Tag Archives: restemming

Restemming and Refinishing an Imported Briar Italian Billiard

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Today I took another bowl out of my box of pipes to restem. I had previously turned the tenons with a Pimo tenon turner and fit it to the bowl and shank. I had not fit the stem when I started. The diameter of the stem was larger than the bowl. This bowl was a real mess. It is stamped Imported Briar in an arch over Italy on the smooth left shank of the pipe. It had originally had a band but that was no longer present with the bowl. The finish on the pipe was in bad shape. It was almost a yellow varnish that was chipping and peeling away. The rustication was filled with grit and grime and the colour of the bowl was an ugly yellow colour under the varnish. The bowl was still round and the reaming had already been done and it was pretty clean. The rim had some build up of tars and oils and a few dents. Looking it over I decided I would have to top it to clean it up.

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The tenon was a good tight fit. I stepped down the end of it to sit in the stepped mortise in the shank. I needed to remove a good deal of vulcanite from the saddle portion of the stem to bring it to the same diameter as the shank. I used my Dremel to do that work. The next series of four photos show the process of removing the material from the stem. I use a Dremel with a sanding drum to do the work. I run it at a medium speed that allows me to float it over the stem without digging to deeply into the vulcanite. I find that a slower speed gives a very rough finish and a faster speed is harder to control the work.

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The next series of three photos shows the finished fit of the stem. I have finished sanding it with the Dremel. The photos show that it is relatively smooth with no deep gouges or scratches in the surface of the saddle. I also used the Dremel to sand down the castings on the button and on the sides of the stem. You can also see the place on the shank where the band was previously.

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One the stem fit well against the shank I decided to top the bowl. I set up my sanding board with the piece of sandpaper I use. I hold the paper on the board (it is a fine grit emery paper). Then I place the pipe on the paper and sand it by working it clockwise against the sandpaper. The next two photos show the bowl against the paper and the finished topping of the bowl. The final photo in this threesome is one of the brass bristled tire brush that I use to clean rusticated bowls. This one was quite easy to work as I could work it along the grooves of the rustication and work it until the bowl was clean.

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After scrubbing the pipe with the brass brush and some alcohol it was ready for a new band. I sorted through my bands and found one that fit the shank well. The next three photos show the shank before banding and then after I pressure fit the band to the shank. The emery paper and the fine grit sanding sponge in the pictures was used to sand the stem and begin removing the scratches and make a good fit against the band.

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The next series of four photos show the fit of the stem against the banded shank. More work needed to be done on the stem to remove the scratches and refine the fit against the shank. Once the scratches were removed from the stem then I would work on the fit. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish. I scrubbed it with the wire brush a second time and then wiped it with acetone again. I also sanded the bowl surface with the sanding sponge to remove the finish from the shank and the high points on the rustication.

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At this point in the restoration I decided to restain the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I applied it and flamed it, reapplied and reflamed it. I gave the rim two extra coats of the stain to match the colour of the bowl. The next series of three photos show the stained bowl. It was darker than I wanted for the end product so I decided to lighten it.

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I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to lighten the stain. I wanted to see if I could clear it off the high points while still allowing it to remain in the grooves for contrast. The next three photos show the pipe after I had wiped it down.

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When I had finished wiping it down I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the bowl with Tripoli to remove some of the dark stain. I wanted to remove it from the high surfaces of the bowl while leaving the dark stain in the grooves of the rustication. The next four photos show the pipe after I buffed it with the Tripoli. I also buffed the stem with Tripoli and White Diamond to give it a bit of polish and see what I needed to do with the sandpaper.

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I then removed the stem and wet sanded it with the micromesh sanding pads in 1500 and 1800 grits. I use fresh warm water and dip the sanding pad in the water and then sand the stem. I also used the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 after sanding. The next photo shows the stem after sanding and polishing.

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I then dry sanded the stem with the remaining grits of micromesh 2400-12,000 and then gave it a final polish with the Maguiar’s. The photo below shows the stem after sanding with the 3600 grit sanding pad. The shine is beginning to rise on the surface of the stem. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry. The final four photos show the finished pipe. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then polished the bowl and the stem with carnauba wax to get the shine.

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The pipe has come a long way from the stummel that was sitting in my repair box. I am happy with the finished pipe and the contrast stain. It feels great in the hand and will make a great smoking pipe for someone.

Restemmed and Reworked an Old Yello Bole Acorn

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I have cleaned out my box of pipes for refurbishing and all I have left are bowls that need to have stems made and fit. This little Yello Bole Acorn pipe attracted my attention and I decided it would be the first one I worked on. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank: KBB in a cloverleaf and next to that it is stamped Yello Bole over REGDUSPATOFF over Imperial in script. Underneath that it is stamped “Cured with Real Honey”. On the right side is stamped 3296B. I reamed the bowl and cleaned the airway and mortise area so that I could get a good clean fit with the new stem. I picked a stem blank from my can of stems and used my Pimo Tenon turning tool to turn the tenon to fit the shank. The stem was too large so I removed the excess material with a sanding drum on my Dremel. In the photo below you can see the stem after I had sanded the excess away with the Dremel. The shank on the pipe also had a small crack in it so I glued it with superglue and pressure fit a nickel band on the shank.

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I sanded the stem with medium grit emery cloth to remove the scratches and marks left by the sanding drum. I find that the emery cloth does a great job removing the deep scratches and marks around the diameter of the stem as well as fine tune the fit to the shank. The band had some small dents that needed to be taken out so I used a small round headed pick to bring the shape back into round. The next three photos show the stem after sanding with the emery cloth.

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At this point in the process I used the tool to round out the band a bit more and then fit the stem on the pipe. The next series of four photos shows the stem on the pipe. I also noted at this point that the band needed to be flattened on the bottom to accommodate the flattened bottom of the shank on the pipe. I would also have to flatten the edge of the stem to also accommodate that flattening.

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I took a break from the stem and worked a bit on the bowl of the pipe. I wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish. I then sanded the bowl to remove some of the dents and marks in the finish. The deep gouges needed to be steamed and I was able to raise them slightly. They are still visible on the finished pipe but lend it some character. The next series of three photos show the bowl cleaned and ready for staining.

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I then changed to sanding the stem with 240 and 320 grit sandpaper. The next series of six photos shows show the progression of the stem as I sanded it.  The shape was pretty close to finished by the time I was done. The fit was excellent and the look of the new stem gave the pipe a great look in my opinion. All that remained was to do a lot more sanding! The fourth through the sixth photos below show the stem after I had wiped it down with some Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 applied by hand and rubbed down with cotton pads. The finish of the stem is getting smoother.

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I then filled a small cup with water and moved on to wet sand the stem with the micromesh sanding pads. I used 1500, 1800 and 2400 to wet sand the stem. I wet the pad and sanded the stem. Then rinsed the pad and kept sanding until that particular grit had down its work and the stem was ready for the next one. Between pads I wiped the stem down with a wet cotton pad to clean off the grit. The first photo below shows the setup of my sanding area. I use an old rag for the work space so that it can pick up the dust and water from the sanded stem. The next series of three photos shows each of the three micromesh sanding pads from 1500-2400 and the stem after sanding with that particular pad.

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Once I finished wet sanding the stems up through the 2400 grit micromesh pads I then used the Maguiar’s again to polish the stem to see what remained of the deep scratches. I rubbed it into the stem with my finger and then polished it off with the cotton pads. The next series of five photos shows the application and the progressive polishing of the stem. The final pictures in the series show the stem polish to this point. I decided after this was done to move on to dry sanding with the remaining micromesh sanding pads.

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The next series of six photos show the sanding progress through the remaining grits of micromesh sanding pads – 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grits. Each picture shows the stem on top of the sanding pad that I used to sand it. I dry sand with these higher grit micromesh pads.ImageImageImageImageImageImage

The next series of four photos show the stem after finishing the sanding and polishing it with Maguiar’s polish. There is a nice deep black shine to the stem at this point.

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Now it was time to stain the bowl of the pipe. I used a Dark Brown aniline stain that I had thinned with isopropyl 2:1 to stain the bowl. I wanted a consistency in the colour and also have the grain on the bowl show through the stain. I applied the stain with the wool dauber that came with the stain and then flamed it with a match to set the stain. I restained it and reflamed it a second and third time. The next two photos show the stained bowl.

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Once the stain was dry I used some silver polish on the nickel band to shine it up and remove the stain that had spilled on it. I also used some sandpaper in the bowl to remove stain that ran into the bowl edges from the beveled rim. I then took it to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond before giving the whole pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and a final buff with a clean flannel buffing wheel. The final four photos show the finished pipe.

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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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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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Refurbished – A Stunning New Look for a Butz Choquin Billiard

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I picked up this old Butz Choquin in a lot I was given by a friend and it was in very rough shape. I somehow neglected to take any pictures of what the pipe looked like when it arrived. But it came stem less and the rim was ruined. It had been hammered on concrete or something like that as it was stippled and rough. The inner rim was ruined as it seemed to have been reamed with a pocket knife and it was cut and grooved at all different angles. To have topped it I would have had to lose almost a half an inch on the pipe. In my opinion that would have ruined the billiard profile and created a pot shape. I decided to try something different on this one. The finish was shot as well and the stain was gone. It was a dull brown with much dirt and grime ground into the surface of the briar.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer (like a Castleford T handle reamer) to even the sides of the bowl and smooth out the inner surface. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to clean off the grime and grit. Once it was clean I hunted down a stem blank that would work on a pipe with this sized shank. I cut the tenon with my Pimo tenon turner and shaped the stem to a clean fit with my Dremel. Then I took the bowl and dropped it in the alcohol bath while I worked on the stem. I sanded the stem to remove the scratches left by the Dremel. I also shaped the button a bit to change the shape and open up the slot to an oval.

I took the bowl out of the bath and dried it off. I gave it another wipe down with the acetone to give me a clean surface to work on. I then went to work on the rim. I wanted to chamfer the rim inward toward the bowl to remove the damaged material and give it a different look. I topped the bowl first to get a smooth and even surface. From there I sanded the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper (280 grit). I use a one inch square piece of sandpaper folded into quarters. Then I set the angle I want to have on the chamfer by the way I hold the paper. I sanded it until I got it at the angle I wanted and removed the damaged material. Once I had the angle right I then changed the grade of sandpaper sanding it with 400 and 600 grit wet dry and then with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500 to 6000 grit.

At that point I put the stem back on the pipe and sanded it until the transition between the shank and the stem was smooth. I wanted it to be a fit that appeared to be seamless. Once I had that done and had sanded the stem smooth with the various grades of micromesh sanding pads I took it to the buffer to give the stem a shine. I brought it back to my work table and sanded the bowl and shank until they were also smooth. I did not sand around the nomenclature as I wanted that to be intact.

I decided that I would give the bowl a contrasting stain finish. I heated the briar with a blow dryer to warm it up and open the grain on the bowl. Once it was warm I stained it with a black aniline stain. I flamed the stain and let it dry. I took it to the buffer and buffed it with Red Tripoli to remove the black stain from the surface of the briar. This takes off the extra black and leaves it in the softer grain of the briar. I sanded it again with 600 and 800 grit wet dry sandpaper and then buffed it again with White Diamond. I wanted contrast between the black that was deeply set in the grain and the harder smooth surfaces. Once that was done I wiped the bowl down with acetone to tone down the blacks and to clean off the surfaces that did not have the stain set in them. I restained the pipe with a Medium Brown aniline stain and flamed it as well. Once it was dry I buffed it with White Diamond to polish it. The whole pipe was then given multiple coats of carnauba wax and a finish buff with a soft, clean, flannel buffing pad.

While I liked the look of the pipe at this point I decided that it needed a bit of bling to finish it off. I have a box of bands here and found one the correct size – a nickel band that would add just the touch I was looking for. I heated the band with my heat gun and pressure fit it on the shank of the pipe. The finished product is in the photos below. This pipe found a new home with a friend on one of the online forums. I am sure he has enjoyed it as it was a great smoking machine.

The verdict is yours is the new look stunning or not?
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Restemmed an Old Rogers Deluxe for the Second Time

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I picked this old timer up on EBay. It is stamped on the left side of the bowl – Rogers De Luxe. The stamping on the silver cap is Sterling in an arc over the letters HC in an oval with the word London in an arc below the oval. The right side of the shank is stamped with London in an arc over a reverse arc of Los Angeles. In the centre of the oval formed by the two arcs are the words PIPE SHOP. There is also a shape number 25 stamped just ahead of that stamping. The stamping makes me wonder who the maker was. The HC on the cap leads me to think it may be a Comoy’s pipe but I am not sure of that. The stem that was in it was badly chewed and cut off. It was very short and not usable. The bowl was in rough shape and all the stain and finish was worn off.  The silver end cap was tarnished and when it arrived it was split on the underside. It had been repaired with some glue and that was a mess. There were some dents in the sides of the bowl but underneath the grime and dents of a beat-up old pipe was some nice grain. Evidently the previous owner had found that it was a good smoker and chomped his way through the stem and enough tobacco to let it build up to thick hard cake. ImageImage

I cleaned and reamed the pipe, cleaned the shank and worked a new stem for it. The stem I chose is an old stock orific button stem. I polished and cleaned the silver. I soaked the bowl in an alcohol bath to remove the grime and remnants of the finish. Once it was dry I restained the pipe with an oxblood aniline stain. I flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I then polished it with Tripoli and White Diamond to give more visibility to the grain. It has been polished and waxed. The stain really highlights the grain on this old beauty.

The stem I chose, while it fits, is still not quite right for the pipe. I am keeping an eye out for a new one that is more proportionally correct. This one is a bit short for the size of the bowl and kind of changes the beauty of the pipe. I know what I am looking for and when I find it I will restem it and it will be as good as new.
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Today (September 9, 2012), I found the stem I was looking for, though it was not an orifice button the slot and the shape tell me it is an old stock stem. I used my Dremel to rework the taper on the military bit end so that it would fit the shank correctly. I sanded the stem with Fine grit emery cloth to remove the oxidation on the stem. I also sanded out the scratch marks left by the Dremel. I proceeded to sand with 240 grit sandpaper, 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and water to further remove the scratches. I then used micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 to finish the sanding. When I had finished with that I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to deepen the shine. I then wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and finally inserted it in the pipe and waxed the pipe and stem with several coats of carnauba wax. I really like this stem better. ImageImageImageImage

New Stem and New Life for a Bewlay Olde 49 Bent Billiard

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I have a pair of older Bewlay Billiards, a 160 and a 169, in my work box. Both have chewed and ruined stems so both need restemming. Tonight I took on the smaller of the two pipes. It is stamped Bewlay over Olde 49 over London, England on the left side of the shank. The right side is stamped 169. In pictures 1 -4 below you can see the state of the pipe. Picture 1 shows that the underside of the stem has deep dents and a large chip that has been chewed out of the button and stem. Picture 2 and 3 show the grime and deep dirt ground into the finish of the pipe. Underneath it is some beautiful birdseye. On the front and back of the bowl are great cross grain patterns. Picture 4 shows the top of the bowl. It has a thick coat of tars and oils built up on the edges and the bowl was badly caked. This one took me about 3 hours to rework. ImageImageImageImage

The next photo below shows a possible stem that I had in my box. I fit the tenon to the mortise by hand sanding it to fit. Once it was on the pipe it was a bit too small on one side of the shank. One of the challenges in restemming these older pipes is that the shanks are never truly round. This one was off by quite a bit and left a ridge between the shank and the stem. I had to dig through my stems to find one that gave me room to work with an out of round shank. To do that the stem needs to be a bit bigger than the shank and then must be sanded to fit properly. It is never simple but once it is finished the reward is great in my opinion. With the stem in place the shank and stem look round. Image

I fit the tenon on the new stem and fit the stem to the shank. I needed to sand it to make it fit properly on the right side of the shank. I also lightly sanded the top of the bowl and rim to clean it up. I washed down the whole pipe with acetone (finger nail polish remover) on cotton pads several times to remove the finish and clean up the grit and grime that was embedded in the finish. I bent the stem a little less than the one on the original as the bend made the pipe hang down when it was in the mouth. The new bend on the stem is essentially vertical with the top of the bowl and when it is in the mouth it is level. ImageImageImage

Once it was clean I restained the bowl with dark brown aniline stain that I thinned down with isopropyl alcohol until it was the colour I wanted to use on this one. I flamed it and put on a second coat of the stain. The pictures below show the newly stained pipe. Once it was dry I took it to the buffer and buffed it with Tripoli to remove the surface coat of stain. I looked it over and brought it back to my work table. It was just too dark to show the birdseye and cross grain so I would need to wipe it down to get the effect I was looking for. ImageImageImage

The next four photos show the pipe after I wiped it down with acetone on the cotton pads. You can see the amount of the stain removed from the pipe by the stain on the pads. ImageImageImageImage

I sanded the stem with micromesh pads from 1500-12,000 grit before I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to polish and shine the surface of the bowl and the stem. You can see that after the wash and the buff the stain is more translucent and the grain shows through the finish. It actually matches the brown on the other Bewlay pipe that I have to restem. I gave the entirety several coats of carnauba wax and buffed with a soft flannel buff to bring up the sheen. The photos below show the finished pipe – it is ready to load up and smoke. The new stem fits well and it looks good on the pipe. ImageImageImageImage

 

Nu Old Lovat reworked

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Blog by Steve Laug

This small lovat needed restemming and also a restain on the bowl. It was pretty clean when I took it out of the box of bowls that I have here for restemming. The finish was shot and most of the stain was worn off. The bowl was clean, just dusty. The rim was nicked and dented and would need to be topped. Here is a picture of it when I took it out of the box. I matched a stem from my can of stems to it. It is a nice little Lovat and is stamped Nu-Old over London Made on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with its shape number – 66. The Nu Old pipes were made by Civic Pipes in London. Image

I fit the tenon to the bowl and then shaped the saddle to match the shank diameter. The stem needed a bit of work to smooth out the casting marks and the roughness of the surface. I sanded it with medium grit emery cloth to remove the marks and general roughness of the stem. Then I followed up with 240 grit sandpaper and 400 and 600 grit wet dry and water to remove all the scratches and marks. I polished it and did a final sanding with micromesh sanding pads 1500-6000 grit. I then turned my attention to the bowl. I used acetone on a cotton swab to remove the remaining finish on the pipe. This took repeated washing with the acetone to get the bowl to be clear of the original remaining finish. When I was finished with that the bowl was uniformly a light reddish hue. I topped the bowl with my sanding board and then polished the bowl with micromesh pads. Once it was finished I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol before giving it a new stain with oxblood. I gave this one several coats of stain to give a good coverage, flaming the stain between each coat. Once it was finished I buffed it lightly with Tripoli to open up the finish and show the grain. I then polished it with White Diamond and gave the whole pipe several coats of carnauba wax which I buffed with a soft flannel buff. ImageImageImage

Restemming a Wimbledon Bulldog

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I have this old bulldog in a box to be repaired for quite a while. It is stamped Wimbledon 800 and from research appears to have been made by Briar Craft/Grabow. It needed a new stem as it came to me without one. I had this interesting old butterscotch coloured Lucite stem in my can of stem. It was a diamond shaped saddle stem that I fit to the bowl. I had to turn the tenon to get a fit on the bowl and then had to remove much of the Lucite material on the sides of the diamond shape and thin down the blade and button of the stem. I used my Dremel with a sanding drum to cut away most of the material on the angles and also flatten and thin the stem. I shaped the stem until the angles were correct and then finished the shaping of the stem with sandpaper. I used a medium grit emery cloth to start with as it seems to work really well in removing material and getting rid of the deep scratches and grooves left by the sanding drum. I then used 240 grit sandpaper followed by 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper with water. I finished by polishing the stem with 1500-600 grit micromesh pads. I had to band the shank as it had a small crack near the top left edge. I fit the stem and then buffed the pipe lightly with White Diamond and then coated the stem with carnauba wax and the bowl with Halcyon II wax. I buffed it to a shine with a flannel buff.ImageImageImage