Tag Archives: restemming a pipe

An Odd Yello Bole Imperial Nosewarmer Canadian worth saving

Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe that Troy Wilburn sent me to restem was a short Canadian with a large bowl. It was a bit of an odd pipe – no shape number and no catalogue shape that matched it. It was almost like a Canadian that had been cut off somewhere along the way. However it was sent out from the factory like this. It is stamped on the top rolling down the left side of the shank with the older KBB in a cloverleaf. Next to that it reads Yello Bole. Underneath it reads cured with real honey and an R in a circle. Underneath that is stamped Imperial in Script with small block letters reading IMPORTED BRIAR.

It came to Troy as New Old Stock or NOS – unsmoked pipe. It had a strange tenon repair that someone had made some time in its history. The tenon had broken off in the shank and rather than remove it, the decision had been made to leave it in the shank. In the first photo below you can see the broken tenon and at the end of it is the YB stinger apparatus still sitting in the shank. There was a notch taken out of the shank on the left underside near the end of the mortise and in the mortise end. The repair that had been made was to smooth out the end of the stem and insert a stainless steel rod in the stem. The rod was the same diameter as the inside of the tenon. Effectively it was like the repair I did on Troy’s other pipe. The problem with this one was the very constricted draw due to the narrow airway constricted by the tenon. With the notch in the end of the mortise the fit of the stem against the shank was also compromised. This pipe was going to be a bear to get all of the alignments straight. The airway drilled in the stem for the metal tenon was slightly off centre and a little angular. The notch in the shank would need to be corrected or removed. The fit in the shank would need to be adjusted. You can see that this NOS pipe would take a bit of creativity to reconstruct. I began the reconstruction of a new tenon by addressing the constricted airway and broken tenon in the shank of the pipe. I used a drill bit that fit well against the end of the tenon that was stuck in the shank and slowly drilled into the broken tenon. My hope was that the drill bit would catch on the material of the tenon and I would be able to back it out of the shank. It worked on the first try. The bit stuck in the bit and I reversed the direction of the drill and the broken tenon came out on the drill bit. Once it was free I was able to shake out the stinger from the airway and the shank was clear. This unsmoked pipe now had an unconstricted airway. The first part of the repair had gone off without a hitch. The next photo shows the parts that were in the shank. The broken tenon piece and the spoon shaped stinger are to the left of the end of the shank. You can also see the short metal tenon that had been inserted in the stem end. I gripped the end of the metal tenon with needle nosed pliers and wiggled it free of the stem. It had not been glued but rather heated and inserted deep in the airway of the stem. With very little effort I was able to remove the tube from the stem. The next two photos give two different views of the tenon and the end of the stem. You can see in the second photo that the airway had been drilled open to take the metal tube tenon. It would not take much to open it slightly larger to put a repair tenon in place.

With the airway opened I decided to address the notch out of the end of the shank. I did this by using super glue and briar dust to build up the shank end. The trick was to keep the glue isolated to the shank end and not let it run on the finish of the shank bottom. I carefully put a few drops of glue in the notch and then packed in briar dust with a dental pick. I repeated this process until I had built up the notch slightly higher than the flat end of the shank. I then used the topping board and carefully stood the pipe against the sandpaper and slowly worked the filled area smooth with the paper. I repeated the process until the area was evenly built up and the notch was gone. There remained a little darkening at the edge of the repair on the bottom edge of the shank end but the notch was gone. Once the stem is repaired and is in place the notch will be virtually invisible. I cleaned up any of the glue bits and briar dust in the shank with the dental pick and a sharp knife.

The next three photos show the shank end from different angles to show the state of the repair at this point in the process. It still needs to be cleaned up and touched up once the stem is fit in the shank, however the notch itself is virtually gone and the stem (sans tenon) sits smoothly against the shank end.

I decided that rather than wait for a new tenon to arrive I would make my own. I had a very small stem that I knew would work well to fashion a tenon. I used a hacksaw to cut off a portion of the stem to use for the tenon. I purposely cut it long to give me material to work with.

The cut off portion is shown in the photo below. I held the smaller portion in the tip of a pair of needle nose pliers and used the Dremel with a sanding drum to bring down the larger portion to match the smaller one. I would sand until I had a vulcanite tenon that I could insert into the stem.

Here is a photo of the shop “foreman” sitting in my chair while I worked on the tenon. Spencer loves to hang out with me while I work. The thinner part of the tenon in the photo below will be the part I insert in the stem once it is drilled out. The larger part will need to be turned down to fit in the mortise.

I started by using a drill bit that was slightly larger than the airway that had been opened in the stem for the metal tenon. I worked my way up to a drill bit that would open the airway and deep enough to take the new tenon and provide stability. When I had drilled the opening in the stem as large as I could, given the taper of the stem I needed to take down the diameter of the replacement tenon I had made. I used a Dremel to take off the excess material to reduce it to the same size as the stem opening. Once I got close in diameter with the Dremel I hand sanded it to fit.

When the tenon end fit snugly in the stem, I squared off the end of the tenon and then superglued it in place in the stem. I coated the tenon with the glue and pressed it into place. The tenon itself would also need to be turned to fit the shank of the pipe. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to sand down the tenon and then used sand paper to get a snug fit. Once it fit well I polished it with fine grit sanding sponges and micromesh. The fit in shank was good and snug. It was at this point that the alignment issues became clear. I would need to do some work on the shank to clean up the repair and also get a good transition from the shank to the stem. The fit on the topside was slightly high and the fit on the underside was a little low. I needed to sand the shank anyway to clean up the repaired notch on the underside so to sand it a bit more was not an issue. I sanded the shank and stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the transition between the two and to give a better flow to the taper on the stem.

I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding block to make the transition smooth and remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

Once the transition was smooth I sanded the briar with micromesh sanding pads from 2400-4000 grit and then used the Guardsman brand stain pens to stain the shank. I used the lightest stain pen first and finished with the medium stain pen. Once it dried I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond to raise the shine on the shank and to even out the stain.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and Blue Diamond and then buff the shank with the same once again.

I buffed the stem and the shank with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave the pipe several coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below.

The next two photos show a close up of the fit of the stem to the shank. I am pleased with the way it turned out.

The last two photos are of a regular sized Yello Bole Canadian (top pipe) and the little nose warmer (bottom pipe). I put these together to give a bit of perspective. The bowl on the nose warmer is larger and the shank is definitely shorter.

Thanks Troy for the challenge on this little Canadian. It was a pleasure to work on it. Each time I work on putting a new tenon on a pipe I learn something new. This time around, between the new tenon on the billiard, the insert in the cracked shank and the new tenon on this little one I had a good week in pipe school. They will soon be on their way back to you Troy. I hope they smoke well and you enjoy them.

Replacing a Broken Tenon and Repairing a Cracked Shank on an Old KBB Yello Bole Billiard

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Troy Wilburn and I have been corresponding for a few months now about pipe restoring and the fun of the hobby. He has posted some of his work here so he is no stranger to pipe restoration. I had not heard from him for a while so I sent him and email to check on him. I know he loves the older Yello Bole pipes and I wondered if he had worked on any recently. I am including a portion of the email he sent me in response to mine. He wrote:

“Funny thing you have contacted me as I do have a couple of Yello Boles I need tenon repairs on. One is an old favorite of mine that snapped off. I have tried to repair it and it failed. The other is an odd shaped NOS (I can’t find the shape on any KW chart. It’s a large bowl billiard with a short oval shank and short straight stem) pipe that I purchased with a broken tenon already but I can’t get the broken piece out (it’s really stuck!) So it might need to be drilled out and a new tenon made, I don’t know.”

“Tenon repair is something I’m not that experienced on and they are both very nice old KBB YBs and would like nice repairs done on them, so I was thinking about sending them to someone more experienced in those types of repairs. I was gonna ask Ed but I know he is always swamped with projects, so I was thinking about asking you if you would be interested in repairing them for me…”

I replied that I would gladly have a look and them and give them a go if they were something that I could fix. When they arrived last week I unpacked the box that Troy sent. I have to tell you he did a masterful job of packing these old pipes. They were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and then placed in small plastic containers. Then the plastic containers were put in bubble wrap and put in a box. There was no movement or rattle in that package.

When I took the pipes out I could see what Troy was talking about. The little odd shaped NOS Canadian was strange. It had a metal tenon. Upon observation I could see that someone had left the broken tenon in the shank and then made a metal tenon that slipped inside the broken tenon. Deep in the shank was the stinger rattling around free in the airway between the broken tenon and the bowl. The billiard that I chose to work on first was another matter. I think Troy tried to epoxy the stem on the tenon but it did not hold. The face of the stem was spotty with glue. The shank on the pipe was clean but I did not spend too much time checking it out to see if there were cracks or problems. Even though the tenon snapped I just by passed my normal observation and went to work. That was a decision I would regret shortly… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet.

I faced the surface of the stem and smoothed out the broken area on a topping board. I started with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway and worked my way up to a large enough drill bit that I could turn a tap into it to thread it for the new threaded tenon. This has to be done very slowly and carefully to not drill to deeply into the stem or to angle things so that the tenon does not sit straight in the shank once it is in place. The stem had some spots of glue on the surface and some marks around the end where the tenon had snapped off that would need to be addressed once I got to that point. I generally have a few threaded tenons to work with around here. Wouldn’t you know it all of my ¼ inch tenons were gone and all I had left were these large ½ inch ones. It would have to work for this repair. I used a tap to thread the newly drilled stem. I fit the tenon in place and twisted it down until it sat flat against the stem. I then twisted it free and put some glue on the threads and twisted the new tenon into the stem. I cleaned up the excess glue around the junction so that the fit of the tenon was smooth and tight. Once the glue set in place I set up my PIMO Tenon Turning tool on my cordless drill and took down the tenon slowly until I had removed enough of the excess Delrin to get it close to a fit. Because there are no micro adjustments on the tenon turning tool I always get as close as possible with the tool and then use the Dremel and sanding drum and to strip it more and then finish it by hand with sandpaper. I love the way the Delrin spins off the cutter on the tool. Here is the new tenon sitting among the Delrin scraps ready to take to the Dremel and then hand sand. I used the Dremel to take the tenon down some more. I then sanded it by hand until the size was the same as the shank. When I slid it in place the fit was perfect. I was happy to have finished what seemed to be an easy repair. I slipped the stem out of the shank to clean and polish the tenon. When I slid it back in place the sound that makes me cringe was heard. It was just a slight low pop. I removed the stem and could see a small crack had either appeared on the shank with the new tenon in place or the new tenon had made the crack appear. I will never know for sure as I did not check it before. I cleaned off that area of the shank and examined the crack. It was just under ½ long and curved up through the stamping on the shank. I was sick.

I wrote Troy a quick email and told him the situation as it stood – great fitting stem, repaired tenon and now a cracked shank. I asked if it was cracked before or if I had cracked it. He was not sure either. Ah well no matter. I was hoping he would confirm that it was previously cracked but he didn’t know. I asked about banding the shank and he said he would rather not as he did not like bands. But if I had to a thin one would do. The problem was twofold – I did not have a thin band and a thin one would not fix the crack. I suggested that maybe I could do an internal repair and thin down the new tenon to fit inside of the tube that would be used to repair the shank. He said to go for it and see what I could do.

So I did a bit of looking through my parts bin to see if I could find either a piece of Delrin tube that I could drill and fit or a piece of metal that would work for the repair. I found I had a metal tube that would work. I cut off a piece the length of the mortise. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to roughen the surface of the tube and to reduce the diameter slightly. I wanted a good snug fit in the shank but did not want to open the crack or crack it further. I spread the crack slightly and put super glue in it and clamped it until it set.

While it was drying I used the Dremel to reduce the diameter of the tenon until it would fit inside of the metal tube. I figured it would be easier to do that fitting with the tube out of the shank than when it was inserted in the cracked shank. Again I sanded with the Dremel and then finished by hand sanding until the fit was a nice snug fit with the tenon all the way into the tube.

I sanded and smoothed the ends of the tube and made sure that the surface was rough enough to bond to the inside of the mortise. I roughened the walls of the mortise with a dental pick so that it was scored. I wanted to make both surfaces rough enough for the glue to bond to and make the tube secure in the shank. It would have to be a tight fit as I did not want the tube to come out with the stem when Troy took it off the pipe to clean it. I coated the outside of the metal tube with glue and let it get tacky. When it was tacky I pressed into the shank with the sharp end of a pair of needle nose pliers. I pushed it in until it sat against the end of the mortise in the shank. With the tube in place in the shank I still needed to flare the end so that it would fit against the bevel of the mortise end. I probably could have shortened the tube slightly but beveling the end would take care of that. I pressed the end of rounded tip of the needle nose pliers into the end of the tube and worked on the flare. It took some work to mould it to shape. I then use a small round needle nose file to smooth out the flare and match the angle of the bevel. I stained the end of the shank with a stain pencil and also touched up the cracked area on the shank. I will need to polish that to get it to match the shine on the bowl but you can see the fit of the stem against the shank and look of the shank. With the shank repair completed I needed to work on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches and glue build up that was on the surface of the stem. I sanded it with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. Then it was time to sand it with micromesh sanding pads. Instead of wet sanding I used a little olive oil on the stem and sanded with the micromesh with oil. I did that with 1500-2400 grit pads. I continued with 3600-12,000 grit pads without adding any further oil to the surface of the stem. With these older Yello Bole stem I find that wet sanding does not work well but to sand with oil is perfect and will raise a nice shine. I also am careful about buffing them as they have a pretty low melting point and are easily damaged. This particular stem does not appear to be vulcanite so I was careful.

The next two photos show the shank end. The stain got on the flare of the metal tube and I will need to wipe it out with a bit of alcohol. However you can see the flare of the metal and the briar to take the new tenon and hold the stem tight against the shank. The airway has what appears to be a loose piece of metal on the second photo at the bottom of the shank. I blew out the shank with air and the dust and fibres that were present disappeared.

The next four photos show the finished pipe and stem. The newly fit stem sits nicely against the shank. The repair to the shank is solid and the crack is closed. With the metal insert it should be free from further cracking and the tenon slides in snugly to the mortise.

The next two photos give a close look at the shank/stem junction. It is good and tight. The final photo shows that the new tenon sits tight against the stem and looks like it was when it left the factory – just narrower in diameter to fit in the metal tube.

The first pipe is finished Troy. Hopefully the second one will be much simpler. This one is ready for you to load up and enjoy once again.

Restoring and Shaping a New Stem for a Savinelli Roma 305

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I saw this old Savinelli Roma on eBay I decided to bid on it and see what I could do with it. It had a triangular shank without a stem. The bowl had a cake build-up and the rim was covered with tars that were flaking off. The finish was dirty and worn as these pipes usually have a contrast dark stain on the bowl and a lighter stain on the rim. The rim is chamfered or bevelled inward toward the bowl. The edges of the rim – both inner and outer – were in great shape. The bowl was still in round. The band was an aftermarket addition and from the looks of it covered a cracked shank. In the photo below you can see the band has been pressed into place and damaged the shape of the shank on the bottom right side. Notice the step down from the band to the bottom edge of the shank and you will see what I mean.

I have included the next photo of the Savinelli Roma 305 to show what the pipe originally looked like. The triangular shank and matching stem are attractive. This should be interesting to duplicate on a replacement stem! The round rim and the contrast colour of the bowl and rim look very good. The thin metal spacer between the stem and shank would have been connected to the stem and with the cracked shank on the one I picked up will not be possible to duplicate. I have also included a picture I found on the web of a badly oxidized stem. I saved this because it gives a good close up of the angles on the stem that I will need to duplicate. When the pipe arrived I took it out of the package and gave it a thorough inspection. As I suspected the band was an added feature. It was pressed loosely in place to deal with a crack in the right side of the shank and also on the bottom edge. It was poorly fit and would need shaping before I put it permanently in place. I would also need to address the cracks in the shank and the missing notch on the right side of the shank. The next group of three photos shows the damaged areas on the bowl and shank. The crack is visible in the first photo and the missing notch is visible in the second photo. The third photo gives a close up of the bowl and rim.

I slipped the band in place and took a photo of the end of the shank to give an idea of what the shape of the stem will need to be when I worked on it. You can see the poor fit of the band at this point as well. I went through my can of stems to find one that fit. I tried diamond shaped stems and none had a wide enough diameter to match the width of the shank without being too long to look right. I finally settled on a round stem blank that had the correct diameter. I turned the tenon down with a PIMO Tenon turning tool until it fit the shank. In the photo below you can see the stem and the stem before I corrected the tenon. With the tenon turned to fit I pushed it into the shank of the pipe.

Using a rasp and files I roughed in the shape of the new stem. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to take it down as close as possible to the finished shape and then brought it back to the work table to use the files again. The photo below shows the roughly shaped stem. Much more sanding will be necessary before this stem is finished. I slipped off the band from the shank and worked on the area on the right side of the shank where there was a large divot in the shank. I also cleaned the cracks on that side of the shank and the underside of the shank with alcohol. I picked out the loose briar with a dental pick and then filled in the divot with briar dust and superglue. I built it up to match the current level of the shank and carved it with the dental pick and needle files to match the finish around the repair. I put super glue in the cracked areas on the shank as well and pressed them until the glue set.

The next photo shows the repaired edge of the shank. The shiny area on the right side of the photo is the glue and briar dust repair. With the band off and the repairs made I inserted the stem and used the files to further shape the angles on the stem. I sanded it with 100 grit emery cloth to smooth out the file marks and further shape it.

After more sanding with 180 grit sandpaper the stem is finally beginning to take shape. You can see the shape in the photos below.

I decided to clean up the bowl before continuing further on the stem. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer and took it back to a thin cake. I would sand it smooth later in the process. With hard sanding work done on the stem I worked on the bowl. I scrubbed down the bowl and shank with acetone to remove the remaining finish and scrubbed and scraped the buildup of tars on the rim. I used a small piece of folded 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the rim further.

I scrubbed the rim with acetone and elbow grease and was able to remove all of the tars on the rim. I put some wood glue on the shank and pressed the band into place. I wiped off the excess glue with a little alcohol on a cotton pad. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to continue shaping and fitting it against the shank. I would need to clean up the straight edges on the sides of the stem and the flattened top portion before I was finished but I wanted to get the shank fit done first.

I sanded the stem (particularly working on the shank stem junction) with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I also sanded the bottom and the sides of the stems at the same time. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain, flamed it and repeated the process.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond to even out the stain and bring some shine to it.

Then it was time to bend the stem to match the original in the photo that I had. I heated it with a heat gun until it was flexible and then bent it over a rolling pin that I use to get an even and straight bend. I took the pipe back to the worktable and took the following photos so I could compare the stem with the original photo. The bend looked correct.

However, the top of the stem needed to be flattened more and lose the arched look. I used a flat file that I have and worked on the top of the stem to flatten it.

The next three photos show the stem after I had filed and flattened the top of the stem to get the angles correct.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges and with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I moved on to polishing it with the micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-12,000 grit pads.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and Blue Diamond plastic polish to further shine the stem.

I polished the band with micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond to bring out a shine. I then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to lift the shine even higher. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Restemming & Working on New Staining Techniques on a Mastercraft Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe from the gift box is a Mastercraft Pot. It is stamped Mastercraft in a shield on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Italy on the right side. There are no shape numbers. There are a lot of fills on the bottom of the bowl and the right side of the bowl. The finish is a thick coat of what appears to be urethane – almost plastic looking. Someone had previous started refurbishing it – to bowl had been carefully reamed and the bowl topped. There was a large fill on the rim that was loose that ran from the middle of the right side of the bowl almost all the way across the rim. This pipe would be a great one to experiment with using different stains to blend the fills and highlight the grain. The urethane coat would prove a challenge to remove completely but once gone it would prove a perfect candidate for the new staining techniques I wanted to learn. The band on the shank is aluminum and is oxidized and dull. The stem is a replacement that is poorly fit. It is loose in the shank and does not fit against the shank well. The tenon is very short and almost conical in shape. I will break the work on this pipe into two parts: Part 1: Fitting a Stem and Part 2: The Staining Experiment and a Conclusion called Finishing Touches.

I took a few close-up photos of the rim and the stem. These will help to give an idea of the state of affairs when I brought the pipe to the work table.

Part 1: Fitting a Stem

I removed the stem and found two possible replacements in my stem can. The original replace in the one at the bottom of the photo below. The two options were a longer taper and a saddle stem. Both of them worked well with the length of the shank. They looked better than the one the pipe arrived with. I tried the bowl with each of the stems to get an idea of the look of the pipe. I made a decision for the taper once I had seen them both in place in the shank.

The taper stem was slightly larger in diameter than the shank so I would need to adjust the diameter. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to remove the tars and oils from the shank. Because someone had already started the process on this pipe it was not a long clean. It took very few cleaners before the shank was clean.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to start and then decided it was taking too much time. I used the Dremel with a sanding drum and quickly removed the excess material.

I brought it back to the work table and sanded it with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the marks left by the sanding drum. I needed to fine tune the fit but it was working with the bowl.

Part 2: The Staining Experiment

To prepare the bowl for staining I needed to do the repairs and remove the old finish. I decided to re-top the bowl to remove some of the damage and smooth out the area around the fill on the right side top and edge. I wanted to bring the top down to lessen the area that the fill intruded on. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the finish only to find that it did not work to cut through the finish. Before I intruded on the finish with my next measure I decided to repair the fill on the outer edge of the rim on the right side. I used briar dust and super glue to repair the fill on the side and top of the rim. Most of the fill had been smoothed out on the top but there was some of the fill missing on the edge of the rim. I cleaned and sanded the repair to blend it into the finish. When that was smoothed out I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding sponge to break the gloss of the finish and then dropped it into the alcohol bath. When I took it out of the bath the finish was dulled but still not broken. This top coat was a real bear to remove. I needed to do quite a bit more sanding on the coating to remove the finish. Once the finish was gone and I was at bare wood I decided I would use a three part staining process to try to hide the fills and blend them into the briar. I wanted to try something new as well with the staining of this pipe. I wiped it down a final time with acetone to clean off the dust and any remnants of finish, scrubbing hard around the stamping on the shank. I stained it with a medium walnut stain, flamed it and buffed it.

When the stain dried I gave it a light buff with a cloth and a shoe brush and then gave it the second coat of stain. This time I gave it a coat of oxblood coloured stain. I wanted to bring out the grain on the sides and front and back of the bowl and try to blend the fills more. I stained it and flamed the stain.

When that stain dried I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and wiped it down with isopropyl to even out the stain coat. I hand buffed it afterwards with a soft cloth. The bowl was beginning to take on the colour I wanted from these first two coats of stain.

Then it was time for the third coat of stain. I stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated the process until I had good coverage on the pipe. The dark brown looked opaque when first applied.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond on the wheel and gradually the grain began to show through the finish. The combination of stains gave the pipe precisely the colour I was wanting – a warm reddish brown with dark highlights in the grain patterns. The fills though still present, did not stick out as badly and seemed to blend into the finish.

Conclusion: Finishing Touches

With the finish on the pipe completed I worked on the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and then with micromesh sanding pads. I also sanded the band on the shank with the micromesh pads at the same time. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and sanded the band without the stem present. You have to be careful with the pads when polishing metal as they will leave a dark stain on the briar and the vulcanite. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and dry sanded the stem with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I polished the band with the same and also with a silver polishing cloth. After each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with the oil. When I had finished the stem I gave it a final coat of the oil and then let it dry.

The next photos show the finished pipe. It is a rich brown/red colour that has warmth and depth to it. The silver band and the new stem make the pipe look quite rich. I figure it is at least as nice or nicer than when it left the Mastercraft warehouse.

Giving a Yorkshire Natural Billiard a new look – Restain & Cumberland Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am slowly but surely working my way through the gift box of pipes I received. The next one that I chose to work on was a billiard. It is stamped Yorkshire in an arch over Natural and another reverse arch with the words Algerian Briar. The stem on it was a replacement and did not fit well on the shank. It was slightly smaller in diameter and also had rounded shoulders. The angles and flow of the stem did not work well with the pipe in my opinion as the taper on the top of the stem was different from the one on the bottom side. The bowl itself was clean but and the finish dirty. The rim had been damaged around the outer edge on the front of the bowl rounding it slightly. The stamping was clear and distinct. From what I can find on the internet the Yorkshire brand is a US Made pipe that came from Barnaby Briars (smoking pipe retailer) that was located at 28 Powell St. in Brooklyn (NY). They also made pipes stamped Barnaby. The Germanic Script differentiates it from the other Yorkshire Brand that was made in Italy by Gasparini for Sears and Roebuck. The right side of the bowl had the only fills present on the pipe – and there were about five of them visible. The largest is almost in the middle toward the back. These fills were hard, smooth and tan in colour.

The close-up photo of the rim below shows the rounding of the edges on both the front and the back sides of the rim. I absolutely hated the look of the stem on this pipe so I went through my can of stems until I found one that would work well. It was a well broken in stem that had a lot of oxidation and calcification on the top and bottom of the stem. There were no tooth marks which were a bonus and the stem was Cumberland! Once I had cleaned up the bowl and the stem the combination would look really good.

The tenon was slightly larger than the mortise so I used a Dremel with a sanding drum and took some of the Cumberland material off the tenon. I worked on it until it was close to fitting. Then I took it back to the work table and use a folded piece of sandpaper to get a good snug fit in the mortise. I had no idea that there was a brass band that was a part of the stem until I began to clean it up.

When the stem was in place I sanded the stem and the junction of the shank and stem to make sure that the fit was smooth and the transition was as seamless as I could make it. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to even things out. As I did it I found that there was a brass coloured band that was a part of the stem. I removed the stem and cleaned off the face of the stem and found the band extended across the face of the stem like a washer around the tenon. I really liked the way the stem tapered quickly to from the shank to the button.

I topped the bowl on a topping board to remove the damage on the rim and clean up the outer edges. I wanted to remove the damaged, rounded edges. I also sanded the scratches on the underside of the bowl. I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I also sanded the brass shank adornment to remove the scratches and polish it. I wiped it down with a wet cloth to remove the sanding dust. The Cumberland is coming to life the more I sand it and remove the oxidation and buildup. The lines of red and burgundy flow through the stem horizontally along the taper and the sides.

I took a picture of the pipe and stem with the old stem beside it for comparison sake. The stem is about ¼ inch longer than the old one and the taper more radical. The Cumberland looked better with the briar than the old as well. I wiped down the bowl and shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the oils and grime that was on the surface of the briar. I wanted to bring the rest of the briar as close to the colour of the sanded rim and shank.

I cleaned out the shank and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol to remove the tars and oils.

I sanded the stem and shank with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I did not let the oil dry between rub downs as I find that the oil gives the micromesh some cut on the surface of the stem. The translucence of the Cumberland really shows through the shine.

I rubbed the bowl and down with olive oil and let it soak into the briar. The oil brought out the reddish brown tones of the briar and made the grain stand out. Sadly it also made the fills on the right side of the bowl stand out as well.

While the brown tones stood out well I wanted to bring out some of the red tones in the briar. To highlight the reds I stained the bowl with a coat of oxblood stain. Before I stained the briar I used a permanent black marker to darken the fills on the side of the bowl. When it had dried so that it would not rub off when I put the stain coat on the bowl. I applied the stain with a cotton pad and then flamed it. Once it dried I polished the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. The finished pipe is shown below.

The rich colours of the briar work really well with the reds of the Cumberland stem. The light brass band that separates the stem and the shank adds a light brass coloured horizontal line that breaks up the vertical Cumberland and the horizontal grain of the briar.

The sharp edges of the rim and the grain on the surface look far better than the round outer edge of the bowl.

Restemming and Restoring The Albany Pipe by ?Orlik?

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a recent gift box of pipes there was a billiard that had a replacement stem. The stem did not fit correctly and when it was rotated in any other way but the one it did not fit and showed light between the shank and stem. The diameter of the shank and that of the stem did not match either and the shoulders on the stem were rounded – one of my pet peeves. The pipe is stamped with gold on the left side of the shank The Albany Pipe. On the right side it is gold stamped Made in England. On the bottom of the shank it is gold stamped 17 and Fieldcraft in script.

The finish was natural – no stain and had begun to pick up a patina of age. The stamping was clear but the gold was faded and missing in some parts. The rim was dirty and also damaged on the outer edge and had some deep scratches in the top. The stem was not original. The bowl had a light cake and looked like someone had reamed it recently.

I took a few close-up pictures of the rim and the stamping to give a clear picture of the state of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. You can also see the poor fit of the replacement stem in the photos as well.

The brand is one that I am unfamiliar with though in the back of my mind I have a memory of seeing it somewhere listed as a second line of a major English brand. I just cannot find it now. Does anyone have any ideas regarding the maker? I have looked in WMTP and on PipePhil and Pipedia and found nothing so far. I like knowing some of the history of the brands I restore so I am still digging on this one.

One suggestion in response to a post I made on Smokers Forums was from flatticus (Chris) who wrote the following: “Steve, I think The Albany Pipe must be the tobacconist (there was The Albany Pipe Hospital circa 1920?) and Fieldcraft must be the brand of the pipe. There was another Fieldcraft marked for Frederick Tranter Pipe Shop in Bath, England which came up on eBay some years back, unfortunately too long ago to link properly. I can’t find a thing (trademarks, old ads, what have you) mentioning the Fieldcraft name in relation to pipes, but Tranter is still in business. I wonder if someone there would know who used to make their pipes. They were bought out by Havana House, but only about 4 years ago, so you may get lucky.”

Thanks Chris I will keep looking. I did a bit more digging on PipePhil’s site and looked at the major English brands and sub-brands. The Made in England stamping looks much like that on Orlik Pipes. The shape number 17 also fits one shown in the Orlik Catalogue on Chris Keene’s Pipe pages. I removed the stem and looked through my can of stems to find one that would work better for this billiard bowl. Two options came to the front. The first is shown in the photo below next to the replacement stem that came on the pipe. It is a saddle stem that could have worked but the tenon was too small for a snug fit in the shank. The second stem I chose was a fat taper stem that had a tenon that was a little too large. I decided to use that one. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reduce the tenon enough that I could get a snug fit. The next four photos show the pipe with the new stem. It has a slight bend in it that looks dapper on the bowl. There was light oxidation on the stem and tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem next to the button. Other than that the stem was in great shape. It was also slightly larger in diameter than the shank and would need to be fit properly.

I decided to clean up the bowl before working on the fit of the stem. I lightly topped the bowl to remove the damage to the surface of the rim. I also scraped the remaining cake out of the bowl with a PipeNet pipe reamer.

With the bowl cleaned I put the stem back on the shank and worked on the fit of the stem at the junction of the two. I sanded the stem and lightly sanded the shank, being careful of the stamping to clean up the transition. Because the bowl did not have a stain coat and was natural briar I figured this would be easy to blend in later when I worked on the finish. I used 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges to blend the transition.

I took several close-up photos of the transition to show the finished fit of the stem and shank. They also show the gold stamping on the bowl.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads. I did not worry too much about the gold stamping as I have some rub and buff that I could use to redo the gold once I cleaned up the pipe.

I sanded the stem and worked out the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I followed that with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I continue to use Obsidian Oil in between each set of three pads.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to protect and shine. I used the Rub and Buff antique gold on the stamping to give it the same look as before and then rubbed down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil before calling it a night. The olive oil soaked in and blended the sanded area of the shank and the topped rim with the rest of the pipe. I sanded the rim, shank and bowl with micromesh sanding pads to smooth out any scratches left behind by the sanding sponges. I usually do this while the oil is on the surface of the briar as the oil gives bite to the micromesh sanding pads. The next four photos show the pipe as it looked when I quit for the evening.

In the morning I buffed the pipe with a Blue Diamond wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring a shine to the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below. I am still undecided if I will leave the slight bend in the stem or not. We shall see.

The next two photos – top and bottom view turned out more read in the photos than they are in real life. The colour of the bowl is more properly shown in the photos above and the close-up photos following them.

A Savinelli de Luxe Milano 431KS Reborn Twice – PART 2: repairing a broken tenon

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Blog by Steve Laug

In Part One I wrote about the refinishing of this pipe and how I cut off the broken stem and reshaped the button. I wrote of the time and energy it took to rebirth this pipe. I also ended with the sound of the click as the pipe hit the floor and the tenon snapped off in the shank. You have to understand the sick feeling that settled into the pit of my stomach. I knew I could cut a new stem and reshape it to fit the pipe – no problem. I knew I could drill out the stem and put in a new replacement tenon – again no problem. I had done both of those things many times. But you also need to understand that I am stubborn. I hated, having invested the time and energy into this repair to this point to throw it away and start over. To me that is a frustration that I did not want to deal with. Besides I would lose the straight brass insert in the stem that is so much a part of these older Savinellis.

I laid the pipe aside and went to bed. I was irritated and frustrated with myself for even carrying it upstairs in the first place. A good night’s sleep would give me a different perspective. I woke up with a kernel of an idea regarding the broken pipe. Really it was a bit of an experiment for me as I had never tried the idea in reality. I think it was born out of conversations with Troy about repairing a cracked shank on a LHS billiard that he was working on and from my recent putting together my latest Frankenpipe. If a metal tube could provide a strong bond in joining two parts of a shank together why wouldn’t it work to bond a broken tenon to the stem? I know that the repair works well on a stable, unmovable shank but would it work on a removable stem and tenon? Would it be stable enough to endure repeated removal from the shank for cleaning and just observing that pipe smokers do? I had no idea but figured it was an experiment worth trying and also worth documenting.

In Part 2 I want to look at that experiment in from the idea to the execution and see what develops. I want to look at the challenges and the issues that arose in executing this repair. And ultimately I want to document it so that I can come back to it and report on its durability and feasibility as a long term solution to a broken tenon. I took the first photo below just after the event happened. I took the pipe back to the worktable to lay it aside and before I did I thought I would take a photo to document the damage. Those of you who have snapped a tenon will well know the thoughts going through my mind. And those of you who restore old pipes only to have a fiasco occur at the end of a long clean up will know the “pain” of the moment. In the morning when I got up I pulled the tenon out of the shank using a screw that I keep on the work table for that purpose. I screw it into the tenon and then work the tenon out of the shank. This time it would be both easy and difficult. The shank was clean and the pipe had not been smoked so it would not be stuck in the shank – that was the easy part. The hard part was the metal inner tube that was in the end of the tenon. It would be in the way of the screw when I turned it into the shank. On an off chance that the tube would pop free of the tenon I inserted an ice pick into the end of the shank and push on the tube. I let out a sigh of relief when I heard it drop into the airway and bowl. I inserted the screw and with no effort popped the broken tenon free. I tipped the shank back and the tube fell out of the airway. It was at this moment that my idea was born. The metal tube lay on the table next to the tenon and stem. Why not use that already fitting tube to try to join the broken parts? It was worth a try. I tried to run the tube through the broken tenon only to find that it did not go all the way through. It stopped ¾ of the way in and would not go through. I used a needle file to open up the airway until the tube could be pressed all the way through. I removed the tube and opened it further so that once it had a coat of epoxy on it the tube would still fit through the airway. I had decided to sacrifice the inner tube to this purpose. With the tube easily fitting through the tenon I then tackled the airway in the stem portion of the break. It was too small for the tube to fit. It would need to be opened up considerably for the tube to slide in place with the epoxy. I decided to begin opening it with a drill bit. I set up my cordless drill with the proper sized bit and hand turned the stem on the bit. I do this without powering up the drill as I find that I can turn it by hand without risking going too far with the bit. Once I had the airway opened far enough into the stem to give it a decent depth for the tube when inserted I cleaned up the airway with needle files to ensure a smooth transition from the tube to the remainder of the airway. I did not want a lip between the two that a pipe cleaner would catch on when cleaning the pipe.

With the airway open on the tenon and the stem I used a flat knife blade needle file to score the smooth surface of the inner tube. Smooth aluminum does not provide a surface that epoxy will bind to so I need to score. I then coated the sharp end of the tube with a two part epoxy and pushed the tube into the stem portion of the break. I slide the tenon on to ensure that the tube was straight and the tenon when glued on would still fit tightly against the shank. When the epoxy had set in the stem I gave the tube a quick once over with the file to further score the surface and then brushed on the epoxy mix. I pressed the tenon onto the tube and before pressing it in place used a tooth pick to coat the broken surfaces of the tenon and stem with epoxy. When pushed into place the excess epoxy squeezed out.

The next photo shows the fit of the tenon on the metal tube. I pushed it in just below the surface of the face of the tenon. I used a dental pick to clean off the excess epoxy from the joint then set aside the stem to let the epoxy set and cure for several days.

Once I figured that the epoxy had cured and the joint was solid I cleaned it off with a dental pick, a sharp knife and sandpaper. I did not want a ridge at the joint that would catch when the tenon was pushed into the shank. I still needed to sand the joint and clean it up but the repair seems strong.

I put the stem back in the shank and found that I had not let the epoxy cure enough. When I removed the stem from the shank the tenon remained in the shank. The epoxy holding the tenon to the tube was solid and rock hard. The epoxy on the stem side was dry but soft. It had not hardened enough. I am wondering if I should have glued it into the stem side first and let it harden before putting the tenon in place. Well, I will never know with this one. I cleaned off the metal tube and the airway in the stem and mixed a second batch of epoxy. I roughed up the surface of the metal tube even more to give the glue something to bite onto. I pressed the stem in place. This time I will let it cure for a longer before fussing with it. I wonder if the fact that it is in a confined space with limited airflow makes it take longer for the epoxy to harden. Time will tell. I am hoping that the fix works.

I let it dry for two days and then did some sanding with micromesh sanding pads to polish the stem. I did not put it into the shank at this point as I wanted it to have at least another day to cure. I did a quick, wet sand with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil then dry sanded with the 3200-4000 grit pads. I cleaned up the excess epoxy with a flat needle file to smooth out the joint and to clean up the face of the stem. All of this was done to prepare for refitting the stem in the shank. After another day sitting and curing I decided to carefully put the stem in place. I once more sanded the tenon to make sure it was clean and smooth. I wanted a snug fit but not a tight fit. I put the first half of the tenon into the shank, literally holding my breath as I pushed it carefully into the shank. I was fully expecting the epoxy to break loose again and leave the tenon in the shank. But it did not. I push the stem in and took it out carefully several times to check the joint. I checked the crack that I had repaired and it was holding. I let out the breath I must have been holding. It was working.

With the stem in place and apparently solid I turned the pipe over in my hands to check it out. You cannot imagine the frustration when I saw that somehow the tenon was slightly lower than it had been and now the fit against the shank did not match. The two edges along the shank and the stem no longer lined up but were both equally off – maybe 1/16 of an inch, but off nonetheless. I set the pipe down and took a deep breath. I was not going to leave this alone. I was going to make the fit perfect. I sanded the shank and stem junction carefully with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the transition and remove the excess briar on the top of the junction and the excess vulcanite on the bottom of the junction. I worked on the sharp edge on both sides of the stem and shank to bring them back into alignment. Once I was done with the sandpaper I took a few photos to check the alignment.

I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left by the sandpaper and smooth out the surface of both.

I wiped off the sanding dust and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and took the next two close-up photos.

I took the stem off the pipe and cleaned out the sanding dust that had slipped in the joint of the stem and shank. I pushed the stem back in place and worked it over with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads.

After all of the sanding I was worried that I might have jarred the repair to the tenon so I took the stem out and took a close look. The crack was still solidly close and the repair was holding well. I put the stem back in place and took the next four photos of the pipe with the stem in place. The repair had worked so far.

I wanted the portion of the shank that I had sanded match the colour of the rest of the pipe. Since I had oiled the bowl with olive oil, I did the same again. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with the oil and let it absorb. I then gave the bowl and stem several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is shown below. The repair is holding well and the pipe looks good as new. The new button on the stem worked well and the repaired tenon worked. Now comes the period of waiting to see if it will hold up to regular use and cleaning. Smoking it should be no problem as the airway is open and has a clean draught. All that remains is to fire up a bowl… and wait.

Pipe Resurrection – from a Broken Shank to another Frankenpipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

In my recent gift box was a broken shanked pipe that looked like an interesting challenge to me. It is the one pictured below in the lower right corner. It was stamped on the shank Dunbar over Filter Pipe. On the other side of the shank it was stamped 36B or 368 it was hard to read. Next to that was the circular com stamp with Made in London England. Researching the brand on the web I found that it was a Comoy’s Made pipe and was their filter pipe line. This one seems to have been snapped when someone tried to remove the stem from the shank. It was absolutely frozen solid and unmovable. I put the stem and shank in the freezer over night which usually works to break loose a tight stem. It had no effect. I also tried heating the shank and stem with hot water – also to no avail. It appeared that the stem was literally glued in the shank. To top it off it seemed that there was a broken piece of plastic – possibly a tenon insert that blocked the end of the metal tenon in the stem. I could not get air to move through the stem at all.

Finally I used a heat gun on the stem and shank and was able to remove the stem from the tenon. PROGRESS! I soaked the junction of the tenon and mortise with alcohol and even WD40 to see if I could get the tenon to pop free. Nothing worked. The metal tenon was a permanent feature of the shank piece of this pipe. I would need to go with another plan – PLAN B. I set aside the broken shank and tenon and decided to use piece from several other pipes and a chunk of briar to reconstruct a Frankenpipe from the nice apple bowl. In doing so I would lose the stamping altogether but I was not overly concerned with that as there was no way I could reconstruct the shank and bowl into a repaired Dunbar Filter Pipe. I cut back the broken shank on the bowl with a Dremel and a sanding drum. I squared off the shank so that I could attach something else to it. I finished by squaring it with my topping board and sandpaper. I had a chunk of briar in my repair box that would work nicely. It was the right thickness to match the shank. I drilled it out with a drill bit that left a hole the size of the metal tube that I would use to join the bowl and the briar. I drilled the airway all the way through the briar and used a slightly larger bit on the mortise end of the block. I had a taper stem in my can of stem that was close to the diameter of the shank so I thought I would use it on this pipe. I put the pieces together for the photo below to get an idea of the work I would need to do. I marred the surface of the metal tube with files and then mixed a two part epoxy and set the metal tube in the briar block. I did not glue it into the bowl at this point as I thought it might be helpful to have the block free of the bowl to be able to use the Dremel and sanding drum to remove the excess briar. While I was at it I also took out an interesting old metal sleeve that had come with a box of parts I bought on eBay. It was cross hatched with a smooth band on the mortise end. It had a saddle stem in it that was also stuck. Now I had a couple of options to work with on this old bowl. I could either have a briar shank and a taper stem and then rusticate the shank and at least the union of the bowl and briar or I could have a metal sleeve that would slide over a briar tube and have the saddle stem inserted. I did not need to decide at that moment so I set both stems aside and worked on removing the excess briar. I sanded the block with a Dremel and sanding drum until I had removed much of the excess and was left with a rectangular wedge that I would need to fit and shape to match the diameter of the shank. More sanding with the Dremel and sanding drum brought the block closer and closer to the diameter of the shank on the bowl.

There was still more sanding that needed to be done. The next four photos show the block getting very close to the size and shape of the shank. I put the stem in place and looked long and hard at it and still had not decided what to do. I sanded with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to further shape the shank.

I looked long and hard at the pipe with the stem in place and decided I really did not like the look of the pipe. I put the metal sleeve next to the pipe and shank to have a look at it and made up my mind. I would continue to sand the briar until it could be pressed into the metal sleeve. I would need to shorten the briar so that it would leave room for the stem in the shank. I went back to the Dremel and sanding drum and continued to sand the shank. It would need to be quite a bit thinner in diameter to be able to press the metal sleeve over the briar.

I also decided to reverse the direction of the sleeve and have the black band against the shank and bowl junction. I figured that once I glued the tube into the airway in the bowl I would reduce the collar of the shank at that point and the slide the metal sleeve over the joint and it would not only hide the connection but strengthen the joint. I used the Dremel with the sanding drum and wood files to cut the collar down on the shank on the bowl until it matched the diameter of the briar that I would press into the metal sleeve. I shortened the briar tube enough to accommodate the stem when it was inserted in the sleeve. I wanted the airway in the briar to hold the tenon on the stem and also step the stem down so that it would sit in the metal sleeve like a faux military mount stem. I finally was ready to attach the briar tube to the bowl so I put epoxy on the piece of metal tube that I used to join the briar shank and the bowl. I pressed it into the airway on the bowl and let it dry. Once it had set I was ready to press the metal sleeve onto the briar tube. This was the moment I was waiting for to see if my vision of the pipe in my head matched the reality of the one on the table. The photo below shows the briar tube is ready to slide into the outer cross hatched metal sleeve. I drilled out the inside of the metal sleeve to remove the step ridges and make the inside the same diameter from the bowl end to the stem end. I used a metal grinding bit on the Dremel to polish the inside. I heated the metal sleeve with a heat gun to expand it and then pressed onto the briar tube and up on the collar of the bowl. I worked quite well. I would need to do a bit of fine tuning on the fit of the bowl and the sleeve but I liked what I saw and it was a match to my vision of the pipe when I started.

I sanded the briar at the union of the metal sleeve and the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted the joint to be smooth and even all the way around. I did not want a ridge to show at that point. I filled slight gap between the two with clear superglue and briar dust.

Once the transition was smooth I turned my attention to the stem. I would need to go back and do more work on the bowl but that was good for the moment. I wanted to fit the stem and get a feel for what the finished pipe would look like. Because I reversed the metal sleeve I needed to adjust the diameter of the saddle stem to have it seat properly inside the sleeve. I used a Dremel with sanding drum and files to cut the step down. In the photo below you can see the rough fit stem. I would need to clean up the step with files and sandpaper to smooth out the newly cut portion of the saddle that would sit in the sleeve. My plan was that the tenon would sit inside the briar and the step down saddle would sit inside the sleeve. With a little sanding my plan worked. The tenon sat perfectly in the airway in the briar and the stepped down saddle sat snuggly in the sleeve. Now all I needed to do was clean up the stem and polish it for a final fit. The first photo below shows the position of the briar insert in the sleeve. You can see the depth of the section of the sleeve for the saddle part of the stem that I modified in this photo. You can also see the airway where the tenon inserts in the briar. The three photos that follow show the progress of the Frankenpipe at this point in the process.

I sanded the bowl and shank with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the finish on the bowl, rim and smooth out the sanding scratches on the shank. The bowl was covered with quite a few fills on the sides and I wondered how they would look once I had sanded the finish off. Fortunately the fills were not pink putty but brown putty that actually blended in quite well once I had removed the finish. When I had sanded it I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads. The first picture below shows the options I went through on this stem and the original broken shank.

The pipe was beginning to look like I had hoped. There was still more sanding to do on the bowl and the stem but it was coming along nicely. I used a file to clean up the edge of the step on the saddle so that I could get a good fit of the vulcanite against the metal edge of the sleeve. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove oxidation and scratches. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three sanding pads. I gave the stem a final rub down with oil after sanding with the 12,000 grit pad.

There was still some stubborn oxidation on the saddle and next to the button. I buffed it with red Tripoli and then with White Diamond. I had a pretty heavy hand with this stem. I did it without the shank and really pressed it into the pads. I wanted to strip away the remaining oxidation. Once it was gone I gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I finished the stem by buffing it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished stem, both top and bottom sides, is shown in the next two photos below.

I decided to not use a stain on the bowl but to oil with a light coat of olive oil. The fills had blended in well and the grain was quite nice. The olive oil brought out a red tint to the briar. I rubbed it down and let it soak into the briar. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it to a shine with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below.

Now all that remains is to take it on its maiden voyage. The broken shank pipe has been reborn to another Frankenpipe. It has all the parts that pretty much make it certain that it will be a good smoking pipe.

Trash to Treasure – Restoring a KBB Yello-Bole Billiard

4 Replies

Blog by Aaron Henson

Last evening I received an email from Aaron to which he attached this writeup on his restemming of an older KBB Yello-Bole. It is great to have the various readers of the blog submit articles to the blog to share with others. The dream of rebornpipes when I started it was just that – to provide a platform where those of us engaged in refurbishing tobacco pipes could share our methods, successes and failures. This community would provide ongoing education for anyone who wanted to try their hand at restoring estate pipes. With that background here is Aaron’s restoration and the explanation of his process. Welcome to rebornpipes Aaron.

By way of introduction, let me begin by saying that I am relatively new to pipe restoration. This write up details my third restoration and I thought I would submit it for two reasons; 1) I have gotten so much help from the regulars posting here at rebornpipes and from forums elsewhere I felt that I would like to share my experience for others to glean from, and 2) although it is not very different from some of the other restorations that Steve has catalog for us here, some of my tools and techniques may be a little different. I also hope to get some feedback on ways to improve my process.

I was at local second-hand shop with my family around Thanksgiving and was looking for pipes when my son found a stemless KBB Yello-Bole stummel. After looking it over for cracks in the bowl and stem I realized that the briar was in relatively good condition. I noted a few chips on the edge of the rim and some blackening of the rim but no fills and not much cake in the bowl. The stem was clearly stamped with the KBB logo in a clover leaf just to the left of:

I did not know much about the Yello-Bole brand but I thought I should be able to find a stem easily enough (aren’t they somewhat universal in size?). Besides, with a $4 price tag I figured I would not be out anything if it didn’t work out.

I jumped on my computer as soon as I got home and found some interesting history on the Yello-Bole brand. I won’t go into it here because Steve has done a nice job summarizing it in one of his posts: Narrowing Down a Date for Kaufman Brothers & Bondy’s KBB and KB&B Pipes. From the data available I had to guess that this pipe was form the late 1950’s or 60’s.

After reading up on the history of the pipe I began looking online for a new stem. I quickly learned that not all pipe stems are created equal, nor are they interchangeable. For a while, I considered sending the stummel to someone to have a stem made but that kind of defeated the whole spirit of restoring the pipe myself.

It took a while to find a stem that I thought would look right on the pipe. I settled on a stem from Vermont Freehand (ebay vt_freehand), a 2½” tapered stem – No. 547. I ordered 3 of them, figuring that I would need at least one for practice.

While I waited for the stems to arrive I began working on the stummel. There was not a lot of cake in the bowl so I started there – low hanging fruit. Now, I don’t own a reamer, but I have found that a ½” dowel wrapped with 60 grit sandpaper answers very well. What cake there was came out cleanly.

Besides the chip there was some charring on the rim. The chip was not very deep so I thought I would take care of both issues by taking the top of the bowl down to clean briar. Using 120 grit sand paper mounted on a flat surface, I carefully worked the bowl in a circular motion trying to keep it level. I didn’t want to take off too much of the top so I gave the outside lip of the bowl a slight chamfer to remove the bottom part of the chip. I then gave the stummel a soak in a 91% isopropyl alcohol bath. This was for the dual purpose of removing the existing finish and loosening the crud in the shank. I removed the stummel after about 24 hours and wiped off the existing stain. I then cleaned the shank with a bristled brush, bristled cleaners and cotton swabs. I wanted to make sure the mortise was thoroughly cleaned before I began to size the tenon on the new stem. When the stems arrived, I realized that I probably could have been a little more attentive to the size I purchased. I was going to have to remove a lot of material to get the tenon to fit the mortise as well as flushing the stem to the shank. The best way to shape a stem is on a lathe, but not having a lathe I turned to my drill press. I found that a bamboo skewer fit very snugly into the air hole of the stem. Leaving about 1 inch of the skewer protruding out of the air hole, I chucked the stem into my drill press. I started out a little timidly, removing material with 120 grit sand paper but the vulcanite is so soft that it gums up the paper very quickly. I switched to 60 grit and still was not seeing much progress. I tried a metal file next and when that did not answer I rummaged around the tool box and found a rasp. A bit aggressive I admit, and I would not recommend it unless you are removing a lot of material, and I was.

The drill press method worked great but was not without its problems. Pressing too hard with the file or rasp would cause the stem to slip on the skewer. The stem would then have to be reseated before I could resume. The other problem happened about half way through the rough shaping; the skewer broke off flush with the end of the tenon. I admit I panicked a little when I could not get a hold of the skewer with my needle nose pliers. But using a small drill bit I was able to carefully drill out the wedged skewer.

Back on track I, stopped often to check the fit. As I neared the correct size I switched back to the file then to the sand paper again. I finished the tenon with 320 grit sand paper. I thought fitting the tenon to the mortise was going to be the hard part but shaping the stem to get that perfect flush fit with the shank turned out to be the big challenge. You can see in the picture above that I have a ways to go to get the taper from the shank to the button. I have also started to get a bit of a wave about a quarter of the way from the tenon.

To fix this I stapled a piece of 240 grit paper to a 3” sanding block and went to town. The sanding block kept the contact surface flat and helped to eliminate the wave. It took about an hour of work stopping often for fit checks. In the end I was rewarded with nice taper. Somehow I had rounded over the shoulder of the stem ever so slightly. This formed a little groove at the stem/shank connection. It was not terrible and I felt could live with it for now.

I finished the stem with 600, 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000 grit sand paper. Then set it aside to buff with the stummel once it was complete. I stained the stummel using one part Fiebing’s light brown diluted with 2 parts isopropyl alcohol. I applied two coats, flaming each coat. Once dry, I wiped it down with a clean cloth and attached with stem. I set my drill press up with an inexpensive Sears buffing system and started with the white buffing compound. I found on previous projects that gearing down the drill speed to 1200 rpms was important to maintain control of the pipe and not overheat the pipe. I finished with two coats of carnauba wax and buff with a soft cloth.

I needed a tooth pick to remove some of the wax from the sand blasted areas. And that little groove between the stem and shank collected some wax too. Overall I am very happy with the outcome of this restoration. I am looking forward to smoking my first bowl in it.

Looking back, I am glad that I tried shaping my own stem. It was not without its challenges but the result was very rewarding. I now have two spare stems in my tool box, so I will be keeping an eye out for another stemless billiard.

Putting another new stem on a Peterson’s K&P Dublin 207 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have had this 1940s era Peterson’s pot for quite a while now (stamped with a com circle Made in Ireland). I found it at a flea market here in Vancouver. It was a mess and missing a stem when I found it. There was a spring windcap welded to the top of the bowl by the carbon and the cake buildup. I did a write up on the restoration and how I made the stem that is on it in the photos below. You can read about it by clicking on the link below.
https://rebornpipes.com/2012/06/07/fitting-a-pipe-with-a-new-stem-photo-essay-20/

From the moment I finished restemming it in June of 2012 I did not like it. It went into my box of pipes for sale. It is a beautiful piece of briar and the original band is clean and readable – it says K&P Sterling Silver. But the stem – even though it looked okay – did not do it for me. Since I am on this binge of reworking old pipes these days, pipes that just did not make the rotation even though they were workable and smokeable, this one was next on the hit list. I held in hand and looked it over. I was going to do some work on the stem shank fit but even as I looked at it I knew that would not change my mind.

Then the lights came on and I understood what it was that bugged me about this pipe. The stem was just too long to my liking. No amount of reshaping it would change that overall feel for me. The stem would need to go. I remember going through my can of stems when I restemmed it and this was the only one that I had that was even remotely close to working. However, recently I had purchased some old stems that only needed to be cleaned and repurposed. I was certain there was one in the can that would work. There was one that was about ½ inch shorter than the existing one. It was the perfect diameter for the shank. The tenon was a little big but a quick work over with the Dremel and sanding drum followed by hand sanding with 220 grit sandpaper took care of that problem. The stem fit well. It needed to be cleaned up and the oxidation removed from the surface but it was going to be a better looking stem in my opinion once I finished working it over.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then a fine grit sanding block to remove the oxidation on the stem. I could have let it soak in oxyclean but chose not to as I wanted to work on it without waiting. I also did not have any stamping on the stem that I wanted to preserve so sanding would do no harm. I worked on the button edges to sharpen them. I then sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem in between the 4000 grit pad and the 6000 grit pad with White Diamond. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it was dry gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished stem is shown in the photos below. I really like the new look of the pipe and am glad I replaced my first replacement stem. It will probably stay in the rotation for awhile now.

You may be wondering when this “urge” to rework previous work will end. I am not sure I can give you a clear answer to that question. I am going through the pipes I am preparing to sell so there may well be others that come under scrutiny. As I rework them I will let you all know. Maybe it will end when I get the pipes I have picked up on Ebay finally arrive. It may well be a case of too much time during the holidays and the ladies in my life disappearing to do shopping that keeps me looking for ways to stay busy.

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