Dark Spot Question

[bouwser]

Yesterday I purchased this estate pipe, a Kaywoodie 50B. I am wondering if anyone can tell me if this dark spot is a problem or not? I didn't pay much for the pipe so I'm ok if it is there but I am curious.

I can see grain through the dark spot so I am not sure it is a fill. It may just be marker, who knows?

 

[voorhees]

looks like it sat in something that leached into the wood.

 

[irishearl]

That might be it Voorhees, but I do have some old pipes where much smaller dark spots of that nature have developed in areas of the pipe where tars and oils accumulate.

 

[sablebrush52]

Well, it's not liver spots. More than likely something like ink from a fountain pen. I have a couple of old pipes that have ink splotches on their base. This poor thing just sat on a surface where something could stain it.

 

[bouwser]

All of your diagnoses make me feel better about the purchase. I may need to give it a bit of elbow grease and see if it comes off. The pipe was otherwise quite clean. I oxy'd the stem last night and will work on buffing it up. There wasn't much cake, so that is a plus. Now to get the 151 going and clean the rest.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Very hard to make out, but a stain of some sort, ink or water are most likely.
Some tips on photos:
LINK to the thread.

 

[crashthegrey]

It certainly looks like something just stained it. Sometimes people try to sand the original stain off and quit and leave a spot like this, but this looks to have been spreading, so I would guess it sat in something. You can sand it back to see the grain, but you will also removed the original stain. And this may have seeped deeper than the stain, and you will end up sanding the whole pipe to bare wood leaving that faint mark behind. I would probably just enjoy making up stories in my head and smoke it. The 50B is a nice medium bulldog (or Rhodesian to many) as it has a round shank. Looks nice otherwise.