Written and photographed by John M. Young

In April of 2023 I came across an Ebay auction of this lovely Peterson’s Cara.  The birdseyes caught my eye and I decided that I’d give bidding a try.  The original photos showed a dark spot on the bottom of the stummel and in the description the seller mentioned that the dark spot may indicate a plug. 

Upon winning the auction and receiving the pipe it did indeed appear that a previous owner had plugged the bottom of the stummel.  An inspection of the inside of the bowl did not immediately explain why a plug would have been necessary.  As I was cleaning the pipe I discovered that there were two draught holes.  The top one was completely choked with tar and smoking residue.  The bottom draught hole started at the bottom of the well and connected to the bottom of the tobacco chamber.  Strange, indeed.  

I used a reaming tool to open the top draught hole.  This top hole is the correct or factory draught.  The two draught passageways ran parallel to one another together and were separated by about 1/16th an inch of briar along their lengths.  You will have to forgive the lack of photos documenting this as I do not have a camera nor lighting adequate to show what I was seeing with my eyes.  Hopefully the diagrams will clarify any confusion.  Confusion is something I had quite a bit of at this point.  Below (Figure 1) is an image of a Peterson system similar to that of the Cara (figure 1).  It is not exactly what I had to deal with but it is very similar.

Figure 1*

I again focused my attention to the bottom of the tobacco chamber.  The bottom of the chamber did have a hole drilled into it.  This hole was obviously not something of Peterson’s doing.  The drilled hole ran directly into the second, lower, draught hole and lined up with the hole all the way through the stummel which was not a hole as it had been plugged.

I then began to piece together what I believe to have happened to this poor old Cara. I think that the top draught hole had become clogged with use.  The owner, not understanding the inner workings of a Peterson system, decided that a new hole was needed.  My guess is the poor fellow thought the bottom of the well was where the draught hole should be.  He then began drilling a hole to open up the airway.  Or in this case to make a new airway.  He missed the bottom of the tobacco chamber due to the angle of the ferrule, his drill bit, geometry and physics.  See figure 2.  The red lines represent the new airway that was drilled.

Figure 2

 To solve this problem he then drilled a hole in the bottom of the tobacco chamber to connect to his new airway.  This is when he drilled all the way through the stummel.  See figure 3.  The light blue area shows the connecting hole drilled that went through the bottom of the stummel.

Figure 3

Upon seeing his new creation he decided to plug the hole.  This he did with a piece of briar and cyanoacrylate glue.  His plug worked well although he decided that sanding the plug smooth was an unnecessary step.  Figure 4 shows the plug in brown.

Figure 4

His drilling had accomplished what he wanted, an airway that connected the bottom of the tobacco chamber to the mouthpiece.  How long the previous owner used the pipe this way is unknown.  I do give the guy credit for solving the problem of a clogged airway but wish he would have had a better understanding of the Peterson system.  The Cara line of pipes originally was released in 1980, long before the availability of internet searches.  

I figured the best way to resolve this whole two hole problem was to completely fill the second draught hole and the hole in the bottom of the tobacco chamber with J-B Weld.  I mixed the two part epoxy as per the instructions.  I then used a plastic pipette to slowly draw-up the epoxy into the pipette. I then carefully inserted the pipette into the well and slowly injected the J-B Weld into the hole.  I repeated this with the hole through the tobacco chamber.  Eventually I was able to fill the holes with the epoxy.  I have tried to show this in figure 5.  The brown section shows the plug while the green area shows the J-B Weld.

Figure 5

The plug scar after sanding and Restoration Balm:

Repaired interior of well:

It is hard to see but, the dark circle, center, is the draught hole.  The bit of reflection is light reflecting off the J-B Weld repair.

Repaired interior of the tobacco chamber:

The cleaning and restoration of the exterior of the Cara 314 were much more typical of any older pipe.  The first step was to ream the tobacco chamber with the PipNet reaming tool and Low Country Reamer (reaming knife from smokingpipes.com).  The interior was then sanded to inspect for interior charring, none was found.  The well and draught  were scrubbed with Dawn dish soap and appropriately sized nylon bore brushes and rinsed with warm water.  The well and draught were further cleaned with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.  The ethyl alcohol, being hydrophilic, absorbs and removes much of the water used during the previously mentioned rinsing.  

The exterior of the stummel was scrubbed with a medium stiff toothbrush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and dirt from years of handling.  The top of the bowl did have some lava build up which came off nicely with the oil soap.  This revealed an area of charring at the rear of the rim.  I topped the entire stummel using gentle sanding with 220 wet/dry sandpaper on a table top.  This was followed by sanding with 400 wet/dry sandpaper also on a table top.  The rim of the pipe was then restrained using stain markers (Diaxism Total Furniture Repair System) in Cherry and Oak stains.The entire stummel was sanded with micromesh pads from 1800-6000 grit.  The wood was then rubbed with Restoration Balm and allowed to dry for 30 minutes.  The Balm was buffed with the inside of a cotton athletic sock.

The exterior of the stem was in remarkably good condition.  Perhaps the seller of this pipe had access to a buffer and had buffed some of the oxidation off prior to posting the pipe on Ebay.  The interior of this stem was very restricted with tars and tobacco smoking residue.  I scrubbed the interior with nylon brushes and Dawn dish soap for quite some time.  Finally after numerous scrub/rinse cycles the stem was appearing cleaned.  I then ran several bristle pipe cleaners dipped in ethyl alcohol through the stem until they were clean.  The water and alcohol from all this cleaning did accentuate the oxidation on the outside of the stem.  I rubbed down the stem with 0000 steel wool and dropped it into the Before & After deoxidizing solution for about an hour.  Upon removing it I allowed the solution to drip from the stem.  Vigorous rubbing with a cotton rag removed the remaining deoxidizer.  The inside of the stem was cleaned of deoxidizer with several pipe cleaners.  Both the interior and exterior were liberally coated with mineral oil after the rubbing.  

After the oxidation was removed I worked the stem with 1500-12000 grit micromesh pads.  I wiped the stem with Obsidian oil on a cotton make-up removal pad in between each micropad.  Finally I used Before & After Fine and Extra Fine polishes with a cotton cloth.  After the extra fine polish was removed I applied a final coat of Obsidian Oil to the stem and let it stand for 20 minutes.  

Photos of the finished Peterson Cara:

The old Peterson Cara 314 turned out quite nicely.  The birdseyes are numerous and very attractive.  The pipe now smokes very well and is a pleasure to add to my collection.  I have to admit that she took a lot more work and hours than I originally thought she would, however, she comes from a grand old pipemaker and has many years ahead of her.  Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

*The original Peterson system crossection diagram was taken from:  https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/the-complete-guide-the-peterson-system-pipe-startling-revelations-about-charles-petersons-greatest-invention