Tag Archives: Scandia Pipes

Restoring a Lovely Danish Pickaxe

2 Replies

Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a beautiful Danish pipe from Scandia. This terrific pipe came to me from an antique shop in the Fraser Valley (an area to the east of Vancouver). The price was reasonable, so I had to have it. The pipe is beautiful and a great example of Danish pipe-making. The pipe is a Danish pickaxe pipe by Scandia, produced from the esteemed pipemaker, Stanwell. The pickaxe is a very attractive shape and this one is no exception. It really makes an impression. It has beautiful, sandblasted briar from the bowl, down the shank and transitions into the vulcanite ferrule. It also has a fantastic push stem. The underside of the shank reads Scandia [over] Made in Denmark. There is a faint marking on the ferrule, which appears to show “10” or possibly “1C”. I don’t think this is a shape number, for reasons I will explain momentarily. Finally, the stem’s top also has the SC, indicating the Scandia make. Both Pipedia and Pipephil list Scandia as being a Stanwell sub-brand or second (and not much else), as per the photo below.Meanwhile, Pipedia has a good amount of information on the Stanwell brand and its history. I certainly recommend looking it over: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell.Despite the (possible) number 10 on the ferrule, I went to check the list of Stanwell shapes, here on Reborn Pipes, and I found that this definitely did not match. However, I did find something that was a match! Shape 1b is listed as “Freehand, Pick Ax, push mouthpiece, by Sixten Ivarsson. (1975)”. To further confirm this, here is a page from an old 70s or 80s Stanwell catalogue which clearly shows the same shape of pipe with the matching shape number. I think we can safely assume that this is a pickaxe, designed by the legendary Sixten Ivarsson.Anyway, this really is a good-looking pipe. No major issues to resolve – just a few minor ones. The stem was dirty, and some small scratches. There were a couple of significant bite marks, as well as some oxidation and calcification on the vulcanite. The rim on the stummel was blackened and burnt – that would need to be addressed. The insides were fairly dirty and would need some work to clean out. There was also a small nick along the inside edge of the rim. The stem was first on my list. I wiped down the outside of the stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the bite marks and dents. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work, but I have ways of sorting this out. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.Once this process was done, I used SoftScrub and cotton pads to wipe down the stem before throwing it in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover overnight. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess and again scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. This worked well. I used some nail polish to restore the letters SC on the stem. I painted the area carefully and let it fully set before proceeding. These letters were too worn to be fully restored, but they definitely looked better after I worked on them.Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dents on the stem with cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure.I used my miniature files to ensure that the repairs keep the shape and look like they should. I then sanded the stem down with 220-, 400-, and 600-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I did the same to the remaining tooth marks. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.I repeated all of the above procedures for the vulcanite ferule, which only came off the stummel after applying heat and some gentle force. On to the stummel, and the usual cleaning procedures were in order for this pipe. I used both the PipNet Reamer and the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake and take the bowl down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was lots of filth inside this stummel, and it took a good number of pipe cleaners etc. to sort that out. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some cotton pads. That removed any latent dirt. I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells of the past. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.As I mentioned earlier, there were some small burn marks on the rim of the stummel that also needed to be addressed. Some of this was removed by the Murphy’s. For the burns that remained, I took some oxalic acid on a Q-tip and rubbed and rubbed. As you will see, the treatment worked reasonably well and the rim was improved. Some would remain, but that is part of the history of this pipe. I completed this step by gently sanding the interior rim edge to remove any remnants that remained. Then I addressed the nick on the rim by filling it with cyanoacrylate adhesive and briar dust. I sanded it down and made it look great. After this, the entire stummel was treated to a rub-down with all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit). A light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s sandblast. There is some beautiful wood on this Danish pipe! In fact, as I was working, my youngest child came to watch me for a bit and said, “Is that a doggy?” I wasn’t sure what she meant, but she grabbed the stummel and pointed this out. That’s pretty funny!I glued the ferrule back I place and then it was off for a trip to the buffer. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of conservator’s wax were just what this pipe needed. I had to be especially careful with the bench polisher, since the edges had a tendency to catch on the buffing wheels. This pipe was a delight from the start and its beauty only increased through the restoration process. This pipe is elegant, light, and incredibly comfortable to hold. Finally, I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Danish’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the Stanwell are as follows: length 5½ in. (140 mm); height 2½ in. (64 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (41 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (47 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

This Made in Denmark Scandia Volcano 770 was a tired looking pipe

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one that was also at the bottom of the box of pipes I am working on. It is a Stanwell made Scandia sandblast pipe – a 770 Volcano shape with an oval tapered stem. The volcano shaped bowl, oval shank and taper stem made up a nicely shape pipe. The sandblast though dirt and grime showed some interesting colour mixes and the blast was very interesting.  It was stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank and read SCANDIA over Made in Denmark and the shape number 770. The finish was very dirty with a heavy coat of grime ground into the sandblasted bowl and rim top as can be seen in the photos. There dust in all of the deep crevices of the blast. The bowl had a thick cake with a heavy lava overflow on the sandblasted rim top. There was too much lava on the rim top and edge to know what they looked like but more would be revealed once it was cleaned. The stem was oxidized and there were deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides and on the top and bottom edges of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up so you could see what we saw. Jeff took photos of the rim top to show lava build up around the rim, the edges and cake in the bowl. The lava actually had filled in some of the nooks and crannies in the sandblast.   Jeff took some photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the absolutely dirty finish ground into the sandblast. It was a dirty pipe but I think it will be a beautiful one once we are finished.  The stamping on the underside of the shank is shown in the photos below. It is clear and read as noted above.  There was nothing stamped on the top of the stem. The stem was a good fit to the shank. It was oxidized, calcified and had debris stuck to the surface of the vulcanite. It also shows the tooth marks on the stem and on the button surface.  I had in my memory the thought that the Scandia brand was a Stanwell second so I quickly turned to Pipephil’s website to check it out (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s4.html). I am including the following screen capture.It was my turn to work on the pipe now. I was really looking forward to what the pipe would look like once Jeff had worked his magic. What would the rim top look like? What would the dirty sandblast on the bowl look like? I had no idea. When I took it out of the box I was struck great job cleaning up the pipe Jeff had done. It was impressive! He had reamed the pipe with a Pipnet piper reamer and taken the cake back to bare briar. He cleaned up the remaining cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer. He washed the stem off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it.   I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem to show how clean they were. You can see that there is still some darkening to both the briar rim top and inner edge. The stem is clean and the tooth damage on both sides is very clear in the photos.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The stamping is readable as noted above. There is also the expected inset brass bar on the left side of the saddle.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. It really is a beautifully shaped pipe.I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the darkening on the briar rim top. I wiped down the entire bowl with alcohol and used a brass bristle wire brush to work over the darkened areas on the bowl top.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the crevices of the sandblast. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm.     I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the deep dents in the surface. The dents on the top side lifted well. The underside was better than before. The button edge on the top was rough.    I filled in the remaining indentations and built up the top and bottom of the button with clear super glue. Once the repair cured I used a needle file to reshape the button edges and also flatten the repaired areas. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to finish the shaping and to remove the remaining oxidation. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil before further polishing it.   I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem.   This interestingly stained sandblast Stanwell Made Scandia 770 Volcano with a taper vulcanite stem turned out very nice. The mix of brown stains highlights the nooks and crannies of the sandblast around the bowl sides and bottom. The darkening on the rim top does not look too bad and adds a bit of contrast to the light coloured stain and the dark highlights. The finish on the pipe looks much better. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Volcano is very nice and feels great in the hand and can be used as a sitter with the wide base. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. It is a nice pipe whose dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interesting in adding it to your collection let me know! Thanks for your time.

Restoring and Replacing a Broken Tenon on a Scandia 263 Danish Freehand

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I am currently not taking on anymore restoration work from the internet or groups that I am part of on Facebook because of the large amount of estate pipes that I am working on to sell. But I have my name in at a local pipe shop here in Vancouver, British Columbia to do repair work for the shop as it comes in. there are no other pipe repairers in Western Canada that I am aware of so I feel a bit of an obligation to take care of these folks as they come. Fortunately there are not a lot of referrals but periodically they get pipemen or women stopping by with work – that is where I come in. They give them my number and email and then the repair work is between us. On Wednesday this week I received an email from one of their customers, Ron in Victoria, B.C. about a pipe that had been dropped and had a broken tenon. He described the broken stem and that left me with some questions. I had him send me photos of the broken pipe so I would be sure to have a clear picture of the issues. He said that the shank was not cracked and really the only issue was the tenon. He send the photos below so I could see what he was speaking of. Not too big an issue really – a cleanup and tenon replacement and the pipe would be good to go.After our emails back and forth he put it in the mail to me. It arrived on Friday and I took it out of the box to see what I was going to be dealing with on this pipe. Descriptions and photos are one thing but I like to have the pipe in hand to examine for myself. This is what I saw. The pipe was dirty and dull looking. There was some faint stamping on both sides of the shank. It was stamped Scandia over Made in Denmark on the left side and had the shape number 263 on the right side. There was a very uneven cake in the bowl that was crumbling. The tenon had snapped off almost smooth against face of the stem. The stem had some tooth marks and was oxidized. There was a faint SC on the left side of the saddle. It appeared that someone had tried to glue the tenon back on the stem – unsuccessfully. There was a lot of sloppy glue on the end of the stem and tenon. I took some photos of the pipe as it looked when it arrived. He had taped the broken tenon on the underside of the stem. The bowl itself was dirty with a crumbling cake about half way up the bowl from the bottom. The plateau rim top had tars and some darkening on the right top and edges. There was a large sandpit on the left side of the bowl near the rim and one on the underside of the shank that would need to be dealt with.  I removed the taped on broken tenon from the stem. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to take down the sharp edges of the old tenon remaining on the face of the stem. I wiped the face down with acetone on a cotton swab to remove the old glue. It was a sticky mess but came off quite easily with the acetone. When it was clean I used a series of drill bits to drill out the airway to accommodate the new threaded tenon. I usually start with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway and work my way up to the one that fits the tenon end. I used my cordless drill and the airway as the guide for each successive drill bit. This keeps things lined up.Once I have the airway drilled to accommodate the end of the tenon. I use a tap to thread new airway. The tenon replacements I use have a hip around the middle that I need to take down. I use a Dremel and sanding drum to smooth things out. I also rough up the threads to reduce the diameter to make room for the glue that I use to set the tenon in the stem.I used a needle file to smooth out the slight ridge at the end of the tenon. I sanded the tenon smooth to clean up the fit. I would further polish it once it was in place in the stem. I dribbled some Krazy glue on the threads and quickly turned it into the stem making sure that the alignment was correct.I took photos of the new tenon before I polished and finished it. The tenon is solid and the alignment in the shank is perfect. I set it aside to cure and turned my attention to the bowl.With the stem repaired I remembered that Ron had asked me to give him some background information on the brand so I paused at this point to gather the info. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s4.html) to get a quick overview. As expected the Scandia brand is a Stanwell second line. In this case the sandpits make it clear why it has this designation. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent section from the site.I turned then to the section on Pipedia that dealt with the Stanwell Sub-brands the Scandia pipe listed there (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell#Sub-brands_.2F_Seconds). I followed several other links listed on the article to check who designed this particular shape for Stanwell (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). Bas Stevens, a dear friend who know longer is living compiled a list of the shape numbers and their designer. The 263 was not listed there however, I remembered that the shape was actually a Stanwell shape 63. That shape was a Freehand with a plateau top and a saddle mouthpiece and was designed by Sixten Ivarsson.

To verify that my memory was correct I did a quick Google search for images of the shape 63 for comparison purposes. I include the photo below with thanks to http://www.Bollitopipe.it for the image (https://www.bollitopipe.it/en/hand-made-polished-royal-guard/18983-stanwell-royal-guard-63-bark-top.html). You can see that the shape is identical so that it is clear that the 263 and the 63 are the same shapes.With the background information gathered and summarized I turned my attention to the cleanup of the bowl. I reamed the crumbling and uneven cake out of the bowl. I left a very thin cake on the walls of the bowl. I cleaned up the small bits toward the bottom of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife. I finished by smoothing out the slight cake on the walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around some doweling. I a soft bristle brass brush to clean off the debris in the plateau finish on the rim top. I was able to remove most of the darkening at the same time. While not flawless it looks significantly better.To clean the surface of the briar and remove the oils and dirt I scrubbed the briar with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed off the bowl under warm water and dried it off with a soft cotton cloth. The finish looks much better with stunning grain. The sandpits are quite visible now that the pipe is clean. I repaired the sandpits with a few drops of Krazy Glue. I slightly overfill the pit with the glue as it shrinks as it cures. Once the repairs cured I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the rest of the bowl. I polished the entire bowl with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper in preparation for the micromesh polishing. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. The photos tell the story. I used a black Sharpie pen to darken in the deep grooves on the plateau as it would help to mask the darkening on the right and left side of the rim top and it would highlight and give depth to the finish. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the plateau rim top and the rest of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I really like watching the Balm do its magic and bring the briar alive. With the bowl finished I turned my attention to polishing the stem. I sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the remaining oxidation in the vulcanite and the last of the light tooth chatter.  I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I used some liquid paper to touch up the “SC” on the left side of the stem. I applied it and let it dry and cure. Once it had cured I scraped the excess off with a tooth pick. The “SC” looks very good.  I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it a coat of a new product I am experimenting with from Briarville Pipe Repair. It is called “No Oxy Oil” and it is made to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry.I am happy with how this pipe looks compared to what it looked like when it arrived in pieces. It definitely has that Stanwell look to it – very Danish Freehand looking. I am excited to be on the homestretch with it and took it to the buffing wheel and polished it on the wheel with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the blacks and browns of the bowl and shank. This Scandia Made in Denmark Freehand was fun to bring back to life. It really is stunning piece of briar whose shape follows the flow of the grain. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This beautiful pipe will be going back to Ron tomorrow. If the mail is as fast as it was bringing it to me he should have it in hand by the first part of the week. I hope that he enjoys this beauty and that it serves him well. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting one to bring back to life.

Good “bones” make for a beautiful restored pipe – Scandia 792 Squashed Tomato

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I took out of the latest box was a Scandia 792 – a shape I call a squashed tomato. It may be a Danish author shape. It was in decent shape – the stem was lightly oxidized and there were tooth marks and chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem near the button. The finish was worn but functional, there was a lot of dust and grime in the grooves of the sandblast. The rim had some small chips out of the inner edge. There was also darkening on the top of the bowl. The next photos show the pipe when my brother received it.scan1The next two close up photos show the close up photos of the rim. The chips on the top of the rim and on the inner edge are visible. There was also some tarry buildup on the inner edge and on the top. scan4The next two photos show the stamping on the smooth portion on the bottom of the shank. It is stamped SCANDIA over Made in Denmark and the shape number 792. The second photo shows the SC logo on the shank. Scandia is a Stanwell second line.scan2The next two photos show the tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem. There was also some slight oxidation. scan3My brother scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed it with running water. He reamed the bowl and cleaned out the mortise and airway in the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. When I received it the pipe was in very clean shape. The next pictures show what the pipe looked like when I brought it to the work table.scan6 scan7I took some close up photos of the rim to show the darkening and the wear on the inner and outer edge. There are some chips. I took close up photos of the stem to show the condition and oxidation on the stem.scan8 scan9I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove all of the tooth chatter and tooth marks. I also sanded it to remove the oxidation.scan10I used the Before & After pipe stem cleaning kit to work on the stem. I scrubbed the stem with the Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and a paper towel until I had removed the surface oxidation. I continued to scrub it until some of the deeper oxidation came out. I polished it the Pipe Stem Fine and Extra Fine polish to further remove the oxidation.scan11 scan12I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand the rim edges and the top. I was able to remove the chips and divots from the inner edge. The second photo shows the rim after sanding.scan13I used Rub ‘n Buff European Gold to highlight the stamping on stem to bring life back into the logo.scan14I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and rubbed down Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After the final rub down of Obsidian Oil I set the stem aside to dry.scan15 scan16 scan17I waxed the bowl with Conservator’s Wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad. The next four photos show the polished bowl.scan18 scan19I sanded out the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on around my finger to clean up the scratches and nicks in the bowl interior. I buffed the bowl with a clean buffing pad and gave the stem several coats carnauba. I buffed the stem with a clean buffing pad and then once again with microfibre cloth to raise and deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It will one day be on the rebornpipes store, if you would like to add it to your rack email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook or a comment on the blog. Thanks for looking.scan20 scan21 scan22 scan23 scan24 scan25 scan26 scan27

 

One of his Dad’s Pipes that needed work

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Not long ago I received a second pipe that was sent to me from Dawson Creek, British Columbia for repair.  It had belonged to the sender’s father and he wanted it restored so he could use it again. When it arrived it was obvious that I was dealing with a Stanwell product. It was stamped Scandia over Made in Denmark and was followed with the shape number 209. It had a classic Danish look with the flared saddle stem and the almost triangular shaped bowl. The stem was oxidized and worn with the edge between the button and stem worn away. The sandblast was dirty and the finish tired. But the worst issue was that the bowl itself had a large crack running from the rim down the bowl on the left side of the bowl toward the back. It took some photos and emailed them to the sender to let him know the state of the pipe after my assessment. He was surprised that the crack was there as he did not remember seeing it. I begin this blog with those photos below.Scandia1 Scandia2After photographing the crack in the side of the bowl I took some photos of the entire pipe to give an idea of the look of the pipe and the work that lay ahead of me. You can see the overall condition of the pipe from the photos below. I really like the shape of the bowl and the flow of the stem and shank. The pipe had good lines.Scandia3 Scandia4To begin the process of repairing the bowl I need to carefully ream it back to bare briar. I wanted to see if the crack extended into the bowl and how deeply it went down into it if it did. I also wanted to assess the overall condition of the bowl interior. I started reaming it with a Savinelli Pipe Knife so that I would not put too much stress on the cracked area. I finished carefully reaming the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to clean off the cake below the rim.Scandia5The crack went down about ¼ inch into the bowl from the rim. I used a brass bristle brush to scrub the top of the rim to remove the tars and lava overflow on the rim surface. I used a rolled piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand out the interior of the bowl and remove the remnants of the carbon build up around the cracked area.Scandia6I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and rim with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean off the grime and wax in the grooves of the sandblast. I wanted the surface clean so that I could repair the crack. I rinsed the pipe with running water and dried it off.Scandia7The next series of photos show the bowl after cleaning. The bowl was ready to repair.Scandia8 Scandia9I used the Dremel and a microdrill bit to put two pin holes at the end of the crack. I used a lens to look for the end and then drilled the first hole. When I took it back to the work table I looked at it under the lens again and notice that I missed the end by just a short distance. I drilled the second hole in the bowl side. I also sanded out the internal edge of the bowl and used the drill to put a hole at the end of the internal crack.Scandia10I used the dental pick to clean out the crack on the bowl side and pressed briar dust into the crack with a dental spatula. Once it was full I put drops of clear super glue on top of the crack to seal the area. I put more briar dust on top of the super glue and spread it out with the spatula. I put briar dust on the top edge of the rim and used the glue there and on the internal crack.Scandia11I sanded the filled in area with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repaired areas and used a dental pick to create some grooves to follow the blast pattern.Scandia12 Scandia13The texture of the rim repair was rougher than the side of the bowl so I sanded it with a medium grit sanding block to smooth it out. I also sanded the inside of the bowl with a rolled piece of sandpaper to smooth out the repair on the interior wall. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain. I flamed it and repeated the process until the colour was matched. I used a black Sharpie pen to touch up the grooves in the patch and blended the repair with more stain.Scandia14The next photo shows the repaired areas and bowl.Scandia15The stain was too opaque for me so I washed it down with alcohol on cotton pads until the stain was more transparent.Scandia16With the bowl repair completed I turned my attention to the oxidized stem. It was not too bad – light oxidation and lots of tooth chatter. Fortunately there were no deep tooth marks. The sharp edge of the button was also very worn down and would need to be redefined.Scandia17I used a flat blade needle file to reshape the button edge and remove the tooth chatter and marks around the edge of the button. I also reshaped the curved edge of the button with the file.Scandia18I sanded the file marks out of the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I worked over the rest of the stem with the sandpaper to remove the light oxidation on the saddle area.Scandia19I gave the bowl a light buff with Blue Diamond on the wheel to get a feel for the look of the bowl at this point in the process. You can see the repaired area in the two photos below. It will take some more blending with stain pens and sandpaper before it is finished.Scandia20I cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank as well as the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. You can see from the photo of the stem that the polishing of the stem is coming along as well. The oxidation is pretty well gone and the sanding marks are disappearing.Scandia21I used my normal polishing process with micromesh pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. Between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when I finished with the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.Scandia22 Scandia23 Scandia24I lightly buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond to raise a shine and buffed the stem a bit more vigorously. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a clean buffing pad. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The repair is finished and the inside and the outside of the bowl look really good. It should last the pipe man who sent it to me for a long time as he enjoys a pipe that his dad smoked. Thanks for looking.Scandia25 Scandia26 Scandia27 Scandia28 Scandia29 Scandia30 Scandia31 Scandia32ADDENDUM

I decided to give the pipe a little more protection by putting a bowl coating on the interior walls of the pipe. I mixed some sour cream and charcoal powder to make a grey paste and apply it to the bowl. I used a dental spatula to put the mixture on the walls of the pipe and then used my finger to smooth it out. The mixture is neutral once it dries and imparts no flavour to the tobacco as the pipe is smoked. It merely serves to protect the repaired walls until a cake is developed in the bowl.char1Char2Char3

I set the pipe aside to dry overnight. The next two photos show the interior of the bowl this morning after a night of curing. I will leave it to cure throughout the day and it should be good to pack up and send back to Dawson Creek.Char4Char5