PSA
Tá Críosd ar éirigh! – Go deimhin, tá e ar éirigh!

It gives me real delight on this glorious Easter Sunday morning to bring a post by Scott Forrest CPG.  Scott has been part of the Pete Geek community for a number of years and, as you may know, is one of the foremost Peterson collectors in the world, concentrating on everything before 1963.  This spring Scott has brought us documentary proof of the historical Dublin scholar behind the Thinking Man icon (Post #449), which greatly enhanced the commentary to Peterson’s Patent Pipes The Historic 1906 Catalog–which we’ll be launching at the Chicago Pipe Show two weeks from now. He’s also lent his considerable knowledge for that project in determining how Thomas H. Mason’s pipe photography was rendered for the printer.  But now a great DIY from Scott–“Shank Crack Repair for Dummies”!

Scott Forrest’s
SHANK CRACK REPAIR FOR DUMMIES

The following describes how I recently repaired a pipe with a shank crack. I received a very nice little 1976 20S Silver Cap that appeared to have been barely smoked. The ferrule slipped off easily to reveal a wide crack that ran almost to the bottom of where that ferrule had been. Normally I clean such cracks and then apply two clamps – one to close the crack and another, perpendicular to the first, to keep the shank from splitting. This has always worked great in the past, but for this particular pipe it did not close the crack. The problem turned out to be that the top half of the crack was actually a missing chip.

Unfortunately, once I had a workable plan, I was so excited about completing the job that I did not document the process. I decided that the process needed to be documented, so I found another pipe with a cracked shank, and I’ll describe below what I did to repair it.

In preparing for the 20S repair, I went to the hardware store and found a white plastic ring with two areas that stuck out. It looked like the perfect solution, since it could be tightened with a screw, and that area would not touch the CA glued crack; but, when I tried to tighten the clamp with a screw and nut, it wouldn’t get tight enough to even make the crack budge – the screw eventually began tearing through the hole. I then tried a zip tie over the plastic ring clamp.

That also failed to tighten enough. So I went back to the hardware store and asked an employee to do my thinking for me. She suggested a metal hose clamp. I had avoided metal clamps because they would scratch the wood, but then I got the idea to put the white plastic clamp beneath it, first cutting off the extended ends. The metal clamp would then go over the plastic and neither would touch the crack while the glue was drying. With this new contraption, the repair was a piece of cake.

Following is what I did to repair a similar crack on the second pipe. After cleaning the shank of the example I decided to use for this discussion, I discovered that it had a shorter crack on the other side, exactly opposite the larger crack. This turned out to be an opportunity to get even more creative!

Here are the steps I followed for the repair. Keep in mind that this is what I came up with – I’m sure there are other methods that will work just as well, or better.

Clean the shank cracks thoroughly

Scrub with a Magic Eraser dipped in alcohol. Then, starting from the bottom of crack, remove all residue – in this case, the old whitish factory glue. I start with a dental pick, then go to a thin needle, then, if necessary, a thread or small piece of paper. You can blow on it (hard) to get out remaining debris, or use an air compressor if you have one.

Prepare the 3/4″ plastic clamp

Cut out an area at the front, top to bottom, about 1/2” wide, so that the the cracked area is exposed and doesn’t touch the plastic. For the shorter back crack, cut out an area wide and long enough to keep glue off the plastic ring, but not all the way to the bottom. Cutting is easy, so you can widen or deepen the cut later, if necessary.

Test prior to gluing

Test clamp with a small ’normal’ clamp, to get an idea of how much the crack is going to close.

Test clamp with the round plastic/metal hose clamp.

Get your work area ready

Box or plastic lid, glossy thick paper (mailing ads are great for this), small piece of typing paper for pushing in glue, paper towels, toothpicks, medium CA glue, alcohol and small pieces of t- shirt cloth, acetone (in case you get CA glue on something, or an excess on your hands).

Glue the crack

Place the piece of glossy thick paper in your box or plastic lid.

Make a small puddle of CA glue (I use brown) on the paper. Dip the end of a toothpick in it (it doesn’t take much), then drip into the cracks.

Push more glue in with a small piece of typing paper, then use your toothpick to add a bit more where the typing paper has pushed some out. Do not over-glue – you don’t want it pouring out of the cracks and getting on your clamp when you screw it on tightly!

Wipe off excess glue (it will probably spread back out a little when clamped)

Apply our ring/clamb device

Apply plastic ring carefully, bending outward at the end where the smaller crack is, so glue doesn’t touch the surface of either crack. If you get glue on the plastic, wipe it off with a piece of t-shirt cloth and alcohol. I found at this point that the cut-out on the back of the plastic ring was not wide or long enough. Because I was using medium CA glue (not fast-dry), I had plenty of time to cut out more plastic. No need to use a drying agent, and thick glue won’t get in the cracks as well.

Apply the metal hose clamp. Check both sides carefully to make sure all is well. Screw on fairly tightly, wipe excess glue off the top of the shank (if any).

Note: If both cracks extend ‘too far’, you should be able to cut the white plastic clamp in half. It won’t be as easy to work with, but you could get a very small piece of double-stick tape to keep each half in place.

Wait, then adjust

I dry all stummels the same way – whether it’s glue, stain, oil or waiting for finish to dry before buffing: I stick a sawed off pool cue shaft into the chamber and then set it somewhere stable. I try to leave the clamps on for as long as possible (overnight), but you should be able to remove after 15 minutes. If you ended up gluing the clamp to the wooden shank, it won’t matter. I haven’t done this (yet), but I envision cutting the plastic loose with a sharp knife, then sanding off any remaining plastic residue.

If there is a crevasse left in the crack, fill it using just a touch of CA glue on a toothpick – it takes very little.

After drying is complete you can carefully trim off excess glue with a sharp knife. This will help you avoid some sanding, but you have to have a very steady hand.

Final sanding

Carefully sand with 600 grit. You can use 400, but if you accidentally sand areas outside of the crack area, it’s going to be more difficult to get rid of the damage. 600 works fine for me.

Roughly sand the entire area where the ferrule will be re-glued. 400 is fine. Wipe clean with a piece of t-shirt cloth and alcohol.

Final Sanding – this was a reject so the shank surface wasn’t perfect to begin with. I elected to leave it looking as close to original as possible, thus a few pits (oddly, not at the crack sites).

Optionally, refinish the stummel

If you decide to refinish the stummel, do it before you glue on the ferrule. I felt that the dark brown finish might be original, but also that it didn’t look great, and I could see some nice birdseye on the right (non-stamped) side. So I scrubbed with a soft toothbrush dipped in undiluted Murphy’s Soap. A lot of brownish gunk came off, and here’s what it looked like before applying B&A Balm:

Glue on the band

In this example the ferrule barely covers the top of the shank and the bottom of the ferrule is beveled. This means ‘lots of room’ between the ferrule and the shank, so lots of blue. It also means that the wood at the top of mortise needed to be stained. I generally use a red mahogany stain pen.

Test where you want the ferrule to be glued. Once you are certain, use a toothpick to carefully apply wood glue to the inside of the ferrule – NOT THE SHANK. I cut a toothpick in half – for pipes like this one, that have capped flat shank end, the thicker end is perfect for pushing glue against that area.

Press from the top until the glue sets, wiping off excess with t-shirt cloth/alcohol.

The ferrules on ‘Dummy’ and ‘Reject’-stamped K&P’s are frequently ill-fitting, as is this one. After gluing I put a double-thick piece of t-shirt cloth over the mortise and smoothed out some of the bumps in the ferrule, using a curved burnishing tool.

You’ll notice that the band isn’t quite round. It also juts out a little at the bottom back because it isn’t tapered correctly to match the shape of the shank. Despite not being a great fit, I still think it’s original – Peterson wasn’t too concerned about these rejects looking all that great.

I mistakenly thought that all K&P pipes stamped ‘Dummy’ dated to pre-WWII. With that thinking in mind, I didn’t see how the stem that came with it could be original – the draft hole was way off to the side and it clearly had a modern slotted bit (very cheap stem); whereas, early K&P Dummies had orific bits. So I found a p-lip stem that I liked better, and fitted it to the stummel. Notice there is a gap at the base of the stem, as there was when the possibly- original stem was on the pipe.

Job Done.