Tag Archives: Stem repairs

A Tale of an Ugly Duckling & His Virtually Invisible Swandom

Blog by Steve Laug

All of you are probably familiar with the tale of the ugly duckling. The poor bird hatched from a clutch of duck eggs that came out gangling and very unducklike. His appearance left much to be desired when he walked beside his siblings toward the pond following his “mom’. He was always laughed at and misunderstood. He sat with his head down in shame at how much he did not fit. Each day passed and the down of the ducklings was replaced by feathers. This went on until one day the duckling looked at his reflection in the pond and found that he was not a duck at all but a regal and majestic swan. He had always been a swan inside but the fact of his swandom was not visible to any who beheld him. Instead they saw what they wanted in the misfit duckling and wrote him off as ugly. They never once saw the swan inside until it came out in all of its glory. This tale really captures the pipe that I worked on next.

I have had a really rough older Canadian pipe sitting in the refurb box for a long time now. I have taken it out of the box and looked it over time and again but never took the step of cleaning it up. I have no idea who the maker of this old pipe is but it is a rough piece of wood. I say wood because it is clearly not briar. It is lighter and the grain pattern is quite different from briar. It has a Kaywoodie mortise insert and a Kaywoodie stem that has the stinger clipped off. I don’t know if it came that way or some creative soul made it happen. The wood was roughened and not sanded smooth. It looked as if it was rough shaped with a file or wood rasp and then just smoked. Somewhere along the way someone had put a coat of shiny urethane over the entire pipe. The shine hid none of the flaws but actually accentuated them. It had a significant fissure near the shank bowl joint on the left side that needed attention. The roughened finish had file marks going in every direction. The effect was a mess for a finish. The stem had some cardboard or thread pushed on to the threaded tenon that allowed the stem to line up correctly. I cut off the cardboard or thread washer and the stem was seriously overclocked. The bowl had a cake in it that was crumbly and uneven. The interior edge of the rim was not too badly out of round. The outer edges would need some work to smooth out before I could see if they were in round.

I took some close-up photos of the bowl and the shank to give more of an idea of the kind of finish that the pipe had when I started. You can see the file marks and lines going in every which direction that were left behind in the initial shaping of the pipe. The overall look was very rustic and actually quite ugly. It was truly an ugly pipe. The beautiful Canadian that resided below the ugly exterior was virtually invisible. It would easily been put up there with “folk art” in terms of the rustic and rough finish to the pipe. Yet there was something about that seemed like raw charm that shone through the mess that sat on my table. This evening when I took it out I took more time to sit and look at it for a while before beginning to work on it. The more I looked at it the more I have to tell you that the second thoughts I was having almost caused me to put off working this old timer and just burying it in the box. I really was unsure whether I could do anything with it or that it would even be worth doing the work. I was not convinced that what I had when I was finished would be worth the time and energy that would go into reworking it.

I cleaned off the debris (cardboard or thread) that was on the tenon and then heated the tenon with a lighter to reclock the stem. I heated the metal carefully keeping the flame away from the vulcanite stem. It did not take long before the heat softened the glue that held the tenon in the stem and I was able to turn the stem back into the shank and twist it until it lined up correctly.

I lightly sanded the bowl surface and then stopped to ream it with a PipNet reamer. I decided to take the cake completely out of the bowl so that I could check for cracks in the walls of the bowl.

With the bowl reamed out I turned my attention to the finish on the exterior. I sanded the bowl and shank with emery paper and with 180 grit sandpaper to remove the roughness of the finish and to sand out the file marks. I wanted to sand the bowl and shank smooth to address the generally poor appearance of the pipe. It took quite a bit of sanding to even start to make a difference in the surface of the pipe. I also sanded it with a rough sanding block to smooth out more of the scratches. I filled the flaw at the union of the shank and bowl on the left side with clear super glue and briar dust. I sanded that repair smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the pipe. There was a dark spot on the outer right edge of the rim that did not seem like a burn. I had the appearance of a stain. It was hard and did not affect the shape of the bowl edge so I left it. I lightly topped the bowl to clean up and flatten out the rim surface.

The more I sanded the grain began to come through the smoother finish of the pipe. It was clearly not briar. My guess is that it is Mountain Laurel or Manzanita. Once I get it sanded smooth and get a better look at the grain and colour I will be able to give a better assessment. The good thing was that a nicely shaped Canadian was emerging from the rough cut pipe that I started with. The shape was well executed and once I finished sanding and smoothing things out this alternative wood Canadian would look really good. My initial reticence gave way to curiosity to see what would emerge when the sanding was finished. You can see for yourself in the next set of photos below what is coming out as it is sanded.

I continued sanding with 220 grit sandpaper and worked on the shank bowl junction. There were some deep cuts and file marks there that needed to be addressed. I sanded until the surface was smooth to touch. There were still a lot of scratches in the wood but the surface was getting smoother. I sanded it with a coarse and a medium grit sanding block to flatten out the shank and to smooth out the bowl sides, bottom and rim. I used a black permanent mark to cover the fill and line it up with the grain at that point. Once I sanded it more and blended it into the grain of the shank it would become less visible than it is in the photos below. I sanded more with the sanding blocks and then gave the pipe a light coat of olive oil to see what the grain would look like when I was finished. The wood had a red hue to it and some nice looking grain. There is a lot more sanding that needs to be done at this point but it is progressing.

I have included a few more close-up photos to show the progress of the sanding on the surface of the bowl and shank. There is some nice looking grain coming through in the photos of the bowl sides and shank.

At this point I sanded the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads and the oil to give me some traction while sanding. I find that the oil allows the micromesh to cut more deeply and work more effectively. I sanded with older 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads that I reserve for working with oil sanding. Unfortunately I got into the flow of things and did not take photos of this part of the process.

Once I had finished sanding the bowl to this point I worked on the stem. The same file marks went across and the length of the stem. There were gouges and marks and two deep tooth marks near the crease on both the top and bottom of the stem. The next two photos show the scratches and the tooth marks.

I used an emery board to sand out the scratches and the tooth marks. I was able to remove most of the scratches and gouges with the board and then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove some of the deeper scratches and blend in the board marks. I also used the topping board to even out the end of the clipped stinger so that it was not rough. The tooth mark on the top needed to be repaired. I cleaned up the sanded area and then filled the remaining tooth mark with clear super glue. When the glue dried I used the emery board and the 220 grit sandpaper to blend in the repair with the surface of the stem. Once the scratches and marks were gone and the patch smoothed into the surface I went on to wet sand the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads before giving the stem another coat of oil. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and then a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I let it dry before taking the pipe to the buffer.

I sanded the bowl and shank down with all of the grits of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12000 grit. By the time I was finished the scratches were virtually gone. The repair on the shank/bowl junction though showing is smooth to the touch. The ugly duckling had become a swan. The Canadian hidden beneath the file marks and rough finish gave way to the beauty of the alternative wood. The finished pipe was truly a thing of beauty.

I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond Polish on the wheel. I worked it until the remaining scratches disappeared. I gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax and then buffed the pipe with a soft flannel buff. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The change in appearance is significant and the feel in the hand is much better. I am still pretty convinced the pipe is Mountain Laurel but could be convinced otherwise if some of you know. Thanks for looking.

Get Me to the Church on Time: Restoring a Longchamp Billiard

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Blog by Anthony Cook

I was browsing through Reddit’s /r/PipeTobacco sub-forum when I saw a post from a member looking for someone who could restore an old, leather-wrapped Longchamp pipe. He wanted it in time for his wedding day, which was a couple of weeks away. I could see in the accompanying photos that the pipe had a chip out of the rim and a bite through on the stem, but otherwise it appeared to be in good condition and both the leather and stitching looked solid. So, I contacted him and offered to take care of it.
The pipe arrived at my door a while later. I was happy to see that there were no hidden “gotchas” and the condition of the pipe was pretty much as it had appeared in the photos.

Here are a few photos of the pipe on arrival:

Notice in the image below that the stem has almost no tooth chatter despite the massive bite through. What’s up with that? Weird. The next image shows some detail photos of the stamping and the rim damage on the pipe. The pipe needed to be cleaned up before I tackled any of the damage. This is my “getting to know you” time with the pipes that I work on. I learn a lot about the pipe as I’m cleaning it and I often discover things that I hadn’t noticed previously.

I used a very lightly damp rag to remove the tar and soot from the rim. It came away easily. You can see some light spots on the rim in the photos above. I had been afraid that they were fills (that would be a nightmare), but they turned out to be… something else. Whatever it was, it came off with the rest of the grime and I could see that the rim was in good condition other than the noted chip.

Then, I cleaned out the interior of the stem and stummel with a few cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, a shank brush and some isopropyl alcohol. The pipe was already pretty clean. So, it didn’t take much work. I then gave the pipe a retort just to be sure and another quick scrub to remove anything that the retort had left behind. To prevent any lingering tobacco ghosts, I stuffed cotton balls into the chamber and used a dropper to drip in alcohol until they were saturated. I then sat the stummel aside overnight to let the cotton balls and alcohol do their job. The image below shows a photo of the bowl just after adding the alcohol, another taken about three hours later, and another at about twelve hours (just before I removed the cotton).

Meanwhile, the stem had been soaking in a bath of Oxyclean and warm water. I removed it from the bath and scrubbed it with cubes cut from a Magic Eraser until all of the yellow-brown oxidation was gone and the stem was restored to a satin-black finish. Using needle files, I cleaned up the edges of the bite through hole to remove any loose material and scored the surrounding surface to prep for the patch. Then, I inserted a wedge of thin cardboard wrapped in clear tape through the slot making sure that it completely covered the bottom of the hole. I applied several thin layers of black CA glue over the hole. I allowed each layer to dry and lightly sanded with 220-grit paper between layers to give the next one a good surface to bite into. The patch was ready to be blended in when it was slightly higher than the surrounding surface. I used needle files to carve a sharp transition at the back of the button and sanded back the patch and much of the tooth chatter with 220-grit paper. I followed that with 320-grit and 400-grit paper to further smooth the surface, and then I lightly sanded the entire stem (carefully avoiding the logo impression) with 600-grit paper.

I wanted to repaint the stem logo to give the pipe a more complete look. So, I used a silver leaf paint pen to paint over the logo and fill the impression with paint. Once it was dry, I carefully sanded the paint from the raised surfaces with 1200-grit paper leaving behind only what was left in the impression. Some of the impression had been worn away until it was nearly level with the surrounding surface. So, I had to try to shape those by hand using a printed photo reference of the logo. I lightly sanded the rest of the stem with 1200-grit paper, and then polished with Micro-Mesh pads 1500-grit to 12000-grit. Somehow, I forgot to get a shot of the completed stem, but you can see it in the photos of the finished pipe.

The stem was finished. So, it was time to take care of the stummel. I filled the chip in the rim with briar dust and CA glue, let it dry, and then sanded the patch back with 220-grit paper. It’s just about impossible not to sand away some of the surface surrounding a patch. So, there was a very slight depression in the patched area. To even the rim out, I lightly topped the bowl, first with 220-grit, and then with 320-grit paper. To bring the color back and blend the patch, I applied Fiebing’s dark brown dye to the rim with a cotton swab, flamed it, and sanded the rim with 400-grit and 600-grit paper. Then I stained with medium brown and sanded with 1200-grit. I polished the rim with Micro-Mesh pads 1500-grit through 2400-grit before giving the rim a final buckskin stain, and then polished with the remaining Micro-Mesh grits. Again, I forgot to get photos of any of this. Sometimes, you just get caught up in the work, you know?

All that was left to do to get this pipe ready for the wedding day was to spiffy up the leather a bit. I used a hairdryer set to high heat and low flow to heat the leather and raise the dents. I used my fingers to knead and stretch the leather around the deeper ones to help lift them. Then, I used Fiebing’s buckskin dye to restain the scratches and a small tear on the right side of the bowl. The tear itself was then patched with a bit of leather glue. Finally, I used Fiebing’s 4 Way Care to clean and condition the leather wrapping before burnishing the ends of the leather and edging the seams. The pipe work as finished and it was ready to be sent back for the big day. Here are a few photos of the finished pipe:

Thanks for looking and CONGRATULATIONS, NATE!!!

A No-Account, Son-of-a-Gun, Sorry Excuse for a Bent Billiard

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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

“Pipes are like dogs: the smokin‘ man’s best friend. Why, you can cuss at ’em, shout out loud about the state of the world to ’em, carry on all you like ’til yer blue in the face an‘ sore in the jaw about how great the whole place would be if only you was in charge, heck, even put ’em out of mind and ignore ’em altogether…for a while. In fact, a perfectly good, loyal pipe, same as an old coonhound, will even put up with a might mess of outright scandalous behavior an‘ never even consider turnin‘ on you – say, like as if the dog was to chomp off yer ignorant head or the pipe up an‘ went to dumpin‘ hot, burnin‘ ash in yer lap all on its own…But Heaven help the man that treats either his pipe or dog like garbage to be thrown in the dumpster or a bug to be stomped on. He’ll end up with a companion called Cujo if it doesn’t find a better master in time to escape. The pipe or the dog, that is.”
― The Author, in “Musings of a Mind Bored Silly by a Roommate with ADHD Who Just Doesn’t Know the Meaning of Silence Is Bliss,” today

INTRODUCTION
My friend, Phil, he’s a heck of a nice guy. He’s a real big fella – six-three, 280 pounds or right there in the ballpark – and one of the smartest dudes you could ever meet. Now by smart I’m not implicating he’s got some big old stuffy nansy-pansy degree from any of your fancy-schmancy Poison Ivy Universities, with a capital U, back east somewheres, or anyplace else, for all that matters. What would he need with some piece of paper, outside of hangin it one of his walls? Now that’s the day I’d like to see! And if he was the type to frame up a piece of paper all marked with gibberish scrawling like the tests I used to get back from my teachers when I was just a young buck, where do you suppose he’d hang it? I’ll tell you, I will! Right in the throne room, direct across from where he’d be sitting to ponder what the heck good it does him, and other earth-shaking notions and such.

No, boy! Phil’s smarts are part on account of he was born that way, with a genius IQ is my guess, and the other part from all the books and fancy magazines he reads. Plus old Phil, why, he never watches regular TV; doesn’t even own one, not counting this huge thin flat monster that rightly belongs on a wall like I’ve seen at some of the old-timey stores you can still find at the mall, only he connects it to his computer with nary a cord somehow, and that’s how he likes it. Hooks it up to his little old lap computer right through the air with what he calls Wi-Fi and something else that goes by Blue Teeth or Blue Fairy or whatever. Anyhow, whatever kind of magic it is he does to make all this confounded tech-nol-o-gy happen that bring all of his gadgets, not just the TV monster but his walk-around pocket phone and even this genuine Made in China nineteen-hundred and seventies-era Ghetto Blaster he has, work together – well, it’s something else, and how! Why, it’s like he’s at Carnegie Hall in New York City, or at least that’s what I hear tell. Personally, I went to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville once when I was a kid, and that was good enough for me.

Now, to get to the meat and potatoes of this little fireside story, my friend Phil, he’s a good man, and he’s also one heck of a carpenter. When it comes to woodwork, why, there aint a thing he doesn’t know about all the woods ever grown, and how to build a custom home, with balloon walls and the works, from the ground up – and up and up – and pretty much all by himself. He’s as comfortable with his tools, from his cat’s paw and level to a pettibone, as he is with his own big mitts. And when it comes to the strength and soundness of the whole enchilada, Phil just pretends to listen to all the back-seat drivers, even if it’s the new owner! And you can bet all the money in your sock old Phil won’t take any guff from some pissant, oil-palmed CCI snagger with his eyes out for left-over parts to pilfer more than finding any real faults with the job. Yessir, Phil knows his stuff, from cripples to “A” Braces, trimmers, bearing walls and joists. But…

Ain’t there always a but? Well, Phil’s but is that for all he knows about wood and carpentry, he doesn’t have a bull pucket of a clue about restoring tobacco pipes, even if it’s a fair shake he could whip one up that would be right-on engineering-wise and even show his own, one-of-a-kind style. He’s even told me a few of his ideas, and they sound pretty clever and original. Only, as far as using a wood that wouldn’t give him rashes or boils or even the Big C, and staining the shapely wonder with something other than a nice, thick, shiny, Chinese-style lacquer that would leave the wood Code Red as far as breathing goes, he’s, well, clueless. And then there’s all the taking care not to forget to tuck it away all safe and sound instead of setting it on his work table with all of his sandpapers and rasps and drill bits and other implements of construction that are, what you might say, not Kosher to keep around a frail work of art, plus dropping it and all around banging the thing every chance he gets.

To put it nice, Phil is pretty dang bullheaded when it comes to thinking he can do, make or fix anything, and what’s more, that he’s better than the experts that are here to do it right. And he wouldn’t budge when I suggested he must have had something to do with the billiard’s condition when I got a gander of it. He held to the story that he had nothing to do with it; never touched it, he said, other than smoking it. So I’m sure you all can use whatever cents you had to rub together when you were born and come up with a notion of how dramatic it was for him to – well, ask ain’t the right word – oh, snap! He intimidated that he could use “some advice” on how to fix this no-name, no country but probably Italian bent billiard. Okay, okay, I’m a nice guy, too, and I knew what he was driving at, so when he said it was one of the first pipes I gave him and I said I made it myself, I didn’t want to be rude, but I almost couldn’t help it. One thing is, I’ve never made a pipe in my life nor said I did, even if I have plans to soon; I even bought a nice square block of walnut with grain that’s the bomb and is big enough for two pipes. I figure I’ll go vertical with both of them, seeing as how once I cut it in half I’ll be all-in one way or the other. Anyways, to get back to what I was saying, the other thing is, I did finish a few pre-formed pipes I got my hands on and even made them look pretty smart, if I say so myself, but this here bent billiard wasn’t one of them, no way, no how.

So Phil, he hands the thing to me, and from the second he picks it up from the Blitzkrieg debris that his apartment was full of that day, I saw it was totally FUBAR. I mean, it looked like it was all that could be dug from the rubble of some poor Englishman’s former place of commode during the Battle of Britain after a buzz bomb attack where one of those nasty suckers stopped its buzzing and fell out of the night sky right through his roof before it went off. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating, but you get the picture. I’ll tell you, the real shocker to me was that Phil had somehow let this happen when he took real good care of all the other pipes I remembered giving him, including a su-weet, smooth Peterson Aran B11 Bent Brandy I fixed up from my collection and gave to him on his birthday or something after he’d developed a real taste for pipe tobacco. I threw in a sleeve, and he’s kept it the same as the day I gave it to him. Back to the sad billiard, while I’m turning it in my hands, forced to admire the almost total stripping of the wax I told myself had to be there when and if I actually gave him the once proud pipe, not to mention the unbelievable uniformity of scratches all over it that – I kid you not – looked to me to be the work of a man with a careful if twisted plan, Phil even uses that word, plan, just as I’m thinking it! I would have jumped if the awfulness of the billiard’s deformities hadn’t already made me numb all over, like. Here’s my favorite angle. Phil’s going on how he has some plans for it, like re-staining it some special, unknown color and yada-yada-yada, but he’s real quiet like he never gets unless he’s embarrassed and wants to ask a favor, which he doesn’t ever quite get around to doing. Well, I wasn’t born yesterday, and I just keep it in hand until I’m set to leave, and then I ask him all casual, “Hey, Phil, mind if I hold onto this to look it over some more?” And of course he just has to put on like he doesn’t want to, when that was the plan all along, but in the end I walked out the door with the mysterious, thrashed pipe still in my hand.

RESTORATION

I really like three of the things you’ll notice in the first of those photographs: the peculiar piece of cork used for some reason I won’t go into, the chamber chock-full of some leaf and the little improvised piece of paper on the tenon to make it fit right like it did when he got it (whoever gave it to him in the first place).

First off I scooped out all the stuff in the chamber and peeled away the sticky paper on the tenon. Without the paper, here’s a good general idea of how it looked. Now I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t abide with that ghostly remnant of stain, so I set to stripping all of it down to the bone and soaking the bit in an OxiClean bath. I took the wood out of the Everclear after a couple of hours and saw it still need some help removing the old stain. I used 500-grit paper and made the bowl and shank a little better.

And back to the stem for a minute. For a number of reasons, it clearly didn’t fit the shank, and so the motive behind the cover-up with paper. The OxiClean didn’t do much other than get rid of a whole lot of dirt and other mess inside and out, but this is a better view of the tenon and how someone had undercut it at the bottom and generally made a mess of the whole try at making it fit right in the shank. I suppose Phil had nothing to do with that, too.

Other than replacing the whole stem, a plan I wasn’t keen on seeing as how it was going to be for free, I figured I could mend it another way. I sanded it all over with 200-grit paper before putting the 400 to it and micro-meshing as far as I could go, from 1500-12000. With that a done deal, I put a liberal amount of Black Super Glue on the tenon, most of it on the undercut part, to make it all even again. Meanwhile, back to the bowl and shank. The stripping ferreted out more cover-up: the front of the pipe, no big surprise considering it wasn’t proud enough of the results to put a name to it or even the country it came from, had a nice little weed-like patch of holes that needed wood putty.

Since I had some time on my hands while the putty and Black Super Glue finished drying, I smoked my own pipe for a spell. Actually it was one heck of a long spell. But it came to an end, like everything else in this life.

I smoothed the putty real gentle with the old 12000 micromesh and used a brown indelible marker, then an orange one, to make it look a little more natural. Then I put just a thin coat of regular Super Glue over that. I had to get out of my place anyway, so while it dried I did some errands. Heck, yeah, even I have errands to run.

What with the swamp cooler on full-blast, by the time I got home again the Super Glue was good and hard and ready for a smoothing of its own. This time I needed something a little rougher and settled on 3200 micromesh with a respectful light touch. And I’ll be darned if it didn’t just do the trick! The rest of the wood I went the whole nine yards micro-meshing.

One of the ideas Phil had for doing it himself was to use a “different” color. After thinking on it a while, I came up with a mix of Lincoln Marine Cordovan and Fiebing’s brown boot stains – don’t ask me what was going through my head because I don’t remember. Anyways, it worked nice enough, so I flamed it and let it sit to cool before using the 3200 again to clear off the char.

Alright, now, hold your water! I know it! The front view here shows a need for more attention, which you’ll just have to trust me when I say I gave it because I forgot to snap a shot after. Also I sanded down the shank opening so the stem would meet it better. Again, I know it’s not perfect, but this was for free and besides, Phil was starting to breathe down my neck to get it back. Finally I just buffed it up on the wheels with a few waxes.

CONCLUSION
Phil is happy with the job I did – and the replacement cork that fit.

Restoring an LHS Certified Purex #24

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Blog by Dave Gossett
This pipe was a pretty straight forward cleanup. It was in overall decent shape. It had some light rim char and the stem was out of alignment. Steve had recently posted an LHS repair with this very problem so it came in handy. I followed his process and sanded the aluminum shank cap gently on a flat sanding board until the stem was in proper position. I can’t imagine they left the factory out of alignment, so I don’t know how they end up like that.

Next I sanded the rim with 1000 grit until I reached fresh briar, and went over the rest of the stummel with 2000 grit to remove the nicks and scratches, then began working my way up the grit ladder until it was smooth.

A quick wipe down with alcohol was applied before adding Fiebings dark brown. I left it to cure for 24 hours. For a nice contrast stain, I lightly mist the briar with alcohol and use a very worn piece of 2000 grit. This removes the dark stain from the soft wood and makes the grain more prominent. After the pipe has been wiped down with a damp cloth to remove the excess stain, it was left to dry and then lightly sanded with micro mesh one last time.

Repairing a hole in the stem of Dr. Grabow 36

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Blog by J.D. Dohrer

I am glad to be able to post this first blog by JD Dohrer. He has done a masterful job in repairing this stem. I am hoping he continues to submit blogs to rebornpipes and we can continue to enjoy and learn from his work.– Steve

This is a Dr. Grabow Starfire wire carved large billiard #36. DG Starfires are one of my favorite lines/styles of pipes. I am quite keen on the models that have the metal shank extension. I snagged this one off of ebay for 10 dollars, delivered. I bought it specifically for the hole in the stem. I had been wanting to try my hand at a stem rebuild, especially after seeing the results that Steve and some others here on Reborn had completed.

The following pics are how I received it in the mail. It was actually in quite good condition. The stummel was in nice shape, with just some minor chips on the rim and the typical grime in the wire carving. The stamping was still nice, sharp and deep. The cleaner was even still in the tenon. The stem was in rather good condition even considering the hole that was chewed through the button. The hole was on the underside of the button. Which gave me hope, that if I mucked this up terribly, it would be on the less than visible side of the pipe.

The first thing I did was give the stem a good soaking in ISO 91% alcohol. I then cleaned the interior of the stem with pipe cleaners. Amazingly it only took a couple of pipe cleaners to get rid of the gunk in the stem. I then did some filing around the hole and inside the button. I also cleaned up the edges of the hole and expanded its size a bit. I let the stem soak in oxyclean for a few minutes. I then scrubbed the stem with a scotch brite pad and oxyclean. I wet sanded the stem from 400, 600, 800 and 1500 and got rid of all the oxidation. I took care of some other minor tooth chatter also at this time. I then finished with a good scrubbing and a magic eraser. I then re-cleaned the stem and hole area with 91% and scuffed up the hole.

At this point I made a cardboard backer that I wrapped in scotch tape. I made sure it was a nice and tight fit. As a precaution I also inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway just to cover my butt. Next I opened up a 250mg capsule of activated charcoal. I crushed up the AC as finely as I could, using a medicine measuring cup and a small wax carving spoon type tool. Next I poured a small puddle of black CA glue on a piece of scrap and mixed in some AC. I got it to a pretty thick consistency that didnt drip off my mini trowel tool. I applied in 3 quick layers. The last layer was pretty messy as it was starting to set up but, I got it smoothed out and set it off to the side to dry. The total amount of AC used was probably less than 100 mg. You can see the glue puddle next to the dime. The puddle is smeared around a bit, as this was when I was done applying the glue. Here is dried glue after 16 hours. I filed down the area and then did the same steps again with the wet sanding. The filings were very fine and powdery and the glue sanded very nicely. Now it was onto the easy part. I cleaned/reamed the chamber with a small round blade pocket knife and some 100 grit sandpaper wrapped lengthwise over a Sharpie pen. The caking was very light and I took it down just enough to leave the walls blackened. Now it was time for the draft hole and mortise/shank extension. I figured since the stem was such a breeze, this should be just as easy. I was dead wrong. I used ISO 91%, quite a few pipe cleaners, qtips, shank brush and a small bladed wax carving tool. It was definitely the worse job to do on this pipe. I cleaned the threads and exterior of the shank extension with 0000 steel wool. I then moved onto the cleaning of the exterior of the stummel itself. I used oxyclean and a scotchbrite pad to scrub the exterior. I removed a lot of grime and some of the dye on the higher points of the wire carving. I smoothed out and blended some of the smaller chips in the rim and redyed the stummel. I used 2 parts Fiebings Oxblood and 1 part Fiebings Cordovan. I gave it a couple of good quick coats of dye. I let dry for a few minutes and wiped off any excess. With all the heavy lifting done, it was time for the buffing and waxing. I used tripoli, white diamond and carnauba on the stem. I hit the shank extension with a bit of white diamond. I used a couple coats of Halcyon 2 on the stummel. I then finished up by buffing with a microfiber cloth. Below is the finished product with as good of a close up as I could get with my iphone.

I am pretty dang pleased with myself on how this pipe came out looking. When I started working on pipes, I always made sure that the pipe I was bidding on had a stem that was in good shape. But, after this project, I will seek those pipes out that need some stem work. In fact, I have 3 pipes on their way that need some intense TLC and stem work. I again thank Steve and all the rest on here and DGCF for their postings, tips and ideas. Truly appreciated.

I fired ‘er up last night and ran a bowl of Carter Hall, Chatham Manor and a burley/cavendish blend through it. It smokes just as well as my other Starfires. Its a keeper and it will join with my other 6 Grabow Starfires.

Thanks in advance for checking it out. My picture taking skills are a bit lacking and my iphone does not take the best close up pics. W

Repairing a stem on a beautiful little Dunhill Bruyere 3206 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

On the work table at the moment is a beautiful little Dunhill Bruyere pot. It had some serious gnaw marks on the stem. There were tooth dents that were deep on the top and the bottom sides of the stem. Fortunately they did not penetrate the airway. The pipe is in great shape. The finish was in excellent shape. The rim was clean but had been lightened quite a bit. It had hardly been smoked so I am wondering if somewhere along the way it had been used as a prop and the individual had just bitten down hard!

I removed the stem from the bowl and gave the rim a quick clean and then a coat of an opaque aniline based oxblood stain that matches the Bruyere finish. I flamed it and set it aside to dry while I turned my attention to the damaged stem (unfortunately I was in grand rush to work on the stem and the pipe and forgot to take photos of the pipe when I received it. Instead you will have to trust the descriptions and look through the repairs).

I used a dental pick to clean out the debris in the deep dents and the crack along the edge of the button. I used the heat gun to raise the dents as much as possible but sadly they were of the nature that the heat did not do much to raise them. I then wiped down the dents and crack with alcohol to remove any debris in the area to be repaired. I filled in the dents on both sides of the stem with black super glue. You can see in the next two photos the bubble of super glue next to the edge of the button. I decided to let it cure rather than use an accelerator so I set it aside to do so.

Once the repair had cured (several hours later) I sanded the patches with 220 grit sand paper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded the repair to the button as well to blend it in without changing the profile of the end of the stem.

I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left behind by the sandpaper and to further blend in the repair. I used a needle file to sharpen the edge of the button and then sanded it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper and a little bit of water. You can see from the next two photos that the patches are blending into the stem nicely.

I moved on to wet sanding the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. The scratches are disappearing and the patches are blending in to the point that if you did not know where they are you would not see them. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil before going further with the micromesh pads.

I wet sanded the repairs with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads to further blend in the repaired areas. I spent extra time working on the repair to the small crack on the top of the button. I wanted that spot to blend in well and be smooth to the touch.

The repair to the top of the button and along the top side of the button needed a little more work to get them to be less visible and more blended. The repair on the underside was really looking good. I cleaned up the repair on the button and then used some clear super glue applied with the tip of a dental pick. Once it cured I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then the same set of wet dry sandpaper and micromesh pads that I commented on above. Finally the repair blended well.

I buffed it with Blue Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth.

The finished pipe is shown below. The darkening of the stain on the rim and the repaired stem are finished and the pipe is almost ready to send back to the owner.

Extending the Life of a Hard Used Kaywoodie Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

In the box of pipes that a friend sent for me to fiddle with, was a tired old Kaywoodie Bulldog. The stamping was worn off and with a loupe I could read that it was stamped Kaywoodie on the left side of the shank with something illegible below that followed by an R in a circle. On the right side of the shank was the remnant of a shape stamp the looked like it had four digits ending with the bottom curve and tale of an S. The pipe was in rough shape. The bowl was reamed out of round with the rim having taken a beating. The right side of the inner edge was very thin and had been scored down toward the bottom of the bowl. The rings around the bowl were rough and damaged. There was a cut mark on the top of the shank where it joined the bowl and a small crack above the shank insert on both the top and the bottom of the shank. The junction of the stem and shank showed damage as well from what appeared to be pliers. The stem was overclocked. It had some tooth damage on the top and bottom surfaces and was oxidized. I looked at the pipe as it sat in the box and removed it and turned it over in my hand many times during the past three months since it arrived. I just was not sure that I could salvage it. I figured it might make a good delegate to cannibalize for parts or for another Frankenpipe but I was not sure it was redeemable. I took the next close up photos of the rim and the gouge in the shank to give you an idea of what I needed to deal with if I tackled this pipe as a project. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the pipe and decided it would be worth a try to see if I could improve it and make it functional. It would never be a pipe of beauty but the old warrior deserved another lease on life. I could certainly make it look better. So with that resolve I heated the metal stinger and tenon with a lighter to loosen the glue so that I could re-clock the stem. It did not take too much heat or time to loosen and then adjust the fit of the stem to the shank. I set it aside to cool and set the glue once again.I decided to top the bowl to even out the height of the bowl around the rings. Currently it was taller in the front than the back and taller on the right than the left side. I worked to take off that excess and minimize some of the damage to the rim as well. I used a knife blade needle file to redefine the twin rings around the bowl and to sharpen up the definition on the top and the bottom of each line.With all of the adjustments done I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the remaining finish and the ground in grime that was on the bowl. I reamed the cake back to bare wood so that I could see the extent of the damage to the walls of the pipe. I used a PipNet reamer to take back the cake. I cleaned up the remaining cake with a sharp pen knife to clean off all of the debris. I then sanded the rim with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage and prepare it for the plan I had for it. I wiped it down with alcohol and then packed briar dust into the rim damage. I place drops of super glue on the briar dust to form that patch. While I did that repair I also repaired the gouge in the shank bowl junction. I sanded the cured patch with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and to level out the surface with surface of the bowl and shank. The first two photos below show the repaired shank damage and the third photo shows the repaired rim. I set the bowl aside at this point and worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. Then I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-4000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil between each successive grit to give the micromesh pads more traction as I used them. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to raise the shine. Then it was time to stain the bowl. I decided to use an opaque oxblood aniline stain. It is a stain that is thicker in consistency to the Feibings and gives good coverage on damaged briar repairs. I applied the stain and flamed it. It gave the old warrior some life while not hiding the repairs that it would wear proudly over the years ahead to witness to its hard life. I buffed off the excess stain once it was set with a quick buff of Blue Diamond polish on the buffer. I then worked some more on the stem working back through the previous grits of micromesh to reduce the stubborn oxidation on the stem. I used a lighter flame to paint the surface of the stem to burn off the oxidation as well. I finished by sanding it with 6000-12000 grit micromesh pads and then buffed the entirety with Blue Diamond on the buffer.I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a clean flannel buff. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to give it some depth. The finished pipe is shown in the pictures below. While the pipe certainly is not a thing of beauty there is some restored dignity that will serve it well in the years ahead. It should serve the pipeman whose rack it graces with a good solid smoke for a good long time.

Prom Night – Dressing up a Cheap Meerschaum Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was given a batch of pipes from a friend on one of the forums that he had lying around a long time. He was pretty certain that they were not worth much but he thought they might be fun for me to fiddle with. One of them was a meerschaum apple-shaped pipe with a plastic stem. The draw on it was awful, like sucking air through a coffee stirrer. The bowl had a few issues at first glance. There were some gouges in the meer on the sides of the bowl and the shank. There were some small cracks in the shank from the end forward near the top. There was a Delrin sleeve so these may or may not be a problem. The tenon itself was small and rough. The stem had some damage from what appeared to be melting at some point in its life. But it was barely smoked and there was something about it that caught my eye. I could see some promise in it so it would be worth the fiddle.

On the bottom of the exterior of the bowl there looked like there was a crack that ran for the length of the bowl. I examined it with a lens and it turned out to be a gouge in the surface of the meerschaum. It may be a crack but it did not go deep in the material so it was salvageable.

I took a close-up photo of top and inside of the bowl. You can see that it is barely smoked and the crack does not appear to go into the bowl. The plastic stem just bugged me. I could find nothing redeeming in the shape of it at all. The taper was wrong and it was pinched at the shank joint. The faux amber look of it was really fake looking. The material was very soft and I could scratch it with a fingernail.

Everything about the way the pipe looked when it arrived made me think it would be one that I would clean up, polish and turn around and get rid of. I probably would not sell it but would pass it on to someone wanting a meerschaum pipe. I cleaned the inside of the bowl with a cotton swab and water. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I had finished the cleaning and had lightly sanded the bowl with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper to minimize the scratches and dings in it. I was done with the pipe and took it to the buffer to lightly polish the stem and bowl.

It has been a long time since a pipe got away from me when buffing but this one did. The Blue Diamond polishing wheel is a bit touchy and it grabbed the plastic stem and took the pipe out of my hand. It hit the tile floor right in front of the buffer and the stem snapped off at the shank. The tenon was stuck in the shank and the other end was glued in the stem. I was very fortunate as the pipe hit directly on the stem and not on the meer bowl or it might have been ruined. As it was it meant I had a good excuse to throw away the plastic stem and make a vulcanite one. I pulled the tenon out of the shank with a screw. It came out easily. I tried to pull the glued end out of the stem but putting in a screw and heating the screw but the glue held. I put the stem away and went on a hunt in my stem can for a suitable vulcanite stem for the pipe.

I found just the right donor stem. It was a bent round stem that came from an old-timer somewhere along the way. It was thick and the diameter was close to that of the shank. I took the tenon down with the Dremel and sanding drum and finish it by hand with sandpaper to make a snug fit in the Delrin sleeve in the shank. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to take off the excess diameter of the stem and then hand sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to make the shank and stem match. While I was working on it I examined the two small cracks in the shank. They bothered me. While they would not go anywhere as the Delrin sleeve was glued and held them together, they still bothered me. I used a small micro drill bit on the Dremel and put a hole in the end of both cracks on the shank. I put a drop of super glue in the holes to seal them. I then remembered that I had some brass plumbing pressure fittings that make interesting bands. I heated the brass with a lighter and pressed it onto the shank to cover the cracks and give the pipe a little more bling.

I finished shaping and fitting the stem and took the photos below to give an idea of what the pipe would look like when finished. The bend in the stem is a little too much at this point and I would need to take some of the bend out. The bowl looks good with the brass fitting and the stem length works with this bowl.

I was able to sand out the gouge on the bottom of the bowl and it looks smooth and fresh now. I will need to sand the entire bowl with micromesh to polish the meerschaum and give it a shine. I heated the stem with a heat gun to take out some of the bend. When the stem was flexible I pressed it against table surface with a towel to take out some of the bend. I cooled it with water to set the new bend. The second photo below shows the newly bent stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to take out the scratches and work on the oxidation that was deep in the edges of the button.

You can see in the photos above that the stem did not quite seat properly in the shank. I used a sharp knife to bevel the inner edge of the mortise so that the stem would sit properly against the shank. I sanded the bowl and shank with 3200-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to minimize the scratches.

I wet sanded the stem and the tenon with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and then rubbed them down with Obsidian Oil. I continued by dry sanding the stem with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and the giving it another coat of oil. I finished by sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. When it dried it was ready to buff.

I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond Plastic polish on the wheel and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl two coats of white beeswax and the buffed it as well. I buffed both with a clean flannel buff and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Reviving a Savinelli Silver 806

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Blog by Dave Gossett
My Army cousin stationed in Italy came to the states recently bearing gifts. He bought me 9 pipes at a swap meet in Vencenza – 5 Savinelli’s, 2 Brebbia’s, 1 Rossi, and 1 lesser known Italian briar. I’m a sucker for silver bands, long shanks, and Sav’s, so naturally this is the first one out of the batch I cleaned up.

This one had not been “smoked lightly” as the saying goes. The rim was beat up, the stummel had plenty of scratches, and the stem had a hefty chunk missing.

I started out by reaming and cleaning the airways. Then I topped the bowl and beveled it, and sanded the scratches from the exterior. After removing the damage from the stummel, I gave it a light alcohol scrub to remove the rest of the stain.

I gave it a dark contrast stain starting with Fiebings dark brown and a hint of oxblood, then after drying for 24 hours I sanded it to lighten it up and make the grain pop. A cloth dampened with alcohol can be used around the stampings to lighten the stain a bit without compromising the nomenclature.

Next up, the stem. I removed the oxidation and scored the area around the repair site. Patched up the missing vulcanite with CA and charcoal, then filed it down and wet sanded smooth, followed by a light run on the wheel with compound. I’ve already put a few bowls of Syrian Reserve through it since the pictures were taken. Great smoker. This one’s a keeper.

Breathing New Life into an LHS Sulgrave

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I have become a fan of older LHS pipes and restored quite a few of them lately. I am always on the lookout for different LHS lines that I have not seen. Recently I picked up this LHS Sulgrave from a fellow on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum for $15. It is a line that I had not heard of before. He described it as a lightly smoked briar pipe. When I saw it I wanted it as it was my kind of shape. Never sure what to call this shape – bent banker, squat apple – not sure but I like it. He gave the following description in the sale listing. The shank is stamped Purex Sulgrave arched over LHS in a Diamond on the left side. The stem has two light coloured dots on the left side. The pipe is 5 1/8 inches long from the bottom of bowl to end of bit. The bowl chamber diameter is 7/8 inch and bowl depth is 1 1/4 inch. There is light caking in bowl. There is light tooth wear on end of the stem near the button. It has normal wear and tear (dings, oxidation and scratches) for an estate pipe. Nice overall shape and condition. Here are the photos that he included when I emailed him for details.

When the pipe arrived I was not disappointed. The shape was perfect. The description was accurate and the only variation that I could see was that the stamping did not include PUREX on the shank. Not a big deal in my book. The bowl was unevenly caked and appeared to have been reamed. The back side of the bowl had a thicker portion of cake that gave the inside wall on the back side an uneven and out of round look. I was pretty certain that with a good reaming and a light sanding the rim would look better. The stem was over bent and there was a slight crease on the underside of the bend. There was a coat of wax or some kind of coating on the stem and bowl. The stem was oxidized. In the first photo below you can see slight imperfection in the vulcanite stem. I have circled it to highlight it in the photo below. It is not a hole or worn spot, it is actually a thread of cord in the rubber. Its presence gives some idea of the date of manufacture as recycled rubber was used in WWII pipes.

The stem also had a lot of tooth dents and chatter along both top and bottom with some very deep marks on both. I tried to capture them in the next two close-up photos but they are still not very clear. The odd thing was that the dents went up the stem over an inch. The slot in the button was not centred and appeared to have left the factory that way. The dents were deep enough that I was concerned regarding the thinness of the stem surface over the airway. The mortise and airway in the shank were dirty and the end of the mortise was chipped away. It looked as if there had originally been a stinger in the tenon but it was no longer with the pipe.

I also have included the next close-up photo of the rim and the bowl interior to show the cake that gave the bowl an out of round appearance. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the largest cutting head. I took the cake back to bare wood to even out the inner edge of the bowl. I wanted to get rid of the cake so that I could smooth out the edge.

I folded a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out inner edge. It took a little effort remove the inner edge damage and clean up the roundness of the bowl.

I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the tars and the wax coat on the briar. With them removed the outer edge of the bowl showed damage as well. The bowl had been knocked about on the front edge particularly. The grain on this pipe was lovely.

To minimize the outer edge damage I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I sanded it to remove the damage to the top of the bowl and clean up the outer edge of the bowl.

I cleaned out the shank and the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the grime inside. It took quite a few of both to clean out the shank but finally they came out clean. I heated the stem with a heat gun to try and lift some of the dents to the surface and to also take out some of the bend. I also wanted to smooth out the sharpness of the bend on the bottom side.

I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The heat had raised most of the dents significantly. The ones that were left in the stem needed to be sanded out and then filled to take care of them. I used 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface. I also worked on the curve on the underside of the stem to make it less sharp looking.

The dents in the stem needed to be filled to bring the surface back to smooth flowing condition. I used a black super glue to fill the surface and set the stem aside to dry for several hours. Once dry, I sanded the fills with 220 grit sandpaper and then used a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to feather them into the surface of the stem.

I used a needle file to clean up and sharpen the edge of the button and give it more definition. I sanded the sharp edge with sandpaper and then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and then let it dry after sanding with a 12,000 grit pad.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish and remove the slight remnants of oxidation that had come to the surface. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad. I brought it back to the table and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.