Tag Archives: topping a bowl

Restoring a Kaywoodie Prime Grain 40 Saddle Stem Billiard??

Blog by Steve Laug

In my gift box of pipes to refurbish there was a small Kaywoodie pipe that I would have called a Lovat but as I learned in looking up the line and shape number I would find that Kaywoodie called it something different. The red arrow points to the KW shape 40.

It is stamped on the left side of the shank Kaywoodie over Prime Grain over Imported Briar. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shape number. The stem was a short saddle stem. The pipe is in decent shape – certainly restorable. The finish was gone but there was some great grain on the back, front and sides of the bowl. The rim was a mess – out of round, scratches and knocked about enough to lose its sharp profile and edges. The bowl looked as if it had been reamed with a pocket knife. There was an oddly formed cake due to the scraping with the knife. The stem was clean but the button was misshapen with a large part of the top edge missing. The inside of the shank was dirty and the threaded tenon was black with a tarry build-up.

Holding the pipe in hand I would call it a Lovat. Look at the pictures above and see if you would not agree to the shape designation. The problem is I turned to the Kaywoodie shape and line chart below and found that pipe shape #40 is designated as a saddle stem billiard. The first red arrow in the first shape chart below highlights the description on the catalogue picture. The second red arrow points out the line – Prime Grain – a mid-priced pipe in the KW line. So it looks like the pipe is a saddle stem billiard – even though personally I would still call it a Lovat. The next photo is a close of the state of the rim. You can see the knife damage on the inner edge of the rim and the scratches, dents, rounding that has been done to the top and outer edge of the bowl. The rim really was the part of this pipe that was in the worst condition. The next photo shows the rounded outer edges of the rim and the state of the KW thread stinger apparatus. It is a three hole stinger even though the inlaid black cloverleaf in white seems to point to an early era KW pipe. To begin work on repairing the rim edges I needed to ream the bowl. I used a PipNet reamer to take the bowl back to bare wood. I find that doing that gives me a clean surface to work on with the inner rim edge. The second photo below shows the freshly reamed bowl.

With the bowl reamed it was time to top the bowl. This would be a fairly serious topping job – not a light one. There was a lot of damage to remove and it would take a fair bit of sanding to bring the top back to flat with sharp outer edges. I used my normal topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to top the bowl. I sand it in a clockwise circular motion. I checked my progress quite often as I topped the bowl. I sanded until the damage to the top of the rim and outer edge were gone. The process also cleaned up much of the damage to the inner edge of the rim as well. I wiped the stinger and the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to clean up the aluminum stinger and to remove the remaining finish on the bowl and shank. The stem was overclocked about a ¼ turn. I used a lighter to heat the stinger until the glue was warm in the stem and then turned it back into the mortise and realigned the stem.

The bowl had some deep, sharply edged dents in the briar. I cleaned them out and then used clear super glue and briar dust collected from topping the bowl to fill the dents.

I sanded the patches with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the excess and blend them into the surface of the briar.

I built up the top of the button with black super glue until it was close to the original thickness. I would sand and reshape it once it had cured. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 3 parts to 1 part alcohol. I flamed it and restained until the finish had an even coverage.

I hand buffed the bowl and shank with a cotton cloth that served to give it a light polish and also smoothed out the stain on the surface of the bowl, rim and shank.

The stain was still too opaque to my liking and hid the grain on the pipe so I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of it and allow the grain to show through the finish.

The photo below shows the pipe when I had finished wiping it down with alcohol. The finish is exactly what I was aiming for. I wanted it to be a warm brown that hid the repairs to the dings in the finish. It worked well. I sharpened the edge of the button with a needle file and then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge.

I continued to sand with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then continued with the next set. When I had finished sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I rubbed it down a final time and then buffed it with White Diamond on the buffing wheel.

I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond, cautiously around the stamping on the shank. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and lightly buffed the pipe with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below.

In the process of repairing the inner edge of the rim I used a folded piece of sandpaper to bevel the inner edge to bring it back to round and to deal with the divot out of the left side of the edge. The finished rim is shown in the close up photo below. The inner edge is better than it was when I started and looks close to round. I have included a variety of photos of the rim and the stem for your viewing. This should be a great smoking old Kaywoodie.

Bringing a Herbert Love of Edinburgh The Queensferry Billiard 422 back to life

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Blog by Steve Laug

I received a gift box of pipes from a friend on Smokers Forums this week and it contained 23 pipes that presented a variety of challenges for repairs. Looking them over, I found that there were quite a few pipes with stampings that I was unfamiliar with. There were brands and sub-brands that were new to me. I chose to work on one of those I knew nothing about first. I had never heard of the Herbert Love Shop of Edinburgh. The stamping intrigued me. On the left side of the shank it was stamped Herbert Love of Edinburgh and on the right side it was stamped The Queensferry. On the underside of the shank it was stamped horizontally along the shank with the shape number 422. On the left side of the saddle portion of the stem it had a faint HL stamping.

I did my normal search on Pipedia and Pipephil’s site to see if I could find the stampings or the cursive HL on the saddle of the stem. There was nothing to be found. I posted a request for information on Pipe Smoker’s Unlimited Forums specifically asking several of the members there that are from Edinburgh to see if they had any information. I received a response from a collector of English pipes that included the photo and article on another Herbert Love Tobacco Shop in Glasgow. I also received a response from one of the Edinburgh folks, Chris with this information: … it closed down many years ago. It was on Queensferry St. (the road to the old ferry across the Forth before the rail and road bridges were constructed) at the West End, handily situated next to the iconic ‘Old Man’s Pub’, “Mather’s Bar”. At that time there were three pipe shops in Edinburgh (HL’s, one on George 1V Bridge and another in Leith); now only the latter exists… All I remember about the shop itself, apart from it being very old-fashioned, was that they used some interesting old scales for weighing out the loose tobaccos.

Here is the link to the article that I received about the closure of the Glasgow shop. http://www.heraldscotland.com/last-smokers-paradise-closes-1.828258 Sadly I could find no photos or information online regarding the now close Edinburgh shop to include in this post. If anyone reading has information be sure to let us know in the comments section below. Thank you.

When I brought the pipe to the worktable it is in pretty rough shape. The finish was damaged and spotty. The rim had a burn spot on the inner edge and the top at the front of the bowl. This damage also made a dip in the surface of the top of the rim. The bowl was filled with a crumbling cake that was uneven. The stem was oxidized and looked greenish yellow in colour. There were bite marks and tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem next to the button. The internals of the stem and shank were not too dirty and would clean up quite easily. There was no sweet smell of aromatics or the smoky smell of Latakia in the bowl so ghosting would not be an issue.

I took close-up photos of the shank on both sides to show the stamping. The left side bore the Herbert Love of Edinburgh and the right side the Queensferry. From my queries I had learned that the Queensferry was actually the street the shop was located on. Herbert Love Tobacconists seemed to be quite widespread in Scotland – I found them in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Aylesbury, and Edinburgh. There were also hints of it being found in other locations as well.

I scraped some of the oxidation away on the left side of the saddle stem and found that underneath was some faint stamping that read HL in script. I checked the right side and top and bottom for further marks and found none.

I took a close up photo of the rim and bowl to show the damage from the burn on the surface. You can see that it is deeper than the surface of the rim and extends from the inner edge to the outer edge of the rim. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the cutting head that fit the bowl properly. I took the cake back to bare wood on all sides of the bowl so that I could address the rim damage on an even and hard surface. The next photo shows the cleaned up bowl and further shows the damage to the inner edge and top of the rim. The first step in addressing this kind of rim damage is to top the bowl to even out the dip from the burn. I wanted the top surface to be smooth so that I could then chamfer the inner edge of the rim with a slight bevel to deal with the burned front edge. I used a flat board and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to top the bowl. I sanded until the top of the rim sat flat against the board. As usual I collected the briar dust in my box for repurposing on fills and repairs. The next photo shows the top of the bowl after sanding and smoothing out the rim. It really shows the extent of the damage on the rim. I decided to keep topping the bowl until I had evened out the rim and removed as much of the top damage as possible without dramatically changing the profile of the bowl. The next photo shows the bowl rim after I had finished topping it with the 220 grit sandpaper. It still would be sanded with 400 grit wet dry and fine grit sanding sponges before the surface was finished. While I worked on the bowl the stem was soaking in a bath of OxyClean to soften the oxidation. With the top of the rim smoothed out I worked on the inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I chamfered or beveled the inner edge to minimize the damage and to give the entire inner edge a similar look. The next photo shows the beveled inner rim and how that process served to minimize the effect of the burn mark. With the repair to the rim finished I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish and facilitate matching the restain on the rim with the colour of the rest of the bowl. It also removed the damage and spotty finish that covered the bowl. It appeared to have a thin varnish coat over the stain that came off quite easily with the acetone.

I used the Guardsman stain touch up pens to stain the rim. I chose the lightest coloured stain to get a proper match for the first coat of stain. When it dried I would then stain the entire pipe with a medium walnut aniline stain. The stain pen was the first step in matching the colours of the bowl. I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to remove the tars and oils in the shank. It was an easy clean up so I decided not to use a retort on this one. It took very few swabs and pipe cleaners before the mortise and airway was clean. With the bowl at this point in the process I set it aside and took the stem out of the OxyClean bath. It had been soaking for several hours while I had worked on the bowl. The bath had done its magic and when I rubbed it down to dry it much of the surface oxidation came off and the deeper oxidation would easily be removed with a light sanding. I put the dried stem back on the bowl so that I could finish staining the bowl. I used a medium walnut aniline stain, applied it and flamed it. I lightly buffed the bowl with White Diamond to even out the stain coat. I took some photos to show the progress. Note in the first photo the HL cursive stamp that is on the surface of the stem.

I decided to use the Bic lighter trick that I have written about in other articles on the blog and painted the stem with the flame of the lighter to burn off more of the oxidation. It also helped to raise the tooth dents on the top and bottom of the stem next to the button. I put the plastic washer on the tenon between the stem and shank so that I could sand the stem and not damage the shoulders of either shank or stem. I lightly sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the remaining oxidation and tooth chatter.

I sanded the stem with my usual 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 between each set of three pads. When I finished sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I rubbed it down one last time with the oil.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The stamping on the stem was very faint to begin with and when I removed the oxidation it is still present but is not deep enough to repaint.

The last three photos give a closer picture of the top of the pipe – showing the rim edges and surface more closely. In comparison with where I started with this pipe the new look is dramatically better. The burn mark is much less visible and the grain on the rim looks sharp. The outer and inner edge are clean and crisp.

Restoring an Apple from Bertam, the Nation’s Pipemaker

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Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe from the foursome I bought on Ebay was a shapely apple and of all the foursome it was in the best shape. It was dirty and lightly caked but the stem was lightly oxidized and very clean. The shank was quite clean and fresh and took very little to clean out. It is stamped Bertram in script on the shank over Washington DC. It appears to also have a number on the shank to the left of the script. The first number is unreadable but the second is a 0. These numbers on the Bertrams told the price of the pipe and where it fit in the hierarchy of the line.

I have included the following link to give a bit of historical information on the pipe company. It is a well written article that gives a glimpse of the heart of the company. http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/01/bertrams-pipe-shop-on-14th-street.html#!

In the photo below the Bertram is the pipe at the top of the picture. And in the second photo provided by the seller it is out of focus but the shape is clear.

The next four photos show the overall state of the pipe when I brought it to the worktable last evening. The stem is lightly oxidized and appears to be high quality vulcanite. Unlike many of the Bertram stem I have had in the past this one does not have clunky sharp edges of a vulcanite blank. They had been sanded down (at the factory) to make the stem more tapered and finished looking. Bertrams did not typically have a stain or finish. They were polished briar in a natural finish. This one was dirty and had some ground in oils on the shank and sides of the bowl. The grain was a nice cross grain on the right side and mixed on the left. The bowl had a cake in the first 1/3 from the top. The rim was dirty with oils and tar and had a few dents and dings from being knocked about. The slot in the button was very tight – as I have found true of my other Bertram pipes and would need to be opened up to facilitate cleaning with a pipe cleaner. In examining the bowl there were several fills but they had been done well – the putty that was used was not the pink or white putty and had coloured along with the briar as the pipe was smoked.

The close up photo of the bowl shows the rim and the buildup of cake at the top of the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer, matching the cutting head to the diameter of the bowl. I wiped down the briar with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the ground in oils and dirt. I scrubbed with the pad and was able to remove most of the dirt and grime. To address the dents and dings on the rim I decided to lightly top the bowl. I would not be staining the pipe so I would not need to try to match the stain from the bowl and rim. I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I wiped it down a second time using isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads. I cleaned out the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It was not too dirty and cleaned up quickly. I decided to work on the slot so that I could more easily clean out the inside. I used needle files to open the slot. I used three different files – a flat oval, a rounded oval and a round to reshape the slot into an oval.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove some of the buildup and roughness on surface of the stem. I also sanded the end of the stem and the inside of the newly shaped slot. I followed that up with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I followed that with my usual micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

The inside of the bowl had some cracking so I mixed up some pipe mud – cigar ash and water – and coated the inside of the bowl with it. I painted it on with a pipe cleaner and covered the cracks. I also used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the rim and make it crisper. The last three photos show the stem and the bowl after the complete reworking.

Rescuing a Scorched GBD New Era 549

5 Replies

Blog by Andrew Selking

After reading Al’s posts about his GBD pipes, I had to have one. I saw this pipe listed on eBay with a low buy it now price, obviously based on the scorch mark on the front of the bowl. I’m not sure whether it was a sense of overconfidence in my ability or naivety about the extent of the damage, but I bought the pipe. I realized when it arrived that if I couldn’t fix the scorch mark the pipe probably wouldn’t be worth my time. I nearly despaired when normal procedures failed to even lighten the mark. I put the pipe aside several times before finally deciding to take drastic measures and use a hand sander with 150 grit sand paper. I figured at this point there was nothing to lose and I knew I could still maintain the original shape if I was careful. After spending about a half an hour with the sander, I found myself at about an 80% solution. The mark was still too dark, so I took it to the next level of desperation: the rotary tool (that’s the generic name for a dremel that you buy at Harbor Freight Tools) with a sanding attachment.

I do not recommend the use of either a hand sander or the rotary tool except as a last resort. By this point I had accepted the fact that this pipe was beyond hope for a perfect restoration, so I lowered my expectations to a good restoration.

The sanding on the top portion of the bowl changed the contour of the rim, so I used 400 grit sand paper and a piece of glass to top it. Normally I have a set order for restoring a pipe, but dealing with the scorch mark threw it all off. I don’t like to work on a pipe that has a dirty bowl, so I went ahead and reamed it. As you can see from this picture the scorch mark is fairly light. Next I retorted the shank. She was a dirty girl.

I retorted the stem after that, but did it four times. On a dirty pipe you can either spend time with lots of q-tips and fuzzy sticks, or do the retort multiple times. Now that I had the internals of the pipe cleaned, I turned my attention to the removing the oxidation from the stem. This stem was all angles and had some serious oxidation. I’ve felt for a long time that my stem work needed improvement. It’s especially difficult to clean the crease under the button and in the case of this stem the curved area where it meets the diamond portion. I know that when I work with wood I use a sanding block or wrap the sand paper around an object that would fit into the area to be sanded. With that in mind, I “borrowed” a small plastic scraper from the kitchen. You will notice that it has a beveled edge and fits the underside of the button perfectly.

Using the scraper wrapped with 400 grit wet/dry and water, the oxidation was soon gone. I followed with 1500-2400 grit micro mesh pads and water. The bowl had a couple of dents so I decided to steam them out. One of my essential tools for this type of work is an old butter knife. I used my heat gun to get the tip of the knife very hot, then applied it to a wet cloth directly over the dents. Here is what it looked like after several applications of steam. The dents still needed some work, so I sanded them smooth with 400 grit sand paper. By this point the finish was completely uneven, with bare wood on the rim and side of the bowl, so I used acetone and 0000 steel wool to remove the remaining finish. I find that if I’m careful with the stampings, that grade of steel wool cleans the wood without damaging the stampings. This is what the pipe looked like after I took the bowl and stem through a progression of micro mesh pads, 1500-12,000. I decided to use a dark walnut stain from Pimo Pipe Supply to help cover the remaining scorch mark. Here is the bowl after the application of stain. I used white diamond buffing compound on the buffing wheel to bring out a shine. Let me digress a bit about buffers. There are three things that a buffer loves, angles, stem inserts, and nice pipes. When spinning at 3450 rpm’s the buffer will catch anything with an angle and fling it at a high rate of speed onto the nearest hard surface. Alternately it will catch any type of stem insert and rip it out of the stem. Finally if you have a nice pipe that you’ve invested time in, the buffer has a tendency to shatter it just as you finish. This pipe had all of those elements, so I decided to try something different; my rotary tool.

I took a felt buffing pad and loaded it with white diamond buffing compound. The results were spectacular. The rotary tool gave me more control, I didn’t have to worry about the stem flying out of my hand, and I was able to achieve a more consistent shine in the areas that are hard to get with a buffer. Not bad when you consider that I paid $19.99 for this thing at Harbor Freight Tools. I finished the bowl on the buffing wheel and here is the final result.

Bringing an Everton Big-Boy 1025 Rhodesian back from the brink

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Blog by Steve Laug

I saw the Everton Big-Boy pipe on a website and the shape hooked me. In the photos the bowl seemed squat and wide and the shank was thick. The bend in the stem appeared similar to an earlier Sina pipe that I picked up; in fact the entire shape was similar. I searched and could find nothing on the brand. There was nothing in any of the books that I usually check out and nothing on the various websites that I use when researching a brand. The brand was a mystery to me and that made me want the pipe even more. I could find Everton Tobacco which is a Danish pipe tobacco. I could find the Everton Football Club (Everton is a District of Liverpool) but no Everton tobacco pipes. I figured that when it arrived I might be able to see why the seller had labeled it an English made pipe. When the pipe arrived I checked the stamping and it was stamped Everton over Big-Boy on the left side of the shank. On the right side of the shank it was stamped 1025. The shape in hand is not as wide and squat at the above photo led me to believe it would be. It is actually very close to a GBD 9438 though I had never seen a GBD stamped with this number. This sent me on a hunt for potential English makers that had a similarly shaped Rhodesian. I looked through many of the Comoy’s charts and again could not find any reference to the number. On a lark I just typed in the shape number in a Google search and immediately had a hit for a 1025 shaped pipe made by the French pipe making company, Butz Choquin (BC). I opened the link from Google to find that it was indeed the pipe I was looking for. BC still makes the 1025 shape in several of their lines. The stamping is slightly different in terms of the name on the left side of the shank. All of them have the BC name and the Line underneath. The right side has the 1025 stamp and also a Made in France. I have included the next two photos from Tobacco Pipes.com. The first is the Bistro line 1025 Rhodesian, while it has the thick shank the stem shape is slightly thinner that the one I have. The second one is from the Manoir line. It has the same thick stubby stem as the one I have. From this exploration I can see that the pipe is an older BC pipe. I have no idea what the Everton stamping is – though it may well be a Liverpool tobacconist.

As I examined the pipe upon taking it out of the box I was troubled by the state of the pipe. There were no noted issues with the pipe either on his site or in email exchanges regarding billing and shipping. The trouble was that there were many issues with the pipe. All together they add up to a question mark for me regarding this pipe. The bowl was over reamed and out of round. There appears to be a sandpit in the inner edge of the bowl toward the front. There is a small crack on the underside of the bowl (the heel) directly below the over reaming. The top of the shank near the stem has a large pit that appears to have small spider web cracks that radiate from it. They are not deep but they are present. The stem is a mess. Evidently the previous owner found the stem to thick to his liking and had performed a butcher job trying to remedy that. It had been hacked with a knife blade on the underside from about mid stem to the button leaving the surface corrugated looking with a lot of file and knife marks. The top of the stem had also been hacked and filed in an attempt to thin it down. It is wavy and rippled. I think that most of the damages to the stem can be fixed as the stem is beefy and I should be able to smooth them out. In terms of the over reaming and the crack – time will tell what I can do with it. Needless to say I was disappointed when I opened the package from the seller.

From first appearance the pipe does not appear all that deficient. It seems like it is in pretty good nick. You can see the similarity in shape to the GBD 9438 Rhodesian in the photos below.

It is only when the pipe is viewed more closely that the problems become obvious. The first photo below shows the crack in the bottom of the bowl and the dents and scratches around that crack. The next photo shows the underside of the stem. The underside had been carved with a knife and with files and left maimed and decimated. The gouges were deep and crossed each other leaving a corrugated surface. The next photo shows the topside of the stem. It had much the same issues as the underside but was nearly as drastic. It had grooves, scratches and flattening. There were ripples in the surface of the vulcanite that left it marked. The filing had left grooves and damage and had been done at angles that destroyed the flow of the stem. The bowl was out of round and the rim had damage to the inner front edge of the bowl. There was a pit in the edge that had opened up. There was burn damage to the bowl edge and rim top. I started working on the stem to smooth out the ridges and corrugations on the top and underside. I used 180 grit sandpaper to begin the process and reduce the ridges. The next series of photos show the stem after this initial sanding.

I continued to sand with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the scratches and smooth out the surface. I followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. The next two photos show the progress in the shaping of the stem. The top side worked quite well. The underside still had one horizontal groove that would take more work but the overall look was getting better.

I continued to sand the underside with the 220 grit sandpaper to remove the groove and reshape the edges of the stem. Once I had the stem shaped and smoothed out I sanded the bottom of the bowl to clean up the glue and bumps on the bottom of the bowl. I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface. Once I had removed the glue I could see that the damaged area, the crack had been repaired with epoxy mixed with briar dust. I was glad to see that the crack had been repaired and that the repair while rough, nonetheless was solid and had stopped the crack. The round area in the center of the crack made me wonder if there was potential burnout that had been cleaned out and repaired. Examining the bowl interior I could not see evidence of a burnout though it was severely over reamed.

I topped the bowl to remove the sandpit in the surface and smooth out some of the out of round shape of the bowl. The rim was damage so a light topping would take care of the problems. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the inner rim of the bowl. I cleaned the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.

On the top of the shank there was a sandpit at the shank/stem junction that had spidering cracks around it. I sanded it smooth and refilled it with super glue and briar dust. I sanded the junction with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the flow of the stem and shank.

I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and wiped the bowl and stem down with a cotton pad. I wiped the bowl down with acetone and cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and prepare it for staining.

I sanded the bowl and stem with a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the finish and remove the wear and tear that had come with the bowl.

I mixed a small batch of plaster of Paris to repair the over reamed bowl. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the shank and then pressed the plaster into the bowl bottom under and around the pipe cleaner. I raised the bottom of the bowl to the bottom of the airway.

I sanded the inner edge of the rim some more to bevel it inward and try to work in more into round. I finished that shaping and then prepped the bowl to restain. I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it. I restained and reflamed it until I had an even coverage on the bowl. I wiped the newly stained bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to lighten the bowl and make it more transparent. I wanted the grain to show through once the bowl was polished.

I sanded the stem with my usual pattern of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. Once the final rub had dried I buffed the stem with White Diamond.

The newly shaped stem is shown in the next two photos. The shine and polish came out well and the reshape of the stem took care of the ridges and cuts on the surface. The sanding had taken care of the issues with the stem.

After I put the stem on the pipe I buffed the entirety with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown below. Once I shed this chest cold I intend to christen this one with a bowl of Black Parrot. I am looking forward to giving this old timer a re-entry into pipedom.

Trash to Treasure – Restoring a KBB Yello-Bole Billiard

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Blog by Aaron Henson

Last evening I received an email from Aaron to which he attached this writeup on his restemming of an older KBB Yello-Bole. It is great to have the various readers of the blog submit articles to the blog to share with others. The dream of rebornpipes when I started it was just that – to provide a platform where those of us engaged in refurbishing tobacco pipes could share our methods, successes and failures. This community would provide ongoing education for anyone who wanted to try their hand at restoring estate pipes. With that background here is Aaron’s restoration and the explanation of his process. Welcome to rebornpipes Aaron.

By way of introduction, let me begin by saying that I am relatively new to pipe restoration. This write up details my third restoration and I thought I would submit it for two reasons; 1) I have gotten so much help from the regulars posting here at rebornpipes and from forums elsewhere I felt that I would like to share my experience for others to glean from, and 2) although it is not very different from some of the other restorations that Steve has catalog for us here, some of my tools and techniques may be a little different. I also hope to get some feedback on ways to improve my process.

I was at local second-hand shop with my family around Thanksgiving and was looking for pipes when my son found a stemless KBB Yello-Bole stummel. After looking it over for cracks in the bowl and stem I realized that the briar was in relatively good condition. I noted a few chips on the edge of the rim and some blackening of the rim but no fills and not much cake in the bowl. The stem was clearly stamped with the KBB logo in a clover leaf just to the left of:

I did not know much about the Yello-Bole brand but I thought I should be able to find a stem easily enough (aren’t they somewhat universal in size?). Besides, with a $4 price tag I figured I would not be out anything if it didn’t work out.

I jumped on my computer as soon as I got home and found some interesting history on the Yello-Bole brand. I won’t go into it here because Steve has done a nice job summarizing it in one of his posts: Narrowing Down a Date for Kaufman Brothers & Bondy’s KBB and KB&B Pipes. From the data available I had to guess that this pipe was form the late 1950’s or 60’s.

After reading up on the history of the pipe I began looking online for a new stem. I quickly learned that not all pipe stems are created equal, nor are they interchangeable. For a while, I considered sending the stummel to someone to have a stem made but that kind of defeated the whole spirit of restoring the pipe myself.

It took a while to find a stem that I thought would look right on the pipe. I settled on a stem from Vermont Freehand (ebay vt_freehand), a 2½” tapered stem – No. 547. I ordered 3 of them, figuring that I would need at least one for practice.

While I waited for the stems to arrive I began working on the stummel. There was not a lot of cake in the bowl so I started there – low hanging fruit. Now, I don’t own a reamer, but I have found that a ½” dowel wrapped with 60 grit sandpaper answers very well. What cake there was came out cleanly.

Besides the chip there was some charring on the rim. The chip was not very deep so I thought I would take care of both issues by taking the top of the bowl down to clean briar. Using 120 grit sand paper mounted on a flat surface, I carefully worked the bowl in a circular motion trying to keep it level. I didn’t want to take off too much of the top so I gave the outside lip of the bowl a slight chamfer to remove the bottom part of the chip. I then gave the stummel a soak in a 91% isopropyl alcohol bath. This was for the dual purpose of removing the existing finish and loosening the crud in the shank. I removed the stummel after about 24 hours and wiped off the existing stain. I then cleaned the shank with a bristled brush, bristled cleaners and cotton swabs. I wanted to make sure the mortise was thoroughly cleaned before I began to size the tenon on the new stem. When the stems arrived, I realized that I probably could have been a little more attentive to the size I purchased. I was going to have to remove a lot of material to get the tenon to fit the mortise as well as flushing the stem to the shank. The best way to shape a stem is on a lathe, but not having a lathe I turned to my drill press. I found that a bamboo skewer fit very snugly into the air hole of the stem. Leaving about 1 inch of the skewer protruding out of the air hole, I chucked the stem into my drill press. I started out a little timidly, removing material with 120 grit sand paper but the vulcanite is so soft that it gums up the paper very quickly. I switched to 60 grit and still was not seeing much progress. I tried a metal file next and when that did not answer I rummaged around the tool box and found a rasp. A bit aggressive I admit, and I would not recommend it unless you are removing a lot of material, and I was.

The drill press method worked great but was not without its problems. Pressing too hard with the file or rasp would cause the stem to slip on the skewer. The stem would then have to be reseated before I could resume. The other problem happened about half way through the rough shaping; the skewer broke off flush with the end of the tenon. I admit I panicked a little when I could not get a hold of the skewer with my needle nose pliers. But using a small drill bit I was able to carefully drill out the wedged skewer.

Back on track I, stopped often to check the fit. As I neared the correct size I switched back to the file then to the sand paper again. I finished the tenon with 320 grit sand paper. I thought fitting the tenon to the mortise was going to be the hard part but shaping the stem to get that perfect flush fit with the shank turned out to be the big challenge. You can see in the picture above that I have a ways to go to get the taper from the shank to the button. I have also started to get a bit of a wave about a quarter of the way from the tenon.

To fix this I stapled a piece of 240 grit paper to a 3” sanding block and went to town. The sanding block kept the contact surface flat and helped to eliminate the wave. It took about an hour of work stopping often for fit checks. In the end I was rewarded with nice taper. Somehow I had rounded over the shoulder of the stem ever so slightly. This formed a little groove at the stem/shank connection. It was not terrible and I felt could live with it for now.

I finished the stem with 600, 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000 grit sand paper. Then set it aside to buff with the stummel once it was complete. I stained the stummel using one part Fiebing’s light brown diluted with 2 parts isopropyl alcohol. I applied two coats, flaming each coat. Once dry, I wiped it down with a clean cloth and attached with stem. I set my drill press up with an inexpensive Sears buffing system and started with the white buffing compound. I found on previous projects that gearing down the drill speed to 1200 rpms was important to maintain control of the pipe and not overheat the pipe. I finished with two coats of carnauba wax and buff with a soft cloth.

I needed a tooth pick to remove some of the wax from the sand blasted areas. And that little groove between the stem and shank collected some wax too. Overall I am very happy with the outcome of this restoration. I am looking forward to smoking my first bowl in it.

Looking back, I am glad that I tried shaping my own stem. It was not without its challenges but the result was very rewarding. I now have two spare stems in my tool box, so I will be keeping an eye out for another stemless billiard.

Refurbishing The Guildhall London Pipe 409 Bulldog for Country Squire Radio Host Beau York

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I really like the grain and look of this bulldog. It is made by Comoy’s London and bears the stamping is The Guildhall over London Pipe on the left side of the shank. On the right side is the circular Com stamp Made In London in a circle with the In centered in the circle. Underneath the circle it reads England and to the right of that is the shape stamp 409. The grain on this pipe is a mixed bag but is nonetheless beautiful. There is cross grain, swirls and birdseye that pops on the right side of the bowl. I was listening to the live show when Beau and Jon David talked about this pipe. They showed the condition of it and made some comment about needing to give it some attention as it was looking rough (my recollection). I tweeted them that I would gladly take it on as a project if he sent it my way. Beau packed it up and sent it my way. It arrived early this week after the New Year weekend. When I took it out of the packing envelopes and unwrapped it this is what I found. The stem was badly oxidized but did not have any deep bite marks. There was the normal tooth chatter around the button on the top and bottom sides of the stem. There was a distinct line from the button up ½ inch toward the shank that looked like the stem at one time in its life had sported a rubber softie bit over the vulcanite. The finish was worn and spotty and there were some serious issues with dents and marks in the briar. The rim was very rough with a lot of dings and damage to the top surface. Some of the damage went down the cap on the left side of the bowl. The top of the bowl looked as if it had been dropped on asphalt or concrete. There were parallel marks and dings on the left side low on the bowl and on the point at the bottom of the bowl.

I took the next three close-up photos of the dings on the bowl and rim to show the extent of the damage. Both the inner and outer edge of the rim had damage that made this rim a prime candidate for topping.

Andrew, Anthony and others use a piece of glass for their flat smooth surface for topping a bowl. I use a hard piece of finished oak that is part of my work top. I put a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on the board and anchor it in place. Then I turn the bowl clockwise in a circle across the sandpaper to remove the damaged portions. I check frequently to make sure that I remove just the damage and not too much briar. I also make sure that the rim is flat against the board so that I do not change the angles and profile of the rim top and cap.

Once I had the top flattened with the 220 grit sandpaper I worked it over with a medium and a fine grit sanding block to remove any of the scratches left behind in the topping of the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the spotty finish.

I steamed the dents and marks on the bowl using a wet cloth and the blade of a butter knife that I heated on the flame of our gas range. I put the wet cloth over the dents and touched it with the hot knife blade. The stem generated lifts the dents from the briar. Doing this I was able to remove many of the dents on the sides of the bowl and on the back edge of the cap and rim.

Some of the dents were going to take more drastic measures to try to raise and some of them would need to be filled with a mix of briar and clear superglue to smooth out the surface of the briar. I decided to work on the stem for a break in the process. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and remove what appeared to be ripples in the vulcanite stem. The more oxidation I removed the more these ripples became apparent. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge made by 3M. I pick it up in 8×10 sheets and cut it into working squares to sand stems and bowls. I used a plastic washer that I made to sit between the shank and stem to protect the shoulders of the stem from being rounded in the sanding process.

The next photo shows the remaining dents in the bottom of the bowl. It was almost like a road rash left behind by a drop on concrete. Many of the lighter more shallow dents were raised with the steam but these were more stubborn. I decided to soak the dented portion of the bowl in water. I was careful to not get water in the shank or the bowl. I used a small shallow dish filled with about an inch of water and angled the dented bottom and side of the bowl in to the water. I have found in other refinishing work that water will swell dents in the wood and lift them to the surface. While I knew that some of these dents would not move much, I was certain I could raise them all significantly using this method.

While the bowl soaked in the water I turned my attention to the stem. I find these old Comoy’s stems with the three silver bars inset in them a pain to deal with. Sanding or polishing around them causes the metal to ghost on the surface of the vulcanite. It has to be quickly wiped down with a soft towel to remove it before it penetrates the vulcanite surface. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads again rubbing down the stem with the oil between each group of three pads. I have found that sanding a freshly oiled stem gives teeth to the micromesh and it gives a deeper shine in the process.

The bowl sat in the water for the entire time I worked on the stem (probably 1 ½ hours). Once I finished the stem with the micromesh I heated the knife and used it and the wet cloth to once again steam the dents. I was able to significantly lift the majority of them this way. The photos below show the pipe after the steaming. The rim dents are all gone. The majority of the ones on the side and bottom are either gone or significantly shallower. The steam on the briar brought out some nice reds in the grain of the briar. I used a soft cloth with a few drops of olive oil to wipe down the bowl and shank after the steaming.

I decided to address the remaining dents with briar dust and clear super glue fills. I sanded the surface of the bowl around the dents. I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to clean the surface of dust. I packed briar dust into the dents and put a drop of super glue on each repaired area.

I sanded the patches with 220 grit sandpaper, medium and fine grit sanding sponges to blend the repairs into the briar and to remove the excess glue and briar dust. The next two photos show the bowl after I had sanded the repairs smooth. They appear as dark spots on the bowl but they are smooth to touch. The dents are all gone at this point in the process.

I sanded the bowl with 2400-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches and prepare the bowl for staining. I wiped it down a final time with alcohol on a cotton pad. I decided to stain it with an aniline based walnut stain. Before staining it I used a dark brown stain pen to go over the areas that were repaired. Once they were covered I applied a coat of the aniline stain and flamed it. Once it was dry to touch I buffed the bowl with White Diamond to polish and even out the stain. The next series of four photos show the bowl before polishing. It is smooth in the hand. All dents have been removed or repaired.

I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed it with White Diamond to raise the shine. I then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad as the final touch. The finished pipe is shown below. There is still some remaining oxidation around the three bars on the left side of the stem but it has been minimized.

A Student Pays Tuition with a Reborn Suffolk

6 Replies

Blog by Anthony Cook (Piffyr from Reddit’s /r/PipeTobacco forum)

It is a pleasure to put Anthony’s first blog on rebornpipes. His work on this tired old Suffolk pipe is well done. His ability to adjust and flex to deal with the challenges presented by this old pipe is really enjoyable to read about. I did a little digging and found that Suffolk pipes were made by two companies – one in England (Tyler & Co.) and one in the US (Whitehall Products). My guess would be that this is the American made pipe – thus made by Whitehall. It has a look that is very similar to some of the Whitehall pipes that I have restored over the years. Welcome to the blog Anthony. We look forward to reading about more your work in the year ahead. Thanks for being willing to post here. Without further introduction here are Anthony’s own words.

I think when I first spoke with Steve near the end of last year over on Reddit’s /r/PipeTobacco forum that I was actually a bit starstruck. You see, I’m a new guy at the art of pipe restoration, but since discovering Reborn Pipes around mid-2014, I have fallen madly and deeply in love with the site. I have read every post going back to October 2012. Steve, Al, Greg, and the other contributors here have been unwittingly providing me a free education for months and I have great admiration for the excellent work that they do.

So, when Steve invited me to share some of my work on the site I quaked in my Nikes a little. At the time, I had restored a sum total of six pipes to varying degrees of success. None of them had exploded, but I did partially dissolve one (more on that later). Still, when you are invited up to the Country Club, you go even if you’re not dressed for it.

It so happens that another member of that same forum was kind (or possibly foolish) enough to send me a few pipes to practice with around that same time. The pipe in the following picture was part of that group. It was described by him as one of two in the lot that were “as basket pipey as basket pipes get.” It had a few issues that I had not dealt with previously and had rarely seen covered. Since Lady Fortuity seemed to have spoken, I decided to document the restoration of this one and contribute it to the site to pay back some of the tuition that I owe. I’ve had no luck digging up anything on the origin of this pipe, but the stamping reads “SUFFOLK” over “ALGERIAN BRIAR”. The first thing that struck me when I pulled this one out of the packaging was the interesting and varying grain pattern. I thought it would be fun to work with to bring up to its full potential. Two small fills on the side of the bowl that were barely more than scratches and another that peeked out from under the band on the shank were the only factory flaws that I could find. There was clear evidence that it had suffered through an abusive relationship in its past though.

The stummel was dented and well scratched with a worn and uneven stain. The rim, as you can see in the photo below, was tarred, charred, deeply scratched, and there was a large gouge on the front edge from being knocked on a hard surface. Worse yet, the bottom of the bowl chamber had been reamed within five millimeters of its life and it was just begging for a burnout. Clearly, the wood was going to need some intensive therapy. The ABS stem was largely in good shape on the bit end with only light tooth chatter and a small amount of material missing from the upper portion of the button. On the other end though, the edge of the stem face had been roughly chiseled away in what I could only imagine to be an attempt to create a faux military mount fit. There was also an abrasion along the side that was deep enough to take the stem out of round. Once the ailments were cataloged, I went to work cleaning and sanitizing the internals. I started by reaming the bowl to bare wood to prepare it for the necessary repairs. Since I was unsure of the condition of the bottom of the chamber, I used my T-handle reamer only in the top 2/3 of the bowl. Then, I sanded out the remaining cake in the bottom by hand with 400-grit, then 600-grit sandpaper. The bowl, mortise, and airway were scrubbed clean with several cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out as white as they were when they went in. Then, I ran a pipe cleaner through the shank into the bowl and filled the chamber with cotton balls and alcohol and set it aside in a container of rice (to keep it upright) and let it leech out any remaining tars. I know that some people prefer to use kosher salt instead of cotton balls for this treatment. I’ve tried both and haven’t seen any difference in the end results. Cleanup is easier with the cotton balls, though. So, that’s the method I choose. In any case, I’ve since figured out that this step is unnecessary for pipes like this, because it’s going into an alcohol bath anyway and that will accomplish pretty much the same thing. Sometimes, it takes me a while, but I get there eventually. I then turned my attention to cleaning the stem. I don’t like working with ABS stem material. Some experience has taught me that some of the cheaper ones will begin to dissolve when exposed to alcohol. You’ll think (or at least I did) that you are removing thick tar build-up, but the sticky sludge on the pipe cleaner is actually disintegrated stem material. I speak with no exaggeration when I tell you that this is a horrifying revelation when you are faced with it. So now, I make sure to always test them first by dipping the pad of a finger in alcohol and pressing firmly against the surface of the stem for 20-30 seconds while it’s lying on the work surface. If the stem sticks to my finger when I lift it away and needs to be “peeled” off, then I know that the material is no good for alcohol cleaning. If that’s the case, like it was here, I use a citrus cleaner instead. It doesn’t work as well for breaking down tar build-up, but it’s non-toxic and doesn’t cause harm to the stem material. It just takes more a bit more elbow grease and I always keep a good supply of that on hand.

Roughly 24 hours later, I removed the tar-stained cotton balls and pipe cleaner from the bowl. Then, I dropped the stummel into a jar of isopropyl alcohol to bathe overnight to remove the old stain and soften the tar around the rim to make removing it easier.

I removed the stummel from the bath the next morning. I was surprised to see that not only had it performed well at removing the stain, but it had done a fantastic job of removing the crud from around the rim too. A lot of what I had taken to char was actually heavily caked soot and tar that had dissolved away in the alcohol. It still looked like it had been through a thresher, but this time at least, the machine hadn’t been on fire. My first step in repairing the damaged rim was to remove the surface scratches. I clamped 220-grit sandpaper to a sheet of glass from and glass-top table (the glass looks dimpled in the photo below, but that’s actually the opposite side) to set up a topping surface. 220 is more course than what I would normally start with, but the scratches were deep and it helps to speed things up when you’re removing that much material. I placed the bowl rim-down on the paper, firmly gripped the bottom of the bowl, and slowly sanded in a circular motion. While sanding, I made sure to check my progress often and to change the position of my hand frequently to avoid putting too much pressure on the same side.Once the worst of the scratches were about half of their original depth, I switched to a 320-grit paper. I continued sanding until the scratches were barely visible. Then, I swapped the paper to 400-grit and sanded until the scratches and majority of the charring were gone.

The top surface of the rim was smooth and scratch-free but there were still several small nicks remaining along the inner and outer edges. Also, the gouge along the front had barely been touched. So, I decided to chamfer the outside edge of the rim at an angle and depth that matched the gouge. The chamfer would have to be deep. So, this decision was going to take the project outside of the realm of pure restoration and into modification, since it was going to change the shape of the pipe. I’m never completely happy with a choice like that, but in my opinion, it was the only way to give the pipe a truly refinished look.

Starting at the front of the rim, I first sanded the rough surface of the gouge smooth, and then worked my way around the rim to create the chamfer. I used the same progression paper that I had when topping the bowl. I roughed in the shape with 220-grit and then refined it as I moved to the higher grits. I also put a narrow chamfer on the inside edge to remove most of the nicks there. You can see the end results in my admittedly poorly lit photo below.The major issues of the rim were taken care of. So, I began to work on the rest of the briar surface using a little steam power. To free up my hands, I secured the stummel in my bench vice using a bit of foam rubber to protect it. I then heated the end of an old, flat-head screwdriver over a tea candle, placed a dampened cotton cloth over the dents, and pressed the hot metal into it. If there’s no material missing inside the dent and the edges aren’t too sharp, this method does a fine job of raising the wood to the surface. There were still scratches when I finished, but I would take care of those in a later step. I gave the stummel a good wipe-down with acetone after working on the dents, and then dropped it into a short alcohol bath to further remove the original stain. I wanted this one as bare as possible to give the grain the chance to do what it so badly wanted to do. I let the stummel completely dry out overnight. Then, I patched a few scratches on the front of the bowl that were too deep to be sanded out. I used an artist’s palette knife as a trowel to pack briar dust into the scratches until they were slightly overfull and dripped CA glue into the dust. Once dry, I sanded back the hardened glue. I began sanding with 320-grit until the “bumps” of glue were about half their original height. Then, I used 400-grit until the glue was just barely a ridge above the surface. Finally, I sanded with 600-grit to sand the patch flush and remove any of the shiny glue that remained on the surface around the patch. At this point, the bowl was looking much better, but it was still heavily scratched and needed more work. However, I also needed to pay some attention to the stem. So, I sat it aside for later.

It seems that even these ABS stems will oxidize over time. Perhaps not at the rate or to the severity of vulcanite, but I’ve noticed a brownish hue on the surface of some of the older stems like this one. So, I applied a bit of Vaseline to the metal tenon and dropped it into a Oxyclean bath for an hour or so (the Oxyclean dulls the finish on polished metal, thus the Vaseline). Once removed, it was ready for a scrub with a Magic Eraser. When I use these, I cut each pad into eight cubes and rotate the cubes as I work to get a clean surface. Lightly oxidized stems might need only one or two cubes before they’re finished. Here’s the stem with a matte black finish after the scrub. Heating a stem is a great method for raising deep tooth dents in most materials. I’ve found that it also works well for leveling out even normal chatter. The more that I accomplish with the application of heat, then the less material I will have to remove and the less work I will have to do in sanding them out. So, it’s become part of my regular routine for stem maintenance. My high-tech stem heating apparatus consists of a paint stripper secured by a large, weathered c-clamp with a jar of cold water by the side. I run a pipe cleaner through the stem to hold it and move it back and forth over the heat source to keep it from burning. As soon as I can smell the hot material I know that I have done all that I can do. I either immediately dip it in the cold water to set it, or re-bend if necessary, and then dip. Most bent stems like this one tend to straighten out at least a little during heating. So, before I begin, I print a photo reference of the stem, trace the inside edge of the bend on paper, and find a hard, smooth, rounded surface that fits well inside the bend. If it’s required, I’ll grasp both ends of the pipe cleaner and bend the warm, pliable stem over the rounded surface and let it cool for a few seconds. Then, I set it with cold water, wipe it dry and compare it to my tracing. If it’s still off a bit, it usually takes only a couple of minutes to reheat the stem enough to give it another try. The following picture shows the stem after heating and re-bending. It was time to address that chiseled chamfer along the stem face. I considered cutting the damage off and reseating the tenon, but decided against it because I didn’t want to shorten the stem. The only other option, aside from replacement (and that wasn’t going to happen – this was for practice after all), was to replace the missing material. I began by applying several layers of black CA glue to create a sort of collar around the edge. I allowed each layer to dry and sanded them back a bit to keep it smooth and prevent bubbles from forming between each layer. I also applied a couple of layers of CA glue to the abrasion that had taken the stem out of round and on the top of the button where a bit had been worn off. The picture below shows the collar once it was completely built-up. To ensure that the stem was without gaps when attached to the shank, I needed a way to evenly sand out a smooth surface on the face of the stem. My solution was to take a piece of scrap wood and drill a hole in it only slightly larger than the tenon. Then, I tightly clamped a strip of sandpaper over the wood and used an X-Acto blade to carefully cut a hole in the paper to match the bore. I inserted the tenon into the hole, then twisted and rotated to sand out any lumps and bumps created by the CA glue. I began sanding with 320-grit paper, and then progressed to 400-grit and 600-grit to finalize. When the stem face was smooth and even, I reattached it to the stummel to do the final work on the stem patches. I put a strip of painter’s tape around the end of the shank to prevent any scratching. It’s much easier to match the shape of this sort of patch with the stem attached. Still, care has to be taken not to remove material from outside of the patch, which would give it a fluted appearance. I used the same progression of grits to sand as I did on the face. It took a long time to get the collar, abrasion, and button patches shaped to my satisfaction. Once they were, I sanded out what tooth chatter remained after the heat treatment with 400 and 600-grit paper. Then I lightly sanded the entire stem with 1200-grit to smooth the dimpled surface. I followed with the full range of micromesh pads from 1500 to 12,000 to polish it. I don’t have a currently working buffer. So, that was going to have to be it for this stem. I gave it a wipe down with Obsidian oil and two shots of Paragon wax to achieve the results you see in the two pictures below. Also, it is obvious from those pictures that I am not working in a lint-free environment.

The stem was complete. So, I could get back to work on the stummel, which is where I have the most fun. There were still all of those scratches to address, but before removing them, I applied a quick layer of dark brown stain thinned with about three times the amount of isopropyl alcohol. I heated the wood to open the grain, and then I used a cotton swab to “paint” the stain along the grain. I didn’t want to cover the whole piece. I just want to add a bit of contrast and variation to the grain. The stain is very uneven and blotchy in the picture below, but that’s fine. Most of it was to be removed in the next step anyway, leaving only what had set in the grain. After letting the stain set, I sanded out the scratches with 600-grit paper. I also took the opportunity to further refine the shape of the rim chamfer and soften the edges a little. You can see in the picture below that the contrast stain has done its thing and the grain is really starting to “pop”. Even the minor grain has some definition now. Once again, I painted the bowl with another contrast stain. This time, I got fancy and used a size 20/0 liner brush. I again heated the wood, and then used a black stain to paint over only the thickest and tightest areas of the grain. The last staining gave the grain definition. I was hoping that this one would give it depth. Next, I sanded the stummel with 1200-grit paper. Then, I used micromesh pads 1500, 1800, and 2400 to arrive at the results you see in the picture below. It’s difficult to tell from the picture, but the lighter grain seems to recede a bit behind the darker stained grain to add some subtle intensity. I then applied a final stain to the wood. I used a medium brown to even everything out and add some warmth. I used micromesh pads 3200-12,000 to give it a polish. The following picture gives you an idea of the final finish. There was still the issue of that over-reamed bowl that needed to be addressed. So, I mixed up a batch of pipe mud to fill the bottom of the bowl. The recipe that I use consists of activated charcoal, powdered pumice and sodium silicate (water glass). I use the spoon on my pipe tool to “measure” out roughly equal parts activated charcoal and powdered pumice. Then, I use a toothpick to stir them together in a glass candle jar top. When they are well mixed, I level out the powdered material, and then use a pipette to drip a few drops of sodium silicate into the mix near the edge. I then begin stir the sodium silicate into the mix with the toothpick and “shovel” in more dry material as needed. Once it reaches a thick, tar-like consistency, it’s ready to be applied.

Once mixed, the patch material begins to set up very quickly. So, it’s important to work with a bit of haste. I use the toothpick to load the spoon of my pipe tool with the gooey “tar”, and then transfer it to the pipe bowl where I have already ran a pipe cleaner through the airway and slightly into the bowl to seal it. When the patch is in the bowl, I use the tamper to press it into place just below the draft hole. After a minute or two, the patch material has set up enough that it is no longer sticky but still pliable. I use this opportunity to refine the shape of the patch with my fingertip. I put the stummel aside for three days to give the bowl patch a chance to fully cure. When I returned to it, the material had become dark gray and very hard to the touch. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get a picture of it after it cured. I was excited to be in the home stretch with this pipe and plunged ahead without thinking about it. So, I probed around the edges of the patch a bit with the spoon of my pipe tool, and then turned the bowl upside-down and gave it a few firm taps into the palm of my hand. I wanted to make sure that the material was fully adhered to the bottom surface of the chamber. Once I was satisfied that it was, I sanded the patch a bit with a piece of 600-grit paper to smooth the edges along the slope of the chamber and the patch was complete. This repair should last a long time and eliminate any chance of a burn-through in the bottom of the bowl.

Then, I prepared a batch of bowl coating. I know that bowl coatings are a controversial subject among pipe smokers, but to me it just makes sense when a chamber has been badly damaged like this one. To me, any extra protection that I can provide is a benefit. Personally, I can’t detect any taste from it, but I won’t argue with those who say that they can. In any case, my simple recipe is a mixture of sour cream and activated charcoal. I don’t measure. I just mix by eye until it becomes a deep charcoal gray. I then apply it to the inside of the bowl with a cotton swab. After six hours, the coating was dry and I smoothed it out with a paper towel wrapped around my finger.

Again, I’m currently working without a buffer. So, instead of carnauba, I gave the bowl several coats of Paragon wax to finish the work. You can see the completed pipe in the pictures below.

Thanks again to Steve and the rest of the contributors at Reborn Pipes for taking the time to teach me the skills to get this done. I still have a lot of learning to do. So, I’ll be around for a good while. Until next time…

Restoring a Burned Beveled Rim on an Algerian Briar Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

This morning I finished working on the second pipe from my recent pipe hunt – the small pot shaped pipe on the right in the two photos below. It is a natural finish, virgin pot shaped pipe. The left side of the shank has no stamping and the right side is stamped Algerian Briar over Made in France. It is a pretty decent piece of briar and had a beveled/chamferred rim that caught my eye. Not a bad pickup for $10USD.

When I took it to the work table to examine it I found that the stem was very tight and would not go all the way into the shank. There was no oxidation on it and not a bite mark on the stem. The finish was clean and there were no fills or dents in the bowl. The left side had some great birdseye grain and the right side had a mix of grains. The rim was dirty and had a buildup of tars and oils that would need to be removed. There was also a burn mark on the outer edge at the front of the bowl and potential inner edge burn damage at the back side of the bowl.

I removed the stem carefully as it was very tight in the shank. It is a delicate stem so I did not want to snap the blade. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the light cake that was buildup in the bowl. I was surprised to see that the bowl was almost unsmoked from midway down to the bottom of the bowl. The briar did not show any burn or darkening in the bottom of the bowl. The shank was very clean. I scrubbed it down with isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the little debris that was in the shank and made the tenon fit so tight. Once the shank was clean, I waxed the tenon with beeswax and it fit the shank with no problems. That was a very simple fix.

The burned area on the front of the rim was another story. I have detailed the repairs on the rim in a separate blog. If you want to read the details have a look at this link https://rebornpipes.com/2015/01/04/repairing-and-minimizing-a-burn-mark-on-a-bowl-rim/ After sanding, reshaping and polishing the rim I rubbed the natural finish down with a light coat of olive oil to blend it with the bowl. I buffed it by hand and then gave the bowl several coats of carnauba wax to seal and protect the briar. The finished rim is shown in the photo below. At this point I still needed to buff the pipe on the buffer and give it a final polish but the reworked rim is visible.

The stem was one of the simplest I have worked on in a long time. There were no bite marks, tooth chatter or even oxidation. I lightly sanded it with a fine grit sanding sponge and wiped it down with a soft cloth to remove the debris that was stuck on the surface of the stem. I then sanded it 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 between each set of three pads and then gave the stem a final coat of oil and let it dry before buffing and applying the wax.

I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I gave it a final buff with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine and polish the pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Repairing and Minimizing a Burn Mark on a Bowl Rim

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Blog by Steve Laug

When dealing with a burned or charred rim there are several issues that need to be addressed. First is how deep the burn goes into the briar and the extent of the damage. Second is how to remove or minimize the damage and bring the rim back to new without changing the profile of the pipe. In this case the bowl was clean on the inside. The burn was on the front outer edge of the rim and on the back inner edge of the rim. There was also a nick in the outer edge at 12 o’clock in the photo below. The back edge had buildup of tars and oils that masked the state of the rim at that point. I needed to remove those to see the damage to the back edge of the rim. Since I was intending to refinish the bowl and rim anyway I sanded the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tars and oils and clean up the edges. I followed that by sanding with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to further clean up the surface. In the photo below it is clear that the back inner edge of the rim is actually undamaged by char – it is merely darkened. The front edge damage is actually charred and the burn mark is both on top of the outer edge of the rim and on the front side of the bowl. I sanded the top of the rim, being careful to maintain the bevel on the top and also the outer edge of the bowl around the circumference. I was hoping to remove the damage as much as possible without having to top the bowl and rebevel the inner edge. As can be seen in the photo below I was able to remove some of the burn mark but not all of it. Looking at the bowl from the front I could also see a slight dip in the outer edge at the burn point. Continued sanding would have accentuated that dip and compromised the clean lines of the outer edge of the rim. At this point I decided that the only way of dealing with the dip in the front outer edge was to top the bowl. I set up a topping board – a flat piece of finished oak – that I use with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to top pipes. I placed the rim flat against the surface of the sandpaper and worked the bowl across the sandpaper in a clockwise motion. I find that the circular pattern of sanding leaves less sanding marks on the briar that I need to work on afterwards. I continued to top the rim until I had smoothed out the front edge and restored the clean lines of the outer rim. I also worked until the burn mark was minimized on the outer and top edges of the rim. When finished the rim surface had the inner bevel going from the middle of the newly topped rim inward. The bevel would need to be restored by hand with sandpaper. I reworked the bevel with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper until the flow was restored. It took quite a bit of sanding to restore the angles while maintaining the straight outer edges of the rim. I sanded it until the curve of the bevel was restored and the rim looked as it had before the topping. I sanded the rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the sanding marks left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. The medium grit removed the majority of them and the fine grit sponge polished the briar. The pipe was unstained so I oiled the rim with olive oil to match the colour of the rest of the bowl. I applied the olive oil with a folded paper towel and rubbed it into the briar and then wiped it off. I repeated the process until the surface of the bowl and rim were non-oily to touch. I buffed the bowl and rim with White Diamond and a soft flannel buff to polish it. After the buffing I could still see some marks left behind by the sandpaper and sanding sponges so I sanded the rim with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the rim with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. When finished I gave the bowl and rim several coats of carnauba wax and buffed with a soft flannel wheel to raise the shine. The finished rim is shown below. The burn marks are minimized and the bevel on the rim shines and highlights the natural grain of the briar.

NB. The complete restoration of this pipe is covered in a separate blog. https://rebornpipes.com/2015/01/04/restoring-a-burned-beveled-rim-on-an-algerian-briar-pot/