Sunday, February 07, 2010

Briar Buffer

Having written about pipes, I will show a before and after of a pipe I have 'restored'. Typical for most pipes, I will ream the excess cake from the chamber and clean the draft hole. The top of the bowl will have any buildup removed. I restore the stem by removing all the brown or green oxidization and restore it to the original black vulcanite color. I then polish the stem being careful to not round any crisp edges or harm any insignias that may be on it. I clean the stummel (the main body of the pipe existing of the bowl and shank) and polish it and give it a good waxing. For my own pipes and if requested, I will run a 'sweetener' through the pipe.


There is a quick run-down of what I do for my own pipes as well as most pipes I sell on Ebay. The pipe above was done for a friend of mine. He won the pipe in an auction on Ebay and asked if I could clean the pipe for him. This beauty is a Savinelli Punto Oro in a bent prince shape. Be sure to check my listings on Ebay: http://myworld.ebay.com/gearking/

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That is quite an improvement on that pipe! What is the "sweetener" that you mentioned?

Nate King said...

Thanks Neil! The sweetener is made by Pipemaster and is called Clean & Cure. It is an alcohol based cleaner/odor remover/sweetener. Most use Everclear grain alcohol, I have yet to try it. It seems to be the norm though.