This is a project from quite a while ago that I've yet to publish. I preemptively took many pictures to document the process, so I'll be able to go into a fair amount of detail!
Seeking an easy restoration project, I searched Ebay and found a decent-looking vintage pipe, which seemed a prime candidate. I really love shape of this pipe, and I think the screw-on bottom cap is a very unique feature. The shank was severely cracked, the mouthpiece was chipped at the tip, and the bowl was nearly filled with years of caked-on tobacco (not pictured).
I started out by disassembling all components that could be removed. The shank, stem, and lid were very easy to get off, but what gave me the most trouble was the cap at the bottom of the bowl. I was convinced that it was meant to come off (whether by screw or tenon was unsure), but it seemed exceedingly difficult to remove. My guess is that not being removed for years allowed tobacco residue to build up and effectively glue it into place. Using thin razor blades, I gently scraped along the seam between the bowl and cap, getting deeper until it was obvious I was hitting wood. After this I used isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to wet the seam and soften the joint. After literally 1-2 hours of this, I was finally able to unscrew the cap. Boy was I right, this thing was nasty inside...
Using q-tips and IPA, I cleaned out the inside of the cap, and scraped out the threads with a razor blade. When everything was nice and clean, the cap was much easier to screw on and off. Moving on to the bowl, I mostly used a small metal scraper to get out the large pieces of burnt tobacco. To finish it used a pipe bowl scraper to even out the walls and get a decently uniform interior surface.
With the interior of the bowl and cap finished, I decided to move along to doing the exterior of the bowl. Whatever finish had been applied originally was looking grimy, so I decided to simply sand through the finish until I reached bare wood. The original maker seemed to have used wood putty to fill any voids that were present in the burl, but I thought it didn't blend in well, so I decided to scrape out the putty as best as I could with a dental scraper. To refill these holes I sprinkled some briar dust into the holes, and dripped some super (CA) glue into the holes. This not only created a durable fill for the hole, but the color will look somewhat better than the putty. I then sanded the super glue flush with the surface.
Left: Wood putty scraped out of voids in the burl. Right: Voids filled with briar
dust & CA glue, quite dark, but I think better looking than the putty.
The mortise which accepts the shank had a crack in the outer wall, which I wanted to reinforce. I opted to use a collar to both reinforce the wood as well as to create a better looking transition between the bowl and whatever I decided to use for the shank. The collar is made from nickel silver, and had to be ground down on top in order to match the height of the mortise. I used briar dust and super glue to fill the crack and to fill any gaps between the wood and collar singe the cross-section of the mortise isn't perfectly round.
There wasn't much strength left in the mortise, so there
was little choice but to slap a collar on there.
The collar was a pretty snug press-fit, and filling the gap with
CA glue + briar dust really secured it into place.
After grinding the collar down flush with the
mortise, it's really starting to look nice!
I decided to stain the briar with some leather dye, which can give very vivid colors with a high tolerance to fading. I opted for Fiebing's Oxblood, since it produces a rich red tone. A few coats of dye followed by two coats of linseed oil brought out the color fantastically.
Dyed with Fiebing's Oxblood.
Two coats of linseed oil on top. The oil makes the burl figuring really pop!
The original shank didn't seem to be made of any special kind of wood, but in any case it was too severely split to hope to recover. I used this as an opportunity to try something different as well as to incorporate using my lathe into this project. I purchased a small piece of buffalo horn from my local woodworking shop, and used it to form a new shank with a more interesting shape. The horn wasn't much different to turn than wood, but it did have a pretty bad smell while I was drilling holes..
I fitted the tenon to the mortise on the bowl, and made sure that the bottom tapers so it's flush with the diameter of the collar. Once I reached the shape I wanted, I sanded it gently, and used several polishing wheels to get it to a finish that I was satisfied with. Once polished, I tapped the hole to accommodate the M7 thread that the mouthpiece had.
The mouthpiece needed complete replacement, and I found a fantastic german vendor that specializes in this type of horn mouthpieces. This was by far the easiest part of the restoration as I simply had to order the piece and sit on my ass waiting for it to arrive. This simply threaded into the tapped hole in the shank, and the pipe was essentially finished. I slapped my polishing wheels back on the lathe and gave the bowl lid a final polish. Success!
A final photo, this piece really came together nicely. I love the richness of the color on the bowl, and the new shank really adds something to the pipe. It's fully functional at this point, but I'll likely just hang onto it as a nice collectors piece.
Thanks for reading,
Juju
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