504. Mind the Gap, Pt. 2: A DIY on Recovering that Vintage-Style Look

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

THE EVOLUTION OF BOWL TURNING AT PETERSON
WITH GLEN WHELAN & GIACOMO PENZO:
Friday from 10-2, DFW Room

PETE GEEK MEET:
Friday from 2 to 3, Special Events Tent

I want begin this morning with some insights Stephen Wilson CPG shared with me on the possible origins of the army style mount which which I found really helpful, and which explains at least indirectly why the original Patent Wear Gap displayed some variations in the 2-4mm distance seen in various shapes of the 1906 catalog.

Stephen: “I have spent many years working in the areas of process optimization and process modeling, especially in industrial settings. I’m wondering if the reason for the Wear Gap [MTI: and by extension the army mount of the System Standard and Premier] is that it is much easier to make a tapered tenon that is ‘close enough’ to fit into the pipe without a lot of fussy sanding, measuring, fitting, repeating, et cetera.”

Mark: “Could you unpack this a bit?”

Stephen: “If I design a pipe with a mortise diameter of 4mm, for example, then it must be drilled to precisely 4mm. Sometimes drilled slightly undersize and then reamed (using a tool called a reamer) to the exact 4mm diameter.

“Likewise, the tenon must also be 4mm diameter, or slightly less, to fit in the mortise. If it is too large, then it must be sanded or otherwise reduced in size to fit into the mortise. This step can take several iterations to get the perfect size. If it is too small, then the stem will be loose, and the pipe will not work. There are several techniques available to increase the size of the tenon. None of them could be characterized as ‘quick.’

“Thus, for the straight mortise and tenon, a bit of time is required to get the correct fit.

“However, if the mortise is drilled to 4mm, plus or minus 0.1mm and the tenon is slightly tapered, for example from 3.9 mm at the end, to 4.1 mm on the stem, then there is no need to ‘fit’ or ‘fine tune’ the size of the tenon, as seen here, illustrating the differences between straight and tapered tenons:

“Based on examination of several of my DeLuxe System pipes, I do not believe the mortise is tapered; nor does it need to be.

“What does this mean? From a manufacturing process perspective, the craftsperson can drill 100 4mm mortises.

“For straight tenon pipes, the craftsperson turns (on a lathe-like tool) a hundred 4mm tenons. They all go into a box. Later, after the bowl has been finished (i.e. shaped, sanded, stained, stamped, and had the silver applied), the assembler takes a stummel and a stem and puts them together. If they don’t fit, then the sizing steps discussed above must be performed until the correct fit is attained.

“For tapered tenon pipes, the assembler takes a stummel and sticks in a stem. Bag it, box it, done.

“Let’s assume that one-half of the straight tenon pipes must be ‘fitted,’ and that it takes an average of five minutes per pipe. That’s five minutes times 50 pipes, or 250 minutes, which is 4.16 hours. I don’t know what half a workday of a skilled assembler costs Peterson, but I imagine it is not trivial. As an engineer, the fact that I can cut a slight taper in the tenon and eliminate the ‘fitting’ process appeals to me. The move to market this as a ‘feature’ is genius.”

Mark: “Thanks, Stephen. I’m hoping that other engineering-types like Prof. John Schantz, Gary Hamilton, and Fletch Hiner might comment and, if appropriate, expand on what you’ve said in the comments.”

The Aesthetic of the Wear Gap.

The Wear Gap, at least in my opinion, should be in the neighborhood of 3 to 4mm. I don’t mind if it’s narrower—who am I to contradict Charles Peterson when he wrote it will narrow with use? But wider? It’s not going to keep me from buying a new DeLuxe, but you know, if I had my druthers…

Ever the high-water mark, the Centenary Systems used the Patent Gap.

As late as 1975, K&P was still observing Charles Peterson’s narrower gap styles, as can be seen in the Centenary 9s with its 3mm gap above. The 1981 MT was a real shift, but it wasn’t an Ugly Gap shift, as you recall from last Sunday’s post.

As I said last time, the Wide Wear Gap seems to be hover between 6.5 and 7mm and has become or or less the norm on both acrylic and vulcanite DeLuxe pipes of the past several years. Recall also that it’s not the actual gap but the perceived distance caused by the empty space left by a much narrower tenon than was utilized from 1891 until the early 2000s.

That narrow tenon—which impacts the mortise by making it narrower and the reservoir less capacious—is, in my opinion, the culprit. But, as any gearhead will tell you, there is almost always a mod (now called a “hack,” but not by me) that can be done.

I’ve also been dissuaded over the years by well-meaning Pete Geeks from attempting the following exercises, who told me that if the sanding takes the tapered tenon out of round, the game’s over. As Alexander Pope said in 1711, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Of course, he didn’t smoke a pipe. And of course, I’ve long been aware my rushing tendencies (“why must you go fast like an a— instead of slow like a pro?”).

The following DIY explains how I’ve carried out this operation. If you decide to follow me in this foolishness and fail, please to remember I’ve migrated to Antarctica for two successive six year clinical studies monitoring the effects of sub-zero temperatures on morons and can’t be reached until the end of 2038.)

HOW TO NARROW THE GAP :
THREE EXCURSIONS WITH SOME SUCCESS

“Over The Top: 30th December 1917,” by John Nash (1892-1977)

Tools and Materials

Wet/dry sandpaper or sanding pads, 120, 325, 400, 1200, 2500 grit
CA glue
Derring-do, large economy size bottle

Project Pipes

B42 DeLuxe, HM 2015
9S DeLuxe, HM 2023
PUB PIPE PSB, HM 2019

So which to begin with? The unmitigated successes? The qualified success? As they all fall under the “I-don’t-know-how-these-turned-out-as-well-as-they-did” category, let’s begin with the qualified success—the B42. Alright—over the top, men!

B42 DeLuxe, HM 2015.

This DIY was really slow taking off because my B42 conversion seemed at first an absolute, easy success. At the time I did this operation around midnight a few months back when I was in a somewhat altered state of consciousness, I hadn’t thought of sharing it as a post, so I didn’t document the process. When I finished, I was pleased with how very simple it was. Well, not quite…

The next night, loading up the B42 to smoke, the bowl fell right off the stem! Of course “What the fridge?” was my first thought. I couldn’t figure it out. I thought, “Hmm, after sanding the tenon must’ve been warm and expanded. It cooled off and shrank.” So I tried sanding it a bit more—knowing I’d lose just a bit of the gap, which wasn’t going to effect the condenser / reservoir distance adversely. It cinched right up. Had a good, even great smoke. The next night, the same thing happened-the bowl fell right off the stem.

So it was time to give it a think. It looked like it should’ve held. I didn’t want to decrease the gap any more, so how could I get it to fit? That took me a few days. Then a eureka moment occurred: apply CA glue to the tenon. I thought about that and my rate of success with CA glue. How could I ever apply it evenly? Buzzer. Idea tossed into the garbage.

The following night I had the answer: CA glue, yes, but not on the tenon! Paint a ring around the inside top of the mortise. And what do you know, it worked. And it’s kept on working. I had to pick up the pipe just now just to make sure. Yup. Still clenching.

Painting the CA glue around the mortise.

I used a small disposable brush, as you can see here, and painted on the CA glue about an inch down the sides. I used dark brown, which was what was still left in the fridge that hadn’t turned into a rock—another reason I don’t like the stuff: it’s expensive and about one or possibly two applications is all I ever seem to get out of it.

The dried CA glue with crusty edge ready to file down.

There was a crust or lip around the bottom of the coat of CA, as you can see in the photo above. This I filed down gently, really just knocking off those edges. This left a nice clenching ring that I’m hoping will last indefinitely. And if it gets loose, well, I guess I’ll buy another bottle of CA glue and do it again.

Takeaway: Even if you goof up, there’s a way to remedy the situation and come away with a Vintage-Style Gap. But you’re not going to mess it up, I know.

9s Supreme HM 2023.

Let’s move on to two successes. This 9s Supreme sandblast had an OEM gap of 7.0mm and it’s been a fantastic smoking instrument. Why I decided to use this instead of a less expensive DeLuxe, I have no idea. But I did, and it came out well.

Here’s the step-by-step:

First, you’ve got to measure the original tenon + condenser length, because reducing the gap will push the condenser deeper into the mortise and will be a problem if it hits the top of the reservoir.

The condenser can go below the bottom of the airway a bit, but I don’t want it to dip into the reservoir.

The 9s measurements came out like this:

23.7 mm = the combined depth of tenon and condenser as measured from the shank face to tip of condenser. You can use blue tape to mark the tightening line on the tenon if there isn’t an obvious tightening line on the vulcanite.

25.2 mm = the distance from the shank face to the bottom of the airway entry hole in the shank.

02.5 mm = the distance from the bottom end of the condenser to the bottom of the airway entry hole.

40.2 mm = the distance from the shank face to the reservoir floor, so there’s plenty of room for the condenser. In fact, having the condenser tip drop 2 to 3 mm below the airway entry hole, far from being a problem will actually make the pipe smoke better. This is not my opinion, but a verifiable fact. Of course, you’ll have to smoke a pipe so modified if you’re one of those “I need to see the holes in your side and hands and feet in order to believe” sort of fellows—or in this case, holes in the mortise.

Now I’m going to do this DIY by hand, since I don’t have the skills, training, or tools to do it any other way. If I mess it up, well, the pipe will need a new stem, won’t it? But if I succeed, not only will the aesthetic be improved as well as restored to the traditional look, but the pipe will also smoke better, since at present the condenser is 1.5 mm short.

I begin by cutting a piece of emery cloth that will wrap around the tenon extension. (Note: after doing the 9s, I decided this was serious overkill and went to 120 grit wet/dry, as noted in the final DIY of the Pub Pipe below.)

I’m going to use the base of thumb and the side of the bottom of my forefinger to firmly grasp the emery cloth-wrapped tenon and then firmly rotate the stem with my other hand.

Remember when sanding to let the sandpaper do the work as much as possible. As long as you’ve got the tenon firmly in hand, you don’t need to apply a lot of pressure or torque.

I’ll rotate the piece 180 degrees every so often to keep the same grits from going over the same tracks and grooving the vulcanite.

I’ll also fit the tenon into the mortise as I go, more frequently the further I get, to see how I’m progressing.

As seen in the above photo, it didn’t take long to get to the 4.0 sweet spot. If it narrows to even 3.0 as I sand the tenon smooth, remember it’s gonna look great and smoke better, not worse.

After the 400 wet/dry, I’m going to buff with tripoli. To make the portion of the tenon which will be visible a little darker (but not glossy), I used some 400 wet/dry over the surface of the entire tenon.

When finished, the gap is 3mm. Looks great, although in hindsight if I’d gone a little slower I might have had that 4mm gap. No worries, though, as I’ve seen many a Space-Fitting Gap this size and it looks immeasurably better than the Wide Gap the pipe had to begin with.

Pub Pipe PSB, HM 2019.

My Pub Pipe PSBB (that second B is for the taper stem!) came with a 6.0mm Wide Gap.

This time everything went perfectly. I found that I could modify my sanding, however, beginning with a piece of 120 grit wet/dry instead going to the emery paper. I cut my paper to wrap around the taper, again using my thumb for pressure and two fingers to back as I twirled in one direction.

This didn’t take long at all, although I did stop twice to check how forward movement into the mortise. When I had it down to about 3.5, I followed with sanding pads, 320, 400, 600, and 1000. I finished with tripoli on the buffer.

As you can see in this closeup, I didn’t want to remove the ridges where the taper needs to seat with the mortise.

This time around, as I said at the beginning, it came out perfect, with a 3.2mm gap.

Conclusions.

As Gary Hamilton CPG told me when I was discussing this project, “it doesn’t take a lot of reduction in the diameter of the tenon’s taper to result in a lot of forward motion in reseating the stem deeper into the mortise, so you need to be somewhat reserved in how you do this, as you can get to the point that the stem won’t seat properly due to too much material removal.”

I can certainly understand why no one would want to do such a DIY, and I’m not by any means recommending the reader to do this for himself. However, after 48 years of smoking Systems, it didn’t seem like a big deal to me to make this attempt.

If you’re pretty good with small DIY projects, you shouldn’t have any trouble if you elect to try this for yourself. The CA glue will come to your rescue if you take a little too much off the tenon. But remember, like Gary says, a little sanding takes off a lot and moves that tenon right on down.

It wasn’t the main point of the project, but a considerable side benefit was that all three of the pipes smoke better. That’s not surprising, since the tenon extension in each pipe is now about 3mm lower than it was before the DIY. By better I mean a richer flavor, of course, but also a cooler smoke and fewer relights.

Most of all, I’m pleased that the Wide Gap was removed and replaced with a Vintage-Style Gap.

Project score: 9/10 on the Mundungus DIY Rubric. I lost one point for taking too much off the first pipe, even though the mischief was managed.

My thanks to
Stephen Wilson CPG
for his contributions to this post.

AUSTIN GENTRY CPG sent in this fascinating clay, obviously a System clone of sorts but equally obviously not a K&P System. It’s not the Shape 8 billiard and doesn’t have any K&P shank stamps. Austin’s given a great mortise photo, but I can’t decide whether there’s a reservoir down there or not. The stem is also well made, reminding me of the earliest Patent stems. The ferrule has been welded. The bowl itself has been glazed (that shiny surface), something seen on higher-quality French clays and on K&P’s own clays in the 1920s and 30s. If you’re interested in acquiring this for your Peterson collection, please contact Austin at lifeoffaith221@gmail.com.