To restore or not to restore… that is the question.

[Wesley pipes]

Now for that Kaywoodie white briar. This pipe also Had a lot of cake but came out a little easier than the first pipe for some reason. Don’t get me wrong now! If you have ever tried to remove a cake like this one, it’s harder than the wood, and is “baked on” like scraping a well used baking pan with no soap or water! and trying not to scratch it! It’s hard to explain. The stem is in pretty good condition so I’ll keep it intact. The major problem this pipe had however… besides being very dirty is the stem doesn’t line up. I have no definite idea why or how this happens, but I see it a lot with screw in stems and I mean a lot! I either sand down one end, add a washer, or I use heat. In this case I used a torch on the stinger of the pipe until hot and gently twist it to the correct position, put it in the freezer to cool worked like a charm. my Initial plan was to buff these pipes out as I restore them but I moved recently and my buffing wheel and extra fine grit sandpaper are still packed away, so I’ll either finish them all at the end as a before and after picture. Or when/If I find my equipment post an update, let’s see what happens!

 

[Wesley pipes]

some of the best pipes I own looked like these when I got them

 

[Wesley pipes]

Now to tackle these three! 2 Grabow crown dukes and one Medico. Same problem with excessive caking and generally unkempt.

 

[Wesley pipes]

After reaming the bowls the damage to the medico showed to be very extensive. After some contemplating I decided to cut the bowl down and make a bent stem pipe out of it, as you can see there is still a missing chunk I have to deal with, gonna use some pipe mud to fill it in a bit. Due to the new shape of this pipe it should build cake in that spot fast.

 

[Wesley pipes]

If any of you buy and sell used pipes, having a pipe stem collection is a must.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Just reamed the dukes!

 

[Wesley pipes]

I fitted them with new stems and used a very fine sandpaper to get all the rough edges off.

 

[Wesley pipes]

This is what we have so far from this set. After I finish them all, I’ll buff them out a bit more and polish them and do a before and after picture.

 

[Alanon]

Man I am loving this! It’s like a nice series, I wake up and there’s a fresh instalment waiting for me to look at and relax with some coffee.

I really like what you did re-profiling the rim on that Crown Duke. Do you plan to do any more bodywork on it? I remember whenever I did that on some of my basket finds I would have the most trouble trying to get that chamfered edge looking just right for a pipe.

Also do you plan on flattening the rim on that pipe with the gold-coloured band?

As always, keep up the great work!

 

[Wesley pipes]

Hey! Thank you man! So glad you’re enjoying this project with me. To be honest I have done a lot of “trying to fix tobacco pipes“ over the years and this is the First time I’ve even taken pictures, I usually do it while I’m smoking… kinda meditative. To answer your questions yes Actually I do plan to make that bent stem pipe a bit more even and tapered around the edge of the bowl, now as for that pipe with the uneven rim, i still haven’t decided how much I’m going to take off, I might try to shape it a bit, both grabows have that uneven rim from what I assume is very aggressive tapping On hard surface. Almost all these pipes have that to some degree.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Man I am loving this! It’s like a nice series, I wake up and there’s a fresh instalment waiting for me to look at and relax with some coffee.

I really like what you did re-profiling the rim on that Crown Duke. Do you plan to do any more bodywork on it? I remember whenever I did that on some of my basket finds I would have the most trouble trying to get that chamfered edge looking just right for a pipe.

Also do you plan on flattening the rim on that pipe with the gold-coloured band?

As always, keep up the great work!

At first I’m thinking get all the pipes in this set new stems if needed and a rough cleaning and then go into more detail after I get them in smokable condition. I'm Hopefully going to do one or two post Everyday until this project is finished. thank you for checking it out Alanon!

 

[ziv]

Sounds like the answer is "to restore".

 

[Alanon]

Hey! Thank you man! So glad you’re enjoying this project with me. To be honest I have done a lot of “trying to fix tobacco pipes“ over the years and this is the First time I’ve even taken pictures, I usually do it while I’m smoking… kinda meditative. To answer your questions yes Actually I do plan to make that bent stem pipe a bit more even and tapered around the edge of the bowl, now as for that pipe with the uneven rim, i still haven’t decided how much I’m going to take off, I might try to shape it a bit, both grabows have that uneven rim from what I assume is very aggressive tapping On hard surface. Almost all these pipes have that to some degree.

I know what you mean, when I do these things I always forget to take enough pics, esp. the before ones. Then when I try to explain to someone what I did I never have a good picture to point them to.

Here’s an idea what you might do with an particularly uneven rim - this is an old and shabby picture but a situation very similar to yours, with a section of the rim that was just pummeled to oblivion and much lower than the rest. I didn’t want to flatten the rim for a crisp edge like it originally had because that would remove too much material.

So I first sanded that damaged collapsed section of the rim, sort of cleaning it up, rounding it off and making it neater. Then I tried to figure out the curve of that section and create a new, lower edge, that would go all along, to create a matching line all along the bowl rim. So I ended up creating a sort of domed edge that fit nicely with the pipe.

Here’s the end result, again sorry for the poor image:

 

[Wesley pipes]

lets see about these 2. A yellow bowl “tweed” and an Italian Brewster. Both have stem issues. The yellow bowls stem is all chewed up and no longer lines up to the bowl to say the least, so I’m gonna replace that. If I dont have a replacement that fits then I’ll have to set the stinger in a new stem. The Brewsters stem also does not line up and I assume it was in Someones back pocket and got sat on, so it’s also bent and is loose… even when screwed tight there is a lot of space between the stem and the bowl, also a small crack in the shank. Not as much cake as the last few so thank god for that.
lets see what we can do!

 

[Wesley pipes]

first I’m going to tightly wrap scotch tape around the shank to prevent the crack from getting any bigger. then I’m gonna wrap the bowl in a towel, gently put it in a “bench vice” and give it a couple “love taps” with a hammer. Wish me luck.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Now I’m going to put some ash and superglue in that crack and the holes I drilled to stop the crack from spreading. As you can see it did get a little bigger. It’s going to leave a permanent scar on the briar, but after it’s all finished I think it will still look good. I used a pencil to point out the spot.

 

[Wesley pipes]

This is what we got so far with the Brewster. I used the torch to get the stem hot, then slowly twisted and worked it back and forth until it lined up. Hoping to get to that yellow bowl tomorrow.

 

[Alanon]

Maybe a silly question - why did you drill two holes?
As always terrific work!

 

[Wesley pipes]

Maybe a silly question - why did you drill two holes?
As always terrific work!

That was a mistake. If you look close, the first hole closer to the stem was not at the end of the crack. Probably would have bin good enough, but I want that fix to be as sold as possible, so it’s going to have an extra fill spot. my plan is to try to fill and blend that spot in until you can hardly see it. Also cvs glue is stronger than the wood so I figure it will help with the bond. It will look better in the end.

 

[Wesley pipes]

I have had really good luck using low viscosity cvs glue, briar dust and or ashes mixed together for small cracks. As long as it’s not around the part of the pipe that gets really hot, cuz thats a different process.