Photographed and written by 

John M. Young

My quest to restore an example of the four pipes from the Penn Tobacco Company coupons or certificates continues.  I took on the quest when researching the history of a Broadcaster pipe (the link will take you to that restoration).  Upon discovering that there were four total pipes named in these offers, I was intrigued.  Intrigued to the point where I wanted to restore an example of each.

I will refer back to the Broadcaster restoration for a history of the Penn Tobacco Company and their pipe offers and include a shortened version here.  There is an interesting summary on piphil.eu regarding the Bruce Peters line:

(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b8.html#brucepeters)

The Broadcaster had come to me years ago as part of an estate lot.  The second pipe was a Bruce Peters, restored and published last week.  This Silver Mac Duff was discovered on eBay, offered as a lone pipe.  I had been looking for over a month for a Silver Mac Duff and this was the first that I had seen.  The photos on eBay were not bad but indicated what might be a serious problem.  The below photos were taken by the seller as part of the description of the pipe.

I took screenshots of the photos and circled the area of concern.  A dark spot over an area in briar can indicate a charring of the interior of the tobacco chamber.  This can be caused by the tobacco actually burning the briar.  Typically caused by the smoker smoking the tobacco too fast or by smoking in windy conditions.  I messaged the seller, showed him the screenshots with circles and asked if they could provide additional photos.  They were kind enough to do so.  The newer photos did not completely erase my fears but helped lessen them enough to purchase the Silver Mac Duff.  

The pipe arrived within short order and appeared in the condition shown in the following photographs.

I had the first and arguably the most important part of the restoration accomplished – getting the pipe to restore.  Put kindly, the pipe was in rough shape.  It was dirty, dented, dinged, worn and oxidized.  I was happy. 

Normally, my restorations begin with laying down a clean piece of denim as a surface to work on.  Check.  They also do not usually begin with a stem that is this badly oxidized.

Sidenote:  I take the before and after photos of the pipes with my Nikon.  The camera sends the photos taken to my phone.  The phone camera is used for the photos during the restoration.  I tell you this because this is how I can recall the order of operations with a restoration.  When writing the restoration I refer back to the phone for the sequence of events.  So, no you know, even if you don’t care.

I figured that this one would have to soak in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer for at least 4 hours.

Before the stem would get its bath, it had to have a little pre-treatment with a rubdown with 0000 steel wool.  A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a hanger for suspending the stem in the solution.

With the stem safely submerged I turned my attention to the reaming of the tobacco chamber.  The reaming tools were assembled:  The PipNet with #3 blades, the Smokingpipes knife, General triangular scraper, 220 sandpaper wrapped dowel and 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie.

The PipNet took center stage and did most of the work.  This pipe had a large chamber with most of the cake deposited on the upper half.

After the PipNet the scrapers were used to clean off the lower part of the chamber then the interior was sanded to bare briar with the 220 followed by the 320 sandpapers.  There was no sign of any heat damage to the chamber.

This was a great relief referring back to that dark spot on the front of the bowl.  Below is my photo of the left side of the stummel.  There is a dark area but it was not associated with any charring damage from within the tobacco chamber. 

Next, the rim was scraped using a sharp pocket knife on the lava.  Yeah, I know it sounds gross but I moistened the lava with saliva before scraping.

After the scraping the stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with Murphy’s Oil Soap.  The Murphy’s was used undiluted and the scrubbing done with a medium stiff toothbrush.  The Murphy’s was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.  At this point I poured about 4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and let it flow into the shank.  I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway full of alcohol. I then poured the alcohol into a medicine cup.  I can get a pretty good idea of how dirty a shank is by gauging the color of the alcohol in the cup.  This one was dark indicating a lot of scrubbing would be required. 

The counter, next to the sink, is where I top a rim if topping is required.  This rim definitely needed some topping to remove the damage from dottle knocking.

I would have had to remove several millimeters or ⅛ inch from the rim to remove the damage.  Instead I opted for a topping and to bevel the outer rim edge. 

I used a funnel with sandpaper glued to the interior.  The funnel established the angle.  I then used a flat needle file  and further funnel sanding to bevel the rim.

On to the shank scrubbing.  I started with scraping as much yuck (the highly technical term for smoking residue) from the shank with a dental scraper.  I then poured about 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber.  This was allowed to flow into the shank but not out.  I then held the stummel at an angle and scrubbed with the nylon shank brush and alcohol.  After a bit of scrubbing I’d pour the alcohol into the medicine cup and either scrape or use a cotton swab to check on the yuck removal.  This was repeated several times, replacing the alcohol when it got fully yuckified (another highly technical term for something which has been exposed to large amounts of smoking residue).

I must have gotten bored with all the scrubbing and decided to work on the stummel.  According to the order of photos on the phone, I then polished the silver then taped over it.  Perhaps I was curious to see the condition of the briar after the Murphy’s scrub.  

After taping the stamp and silver, I lightly sanded the stummel with the 400 and 600 grit sanding sponges.  I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove the sanding dust/sinish.  I discovered a couple of spots that I filled using cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).  I placed a small drop of the CA into the pit and used the dusty sanding sponge to provide the briar dust to the fill.  You can see the red stain originally used on this pipe.

Without any more interruptions, I returned to the airway scrubbing.  This is not my favorite part of restoring a pipe and I have been known to seek a distraction or two.  Eventually the alcohol and the cotton swabs were returning lighter colored.   Oh yeah, I also used a small piece of paper towel rolled around a round needle file dipped in the alcohol to scrub the airway.  That’s what you see in the below photo on the right, below the shank brush.

Several more rotations of alcohol scrubs followed by cotton swabs later the airway was cleaned.  And in the process the alcohol completely removed my carefully placed tape.  Like I said, seeking distractions.

More tape and the sanding of the stummel was carried out.  I used the sanding sponges in sequence from 1000-3500.  Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

When finished with the sanding sponges I used the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000.  Again between pads I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.  I am not sure what that dark spot is in the center of the stummel below.  There was no pit there and it does not show on any other photo.

The next step in the restoration of the stummel was to give it a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm.  The balm was allowed to soak into the briar for about an hour.  

An hour later the Restoration Balm was wiped off using the inside of an athletic sock.  If you do not have an athletic sock covered in white German Shepherd hair, don’t worry.  I am sure that an athletic sock without white German Shepherd hair would work equally as well. 

Another sidenote:  Thank you to all of you readers who have told me that they prefer the black background for my before and after photos.  I now know exactly who does not have a white German Shepherd living in their homes.

The stummel was pretty much finished but I still needed to let the stem soak for a couple more hours.  I suppose I should go make some dinner.

Finally the four hours were up.  I returned to the stem, still soaking in the Before and After Deoxidizer.  I removed the stem and let the solution drip off for a few minutes.  While I cleaned up the workbench and retrieved the rough shop rag I like for wiping the deoxidizer from stems.  This first photo shows the stem still wet with solution. The dark smudge to the left was from this stem when it first hit the rag.  I rubbed the remaining solution off with quite a bit of force.  I was trying to wipe off the solution and abbrade away as much of the oxidized rubber as possible.

Below you can see the stem after the solution has been rubbed off and a couple of pipe cleaners passed through to remove the solution from the airway.  It is looking much better and black though you can see the dents from teeth and small pits left by the removal of the oxidized  rubber.

Here is another shot showing the rough surface of the stem after the solution.  I chose to use Soft Scrub of make-up pads to see how much more of the oxidized material was still present.

The answer, a lot.  The good news was that the oxidized material was quite soft from the deoxidizer solution so this brown matter came off easily.  Afterwards I oiled the stem with mineral oil and allowed it to soak in.

With fresh vulcanite, I used a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove the oil from the area I needed to fill with black CA.  I placed a small drop onto the dent and spritzed it with a CA drying accelerant.  This makes the CA set-up within seconds.  

I filed the dried CA smooth and applied a larger spot of black CA to the area.  This time I spread the drop out to about ⅛  inch diameter or 4-5 mm.  I spritzed it again with the accelerant.  This area was again filed smooth then sanded with the 400 sanding sponge followed by the 600 sanding sponge.  Below you can still see the larger CA area sanded.

From there, I sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges from 1000-3500.  Between each sponge I wiped the stem with mineral oil on my finger and wiped it with a dry paper towel.  The stem had been reinserted into the stummel to avoid any rounding of the joint edges of the stem or the stummel.  The stummel was also taped to protect the silver.

I failed to take a picture of the stem with micro-mesh pads.  Let the record show that the stem was indeed micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads.  Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed that in with my finger and wiped the stem with a paper towel.  The final steps of polishing the stem were with the Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish.  These polishes were applied and hand buffed with a soft cotton rag.

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

This restoration brought me one pipe closer to the goal of having a restored example of each Penn Tobacco Company coupon pipe.  The Broadcaster, Bruce Peters and now Silver Mac Duff could be checked off of the list.  The final pipe arrived during the restoration of the Silver Mac Duff and will be the subject of the next restoration blog.  Overall I am very pleased at how well this pipe turned out.  It was rather rough looking at first.  The grain is lovely with almost contrast stained features.  The vulcanite polished very nicely and has that black luster that really makes the briar grain stand out beautifully.  The accenting of the whole pipe with the broad silver band is like the icing on the cake.  I do hope that you found something here useful.  If you enjoy this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe.  I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Silver Mac Duff, a name that continues to make me smile every time I type it.