Show Us Your DIY Restorations!

[T-townrestore]

I found this old beat up pipe at a yard sale for .50 cents!!
I just couldn't believe it, I knew it would clean up real nice. It took a LOT more work than I expected, but I'm pleased with the results..........
BEFORE:
View attachment 138184

After many hours of cleaning, finally!! The AFTER pic!!

View attachment 138185

I'm enjoying the restorations so far, looking forward to finding another soon......

You almost had me

 

[jpmcwjr]

Jes' goes ta show what Elba grease and ingenuity can do!!

 

[orlandofurioso]

I found this old beat up pipe at a yard sale for .50 cents!!
I just couldn't believe it, I knew it would clean up real nice. It took a LOT more work than I expected, but I'm pleased with the results..........
BEFORE:
View attachment 138184

After many hours of cleaning, finally!! The AFTER pic!!

View attachment 138185

I'm enjoying the restorations so far, looking forward to finding another soon......

Yeah I did. This is my first meer pipe I’ve worked on. Let me know if the way I did it was wrong, or damaging to the liner. I’m always learning

By no means, you did a wonderful job. My dedicated topping board serves me well and when an entirely flat rim needs a cosmetical topping I prefer my board ( 600 glass sand paper ) to prevent uneven topping.
When a dust topping is in order I grab for my 1000/4000 nail buffers ; they are flexible and so "follow" the rim
contours, if you understand my meaning. It works miracles and you will never go wrong with them.
I do not have any experience with meer lined pipes, simply because I do not own one. Apart from that, the meer linings sooner or later tend to part from the chamber and come out in bits and pieces. Not really nice.
Sanding out a meer with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel seems a little charged.
I prefer cleaning them out with lukewarm demineralized water and a paper towel .
Sanding is a last resort, but can be done with finest grit wet sanding with glass paper.
Mind us ; better not use acohol .

 

[orlandofurioso]

I found this old beat up pipe at a yard sale for .50 cents!!
I just couldn't believe it, I knew it would clean up real nice. It took a LOT more work than I expected, but I'm pleased with the results..........
BEFORE:
View attachment 138184

After many hours of cleaning, finally!! The AFTER pic!!

View attachment 138185

I'm enjoying the restorations so far, looking forward to finding another soon......

As much as I admire your skills, yet I prefer the "before"version. Looks more authentic to my eye

 

[T-townrestore]

I got this one from Judd’s on eBay. I can get in a lot of trouble in his online store real quick, lol. The stem had a lot of issues, so I decided to just put a acrylic stem on and sanded it down to fit the shank. The shank hole is not centered so sticking out real bad on one side, and briar sticking out past the stem on the other.

 

[msattler]

Wow that looks great! I cannot get my carnauba wax to look like that. What's your secret?

 

[T-townrestore]

Wow that looks great! I cannot get my carnauba wax to look like that. What's your secret?

I sanded it all the way up to 12000 grit, then buff it with white diamond. Which depending on who you ask, is pointless if you sand to that fine of a sandpaper to start. Then I do carnauba wax, fallowed with buffing it with a cotton wheel with nothing on it. I also rub it down with an old t-shirt to finish it up.

I do however, use a higher speed buffer. That what I’ve started with, and it’s been working for me so far. It’s a cheap harbor freight buffer, so if I push to hard by accident instead of damaging the wood the motor bogs down.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Thought you might get a kick out of how far it's possible to go with collectables.

Easier to link to existing photos than upload them here (because of the pic count and size limits):

Massive Ivarsson repair & restoration - pipemakersforum.com

Replacing Missing Wood---Heavily Damaged Patent Dunhill - pipemakersforum.com

George, it must be reiterated how amazing these two repairs are. As @sablebrush52 has said before, these are true restorations; almost everything else in this thread, however well done, are really just nice cleanings of pipes. In a different age, I'd want to apprentice under you. Truly impressive work.

 

[T-townrestore]

Good to know

George, it must be reiterated how amazing these two repairs are. As @sablebrush52 has said before, these are true restorations; almost everything else in this thread, however well done, are really just nice cleanings of pipes. In a different age, I'd want to apprentice under you. Truly impressive work.

His work is very impressive, and I to would love to be an apprentice.

 

[Red Leader]

Circa 1937 Medico bent pot...




After -




Circa 1940 Monarch
(seller's pics)



After:





Early-to-mid 1930s Medico 'real briar' -


After:





I'm not sure about the Monarchs, but the Medicos were extremely cheap pipes back in the day - somewhere around $1, which is around $15-$20 in today's money, yet they smoke fabulous. I broken in the resto on the straight Medico with some 1Q, and its like it was made for this pipe. The partially rusticated bent Medico (documented $1 cost back in late 30s) has a wonderful draw and is probably one of the better balanced (regarding smoking qualities - bowl size, draw, bend, etc) I've come across. I've kept it strictly non-aromatic, and in fact enjoyed some Stokkebye's Morning Blend in it this morning and was simply lovely.

 

[T-townrestore]

Circa 1937 Medico bent pot...

View attachment 142811


After -

View attachment 142812


Circa 1940 Monarch
(seller's pics)
View attachment 142816
View attachment 142817

After:

View attachment 142818
View attachment 142819


Early-to-mid 1930s Medico 'real briar' - View attachment 142836
View attachment 142837

After:

View attachment 142838
View attachment 142839


I'm not sure about the Monarchs, but the Medicos were extremely cheap pipes back in the day - somewhere around $1, which is around $15-$20 in today's money, yet they smoke fabulous. I broken in the resto on the straight Medico with some 1Q, and its like it was made for this pipe. The partially rusticated bent Medico (documented $1 cost back in late 30s) has a wonderful draw and is probably one of the better balanced (regarding smoking qualities - bowl size, draw, bend, etc) I've come across. I've kept it strictly non-aromatic, and in fact enjoyed some Stokkebye's Morning Blend in it this morning and was simply lovely.

I have this coming in the mail today. I hope it turns out a least half as nice as the one you did.

 

[Red Leader]

I have this coming in the mail today. I hope it turns out a least half as nice as the one you did. View attachment 142875

Did you get that one on the 'bay? If so, I think I saw it. Was highly tempted, but not justified on my end without me making use of the bent pot more often first. I read that these partially rusticated ones were from about the 1937-1943 time period. They were cheap pipes back then, but from my sample of one, I'm highly impressed. That one looks like it will clean up really well! Congrats!

 

[T-townrestore]

Did you get that one on the 'bay? If so, I think I saw it. Was highly tempted, but not justified on my end without me making use of the bent pot more often first. I read that these partially rusticated ones were from about the 1937-1943 time period. They were cheap pipes back then, but from my sample of one, I'm highly impressed. That one looks like it will clean up really well! Congrats!

Yep, it came from eBay. I was surprised that no one else bid on it. It’s nice to hear the history about these pipes.
I need to slow down, my pipe shelf is getting packed. I probably need to part ways with some,lol.

 

[T-townrestore]

This is my first Irish Seconds. I know some of the purists might not like what I did to it, but I like it. I really like the big button that is on it.

 

[jpmcwjr]

What? Removing the odd angle on the bowl?

I think it looks great, esp from where you had to start.

 

[Red Leader]

This is my first Irish Seconds. I know some of the purists might not like what I did to it, but I like it. I really like the big button that is on it. View attachment 142896View attachment 142897

That is an incredible transformation. Wow, the briar on that bowl really came alive. I love unique, swirly briar. I also find myself really digging a rounded rim, so much so that I'm tempted to do it to near all my ebay saves.

 

[T-townrestore]

That is an incredible transformation. Wow, the briar on that bowl really came alive. I love unique, swirly briar. I also find myself really digging a rounded rim, so much so that I'm tempted to do it to near all my ebay saves.

Thanks, I like the swirly grain too. That old medico just came in, and it’s smaller than I was imagining. Should still clean up nicely though.

 

[Red Leader]

Thanks, I like the swirly grain too. That old medico just came in, and it’s smaller than I was imagining. Should still clean up nicely though.

Mine was a lot smaller than I was thinking as well. I'm pretty happy about that, as I like smaller, clenchable pipes.

 

[OzPiper]

@T-townrestore and @Red Leader

Really neat work guys ???

Much more impressive than the majority of EBay vendors with their "ready to smoke" offerings.

I suppose the difference is that most of us doing clean-ups are doing it for our personal use.
The vendors are putting in their time and have to factor if they will get a fair return for the effort they put in.

 

[msattler]

I sanded it all the way up to 12000 grit, then buff it with white diamond. Which depending on who you ask, is pointless if you sand to that fine of a sandpaper to start. Then I do carnauba wax, fallowed with buffing it with a cotton wheel with nothing on it. I also rub it down with an old t-shirt to finish it up.

I do however, use a higher speed buffer. That what I’ve started with, and it’s been working for me so far. It’s a cheap harbor freight buffer, so if I push to hard by accident instead of damaging the wood the motor bogs down.

I’ve been using a dewalt and a zip tie. Is it a 4” buffer? I will have to get one next week then. I had not thought about doing micro mesh on the briar… I was just using a 400 grit sandpaper, using denatured alcohol to clean any junk, then staining.