Tag Archives: restemming

Refurbished Mastercraft Bulldog

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Another old timer, a Mastercraft Bulldog was in my box of bowls without stems. The squat shape of this little bulldog caught my eye.

The bowl pretty rough looking. The finish was gone and the top had been used as a hammer so it was badly dented and the roughening of the wood left a lot of splintering edges. It was also badly caked and still had a remnant of tobacco left in the bowl. Since it was missing its stem I have no idea when the bowl and tobacco got separated from the stem. I have a coffee can in which I keep a wide range of stems that I have picked up and another can of stem blanks that need to be shaped and fit to the new pipe. For this pipe I found an old stem in the can that was a perfect fit once I removed the old stinger type insert. The stem was badly oxidized virtually brown. There were no tooth marks on the stem and no dents that needed to be repaired.

I reamed and cleaned the bowl and shank until the pipe cleaners came white. I use 99% isopropyl alcohol for doing this as I find that it works well and evaporates quickly leaving no residual tastse. The top had been hammered so much that the bowl had to be topped so that it would be smooth again. The trick with this one was not to remove too much of the top and thus change the angles of the bulldog shape. So I removed enough to give me a smooth surface to work with but not enough to change the shape. Once it was topped and sanded I put it in the alcohol bath and left it while I worked on cleaning up the stem.

I had soaked the stem in a mixture of Oxyclean to soften the oxidation and prepare it for the sanding that would be necessary to clean it. Once I remove it from the soak I buffed it with Tripoli to remove the oxidation that had softened and then sanded it with 240 grit sandpaper. Once I had removed the brown surface I used 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to continue the smoothing and polishing process. I finished the stem with the micromesh pads from 1500 – 6000 grit. Then I set it aside to wait until I had finished bowl and polish the entirety on the buffer.

I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and sanded it with the micromesh pads to remove the surface scratches and remaining marks in the bowl surface. I steamed out the dents with a damp cloth and a hot knife and then sanded them smooth again. I restained this bowl with a Medium Brown stain. I flamed it to set the stain, inserted the stem and then took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond to polish it. The entirety was then given several coats of carnauba wax. This one found a new home with someone who loved the shape and it is providing a great smoke for them. ImageImageImage

Pulling a Broken Tenon

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Over the years I have had my share of broken tenons to remove. Some of them came from carelessness on my part but others I purchased that way. I took pictures of the process I use on two different pipes recently. The first was a little Barling with a broken tenon and a chewed stem. I ended up restemming this one. The second one was a Peterson 999 with a broken tenon that I hope to reuse the stem by drilling/tapping and inserting a new tenon to refit it.

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Insert a screw part way into the airway on the broken tenon in the shank of the pipe. I use a dry wall or gyprock screw. I turn the screw in by hand. I do not want to expand the tenon at all I just want the screw to have a little bite to it so that I can use it to pull the tenon out by hand or with a pair of needle nose pliers. In this case in both pipes I was not able to pull out the tenon easily. Many times I am able to pull it out in a matter of seconds using this method. But both of these were exceptionally tight and immovable. I put them both in the freezer for an hour as I know that vulcanite and briar contract at different rates with a change in temperature. After an hour I removed the Barling from the freezer and was able to pull the broken tenon out very easily. I then unscrew the broken piece and lay it aside to use for a match on the new tenon I will cut as a replacement. It helps me to eyeball the fit. I also measure the mortise and set the tenon turner as closely as possible to the measurements. I then take the broken piece and slide it on the tenon turner to check the fit.

The tenon on the Peterson however, still did not budge after an hour in the freezer. I left it in for another half hour. Still it did not budge. I then dripped Isopropyl alcohol into the exposed mortise and hoped that it would work as a solvent to break the tenon free. I repeated this several times and left the pipe sitting with alcohol in it over night. The next morning the tenon still did not move.

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I decided to not fiddle around with trying to pull the tenon. I used my small drill bit and began to drill out the tenon. I never start with the exact size of the tenon but rather work with the size of the airway and work my way up. I have found that in the process of working through the bits the tenon inevitably breaks loose or crumbles to pieces. In this case, by the time I got to the third drill bit, when I reversed it the tenon came out with the bit. You will notice that I also flattened the broken portion of the tenon on the stem so that the surface was flat and smooth. I wanted it to be ready for when I would drill it out or tap to receive the new tenon that I have ordered.

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As I close this essay I want to just mention a couple of reminders:

  1. Do not turn the screw into the airway to deeply as it does expand the airway and can actually crack the shank on the pipe. BE CAREFUL and go slowly.
  2. Do not use a tool to turn the screw into the airway – do it by hand so you can feel the progress and the bite before damage is done.
  3. If the tenon is stuck and immoveable in the first try put the pipe in the freezer for an hour or more to expand and contract the tenon and mortise. This usually works to break it free.
  4. Should you have to drill it out – use a bit a little larger than the airway to begin the process and work your way up to larger bits. Do not use a drill bit that is the size of the mortise lest you damage the mortise.
  5. Use a T handle hand drill not a power drill to do this as you can easily drill right through the bowl and ruin the pipe.

Bending Vulcanite Stems

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have had several people ask me about the process I use to bend vulcanite stems. I decided to write an essay on the three different processes I have used to bend them. In each method I remove the stem from the pipe for bending. I have the pipe close at hand to check the bend on the stem. Each method has plusses and minuses to it. Each method can create a variety of other problems that need to be addressed if done improperly. For the sake of this article I refer to bending vulcanite. The same three methods can be used to bend Lucite. I have bent them both using all three methods. The methods and warnings remain the same; the potential for oxidation is not applicable.

1. Hot Water Method

METHOD: This is a simple process. I use a small ceramic microwaveable bowl that has straight sides and is about 3 inches deep. I fill it with tap water to the level I want the bend and put the bowl in the microwave. I select high and set the time for two minutes. I have found on my microwave that is where the water will boil. I have put the stem in the bowl in microwave during this heating and I have left it out. I see no significant difference in the application and no damage to the stem. The only significant difference that I can see is the time it takes to make the stem pliable.

Either way, when the stem is in the water I want it to be covered to the level of the impending bend. I put a pipe cleaner in the stem to keep the airway open and prevent kinking in the stem when I bend it. If the stem is in the microwave, at two minutes it is pretty pliable. If not, I dip it in the boiling water and leave it until it is pliable. This may take repeated dipping and reheating of the water.

Once the stem is pliable I use a small glass spice jar that is round to bend the stem over. It gives me the curve I am looking for in my bends. The jar is a common spice jar, about 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter. I lay it on its side and bend the stem over it. I know others who use the grip on a baseball bat or a rolling pin. Use whatever works for you in terms of maintaining a smooth bend. I hold the tenon end with one hand and the button with the other and then bend it carefully. I have found out the hard way that just bending it by hand can be problematic and make a very uneven curve or a twisted curve with one side more bent than the other. Once the bend is the way you want it either dip the stem in a cup of cold water or under running water in the sink to set the bend.

PLUS: The plusses are fairly straightforward to this method. Its ease of application is very clear. The evenness of the heat and the bend makes burning the vulcanite a non-issue. The simplicity and lack of a need for special tools makes it a very practical method of bending the stems. I used this method all the time for many years until I purchased a heat gun to use for this purpose. I still find myself going back to it repeatedly particularly with Lucite or acrylic stems. I just works for me so I use it.

MINUS: The minuses are also straightforward. Hot water plus vulcanite is a recipe for oxidation. The heat and the water cause oxidation to raise its ugly head. It seems like the oxidation just leaps to the surface as soon as the water gets hot and touches the vulcanite. It means that in bending the stem, solving one issue, you create a second issue – the removal of oxidation. If you are comfortable with the process of removing oxidation then the method is very usable and it works. If you are not comfortable with that process be forewarned it will oxidize your vulcanite stems.

2. Kitchen Oven Method

METHOD: This also is a simple process. I use one of my wife’s cookie sheets, or baking sheets, to hold the stem or stems. I put the oven rack in the centre of the oven and preheat the oven to 200 or 220 degrees, both temperatures work. Once the oven is heated I place the stem (with the inserted pipe cleaner to keep the airway open) on the cookie sheet and slide it into the oven. Have some oven mitts or hot pads near at hand when it is time to remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Watch the stems so you can tell when they are pliable. It takes very little time, 5 minutes or less usually. You can tell when they are pliable when you watch them (especially after having done this before) but you can check them regularly to see if they are ready. They should be rubbery and soft, easily bent.

Once the stem is pliable I remove it from the oven and hold it with the oven mitts, or if your hands are callused with your fingers (vulcanite is hot and you can be burned so be careful). I have the same small glass spice jar at hand, just as I did in the above method, to use to bend the stem. I hold the tenon end with one hand and the button with the other and then bend it carefully. Once the bend is correct I dip it in cold water or under running water in the sink to set the bend.

PLUS: The plusses of this method are also straightforward. It again requires no special tools to do the work. It allows you to bend multiple stems quickly. It also does not increase oxidation to the stems. This is a relatively new method to me but a fellow refurbisher here in Canada uses it all the time and swears by it. I have tried it and it does work well. There is no mess and no fuss. Cleaning up the stem is very simple afterward. All of the work in removing oxidation and polishing can be done ahead of time and then when complete a simple buff will give the stem a sheen.

MINUS: The minuses are relatively few. The first I ran into was my wife – she was not keen to have me “melt” rubber on her cookie sheets in her oven. I suggest you try this when “she who must be obeyed” is out of the kitchen unless you have your own sheets and oven! Care must be exercised to not leave the stems in too long or they will indeed be a mess – or at least it would seem so. I have not done this because I am overly cautious in keeping an eye on the stems.

3. Heat Gun Method

METHOD: This also is a simple process. I have a heat gun purchased at a home improvement or hardware shop. It has two settings – high and low. For bending stems I set the gun to the low setting. The gun comes with a stand on the handle so I stand it on the worktable with the tip pointing into the air. It also comes with a variety of heads that can be used. I like to focus the heat on the stem so I use one that reduces the end of the gun to a one inch diameter circle. I hold the stem by the tenon, the side I want to bend facing downward, above the heat tip by 4-6 inches and keep it moving back and forth horizontally. You do not want to leave it in one place too long as it will burn the vulcanite or cause it to bubble. (I have used it to also bend Lucite and the same is true with that material.) I check it often to see if it is pliable. It does not take very long, maybe 3-5 minutes, and the stem is very flexible and even begins to droop.

Once the stem is pliable I remove it from the heat and bend it over the same small glass spice jar, just as I did in the above methods. I hold the tenon end with one hand and the button with the other and then bend it carefully. Once the bend is correct I dip it in cold water or under running water in the sink to set the bend.

PLUS: The plusses of this method are also straightforward. It is quick, simple and clean. It allows you to bend multiple stems quickly. The stems do not oxidize with the heat or the cooling water. Since I got the heat gun this is method that has become my default method. The stem can go from being bent to being buffed and polished in short order. All of the work in removing oxidation and polishing can be done ahead of time and then when completed it polishes very quickly with a hand buff or on the buffer.

MINUS: The minuses are relatively few but significant. It is critical that the stem be kept the recommended distance from the tip of the gun as vulcanite does burn. It also blisters and bubbles. Take my word for it you do not want to do the work to repair a blistered or burnt stem. Worst case scenario it means recutting a stem. This is the most important minus. Be very careful. The second one is not nearly as critical, but important nonetheless. The soft and pliable vulcanite can easily twist when bending it, so be sure to use a round hard surface to bend the stem over. Also make certain the stem is flat and straight on the surface of the jar so that it is not crooked when bent. This is easily repairable but a pain nonetheless.

I have used all three methods have all been to bend stems. I have used them on both vulcanite and Lucite stems. The point of pliability under heat is slightly different between the two of the materials so times may vary. I am also working at sea level so that may also influence the times and heat points for the various methods. Give one or all of the methods a try. Let us know how it works for you. Post some pictures of the process and the finished pipe. Most of all enjoy yourself in the work of taking care of your own pipe and making its story your own.

Barling Garnet Grain Small Bent Billiard 2034 Given New Life

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this little Barling (transition era pipe so the Barling stamping is missing the “s” and is a script) in a lot I bought on EBay. It had a broken stem that was also chewed through on the end and not repairable. The tenon was still in the shank and was exceptionally tight. I put the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes and then used a screw to remove the broken piece from the shank. The key here is to not screw in the screw too much or you can crack the shank. I was able to easily pull it out as can be seen in picture 3. The finish on the bowl was rough on the top with tars and some denting. The sides of the bowl also had some denting. I cleaned the top of the bowl and removed the tars. I steamed the dents out of the top and bowl sides.

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I wiped down the bowl with acetone to remove the grime and the waxes that were on the finish. When I had finished I inspected the shank area because the drilling was off a bit in the shank and the walls were thin near the top left. There were small hairline cracks that went through several places and spidered up to about a 1/8 inch into the length of the shank. I glued those and pressure fit a nickel band on the shank.

I turned the tenon on a recycled stem I had here and fit it on the pipe. I used my Dremel to remove the excess material where the diameter of the stem was greater than that of the pipe. I kept the broken stem near at hand to match the diameter, the flow of the stem and the shape. I used it as a bit of a template to shape the new stem. The three pictures below show the process of shaping the stem from Dremel to hand sanding with 240 grit sandpaper.

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In the picture below I have finished the initial shaping with the sandpaper and have a good fit. You will notice the lightening of the shank below the band – that is part of the process of sanding to fit the band to the shank. I place the original stem below the pipe in the picture for comparison sake. It is a bit thinner in profile than the new one in this photo. I continued to sand the stem with 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and water to remove the remaining scratches and grooves that the 240 grit sandpaper left. Once I had them removed I proceeded to use the micromesh pads – 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit to sand the stem smooth. When I finished with those I buffed the stem with Tripoli and White Diamond and finished by returning to the micromesh pads -3200, 4000 and 6000 to polish it. One more trip to the buffer with White Diamond finished the polishing. I gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil and removed it and set it aside. It was time to work on the finish of the bowl.

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I used an oxblood aniline stain to match the stain to the original Garnet Grain colour. I have done this in the past and compared it to a very nice original Garnet Grain and the colour is a perfect match. Before staining I polished the bowl with the 3200 and 4000 micromesh pads avoiding the stamping on the pipe. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and then wiped it off, applied and wiped it off until I got the colour I wanted. I then flamed it and set it aside to dry. Once it was dry I put the stem on it and took it to the buffer and gave it a buff with White Diamond and carnauba wax.

In the first picture below I put the original stem in to show the damage to the underside near the button. I also put a 1 cent piece, a penny in to give perspective on the size of this diminutive billiard. I am very pleased with the overall look of the pipe. The finish came out as a perfect match to the original Garnet Grain colour.

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A Barling’s Frustration

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I had this old bowl in my box that just looked like a Barlings. I took it out and studied under bright light and a loop. It had the arched Barlings over Make. The other side was stamped EL and Made in England (I believe). It had a serious crack in the shank so I superglued it and banded it. This little pipe became the definition of frustration for me. It was a beautiful and I was incredibly hopeful when I cleaned it up and prepared it for the new stem I had cut for it. The grain was very nice and to find that it was an older Pre-transition Barling’s pipe was exciting. The bowl cleaned up very well. The shank and new band looked great. All that remained was to finish working over the stem for it.

About that time my wife came down to the basement where I was working on it and we decided to go for our Saturday morning walk about. We had planned to take the bus down to an area we like to visit and check out the antique shops. This is something that we both enjoy so I put the little Barling’s my pocket and brought along some sand paper to work on it while sitting and waiting for the bus. We had a good morning, went to the Vancouver Flea Market and even found a couple of older Peterson pipes that I picked up. We decided to have some lunch before going home so we walked over to a nearby Korean BBQ and ordered a nice lunch.

While we were waiting for our lunch I guess the pipe fell out of my pocket. I did not notice until the waiter stepped on something and I heard a crack. Well the long and short of it is when we sat down to lunch it had fallen out of my pocket and when the waiter stepped on it the shank cracked off just ahead of the band. I had a sick feeling as I picked up the pieces of the broken old timer. My visions of a nice older Barling’s Pot shape were pretty much crunched. I put the pieces on the table and looked them over as we continue to wait for the meal and I grumbled about my stupidity in not zipping the coat pocket and also about bringing it with me in the first place.

Once we had finished eating and headed home I had calmed down enough to think about what I would do with the pipe. I took the pieces to the basement work table and turned on a bright overhead light so that I could examine the damages. As I looked at the broken shank I could see that the wood was darkened, almost burned around the crack. It was almost as if the heat in the shank had found a flaw in the briar and followed it outward to the surface. It had not gotten all the way to the surface but was just under the outer layer of the finish. So it appeared that the crack was worse than I had imagined.

That helped me to get over being incredibly frustrated and disappointed in the broken shank. So I spent some time looking it over and decided I could work with it. I decided to turn it into a nose warmer. The saddle stem I had made was too small in diameter to fit so I had to cut another stem. I cut off the ragged edges of the break and used a piece of sandpaper on a solid board to face the shank again. I also drilled out the shank and opened it up enough to accept the new tenon. The tenon is a bit shorter than normal 5/8″ to allow a little difference between the opening in the bowl wall and the mortise. I re-banded the shank for a second time to strengthen the shank after the previous break. I fit the stem to the pipe and sanded and polished it to a shine. Then I buffed and waxed the “new” little pipe. I made it such that I can one day put a church warden stem on the bowl should I desire to do so. For now though it is a nose warmer with a short taper stem. Total length is 4 3/4 inches.

Here are some pictures of the finished pipe. I had pictures of the pipe before and after the break but somehow they were erased so this is all I have left to show. I hope you can imagine what it looked like with the new saddle stem before it broke. But if not, you can see the new version. I am also ordering a churchwarden stem for it so I can fit one of those to it as well. Should look great that way as well.

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Old Croydon-Reborn

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I have spent a bit of time on this old Croydon Bent (Peterson Line of seconds I believe). In fact I probably spent more time than I should have done, judging by other refurbishers throw away buckets. Sometimes I just have to see what I can make of an old tired ugly looking pipe. It is a challenge more than it is a labour of restoration. In fact it could probably be argued that when I am done with this one it really no longer should be considered a Croydon at all. I suppose it is a matter of how far one goes in the process of restoration before it becomes a totally new work of briar. In my mind this one would probably qualify for the removal of the name – or at least a hyphenated name CROYDON-REBORN.

When I received this one it was in pretty rough shape. In the pictures below you can see the state of the finish on the bowl. There were places where pieces of the lacquer finish were peeling away and falling off. The stain on the bowl was spotted and variegated. Even the many fills all over the bowl had shrunken significantly and what remained were dips and divots in the surface. The rim was one part of the pipe that was in pretty good shape. It had some tar build up and a bit of blackening but no nicks and dents. That is actually remarkable given the condition of the rest of the pipe. The silver shank cap was split in half and torn from the stem being jammed in and out of the bowl. The P-lip stem was also marked with tooth chatter, was oxidized and dented.

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I did not have any end caps in my collection of pipe odds and ends so I decided to put a regular nickel band on the shank as it was thin and weakened from the broken shank cap. I cleaned the shank end with alcohol and dried it out. I heated a band and pressure fit it on the shank. There was a small gap at the edge that I filled with wood glue to give stability to the shank. I probably should have waited to apply the band but the shank seemed fragile and I wanted to stabilize it before further work on the bowl.

I have never liked the thin Peterson type stems so I decided to restem it with a saddle fish tail stem. I used my PIMO tenon turner and turned the tenon close and sanded it to a good tight fit. I used my Dremel to take down the excess diameter of the stem and worked on the ridges and seams with the Dremel. I sanded the roughness of the new stem until it was smooth with 240 grit sandpaper followed by 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper and a bit of water. It was finished with the regular regimen of micromesh pads – 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 4000 and 6000 grit. The final polish was done on the buffer with White Diamond and carnauba wax.

The bowl was a major problem. I tried to strip the bowl using acetone and 99% Isopropyl alcohol and could not break through the finish – don’t what they coated it with but it would not let go. I resorted to sanding the bowl to try and remove the finish and sanded, sanded and re-treated it with acetone and alcohol. The finish was finally gone and I had a raw briar bowl with so many fills in it that it looked like it had freckles. I decided to try staining it with a dark brown stain to hide the fills and give it a good deep colour that was a bit opaque. Once it was dry I buffed it and polished it with wax. It looked really awful and I hated it!!! Soooo… I decided to rusticate it. I used my fist full of nails (pipe with nails inserted in it) to do the rustication that appears in the photos below. The previous coat of stain that I had applied helped with the process of rustication and I could clearly see where I needed to do a bit more work. This is when I wished that the band was not present as it would have been a bit easier to avoid contact with the band and the rusticator.

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Once the rustication was acceptable to me, and the pipe felt good in the hand I prepared it for staining. On this one that involved using the floral frog to knock off any loose chips of briar and to smooth out the surface before I wiped it down with a damp alcohol cloth. I also sanded the rim smooth and used the micromesh to get rid of any scratches. A smooth rim and a smooth spot around the Croydon stamping would look good on the finished pipe. I decided to go for an aged leather like finish on this pipe as it seemed to fit the shape and the look. I gave the pipe a coat of black stain as an undercoat and then buffed it off the high spots. I gave the entirety a coating of Fiebing’s Medium Brown for the top coat. I flamed it and after drying took it to the buffer for a light buff. I waxed it with Halcyon II and buffed it with a soft cloth to give it the final look. Below are pictures of the finished pipe. In my book it is a significant improvement over the original!

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The 1912 BBB Poker

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this old 1912 BBB Poker on EBay not long ago. It is stamped BBB in a diamond on the shank and on the underside England. The silver is hallmarked Birmingham 1912. It is a smaller group 1 or 2 sized pipe. In the pictures the military stick bit looked like it belonged. It looked like it was shipped that way from the factory. The grime on the silver and on the shank as well as the oxidation on the stem made it appear to be that style of pipe. When it arrived with the other 5 pipes that I bought with it I examined it a bit more closely. In the picture below you can see the roughness of the stem. It is definitely poorly cut. The closer I looked the more I realized that it was a poor replication of an older stem. A BBB pipe of this age came with a different style of military stem and it had an orifice button rather than a slot like this one. The stick bit was not original as it was a slotted bit and was not finished smoothly. There were lots of file marks on both sides of the stem. When I removed the stem I was even more certain that it was a poor copy. The one thing I was still thinking was that it was definitely spigot or military bit pipe.

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Then I began to work on the shank and the band. Someone had darkened the end of the shank to make it look almost black like the tarnished silver band. Once I cleaned the silver and cleaned the shank I could see that it was not a silver end cap at all but a very typical BBB silver band. In the picture below you can clearly see the end of the shank showing as it sits inside the silver band. I used a 1500 micromesh pad to clean off the end of the shank and return it to wood. When I re-stained the pipe I would also re-stain the shank end to match. It was clear that I would need to do a bit of research on what kind of stem was originally on this poker style pipe if I was to restore it to its original glory.

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I have a copy of the BBB Catalogue reprint from Gary Shrier so I got it out and went to work researching the look of the missing original stem. It became clear rather quickly that the pipe shape I had originally came with a taper stem with an orific button. In the catalogue is the exact shape in the exact size. I could not believe it. I laid the bowl on the page and then traced out the shape and size of the stem. A part of my hobby refurbishing is collecting old stems. I buy them wherever and whenever I find them and stockpile them in an old coffee can in my office. I went and got the can and emptied it on my desk to sort through what I had. I have yet to organize them by size so it is a matter of dumping the can out and digging through them. Well, I found one in my can of stems that had the right orifice button and the correct taper so I turned the tenon and fit the stem to the pipe. I used my Dremel to remove excess diameter from the stem so that it was the same diameter as the shank and band.

I also had to clean up the bowl of the pipe as the top was pretty beat up and the inside rim had been chipped and cut as if it had been carelessly reamed with a knife. I steamed the dents from the rim and carefully did a minor topping on the bowl to bring the top back to smooth and the inner and outer rim to smooth. I also chamfered or beveled the inner rim to bring it back into round. There were also dents on both sides of the bowl so I steamed those out as well. I use a wet cloth and a hot butter knife (heated over a flame) to raise the dents. I finished the work on the pipe by re-staining the top to match the bowl then buffed it and gave it a final polishing with White Diamond and then several coats of carnauba wax.

Here are pictures of the finished pipe. Other than being in colour it is a perfect match to the one in the catalogue.

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Edit – 24 Feb. 2013 – I just came across an old BBB poker on eBay that is similar to the one above. I did some research on the stem on the one above and restemmed it. The one in the eBay photos is a newer version of the same pipe number. I have attached two photos below for sake of comparison.

BBB Poker BBB Poker 2

Hot off the refurb desk

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This is one that I just finished refurbishing. It came in a box of pipe bowls that I was given that needed re-stemming. I cleaned and reamed it and removed the tars on the rim. The shank had a small crack in it that needed to be fixed so before I re-stemmed it I cleaned the outside of the shank with a cotton swab of acetone to remove any finish that was on the area that the band would cover. I measured the outer diameter of the shank, picked out a nickel band. Just before placing the band I put some super glue in the crack and let it dry. Once done I dabbed a bit of all purpose glue where the band would go and then heated band so that I could pressure fit it in place. I re-stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain to give it a more even finish. I buffed it with Tripoli and White Diamond before giving it a coat of wax. Then I laid it aside.

I found an interesting stem blank that would give the pipe a pleasing look to my eye. I turned the tenon with a PIMO tenon turning tool until it was a close fit and then did the rest of the work on the tenon with sand paper by hand. Once I had the tenon fitting snugly I took my Dremel to the outer diameter of the stem to bring it as close as possible to the diameter of the shank of the pipe. I finished the exact fit by hand with varying grades of sand paper. Upon completion of the fit I used 240, 400 and 600 grit sand paper to remove the scratches and then 1500,1800, 2400, 3200,4000 and 6000 micro-mesh sanding pads to finish the polish on the stem. I put the stem on the pipe and then took it to the buffer and did a final buff with White Diamond buffing compound on a mixed felt/flannel wheel. Remember never buff a stem without it being in place on the bowl or you will round the edges at the stem/shank connection.

Once I had the stem as smooth as I wanted I gave it a coating of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil and let it dry for half an hour and then buffed the entire pipe with a carnuaba wax buff.

Here is the finished product:

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