Tag Archives: topping a bowl

Bringing an acorn shaped bowl back to life – wondering if there was a point to this exercise.

Blog by Steve Laug

When I took this old bowl out of the box – last of two pipes to refurbish in my box – I looked at it and wondered what the point would be to clean it up. It had three large and visible fills on the bowl back left side and bottom of the shank and bowl. The finish was shot and it did not have a stem. I sorted through my can of stem and found a threaded Kaywoodie stem that had a short stinger and some scored threads. I tried it in the metal mortis on this pipe and it actually fit perfectly with no overage. The stamping on the old bowl remains a mystery to me – it is stamped on the left side of the shank as follows: HHG over Imported Briar. There is no other stamping at all on the pipe. So far I am unable to find any information on it at all. Who Made That Pipe has the listing but says maker unknown. I do know that the Imported Briar stamping makes it likely that the pipe is an American made pipe post WWII. Other than that I am at a loss. The two fills were solid and undamaged and the putty was a light brown. The finish was shot and opaque. It was hard to see what the grain looked like underneath. The rim was darkened but undamaged. The photo below shows the three fills that were very present on the bowl. The potential grain shows through on the bottom of the shank and led me to have a little hope that underneath the opaque ruined finish would be some nice grain.I screwed the stem in place on the shank to have a look at the shape and fit with the pipe. It actually looked quite good with the long, slender stem. The stem had oxidation and calcium build ups on the top and bottom but would clean up nicely. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol (ran out of acetone) and scrubbed the surface to remove the finish. Without the acetone I would need to sand the bowl. I set up a topping board and used 220 grit sandpaper to remove the thick darkening on the rim. I lightly topped it so as not to change the profile or look of the pipe. I sanded the bowl and stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the remnants of the old finish on the bowl and the buildup of calcium on the stem. Some nice birdseye grain was underneath the finish on the right and left sides of the bowl. I cleaned the metal tenon with alcohol and then sanded the rough areas on the threads to clean up the aluminum damage. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove the tooth indentations that were underneath the calcified buildup. I used a Bic lighter to paint the surface of the stem and lift the tooth dents. Once they had lifted I redefined the crease of the button with needle files. I sanded it with 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 sanding pads. When I finished sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I buffed it lightly with White Diamond and gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. I set it aside while I worked on the bowl. I wiped down the bowl one final time with alcohol before staining it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of the dark heavy colour of the brown stain and to make it more transparent. Once I had it to the point where I could see through the stain to the grain I quit wiping it down. The trick was to make the stain transparent enough to highlight the grain but at the same time minimize the three fills. Once I had the stain at the place I wanted I put the stem back on the pipe and took it to the buffer. I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli to polish and buff through the dark areas that remained on the stain coat. I buffed the bowl until it met the look I was aiming for. I then buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it finally with a soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It actually came out quite well and should provide a great yard pipe for someone down the line. I expect this will be another pipe that I gift to a pipeman I meet along the way. If anyone has some clues as to the maker of this pipe let me know. It turned out to be worth working on after all. I am pleased with what came out of an otherwise ignoble old pipe bowl without a stem that had been sitting in my box for quite awhile as I ignored it and worked on other bowls and stems.

There was nothing redeeming about this ugly old pipe…

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am getting down to the bottom of my refurbishing box yet again. This is one of three pipes that are left to work on. It is one ugly old pipe to my tastes. Certainly it is one that I have left until there are few to choose from to work on. There truly was nothing redeeming about the look of it. The rough cut billiard with a bark like rustication pattern did nothing for me. The left side of the shank is stamped Forecaster over Imported Briar. The bottom of the bowl had been flattened to make the pipe a sitter. But even that was done poorly as it was to one side and the pipe sat with a list. The finish was worn out but appeared to have been a dark thick stain that was opaque enough to hide all the briar. The outer rim of the bowl had been badly beaten up from hitting against some hard surface and left to be a ragged rough edge around the bowl. One thing that gave this tired old pipe a unique, eye-catching touch was that the top of the shank had been stamped with an eight point star and then inlaid with gold paint. The bowl had a thick soft cake all the way down reducing the diameter of the bowl by almost half. The stem had a metal spacer that gave the appearance of a stem with a metal tenon as well. But when I removed the stem I found that it had a vulcanite tenon. The stem was badly oxidized and had some deep scratches in the surface. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head and worked my way up to the head that would take the cake back to the bare wall of the pipe.The top was so damaged that it needed to be topped. In looking it over I was not sure how much of the rim I could remove without dramatically changing the look of this pipe so I would proceed slowly. I set up a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and slowly topped the bowl. I sanded it until I had removed as much of the damaged portion of the rim as I could without changing the shape. The rustication made the bowl look out of round but is actually still round. The right side is more rusticated at the top edge than the left so it looks unusual from the top down photo below.I wiped down the finish with acetone on cotton pads until I had removed the heavy dark finish. It took a lot of scrubbing to get through the grime and then the varnish coat. Underneath the dark top coat it appeared that there was a walnut stain that highlighted the grain on the high spots of the bowl. The grooves and valleys were dark with a black stain. The contrast had some potential. I sanded the smooth parts of the bowl and rim with medium and a fine grit sanding sponges to smooth out the scratches in the bowl and on the topped rim. I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol and then stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it and repeated the process until the coverage was even. The bowl was very dark brown but it was at least evenly stained. I would have to do some more work on it to get the contrast that I wanted between the rustication and the smooth parts of the briar. I cleaned out the shank and bowl with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean. I cleaned the stem at the same time until it also was clean. I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol to remove some of the heavy dark brown stain and make it more transparent. I then sanded the bowl with a fine grit sanding sponge to remove some more of the stain on the high spots and to match the colour of the stain on the rim. I sanded the stem with the sanding sponges at the same time to minimize the scratches on the vulcanite. I buffed it with White Diamond and took it back to the worktable to work on the stem and bowl some more. I wanted the stain to be a bit more transparent and the contrast between the high spots and the crevices to show clearly. I still needed to deal with the list to one side when I set the pipe down on a flat surface. I probably should have done this before I stained the bowl but forgot to do so in cleaning up the mess. I decided it was better late than never so I dealt with it next. In examining it I found that it was not centered on the bottom of the bowl and shank but was off to one side. I sanded flat portion to take down the higher side and even out the flat bottom. I used 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to flatten it out and remove the list. When I was satisfied with the way the bowl sat I refinished it with a stain pen to darken it and blend it into the stain of the rest of the bowl.I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding sponges – 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 let it soak into the vulcanite before proceeding with the next set of pads. When I finished I gave it a final coat of oil and then buffed it with White Diamond to a shine. I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. It is still an ugly pipe in my opinion but there is something redeeming about the ugliness. I suspect it will make a great yard pipe for someone and will deliver a good smoke. It must have been a good smoking pipe in its day – otherwise why would its previous owner have smoked it to the point of near death!

The Sentimental Journey Continued – Restoring a Second Medico, a Smooth Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a previous post called a Sentimental Journey I wrote of why Medico’s always get attention when they cross my desk. Last evening I reached into my box of pipes to be refurbished and pulled out the next pipe to clean up and it too was Medico – this time it was a smooth billiard. The finish was worn and the varnish was peeling off the bowl. The rim was badly knocked around so there was damage on the outer edge at the front of the bowl and the back. There was a heavy build up on top of the damage and the bowl had a thick cake at mid bowl – not much at the top or bottom. The stamping was the same as the previous pipe – MEDICO on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar Italy on the right side. A bonus for me was that the stem I had work on for the little Rhodesian fit this one and only needed adjustment in the diameter of the stem. It had the metal tenon that was generally on Medico pipes and would hold the Medico paper filter as per design. The rest of the stem was vulcanite not nylon which was a bonus. I cleaned out the shank and fit the stem in place to see how much sanding I would need to do to match the diameter of the shank. It did not look like it would take very much to bring it in line. I would need to sand the aluminum band on the stem at the same time so I would need to be careful to not create dips or valleys next to it on the softer vulcanite when sanding. I sanded the stem with 150 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the stem.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the smallest cutting head to clean it out.To clean up the rim damage I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to take down the rim and reduce the rough pitting on the outer edge. I also sanded around the edge of the rim to smooth out the remaining roughness.I wanted to get rid of the peeling varnish on the bowl so I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads to remove it. It took a lot of scrubbing as the varnish was very stubborn.I sanded the bowl and the rim with 220 grit sandpaper and then with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to remove more of the finish and reduce the scratching on the bowl. I sanded it with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge before wiping it down one last time with alcohol. I decided to stain it with an aniline based oxblood stain. I applied it and then flamed it to set it in the grain. I rubbed the excess stain off with an alcohol dampened cloth and then hand buffed it with a shoe brush. This old Medico had some really nice grain and was a far better piece of briar than I had expected. I sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed it with White Diamond to smooth out the bowl further. I gave it a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it lightly. I finished the work on the stem fit and then sanded it with 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 moved through each successive set of three pads. Once I had finished sanding it I rubbed it down a final time with the oil and gave it a buff with White Diamond. I put the pipe back together and gave it a final buff with White Diamond and then multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to finish and polish the wax. The finished pipe is shown in the next series of photos. It is a small light weight billiard with fairly decent grain and a few character marks. The new stem fits well and it looks better than it did when it left the factory. It should provide a great smoke to another pipeman. This is one that I will inevitably gift to someone along the way.

A Sentimental Journey – the Restemming and Restoration of a Medico Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

For years now I have had a special spot in my heart for Medico pipes. I don’t like the paper filter system, or the cheap stems with the split aluminum tenon, or the heavy varnish on the briar, or the fills that are hidden below the thick varnish, or any endless number of complaints that come to the surface with these old US made briar pipes. But I can’t get past the fact that the first pipe I ever owned was a Medico – paper filter and all, and that the first pipe I picked up when my first daughter was born years later was a Medico as well. Because of that whenever I am given an old Medico bowl I restem it and restore it. I strip away the varnish and rework the fills, make a new stem and bring it back to life in even better condition that it was when it was first sent out.

The Medico that I worked on in this restoration was a straight shank Rhodesian that came to me in a gift box of bowls. It was stemless and I had two potential stems that would work for it. There truly was nothing particularly redeemable that I saw in the bowl so the reason was as stated above solely sentimental. The bowl was dirty and worn with a thick cake. The rim had been battered and had deep nicks on the outer edge. There was a thick dark red varnish on the briar. It was stamped MEDICO on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar Italy on the right side. On the left side of the bowl was a large brown putty fill that stood out like a sore thumb. The first stem I tried was a split metal tenon Medico style stem. It was worn but usable. It fit the shank perfectly and looked good on the pipe. I thought for sure this would be a simple and quick restoration. I should have learned by now that whenever I think that problems would pop up on the way to the finish. I cleaned the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.The top of the bowl was badly damaged with large dents and missing chunks on the outer edge of the rim so I decided to top the bowl. I used the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and worked on the rim until it was smooth and clean. There were still several places on the outer front edge that would need to be worked on but the finished look of the topped bowl was far better than when I had started. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the thick varnish coat and clean up the finish on the bowl. I wanted to remove it back to the briar. In the process the dark red stain coat also was removed from the bowl.Once the stain coat and varnish were removed I could see several problems that I would need to address. The front edge of the bowl needed to be sanded and the slope on the cap would need to be modified by hand sanding to remove the damage on the front edge and face of the cap. There was also a fine crack that had seeped tobacco oils on the top right edge of the shank. It had been hidden by the dark stain. When I move the stem it was not visible and did not open or spread but it was definitely present. I would need to clean up the shank, band it and with the band a different stem would need to be fit to the shank. The stem I had previously chosen had a metal face that would not work against the band. I scrubbed the bowl and shank until all the red stain that I could remove was gone. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to sand back the shank so that I could fit a band on the shank. I also wanted to smooth out the surface of the rustication pattern and clean up the crack so that I could glue and clamp it before banding.I put the band around the end of the shank and then heated the metal band with a Bic lighter until I could press it into place on the shank. It took several reheats with the lighter before I had a flush fit on the band. At that point I took the second stem I had chosen and lightly sanded the tenon to get a good tight fit in the shank and pushed it in place. I reamed the bowl with my PipNet reamer and the smallest cutting head until I had taken the cake back to bare wood. I wanted the bowl to be clean so that I could see if there was any damage to the interior of the bowl.Once I had reamed the bowl I reshaped the angle on the cap with 220 grit sandpaper and medium and fine grit sanding sponges. Once I had the angle correct around the entire rim and had removed the damage on the front of the cap I sanded the entire bowl with the sanding sponges. I also sanded the stem with the same sandpaper and sanding sponge combination to remove the oxidation and tooth chatter near the button. The newly shaped bowl and freshly sanded stem is shown in the next series of four photos below. I stained the bowl with some oxblood aniline stain and flamed it. I wanted the red colour of the stain but I did not want it to be as opaque as the original stain had been. The aniline stain seems to be more transparent. It did however, do a great job in hiding the big fill on the left side of the bowl. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, then a medium and fine grit 3M sanding sponge. I followed that 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 between each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil before moving on to the next three pads. I finished by giving it a final rubdown with the oil before taking it to the buffer. I buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and polish both bowl and stem. With that completed my sentimental journey with this old Medico was complete and it was ready to go back into service. I am sure I will gift this pipe to some new pipeman somewhere along the way as it should smoke very well and give many years of service. It is not a thing of beauty and never will be but it is a good serviceable pipe that will deliver a good smoke. The finished pipe is pictured in the photos below.

Restoring a Yello-Bole Imperial Bulldog for John

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Blog by Steve Laug

The last of John’s pipes that I worked on while he was working on the Danish Sovereign Peewit was a beautiful old Yello-Bole Bulldog. It was stamped KBB in a cloverleaf on the left side of the shank next to four lines of stamping. The first read Yello-Bole and underneath that was stamped Cured with Real Honey and an R in a circle. The third line read Imperial in script and the fourth read Imported Briar. The stem had a push tenon and had the yellow circle inset in the vulcanite. It is shown in the photo below – it is the last pipe in the column on the left side of the photo. This pipe actually was one of the free ones that came with the pipe rack that John purchased. It was sitting on the rack without a stem. The stem was inside the humidor jar. I had seen it before and had assumed that the tenon was broken but it was not. It was just very loose and would not stay in the shank. The metal spacer that separates the shank and stem was attached to the stem and not to the bowl. The bowl itself was very dirty and caked. The finish was not too bad and there were no deep dents of scratches in the briar just some ground in grime. The rim was caked with a thick buildup of tars and oils that had almost fossilized. The stem was in good shape other than being oxidized. There was tooth chatter on the top and underside of the stem.

I used cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol to clean out the bowl, shank and the inside of the stem. I worked them until them came out white. I scrubbed the aluminum space with alcohol and then with a metal polishing cloth to bring back the original shine. I wiped down the briar with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime from the finish of the bowl and the grain underneath really popped. The rim buildup was so hard that I used the topping board and sandpaper to remove it and lightly sand the rim surface itself to remove the pitting. I sanded the outer edge with a folded piece of sandpaper to minimize the rough spots on the edge. I sanded the rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and then wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I touched up the rim with the stain pens until it matched the stain colour on the bowl. I then wiped down the pipe with some olive oil on a paper towel and let it soak into the finish. I sanded the stem with 220 sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and oxidation and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. When I had finished with the sanding I buffed the stem with White Diamond. To make the stem snug in the shank I used a cotton swab and water to wet the mortise in the shank to swell the briar. This helped a lot and the stem was much tighter. It was still too loose to my liking so I ran clear superglue around the tenon and lightly sanded it to obtain a snug fit on the stem. I put the pipe together and buffed it with White Diamond. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to seal and protect the stem and bowl. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to get the shine. The finished pipe is shown below and is yet another clean and ready pipe for John to load and smoke. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of the smoking characteristics of this old timer. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe with nice looking mixed grain. The old vulcanite was interesting to me in that it had pieces of metal that were part of the casting of the stem. I remember reading somewhere that these occurred in stems that were made during the war years when rubber was at a premium. To my thinking that helps to date this bulldog to the late 1940s or early 1950s. Enjoy your “new” pipe John and be sure to let us know how it smokes for you.

Changing Directions in the midst of a Refurb – Plugging a Burnout in a Paul’s Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am finally getting around to cleaning up the pipes I found on my recent pipe hunt. I decided to choose what I thought would be the easiest one. It was filthy and greasy. The top looked like it had been used as a hammer. I figured that it would clean up quickly and I liked the look of the briar that was peeking through. The bowl was stamped PAUL’S on the underside of the shank and Italy across the end of the shank. There is a stylized P on the stem. There was a sticky glue on the briar in several places that I think came from the price tag that was on the pipe. The bowl was really dirty and over reamed. The bottom of the bowl was almost flat. But there was a buildup of carbon from the top down about half way and there was tobacco fragments in the bowl bottom. The sides were no longer parallel and the airway entered above the bottom of the bowl. The stem was oxidized and had tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem. I cleaned up the sides of the bowl interior with a PipNet reamer and used a dental pick to remove the detritus on the bottom of the bowl.I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with acetone to remove the grit, grime and grease from the finish. It actually took off the grime and took it down to the nice grain that I had seen peeking through. I think that the briar is oil cured as there is an oily texture to the wood. The top was so beat up that it had to be topped to smooth out the damage and restore the clean edges. I set up a topping board and worked on the top until it was smooth and the outer edges were sharp and well defined. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to further clean up the finish. There was some darkening on the sides and bottom of the bowl and I wanted to bring it back to the same look as the shank and the rim. The idea was to bring the pipe back to clean and natural finish so that if I stained it the blend and matching would be much easier. I decided to soak the bowl in an alcohol bath to remove some of the oils and grease on the surface. While it soaked I worked on the stem.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation, calcium buildup and tooth chatter. I carefully sanded around the stamping on the stem to preserve it. I used a needle file and a sanding stick to rework the edges of the button and sharpen the crease. I took the bowl out of the alcohol bath and dried it off. Once the inside had air dried it was time to raise the bottom of the bowl to the bottom of the entrance of the airway. I mixed a batch of plaster of Paris and packed it in the bottom of the bowl until it was level. Things were looking good at this point. Once it was dried I would give it a coat of pipe mud and it would be good to go. That was when things began to go south for me! I was sanding the bowl bottom and had found a spot that seem to give as I sanded on it. I had wondered if the bowl bottom was too thin from the over reaming but had not seen the soft area of the briar. I used a dental pick to exam the spot and with very little effort the end of the pick went right through the bowl bottom! BURNOUT. I poked around some more and found that there were several very soft spots. This was not what I wanted to find on what I thought would be a very easy clean up!! YIKES.With very little effort the entire area that was darkened broke away. I used a drill to clean up the ragged edges and make the hole round. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to even out the edges and used it on the inside of the bowl to bring it back into round on the side where there had previously been a slope from a bad over reaming job. I had a round piece of briar left over from a plug I had cut for another burnout I had repaired. I smoothed out the bottom of the plug and fit it into the hole in the bowl. Once the fit was good and snug I glued it in place with wood glue then a top coat of super glue. While the glue was hardening I used the Dremel and sanding drum to take off the excess briar from the plug. I sanded the plug with 220 grit sandpaper to shape it to the curves of the heel of the pipe. The spots that appear as gaps around the plug are where the glue has already dried hard. These will disappear as the glue cures and hardens. I sanded the entire pipe with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and then wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches from the finish and blend in the patch with the surface of the briar. I left the pipe overnight to give the glue time to cure. In the morning I sanded the bottom area of the bowl to smooth it out as the areas around the patches had swollen above the patch when they dried.Since the briar had been oil cured I decided to rub it down lightly with some olive oil and let it soak in. The next four photos show the pipe after the light rub down with oil. I spent a bit of time thinking about the next steps in the process. I had a decision to make – whether to leave the plug smooth and just stain the pipe and keep it glaringly present or to rusticate the bottom of the bowl and blend the plug into the rustication pattern. I decided to rusticate it. I took out the rusticator that Chris made for me and drew a boundary line around the area on the bottom of the bowl that I wanted to rusticate. I pressed the rusticator into the briar and twisted it until the surface was roughened I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the loose briar and smooth things out. I buffed the rustication with White Diamond to smooth the high points.I stained the rusticated area with a black aniline stain and flamed it to set the stain. I sanded the lines around the rustication and the peaks on the rustication as well to get the look I wanted for this piece. When I came home from work this evening I decided to extend the rustication back along the shank. I used the rusticator to work the briar and then stained the entire rustication with a black aniline stain. I sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads to bring out the shine. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I mixed a batch of Plaster of Paris to rebuild the bottom of the bowl and raise the part that was untouched by the plug to the same height as the plug and to the bottom of the entrance of the airway from the bowl. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway and put the mix into the bowl. I tamped in the plaster mix with a pipe nail and the cuticle tool. It dried to touch fairly quickly and I wiped down the walls of the bowl with a cotton swab and water. I smoothed out the bottom of the bowl the same way. Once the plaster has cured I will give the bottom of the bowl and walls a thin coat of pipe mud to preserve and protect the new plug and the freshly shaped briar on the walls of the pipe.I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buff to raise a shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The soft colour of the oil cured briar and the light coat of olive oil bring out the grain. The contrast of the rustication on the bottom of the bowl and the black stain on that gives the bowl a fresh look. One of the side benefits of the added rustication is that the bowl is now a sitter whereas before the rounded bottom of the shank made that impossible. The pipe needs to cure for a few days and then I will give it an inaugural smoke. .

The Doctor Gets a New Coat- A Dr Grabow Omega Reborn

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Blog by Greg Wolford

Of late I’ve been admiring system-type pipes. Having never had one I placed a bid on a lot of four old pipes – two I had little interest in – two of which were Dr Grabow Omegas, a smooth and a rusticated. Here are a few photos from the seller; I forgot (again) to take before and even some along-the-way shots.

I stared on them both with the normal scrubbing the outside with acetone on cotton balls to remove their finishes. Then I reamed them back to bare wood. The smooth pipe was heavily caked but the rusticated one wasn’t at all, barely smoked really. However, you can’t tell in the above picture, the rusticated one had some heavy damage to the inner rim. I began by topping the bowl to even it it some but it would take a lot of briar removal to attempt to get out the chunks missing from the inner rim. So I took the second largest head on my Castleford reamer, too big for the bowl, and started a “bevel” on the inner rim, which I then worked with needle files and sandpaper to smooth out. I couldn’t take out all the damage but made it much less noticeable and would be even better after I stained it and it was later smoked. Next I got out my hand drill and re-drilled both bowls with a 5/32″ bit to improve the draw. I did the same thing with the tenon ends of the stems and then funneled them out. At this point I dropped both bowls in an alcohol bath overnight.

I cleaned out the stems with alcohol and pipe cleaners until they came out white. These stems are not vulcanite but a nylon-type material, ABS plastic I believe, and are not my favorite to work on. The smooth bowled pipe had a good stem the rusticated one’s stem was chewed pretty badly. I decided to use some of the adhesive accelerator and black super glue to raise up some the bites marks; I left the “roughness” of the chew marks on, thinking the glue would adhere better. I alternated polishing the “good” stem and building up the patch on the chewed up P-lip style one. Once the “rough” stem was built up to my satisfaction I used a needle file and some 320 wet/dry paper to smooth off the roughness from the chewing the previous pipeman had done. Then I polished the stem with plastic polish and was happy with the “decent” look I ended up with; I felt it just wasn’t worth the time and effort to try to get this plastic stem any closer to “new” than it was now.

The next morning I took the bowls out of their soak and let them dry an hour or so. I wanted to make this “typical” rusticated Omega look less typical so I started sanding in it; the rustication was plenty deep enough to remove some briar on the smooth part without worry of loosing the rustication’s definition. I did tape off the stamping to retain that as much as possible before starting.

Taking off the old deep red top coat would give me a great opportunity to create a kind of unique contrast on this pipe I thought so after sanding the bowl and band with 220 and 320 grits I used a black sharpie to color in all the rustication and also the rim and new inner bevel. Then I used 400 grit to sand off the bowl again, to remove the over-marks of black, and the band. Then I applied a coat of a lighter red, which is actually a stain marker I got in a set at The Dollar Tree and is marked “medium brown”. I let the stain cure for a bit and then highlighted the nomenclature with white acrylic paint, for an extra “pop”.

While the paint cured I have the stem a final polish with plastic polish just to brighten and shine it a little more. I was tempted to try to make the bit nicer but the back of my mind kept telling me it wasn’t worth the headache so I finally decided to leave it.

I have the bowl one last coat of stain and let it dry for about 15 minutes; these bargain-markers dry real fast, even if the colors aren’t what I thought they’d be. Then I applied a good coat of Halcyon II wax to the pipe and stem and buffed it by hand.

The end product is, in my eye, a pretty neat and definitely different from most other Omega product, even with the “boogered” stem.

What is a Mountain Root Pipe with a Glasschaum Bowl?

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Another of the gift bowls that I received was an apple-shaped bowl stamped Mountain Root on the left side of the shank and on the right side Glasschuam Bowl. The Glasschaum Bowl stamping had remnants of silver paint in the indentations. The finish was rough with many scratches in the briar. The shank internally was very black and tarry. The bowl inside was dirty with a thin build up of cake. The internal edge of the meerschaum lining was chipped in several places but there were no cracks in the bowl. The Mountain Root stamping and the Glasschaum Bowl stamp were both new to me. I looked in “Who Made That Pipe” for the Mountain Root brand and found nothing with that stamping. PipePhil did not have it on his site either, so I looked further on the web and found several posts on the brand on the Grabow forum. The link is: http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/about4008.html&highlight=

At that site a pipeman had posted about a pipe he purchased on Ebay: “I purchased this “Mountain Root” pipe on Ebay. Right shank is stamped “Glasschaum Bowl” and the inside of the bowl is lined with something similar to how Yello-Boles are lined with a yellow colored coating. The stinger is wooden and the stem inlay is a white or faintly yellow ring on top of the stem similar to Yello-Bole stem rings of the ’40’s except for the color.”

My pipe bowl looked just as he described though I would have said it had a meerschaum like bowl insert rather than the yellow coating on the Yello-Bole pipes. It was significantly thicker than the yellow painted coating. Mine also came without a stem so there was no wooden stinger apparatus or yellow ring on the stem.

He went on to inquire if anyone could help him with information on the brand. He received quite a few helpful replies to his query. One that summarized the lot is included below.

“Mountain Root probably refers to Mountain Laurel. That was one alternative wood used in WWII for pipes, when briar was not available or in very short supply. The wood stinger also suggests that era.”

This coincided with what I was thinking in terms of the link to Mountain Laurel and the WWII era pipes. I was not alone in thinking that I was dealing with a pipe from that era made from Laurel. The confirmation of that was not 100% certain and the next details make me wonder about that. I looked up Glasschaum Bowl pipes online and found that Ben Leibowitz, an American pipe maker marketed the Glasschaum pipe in 1941 and quickly disappeared off the scene. This reference was also confirmed in Who Made That Pipe. If it was indeed a Liebowitz pipe it would have been stamped Glasschaum Pipe with no other stamping. This one however had the Mountain Root stamping as well and it led me to believe I was dealing with something other than an American made Leibowitz pipe. Further digging was necessary.

I often turn to EBay to see if I can find a particular brand of pipe for information when it does not show up other places. In looking through the various pipes on EBay that bore the Glasschaum Bowl stamping I found several that had the identical stamping on the right side of the shank. Some of them had Mountain Root (1st photo below) on the left side the same as the bowl I have, while others were stamped Gordon Deluxe in a Diamond on the left (2nd photo below). I looked in “Who Made That Pipe?”and found that Gordon pipes were made by Villard & Strauss as well as Dan Jacobs/Comoy’s/R. Jack & Sons and Samuel Gordon (1918), all in made in England. There was also confirmation that The Samuel Gordon pipes had Gordon in a diamond logo. The fact that these were English made pipes made me question the Mountain Laurel wood comment above. The bowl also did not look like the wood on other Mountain Laurel pipes that I have in my collection so I am not at all certain of the assessment.

The information I had found made me lean toward the maker of this pipe being Samuel Gordon a London pipemaker. That meant that the pipe was English made. I don’t have a clear idea of the date of the pipe but looking at others on EBay that had the same stamping of the Gordon Deluxe stamping my thinking is that the pipes came from the 40s or 50s.

I went through my can of stems and found one that fit well in the shank with minimal sanding. When I chose the stem I had not done the research on the brand and found that the stem had a light yellow O on the top of the stem and the one I chose had a brass O on the top. Such is the one of the happy coincidences of the repair. I lightly sanded the tenon of the stem until it fit snugly in the shank. I cleaned out the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners before beginning the shaping. The diameter of the stem was larger than the diameter of the shank. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the majority of the excess vulcanite on the stem. I carefully do this with the stem in place and try to get as close as possible to the same diameter as the shank. I try not to nick the shank while I am working on it. I used a sharp pen knife/letter opener to scrape the inside of the bowl. I wanted to remove the carbon build up around the middle of the bowl particularly and also on the upper sides of the bowl. The bottom half and the bottom of the bowl were quite clean. After scraping the bowl clean the chips around the edges of the rim were visible. They were deeper on the back side of the bowl at about 5 and 7 o’clock. I needed to top the bowl to remove the damaged areas on the rim and bring the top closer to the edge of the meerschaum insert. I set up a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper and sanded down the rim. With topping of the rim done the chipped areas were very clear. I sanded the inside edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the areas that were not chipped and to bank the inner edge slightly. With this done the repairs to the insert edge would be quite simple to do. Once I had the stem diameter close I took it back to the table and hand sanded it with 150 grit sandpaper until the angles and flow of the stem was also correct. I worked so that there was not a bulge or hip at the junction. I also sanded the button on the stem as it was very thick. I sloped it toward the end of the stem. When the fit and flow were close to what I wanted I removed the stem from the shank and sanded in long strokes from the tenon end to the button to smooth out potential scratches.

I put the stem back on and sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining excess and some of the heavier scratches. At this point I also sanded the shank of the pipe at the same time to make sure that the transition between the briar and the vulcanite was smooth and seamless. This took quite a bit of sanding. I did not want to remove too much briar as I did not want to change the look of the shank or the diameter of the shank. I was more concerned with getting the flow and lines smooth. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge once I had the fit perfected. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and shank. I have found that this makes staining the rim and shank much easier to achieve and matching the stain is not a problem as it is all quite light. I wiped down the inside of the bowl edges with a wet cotton pad to remove loose particles of the liner and also any dust that was present from the sanding. I mixed a small batch of Plaster of Paris to work on the chipped edges of the insert. I mixed it into a thick mud consistency that was still wet but did not clump. I pressed into the chipped areas with the cuticle tool that I cleaned up. The curves on the spoon end are perfect for pressing the mud into the chipped areas of the bowl. The next two photos show the repaired area of the bowl insert. I purposely put the plaster on heavier than necessary and then shaped it with the spoon end of the tool. I set it aside to dry. When the plaster was dry to the touch I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. There was some paper stuck to the inside of the shank from what appeared to be a washer that some previous owner had used to hold the stem tightly in place. I sanded the bowl and shank, carefully avoiding the stamping with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-3200 grit to smooth out some of the scratches that were on the surface of the briar. I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the dust from the finish. Looking at the bowl in this unfinished state it is clear that this is a piece of briar and not a piece of Mountain Laurel. The birdseye and cross grain are quite nice. I cleaned up the top of the bowl and left the inside edge untouched at this point. I wanted the plaster to cure over night before I sanded it and cleaned it up on the inside. The next series of three photos show the work I did on the repair to the edge of the insert. The first shows the repair after it dried over night. It was hard and quite thick. The second photo shows the area after I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out, bevel it slightly to match the rest of the rim edge and feather it into the surface of the bowl. The third photo shows it after the bowl has been wiped down with a damp cloth to clean up the dust from the sanding. The bright white areas are the repaired portions. After a few smokes this will blend in very well with the rest of the insert and will be unnoticeable. I wiped the bowl and stem down with olive oil on a paper towel. I wipe it on and wipe it off again to give me a clear picture of areas of the bowl that still need work. It shows the scratches very clearly and also gives some colour and life to the bowl highlighting the natural grain. I am still undecided as to whether or not I will give it a coat of a light brown stain. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. In between each set of three grits I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when dry continued sanding the stem. I buffed it with White Diamond and gave it a final wipe down with Obsidian Oil before setting it aside to work on the bowl. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on a cotton pad and then gave the bowl a light coat of Danish Oil and walnut stain. I wiped it on the bowl and then wiped it off and set it aside to dry over night. In the morning when it was dry I lightly buffed it with White Diamond on the wheel and then put the stem in place and repeated the buffing. I gave it several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is restored and ready to be smoked. It should last for many more years ahead and provide a typical meerschaum lined smoke for the pipeman who smokes it next.

Restoring a Dr. Grabow Meerschaum-Lined Stack

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Blog by Steve Laug

Another of the bowls I was gifted was a tall Meerschaum lined rusticated stack with a smooth spot on both sides of the bowl and the end of the shank. It is stamped on the underside of the shank, MEERSCHAUM-LINED over Dr. Grabow. The bowl exterior had some darkening on the back side of the bowl and the grooves of the bowl were caked. The rim had damage and the meerschaum lining was rough on the inside edge of the bowl. There were cracks in the meerschaum bowl insert on the rim. The bowl itself was cracked and missing from about mid bowl to the bottom of the bowl. The meerschaum pieces were lying in the bottom of the bowl and there was no stem for the pipe.

I did not know anything about the meerschaum lined Dr. Grabows and this one had a distinct look of an Italian made pipe. I went to my source on line for Grabow information the Dr. Grabow Forum (http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/sutra238.php). There I found a post on the meerlined pipes. It read in part as follows… “Meerschaum lined pipes were originally imported from M. Gasparini in Italy for Grabow. Sparta finally figured out how to do them and only imported the “plugs”. Early Grabow Meerschaum lined pipes were stamped Italy with no spade. After 1989 Dr. Grabow got rid of Italy and added the spade.” So, my sense of it being Italian was correct. It also dates this pipe as pre-1989. I had an old stem in my can of stems that would be a good fit for this pipe. I needed to sand the tenon slightly to get a snug fit against the shank. The diameter of the stem was slightly larger than the diameter of the shank and would need to be sanded down to make a matched fit. I used a pen knife to clean up the inside of the bowl. There was carbon build up on the lower part of the bowl about mid bowl that was holding together the broken pieces of the meer lining. I scraped away the carbon and removed the broken pieces of meerschaum that remained on the lower edge of the bowl insert. I topped the bowl with a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the rim and the lining top. I did not remove much of the bowl top but took off enough to make the bowl top and the rim top flush and smooth. In the photo below the cracks in the bowl insert are visible around the top edge of the bowl. I used clear superglue to fill the cracks on the top edge of the insert and sanded them down. I mixed a batch of plaster of Paris and used the dental pick, the cuticle tool that I was gifts and a pipe nail to build up the interior of the bowl and replace the bottom half of the insert that was missing. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the shank and then packed in the plaster around the airway and tamped it in place on the bottom with the pipe nail and on the sides with the cuticle tool. I used one of the stain pens that I have to stain the rim to match the bowl. I inserted my damp index finger into the bowl and rubbed down the sides of the bowl to smooth them out. I also pushed the plaster on the bottom of the bowl to more thoroughly pack it in place. I sanded the stem with 150 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the stem and then 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the stem. I scrubbed the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish and clean up the exterior of the bowl. I then rubbed it down with olive oil and let it soak into the finish. I also rubbed down the stem with the oil as I find that it makes sanding the stem easier to do. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I wiped it down between each of the sets of three pads with Obsidian Oil. Once it was dry I buffed the stem with White Diamond and then with carnauba wax. I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it with White Diamond. I lightly buffed the bowl with carnauba wax and the stem more heavily. I finished by buffing the pipe with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The thin shank and the thin diameter of the stem give the pipe a delicate look. It is very light weight and fits well in the hand. I am going to let the plaster of Paris repair dry and cure for several days before I load a bowl and give it an inaugural smoke.

UPDATE: I just smoked this one after it had cured for two days. I loaded a bowl of The Malthouse Founder’s Reserve in the bowl and smoked it to the bottom of the bowl. It smoked cool and dry. The plaster of Paris is darkening nicely and will soon match the rest of the meer lining of the bowl.

Rejuvenating a Willard Straight Rhodesian

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Another of the bowls from the gift box was this Willard Rhodesian. It was in pretty good shape other than being dirty and stemless. The bowl had a broken cake at the top of the bowl and remnants of tobacco left in the bowl. The rim was dirty and lightly caked with some damage caused from tapping the rim on something. The outer and inner edges of the bowl were undamaged. The interior of the shank was dirty. The shank was fitted with a threaded mortise that would take a threaded stem. I had a stem in m can of stems that fit well in the shank, was overturned but workable. The diameter of the stem was larger than the shank. The photo below shows the stem on the pipe in the middle of the threesome. I set up a heat gun and held the stem about three inches above the heat. The first photo below shows the stem in place. To heat it I removed it from the bowl and heated the metal tenon. When it was warm I screwed it back in place and twisted it. I had to reheat it several times to get the alignment correct. The second photo shows the aligned stem. I sanded the stem with 150 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter of the stem. I also sanded the slope to the button to highlight the tooth marks on the stem. I used a needle file to sharpen the inner edge of the button and make the angles more distinct. I wiped down the bowl with acetone to remove the grime and clean up the finish. I did not want to lighten the finish as much as to clean off the light coat of varnish on the briar. I lightly topped the bowl to clean up the rim damage. I used a sanding board and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damaged briar and then followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding block. I continued to sand the stem to match it to the diameter of the shank. I used 220 grit sandpaper to finish the sanding and shaping of the stem. I worked on the tooth marks on the top side and underside of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until they were no longer visible. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head and working up to the one that was the same diameter as the bowl. I reamed the bowl back to bare wood. I sanded the stem with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to reduce the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. There was one stubborn tooth mark that I could not get out on the underside of the stem next to the button. I cleaned the area with alcohol and then used clear super glue to repair it. I sprayed the path with an accelerator so that I could sand the patch sooner. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-3200 grit pads and dry sanding with 3600-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil between each group of three micromesh sanding pads and then when I finished sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I buffed it with White Diamond. I buffed the bowl and shank with White Diamond and then gave it a coat of Danish Oil and walnut stain to protect and preserve the finish. When it was dry I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The new stem fits well. In fact it looks like it came with the pipe. The repairs to the stem are not visible. The bowl itself dried well and buffing the finish gave it a softer look. The finished pipe was given several more layer of carnauba wax and then buffed with a soft flannel buffing pad. It is now ready for many more years of service to another pipeman.