This Poor Pipe Needs Some Love

[redbeard]

As some may know my collection is what was left to me by my dad when he passed and this is one of them. I recently cleaned up the steam and gave it a few alcohol and salt treatments. It has a severely burned rim but can be fixed. Seems like there is some pipe mud on the bottom of the bowl, uneven, not very pretty but should be fine to smoke, you think?
I could not find much on this pipe, Markings read "BRISTOL De Luxe Made In France" I can find pipe brands close to this but nothing exact. My intentions with this one is to give it a rusticated look but not your typical design of rustication. Im not sure if it will work but will try!! Will do some research on what tools give what kind of look. I have seen some styles that look like they were done with a knife and some obviously a rotary tool.
I will give updates on my attempts and hopefully achievement of my vision :D

 

[uberam3rica]

That thing really needs some TLC. Good luck with the restoration!

 

[piperl12]

I have all my Dad's old pipes, I touch none of them. Smoke the same tobacco he did in them and can't imagine sanding all that character out. If you want a new pipe, buy a new pipe. I would leave your Dads pipe the way it is. HE made those marks and that pipe earned it's scratches! Good to see you are going to smoke it!

 

[redbeard]

Uber: Thanks! Its so beat up I can only make it better
Roth: Your analogy does the trick! only thing that i am unsure of about the wood would be in a few spots it looked like once i got into the wood a few white looking spots appeared. You can kind of see them in the pics bellow.
Piper: I totally agree with you there, in my case thats not a problem because my dad collected but didn't smoke them. IF he put those marks in them it was because it accidentally fell from the shelf LOL!

 

[lordofthepiperings]

I guess that's the definition of a beater pipe. Good luck with the restoration. Can't wait to see the pics.

 

[redbeard]

Throw my "original looking" design out the window :rofl: For my first try i will stick with something more classic.
So I tried my hand using a few different tools (pocket knife, dremmel) and rusticating this old beat up pipe. All I need to do now is put a nice deep dark stain (I like darkly stained woods) on it and it will be 90% better than it was before!! I say 90% because there is still a few dings that I may just leave.
I am unsure of what kind of stain I will go with.... Will a home made coffee stain work on a pipe without adding too much moisture or should i just go with the alchohol based stain that I have read works well?
(I do my best with my girlfriends good camera... too many buttons and dials for me :

 

[redbeard]

I dont know... I kind of like the half rusticated half smooth pipes as well as leave some of its old character. In my head, I think with a dark dark stain it might look good with the contrast.
As I was doing it I told myself a few times to just do it all but I have some time till I get any stain so I will let it sit and I will think about it off and on.

 

[cynyr]

A partially rusticated pipe looks more artisan to my eyes. Redbeard, your rustication job looks great - not too craggy and "machined". It's all a matter of taste, of course, but you're definitely on the right track!

 

[tokerpipes]

I am partial to patchy rusticated pipes also.

 

[redbeard]

Thanks guys, as you see in the second pic, there are a few more spots with dings in the wood so I need to extend it a but more. It will all pull together with a stain, it will make the rides in the rustication POP.... Hopefully

 

[redbeard]

Ok so I was looking at it and figured I should get rid of al the spots that were messed up so now I THINK it is done till a sand, stain, and deep clean. It has a major ghost in it that my hands smell every time I pick the thing up! So let me know what you think... this is my first rustication attempt and I used a pocket knife with sharp teeth near the end of the blade to get deep in the wood, a small sharp screwdriver to use as a small chisel, and a dremel using a few different tools to get different sized ridges. When I stain it I assume the small scratches will become hidden so keep in mind it needs color ::

 

[tokerpipes]

Just let your natural hand oils do the coloring. It's really interesting to see the contrast of the dark and light.

 

[jah76]

Red. Good on you for trying something new.
I like the edge of the rustication, it frames it nicely.

 

[hodirty]

I like the rustication on that. Kudos

 

[redbeard]

Ok so I can not sleep (what else is new) so I thought I would put up a pic of the first coat of what I chose to stain it with. I read up and saw that olive oil could be used to darken up your wood so I used that idea and ran.
My girlfriend likes to experiment with baking and food and her grandpa LOVES hot foods. So she thought she would try and make a hot olive oil by adding some red pepper flakes to the oil and it has been sitting for at least a year now. I think you can tell what they did to the color and I cant wait to see how it looks after a few more coats. I read somewhere that a coat a week for about three weeks will dramatically change the bare wood using regular olive oil so I may do two.... time will tell. I am just too impatient to not update on the progress!!

 

[cynyr]

I'm glad I kept an eye on this- it's coming along very nicely. I like the border idea, it looks classy. I'd say you're learning a lot from this experiment!

 

[redbeard]

Thanks cynyr, I honestly didn't mean to do that but once It happened I figured...o well, looks kinda cool...lol
The rim of the bowl is severely bunted so I will need to sand it down but not sure if I will stain it or leave it natural wood just yet.

 

[redbeard]

Thank you for all of the feedback and compliments, this has been a huge learning experience for me and much more fun!! I lightly sanded the rim to get rid of those nasty burn stains and it lightened it up A LOT! It will darken over time with my own scorch marks and if I apply any more of that oil on it!
So here it is, needs a good retort and its good to go! I had just enough to do two cycles with the retort and it was still coming out dark yellow.

 

[briarben]

wow very nice looks like you turned a beater into a work of art.

 

[redbeard]

Briarben: well thank you very much! I feel like I put new life into this thing
Roth: I did not put three, I put one early yesterday and let it dry completely and then today when I sanded down the rim of the bowl to rid it of scorch marks I put a little tiny bit on it and then rubbed the extra on a few light areas I missed the day before.
With the olive oil a little goes a very long way, I read that if applied once a week it will darken up the wood over time. I did not saturate it in oil so I'm not worried about too much moisture or capsaicin lol, although that would be very unfortunate!!