Tag Archives: restemming a pipe

Restemmed and Refurbish Savinelli Duca Carlo

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up a Duca Carlo in utter ignorance on EBay the other day. I was not familiar with the brand and only later found out it was a Savinelli. The seller’s photograph are worse than mine so I was not sure what I was getting but decided to take a chance on it. I picked it up for very little so I figured I had nothing to lose. The first series of out of focus photos show the pipe as it appeared in the seller’s advert on EBay. The grain looked like it had potential to me and the rest of the pipe appeared to be in workable shape. Once it got here I would have a better idea of what work would need to be done.

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The first photo below shows the pipe after I took it out of the box it came in and put it on my work table. It was definitely in need of a ream and clean. The bottom of the bowl was dusty but had no cake on it. The upper portion of the bowl had an uneven cake. The rim was tarred and oily but there were no dents in the rim or on the rest of the bowl for that matter. The shank had a small hairline crack on the right side. It is next to the fill on the shank that is visible in the photo below. Fortunately this was the only fill I found in the bowl. It was not a bad piece of briar. There are a few bald spots on the bottom of the bowl but there is also some nice grain both birdseye and flame on the sides, front and back of the bowl and also on the shank. The shank and the bottom of the bowl had some cobwebs in it like it had been sitting in storage for a while. I blew out the dust bunnies and then pulled out a stem from my box of stems. It did not have a tenon so I screwed in a delrin tenon into the drilled out hole in the stem. The shank of the Duca Carlo was also drilled for a filter but I decided since I was restemming it and putting a new tenon on the stem I would make it fit without a filter.

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I needed to remove a lot of the delrin from the diameter of the tenon to get a proper fit. The tenon was too large for my Pimo Tenon Turner so I had to do the shaping by hand with files and my Dremel. The next two photos show the shaping process of the tenon. I used a rasp to take of as much of the material as I thought practical. I then used the sanding drum on the Dremel to smooth out the tooth marks from the rasp. I finally used medium grit Emery paper to take down the remainder of the tenon.

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Once I had it sanded to fit I inserted it in the mortise to check the hairline crack. In the photo below I have it partially inserted and the crack is visible next to the fill on the shank. It was not a large or serious crack but in inspecting it I found one on the underside of the shank as well on the opposite edge. This made it necessary for me to band the shank to maintain the integrity of the pipe.

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I sorted through my box of bands and found one that would give a good tight fit to the shank. It is a nickel band and once heated and pressure fit on the shank it would give the strength to the shank. The next three photos show the banding process from choosing the band to pressure fitting it on the shank.

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After banding the shank I inserted the stem in the shank and it fit well. It was snug and fit against the end of the shank cleanly. It was a bit larger in diameter than the shank so I sanded it with the emery paper to remove the excess material on the stem. The next three photos show the progress of fitting the stem against the shank.

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I reamed the bowl with my T handle Pipnet reamer and blade heads. It was an easy ream as the bottom half of the bowl was clear briar. The Pipnet reamer must be carefully inserted and turned so as not to make the bowl out of round or damage the bowl.

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After reaming I decided to clean off the tars and oils on the rim. I used a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the grime as seen in the first picture below. I then wiped down the bowl and rim with acetone on a cotton pad as can be seen in the second and third photo below. I found that cleaning off the grime and the dark parts of the bowl revealed some really nice grain on the pipe.

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The next three photos show the bowl after the wipe down with acetone and the stem after sanding with the medium grit sanding sponge. The fit is getting very close to being what I was looking for. I am still not sure about the bend in the stem. It fits well in the mouth but I may heat and rebend it. I will see once I am finished with the pipe.

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I restained the bowl and rim with dark brown aniline stain. I applied it with the dauber and then flamed it with a match, restained and reflamed it. The next three photos show the freshly stained bowl after I flamed it. Once it was dry I took it to my buffer and buffed the bowl with Tripoli to polish and remove the excess stain.

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Even after buffing the stain was too dark for me. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to lighten the stain. The next series of three photos show the bowl after I had wiped it down with the acetone. The colour was what I wanted. It would polish up very well.

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I set the bowl aside after this and went to work on the stem with the micromesh sanding pads. The next nine photos show the polishing process with the micromesh pads and the Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0. I began dry sanding the stem with 1500 grit micromesh sanding pads. After that I polished the stem with the Maguiar’s before working through the rest of the micromesh grits 1800-12,000. After the final sanding I polished it a second time with the Maguiar’s and then gave it a buff with White Diamond. I brought it back to the work table and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and then coated it with some carnauba wax. For much of the final sanding I worked with the stem on the shank so as not to round the shoulders of the stem.

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When I had the scratches worked out of the stem I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and then several coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe can be seen in the photos below. I decided not to rebend the stem but to leave it for now and see how it feels when smoking it. I can rebend it at any time should I choose. The final four photos show the finished pipe. This was a pretty straightforward refurb, it took me about three hours to restem and refinish the pipe.

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Restemming an Old Bruyere Garantie Billiard

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This is yet another of the bowls that was in my box of stummels. It is stamped Bruyere over Garantie on the left side of the shank with no other stamping. The bowl was badly caked with an crumbling, uneven cake. The cake was thicker at the top of the bowl than in the bottom of the bowl. The rim was also caked with oils and hardened tars. It was also dented and had a slight burn mark at about 12 o’clock on the front of the bowl. The shank was misshapen and out of round where it met the stem. It was almost as if someone had sanded the previous shank to meet the stem. There was a large fill on the back side of the bowl near the shank bowl junction. The finish had a coat of lacquer or varnish on it. I fit a tenon to the shank and worked on the stem to be a good tight fit to the bowl. The next series of four photos show the newly turned tenon and the shape of the shank at the shank stem junction.

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Once I had the tenon cut and sanded to a good snug fit I inserted it in the shank. The first two photos below show the fit of the stem to the shank. You can also see the taper on the on the shank that shows the misshaped nature of the shank. The stem fit very well but was much larger in diameter than the shank. I used my Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess diameter of the stem. The next series of six photos show the progress of removing the excess vulcanite with the sanding drum. The final photo of the six shows the newly formed fit of the stem to the shank. The taper on the shank is bothersome so that I wanted to have to address that issue before I finished the final fitting of the stem.

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Once I had the stem fitting well I decided to band the shank to even out the flow and roundness of the shank. A wide nickel band would fit the shank well and flatten out the shank taper. I wanted an even flow from the shank bowl junction to the stem. The look of the taper on the shank was something that bothered me and that I decided to minimize with the band. The next five photos show the process and results of banding. I heated the band and then pressure fit it onto the shank. I then used some superglue to fill in the vacant areas in the inner diameter of the band.  The final photo in the series shows an end view of the band on the shank.

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The next three photos show the fit of the new stem to the shank. The band sets off the stem shank junction well. The taper of the stem works very well in my opinion. More sanding needed to be done in making the fit smooth and the taper correct.

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I worked on the stem with medium grit emery cloth to remove the scratches and to even out the taper on the stem and the flow of the sides of the stem from the shank to the button. The next two photos show the stem after sanding the stem.

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At this point in the process of fitting the stem I decided to set it aside and work on the bowl of the pipe. I reamed it out using several different bits on the t handle of the Pipnet pipe reamer. I reamed the bowl back to bare wood so that I could rebuild the cake more evenly. The next two photos show the reaming process.

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After reaming the bowl I decided to wipe the outside of the bowl down with acetone. I wet a cotton pad with the acetone and scrubbed the outside of the bowl. I also wiped down the rim to soften the tars and build up on the top. The next four photos show the bowl after I had wiped it down multiple times. I wanted to cut through the varnish or topcoat on the bowl so that I could restain it.

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The next photo shows the bowl after I had topped it on the board and sandpaper. I was able to remove the damage of the dents and roughness with a minor topping on the sandpaper.Image

I also decided to remove the putty fill on the back side of the bowl. I picked out the putty with a dental pick. I wiped the bowl down after I had removed the fill to clean out the sandpit. I then picked it clean a second time and wiped it down again as well. Once it was clean I used the dental pick to pack the sandpit with briar dust that I had saved for this purpose. I packed it in and then tamped it down with the end of a pipe nail. I refilled the sandpit until the briar dust bulged slightly above the surface of the bowl. At this point I dripped superglue into the briar dust to anchor it in the hole. I repacked the dust and dripped in glue a second time. The first two photos below show the packed briar dust. The next two photos show the sandpit after the superglue has been dripped into the dust and dried. It blackens nicely with the superglue and instead of a pink fill the fill is now a black briar dust and superglue. I have found that the patch is much easier to blend in with stain than the putty fills.

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The photo below shows the newly filled patch after I have sanded it. I sanded off the excess with a folded piece of fine grit emery cloth and then used a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface of the new fill to match the surface of the bowl.

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At this point in the process I decided to continue working on the stem of the pipe. I sanded it with the sanding sponge. I worked on the fit of the stem to the band. My ideal was to have the stem sit evenly within the band so that the gap was even all the way around the band and the stem was centered in the mortise. The next five photos show the sanding process to this point. Remember the issue at stake was to work on the fit of the stem to the band and to remove the deeper scratches in the surface of the stem. I also used the sanding drum on the Dremel to taper the stem a bit more at the button. I wanted the button end to be narrow and give the pipe and older feel and look. The top view photo below shows the shape of the stem at this point in the process.

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I then wet sanded the bowl and the stem with 1500 grit micromesh sanding pads and water. This process removed many of the remaining scratches in the surface of the stem and also removed the remaining finish on the pipe bowl and rim. I wanted the bowl to be cleaned of the varnish finish and as much of the stain colour as possible so that I could more easily blend the rim and the bowl colour. The next three photos show the pipe and the stem after wet sanding. The stem fit is working well at this point and the angles and flow of the taper on the stem is looking more and more finished.

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I wiped down the stem with some of the water and then used the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 polish on the stem to get a clear view of the remaining areas that needed more work with 320 grit sandpaper before I moved on to the higher grits of micromesh.

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I continued to wet sand the bowl and stem with 1800 grit micromesh sanding pads. The next three photos show the progress that was made on the smoothing and polishing of both the stem and the bowl. I continued to wet sand with the 1800 grit until the surface was smooth and matte finished.

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I continued wet sanding with 2400 and 3200 grit micromesh pads. The next three photos show the progress of the sanding on the bowl and the stem at this point in the process. I also decided to sand the band with these two grits to polish the nickel.

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At this point in the sanding process I switched to dry sanding the bowl and the stem with the 3600 grit micromesh sanding pad. I sanded the bowl, band and stem with this sanding pad to bring out the growing shine in both. I wiped down the bowl and the stem with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and to prepare the bowl for staining.

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For stain on this pipe I ended up using a two step process. I began with an oxblood stain as an undercoat. I applied it with cotton swabs and also a dauber. I rubbed it into the bowl and shank and flamed it and buffed it off.  The next three photos show the application of the stain.

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I liked the look of the oxblood stain so I wanted to see what it looked like with a light coat of wax on it. I rubbed on some conservator’s wax and then buffed it off by hand. The next series of photos shows the bowl after a light coat of wax. I was not overly happy with the overall coverage of the stain and the fill still was highly visible on the bowl. It did not blend well. I buffed the pipe with White Diamond on my buffer to see if I could even out the coverage a bit. The fourth through seventh photos below show the pipe after buffing. The coverage was not acceptable to me so I decided to go on and give the pipe a second stain coat of dark brown aniline. I wiped the bowl off with a soft cloth pad dampened with alcohol to cut the wax coat and take the bowl back to the briar before staining it with the second colour.

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The next series of three photos shows the pipe after the application and flaming of the dark brown aniline stain. It was mixed 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol to get the colour that I wanted to use as the top coat. I applied the stain with the dauber and flamed it with my Bic lighter. I reapplied the stain two other times and reflamed it each time. I wanted a rich brown top coat that would give depth to the finish.

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The final series of four photos show the finished pipe. After the stain dried I buffed it with White Diamond and then applied several coats of carnauba wax. I also gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the stem. Once the stem dried I buffed it with White Diamond for a final time and then wax it as well. The finished pipe has a great looking stain now and the shape of the stem lends an air of antique to the pipe.

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Reborn London Royal Apple Restemmed with a Saddle Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am down to about 16 pipes in my box to be refurbished and all of them need to be restemmed. Some of them are full of fills or are just pipes that for one reason or another I have avoided dealing with. But I am at the bottom of the box and need something to work on so I am left to choosing from that lot. Last evening I chose this little apple shaped pipe, fit a new stem on it and reworked the finish and the fit of the stem. It is stamped London Royal on the left side of the shank and on the right side Imported Briar. It seems to me that it is thus an American made pipe. I have done no research on it so I have no idea of the manufacturer. The first series of four photos show the pipe after I turned a tenon to fit the shank. I used a new stem blank that is a nice hard vulcanite that seems less prone to oxidize. The dust from sanding is black. You can see the shape of the bowl and the condition it was in when I started in these photos.

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The tenon was long for the shank so it would need to be taken down until it fits snugly against the bottom of the mortise. You can see from the photos the small fill on the bottom of the left side of the bowl. The stem blank would also need to be cleaned up to remove the remnants of the casting.

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In the photo above you can see that the bowl still has tobacco in it and the cake uneven and rough. The rim is dirty and caked. There is one slight burned area on the rim as well on the front right side of the inner edge of the rim.

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I shortened the tenon in order to get the snug fit in the mortise. I was then able to get the stem to fit snugly against the shank. I reamed the bowl to clean up the uneven cake. The next two photos show the stem fit and the reamed bowl. The bottom of the bowl has a groove in it that looks like it was made to fit a stinger apparatus that extended into the bottom of the bowl. I do not have that apparatus as the bowl came to me without a stem. The bottom of the bowl is still fairly thick so it should not be a problem, but it could be remedied with pipe mud should I choose to do so at a later time.

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I topped the bowl lightly to remove the tars on the rim and also to try to minimize the burned area that is visible in the photo above on the front right inner edge of the bowl. The next two photos show the topped bowl and the minimized rim char. I planned on removing the finish from the bowl of the pipe so staining the entire pipe should blend in the rim and bowl as well as hide the rim damage a bit.

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The next three photos show the stem after I have worked on the diameter of the saddle where it meets the shank and removed the rough edges of the casting of the stem. I run my Dremel at a speed that allows me to control the sanding drum as I use it to remove the excess material on the stem. In this case you can see that the excess is mainly on the top and the left side of the stem. I have found that using the Dremel with the sanding drum carefully can make the fitting of a stem short work. This particular stem blank is very high quality vulcanite as can be seen in the photos below. As I sanded the stem the sanding dust was black and the finished stem retained a very black look and colour as well. The shaping of the stem also had to take into account the changes made in the saddle as material was removed from the top of the stem and the left side. I used the sanding drum to rework the saddle area where is curves into the blade of the stem on both sides. I also had to reshape the blade to make both sides match in terms of the curves of the edges toward the button. The photos show the newly shaped and cleaned up stem. All that remains at this point is a lot of sanding and polishing before the stem is ready.

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The next series of three photos below shows the pipe after I have washed the bowl with acetone to remove the finish and then sanded it with 320 grit sandpaper. I was careful around the stamping in order to leave it in tact. I wanted to bring the bowl and the rim to the same state so that the new stain would take well and match. I also sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth it out as well. I wanted the shank stem transition to be smooth and even with no high or low points in the fit. The pipe revealed some really nice looking grain on the left side of the bowl but had bald spots on other side of the bowl.

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I wiped the bowl and shank a final time with acetone and a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and prepare it for staining. The next series of three photos below show the pipe after I stained it. I used a dark brown aniline stain mixed 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I stained the pipe, flamed it with a lighter, restained it, reflamed it. I gave the rim several extra coats to make sure the pipe was evenly stained.

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After the stain was dried I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond to remove excess stain. The stain coat was very even but it was still too dark to my liking so I used some isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to remove some of the heaviness of the stain from the pipe. The next three photos show the pipe after I had removed much stain. The cotton pad is darkened with the brown stain. The grain is becoming more visible as I worked on the finish with the isopropyl alcohol.

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I then sanded the stem some more with some fine grit emery cloth to even up the stem shank junction. The next series of four photos show the pipe after the sanding. The bowl and shank are close to the colour I was aiming for. I would need to remove a bit more colouring from them to get it so the grain shows through the finish.

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I took the pipe back to the buffer and gave it a buff with Tripoli and White Diamond. I use a light touch around the stamping on the shank and then hand buff that with a shoe shine brush to get it to shine. The next series of two photos show the finished bowl. There is still some work that needs to be done on the fit of the stem to the shank.

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The next three photos show the stem after I used the sanding sponge on it to bring the stem even with the shank. The colour of the pipe is also exactly what I wanted in this pipe. The small fill on the left side of the bowl is no longer visible without a close examination. Once the stem was at this point it was ready for sanding with the micromesh pads and polishing with Maguiar’s.

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I wet sanded the stem with 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit micromesh sanding pads wiping the stem down between changes in grit. I repeated this sequence of pads until the fine scratches were out of the stem. Where I had recut the saddle had some very fine scratches that were very hard to remove. After this sanding I used Maguiar’s hand applied and rubbed into the stem then wiped off and scrubbed with a cotton pad. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh following the polish. I also repeated the polish with Maguiar’s. When finished I took the pipe to the buffer and gave the entirety a buff with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine. The final series of four photos show the finished pipe.

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A Reborn Real Briar Prince – Restemmed and Restored

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Quite a few of the old stummels in my box for restemming are stamped Real Briar over Made in Italy. This one caught my eye. It had a great classic shape of a Prince. I dug through my can of stems and found an old stem that would work on this little prince with some work. The bowl was coated with tars and needed to be reamed. The rim was tarred and the cake overflowed the bowl onto the rim. On the bottom left side of the bowl near the shank were several fills that were visible and ugly. The shank was plugged with tars and oils and I could not pass a pipe cleaner through it. The old stem I picked had the right shape but was also badly oxidized and coated with a calcification that was white and hard. The button had a single hole drilled in the centre but it had been damaged and had been worn toward the top of the button. This one was going to be a challenge but it was something I wanted to give a shot.

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I used my Dremel with the sanding drum to cut away the excess material on the diameter of the stem. The next three photos show the stem after it has been shaped to close to the diameter of the shank. The rest of the work would have to be done by hand. The first one shows the state of the stem when I started with it. The second and third photos show the stem after I had sanded it with emery paper to remove the oxidation and the calcification.

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I wiped down the bowl with acetone and in doing so found a hairline crack in the shank on the underside of the pipe. I don’t believe this was done in fitting the stem as the fit is actually very precise and smooth. There was no stress on the shank from the new stem. The look of the crack also was dirty and showed that it had been there for awhile. The next two photos below show the crack in the shank on the underside.

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I dripped some superglue into the crack and then heated a nickel band and pressure fit it on the shank. I then took a little more of the stem material off so that the fit to the band would be smooth and not bulge. The next two photos show the band and stem fit. The band seems to really dress up this old Real Briar Prince.

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I wiped the bowl down with several more wipes of acetone on a cotton pad to break up the varnish coat. I have found that the acetone softens the varnish and makes it easier to sand off with sand paper. I also decided to sand off the rim to get rid of the hard tars. The next two photos show the process I use for sanding the rim. In this case since I was restaining the pipe anyway I did not care if the finish was removed from the rim.

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I then sanded the bowl and shank with a foam back medium grit sanding pad to remove the varnish coat. I sanded it until the bowl finish was foggy looking and then I wiped it down with acetone once again on a cotton pad. The next three photos show the result of the sanding and washing with acetone. The finish is finally beginning to break up and the briar is down to the stain coat.

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I put the stem on the bowl and continued to sand the stem and the bowl with the sanding sponge that is pictured with the pipe. The next three photos show the progress of the sanding. Once I was finished the sanding I wiped it down a final time with the acetone and cotton pad to prepare it for restaining.

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The next three photos show the bowl after I have stained, flamed, restained and flamed it again. I stained the rim three times to get it to be the same colour as the bowl. It took a bit of work to get the colours to match. I used a dark brown aniline stain mixed in a 2:1 ratio with isopropyl alcohol to attain the colour that I wanted for this pipe. I have learned that the mix is great for hiding unsightly fills and blending them into the rest of the bowl.

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I removed the bowl and went to work on the button. The airway in the button was actually quite large and had been cut very close to the edge of the button. I examined it and could see that the damage was fairly surface. The airway inside the button was centered in the button so the edge would need to be built up to accommodate the new slot that I would cut into the button. I used a two part 5 minute epoxy that I mixed and inserted into the damaged edge of the airway with a dental pick. This took a bit of time to get it to the point that I was happy with. The first photo below shows the airway when I started on the repairs.

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The next three photos, though a little blurry show the repair in process. To start with I used my needle files to open up the airway into a slot. I wanted to provide a straight edge to build up to on the airway so that I that the epoxy would stay put in the right place. The epoxy is wet and shiny in these photos and is visible on the bottom edge of the stem photos. The slotted airway is very clearly visible in these photos showing the process of rebuilding the airhole.

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The next photo shows the dried patch in the airway and the even slot that is present in the button. I needed to let the epoxy harden before I finished the shaping of the slot to an oval that easily took a pipe cleaner.

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The next three photos show the repaired airhole and the newly cut slot in the button. The first photo shows the stem held in my hand upside down. The repair is visible at the 6 o’clock position in the picture and looks like a small divot in the slot. The slot itself is smooth and the divot is the patch. The second photo shows the stem right side up and the repair is visible at the 12 o’clock position. The final of the three photos shows the small oval needle file that I used to open the airway. I inserted it into the slot to give an idea of the size of the files that I use to do the work on these slots.

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I then turned my attention to the stem itself. It needed a lot more sanding to clean it up and bring out a clean shine. The first photo below shows the polish that I gave it with the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0. I rub this on with my fingers and then scrub it off with the cotton pad. The polish is white and when I rub it off it is the brown colour that stains the cotton pad in the picture below. Once I had finished with the polish I then sanded it with the micromesh sanding pads. I only took one photo (the second one below) to show the sanding process. I used 1500-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches and shine the stem.

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I continued to work on the stem but removed it from the bowl and gave the bowl a cotton bole and alcohol treatment to remove the strong sour smell that came from the bowl. I stuffed the bowl with a cotton bole, put a pipe cleaner in the shank and used my ear syringe to fill the bowl with Everclear. I left it to sit on the ice cube tray while I went hunting at the flea market. It sat for about 4 hours before I removed the cotton bole and flamed the bowl to remove the remaining alcohol. The first photo shows the pipe when I first set it up. The second one is how it looked four hours later when I returned home and removed the cotton.

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I cleaned the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners. I used my Kleen Reem drill bit to clean out the softened tars in the airway in the shank. The amount of gunk that came out is astonishing. I wiped it and ran the bit through several times to get the airway back to the briar. Then I used many pipe cleaners dipped in Everclear to finish cleaning the shank. Once I was finished I reinserted the finished stem on the bowl and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil and then multiple coats of carnauba wax to give the pipe a finished shine. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

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Refurbishing and Restemming an Irwin’s Canadian

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One of the six pipes I picked up in Washington was a Canadian bowl sans stem that is stamped IRWIN’S over London Made on the top of the shank and London England over 1451 on the underside of the shank. It had a tenon still stuck in the shank and the bowl top was rough from beating it out on an ashtray or something. Irwin’s is a GBD line (seconds??? Though this one has no fills or flaws to suggest that). The grain is quite nice and the contrast staining was also well done. It always makes me wonder what makes a pipe move from the first line to a second line. You can see from the series of photos below that the bowl was dirty on the sides and the top was damaged quite severely. There were no cracks in the shank or the bowl so that was a bonus. The bowl was unevenly caked and pretty dirty as well.

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I reamed and cleaned the bowl and then used a screw to pull the broken tenon from the shank. Once I had that removed I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners and Everclear. Once the shank was clean I took a stem blank from my jar of stems and turned the tenon with the Pimo Tenon Turner until it was a close fit. Then I hand sanded the tenon until it was a good snug fit. I used the Dremel to take off the excess vulcanite and make a smooth transition between the stem and the shank. I then sanded the stem with medium grit Emery cloth to smooth out the surface of the scratches left behind by the Dremel sanding drum. From there I proceeded to use 220 grit sandpaper and also 340 grit sandpaper to further sand out the scratches. I wiped down the bowl with acetone to remove the dirt and grime and remnants of the top coat of stain. I wanted to prepare the surface for a new stain of diluted dark brown aniline. I also topped the bowl to remove the damage to the surface and clean up the edges of the bowl. The next two photos show the pipe with the stem fitting and the bowl cleaned and topped. It was ready for the staining once I sanded the rim top smooth with the micromesh sanding pads.

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I diluted some dark brown aniline stain 3-1 with isopropyl alcohol and stained the bowl and rim. I flamed the stain and then restained it and flamed it again. I stained the rim two more times to darken the surface to match the bowl. I took it to the buffer and buffed the entirety with Tripoli and White Diamond. The four photos that follow show the pipe after staining. It was still too dark in my opinion to highlight the contrast of grains in the pipe so I took it back to my work table to deal with that.

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I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove some of the stain and lighten the overall look of the pipe. It had to be wiped down several times to get the look I was after. The next series of photos show the bowl after repeated washings. I used a cotton pad soaked with acetone and scrubbed the surface to get the desired look. Once it was done I again took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond.

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The stem still needed a lot of work to get it to the place of shiny newness. I continued to work on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12,000 grit. The first three pads 1500-2400 I wet sanded the stem. The other 6 pads I dry sanded. After sanding with the pads through 4000 I used the Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 a second time and finished with the 6000, 8000 and 12000 grit sanding pads. I finished the polishing with a coat of Obsidian Oil and then buffed it with White Diamond a final time. I gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a soft flannel buff. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

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Redeeming a Disaster – A Repair with a Happy Ending

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On Christmas Eve I decided to start working on a little acorn shaped pipe bowl that I have had here for quite awhile. It sat in my repair box in wait for the right moment for me to take it to the work table. It needed a stem and the shank was set up for a metal screw in tenon. I did not have any metal threaded tenons that fit the shank well or I could have made a stem for the pipe and inserted the threaded tenon. The time was right and I wanted to try something a bit different on this one. It did not matter if it worked or not really as it was truly a disposable pipe. With that freedom in mind I decided to fit the bowl with a push tenon stem. To make that work involved removing the metal insert from the shank. I reamed the bowl and cleaned out the shank to get it ready for removing the insert. I tried to twist if out as I figured that it was screwed into the shank. No such luck. It was tight and I could not remove it after using heat or putting it into the freezer to cause it to contract and loosen. I made a decision at that moment that did not end well – at least in the short term.

I set up my cordless drill with a bit that would open up the shank. My thinking was that if I could not removed the insert I would drill it open and smooth so that it would take a regular push tenon with no problem. I started with a drill bit virtually the same size as the airway and then planned on moving up to larger drill bits as the work progressed. The initial drilling worked well and the threads were smoothed out. So far so good! I was pretty excited to watch the airway smoothing out and opening up. Then I changed the drill bit for the next size up and drilled it a second time. I progressed slowly holding the bowl in my hand as I drilled the shank. I have done this before and did expect any problems. You know the thinking right – it worked well in the past so I could expect it to work the same this time around. So with full confidence I worked away. Then disaster struck. A few moments after starting to drill with the slightly larger bit the shank literally shattered in my hand. I was left holding four pieces of broken briar in my hand. The bottom half of the shank remained intact but the upper half was in three pieces. The metal insert remained unmovable in the bottom portion of the shank.

I was a bit stunned and almost binned the broken briar. What had at first appeared to be a good idea was reduced to something that I was ready to throw away and write off as a learning experience. However, I stopped and looked at the pieces for awhile. I thought about cutting the shank off and adding a shank extension to do one of Piet’s Hot Rods. I weighed the pros and cons of that and still was not certain whether I wanted to go to that trouble for this pipe. I took the pieces and puzzled them together to see what the damage looked like when it was put back together. I examined it closely and could see that the break was at least very clean and the surface was not chipped or damaged. I used a dental pick to remove the metal insert from the shank. I decided to get out the super glue and put the pieces back together for a look. With all the pieces in place the pipe looked okay. I sanded off the excess glue from the shank and used some acetone to clean off the stain that was on the shank and bowl. It looked like there was some promise. I decided to strengthen the bond with a nickel band. I heated a nickel band with my heat gun and carefully pressure fit the band on the shank. The repaired pipe was going to be workable.

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I sanded the bowl and the shank and wiped it down repeatedly with acetone. The idea was to remove all of the remaining lacquer finish and even out the stain. I wanted to get the bowl back to bare wood as much as possible before restaining. Once I had it clean I sanded it again with a fine grit sponge backed sanding pad. I continued to sand it with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to prepare it for staining.

I had an old saddle stem that would fit the shank dimensions in my box of scavenged stems. I turned the tenon to fit the newly cleaned shank and did the initial sanding to remove the oxidation on the stem. I used the same sponge back sanding pad I used on the bowl as it allows good access to the saddle areas of the stem. The photos below show the newly fit stem. I have quite a bit more work to do on the stem and bowl to bring the pipe to a finished condition but the promise is definitely there. In the second and third top view photo below you can see the repaired shank. I am pretty confident that it will be pretty well hidden by the staining.

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Before restaining the bowl I decided to work on the stem and get it polished and smooth. I used the 1500 and 1800 micromesh pads to do the sanding and polishing before using the Maguiar’s polishing compound. I have started to use it after the first two or three micromesh sanding grits. I rub it on by hand and then scrub it with a soft cotton pads before wiping it off. I repeat this polishing process with the compound two times before proceeding to working through the remaining micromesh grits. I sanded the stem with 2400 and 3200 grit and took it to the buffer and used Tripoli to buff away the scratches and the oxidation that remained at this point in the process. I also buffed the bowl with the Tripoli. Once back to the work table I used 3600 and 4000 grit before giving the stem a rub down with Obsidian Oil. The four pictures below show the pipe as it looks at this point. The bowl is ready to stain and the stem is getting close to the finished look. There is still some oxidation around the saddle area that will need some more work.

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I decided to use an oxblood coloured aniline stain on the pipe to try to minimize the visibility of the repair to the shank. I used a cotton swab to apply the stain, flamed it and then buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth before taking it to the buffer and buffing it with White Diamond. After buffing I waxed it with several coats of carnauba wax to give it a shine.

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I also finished the polish on the stem using White Diamond on the buffer before finishing with the remaining three grits of micromesh pads – 6000, 8000 and 12,000. I gave it a final buff with White Diamond and then rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil. I finished the stem with several coats of carnauba wax. The four photos below show the finished pipe. The repair to the stem is visible if you look closely but the redemption of this broken pipe is complete and it is ready to smoke.

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A New Stem and a New Look For a Larsen Special

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I got this Larsen Special in a lot I picked up for a very cheap price. The stem that was on it is in the bottom of each picture to give an idea of what it looked like. The shank extension is made of vulcanite and was very oxidized when it came to me. The stamping on the pipe is actually on the extension and it is faint. It is visible with a jeweler’s loupe and is stamped Larsen Special and Handmade in Denmark. The bowl was badly cake and the finish was almost flat with dark soiled spots of grime on the surface. The rim was covered with a lava overflow of tars and oils. I decided as soon as I saw it that the stem had to go. I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I knew it was history.

I cleaned the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap undiluted on a soft cotton cloth and cut through the grime and grit on the surface without damaging the finish at all. I used the same thing on the rim and was able to remove the lava. There was a bit of darkening that remained but no burn or charring. I used micromesh and Oxyclean on the vulcanite shank extension. I avoided sanding around the stamping as it is very light and I did not want to compromise it any more than it was. I was able to get the majority of the oxidation cleaned off the end and then coated it with some Obsidian Oil and let it sit for a while. Once it had dried I rubbed it with a soft cloth and then took the pipe bowl to the buffer and gave it a good buff with White Diamond, carefully avoiding the stamping. Then I coated the bowl and shank with carnauba wax and buffed with a soft cotton buffing pad. The grain on this pipe is absolutely beautiful. I really like the look of it. The bowl is quite large and it is clean and trouble free once it was reamed and cleaned.

I looked through my stem can and found this Lucite/amberoid stem that I thought would look perfect with the pipe. It is a military style bit so I sanded it enough to give it a snug fit and then used micromesh sanding pads 1500-12,000 grit to sand and polish the stem. I opened the slot and made it into an oval shaped flared opening in order to better disperse the smoke. The old stem is still in the box. I am not sure what I will do with it but it will not find a home with this old Larsen ever again.

Oh this one is a keeper by the way and is regularly in my rotation. It smokes English and Balkan tobaccos like it was made for them. I think I will go and fire up a bowl now.

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A Classic Rework of A Royal Duke Supreme

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Blog by Steve Laug

I had this old Royal Duke bowl in my box. It had some promise to my eye but it needed some work. The first thing I did was drill out the metal mortise that took a threaded tenon. I did not have any stems that fit it anyway and I wanted to try something new. The issue that remained once it was gone was the fact that the mortise rough inside and the end of the shank was not square so that there was no way to get a new stem to fit it seamlessly. The finish was very rough as can be seen in the photos below. The varnish on the outside of the bowl had bubbled and blistered. The front edge of the bowl was actually darkened as the varnish seemed to have burned or at least coloured. There were dents in the bowl and the rim was rough. I turned a precast stem with my tenon turner and got it close. I had to custom fit it as the shank was a little tapered toward the end.

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The stem fit fairly well but would take a bit of customizing to get a good tight fit to the shank. It would also need a good cleanup to trim off the castings on the stem. The vulcanite was fairly decent quality as I have had it a long time but it showed no oxidation.

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I decided to work on the bowl first to clean up the remaining finish and remove the varnish from the bowl. I also wanted to see if I could remove the darkening around the front and back of the bowl. I washed the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad and cleaned off the finish. It took repeated washing to break through the varnish coat and also the burned and bubble finish. The next two photos show the pads after the wash. You can begin to see the grain coming out on this beauty. That is what drew me to the pipe in the first place and I was glad to see that it was truly there.

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I repeated the washing until the pipe was clean and had no remaining finish coat. The dark undercoat of stain still remained and light brown topcoat also was still present. This is clearly seen in the photos below. I worked on the fit of the stem and tapered the tenon enough to get a good snug fit to the bowl. I also used my Dremel to remove excess vulcanite from the top and the sides of the stem so that it lined up smoothly with the shank of the pipe. It was at that point I decided to pressure fit a nickel band to the shank to square things up a bit. There was no way that the stem and the shank would meet squarely as the shank was a bit angled and dented from the metal inserted mortise. The previous mortise had been threaded in and it had a thin band or flat top on it that sat against the briar. It was also patched a bit with putty to make the flow from the shank to the insert smooth. I fit the nickel band with heat and pressed it into place. I liked the finished look of the band and it gave me a straight edge to work with on the new stem. I again used the Dremel with a sanding drum to shave off more of the vulcanite and make the stem fit against the band inside edge. The next two pictures below show the stem after the fit and the shaving with the Dremel. You can see the rough surface on the saddle and the cleaned up edges of the cast stem and the button.

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I then sanded the bowl and the stem with 240 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches in the briar and also on the vulcanite stem. It took quite a bit of sanding to smooth out the saddle of the stem. The next five photos show the progress of the sanding on the stem. I also sanded the bowl to remove the remaining finish and scratches. I topped the bowl and smooth out the inner and outer rim to remove the damages to them both. I also used my heat gun to put the bend in the stem. I have a curbed dowel here that I put the heated stem on to ensure that the bend is straight and that I do not crimp or bend the stem unevenly.

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Once the sanding was at this point I wiped the bowl down with Isopropyl alcohol. I find that it removes any sanding dust and also the wet look shows me places where I still need to sand the bowl and stem. Once that was done I sanded the bowl again with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sand paper and water. I progressed through micromesh sanding pads 1500-12,000 grit – the first four pads with water and the remaining ones dry sanding. Once it was completed and smooth I wiped it down a final time before staining it.

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While I was sanding the pipe and working on the stem I tried to visualize what stain I wanted to use on this pipe. At this point remember I was not trying to restore the original Royal Duke colouration. I was working a new pipe out of this piece of briar even though I left the stamping. I decided to go with an oxblood aniline stain. I applied it with a cotton swab, flamed it and then took it to my buffer and buffed it with White Diamond.

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The next three photos show the pipe after the buffing with White Diamond. I had not applied any wax at this point nor was I finished working on the stem. The colour came out better than I imagined. The dark under notes of the grain come through nicely in the finished pipe. The light areas have a reddish brown hue that is a bit lighter as the pipe has been waxed and buffed.

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Once the pipe was stained I coated the bowl with multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the new stain while I worked on the band and the stem. The nickel bands shine up really well with the higher grit micromesh sanding pads. I sanded the band with the 6000-12,000 grit pads and then polished it with some wax as well. I moved on to the stem. I sanded it some more with 240 grit sandpaper to remove some more of the scratches in the saddle area left by the Dremel. I then sanded it again with the 400 and 600 grit wet dry and water to smooth out the lesser scratches left behind by the 240 grit sandpaper. I went on to use 1500-3200 wet micromesh sanding pads to polish up the stem some more. These early grits of micromesh leave behind a matte finish as they sand out the scratches. It takes the grits above 4000 to really see the depth and polish that is there when finished. Once I used the lower grits I then polished the stem using Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 polish and rubbed it on with a cotton pad and polished it off. I buffed the stem with White Diamond following this to see what I needed to work on.

I took the stem back to my work table and used the higher grits of micromesh. I started with 3600 and worked through 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12,000. Once I finished I buffed it again with the White Diamond and then coated the stem with Obsidian Oil and let it sit while the oil soaked the stem. I hand buffed the oil with a soft cotton cloth and then polished it with some carnauba wax paste and then buffed the entire pipe with several coats of carnauba. I buffed it with a clean cotton buff between coats of wax. The final photos are of the pipe as it stands now.

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New Life for a Wally Frank Super Delicious Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have become familiar with many of the Wally Frank lines of pipes but this was one I had not heard of before. It almost sounds like something to eat rather than smoke. It is stamped Wally Frank Ltd on the left side of the shank and on the right Super Delicious – interesting stamping indeed. The pipe was one of the bowls that I had in my box needing to be restemmed. It also had a cracked shank that was present before I matched a stem to it. Often a shank will crack like this if a tenon that is oversized is forced into the shank. That obviously had happened to this old pipe sometime in its life. I found a stem that fit the shank and inserted it enough to show the crack in the shank for the first photo below. The crack approximately ½ inch long and was in a portion of the shank where it was thinner than the other side. One of the challenges in restemming these older pipes is the fact that the shank is very often out of round and the stem has to be shaped to match it accordingly. The bowl has some nice grain on it and was well worth restoring. The remaining three photos in the first group of four show the grain and shape of the pipe. Note that rim was not only darkened but was worn on the front edge of the outer rim.
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I reamed out the bowl and removed the cake that was present only in the top half of the bowl. It seemed that the lower portion of the bowl was not even broken in. The top of the bowl needed to be topped to even out the flat top of the bowl. The way the angle was after the tars and grime were removed was d a slight slant toward the front of the bowl and the front edge was rounded from tapping out the bowl repeatedly on a hard surface. I used the board and sandpaper to top the bowl and even out the top. I also made certain that the bowl was held against the board to even out the angle and make the top smooth and flat. The first photo below shows how out of round the shank is in proportion to the mortise. Notice the difference in thickness all around the shank diameter. The crack in the shank is at about 3 o’clock on the shank. The next two photos show the bowl after it has been topped and is even with no slant toward the back or front of the bowl.
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After I had topped the bowl and evened things out I wiped the entirety of the bowl down with acetone on a soft cotton pad to remove the grime and the remaining finish on the bowl. It came off almost black when I was finished cleaning it. I then needed to band the crack shank. I opened it with the stem and then dripped a bit of superglue in the crack before pressure fitting the band in place. The first photo below shows the shape of the shank and makes the thin area very clear. This would require quite a bit of shaping to make the stem fit the shank correctly. The next two photos show the banded stem and how it fits on the shank. I kind of like the look of the band against the natural colour of the briar.
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The next two photos below show the stem shape after I had removed much of the material at the top left corner of the picture. The stem is round at this point but the tenon is no longer in the center of the stem. It is proportionately toward the top left of the picture and on the top bottom when it is in place in the shank.
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At this point in the process I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain that I thinned with isopropyl alcohol so that it would match the colour of the bowl. My goal was to match the rim that I had topped and was raw briar to the natural patina of the bowl and shank. I mixed the stain until it was the colour I was aiming for and then stained the entire bowl with multiple applications of the stain to the rim. I flamed the stain and reapplied it to the rim, flamed it again and then took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Tripoli and White Diamond. Once I was done with that I buffed the bowl and shank with multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring depth to the shine and also to blend the rim and bowl together.

I then worked on the oxidation of the stem. I had shaped it to fit the shank with my Dremel and when it fit well I sanded the stem from front to button with 280 grit sandpaper and then 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the oxidation and scratch marks from the Dremel. Once it was smooth I progressed through the micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. In between 4000 and 6000 grits I polished the stem with Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 and then finished sanding with the micromesh. I finished the stem with a coat of Obsidian Oil and then multiple coats of carnauba wax to give it shine. The next series of four photos show the finished pipe. It is shined and ready to smoke.
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Reworking a Dr. Grabow Viscount

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I had this old bowl in my box of pipes to refurb. It needed a stem and it needed a good cleanup. When I took it out of the box to match a stem to it, I noticed that it had some pretty nice grain under the cherry red stain. It seemed like it had a nice dark contrast stain added to bring out the grain and then the red stain was over that. On top of the red stain was a coating of varnish or lacquer of some sort. That topcoat was peeling and the red beneath it was also rubbed off. It seemed like the red stain was more of a wash on top of the bowl rather than one that permeated the bowl. I went through my can of stems and found an old saddle stem that fit quite well. It was badly oxidized but I liked the overall look of the pipe with the saddle stem.
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With the state of the finish I decided to wipe it down with acetone to remove the varnish/lacquer finish and see what I could do with the stain. I was not overly concerned as I figured I would need to remove the red topcoat and start over. The wiped off portions of the finish would require a restain. I just was not sure what was underneath the topcoat. Sometimes on these older Grabows there are a lot of fills hidden under the opacity of the topcoats. I was hoping that this would not be the case with this one. I used a cotton pad wet with acetone to wipe down the finish on the bowl. The rim took a bit more work to remove the tars and build up. I used a fine grit sanding pad and carefully removed the grime while leaving the finish intact. I wipe the bowl down with about three pads and acetone. The result is seen in the photos below. The grain and the stain on this one was beautiful. It has a great contrast stain that makes the grain pop and the lighter reddish brown stain provides a soft canvas to highlight the grain. Once the red finish was removed I left the bowl as it was. I buffed it with White Diamond to polish and remove any remaining red portions of the stain. Then I waxed it with multiple coats of carnauba wax. I put the stem in an Oxyclean bath to soak while I continue to polish the bowl and finished cleaning out the interior of the shank and bowl.
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The stem took a lot of work as the oxidation was very deep. I soaked it twice in the Oxyclean bath and sanded it with micromesh 1500 and 1800 grit sanding pads between soaks. There was some deep, stubborn oxidation on the flat portion of the blade – about mid stem. It was very hard to remove. I sanded it with 2400-3600 grit micromesh and then polished with Maguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 polish repeatedly. Eventually the stubborn oxidation came to the surface and I was able to remove it. I then continued to sand on the stem with the higher grits of micromesh sanding pads – 4000-12,000 grit. I find that the higher grits really deepen the shine of the stem. Each successive grit of micromesh pad brought more of a polish to the stem. The hardest spot at the end was the saddle area. In the photos below there still remains a bit of oxidation that I am still working on – this is particularly clear in the photo of the underside of the pipe.

Ah well – here is the reworked Dr. Grabow Viscount. It is ready to load up a bowl for its new inaugural smoke.
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