NebraskaPeteGeek

A new old stock (NOS) Weber “Windpruf” Restoration

December 7th, 2023
Written and photographed by John M. Young

Here we have another pipe from the curiosities rack. This is a pipe that I received years ago and didn’t do anything with since it was unsmoked. Well winter is nearly upon us and it seems like a good time to revisit some of these old pipes and breathe a bit of life into them. I do not recall when this pipe arrived nor from where. I can tell you that a certain granddaughter can use this pipe to raise a certain grandfather’s blood pressure quickly with her ability to take things apart. Given her saying, “Grandpa, I think I broke it” didn’t help. Let the record show that the metal wind-cap slides on and off easily.

You can see that the finish is darkened with age, the stem is oxidized and the metal has developed a patina yet the springs still function like new.

Who the heck is this Weber guy? Carl Weber according to pipedia.org:

“Carl B. Weber was a German from Bavaria. Aged 21 he emigrated to the USA in 1911. In 1938 he established Weber Briars Inc. in Jersey City, New Jersey. Later renamed in Weber Pipe Co..

The firm grew to be one of the giants of American pipe industry focusing itself in the middle price and quality zone. Trademark: “Weber” in an oval. Beside that Weber – especially in the years after 1950 – was a most important supplier for private label pipes that went to an immense number of pipe shops. Alone in New York, exactly the same pipes were found at Wilke’s, Barclay Rex, Trinity East, Joe Strano’s Northampton Tobacconist in Ridgewood, Queens, Don-Lou in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn… Nearly all pipes for Wilke were unstained and many models, for example the “Wilke Danish Bent”, could hardly deny originating of Weber.

Weber Pipe Co. owned and manufactured Jobey pipes – when mainly sold in the USA by the Tinder Box from 1970’s – 80’s. In addition Jobey / Weber bought Danish freehands from Karl Erik (Ottendahl). These pipes were offered as Jobey Dansk. Ottendahl discontinued exports to the United States in 1987 and in the very same year – obviously only as a ghost brand – Jobey was transferred to Saint-Claude, France to be manufactured by Butz-Choquin.” (Weber Pipe Co. – Pipedia)

In other words he was the epitome of the American dream. A true immigrant success story like so many in the history of our hobby. Unfortunately, he has slipped into the mists of history without much acknowledgement. A most poignant observation was written in a Smokers Forum of Pipesmagazine.com by a frjacob:

“I like Carl Weber Scoop pipes — the carved ones. I’ve seen short bios of him & his company online https://pipedia.org/wiki/Weber_Pipe_Co., but I’d really like to know more about him. Like, when did he/his company stop making pipes, and when did he die, for example; and pretty much anything else about him. He and his company were very prominent from the 40’s into the early 60’s. He also wrote two of the best pipe books ever written. I’ve never heard him mentioned at pipe shows or, unfortunately so far as I can discover, featured in the sorely lamented Pipe & Tobaccos magazine.” (Carl B. Weber – Pipe Maker :: Pipe Talk :: Pipe Smokers Forums of PipesMagazine.com)

There ore no responses to frjacobs. and all it says and the bottom is: ” Not open for further replies.” The two books mentioned are most likely Carl Weber’s
1. Weber’s Guide To Pipes And Pipe Smoking (ISBN-10 1438288514)
2. Carl Weber’s The Pleasures of Pipe Smoking (ISBN: B0013OOJQ8)
I have a 1962 paperback copy of the first book and can attest to the easy writing style and informative nature of Weber’s work. It is a lovely little book that you feel you must have a pipe in hand while reading. Topics include the history of smoking to selecting a pipe.

Regarding the provenance of the of this “Windpruf” pipe, sitting on the workbench, I can say next to nothing. It is a Weber pipe dating from 1938-1980s. I could find no Weber shape chart nor history. There are several Weber print ads which are fun to look and do have dates of “1940’s” and “1947” associated with them (Weber Pipe Co. – Pipedia). I will end this history with a quote from Weber himself, “A pipe to be smoked outdoors should be fitted with a cap. The cap will prevent flying ashes from starting small fires and keep the wind from burning the tobacco so rapidly as to cause a cracked bowl. Pipe caps come in various sizes, to fit any size bowl.” (p. 56)*. A generalized Weber quote for a generalized Weber pipe.

*Weber, Carl. Weber’s Guide To Pipes And Pipe Smoking. New York, Cornerstone Library, 1962.

My goals with this pipe were to remove the original finish (clearcoat) to emphasize what looked like pretty grain underneath, revitalize the vulcanite and polish the metalwork while retaining the patina. That sounds like a grand way to spend a winter afternoon. Far better than picking up the leaves that finally fell from the Red Oak tree out back.

This old girl didn’t need a trip to the sink and an introduction to Mr. Murphy. Instead I started by wiping the left side with a make-up removal pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. If the finish is shellac, the ethyl will dissolve it in short order. The pad took off something but not very much.

Hmm, not shellac I guess.

I tried the same thing with acetone on the right side. This pad came back with more material removed but there was still finish left behind.

I tried the acetone on the bottom. Bright red finish and stain. Apparently, at the factory they sprayed the pipes and the finish dripped to the bottom surface and deposited a thicker coating there. Oh well, so much for removing the finish without sandpaper.

I first taped over the stampings with painters tape. Then I got a piece of 400 sandpaper and my small foam block and started sanding the stummel. The

sandpaper worked through the finish quickly. The flat surfaces of the pipe made this easier than I had thought it would be. The only problem was that the

finish clogged the sandpaper quickly and required me to clean the sandpaper frequently. This was done by dipping a toothbrush into alcohol and scrubbing the surface of the sandpaper then wiping the paper on a rag. The following photos show the sandpaper and foam block with the stummel.

At this point I thought I had better address the stem. The oxidation was fairly well developed. The entire stem appeared uniformly brown. I rubbed each side with

0000 steel wool to remove the outermost layer of oxidation. I could not get the stinger to come free of the stem so, I inserted a pipe cleaner into the stinger and placed the stem into the Deoxidizing solution. I figured that about an hour in the solution would be enough.

I returned to the stummel and started working the surface with the micro-mesh pads. I began with a wetted 1500 micro-mesh pad. I followed the micro-mesh pad with a wipe with an alcohol moistened make-up removal pad. I then went to ta wetted 1800 micro-mesh pad and repeated the alcohol wipe when finished with it. I continued with the pads in order to the 4000

micro-mesh pad. Here I removed the painters tape. I figured that the 6000, 8000 and 12000 micro-mesh pads would not remove enough material to affect the stampings and may blend the fresh briar with the old finish. The remaining micro-mesh pads were each used with an alcohol wipe between each. The stummel was then coated with a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to set while I worked on the stem.

I removed the stem from the Deoxidation Solution and allowed the excess to drip back into the jar. I then energetically rubbed the stem with a coarse shop rag. The rag absorbed the remaining solution and rubbed off some of the oxidized vulcanite. The stem looked like there was still some oxidation browning present. I used make-up pads and Soft Scrub to remove the remaining oxidation. The pads showed that there was indeed oxidation.

After the Soft Scrub I returned the stem to the workbench and gave the exterior a coating of mineral oil. It now looked nice and black. I ran two pipe cleaners through the stem, from the stinger end, through the stem to remove and deoxidation solution. I then dipped a clean pipe cleaner in the mineral oil and oiled the airway. The stem was ready for the micro-mesh pads. They were used in sequence from 1500-1800 wet, then 2400-12000 dry. In between each pad I would rub a drop of Obsidian Oil onto the stem and wipe the excess oil with a make-up pad.

After the stem was completed I wiped the excess balm from the stummel and reunited the two pieces. I was very glad that I decided to remove the finish here are before and after photos of the right side of the stummel and the

bottom. The grain is far too pretty to keep hidden under that coating of old finish.

I took the brass wind-cap to the buffer. I used a very light touch just allowing the loose fuzz of the buffing wheel to touch the brass. I did not actually allow the felt proper to come in contact with the brass. I lightly brushed the surfaces to clean and polish them. The corners were used the same way to reach the inside hinged areas. I was able to preserve the patina while still polishing the surfaces.

The wind-cap was slid back into position. I applied a thin coat of Johnson’s Paste Wax to the wooden rails on which the brass wind-cap slides. I then gave the entire pipe was given several coats of carnauba wax. This proved more difficult than a rounded pipe. I would get one side buffed and there would be a bit of non-buffed wax deposited on the adjacent surface. Buffing that surface would do the same thing to the next side, Eventually everything was evened out and made pretty.

Overall this restoration turned out very nicely. It was enjoyable not to have a bowl to ream, nor a dirty airway to clean. The new finish really shows off the grain of the briar. The stem polished up beautifully as well. I would like to say that this pipe is ready to return to duty but the poor thing never got any use, much less duty. Either way, she is clean, shiny and ready to be smoked. I hope you found this useful in your own restorations or entertaining. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. Oh yeah, If you did like this please click the like and subscribe below.

Here are the photos of the finished Weber “Windpruf”. Ready to report to duty.
A new old stock (NOS) Wally Frank

December 5th, 2023

Briar Wind-capped Horn Restoration

Written and photographed by John M. Young

Wally Frank is a most enigmatic (AKA: crazy cool) figure in the history of pipes. A world traveler in search of briar, pipes, pipe making artists and craftsmen, a businessman, a marketer, all fascinating. This print ad illustrates what I mean. Here we see Castello pipes advertised with the Weber Guide to Pipes and Smoking and Wally Frank Natural Unvarnished pipes all on one page.

(File:Castello Ad.jpg – Pipedia)

“Why is that so interesting?”, you ask. Frank “discovered” Carlo Scotti, founder of Castello and imported his pipes to America. Weber, one of the largest pipe manufacturers in America and Weber’s book telling you everything about how to smoke a pipe. Weber was also a major producer of Wally Frank pipes. And his own Wally Frank brand. All on one lovely Wally Frank ad page. Sounds like an empire builder to me.

One of the best stories of Wally Frank’s career is the “discovery” of Carlo Scotti. I quote from Hacker’s The Ultimate Pipe Book:

“In 1952 Wally Frank, the famous East Coast tobacconist, was on a buying trip in Italy and came across Scotti’s pipes. He liked them and wanted to import them into the U.S. Unfortunately, there was a problem:Scotti’s “white line” trademark looked almost identical to the trademark Frank was using for his “White Bar” line of pipes. The solution was obvious. Scottie would simply change his logo. The two men sat down in the warm Italian sun and came up with the idea of drilling a hole in the “near side” of the stem, interesting a small piece of crumpled silver foil, and sealing it over with clear Lucite. A legend was born and even today some collectors insist that every Catello pipe has a diamond in it… or at worst, a rhinestone. But perhaps it is best to leave both the clear Lucite and the image intact, for the superb craftsmanship and the smokability of the Castello is really what constitutes the true value of a pipe.” (pp. 255-256)

Hacker, Richard Carleton. The Ultimate Pipe Book. Autumngold Pub., 1984.

One of my favorite Wally Frank’s marketing ideas was the “Pipe of the Month Club”. Here is the order form from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-w1.html

The date on the form is difficult to make out but, I think it is 1947. $1 in January of 1947 is equivalent to $13.91 in January of 2023 (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm). Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to get a new pipe every month for $14 dollars today?

The first paragraph about Wally Frank from Pipedia pretty much sums up Frank’s contributions to our hobby:

Wally Frank, Ltd. was one of America’s oldest and most respected names in pipes and tobaccos, beginning in the early 1930’s. Wally Frank operated a chain of tobacco stores in New York City (the flagship store was in Lexington Avenue) and had a vast catalog business for pipes and pipe tobaccos. Their numerous private-label pipes were made by many makers, including Charatan, Sasieni, Weber, and many others. Wally Frank, Ltd. also owned the Pioneer brand of meerschaum pipes, made from both Turkish and African meerschaum. In addition to importing pipes, he had many pipes made in his own name and also employed pipemakers like Peter Stokkebye, Svend Bang, and Ed Burak (who later became the owner of Connoisseur). As a result, each Wally Frank pipe must be individually evaluated on its own merit.

(Wally Frank – Pipedia)

That brings me to the subject of this blog post. A unsmoked Briar Wind-cap Wally Frank Horn pipe. I have little idea as to when this pipe was produced. I gather from forum posts that the pipe of the month club died away in the early 1960’s yet, no one had any verifiable sources for that. I’d like to think that this pipe was a pipe of the month yet I also have no verification. I can say it is a unique looking pipe and my descriptions will be “individually evaluated on its own merit.”

I don’t remember exactly how or when this pipe came to me. It was most likely part of an estate lot which bid on and won via an ebay auction. I tried looking back through my “purchase history”. Unfortunately, the photos after about a year do not seem to be archived. Here are the photos of the dusty and dirty horn:

The pipe, though dusty, looked as though it had never been fired. The stem was oxidized and had no evidence of any contact with teeth. “This isn’t going to be a restoration”, I thought to myself, just a cleaning.

That is where I started. Cleaning. I took the horn to the sink and used undiluted Murphy’s Wood Cleaner on a medium stiff bristle toothbrush. The Murphy’s lather changed to a slight gray color as it removed the dirt and dust. The Murphy’s was rinsed with warm water and the stummel was dried with a cotton dish towel. I then wiped the surface with a cotton make-up removal pad moistened in 95% ethyl alcohol. I hoped that this would loosen and remove any dirt remaining as well as tell me more about the finish on the briar.

The pad became pink with the red dye that was used to stain the briar. The dirty spots on the pad are from me using it on the threads of the wind cap. The removal of stain with the pad indicated there was little finish to worry about.

The stem did not appear to have enough oxidation to warrant a bath in the Deoxidation Solution. I used Soft Scrub on a make-up removal pad and vigorously rubbed the stem.

After the scrubbing the stem was oiled with Obsidian Oil. I took both parts of the pipe to the bright light to assess the best course of action and for some photos.

In this photo you can still see the lathe chuck marks inside the tobacco chamber.

The stummel had one spot with an obvious fill. This fill was not a good color (too pink) match to the briar so it had to go. The stem looked like it had tiny pock marks all over the surface. I did know it was just from age, oxidation, poor quality vulcanite or a combination of those.

First thing I addressed was removing the old fill material. It was fairly soft and canme out with little effort. I used the dental pick and fly tying bodkin for most of the removal and scrubbed the hole with a brass wire brush.

With the old fill removed I started working on the stem. I reassembled the pipe and wrapped the shank with scotch tape to avoid scratching the briar with the sandpaper or micro-mesh pads. I worked the stem’s surfacewith 400 wet day sandpaper wrapped around a small foam block. I then used the 1500 micro-mesh pad dry. After the pad I wiped the stem with a dry make-up pad and applied a drop of Obsidian Oil with my fingers. I wiped the excess and used a wetted 1500 micro-mesh pad. After this pad I wiped, oiled and wiped the stem again. I then proceeded to the 1800 micro-mesh pad also wetted with water and then the 2400 pad dry. In between pads I continued to wipe, oil and wipe excess.

I then prepared to work of the fill. I used Brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust for the new fill material. I dipped the bodkin into the CA and got a small drop. I placed the drop into the hole, took a pinch of briar dust and pushed it into the glue wetted hole. I used the flat side of the dental broad dental pick to force the dust into the hole. It set-up nearly immediately.

I then used a flat needle file to remove the material new fill until it was smooth to the surface. I very light touch with 200 sandpaper revealed that I still had a couple of low spots in the new fill. I repeated the CA and briar dust. At this point I removed the scotch tape and cut two pieces of painters tape to cover the stampings. I figured that any sanding and micro-meshing from here out could be done to both the stem and the stummel.

The new fill was then filed and sanded to smooth. The sanding would be blended with the sanding and micro-meshing.

I did not need to use the 1500 nor 1800 micro-mesh pads on the stummel. I used the remaining series, 2400-12000 on the stem and stummel. Between pads I would wipe the briar with a make-up pad moistened with 99% isopropyl alcohol and the stem with a drop of Obsidian Oil on my fingers wiped with a dry make-up pad. When finished with the micro-mesh pad I applied a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm to the briar and a coating of Obsidian Oil to the stem.

I let the balm and oil do their magic to the pipe for about an hour. After the hour had passed I wiped the entire pipe with an inside-out athletic sock to remove the remaining balm and oil. The pipe was looking very reshreshed. The last step was to take it to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

This was a fun restoration of an unusual old pipe. I have no idea how the horn shape smokes. My fear would be that the top inside of the tobacco chamber would get too hot and be prone to the risk of heat damage. Or perhaps this shape is meant to be used while reclining in a hammock enjoying a pipe on a warm summer day. That is a delightful image. If you enjoyed this kind of thing please, click the like and subscribe. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are photos of the finished Briar Wind-cap Wally Frank Horn:
A Kings Cross Kruger Restoration

December 3rd, 2023
Written and photographed by John M. Young

You may recall from an earlier restoration that I had acquired an assortment of Kings Cross pipes. This is a continuation of that set of pipes. Here we have another “MADE IN ENGLAND” Kings Cross.

These were pipes made by the Chapuis-Comoy company in both their English and French factories. The “Made in England” being Comoy’s while the “France” indicates Chapuis. The pipe lovers of the world are indebted to the Comoy family for their contributions of bringing briar to the pipe making world. If you are interested in the Chapuis-Comoy family history, and it is amazing, take a look at the previously mentioned blog post or these links:
As for the history of this specific pipe it has the Comoy shape number of 17. According to the Comoy’s shape chart:

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Shape_Number_Chart)

Shape 17 is a Kruger, after Paul Kruger* (typically referred to as an Oom Paul), ½ bent, medium size saddle stem. That sounds like our girl.

*Kruger, Paul according to the Kruger National Park site: “In 1882, the 57 year old Paul Kruger was elected president of Transvaal. He left for England in 1883 to revise the Pretoria Convention of 1881, an agreement which was reached between the Boers and the British that ended the first Anglo Boer War. Paul Kruger acquired many allies in Europe during this time.” (https://www.krugerpark.co.za/Krugerpark_History-travel/paul-kruger-history.html)

As for the date this Kruger was made, I have little idea. I thought I had some idea when I was researching the Kings Cross Foursquare but, I think I was reading too much into all of those sources. For the sake of positive determination of this pipe’s providence I can only say it is a Comoy’s make pipe. If you know more about the dates of these pipes please let me know in the comments.

To the restoration. First step ream the bowl. Initially it looked good but that was just to top ¼. There was significant cake built up on the lower portion of the chamber. Nothing that the PipNet and the reaming knives could take care of. Oh, I am trying out a new reaming knife. It is a General brand triangular scraper. I did have to round the tip with a grinder as it had a very sharp point. The edges are quite sharp and require care when using but it seems to be a very capable tool.

Next stop the sink for the ever popular Murphy’s Wood Cleaner and toothbrush scrubbing. The Murphy’s is used undiluted with a medium stiff bristle toothbrush. Extra time was spent at this stage due to the coarse nature of the rustication. The stummel was then rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. Since I was over at the sink, I figured this would be a good time to top the rim of the stummel. I thought that a smoothed rim would add a touch of class to this rusticated pipe. I did leave a few of the deeper rustications because I thought they added a unifying touch to the overall appearance. The topping was done with 200 sandpaper followed by 400 sandpaper laid flat on the countertop with the stummel rotated to achieve equal pressure and sanding across the rim.

This stummel had a finish coat that remained mostly intact after the scrub. I did not want this old finish. On a prior pipe restoration of another Kings Cross pipe I found that the finish was susceptible to acetone. I chose to do the same treatment with this pipe as I did with the previous pipe. I placed it into a jar filled with acetone and left it for about 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes I removed the pipe and scrubbed it with a brass brush dipped in the acetone. After a good scrub I would dip the stummel into the acetone as a rinse, allow it to dry and look so shiny spots where finish remained. I would then scrub those areas with acetone and the brass brush. Eventually, I no longer saw any shine.

Returning to the workbench I tried to scrape out the airway to get as much of the built up tars out before using the pipe cleaners with alcohol. The airway appeared clean and I was unable to scrape any significant material from it. I soaked the tip of a bristle pipe cleaner in 99% isopropyl alcohol and ran it through the airway – it came back black with smoking residue. Hmm, I looked down the mortise with a flashlight and saw that this pipe had a

(Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterson_Pipes)

reservoir that continued down past the airway. It looked like a Peterson System copy-cat. Very cool. Also, with a well used and seldom cleaned pipe, a pain to clean out. This was looking more like it was not going to be the straight forward restore that I thought. I poured about 5 ml of 99% isopropyl alcohol into the bowl and began scrubing the airway with a nylon brush. The brush came back filled with tar. I wiped it off on a paper towel and continued scrubbing. I had to wipe tar from the brush numerous times through this scrubbing. Occasionally I would pour the alcohol into a medicine cup and pour fresh alcohol into the bowl. Eventually the alcohol turned more of an amber color then dark brown. I then tried the bristle pipe cleaner soaked in alcohol. They came out brown but were not black. I repeated with the pipe cleaners until they came back clean.

During the above airway cleaning, the reservoir was soaking in alcohol as I was cleaning the airway. This allowed the tar there to soften. I did not keep track of the number of cotton swabs, soaked with alcohol, that it took to clean the reservoir. This was probably due to my inability to count that high. Needless to say, it was a lot.

The stummel still had the aroma of “Granny purse”. That is a term I use to describe the smell left by Lakeland blends. The floral fragrances remind me of the perfume that saturated my grandmother’s purses. To remedy this I packed the reservoir and tobacco chamber with cotton. I then started adding 95% ethyl alcohol by a pipette until it pooled slightly on both surfaces. The surfaces were held level to one another. I let this treatment set overnight.

In the morning I returned to the granny purse infused stummel to find that the cotton in the bowl looked pretty clean while the shank side cotton had discolored, proving that I had not cleaned the shank as well as I

thought I did. I removed the cotton and assessed the results. Yeah, the alcohol had removed some tar and stuff but had also further softened the remaining tars and stuff (stuff is another technical term used by restoreres).

Back to the workbench. More cotton swabs later I was still getting brown residue. I then tried a technique I’ve not seen other restorers use. I tore a piece of paper towel about 2 in²(5 cm²) I rolled this paper towel around a

round needle file, dipped the tip into the alcohol and scrubbed the inside of the mortise/reservoir with it. After the end of the paper towel gets saturated

with yuck (yuck is another technical term used by restorers), you can unroll the paper and reroll the clean end, dip and repeat. This works well for tough jobs that need more pressure than is possible with a cotton swab. After a few pieces of paper towel I went back to the cotton swabs and was happy to see they were getting progressively cleaner. I finally got to the “clean” stage.

Here, I started working on the stem. I rubbed the surface with 0000 steel wool to remove the worst of the oxidation, inserted a pipe cleaner into the

tenon end of the stem and took it to the Deoxidation Solution jar. I placed the stem in the solution so it was submerged and put the lid back onto the jar. While the stem was soaking I figured I may as well treat the stummel with the cotton and alcohol a second time.

Normally I only leave a stem in deox for an hour or two, I got busy and returned after 4 hours. I checked the stummel first. The cotton came out clean. Next I removed the stem from the deox solution. I allowed most of the excess to drip back into the jar. I then used a coarse shop towel to vigorously rub the remaining solution from the stem. I ran two pipe cleaners through the stem to remove any remaining solution from inside. I then used a spot of Soft Scrub on a make-up removal pad to remove remaining oxidized vulcanite. The stem looked good.

I returned to the workbench and oiled the stem inside and out with mineral oil. The pipe cleaners cane out relatively clean. I thought this strange because the airway of the stummel had been filthy. I dipped the tip of a bristle pipe cleaner into the isopropyl alcohol and inserted it into the tenon end of the stem. It moved easily up the stem until it got close to the button. I pulled it free and saw what I expected – a very dirty pipe cleaner. I then tried to repeat the process from the button end. I was met with a great deal of resistance. After several bent pipe cleaners I finally pierced the layers of grime inside the stem and could get a pipe cleaner through. I then took a long churchwarden pipe cleaner, the stem and a pipette filled with alcohol to the vise. I clamped one end of the churchwarden pipe cleaner into the vice and threaded the stem onto the pipe cleaner. I used the pipette to wet the pipe cleaner above and below the stem with alcohol. I held the top end of the pipe cleaner with one hand and moved the stem up and down

the length of the pipe cleaner. This removed a good deal of the yuck from inside the stem. After this I returned to the workbench and started running pipe cleaner through the stem as normal. Well, I was shocked to see how filthy this stem was, no wonder a pipe cleaner had trouble getting through. You get the idea. Many pipe cleaners and much alcohol later the stem was clean. When placed back on the stummel there was no Granny purse remaining.

Next was sanding to address the tooth chatter and rebuilding the button. I wrapped 400 wet dry sandpaper around a small foam block to give it additional stiffness. I then sanded the area beyond the button to rid the stem of the dents from clenching. The dents were shallow so after a bit of sanding I tried to paint them with a light in hopes of raising them. This worked a little but I didn’t need much. Happy with the dent eradication I wrapped a piece of scotch tape up against the edge of the button. This would provide a straight edge for filing the black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). I applied a bead of glue along the top of the button. I quickly inverted it so the CA would be hanging down. I adjusted the drip by rotating the stem until it looked like it was filling the depression. I then spritzed the CA with an accelerant to speed the curing. I then used a flat needle file to reshape the button. I had to repeat the application of CA a few times to build-up material where I wanted it and file it off to regain the shape of a proper button. Once satisfied with the shape I used 400 sandpaper to smooth and polish the rough edges. One of these days I will actually remember to photograph this process rather than getting caught up in the moment.

The stem was then sanded with micro-mesh pads. The 1500 and 1800 pads were used with a drop of water on them. Between each pad I would apply a drop of Obsidian Oil, rub it in with my finger and wipe away the excess with a paper towel. After the first two pads, the remaining series was used dry with the application of oil and wiping the same. The stem was taken to the buffer where I applied several coats of carnauba wax.

I do not like applying carnauba wax to heavily rusticated stummels. I did apply a couple coats of carnauba wax to the flat surface of the stamp. The rest of the stummel received Dacatur No-Buff Wax applied with my fingers and a soft bristle baby toothbrush. This was allowed to dry for 15 minutes and rubbed off with a clean dry terry cloth towel.

I think this pipe turned out very nicely. It makes a fine companion for the Kings Cross Foursquare from a previous restoration. I wanted an easy

restoration and for the most part this was one. I think the smoothing of the rim really adds to the appearance of these pipes. I hope that you found

something that you can use in your own restorations or that you found this interesting/entertaining. Thank you for stopping by and reading the rambling of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Kings Cross Kruger:
A Kings Cross Foursquare Restoration

December 2nd, 2023
Written and photographed by John M. Young

I recently won an auction for 6 Kings Cross pipes. They are a mixture of 2-Made in England, 2-Made in France and 2- no Country of Manufacture (COM) just “ALGERIAN BRIAR”. They all looked like just what I needed after two recent restores that were rather difficult. Wonderfully dirty, oxidized old pipes WITHOUT major issues. I apologize if you are here for some nail biting cliff hanging drama like with the Pipe by Lee restoration that led to the restoration of the restoration (I linked those if your nails need biting). These, looked like a relaxing day on the lake fishing for crappies.

I chose to work on the rusticated paneled billiard first. Here are her arrival photos:

A little bit of history is one of those things that I love about these projects. Here is what we know:
1. I own a Kings Cross made in Italy by Savinelli
2. The Kings Cross I chose to start with is Made in England.
1. The stampings look nothing alike.
What do you deduce, my dear Watson?

Umm, Mr. Savinelli moved?

No, there obviously is mystery afoot, old chap.

The first search of “Kings Cross” led me to the following quote from Pipedia.org:

“Kings Cross is a brand made by both Chapuis-Comoy in France using Algerian Briar. Kings Cross is also a brand name used by Savinelli, which is more commonly seen in the U.S. market. Those pipes are made using Italian Briar”

(Kings Cross – Pipedia)

Comoy’s is an English pipe maker and Chapuis is French. Hmm, the mystery deepens. I checked the Comoy page on Pipehil.eu and found the Comoy seconds.

Comoy — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)

No mention of “Kings Cross” as a second of Comoy. Strangely, there is no Comoy stamping on the pipe either. So, this Kings Cross is not a second of Comoy yet, they apparently didn’t want it known that she was a Comoy either. To verify the Comoy heritage I found a list of Comoy shapes and shape numbers on Pipedia.com. Sure enough, the 368 was there.

(Comoy’s Shape Number Chart – Pipedia)

Now we know that the Kings Cross is definitely a member of the Comoy family with that specific shape fitting in with their listed shape chart. I returned to the Kings Cross page on Pipedia.org. For more information. And found nearly the exact stamping. They called it “Comoy’s version” of the Kings Cross and visually compared it to the Chapuis version.

(Kings Cross – Pipedia)

What is the relationship between the two companies and their English and French COMs? It seems odd that two separate companies would both make the same line of pipes with the same name. The plot thickens.

(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/connect-en.html)

Talk about your confusing family trees. The present day briar pipe owes a great deal to the Comoy family. Below is an abbreviated history.

Chapter One- “Francois Comoy and his brothers started making pipes (probably clays, boxwood and beech) in 1825 in the small monastic town of Saint-Claude in eastern France. Francois and his son Louis discovered that briar had vastly superior qualities and from 1848 made pipes only in this wood.” (Comoy’s – Pipedia)

Chapter 2- “In 1879 Francois’s son Henri, who was born in 1850, moved to London with a small bag of tools, but a great deal of experience. Henri set up a small factory in Seven Dials which is today known as Cambridge Circus. He was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the briar pipe trade in London and is credited with being the author of the appellation “London Made”.” (Comoy’s – Pipedia)

Chapter 3- “He was helped at first by some of his brothers and around 1891 was joined by his two nephews, Louis and Charles Chapuis. Louis took the name of his adoptive parents. By 1895 the business had outgrown the Seven Sisters site and a new factory was built in Newcastle Place, Clerkenwell. By 1905 markets were being sought in America and the extra business required a new factory to be built in 1913 at 72 Rosebury Avenue.” (Comoy’s – Pipedia)

Chapter 4- A couple of world wars, financial issues, mergers, independence from mergers and general corporate mayhem leads to the above family tree of chaos.

The below timeline allowed me to deduce a couple of dates of relative importance to the Kings Cross in question:

The Chapuis-Comoy factory

Chapuis-Comoy :: Chacom

The Chapuis-Comoy factory

1922

This date corresponds to the Chapuis-Comoy society establishment. But it is rooted in the end of the 19th century and its origin is indissociable from two branches of a unique family.

Henry Comoy (1870-1924) was a pipe maker established in Saint Claude prior emigrating to London where he started the “H. Comoy & Co Ltd”.

He convinced his Chapuis cousins to form a partnership with him and start a factory in Saint Claude. That’s how was born “Chapuis-Comoy & Cie”.

1924

At this time Oppenheimer group⁽¹⁾ holds the capital of the society as for C.J. Verguet or La Bruyère, two others pipe firms in Saint Claude.

Acquisition of an ebauchon drying shed at “rue des Etapes”.

The factory in Saint Claude provides the London one with ebauchons

The drying shed : ▲ Inside

The wood of your old and very british Comoy probably seasoned in this place a while. Outside ▼

1928
Création of the Chacom brand.

1932
Merger of La Bruyère and Chapuis-Comoy & Cie. The Chapuis-Comoy brand disappears.

1957
In view of the success encountered by the Chacom brand, La Bruyere takes back the “Chapuis-Comoy & Cie” society name.

1972
The society recovers its whole independence to London thanks to Yves Grenard, grand cousin of Pierre Comoy (Henry’s grand son) and manager of Chapuis-Comoy & Cie.

1988
Creation of the S.A. Cuty-Fort⁽²⁾ bringing together Chapuis-Comoy, Emile Vuillard, Jeantet-David and Jean Lacroix. They have the production in common, but the different brands are preserved for the pipe’s distribution.

Antoine Grenard 2008

2012
Yves Grenard passed away on Feb 8, 2012. His son Antoine manages Chapuis-Comoy & Cie

(1) An overview of the connexions between French and English pipe companies here.

(2) S.A. (Société Anonyme) : Limited Company (UK) or Incorporated Company (US)

Document: The Chapuis-Comoy factory — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)

Here we have, what I think would be the earliest date that the pipe would have been made: “In 1971, the London factory (see Comoy’s) became independent, and Yves Grenard, second cousin to Pierre, took over Saint-Claude” (Chapuis-Comoy – Pipedia) On another Comoy page in Pipedia.org they state that: “Comoy’s remained a family owned company until it was finally taken over by Cadogan Investments during the early 1980’s.” (Comoy’s – Pipedia) I added the bold to “1971”.

I think that the quote that best identifies the latest date of production would be 1988 when the Comoy pipe production joined the Chapuis production: ”They have the production in common, but the different brands are preserved for the pipe’s distribution.” Joint production at the Chapuis factory would mean the pipe could not have been “Made in England”.

Document: The Chapuis-Comoy factory — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)

With the beginning date of 1971 and end date of 1988, this would put the Kings Cross more recent than what I am used to restoring. Hah, I am older than you, pipe. I am not sure if Sherlock Holmes would agree with my deductions or not but, I could certainly convince Watson.

To the restoration. First thing I did was to ream the Kings Cross and rid it of the cake. There was a pretty healthy deposit that the

Smokingpipe Low Country Reamer scraped out quickly. I followed up with the number two blade of the PipNet and gave it a final scrape again with the Low Country. Next I sanded the interior of the bowl with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel.

Next stop the sink for a Murphy’s Wood Cleaner scrub. I use Murphy’s undiluted and scrub with a medium stiff toothbrush. This will usually remove the dirt and grime accumulated through years of use. The Murphy’s did its job quite well but there was a layer of some kind of clear finish that I did not want on this pipe.

“What kind of finish is it?” I wondered. Hopefully shellac and please don’t be some space-age-polymer. (Yeah Kaywoodie Magnum, I’m talking about

you. How they ever liquified diamonds and put them on a pipe I’ll never know) I wetted a make-up removal pad with 99% isopropyl alcohol and tried rubbing the flat surface of the stamp. A little bit of color came off but the surface remained shiny. I wetted the other side of the pad with 95% ethyl alcohol and tried again. This time a bit more color but the shine

remained. New pad, with acetone. This time more color and the shine was gone. We have a winner.

That meant that the stummel would have to take a bath in the acetone jar.

While the acetone was dissolving the finish I addressed the stem. Oh joy, a stinger. I am not a big fan of stingers, in general. I love the tenon extensions

or chimney in a Peterson pipe, tolerate them in a Kaywoodies and feel okay about them in a Dr. Grabow Westbrook but generally they are not my cuppa tea. I’d never go and deface a pipe by cutting one off but I have been known to remove them and forget where they have gone. This one looked like it was just a push fit aluminum type. The highly technical stinger extractor was used to try to pull it out. By the way, that’s just a pair of pliers with painters tape wrapped around each jaw. It doesn’t budge. Hmm, maybe it will become loosened with the airway cleaning? Spoiler, it didn’t.

The stem had a lot of small tooth chatter marks on both the top and bottom. The worst thing looked like a series of dents along the left top edge. I did not want to round the stem and change its original look.

I painted the chatter and the dents with the flame of a disposable lighter. That seemed to reduce the dents but did not remove them. Next I got out the 400 wet dry sandpaper. With a light hand and small circular rubbing I started to work on the chatter. For the sides I tried to keep the stem as flat as possible and work the stem on the sandpaper with the sandpaper flat on the bench surface. I still had to sand the edge to remove the dents but did so on each side to mask the rounding.

I hoped that the remaining dings would come out with the micro-meshing.

Time to check on the stummel. I removed the stummel from the acetone. I recommend nitrile gloves when handling a wet with acetone stummel. I completely ignored my own recommendation. I used a brass brush to work the finish free from the grooves of the stummel. Frequent dips of the brush were needed to fully saturate the air with acetone fumes. I recommend using a respirator classified for fumes. I also ignored this recommendation. I would rinse the stummel in the acetone, allow it to evaporate and check for shiny spots then repeat the scrubbing as needed. I did this until I saw no further shine or until I saw more stummels than I could count, from the acetone fumes.

Here is what I had after the acetone scrub:

Next on the agenda was to top that wire brushed rim. I know, do no harm, restore doesn’t mean remake but, I couldn’t help myself. This rustic look was screaming for a touch of class. I topped the rim with 220 sandpaper followed by 400. I left a couple of scratches on the rim because I thought the looked cool.

After that the stummel got a healthy dose of Before and After Restoration balm. I rubbed the balm in with my finger and thumb them worked over the whole surface with a soft bristled baby toothbrush to work the balm into all the nooks and crannies.

Here is what she looked like all slathered up:

I let the restoration balm sit all night for no other reason than I went to bed after taking those photos.

All that was left was the final micro-meshing of the stem, a quick visit to the buffer for a final polish and a few coats of wax. First the micro-mesh. Normally I would moisten the 1500 and 1800 pads with a drop of water but here I still wanted to see if I could remove those last marks. So I ran through the entire series of pad dry. I still applied a drop of Obsidian Oil between pads and wiped with a paper towel before proceeding to the next. When

finished I took the pipe to the buffer and gave it a light buff with white diamond compound. Just on the stem and careful of the circle K logo. I finished the stem by wiping and remaining white diamond compound off with a rag. I then applied a couple coats of carnauba wax. For the stummel I finished it with a liberal rub of Decatur No-Buff Wax. I allowed it to dry for 15 minutes before buffing with a dry polishing towel.

Overall I am pleased with how this restoration turned out. The old Kings Cross with all of its convoluted history looks good and will be a good companion pipe for someone for many years to come. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. If you enjoy this kind of stuff please click the like and subscribe.

Here are the final photos of the Kings Cross Made in England Foursquare:
A Greenwich House Restoration

November 29th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

I know what you are thinking: “Wow! That pipe is gorgeous. I’m going to sell all my Savinellis and get a truckload of Greenwichs.” What, no one is thinking that? Oh yea of little faith, give it time. It may turn out pretty well.

I didn’t start out looking for a Greenwich pipe. Heck, I don’t think I’d ever even heard much about them. I was searching out a pipe with a trashed mouthpiece. Yes, I said that. The truth is that rather than practicing a new material/technique on an extra stem, I wanted to try it under fire with a real world example. Sure I could just take a crosscut saw to an extra stem but then I’d miss out on searching Ebay for a reprehensible miscreant pipe, bidding against the throng of others wanting the same hidden gem and waiting for 18 months for the arrival of said pipe from the far reaches of Bhutan. There I go again with my exaggerations, I never was “under fire”. “What is this new material?”, you ask. You are just going to have to wait for the big reveal.

The above Greenwich House pipe was indeed from an Ebay auction. I really did search out a pipe with a damaged stem. Here is the original listing of the darling:

Yes, I am quite the “Big Spender”, I did have to wait for the pipe to arrive from Alaska and there really were three other people who bid on the Greenwich. So, you see my exaggerations were not that great. When she did arrive her condition was what I had expected and hoped for. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Okay, so now you have it, what are you going to do with it?

I am going to make her beautiful and return her to smoking glory.

What do you even know about her history? She could be some vagrant who will prison shank you while you sleep.

Highly unlikely. As a matter of fact, Steve Laug did a restoration of a Greenwich House pipe back in 2019. Here is a link to that restoration: This Greenwich House Antique Imported Briar Crowned Pot Turned into a Nightmare | rebornpipes. Now given, Steve’s blog had the word “Nightmare” in the title but, I’m sure nothing like that will befall me.

When researching this Greenwich House pipe I had very little to work with. There were only two words visible: “GREENWICH HOUSE”. That is where I started. The site, https://pipes.collectionhero.com/gallery.php?search=greenwich produced images of “Greenwich” pipes that had come up recently. The Thoor-Kleen brand seemed to have the greatest frequency of photos. The other Greenwich pipes appeared more random and diverse in their shapes. Nothing matched the pipe I had in hand.

Since Thoro-Kleens are metal pipes I went to http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/. In the past I have found that the smokingmetal.co.uk website has very good information about all things pertaining to metal tobacco pipes. I thought they would certainly have more information about Greenwich. I was incorrect. There was more information about the Thor-Kleen pipe but nothing about the parent company. Here is th text on the page in its entirety:

GREENWICH HOUSE THORO KLEEN

Department : METAL OUTER BOWL

This family of pipes have been seen as Knowles Air Lite (believed to be Canadian version), Roybrooke, Comet, Original Gridiron. Seemingly sold in sets that comprised a normal briar bowl as well as the metal outer with a briar insert. The body of the pipe can be hexagonal, square ( Thoro Kleen only seen this shape) or circular in cross section. Regardless of variant all parts are interchangeable. The unmarked version tends to be regarded as the COMET, all the others being stamped with a name. See others on this site under their name

(http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=99)

I returned to the restoringpipes.com website. Steve Laug was able to find more information on his pipe because he had much more information via stamps to work with. This old girl only had a stamp that read “GREENWICH HOUSE”. Now if we assume that it is indeed the same company that either produced or imported both Mr. Laug’s pipe and the Greenwich House I had, then we could say that “The pipes were sold by the Greenwich House Corporation, located in 1947 at 939-M 8th Avenue, N.Y. 19, N.Y…” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Thoro-Kleen)

Also interesting from Mr. Laug’s research was that his pipe had stamping of the model – “ANTIQUE” as well as “Imported BRIAR”. He found that the Antiques were made from Algerian briar. (Laug, rebornpipes.com). I say interesting because my pipe looks very much like both the Marxman and Custom-bilt (or CustomBilt) pipes made at approximately the same time, 1947-1957. Both the Marxman and the CustomBilts were made from Algerian Briar. This briar is known to be relatively soft with less desirable grain, thus the heavily carved pipe shapes and textures. I think it is pretty safe to assume that since the Antique line of Greenwich was Algerian briar and this pipe has very similar characteristics to the Antique as well as the two other makes of pipes which were known to be Algerian briar we can say that this pipe is very likely to be made from Algerian briar in the decade after World War II.

That information satisfied my curiosity and made me want to get to the restoration. As usual I started with reaming the tobacco chamber. It was heavily caked. The PipNet reamer is the go-to tool for this job followed up with the SmokingPipes Low Country Reamer. I started with the Pipnet’s second size blade. It Made short work of the cake that it could reach. I switched out the 2nd for the 3rd as this was a wide bowl. The 3rd blade worked very well and scraped to the bottom of the bowl. The bowl was now wider than the 2nd and 3rd but the 4th was too large. This meant the Low Country would get some action. I reamed the interior edges of the bowl further with the Low Country Reamer and finished with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel along with sandpaper on my finger. The inside of the tobacco chamber looked very good. I guess that is what the layer of cake is for – to protect the briar.

Next was the old Murphy Wood Cleaner and a toothbrush routine. For this I took the stummel to the sink.

I use a medium stiff toothbrush with undiluted Murphy’s to scrub the exterior of the stummel. This stummel was great. The diameter was enough so that I could push my thumb into the bowl and keep the Murphy’s out while scrubbing. The photo show the lather change to a brown color as it

removes the years of accumulated dirt and whatever else it can. I rinsed the Murphy’s from the stummel with warm water. Since this stummel had so many carving grooves and smaller lines I applied the Murphy’s a second time and it sudsed up discolored again. Not as dark as the first time but colored just the same after a second rinse I dried the stummel with a cotton dish towel.

I returned to the workbench with the fresh scrubbed stummel and saw that my scrubbing had cleaned the grime away but this revealed a layer of finish that I did not want on the briar. The following photos show what I had.

To see what kind of finish I had to deal with I thought about finishes of the late 1940s. I hoped it was shellac, mainly because I am lazy.

Shellac: A solution of melted lac, a resinous excretion of the Lac insect (Coccus or Carteria lacca) dissolved in alcohol used as a sealant, adhesive, or insulating varnish. (sciencedirect.com)

Since shellac is dissolved in alcohol, that means it dissolves in alcohol. I don’t mind working with alcohol. I moistened a make-up removal pad in 95% ethyl alcohol and started rubbing the stummel. Yay! The pad started to turn a yellowish brown. That means that the finish was most likely shellac and it would be easy to remove. Shellac also will dissolve in acetone. I did that too for the photos below (left is ethyl alcohol, right is acetone).

I continued to rub the surface and found that the grooves and depressions held more finish than I was able to remove with the pad. That meant that I needed to give the stummel a soaking. Fortunately I keep canning jars with ethyl alcohol (EtOH) and acetone for this very purpose. Into the ethyl alcohol (ethanol/EtOH) bath it went.

Sidenote: The acetone bath looks cloudy because the last restoration I did had a very large area that was filled with some filler that only seemed susceptible to acetone. Check out the Waldorf Restoration if you want to see that mess.

Shellac does not take very long to dissolve, especially when it has already been softened by the wet pads. I figured that I wouldn’t need to leave it there for more than 30 minutes. That was plenty of time to get started on the stem.

I looked at the stem. I remember reading Steve Laug’s “Nightmare” blog about his Greenwich House Antique pipe. His

“Nightmare” began with the removing the stinger from his pipe. I tentatively prepared for the worst. I retrieved my stinger extracting tool, and did the “please don’t break dance”. A firm grip, little twist right, little twist left, wiggle, wiggle. Oh that was the motion I was using with the tape wrapped pliers, NOT the dance. I guess I should have made that more clear. The stinger in this pipe was wonderfully well behaved. Filthy and coated with yuck but well behaved. I placed it into a medicine cup with more ethanol to loosen up the yuck..

Next I used 0000 steel wool on the stem. I vigorously rubbed, trying to get the worst of the oxidation off the stem or at least get it mad so that it would come out and fight the deoxidizing solution.

I placed a pipe cleaner into the button of the stem to suspend the stem in the Deoxidizing Solution. This sem was heavily oxidized so, I figured it would have to be in the solution for two hours or overnight. I would check on it in an hour. A motto that I am rather fond of is: “Expect the worst, that way you are never disappointed.” The stem went into the deox bath.

Let’s go see how the stummel is doing. I returned to the EtOH jar and removed the lid. The alcohol is pretty dark from all the finishes that it has removed. I suppose it is about time for it to start a fire in the burn pit but it

was still working. After the EtOH bath I again rubbed the surface of the stummel with a moistened make-up pad and very little color came off – victory.

Now normally I would have to sand and then micro-mesh the stummel at this point. I didn’t want to do either of those things with this briar. It didn’t need that. The rugged look is what this old girl is all about. Well rugged except for those dings on the rim. Those have

got to go. I used two small wooden spheres wrapped in a small piece of 220 wet/dry sandpaper. The spheres only remove briar from the contact with the inside of the rim. This gives a nice even beveled appearance to the rim. I used two to make sure I got all of the deep dings with the smaller sphere and smoothed out the bevel with the larger sphere. I was mostly pleased with the ding removal.

At this point I slathered the stummel with Before and After Restoration Balm with my finger and thumb. Then I used a soft bristle baby toothbrush to work the balm into all of the nooks and crannies of the briar. I set the stummel aside and went to find something to do for a half hour. Oh yeah, I have laundry to attend to.

I returned after some chores and found that I’d left the stem soaking in the deox bath for about an hour and a half. If it looks like it needs more time, we’ll give it more time. I removed the stem and allowed most of the solution to drip off. I then placed it on a coarse shop rag and started to rub the solution from the pipe. The solution is viscous stuff that will absorb into the rag. The surface of the vulcanite seemed sticky. The vigorous rubbing removes the sticky surface and buffs it to a nice clean vulcanite. I ran two pipe cleaners through the airway to rid the internals of the solution. When I was finished I was surprised to see that most of the oxidation had been removed. I went to the workbench and applied a layer of mineral oil to the stem. I also dipped a pipe cleaner into the mineral oil and ran the oiled cleaner through the airway. This coating of oil should keep the vulcanite from further oxidizing.

I put the stem back on the stummel and took one photo with the still slathered balm and oiled stem.

I then wiped off the excess balm and took some photos to show the progress.

What is that? When did those become visible? I’ll be darned. There is another stamp, saying “IMPORTED BRIAR” just like on Steve Laug’s Greenwich. That is what his pipe said as well, although a slightly different stamp. Further evidence that this pipe is from the same location and time as his Greenwich.

At this point the stem had not received any sanding or micro-meshing. It also needs to have the stem and button rebuilt. That is the real reason I wanted this pipe. I saw the Ebay photos of a pipe with a chewed through mouthpiece. I wanted to try using black ultra violet (UV) resin to rebuild a mouthpiece (Big Reveal – as mentioned in paragraph 2). Thus the bidding, winning and restoring of this pipe.

You are insane. Why didn’t you just take a crosscut saw to an extra stem? You have bags of them. Then you could try your UV resin fixing that.

Yes, I could have. If I did it that way I would never have had the opportunity to meet this lovely old girl. Besides this gave me a reason to use the UV resin.

You’re an idiot.

An idiot with a purpose! I say.

If their arguing bothers any of you readers, let me know in the comments and I will try to shut them both up.

The real problem with the black UV resin is having to wait for it to arrive. I ordered the resin back on November 12. It is now November 27. I have this restoration write-up and the conclusion to the Pipe by Lee 3 star that I also want to use the resin on. I do hope that the readers are more patient than I am.

While waiting for the resin to arrive I decided to get as much done to the stem as I possibly could. The stem still had areas of brown peeking through. Stubborn patches that I tried treating with Soft Scrub on a make-up removal pad. The pad turned golden brown with rubbing. I continued with several pads and reapplications of Soft Scrub. I thought I was making progress until I returned the stem to the bright light of the workbench and could see that stubborn brown in places. I began thinking that perhaps another dunk in the Deoxidizing Solution would be the best course of action. I needed a break from trying to remove the oxidation from the stem.

I needed to develop a plan for the rebuilding of the button. Previously when rebuilding a stem I have used black cyanoacrylate (CA or super glue). I would fashion a dam out of a piece of thin plastic like a lid. I would then apply a thin coating of petroleum jelly to the plastic and insert the plastic into the stem. Sometimes I would have to shim the plastic dam with another piece of thin plastic. Once in place I would place a drop or two of the CA onto the dam, allow it to spread out and contact the vulcanite then I would spritz the wet CA with an accelerant to make it harden in seconds. I would repeat this until the CA was thick enough to begin shaping using files and sandpaper. My idea was to use the same process with the black UV resin. My hope is that the resin will be a little bit softer than the CA. The CA is much harder than the surrounding vulcanite and it does not have a pleasant feel to the teeth. I also do not like the seam where the CA meets the vulcanite. This seam, in my experience, will allow the buildup of oxidized vulcanite and will start to appear brown after a couple of years.

I have high hopes for the black UV resin even though I have not read anything about it being used for stem repair. I have used the clear UV resin in fly tying to make the heads of minnow imitation streamers. It works

wonderfully. It is tough and durable. In reading about the the product is also considered nontoxic and used frequently in jewelry making and for children’s toys. Here are a few streamers I have tied using clear UV resin. I also tried a stem repair on an old Peterson 312 where years of pipe cleaners had worn through the vulcanite from the inside in a stem. The clear UV resin sealed the hole but left a “window” through which you could see a pipe cleaner.

The below photos show the dam I made from a plastic lid for the Greenwich

House pipe. I used an Exacto knife and kitchen shears to fashion the plastic lid. As you can see in the photos each dam needs to be cut to fit the stem that you are working on. I have made generic dams but they usually cause me to do more filing and sanding than for a custom made dam for each specific pipe. I then tested the lid to see if the clear UV resin would adhere to the surface of the lid by applying a drop to the lid, curing it with the UV flashlight then applying pressure to the side to see if it moved.

I was very happy to find that the resin did not stick to the plastic lid. You can see from the photos that the cured drop moved on the surface of the lid freely and then moved to the pipe nail. This would eliminate the step of applying petroleum jelly to the plastic. I was feeling even more excited about using the black UV resin if only it would get here.

The stem was returned to the workbench and introduced to the sandpaper. I started with 400 wet/dry sandpaper to smooth the rough patches and to remove any remaining oxidation. Every time I thought I had gotten rid of the oxidation, I would apply a drop of Obsidian Oil and wipe – there would still be a touch of brown. Augh – the joys of old vulcanite. My thought was to get it as good as possible then when the black UV resin arrived I could paint a light coat over the button-ward third of the stem thus sealing the vulcanite and stopping oxygen from getting to the vulcanite. This would then be blended by sanding and micro-meshing to form a continuous flowing finish. Well, that was the imagined outcome, anyway.

The Black UV resin finally arrived (November 28). I tested it and found it wanting in regards to what I need it to do. If you would like to see what I did to test the Black UV resin please see the A Restoration of a Pipe by Lee Restoration. I was disappointed but I was not beaten. I had my old clear UV resin (and a new idea) and if that failed I had the fall back tried and true black CA.

The old clear UV resin has the problem of being clear. Before I discovered black CA glue, I used to mix carbon powder into the clear CA and build up layers of CA to fill dents or rebuild a button. I thought I might be able to do the same thing with the UV resin. I needed to test the carbon powder and clear UV resin. To do this I took an extra vulcanite stem and drilled a hole in it right behind the button.

  Next I mixed carbon powder into the Thick Clear UV resin. I put the plastic dam cut earlier into the airway and applied a thin layer of the mixed UV resin into the hole. I then cured it with the UV flashlight.

It seemed to be working. The airway remained clear and the hole had been sealed eliminating the need for the dam in further applications. I continued with another this layer of the UV and carbon mixture. I curing this second layer as with the first.

After curing the second application I filed the high spots (light areas on the above photo). I then repeated the process with a third layer.

From the photo above, you can see that I filed the surface of the third layer. I repeated the process with a fourth layer.

The above layer had been filed smooth then sanded with 220 sandpaper. I was now sure that the UV resin mixed with carbon powder would work to fill the chewed-through area of the Greenwich stem. Test successful!

I inserted the dam and proceeded with the first layer on the Greenwich stem.

Apologies for the lighting. The workbench is not set up to be a very good photo studio. The UV resin and carbon were working. I had to use thin layers as the carbon powder absorbs the UV light from the flashlight and does not allow the light to pass as deeply into the resin as when it is clear. Slow and steady. Another layer.

This layering of the resin continued for several additional layers.

Eventually I got to the point where I was needing to build up the rise of the button. I continued building up the area, curing the resin, filing the result and applying additional layers.

The best part about the UV resin is that it is much easier to work then the black CA. I could file and sand it in less than ¼ of the time it would have taken me to do the same thing with CA. Now, how well the UV resin will hold up to extend clinching and cleanings is another question altogether. I have high hopes for this method of repair.

I worked through the sanding and micro-meshing of the stem. These shorter thick stems are easier to polish than the long bent stems of say a Peterson. The 200 and 400 sandpapers were used first (wetted) followed by the 1500 (wet) and 1800(wet) micro-mesh pads. In between each pad I would apply a light coat of Obsidian Oil and wipe it with a paper towel. I then worked through the set of micro-mesh pads (dry) from 2400-12000 with the Obsidian Oil between each pad. Once finished with those I used white diamond buffing compound on the buffing wheel to polish the entire stem. After the white diamond buffing, I rubbed any remaining compound off with a shop cloth and gave the stem a couple of coats of carnauba wax on the buffer.

The stem was then reunited with the stummel. Seeing them together nearly finished warmed my old heart. I returned them both to the buffer for their final coat of carnauba wax. After the wax I rubbed the whole pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth. It helped deepen the shine of the vulcanite but did little for the briar. The old girl then posed for some photos.

Overall, I am very pleased with this restoration. The disappointment of the black UV resin has mostly passed. I am now wondering about how the repair, using the UV resin and carbon powder will hold up to use. Another question I have been pondering is about the quality of the UV resin. The fly tying resin used in this restoration has proven to be insusceptible to alcohol while the new black UV resin was not. Perhaps I need to do some more product searching and testing. If you have had experience using UV resins or would like to know how this repair holds up please feel free to use the comments section. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

The finished photos of the Greenwich House pipe:
A Restoration of a Pipe by Lee Restoration

November 28th, 2023
Or, part two of a Pipe by Lee Restoration

Written and photographed by John M. Young

Welcome back. I was impatiently waiting to see what I’d do to fix that stemageddon from the first part of this restoration too. If this is your first time here to the blog, I am referring to “A Restoration of a Pipe by Lee”. In that blog I was adding the finishing touches to a stem by giving it more bend when the stem broke. I prefer not to use the words “when I broke the stem”. A bit too accusatory, eh? Anyway, after a great deal of pondering, a couple of conversations with Steve Laug and Donald Cole and a wee bit of rocking in a corner while sucking my thumb, I came up with a potential fix to the broken stem.

During my pondering sessions, I thought about; pinning the stem by drilling two small holes in each half and using something like copper wires in the holes or, using a small screw screwed into one broken half then cutting the head off the screw and screwing in the other half onto the screw or, using a tube to bridge the pieces, I also considered magic. I remembered a granddaughter telling me how to make pizza: You take some donuts, put them in a bowl, add some water, mix and – ta-dah – pizza. All of those had their merits but lining up the stem pieces seemed to me to be the issue. Except for the magic. The two broken pieces could be held together with a minimal seam. I needed to make sure this minimal seam was maintained by whatever method I chose for fusing them together.

Donald Cole showed me photos of a stem repair he did with a break that occurred at the tenon. He used a stainless steel “sleeve”. Here are some photos he provided (thank you Don).

I thought this sounded like it may be the easiest way to maintain the alignment of the pieces thus minimizing the scar that the fusion would undoubtedly leave behind. It would also allow for additional surface area for the glue to hold to. After researching stainless steel tubing, AKA shopping on Amazon, I found they had 3 mm inside diameter stainless steel tubing with an outside diameter of approximately 4 mm. That sounded like the best solution.

New plan. No rocking rocking in a corner nor thumbsucking needed.
1. Cut a piece of tubing .4 inches or 1 cm. Chamfer the inside and outside edges.
2. Drill out the existing 3mm airway to 4mm for approximately .2 inches or 5 mm.
3. Glue the inserted tubing in place with J. B. Weld
4. Glue the two broken pieces back together with black cyanoacrylate glue.
5. Ta-dah
The plan seemed simple enough although the implementation turned out quite a bit more complex. Little issues came up throughout the deployment.

Step #1. I figured that I would just use a pipe cutter to cut the stainless steel tubing. Problem: 4 mm tubing is too small to be held by my hands, it would

just spin. When I tried to hold it with pliers it would spin in the jaws also. Not wanting to crush the tubing I ended up using the Dremel tool and a cut-off disk. I then used the pliers to hold the tube while I deburred the inside of both ends with the dremel and a deburring bit. After that I used

the Demel and the grinding bit to give the outside edges just a bit of chamfer. Alright! Step one complete. .348’ish inches or 8.84’ish mm.

Step #2 “Drill out the existing 3mm airway to 4mm for approximately .2 inches or 5 mm.”

Again, this sounds simple, right? With a drill press and multi-axis clamp, it perhaps would have been. I have neither of those very cool devices. I decided to make a jig or clamp for my drill. I used a 44 inch long 2×6 board and a come-along strap. Why a 44 inches long 2×6? Umm, because that’s what was in the garage and I figured that would add stability. Next I figured where I wanted the come-along ratchet to be located, wrapped the nylon strap around the drill, stapled the nylon strap to the 2×6 and – ta-dah – instant sideways drill push? Definitely not a drill press.

This lathe-wannabe device required my hand to be the chuck and only a 2 jawed chuck at that. I needed something that I could slide and help me hold the broken pieces as I drilled out the airway to 4 mm. I tried various things that I had around. ¾ inch plywood too short, 2×4 too tall, 2 ceramic tiles stacked too short, 3 ceramic tiles too tall, etc… Then I tried a plastic snus container – ta-dah – just right.

Next I had to measure exactly the depth of the new drilling. I did this by dividing the length of the tube by two. .348 2 = .174 inch or 8.84 2 = 4.42 mm. Using the caliper I marked the drill bit with a Sharpie marker. I then wrapped a piece of tape around the bit at this mark.

This was starting to look like it was going to work. I did not want to have the first time that I used this high tech piece of engineering to be with the only broken stem that I had. In the unlikely event something were to go wrong with an untested piece of equipment with an equally untested operator, I thought maybe, I should try this with something other than the ONLY stem I have. I found an extra stem that was close to the same size and broke it. Well actually, I tried and couldn’t so I clamped it in a vice and broke it with a pair of pliers.

Side note – Now if you are thinking, “Hey, he is doing product placement for Craftsman!”. I assure you that I am not. However, if you are with the fine people of Craftsman Tools, please have your people get in touch with me.

Now with a test subject “broken” stem I tried to expand the airway with the drill and a 4 mm drill bit. I set the drill to is fasted revolutions per minute (rpm). “Why the fasted?”, you ask. Because the drill has a button that you can use to lock it in that position/speed. I then started pushing the broken bit forward. It went very smoothly for the first 1 mm then the bit caught and jerked the piece in my hand and broke the broken piece even further. I noticed two things:

1) My high-tech snus-can-hand-rest deployment system was not sliding freely.

2) High rpm may not be the best choice. Just because there is a button locking the trigger in place doesn’t make it the best speed to use.

I returned to the 2×6 drill base and decided that a wrapping of wax paper would make the can slide smoothly. This was taped in place using 2 inch painters tape. Next, I practiced using my right hand on the trigger of the drill while moving the stem piece with my left. Good thing there are two pieces when you break a test stem in half.

I began the test drilling again with the thicker of the two test stem pieces. The wax paper worked exactly like I had hoped. The slow turning of the drill bit allowed me greater control. When the drill bit started to bite and the piece started moving too much I could quickly stop. Twist the piece off the bit and readjust my speed. I was very glad that I had tried drilling the airway with a sample before I moved on with the real thing. Here are a couple photos of the test fitting after the test drilling:

The actual drilling went very smoothly using the above process. I used the 4 mm bit and slowly increased the airway diameter in each stem piece. A test fit of the stainless steel tube (tube, from now on) was good, a little tight, and the seam along the break was very close. Not as good as with no tube. This was due to the drill bit not being precisely centered into the previous airways. I decided that instead of drilling the airway at 4 mm, I would increase it one drill bit size. The next largest bit that I have is 11/64 or .172 inch or 4.37 mm. I placed that bit in the chuck, marked the drill bit with marker and taped it to mark the depth. This drilling also went very smoothly. Now when test fitting the tube I had more wiggle room to align the two pieces together. I figured that the extra space would also allow for a bit more epoxy when it came time for gluing.

Wow, I just realized that was only the end of step #2. Good thing Steps #3 and #4 go together.

Steps #3 & #4

That brings me to a couple more “pre-glue” tasks. During an email exchange with Steve Laug concerning this stem. He recommended bending the stem before gluing it back together. In my life I have learned that there are two main ways to acquire knowledge; one is to do it yourself and learn from doing (mistakes) and two is to listen to others who have done what you are attempting before. Also in my experience one of these methods is free and doesn’t hurt (physically or economically) while the other costs in many ways. I took Steve’s advice and tried to bend the short, 2 inch, piece of stem. I knew it would not be the bend that I had really wanted for this pipe but it would be far more comfortable than it presently was.

I used the heat gun to heat the stem piece moving it constantly a few inches in front of the heat gun nozzle. Since this piece was so short, I used a needle-nose pliers with painters tape wrapped around each of the jaws. When the piece flexed freely I bent it as much as I felt comfortable with and called it good. Apologies for not photographing the bent nub. The other task was to roughen up the tube with a bit of 220 sandpaper. I hoped that this would increase the surface area and give the epoxy a better surface to adhere to.

It was time to get to gluing. I assembled all the necessary gear; acetone, black cyanoacrylate (CA), cotton swabs, J.B. Weld, mixing tray, pipe cleaner, stem pieces, tube. The plan not quite simple but, close:
1. Clean the break surfaces with cotton swab and acetone.
2. Mix epoxy.
3. Apply epoxy to the drilled holes.
4. Insert tube and push together leaving a small gap for the CA.
5. Apply CA one drop to each side in the gap.
6. Align seam press and hold tight for 30 seconds.
7. Dampen pipe cleaner with acetone and run through airway to wipe away any epoxy that may have gotten in airway.
It went pretty much as planned. There were of course a couple of hitches. There was a bit of epoxy on the break surfaces after the tube was inserted. I used the swab and acetone to wipe these clean again. The other was that I ran several acetone dampened (just slightly damp) pipe cleaners through the airway. I set the stem aside to allow the glues ample curing time. I swore not to touch it until morning. Well, not touch it again after photographing it.

In the morning it seemed to have set very nicely. I took the stem down to the workbench and started sanding the seam. CA is harder than vulcanite and required the sandpaper to be wrapped around something. I use small wood block or even an emery board, like for finger nails. I also used emery boards of various grits. I worked the seam with 220 sandpaper initially then moved to 400. After the 400 O used an emery board to smooth and blend the surface. Notice that I did not use the entire set of micro-mesh pads.

Final touches to this Pipe by Lee. The three stars logo on the stem needed to be restored. This required acrylic gold paint applied with a very fine detail brush. The excess was scraped off with an edge of an Exacto knife blade. The

surface was then micro-meshed. This allowed only the paint inside of the stars to remain. The surface of the stars and the area around, about 2 mm one each side was then painted with thin clear ultra violet (UV) resin. The resin was set by shining the light from a UV flashlight.

Now here is the real reason this blog has taken so long to be finished. By the way, thank you for your patience. I wanted to try something new. The new thing is black ultra violet (UV) resin. I have tried using UV resin with a Peterson 312 stem. The previous lover of the Peterson ran countless pipe cleaners through the stem. Which is normally a good thing however, the pipe cleaners’ sharp edges had cut into the inside top of the airway and had thinned the vulcanite so much that a hole had developed. When I received the pipe I was able to fill the hole using carbon powder mixed with cyanoacrylate (superglue or CA). After the initial hole was sealed I built up an elongated ridge of CA which was sanded to blend in rather nicely. This patch had lasted for a couple of years. The other day a new elongated hole opened up towards the shank, in line with the previous hole. I decided to try using UV resin to seal the hole and build up a new ridge. It worked. I was able to blend the UV resin quite nicely again with the existing vulcanite. The problem was that the UV resin that I used was clear. When the stem was in normal light everything looked normal but when a pipe cleaner was inserted

the white of the pipe cleaner showed through the clear UV resin like a window. This made me laugh and reminded me of the windows that veterinarians placed in cows’ stomachs. I then ordered black UV resin on November 14 as a way to cover the repair seam on the 3 star Pipe by Lee. Today is November 21. According to the tracking the Black UV resin has made it through customs but not yet to my house.

It finally arrived! November 28 and it finally ended the journey it began on November 14. I assembled all of the gear for the big event. I thought I’d better test the new stuff before I go using it though.

Test 1) Does it stick to the plastic? No. The drops separate pretty well from the plastic lid. Success

Test 2) Is it black? No, more like a clear smoke. Failure

Test 3) Will it adhere to vulcanite? Initial test looks good. Success?

Test 4) Is it sandable? Yes. Success, though it is much softer than the vulcanite. This softness makes seams with vulcanite problematic.

Test 5) Can it be exposed to alcohol? No. It began peeling from the surface of the vulcanite immediately. Failure

Verdict – Not approved for pipe restoration.

Greatly disappointed is a good way to describe my feelings towards the Black UV resin. I had very high expectations. I did still have my old clear fly tying

UV resin. It had been tested with the same procedures as above and I had given it my “Approved for pipe restoration” stamp.

The area around the seam where the two pieces were glued was then “painted” with the Thin Original-Clear UV resin. Once painted the stem was rotated by holding the aluminum stinger. Rotating it continuously between my fingers allows the UV resin, which is very thin, to flow. This rotating it keeps it evenly distributed. The UV resin is set by UV light from the flashlight.

I then sanded the resin using 400 wet dry sandpaper wrapped around a small foam block. The block gave the sandpaper the rigidity needed to sand the high spots of the cured resin. Once smooth I used the micro-mesh pads. 1500 and 1800 wet used moistened with water. Between each pad I applied Obsidian Oil with my fingers and wiped it with a paper towel. I then proceeded to use the entire set of micro-mesh pads in order of increasing grit. Between each pad I again applied and wiped the Obsidian Oil.

After the micro-mesh pads the stem was polished with Fine then Extra Fine Polish. These were applied to the stem with my finger then buffed with a clean cotton cloth. I then reattached the stem to the stummel and took the pipe to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. I polished the entire pipe with a microfiber cloth to further deepen the shine.

This was only the second time I have tried to use the UV resin as part of a stem restoration. I have used UV resin for years in tying flies for fishing. It is used to build heads on certain patterns and used to cover over areas where extra protection is desired like over the tops of plastic eyes on a fly.

The resin has proven very hard and resistant to scratching. I thought that this would make it a desirable product to add to the pipe restoration. I have not yet seen anyone use it in the restoration of pipes. How well it holds up to the wear and tear on a vulcanite pipe stem has yet to be determined. Feel free to ask me in the comments section how the product does over time.

This restoration began with me thinking, “this should be an easy restore” and it was until the stem break. Overall, I am pleased with the restoration of this pipe. I am not happy with the bend of the stem but that is going to have to be acceptable. I hope that you have found my mistakes and the remedy for them helpful and/or entertaining. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. And, ta-dah, the finished Pipe by Lee 3 three star bent billiard photos:
A WDC Waldorf Restoration

November 24th, 2023
Written and photographed by John M. Young

Waldorf you say. Isn’t that the brand that everyone has heard of? That great artisanal craftsman from way up in the mountains of the Danish Low Lands? Umm no, not that guy. Okay, I confess that my stock box of pipes to restore has dwindled as of late. I was focusing on specific brands and shapes and not picking up estate lots over the past couple of months. I still completely love descending down to my basement work area to diligently ignore my daily chores while restoring just about any old pipe. I also confess that I am not yet independently wealthy, something that is a bit difficult to obtain on a public school teacher’s salary and now pension. Regardless, the muse directed me to this abandoned and ignored little pipe. I have no recollection of when I got it nor from where. I am assuming it was part of an estate lot or perhaps a pipe in a grab bag from Steve Laug’s partner in restoration Kenneth. I did purchase a mystery bag from Kenneth once, great fun, that. They are occasionally available at https://rebornpipes.com/rebornpipes-store/pipe-restoration-grab-bags-tools/# If you want to give this restoration thing a go.

Here was what I pulled from the box.

Nice deep blast.

That’s odd. What kind of cheap briar did these poor Italians have to work with?

Some oxidation on the stem and a few tooth marks.

A little lava but no sign of charring.

Hey, I recognize that upside down triangle. That is the WIlliam Demuth and Company logo. A quick search on W-Wd — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) confirmed my observation.

(W-Wd — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

The Waldorf brand pipes appear to have been just a stamp that WDC would stamp on low end imported pipes from Italy and France. Here is another Waldorf stamp from a different pipe.

(W-Wd — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

A little bit about WDC. William Demuth and Company was founded by William in 1862. According to Pipedia.org:

“(Wilhelm C. Demuth, 1835-1911), a native of Germany, entered the United States at the age of 16 as a penniless immigrant. After a series of odd jobs he found work as a clerk in the import business of a tobacco tradesman in New York City. In 1862 William established his own company. The William Demuth Company specialized in pipes, smoker’s requisites, cigar-store figures, canes and other carved objects.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company)

“In time, several trade journals called the company “the largest tobacco pipe manufacturers in the world,” and Demuth was identified as “the richest pipe merchant on the East Coast.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Demuth%E2%80%94Dunhill_Connection%3F)

“The company went through a period of changeovers. David A. Schulte (Schulte Cigar Stores) purchased the company in 1927. As of 1929, Demuth and S.M. [Samuel Morris] Frank were two of the five companies that controlled the domestic briar pipe industry. In 1937, Frank became Demuth’s president by purchasing the factory in Queens—to combine Frank (Kaywoodie pipes) and Demuth pipe production—and Demuth became a subsidiary company. The Company officially disappeared in 1972, but Frank continued to produce Wellington pipes from the Demuth factory until 1976; in the 1980s, the Wellington was revived for a brief time.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Demuth%E2%80%94Dunhill_Connection%3F)

As for the little darling that this blog is about, I can safely say that she has been sandblasted. When did pipe makers start blasting? There is some contention around that. It can be be stated without much argument that Dunhill was the first to utilize and market the technique Again Pipedia.org states the following:

“Dunhill did not fully develop the sandblasting techniques until the mid-1920s.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Dunhill%27s_Shell#:~:text=The%20blasting%20technique%20was%20invented,apply%20the%20concept%20in%20pipes.)

So, that brings in the dates 1920s -1972. Narrowing it down further would be conjecture. I can imagine that it would take several years for the industrial equipment and the capital to acquire it would reach smaller pipe makers throughout the pipe production area of southern France and Italy. Then you have the war years to contend with. With those factors in mind I think it would be safe to assume that this little Waldorf was likely made between 1950 and 1972.

Whatever became of the pipe manufacturing factory that WDC and S.M. Frank had built? Well there are still remnants of their past glory.

“In early 1937, the City of New York notified S.M. Frank & Co. of their intent to take by eminent domain, part of the land on which the companies pipe factory was located. This was being done to widen two of the adjacent streets. As a result of this, Frank entered into negotiations to purchase the Wm. Demuth Co.’s pipe factory in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. It was agreed upon that Demuth would become a subsidiary of S.M. Frank and all pipe production of the two companies would be moved to DeMuth factory. New Corporate offices were located at 133 Fifth Avenue, NYC.

Demuth pipes continued to be made at the Richmond Hill plant till December 31. 1972. Then the Wm. Demuth Company met its official end as a subsidiary company by liquidation.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company)

“Initially located downtown on Pearl St. and on Broadway near Duane St., S. M. Frank & Co. moved uptown to 17th St. in 1904, then to this building with entrances on both 21st St. and Broadway in 1912, where they remained for about 10 years. The sign, then, dates from this period, possibly as early as 1912 and no later than 1922.” (https://www.14to42.net/21street.html)

“The factory building in Queens became apartments, some of which have a magnificent view of Forest Park. The complex was converted into apartments in 1987, and is called the Park Lane South Condominiums.”

Queenswalk: William Demuth/S.M. Frank & Co. Factory in Richmond Hill (https://www.brownstoner.com/history/queenswalk-william-demuths-m-frank-co-factory-in-richmond-hill/)

Imagine the owners of one of those condominiums surprise when asked:. “Do realize that you live in the same place where most of the tobacco pipes made in the 1920s-30s were produced?” I’m sure their reaction would be a “so?” I’d like to think some people would say, “cool”.

To the restoration. As you can see from the photos the Waldorf was not in bad shape. It did have a weird looking patch of briar on the left side from the

stummel to the heel. It also had what looked like a thick coat of lacquer applied over the entire stummel. I removed the stem and set it aside. I began working on the tobacco chamber. I grabbed the PipNet reaming tool only to

find that the chamber was too large for the second size reaming blade and too small for the third size. This meant that the Scotte tool was the tool for this job.

The Scotte kind of worked. This bowl was slightly larger than the Scotte tool as well. I was able to use the Scotte by pushing it to one side of the bowl as I rotated the stummel. The remaining

cake had to be scraped with the SmokingPipes Low Country Knife. After the reaming I sanded the interior with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel.

Next stop on the restoration express was the sink for the Murphy Wood Cleaner and a toothbrush routine. The Murphy’s is used undiluted and the

toothbrush is a medium stiff bristle brush. The Murphy’s is rinsed with Warm water. While I was at the sink I put a little bit of Dawn dish soap on a nylon shank brush and worked it through the airway. I figured that since the tobacco chamber was not very badly caked that the shank might also be lightly coated with tar. The brush foamed up white then it quickly changed to brown. I worked the brush in and out and then spun in to have the bristles working in both directions. This was then rinsed with warm water and repeated. The third time the foam did not change color to the “chocolate milk” color so I assumed I was making progress. The final dish soap was again rinsed with warm water. The whole stummel was dried with a cotton dish towel with the tobacco chamber dried with a paper towel.

I returned to the workbench and poured about 3 ml of 99% isopropyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber. I let the alcohol slosh around in the chamber and move into the shank. I plugged the mortise end with a finger to keep the alcohol inside the stummel. I do this to allow the alcohol to pull some of the water out of the briar. 99% isopropyl or the 95% ethyl are very hydrophilic solutions. That means the water will readily leave the wood and dissolve into the alcohol. I think this speeds up the drying process significantly. I finished cleaning the airway and shank with alcohol soaked cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean.

This brings us to the stem. The tooth marks were small and not too deep so I tried to lift them by “painting” them with the flame from a disposable lighter. It helped but they might still require light filing and sanding.

I rubbed the entire stem with 0000 Steel wool to remove the surface oxidation and some of the rough area. Next I pushed a pipe cleaner into the stem from the tenon. This would be the hook from which I would hang the stem into the jar of Before and After Deoxidizing Solution.

I figured that I would leave the stem in the solution for an hour.

While the stem was in deox (like detox for people) I returned my attention to the stummel. I wanted to see what solvent would have the best effect at removing the layer of varnish that still covered the stummel. The 99% Isopropyl didn’t seem to do much to it so, I went for the acetone. I moistened a make-up removal pad with acetone and was very surprised at what came off of the stummel. I was like I was wiping off a layer of dark mud. The acetone would evaporate quickly from the pad, as acetone does but, while moist it removed something from the stummel. It was crazy. Where is this stuff coming from?

I thought “I’ve never seen this before.” I figured I’d just let the whole thing soak in acetone. I have canning jars with ethyl alcohol and acetone (EtOH

organic chemistry abbreviation for ethyl). I was still thinking that this was the lacquer finish. I thought, “Maybe back when this pipe was made they mixed the dye in the lacquer and killed two birds with one stone or spray.” I let the pipe soak and occupied myself with some of the chores I had been neglecting. After about 30 minutes I returned and pulled the stummel from the acetone jar. I put on a nitrile glove on my left hand. And started rubbing with the an acetone moistened make-up pad. “What the heck?” is all I could think. It was like the stummel was dissolving in my hand. I gave up on the pad and grabbed the brass wire brush (AKA 20 gauge shotgun bore brush), dipped it in the acetone and started scrubbing. “What is happening?” I

wondered. I was holding the stummel in my nitrile gloved hand with a paper towel to catch the liquid and solids that were coming off the stummel. The phot left shows the paper towel.

I let the whole mess evaporate and started to look closely at the stummel. Large areas that previously had no ring grain from sandblasting now had ring grain. “That can’t all be a fill?” I pondered. “Oh yes it can and it is!” I replied. I think the acetone fumes were making me loopy. I had to break up two altercations that were happening with the voices in my head.

I took the dental pick to the fill. Again, remember the photo with the circle?

The whole area was a fill. And it was not just a little surface fill of a mm or two deep. Oh no, it was at least 6 mm at the deepest. The filler that was used had either been mixed with the lacquer or the lacquer had penetrated into the putty, all the way down to the briar. It was only soft when wet with acetone. Once the acetone evaporated it returned to hard putty/fill. I soaked the stummel again for 15 minutes. After removing it from the acetone I went quickly with the brass brush trying to maximize my time before the putty hardened back up. The next three photos I called “Scrub 1” as I was labeling them.

You can still see places where the lighter pink colored fill is still present in some of the depressions. I repeated this another two times. The later times I also used the dental pick to loosen larger area, I would get pieces off that

were 2-3 mm in size. I did not know how to proceed. These were uncharted waters, for me. I took the stummel to the sink, thinking,

“Maybe some Murphy’s and a toothbrush would help”. I started arguing with myself again,

“What are you doing, dummy?”

“I’m trying to use soap.”

“Yeah, did it do anything different THIS TIME? You already did that, dummy.” I blame the acetone fumes.

I went back to the workbench and tried ethyl alcohol instead of isopropyl. That seemed to work about as well as the acetone. Good thing I did not have any methyl alcohol. I probably would have forgotten the glove and absorbed just enough to blind one eye.

There were many dippings on the brass brush in acetone and scrubbings. There were many pickings with the dental pick. There were probably more arguments with myself. In the end. I called these next two photos “Scrub 2” when labeling them:

Oh no, the stem is still in deox! It had been in there for over two hours. In my acetone crazed state I had completely forgotten about it. I went to retrieve the stem from the solution. I was still there. It had not completely dissolved. Whew.

I lifted the stem by it’s hook and let it drip off most of the solution. I placed the wet stem on the coarse shop rag used for deoxidation solution removal. I then rubbed vigorously until the stem no longer had any solution on it. I then place two pipe cleaners through the stem moving them side to side and the button to get all the solution from the button.

The stem looked good but I could still see a few places that had the tinge of brown rather than the black of non-oxidized vulcanite. I took two make-up removal pads and dosed one with a dollop of Soft Scrub. I rubbed the stem in a non friendly fashion trying to scrub off the remaining oxidation. After the Soft Scrub scrub, I coated the whole stem with mineral oil. I also ran a mineral oil wetted pipe cleaner through the airway.

The stem was at a place where I could leave it and get back to the stummel. I had soaked and scrubbed, soaked and picked, soaked and scrubbed some more all for a pipe that I would never sell to someone.

I had visions of what had happened in that little pipe workshop in Italy. The father was showing his son how to use the new sandblaster. He explained about the pressure, nozzles, and blast medium. He diligently went over all of the safety equipment and features.

“Stop, wait a minute. Next you are going to tell them he discussed the material safety data sheet. There were no MSDS in 1950.”

“Stop arguing with me, this is my vision.”

“Yeah, your stupid vision.”

Hmm, I wonder if acetone poisoning causes permanent brain damage.

“You already got brain damage, dummy.”

And the son, being the fine young man that he was, paid apt attention to it all. His father said, “Son, your mother needs an expensive operation that we can only afford if we sell all of the pipes.” “Yes, Pappa” replied the son.

“Hey why did everybodys’ mom need expensive surgeries in 1950?”

“I don’t know, but they did.”

“OK, go on with your story then.”

There was Sonny, blasting away with the new equipment, feeling like a responsible real young man. When Ophilia walked by the large front shop window or, should I say sauntered by the front window. Sonny’s eyes couldn’t help but follow that seductive swaying form. In that moment of distraction, the blast had cut too deep for the accepted norms of those times. Father shrieked in terror and fell to his knees. “Oh my wife, I cannot go on raising this boy without you” he wailed. The son grabbed the filler putty and screamed “No Pappa, I can fix it. See, Mamma, will get the operation and live.”

Good story, eh?

“Yeah, you got the brain damage.”

I decided to lightly top the rim of the pipe. I did this using a piece of 400 wet/dry sandpaper on the counter top. I moved the stummel in a circular path rotating my grip on the stummel to evenly distribute the force of the sanding. After that I thought about filling the numerous sand pits. Then I thought “The last thing this pipe will ever need is more fills. Leave it.” So I did.

I started thinking about what shade of brown to use. I thought of a nice dark brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye as a base color with maybe a light brown for the high areas after I sanded away the dark brown from the high spots. It sounded good. I assembled the staining gear. Nitrile gloves, a lighter, a folded

pipe cleaner for an applicator, the dye and my make-shift duct tape wrapped fishing bobber to plug the tobacco chamber and act as a handle. All of this was placed on an upside down plastic container to protect my counter top from spills.

The Process of staining a stummel is pretty straightforward:
1. Place a wine cork (or bobber in my case) into the tobacco chamber to keep the dye from getting in there and to act as a handle.
2. Fold a pipe cleaner in half as the dye applicator.
3. Put on nitrile gloves. (Trust me on this one)
4. Dip the folded part of the applicator into the dye and apply liberally to the stummel.
5. After all the exterior of the stummel is wet with dye, Strike a flame with the lighter or a lit candle and light the wet dye on fire.
6. Avoid running around with the blue flaming stummel trying to show someone how cool it looks.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 as desired.
Well, at least that is what I did. Here are some photos:

I neglected to get a photo of the flames as I was busy running around looking for someone to show how cool it looks. I set the stummel aside to let the dye do what it does to the briar for about an hour.

After the dye had dried and set, I dampened a make-up pad with 99% isopropyl alcohol to wipe away any dye then was still on the surface of the stummel. I did not want any dye to pass from the stummel to a person’s hands while they were handling the pipe. The pad came back very well stained with excess dye, so I repeated it with another pad.

Here are some photos of the stained stummel:

I tried to lightly sand the high spots and expose unstained wood underneath. This met with complete failure. The high areas seemed to have absorbed the dye deeply into the wood. I scrapped the idea of highlighting with another color and called this shade of brown “perfect”. I vigorously rubbed the entire stummel with a clean dish towel to make sure that no dye remained. I then used my fingers to apply a relatively thick coat of Before and After Restoration Balm to the stummel. I used a soft bristle toothbrush to work the balm into all of the low spots. I let the balm do it’s magic on the stained briar for 20-30 minutes. After this time I used an inside out athletic sock to buff away the extra balm. Below are the photos of the stummel at this point.

I took two additional photos of the stummel in the sunlight.

The last task was to rid the stem of the tooth chatter and micro-mesh and polish it. All of my diligent photography fell short of documenting this stage of the restoration. “Hey, claim the brain damage made you do it. Or, not do it.” The mineral oil was wiped off the stem. I had already painted the tooth chatter with a lighter earlier. I did not think that the remaining tooth chatter was deep enough to require rebuilding the stem or filling of the dents with cyanoacrylate. I used an emery board to remove material around the dents

on both sided of the stem. I moved the board in a circular motion rather than in straight lines. After reshaping the area around the dents I used a finer grit emery board to start removing the scratches from the coarser grit again using small circles. I then turned to the 220 sanding pad and sanded the area. The button also needed to be slightly reshaped to define it’s edges. I used the emery board here as well followed by sanding with the 22 sanding pad.

Happy with the dent removal and button redefining, I moved on to the micro-mesh pads. I started with the 1500 and 1800 pads wet. In between

each pad I would apply a drop of Obsidian oil, rub it around with my fingers and wipe it with a clean make-up pad. I used the pads in order from the 2400-

12000 dry. Again repeat the the Obsidian Oil rub between each micro-mesh pad. I took the stem to the buffer and buffed it with white diamond buffing compound. Normally I use the Before and After Fine followed by the Extra Fine polish. I wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference between the two methods. I could not determine a difference. After buffing I used a cloth to wipe any buffing compound from the stem. I reattached the stem and gave the entire pipe a couple of coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

This was a fun and surprising restoration. I had never come across fills of this magnitude and extent. I In the end I have a pipe that I will probably give to someone who has a real love for the deep sandblast finishes. Thank you for reading the ramblings of this old pipe lover. If you like this content please hit the “like” and or “subscribe” buttons. You will be alerted when a new post is published and be the first to read another ramble.

Below are the photos of the finished Waldorf.
A Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B)? Churchwarden Restoration

November 23rd, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

The first time I ever publicly wrote anything about pipe restoration was in a forum at SmokingPipes.com back on October 21 2022. I guess I was feeling pretty proud of myself and wanted to brag a little. I titled the post “You did what to a what with a what?” The following is that post in its entirety:

It was bound to happen: I finally got a Ropp cherry wood branch with an auction and no, that was not the pipe in the lot I wanted. Anyway, the old Cherry was kind of cute. I felt obliged to give her a little bit of love. A little bowl reaming followed by the old Murphy’s oil soap with a toothbrush routine and the obligatory removal of the electrician tape in front of the mouthpiece revealed a – dramatic pause – a cracked shank. Who saw that one coming? Hmm, how much obligation do I really have for this old girl? I mean, we just met…

Well, lets see how bad the crack is. Hmm, half an inch. Internet search for a ring shows that the Vermont Freehand boys are going to be in Las Vegas for a few days and this old Cherry needs a doctor “stat”. What else could I use? Hey, what is that old .357 cartridge doing in my pipe cleaning tool box? The caliper says that .375 would require a whole bunch of file work and sanding to make a ring. Hmm, last time I checked a .44 Mag case is wider than a .357. Wheels turning, let’s visit the reloading bench. Sure enough, a .44 is bigger than a .375 and would only require a little bit of filing and sanding. Hmm, now all I need is a son-in-law who is a plumber with a pipe cutter. Oh yeah, he’ll be home at 4:30. Snippity snap I have a .44 cal, I mean a brass ring for the patient. Doctor, I think she is going to pull through.

I hope you had as much fun reading as I did restoring this old Cherry. And for the record, she smokes pretty well.

From south east NE,

John

I am guessing that you can relate if you have purchased an estate lot or two. You get that pipe with tape around the shank right there at the mortise. You think to yourself, “I bet the previous owner just liked tape.” Yup, da Nile is a river in Africa. Then you carefully peel the tape off, certain that if you go slowly the crack will have healed over time, you continue, slowly, slowly.

Visions of Brad Pitt pop into your head. You continue undaunted, a little more. Then there it is in all of its eldritch horror. – a shank crack. You are sure that the crack is so large the previous owner probably fell into it and may still be trapped down there.

Okay, maybe I have a tendency to over exaggerate – the Nile is mainly in Egypt. But, the rest is exactly how I felt the first time I discovered a shank crack. Learning to deal with them allows our darlings to live again regaining some of their smokey glory. After having glued and clamped one successfully. I thought, “this isn’t so bad”. That first glue job is still together after well over 2 years.

Then you find another crack and try to fashion a band and that works out pretty well too. You try a few more and sure enough, shank cracks are just another little thing that we have to deal with. I still recommend checking to make sure the previous owner isn’t trapped in there before you glue and clamp it up.

That brings us to the pipe of the day, a lovely old KB&B churchwarden (?) with a metallic tape shank. Not just scotch tape for this girl, no sir. Real duct

tape. And under that tape, you guessed it – a shank crack. I failed to take a picture of just the crack so you get to see what I did to the end of the crack.

Sorry if that kind of ruined the surprise. I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start with the photos of the pipe when she arrived:

She’s a long one, coming in at just under 12 inches (30ish cm)an she had all of the things that you expect from an old pipe: Dirt and grime, a caked bowl, lava on the rim, an oxidized stem, dents and dings, dirty internals and a cracked shank. Now the title of this blog contains a question mark because the stummel is not stamped with the KB&B clover nor with KB&B anywhere. The only stamping on the stummel is the “CHURCHWARDEN”. There is no country of manufacture (COM) nor any shape number. So, “why are you calling her a KB&B?”, you rightfully ask. Because the logo on the stem matches the logo for Kaufman Bros. & Bondy from their pre Kaywoodie days.

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Bros._%26_Bondy)

It is also true that there were two KB&B seconds brands which also used this logo. The first is Dorset. Here you can see the same logo but in light blue.

(Do-Dq — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

The second is the Hamilton, here the logo is in yellow. The yellow looks to be the same as the first emblem pictured.

(H-Hd — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

Both the Dorset and the Hamilton are stamped with the KB&B cloverleaf. It does bother me that there are no other stampings on this churchwarden to verify this claim. According to the KB&B page at Piedia,

“The trademarks, for the inlaid cloverleaf and the cloverleaf with the KB&B initials inside, were issued in 1881.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Bros._%26_Bondy)

KB&B had used the cloverleaf logo for many years prior to the origination of Kaywoodie and Yello-Bole.

This could have been an old stem that was slapped onto some no name stummel at any point in the previous century. I am not claiming that this is a true Pre-WWI or WWII KB&B and listing it up for auction. This is a pipe that I enjoyed working on and continue to enjoy smoking. As for the history of the piece, It may be lost to the mists of time.

To the restoration. I apologize in advance for the lack of step by step photos. This was another of my earlier restorations before I started proper documentation.

The first thing that I did was to remove the tape. I think I covered that ordeal pretty well earlier. The crack was approximately one half an inch (1.25 cm) long. Normally I will ream the tobacco chamber first but, I wanted to see to this crack. The tape must have been applied shortly after the shank had cracked and the owner applied a good amount of force when taping the shank back together. They had obviously enjoyed smoking this pipe and tried to the best of their ability to fix her up and get her back into the game. There was very little debris in the crack.

I started cleaning out the airway with cotton swabs dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. They were pretty dirty. I then poured about 3 ml of the alcohol into the bowl and held the pipe at an angle that would not dump the alcohol all over the workbench. I retrieved a small nylon shank brush. With the alcohol pooled up in the shank, I started scrubbing with the brush. You could feel the alcohol doing its job as the brush became more and more easy to move back and forth. I dumped the alcohol into a medicine cup knowing the color would be dark, it was. I poured another 3 ml of alcohol in and repeated the airway scrub. This time the alcohol came out more brown than black. I repeated the process again and the alcohol was more golden. Progress. After the third alcohol shank scrub I then was able to use the cotton swabs to finish cleaning out the airway. I figured that all of this alcohol would also be cleaning out and rinsing the crack as I was cleaning the airway. I used a longer bristle brush to work alcohol into the crack and clean it out as well as I could. I used the fine dental pick to see if there was anything else that could be removed. The crack appeared clean.

I started on the tobacco chamber next. I used the PipNet reamer. All the alcohol had softened up the cake nicely and the reaming went without any

issues. I gave everything a final scrape with the SmokingPipes Low Country Reamer. The final step was to use 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel to return the chamber to bare briar and inspect for any damage. The interior of the chamber looked good and showed no signs of damage.

I then took the stummel to the sink for its bath. The bath is a serious scrub with undiluted Murphy Wood Cleaner and a medium stiff toothbrush. This

will usually remove the years worth of dirt and accumulated grime. Again the lava on the rim had also been softened by all the alcohol from earlier and it too scrubbed off nicely. The rim did look like it was in need of a topping as the years of use had given it a charred taper rather than a nice sharp edge. After the Murphy’s scrub the stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.

The stummel returned to the workbench looking clean and finish free. I started to rub down the stummel with cotton make-up removal pads soaked in 99% isopropyl alcohol. There did not appear to be any finish remaining on the briar. I wanted the wood to be completely dry before addressing the crack so, I set it aside and turned my attention to the long churchwarden stem.

Typically I would rub the length of a stem with 0000 steel wool and give it a soak for an hour or so in the Before and After Deoxidizing Solution. This stem was far to long to fit in the jar. Which meant that it would have to be done with Soft Scrub and cotton pads. The thought that made my finger start cramping in anticipation. I decided to make an OxyClean solution in a large ZipLock bag and soak the stem in the solution in an attempt at softening up the oxidized vulcanite. I put about a heaping tablespoon of OxyClean in about ¾ cup of warm water. Yes, I know, exact measurements are helpful. I figured that I’d let it soak for an hour then see how it was progressing.

The OxyClean soak did work at softening the oxidation. I set to work with the make-up removal pads and the Soft Scrub. Many pads later and a couple breaks, not of the stem but breaks for my hands, the stem was looking much better. I oiled the stem thoroughly with mineral oil and mentally prepared myself for the stem airway. Knowing how grimy the shank was I had kind of

https://www.piggypolish.com/channeling-scrubbing-bubbles/

been putting off the stem airway cleaning. I did hope that the OxyClean solution would have been like the scrubbing bubbles on the old commercials.

I got a medicine cup filled with about 5 ml of alcohol, a pipette for dropping more alcohol on the length of the pipe cleaner and a new bag of churchwarden bristle pipe cleaners. Long pipe cleaners work well if they do not get a bend in them. This means the you are pushing less than one centimeter at a time into the stem. It was a long and tedious process with many bent stems and additional drops of alcohol but I finally got one pipe cleaner through. I remembered seeing a

video somewhere about clamping the end of a pipe cleaner in a vice while holding the other end of the clamped cleaner and moving the stem up and down along the pipe cleaner. If I recall correctly the guy in the video was talking about polishing the airway. I did this with the churchwarden stem. I added additional alcohol to the top and slid the stem up and down on the clamped pipe cleaner. Several pipe cleaners later the airway was clean. The next job was to micromesh the stem. I started with the 1500 followed by the 1800 micro-mesh pads. These were both wetted with a couple of drops of water. After the 1500 I wiped the stem with Obsidian Oil before proceeding to the 1800. After the 1800 micro-mesh the Obsidian Oil was used again. The remaining pads were used in increasing numbers with Obsidian Oil applied between each pad.

The following day, after the stummel had dried overnight it was time to address that crack. To keep the crack from spreading I used the smallest drill bit I had and my Dremel rotary tool. I drilled a small hole at the end of the crack. This crack was wide enough that I thought J.B. Weld would be a better glue to use that cyanoacrylate (super glue). I then mixed the two part epoxy on a small plastic tray with a toothpick. I then worked the epoxy into the crack flexing it open and closed to allow the glue to penetrate the entire crack. Once i was satisfied with the coverage I used a small clamp to squeeze the sides together. To make sure there was no epoxy on the inside of the airway I used a couple of cotton swabs slightly moistened with acetone to wipe the excess glue from the airway. This was set aside to allow the epoxy to cure.

My next task was to cut a brass band. I thought that brass would look slightly better that the aluminum tape band that the pipe had on arrival. You my have noticed from the earlier photo of a few of my band projects they are made from spent cartridge brass. That was the source of my brass bands

prior to me actually buying several different diameters of brass tubing. In the case of this KB&B (?) I used a 44 Remingth Magnum spent cartridge (pun intended) as the donor. A pipe cutter was used to cut a piece that would cover the crack. The cutter is nice as it gives the brass a little bend to the cut end and softens the edge.

I allowed the epoxy to cure overnight before removing the clamp. The instructions say that the glue sets-up after 15 minutes but I wanted to make sure the the stress of the wood would not spread the still soft glue and widen the crack. The next day I removed the clamp and took a look at the glue seam.

It looked good. I sanded the excess glue on the outside of the stummel then sanded the area that would be under the band for a better fit. The band went on without glue as it was a very tight fit. I used a scrap wood block to press the band the final millimeters and t make it flush with the shank.

With the band seated all that remained was the final micro-meshing of the stummel. This process nearly the same as with the micro-meshing of the stem.. The difference was that rather than using Obsidian Oil between the micro-mesh pads I wipe the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with

99% isopropyl alcohol. After the 12000 micro-mesh pad and alcohol wipe I gave the stummel a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

After the wait time I rubbed the remaining Restoration Balm off with an inside-out athletic sock. I did not have a buffer at the time of this restoration. I did have Renaissance Microcrystalline Wax. The wax was applied and allied to dry to 10 minutes. The wax was then hand buffed with a buffing pad. This was repeated two additional times.

I have enjoyed smoking the this old pipe many times. I certainly understand why the Germans call churchwardens “lesepfeife”, which means reading pipe. They do make wonderful reading companions. Other benefits include not getting smoke into your eyes when reading, not having to reach all the way to your face for a pipe and looking wizardly. No, not like Gandalf. In the J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth books Gandalf did not use a long stemmed pipe. He had a small clay pipe that he tucked into his robe. We can thank Peter Jackson for the image of Gandalf with a long stem pipe. I don’t think I will ever be certain as to the pedigree of this churchwarden. KB&B or not? I don’t think it matters one bit to the pipe nor the tobacco and guess not me either. Thank you for reading the rambling of this old pipe lover. If you have any insights to the origin of this churchwarden please feel free to leave a comment. If you like this sort of thing please click the “like” and or “subscribe” buttons.

Below are photos of the finished KB&B (?) Churchwarden.
A Restoration of a Doodler

November 20th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

The quest for a cooler smoke may lie at the heart of mans’ needs. Needs such as water, food, shelter, a mate, love, companionship, are there too. Okay, maybe not the “heart” but, at least the appendix or the spleen of mans’ needs. This quest has led to many unique inventions. One of these is Tracy Mincer’s Doodler. Tracy Mincer was the originator of the Custom-bilt pipes in 1934. Interestingly, the same year that Robert Marxman began the Marxman pipes company. The history of Tracy Mincer’s contributions to the estate pipes which we have available today can still be seen. I have a saved search on Ebay that alerts me everytime a Custom-built or Custombilt (the hyphen was used until 1946) pipes are added to Ebay. Today, thus far, four new listings have come up.

There is what sounds like a remarkable book about the Custombilt company by William Unger, Jr., Ph.D. titled, THE CUSTOM-BILT PIPE STORY. Pipedia has information at the bottom of their “Custom-Bilt” page that states the following:

“Available from the author (order from). 263 pages, plastic spiral bound, 87 illustrations: pipe photographs and reproductions of rare ads and catalogs. Chapter One: The Companies; Chapter Two: The People; Chapter Three: The Pipes; A carefully researched history of these increasingly collectible pipes, from their beginning, with Tracy Mincer in 1929, to their last manufacture in 1998. A guide to the names and distinguishing features of the many different variations. Reviews by Richard Esserman, and Tony Soderman.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Custom-Bilt)

The “order form” link takes you to http://naspc.org/books.htm which unfortunately is not currently functioning. However the site does say. “This page is currently blank – we are working on bringing content here, so stay tuned in the future.” (http://naspc.org/books.htm) So, I will continue to check the site in hopes of a functioning webpage. The reviews by the above gentlemen, Esserman and Soderman, are also quite interesting and make me wish I could obtain a copy of the book.

As for the history of the Doodler, Pipedia states that:

“After his loss of the Custom-Bilt name in 1953, Tracy Mincer‘s next production pipe was The Doodler. The pipe was turned for Mincer by the National Briar Pipe Co. beginning in the early 1950’s, and that company eventually purchased the pipe design in approximately 1960. After that time Mincer’s former partner Claude Stewart began making a line of pipes called the Holeysmoke which were largely identical to the Doodler pipes, and National Briar continued to produce the Doodler. The pipe’s design centers around a series of vertically drilled holes in a ring around the combustion chamber, meant to provide airflow and a cooler smoke.” (The Doodler – Pipedia)

In reading the Mincer page at pipedia, parts of this passage funny,

“in the early 1950’s, Tracy Mincer developed severe financial problems that caused him to stop making the Custombilt, and he lost the name. In 1952, Mincer began a new pipe, The Doodler, that due to the holes in the bowl had to made primarily in a billiard type shape in three sizes. In the early 1950s, National Briar was turning the bowls for Mincer. Based upon the documentation, it appears that Mincer made the pipe until the mid 1960s, when National Briar Pipe Co., Inc. began making and selling the Doodler.

Mincer died in 1964.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Mincer)

Not to make fun of the deceased but rather the writer of the piece. Death in 1964 certainly would cause one to stop making pipes in the mid 1960s. Even after his death the Tracy Mincer name was still used to market and sell pipes.

“Claude Stuart purchased the Tracy Mincer Pipe Company and began making pipes using the Tracy Mincer stamp. Stuart finished nearly all the pipes produced, mostly carved and textured bowls and the occasional straight grain. Claude made the Tracy Mincer Pipe Company a moderate success. Stuart became ill and in 1990 The Tracey Mincer Pipe Company went out of business. Currently, Jim Tedesco owns the Tracy Mincer name.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Mincer)

The stamping on my Doodler was the same as those pictured on the Pipehil.eu site:

(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-t4.html#thedoodler )

This brings me to the conclusion that the pipe I have is a Doodler, profound, eh?. I cannot be sure as to when it was made since the years of manufacture were from 1953 -1960s. Mincer’s death in 1964 did not apparently end the production of Tracy Mincer’s pipes. I like to think that the pipe I own was an earlier version due to the carved gouges at the bottom of the stummel or heel. These are more reminiscent of the Tracy Mincer Custombilt pipes and may be a carry over from his experiences there. This of course is all just conjecture.

How did I come to own this particular Doodler? I won it on an Ebay auction. The pipe had piqued my interest and I had been watching auctions for a

couple of weeks. Finally I won the pictured auction. I know, big spender, right? Well, I am a big believer in the saying, “better luck than good, anyday.” The pipe arrived and I was quite pleased to see that the lighting in Ebay the photos were not very good and the pipe appeared far nicer than the photos.

This appeared to be a nice easy restoration. Actually, more of a clean-up. A clean-up with a stem restoration. I started with reaming out the tobacco chamber. There was minimal cake build up to remove. Sorry for the lack of photos – this whole process went so quickly I kind of forgot to document the it. After the minimal reaming I sanded the interior of the bowl with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel.

There was some charring or lava around the rim. I figured I would start with the Murphy Wood Cleaner and see what that revealed. The Murphys was applied to a medium stiff toothbrush undiluted. This was used to scrub the entire exterior, without the stem. As usual I was amazed at how much grime a pipe that looked so clean actually has. The deposits on the rim were just lava and came off easily with the scrubbing. I rinsed the stummel with warm water and dried it with a cotton towel. I returned to the workbench. The amount of rinsing was minimal and the bowl was spacious enough that I dried the stummel more thoroughly with paper towels. Getting into all of the spaces between the rings was tedious but easy to accomplish.

I did notice that the vertical holes drilled from the rim through the rings was not done with extreme care. Most of the holes were rough with slightly chipped edges. I figured a little bit of round needle filing would smooth them up a little bit making the final appearance more finished. I don’t think it made as much of a difference as I thought it would. Here are the before (left) and after (right) photos of the rim:

I then began the task of cleaning out the shank. The shank like the rest of the pipe was quite clean. I used cotton swabs soaked in 99% ethyl alcohol. The first couple came out as you would expect. The tars that had accumulated were quickly removed and the whole stummel had no old tobacco smoke aroma.

I turned my attention to the stem. The stem had obviously spent a good deal of time in someone’s mouth. There was teeth chatter, calcium deposits and an oxidation pattern suggesting frequent use. There were no deep dents

indicative of long periods of rough physical work while clinching a pipe between the teeth. I started imagining the owner of this Doodler sitting after dinner reading his paper while watching Leave It to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Before going off to bed he would tap the bowl on a cork knob in his ashtray then run a pipe cleaner or two through the stem. He would then carefully place his smoking buddy on a pipe rack and head to bed.

I used 0000 steel wool to rub away the calcium deposits and remove some of the worst oxidation. I then took the stem to the Deoxidizer solution. I ran a pipe cleaner into the stem from the tenon and left 3 inches to hang the stem from the edge of the jar. I figured that I would hang the stem in the solution for an hour or so.

Sidenote: I think that I have been remiss in explaining the source of the Deoxidizing solution. I use Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer from https://www.lbepen.com/shop-5. They have remarkable products mainly for the restoration of fountain pens. I am also a big fan of their Before and After Restoration Balm (for the briar), Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish (for stems).

While the stem was in the Deoxidizing solution I returned to the stummel. You may have noticed a slight crack on the top of the shank.

I worried that this might be a more significant issue and the stummel got all cleaned-up. I moistened a make-up removal pad with 99% ethyl alcohol and began to give the stummel a good alcohol scrub. The only thing that came off the stummel was a little bit of what appeared to be stain. It was very light and its absence did not seem to change the color of the briar. There was no finish to be observed. Bless you Mr. Mincer for not using a lacquer. The crack that looked so ominous when it was dirty, now appeared to be completely superficial. There were a couple of dents along the top of the shank. I decided not to fill these as I thought they went with the rough carved heel of the pipe and I really do not like to do fills.

I started the sanding/micro-mesh process with 400 wet/dry sandpaper wet with a few drops of water being very cautious near the stampings. After the light sanding I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with the 99% ethyl alcohol. I continued to use the 1500 and 1800 micro-mesh pad also wet with the alcohol wipe between micro-mesh pads. The 2200-12000 micro-mesh pads followed again with an alcohol wipe between each pad. When finished I gave the stummel a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm with my finger and thumb. I then switched to a baby toothbrush with Restoration Balm to work the balm into all the holes, rings and carvings. The stummel was then set aside to allow the balm to do its thing.

After about an hour I returned to the stem. I lifted it from the Deoxidizing solution and allowed it to drip most of the excess back into the jar. Nitrile gloves are recommended when handling the Deoxidizing solution. I then use a more coarse cotton shop rag to wipe the solution from the stem. It starts out feeling kind of tacky but as you rub the rag absorbs the solution and buffs away the oxidized vulcanite. I rub quite vigorously until the stem feels smooth and dry in the rag. After the outside of the stem was rid of the solution I used two absorbent pipe cleaners to run through the airway of the stem. Immediately after the deoxidizing solution is removed I dip my finger into mineral oil and give the stem a complete coating of oil. I then dip a pipe cleaner in the oil and run it through the airway.

The stem was ready for sanding, micro-mesh pads and polishing. The stem had no deep tooth chatter or bite marks. I was able to lightly sand with 400 wet sandpaper to remove the chatter quickly. The stem was then wiped with a layer of Obsidian Oil from my fingers and wiped off with a clean make-up pad. I then started the micro-mesh pads 1500 (wet) and 1800 (wet). Between each pad I reapplied a light coat of Obsidian Oil and wiped it off with a make-up pad. Those were followed with the remaining sequence of micro-mesh pads 2400-12000 with the same oiling and wiping between pads.

Overall I was very pleased to have been able to restore a piece of pipe

smoking history to its glory. It really is a strangely beautiful pipe. I don’t recall where but, I do remember reading that the whole Doodler rings and holes thing doesn’t really work. I have yet to try the old girl out. She has a place with a few other oddities of history up on the mantle. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. If you like this restoration stuff please click the like and subscribe buttons.

Below are photos of the finished Doodler.
A Pipe by Lee Restoration

November 16th, 2023
Written and photographed by John M. Young

Pretty sneaky, eh? Starting a post with a photo of an unfinished pipe slathered in Restoration Balm. Well, maybe I am just trying to hook you then reel you in through the steps of the restoration then for the grand finale “WOW” you with a beautiful restored pipe. I guess you will just have to see what happens. As you can tell from the title or see from the above photo this restoration is dealing with a medium bent billiard shaped Pipe by Lee. I have had the privilege of restoring two of Lee’s pipes previously. A large bent billiard and a rhodesian both of the two star variety. Here are the two

previous subjects. Both are quality briar but not without fills. They are very nice pipes to smoke and I can highly recommend the Pipe by Lee brand if you are looking for a good quality piece of briar for a reasonable price.

Steve Laug wrote a guide back in 2017 about a beautiful, well, I’ll just show you the title and link; “A Pipe by Lee Limited Edition 2 Star Rhodesian worth restoring?” (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/10/06/a-pipe-by-lee-limited-edition-2-star-rhodesian-worth-restoring/?). It is an excellent piece of work with a great deal of time spent on researching the brand: Pipe by Lee. If you are interested in the history of the company it is all well laid out for you in Steve’s article. Myself, I am a proud member of Generation X (AKA Slacker) and will gladly refer you to his article. It is a fascinating read and really addresses the quality of the briar in comparison to the leading pipe makers of the 1940s-1960s. It shows that Lee’s pipes were in the same ballpark as Kaywoodies and even Dunhills of comparable price. Like I said, a very interesting read.

Now, this three star darling that you see above came to me from very close to my home, geographically speaking. I originally saw the Ebay auction for her and sent the seller an offer. I assumed that was what the “make an offer” button was for. This original offer was sent off in August. The offer went unanswered. The auction timed out and ended with no one wanting to adopt the three star of the show. She was relisted. I waited “watching” the auction. When the end day was approaching, I made another offer as I assumed that is what the “make an offer” button was for. This offer also went unanswered. The auction timed out again and again, she was relisted. This pattern continued until I got a message in November from Ebay saying that I only had one offer remaining for this item. I winced. I made another offer as I assumed that is what the “make an offer” button was for and waited for the traditional un-answer. This time the offer was accepted. A few days later the no longer unadoptable Pipe by Lee had a home. Remember I said geographically close? It came from a seller in Omaha NE, less and an hour drive north of me.

Upon her arrival I took some photos documenting my victory. Here they are:

The sun was shining in through the south windows making the light a little harsh but I was excited to finally make her acquaintance. The stem needed to be bent with a more appropriate curve, there were a couple of scratches, a weird stain on the front of the bowl and some lava on the rim but the wood grain looked good and the stem wasn‘t terrible. “This is going to be an easy restore”, I thought.

One of the things that I was really interested in examining was the quality difference in the briar between a 2 star and a three star Pipe by Lee. In the history of the brand there were pipes rated from one to five stars. I had never seen anything higher than a three, “how would they compare?” I wondered. Another thing that I noticed is that the stars were different. Both of my 2 star pipes had five pointed brass stars embedded into the tops of

their vulcanite stems. This pipe had what looked like a hot foil pressing of stars onto the side of the stem. That kind of struck me

as a “lower quality” move by Lee. “Well vulcanite is vulcanite, right? What difference could that possibly make to the pipe?”, I thought. The two star bent billiard had the same “not enough” bend when she arrived and a little bit of heat gun and gentle pressure fixed her right up.

The first step was to get the pipe cleaned up so I could see if there were any larger issues at play. I first used the PipNet reaming tool and Smokingpipes reaming knife to remove the cake from the tobacco chamber. The chamber was quite clean and actually had a bit of tobacco and what looked like pocket lint. Following the reaming, I used a wooden dowel wrapped with 220 sandpaper to sand the interior of the chamber. After the sandpaper I wiped the chamber with a cotton make-up removal pad dampened with 99% ethyl alcohol. This showed me that there was no damage to the briar of the tobacco chamber.

The rim was moistened with a bit of saliva and scaped with the edge of a sharp knife. The knife blade is straight, not curved, and is held perpendicular to the rim. Very little pressure is applied so you can see that only the lava is removed. The edge is wiped on a paper towel frequently to remove the lava from the surface. The below photo shows a scraped rim with only a couple of spots of lava remaining. This will be removed during the next phase of scrubbing.

Next the stummel needed to go to the sink for a scrub using Murphy Wood Cleaner and a medium stiffness toothbrush. The Murphy’s is used undiluted and a dollop is poured directly onto the stummel. I then brushed vigorously herding the Murphy’s at first then just scrubbing as the cleaner gets distributed over the surface of the pipe. It is amazing how much dirt and grime are removed from a stummel that appears clean. After the scrub I rinse with warm water. I decided to run a nylon shank shank brush with a little bit of Dawn Dish Soap through the shank. As expected the Dawn foamed up and the foam quickly changed from a white to a foamy chocolate milk color. By now my water was more hot than warm and I rinsed the shank with hot water. This better removes the soap. I applied a bit more Dawn and repeated the shank scrubbing followed by another rinse. I rinsed the brush off separately and used it while rinsing the shank until I was confident that the soap was all rinsed away. Many people shy away from using dish soap for internal pipe cleaning fearing that some soap residue may cling to the surface and affect the flavor of the pipe. I contend that if properly rinsed the internals should be like the surfaces of our plates and flatware, free of soap and any taste associated with it. The stummel exterior was dried thoroughly with a cotton dish towel while the tobacco chamber was dried with a paper towel. I twisted the paper towel and inserted it into the shank to dry it and to see if the paper twist was discolored by smoking residue. I did discolor, indicating that it would need a bit of additional cleaning.

The stummel was returned to the workbench where I poured 5 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol into the chamber while plugging the mortis end of the shank with my finger. I sloshed the alcohol around and allowed it to fill the shank. I allowed the alcohol to slosh around inside the pipe for about a minute. The purpose of the alcohol bath is twofold; 1) If there is remaining residue in the shank the alcohol further softens it and 2) the alcohol, being very hydrophilic, will draw the water from the briar into solution with the alcohol. The alcohol was poured into a medicine cup. The exterior of the stummel next received a wipe down with a clean make-up removal pad dipped in the alcohol. This allowed me to see if there was any finish remaining or lava as the alcohol evaporated. I saw no remaining finish nor lava. I then proceeded to use cotton swabs dipped in fresh alcohol to remove any residues inside the shank. This pipe was fairly clean to start with and the dish soap worked well so, I only had to use 4-5 cotton swabs. Below are photos of the stummel after the scrub and alcohol wipe. I did reinsert the stem for these photos.

Next, I turned my attention to the stem. I rubbed the entire surface of the stem with 0000 steel wool. I planned to give the stem a dip into the Deoxidizing solution and the steel wool rub allows the removal of the outermost oxidized vulcanite prepping it so the solution can work its magic. I placed a pipe cleaner into the tenon end of the stem, dipped the stem into the solution and bent the remaining pipe cleaner over the edge of the Deoxidizing Solution jar; the lid was then placed back on the jar. I figured that since this stem was not too oxidized I would only leave it in the solution for 30 minutes to an hour. Noting the time, I returned to the stummel.

I examined the stummel for scratches and dings that I might be able to fill or repair. There was one scratch/dent on the left side of the stummel that I thought looked especially deep. I thought that I would try to raise this with a bit of steam. I retrieved my old pencil soldering iron and plugged it in, to heat. I then used a piece of denim cloth (old blue jeans rag) and soaked one corner with tap water. When the soldering iron was hot I held the damped cloth to the surface of the stummel and applied the soldering iron to the damp cloth. It steamed quite nicely and I was prepared for great things. I moved the soldering iron over the area for approximately 10 seconds. Upon removing the cloth I saw that I had completely missed the dent. So much for great expectations. Okay, try that again. This time I was much more diligent in properly locating the dent and applying the heat. Checking the location twice, I was on it, this time. I again moved the soldering iron over the dented area for 10 seconds. I couldn’t see much of a difference. I repeated the steaming another 3 times, same results – not much improvement.

I thought, “If I fill that with briar dust and cyanoacrylate (super glue) it is going to be smooth but a dark mark will be there instead of a scratch”. I decided to leave it for now and see how it looked after the sanding. The sanding went smoothly, I started with 400 grit sandpaper dampened with water. I was very careful to avoid the stampings, After sanding I wiped the stummel off with an alcohol dampened make-up pad. Next came the 1500 micro-mesh pad, also moistened with water, followed by another alcohol wipe. This was followed by the 1800 micro-mesh, again dampened and another alcohol wipe. I think you are starting to see a pattern. I continued up through the micro-mesh pads, dry after the 1800, up to the 12000 micro-mesh pad.

Here is how she was looking at this time:

I decided against filling the flaws. One, because I don’t like fills and two for my own pipe, I’ll know the flaws are there whether they are filled or not. Also I thought they added a bit of character to the pipe, showing her history, and umm – Slacker.

Returning to the stem. Having soaked in the Deoxidizing solution for close to an hour I figured the stem was ready to be beautiful. I removed the stem from the solution and allowed it to dip the excess solution back into the jar. Nitrile gloves are recommended when handling the solution. After the drip I placed the stem onto a coarse shop rag. Using the rag I vigorously rubbed the solution from the sem. It starts out feeling sticky but as it is buffed with the rag, the rag removes the oxidized layer and begins polishing the surface. The interior of the shank also needed to have the solution removed. For this I used a couple of absorbent pipe cleaners run through the stem. I try to work quickly and thoroughly because I want to get a layer of mineral oil onto the fresh vulcanite to keep it from oxidizing anew. The mineral oil is rubbed onto the stem with my fingers while a mineral oil dipped pipe cleaner is run through the draft hole. The photos below show the top and bottom views, respectively, of the stem at this time.

It was at this point I decided to use a little bit of Soft Scrub with Oxy on a make-up pad to se if there was still any oxidation remaining of the stem. While rubbing with the Soft Scrub I noticed something peculiar: The material on the pads had an off color. The color was more of a greenish black. Normally oxidized vulcanite has a golden brown color. I took photos because it struck me as odd.

In this first photo you can see normal oxidation from a vulcanite stem when rubbed with Soft Scrub.

In this photo you see the odd colored oxidation that was removed from the stem of the 3 star stem.

Here they are side by side. There was definitely something different about the vulcanite used in the 3 star stem.

The only areas that needed sanding more than just with the micro-mesh pads were the areas immediately around the button. I used a Bic lighter flame to “paint” over the stem. This is done by continuously moving the flame over the surface of the stem. Kind of like painting it. The heat from the lighter can raise dents in the vulcanite. It helped but did not eliminate the need for sanding. I Started with 400 wet/dry sandpaper for the stem top. While on the bottom I started with a small flat needle file. I gently removed material from the high areas around the dent. Once smoothed then I lightly sanded with 220 wet/dry sandpaper moistened with water. This was followed by 400 wet/dry sandpaper also moistened. Here, I applied a light coat of Obsidian Oil allowed it to penetrate for about one minute and wiped it with a paper towel.

Next was the systematic process of micro-meshing the stem. I again started with the 1500 and 1800 pads used with water and wiped between with fresh Obsidian Oil. After the initial two pads I move through the 2400-12000 micro-mesh pads with Obsidian Oil wipes between each pad. At the end of this succession I use Lbepen Fine Polish and Extra Fine Polish on cotton rags to vigorously polish the stem. Here is how the stem looked after the sanding and polishing:

The end is nigh. The application of the Restoration Balm to the stummel breathes life into the wood grain. I used my finger tip to apply an even coating of the balm to the stummel and allow it to sit for 20 minutes to overnight depending on how late it has gotten.

This brings us to where we began with the first photo. After the Restoration Balm was rubbed from the stummel I wanted to add a bit more of a bend to the stem. I wanted it to match the bend that I had done with the large bent billiard 2 star Pipe by Lee.

Pipe by Lee 2 start bent billiard before bend

Pipe by Lee two star bent billiard after bend

Normally when bending a stem I used a heat gun to heat the stem. I continually move the stem back and forth in the heat while rotating it in my fingers. Every few seconds a bit of pressure is applied to see if the stem is warmed and is flexible enough to bend. If not more heat is added. Once the stem bends easily I used a jar as a guide for the curve. When I am happy with the bend I cool the stem in flowing cold water from the faucet.

With the 3 star stem I proceeded to follow the above process. The heating went as planned as did the bend over the jar. I Figured I would just hold the stem on the jar for a few seconds extra to allow the stem to cool and set the bend before I moved it into the cold water stream. That is when I heard and felt a pop. Hmm, I guess this one is not going to match the 2 star bent billiard.

I took this as a sign that I needed a reminder about humility. In the past few days I had been honored to have been mentioned in both Steve Laug’s Rebornpipes and in Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes. Thank you universe for the reminder.

Now, as a retired science teacher I am thinking about causes for this break:
1. Heavy handedness has to be the number one reason. I have bent many stems. My early attempts were bent and then re-bent to fix mistakes from the first bend. I had never experienced a break. Also, of potential note, when the break occurred I was not applying additional pressure – I was maintaining pressure.
2. I do have multiple sclerosis and have numbness in my fingers (24-7, as they say). This could have contributed to the above #1.
3. The 3 star stem was made of a different kind of vulcanite (lower quality?)
4. The 3 star stem had a flaw that allowed it to break with heating, cooling and pressure.
In the end, I do not think it really matters as to the cause. The important part is how will the break be remedied. This is also not the end. I am thinking about ways to rejoin the above broken stem and I plan on posting about that restoration in the future. Until then, I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover, even if this episode has a less than happy ending.

PS: If you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to leave them in the comments. I will gladly give you credit for them in the upcoming restoration of the restoration.