A Woodsman Restoration

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This pipe screamed at me when I first saw it on eBay. I have no idea why. I am not a huge fan of billiards but there was just something about the extended shank that said, “Hey you, check this out.” Everything about the pipe said that it was a WWII era pipe. The rustication, the non-briar look about the shank grain and the use of so much aluminum. I had neer heard of “Woodsman” as a maker or line of pipes. More on that in the “Background” section. This pipe demanded that I work on it. I’d have to ship it in from Canada and I doubted that I’d ever even break even if it sold. Still, it beckoned. Well, long story short, I bought it and waited for the arrival of another pipe to entertain me. Upon arrival the pipe looked as described; dirty, used and with faint stamps. The stamps read, Woodsman, in script on the left and GENUINE over BRIAR in a circle on the right shank. The below photos show the Woodsman before any work was done.

The pipe would need a reaming and an assessment of the condition of the tobacco chamber. There appeared to be a crack in the bow; on the right side of the bowl but it did not appear that the crack went all the way to the rim. The stamps were faint but still legible so extra care would have to be taken to preserve these. The stem had some light tooth chatter and minimal oxidation. The aluminum would need some buffing for scratch removal and polishing. A thorough cleaning and general refinishing were also on the menu. Overall it looked like a general restoration of a 75 year old used pipe.

Background

The research of the name, “Woodsman” produced nothing on either pipedia.org or pipephil.eu. A Google search did produce a result on Worthpoint.com and is shown below:

“

WOODSMAN D&P GENUINE BRIAR SMOKING PIPE From the research I gathered this pipe (D&P “Woodsman”) was probably made just after WW2. It has a genuine briar bowl and a Mt. Laurel shank. D&P made pipes mostly from Mt. Laurel from about 1942 until just after WW2. NEEDLESS TO SAY THIS IS AN EXTREMELY HARD TO FIND UNSMOKED PIPETOTAL LENGTH APPROXIMATELY 6″ LENGTH OF MOUTH PIECE IS ABOUT 1-1/2″ HAS A 7/8″ INSIDE ALUMINUM INSERT BETWEEN THE MOUTH PIECE AND THE PIPE STEM SPORTS A NICE SILVER BAND WEIGHS 1 OUNCE EXCELLANT CONDITION LIKE NEW NEVER SMOKED – VERY, VERY NICE” (Vintage smoking Pipe WOODSMAN D & P GENUINE BRIAR NEVER SMOKED | #1903579341)

I was not sure where the author of the above got the D&P but it does seem likely. The “D&P” comes from David and Paul Lavietes originators of Sparta Pipeworks, predecessor of Sparta Industries. I’ll let the pipedia.org site explain that history, below:

“Sparta Industries is based in Sparta, NC. It was created in the 1940s by David and Paul Lavietes, and originally called D&P Pipeworks. It began production in 1943 and at the end of the 1950s. From 1943-1946 D&P made the Spartan Pipe from locally sourced rhododendron a.k.a. “mountain laurel”. These pipes were very utilitarian and blocky, the bits were made of maple and featured a military mount. Pipes made from rhododendron had to be boiled in a boric acid solution to keep them burning when smoked. Both Rhododendron wood and Boric acid are known to be toxic to humans, though there is no evidence that there were any issues with the Spartan pipes. While some Spartan pipes were sold on the domestic market they were mainly produced to be sent to the war effort in Europe and were often included in C-Rations. Once the European briar shortage ended and shipments to the US began again D&P shifted production to traditional pipes made from real briar. Dr. Grabow took it over, at the end of the 1970s Sparta became one of the biggest pipe makers in the USA, and the Dr. Grabow brand was the number one in sales in the country. Today it makes various brands, producing over a million pipes a year, perhaps the largest amount from just one factory.

The company was bought in the 1990s by Lane, Ltd., a giant in the North American distribution sector. It produces and represents various brands, such as Aldo Velani, Alpha, Cesare Barontini, and Mastercraft.” (Sparta Industries – Pipedia)

The Woodsman pipe in hand, has what appears to be an extended shank of non-briar wood. I say this because the grain of the shank looks unlike briar. I’ve restored several pipes made from both Mission Briar and Mountain Laurel. Both of these woods have grains without the birdseye grain. I will link a post by Dave Tabler writing for Appalacianhistory.net for a fascinating read about the use of Mountain laurel and the pipes made from it in North Carolina – This is not a pipe… – Appalachian History –.

As a bonus feature I’ll link to an article on the curing of wood used for pipe making – Curing – Pipedia. Yeah, you can continue down that rabbit hope if you like. And if that were not enough I’ll throw in another restoration I did of a Trapwell pipe made of the “World’s Best Briar” that ain’t briar at all: A Trapwell Large Apple Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek.

The Restoration

Things started well with the typical denim piece.

The ream-team was assembled.

This pipe needed the #2 and #3 PipNet blades. The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper also got to see some action due to the concave nature of wear and charring.

The below photo is very misleading. The reamed tobacco chamber was not a cylindrical drilling any longer.

The below photo shows the tobacco chamber sanded. The charred areas were sanded to remove as much of the charred briar as I was able. I was not sure how to proceed with repairing the chamber and needed some pondering time.

Shank cleaning usually is a good activity for me to do pondering. This one started out by running the Kleen-Reem tool’s shank drill through the airway.

Below you can see the tip of the drill in the button of the chamber.

Next came the cotton swab dipped in alcohol to soften the remaining smoking residue. Then the scraping with a dental scraper. This produced a great deal of yuck. I tried scrubbing with folded bristle pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol and a shank brush. More yuck. Then moved to a .25 caliber brass bore brush mounted to a wood dowel. The Airway was filled with alcohol during the brushing and drained on the paper towel. Did I mention the amount of yuck removed?

At this point I thought maybe some hot water would help. So I took the stummel to the sink for the undiluted Murphy Oil Soap scrub with a nylon brush.

The stummel remained full of grime so the scrub was repeated with Murphy’s and a brass brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Dang! Look at that crack. Well, does it go all the way through the chamber?

Oh man. The water really made the spider webbing show up too. What have I got myself into?

I then wiped the stummel with a cotton ball dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. This colored the cotton some but not terribly.

I poured some alcohol into the tobacco chamber to see if the crack was all the way through the bowl. Alcohol leaked right through the side.

I was not leaking through just one point but the length of the crack.

What about the other side?, I asked. Yep, that one too was leaking alcohol through the bowl. Not as bad but still not a positive development.

Hmm, more to ponder. Needing additional pondering time, I turned to cleaning up the stem. I soaked the aluminum tube extension in alcohol to soften the residue.

The shank was very dirty so I thought packing the tobacco chamber and airway with cotton then saturating the cotton with 95% ethyl alcohol might help dissolve some of that.

The above 10 ml of alcohol were added to the cotton stuffed chamber and shank.

Some of the alcohol was seeping through the crack on the right side of the bowl. This leaking alcohol was undoubtedly carrying tars and other smoking residues to the outside of the bowl. That would require more cleaning.

A lesser amount of alcohol was seeping through the left side. This just added to the pondering.

Maybe stem cleaning would help the pondering process. The stem was also pretty filthy. Numerous bristle pipe cleaners all dipped in alcohol were used before the stem was cleaned.

I was still pondering tobacco chamber fixes. Hmm, maybe ridding the stem of the tooth chatter would help the pondering. The bite zone was filed with a small flat file.

On one side there remained three dents which would require filling with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

I applied a layer of black CA to the dents. This was allowed to cure or dry.

The cured black CA was then filed with a small flat file and sanded with a 600 grit sanding sponge.

Maybe the pondering organ would come up with a great solution in the morning. I let the alcohol do what it does in the tobacco chamber and shank overnight. The next morning I removed the now dry cotton. The cotton in the bowl was daily clean but the shank cotton was full of yuck.

I started the shank airway cleaning process again. Many cotton swabs dipped in alcohol and a good deal of scraping later the airway was more clean.

Still, the shank was dirty. I thought, “maybe another cotton alcohol soak would work.” I repacked the shank and chamber with clean cotton then added another 10 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol and let it sit overnight.

Another day later, I returned to the pipe and removed the cotton. I considered this a great success. The cotton was stained but it had removed nearly all of the smoking tars. Subsequent cotton swabs came back much cleaner. Victory!

All my pondering came up with the following plan for the cracked and leaking tobacco chamber: Water Glass, also known as sodium silicate (Na2SiO3). The idea would be to

Coat the interior of the tobacco chamber with a layer of Na2SiO3 allow it to dry or harden
Sand the chamber smooth.
Repeat until the tobacco chamber is smooth and a uniform cylinder.

This sounded very reasonable and like a good solution.

Below is a photo of the warnings from the bottle label.

I applied the Na2SiO3 using a folded pipe cleaner. I vigorously rub the pipe cleaner to remove any loose fibers. The Na2SiO3 is thicker than water, more like a syrup, in consistency.

The Na2SiO3 dried quite quickly and was hard within 30 minutes.

I then used brown CA applied with a fly tying bodkin to carefully fill the crack along the outside of the bowl on the right side.

I used a brass brush to add texture to the CA after it had dried. I had to apply a second coat to fill the void at the outer rim.

I sanded the interior of the tobacco chamber using a ¾ inch wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper. Below is a photo of the first sanding of the first application.

A second application of Na2SiO3 was done, followed by a second sanding. This was followed by a third application and sanding. The ¾ inch dowel wrapped with sandpaper allowed me to re-establish an even cylindrical shape to the tobacco chamber.

With the tobacco chamber situation resolved I wondered if oxalic acid would lighten the color of the wood. I didn’t call the wood briar because I do not think it is briar.

The oxalic acid was worked into the stummel with a cotton swab. Below you can see the discoloration on the cotton.

When working the oxalic acid into the bowl the wood lightened almost immediately on the front and the back of the bowl.

The sides remained darker. I was not sure if this was due to smoking residues seeping through the cracks from previous use, the cotton-alcohol treatments or a combination of the two.

Below is the oxalic acid treated front of the bowl.

Below is the oxalic acid treated rim.

I let the oxalic acid sit for 30 minutes then scrubbed the stummel with copious water and a nylon scrub brush.

Once dry the stummel did indeed appear lighter in color. I call this a success.

The brown CA filled crack appeared worse for wear after the oxalic acid. I touched up the light area of the crack with a Furniture touch-up marker.

The stampings were covered with masking tape for their protection.

I then reattached the stem and took the pipe to the buffer for a buffing with rouge compound. Once buffed the tape was removed and the wood wiped with an alcohol dipped make-up pad to remove and rouge residuals. The wood was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and set aside for 20 minutes.

An inside out athletic sock was used to remove any remaining Restoration Balm.

To finish the restoration of the tobacco chamber I decided to use a bowl coating. 100% maple syrup and charcoal powder were chosen as the bowl coating. The chamber was coated with a light layer of syrup using a cotton swab.

To keep the charcoal powder out of the airway a pipe cleaner was inserted into the airway. A capsule of charcoal powder was poured into the chamber. The rim was covered with a piece of painters tape. The stummel was then shaken for a couple of minutes. I also tilted and tapped the bowl with the rubber coated handle of a file to make sure the powder was evenly distributed on the entire bowl surface.

The tape was removed and the excess powder was dumped. I reinserted the stem and gave a couple of hard puffs of air through the stem to clear remaining carbon powder. The finished bowl coating is shown in the photo below.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied to the pipe. The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then a return to the photography table for the finished pipe photo shoot.

This restoration ended up being much more extensive than I originally thought. The tobacco chamber was in far worse shape and the cracks in the bowl were more severe than I expected. This is probably not a pipe that I would sell to anyone who has not read and understands all of the procedures done to it. I do think that steps taken to restore this pipe will provide many years of use to an otherwise worn-out old pipe. I have not taken it out for a test-smoke yet but I do plan to soon. The pipe remains a very unique historical example of the ingenuity of pipe makers during the drought of briar caused by World War 2. It really is a lovely pipe with great billiard lines. The stem polished very nicely and is a pretty contrast to the aluminum bands. The extended shank is, I believe and attempt to use non-briar in the manufacture of the pipe. I cannot determine if the bowl is actually briar or not and the rustication doesn’t allow a solid identification by the wood’s grain. The dimensions of the are:

Length: 6.02 in./ 141.22 mm.

Weight: 1.02 oz./ 49.33 g.

Bowl Height: 1.69 in./ 45.47 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.60 in./ 39.88 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 21.34 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.28 in./ 36.57 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.