Project Information
20 years ago I salvaged three very old grungy Briar burl pipes thinking that they might be worth refurbishing. Yesterday I attempted to do so.
Scraping out the petrified cake of carbon and tobacco proved difficult but by using a small sanding drum on the drill press I got the bowl cleaned out nicely. The rim was badly charred so I hand sanded it down to bare wood. This didn't take long as the Briar burl is actually very soft and porous.
I thought the stem was a lost cause as it was plugged with hardened tar and had gross white calcified crusty stuff on the exterior. But I tried sanding this off and discovered that vulcanized rubber is very easy to work and I was able to polish it to a high gloss with wet dry sand paper and micro mesh.
I cleaned up the outside of the stummel with lacquer thinner, but you have to use a non-toxic solvent on the innerds so you don't poison yourself. A little research revealed that Everclear (white lightning) is ideal for this, but is not available in Mainiac land, so the closest I could get from my current inventory was 95 proof Gin. This worked quite well and with a fist full of pipe cleaners and Q-tips I got it very clean and sterilized.
A coat of Tung oil on the exterior really popped the burl figure and a little wax made the stem shine. I'll need to let the pipe dry out a few days before testing but I'm very pleased with the way it looks.
Just out of curiosity. I checked eBay and similar estate pipes that don't look nearly as good appear to be going for up to $30. Not to bad for a nasty 50+ year old relic salvaged from the basement.
Scraping out the petrified cake of carbon and tobacco proved difficult but by using a small sanding drum on the drill press I got the bowl cleaned out nicely. The rim was badly charred so I hand sanded it down to bare wood. This didn't take long as the Briar burl is actually very soft and porous.
I thought the stem was a lost cause as it was plugged with hardened tar and had gross white calcified crusty stuff on the exterior. But I tried sanding this off and discovered that vulcanized rubber is very easy to work and I was able to polish it to a high gloss with wet dry sand paper and micro mesh.
I cleaned up the outside of the stummel with lacquer thinner, but you have to use a non-toxic solvent on the innerds so you don't poison yourself. A little research revealed that Everclear (white lightning) is ideal for this, but is not available in Mainiac land, so the closest I could get from my current inventory was 95 proof Gin. This worked quite well and with a fist full of pipe cleaners and Q-tips I got it very clean and sterilized.
A coat of Tung oil on the exterior really popped the burl figure and a little wax made the stem shine. I'll need to let the pipe dry out a few days before testing but I'm very pleased with the way it looks.
Just out of curiosity. I checked eBay and similar estate pipes that don't look nearly as good appear to be going for up to $30. Not to bad for a nasty 50+ year old relic salvaged from the basement.