Fun Restoration on a Stanwell 86

[alaskanpiper]

Hello All!
Doing a fun little late night restoration this evening on a nice reg'd no. era Stanwell 86. This was one cakey mother! My hands looked like a coal miner's after I got done reaming. Quite a few dents and divots from bowl tapping, a big ol' rim scuff up front, pretty gnarly stem oxidation, and some serious rim caking and charring to work on. Still have a little work to do on a couple tooth marks, stem logo refurb and some final polishing, but she is shaping up nicely so far...
Before:

After:

 

[alaskanpiper]

OH YEAH! I also somehow forgot to mention, I found the dried out exoskeleton of some kind of bug inside the stem! I pushed a stem brush through the mouthpiece and out popped a goddamn corpse! That was a first for me.....
Sanitization will be performed with exorbitant scrupulousness on this one.......

 

[jaytex1969]

If it smokes like my 86, it will be worth the effort.
Mine is my designated Lakeland pipe, the one in the avatar pic.
Nice work.

EDIT:

I found the dried out exoskeleton of some kind of bug inside the stem!

Ah, the rare and exotic beetle filter! :lol:

 

[mikethompson]

Yikes! The dead bug would totally freak me out. Amazing job on the restoration, your work is definitely paying off. What are you doing to restore the stem logo? I've read about using white on before.

 

[mso489]

That is likely Danish made. It doesn't look like the same pipe. If I remember, the 86 was a design done for Stanwell by Sixten Iverrson, and I like my Italian-made version very much. It's referred to as a pot, though the bowl is not cylindrical like the traditional pot. That was one ugly customer coming in the door, however someone loved smoking it. The before picture makes me glad I don't build cake. Talk about unappetizing.

 

[alaskanpiper]

The dead bug would totally freak me out. What are you doing to restore the stem logo? I've read about using white on before.

Yeah, it did! Oh, there's a chunk of something in there, must be a little piece of pipe cleaner or somet.........OH GOD!!!! *grabs tweezers* Yeah, this will be my first time taking a stab at stem logo work. I've got this pipe and a Charatan to test it out on, and I was planning on giving the white on method a go as well. We'll see how it works out.

That is likely Danish made. It doesn't look like the same pipe. If I remember, the 86 was a design done for Stanwell by Sixten Iverrson, and I like my Italian-made version very much. It's referred to as a pot, though the bowl is not cylindrical like the traditional pot. That was one ugly customer coming in the door, however someone loved smoking it. The before picture makes me glad I don't build cake. Talk about unappetizing.

That is my understanding as well, that it is a Sixten Ivarsson shape. Also my understanding that the reg'd no. era ended in the late 60s/early 70s making this one danish made for sure. And yes, the cake was quite gag worthy. Definitely inspires diligent cleaning and cake removal, haha.

 

[danimalia]

Looking great so far!

 

[donjgiles]

I bet the inside of the shank is quite "thick" as well..
Don

 

[didimauw]

Nice job on the restore! However I RRALLY enjoyed the before picture.... Must have been a good smoker!

 

[ophiuchus]

Very nice cleanup on that 86. :clap:
That is most certainly a Danish make. The 86 has transmogrified over the years somewhat; the stem (vulcanite as opposed to the current acrylic) at the button is wider now, the stem no longer flares before narrowing into the saddle, the chambers are narrower and slightly deeper now, and the overall shape of the bowl looks more pot-like in the newer 86s than squat Dublin-like. The specimen above is clearly closer to Ivarsson's original intent, rounded bowl-edge and all and was likely hand-carved. I like the newer 86s well enough to collect them; the older ones do sport a more organic look.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I bet the inside of the shank is quite "thick" as well..

the shank actually wasn't as bad as I expected. I think whoever was smoking it was fairly diligent about keeping the airway open. But they pretty much smoked the chamber down to a pinhole, hahaha.

 

[seldom]

Nicotine is an insecticide that we humans just happen to like. That poor insect crawled into a tunnel of death!

 

[laniromee]

that Sixten guy sure knew how to design a pipe. I simply love the 86.

Must have been a real joy to revive such a pipe. Congrats!

 

[alaskanpiper]

that Sixten guy sure knew how to design a pipe. I simply love the 86.

Must have been a real joy to revive such a pipe. Congrats!

He sure did! Wish I were around back in the day to scoop some of his own designs up before they became a billion dollars each.
It is always a joy to revive old pipes, especially when they have some historical significance. I've done a few now, and as odd as it sounds my favorite one has been an old dr. grabow eldorado ajustomatic that my dad owned and smoked back in the 70s when he worked in the same oilfield I got my start in. He got it from a deceased family member. He pulled it out of his desk and it looked like an old dog bone covered in moldy tar. Was an absolute blast to show it to him after it was cleaned up. And now I have it in the rotation. Super fun stuff.

 

[jttnk]

Nicely done. What a transformation. Where did you find these? Online or other sources.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I find most of them on ebay. I got this particular one from another forum member.

 

[mso489]

When the great carving artists delve into industrial design, doing shapes for the factory floor, they share their art with a wider world. Commendable.

 

[boffosquid]

Great restoration and clean up job on a lovely wee pipe - thank you for sharing!

 

[mso489]

I think what I revere about the Stawell 86 is the ease and the understatement of it. It's not a big pipe, and it's not a flashy pipe, but when you take it off the rack, the whole visual package just pops. And probably millions of people smoke these. The designer Milton Glaser said he turned to design rather than fine art because he didn't want his work just appreciated by a few people who happened to own it, but by large numbers of people. With this pipe and his artisan pipes, Sixten had it both ways!

 

[trubka2]

Lovely, nice work, AK! Happy smoking!