Refurbishing a Kiko African Block Meerschaum

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meerlen

Lurker
May 10, 2017
1
0
Hi all,
I've been reading this forum for a while, and finally joined partly because I'm a bit stumped. I just bought a Kiko African block meerschaum (vulcanite stem with elephant logo), and it's pretty badly overclocked. There's a threaded metal insert in the stummel, and a threaded mortice in the stem; when I screw in the stem, the top points to 1-2 o'clock instead of 12 o'clock.
I don't have a lot of money to spend sending out pipes for repair, so I hoped I could fix this myself. If it's possible to reclock it without significant risk to the pipe, I'd rather do that than make a gasket. Searching forums like this one, it sounded like I could heat the tenon and give it a twist, but the more I searched the more I doubted that idea.
Does anyone have any suggestion? I bought it because I've been bitten by the meerschaum bug, and I wanted at least one African pipe -- which are getting harder to find and more expensive. They're reputed to be fairly hardy and good smokers, but not worth breaking the bank for.
Thanks!
PS I made the topic a bit more general than "reclocking a Kiko pipe stem," because I expect I'll have more questions which I'll just add to this thread.

 

tbradsim1

Lifer
Jan 14, 2012
9,092
11,008
Southwest Louisiana
. Made a Cork gasket for theGBD African Meer on the right, bought it in 67, painted it Yellow on the edge after pic was taken, other Leather GBD African was bought in 2012 . Wanted it to clock right but was apprehensive in heating and took the safe road.

 
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hampton

Lurker
Jun 30, 2017
3
0
I think you'll find that the metal screw piece is press fitted into the stem (akin to a pipe tenon to a shank). I refurbished a Kiko and can pull mine out with some effort. My pipe was formerly leather covered and now is self dedicated and dyed (left the rim smooth and white).

 
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