Dunhill undressed

[thomasmartin]

Some of you may remember that I had some issues with the dress finish on this Diplomat (paint coming off, staining hands blue, a bad refurbishing probably)

So today I decided to get rid of the paint altogether. After some sanding with 1K wet/dry sanding paper and some buffing pastes the pipe looks like this:

Man, it took some courage to do this but I really like it. In fact I like it better than the dress finish which only hides the nice grain of the briar.

 

[pipebuddy]

can't see the pics....

 

[iamn8]

Damn... I LOVE my black briar diplomat but I'd be so scared to do what you did, but it's beautiful! You got some balls lol! Beautiful though. If u ever decide to sell it let me know! I LOVE Dunhill Diplomats!!

 

[aldecaker]

Wow. You made that pipe look a thousand times better. Now it looks like a briar instead of a Brylon! Congrats. I am pretty unabashed about modding my own pipes, but then again, I don't own any Dunhills.

 

[disinformatique]

Bravo, you have balls of steel man ! I wont do to any pipe let alone a Dunhill, but then I dont like ebony stained pipes.

 

[clickklick]

Turned out great! I would not have hesitated to do that considering the thing was coming off in your hands already.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Nicely done! I am guessing that someone over-coated the briar, otherwise it'd have looked much closer to iamn8's diplomat. Both are great lookers, and I bet fine smokers.

 

[seacaptain]

Wow, that really looks good!

 

[brudnod]

I probably would have sent it back but cannot deny that you have done a lovely job on it!

 

[rcstan]

Looking good! Unless you make a habit of using alcohol as a hand creme, or you have really really acidic sweat, that black stain should not have come off on the hands. Looks like someone magic markered it to black. "Real" Dunhill black comes off purplish, sort of a dark plum color.

 

[mso489]

I'll join the chorus to say that I like the results of your refinishing better than the original and all the more because it makes the pipe all your own. I'm buying into the idea that Dunhill had nothing to do with the finish that was rubbing off, magic marker or shoe polish or whatever.

 

[foggymountain]

Looks good. Any hidden defects or fills?

 

[thomasmartin]

Not that I'm aware of.

 

[rcstan]

a bad refurbishing

So this was NOT a new Dunhill but one that was purchased second hand ?

 

[thomasmartin]

Yes. It's an estate pipe.

 

[ssjones]

That is how I do dual-stage stains, looks like a big improvement to my eye. If you don't like it, you can always add another coat of black stain.