Dying a briar pipe with Fiebing’s Leather Dye

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is the third, though not likely final, restoration of a pipe for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook (FB) group. This pipe was sent to me by a fellow member who had asked if I’d be willing to restore some pipes to be given away to RAPS members. I love to work on pipes that I find interesting and doing so for a good cause is even better. The three pipes arrived and were indeed interesting.

The top and bottom pipes were blogged about last week and were a Porcelain Apple and a J. Rettke, Feel free to click those names for links to the respective restorations. The final pipe is a large bent billiard with a chimney-like bowl. The only identifying stamp of the pipe was ISRAEL on the underside of the shank. Below are some photos of the pipe before I began work on it.

The stem had been chewed on a great deal this normally would indicate a pipe that had been smoked a great deal. However the tobacco chamber appeared fairly cake free. The rim did have a layer of lava and the rim edges showed signs of being knocked against hard rough surfaces. Perhaps I had come across a heavily smoked pipe which had been owned by someone who appreciated a clean pipe? There was also a dreaded clear coat finish on this pipe which would have to go. I know, my job is to restore, but I have a disdain for heavy clear coat finishes. The stem did look salvageable and I hadn’t restored one that was this chewed up for a while. Oh, the things I consider fun… I was worried about the ISRAEL stamp surviving the finish removal. Oftentimes the stamping is done on top of the clear coat and the briar below does not preserve the stamp very well.

Background

The number of Israeli pipe making companies is pretty easy to count, one. According to pipedia.org:

“Not much is known about Israel’s sole pipe factory though it’s reported to have operated quite successfully on international markets.

Beside the brand “Shalom” the mainstay brand was Alpha – especially well known in the USA. Alpha was popular for a range of fresh and unusual shapes. Series (afaik): Caprice (s), Citation (s), Classic (b), Pedestal (s), Regent, Region (b), Rex (s). (1)

(1) (b) = blasted, (s) = smooth

Alpha also produced at least one of its Citation forms for Carey’s “Magic Inch” series.

Mentioned in context with Shalom Pipe Factory was a Danish pipemaker named ‘Muki Liebermann’, who later lived and worked in the USA. Muki is known for his unique briar bending technique and his original shapes that gave inspiration to many of the most praised Danish pipemakers.

Shalom was taken over by Robert L. Marx of New York City, later Sparta, NC, then of Mastercraft. Mastercraft continued the Alpha pipes introducing new lines.” (Shalom Pipe Factory – Pipedia)

Also at the bottom of the pipedia.org entry is a blurb about other Israeli brands. It is not clear that these are lines which Shalom produced or if they are separate companies. I assume that they are Shalom lines.

“Other brands from Israel:

Andersen
Burl King (Best known for their Danish-looking “thumbhole” pipes with plateau tops.)
Fader (Presumably for Fader’s Tobacco Shop, Baltimore. Also known: Fader – Made In Denmark.)
Goliath Briar (huge pipes)
Krisson
Mastersen
Trophy” (Shalom Pipe Factory – Pipedia)

The Restoration

As usual the pipe got herself a cleaned denim piece, more for the protection of the workbench than for the pipe’s comfort.

I decided to work on the stem first as I thought it would require the most effort. The top was lightly chewed but had pretty significant calcium deposits.

The bottom side was really chomped on and would need to have black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) built up and then reshaped.

I started with a cleaning of the stem with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

The calcium deposits were scraped off with a sharp pocket knife.

The top and bottom were then filed with a small flat file to remove most of the teeth marks.

Rubberized black CA was used to build up material in the indentation on the bottom surface and button.

The built-up material was filed flat.

Additional black CA was added to allow for smoothing the underside of the stem.

This built-up area was then filed smooth and blended with the existing stem.

The whole area was sanded to check the blending of the vulcanite to the CA seams. It did not look bad. I had not started on the button as of yet.

To better blend the seams I applied a coating of thin CA. This penetrates any tiny crack of seams and would further blend the two materials with finer grade sanding.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-3500. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. The last thing I did, at this stage, was to apply a coating of Mark Hoover’s Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Mark sent me this product to try and I think it does a very nice job at preserving a polished stem and keeping oxidation at bay during normal pipe smoking.

I turned my attention to the stummel. The reaming tools were gathered and included the PipNet, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.

All three tools were used and the Kleen-Reem reamer was pulled into the fray because of the bowl depth and slightly conical boring.

The rim looked like it had suffered frequent hard knocks on concrete or stone surfaces. This roughened rim also had a coating of lava. Scraping lava from a flat surface is pretty easy but scraping lava from a rough surface is a different matter.

I tried to use the traditional scraping method of using saliva to moisten and soften the lava then scrape it with a sharp pocket knife. With the surface being as rough as it was, I met with limited success.

Normally a light topping of the rim would be done with 320 sandpaper but this rim was rounded and dented. Due to the very deep bowl, I decided that there was plenty of briar there and filing the rim would be a faster was to smooth the surface.

One smoothed with a flat file I topped the rim with 320 followed by 400 grit sandpaper.

The shank was then cleaned with several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

Next up was the scrubbing of the stummel with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

I wiped the stummel with a cotton ball wetted with ethyl alcohol. The alcohol has no effect on the clear coat. Bah. In the next couple of photos you can see where the finish had been worn off the briar.

Since the ethyl didn’t affect the finish, I tried acetone. It did soften the finish but very slowly and with a great deal of work. I decided to give the whole stummel a bath in acetone. The old jar was not large enough so I had to make use of a wide mouth pint jar acetone bath.

I let the stummel soak for over an hour in the acetone before removing it. Apologies for the poor focus. I’d blame the nitrile glove but I was only wearing one. There was still a lot of finish remaining on the briar. I thought, “why the heck did they apply the finish so thick?”

The good news was that the soaking made the old fills easy to remove. Well, easy if I moved quickly before the acetone evaporated.

There were several deep pits in the briar.

The pits were pretty evenly distributed over the whole stummel and as I said, deep.

At least they didn’t use the bright pink fill that you often find on old pipes. Below are a few of the remnants of fill material.

I sanded the remaining finish from the briar using sanding sponges that I usually never would use on a pipe, 180 and 280 grit. The little 320 sanding sponge just couldn’t cut through the thick hard finish. You can also see the depth of the pits on the shank in the below photo.

Eventually the stummel was sanded with 320 and 40 grit sanding sponges and the fills were refilled with briar dust and brown CA. I could have sworn that I photographed the filling of the pits but I failed to.

I also sanded the interior of the tobacco chamber and discovered some pits there as well. Imperfections in a chamber like this can cause the briar to burn and smolder with the tobacco. That extra surface area is something I wanted to eliminate.

I mixed up a small batch of black J-B Weld epoxy to press into the pits within the tobacco chamber. I used the mini popsicle stick as an applicator to “squeegee” the epoxy into the pits.

After the epoxy had dried for 24 hours I would sand away the excess.

With the epoxy hardening I turned my attention to redoing the color scheme of the pipe. The plan was to use a base coat of black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. This would be buffed and lightly sanded, dying the softer grained briar black while removing the outer surface of the harder, less susceptible briar. Next a coating of Mahogany, again lightly sanded and finally a top coat of orange. The goal was to have a pipe with dark grain highlighted with an orange mahogany. It worked well in my imagination and it should conceal all those dark spots that were the new fills.

The first step, black Fiebing’s looked as expected.

After buffing with a rouge buffing compound and wiping with ethyl alcohol cotton balls the black had indeed penetrated the softer grain.

A light sanding brought out the lighter grained areas more to my liking.

Next came the mahogany dye.

Below is the mahogany after a light sanding and alcohol pad wipe.

Finally the orange top coat.

I discovered why the Israelis had applied such a thick clear coat to this stummel while I was sanding it. The briar was extremely soft and very difficult to work with. Sanding would remove one scratch and create two more. I decided that maybe a couple coats of Danish Oil would help to toughen the briar.

Below you can see how I hung the stummel on a vice for drying. I applied three coats of Danish oil to the pipe and the stummel looked like it had never even seen a drop of Danish oil. Good lord this briar was a pain to work with.

The final steps to the restoration included a trip to the buffer for several coats of carnauba was and a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth. It was at this point that I realized how completely unhappy I was to have forgotten to bend the stem to what I thought was a better bend.

I used a heat gun to heat the stem until it was pliable. I then bent the stem to have a more attractive and more comfortable shape.

The stem before the bending:

And, after the bend:

Of course the heating and bending of the vulcanite ruined the finish of the fill work that I had done to the stem. That was all resanded, a touch of thin CA, and some more sanding then rebuffed. This then led to a rewaxing and re-hand-buffing. Oh, for the love of transparency! I could have left all my mistakes out but then I’d feel dirty or something…

I think that the briar used in this Israeli pipe was the same or similar to the briar used by Robert Marxman, in other words it is Algerian briar. This briar is known to be a great smoking briar but is also known to be very difficult to work with due to the very soft nature of the wood. Think about the heavily rusticated pipes of Marxsman or the Custom-bilts. Those carving techniques were utilized to conceal the soft and imperfect grains of those pipes. Though they are renowned as great smokers, this pipe has the same cinnamon-cardamomscent as my Marxmans. The difficulties in trying to get this pipe to have a flawless smooth surface was difficult and I completely understand the Israeli’s use of a heavy masking clear coat. In the end I think that I did maintain the color scheme of the original pipe though I did lose the stamping, ISRAEL. The stem is another problem area. This vulcanite just would not lend itself to the high gloss sheen that I strive for. Overall I am sure this pipe will provide a great smoking experience but it does not have the aesthetic that I would be proud of. I guess I should be happy by giving this undoubtedly a “basket pipe” a new lease on life and provide its next owner with a good quality pipe.

The dimensions of the Israeli Bent Billiard are:

Length: 5.64 in./ 138.18 mm.

Weight: 2.10 oz./ 42.24 g.

Bowl Height: 2.35 in./ 49.02 mm.

Chamber Depth: 2.09 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 34.54 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.