@Jdukes That small hole should fill easily with Loctite 380 “Black Max”. It is black toughened cyanoacrylic . Also get some cyanoacrylic accelerator, it will make short work of that tiny hole, just put a small amount on at a time and hit it with the accelerator. Don’t worry too much if the edges turn white, it will sand/file off. You can build up the lips of the bit a little at a time too. I usually clean the areas with Everclear/alcohol and crosshatch the area lightly with an EXacto blade so the Black Max has something to grab onto, then clean it again with alcohol to remove any loose particles. File it down, sand with ever finer grits and buff out with finer buffing compounds, finish buffing with Carnauba wax. I will post a picture of a stem I rebuilt.
I don’t know if you can pick it out, but in the first picture, the area right in front of the air slot chipped out in a half moon shape. The Black Max repair is about the width of the slot, if you look closely, the Black Max is slightly more gray. This is an old pipe. In the fourth picture you can see where I was running a pipe cleaner through the stem and the vulcanite was so brittle the pipe cleaner popped a round hole straight out of the end of the bit. The repair is the little gray circle with a few little white dots around it. In the second picture you can see the line where I added a section to the stem. Before I purchased the pipe, I think it had been broken off and was repaired by turing a new tenon on what was left of the stem. This made the diameter where it met the gourd/band undersized and the bend of the stem did not look “flowing” to me. I cut a piece of vulcanite from a used stem to make an extension. It was an older stem, but still much newer than the original on this pipe, hence part of the reason for the color difference between the two. I used the Black Max to join the two sections. It blends in well here too. The joint and the other repairs are actually harder to see under natural light. The diameter of the stem to shank is correct now and the bend and extra length looks much nicer to me. I believe this is closer to what it would have looked like originally. I also bought a new Meerschaum bowl and lined the gourd with new cork for a nice fit. It has some charring to the gourd, but it is still solid. This is one of the first pipes I refurbished years ago. I have not smoked it yet, you can still see some of the white powder Carnauba Wax on the bit. Notice the “Savinelli Dry” type of bit similar in function to a Peterson “P-Lip”. I wish it had a sterling silver band instead of nickel plated brass, I might be able to figure out how old it is. My guess is late 1800’s to very early 1900’s? It is a C.P.F. Pipe (either Consolidated Pipe Factory or Colossus Pipe Factory). Which seems to have quit making pipes or was absorbed by KB&B sometime around 1910-1920 per information on pipedia.com.
@Jdukes I have repaired many stems with holes in them, or completely cracked out in a wedge shape. For these types, I fit a short piece of balsawood into the bit to plug and shape the airway then I fill it and build it up with PC-Products PC-7 2-part epoxy. Once it has dried hard, I scrape/file the epoxy a bit lower than what the finished stem needs to be, leaving a shallow divot. I then overfill the repair with Black Max and file/sand/buff the stem out. I then take a small drill bit and a pick and remove the balsa plug from the bit and run a pipe cleaner through the bit to clean it up. Lightly sand and buff the bit and you are good to go. I have only had one crack out again. It was a stem on a very small, very thin “King’s Cross” Featherweigt (correct spelling for what is stamped on the pipes) by Savinelli. I repaired it again, leaving a little more “meat” in the repair, so far so good. I will add, I am rough on pipe stems and use “softie bits”, otherwise the stems get crushed/chewed/thrashed.....however you want to put it. The “King’s Cross” Featherweigt stem is too small to use a “softie bit”.....I crushed it the first time☹️
All good advice and techniques @Jdukes I like to use a coffee stirrer with a thin coat of vaseline and insert it it the bit. Then I use 2 or more coats of adhesive pictured below until I achieve a slight over-fill. Once totally dried, slide out the Vaseline'coated coffee stirrer. Then sand, smooth and polish... Different paths leading to the same result, and they all work... Good luck...
@Corey562 You're not lucky, you're a master craftsman artisan, and you work hard at your trade. Not much luck involved there. I love your work. That's why I'm taking your 5 pipes to the show in Feb. to show off and pass out your cards. That in itself is a sign of how much I admire your work brother...
By the way, how's the boy coming along in the workshop with old Dad?
Just got through refurbishing another Peterson. It is a Peterson System 0, MADE IN IRELAND, shape number 308. It is a larger pipe. A few before and after pics for your perusal.
@motie2 Yep, his namesake, he has the stripes, long furry tail, sharp teeth, maybe not such a long nose though. Instead of acorns, he hoards rubber bands, when he is not playing fetch with them with me😁. He is pretty good at picking up his toys...no, he does not do anything with the marble.
So I got this beautiful GBD Dublin estate as a Christmas present. HOWEVER.... about half the bowl is cracked horizontally but doesn't go all the way through. I plan on trying to repair it if possible. I'm not as much worried about how it looks as I am making it structurally sound and smokeable. I bought some original Gorilla Glue (brown in the bottle kind), but I hear it dries a yellowy color & not brown like I'd hoped. The only place I can find black super glue is online (unless you guys know of a brick & mortar that sells it). I also have JB Weld (my favorite).What would you suggest?
Thanks @Corey562. My preference would be to just fill it with super glue or something similar and leave the sandblast. However, I'm open to anything. What kind of glue would you suggest using on the cracks?
@jfreedy@Corey562 is right. getting the fill to give you a matched finished is as near impossible as it gets. Check out my Feb 22 (Page 9) entry here and maybe you can see what Abb and I are talking about...
@jfreedy I used a black hyper-bond adhesive. I had to do one coat, allow to dry, then used a second coat with a slight overfill. A very slight amount of shrinkage takes place so you need to get that slight overfill. Using the tip of toothpicks, I made sure the adhesive reached the entire depth of the crack. Once totally set up and dried, I started the rustication process, restaining, etc. and the rest is history... Still a good smoker...
Side note: The adhesive will naturally be softer than the surrounding briar, so when you rusticate, you must use a "light hand" around the filled area...
@jfreedy Personally, I would stuff some briar dust in the cracks and drop some regular, thin clear cyanoacrylic (Superglue) on top of the dust, build it up, then carve it down carefully with an X-Acto, sand with very fine sandpaper 600+, or better yet sandblast it again. Give it a “wipe-over” of a dark brown stain (Feibings) and buff it up. Remember, anywhere the cyanoacrylic soaks in, will not take stain, so you need to stain any portion that may be too light first. If you use this method, it will make it very strong and when buffed up, will look like a black line. If the cracks actually go through to the inside, the burning cyanoacrylic will be BAD. If there is even a slight chance of this, I would coat the inside part of the bowl with “pipe mud” (fine cigar ash mixed with water to form a paste), OR another type of protective bowl coating paste can be made with finely ground chalk and egg whites. This gets VERY hard. I was told this mixture was used to repair broken Meerschaums, and for a substitute for the “honey” coating in Yellow-Bole pipes when dyed yellow. I have an Electra where the front of the bowl completely broke out as a separate piece and I repaired it with this method. Now, as a caveat, this pipe is “THE” hottest smoking pipe I own. I am not sure if it is this particular pipe (it has been “rode hard and put away wet” by the previous owner/owners, it has pretty thin walls from over reaming) or the bowl coating, or a combination of both? Here are some pictures. I hope they are good enough to see the crack where the whole front of the bowl had broken out nearly down to the bottom of the bowl. If the cracks do not go through your bowl, I would use the “pipe mud”. If any do, I would use the chalk/egg, burning cyanoacrylic is nasty...and I’m pretty sure very bad stuff to inhale😖 CAUTION: Gorilla Glue, the kind activated with water, EXPANDS a lot. It might just crack the bowl out completely.
Comments
Gkids due here in 15, then I'll be not available most of the day...
@KA9FFJ
heres the hole in the stem. Appreciate your input!
That small hole should fill easily with Loctite 380 “Black Max”. It is black toughened cyanoacrylic . Also get some cyanoacrylic accelerator, it will make short work of that tiny hole, just put a small amount on at a time and hit it with the accelerator. Don’t worry too much if the edges turn white, it will sand/file off. You can build up the lips of the bit a little at a time too. I usually clean the areas with Everclear/alcohol and crosshatch the area lightly with an EXacto blade so the Black Max has something to grab onto, then clean it again with alcohol to remove any loose particles. File it down, sand with ever finer grits and buff out with finer buffing compounds, finish buffing with Carnauba wax. I will post a picture of a stem I rebuilt.
This is one of the first pipes I refurbished years ago. I have not smoked it yet, you can still see some of the white powder Carnauba Wax on the bit. Notice the “Savinelli Dry” type of bit similar in function to a Peterson “P-Lip”. I wish it had a sterling silver band instead of nickel plated brass, I might be able to figure out how old it is. My guess is late 1800’s to very early 1900’s? It is a C.P.F. Pipe (either Consolidated Pipe Factory or Colossus Pipe Factory). Which seems to have quit making pipes or was absorbed by KB&B sometime around 1910-1920 per information on pipedia.com.
I have repaired many stems with holes in them, or completely cracked out in a wedge shape. For these types, I fit a short piece of balsawood into the bit to plug and shape the airway then I fill it and build it up with PC-Products PC-7 2-part epoxy. Once it has dried hard, I scrape/file the epoxy a bit lower than what the finished stem needs to be, leaving a shallow divot. I then overfill the repair with Black Max and file/sand/buff the stem out. I then take a small drill bit and a pick and remove the balsa plug from the bit and run a pipe cleaner through the bit to clean it up. Lightly sand and buff the bit and you are good to go. I have only had one crack out again. It was a stem on a very small, very thin “King’s Cross” Featherweigt (correct spelling for what is stamped on the pipes) by Savinelli. I repaired it again, leaving a little more “meat” in the repair, so far so good. I will add, I am rough on pipe stems and use “softie bits”, otherwise the stems get crushed/chewed/thrashed.....however you want to put it. The “King’s Cross” Featherweigt stem is too small to use a “softie bit”.....I crushed it the first time☹️
Thank you sir.
I like to use a coffee stirrer with a thin coat of vaseline and insert it it the bit. Then I use 2 or more coats of adhesive pictured below until I achieve a slight over-fill. Once totally dried, slide out the Vaseline'coated coffee stirrer. Then sand, smooth and polish...
@Corey562 You're not lucky, you're a master craftsman artisan, and you work hard at your trade. Not much luck involved there. I love your work. That's why I'm taking your 5 pipes to the show in Feb. to show off and pass out your cards. That in itself is a sign of how much I admire your work brother...
By the way, how's the boy coming along in the workshop with old Dad?
I make a new stem if needed, but I like to keep the original if possible.
Yep, his namesake, he has the stripes, long furry tail, sharp teeth, maybe not such a long nose though. Instead of acorns, he hoards rubber bands, when he is not playing fetch with them with me😁. He is pretty good at picking up his toys...no, he does not do anything with the marble.
@jfreedy I used a black hyper-bond adhesive. I had to do one coat, allow to dry, then used a second coat with a slight overfill. A very slight amount of shrinkage takes place so you need to get that slight overfill. Using the tip of toothpicks, I made sure the adhesive reached the entire depth of the crack. Once totally set up and dried, I started the rustication process, restaining, etc. and the rest is history... Still a good smoker...
Side note: The adhesive will naturally be softer than the surrounding briar, so when you rusticate, you must use a "light hand" around the filled area...
Personally, I would stuff some briar dust in the cracks and drop some regular, thin clear cyanoacrylic (Superglue) on top of the dust, build it up, then carve it down carefully with an X-Acto, sand with very fine sandpaper 600+, or better yet sandblast it again. Give it a “wipe-over” of a dark brown stain (Feibings) and buff it up. Remember, anywhere the cyanoacrylic soaks in, will not take stain, so you need to stain any portion that may be too light first. If you use this method, it will make it very strong and when buffed up, will look like a black line. If the cracks actually go through to the inside, the burning cyanoacrylic will be BAD. If there is even a slight chance of this, I would coat the inside part of the bowl with “pipe mud” (fine cigar ash mixed with water to form a paste), OR another type of protective bowl coating paste can be made with finely ground chalk and egg whites. This gets VERY hard. I was told this mixture was used to repair broken Meerschaums, and for a substitute for the “honey” coating in Yellow-Bole pipes when dyed yellow. I have an Electra where the front of the bowl completely broke out as a separate piece and I repaired it with this method. Now, as a caveat, this pipe is “THE” hottest smoking pipe I own. I am not sure if it is this particular pipe (it has been “rode hard and put away wet” by the previous owner/owners, it has pretty thin walls from over reaming) or the bowl coating, or a combination of both?
Here are some pictures. I hope they are good enough to see the crack where the whole front of the bowl had broken out nearly down to the bottom of the bowl.
If the cracks do not go through your bowl, I would use the “pipe mud”. If any do, I would use the chalk/egg, burning cyanoacrylic is nasty...and I’m pretty sure very bad stuff to inhale😖
CAUTION: Gorilla Glue, the kind activated with water, EXPANDS a lot. It might just crack the bowl out completely.