Scratched bowl

[darryl]

One of my pipes has some bad scratches on the bowl. Should I sand off the varnish or just leave it?

 

[nsfisher]

I guess it depends on your preference. To me scratches don't matter but if it is real bad, then I give the pipe a "Natural Look", via the stripping process.

 

[darryl]

There are some reasonably deep grooves, which occurred some time during my up to 20 years of not smoking a pipe. I really have no idea how this happened, but I suspect I might have foolishly left it loose in a drawer at some stage.
This was my father's pipe, so I do want to do what is best for it.

 

[damnyak]

Could you make a beeswax and oil blend and blend it I. With the rest of the pipe. Kind of hide it?

 

[papipeguy]

If it does not affect the smoking quality then I would not worry about it. I have some bowls with scratches. Gives them some character in my opinion.If they are very deep then sanding could throw off the symmetry of the bowl. One other alternative is to get one of the artists here to rusticate the bowl for you if you don't want to try it yourself.

 

[clyde]

Again, it depends on the severity of the scratches. If you continue smoking the pipe you may find that between your hand oils and residue from packing, tamping, wiping down the bowl and etc. the scratches will just gradually blend in with the grain. Smoked long enough the entire pipe will generally darken an appreciable amount. A complete refurbishing of the bowl that really looks good takes quite a lot of experience in such matters.

 

[rigmedic1]

Those scratches give it character, my friend. If you want something nice to wear with your tux, buy a dress pipe, lol. If it smokes well, don't worry about it. That's my take on it, since some of my favorite smokers are basket pipes: scratches, fills and all.

 

[ohin3]

I say leave 'er be. Probably wouldn't be hard to get the scratches out depending on how deep they are, but there is always the chance that you might over sand and, like papipeguy mentioned, alter the shape of the pipe. And you are also changing the appearance of a pipe that was your father's pipe just by removing the finish. I agree that the scratches add character and hold memories and I, personally, would leave them.

 

[darryl]

Thank you for the advice, everyone.
I have hardly ever smoked it, so smoking it a bit more would probably help.
I am very wary of sanding pipes. For reasons I cannot recall, I decided to sand the varnish off my brand new Dr Plumb 5031 (?) around 27 years ago to make it look more natural. (OK, I was young and I was even sillier than I am now.) In doing so, I ruined the finish and obliterated the markings, so I can't be certain whether it even is a 5031 and not a 5081. But it has slowly darkened again over the years and it is probably now my favourite pipe.
But back to my Dad's Criterion 164 with the scratched bowl, while I might try the beeswax, I don't want to do anything that would ruin the character. My Dad has been dead for 18 years now. I had his Zippo, and it got stolen; and I had his watch, but it went missing while getting repaired; so to have his pipe is quite special.

 

[darryl]

P.S. - I can only ever remember seeing my Dad smoking a pipe once, as he had swtiched to cigarettes long before I was born. But my Mum told me a couple of days ago that he smoked a pipe when he was in the army during World War II. So that makes it even more special.

 

[darryl]

One more thing. I had rarely smoked it in the past, but I smoked it today. I had forgotten what a beautiful pipe to smoke it was. It is my new favourite.

 

[photoman13]

If you want it fully restored you could send it off to walker briar works. They do a really good job.

 

[darryl]

Thanks for the tip, but given I am overseas, I won't risk shipping it away.
And I have found that after smoking it a couple of times, the scratches don't seem nearly so bad.