Tag Archives: tightening a loose tenon

Restoring a Savinelli Extra 614 Bent Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on my work table was dropped off by a local pipe shop that I do repair and restoration work for. It was in the same bag as the Bewlay that I restored for them earlier and wrote about (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/06/30/new-life-for-a-hard-smoked-older-bewlay-popular-127-billiard/). It is another pipe that the shop wanted me to do a full restoration on and properly fit the stem. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Savinelli in an oval [over] Extra. On the right side it is stamped with the Savinelli shield S then the shape number 614 [over] Italy. The finish was dirty and worn but there was some nice grain peeking through the grime. The rim top had some scratches and nicks on the surface. There was a light cake in the bowl it smelled strongly of aromatic vanilla tobacco. The shank and stem airway was very dirty. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It was also loose in the shank. I took photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. I took photos of the rim top and bowl to show the cake in the bowl, and the fills and marks on the top. The stem photos show the oxidation, calcification and tooth chatter and marks very well. I tried to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank in the next photos. They are faint but readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the flow of the pipe. Even with the fills on the rim and various sandpits around the bowl sides it is a beautiful bent billiard that has a great shape.I wanted to remind myself of where the Extra fit in the Savinelli hierarchy so I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-savinelli2.html) to get a quick view of the Extra Line. I did a screen capture of the site’s information and have included that below.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli) for a quick read. The site is worth reading the history of the Savinelli brand and its philosophy of pipemaking. There was also a shape chart on the site that had the shape 614 as a full bent pipe. I have circled the specific shape in the chart below.There was also a photo of a brochure on the site that included the Extra line of pipes. It also stated that the pipe came in a guilloche and a smooth finish like the one I am working on presently (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Sav_Extra.jpg). that came from Doug Vliatchka.Armed with the above information I was ready to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by reaming the bowl. I started it with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second cutting head. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished by sanding the walls of the bowl with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. The walls of the bowl looked very good with no damage to the walls. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove much of the lava and dirt. The inner edge of the bowl looked good and the rim top had some darkening but otherwise was in good shape. I cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. I cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the rim top and remove the darkening in and damage. I went over the inner edge of the rim to smooth out any roughness. Once I was finished I liked the way it looked.I decided to deghost the bowl and stuffed with cotton bolls and twisted a paper towel into the shank end. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with 99% isopropyl alcohol to wick out the oils in the bowl and shank walls. I let it sit overnight and called it a day. In the morning I checked on it and the cotton had turned amber coloured. I pulled it out and cleaned out the shank once more. The pipe smelled significantly better.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I worked over the inner and outer edge of the rim as well. After each pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really took on a shine by the last three sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on both sides of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the remaining marks on both sides with black super glue and set it aside to cure. When the repair had hardened I used a small file to flatten the repairs and recut the edge of the button. I shaped the button with the file. I used 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs to the top and underside of the stem. I was able to blend them into the surface of the vulcanite. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. It is starting to look very good. I continued to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure. I heated an ice pick and turned it into the airway in the tenon on the stem to swell it slightly so that the fit in the shank would be snug. I am excited to finish this Savinelli Extra Made in Italy 614 Bent Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful straight grain all around it and the birdseye on the rim top. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black vulcanite stem. This smooth Savinelli Extra Billiard is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 57 grams/2.01 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. Now that I have finished the second pipe the pipe shop brought for repair I will be giving them a call for pickup. I hope that the owner will get great enjoyment from the pair. Remember we are the next in a long line of pipe men and women who will carry on the trust of our pipes until we pass them on to the next trustee. Thanks for your time reading this blog.

Rejuvenating a Heibe Goldpoint Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Heibe is a German brand of pipe made by pipe maker Erich Heikaus; Bergneustadt, Germany in the 1970’s. The stamping is on the smooth bottom of the shank and it reads HEIBE over Gold Point and to the right of that stamping is stamped 88. I am guessing that is the shape number. It has an ebonite stem with a gold point in the top of it. The point swirls and gives an attractive look to the stem. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth chatter and a tooth mark on the top and underside of the stem. The stem was also loose fitting. The bowl was caked but not evenly and the cake seemed to be very soft. The rim was a bit darkened but no burn marks and the inner rim was still round. The bowl finish is rusticated with a tree bark like rustication and the stain was black. The rim and the smooth spot on the underside of the shank were stained oxblood. The finish was dirty and in spots the stain was missing and the briar was showing through – particularly on the edges of the rim and on the shank near the stem. Some of the high points on the bark rustication were also showing briar through the stain. The original stain was black. The next series of four photos shows the state of the pipe when I started working on it this morning.

I decided to begin by scrubbing the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a soft bristle tooth brush that I have used for a long time to scrub deeply into the rustication patterns. Once I scrubbed it thoroughly I rinsed it off under warm water in the sink. I do not leave it under the water long, just enough to scrub off the soap and get it cleaned. I then dry it off with a soft cotton cloth and wipe out any water than got in the bowl with a cotton swab. The first picture below shows the pipe scrubbed and covered with the oil soap. The tooth brush in the photos is the one I use to scrub the bowl. The next four photos show the bowl after I have rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. You can see where removing the grime and dirt from the bowl left the spots very visible that needed to be restained. The rim also cleaned up nicely.

After I thoroughly dried it off it was time to stain the bowl. I did a bit of research and found some estate Heibe pipes on a German estate pipe selling site. The finish on this one was normal for Heibe’s rustications and it states that it was stained black. With that information I decided to restain it with some black aniline stain. I used the dauber that came with the stain and applied it heavily to the rim and the bowl making sure that it went deeply into the crevices of the bowl and the shank. I would clean off the rim and the shank later and worry about staining them afterwards. I stained the bowl and flamed it with a Bic lighter, then restained and reflamed the bowl. The next series of three photos show the newly stained pipe.

Once it was dry I rubbed the stain off the rim and also off the shank smooth portion with a soft cloth and then with some alcohol on a cotton pad. I also buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. The smooth portion on the shank cleaned up nicely and the finish of the oxblood stained came through well. The rim (fourth photo below) did not fare as well. I wiped it down with acetone and also more isopropyl but in the end I would need to use a soft sanding sponge to remove the black from the edges of the rim.

I set the bowl aside to let it dry thoroughly while I worked on the stem. I began by sanding out the tooth marks and the tooth chatter with 320 grit sandpaper until they no longer showed. I then used my medium grit sanding sponge to sand the entire stem and work on removing the oxidation. The first two photos below show the sanding sponge and the work that it did in removing the oxidation. The next two photos below show the stem after I wiped it down from the sanding with the sanding sponge.

I then used some Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 and scrubbed the stem with my finger as I applied it and then rubbed it off with a cotton pad. The point was that I wanted to remove more of the scratches and also polish off some of the oxidation. The next two photos show the stem after polishing (forgive the first photo – somehow it blackened on the right edge but you can still see the polish that is happening around the logo).

After polishing with the Maguiar’s you can see the oxidation on the stem particularly on the tenon end. It extends about an inch back toward the button and was also in the crease of the button. It was time to sand the stem with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500 and 1800 grit micromesh pads. The next three photos show the stem in process and after the sanding. I finished wet sanding and then wiped the stem down. I then dry sanded the stem with the remaining micromesh pads from 2400-12,000 grit. I used the Maguiar’s a third time to polish the stem and then buffed it with White Diamond on the buffer. Once I had finished buffing I wipe the stem down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.

The next series of four photos show the finished stem. I reinserted it in the bowl. The tenon fit was loose so I dripped superglue on the tenon and then sanded it back until the fit was snug. I gave the bowl and stem another buff with White Diamond. I coated the stem with carnauba wax and buffed it with a flannel buff. In the first photo below you can see that the rim needed some work. The stain just did not come back after the cleaning. I sanded it with the micromesh 3200 grit pad and then it was ready to be stained. The fifth picture below shows the restaining of the rim with a cotton swab and oxblood stain. I applied the stain with a cotton swab and then flamed it. I hand buffed it with a terry cloth towel I use for hand buffing and applied carnauba wax to the rim.

The final series of four photos show the finished pipe. The stain contrast came out very well. The black and the oxblood highlights look great. The stem shined up exceptionally well. It is a group four sized pipe and should smoke very well. It has a nice open draw. I know that some of the Heibe pipes were made for filters but this one is not fit for filters. It is just a normal push tenon. All in all it is a beautiful pipe.