed up with the stain. It also lightened the stain enough that the match was perfect.

With the rims finished it was time to scrub the rustication. I used Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to scour the rustication pattern on both bowls. I scrubbed them and then rinsed them under warm running water.

To address the difference in diameter of the stem and the band on the shank on the Billiard I used a Dremel and sanding drum to take down the top, bottom and right side of the saddle stem. I repeatedly checked the fit until I had it very close then I finished adjusting the fit by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem on the Prince with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the calcification on the end of the stem.

With the fit finished on the stems it was time to clean out the internals of the stems and shanks. I used alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to scrub the insides until they were clean.

I wet sanded the stem and the brass with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad for the first round of sanding on both. It worked to remove many of the scratches and marks in the brass and the vulcanite. I worked on the stem with the micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I finished sanding with the 12000 grit pad I let the oil dry on the stem.

In the final sanding I sanded the brass and it carried over onto the top portion of each stem giving it a bit of a brown look in the next photo. This all came off when I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond. I heated the stem on the Prince and gave it a slight bend to give it a more finished looked. I buffed the stems and rims with White Diamond and Blue Diamond and then gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I also waxed the smooth portions on the bowl sides, shank bottoms and the rims. I buffed these with Blue Diamond as well. I wiped the rustication down with a light coat of olive oil to bring some life back to the briar. The finished sisters are shown below.

Thanks for looking. Does anyone have any information about this brand? It would be great to be able to get a little information. Please post anything you know in the comments below. Thanks.

Removing a Broken Metal Tenon from a LHS Sterncrest 14K

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago I received an email from Dave Gossett regarding another LHS Sterncrest that he had picked up. He asked if I had any hints on how to remove a broken metal mortise and broken off stinger from the shank of a pipe. He sent a picture of the issue and I wrote back regarding drilling the broken mortise insert out of the shank. He also posted on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum looking for help. “Does anyone have any ideas how to get this out of the shank without damaging the pipe (further)? I received this in an estate lot. Looks like somebody gave it hell already. I tried putting a screw in to remove it, but it has been gouged so badly that it won’t budge. I left it as is to keep from further damaging the shank. It has the stinger inside as well. I would have tried to file it or hot exacto knife the vulcanite but with the stinger, I don’t think this will work either. The mortise has been chewed up but I think if I can remove the debris, using a replacement stem with an extra-long tenon should make a good seal past the damaged area.”

I wrote my suggestions along with those of others on the forum and looked forward to hearing from Dave and seeing some more of his craftsmanship on this old timer. A month or so passed without any follow-up post or emails regarding the pipe. I found myself wondering what he had done with the pipe and if he had been able to use the method I wrote about on the forum and in the email. Being a bit impatient and I suppose nosey as well, I wrote Dave to see if he had had any luck clearing the shank of the pipe. He wrote back:

“On another note, I bought a Sterncrest 14k with the tenon and stinger broke off in the shank. Do you do repair work for hire? I tried putting a screw in the broken tenon to remove it, but it won’t budge. The eBay genius I bought it from gouged the hell out of the mortise trying to remove it. I’d like to have it removed and get a stem replacement fitted for it. I’ll order the replacement stem and send both together if you’re interested.”

I wrote him back and said I would gladly remove the broken tenon and ruined mortise apparatus for him. I offered to do it for nothing as I like the challenge. I also have more than enough stems here that would probably work with the pipe so I suggested he just mail it to me and let me have a shot at clearing things up.

I was away this past week and when I returned there was a box waiting for me. I opened it and removed several pipe bowls and stem that he sent as gifts. I unwrapped the bowl that needed attention and had a look at it. I was pretty sure that the method I suggested would work very well and remove the ruined mortise. I was hoping that once I had removed that I would be able to push the broken tenon out of the bowl and shank.

I set up my cordless drill and put a drill bit the same size as the mortise in the shank of the pipe. I tightened it in place in the chuck and then hand twisted the bowl onto the drill bit. I never use a power tool to do this as it can create more problems that it cures. Because of the extensive damage to the shank and to the aluminum fitting I chose a bit the same size as the mortise rather than starting with a smaller one. My idea was to twist the bowl onto the bit until I had removed the mortise apparatus and opened up the shank so that the tenon piece could be removed.

It did not take too long to carefully twist the bowl onto the shank enough that the broken part was removed. A side benefit was that in doing this I also smoothed out the inside of the shank and removed many of the gouges in the side walls of the mortise. I would need to use a needle file to further smooth out the spots in the shank where the marks were deeper than the drill bit could remedy. When I had finished removing the mortise insert I used a dental pick to push the broken tenon piece out of the shank. The tenon/stinger extended into the bottom of the bowl so I put the end of the pick in one of the holes in the top of the stinger and pushed the apparatus back into the shank. It was not stuck so it moved easily into the shank and with a light tap of the end of the shank fell out on the work table. With the airway cleared of impediment I used a small round needle file and a sanding stick to clean up the inside of the shank and to prepare it for a new push stem that I would fit to the shank. I removed a lot of the damage to the shank with the files though some of it was too deep into the briar to completely remove. I gave the inner edge of the shank end a slight bevel with a sharp knife. It was not perfect as the hack job on the shank end was very rough. I was able to smooth it up quite a bit. The first picture below shows the shank end before the bevel. The second one shows the slight bevel. I am sure that Dave will clean it up even more in his refurb.

For fun I salvaged the broken tenon and cut off the broken part with a hack saw. It will need a small tube extension to extend it fully into the bowl but it is going back to Dave so he can decide if he wants to use it.

The stinger was just over a half inch too short and I did not have a tube to extend it. I did have another stinger apparatus that was the right length. It fit perfectly in the tenon and extended the right distance into the shank. I am pretty sure it is another iteration of the LHS system but it is slightly different. I inserted it in the tenon and took the next photo. I put the stem in the shank and took a photo of the stinger end in the bowl.

I will send both stingers to Dave when I return the pipe. I did not ream or clean the bowl as Dave wanted to do the restoration work himself. I had a hard time not falling prey to the temptation to ream the bowl or clean up the pipe but somehow I succeeded. I kept myself to the task at hand. I went through my stem can and found a stem that would work well with the shank diameter. It has some scratches and will need a bit of fine tuning make the fit perfect but it is a good starting place.

Fitting a Stem to an Old Ceramic/Porcelain Pipe Bowl

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

In a box of pipe parts I was given was a hexagonal shaped ceramic/porcelain pipe bowl with a thin pencil shank. It was cut off mid-shank at a slight angle. Looking at it I decided that it would be an interesting looking pipe to restem. The finished pipe would be unique and well worth the work to restem. I am guessing that the pipe originally had been longer and possibly had a bit on the end. There was a tiny chip cracked in the end of the shank. I reglued that and held it in place until it dried. Since the shank had been cut at an angle, I used a topping board to flatten the edge and square the end of the shank as much as possible. I then used a nickel band that I had in my box of bands and heated it and pressed it in place on the shank. I left a small portion of the band extending beyond the end of the shank to help square the fit of the stem to the shank. I went through my can of stems and found one that was the perfect diameter for a match to the shank. The tenon would need to be made smaller to fit in the shank and the mortise would need to be opened further with needle files for the stem to fit well. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and polished it with a microfibre cloth. There was a small hairline crack on the left side of the bowl coming from the rim downward about one half-inch. It was sealed so it was not currently a problem that I would need to deal with. I took some photos of the newly banded stem and the polished bowl to show the new look of the pipe. The bowl is quite thin so it will be a hot one to hold. It will need to be smoked slowly to keep it cool.

I used a coarse needle file to open up the mortise in the shank to accommodate the tenon. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reduce the tenon as much as possible. I worked on the mortise to file down the inside of the shank. It took some careful file work to keep the mortise round so that once the opening was sufficient the tenon would not be loose inside.

The next photo shows the finished mortise. The files worked well and the newly shaped tenon fit the shank perfectly. I put the stem in place on the bowl and took some photos to get a better look at the new pipe. The newly stemmed pipe actually looked very good. I loved the delicate look of it. The slight bend in the stem worked well with the bowl and allows the pipe to sit upright on a flat surface.

The stem was rough and lightly oxidized. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to loosen the oxidation and then used a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches on the stem. I then wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads, gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the stem and bowl lightly with Blue Diamond polish on the wheels and then gave the stem and bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax. I polished it with a clean flannel buff on the wheel making sure to hold the bowl tightly. To have the buffer grab this one and throw it would be a disaster that the pipe would not survive. Once I finished the buffing on the wheel I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to raise the final shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. There is some slight coloring forming on the sides of the bowl midway down from the top. I am wondering if the rest of the bowl will also colour with use. The pipe looks really good with the new stem and band. It will fit well in my collection of unique older pieces.