Did some presanding and cleaning on the Dr Mack (before shot pictured above). Notice all the pits and fills. I'll finish sanding and prepping, then I'll figure out a rustication design to make the pipe more asthetic...
Thanks a lot @RockyMountainBriar It's amazing how many pipes I've stripped away the finish only to find an abundance of pits and/or fills that weren't visibly detectable until I did so... I really hate to do rustication. I would much rather allow the grain to show. For me it's a "have to" situation because I don't have the expertise to do a job well enough to result in a near undetectable result. Thanks again...
@KA9FFJ I'm not a fan of rustication myself. Out of the 450 pipes or so that I have, I only have one partially "wire brushed" MasterCraft Radiator and my partially "carved" St. Patrick's Day Pete from 2014 or 2015? It is the green dyed pipe with the Celtic design carved around the upper half of the bowl. It screamed St. Patrick's Day...I couldn't pass it up🙂 I sold off all if the others that I had. They are easy for me to part with, and some others love them.
Thanks to our friend @motie2, I've been on a Carey pipe kick lately. Not only am I enjoying smoking them, I'm also enjoying finding unique estate pipes. Here are 2 of my most recent finds. Neither needed much as far as restoration. Just a reaming, buffing and waxing. Oh, and some polishing of the brass rings. I now have about 7 Carey's in my rotation and 2 more coming "in the mail". The bottom pipe pictured is my second Carey freehand. If it smokes half as good as my first, I'll be happy! While I did go above my $20 limit on the freehand, I evened it up with paying $12.50 for the billiard.
KA9FFJ I really like the look of that kaywoodie. I my mind a square or no round shank looks better no matter what pipe it is, I seem to be liking Bulldogs the most.
KA9FFJ I really like the look of that kaywoodie. I my mind a square or no round shank looks better no matter what pipe it is, I seem to be liking Bulldogs the most.
@KA9FFJ - I've found and restored probably 30 pipes over the last 4 or 5 years but two things I haven't attempted yet are making my own stems or rustication.
Just finished restoring two Edwards Algerian Briar pipes I found at a junktique shop about a year ago. (I'll post pictures later today.) At the time I was busy, so I passed them on to a friend who does cleaning and polishing then his work decided to send him on the road basically three weeks out of the month. I just picked them back up this past weekend.
I gave them the isopropyl alcohol bath and then started sanding them down. I started with 320 grit sand paper and then worked my way up - 600, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 and finally 12,000 grit sand paper. Between each step I wiped them down with an alcohol wipe to remove and residue. I skipped the micro-mesh pads this time.
They are sitting in a pipe stand waiting for some was and buffing later but right now they are both have a nice high gloss shine to them.
I used @mapletop method of cleaning and polishing the stems
@PappyJoe I don't make stems either. I do rebend them from time to time when I feel the need. As far as rustication, I only do that when the pits and fills are too numerous. I'm a grain man myself so I rusticate as a last resort. It's not hard to do with a Dremel and some bore bits. There's some YouTube vids on rustication covering some different techniques that you might find interesting...
Here's the photo of my two Edward pipes. They have not been waxed or buffed at this time. The one in the stand is an Algerian Briar 845. The one sitting on the table is an Algerian Briar 713-M but is stamped 2 on the bottom
Odd, but I am considering putting them up for sale.
@PappyJoe Sounds as if we're probably in the same boat. I would sell most of my refurbed pipes, not because I don't want them, but because I simply have too many... If that's possible...
@KA9FFJ Yep. I have around 55 pipes at the moment. Now, most of them were cheap basket pipes at one time that I paid $5 to $10 for so they aren't really worth much, but I have more good pipes than I can smoke in a week if I was smoking at last 3 bowls a day.
Comments
Great job! You did a fine job of hiding the flaws beautifully and tastefully, really looks good. Great pipe save.
I'm not a fan of rustication myself. Out of the 450 pipes or so that I have, I only have one partially "wire brushed" MasterCraft Radiator and my partially "carved" St. Patrick's Day Pete from 2014 or 2015? It is the green dyed pipe with the Celtic design carved around the upper half of the bowl. It screamed St. Patrick's Day...I couldn't pass it up🙂 I sold off all if the others that I had. They are easy for me to part with, and some others love them.
Shiney🙂
At the time I was busy, so I passed them on to a friend who does cleaning and polishing then his work decided to send him on the road basically three weeks out of the month. I just picked them back up this past weekend.
I gave them the isopropyl alcohol bath and then started sanding them down. I started with 320 grit sand paper and then worked my way up - 600, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 and finally 12,000 grit sand paper. Between each step I wiped them down with an alcohol wipe to remove and residue. I skipped the micro-mesh pads this time.
They are sitting in a pipe stand waiting for some was and buffing later but right now they are both have a nice high gloss shine to them.
I used @mapletop method of cleaning and polishing the stems
The one in the stand is an Algerian Briar 845.
The one sitting on the table is an Algerian Briar 713-M but is stamped 2 on the bottom
Odd, but I am considering putting them up for sale.
Yep. I have around 55 pipes at the moment. Now, most of them were cheap basket pipes at one time that I paid $5 to $10 for so they aren't really worth much, but I have more good pipes than I can smoke in a week if I was smoking at last 3 bowls a day.