Hand Restoration Method - Lee Pipe Restore

I'm going to give a quick writeup of my hand restoration method. It's a mix of techniques that I've come across. This pipe makes a good example because it had a "dirty" bowl and a fully oxidized vulcanite stem. It's an old "Pipes by Lee" Limited Edition.

Materials:
-200 & 600 grit sandpaper
-Sanding block
-Micro-Mesh Polishing Pads: Cheap sets used to sell on Ebay, but are not available any longer. edit: these are available at Woodcraft: item #142940
-Pipe Reamer: I use a Senior Reamer
-90%+ Isopropyl Alcohol
-Oxiclean Powder: I use the Dollar Tree generic type
-Vaseline or Neosporin
-Wax: Paragon for smooth finishes or Halycon II for rusticated/blasted

Click any picture to enlarge

1: Ream the bowl down to the briar using a Senior Reamer if there is unwanted cake buildup.
2: Wad up and dampen some paper towels with alcohol and wipe the inside of the bowl out. Repeat until relatively clean.
--Be careful not to get any alcohol on the outer surface of the pipe, which can strip the finish.
3: Using a block of wood, sand the rim lightly with 200 grit paper until you can see the wood. Then switch to 600 grit and clean the remaining crud off. Now sand the rim using the micro-mesh pads. My set had grits: 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, 12000. After you reach grit 4000, you can really start to press down harder on the rim with the block while you polish.
--Using a sanding block or piece of wood to sand will keep the rim surface level. If the pipe has an angled rim, sand it carefully without the block.

4: Polish up the briar body of the pipe with the micro-mesh set. Again, I went all the way up from 1500 to 12000. Only lightly sand/polish areas with rustication, sand-blasting, or inscriptions.

Salt & Alcohol Treatment

5: Fill the bowl with salt (coarse grained is best) to about 1 cm below the rim. Then carefully drip in alcohol until the salt is saturated. Wait 24-48 hours.

6: After 24-48 hours, remove the salt using a pipe tool. Then repeat step 2 until the bowl is salt-free.

8: Carefully ignite the remaining alcohol in the bowl burn off any organics left behind. Some pipes will need multiple salt and alcohol treatments, especially if they were used for aromatics.

Stem Polishing

9: Coat any insignias or inlays on the stem with vaseline or neosporin
10: Dissolve a few tablespoons of oxiclean in warm water. Then soak the stem for 5-10 minutes, stirring the mixture occasionally.
11: Sand the stem using 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper until all of the sludge is removed and the stem is black. Repeat step 2 until all brown (oxidized) material is gone. Don't sand insignias or inlays yet!
--Always sand/polish stems while attached to the pipe. Sanding the stem off the pipe will create a gap or step where they connect that can probably not be fixed.
12: Sand/Polish the stem with the whole set of micro-mesh, from 1500-12000. Only lightly polish inlays and the areas around them.

13: Now wax the whole pipe. I use Paragon wax for smooth finishes and Halycon II for rusticated/blasted. Buff with a microfiber pad or paper towels.

Now your $5 pipe looks like a hundred bucks!

Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice restoration! Thanks for sharing. It's amazing how well these old pipes shine up.

I just researched and Woodcraft has a microfiber sanding set for about $20. I may look at picking a set up the next time I'm in there. Item #142940

Very nice job!! I really like the graining now that I can actually see it! Man, I always mumble to myself when I get an estate with a bowl that's plugged and crudded up, "Who the hell smoked this thing?" I mean, was the guy actually trying to fill it in or what??

It looks like an entirely different pipe. Great job!

+1

great work, a real beaut of a pipe!

Excellent result! Thanks for sharing!

WOW! Very impressive writeup and pics! Awesome work.. I'll have to look into getting my hands on these materials.. I have a couple of nice smoking pipes that would could use this kinda treatment.

Thanks for all of your positive comments. I hope this is useful to those without power tools.

I forgot one thing: After step 11, clean the stem and shank with alcohol soaked pipe cleaners until they come out clean.

Great find! I've added this info to the first post. I'm in need of a few new pads after restoring ~2o pipes with my current set. You can wash off the micro-mesh pads after each use, and after drying they can be re-used.

This was the pipe of someone on the lunatic fringe of the cake vs no cake argument!

Thanks! I should mention that anyone wanting to start restoring estates should read dwaugh's blog and forum posts on the subject. This blog post is particularly insightful on the subject of restoring vulcanite stems.

I'm new with all of this but have several estate pipes that were my Dad's kicking around so thanks for the great info. One question- sources for hte waxes you mention?

Thanks!

I bought one each of the small size jars at finepipes.com and even after waxing 50+ pipes, they're still probably 75% full.

Good luck cleaning up your heirlooms. It's very satisfying to bring these old pipes back to life.

That thing looks great man, you did a really good job!

I've achieved improved results by adding a step:
Polish the stem with Brebbia stem polish ($8 on Ebay) after the 3600 micro-mesh and before moving on to 4000+. This results in a deep jet black finish and significantly shortens the amount of time using the subsequent micro-meshes.

I've also extended the oxiclean stem soak to 1 hour, which shortens the time spent removing oxidation sludge.

Would a mod be able to help me update the first post with some additions?

That's one of the best estate restorations I've ever seen. Outstanding job!

Great restoration,Bravo ! I want to ask you: you always use the Salt and Alcohol treatment for your bowls?