I stopped by the antique store a few towns down from mine, I had been planning to buy a Hi-Plane Tobacco tin in the store. While looking at what I can only describe as a pile of pipe, I noticed a beautifully grained bulldog. Now I admit I’m a sucker for bulldogs, squat bulldogs, apples, billiards, Canadians, diamond shank corn cobs, meerschaums, and clays. (Okay I might just like pipes that I can use restore.) Now this pipe caught my eye due to the grain and tapered stem. Now I tried turning the stem in store but it was stuck, and loving a challenge I bought it. I took it home and started work as soon as I could. The stringer was destroyed. It had turned into “moon dust” and sealed the shank. Pure luck had me remove the stem without breaking anything. The dust that was the ball is scattered in the carpet. Now for the problems: the bowl has an offset top (which looked to be factory), a few nicks on the rim, lava crusted on the rim, a thick cake, a very oxidized stem with two minor dents, and very worn stain.
First step: kill the stringer and convert it into a tenon. I usually leave the stringer but if the ball is gone it’s worthless to me.
Using my Decatur pipe knife I removed the cake and lava from the bowl.
Next is a full scrub with Murphy’s soap and a quick topping to fix the rim. I also added a slight bevel to the interior of the rim.
A quick stain and flame set the new color of the pipe. I wiped it with alchohol to lighten the stain.
Then I polished the bowl with Carnuba wax. Doing this while the stain is still fresh also helps lighten it, but this is a personal preference.
I removed the stem and filed the toothmarks out. I sanded the stem with 320 grit, 400, 600, 1000, 1200, 2000, 3000, 6000, and then started a mircomesh run. I applied obsidian oil, olive oil, and then buffed with carnuba wax.
The finished pipe is a great smoker, and was a breeze to restore. I finished the pipe in less that two hours. Due to most of the internals were surprisingly clean. Now the trick is to figure out what kind of tobacco hi-plane was…
MikesPipes 