Rescuing a Culver

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MilesDavis

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 16, 2022
204
473
I received this short "Culver" brand pipe this morning from my favorite eBay seller. $5.99 plus $6.99 for shipping :confused:. It arrived in rough shape. Its varnish had plenty of abrasions and general ugliness, while the stem was awful. It's got a hole in it!

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The rim is in good shape. This pipe's owner knew how to light a pipe!

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But oh that stem! Back:

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Front:

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It a bit of persuasion, I was able to remove the tip from the stinger:

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After a thorough cleaning, it's time to get to work with the SuperGlue. I use medium thickness black glue. Since, at the end of the project the SuperGlue will be slightly shinier than the stem material, I spread it around a bit. This way the stem won't advertise the repair so much as it would with a "patch". The little shim was coated with Vaseline prior to the application of the glue. Afterwards, it's always a good idea to keep a pipe cleaner or something in the stem to provide internal support while sanding.

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Getting there. The stem got multiple treatments, lots of sanding, filing, etc.

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Turning to the stummel. After cleaning, I wet-sanded it with 600-grit paper and alcohol. This removed the old varnish. Then I dry sanded it with 600-grit to remove the scratches, blemishes, etc. I then used a ScotchPad type wheel in my Dremel to buff it a bit. Note: You don't want to use those wheels on a stem. They'll melt/distort the material.

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I then wet-sanded the stummel with alcohol, from 600 through to 1500-grit, followed by a 3600-grit sanding pad to remove any remaining raised grain. The result: A naked stummel:

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After further work on the stem, I then reunited the pipe pieces and gave the briar a coat of light brown leather dye. Note: Always put the lid back on the dye as soon as possible. If you were to spill that bottle...Oh the mess! Immediately after coating the pipe, I wipe it dry with a paper towel. Here we are, ready for the final polish:

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The stem had been polished up with Tripoli compound, but the stummel went straight to White Diamond. I then gave the whole pipe a heavy coat of Carnauba wax. I "flashed" the wax on with a white polishing wheel on my Dremel. The wax flashed wet then dry and gray. It's hard to wipe it off at that point. I then used a white cotton polishing wheel on the Dremel which removed the excess wax while leaving a hard glassy surface.

I have not found any information about Culver pipes. This one is worth the $13 dollars I paid for it as it gave me much enjoyment. Total elapsed time: 2 hours 45 minutes.

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OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,563
71
Sydney, Australia
You did a great job on the stem. bdw
Looked like his bulldog had a go at the stem in the "before" pics

Interesting how well he looked after the bowl, but had a complete disregard for the stem. cray
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Trash to treasure. That stem work is masterful, and in return you got some fine grain on the briar. Bravo.
 

woodrow

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 28, 2018
192
209
Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
Very, very good job. Especially on the stem. Terrific. I was in a pinch with a terrible stem with holes, so I used JB Weld. It dries inert, but it dries grey. Since that part of the stem was in my mouth anyway I didnt care. It did the trick. But I would use black crazy glue.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,397
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
some of these repair jobs are so nice I am starting to wonder if they're a long con. You buy pristine pipes and abuse the heck out of them and then reverse the befores and afters. I don't really think that but I bet I could convince people that you did it that way.
 

MilesDavis

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 16, 2022
204
473
some of these repair jobs are so nice I am starting to wonder if they're a long con. You buy pristine pipes and abuse the heck out of them and then reverse the befores and afters. I don't really think that but I bet I could convince people that you did it that way.
Oh No! You're on to me! LOL
 

MilesDavis

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 16, 2022
204
473
I love the glossy wax finish.
Could you get that result by hand?
I don't know...by the time I put wax on a pipe, it's already pretty glossy. The polishing compounds do most of the work, and I don't know if they can be applied by hand with good results.