This Kawoodie 5150b
Posted on: Sun, 06/01/2008 - 20:02
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This Kawoodie 5150b
is a petite bulldog.
It arrived fairly quickly from Hawaii, I quickly opened it and found that it really wasn't in too bad of a shape. Well at least it was waxed and buffed. Stem oxicidation was about a 3 on a 1-10 scale, top and bottom each had one fairly deep tooth mark, maybe about 1/32.
The worst aspect about it was the tobacco chamber looked as though it was reamed with a paring knife especially around the airway and the top left of the rim was burnt a bit.
With my own pipes I am not too concerned about what happens to them. sand them, stain them do whatever and if it is a screw up, well rejects are my usual pipes anyway. So I really wanted this to not be another screw up.
I started with the stem using those beauty salon boards from Walmart, the fine is about 220 grit and the extra fine about 300 grit. Kind of like these;
There was enough meat on the stem to remove the deep tooth marks that just happened to be over and under the airway funnel. They came out and there is still enough material left where it is not going to be a concern. I finished it off with 600, 800, 1200 grit wet paper. These grits are available from a hobby or woodworking store. Originally I thought that the club was an inlay. Wrong it is some kind of epoxy paint or something put on the stem. If I sanded I think it would have come right off. Maybe not, but since it was raised I couldn't know if it also went into the material.
After 4 bristle cleaners, each side (dipped in vodka) kept coming out filthy, I chucked one up soaked it and let it spin for about minutes. It sticks out the mouth piece and you can clean the funnel by pushing the tip left then right, over and over.
Afterwards I took a regular cleaner and swabbed it out. It came out pretty clean so I figured it worked. So I moved on to the bowl.
I started with a drum sander at the end of a dremel like tool with a flex attachment, I suppose any drill would do but I don't think you would have as much control as the flexible cord and handle are very light. This took care of most of the cake on the top half of the bowl and then I had to switch to a contoured stone for the bottom half.
The problem with the above thing-a-ma-bobs is they are too rigid to get down to the wood which is where I wanted to go. So I had to jerry-rig up what I needed. I grabbed a 1/4 inch dowel, chucked it up, rounded the tip, and wrapped some packing foam the approximate shape, taped it firm and taped a strip of 220 grit onto it.
With this you have to keep the pipe rotating by hand so that the outer surface is taking it off evenly inside the chamber.
Remove frequently and check if you are even/over or missing and compensate accordingly.
This removed the remaining cake about 2/3's of the way down but I had to make up another smaller and more rounded to get to the bottom.
Same deal as above.
And it is now basically back down to wood. I followed this up swabbing out the dust with a vodka soaked paper towel. It happened to reveal some fissures in the chamber where the vodka seeped. I don't think this is a good thing but it could be alright after it re-cakes. If I cared for bowl coatings those would work also.
The shank was first hand drilled with a 5/32 to remove most of the tar then followed up with bristle cleaner folded in half and chucked up. After the first ordeal with the stem I saw no sense in wasting a bunch of cleaners trying to do it by hand. It also spun for about 5 minutes and then moving it out to the mortise and pressing it against the sides as I rotated the shank. Insert finger into bowl add a half eye dropper of vodka shaken, not stirred, and don't drink the shit that comes out.
Stem attached and another cleaner indicated it was fairly clean also. (However, after all the tar was removed from the mortise the stem was too loose and required the heat and press trick).
From then on it was just buffed - fine tan compound, carnuba and cotton buff.
Most of the char came off the rim, the tooth marks are gone, there is still a bit of oxidation around the logo and it can be clearly seen where something chewed up the airway entering the chamber bottom.
I have know idea what taste to expect but I hope it is the vodka. If it is rancid I guess I can learn how to do the salt and vodka method but I will be giving it a shot as is. As for this being a Super Grain, well I really can't see much grain at all. However, it is some 70+ year old wood, a decent shape and in fairly good condition when received. Hey, I can think of worse ways for $25 to go.
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Fume in pace, ckr
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A fine looking pipe I'm sure it will be a great smoker once you put a little carbon in it.
"Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets and watched the smoke that rises from the pipes of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?" T.S. Eliot
Nice refurb Chris.
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Nice piece of wood there. The 5150B was probably from somewhere between 1936-38 (based on the numbers 5100 series from 1931-38, and the 50B shape from 1936-71[?]). The refurbishing looks better than the original might have. You did a very fine job.
"What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet, Long live the weeds and the wildness yet. " Gerard Manley Hopkins
I guess its worth the learning experience ... but I gotta tell ya pal, thats a lot of elbow grease invested into that $25 pipe ... sure hope its worth it when you light it up.
Rick Piatt
That's high quality TLC right there. Good job Chris. I have no doubt those cracks won't be a problem once it gets a bit of cake going. Happy puffing buddy.
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I cant believe the before and after difference.
I'm going to have a go on some old diggers I have lying about the place.
I'm most impressed.
Good job!
for sharing that. It was really great, instructional. Gives me some idea on how to tackle these things myself. Cautiously. He he. Ten thumbs. For a 70-year old pipe, it's amazing. It's not the $25, it's the piece of history that has been restored to pristine condition & put back to use. That means something.
your attention to detail far exceeds mine. My idea of refurbing a pipe is to run a pipe cleaner through it, ream the bowl, and maybe polish the outside.
Beautiful work!
"If you can't send money, send tobacco." -George Washington to the Continental Congress, 1776
I think the pipe came out great. I had never tried to rehab one before, cleaning my own would be the closest and a minimal effort is expended in that department.
Hind sight: I started with the barrel sander and contoured sander on the Foredom just because I had it. I think I could have skipped all that and achieved the same result with the two cushioned thing-a-ma-bobs if I had started out with those but using 80, 150, and finally 220 grit.
Before I got into pipe making and had a lathe I had a variable speed drill with a set screw. It was easily mountable in a holder, picture a wooden horse shoe on a pole held by a vise that could easily do all the sanding I did with the lathe.
As for the trip, wax and buff I have also done it with a dremel buffing kit for about $15 with a hand drill. So for doing this all my tools are a convenience but not a nessessity.
As far as the amount of time, well first I have to say it is so enjoyable for me that it probably ended too quickly. The timestamp on the before and after photos indicate 2 hours and 28 minutes lapsed between shots. If I deduct loading, tamping and relights we can shave about 15 minutes off that time.
Regarding the Salt and Alcohol method which I have never tried. Can anyone tell me if it softens the cake so it all is easily removed? I would have tried this but to let it sit for 2 days ... I just didn't have the patience. Secondly, I am not really sure about this, so I will ask rather than say; Isn't there a possibly that the stummel can crack? I think I have heard of such a thing.
The other method is an alcohol retort. This method strikes me as utter foolishness and as such I will leave it to the mad scientist types.
Fume in pace, ckr
I've done this a bunch of times. It really is not dramatic at all. I filled the bowl with salt & then as much alcohol (surgical spirits, here) as it would take & just kept topping it up. When the sale looked really black & gungy I tossed it, cleaned the bowl with alcohol, let it dry & smoked away. Took a few smokes to settle in. Yes, it took a couple of days. It works to get rid of foulness in a pipe, not cake, by leaching. For cake I suggest you remove it by reaming. I have no idea what an alcohol retort is, but I suspect I may have been guilty of them in my younger days.
I wondered if it reduced the cake any or made it easier to remove. If I ever do this again, probably will, I will just stick with the thing-a-ma-bobs and just remove it.
This is how a retort is done. I would probably burn my house down.
Fume in pace, ckr
The process Muddler describes (salt and alcohol) is fairly harmless and has to do with the natural evaporative qualities of high percentage alcohol. I myself use 90% Isopropyl but some use everclear. Like Muddler says, as the alcohol evaporates all the goo is leached out of the bowl. This process is fairly harmless and works like a champ.
Not sure if this softens the cake or not but it does seem to do a great job of returning a pipe to neutral because all the tar, goo and ghosts in the cake are leached out in the process. For severely caked pipes I knock down as much cake as I can with a recycled oyster knife (not very sharp, tapered like a dagger so it fits nicely and stout enough for lots of leverage). Once the oyster knife is done a standard reamer takes care of the rest of the cake and then I do salt and alcohol. Low tech, not dangerous, works like a champ
A retort on the other hand cleans very well indeed but is quite a bit more dangerous as it involves heating alcohol to near boiling and running the hot alcohol through a pipe until it comes out clean. Proponents say this works like a champ but I just never trusted myself to mix flamable liquids and fire in a place I have to live.
"Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets and watched the smoke that rises from the pipes of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?" T.S. Eliot