Tooth Hole Repair Options

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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I have a Bari Danish factory pipe, a bent billiard from a long discontinued brand, given me new for Christmas by my late wife's aunt. It's forty years old or more, and the briar and most of the stem look almost new, but I have bored a small hole with my teeth on the underside of the bit. Since I have many pipes, and so far the pipe still smokes well, I doubt I'll do much about it for now. But what are the fixes, short of a new stem, for this sort of tooth damage to the bit end of the stem? The stem is tapered and has a plump design as do the briar bowl and shank. I doubt a replacement would have quite the robust rounded look.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,626
44,846
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
The simplest would be to cover it with a softie bit. You can also fill the hole with black cyanoacrylate, and once that's cured, you can file it down to shape.

The Cyanoacrylate works for small issues like a tooth puncture, as long as you spread the hole a little so that it's bigger on the outside and inside, with a smaller girdle running around the center of the opening such that the contour of the wall does this > < allowing the material to spread above and below. This keeps it from falling out. Cyanoacrylate won't work for larger fixes like restoring a large section of the bite zone and button. Eventually it just comes loose and falls off.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Cyanoacrylate sounds like a relative of cyanide; do you think it has any residual toxicity, or is it a distant enough relation not to? (My wife calls me the safety officer.) Yes, having a replacement stem made is an option, if the repair person could capture the appearance of the original, subtly puffed up, like a fit plump person. It's a classic shape, with a Danish lilt.
 

Kilgore Trout

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 5, 2019
711
5,465
Cyanoacrylate sounds like a relative of cyanide; do you think it has any residual toxicity, or is it a distant enough relation not to? (My wife calls me the safety officer.) Yes, having a replacement stem made is an option, if the repair person could capture the appearance of the original, subtly puffed up, like a fit plump person. It's a classic shape, with a Danish lilt.
You can use JB Weld as well. Just lightly scuff the surface and it will never fall off. JB Weld in insane stuff. My father once shattered the glass coffee pot from his Mr. Coffee drip machine. It broke into several large pieces. Well, being the stubborn, depression era guy that he was there was NO WAY he was going to buy a new one, so he used JB Weld to "glue" it back together. He used that repaired coffee pot for years after. They even claim that, once its cured, it's non toxic.
 
May 2, 2020
4,664
23,771
Louisiana
Cyanoacrylate sounds like a relative of cyanide; do you think it has any residual toxicity, or is it a distant enough relation not to? (My wife calls me the safety officer.) Yes, having a replacement stem made is an option, if the repair person could capture the appearance of the original, subtly puffed up, like a fit plump person. It's a classic shape, with a Danish lilt.
CA is superglue. Its fumes are an irritant, but it’s inert once cured.
 

stokesdale

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 17, 2020
845
2,532
Stokesdale
I have a Bari Danish factory pipe, a bent billiard from a long discontinued brand, given me new for Christmas by my late wife's aunt. It's forty years old or more, and the briar and most of the stem look almost new, but I have bored a small hole with my teeth on the underside of the bit. Since I have many pipes, and so far the pipe still smokes well, I doubt I'll do much about it for now. But what are the fixes, short of a new stem, for this sort of tooth damage to the bit end of the stem? The stem is tapered and has a plump design as do the briar bowl and shank. I doubt a replacement would have quite the robust rounded look.
Remove your tooth.
 

verporchting

Lifer
Dec 30, 2018
2,879
8,933
+1 on Sablebrush’s idea of the softie bit. I did this on a vintage Peterson with a smallish tooth hole thinking it would allow me to smoke it until having a new stem made. Works so well I don’t think I’ll ever bother getting a new stem now. And it’s hard to beat the .49 cents it cost to “fix” it.
 
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gerryp

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 8, 2018
704
2,368
56
Arabi, LA
You can use JB Weld as well. Just lightly scuff the surface and it will never fall off. JB Weld in insane stuff. My father once shattered the glass coffee pot from his Mr. Coffee drip machine. It broke into several large pieces. Well, being the stubborn, depression era guy that he was there was NO WAY he was going to buy a new one, so he used JB Weld to "glue" it back together. He used that repaired coffee pot for years after. They even claim that, once its cured, it's non toxic.

I did something similar yesterday, but with Loctite 30 Minute Epoxy, the 2-part kind that has two plungers.
I spent a good part of the day making a gorgeous polyresin stem. It was just about finished when I, like a moron, tried to put a little more bend on it after it had cooled too much and snapped it like a twig.
After I collected myself, I glued it together with the epoxy. After it was dried and sanded/polished/waxed, you can't tell it was broken.
I made sure to run a pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol through it after the epoxy started to set, just to be sure the airway wasn't blocked.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I think I'll keep the tooth if I can. Otherwise, the softie sounds like a good quick fix, if the hole becomes a distraction, and the replacement stem might work for a longer term repair. The one stem replacement I've had on a briar replaced a rapidly oxidizing Vulcanite with an acrylic stem, on a Thompson Cigar house pipe, and now it looks and smokes like new, although it is stamped "West Germany." When I say rapidly oxidizing, I mean the next smoke after polishing it up to a shine, then back to deeply gritty gray oxidation. Good riddance.
 

verporchting

Lifer
Dec 30, 2018
2,879
8,933
MSO I have a couple Edward’s pipes and one Comoy’s pipe that do that instagreen oxidation thing. Just annoys the shit out of me although the pipes are all fantastic smokers.

Georged has the best term ever for this annoying phenomenon - “Polaroid stems”.

I just learned to live with it as it’s not so bad it affects the flavor or imparts a nasty taste to the stems, it’s just cosmetic.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
verporch', I have some Iwan Ries house pipes by Benton, which were part of Edwards I believe, and their Vulcanite stems don't have the problem. This Thompson house pipe is the worst oxidation I've seen. Some Vulcanite stems need some upkeep, and some don't come completely shiny, but this was a monster, like oxidation hours after polishing back to black. And gray and gritty, really ugly. If there was a competition for rapid oxidation, i believe this pipe was in the running for gold. I love my old Bentons, with the oil cured Algerian briar, and they were an incredible bargain new. Iwan Ries house pipes are now made by Genod and look like high quality, at sixty bucks.
 
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