repairing a Vulcanite pipe stem 10/31/2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

It seems fitting to post this pipe today, October 31, 2024, for a few reasons. The first of which is the name, Nebraska Pete Geek. Secondly an Irish Seconds sounds like the pipe is being given a second chance which is exactly what restoring does for these old darlings. Third, today is the one year anniversary of this blog. I really didn’t think that I’d be able to successfully do this for an entire year. As of this writing, 3133 visitors have viewed my blogs 5138 times. I taught secondary school science for 32 years and a rough calculation had me at 3600 students over those years. I have achieved nearly that many viewers in a single year. All I can say is thank you all. Your support, comments, and encouragement have been wonderful. I know, “shut up and get on with the restoration.”

This pipe came to me as part of an estate lot back in early July. This pipe wears the stamp IRISH SECONDS on the left and MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND on the right. There is no shape number but the shape corresponds to the Peterson Classic Shape XL90 which is the same shape as the 307 Extra Large Billiard. Below are some photographs of the pipe as it appeared prior to any work.

The Irish Seconds looked like a very straightforward restoration. Reaming, cleaning some scratch mitigation and deoxidizing the stem. The rather blocky button would have to be made more comfortable, I know this is not restoring it to factory new condition but whoever gets this pipe will be quite grateful.

Background

I’ve said it before and here it is again: “If you have been following this blog for a length of time you know I have done a few Peterson restorations in the past. If you are new here, welcome and I’ve done a few Peterson restorations in the past. I’m not going to go on and on about the history of the oldest continually operating pipe manufacturer in the world and arguably the best. I will however lead you to The Peterson Pipe book. Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) I am also including a couple of free sites as the book is a bit pricey,

The first site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

The second is the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.”

According to smokingpipes.eu Irish Seconds,

“If you’ve ever been to any kind of “outlet” store, you’re already more or less familiar with what seconds are. Products that — due to some minor cosmetic flaw — just don’t pass a manufacturer’s quality control process. When these cosmetic flaws don’t affect the function or durability, they generally get sold at a deep discount. Not ideal for the manufacturer, but it’s great news for you, the customer.

And that’s exactly what we have here — pipes produced right here in Ireland, fully functional, eminently smokeable, and heavily discounted due to some superficial blemish. Irish Seconds are graded from 1 to 3, with 1 being the highest quality, and 3 being the deepest discount. If you’re in the market for a shop pipe, just getting into pipes, or are generally more budget minded, these are hard to go past.

(https://www.smokingpipes.eu/pipes/new/irish-seconds/) I have to admit that I am happy not to be geographically closer to Dublin. The reasons for my happiness are that I would most likely be considered furniture at the Nassua Street shop and would convert the entirety of my daughter’s inheritance to Petersons and Irish Seconds. Though neither of these things are terrible, both would become annoying by those involved.

In listening to my own advice I quote from Irwin’s big Peterson Pipe book: “See Seconds” (p. 304). Just kidding, it really does say that though. The real information is as follows:

“Seconds Peterson seconds are pipes of all shapes with briar flaws deemed unacceptable for ordinary models and sold at reduced prices, sometimes unstained, fit with fishtail or round button mouthpieces. Since the early 1990s they have only been available in Ireland. Occasionally they are described in Peterson catalogs under different names, and documented specimens have various stampings. In roughly chronological order these include:

Stamped arched KAPP & over straight PETERSON”S over arched DUMMIES An early specimen preserved at the Peterson museum with this stamp has a round-button mouthpiece.

IRISH FREE STATE stamp (1922-37) COM stamp with no brand or model name. Documented with or without nickel bands.

System Reject (1968-) Noted first in the Price List for January 1968 as being available in all six system shapes. Also found in the ‘80 Peterson-Glass Price List.

Erica System Reject (1987-98)Noted in two US distributor catalogs. Fishtail mouthpiece, unstamped nickel band, with COM of MADE IN THE over REP. IRELAND or with no COM.

Irish Seconds (1982-98) Classic Range shapes stamped with no brand name , fishtail mouthpiece, in unstained, black rustic or dark brown finishes, no band. (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p312).

The last line of the Irwin quote above describes this pipe nicely. It is indeed not stamped with a brand, unstained, it is of the Classic Range and matches the dimensions of an XL90 (used from 1980-) and has no band. With this information I can safely say that this pipe is a Peterson product produced between 1982-98 and though deemed unworthy of the Peterson name, it remains a fine briar pipe.

The Restoration

The chubby darling got a clean denim piece to sit on.

The stem was heavily oxidized. I lightly sanded it with a 320 sanding sponge in preparation of the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) bath.

I inserted a pipe cleaner into the button to act as a hanger, suspending the stem in the deox.

I figured at least 4 hours in deox would be required.

I gathered the reaming gear: The PipNet with #2 blades, the General triangular scraper, Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and wood dowel wrapped with 220 sandpaper.

The reaming went smoothly as the cake was not terribly thick. The top of the bowl had some scratches that appeared to be from a previous owner scraping the bowl with a pocket knife. Also the lave on the rim was not bad and did not appear to be hiding any charring of the rim.

The interior of the bowl did not have any heat damage.

The shank was cleaned by scraping with a dental scraper and with cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Folded bristle pipe cleaners, also dipped in alcohol, were also used to clean the airway.

After 4 hours the stem was removed from the deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

The stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove the remaining deox solution and abbrade additional oxidized vulcanite.

Below you can see the oxidized rubber removed by the rubbing.

The stem was then scrubbed with several make-up pads drizzled with Soft Scrub cleanser.

The button was reshaped to make it far more comfortable for a smoker. A couple of flat files were used for the reshaping.

The worst of the stummel dents were at the bottom front of the stummel. It looked like it had been dropped on concrete.

The other dents and dings were less severe but were on both sides.

I decided to try raising the dents with steam. I set an iron to high and moistened a washcloth with tap water. Below you can see the set up and the protective tape on the stamps in anticipation of the sanding that would follow.

The steam did raise the dents but they would still require filling with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Below is a close up of the dents after a couple of steaming episodes.

The area was covered with brown CA applied with a fly tying bodkin and allowed to cure/dry without the use of a CA drying accelerator.

Once dry, the area was filed smooth and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The pipe was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The pipe was sanded intact to avoid the rounding of the shank/stem joint. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with ethyl alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sponges.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping after each pad was as above except that the mineral oil was replaced with Obsidian Oil for the stem.

The pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

20 minutes later the balm had done it’s magic and the excess balm was wiped from the pie using an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax applied by the buffer. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth to raise the shine.

I think this Peterson Irish Seconds turned out very nicely. The reservoir is drilled out in typical Peterson System fashion and though the stem lacks a tenon extension and the P-lip, I am sure that this will be a fine smoking pipe. The briar grain is pretty with the cross-grain at the front and rear. The bird’s eyes are small and very numerous. I can’t help but wonder how the pipe would look with a contrast dye accentuating the briar grain. That would violate the description of the Irish Second though. The stem polished up very nicely revealing the glossy black vulcanite under all that oxidation. The dimensions of the Peterson Irish Seconds are:

Length: 5.18 in./ 131.57 mm.
Weight: 1.96 oz./ 54.88 g.
Bowl Height: 1.91 in./ 48.51 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.07 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 39.88 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.