Decided to 2tone stain it. First, the black and after drying, sanded it down. Then came 30 drops buckskin, 4 drops oxblood. A collectable pipe? No. But it will make an excellent rotation filler and/or work pipe. Better than just throwing it away. Here's the final:
Did a base coat staining and after drying, I gave it an alcohol bath. Then I took a small tipped artist brush. Dipped it in black, dabbed the brush on a paper towel to remove most of the stain, and used light strokes to give a little contrast on the bowl and the shank. After a gentle sanding with 600 grit, I waxed, etc. etc. etc., and here's the final:
@RockyMountainBriar Good eye brother. I looked at that pipe for quite a while before I made the plunge to stain it. I have another practice stummel just like it. We'll, maybe not as many fills, but the same size and shape. Your observation may come true on the next one. Nice to know I'm not alone when I considered leaving it with a natural look... I will say this, the next stummel will be a better candidate because of way less fills that would have probably shown through.
Had a strange little meer someone just set on my table at the show and said, "good luck". The pipe was filthy and the stem had been bitten through about 3/4". I took the stem back to good material (about 7/8"), rebent the stem to match the shorter length, mixed some tenon dust with black epoxy and proceeded to make a new button...
I now have the meer partially cleaned (it was filthy). I'll continue to work on it to try and make it more presentable. Here it is with the shorter, rebuttoned stem:
@RockyMountainBriar You are correct. I did some very light sanding, and managed to get it down a little, but also wound up taking the wax coating off the pipe. Once brushed and wiped clean, I gave it a new coat of wax. If it was up to me, I think I would call it a "pocket meer"... Here's the final:
Long story short. I added a dot on the stem because the mortise was slightly off center and the stem only fit one way. Anyway, after all the stem work, sanding, staining, waxing, etc., here's the final:
@RockyMountainBriar I agree. Wish I could find a slim breakdown case for it. I really do think it would be a good "pocket meer". Tiny bowl though. You might be able to get half a normal bowls worth of tobbac in it.
Woke up this morning... 2°! Knew right then I'd be spending most of the day down stairs with my pipe stuff. Looking around, I spotted an old bakelite stem that had been chewed through just below the button. It was already mortised and threaded for a push pull tenon commonly used with meerschaum pipes, so I decided to try and save it.
Once I was satisfied, I did more file work to blend in the taper of the stem. After sanding using 320, 600 and 800, I considered myself finished for the time being with that project. No sense in doing a FULL finish since I will probably have to resize the base to match the meers shank I will someday, no doubt, run across. Anyway, my bakelite stem is now semi-ready and awaiting a meer...
I just sat and stared at for about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to make this pipe useful again. The first order of business was to eliminate the crack in the shank by getting back to good briar. The rim was so beaten up from knocking out his tobacco, I knew my only solution was to reshape the top of the bowl...
Comments
First, the black and after drying, sanded it down. Then came 30 drops buckskin, 4 drops oxblood.
A collectable pipe? No.
But it will make an excellent rotation filler and/or work pipe. Better than just throwing it away.
Here's the final:
As you can see, it had quite a few issues:
Then I took a small tipped artist brush. Dipped it in black, dabbed the brush on a paper towel to remove most of the stain, and used light strokes to give a little contrast on the bowl and the shank.
After a gentle sanding with 600 grit, I waxed, etc. etc. etc., and here's the final:
Good eye brother. I looked at that pipe for quite a while before I made the plunge to stain it.
I have another practice stummel just like it. We'll, maybe not as many fills, but the same size and shape.
Your observation may come true on the next one.
Nice to know I'm not alone when I considered leaving it with a natural look...
I will say this, the next stummel will be a better candidate because of way less fills that would have probably shown through.
The pipe was filthy and the stem had been bitten through about 3/4".
I took the stem back to good material (about 7/8"), rebent the stem to match the shorter length, mixed some tenon dust with black epoxy and proceeded to make a new button...
I'll continue to work on it to try and make it more presentable. Here it is with the shorter, rebuttoned stem:
It looks ok to me, that’s patina…..difficult to obtain without a dedicated smoker puffin’ away daily.🙂
You are correct. I did some very light sanding, and managed to get it down a little, but also wound up taking the wax coating off the pipe.
Once brushed and wiped clean, I gave it a new coat of wax.
If it was up to me, I think I would call it a "pocket meer"...
Here's the final:
Anyway, after all the stem work, sanding, staining, waxing, etc., here's the final:
Wow, that front view of the meerschaum really makes it stand out….skinny😳. I didn’t notice that in any previous pics. An “Opera” pipe🙂
I agree. Wish I could find a slim breakdown case for it.
I really do think it would be a good "pocket meer".
Tiny bowl though. You might be able to get half a normal bowls worth of tobbac in it.
Knew right then I'd be spending most of the day down stairs with my pipe stuff.
Looking around, I spotted an old bakelite stem that had been chewed through just below the button.
It was already mortised and threaded for a push pull tenon commonly used with meerschaum pipes, so I decided to try and save it.
Then I proceeded to shape a new button using different files.
After sanding using 320, 600 and 800, I considered myself finished for the time being with that project.
No sense in doing a FULL finish since I will probably have to resize the base to match the meers shank I will someday, no doubt, run across.
Anyway, my bakelite stem is now semi-ready and awaiting a meer...
I found a stummel I have been avoiding for quite a while...
The first order of business was to eliminate the crack in the shank by getting back to good briar.
The rim was so beaten up from knocking out his tobacco, I knew my only solution was to reshape the top of the bowl...
Then I starting working on a pattern: