Tag Archives: WDC Wellington Jumbo Pipe

Restemming and restoring a WDC Wellington Jumbo

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by Steve Laug

In the box that Jeff recently sent to me there was a large Wellington bowl without the stem. We purchased it from an antique shop in Vancouver, Washington, USA on 04/03/2024. We had cannibalized the stem and sent it to a fellow who needed a Wellington stem. The stamping on the left side of the shank read WDC in a triangle (logo). Under that it is stamped Wellington is script. The nickel ferrule is heavily dented and is stamped WDC in a triangle over three faux hallmarks. Though it is dented it still looks good. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and an overflow of lava onto the rim top and edges. The smooth finish was very dirty with debris and oils. There were some fills in the bowl sides and some nicks as well from looked like the bowl had been dropped. The nickel ferrule was dented in spots and a little rough but still in solid condition. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started cleaning it up. Have a look. Jeff took close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the rim top. You can also see the lava on the rim top, inner edge and the cake in the bowl. He also took photos of the nickel ferrule to show the condition of the metal. You can see the nicks and dents in the metal sides and shank end.He took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. The second photo shows the nicks and scratches in the finish on the bowl heel.I turned to Pipedia’s article on WDC (William Demuth) pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). I have included one of the advertising flyers on the Wellington Jumbo below. Look at the price of this pipe when was sold.Armed with the information above, I turned my attention to the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners, shank brushes and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. I went through my stems and found a relatively new Wellington stem that was in excellent condition. I have a few here that I have set aside for use on the bowls that come across our path. I fit it in the shank and took photos of the bowl with its new stem. Have a look below. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim top and stem to show how clean the pipe was. The bowl was clean and the rim top and the inner edge looked good. The stem was clean on the outside but I would need to clean the internals. There was light tooth chatter on both sides and some spots of oxidation.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is readable and read as noted above. I also removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the shank end to show some of the damage on the nickel ferrule. I heated the ferrule with a lighter and was able to remove it from the shank. I used a small furniture tack hammer and probe to tap out the larger dents in the metal. I fit it back on the shank end and tapped the shank end to carefully smooth out the damaged areas. I sanded the inner edge of the ferrule with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the sharp edges. While not perfect, it certainly was an improvement.I turned my attention to the briar. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to try and minimize the scratches in the wood. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad and by the end the briar was smoother and had begun to take on a shine. There were some fills in the briar but there was also some nice grain that stood out. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with the cloth. The bowl continued to develop a deeper shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit on the bowl for 10 minutes and then buffed it off with a paper towel and soft cloth. The product is a great addition to the restoration work. It enlivens, enriches and protects the briar while giving it a deep glow. It is a product I use on every pipe I restore. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the light chatter on the stem surface and the scratches on the shank end of the vulcanite with 220 grit sandpaper. It looked better. Polishing would finish the work. I paused the polishing for a bit to clean out the airway in the stem. I immediately felt something in the airway that was blocking and reducing the diameter of the airway. It took a bit of work with long pipe cleaners but I eventually removed a Medico/Grabow style paper filter that had migrated up the stem inside. It came out and was very dirty. I cleaned out the inside of the stem with long pipe cleaners and used them straight and then repeated the process with them folded. I cleaned from both directions and it is clean and smells better.I continued the sanding process with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. After each pad I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil to clearly show me the scratches and areas that still needed work. It was really looking good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Once again, I wiped it down between each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before and After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another rub down with Obsidian Oil. It looked very good. I am really happy with the way that this WDC Wellington Jumbo Bent Billiard turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a unique shape and combining a smooth bowl, a nickel ferrule and a vulcanite stem. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Wellington Jumber Bent Billiard really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 9 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 95 grams/3.32 ounces. The pipe will be going in the mail to the pipe man who will carry on the trust with this old pipe. I think he will enjoy smoking it for years to come. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Major Repairs to a WDC Wellington Jumbo

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

There are some pipes that are so rough that they are an entire pipe-restoration course in and of themselves. This is one of those pipes. It is a WDC Wellington Jumbo and it came to me in a lot of pipes from the USA. Recently, a customer of mine commissioned me to restore this pipe I readily agreed – because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into! The story of this pipe’s repair is a long one and it includes so many different elements that one can learn a lot just by reading. This pipe also reminded me that sometimes the wear-and-tear of the years needs to remain on a pipe as part of its story. I managed to bring great beauty back to this pipe, but it would always retain signs of its harsh past. This is one Wellington that did NOT win at Waterloo. The pipe in question was made by the William Demuth Company of New York (hence, WDC). I read a blog Steve wrote on a Wellington Jumbo back in 2020 to learn more about the pipe’s background. I was directed to the Pipedia page on WDC and it has a lot of good information, including a great flyer which had a photo of some of the Jumbos.From Pipedia is a Wellington ad and another from 1915, courtesy of Pipephil: The Wellington is a charming pipe, but it had a number of significant issues. It might be most clear for you, dear reader, if I enumerate the issues, one-by-one, and we can address them in due course. There was a tremendous amount of work to do on this pipe, so I got to it. I divided up the problems into three categories: the stem, the ferrule/band, and the stummel.

1.  I began by cleaning some of the filth on the outside of the stem with some Murphy’s Oil Soap on cotton rounds. This removed some of the surface staining.
2. The stem’s insides were absolutely clogged with filth. Steve told me that the Wellingtons are notorious for this, and I learned the hard way just how true that was. I actually used a drill bit (by hand) to break into the encrusted gunk in the stem. Then, I started cleaning the inside with isopropyl alcohol, Q-tips, and pipe cleaners. This took a long while. The inside was terribly dirty and it took an awful lot of cotton. 3. Due to the size of the stem, I had to use churchwarden-size pipe cleaners, but this was just not doing enough to progress the process. I decided to plug up the bore-end, filled the stem with alcohol, and let it sit for a while – in the hope that it would loosen some of the gunk. This was mildly successful but insufficient. So, I then opted to use my tube brushes with alcohol and this worked quite well, dislodging some of the filth I couldn’t otherwise get to. It was clear that the pipe would require a retort, but that would have to wait until later. 4. The tenon end was burnt to a crisp from overuse and, more specifically, overheating. I sanded this down in order to even it out. I didn’t want to over-sand it, but I couldn’t just leave it as it was. 5. There was considerable oxidation, but the stem was too large to fit in my deoxidation fluid container. As a result, I had to do this by hand. I used SoftScrub with some cotton rounds and, as you can see, lots of revolting colour came off the stem. As expected, this took a lot of elbow grease, but I got it to a reasonable state.6. The area of the stem just above the button was chomped as badly as I’ve ever seen and the vulcanite had actually ruptured at some point. Also, the bore hole was damaged. I used a BIC lighter to try and lift some of those dents, but very little (if anything) was lifted. I brought out my cyanoacrylate adhesive and I applied it liberally to the affected areas – including the bore. I used some accelerant to get the glue going, and then moved on. 7. I began the lengthy process of sanding and shaping the cyanoacrylate repairs. I used small files and both 220- and 400-grit sandpapers to remove the excess adhesive. Once I had shaped it the way I wanted it, I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. Hey –we’re finally making some progress!8. Halfway through the MicroMesh process, I paused to fix yet another problem with the stem: it had straightened over time and needed to be bent back into its correct shape. Essentially, I wanted the end of the stem to be close to parallel with the rim of the bowl. I brought out my heat gun and heated the vulcanite stem in order to make it malleable. The heat gun is very powerful – it does not take long! When it was soft, I gently curved the stem over a wooden dowel. The dowel provides a firm surface and a proper curve. Once I had the bend I wanted, I left the stem to cool and set itself in place.9. On to the ferrule – which was thoroughly corroded and discoloured from years of mistreatment. Somewhat to my surprise, the ferrule came off very easily and required no special effort. I began by cleaning the metal with some SoftScrub on cotton rounds. This was quite good at removing the unsightly bits.10. I sanded the inside of the ferrule with 220-grit sandpaper in order to remove the old glue and debris that came from the shank. This would provide a better surface for re-gluing later.

11. I used some of my MicroMesh pads (only 3,600-12,000) to eliminate some of the minor scratches on the metal. It also gave a nice shine which clearly hadn’t been seen for decades.

12. I used a jewelry cloth to give the final polish to the nickel. This ferrule would always retain some small dents etc. from its hard life, but it looks much improved.

13. On to the stummel – this is where the lion’s share of the work was. The insides (both bowl and shank) were overwhelmed with cake and tar and anything else you’d care to mention. The bowl really needed to be reamed, so I used the KleenReem too to scrape off as much built-up cake. Sadly, this just wasn’t sufficient – I had to go to the next step to get things moving.14. I threw the stummel in my alcohol bath in the hope that it would loosen some of the incredibly hard residue inside the bowl. After 24 hours, this worked a bit, but not enough. It was time for the nuclear option.15. I put a sanding drum (and a couple of other bits) on my Dremel and carefully began removing the old stuff. This is not an option that I use regularly. The risk of oversanding is high and that can be an even bigger problem. However, I worked slowly and cautiously. Generally, I prefer to sand the chamber down to bare briar. When restoring, it is important to ensure that there is no damage to the briar under the cake. There are a few situations when I might leave some cake in the bowl, but not today. Sadly, there were definitely some hidden flaws to the briar on this pipe. I’ll come back to that later.16. Just like the bowl, the shank was absolutely disgusting. It had never been cleaned – or, not for many decades. I started cleaning the inside with isopropyl alcohol, Q-tips, and pipe cleaners. This took a while. The inside was very dirty and required and extraordinary number of Q-tips and pipe cleaners. Eventually some cleanliness came to it.

17. I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells and dirt of the past. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was supposed to be nice and clean after this, but this was no ordinary pipe.18.  At this point, it seemed sensible to set up a retort and further clean this whole pipe out. I put the stem and stummel back together and used my pipe retort system. This system uses boiling isopropyl alcohol and a vacuum (a void, not the household appliance) to clean the interior of a pipe. As you can see by the brownish colour of the alcohol, the retort worked well – although it took many changes of alcohol to get it clean. I managed to extract lots of otherwise inaccessible filth from inside the pipe. 19. Now that the pipe was clean, I wanted to have a closer look at the state of the briar, inside and out. For this, I scrubbed the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. That removed any latent dirt that blighted the wood. No surprise: there was lots.20. Several tiny cracks appeared on the outside of the stummel and I needed to address them. The first step in dealing with this was to ensure that the crack would not continue to creep after I had repaired it. To that end, I took a micro-drill bit, inserted it in my Dremel, and very carefully drilled a hole at the ends of the cracks. Since the cracks were not deep and did not go right through the wood, I did not drill all the way through. I then repaired the cracks by allowing cyanoacrylate adhesive to seep into them and then letting the glue cure. 21. Alas, there were also cracks inside the bowl. But beyond that, significant gouges were there from some prehistoric reaming tool. Removing the cake in the bowl did feel like an archaeological dig, so there were bound to be some surprises in the briar. The solution to this problem is always a tricky one: epoxy. I prepared some J.B. Weld epoxy and filled the cracks and gouges, ensuring that the epoxy was evenly spread throughout the bowl. Of course, I did plug the draught hole with a folded pipe cleaner (coated in Vaseline) to make sure none of the epoxy made its way up there. Once done, a good 24 hours was needed to ensure that the epoxy was properly set. 22. Burn marks and an uneven surface blighted the rim of the pipe and it needed to be redone. There was a lot of damage to the rim and the front edge had been bashed in, presumably from banging out dottle over the years. In order to remove the damage, I “topped” the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded down the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This is always a tricky business – I want to find the balance between removing old burns and maintaining as much of the pipe as possible.23. The rim needed some more help since the bowl opening was badly out of round. To fix this, I took a solid wooden sphere, wrapped some 220-grit sandpaper around it, and sanded the inner edge of the rim. In addition to this, I also sanded down the outside of the bowl, near the rim, so as to minimize the visual effect of the bashed edge. I sand all the way around to ensure that the pipe retains its look.24. As mentioned earlier, there were a few dents in the briar. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise the nicks. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. There was some movement in the wood, which was good. The repair was not perfect, but the remaining wounds would be improved by sanding.25. There were two significant fills on the bowl. They were large enough that I would not be able to make them disappear entirely, but I wanted to make them solid and smooth, and meld into the rest of the wood. I fixed them up with a mixture of cyanoacrylate adhesive and briar dust.

26. Next, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) all over the stummel to make it lovely and smooth. 27. Having completed that, it was time for staining. My customer wanted a deep, dark burgundy colour. First, I brought out my heat gun and spent a couple of minutes thoroughly heating the wood, so it would be as receptive as possible to the stain, to give the best results. I applied Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye with a cotton dauber. I flamed it with my BIC lighter and let it set. This dye is alcohol-based, so I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. I coated it again with Fiebing’s Oxblood Leather Dye, flamed it again, and let that set too. I stained and flamed the pipe another two times (once with black, once with oxblood), always making sure I warmed the pipe with my heat gun first. 28. Now that the epoxy had fully cured, I gently sanded the inside of the bowl to provide a rough surface for what was to come next. I coated the entire inside of the bowl with a mixture of activated charcoal and my wife’s homemade yogurt. Once hardened, this provided a good, slightly rough surface for a new cake to build. 29. At long last, I was off to my bench buffer to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough going-over with White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of carnauba wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe and some closure to this long and involved repair. The lovely shine made the wood look beautiful! I know that the new owner will enjoy smoking it for many years to come. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 9½ in. (240 mm); height 6½ in. (165 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (41 mm); chamber diameter 1 in. (25 mm). The weight of the pipe is 3 oz. (86 g). If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Breathing New Life into a WDC Wellington Jumbo French Briar

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from a group of pipes that we purchased from an antique mall in 2018 in Newport, Oregon, USA. It is a large WDC Wellington Jumbo Pipe with a fancy hard rubber stem. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Wellington [over] French Briar separated by the WDC Triangle. The right side is stamped Made in U.S.A. There is a stamp on the metal shank cap/ferrule that reads Nickel Plated. This is a nice piece of briar with interesting grain all the way around the bowl. The finish had a lot of grime ground into it. There is also a large area of road rash on the front of the bowl where it has obviously been dropped on a hard surface. The bowl was moderately caked and there was a lava coat on the top and the inner edge of the rim. The rim top has deep scratches in the surface and the bowl appears to be out of round under the lava coat. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. The bent stem had straightened over time and would need to be re-bent. The stem bore the WDC Triangle logo stamped on the top ahead of the saddle. It was also stamped Wellington in an arch under the triangle logo. The pipe showed promise but it was very dirty. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work.    He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and the condition of the rim top and beveled inner edges. You can see the cake in the bowl, the lava on the rim top and the damage to both the top and inner edge. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification and chatter and tooth marks.  There are also flecks of metal in the hard rubber stem that I have seen in pipes of this time period in the past.   Jeff took a photo of the right side and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like.He took photos of the stamping on the shank and the stem. It reads as noted above and is clear and readable. I turned to Pipedia’s article on WDC (William Demuth) pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). I have included one of the advertising flyers on the Wellington Jumbo below. Look at the price of this pipe when it was sold.Now it was time to work on the pipe. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife.  He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe and bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it.   The rim top and edges of the rim were in rough condition. The rim top was chipped, scratched and had gouges in the surface. The inner edge of the bowl was out of round and had burn and reaming damage. The outer edge also showed nicks and damage as well. The stem surface looked very good with some tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The stem is a fancy saddle version. I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the rim top and the edges of the bowl. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage on the flat surface and clean up the edges at the same time. I worked over the out of round inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper until I had brought it back to round. I gave it a slight bevel to take care of the burn damage and chipping. I decided to address the road rash on the bowl front next. There were deep gouges and nicks in the surface of the briar. Interestingly when Jeff cleaned the pipe some of them were raised. What was left behind would not be lifted any further. I filled in the remaining marks in the briar with clear super glue. Once the glue cured I sanded it smooth and blended it into the surrounding briar. I would polish it with micromesh when I worked on the rest of the bowl surface.   I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad.  The pipe was in such good condition that started by rubbing it down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine.     I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I decided to deal with bending it to the proper angle first. I inserted a long pipe cleaner in the stem heated the stem with my heat gun until the rubber was flexible. I carefully bent it so that it matched the flow of the stem. I cooled it with running cool water to set the bend.  Once it cooled I inserted it in the stem and took photos. Now it was time to work on the tooth marks on the stem. I sanded them out with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem surface with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. Note the white specks on the black rubber ahead of the button and on the button edge in the photo below. Those are actually bit of metal in the rubber. This was typical of pipes made during the war when recycled tires were used to make rubber stems.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I touched up the gold stamping in the logo on the top of the saddle stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. It is a great product and easy to apply. I rubbed it into the stem with a tooth pick and once it was well worked in I wiped the stem down with a soft cloth to remove the excess. The resulting stamp looked very good!   This WDC Wellington Jumbo French Made Bent Billiard with a the polished briar, polished nickel ferrule and fancy saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The parts all come together to form a great looking piece. The beautiful grain that shines through the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad which really brings the shine out with the wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Wellington Jumbo fits nicely in the hand and feels great and will truly be a pipe to be smoked while sitting and reading or listening to music. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 10 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 93gr/3.25oz. I will be adding it to the American Pipe Maker section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!