Estate Pipes Reclaimed = Diamonds from Coal

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by DubintheDam

Nice purchase...lovely shape...a Dublin me thinks...lovely brown rim...and excellent stem cleaning....nice.

After rim degrungification, I sanded out just enough to free the orange of the briar; it has some minor scratches and dents that remain but later for them.

[Dylan Cerling]

That's a nice looking pipe!

[Mad Hatter]

This is a little off topic in that these pipes aren't estates. For over a year I've been planning on converting these three Nording freehands into churchwardens and after getting the rough stems last week I sat down yesterday with my drill, vicegrips and a few other tools and materials and made the stems. It took about 2 hours total and aside from skipping from low grit sandpaper to high grit they turned out pretty well.

[morefifemusicanyone]

Originally Posted by Mad Hatter

This is a little off topic in that these pipes aren't estates. For over a year I've been planning on converting these three Nording freehands into churchwardens and after getting the rough stems last week I sat down yesterday with my drill, vicegrips and a few other tools and materials and made the stems. It took about 2 hours total and aside from skipping from low grit sandpaper to high grit they turned out pretty well.

Nice!

[DeadFrog]

Those look really cool, nice work!

[Mister Moo]

I'm impressed with your craftsmanship, M'atter. You have to be pleased with that work.

[8ball917]

This is a cool post. I just picked up 7 estates off of Craigs list. I'll have to post some pic's as I work on my skills.

[Mad Hatter]

My first attempt took three hours and ended with a broken stem After that I discovered Vice-grips make the perfect combination of lathe tool and measuring device to make sure those tenons are just right. A needle file chucked in the drill and ran down the stem also makes a good poor man's lathe for turning and sanding stems

[8ball917]

I was lucky enough to score 7 lower priced briars on Craig's list for practice, and here is a pic of my first ever restore, a Dr Plums flat grip. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the before pictures, but the top of the bowl was badly charred, the inside had some cobwebs in it, and the stem was really dull, dirty, and oxidized. The pipe looked like it was sitting in an attic or garage for quite a long time. I'm probably going to shine it up a bit more, but it appears ready to be smoked. My rotary seemed to work perfect for sanding and polishing.

[David M]

Wow.
Just WOW!

Would imagine its like any baby pet project.
Little bit of love, sweat & tears - comes out looking clean on the other end & that oh so good feeling.

Challenging as well I imagine.
That orange you brought out on the rim Moo - thats pretty crazy.
A lot of Diamonds as you say in all that Coal.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by David M

...the [orange] rim Moo - thats pretty crazy...

It was a kick to see that orange briar color come out so boldly; the photo reveals it about as it was. I say "was" because, a dozen orf more smokes later things are going muted. I need to sand the last of the scratches out and wax that rim this weekend. Thx for the reminder.

[Mad Hatter]

I got this pipe about a year ago. Its a Hardcastle and it had a hard life to say the least. Since I got it its been sitting alternately on the shelf and on the dash of my truck waiting for me to decide what to do with it. As I said, it was in horrible shape when I got it with half the button either chewed or broken off, a cracked shank and a rim that had huge chunks missing on the inside from pocket knife reaming and the outside beat all to hell for about the upper 3/8" where the previous owner had used a chunk of concrete for a cork knocker.

One night I finally decided to give it the old "Heave Ho" but thought before I tossed it I'd get a little practice grinding down the rim (topping the bowl). That went pretty smoothly



and there was enough bowl left that maybe I wouldn't have to toss it afterall. To make a long story short I sanded it down and added a little colr to the sunbleached wood with some linseed oil. I raised the heal with a little putty and redrilled the airway and then made a new stem for it. Finally I added a nickel band to the shank to fix the crack. It was my first attempt at banding so I chose one from my assortment that was less than perfect so when I messed it up it'd be no sweat tossing it away except it went on just fine and so it'll have to stay there. And lo and behold (and with a noticable absence of wax) its looking like a real pipe again. I wish to God I'd taken a before photo

[Mad Hatter]

This billiard, to me, has always cried out for a band to set off the stem/shank union and tonight it got one in my second attempt at banding which went off w/o a hitch

[Alpedhuez55]

This was a nasty old Sasani 4 dot that needed a lot of clean up. Very thick coating of cake that I reamed out to just about bare wood. The markings are worn off and you can barely make them out, but the pipe came clean and has not smell at all after a lot of cotton balls, q-tips and sweat.



Nice little Kriswell Golden Clipper I got on Ebay. Also needed a pretty thorough cleaning and had a petrified bowl of something in it when I got it. It is now a great smoker that I use for Virginians.



Nice rusticated Jobey that only required a minor cleaning, but was very cheap.





These two pics are several of basket pipes I got cheap from a old Tobacco store that was bought by an Indian Family. Though they were unsmoked, they were left in a draws for many years. I bought one Kaywoodie that had went out of production in the 60s. They arrived with stems that were pretty oxidized and all needed a good cleaning. But some of them are great smokers, especially that stubby little Author on the bottom which has some very nice grain.

[Mr.Lordi]

How do you guys get the stems black without resorting to the bleach treatment? because I tried the magic eraser and it did crap to my stems.