Tag Archives: sanding a stem

Respecting a Maligned Pipe, with Two Yankee Doodler Dandies as Examples

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

Oh I went down South for to see my Sal
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
My Sally is a spunky gal
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
Oh my Sal she is a maiden fair
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
With laughing eyes and curly hair
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
Fare thee well
Fare thee well
Fare thee well my fairy fey
For I’m going to Louisiana
For to see my Susyanna
Play polly wolly doodle all the day
― Beginning of “Polly Wolly Doodle,” author unknown

INTRODUCTION
The entire ditty, made famous by Shirley Temple’s iconic, vivacious wholesomeness in the super-duper 1935 movie “The Little Rebel,” goes on about a grasshopper that picks its teeth with a carpet tack and develops such a serious case of pertussis (the whooping-cough) that the unfortunate creature “sneezes” its head off in a well-turned euphemism. This is a U.S. contribution to songs taught to small children around the world, for some perverse reason, and ranks right up there with “Frère Jacques,” who is not asleep but dead from influenza, and “La Cucaracha,” the most common version of which touches on a cockroach unable to walk for lack of marijuana to fix it.

Still, the usage of the word doodle, which is not as common these days, illustrates the reason for the name of “The Doodler,” a pipe of some fame invented by Tracy Mincer, founder of Custom-Bilt, apparently sometime in the late 1950s or early ’60s. The line was perpetuated by the National Briar Pipe Co. after Mincer’s death in 1964 and was last made in 1980. The Oxford English Dictionary defines doodler as “one who draws or scrawls aimlessly,” hence the verb doodle for engaging in this activity (or lack thereof). That must have been how the innovator had his brainstorm. It seems Mincer had a sense of humor.

With something approaching their love of very few All-American wonders, including Mickey Mouse and Jerry Lewis, Frenchmen seem to have an affinity for The Doodler. (See http://www.pipephil.com/article-3285357.html, which should be translatable by your browser.) The author of the site calls this a “radiator” style. He also notes what he calls the brand’s unique look that he claims requires no special nomenclature or stem mark to identify one with certainty. But it just isn’t so. Take, for example, the following samples.

The Doodlers in this blog are of the type familiar to most of those pipe enthusiasts who have even heard of them. While I find beauty in many different forms, including those I restored and describe here, many of my friends, upon seeing The Doodlers for the first time, resort to evasions such as “Weird” and “I’ve never seen anything like this,” or more direct grimaces and even shudders in place of their true probable thoughts along the lines of “Ugly, ugly, ugly!” But as Margaret Wolfe Hungerford first paraphrased the ideas that many before her had suggested, in “Molly Bawn” in 1878: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” And all of The Doodlers do include a stamp, with a star on some stems.

Here are two of “The Doodlers” I could not resist buying online, for a good price, as they arrived in the mail. I had come across the peculiar pipe in scrolling through the listings on pipephil.eu under T for “The Everyman,” which referred me tersely to Everyman. But above it was “The Doodler.” Note the well-known ridges and patterns of holes drilled through the outer ridges of the bowls, which were intended to cool the pipes with air circulation, whether or not they in fact succeed in that purpose. An interesting sideline to this serendipitous discovery and mental note to acquire one was that the very next day, on my eBay homepage, I found a “suggestion” for The Doodler. I’m not sure I buy into one friend’s claim that it was the result of Google keeping track of my search history and offering up products to buy…but then again, the same thing does seem to be happening more often.

THE RESTORATIONS

The Saddle Stem Two-Ring Doodler

Neither of these stems was in bad shape other than one with some discoloration, but having determined to begin assuring even more thorough cleaning than I already have practiced the hard way, and knowing I had quite a few real messes awaiting restoration, I bought a tub of powdered OxiClean at the closest Walmart. My mentor, Chuck Richards, and others have recipes they prefer, but I have to start somewhere. I decided to begin this dual restoration with separate steps requiring two small Tupperware containers.

One, of course, was the OxiClean soak, for which I found instructions available on one website I located with clear directions. The other was for an Everclear strip of the old stains. And so – after filling one container with just enough warm water to cover the two stems and stirring in a little more than a tablespoon of OxiClean, and the other with a jar of used Everclear that was almost not enough to clear the tops of both bowls – I sat back and filled a pipe close at hand and relaxed for the next 20 minutes. And then while the briar dried and I finished the stem wash with cleaners and a scrubbing rag, I didn’t let those activities detract from my enjoyment of the fine tobacco. There seemed no good reason not to micromesh the saddle stem while I was at it. By the way, the foulness of the soapy water from the OxiClean soak gave me inner warmth only another restorer could understand.

Running a finger around the chamber before stripping the old stain, I knew the reaming and sanding would not be easy, but I hoped the pure grain alcohol soak would ease the job more than it in fact did. Although the inside of the bowl was somewhat smoother, and bits and even a chunk or two of cake came free with my second finger inspection, I realized the carbon buildup was not the true problem. The previous owner of this pipe had enjoyed it so often and with such complete faith in the professed cooling qualities of its unique radiator design that he overheated the chamber and created an even pattern of rather deep pocks.

Therefore I took my 21mm fixed reamer (the second largest) from its box and found that it embraced the chamber just short of close enough to serve as a measurement of its horizontal and vertical dimensions. Only the small square at the end to which the handle attached extended above the rim. I reamed the chamber a few times at different angles to cover all of it, emptying out the scant amount of carbon resulting as I progressed, and cleaned the inner briar with a small cotton cloth swab soaked in alcohol. Finding, as I expected, that the pocks were still prominent, I turned to a piece of 220-grit paper that removed more cake but had little impact on the smoothness. Turning to 150-grit, as I tend to do, I began to get somewhere, and after much tenacity and aurally irritating screeching achieved a level of regularity with which I could live, after a quick finish with 300.

I dipped a pipe cleaner in the Everclear and then ran in down through each vent hole to clear out more hidden dirtiness and scrubbed until they were clean.

The oddest part of this restore, to my thinking, was the difficulty of retorting after the thorough Everclear dip. The first round dredged up so much gunk that half of the shank leading to the draught hole was clogged to the point where the soft cleaner bunched up and would not pass. Each successive beaker brought out more dark nastiness, and the cleaners I passed through the shank as well as the small cotton cloths with which I scrubbed the chamber were filthy – until the last. I boiled the alcohol through the shank and into the bowl several times to be sure. When all was done, I had used seven beakers of Everclear, five soft cleaners, three cotton balls and as many cloth squares.

For the next step I wanted to clean up the bowl and shank to see what I had to work with. I used only a light rubbing with super fine steel wool. Happy with the ongoing progress, I took both pipes to Chuck at the shop.

He had no comment about the tapered three-ridge version, which on this rare occasion I understood meant it was looking okay. But I will never cease to be astonished by his ability to glance at a pipe for no more than two seconds and see all that is wrong with it. In this case he spotted a major horizontal crack within the upper ring of the saddle bit bowl, not to mention a minor crack. Without my magnifier glasses in the fluorescent light, I still could not see them until he held it beneath a certain ray of light. Then they were as clear as day, which it was. I suggested a mix of Super Glue and briar shavings, and Chuck concurred.

I was disappointed, not because of Chuck’s keen eyes and helpfulness in pointing out the serious flaw, but due to the fact that I had intended to keep the other and to my taste nicer Doodler for my own collection and offer the saddle bit for sale. Knowing then I could not in good conscience do this, I told him so.

“Sometimes that’s just the kind of trade-off you have to make,” Master Po pronounced with his big grin, chuckling that his Grasshopper was learning.

Returning later to my abode in Albuquerque’s War Zone, I sat on the couch that is my customary main work area and scrutinized the pipe.

I sanded the bottom of the tapered three-ridge bowl and collected the fine briar dust. Filling the cracks required two layers of the mixture, the second of which I applied more liberally. Getting into the groove with 300-grit paper to sand away the excess glue mix was a little tricky, and I thought I was done. However, after I sanded the yellowed areas and micro-meshed the whole thing using a full barrage of 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000, I saw the grooves needed harsher measures.

I broke out the 220-grit and paid as close attention as possible to the white areas of remaining glue, then repeated the previous micromesh procedure to the one groove. Success at last! I stained the wood with marine cordovan (burgundy) leather dressing, flamed it and used a very light touch of micromesh 3200. I then removed myself and the prepped briar to my official workroom, where I buffed the wood with white and red Tripoli, White Diamond and several coats of carnauba.

The Tapered Stem Three-Ring Doodler

This tapered, three-ring classic style model appeared, at least to my eyes that are still in training, to be in better shape than the saddle stem version, not counting the stem that was discolored, the rim that was more darkened and the chamber that seemed to have more severe damage. In general, those are all superficial defects easy to remedy. Still, I chose to start with the saddle stem pipe because of my perception that it would be more difficult – and in part due to its nomenclature being faint almost to invisibility, I was going to offer it for sale on my site at the lowest price I offer. But oh, did I learn how appearances can be deceiving, and this three-ring pipe turned into a three-ring circus!

First, I will start with the good news. The OxiClean soak cleared away the discoloration and most of the other crud inside and out of the stem, and the rest came clean and ready to buff with some firm rubbing of a soft cloth, minor spot sanding and regular micro-meshing.

The initial problem I encountered was stripping the old stain. I have seen this happen before, of course, but not with almost identical pipes soaked for the same time with such radical results. Even after soaking the tapered pipe another two hours, it came out not down to the briar with nothing but a few yellow spots like the other pipe but almost unfazed.

At least it was cleaner, in particular the rim and rings, and the chamber showed signs of improvement. Also, removing the remaining cake and evening the chamber walls was no problem. As with the saddle stem Doodler, I ran a couple of alcohol soaked cleaners downward through the vent holes and removed some leftover grime. Even the retort this time was more typical, needing only a couple of beakers of Everclear to be boiled through the stem and shank and into the chamber.

The pipe as shown above was almost ready for the buffing wheels. I hand-buffed it starting with super fine steel wool, particularly on the still somewhat blackened rim and a few areas that needed a little work on the remaining roughness from the Everclear soak. I then progressed with micromesh pads using 1500, 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000, with the results below shown only front and back. Of course I picked out the little piece of fluff visible in the front bottom ring.

The second Doodler was, indeed, ready to be stained. For the task I chose my Liebing’s brown leather stain, which is in fact a lighter shade than the Lincoln medium brown I have. Considering the large amount of residual original stain, but wanting to darken the briar a bit, I had a plan, if not yet the knowledge to carry it out to full effect. At any rate, I stained the bowl and shank as well as I could, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not work the applicator into the dratted grooves of the middle tier of smooth briar, although I was able to coat all three rings. Consulting my pictorial folder of the project that showed the original estate pipe, I noticed un-stained rings and grooves, and concluded I was ahead in the game, so to speak.

This was where I was mistaken. Have you ever had that feeling? The one that nags at you, whispering that despite all evidence to the contrary, there are the right way and the wrong, and this is definitely wrong? Yet still you didn’t follow your instincts?

Nevertheless, to make my act of self-destruction almost complete (there’s the modifier again – almost), I flamed the stain and eased off the char with 3200 micromesh before taking the pipe to the wheels. There I applied ever more beautiful coats of white Tripoli and red (to enhance the darkness of the grain) before White Diamond and a final coat of carnauba.

And so what, you might ask, was the major [expletive voluntarily deleted] malfunction with this tapered variant of The Doodler compared to the saddle stem? In short, the pipe that, to my eyes-in-training I mentioned before, appeared to be well used but more or less as its previous owner received it, had in fact been modified in a manner I did not detect. I very much suspect this pipe had only one prior owner, other than the conduit to me, after getting a close look at the crafty way he covered a ding that must have been, in tobacco pipe scale, comparable to a large patch of skin ripped from a person’s body.
And Chuck, when I showed him both pipes in progress before, pointed out the horizontal crack in the saddle stem pipe but appears to have assumed I was aware that the middle tier of smooth briar below the top ring was not made with the evenly spaced slots. I use the term “appears to have assumed” because of my utter inability to wrap my mind around the possibility that Chuck missed the alteration before he set it aside, especially considering his first words to me when I showed him the pipe I then hoped was finished. Again, I choose the word hoped because I was, at least, aware of the unstained grooves, and was hearing that shrewish voice again.

“Did you make this nick here?” Chuck asked, holding the pipe out to me and pointing, and puffing on his own pipe.

“No, it was there already,” I replied, not knowing where he was going. Surely he didn’t expect me to fashion and Super Glue a fragment of briar onto the tiny spot I beheld. Even he wouldn’t touch a blemish that small, I knew.

Chuck began to explain the situation to me, in his own way, which took me longer than usual to grasp. I felt like an idiot, although that was not Chuck’s intent. When at last I understood, a light went on in my mind.

“You mean someone, sometime slipped up and made a single gash in that area of the pipe and then, to fix his mistake, went around the bowl and made it uniform?” I said more than asked with a big smile of my own.

“Exactly!” Chuck said.

“Just like the way I had to rusticate the entire rim of the Italian No-Name Full Bent Billiard because of the one missing chunk,” I added by way of comparison.

“Yes!” Chuck exclaimed again, laughing and re-lighting his pipe. Then he brought up the missing stain and told me a small paint brush would do the trick.

And so to home I returned the first chance I had and, after lighting a bowl of tobacco, began the only other activity that has come to give me any real pleasure: restoring a pipe. Chuck’s advice to use a small brush did the trick, and I only had to stain, flame and fully buff the small circle of the truly prepped pipe. Still, I decided to add a couple more coats of carnauba to bring out an extra shine.

CONCLUSION
I forgot to mention the extra sanding of the rim and the top tier, making it lighter than the rest of the bowl and shank, and giving me the idea for a gentle two-tone effect. At this point in a rather long blog, I just don’t feel like going back to find and edit that part. These were not the easy restorations I thought they would be, and I’m tired…but very satisfied.

To Chuck, my friend and mentor, and Steve Laug, our host and my friend and frequent guide through the endless learning process, I owe much for these restores. Thank you, gentlemen.

Restoring a Wally Frank Natural Sun Cured Algerian Made Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This older Wally Frank Pot shaped pipe came in the same gift box as the little no named prince that I restored recently. In fact it was the second pipe in the photos included with the prince. It was a fairly decent piece of briar with one large fill on the top of the shank in the middle. The putty used was brown rather than pink coloured putty so it would blend fairly well. The briar was darkened from use with oils and dirt. There was a thick build up of tar and oil on the rim that was rock hard. The cake in the bowl was thick and hard. The stem was good quality vulcanite and did not have much oxidation. There were deep scratches around the stem near the stem shank junction. There were also flecks of metal in the vulcanite that makes me think that the pipe is a war years pipe as often the rubber stems were made from recycled tires. There was a slight buildup of calcium on the stem just ahead of the button. The tenon had an aluminum inner tube that sat ran the length of the shank and ended with a diagonal cut end in the bottom of the bowl.

The next three photos show the stamping on the pipe. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank Natural over Sun Cured and on the right side Wally Frank Ltd. On the underside of the shank it was stamped Second and Made in Algeria. I have seen plenty of pipes that were stamped Algerian Briar but this is the first stamped Made in Algeria that I have seen.

The next photo is a close-up of the rim and bowl. It shows the cake and the build-up on the rim as well as the inner tube sitting in the bottom of the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to the head that was the same diameter as the bowl. I reamed the bowl back to bare wood and wiped down the inside of the bowl with cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the dust that remained in the bowl. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and rim with acetone on cotton pads. I scrubbed until the oils and dirt were gone from the bowl and the rim was clean. There was some nice grain showing on the bowl – cross cut on the side and birdseye on the front and back.

I sanded the stem and shank with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches around the stem at the junction. I sanded both the shank and stem with medium and fine grit sanding sponges. I sanded the bowl and rim with a fine grit sanding sponge. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. The shank was remarkably clean considering how caked the bowl was. I wonder if the inner tube was not responsible for that. The next two photos show the pipe along with the no name prince that I recently restored. Both had a natural finish that probably was oiled originally.

I decided to rub this pipe down with olive oil as I did the prince. I rubbed on the oil with a paper towel and let the wood absorb it. I wiped off the excess and hand rubbed it until the wood had a rich glow.

I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to give it a shine and then gave it a coat of carnauba wax. I then worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads.

I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond and worked it over the stem and bowl until the feel was smooth. I also buffed it with Blue Diamond. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

A Fresh Start for a no name Imported Briar Prince

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a little prince with no stampings other than Imported Briar on the left side of the shank. It has the characteristic worm trail carvings that were used in days gone by to cover imperfections in the briar. I have never been a fan of these carvings and would much rather have had the original sand pits or rough areas exposed. This pipe had a natural finish – unstained. It looked like it had originally sported and oil finish. The rim was damaged and had a small crack that went into the surface across the top right front edge. The transition between the stem and the shank was not smooth. The vulcanite stem was higher than the briar on the underside and the sides of the shank. The stem itself was made of good quality vulcanite and was not oxidized and did not have tooth marks or chatter.

The next photo shows a close-up of the rim surface and gives a clear picture of the crack on the rim. It looks far worse than it actually was. The crack did not go too deeply in to the rim surface. It certainly was there and went into the bowl on the inside and into the worm trails on the outside of the bowl. I figured I could top the bowl and remove most of the cracked portion. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the cutting head that was closest in diameter to the bowl. I reamed it back to bare wood so that I could examine the crack on the inside edge of the rim. I topped the bowl on a topping board using 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted to remove as much of the damaged area as possible without altering the profile of the pipe.

I cleaned of the rim with isopropyl alcohol to remove the sanding dust. I dripped some clear superglue into the shallow surface of the remaining crack in the rim. I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. Once the glue dried I topped the rim a final time to remove the excess glue and smooth out the rim. I also wanted to remove a bit more of the damaged area.

Over the years when I have come on pipes with the worm trail carvings I have decided to highlight them since I cannot hide them. I have never liked them but figured why pretend that they are not present. I use a black permanent marked to trace the carving in the trails. I go over the carvings until the black has a good coverage on the surface of the carvings. At this point in the process it always looks quite stark against the lighter reddish brown of the briar but once I am finished it looks far better in my opinion.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad a final time to clean off the dust and to clean up the markings from the Sharpie.

Since this pipe originally had a natural finish – possibly oil finish I decided to return it to that state. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil.

I have read others talk about the oil going rancid on the briar but I have never had that happen. Rather, I have found that when I rub it on to the surface of the briar and rub it in by hand the heat of my hands rubbing it quickly cause the oil to be absorbed and the result is that the grain is highlighted and the briar has a rich reddish brown hue once it is buffed and polished.

I sanded the shank stem junction earlier in the process with 220 grit sandpaper and also with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I sanded the entire stem in the process of adjusting the fit with the shank. I now used the micromesh sanding pads to polish the stem. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and also sanded the bowl and shank at the same time. I dry sanded the stem, shank and bowl with 3200 -12,000 grit sanding pads. The bowl and the stem began to take on sheen with each successive step up in grit of micromesh pad. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and continued to sand until the stem was finished. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and gave the bowl a final wipe down with olive oil on the towel to remove any sanding dust from the polishing.

I buffed the stem and bowl with White Diamond on the wheel and then gave both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe to a shine with a soft flannel buffing wheel. The finished pipe is shown below. You know, on this one after the refinish, the worm trails don’t look too bad!

I decided to take a lesson from Andrew Selking and his pipe photos for the final pictures of the pipe. His signature is the nice piece of drift wood in the photos. I don’t have one of those but I do have an old cast iron frog that my grand dad gave me years ago. I decided to use it as a prop in the photos to hold up the pipe.

Restemming & Working on New Staining Techniques on a Mastercraft Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

Part 1: Fitting a Stem

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

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

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

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

Part 2: The Staining Experiment

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion: Finishing Touches

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

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

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

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Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restemming and Restoring The Albany Pipe by ?Orlik?

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Put Up Your Ducs: Restoring a Meer-Lined Le Duc

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Blog by Anthony Cook

I recently completed work on this meerschaum-lined Le Duc pipe. It has a paneled bowl and a shape that sits somewhere between a squat egg and an elongated apple. It’s stamped simply, “LE DUC” on the left side of the shank and “1” on the right side, which I assume is the shape code. The stem is horn with an aluminum tenon and a twisting, screw-in stinger. This pipe presented me with a number of firsts. I had never worked with panels, meer-linings, or horn stems. So, I knew this one would be fun. It’s been difficult to dig up anything conclusive on the history of the Le Duc brand. Both Pipephil and Pipedia come up empty, and a Google search reveals very little more other than a couple of links to an estate pipe that was once available for purchase from Amazon and eBay (the same pipe at both sites). That pipe is the only other example of a Le Duc that I have been able to find. The previous owner of this one did mention that it was from the Netherlands. So, it’s possible that it’s somehow associated with Gubbels.

I posted pictures of the pipe on Pipe Smoker Unlimited and asked if anyone had any more information. General consensus was that it is a French-made pipe, but that’s about as far as it went. Due to some slight shaping errors that I found in both the stummel and stem, I’m willing to bet that it’s somebody’s seconds brand. Though, I’m not quite willing to bet all of my marbles on a particular country of origin yet. So, if anyone out there has any insight into the brand, please don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments section.

There were a few small scratches and dents on the surface of the lacquer-coated stummel. The worst of which was a series of more than a dozen nicks on one back panel. The narrow surface of briar around the rim was lightly scratched, but didn’t appear to be charred. A thin layer of old tar covered both the meer and the briar on the back of the rim.

The chamber was lightly caked, mostly in the top two-thirds. The meerschaum lining was by and large intact, but roughly a third of it had been broken out of the heel of the bowl around the draft hole. A crack in the remaining meer ran around the circumference of the heel and I could not for life of me figure out what was holding the rest in. I planned to eye this area with suspicion while I worked.

Some light chatter was present on both sides of the stem and there were a couple of shallow tooth impressions on the top. Someone had also chosen to add a dash of white paint to the bottom of the button, apparently for contrast and flair.

Overall, things could have been better, but I’ve seen much, much worse. The photos below should give you a better idea of the condition of the pipe when I started work.

(By the way, that dark spot in the photo above is not a natural coloration. It’s tar build-up showing through the translucency of the horn. More on that later.)

The first thing I did was remove the nasty, tar-caked stinger, which wasn’t easy. The build-up had pretty much glued it into place. I dripped alcohol around the joint until the tar had softened enough that I could unscrew it. Then, I dropped the stinger into a small container of alcohol to soften the remainder of the gunk.

While the stinger detoxed, I attempted to remove the schmutz along the rim with good ol’ cotton pads, saliva, and elbow grease, but I found it to be too stubborn. Since I needed to address the scratched in the briar along the rim anyway, I lightly topped the bowl with 320 and 400-grit sandpaper until both the tar and scratches were gone. The cake in the chamber was light but very hard. I started removing it by sanding out with 320-grit paper. Once most of it had been removed, I switched to 400-grit to finish it off. Unfortunately, like William Butler Yeats wrote, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;” and as careful as I was, the remaining bottom of the meer liner was sacrificed during the cake removal process. Of course, I wasn’t at all surprised. I think the cake was the only thing holding it in to begin with. After removing most of the cake, I checked back in with the gummy stinger. The alcohol had softened the tar enough that the majority of it could be removed with cotton swabs and a pipe cleaner. The crud in the air slot was still pretty firm, however, and I had to use a pick to scrape it out before I could scrub it clean with a pipe cleaner. I followed with some #0000 steel wool along most of its length. The aluminum is very soft. So, I maintained a very light pressure and avoided the threaded end. Then, I started scrubbing out the inside of the shank with isopropyl alcohol and a few shank brushes, cotton swabs, and pipe cleaners. Let me tell you, this was one dirty Duc. The tar was built up into peaks and ridges that seemed to rival the Himalayas. Removing the crud in the shank was less like cleaning and more like heavy landscaping.

Eventually, it did start to come clean and I was surprised to discover a cork gasket in the mortise that I hadn’t noticed before. It was quite worn and seemed to be deteriorating with age. I found a similarly colored, dry dust around the tenon and also clogging the airway of the stem that I assumed to be detritus from the crumbling cork. There still remained enough of the gasket to give the stem a fairly snug fit, though, and I didn’t have anything at hand for a proper replacement. So, I decided to leave it for the time being to give it some thought. Cleaning the stem internals was no more fun than the shank had been. It was completely clogged and would by no means pass a cleaner. To open it up, I had to drip alcohol into the tenon, wait for it to soak in, and then gouge the softened tar with a straight pick. Rinse and repeat all the way down. The process was a bit like mining, except there was no prospect of gold or precious jewels. When I finally broke through the button end, the sludge that came pouring out looked for all in the world like black squid ink. It actually cleaned up pretty quickly after that and you can see it for yourself in the photo below. Notice that the dark spot on the stem that I referenced earlier has lightened considerably after cleaning. The more I thought about the mortise gasket, the more I knew that I couldn’t leave it be. It was clearly on its last legs and I started to worry about the taste that might be imparted to the smoke by the years of tar soaking into the cork. I still didn’t have a solid solution, but I learned years ago with my first car that anything can be easily disassembled. If you want to continue using it though, you’ll have no choice but to figure out a way to put it back. With that in mind, I decided to remove the gasket.

I picked through my selection of drill bits until I found one that was a perfect match for the job. It was almost exactly the diameter of the mortise. So, I could insert it and rotate it by hand to remove the gasket without any fear of it scraping the briar. Afterward, I very carefully sanded the mortise with 400-grit paper wrapped around a pencil end to remove the remaining cork and glue. The photo below shows the mortise just after using the bit. I gave a lot of thought to how best to replace the gasket and experimented with a couple of different materials. Surgical tubing used as a sleeve fitted over the tenon had the longest legs at this stage. I found that tubing with a 1/32” wall would kind of work, but was much too tight of a fit and put far too much stress on the mortise. My ideas were just about exhausted. I began to consider drilling out the mortise to accommodate the tubing sleeve, but that was something that I really didn’t want to do. Then, I remembered that I had some marine heat shrink tubing that I’ve barely ever used. I gave it a try out of desperation. Perfect fit! Since it’s the marine quality stuff, it has adhesive on the inside to keep it from slipping. I made sure to use a piece without any printing because that would just be ugly. With that problem out of the way, I turned my attention back to the stummel. I stripped the lacquer coat off the bowl by wiping it down with acetone and cotton pads. It was quite stubborn in areas. So, I had to use #0000 steel wool to remove it in a few spots. When the bare wood was exposed it was much easier to tell which of the surface blemishes would require special attention. I then clamped the stummel in my bench vice to prepare it for the first step in removing the blemishes. I used some soft foam between the stummel and the vice jaws to protect the wood. Then, I set up my steaming kit, which includes a tea candle, a flat-blade screwdriver, a cotton cloth, and a container of water. I wet the cloth and placed it over the surface dents. Then, I heated the blade of the screwdriver and applied it to the cloth. A hiss and a tiny puff of steam later and the dents were on their way to being level with the rest of the surface. It took multiple applications of steam to raise the nicks along the back of the bowl. The edges were sharp. So, they weren’t removed completely, but they were raised enough to make them much easier to deal with when sanding. All in all, the steam treatment did a great job and would save a lot of time and material later. I addressed the remaining nicks and scratches by sanding them out. I used 220-grit paper on the deepest ones to knock them down until they were barely visible. Then, I used 320-grit to completely remove them along with some of the minor scratches. I followed that with 400-grit to blend those areas into the rest of the surface. The next order of business was to repair the damage in the chamber. The meer liner sits like a cup inside the bowl and there had been a slight gap between the bottom of the liner and the heel of the bowl. So, with a section of the liner completely missing at this point, there was a significant gap between the draft hole and the bottom of the chamber. I decided to use a two-stage mud application to build up the bottom and replace the missing lining.

In stage one; I ran a pipe cleaner through the shank and slightly into the bowl to protect the airway. Then, I mixed up a batch of what I like to call “pipe tar” and applied a small amount to the bottom of the chamber with my pipe tool. Pipe tar is equal amounts of activated charcoal and FFFF-grade (very fine) powdered pumice mixed with just enough sodium silicate (waterglass) to give it a tar-like consistency. It’s very sticky and sets up quickly. So, it can be difficult to work with when fresh. It clings like ivy, though, and it can be applied in fairly thick layers without developing cracks while it dries. This makes it an excellent choice for building up the bottom of a chamber. It takes about three days to fully cure, but once it has, it is as hard as concrete and just as porous. However, due to its hardness it’s extremely difficult to sand. So, I’ve learned that it’s best to use it sparingly.

In stage two; I again secured the airway with a pipe cleaner, and then mixed up a batch of more traditional pipe mud. The recipe is largely the same, except that I used water instead of sodium silicate for the mix. Although, I did add a drop or two of sodium silicate to act as a binder and to give it a little more “stick”. The mud has a more paste-like consistency than the tar and is slightly gritty. I used my pipe tool to apply the mud around the edges of the heel, and then shaped it to round out the bottom. It takes a full day to dry. Once it has, it’s a bit softer and easier to sand smooth than the tar. The photo below was taken shortly after applying the mud. I wasn’t idle during all of that drying. I took the opportunity to get some work done on the horn stem while I was waiting. As I’ve said, this was my first time working with horn and it was quite different from any other stem material that I have encountered.

I started by leveling out the chatter with 220-grit paper. The horn turned out to be much softer than I expected. So, I used a very light touch to avoid removing too much material. Next, I applied a thin patch of clear CA glue to the tooth impressions at the top. The dents were small and very shallow. So, instead of dripping glue directly on the stem, I put a couple of drops on a cardboard surface. Then, I used a flat toothpick to pick up small amounts of glue and applied it to the stem. When the glue had dried, I sanded the patches down with 220-grit paper. I began blending them in with 320-grit followed by 400-grit. I rubbed the stem down with a drop of mineral oil between each grit to keep the fine fibers from splintering. Once the patches were blended, I again rubbed the stem down with mineral oil and lightly sanded the entire surface with 600-grit and 1200-grit to remove a few faint scratches and smooth it out. Finally, I polished with 1500-12000 micromesh pads with an application of mineral oil between each progression of three grits.

I had no idea when I began working with it that this stem would turn out like it has. When the light hits the stem, the translucency gives it a soft glow. I am completely in love with it and ready to replace all of my stems with horn. The polished stem can be seen in the two photos below (although they don’t do it justice).

With the stem work completed, it was time to get back to the chamber. The tar and mud repair had cured. So, I used a finger to sand the patch smooth with 400-grit paper. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten to take any photos at this stage. I get caught up in the work sometimes. No worries. You can see the final patch in the photos of the completed pipe.

There was nothing left to do then but to work on the finish. I was very nervous about staining around the meer liner. The briar around the rim was so narrow that it seemed impossible to stain it without touching the meerschaum. So, I made an attempt to protect it by smearing a little petroleum jelly over the surface of the meer with a toothpick. I began staining by applying a rather sloppy coat of Fiebing’s medium brown dye thinned 3:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I used a size 10/0 filbert brush to paint over the grain. I made sure to leave several open and unstained areas to provide some contrast. Normally, I would heat the briar before doing this, but I didn’t want to melt the petroleum jelly into the meer. So, I made do.

After application and flaming, I wiped the rim clean and realized that the petroleum jelly had been a mistake. It had given the meer a slight yellow stain. I scrubbed it out as best I could with a couple of cotton swabs lightly dampened with alcohol, but some of it still remains. Oh, well. Lesson learned. I won’t be doing that again.

I finished this step by hand-buffing the stummel with a cotton cloth to remove the excess stain. You can see the results in the photo below. Next, I lightly sanded the entire surface with 600-grit paper before using a size 20/0 liner brush to make a more specific application of dark brown dye thinned 3:1 with alcohol. I used this sparingly, since I just wanted to add some depth to a few areas in the grain. After flaming the stain to set it, I hand-buffed the stummel with a cotton cloth again. Obviously, I skipped the petroleum jelly this time. It turns out that it was unnecessary anyway. The liner brush did a great job of precisely applying the stain to the rim. The stummel was sanded with 1200-grit paper, which I followed with 1500, 1800, and 2400-grit micromesh pads. Then, I gave it one, final coat of stain. This time I used light brown thinned to the same ratio as the previous applications. I used a cotton swab to apply it to the entire stummel, except for around the rim where I used the liner brush. I gave it a final hand-buff to achieve the results in the photo below. To finish up the work on this pipe, I polished the stummel with the remaining pads in the micromesh series. I then gave it a light buff and a few coats of wax to seal the deal.

I think this one turned out quite nice. There is a “warmth” to the pipe that is difficult to describe. It was also a pleasure to work on a pipe that did not require any major modifications to facilitate repairs for a change (repairs to the bowl lining notwithstanding). You can see the final pipe for yourself in the photos below.

A Kaywoodie Supergrain 5102 Poker Clean Up

7 Replies

Blog by Troy Wilburn

I got this pipe in a lot of pipes I received from a friend on Facebook. It’s a pre 1936 four digit (5102) stamped poker with the 4 hole stinger. It was in terrific shape, so being at least 78 years old I wanted to keep it as original as possible. I basically just gave it a good cleaning with little else needed.

Here is the pipe before:

I scraped out old cake (which there wasn’t much of) and gave the shank a good cleaning. I cleaned off all the old grime with a cotton ball and a small amount of Oxy Clean mixed with warm water. I cleaned the rim with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab followed by scrubbing it with oxy/water with a Scotch Brite pad. Mineral oil will bring the color back out.

I soaked the stem and stinger in isopropyl alcohol for about 45 minutes to loosen up the stuff on the stinger. I cleaned stinger and inside stem with steel wool and isopropyl alcohol. Once finished with the scrubbing it was ready for wet sanding.

I had to file out some very minor tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button. With the bowl cleaned and stem wet sanded I put the pipe back together for inspection. I wiped down the pipe and stem with mineral oil to condition wood, bring color back out and then did some final inspecting before buffing. Once the oil absorbed into the wood and vulcanite it was ready for a little buffing.

Here is what the pipe looked like after I was finished.

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

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Easy Restoration – A Dr. Plumb Flat-Grip 422 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

After the latest struggle with the Savinelli I decided to work on one that I thought would be an easy restoration. But given my track record with the last one I was not sure. Time would tell if it would be easy or if the work on it that I did would make it hard. This little billiard came to me in the gift box of pipes to rework. It is stamped on the right side of the shank Dr. Plumb in a script over – Flat-Grip. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shaper number, 722. On the underside of the shank there is a horizontal stamping next to the stem that reads FRANCE.

The pipe was in good condition. The finish was dirty but had no damage. There was one fill on the bowl on the back right side. The stain was even and not faded at the shank stem union or on the sides of the bowl. The rim had some build up and darkening but did not have damage to either the inner or outer edges. It had a slight bevel inward to the bowl that is often found on older billiards of this era. The shape bore all the marks of the GBD line that is sprung from. My guess is that the one fill on the back right moved it from the GBD line to the Dr. Plumb line. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. The bowl was caked and had a few spots that looked like mould on the inside of the bowl. I scraped one and looked at it under the light to see if it was mould. For all intents and purposes it was. Now the question was how deep into the cake did it go and would a complete ream of the bowl remove it from the pipe. Maybe this pipe would not be as easy a restoration as I had thought.

The stem had the Dr. Plumb red dot on the top of the stem with the word PLUMB stamped over the top in white. The Plumb stamping on the stem would need to be touched up.

I have included two close-up photos of the bowl rim and the white mould in the bowl. I was very curious to see if a good ream would remove it. Would the mould go deeper into the bowl than the cake? Would it be in the briar itself? I certainly hoped not but a reaming would disclose the depth of the problem.

I reamed the cake back to bare wood. I wanted to remove all signs of the mould. I scrubbed off the cutting head before putting it away. I examined the bowl to make sure I had removed all of the signs of the mould. The wood was clean and bare. It was so it looked as if the mould had only been on the surface. I scrubbed the surface of the walls with alcohol and cotton swabs to make sure that none of the spores survived.

I scrubbed the darkening and build up on the rim with cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove it. I use cotton swabs with alcohol as a follow up on the rim and when I was finished the rim was dull but clean.

I scrubbed out the shank with cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners to clean out the airway in the mortise and the stem. I put the stem back in the mortise and took a few photos of the pipe at this point.

The Dr. Plumb Flat Grip stem is unique in its design. It has a different style of taper that allows it to have what GBD called a flat surface. Instead of a crowned, rounded stem top and bottom there were slight taper from the edge of the surface to the side of the stem on all sides top and bottom. On this stem these were slightly rounded from use. I used a 220 grit sandpaper to break through the surface of the oxidation, remove the tooth marks and chatter and also clean up these tapered edges.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches and clean up the stem surface further. I wet sanded the stem with 1500 grit micromesh and then used a liquid paper/Whiteout to touch up the PLUMB stamping on the top near the shank.

I put the plastic washer on the tenon and inserted it into the shank so that I could sand the edge without rounding the shoulders of the stem. I sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the light oxidation that still remained on the shoulders. I repeated the wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I rubbed it down a final time and let it sit until it was absorbed into the vulcanite.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond to finish polishing it and raise the shine. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to finish the stem.

I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and Blue Diamond to polish the briar and stem. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is cleaned and there is no sign of the mould that once was in the bowl. The pipe smells clean and new. It is ready to load up and smoke the first bowl.

rebornpipes

reclaiming old and worn estate pipes

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An Easy Restoration – A Dr. Plumb Flat-Grip 422 Billiard

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