I thought I’d show off a pipe and a repair that might be of interest to a few of you guys. The pipe is a Dawson Special, made by Peterson and sold as a shop brand by UK tobacconist James J. Fox. I found the pipe interesting because I’ve seen plenty of Pete sub-brands, but not too many shop-branded pipes made by them.
I’d originally been asked just to restem the pipe, but a closer inspection revealed a long, thin crack snaking its way along the top of the shank. That would have to be dealt with before I could even think about a new stem. There was another problem though. The pipe was stamped along the bottom all the way up to within just a few millimeters from the end of the shank. While a nice silver band wouldn’t necessarily look out of place on a Pete, in this case it would cover up the only real clue as to the maker’s origin. Unacceptable.
Instead, I stabilized the shank from inside the mortise with a delrin and stainless sleeve. The close tolerances make it a much more finicky sort of repair than banding, but it gives better stabilization and it’s invisible when the stem is attached. Win/win in my book.
Once the shank was solid, I could work on cutting the new vulcanite stem. I tried to make something that was a compromise between a Peterson-style taper (a sort of teardrop shape) and a standard taper (more wedge shaped). I thought that would be appropriate for a pipe that both was/wasn’t a true Pete.
Here’s the finished pipe:
I’d originally been asked just to restem the pipe, but a closer inspection revealed a long, thin crack snaking its way along the top of the shank. That would have to be dealt with before I could even think about a new stem. There was another problem though. The pipe was stamped along the bottom all the way up to within just a few millimeters from the end of the shank. While a nice silver band wouldn’t necessarily look out of place on a Pete, in this case it would cover up the only real clue as to the maker’s origin. Unacceptable.
Instead, I stabilized the shank from inside the mortise with a delrin and stainless sleeve. The close tolerances make it a much more finicky sort of repair than banding, but it gives better stabilization and it’s invisible when the stem is attached. Win/win in my book.
Once the shank was solid, I could work on cutting the new vulcanite stem. I tried to make something that was a compromise between a Peterson-style taper (a sort of teardrop shape) and a standard taper (more wedge shaped). I thought that would be appropriate for a pipe that both was/wasn’t a true Pete.
Here’s the finished pipe:
