As some of you know, I recently bought some estate pipes and have been restoring them. I have finished and I think they came out great!
The first is a London Briar that the previous owner neglected badly. I don't think this pipe saw very many pipe cleaners. The bowel had more cake in it than I have ever seen. I literally couldn't fit a pencil through to the bottom half of the bowl. I'm sure he just dumped the ash, packed another bowl and kept on smoking! I wish I would have taken some pictures before I started reaming. I reamed the bowl for an hour until I had blisters on my fingers! Then I did the alcohol/salt treatment twice. The bowl was still haunted by whatever drugstore tobacco he used, so I resorted to the activated carbon method that nsfisher linked to in this thread. It worked like a charm!! The exterior of the bowl was filthy and needed some serious cleaning with degreasers followed by acetone to prepare it for new stain. While I was at it, I decided to scrape the finish off the bottom of the shank where the logo is and finish it in a lighter tone. I applied Ebony stain to the bowl and a walnut to the logo area. After the stain dried I gave it a couple of coats of Howard Feed & Wax and let it dry. The stem was pretty chewed up, so I sanded it and buffed it. The inside of the stem was disgusting and it took a ton of alcohol soaked pipe cleaners before it was clean, but finally I got all the gunk out.
I smoked a bowel out of it before I took the after pictures. It smokes very nice. I think it looks nice... and NO GHOSTS!!
Luckily, the Ben Wade Freehand was in much better shape. The bowl is tapered so the reamer wasn't of much use except at the bottom. I used a piece of 50 grit sandpaper for the rest and it did a great job of getting the cake out quick. I used two alcohol/salt treatments and the lots of bristle pipe cleaners and scrubbed things up good.
For the outside, the finish was dull and lackluster, so I used steel wool and alcohol and gave it a thorough scrub. I wiped it down with acetone and then stained it with Howard's walnut stain, applying it with 0000 steel wool. Let it set for a while wiped it off and in the morning gave it a couple coats of wax. The stem got the same treatment as above. The onlt difference was it is a screw in stem and the shank insert was loose, so I used some epoxy to set it in.
Havent smoked it yet... But I think it looks amazing!!
Now for the pictures>>>>>
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A couple before...(try to ignore the Pete, that was for a different thread)
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Some After Pics>>>>
The first is a London Briar that the previous owner neglected badly. I don't think this pipe saw very many pipe cleaners. The bowel had more cake in it than I have ever seen. I literally couldn't fit a pencil through to the bottom half of the bowl. I'm sure he just dumped the ash, packed another bowl and kept on smoking! I wish I would have taken some pictures before I started reaming. I reamed the bowl for an hour until I had blisters on my fingers! Then I did the alcohol/salt treatment twice. The bowl was still haunted by whatever drugstore tobacco he used, so I resorted to the activated carbon method that nsfisher linked to in this thread. It worked like a charm!! The exterior of the bowl was filthy and needed some serious cleaning with degreasers followed by acetone to prepare it for new stain. While I was at it, I decided to scrape the finish off the bottom of the shank where the logo is and finish it in a lighter tone. I applied Ebony stain to the bowl and a walnut to the logo area. After the stain dried I gave it a couple of coats of Howard Feed & Wax and let it dry. The stem was pretty chewed up, so I sanded it and buffed it. The inside of the stem was disgusting and it took a ton of alcohol soaked pipe cleaners before it was clean, but finally I got all the gunk out.
I smoked a bowel out of it before I took the after pictures. It smokes very nice. I think it looks nice... and NO GHOSTS!!
Luckily, the Ben Wade Freehand was in much better shape. The bowl is tapered so the reamer wasn't of much use except at the bottom. I used a piece of 50 grit sandpaper for the rest and it did a great job of getting the cake out quick. I used two alcohol/salt treatments and the lots of bristle pipe cleaners and scrubbed things up good.
For the outside, the finish was dull and lackluster, so I used steel wool and alcohol and gave it a thorough scrub. I wiped it down with acetone and then stained it with Howard's walnut stain, applying it with 0000 steel wool. Let it set for a while wiped it off and in the morning gave it a couple coats of wax. The stem got the same treatment as above. The onlt difference was it is a screw in stem and the shank insert was loose, so I used some epoxy to set it in.
Havent smoked it yet... But I think it looks amazing!!
Now for the pictures>>>>>
.
.
A couple before...(try to ignore the Pete, that was for a different thread)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Some After Pics>>>>
