I picked up this "Stratford, London England" pipe at one of the local cigar/pipe B&Ms a few days ago. I have been restoring it by hand, and am pleased with the results so far. I believe the pipe is quite old.

The stem has been the most difficult. Had to heat treat it to pop out some dents. Gave it a long chlorine bath to remove oxidation, but still had to take the sand paper to it to clean up some very stubborn areas. After reaming the bowl (there was too much cake, it is now reamed back to ~ 1/16"), and giving it and the shank a good cleaning, the stem was loose, so I had to heat and compress the end of the stem to tighten it up - a technique that works on vulcanite.

I took these pics after smoking my first bowl. The white you see in the bowl is the ash left from the tobacco.  I may leave the briar as-is ... let it keep its character. The stem still needs to be polished. It is shiny only because of the olive oil I rubbed into it to ward off further oxidation.

Nice work.

Nice pipe, you did a great job restoring it.

Looks like you did a fine job to me Armin! All the pipes I can find around here hey want too much for, and they are way too far gone if reasonable.

E

Nice work your gonna have to let us know how it smokes!

QuoteMcBryde - 3/17/2012  8:33 PM

Looks like you did a fine job to me Armin! All the pipes I can find around here hey want too much for, and they are way too far gone if reasonable.

E

You can find some good estate pipes on ebay, but you just have to be patient and look. You can find good deals on some pipes that need a little elbow grease, but once they're cleaned up your good to go.

good work man! but be careful... restoring pipes can be addictive.

Quotesam a - 3/18/2012  1:31 AM

good work man! but be careful... restoring pipes can be addictive.

Is there any activity that we discuss on this forum that doesn't exhibit addictive properties.    

Nice Job Armin.  

Nice work Armin!

Looks great, Armin!  I'm with you on leaving the briar alone.  I like the nice thick wall of the bowl.

Looks very nice.

Estate pipes are too often overlooked.  But the knowledgeable pipe geek can snag many diamonds in the rough at very good prices ... often next to nothing if you know how to work on "polishing" that diamond.

WTG, Armin  

Thanks guys. I am still working on the stem. The oxidation seems to have penetrated very deep. It has had 2 hour chlorine baths twice now, and multiple light sandings, and I think I finally have the worst of it out.  Now to see if I can get the nice polished sheen back. If I decide to do any more projects like this I may have to invest in a proper bench buffing wheel. Doing it all by hand is definitely a chore.

As for how it smokes, the bowl is larger than I am accustomed to, so I have had to adjust my packing and tamping technique. The first bowl got a bit hot. I would pull and get no smoke, so I would put the match to it again. It took a while to realize that all i had to do was push the ash around a bit, and suddenly it would give smoke again! With lessons learned, the second bowl smoked like a dream. I have no idea what value this pipe has, but I like it and plan to keep it.

Quotekola - 3/18/2012  1:11 PM

...but I like it and plan to keep it.

That's generally how I place value on things.  

Great job Armin - it definitely has character.

Old pipes have an historic interest for me, but I'd rather not smoke a used pipe. I realize I can replace the stem and thus not put something in my mouth that was in the mouth of some dead fart whose widow is selling it, but I'd still rather place my money on something brand new.

Nicely done, I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who knows the magic of olive oil.

What's going on in between the stem and the shank, in other words, is there a condenser or filter in there to mop up the moisture or deflect the heat? I find my pipe time is mostly limited to how long it takes to scorch my tongue, and whatever cools or dries the smoke translates into more pipe time for me. Yeah, taking smaller, better spaced puffs also helps.

Nicely done restoration!

Quotekola - 3/18/2012  2:11 PM

Thanks guys. I am still working on the stem. The oxidation seems to have penetrated very deep. It has had 2 hour chlorine baths twice now, and multiple light sandings, and I think I finally have the worst of it out.  Now to see if I can get the nice polished sheen back. If I decide to do any more projects like this I may have to invest in a proper bench buffing wheel. Doing it all by hand is definitely a chore ...

Sometimes it's best to leave a little of the teeth chatter than risk getting the pipe stem too thin trying to remove it all.

As for cleaning up the stem, I'd never use bleach -- or anything corrosive to ruin the stem .  For light cleanings, after a wipe down (with a drop or two of Everclear sometimes) with a paper towel I use a drop of olive oil on a dry piece of that paper towel and rub it on the stem ... and when I do a  thorough cleaning, there are a couple really good products out there ((for vulcanite/ebonite/cumberland stems -- acrylic/lucite stems may be polished but they don't oxidize):

1.  http://www.walkerbriarworks.com/html/stem_restore_kit.html (I don't usually use wax or sealer, so $11 for the cleaner only)

2.  http://www.pipesandcigars.com/obpistoil15b.html (This one's relatively new.  I ordered some but haven't used it yet -- it's $8.00).

These sound expensive but will last through many cleanings.

Quoteljlemer - 3/19/2012  9:22 AM

Old pipes have an historic interest for me, but I'd rather not smoke a used pipe. I realize I can replace the stem and thus not put something in my mouth that was in the mouth of some dead fart whose widow is selling it, but I'd still rather place my money on something brand new.

A brand new pipe from a tobacco shop, where more often than not, scores of grubby hands have touched it and even put the pipe in their mouth is definitely more filthy than a properly restored pipe that  you (or the pipe restorer) has sanitized after thoroughly cleaning it.

I also enjoy thinking about where that Dunhill estate pipe has been since it was crafted 80 years ago.  I love owning and smoking pipes with a pedigree AND a history.

But to each his own, Larry  

nice and great info guys

Looks great

Quoteljlemer - 5/7/2012 2:19 AM What's going on in between the stem and the shank, in other words, is there a condenser or filter in there to mop up the moisture or deflect the heat? I find my pipe time is mostly limited to how long it takes to scorch my tongue, and whatever cools or dries the smoke translates into more pipe time for me. Yeah, taking smaller, better spaced puffs also helps.

an old thread but good info. i agree with the you on the bite thing. i wish all my pipes were the Peterson System type. they work great IMHO. i smoked some Escudo Navy last night in a Nording and am feeling it this AM.

Quotetoby2 - 7/1/2012  11:17 AM

an old thread but good info. i agree with the you on the bite thing. i wish all my pipes were the Peterson System type. they work great IMHO. i smoked some Escudo Navy last night in a Nording and am feeling it this AM.

The Peterson P-Lip is a love/hate thing and, for me, took getting used to.

I've Petersons with fishtails and have some with P-Lip stems - you can usually get your choice of either stem on most Peterson pipes (but might have to wait a bit if it's not in stock on the pipe you want).