Where to Go from Here? (Restoration)

[Spywax]

Hi everybody,
Long time lurker. First time poster. I recently found this Kaywoodie Handmade Supergrain at a junky antique store in Tennessee. It was in ok shape so I took it for 9 bucks. It looked like it had been pretty massively over reamed and it was out of round. I sanded it back to make it even around the rim of the chamber ( taking off as little briar as possible, I debated weather to do this at all but alas..) and cleaned up the stem (still not perfect, but I wanted to get to the smoking of the pipe part). Prior to all of this I did a salt / alcohol treatment. There were some gouges in the bowl I'm guessing from the reaming, so I did do a layer of pipe mud (made from cigar ash) in the bottom of the bowl that I let sit and cure for 2 days. This also made the bottom of the bowl a bit more rounded and smoothed out so the draft hole met the bottom cleanly. All and all I thought it came out looking pretty good for my first restoration and figured it had a maybe 50 percent chance of being a good smoker. Well...it smokes TERRIBLY. There's no off taste or anything until getting closer to the bottom of the bowl which I believe is the cigar ash from the pipe mud which would eventually go away, but the overall smoking quality is just bad. It's like all the smoke goes out of the top of the bowl and hardly goes through the pipe to my mouth really. I think I tried a couple bowls of Carter Hall and one of HH Burley Flake. I'm not saying there's no smoke at all, it just doesn't compare to some of the other pipes I have and it's really not enjoyable. Any idea if this is just a break-in thing? Should I keep at it and see how it goes? Was there entirely too much briar removed and this ruined it? As far as the engineering the pipe seems solid, but I'm an armature in this department. Any ideas would be really helpful and greatly appreciated. It felt really good to bring this discarded pipe back to life (hopefully I didn't ruin it) and I was hoping to put it back to work! Thanks everyone. Pics below here. First two are before pictures, the rest are after.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Well, those walls are mighty thin, and still not fully reamed.

If in a while it smokes all right for you, keep at it!

And: Welcome from the Central Coast of California!

 

[didimauw]

You checked the draft hole with a pipe cleaner after applying pipe mud to make sure there's air flow correct?

 

[Spywax]

Well, those walls are mighty thin, and still not fully reamed.

If in a while it smokes all right for you, keep at it!

And: Welcome from the Central Coast of California!

View attachment 167433

Ok, thanks for the reply! It may also be I'm just not used to the way a larger bowl smokes? Most of my pipes have bowls almost half the size as my smoking time is often somewhat limited. Not sure on this though.

 

[Spywax]

You checked the draft hole with a pipe cleaner after applying pipe mud to make sure there's air flow correct?

Yes, I did. Airway seems to be very clean and open. Thanks!

 

[Bob the bear]

You can build up the walls slowly with the pipe mortar from cane rod piper. You could reliably add another 3mm if you needed to. Also you could round the bottom of the bowl into a concave shape if you wished using the same mortar.

 

[snagstangl]

Did you use bristle pipe cleaners on airway in the stem? Stem can have all kinds of crap built up in there. Is the kaywoodie stinger in place as well?

 

[Spywax]

You can build up the walls slowly with the pipe mortar from cane rod piper. You could reliably add another 3mm if you needed to. Also you could round the bottom of the bowl into a concave shape if you wished using the same mortar.

Ok thanks, interesting! I had thought about doing this but wasn't sure adding that amount of thickness would hold.

 

[Bob the bear]

I've got a pipe with a 3mm build up on 1 of the walls. It works fine. No cracks. No separation. You might have to build it up in thin layers, just thin the mixture with water to a consistency similar to milkshake

 

[Spywax]

Did you use bristle pipe cleaners on airway in the stem? Stem can have all kinds of crap built up in there. Is the kaywoodie stinger in place as well?

I did bristle the crap out of it. I think whoever sold it off to begin with had cleaned it at least some, but mostly had done the reaming part. The shank and stem weren't great, but better than my grandfather's pipes! No stinger in this model, it's a push stem. I believe this is dating somewhere in the late 40s and was kind of one of their lower grades at the time?

 

[Spywax]

I've got a pipe with a 3mm build up on 1 of the walls. It works fine. No cracks. No separation. You might have to build it up in thin layers, just thin the mixture with water to a consistency similar to milkshake

Cool! I think I'm doing this.

 

[Spywax]

I've got a pipe with a 3mm build up on 1 of the walls. It works fine. No cracks. No separation. You might have to build it up in thin layers, just thin the mixture with water to a consistency similar to milkshake

Bob, thanks so much for pointing me to this mortar. I've got the first layer in and it's looking really good. It's moving into more of a conical shape bowl the way I worked it, but I think that's ok for now. If it smokes better it will be well worth the time.

 

[Bob the bear]

Bob, thanks so much for pointing me to this mortar. I've got the first layer in and it's looking really good. It's moving into more of a conical shape bowl the way I worked it, but I think that's ok for now. If it smokes better it will be well worth the time.

I'm glad it's working! Let it dry for a few days before using it and be careful with your pipe tool on the first couple of smokes. After that it should be very hard. You can always touch up any pieces that chip off.

 

[Spywax]

I'm glad it's working! Let it dry for a few days before using it and be careful with your pipe tool on the first couple of smokes. After that it should be very hard. You can always touch up any pieces that chip off.

Sounds good, will do! I'll report back for record of experimentation

 

[Spywax]

I'm glad it's working! Let it dry for a few days before using it and be careful with your pipe tool on the first couple of smokes. After that it should be very hard. You can always touch up any pieces that chip off.

I can't believe it, but this pipe now smokes beautifully! Great draw, great smoke, stays cool, no gurgling.Thanks again, Bob. Here are some photos after a couple bowls smoked through it. It still needs some clean-up now on the rim and so forth, but seriously this fixed it and it smokes amazingly well. Night and day difference. The now conical chamber is I believe pretty unorthodox for this pipe shape and it's by no means perfect but I'm going to just go with it for now and let the mortar absorb all the oils from the tobacco. I think it can only get better from here. Rewarding to bring it back from the dead.

 

[Trainpipeman]

Good job bringing the pipe back from the dead! It is nice to hear that it is smoking well, now, after your labors.

 

[Spywax]

Good job bringing the pipe back from the dead! It is nice to hear that it is smoking well, now, after your labors.

Thank you, Train. Yes, that was the heartbreaking thing when I first smoked it after working on it pretty hard and it was awful. I was like "ok, now what...leave it in a pipe stand and look at it!!??"

 

[Trainpipeman]

Thank you, Train. Yes, that was the heartbreaking thing when I first smoked it after working on it pretty hard and it was awful. I was like "ok, now what...leave it in a pipe stand and look at it!!??"

Definitely a good thing that you can make use of it. Now, will you be pirchasing other pipes to refurbish?

 

[Bob the bear]

I can't believe it, but this pipe now smokes beautifully! Great draw, great smoke, stays cool, no gurgling.Thanks again, Bob. Here are some photos after a couple bowls smoked through it. It still needs some clean-up now on the rim and so forth, but seriously this fixed it and it smokes amazingly well. Night and day difference. The now conical chamber is I believe pretty unorthodox for this pipe shape and it's by no means perfect but I'm going to just go with it for now and let the mortar absorb all the oils from the tobacco. I think it can only get better from here. Rewarding to bring it back from the dead.

Fantastic. I'm so glad it for you as well. It has brought 2 pipes back from the dead for me

 

[Spywax]

Definitely a good thing that you can make use of it. Now, will you be pirchasing other pipes to refurbish?

If I come across any in the wild that I like I definitely will, but I'm not much into hunting for estates online. Right now there seem to be a pretty good amount of reputable artisan pipe makers that are making beautiful pipes for a fair price, so right NOW I would probably lean more in that direction for the pipe budget as I build my collection. But I really enjoyed the process on this one and it makes the pipe just a bit more special. It will also remind me of the trip I took to Tennessee with friends where I picked it up.