Thank you all for your remarks, it's always interesting advices and observations to read on this forum.
Really nice craftsmanship, LMF.
Even if you can't pull out that tooth indent I'm still impressed.
Fnord
Trying to pull this tooth mark would be too risky (the stem is not wide enough) and I already have had bad experiences with heating process, if it was a standard stem, I would have simply replaced, but here it is a hallmarked spigot and I prefer to leave it like that.
What about the inside? How's that look?
The cake has been entirely removed and, to my astonishment, the chamber is unharmed, just showing standard usage marks, but no burned area or starting cracks. The shank & mouthpiece have been completely cleaned as well, ready to smoke and will make the pleasure for a friend living near St-Claude in France.
Are you sanding down and restraining your restorations or just a deep clean and buff? They look amazing.
For this particular restor, no sanding and no stain, only cleaned with 'steel pool' (don't know if it the right word?) & oil.
Out of curiousity, about how many hours (and I know that each one will be different) go into a resto like that?
Difficult to say as I usually work by batch of around 7 to 10 pipes. Restoring this pipe alone could easily take more than one hour, especially on the stem and the inside cleaning of the shank.
