This is not just my thread. Everyone is welcome to show us your restoration work on old pipes.
This is a Savinelli lovat I just finished. It needed a new stem, and I decided to jazz it up a bit with a pearlescent acrylic stem. The rest of the pipe was in beautiful condition, and it got nothing more than a reaming in the bowl and a quick clean and polish job.
The second pipe I finished this week is Dr. Grabow Starfire shape #39. It was rather well worn, with no stem when I bought it in a collection of estate pipes. I made a new stem, with a Peterson style P-lip bit, which I prefer on all my bent pipes. I gave the stem a smoother arc than what Dr. Grabow used.
I sanded the stummel down to 500 grit, then stained it with dark-brown aniline dye. I then sanded off the dye layer, so that only the porous spots retained the dark brown, and the rest of the pipe is natural briar color. This method of staining is called contrast-staining and enhances the grain by making the straight and the birdseye grain stand out better. The birdseye in this briar is just beautiful.
This is what the factory stem would have looked like, for comparison:
Enough of my pipes, Show us yours!
This is a Savinelli lovat I just finished. It needed a new stem, and I decided to jazz it up a bit with a pearlescent acrylic stem. The rest of the pipe was in beautiful condition, and it got nothing more than a reaming in the bowl and a quick clean and polish job.
The second pipe I finished this week is Dr. Grabow Starfire shape #39. It was rather well worn, with no stem when I bought it in a collection of estate pipes. I made a new stem, with a Peterson style P-lip bit, which I prefer on all my bent pipes. I gave the stem a smoother arc than what Dr. Grabow used.
I sanded the stummel down to 500 grit, then stained it with dark-brown aniline dye. I then sanded off the dye layer, so that only the porous spots retained the dark brown, and the rest of the pipe is natural briar color. This method of staining is called contrast-staining and enhances the grain by making the straight and the birdseye grain stand out better. The birdseye in this briar is just beautiful.
This is what the factory stem would have looked like, for comparison:
Enough of my pipes, Show us yours!