Restoring Peterson 317 Rusticated

[sladeburns]

I have been working on restoring Peterson 317 I bought for flakes. It was pretty beat up and a lot worse than the auction picture showed. I used 400 grit to knock out the oxidation and worked my way up the micro mesh pads from 1500-12000. The stem and collar turned out really nice. I am less happy with the bowl. I cleaned it up a bit and shined it with a few coats of Halycon 2 but it just looks sad in comparison to how pretty the rest turned out.
I would love to have suggestions about how to pretty up this rusticated bowl.
BTW - I ordered some Halycon 2 from Finepipes and they accidentally shipped Paragon. When notified of the mistake, they offered to either send a prepaid envelope or I could keep it for 1/2 price. Good customer service.

 

[sallow]

I don't have a suggestion for the bowl aside from a toothbrush and a tiny bit of Murphy's oil soap, but that looks like a comfortable pipe. The 317 is the small one, yes?

 

[gmwolford]

A brass bristle brush (not too vigor soy used) with some diluted Murphy's oil soap or just some saliva and a cotton cloth takes off a lot of crud. If it's real "thick" you can use a little isopropyl alcohol, too, but it can lighten/remove stain so be careful, depending on how you want it to look, that could give a nice contrast on the rustication.

 

[sladeburns]

I'll give the Murphy's a shot. The color is not consistent on the bowl. There is a big enough patch of faded brown to bug me. If I can't get it more consistent with cleaning, I may consider black wood dye.
The 317 is pretty small but I think it'll work well for some of the stronger tobaccos and/or shorter smokes.

 

[pruss]

Hi there, I hope you're having fun with your resto.

If I can't get it more consistent with cleaning, I may consider black wood dye.

I'd encourage you to consider using an aniline based leather dye for staining. These dyes are alcohol based and have high evaporative properties leaving the pigment behind but without the kinds of chemical nastiness which can be found in wood stains.
I can't recommend Steve Laug's blog site, rebornpipes, as one of the best online resources for the home pipe restorer. Take a gander here: http://rebornpipes.com/tag/staining/
Good luck, and post the after pics!
-- Pat

 

[sladeburns]

Thanks for the advice! Cleaning it didn't pan out. It was still too faded in areas.
I misspoke about the stain, I actually mean to use the Fiebing leather dyes and love the reborn pipes website. It's what I hope to be when I grow up.
I have decided to really have fun with this one and go for a yellow/black honeybee theme. I'm going to start another thread tonight to try to get more specific advice on how to do 2 tone dying of a rusticated pipe. If it doesn't work, I can always go back to straight black.