An Unknown Make Aluminum Pipe Restoration

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I think my fascination with metal pipes began with Falcons. I always thought they looked cool. As a kid, I remember the next door neighbor, Joe Chase, always smoking a pipe while working on his yard and they were frequently Falcons or Vikings (my memory isn’t too specific). Later in life I tried the Falcon and appreciated the convenience of bowl swapping and easy cleaning. Even later, I started dabbling with restorations and researching the history of various pipes and their makers. This led me to http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/ when it was run by Tony Pringle. Tony proved to be very helpful in response to my questions via email. Doug Bisbe has taken the reins of the smokingmetal site, with Tony’s retirement from the arena, and is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful in providing information about metal pipes. As for this alluring aluminum darling, it came to me as part of a “grab bag” I asked Steve Laug to assemble for me consisting of metal pipes. I wanted to try improving my skills and techniques working on metal. Steve and his brother, Jeff, enabled this with a fun bunch of metal artifacts, this unmarked specimen included. When the unmarked pipe arrived it was photographed and appeared as below.

Background

How the heck do you research an unmarked metal pipe? Well, fortunately there is a site for that. Unfortunately, it does require you to do a lot of clicking and comparing. The site is http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/index.html. That is where I started. Now, I admit to having spent a good deal of time here on previous occasions so, I could narrow down the list of things to click. They also have a header with categories to help you find or narrow things down.

(http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/index.html)

I was searching for a metal pipe with a screw through the bowl. So I began clicking on pipes which met those criteria. This led me to the following:

“unknown – MST – 20” Now, you may think the MST is short for Mystery but no. Metal Stem Through is far more likely. The text for this page is as follows as are the three images:

“Plastic bit, bowl that appears to be Bryson, certainly compatible. No markings

Two seen with DANCO boxes, needs further checking though

Overall length 5 inches ( 127 m/m )”

(http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=212)

The above images match the pipe in hand exactly except for the texturing on the bowl. Okay, I had a match. The important part for me in terms of restoration was that I could see how the pipe would be assembled and disassembled. The stem was press fit, the end cap was threaded, the bowl was one piece with the screw and base attached to the wood bowl. This entry also contained a bit about Bryson.

I returned to the A_Z contest index and found the Bryson entry. There, the site listed the Following (highlighting added by me),

“Made by the Briarwood Corporation, Palo Alto, California, the BRYSON has number D120275 under the Bryson name on the pipe stem.

There is a crosshead screw to attach the briar bowl to the stem. The end cap attaches to the mouthpiece by means of a rod through the length of the pipe, in which the air hole is close to the mouth piece.

The stem is of polished duraluminum and hexagonal in cross section

The bowls are unusual in that they are not briar turned on a lathe, but briar wood, ground to a powder and compressed under very high pressure (no glue, heat or plastics are used, just pressure. It is claimed this produces a perfect bowl of aged briar every time with increased porosity. The varnished finish on the smooth bowl however is often very badly crazed. Two bowls, one smoth and one rusticated, were supplied with the new pipe. The bowl retaining screw is ‘locked’ onto the bowl by a gasket and metal collar, enabling rapid replacement of the bowls without the need of a screwdriver

The corn cob bowl, in centre image,is another version, not sure if this was manfactured by Bryson, or a home workshop job

The set here shown was available for $3.50 new, but in what year ? Adverts seen from 1946 magazine

The lower photograph was of a possible derivative on ebay in 2003, although US patent D122042 seems to be this pipe, invented by Max Bressler, Chicago Ill 1940

There are also other derivatives without the Bryson name stamped in the metal and variations on the shape and grooving of the stem

That with Pat Pend under the Bryson name has no grooves forward of the bowl and the front end cap is a larger thread than the other models, including my version with no name 30 April 1940 US patent # D120,275 Inventor Charles Rothman, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, assignor Briarwood Corp, also of Cleveland Ohio at that time”

(http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=57).

Well, that explains what I saw completely and adds credence to the provenance of this pipe. Later in the restoration you will see photos of the bowl and can easily make out the particle board looking texture to the bowl due to its composition of pressed briar dust. I believe this pipe to be made by Bryson or an affiliate during World War Two. The style and composition of the briar bowl are in-line with the above description.

The Restoration

The restoration began as with most others, a clean denim piece to protect the work surface. At this point I would like to quote the smokingmetal.co.eu site with a warning regarding working on old metal pipes.

“A word of warning If you are thinking of buying online, be very very careful. Best policy with ‘metals’ is to see an image of the dismantled pipe. Buying otherwise unless desperate for an example can too often result in you ending up with a pipe that may be damaged when you try to dismantle and clean it. Mind you, you may learn how to repair them, but parts are of course getting rarer than hens teeth” (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/news.php)

It was at this point that I started to dismantle the Unknown Metal pipe. The stem came loose fairly easily but that is where my progress stopped. I needed to know how this pipe was assembled before I tried to disassemble it. I went upstairs to the computer and started looking through the long list of metal pipe with screw through bowls. I looked through 64 individual pipes before I found the match. The photos showed that the end cap was threaded and that the screw in the bowl was part of the bowl and not just a screw holding the bowl to the aluminum tube.

With that knowledge my plan of attack was fine tuned. I would first ream and clean out the tobacco chamber. This would allow me better access to the screw at the bottom of the chamber. The reaming kit was gathered.

The bowl was rather large in diameter and it accommodate the largest, #4 blade for the PipNet. This pipe had been smoked fairly heavily based upon the amount of cake removed.

It was at this point I realized that something was very different about the “briar” of this bowl. I had not read about the Bryson pressed briar dust bowl at this point. I stopped researching when I found the matching pipe and determined how to disassemble it. The material reminded me of a Medico made Brylon pipe.

Undeterred, I started cleaning out the screw head slots. I scraped with a dental scraper and moistened the screw with 95% ethyl alcohol.

I retrieved my gunsmithing screwdriver bit set. I knew that I wanted a better quality screwdriver as I could tell this screw had been forced and looked slightly damaged.

I chose a flat tipped Phillips head bit of appropriate size. I thought this would allow a better grip on the screw and not force the bit upwards with increased pressure.

I soaked the screw with ethyl alcohol from the bowl as well as around the base of the bowl. With slow even pressure the screw relented. And the entire bowl was removed. The bottom of the bowl was quite corroded and this oxidation was the likely cause for the screw being so tightly stuck.

Below is the corroded base of the bowl with only a light brushing with a brass brush.

Below is the base after a thorough brushing with a brass brush and scrubbing with ethanol soaked cotton swabs.

It was time to visit the sink for the scrubbing. The bowl was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The Soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

The aluminum tube (tube from here on out) was scrubbed with a Scotchbrite pad and Castile liquid soap on the outside and with a nylon shank brush inside. The tube was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench, the hope was that the soap, water and heat from the scrubbing would soften and get the endcap to loosen slightly. It didn’t. I used a thick piece of leather to protect the end cap from the jaws of the channel lock pliers.

The stem was cleaned out with bristles pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol.

I took the tube to the buffer to buff and polish the aluminum. While there I spent a little time on the plastic stem and inner tube.

Upon returning to the workbench the bowl had completely dried and I got a good look at the briar. Again, I emphasize that I had not researched the pipe beyond the initial “Unknown – MST – 20” (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=212) page. I could immediately tell that this was not typical briar. I ran upstairs for some further research.

This is when I came across the research material concerning the Brylon pressed briar bowl materia. Everything clicked in my mind. I knew that from here out I would be very judicious with any kind of solvents. I was unsure how or if they would react with the pressed briar of the bowl. Everything had seemed okay with the soap and scrubbing and with using the ethanol attempting to loosen the screw but I would be more cautious going forward.

Again returning to the workbench, the tube polished up beautifully and the stem looked far better but I was not completely happy with it.

Before I could re-dye the bowl I wanted to repair the two cracks at the bottom of the bowl. I figured that brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) would be the best course of action. The next two photos show crack one and crack 2 on opposite sides of the bowl.

I planned to use the brown CA applied with a fly tying bodkin and work the CA down into the crack.

Below you can see the CA filled crack.

The CA was allowed to cure and was then filed with a small flat file.

On the opposite side the curvature of the cracked area required sanding.

Next came a light topping of the bowl with a piece of sandpaper laid flat on a counter.

The topped bowl was looking better, still slightly out of round. I guessed that to be “normal” for pressed briar bowls.

The bowl would get a single application of Fiebing’s Leather Dye in black. A cork was used to plug the tobacco chamber and act as a handle. The dye would be applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed to set the dye and vaporize the alcohol solvents.

Below is the resulting black dyed bowl. The dye applied very similarly to normal briar.

Back at the workbench the bowl was wiped with a slightly ethanol wetted make-up pad then was sanded lightly with a 400 grit sanding sponge. You can see that the sanding revealed the brown of the briar on the ridges of the rustication.

The bowl was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and set aside for 20 minutes.

The excess Restoration Balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock.

I used a dremel rotary tool and a wool polishing bit to lightly polish the bowl screw. I did not want to use any buffing compound in fear of not being able to get it out of the tobacco chamber.

To address my “not happy” with the stem, I used a small flat file to lightly resurface the button and the area immediately below the button on the top and bottom of the stem. This was then sanded with sponges 320-1000.

The stem was then returned to the buffer and buffed with white compound.

This produced a level of finish that I was happy with.

To make it even better, I hand buffed the stem with Before and After Fine followed by the Extra Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth.

The stem returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The ridge tops of the bowl were also waxed with carnauba but I was careful not to apply pressure and to keep the wax out of the rustications.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This was a fun and interesting restoration. Next time I work on a metal pipe of unknown origin, I will definitely do my background research before starting rather than during, twice… This little pipe is adorable. I think the whole thing is pretty amazing, the history, the workmanship, the material used, all made for a fascinating project. I have no idea if it smokes well. I can’t imagine that it would not be, with the wide chamber excellent for English and aromatic blends. I can easily envision the ridges of the aluminum tube being very efficient at radiating heat from the smoke. This would make a very handy little working pipe for the fishing tackle box, garage or for a lawn mowing pipe. It’s small size and light weight are great for an active smoker. The dimensions of the Unknown Aluminum Pipe are as follows:

Length: 5.06 in./ 128.52 mm.

Weight: 1.27 oz./ 36.00 g.

Bowl Height: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm. (bowl only) 1.70 in. / 43.18mm (with tube)

Chamber Depth: 0.82 in./ 20.83 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.