Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Big Briar

    Greetings Pipemen! Today I have another repair from the estate box of briars.


    This is a large, pot-shaped, straight stem briar. The only marking on it is the stamp “made in London, England.”
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The Big Briar. © 2017 James Hill
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Made in London. © 2017 James Hill
Man, is this thing big! The Mrs. imagines that this was a sailor’s pipe. He didn’t have time to reload very often, hence the huge bowl. He apparently didn’t have the time to clean it either - this pipe was filthy!


    The stummel was smokey and sticky and very little grain was visible through the grime. There were also some flecks of green paint on one side. The rim was encrusted and the chamber was incredibly caked up, as you can see in the photo.
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The Big Briar Chamber. © 2017 James Hill
The oxidized stem, once I was able to free it, I found was quite plugged up. The stem went into a warm solution of Oxyclean while I got to work on the stummel.


    The first order of business was to clean out the chamber. Once the first layer of cake (and wow, was this stuff sticky! I wonder what the previous owner smoked.)  had been removed, I found that my reamer wasn’t able to reach the sides of the chamber. After some elbow grease, a dowel, sandpaper, and lots of time, the chamber was clear - you can see how much goop came out in the photo.
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The Big Briar Cake Removal. © 2017 James Hill


Next stop, the airway, which was completely plugged. Between a small, hand-turned drill bit, and lots of cotton swabs and pipe cleaners, the airway was finally free.
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Some of the cleaning supplies. © 2017 James Hill


    Next, the stummel got a scrubbing with a soft toothbrush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. After a couple of rounds, I could see the true form of this briar emerging from under the grunge. Happily the paint flecks came right off with a little help from my thumbnail. I rinsed and dried the stummel then headed back out to the workshop. With a light sanding of the rim, a few scorch marks were removed then I touched up the finish, oiled the stummel and set it aside to tackle the stem.


    Cleaning the airway took time, patience, and lots of pipe cleaners. With that accomplished I began sanding and polishing the stem to remove the oxidation and some mineral deposits. I decided to revisit a couple tooth marks later.


    WIth the pipe cleaned and reassembled, I gave the works a once over with white diamond, then two coats of carnauba. As I was working the pipe on the buffer I could see the beautiful grain of the briar. This really is a lovely pipe and is ready to be put back into service in my collection!


    Thanks for reading, and until next time, keep the fires lit, pipemen!


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The Big Briar, Cleaned. © 2017 James Hill

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

The Meerschaum Owl

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The Owl Meerschaum. Frontal View Before Cleaning/Waxing. © 2017 James Hill


    Greetings Pipemen! I hope this post finds you all well! I found this little owl-shaped meer on ebay and put in a bid. Happily mine won and soon the pipe was on its way to Texas.


    Upon unpacking, I had a close look at the stummel and found it to be quite dry, a little dirty, and mostly off-white with some patches of color here and there. I also found a sticky layer of cake buildup in the chamber.
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The Owl Meerschaum Side View Before Cleaning/Waxing. © 2017 James Hill
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The Owl Meerschaum’s Tobacco Chamber Before Cleaning. © 2017 James Hill


    After removing the stem, my first order of business was to clean the chamber. I gave it a gentle sanding with 200 grit sandpaper wrapped around a marker. Not wanting to damage the material of the pipe, I sanded it down to where I could see the stone peeking through a light layer of carbon. Happily, I was able to get all of the sticky stuff out.


    When I removed the stem I did come across a bit of a mystery - a paper cylinder sleeve covering part of the airway. I cannot find ANY info about this thing other than another reference online to finding one in another meer. Does anyone know what the proper name of this sleeve is and where I can get a replacement? The one that came with the pipe has seen better days and may not hold out much longer.


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Stummel with the mystery paper sleeve. © 2017 James Hill


    After cleaning the chamber, I gave the airway a cleaning. It was in pretty good condition and only needed a few pipe cleaners to be brought up to ship shape.  Afterwards, I brushed the surface of the pipe with a soft toothbrush. I then used a pick to dislodge a few pieces of gunk stuck in the nooks and crannies of the carvings.


    Following the cleaning, I put on some 100% beeswax to melt while I gently heated the pipe with a hair dryer. Once the wax was completely melted, I used a paintbrush to apply the wax to the entire surface, making sure to get it into every crevice.
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Waxed Stummel. © 2017 James Hill


I let the wax settle in a bit then heated the stummel with the hairdryer again. Almost all of the wax absorbed - this little meer was thirsty! I repeated the waxing process then let the stummel sit and rest while I cleaned and polished the stem.


    The stem’s airway was pretty clean already, and again it only took a few pipe cleaners to get it squared away. I cleaned and polished the surface of the stem then gave it a couple of coats of carnauba.


    After its cleaning and waxing this little meer looks much better! The wax has drawn more of the color to the surface and over time this should darken to a lovely mahogany hue! I’m looking forward to having this meer in my rotation!


    Until next time, keep the fires lit, pipemen!


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The Finished Product. © 2017 James Hill

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The Box o' Briars

The Box O' Briars (c) 2017 James Hill

Good Afternoon fellow Pipemen! 

I recently won a box lot of briars on ebay and the postman delivered them this weekend! They are in various states of repair, but all are quite mendable and I'm looking forward to sharing my repairs with all of you as I bring these veterans back into smoking condition! I'm really excited about the large pot briar - it's going to be a challenge to recondition but I think it will be a great smoker! From the size of the bowl, I'm guessing it will give a good 1 - 1.5 hours. 

I've also recently received a shipment of Ratttray's Bagpiper's Dream and Sutliff's Maple Street. I'll be posting my thoughts on them soon. 

Until next time, keep the briars lit, pipemen!