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Reworking a Peterson’s Irish Seconds Canadian

Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe was another one I got in my trade with Mark, an Irish Seconds made by Peterson. It is stamped on the top of the shank, IRISH SECONDS and on the underside of the shank, Made in the Republic of Ireland. There is no shape number or other stamping on the pipe. The briar is actually very nice except for a flaw that ran around the bottom of the front of the bowl like a smile. It had been filled with white putty that had shrunk and left a shallow groove its entire length (from side to side of the front). The finish was non-existent and I am not sure it ever had been stained. The stem was evidently a replacement and did not fit well against the shank. The diameter of the oval on the shank and that of the stem did not match. The stem was also lopsided at the junction. On the underside of the stem there was a trough carved about ½ inch from the button that functioned as a groove to make the stem a dental bit. It too was poorly executed and was rough. The dimensions on this pipe are diminutive – its length is 5 ¼ inches, height is 1 5/8 and outer diameter of the bowl is 1 ¼ inches. It fits well in the hand and is very light in weight. I suspect that if it were not for the flaw noted above this would have been a higher grade Peterson.

The next photo shows the extent of the flaw and the white fill material on the bottom front of the bowl. This is the only flaw on the bowl.

The next two photos below shows the groove that had been cut in the stem to make it function as a dental bit.

I used a dental pick to remove the white fill material in the flaw and then wiped it clean with acetone. The groove was not deep but it was long and quite wide. I used a combination of briar dust and superglue to replace the fill. I packed the area with briar dust using a dental pick and then dripped superglue into place. While the glue was still wet I quickly put more briar dust on top of the glue and packed it in place as well.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge. I wiped it down with Everclear and then filled the remaining groove with clear superglue until it was a bubble on the surface of the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper once it was dry. I sanded the stem shank junction with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the transition and make the fit more seamless. I followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches. I was careful in sanding the shank to make the flow of the shank into the stem a gradual incline rather than an abrupt change. I have found that in doing this the stem and shank flow look as close to original as possible.

I sanded the front of the bowl with 220 grit and also with the medium and fine grit sanding sponges. The fill still had spots that needed more work.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to clean up the finish. I am very happy with the transition from the shank to the bowl.

I did more sanding on the fill on the front of the bowl and refilled the spots that needed work. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I have been using this mixture since I opened the bottle of stain several months ago and now am at the bottom of the bottle so it may be slightly darker.

The stain went into the new fill material but it turned very dark. I continued to apply the stain to the area and flame it repeatedly until the blend was better.

I buffed the pipe with red Tripoli and the White Diamond to see where I stood with the staining.

The fill still stood out as can be seen from the photo below. I decided to continue to apply stain to the surrounding area on the bowl to darken the bottom of the bowl a bit. My thinking was that if the entire bottom of the bowl was slightly darker the fill would blend in better with the briar.

I sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to protect the vulcanite and set is aside to dry.

I buffed the pipe and stem with White Diamond. The photo below shows the finished stem after buffing. The repair of the trough is not visible in the photo and is barely visible when held in the light. I am happy with the repair.

I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond a final time and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I did not want a high gloss on the pipe but rather a slight matte finish. The photos below show the finished pipe. It is ready for many more years of service.

Repairing and Reworking a Comoy’s J186 Billiard

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Another part of the trade I got from Mark was this damaged Comoy’s Billiard. It has some great grain on it. The stamping is Comoy’s on the left side of the shank and J186 on the right side. It also has the characteristic circular Made in London over a straight line England. This circular stamp is next to the end of the shank. The stem was a replacement – it does not have the C logo on it. It had also been repaired. I believe that Mark must have used the black superglue to patch a couple of bite marks in the stem near the button. The shoulders on the stem were rounded and the stem shank junction was not smooth. Otherwise the finish was in fairly decent shape and the stem looked good.

In the letter Mark included with the pipes he noted that there were small cracks in the exterior bottom of the bowl. I examined it with a light and saw that the three small cracks radiated from the three divots on the bottom of the bowl. These were flaws in the briar or dents, I am not sure which. The cracks radiated from the three points to a centre point where they met. They did not extend beyond the divots. Examining the inside of the bowl the bottom was not overly deep and there did not appear to be any cracks internally.

I decided to work on the rounded shoulders on the stem and the stem shank junction first. This is a very easy fix and I thought I would give the cracks a bit of thought before I worked on them. I sanded the stem and shank with 220 grit sandpaper carefully avoiding the stamping. I also did not want to sand too deeply so as to taper the stem artificially from the junction forward. This took care but I was able to smooth out the rounded shoulders. I followed the 220 sandpaper with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the finish and make the restaining easier. I also wanted to clean up the bottom of the bowl to be able to examine the cracks more closely.

As can be seen in the photo below the cracks are virtually invisible to the eye. There is no burn or darkening around the cracks so I am pretty sure that it is not a burn out. I decided to restain the bowl and see how the stain took in the area of the cracks.

I stained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol to approximate the colour on other Comoy’s I have. In the photos below it appears far redder in colour than it is in reality. I flamed the stain and repeated as necessary. The cracks were still visible so they would take a bit more work to repair.

I worked on the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed it with White Diamond paying particular attention to the patches around the top and bottom of the stem near the button. I was able to blend them in well and the black of the polished stem and the black of the superglue match.

I decided to work on the cracks on the bottom of the bowl. I scratched out the cracks using a dental pick. I was able to clean out the debris in the cracks and open them slightly. They did not go deep into the briar and there was no internal darkening in the bottom of the cracks. I packed in briar dust and dripped superglue into the briar dust. The photo below shows the superglue briar mix after it had dried. I over filled the cracks to ensure good coverage of the repair.

I sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess glue and followed that with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. The photo below, though slightly out of focus shows the repair clearly. It is almost a Y shaped repair.

I mixed a batch of pipe mud – cigar ash and water to make a paste. To ensure that the bottom was not damaged I picked it clean with the dental pick and then painted it with the pipe mud. Though there was no sign of damage on the inside of the bowl, the pipe mud was a precautionary measure for peace of mind.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and to give it a shine. I have set it aside to allow the pipe mud to cure before using it. I want to see if the bowl bottom heats up at all during a smoke. I am happy with the overall look of the repaired pipe. If it turns out that the cracked area over heats then it may well be a candidate for a briar plug. The verdict is still out for now, but time will tell.

Giving an Ugly, Worn Billiard a Makeover

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I was given this older, truly ugly pipe a bit ago. It is stamped Astoria De Luxe on the left side of the shank and on the underside the number 8 is stamped near the shank/stem junction. The stem has the letter “A” stamped in the vulcanite. The bowl was coated with a thick coat of something like urethane that gave it a plastic feel. It also seemed to be an opaque coating that was a yellow tan colour. The coating complete hid the grain and the numerous fills on the sides of the bowl. The rim had been damaged from a knife wielding person who tried to ream the bowl. The inner edge had a slight bevel that was damaged and the outer rim had damage from a torch lighter. This time the heavy coating on the bowl protected it from charring but the coating had darkened to black and was pitted. The top of the rim was badly damaged from tapping the bowl out against something hard. This pipe was certainly one that normally I would not have bothered to work on, but there was a challenge there to see if I could do something with it. This one will also go in the box of pipes for the Vancouver Pipe Club.

I took a close-up photo of the top of the bowl to highlight the rim damage before I went to work on repairing it.

I set up my topping board and sandpaper and sanded the top of the rim. I press it against the board and work it in a circle to remove the damaged briar. I continue until the top is once again flat and the damage minimized. In doing so I was able to remove much of the gouging of the inner edge of the rim and flatten the rim. It also removed the burn damage to the outer edges of the bowl. However, it also revealed a flaw in the top of the rim. I filled the flaw with briar dust and superglue and when dry topped it slightly more to remove the excess fill that I had made.

I scrubbed bowl down with acetone on cotton pads but the coating did not come off. I sanded the bowl with a sanding sponge and broke the top seal on the coating and then continued to wipe it down with acetone and then sand repeatedly until the finish was virtually gone.

Last evening when I finished for the night I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath overnight to further remove some of the stubborn spots on the coating. These were at the bowl shank union and at the end of the shank. There were spots on both sides of the bowl and the front that also resisted the combination of sanding and acetone. When I took it out of the bath this morning the finish was gone. I rubbed the bowl dry and gave it a quick buff with Tripoli to remove any remnants of the coating. I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs and Everclear to remove the tars and oils that were inside. When it was clean, I wiped it down a final time with a cotton pad and Everclear and prepared it for staining. I decided to once again use the MinWax and gave the bowl a coat of Red Mahogany and then a coat of Medium Walnut stain. I hand buffed the bowl and then took it to the buffer and buffed it with Red Tripoli and White Diamond.

The combination of the two stains worked well and minimized the ugly fills that stood out around the bowl. Combined they gave the pipe a light reddish brown hue. The stem had some damage around the shank area so I sanded it lightly with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove those markings.

I further sanded the stem with the usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed it with White Diamond.

I reinserted the stem in the pipe and gave the entire pipe a final buff with the White Diamond and finished by giving it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff to raise a shine in the stem and bowl. The result of the work can be seen in the photos below. The old, ugly duckling billiard had a facelift and now was far more attractive than previously in my opinion. It is ready to go in the box for the pipe club. Hopefully the pipeman who takes it home eventually will get good use out of it and enjoy the Astoria De Luxe. The challenge was worth doing and in doing so I learned some more tricks on removing a thick urethane coating.

A Tiny Rhodesian Restored and Restemmed

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Here is another pipe from the bottom of the refurbishment box. It is a little Rhodesian that I had ignored for a while. It measures 4 3/8 inches long stem included. The bowl is 1 ¾ inches long and 1 inch tall. The inner diameter of the bowl is ½ inch and the bowl depth is ¾ inch. The bowl was in pretty decent shape and was unsmoked. There was a fill on the left side of the bowl and a slight divot on the shank next to the bowl. The end of the shank had some pretty deep nicks in it and would make a tight fit between stem and shank impossible. Half the battle in restemming these small pipes is finding a stem that will work and then turning the tenon to fit the small mortise. This one was no exception. I had a stem that would work it was 2 5/8 inches long and was made out of nylon. It was an old WDC pipe stem. The shoulders were well rounded and the tenon was short.

I reduced the diameter of the tenon with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I laid the sanding drum against the surface of the tenon and let it ride around the tenon until the diameter was close. Then I sanded it until the fit was snug. The mortise was not that deep due to the size of the pipe so I needed to shorten the tenon to the same depth as the mortise. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to achieve that as well.

Once I had a good tight fit on the stem I sanded down the bowl and wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish. I pressure fit a small nickel band on the shank to provide a smooth transition between the bowl and stem and to cover the deep nicks or gouges on the end of the shank. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess material on the diameter and make a good fit against the end of the tenon.

I sanded the area around the divot in the shank and cleaned it with acetone. I then filled the divot with clear superglue and sanded it again once the glue had dried. I wanted to have a smooth transition between the bowl and shank without the divot showing. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge. I also sanded the stem at the same time and then wiped the entirety down with acetone.

I sanded the bowl and the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. When finished I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then took it to the buffer and lightly buffed the stem with White Diamond. I say lightly because I have learned that a heavy hand on the buffer will make a mess out of a nylon stem and you will have to start over with the sanding process.

I took the pipe back to the worktable and stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed the pipe several times until I had an even coverage on the sanded areas and they blended in well with the rest of the pipe.

I buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it a top coat of oxblood stain. I have found that the combination of the two stains helps hide the fills that were present as well as the repairs that had been done with superglue.

I buffed the entire pipe again with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to bring the shine out on the pipe. In order to help you appreciate the small size of the pipe I have included the next two photos. The top pipe in the photos is group 4 sized. In contrast, the tiny Rhodesian is a group 1.

The finished pipe is pictured below and I think it will be a nice little flake pipe for the Virginia smokers in the lot.

I received two comments below about giving the stem a slight bend so this morning I did just that. Below is a photo of the new look! Thanks Greg and Chiz.

Royal Falcon Full Bent – Comoy’s Shape 17

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I purchased the Royal Falcon along with a Merchant Service pipe from an Ebay lot for a good price. They both looked quite good in the photos provided by the seller below. I was not familiar with the brand so I did some research on it and found that it was a Comoy’s line. The numbering and stamping on the right side of the shank were identical to Comoy’s stamping.

The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank, Royal over Falcon as pictured below. On the right side it is stamped Made in London in a Circle over England. Next to that is stamped shape number 17 which is a Comoy’s number. In checking on Pipephil’s site on logos and stampings it is clear that the pipe is definitely a Comoy’s brand. The stem has the same logo as Phil shows on his site (second photo below). The pipe I picked up is exactly the same pipe that Phil shows in his logo list (third photo below).

When the pipe arrived I took the following four photos to give an idea of the condition of the pipe. The finish on the bowl was in excellent shape. The rim was not as good. The bowl itself was gouged inside and the cake had been gouged away with what looked to be a nail. It would need to be reamed and sanded. The bowl was also out of round slightly. The outer edge of the rim toward the right front had a burn that damaged that part of the bowl. On the left back side the rim was dented and chipped from hitting the bowl against something. I would need to address the rim and the inner bowl damage when I worked on the pipe. The stem was in good shape but the white in the logo was gone. The underside of the stem had a gouge in it that at first glance looked like a breakthrough from a pipe cleaner (apparent as a white spot on the stem in the fourth photo below). Under a lens the gouge did not go all the way through the stem and would be easily repaired. The button and the exterior were in good shape with no bite marks or tooth dents. The tenon while dirty and tarry was nonetheless in good shape as well. It was a step down tenon like that used on Comoy’s pipes.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to try to smooth out the gouges that were on the inside of the bowl. I took back the cake to the bare wood to minimize the deep gouges. They still were evident after removing the cake but they were definitely less intrusive. I sanded the inside of the bowl to further smooth out the deep marks and to rework the out of round bowl and inner rim.

There was a burn mark on the outer rim right side toward the front of the bowl that damaged the outer roundness of the rim. It is visible in the poor photo below (first photo). There was also damage and chipping to the outer rim on the left side toward the back (second photo below). I could have ignored these in my restoration of the pipe and left them as marks of age but I decided against that given the relative good condition of the remainder of the bowl. It would need to be carefully topped and restained to match the rest of the bowl.

I set up my sanding board and topped the bowl. The next series of photos show the process of topping and after the first turn on the board the burn and roughening damage are more evident.

After topping the bowl I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge and then progressively sanded it with 1500-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the scratches from the topping process. After the surface was smooth I restained it with a dark brown aniline stain that I mixed with two parts isopropyl alcohol until it matched the colour of the bowl. I applied the stain, flamed it and repeated the process until the depth of the colour matched the remainder of the bowl. It took 5 or 6 applications of the stain until I was satisfied with the colour match.

I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. The underside of the stem had a white spot that is visible midstem in the photo below. This spot was actually a gouge or divot. I was unsure whether it went into the airway on the stem. I have seen this kind of thing on pipes with this kind of bend in the stem. It can be caused by the pipe cleaner rubbing through the vulcanite at the bend on either the top or the bottom side of the stem. In this case it did not go all the way into the airway.

I cleaned it out with Everclear both internally and externally. I picked the white material from the divot and cleaned it a second time with alcohol. I used a small drop of superglue to fill the divot and then sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge until it was smooth and even.

Once the stem was cleaned and only needing polishing, I used a correction/white out pen to refill the stamping on the logo. I have found that this works very well. I apply the white out with the pen tip and then let it dry before sanding with a micromesh sanding pad to remove the excess of the filler. I then sanded the entire stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 to polish the vulcanite. When I had finished sanding it I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and then buffed it with White Diamond.

The final four photos show the finished pipe. I buffed the pipe and stem lightly with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to polish it. The restain of the top is visible in the third photo. The colour is a pretty good match to the bowl and I was able to redeem the out of round inner rim with the sanding and staining. It is ready to smoke.

A Unique Vertical Oval Shank Meerschaum Reborn

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I saw this old Meerschaum pipe bowl on Ebay and decided to put a low bid on it. I was not surprised to have won it and paid for it quickly. The seller packed it very well and shipped it off to Vancouver, Canada. Below are the Ebay photos that caught my attention. I think the thing that intrigued me the most was the vertical oval shank on the pipe. To restem that pipe would be a great challenge – find a stem large enough to work with and shape it until it fit. I thought I had just the stem in my box – a gift from a friend on Pipesmokers Unleashed Forum, Robert.

From the photos it looked to be in rough shape. The pipe case said it was a WDC but I have no way of knowing if that is true. The gold filigree on the band looks like the old WDC pipes of the late 1890s but I am still uncertain as to the maker. It was in rough shape as can be seen from the photos. There were many scratches and gouges around the outside of the bowl. The shank had marks on the top that looked like someone had taken a file to it. The rim was probably the worst. With the rough edges on the back right side of the bowl the rim/top appeared to be angled to the right side and worn down. The tar build up was heavy in the bowl and on the rim. The tenon was broken off in the shank. It appeared to be an old bone tenon and a bone insert in the mortise that was threaded to take the screw in tenon. I am assuming the pipe probably had an amber stem in its first appearance in the shop but that was long since broken and lost. The WDC case was also very rough – the edges were worn away, the wood broken and a hinge dangling unused. The inside was badly stained.

Yesterday afternoon I came home from work early and found a package awaiting me – I knew that the meer had arrived. I had to laugh when I cut open the box – it had a previous label a Funeral Home in Ohio. I don’t know if that was a commentary on the pipe bowl that resided inside the box or if a funny coincidence. I cut the tape and opened the box. The pipe inside was both in worse shape than I had imagined from the seller’s excellent pictures and in better shape. The meer under the band was cracked as can be seen in the photo above and that was as it was when it arrived. The scratches in the surface of the bowl were not as deep as they appeared in the photos and the pipe when place on the rim on a flat board was actually not slanted to the right – the damage to the outer edges of the right back side made it appear worse than it actually was in reality. The next photos show the pipe on the work table just out of the box.

After examining it carefully with my lens and a dental pick I decided to begin the clean up by trying to remove the tenon. I used the screw that I generally use to remove a tenon to no avail. The threads in the mortise were locked tight around the tenon. I picked at it with the dental pick and was unable to remove it that way either. I decided to drill out the old tenon. So I set up a cordless drill with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway in the broken tenon. I slowly drilled the airway with the bit and exchanged it for increasingly larger bits until I had the airway cleared of the debris. I then used a ¼ inch bit to open the mortise and clear out the remaining debris of the mortise and tenon. The second photo below shows the mortise after I opened it up. I used a dental pick to clean out the remaining pieces and hand turned the quarter-inch drill bit into the mortise to smooth out the walls of the airway and open it to receive a new tenon.

I took the pipe bowl back to the work table and set up a coarse sanding block on my worktable to top the bowl of the meer. I have used this block in the past with good success on the softer meerschaum material. I placed the bowl, rim down on the surface of the block and sanded it in a clockwise direction (no reason for that other than I am right-handed). I sanded it, checking often to see how the rim was cleaning up until the surface was clear and the top of the bowl once again level. Surprisingly I did not have to remove too much material from the rim to clean up the surface.

When I had finished the sanding, I used micromesh sanding pads to sand the top smooth once again and remove the scratches from the coarse sanding block. The micromesh sanding pads from 1500 – 12,000 grit bring a shine back to the surface of the meer and prepare it for rewaxing once the pipe is finished.

At this point in the process I decided to see if I could fit a new stem on the pipe. The diameter of the oval shank was quite large and would require a large diameter round stem. To make it an oval stem would require that much of the existing vulcanite of the stem would have to be removed in the shaping process. I had an old Brebbia stem that a friend on Pipe Smoker Unleashed Forum sent me for an old Peterson that I was restemming. The tenon was too small for the Pete but too large for the old meer. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the excess material from the tenon until the fit was very close. The remainder of the fitting was done with a wood rasp and sandpaper. Once the tenon was finished I pushed the stem into the old meer to check on the fit of the tenon in the newly opened mortise. As can be seen in the photo below, the fit was perfect. You can also see from that photo how much work would need to be done to fit the stem to match the shank of the pipe.

The stem had deep bite marks on the top and the bottom near the button. They did not break the surface of the vulcanite. I decided to heat the surface of the stem with a heat gun and try to lift the dents from both sides as much as possible. I also wanted to straighten the stem significantly to give a better profile to the pipe. The heat gun worked to achieve both aims. The tooth marks lifted quite a bit and would have to be filled with black superglue to finish the work and the bend straightened to the angle I wanted for the new stem.

I sanded the initial excess vulcanite off the diameter of the shank with the sanding drum on the Dremel. Once I had removed a large portion I took it back to the work table and used a rasp to continue to shape and reduce the stem to the right proportions. The next series of eight photos shows the effectiveness of the rasp in shaping the stem. (In the midst of the shaping my daughters brought down a bowl of popcorn for a snack while I worked – that appears in several of the photos.)

I removed the stem from the shank and cleaned up the tooth dents so that I could fill them with black superglue. The glue takes quite a bit of time to cure so I waited until I was finished for the evening and then filled the dents and set the stem aside to cure over night.

This morning I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also sanded the superglue patch on the underside of the stem. The next four photos show the stem as it begins to take shape and the repaired spot on the underside of the stem. The oval is coming along nicely but there was still a lot of excess material that still needed to be removed.

I continued to sand the stem to further tune the shape of the oval to match the shank. I used 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess and shape the stem. I worked on the superglue patch on the underside of the stem with the 220 grit sandpaper as well. In the next series of three photos you can see the shape I am aiming for with this stem. You can also see the size of the patch on the stem. The patch is still larger than the marks it covers so more sanding will need to be done on it to blend it into the vulcanite.

I cleaned up the bite marks on the top of the stem and applied the black superglue patch to that surface as well. I set it aside while I worked on the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on a cotton pad to clean off the grime on the surface while leaving as much of the old patina as possible. The first photo below shows the superglue patch. I applied it and used a dental pick to push it around the surface and also build up a few tooth marks on the edge of the button. The second photo below shows the patch after it had dried and I had sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper.

While working on the stem I decided to open the button to make it simpler to insert a pipe cleaner. I used needle files to make the slot larger. The second photo shows the opened slot in the button. I sanded the inside of the slot with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth the surface and polish the slot.

I took the pipe back to the Dremel and sanding drum to remove more of the excess vulcanite. I had the basic shape in hand and just wanted to get it closer to the size of the shank before doing the finish sanding. I brought it back to the work table and sanded with 220 grit sandpaper until the fit was right. The next four photos show the progress in the fitting of the stem.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sponge backed sanding pad. It helped to remove the scratches left behind by the 200 grit sandpaper. Then I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to polish and shine the vulcanite and the patched areas. The white Lucite band that was a part of the stem began to take on a shine as well in the process. The next nine photos capture what took about an hour to achieve in the sanding process. I wet sanded with the 1500, 1800 and 2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded with the remaining grits of micromesh.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and a blue plastic polishing compound to bring out the final shine on the stem. I hand waxed the meerschaum with beeswax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. The next four photos show the finished pipe with the new stem. I like the marks and scratches in the meer as they seem to speak of the long journey the pipe took to get to me. The white Lucite band on the stem fits nicely in my thinking against the gold of the filigree band. The slight bend it the stem works nicely for me. From the last two photos you can see the oval shape of the stem now that it is completed. It has come a long way from the round stem I received as a gift from Ron.

Churchill’s Bent Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

I saw this pipe come up on Ebay and love the shape. Some have called it a bent pot but I am not sure that the name captures the shape but I will call it that nonetheless. Churchill’s was not a brand I was familiar with but it looked very good. The stamping on the pipe is very simple on the left side of the shank it is stamped Churchill’s and on the right side it is stamped Matt Grain. The bowl had been reamed back by the seller before shipping and was well done. No damage to the roundness of the bowl. The inside of the shank was filled with chips of carbon from the reaming and they were stuck in the tar in the shank. The buildup was enough that the stem did not seat in the mortise and there was a gap in the fit of the stem and shank. The rim had some tarry buildup. The stem sat at an angle to the shank as if the tenon was bent slightly. There were three deep tooth marks on the top and the bottom of the stem near the button. The oxidation was present but not heavy at this point. The stem was also plugged with tars and the airflow was very constricted. There was an old English style C stamped on the stem. The first nine photos below were provided by the Ebay seller.

I am fairly certain that the pipe came from Churchill’s Tobacco Shop in Norwich, England. I found the following information on the Pipes and Logos website http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c4.html On the site there is a small paragraph which I have copied as follows: “Churchill’s Tobacco shop is situated in St Andrew’s Street at the corner of Bridewell Alley in Norwich, England. The shop was next to a church and at the bottom of two hills, and that’s how it became “Churchill’s”. Former manager: John Elvin (retired on May, 31 2008). Current owner (2008): Keith Garrard.” I have included these pictures from that website as they show the stamping on both the shank and stem that is identical to the pipe that I have just refurbished.

According to the Churchill’s website it is the last remaining specialist tobacconist in Norwich, originally standing at 32 St Andrews Street for over 23 years. http://www.churchillsofnorwich.com/index.php?_a=viewDoc&docId=1 The site also notifies the shop’s clients that Keith Garrard, who had a wealth of knowledge and was an avid pipe and cigar smoker himself, passed away on 23rd March 2012. His wife Coral continues to maintain the business in his honor.

I decided to try to remedy the bent tenon on the pipe to begin with. I heated it in a cup of boiling water to try to adjust it and tighten the fit in the mortise. I was able to adjust the fit and get a good tight seat with no gap between the shank and the stem. However, in the process the water oxidized the stem badly. The four photos below show the adjusted fit of the stem and also clearly show the bite marks on the stem – top and bottom near the button.

I scrubbed the inside of the shank with Everclear and cotton swabs. I cleaned the airway with bristle pipe cleaners and then fluffy pipe cleaners. I continued to scrub it until the pipe cleaners and cotton swabs came out clean. I cleaned the rim of the bowl with saliva and a cotton pad until the grime was gone. It took a bit more than a cotton pad and saliva so I also used a very fine grit sanding block to knock off the remaining tar, being careful to not break the finish.

The stem took a bit of work as it was plugged with grit and tar. I used a dental pick to clean out the slot. To the right of the stem in the photo is some of tar and grit I picked out of the slot. I used a straightened end of the pick to clean deeply in the slot. I then used pipe cleaners soaked in Everclear and pushed them through the blockage. I also opened the slot with needle files to facilitate easy access with pipe cleaners. The slot was very narrow which also made the blockage hard to get at.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the surface around the bite marks. In the next three photos the bite marks are visible. I heated them to lift them as much as possible. The bite marks on the top were less troublesome than the ones on the underside. Fortunately the stem was quite thick so that the tooth marks did not go all the way through the vulcanite.

I picked the tooth marks clean with a dental pick and then used black super glue to patch the deep marks that remained. Once the glue had cured and was hard I sanded the patches with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface and blend in the patch. The next three photos show the patch after it had been applied and after sanding.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit to finish removing the oxidation and the scratches left behind by the various sandpapers I used. The next series of photos show the progress of the shine after each group of sanding pads.

I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the surface of the stem. Once it had dried I rubbed it and polished it with a shoe brush before taking the pipe to the buffer. I buffed it with White Diamond and then carnauba wax. I gave it a polish with a clean flannel buffing wheel. The next four photos show the finished pipe. I really like the way the matte finish came alive. The grain really pops. This was an easy refurbish as the finish was in very good shape under the top layer of grime.

K&P London Made Found in a Bargain Shop

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Blog by Steve Laug

Yesterday afternoon I went with my eldest daughter to Walmart here in Vancouver. Across the street is a bargain shop that sells lot of movie set items and other things that are collectible and antique. I have found quite a few good pipes there over the years. I went to the shop while she was in Walmart and looked over the lot they had this time. There were quite a few pipes in the case and most of them while interesting just did not capture my attention. Then I moved a few of them out of the way and underneath was this little P-lip apple. I could tell it was a Pete and an older one because of the thick shank and stem. I held it up to the light and my guess was confirmed. It was a Peterson. It was marked $28 and I offered $25 for it. They accepted the offer and I paid the bill and put the pipe in my pocket. I picked up my daughter and headed home to check it out.

I wiped off the shank with a cotton pad dampened with saliva and found that it was stamped K&P LONDONMADE on the right side of the shank. On the left side it was stamped 215 and A “PETERSON’S PRODUCT” Made In London. So I had found an English made Peterson’s shape 215 pipe. The band was silver and was badly tarnished but I could see from the hallmarks that it was also stamped with English hallmarks. The first was an anchor which told me that the band was made in Birmingham. The second was a reclining lion which is the stamping for Sterling silver. The third mark was hard to see with the grime and tarnish but looked like an animal face in the cartouche. Closer examination would have to wait until I had cleaned up the tarnish.

The pipe was in fair shape. The bowl had nicks in the sides in several places as well as a very rough rim. It looked as if it had been hammered about and was damaged. It would require topping to remedy that problem. The bowl had been reamed and was slightly out of round and then smoked again for some time – long enough to build up an uneven cake with most of the cake at the top of the bowl and the bottom of the bowl was bare wood. The silver band was loose and had turned about a quarter turn clockwise. The stem was very tight in the shank – which thankfully had kept the band in place on the pipe. The stem had many bite marks and tooth dents up the shaft from the button for about an inch. It looked as if the individual who had smoked it held it far back in his teeth. Both the underside and topside of the stem were damaged with tooth marks and a series of grooves from a tool. The button itself and the ledge on the underside were in very good shape. The round opening in the button was elongated from years of pipe cleaners.

I was able to carefully remove the stem and the inside of the shank was darkened with tars but not terribly dirty. The end of the tenon is stepped down and the fit in the shank was very snug. After cleaning the stem would fit well. There was no stamping on the oxidized stem and appeared to be no remnant of stamping. The oxidation on the stem was heavy at the shank stem union and also around the button on the top and bottom.

I wrote about the stamping to Mark Irwin who is my Peterson’s go to contact for information on Peterson pipes. He is a wealth of information that I have been unable to find in other places. He was on the road but sent me the following information. “…The “Peterson Product” indicates the pipe is a lower line. They began using this stamp in the 1930 catalog for their “K” pipes, but if it was this, you should’ve seen a “K” on it. There were several “200” series shapes, but the “215” is not in a catalog I have here. The London factory was much smaller than the Dublin, but I’ll have to ask Gary about the hallmarks, as I’m unfamiliar with the Brit system. Best my guess tonight is that the pipe dates anywhere from 1920-1940. I have photos of a thick-shanked and thick-stemmed straight apple hallmarked Dublin 1920–I can send you a .gif when I get home if this sounds like the pipe. If so, the shape itself goes back to at least that year.”

That was helpful information on the dating of the pipe. I sent Mark the photos last evening and then this morning received this reply concerning the pipe. “… Gorgeous! Yup, it’s the same shape as the photo I have, which means the shape itself goes back to at least 1920.” In the mean time I had cleaned up the band with silver polish and scrubbed it with a soft cotton pad. I reset it with white glue on the shank and examined the hallmarks under a bright light with a jewelers loop. It became clear that the last of the hallmarks was not an animal but rather a letter in the cartouche. It was well worn but from the outlines on the mark it appeared to be the letter “T” which dates the pipe to 1943.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head and the next size as well. I removed the cake back to the wood to even out the broken cake. I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs to remove all the tars and oils in the shank. Once I had cleaned out the shank I also cleaned the stem with pipe cleaners. I used Everclear with cotton swabs on both. When it was finished I put the stem back in the shank and the fit was snug.

I topped the bowl with my usual method – 220 grit sandpaper on a flat board and turned the bowl clockwise as I pressed the rim into the sandpaper. I sanded the top until the damaged portion of the rim was removed. One side benefit of the process was that it also removed some of the damaged inner rim as well bringing the bowl back into round.

To prepare the bowl for restaining I wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad. I wanted to remove as much of the finish as possible so that I could more easily blend the new stain on the rim with the stain on the bowl. I have found that if I thin down the original stain on the bowl I can generally make a good match with the rim when I stain the entire pipe. The rim always takes several more coats of stain than the bowl but the match comes out very well. I wanted to end up with a stain colour that matched the original stain colour as much as possible. Between each coat of stain I flamed the stain to set it in the grain of the briar. The stain I used was an aniline stain in a dark brown that I thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. Once it was dry I hand buffed it with a shoe brush to blend the colours of the stain and give me a clear look at the stain to make sure it was evenly applied.

I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the stem with medium grit emery paper to remove the oxidation and also clean up the vulcanite around the tooth dents. Once clean, I heated the dents by passing the flame of a lighter across the tooth marks. The heat of the flame lifts the dents to the surface. The key is to keep the flame moving quickly and not allow it to sit in one place too long or the stem will burn. The first photo below shows the tooth marks on the top side of the stem. There were matching tooth marks on the underside. The second photo shows the stem after the heating with the flame. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches and remnants of the dents. I filled the two remaining dents with super glue, sanded the glue down to match the surface of the stem and then finished the sanding with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit (Photos 3 – 5).

Once the stem was sanded with the 12,000 grit micromesh pad I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and when dry rubbed it into the stem. I gave the stem several coats of wax and returned it to the bowl. I polished the silver band a final time and also waxed that. I buffed the pipe lightly with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is pictured below. It has some beautiful grain on it. There are also some flaws in the briar that I chose to leave as I find they add character to the pipe.

It appeared to be a hopeless case, but was it really?

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe was posted on Smokers Forums as one that was in rough shape. http://www.smokersforums.co.uk/showthread.php?273-Whew! As soon as I saw it I thought it would be fun to take on as a challenge and see what could be made of it. It was truly in very rough shape. So I put in a low bid on EBay and it was mine. Only the wait remained before I would see what I got myself into.

When it arrived I opened the box and took it out to see what I had to deal with on it. The stem was stuck in the shank and it was off center. I made a guess that it was a screw in stem – metal tenon and some kind of condenser. The finish was absolutely ruined. There was an opaque film all over the bowl and shank of varnish that had gone bad. There were crackles in the finish. The shank was crack badly and the shank was no longer square – the crack had expanded away from the angles of the pipe. The rim was invisible and the bowl was caked with a thick cake but upon examination it was full of cracks and crevices rather than a hard cake of carbon. Looking at what I could see of the inner edge of the rim it seemed like it was not damaged – at least not by reaming! There were several burn spots on the outside of the bowl around the rim and left side of the bowl from laying the pipe in an ash tray with a cigarette. It would indeed be a challenge and one that I wondered seriously about for a few moments.

I immediately put it in the freezer for a half an hour to see if I could loosen the stem from the shank. Once I took it out I was able to twist off the stem and remove it from the shank. I took it to my work table and examined it to see what I had to work with. I was quite happy to see that the shank had a metal tube inside that was threaded to receive the tenon. The tube extended into the shank about an inch. This would make a repair on the crack quite simple and not require that I band the pipe. The stem was overturned and the tenon would need to be heated until it was loose and then realigned on the shank. The insert in the shank extended further than the end of the shank and kept the stem from seating correctly against the shank. I also noted that the stamping did not read Worchester as the seller had listed it but that it read Dorchester and underneath that Algerian Briar. There was also damage on the shank near the bowl on the right side where the edge was pretty chewed up by what looked like a pair of pliers used to try and remove the stem from the shank. The slot in the button was clogged with oils and tars so I was assuming that insides were the same way. The stem had white spots on it that at first appeared to be paint but were actually pits in the stem. It appeared to be made of something other than vulcanite. I was not sure what it was but it was not rubber. All of the issues with this pipe, and they were many, but it was very repairable.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head first and gradually working up to the diameter of the bowl. I wanted to ream the pipe back to bare briar to give a fresh start and be able to see if there were any burn out issues in the bowl. There were none.

With the bowl reamed and the cake gone it was time to clean the exterior of the bowl and rim. I wiped it down with acetone to remove the finish and break up the crackled varnish that is visible in the above photos. I also lightly topped the bowl with a sanding block to remove the crumbly build up on the rim. I was guessing from my examination that the rim itself was not damaged so a light topping to remove the buildup would be all I would need to do. The next series of photos show the process of wiping down the bowl, topping it and wiping it down a second time after topping. While most of the varnish finish was gone, not all of it would come off with the acetone wash. So in the last picture below you can see the crackly finish on the shank and at the bowl junction.

I decided to drop the bowl in my alcohol bath to soak while I worked on cleaning up the stem. I use an alcohol bath to soak the pipe bowl and get underneath the varnish coat. Once it comes out of the bath it is relatively simple to wipe off the remaining finish. While it soaked I scrubbed the stem with Everclear and a soft bristle tooth brush. I scrubbed off the surface grit and grim and also worked on the button and slot to loosen the grit. I scrubbed the condenser as well with the Everclear and also used 0000 steel wool to polish it. I cleaned out the inside of the stem with thick and bristle pipe cleaners. Once it was clean it was time to take the bowl out of the bath.

I removed the pipe from the bath and scrubbed it with the tooth brush. I worked on the grooves in the bowl and also at the shank bowl junction. I dried it off and prepared it for work on the cracked shank. The crackled finish was finally gone and the pipe was clean.

I scrubbed the area around the crack in the shank and picked out dust and particles with a dental pick. I dripped clear superglue into the crack and packed in briar dust with a dental pick. I clamped the cracked area and set it aside to cure for about a half hour.

Once I removed the clamp the crack was sealed and the shank was returned to its original shape. I sanded the shank area to remove the excess superglue and the briar dust that was on the surface. The photo below gives a clear picture of the end view of the repaired shank and how it was squared up.

The next step in the repair process was correcting the overturned stem. I removed the stem and sanded the metal end of the mortise insert flush with the shank end. Then I heated the tenon over a heat gun and when it was warm screwed it on to the shank and turned it until it lined up well with the shank.

With the stem and shank aligned I sanded the shank area to clean up the damage to the right side where the marks were from someone’s pliers. I also sanded the stem shank junction and the repaired crack with a sanding block until the sides were all smooth in their transition from stem to shank. I wiped it down with an acetone wet cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and prepare it for staining. I used a black permanent marker to cover the fills in the bowl. I have found that when I follow the grain pattern with the marker before restaining the stain works well to mask the fills.

I chose to do a contrasting stain on this pipe, a black understain and an oxblood/mahogany top stain. I heated the briar and then applied a black aniline stain to the pipe. I applied it with a cotton swab and flamed it with a lighter. I reapplied the stain and also flamed it again to set the stain in the briar.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone to lighten the black stain and make the grain stand out on the pipe. I also sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge.

From the above photos you can see the coverage of the black stain and the way in which the black permanent marker blends into the grain of the pipe. I wiped the pipe down repeatedly until it was the colour I wanted before I put on the next coat of stain. For the top coat I chose to use an oxblood or mahogany coloured aniline paste stain. I rubbed it on with cotton swabs and wiped it off with a soft cloth.

At this point I wiped the bowl down a second time with acetone wetted cotton pads and lightened the reddish finish. The fills are slightly visible but once the pipe is buffed and polished they will be blended in better. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to remove more of the excess stain and help the contrasting under stain to show. I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding pad, and then with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit until it shined. I then gave it a rub down with Obsidian Oil and finally with multiple coats of carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe. It is ready to smoke and will in all likelihood last longer than I will. The lightweight aged Algerian briar evidently made this a great smoking pipe for the previous owner and it will remain that I am sure for the owners to come.

Restemming a Bruyere Krone Billiard

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I am just about finished restemming the lot of pipe bowls I picked up on EBay. This is one of the last two pipes that I have left in the lot below. It is the fourth pipe down in the left column. It has an interesting rustication pattern that reminds of one that is done on Saseini pipes. It is striated around the bowl and then tapers up from the bottom to a striated pattern around the shank. It has a flat bottom on the shank that is smooth and stamped Bruyere in a crown with a large R in the centre of the band on the crown. Underneath the crown is an unfurled banner that is stamped K R O N E. I have no idea of who the maker is or when and where it was made. The stamping is faint so I may be missing a few letters but I think this is an accurate rendering of what is stamped. The finish was pretty dirty with grime in the grooves on the bowl and shank. The rim was caked with a tarry buildup and the grooving on the rim was not visible. There were also place on the finish where the stain was missing and the briar underneath exposed. The inside of the bowl had dust and cob webs and a pretty large cake buildup that would need to be removed. The bowl came without a stem and fitting one would take flattening of the stem on the underside to match the shank.

I went through my box of estate stems and found one that was a good fit to the shank. Once the cleanup of the stem was done and a flattening of the underside of the stem the pipe would look like it came with that stem. The stem had a calcified buildup around the button and some tooth marks as well. The oxidation was not too bad but was present.

The clean angles of the button against the stem were gone so I recut them with needle files to clean up the edge. I reamed the bowl back to bare briar with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and progressing to the one that was the diameter of the bowl without the cake. Once it was cleaned out I scrubbed down the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a soft bristle tooth brush to remove the grime. I scrubbed the buildup on the rim with a soft bristle brass tire brush to remove the tars. Once I had scrubbed it I rinsed it with warm water to remove the soap and dried it off with a cotton towel. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad and prepared it to be stained. After heating it with a heat gun I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I used a permanent black marker to touch up the raw briar areas where it was scratched or damaged. I reapplied the stain and flamed it. The newly stained pipe is shown in photos 2 and 3 below.

I sanded the stem with medium grit emery paper to remove the calcification around the button and also heated the tooth marks with a Bic lighter to lift them as much as possible. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame to burn off the sulfur of the oxidation that I had loosened by sanding. I repaired the tooth marks on both sides of the stem with black superglue and set it aside to dry overnight.

The next morning I cleaned out the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and Everclear. I sanded the stem and the superglue patch with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to clean up the scratches in the finish. I put it back on the bowl to get an idea of the overall look of the pipe and see if the diameters of the stem fit the shank. I needed to flatten the bottom of the stem some more to match the bottom of the shank and also removed some more of the material on the diameter of both sides to bring it into line with the shank. Once the stem was well fitted I moved on to sanding with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit.

I buffed the stem with White Diamond and a Blue polish. I gave the bowl a light buff with White Diamond to bring up the shine. I gave the bowl a coat of Halcyon II wax and buffed it by hand with a shoe brush. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba and buffed it on the buffer with a clean flannel buff. I think the pipe came out well. Does anyone know anything about the brand?

rebornpipes

reclaiming old and worn estate pipes

Tag Archives: super glue

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K&P London Made Found in a Bargain Shop

It appeared to be a hopeless case, but was it really?

Restemming a Bruyere Krone Billiard

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