Estate Pipes Reclaimed = Diamonds from Coal

[morefifemusicanyone]

Originally Posted by afilter

Actually, I examined it close and think it is just a very unique colored stem. This was one of the cleanest estates I bought as the seller had it cleaned. There was a tiny bit of oxidation on the bit that did come off. The stem color is the best part IMHO.

Ahhic. Thats cool, never seen a stem that color. Great looking pipe!

[Mister Moo]

At $21.00 this pipe came in a winner, $0.50 under my max bid. It looked like a stout, slightly clunky interpretation of the usually more subtle, streamlined zulu or yachtsman. I had it in my mind it would be a large bowl on a short pipe - something easy to drop in a pocket and not worry about as catatrophe. 30-minutes of 1500-2000 stem wet sanding and some wax/buffing of briar cleaned it up nicely. The airhole is dead center and right on the bottom of the bowl; stem is umarred, stout, tenon snug in the mortise. All it took was a good cleaning to really let the fills shine.

[Arizona]

I really like that nosewarmer Peterson! Looks fantastic and definitely unique! Good job on the restoration...

Originally Posted by Big D KC

Well, I thought I would put up my first ever estate pipe restore which is also my first ever ebay purchase.

I got this for just a hare under $25 shipped. It came in actually pretty decent condition. Doesn't seem like it was smoked much, barely any cake at all, and only in the top half of the bowl. I would say it couldn't have been smoked but a couple dozen times tops. And appearently never much more then a half bowl each time!

The damage to it was the worst by far on the bit. Lots of scratches and bite marks, some pretty good oxidization also. The rim was darkened with scorch marks pretty good.

I got the scorch completely out, and did a pretty decent job on the stem, it could still use a better polish job though. I did the Salt/Alcohol on it and got the nastiness out. All in all I think I did pretty well on my first!

This little number also seems to have sparked quite a fancy for this perticular style of pipe in me! I now have been window shopping for other nosewarmer style pipes and found some amazing examples!!

Anyway here it is!

Peterson
"Sports" 3

[Big D KC]

Originally Posted by Arizona

I really like that nosewarmer Peterson! Looks fantastic and definitely unique! Good job on the restoration...

Thanks! It's a good little smoker too! Doesn't seem to get hot at all which was very suprising to me! This little guy is responsible for a bit of a thing for nosewarmers in me! I recently picked up a savinelli panel billiard nosewarmer as well! I actually missed a couple today on ebay as I had forgotten about them! They went cheap too, hope they go to good homes! I have won a couple of other no namers and they turned out to be complete junk. This peterson spoiled me right off the bat, first ebay pipe, first estate pipe, incredible condition, no issues. The next three auctions I won where pretty much junk. Luckily the sav saved me or I was about ready to write ebay off! Ill get a pic up of it over the weekend.

[Big D KC]

Well as promised here are the pics of the "Sports" Panel Billiard Nosewarmer. My understanding is this is an offbrand of savinelli. Has a flying bird logo on the stem. This one actually came already restored! All I did was clean on the bit a little bit, and then sanitized it. No cake built at all, it had been smoked but just enought to darken the bowl a little bit! Pretty much in new condition.

I am actually smoking it right at the moment for the first time. It gots alot hotter then the Pete does, and does gurgle a little bit. Hopefully after it gets broken in it will smoke a bit better, this one cost me a few dollars more then the pete also, believe it was $31 and some change..

[Mad Hatter]

Nice looking pipes guys. This really was a great idea for a thread. I've got a jumbo sasieni I'll get around to posting sometime this week. Waiting on my battery charger and some motivation at the moment.

[Big D KC]

Well I was bored a little bit, nothing much going on on the web so I decided to do some work on another little mini bulldog pipe I got on ebay. No name just "Imported Briar". I had already cleaned and polished the bit, and ran it through a S/A treatment (a couple times!)

This one is TINY! I got it and another one in a combo auction on ebay, total for both after shipping was $6.01! Basically 3 bucks for this little guy. The second one was a regular sized billiard and it was total junk! Think I will use it to practice the retort on..

Anyway here is a colliage of before working on it, as you can see very rough on the finish!



And this is after working the bowl over with 600 grit, then 800 grit sandpaper! Quite a few nicks, pits, and one fill on the bottom of the shank. But not horrible over all!



And here it is put together, now you can see the size were talking about here! Very cool! Not real sure what else to do to it finish wise though..

[morefifemusicanyone]

Originally Posted by Big D KC

Well I was bored a little bit, nothing much going on on the web so I decided to do some work on another little mini bulldog pipe I got on ebay. No name just "Imported Briar". I had already cleaned and polished the bit, and ran it through a S/A treatment (a couple times!)

This one is TINY! I got it and another one in a combo auction on ebay, total for both after shipping was $6.01! Basically 3 bucks for this little guy. The second one was a regular sized billiard and it was total junk! Think I will use it to practice the retort on..

Anyway here is a colliage of before working on it, as you can see very rough on the finish!



And this is after working the bowl over with 600 grit, then 800 grit sandpaper! Quite a few nicks, pits, and one fill on the bottom of the shank. But not horrible over all!



And here it is put together, now you can see the size were talking about here! Very cool! Not real sure what else to do to it finish wise though..

I would sand it down and leave it natural, I think it looks pretty neat like that. Otherwise, I have read leather dye applied with a pipe cleaner provides decent budget results with refinishing.

Nice job!

[Dzrtrat]

This was delivered Friday and I got it cleaned up last night and today. It's an '87 Peterson Sherlock Holmes "Baskerville" I'm quite pleased with this under 50 dollar purchase.

[drastic_quench]

Inspiring work. What did you use on the rim (besides elbow grease)?

[Dzrtrat]

Originally Posted by drastic_quench

Inspiring work. What did you use on the rim (besides elbow grease)?

2000 grit sandpaper wet lying flat on a counter and a light hand being careful not to top the bowl. You sweat a little during this, its easy to screw it up.

[Smarvy]

If the rim isn't actually burnt wood, a microfiber cloth and saliva work amazingly well to remove charring and carbon. It's not as nerve-wracking as using abrasives either. I'll actually rub the microfiber cloth over the rim using my fingernail to give it an edge, and it's very effective, without the risk on unintentional topping.

That is a fantastic looking Peterson Dzrtrat, you got a great looking pipe for under $50, I'm jealous.

Originally Posted by Dzrtrat

2000 grit sandpaper wet lying flat on a counter and a light hand being careful not to top the bowl. You sweat a little during this, its easy to screw it up.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by Dzrtrat

This was delivered Friday and I got it cleaned up last night and today. It's an '87 Peterson Sherlock Holmes "Baskerville" I'm quite pleased with this under 50 dollar purchase.

Now THAT's what I'm talking about. Nice recovery.

[Smarvy]

Aloha my friends and mahalo for your kokua with all the photos I'm about to subject you to.

I've been working on this Bertram Rhodesian for a couple of weeks now, on and off, and it's turned out rather nicely I think. There was some charring on the bowl rim, and some crud inside, but I reamed the bowl, sanded the bowl down to wood and scrubbed the shank out, did a few blasts with the retort, and a S/A treatment for good measure, and it's pretty as can be. There's some beautiful birdseye all along the left side of the bowl. There was some green marking on the side (paint? crayon?) that came off with some scrubbing with the microfiber cloth, along with whatever wax was left on the bowl. I polished the bit using Walker Briar Works stem cleaner, and then worked my way up from 400 grit paper through 12,000 grit, before putting a coat of Paragon wax on with a microfiber cloth. It's shiny, and I love it. This is going to be a Va/Per pipe exclusively, and I'm about to smoke my first bowl (Escudo) in it.

I believe whoever owned this pipe before me read Rick Newcombe's book and tried to bore out the airhole and the stem in the pipe; they seemed to do a good job with the wood, but royally screwed up the vulcanite. There's a big piece missing from the button, and it's all jag inside, but I'm just going to slap a rubber softy bit on it and start smoking! So, here are the pics:

Before:



After:









The 13 steps to a shiny stem:




I hope you enjoyed my picture show as much as I enjoyed restoring this baby, and half as much as I'm going to enjoy smoking it!

Aloha,
Justin

[Dzrtrat]

Nice Job Justin, very well done.