My first restoration, a Lee Three Star.

[ShavinElectricity]

Hello everyone, figured I would post my first attempt at restoring an estate pipe. It's a Lee Three Star. The stem wasn't too oxidized and had minor tooth marks. These are the before images.




I followed some of the tips from Reborn Pipes and went to work. Used some oxiclean and soaked the stem while I went to work on the summer.
This pipe has the widest bowl of my collection so I used my Decatur Reamer with the largest ream then sanded the chamber with 400 grit sandpaper. Once that was done I had to drill out the draught hole to clear it out.

I then cleaned the exterior with Murphy's and did an alcohol treatment. The stem I simply sanded with 600, 1000 and micromesh pads then buffed with Tripoli and White Rouge.


Here are the after images.






I would say it came out great for my first restoration. Can't wait to get my next estates and bring them back to their old glory.

 

[Butter Side Down]

Nice work! Night and day transformation.

I've done a few myself. It's a lot of work, but worth the reward.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Very nice work! But your background is the hardest to work with dark pipes.

 

[ShavinElectricity]

Very nice work! But your background is the hardest to work with dark pipes.

May I ask what you mean by my background?

 

[kcghost]

It looks like you did a nice job on the pipe.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

May I ask what you mean by my background?

He’s referring to photographing a dark pipe on a light background—any automated reading for exposure in your camera is trying to average the two contrasting elements. In order for the exposure to look correct, the reading for the exposure needs to be taken from the pipe itself to show any detail. You’ve ended up with what looks like a silhouette, obscuring the pipe’s grain.

 

[ShavinElectricity]

He’s referring to photographing a dark pipe on a light background—any automated reading for exposure in your camera is trying to average the two contrasting elements. In order for the exposure to look correct, the reading for the exposure needs to be taken from the pipe itself to show any detail. You’ve ended up with what looks like a silhouette, obscuring the pipe’s grain.

Man I'm learning something new every day. I just snapped some pictures with my phone