Dear Freinds: Please read this and interject advice if you've done a job like this so I can avoid mistakes.
My old Nording is on its last leg. Alas, it has a crack in the tobacco chamber from dead center all the way to the top. Tom Cristiano and family lived nearby when I had a smoke shop in Tampa, mostly online. I bought pipes from him, so I would stop in an and watch procedures just long enough to avoid being a nuisance and then try things in my own work shop. Sadly, Tom died a few years ago and I sorely miss him. He was a salty wheeler dealer and was a wealth of knowledge on two legs unlike a great many souls we have known. I wish I could ask him!
I boiled all the wax, finish and fillers out of this freehand and any loose char. Now I have a beautiful piece of blond briar that had once been stained walnut and stamped A NORDING Made in Denmark, but no more. The stamping was done post SON era, likely circa 1960s. I’m certain that there are heat resistant fillers about but I don’t know of one that I would trust off the top of my head.
My plan is to vibrate any dry dust out of whatever fissures there are and petrify the inside of the crack with a wood hardener. Then, if a pipe repair prophet has not appeared to me and said I will certainly burn in hell for destroying Mr. Nordings stamp and work, I’ll fill in the cracks with clear epoxy resin and use an alcohol based stain to bring out the beautiful flame and bird’s-eyes, likely a light cherry or flame orange. I’d like to finish it with a very light clear linseed oil over a few months and heat temper it. The goal is to re-harden the wood, artfully hide the nasty crack and wax it.
I have also entertained the idea of inserting and cementing a briar plug filler into the tobacco chamber and drilling it with a spoon bit 7/8” and re-boring the tenon.
My old Nording is on its last leg. Alas, it has a crack in the tobacco chamber from dead center all the way to the top. Tom Cristiano and family lived nearby when I had a smoke shop in Tampa, mostly online. I bought pipes from him, so I would stop in an and watch procedures just long enough to avoid being a nuisance and then try things in my own work shop. Sadly, Tom died a few years ago and I sorely miss him. He was a salty wheeler dealer and was a wealth of knowledge on two legs unlike a great many souls we have known. I wish I could ask him!
I boiled all the wax, finish and fillers out of this freehand and any loose char. Now I have a beautiful piece of blond briar that had once been stained walnut and stamped A NORDING Made in Denmark, but no more. The stamping was done post SON era, likely circa 1960s. I’m certain that there are heat resistant fillers about but I don’t know of one that I would trust off the top of my head.
My plan is to vibrate any dry dust out of whatever fissures there are and petrify the inside of the crack with a wood hardener. Then, if a pipe repair prophet has not appeared to me and said I will certainly burn in hell for destroying Mr. Nordings stamp and work, I’ll fill in the cracks with clear epoxy resin and use an alcohol based stain to bring out the beautiful flame and bird’s-eyes, likely a light cherry or flame orange. I’d like to finish it with a very light clear linseed oil over a few months and heat temper it. The goal is to re-harden the wood, artfully hide the nasty crack and wax it.
I have also entertained the idea of inserting and cementing a briar plug filler into the tobacco chamber and drilling it with a spoon bit 7/8” and re-boring the tenon.
