Pipe restorer recommendations

[arghblech]

Today I bought some pipe at an estate sale. Two Dunhills (one bent bulldog chestnut and one tanshell panel), a short Charatan's Make apple, a Savinelli De Luxe 904 KS with beautiful birdseye grain, and a Viggo Nielsen freehand with a plateau top.

Anyway, they've all got some degree of oxidation on the stems and need a bit more TLC than I can give them. Who should I send them too?

I know that Walker Briar Works does good work and Mr. Pease blogged about the great work done by George Dibos at Precision Pipe Works. Please advise.

 

[Whisker Biscuit]

It shouldn't be to hard to do it yourself. Ive had some wack nasty stems and they weren't to difficult to clean.
For light cleaning the Magic Eraser works great.
For heavier stuff you can bleach then polish. Make sure to protect the logo with petroleum jelly.
Or
You can sand the stems. I bought this kit for $20 and it can polish a stem up great and it's reusable unlike regular sandpaper.
http://micro-surface.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=273_188_189&products_id=75

But if your compelled to farm it out I would go with Pease recommendation. His pipe sweetening treatment is awesome. It removes all the ghost notes.
I just did this to three of the estates I just bought and they smell great and clean now.
You buy some activated carbon pellets from a pet store. Clean your pipe as you normally would and scrape the cake off. Take the stems off and fill the bowls with the carbon pellets(Do not put the stems back on!). Next place the pipes on a folded hand towel on a cookie tray. Place in oven and heat to around 200-220. Don't use the ovens temp gauge, most of the are off. Mine is 35 degrees off. I set mine at 240, 205 with the correct temp gauge and baked for 6 hours. Then let them cool down in the oven. Once done the pipes smell practically new.
Now if you want to carbonize your bowl; you can crush the carbon and mix it with grape jelly or honey then apply it to the inside of your bowl. I've read some positive reviews about this carbonizing method.

 

[arghblech]

Heh I went back to see what of the pipe stuff was left and scored a few more. Peterson Tankard and Barrel. Both P-Lip and both military mount. A GBD bent bulldog, an Iwan Ries poker, a big Brebbia Silver Star billiard, and two Savinelli Extras.

I guess I'm a collector now. I think I may try to do the cleanups on some of this less interesting pipes before I have at the Dunhills

 

[jwhite]

Heh I went back to see what of the pipe stuff was left and scored a few more. Peterson Tankard and Barrel. Both P-Lip and both military mount. A GBD bent bulldog, an Iwan Ries poker, a big Brebbia Silver Star billiard, and two Savinelli Extras.

I guess I'm a collector now. I think I may try to do the cleanups on some of this less interesting pipes before I have at the Dunhills

Good deal, have fun with it.

I find it enjoyable work, and if you get stuck feel free to ask any questions.

 

[willyb]

A friend of mine buys restores and sells pipes, thats all he does and does enough to support a family. I will get his contact email if you wish, he is located in southern CA. I vouch fully for him, and I dont get anything for sending people his way. If you would like to contact him regarding restoration pricing, shoot me a PM.

 

[drewmac]

Good deal, have fun with it.

I find it enjoyable work, and if you get stuck feel free to ask any questions.

Yep! Have at it! With a little patience and minimal investment, you can restore even the nastiest pipes.

 

[Whisker Biscuit]

Dang I want to go to your estate sales. You got some real nice pipes. The last two I scored was a GBD chimney with metal badge and a Savinelli Capri poker.
How much you score the pipes for?

 

[arghblech]

Dang I want to go to your estate sales. You got some real nice pipes. The last two I scored was a GBD chimney with metal badge and a Savinelli Capri poker.
How much you score the pipes for?

The first batch (dunhills, GBD, etc) were $15 each. All the others were $5 each.

 

[arghblech]

So I've got the Walker Briar Works stem kit but I'm not able to make much headway on this Iwan Ries poker. It's smooth and shiny but still mottled orange even after the heavy duty cleanup. I have some magic erasers handy but Mr. Walker says his method will clean even the most befouled stem. Do I just repeat this a few times or what?

 

[jwhite]

So I've got the Walker Briar Works stem kit but I'm not able to make much headway on this Iwan Ries poker. It's smooth and shiny but still mottled orange even after the heavy duty cleanup. I have some magic erasers handy but Mr. Walker says his method will clean even the most befouled stem. Do I just repeat this a few times or what?

Coat them in the paste and let set for a good 45min to soften the oxidation, then rub with fresh paste on a rag. Use the same section of rag when your rubbing so that it becomes saturated. The cleaning paste has an abrasive that will become dilute in a clean section of cloth, doing this will keep the abrasive on the stem. However being a fine abrasive it can take a lot of rubbing to get it all. This can be good in that it makes it difficult to damage a valuable original stem, but it can be tedious on hard oxidation.

I have not used the magic eraser and I don't see how it can hurt anything. If you want to give it a try and see if it is easier for removing that tough oxidation let us know how it works. I usually use the walkers in maintaining stems that have begun to get some light oxidation from regular use, and as a final hand buff and polish after reshaping and using more aggressive means of removing oxidation. It really depends on your comfort level with more aggressive methods, the walkers will work on its own but can take some work.

 

[drewmac]

The bleach treatment on the stem may work well for this stubborn one too. Soak it in a small amount of bleach overnight. The bleach will remove the oxidation, but leave a dull, coarse finish. Some progressive grit sanding, followed by buffing and polishing will turn it new again.

 

[arghblech]

Since I'm doing the experimenting on this less interesting pipe, I decided to pull out the stops.

After about an hour of polishing with the Walker stuff, I grabbed a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and headed for a sink. I turned on warm water and wet the eraser. Then I scrubbed. A lot. Orangy-brown liquid was coming off the stem like crazy! I used up about a third of the little pad but the stem was *much* better after 15 minutes of scrubbing. I haven't fully gotten all the oxidation off yet so I'm not sure this is a good way to have at the really gross stems.

Needless to say, the results are not yet in. I'm not sure that this stem will ever really shine like a new one and the Iwan Ries Co logo stamping has lost all of it's white. On this pipe, those things don't matter so much.

 

[jwhite]

Since I'm doing the experimenting on this less interesting pipe, I decided to pull out the stops.

After about an hour of polishing with the Walker stuff, I grabbed a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and headed for a sink. I turned on warm water and wet the eraser. Then I scrubbed. A lot. Orangy-brown liquid was coming off the stem like crazy! I used up about a third of the little pad but the stem was *much* better after 15 minutes of scrubbing. I haven't fully gotten all the oxidation off yet so I'm not sure this is a good way to have at the really gross stems.

Needless to say, the results are not yet in. I'm not sure that this stem will ever really shine like a new one and the Iwan Ries Co logo stamping has lost all of it's white. On this pipe, those things don't matter so much.

Oh it'll shine up for you all right it can just take a stupid amount of work to hand buff all the oxidation off. Glad to hear the magic eraser is working well for you, sounds like its just a bit more abrasive than the Walker Paste. Good info to have. The white spot on the Dunhill is inlayed by the way so you don"t have to worry about it coming off. Stampings can be worn down however. If the it is still crisp they can be refilled the same as some of the SB restorers do. I use a laser fill acrylic. I have done the bleach followed by 0000 steal wool and buffed out with the walkers on difficult stems with really good results.