Restoring a pipe for a friend of mine

[lightmyfire]

I just wanted to share a recent restoration I made for a friend of mine, living in Switzerland.

He left me a pipe that he found on a flea market for almost nothing and told me 'You do as you want', in french we say 'tu as carte blanche'.

The pipe is stamped 'Timber' and, based on the stem's condition, it could be an old italian vulcanite stem.
The pipe had a little strike on one side and the stem was overoxidised. The chamber was well coated but I decided to remove the cake, this was the best way to avoid any crossover and moreover there was far enough wood width.

To remove this poor strike, I decided to sandblast it again :

That was the result after stain and clearing :

Galerie: http://estate-pipes-belgium.com//galerie/galerie.php?pipe=0485e1d75ce5bd3cbf4df696525c159107cd02d7

 

[okiescout]

Great job, lightmyfire. The sandblast came out really nice. I love the new stain too.

 

[captainprophesy]

Very nice job... for a second there i thought you were going to do a Dr. Suess stem :P

 

[jkrug]

Very nice...a fresh blast really brought that pipe back to life. Well done. :clap:

 

[mranglophile]

I have never seen a stem oxidized so white before, amazing transformation.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Nor have I.
Extraordinarily nice restoration! Did you have to top the bowl?

 

[papipeguy]

Excellent work. Your friend should be very pleased.

 

[shaintiques]

Very cool, but you have gone and given me yet another reason to by a sandblaster. That will def be my next tool purchase.

 

[lightmyfire]

jpmcwjr > "Extraordinarily nice restoration! Did you have to top the bowl? "

What do you mean by 'to top the bowl'? I just sandblasted the whole stummel, top rims too of course, that only removed maybe 0.3 milimeters (0.012 inches).
shainriques > "Very cool, but you have gone and given me yet another reason to by a sandblaster. That will def be my next tool purchase. " You definitively will love that ! :D

 

[lightmyfire]

mranglophile > "I have never seen a stem oxidized so white before"
Nor have I, believe me !!! :evil:

 

[ericusrex]

Looks better than the original

 

[brudnod]

How the hell does a stem get that oxidized?!? Kryptonite???

 

[okiescout]

I wonder if someone left it in bleach or some other caustic cleaning agent?

 

[nelsongruber]

Very nice work. One question though, how did you paint/stain the stem. I'm fairly new to pipe smoking and I'm pretty good with craftsmanships like this.

 

[jeepnewbie]

That is a beautiful restore to a pipe, Lightmyfire.
I have seen some pretty nasty looking stems when restoring pipes. I use oxyclean and they would come out looking that white.
Nelsongruber, I doubt he stained or painted the stem. The way you usually tackle those is a cleaning agent and a magic eraser, or go with very high grit buffing pads. After you get the oxidation removed you put the stem to a buffing wheel or had buff it with a paste to start bringing the shine back out. There are multiple ways of going about it all though.

 

[danielplainview]

Well done. That's looks fantastic.

 

[mso489]

Beautiful job. Your friend will suspect you've bought him a new and better pipe.

 

[lightmyfire]

You said well Jeepnewbie, at the moment of the photo, (I decided too late to take pictures) I had indeed used an oxypowder that made it became white but before that it was a deep yellow stem. The process is like you explained, buffing with paste and using micropads till 12000.
My friend from Switzerland is very happy with it and I can't wait to see him again because I know he will give me other pipes to bring back to life.