Bought My First Charatan Estate Pipe

[kenbarnes]

kottan said "Ken, which kind of alcohol do you use for it, ethanol or isopropyl and how much %? I wonder if the alcohol would dissolve the stain?. "
I still have some industrial alcohol here from the Tilshead factory (strictly speaking I do need a license for it) but I don't drink it!
Yes, it will take off a little stain but in this case it would take off loads of other stuff as well. The De Luxe finishing was one coat of light tan spirit stain burnt in and then one more coat applied and wiped off. Then the pipe was stripped of the stain using pumice and a felt wheel so the stain served as a background stain used just to highlight the grain.
Crayola was used on all Charatan logos until they bought a stamping machine (after Reuben had died) using a roll of white correction type tape which the heated stamp die would press into the vulcanite. All Upshall logos were done with Crayola. Barry said it lasted longer than the tape method. It can be tricky to do at first, you really need to 'work the wax in' and wipe it off in a certain way and sometimes go over it again two or three times. Reuben got Barry to do this job when he first started at Charatan in 1959 aged 15. I still have the Crayola white and gold wax sticks from the 1980s that I found when I visited the empty Upshall factory in 2018 in a draw along with other stuff from my past which had been untouched since 1989!

 

[orlandofurioso]

Wonderful Ken.
Please keep illuminating us !
It will all go straight into my pipe refurbishing note book
Is the quallity of Crayola as it used to be ? Guess not .

 

[kenbarnes]

Is the quallity of Crayola as it used to be ? Guess not

I bought a box a few years ago - the box looks the same!
I will try the old and the new when I get the opportunity and report back to you.

 

[donjgiles]

Mr. Barnes,

I recently acquired a lovely Tilshead, square shanked cutty with amazing grain, following the shape so masterfully.
The pipe appears to be very lightly stained but I noticed that the Tilshead England stamp and the Made By Hand stamps were also filled in with white Crayon. Was that common practice on very lightly stained pipes?
Thank you Sir.

 

[georged]

Lacquer-Stik Paintstick, White - House Paint - Amazon.com

Lacquer-Stik Paintstick, White - House Paint - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

 

[orlandofurioso]

I bought a box a few years ago - the box looks the same!
I will try the old and the new when I get the opportunity and report back to you.

Please do Ken.
Can you post a link to where you purchased the box ?

 

[orlandofurioso]

Lacquer-Stik Paintstick, White - House Paint - Amazon.com

Lacquer-Stik Paintstick, White - House Paint - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

Thank you George, will try !
I suppose this is in your tool box ?

 

[kenbarnes]

I recently acquired a lovely Tilshead, square shanked cutty with amazing grain, following the shape so masterfully.
The pipe appears to be very lightly stained but I noticed that the Tilshead England stamp and the Made By Hand stamps were also filled in with white Crayon. Was that common practice on very lightly stained pipes?
Thank you Sir.

No, I have never seen it. I think I tried it on one Tilshead once - cannot remember now. Are the 'stamps' engraved or
stamped by hand (pressed into the wood)?
I have seen some early French and English pipes from the 1920s which had the stamps filled in with white or gold wax I think Oppenheimer used to do it. It certainly would be interesting to see a photo of this Tilshead pipe.

 

[georged]

I suppose this is in your tool box ?

Yes. Been using it for many years. Never turns yellow (like enamel), lasts forever, and requires zero skill to apply---swipe on, wipe off. Absolutely perfect for impressed stem logos.

If I had a magic wand and could specify exactly the right stuff with a wave of it, the result would be no different.

Just shave a sliver off the end with a sharp blade to expose a fresh spot before applying.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Thank you George, will order.
What scloth do you wipe it off with ?
When it is still wet ?

 

[georged]

Thank you George, will order.
What scloth do you wipe it off with ?
When it is still wet ?

Just a tab of paper towel or TP.

It's never wet like brushable paint, just "smeary". But it dries/hardens like brushable paint.

You've got 15-20 seconds to remove the "oversmear." Use an up-rolling wipe motion to lift off the excess and keep it from dragging.

Check with a lens after it is completely dry, and if there is a spot or two that didn't completely fill just repeat the procedure "in miniature".

 

[donjgiles]

No, I have never seen it. I think I tried it on one Tilshead once - cannot remember now. Are the 'stamps' engraved or
stamped by hand (pressed into the wood)?
I have seen some early French and English pipes from the 1920s which had the stamps filled in with white or gold wax I think Oppenheimer used to do it. It certainly would be interesting to see a photo of this Tilshead pipe.

These are the seller's photos...

 

[georged]

That's the result of the seller trying to spiff things up with automotive paste wax.

 

[kenbarnes]

I agree with georged, this has been done by the seller to 'spiff things up'. I am pretty sure you can remove it by possibly using a pin and picking out the paste from each letter - very therapeutic.
I love the pipe - this is either a Barry creation or could be a Stan Haney (Charatan craftsman) creation. Barry told me that Stan came to work with him at Tilshead for a time in the 1990s.

 

[Kottan]

kottan said "Ken, which kind of alcohol do you use for it, ethanol or isopropyl and how much %? I wonder if the alcohol would dissolve the stain?. "
I still have some industrial alcohol here from the Tilshead factory (strictly speaking I do need a license for it) but I don't drink it!
Yes, it will take off a little stain but in this case it would take off loads of other stuff as well. The De Luxe finishing was one coat of light tan spirit stain burnt in and then one more coat applied and wiped off. Then the pipe was stripped of the stain using pumice and a felt wheel so the stain served as a background stain used just to highlight the grain.
Crayola was used on all Charatan logos until they bought a stamping machine (after Reuben had died) using a roll of white correction type tape which the heated stamp die would press into the vulcanite. All Upshall logos were done with Crayola. Barry said it lasted longer than the tape method. It can be tricky to do at first, you really need to 'work the wax in' and wipe it off in a certain way and sometimes go over it again two or three times. Reuben got Barry to do this job when he first started at Charatan in 1959 aged 15. I still have the Crayola white and gold wax sticks from the 1980s that I found when I visited the empty Upshall factory in 2018 in a draw along with other stuff from my past which had been untouched since 1989!

It's always a pleasure to learn from you, ken. I made several attamps with Eddings (permanent paint sticks), where a little drop of the paint is tipped with a finger on the fading logo. Then the ipaint is allowed for a few seconds to migrate the grooves. The excess then will be wiped off with a wet gasoline cloth.
This method only works when the grooves are still deep enough and you have got a feeling for the fine work.
Till now I only succeede with a Stanwell, Radford and a Svendborg.
But i use a very simple method to get rid of the tarr etc. from the rim. I paste fat cream on the rim an let it alone overnight. Then take the grease of with a paper towel. You have to to this several times, the small rest can be buffed with 4000 nail polish files.

 

[orlandofurioso]

These are the seller's photos...

Hi Don,

That is a wonderful pipe !

Or a soft bristle brass brush

These are the seller's photos...

Wonderful pipe Don , love it !

Or remove it with a soft brass wire brush, nail brush etc.

It's always a pleasure to learn from you, ken. I made several attamps with Eddings (permanent paint sticks), where a little drop of the paint is tipped with a finger on the fading logo. Then the ipaint is allowed for a few seconds to migrate the grooves. The excess then will be wiped off with a wet gasoline cloth.
This method only works when the grooves are still deep enough and you have got a feeling for the fine work.
Till now I only succeede with a Stanwell, Radford and a Svendborg.
But i use a very simple method to get rid of the tarr etc. from the rim. I paste fat cream on the rim an let it alone overnight. Then take the grease of with a paper towel. You have to to this several times, the small rest can be buffed with 4000 nail polish files.

Hi Kottan,

For real "shallow" logos that cannot be filled with a liquid ( like the hot stamped Barling logos that somehow seem to dissolve in the oxidation ), I use the Tamiya plastic putty .
The substance is more related to ebonite than a liquid paint and therefore more firmly "sticks " to it.
As said, it is stubborn . I work it in with a tooth pick ( sparsely ! ) and remove the excess with ( wetted ) nail buffers up to 4000 grit.
It is fairly easy to do and gives a wonderful shine without any ( micro ) scratching of the stem.

 

[orlandofurioso]

These are the seller's photos...

This is a wonderflu pipe Don, how much would I like to see it in real.

Or remove with a soft brass wire brush, nail brush etc.
A good quality canauba automotive paste wax will not harm the briar, on the contrary.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Just a tab of paper towel or TP.

It's never wet like brushable paint, just "smeary". But it dries/hardens like brushable paint.

You've got 15-20 seconds to remove the "oversmear." Use an up-rolling wipe motion to lift off the excess and keep it from dragging.

Check with a lens after it is completely dry, and if there is a spot or two that didn't completely fill just repeat the procedure "in miniature".

Thank you George, I meanwhile ordered the stick .
Will be the umpteenth experiment in logo filling

 

[orlandofurioso]

It's always a pleasure to learn from you, ken. I made several attamps with Eddings (permanent paint sticks), where a little drop of the paint is tipped with a finger on the fading logo. Then the ipaint is allowed for a few seconds to migrate the grooves. The excess then will be wiped off with a wet gasoline cloth.
This method only works when the grooves are still deep enough and you have got a feeling for the fine work.
Till now I only succeede with a Stanwell, Radford and a Svendborg.
But i use a very simple method to get rid of the tarr etc. from the rim. I paste fat cream on the rim an let it alone overnight. Then take the grease of with a paper towel. You have to to this several times, the small rest can be buffed with 4000 nail polish files.

Hi Kottan,

What is gasoline cloth ?

 

[rajangan]

Would this be a good place to ask about my Charatan? I didn't realize that Charatan were a big deal until reading this thread.

A friend and I saw this estate pipe in a pipe store in Coeur d'Alene, and he told me to buy it. I didn't. 9 months later, I took a detour on the way to Vancouver and bought the pipe which was still there! As you can see, I haven't treated it right, and since the stem broke, I haven't smoked it. I need to gather up all my broken stem pipes and bite the bullet and get them fixed.