NebraskaPeteGeek

Tag: cleaning up a rime top

A Malaga Apple Restoration

May 27th, 2024

Written and photographed by

John M. Young

I remember the warnings about peer pressure in the 1980s Before that it was just called “running with the wrongs kids”. I think this pipe purchase represents me being affected by peer pressure, although in a good way. I had not heard of Malaga pipes or their founder, George Khoubesser, until reading about them in Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com. He has restored several of George “Manny” Khoubesser’s Malaga pipes over the years.

It was chatting with Steve that had piqued my interest in Malagas. I later mentioned that I had tried bidding on one listed at eBay. He said that his brother was also bidding on that same pipe. Well rather than run up the bidding and compete against one another we started coordinating on future Malage pipes as they became available. Eventually I saw this one back at the beginning of May. I made an acceptable offer to the seller and had a Malaga of my own to restore.

Below are some photos of the pipe when it arrived here in southeast Nebraska.

Hmm, there appeared to be several ways to go with this restoration and to several levels. The crack in the shank had been successfully repaired with a silver band albeit an oversized silver band that partially covers the stamps. There looked to be a small crack around the rim. I was not sure if it was superficial or structural. The stummel looked great without a single fill, kudos to Mr. Khoubesser for excellent briar selection. The stem would need a good deal of attention to repair the tooth dents.

Malaga Background

Piedia.org has a nice history of Malaga pipes. I will include the text here in its entirety:

“The Malaga Pipe Company was founded circa 1939 by George Khoubesser, (b.1892 d.1971), and located in Royal Oak, Michigan at 1406 East Eleven Mile road. The second generation owner’s name was Emmanuel Khoubesser (b. 1942 d. 1981), who everyone knew him as “Manny”. He was a big jovial man that was easy to converse with, always had a smile and a good joke to tell his very loyal customers. He had the ability to befriend anyone within minutes. The small store was packed with curious customers every Saturday morning looking for the latest design made earlier in the week. He also carried a full line of custom mixed tobaccos that you could sample and an array tobaccos in tins.

I was first introduced to him in 1969. I remember him taking me in the back to show me each step involved in pipe making. He was very serious about the quality of the product he sold and would never sell a flawed pipe, even if it was very minor. My step father purchased several of his pipes and really enjoyed them. He once said he’s never found a better pipe (his words).

Manny passed away in 1981 and his wife and oldest children took over the business. Malaga closed in 1999 after 60 years in business. The building still exists on Eleven mile, looking almost like it did back then, but now houses the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. I would think the pipes Manny produced are now more valuable than ever. If you happen across one of these pipes, you’ll know a little bit more about it’s rich history. Enjoy!”

(Malaga Pipe Company – Pipedia)

If your taste for the history of Malag pipes has yet to be satiated I will refer you to Steve Laug’s blog regarding the history of the brand (George Khoubesser and Malaga Pipes | rebornpipes). Steve also received a treasure trove of ephemera from the estate of one of his reader’s fathers (Malaga Pipes Catalogue of Pipes and Tobaccos | rebornpipes). Wonderful information and valuable insights from people who are far more industrious than I with providing you with background information.

The Restoration

In typical fashion this project began with a clean denim piece on the work surface.

The reaming tools were assembled. The PipNets’s #2 and #3 blades could be used in the large Malaga tobacco chamber.

And used they were. After the PipNet the chamber was scraped with the General triangular scraper and sanded with the 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no evidence of heat damage to the interior of the chamber.

Nex was a trip to the sink. Here the stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush.

Returning to the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. Some further grime, wax and perhaps stain was removed with the pad.

Next, I addressed the calcium deposits on the stem by scraping them with a sharp pocket knife.

The area immediately above the button was filed with a flat needle file and the entire stem was lightly sanded with 320 then 400 grit sanding sponges. I failed to photograph the next step, apologies. After the sanding I scrubbed the stem with make-up pads and Soft Scrub cleanser. The pads were heavily stained with oxidized rubber. Several pads and Soft Scrub applied to a Magic Eraser later, the stem was cleared of oxidized rubber.

The next step was to repair the tooth dents.

I used black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill in the dents and rebuild the damaged button. Below are photos of the top and bottom of the stem.

The wet CA was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. This cures the CA within seconds. The following two photos show the cured CA.

The CA fills were filed with the flat needle file and the button reshaped.

After filing the fills were sanded with the 400 sanding sponge. The improvement was great but additional thin layers of black CA were required to smooth and blend the repairs. The below two photos show the repairs prior to the additional thin layers and further sanding of the CA.

With the stem bite marks repaired it was time to clean the airway. 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used.

The same process was used to clean the airway of the shank. Ethyl alcohol and a nylon shank brush along with some scraping from a dental pick were added to the cleaning here.

Throughout the above cleaning I was thinking about the silver band. I had tried removing it after the murphy’s scrubbing, alcohol wiping, and now again after the alcohol rich shank cleaning. If there had been glue used to fix the band I could not loosen it with water, soap, or alcohol. I tried a bit of acetone to see if that would penetrate under the band and loosen the grip of the band on the shank. Nothing seed to work. Whomever had installed this band fit it very tightly to the shank. I thought about heating it with a heat gun to try to remove it but decided that it really was a pretty well done banding. How might it look if I just polished it? I tried that.

The band polished nicely and I decided to stop worrying about it. This was going to be a personal use pipe and I was okay with having a couple of letters of the stampings covered.

I then taped the stamps and the silver with painters tape to protect them from the sanding which was to occur next.

The stem and stummel were sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad while the stem received a bit of mineral oil from my finger and was wiped with a clean paper towel.

Finishing the sanding, I removed the painters tape and vigorously rubbed any remaining adhesive off with a make-up pad and alcohol. I then used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence on both the stummel and stem. As with the sanding sponges, the stummel was wiped with alcohol on a make-up pad between pads. The stem received a small drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed in and wiped with a paper towel between pads.

The stummel was then coated in Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the excess Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock. The balm had worked it’s magic and the stummel looked fantastic.

The final polishing of the stem was done with Before and After Fine Polish. This was applied by a fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The Fine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish applied and buffed the same way.

The final step was to take the pipe to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. After the wax was applied and buffed I hand buffed the pipe with a nanofiber polishing cloth in an attempt to improve on the already exquisite shine.

I am pleased with the restoration of this Malaga Large Apple. I have also filled the ample bowl with tobacco and given this old girl a “test drive”. Steve Laug was quite right, Malaga pipes are fine smokers. The grain of this pipe is beautiful with flame-like patterns especially on the right side. The stem also cleaned up well. I did notice a metal fleck in the rubber. This usually indicated recycled rubber and was typical during the years around the Second World War. Perhaps that gives a clue to the age of this pipe. I do wish that it had not experienced a shank crack but the repair was done well and I think the silver band looks quite acceptable. The only other flaw is the small crack on the rim. I think that is superficial and did not think that it needed any attention. The dimensions of this Malaga Large Apple are:

Length: 6.10 in./ 154.94 mm.

Weight: 1.73 oz./ 49.10 g.

Bowl Height: 1.78 in./ 45.21 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./ 21.08 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Malaga Large Apple.
A Forecaster Bulldog Restoration

May 23rd, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I am a sucker or a couple of shapes and the bulldog is one of them. By sucker, I mean that I am willing to spend more time on restoring a shape that I like than I am with a shape that I do not find as appealing. This little Forecaster fit the “sucker” category in a couple of ways; one, I wanted to restore a forecaster pipe and two, the shape is a favorite. The pipe came to me as a combined purchase with the Yello-Bole Yacht. I linked that restoration if you are interested. The damage to the Forecater was not nearly as evident from the eBay photos as it was in real life.

Below are some photos of the Forecaster upon arrival here at what some consider the pipe clinic.

The crack in the shank was barely evident yet should have been expected by looking at the construction and damage to the pipe. The mortise was threaded which is a design that begs for owners to over tighten or a stem and can lead to cracking. The damage to the stem looked as if it could have been done with pliers, further evidence of excessive pressure put on the mortise and potential cracking. The question was: “Why was so much force needed to screw in a stem?” That was answered by examining the threads of the mortise. Pieces of aluminum could be seen in the wooden threads. They looked like they were embedded into the wood. I am getting ahead of myself. Before we get to the restoration let me give a quick review of Forecaster.

Background

Below are a couple of print ad images from Forecaster.

(Forecaster – eBay)

(Forecaster – Pipedia)

These two ads give some historical perspective to the brand and pipe. According to the University of Maryland library Archives, “Roger Bower (1903-1979) was active in broadcasting from 1925 to 1974. He joined radio station WOR in New York in 1928 and became a combination producer, director, actor, announcer, and sound effects engineer. During that time, WOR became the flagship station of the Mutual radio network, and Bower directed many prominent programs, including It Pays to be Ignorant, and Can You Top This? In the early 1930s, Bower announced the first Macy’s Thanksgiving

Day Parade, which he continued to describe for many years. He gave one of the first (closed circuit) television demonstrations in 1933, in a Macy’s department store window. Bower remained with WOR for 24 years, until the station was sold in 1952.” (https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/524)

Pipedia.org says the following, “Forecaster pipes were made by the National Briar Pipe Co. of Jersey City, N.J.. The pipe boasted an “aluminum winder” threaded through the airway meant to clean and cool the smoke. For more information see National Briar Pipe Co..” (Forecaster – Pipedia). Upon reading the National Briar Co. page I found that, “The National Briar Pipe Co. was homed in Jersey City, New Jersey. Brands produced afak:
- Biltmore
- Forecaster
- Honeybrook
- King Eric
- Kleenest
- Nifty
- Rembrandt
- Sir Sheldon
- Drysmoke Silvertone
- The Mayflower
- The Doodler (created and formerly produced by Tracy Mincer, †1966)
Logo on the left side of the stem on Rembrandt branded pipes is a capital “N” in italics. Assume that holds true for other brands produced by National. —Dgillmor 21:55, 10 May 2012 (CDT)” (National Briar Pipe Co. – Pipedia). This explains the N stamped and painted on the Forecaster stem.

As for the time line with this Forecaster bulldog I have nothing to assign it directly. I think it is safe to assume it to be from the late 1940s-1970.

The Restoration

In our last episode we discovered that Jill was pregnant with Roger’s baby, Seymour had been committed to an insane asylum and that strange aluminum flakes were infesting the threads of the Forecaster’s mortise. Okay, I may have taken some liberties with the story there, about Jill and Roger but Syemore is definitely nuts and the aluminum flakes were more than just a rumor.

I used a fly tying bodkin to pry the aluminum out of the threads then a brass shotgun bore brush to further clean the threads of debris. It took me several minutes to get the visible flakes out of the threads.

Below you can see the metal flakes and briar dust from the threads. I think the white German Shepherd hars was deposited post aluminum extraction and was not part of the problem.

Now I got to play detective and construct a situation of how this aluminum got into the wood and why the pipe had been used so little without resorting to aliens or bigfoot. I am guessing that when the aluminum tenon was cut for threads some of the tailing remained on the tenon. These flakes got forced into the briar threads when the pipe was originally assembled. When the original owner first got his or her (yeah, that’s how woke I am) new pipe they had to take it apart. We all know that experience. This would have liberated any remaining tailings from the tenon and placed them on the scene. The new owner, whether they were female, male or of undisclosed orientation then reassembled the pipe. The stem would have been difficult to reassemble due to the debris filled threads. Extra force would have been required, perhaps even a tool. By tightening the stem with a tool the stem was marred. The new owner couldn’t return the pipe as they had damaged it. So they continued using it but they were also someone who liked a clean pipe so after the first use they wanted to clean the pipe out. The stem was even more difficult to remove and upon reassembly could not be threaded in without enough force to further mar the stem and crack the shank. I’d like to think there was a blood curdling scream, “What have I done?” Probably not, in the 1950s-1960s, John Wayne was the role model and he never screamed “What have I done?” The pipe was left with a gap in the fit of the stem to stummel. Not wanting to look like an idiot the new owner stopped using the pipe concealing their idiocy from the world – until now.

I reamed the tobacco chamber with a Triple-Ream tool that came with an estate lot a while back. I couldn’t use my trusty PipNet with its #1 blade due to personal idiocy and breaking the blade. Some of us don’t bother concealing our idiocy, The fact that the pipe had barely been used helped greatly in the reaming process. The chamber was also sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. Guess what – there was no damage to the chamber from excessive heat.

I started formulating a plan for the shank crack. A couple of scenarios played out in my mind. Again not resorting to aliens or bigfoot, I thought that banding would be the easiest solution. The problem with that is that I have no diamond shaped bands. Typically I use cartridge brass from spent shells or brass tubing. Both of those are fairly thick materials and would be difficult to reform to a diamond shape. The second option was something I had read from Charles Lemon. He had repaired a cracked bowl using a 1.2 mm drill bit and 1.2 mm brass rods. Here is the link to Mr. Lemon’s pinning tutorial. If you are unfamiliar with Chrales Lemon’s work he can be found at https://dadspipes.com/. SIdenote: If you are familiar with my blogs and unfamiliar with Chrale’s you may need to join Seymour at the insane asylum.

I figured that if it worked for a bowl it should also work for a shank. Given, a shank is going to be more difficult to work with due to the smaller size but the idea is the same. After initially reading Charle’s tutorial I quickly ordered 1.2 mm drill bits and 1.2 mm brass tubing for the deluge of cracked bowls that I was sure would need my immediate care. Well, the deluge never arrived but the bits and rods did. I have yet to try this on a cracked bowl and was feeling quite sorry for the bits and rods due to their forced early retirement. I decided this pipe could give me practice with the technique as well as justify the enormous capital investment for the 1.2 mm thingies (<$20 at Amazon).

Now as typical for me, I like to think about a project a good deal before actually attempting it. I started working on repairing the damaged stem while I was planning the pinning repair. Some people call this multi-tasking. I call it thinking about a project a good deal while working on repairing a damaged stem. Probably because I am not good at multitasking. Anyway, the stem needed to have new material built up where there were dents in the rubber. I used layers of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

The new CA was then filed flat with a flat needle file and sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

Additional CA and drying accelerator were used to further fill any tiny depressions. These were again filed and sanded.

I was still thinking about the pinning project when I moved on to the next phase – cleaning the stummel. I was not dirty so I skipped scrubbing it and moved right to wiping it off with acetone moistened make-up pads. There was a light clear coat on the briar that I wanted rid of. The acetone worked well at removing it.

It was finally time. I had thought myself into a plan of action. Drill two holes with the 1.2 mm drill bit in my battery hand drill. Drill a third hole at the end of the crack , also 1.2 mm, to stop further crack enlargement. I wanted the angle to be dissimilar and through the thickest part of the shank. The holes were drilled and the brass rods inserted.

The final hole was a hole for terminating the crack.

The brass pins were cut then roughed with a file to allow more surface area for the epoxy to adhere to. I would recommend roughening the brass rod before the pins are cut to length as they would be easier to hold. A mistake I’ll probably make again…

The aluminum of the tenon was covered with Vaseline petroleum Jelly to avoid CA or epoxy glue from adhering to the aluminum. Sidenote: When drilling the pinning hole to the left, I accidentally made the hole too far into the threads. This meant that I either had to drill the mortise larger cutting into the brass rod or, to file the first 3-4 mm of threads off the tenon. I chose to file the aluminum threads of the tenon. You can see in the photo below the threads had been filed off.

The 2 part epoxy was mixed according to package instructions. I would recommend against accidentally squeezing way too much epoxy resin onto your mixing surface, like I did.

I applied a drop of thin clear CA for the crack. The Vaseline coated aluminum tenon was rethreaded into the mortise. The thin formula allowed the CA to penetrate the crack. A Vaseline coated clamp was used to clamp the crack closed as much as possible.

After the CA had cured, a couple of minutes later, I used a fly tying bodkin to push some of the epoxy into the pinning holes. The roughened brass rods were then pressed into the holes. When doing this make sure the brass rods are a couple of mm shorter than the length of the hole. This was another mistake which I made. I thought I had cut them short enough so that I could fill the holes on either end of the brass rod. I am not sure how I messed this part up. Either I accidentally switched the rods when placing the pins or I cut the rods too close to the same length as the holes. I dipped a cotton swab into acetone and cleaned any epoxy from the surface of the shaft.

The glued pins were set aside allowing the epoxy to cure for 2 hours. After the epoxy had cured, a small drop of brown CA was applied to each end of the hole and a small amount of briar dust was pressed into the CA moistened hole. Once cured this would be the first layer of the fill. The cured CA briar dust fill was then filed slat with a flat needle file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The filling of the pinning holes was repeated on the adjacent side of the shaft. The below photo shows the brown CA applied to the hole.

Below you can see the briar dust had been pressed into the CA.

The stamps were then taped with painters tape to protect them and the stummel was sanded with the sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.

The tape protecting the stapes was removed and the stummel was polished with a sequence of 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.

The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the Balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock. The pipe was then taken to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied with the buffer.

I would like to say that I am pleased with the restoration of this Forecaster Bulldog but there were just too many flaws to make me truly happy. Some were my mistakes or “learning experiences” others were just damage to the pipe. Yes, it does look better than it did originally and it is structurally more sound This one was certainly challenging, but to drill and pin the shank crack using hand tools was difficult. Perhaps a darker base coat dye with some contrast would have been a wise move to conceal the repairs. I rack this restoration up as a learning experience for me and I am looking forward to seeing how well the pinning holds up under normal wear and tear. I will be keeping and using this pipe as a “work” pipe for tasks like mowing, truck maintenance, gardening etc, where it will get more rough treatment to better test the pinning fortitude. Also, the stem repairs look far worse in the photos than in normal room lighting. I swear, they do, really. The dimensions of this Forecaster Bulldog are:

Length: 4.66 in./ 118.36 mm.

Weight: 0.90 oz./ 25.51 g.

Bowl Height: 1.31 in./ 33.27 mm.

Chamber Depth: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Forecaster Bulldog
A Denicotea 201 Restoration

April 30th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I blame Sascha Mertens, a friend in Germany, for my desire to restore a Denicotea pipe. Okay, maybe “blame” is too strong of a word; I credit Sascha for piquing my interest in the Denicotea brand of pipes. Yeah, that sounds better. I think Sascha is even counting the number of times he is mentioned in my blogs. He really is a great guy and pipe restorer with a sense of humor very similar to my own.

I found this Denicotea interesting because of the stamps. The DENICOTEA on the shank left and GENUINE BRIAR over MADE IN ENGLAND over 201 on the right side matched everything that I had seen concerning Denicotea pipes on pipephil.eu. The top stamp was very weak, requiring a jeweler’s loupe to read.

The listing on eBay was for a $9.99 opening bid so, I figured what the heck.

I knew better to get too excited over an auction that only had two photos of the pipe. I fully expected the poor darling to have issues that were not visible in the two less than revealing photos. More on that in a minute.

Background on Denicotea

Pipedia.com has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].

Brands

Adsorba

Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.

Aldo Morelli

Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/

Below are some photos of the Denicotea before any work was done.

I am not sure how I did it but the GENUINE BRIAR is very legible in this photo.

This is why I had to get the jeweler’s loupe out.

And this photo shows what I was referring to as issues not shown on eBay. A double shank crack.

Okay, my $10 pipe had some issues. The tooth chatter, grime, dents and dings were expected. The shank crack and dottle knocked rim damage was a set of bonus problems.

The Restoration

I just finished loading all of the photos onto this document in the correct sequence. I can’t help but feel that for the folks that have followed me for a few months, this is rather repetitive. I do thank you for your continuing readership. For those who are new to this blog or to restoration in general, welcome and thank you for stopping by. This blog will be number 81 since the end of last October when I began blogging. It’s crazy to think that I’ve restored that many pipes and wrote about them all. Then I think back to the number of pipes that I restored before I started blogging. Yikes, I really need to sell some of these. Oh well.

I began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

The reaming tools were gathered and put to work. The PipNet with the #2 bladed struggled a bit with the tight fit and hard cake. The General triangular scraper was used to open up the tobacco chamber and thi the cake allowing the PipNet to do it’s job.

After the reaming the General was used again to finish the scraping. This was followed by the 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber was sanded to bare briar and no damage from heat was observed.

Thi rim was encrusted with a deposit of lava. This was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife. One of the many things learned from my father was how to sharpen a knife. He had worked at Rath Packing Plant in Waterloo Iowa after being discharged from the Army and knew well how to sharpen a knife. I can’t help but smile everytime I think of him, a high school dropout who later earned a PhD.

Below is the stummel with a freshly scraped rim.

Next came the cleaning of the airway inside the shank. I only took one photo of the process. This makes it look like it was not as long of a process as it really was. I use a rotation for shank cleaning. First 3-4 ml of 05% ethyl alcohol is poured into the chamber. This is allowed to flow into the shank. I use a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol then pour the alcohol into a medicine cup. I then use either cotton swabs or a pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol to further scrub the airway removing the softened and dissolved tars. This is repeated using the same alcohol, if it is fairly clean, or fresh alcohol if it is heavily fouled with tar. Eventually the pipe cleaners/cotton swabs return less dirty and the airway is cleaned.

With the airway cleaned out I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub. I used a medium stiff toothbrush and Murphy’s Oil Soap, undiluted, to scrub the stummel. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton washcloth.

Back at the workbench I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. This came back stained bright red. The alcohol was dissolving the original stain and removing it.

A second make-up pad yielded similar results. I sanded the stummel with a 320 sanding sponge and wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with acetone. The acetone also was removing red stain. Additional wipes finally freed the red from the briar and I was able to proceed.

Below is a closeup of the rim damage from careless dottle knocking or perhaps using this pipe to build a deck and pound in several pounds of nails.

The rim was topped using a piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. A circular motion was used and every 5 circles I would rotate the stummel 90 degree and continue with the circles. This was done to apply an even pressure and equal sanding to the entire rim. The outer edge was sanded using a piece of sandpaper inside a plastic funnel to give the bevel while the inner rim was beveled with a 2 inch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe end cap wrapped in sandpaper.

I then turned my attention to cleaning the stem. This was done with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Once the airway was clean, I started scrubbing the exterior with make-up pads with a few drops of Soft Scrub. The soft scrub removed the oxidation from the stem with a good deal of “elbow grease”

Below you can see the stem after scrubbing and having received a coat of mineral oil. I allowed the stem to soak in the oil for about an hour.

There is a reason why screw in tenons usually have aluminum mortise and tenons, because they don’t crack when tightened. Duh. I really wanted to say that to the designer of this pipe. Perhaps that is why there is so little information about Denicotea pipes – they just didn’t want consumers showing up at their doorsteps saying ”There is a reason why screw in tenons usually have aluminum mortise and tenons, because they don’t crack when tightened, DUH!” Wll to repair this cracked shank I decided a brass band was in order. I checked my brass tubing stocks and found that the 9/16 inch outside diameter (O.D.) tubing was nearly the exact same O.D. as the shank. I would have to file and sand some briar from the shank to get it to slide onto the shank but it would ensure a nice fit and fairly flush band. The band had to be narrow to retain the DENICOTEA stamp.

After filing the shank and checking the fit of the tube I was ready to cut the band. I slid the 9/16 inch tube into a 19/32 inch tube. It was a tight fit but this larger diameter tube would allow me to use the pipe cutter without the 9/16 inch tube from moving in the cutter and cutting an uneven thickness band.

Below you can see the 9/16 slid into the 19/32 tube. The cutting wheel is at the bottom of the tube. This technique gave me a nice even 3 mm thick band.

Below is the band close to it’s new home. At this point the stem was taken to the buffer where I used a rouge buffing compound to polish the stem. I had not done this before. Normally I will sand with the sanding sponges then use the micro-mesh pads. This stem did not appear to need any sanding to smooth easy scratches or blemishes, except for immediately below the button. The tooth chatter was sanded using the sanding sponges but it was difficult to work between the saddle and the button.

A fly tying bodkin was used to apply thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) along the length of the crack. The thin CA penetrated into the crack. Brown CA was applied to the shank and the band was tapped into position. The excess CA was wiped off with a cotton ball wetted in acetone. The fly tying bodkin was again used to apply a bead of brown CA around the outside edge of the band filling the slight gap between the shank and the brass band. Once cured this was sanded smooth. Below is a closeup of the DENICOTEA stamp and the band.

Below you can see the new band and how it looked with the unsanded/unfinished stummel and stem.

The next step was to sand the stummel using the sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

After the sanding the stummel was worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Again between each pad the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes the stummel was wiped of the excess balm with an inside out cotton athletic sock.

All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

Overall I was very pleased with the restoration of this Denicotea 201. The draw is very open and feels like it is meant to have a filter, yet there is nowhere to place a filter. The briar grain is very nice showing some flame grain on the front and back with great bird’s eyes on the left. The band turned out as well as I think it could have. The shank crack is still very visible on the right side. Since the crack runs through the stampings I could see no way to fill the crack while retaining the stamps. I suppose that I will have to accept that crack and have faith in the band to keep it from spreading further.

The dimensions of this Denicotea 201 are:
- Length: 5.53 in./ 140.46 mm.
- Weight: 1.26 oz./ 35.80 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.83 in./ 46.48 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.55 in./ 39.00 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Denicotea 201.