Tag Archives: South African Remakes

Hot Rods – next round please, Basket briar massacre. (October 2012) Part 2 – Piet Binsbergen

Leave a reply

Ok, so here is the silly bit.

These 2 pipes I did not photograph before I started. Once again apologies!

Die Braaivleis pyp (Afrikaans for the BBQ pipe)

This is my opinion. I guess that basket briars are not that bad. What makes them unattractive is that they are drilled skew and full of putty. Now skew drilling sucks and these pipes are laid to rest. When I do find pipes that look like the drilling is solid enough I often find the bowls to be full of putty fills hence they become basket briars. So why do they do it then? Well, time is money and to fill a pipe and sand it, covering it with a dark stain seems to be fast and cost effective.

I have found that if one spends time and uses the right tools, with some practise you can rusticate the bowl and the fills become part of the character of the pipe. So why do the pipe manufacturers not do it then? The answer again is a simple one! Time versus money. A solid rustication job may take me some hours. Now hours I have, low end pipe manufacturers do not!

In time I will put together a photo essay of my rustication process.

With this pipe, the bowl was semi rusticated. I added a silver shank ring and fitted a green Lucite shank ring for contrast. The stem was replaced.
Piet1
The Bushveld Poker

Before you all have a stroke, this is NOT a CASTELLO but a Purex basket briar.

This was fun as I could get the stummel into the lathe chuck and work it back into true. The drilling was good but the tobacco chamber was off set to the outside of the bowl (Welcome to the wonderful world of basket briars). I was able to turn the bowl down just a bit to bring it back into true. I also added some rings. As the bowl was full of fills lower down on the stummel I used the same rustication process as above. I added a silver shank ring for contrast. The stem is a screw in type fit with one of those nasty stingers fixed to the tenon of the stem. Here I removed the stinger and saved the stem. This is one of the few pipes that had a stem which was saveable so I went through the motions of bleaching soaking and polishing. All the pipes have draft holes open to 4mm.
Piet2

Hot Rods – next round please, Basket briar massacre. (October 2012) – Piet Binsbergen

8 Replies

Hi guys, you know some times I am really dumb. I am so excited to get going that I fail to take some before pictures. I have come to realise that posting the end product only does not do the process or the hobby any justice. I have done 2 more pipes for which I do not have any before pictures, my apologies.

Well I got a batch of basket briars sent to me by my good friend and tobacconist Alan from Sturks in Cape Town. These pipes are really low enders with nothing much going for them. I like this, here I can go mad and be myself as there is nothing to lose and much to gain. I am under the impression that these putty filled beauties may hold some magic, and after all, they do seem to look like some old briars. Most of them are just nameless, others are Medico ‘Frank’ pipes and the odd one marked Purex, (Sounds like a contraceptive, juck, LOL)

I have been on the quiet side for a bit as my PhD title defence was looming and I needed to get that done and dusted. When I needed a solid break from my studies I took time out to do up some pipes. Hope you like them.

The DAMASCUS PIPE (LA Mort)

This is a Medico Frank, Maple I suspect or maybe some of you can help me out here? Either way I wondered what it would look like in its blasted form. It came out fantastic. The blast is fine and delicate so I decided to stain the pipe black and laid off heavy carnauba waxing. I added a Hippo bone shank ring for contrast and replaced the stem.

Before:
rod1

After:
rod2

rod3

The S.A.Y. 15 Plumbing Pipe

Well my father-in-law is a plumber by trade. I spent some time with him last weekend. He lives far away so I do not get much time to spend with him. I decided that if I was going to do crazy things to old pipes they might as well tell a story. This is another Medico ‘Frank’ with a cracked shank. The pipe is briar with plenty of ‘meat’ for me to go mad with. The crack in the shank caused the stem (screw fit) not to align. I cut off the shank, and had some fun.

The shank extension is stained cherry wood, the shank ring is a S.A.Y. 15 Copper plumbing pipe coupling. I rusticated the pipe and fitted a shorter ‘Lovat’ style saddle stem. The cool part is I managed to get a matt finish on top of the stem and polished the sides. The black ring next to the copper ring was burnt with a fine soldering iron.

Before:
rod4

After:
rod5

The Jockey

This is a no name briar. It is in a nasty state but under all that dirt and grime I found some really good wood. Here I did a full refurb as I always do and sanded the bowl starting at 150 grit and working it up to 2000. If you are after a good finish on smooth pipes you have to be prepared to put in the hours. My rule of thumb is that the pipe should shine before you add the final buffing and polishing wax. Carnauba wax will never hide your short cuts.

Stain is applied at the 600 grit sanding stage and a fresh layer of stain is added as the grit number climbs. In this way I get a deep stain, rich in colour. Steve has recently published his staining and sanding method in detail. It is published here on the blog and in the latest issue of the NASPC Pipe Collector. It is well worth checking out.

3 Shank extensions (rings) were added, Red ivory wood, Aluminium and African olive wood.  The stem was replaced.

Before:
rod6

After:
rod7