Best Pipe Repair / Refurb?

[sf1973]

I have a few pipe's I inherited from my grandfather. I was thinking about having one in particular refurbished since the stem is a bit loose. I don't want it to loose any of the original markings. Does anyone have any experiences they would care to share about specific services they have had performed? It's not a valuable pipe (to anyone else) that I know of, but its kinda neat since its sold under the store name that started in the Gold Rush. Recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

[stemandbriar]

As a person who restores estate pipes, I have found several techniques to cleaning and bringing them back to life.

I would recommend a good ream, followed by and alcohol retort for the bowl.
A good 3 part buff for the bowl ending with Carnuba.
And a good careful stem de-oxidation followed by more polishing.
Also do any sanding or patching to take out bit or teeth marks.

As for the loose stem, a little water, or simply smoking it tends to work.

Be happy to help, or guide you through it if you want to attempt yourself.

 

[sf1973]

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean when you say "a little water" in regards to the loose stem? I am guessing that water won't affect the vulcanite. I can't imagine wetting the wood, so I'm at a loss. The rest of your suggestions make sense, I'm just hesitant to do it with a pipe I care about. I'd buy some cheap estate pipes for practice, but time is limited these days.

 

[stemandbriar]

I have had a few lose stems that were solved from smoking.
My understanding is they simply dried out, and the act of smoking allowed them to swell just a little.

You can take a q-tip, and where the stem beats the shank, wet that inside area just a little.
Let the two pieces sit apart for a few days / week so that the water works its way back into the wood.

That's essentially what smoking will do for you.

Its also why you should rest your pipes between smokes. It allows them to dry out. But a pipe that's been in storage for a long time will dry out too much. It's a fine balancing act.

 

[sf1973]

I may try that and see if it does anything to tighten things up. If so, maybe I'll try fixing up the rest of it. Otherwise I may just commission the whole job. Thanks.

 

[SPUD 15]

You can also put beeswax on the stem it will thgten it up for you.

 

[TommyGun76]

A great pipe repair shop is Floyd Norwood pipe repair , just google him excellent work and very good prices with super fast turn around used Norwood 4 times now and had the pipes cleaned and repaired and back in my hands in a weeks time . I have heard good things about Walker briar works but from what I always see on the site he is swamped and turn around time is pretty long
but if you just need to tighten a stem beeswax and a few smokes does the trick !

 

[LIPIPE]

I'm seconding Floyd Norwood (FLNpipe.com). He has done an outstanding job on a pipe I sent to him several months ago. He is a craftsman and a gentleman.

 

[Cigar2you]

As a person who restores estate pipes, I have found several techniques to cleaning and bringing them back to life.

I would recommend a good ream, followed by and alcohol retort for the bowl.
A good 3 part buff for the bowl ending with Carnuba.
And a good careful stem de-oxidation followed by more polishing.
Also do any sanding or patching to take out bit or teeth marks.

Can you elaborate on sanding and patching the stem?

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

LIPIPE, thanks for the link; I'd never heard of them.

 

[ejames]

Cigar2you, sometimes a little heat will lift some toothmarks in a vulcanite stem.You can use a heat gun,hair dryer or a Bic lighter-if you are very careful .You can also hold the stem in some boiling water deep enough to cover the toothmarks. That will turn your stem a nice shade of brown though!
I like to wet sand stems starting with the finest grit that will remove the scratches etc. Not all tooth marks can be safely sanded out. Usually I start with 400 and work up to 800 and then buff with white compound.If you don't have a buffer,then check into getting some Micro-Mesh. It will,with a lot of elbow grease put a decent shine on your stems. You might check into Walkers stem polishing kit also.

 

[Boxerbuddy]

+1 for Norwoods pipe repair. I had a snapped tenon repaired by him.....great job and a super fast turn around.

 

[Georgiastonewall]

I just had and old Edwards pipe that had cracks on the inside repaired By Mary Ann Keller at American smoking pipe repair. She fixed the cracks and relined the bowl with a briar dust compound and it smokes great! quick turnaround and great communication!