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

[Wesley pipes]

For th

You are much more persistent than I, tenacious even. I have nothing against rescuing a scraggly old pipe, but I must admit I would’ve baulked at saving this one, especially after seeing such extensive cracks apart from the obviously colossal cake.

The ring looks nice and the stem fits nicely. I’d wager the pipe hardly looked better even when new. Did you do something to stabilize the neck crack? I’ve seen something like JB Weld used for such purposes. Anyway, great work! I look forward to seeing you tackle them all.

there is a chance I will put a second ring on the shank closer to the bowl if i feel those cracks will continue to grow.

 

[Alanon]

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.View attachment 437702

Ah, I see now, but I really have to squint to see that fine line going between them.

What is CVS glue exactly? Is it a brand of Elmer’s glue? That’s most of the results I get when googling.

 

[Wesley pipes]

It’s a cvs pharmacy brand of superglue I use, nothing special, just an extra thick superglue made specifically for wood. There are lots of different brands that make it. I usually mix it with ash or briar dust I collect from sanding.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Now for that kaywoodie. Let me start by saying “ I Was so sure That was a screw in stem“ something I was probably going to have to splice, or maybe sink the stinger in a new stem. I can do both of those but as I mostly use hand tools and would be using a standard drill for that… it would have been a pain in the a** and I would prefer doing something like that on a much nicer pipe that I plan to keep. turns out the stem was just stuck in place, after about 10min in the freezer i got it out! I think that weird stain on the shank was part of the problem. Anyway I got a new vulcanite stem to replace that old plastic one, just need to do a bit of shaping. I think it will look better with a longer stem. Besides a bit of cake and pocket fuzz the bowl should clean up easy.

 

[Wesley pipes]

It’s a cvs pharmacy brand of superglue I use, nothing special, just an extra thick superglue made specifically for wood. There are lots of different brands that make it. I usually mix it with ash or briar dust I collect from sanding.

Who’s that in the picture for your Avatar? Is that you? That’s a pretty sweet mustache!

 

[Alanon]

Who’s that in the picture for your Avatar? Is that you? That’s a pretty sweet mustache!

Hahahah, I wish! This is a 19th century poet/translator, at one point I edited a book of one of his works and found this image of him from an old photo exhibit. He has some of the best whiskers I’ve ever seen, so I’ve been using that picture ever since.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Well sorry to disappoint, but that handsome old prick is me, I’m old, just turned 68 but I feel 40 and handle like im a 30. There is a series’s of pictures my daughter did about 3 years ago, of me as being an old fu** smoking a pipe. she thinks they look better in black and white cuz of my beard.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Alanon. I was kinda hopping for your opinion on this, copper ring or not? I had to put the black one on to make the stem look better With being uneven and all, and was a bit smaller than expected but the copper ring might make it look a little silly. What’s your thoughts?

 

[Wesley pipes]

Hahahah, I wish! This is a 19th century poet/translator, at one point I edited a book of one of his works and found this image of him from an old photo exhibit. He has some of the best whiskers I’ve ever seen, so I’ve been using that picture ever since.

Also look at this! It’s a meerschaum lined bowl. I don’t really care for them but still kinda cool. This pipe keeps giving surprise.

 

[Wesley pipes]

 

[georged]

it took almost 45min of constant work to get that cake chipped out!

 

[Alanon]

Alanon. I was kinda hopping for your opinion on this, copper ring or not? I had to put the black one on to make the stem look better With being uneven and all, and was a bit smaller than expected but the copper ring might make it look a little silly. What’s your thoughts?View attachment 438171View attachment 438172View attachment 438173View attachment 438174

Hmm, well my vote goes for just the black ring. It looks more "factory" that way. The shiny brass really calls attention to itself and then you can see somtething is going on there.

Also look at this! It’s a meerschaum lined bowl. I don’t really care for them but still kinda cool. This pipe keeps giving surprise.

Hopefully the liner is intact? I've had bad luck with those inserts, they're just so sensitive they end up cracking or straight up crumbling no matter how gentle I am. Though that much cake might've protected the meerschaum?

 

[Wesley pipes]

You are definitely right about the “Ring situation“ just looks better. the meerschaum bowl is completely in tact, no soft spots or cracks I can see.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Here we go.

 

[Wesley pipes]

Now for this pipe. I have bin avoiding it for an obvious reason, Looks kinda sketchy, it’s a mastercraft meerschaum lined. Like Alanon said “there just too sensitive“ just by looking at it, I’d say that lining is doomed, I’m gonna try to “gently ream it” maybe leave a layer of carbon if necessary. The edges of the bowl will need work no question. let’s see what we can do.

 

[Wesley pipes]

The stem also has problems, looks like someone tried to reshape it. This is a cheap plastic stem so I’ll replace it. Anyone have experience with meerschaum lined pipe bowls after the lining is gone? Is it worth it? Can it be repaired? can it smoke good again?going to try to save it.

 

[Alanon]

The stem also has problems, looks like someone tried to reshape it. This is a cheap plastic stem so I’ll replace it. Anyone have experience with meerschaum lined pipe bowls after the lining is gone? Is it worth it? Can it be repaired? can it smoke good again?View attachment 438382View attachment 438383View attachment 438384going to try to save it.

Gotta say I would try not to remove all the meer. I have some old meer pipes that I don’t ream and they smoke just fine with reasonable cake.

Whenever I had meer lined pipes and an entire liner fell out, the walls of the briar were usually too thin to salvage. I’ve even seen pipes where inferior briarwood was used and it was lined with meerschaum to make the pipe smokeable – another reason why I don’t trust these liners.

Now, if it falls out or crumbles on its own, there’s pipe mud but I’ve never seen pipe mud made that thick as it would need to be. I know Steve from rebornpipes used JBWeld or something to coat an entire briar bowl that was badly cracked but I’m not sure about the thickness there.

If you crack or chip a small piece of meer but the majority remains sound, that can be repaired with pipe mud. There is a risk the cake and meer will expand and contract with different speeds and over time that will crack the meer further, but that’s still better than nothing.

Just my two cents...

 

[Wesley pipes]

Well it took a bit of patience and a lot of carving Layer after layer of that cake buildup out with a very sharp pocketknife. After that I sanded the chipped edges of the rim down on the meerschaum lining, then some extra fine sandpaper around the inside of the bowl. Other than a few gouges inside close to the bottom the meerschaum was mostly intact. It actually seems like that massive cake protected it. As you can see there is a very thin layer of carbon left, I decided to leave it like that, maybe that well aged layer will continue to preserve that lining.

 

[Wesley pipes]

here She is! The stem will need to be shaped just a little. I added that copper ring to help taper it a bit more. Just like the rest of the “eBay special lot” after I finish the rough restoration on all of them, I’ll go into more detail work.

 

[Wesley pipes]

This is were we are so far.