Another Falcon Briar....

[FalconForever]

Another little eBay purchase came today. It's another mystery Falcon briar, most definitely not the Coolway range and different again from my other mystery Falcon briar. This looks even older than the other one and well used.
I'm not looking to smoke it tbh, but couple of questions....

What causes the browning on the stem? And how do you clean it?

What causes the twisting of the stem?

How to gently clean dirt off the outside of the bowl without taking off the finish?

And what shape would you class this as?

 

[BingBong]

The twist in the stem might be by design; clench on the left side of the mouth, the bowl is well out of the way of, say, written tasks. The Falcon Clerical or something, you know how they liked "ideas".

 

[FalconForever]

Okay so I tackled that Falcon Briar today. Good news is that the bowl really wasn't that bad. Light ream and clean inside followed by spit and coffee clean on the outside and a good polish.

The stem was a pig. Vulcanite which I've not come across before. Silly material for a pipe given it's reactive response to heat, saliva, tobacco, smoke etc.

A lot of scrubbing, sanding with very fine emery and polishing brought it up to near enough black again. Still got a little twist in it but I'll accept it as 'character'....

Overall it looks a lot more respectable than it did, although I am no pipe restorer....