fitting a replacement pipe stem

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is a restoration that didn’t start out as a restoration. It didn’t even start out as a restoration of this pipe. Now, if you were to say, “Huh?” I would completely understand. As it isn’t a normal restoration, the format is a bit different. I never photographed a set of “before” shots, only photos of the restoration and the “finished” pipe. I know, total slacker move but I think you will find the process informative or at least worthy of constructive ridicule. I mean constructive criticism.

The pipe had sat at the front of the queue and on the workbench in front of me for quite some time.

I always seemed to find another victim, I mean subject, to work on and skipped over this one. Probably because I liked the shape but felt that it would be a lot of work to repair this Danish darling and once done, I doubted anyone would want to buy it.

Anyway, a commission came in for a stem repair on a lovely Stanwell pipe.

This new job once again trumped the poor Royal Danish. Trust me, this is related and not just rambling. The Stanwell needed a button rebuild on an acrylic stam. The owner did not want to have the pipe re-stemmed out of love for the pipe and the fact that the original stem was inset with a brass “S” and crown. I don’t blame him, the stem was a beauty.

In thinking of ways to repair the Stanwell, I wondered about welding some black acrylic onto the original stem and reshaping the welded acrylic to a new button. To do this, I needed some black acrylic that I could melt and use as “welding” material. Stick with me, I know this sounds convoluted. The Royal Danish needed a replacement stem for a severely chewed vulcanite original stem. In looking through my stock of extra stems, I found a close match that was black acrylic. This new acrylic stem would need to have the tenon cut to fit the Royal Danish and quite a bit of shaping. This, I thought, would provide me with a good deal of black acrylic “welding” material. So, you see my plan? Re-stem the Royal Danish with a new acrylic stem, use the trimmings to see if Welding acrylic would actually work, then weld black acrylic to the commissioned Stanwell. Clear as opaque black acrylic?

Background

The stamp on the bottom of the Royal Danish is shown below and reads 913, offset to the left and Royal Danish in a cursive script over MADE IN DENMARK.

Pipedia.org states that “Royal Danish is a Stanwell sub-brand.” (Royal Danish – Pipedia). Photos from the above link show similar stampings .

I then went to the “Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers” entry on pipedia.org. I had a bit of confusion with the shape number “913” for this pipe as there was no 913 listed as a shape number on the Stanwell pages. Then I noticed that all of the Royal Danish pipes began with a 9.

I returned to the Stanwell shape numbers page on pipedia.org and found the 13. Below is that:

13. Three versions of this shape number:

a) Short cutty with a saddle stem (early 1950s – see catalog).

b) Slightly bent pear with an oval shank and a saddle stem, by Sixten Ivarsson (pictured, right).

c) Large billiard with a saddle stem.

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia)

That is a near perfect match to the pipe in hand. And, a Sixten Iverson shape as well. I knew I liked it for a reason. Alas, when this pipe will be finished it will no longer have that iconic saddle stem but a graceful taper instead.

The Restoration

After searching through my stems I found a possible replacement. As stated earlier, this new stem was an acrylic as compared to the vulcanite original. It also lacked the chewed through areas on both the top and bottom. I considered this a good thing.

Though not a perfect match, the cross section was close and could be shaped to fit without altering the shank. Well, I hoped to not alter the shank.

At this point I was still not set in restoring the Royal Danish. I was more interested in getting the acrylic stem trimmings to try melting them into a usable form for the commissioned Stanwell pipe. The next step was to generate the trimmings by fitting the stem to the Royal Danish.

To do this I used the (Adjustable Tenon Turning Tool & Parts – Vermont Freehand). This tool fits into the chuck of an electric hand drill. I planned on collecting the turnings in a metal snuff can lid, seen below. The steel guide rod of the tenon cutter was the correct size to fit into the airway of the acrylic stem. The 3 allen wrenches were used to adjust the tenon cutting tool while the drill bit seen below is the same size as the guide.

The guide rod did not fit the original vulcanite stem, it was larger. This meant that the first step would be to drill out the old stem so it would fit onto the guide rod. This may seem unnecessary but the old stem fits the mortise of the Royal Danish. I planned to set the adjustable tenon cutter using the old stem as a guide or template for cutting the acrylic stem.

Using the drill bit that came with the tenon cutter, I drilled out the vulcanite tenon to fit the tenon cutter’s guide rod.

Below are the two allen screws which are used to adjust the carbide cutter of the tool.

The metal snuff can lid worked beautifully.

With several attempts at adjust/trim/check fit/readjust/retrim/recheck fit, I finally achieved a good fit with the acrylic stem.

This sem would also provide me with additional acrylic material from the filings which would soon be produced.

Another source of acrylic.

So, the filing began. The shank was wrapped in painters tape to protect the briar for what was to come.

I quickly realized that recovering acrylic filing was much easier from a smooth surface than a denim covered surface.

The file did exactly what files are supposed to do, remove material.

The tape did exactly what tape is meant to do, protect what is underneath it.

I had to remove and reapply the tape several times. Oh, and look at all of that acrylic material.

The filing of the shank was necessary to fit the new steamboat just a small amount on the upper corners of the shank. You may also notice that I used a thinner masking tape for shank protection. This was done to reduce the step from shank to stem.

It was here that this project had temporarily ended. I had what I was after – acrylic material to test my Acrylic welding idea. I’ll write more about that fiasco in the commissioned Stanwell restoration.

The restoration of the Royal Danish did resume after a brief hiatus. I will continue that story now.

Having decided to actually restore the Royal Danish, I re-started by collecting the ream team

The PipNet proved most useful at removing the accumulated cake. The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer did a small amount of scraping at the bottom of the tobacco chamber and the General triangular scraper was used for a bit of chamber clean-up along the upper sides.

The reamed tobacco chamber is seen in the below photo.

I sanded the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The resulting bare briar showed no signs of damage from excessive heat.

The airway of the shank was cleaned with several bristle pipe cleaners , cotton swabs and a shank brush. All of these were dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The accumulated grime of the pipe can be seen below on my fingers and the brush. This pipe was quite dirty/ The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench I wiped the outside of the stummel with a cotton ball dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. I then decided to do a cotton alcohol soak. The tobacco chamber and the shank were stuffed full of cotton.

About 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol was poured into a medicine cup. I guessed this would be the amount needed.

The alcohol was applied to the cotton with a disposable pipette.

Alcohol was added until the cotton was saturated. The stummel was then set aside overnight to allow the alcohol to evaporate. This would draw out and dissolve the tar still in the briar then transport and deposit it to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.

Upon returning to the pipe, I removed the now dry cotton with a forceps. The shank was again cleaned with alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

I sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges in grits400-3500. Between each sponge, I wiped the stem with an alcohol wetted cotton ball to remove sanding debris.

The stem was then worked with 4000-12000grit micro-mesh pads. Again the stem was wiped with a cotton ball between pads.

The smooth panel on the stummel had scratches and pits or dents which were no more obvious after the scrubbing.

I tried steaming the briar with a heated clothing iron on top of a water dampened hand towel.

The below two photos show the steamed panels. The steaming did raise some of the dents.

There remained three dents on the left panel which I filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was allowed to cure/harden.

The CA was filed smooth using a small flat file.

The CA was then sanded smooth with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The rim was lightly topped with 320 followed by 400 grit sandpaper laid on a flat countertop. The inner rim was beveled using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a small wood sphere.

The panels and rim were further sanded using 400-1000 sanding sponges.

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

I then coated the stummel with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed it to sit for 15 minutes.

The remaining balm was removed by hand buffing the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.

The below photo shows the pipe after the hand buffing next to the original stem. A slight improvement was noted, Okay, more than slight.

The last things done to the pipe were an application of several coats of carnauba wax, then hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

Not too shabby for a restoration that never really started and had starts and stops along the way. The distinctive shape is pleasing to view and to hold. The sandblast rustications, though worn, are comfortable. I think I would prefer a complete sandblast finish over the smooth panel but the panels are attractive and show off a little bit of the briar grain. The stem turned out nicely. The luster of the acrylic is beautiful and the fit is good. Yeah, the pipe is missing the original saddle stem but I confess that without more specialized tools like a belt sander, I did well. The dimensions of this Royal Danish 913 Pear are:

Length: 6.14 in./ 155.96 mm.

Weight: 1.61 oz./ 45.64 g.

Bowl Height: 1.86 in./ 47.24 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.67 in./ 42.42 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 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.