516. Five New Refurb Ideas Used on an 05a Dublin System Estate + Winston’s World Cup Fundraiser

IMPORTANT PSA AT END OF POST

Since I was a kid I’ve had a disability called strabismus, which means I have little depth of vision and tend to run into things or knock things over. For several years after I had eye surgery Mom would take me out of school and after therapy we’d get a chocolate donut at the medical building coffee shop then go to the bookstore where she’d get me a new Fawcett-Crest Peanuts paperback. Looking back, those books were as important in my spiritual formation as my first copy of Good News for Modern Man. I recalled one of them as I was working through today’s refurb, a strip where Linus walks in, happy with himself that he’s polished his own shoes:

(February 28, 1957)

This strip has always been a lifelong parable for me,* but what brought it to mind was an estate Pete I bought recently. The online photos led me to believe I was getting a truly outstanding estate only to find that whether by accident or design, only the front of the shoes had been polished! The chamber had only been reamed halfway down, to give the appearance of having been cleaned out. That made me laugh. The description “cleaned and ready to smoke”—which we read over and over on eBay–was one of those Monster Whoppers cribbed straight from the pen of Mark Twain or Patrick McManus.

My thesis this morning is simple: as hobbyists, we can do a far better job than most professionals restoring a pipe to prime smoking condition. We have the passion, because it’s our pipe, not someone else’s. We have the time, because we’re not racing against the clock. I’m not criticizing eBay sellers and online retailers of estate pipes. Photos often can’t tell the real story and sometimes neither do sellers, for reasons beyond this morning’s essay.

If you’re buying an estate System to smoke, there are seven areas that, being wholly are partially invisible, are often not dealt with by a seller:

Button clenching shelf crevices oxidized
Button dental chatter
Chamber airway dirty
Chamber airway heel dirty
Chamber heel dirty
Chamber walls dirty
Mortise and reservoir dirty
Shank airway lined with tar

And this is what today’s 05a Dublin System refurb will address.

Not mine, but Cheyen Lloy’d beautiful 05a Dublin System HM 1975, the earliest I’ve documented.

I’ve talked about the 05a before on PPN; briefly, it has been documented by Cheyen Lloyd CPG to 1975. It first appeared in the ephemera in 1978 and was last seen in the ephemera alongside its replacement the 05b calabash in 1983. (Incidentally, the chubbier 05c, Giacomo Penzo’s revision of the calabash 05b, appeared in 2025.) For whatever inscrutable reason, while the 05a lacks a reservoir, it’s a great smoker. For myself, I suspect it has to do with the V-shaped chamber, which intensifies flavor as the bowl is smoked.

As you can see, once the grime was removed, the bowl is seen to have arrived in good condition.

I didn’t get an initial photo of this pipe as I didn’t set out to write up this story. When it arrived it was in what I’d rate Very Good estate condition, which for me means some stem oxidation, a fairly clean rim and bowl, some carbon cake and middling tobacco ghost in the chamber.

This morning I have five new items in my refurb tool kit to talk about. Aside from the outstanding new stem deoxidation method, everything has to do with internal cleaning, which is I am 100% convinced where 95% of estate pipes have 99% of their problems—even those sold by the professionals.

(A) Fletch Hiner’s Sanding Stick
(B) Fletch Hiner’s Custom Bowl Reamer
(C) Bob Tot’s Airway “Saw” Cleaning Technique
(D) Todd Becker’s Chamber Airway Heel Tutorial
(E) Gary Hamilton’s Mortise and Reservoir Cleaning Method

Let me preface all this by saying that Fletch Hiner gave me permission quite a while back to post photos and measurements of his sanding stick and reaming tool. These are tools he made himself—I’m hoping everyone will remember they’re his. Before he went underground, he told me he’s not interested in making these for sale, and while I don’t know what kind of intellectual property rights are inherent in such things, if you make one for yourself, honor him by remember it’s the Hiner Sanding Stick or Hiner Reaming Tool.

When I talk to the Kansas City Pipe Club in September, I’m going to urge they consider having these made to sell at their pipe show or other venues to raise revenue. If after reading today’s post you think that might benefit all of us, do leave a comment to encourage the club.

PART ONE: THE STEM

“Someone, maybe God, once said ‘No matter how filthy something gets, you can always clean it right up again.’ . . . Well, most of the time, anyway.”
—Tabbakuk’s Estate Cleaning Handbook

(A) What, No Micromesh Pads? Fletch Hiner’s Sanding Stick Method

When I began restoring pipes, the consensus was to soak the stem in chlorine bleach for 30-90 minutes, rinse and dry, then sand with the full complement of Micromesh pads. The problem with the bleach was that it created some problems of its own—tiny bubbles in the surface of the stem—as well as promoting the growth of extra limbs and eyeballs, according to noted authority Todd Becker of Deadman pipes.

After the bleach method and having an extra elbow removed, I turned to LeBelleEpoque’s “Before and After” dip. Dipping takes about 45 min. to 2 hrs. depending on severity of oxidation and how many times the goop has been used. It does a pretty decent job but is amazingly messy, and afterwards of course you need to use the Micromesh pads. Aside from the mess, I found I could completely finish a stem then place it under an Ott light and find there was some brown haze I’d missed.

A good friend suggested I try Briarville’s Stem Oxidation remover. This liquid takes from 8 to 24 hours does a fair job on stems that aren’t too sulfurized, but like Before & After requires the full complement of Micromesh pads. I found that, like B&A, I could still wind up with brown haze I’d missed.

Both products are pricey and it seems like whenever I wanted to begin a new project, I’d just run out of deoxidizing solutions. Enter the Fletch Hiner Stem Deox Method.

Fletch’s system is less expensive, faster, and produces obsidian stems as black as new ones but with a higher gloss.

His method requires the following tools and materials:

Hiner Custom Sanding Stick w/rubber backing (Fletch uses a hardwood. It’s 7 7/8 inches long, ¾ wide and and 1/16^th inch thick. (Like the reamer, I’ve been looking around to see how someone like myself w/limited shop tools could make one for himself.)
Wet/dry 320 / P400 sandpaper
Wet/dry 600 / P1200 sandpaper
Wet/dry 800/P2400 sandpaper
McAlaster-Carr: P-18 Compound for Plastic & Rubber
Buffer

The most difficult part is learning how to hold the rigid stick after using flexible pads. It takes a pipe or two, then you’ve got it down.

So many estate pipes arrive with stems like this one seen above. Almost no one takes photos like these, of course, because if they did then you’d see what you’re up against.

Before you begin, remember to lift any dental chatter possible by passing a soft butane flame from your pipe lighter over the indentations. If you’ve never done this, the only caution is not to keep the flame in one spot, as you can burn the vulcanite. If you just go slow and easy, back and forth, whatever can be lifted will be lifted—which is more than you might expect.

That’s actually my coffee, not the bowl of vulcanite debris, in the background… but look how the stick sloughs off the oxidation!

I have a bowl of water on the bench and a towel in my lap, and having dipped the stem and the stick wrapped in 320, begin work on the upper sphere of the button with the rubber side of the stick.

The wood side of the stick is for crevices and angles, and here’s one place Fletch’s method outperforms anyone else’s: you can sand out the oxidation in the upper and lower clenching shelves quite easily, places that you thought you’d sanded with the pads and then when you buffed the stem found you’d really missed a lot of oxidation.

You’re just using 3 grades of paper, not 9 as with Micromesh. Fletch’s idea is that you’ve got to be fairly aggressive to actually get rid of the sulfur in the outer “crust” of the vulcanite stem. I’ve done a half dozen stems now and never had a problem with leaving a stem scratched, although I have had to use Tripoli or rouge a time or two before the P-18 compound (see below).

Just like your Micromesh pads, you’ll sand crosswise first, then lengthwise second on the stem. You’re quickly learn to douse the stem in the water to see how you’re doing.

After you’re satisfied you’ve done what can be done with the 320, proceed to the 600, then the 800.

I wanted you see the difference here between what’s been sanded and the stem before sanding. The Stick is really aggressive.

Fletch goes straight from the 800 to the McAlaster-Carr compound. If you don’t have a buffer and don’t want to buy one, you can go back to the Micromesh and ramp them on up to 2000, following that with a final hand-buffing compound like Paragon—although I understand that’s no longer being made, I need a suggestion here from someone.

Periodically, I dry the stem off. Here it is after the roughest grit, the 320.

I’m not quite as good with the sanding stick yet, so I’ve found it behooves me to begin with Tripoli on the buffer before going to the McAlaster. I imagine this is my impatience with the stick, which I need to work on.

This is the stem after the McAlistar compound. No Obsidian oil yet. I DO see some tiny scratches here! Tsk, tsk…

If you want, you can top off the buffing with carnauba wax. I’ve quit using it on stems, preferring Obsidian oil as a better preserver, since that’s what I’m going to use anyway every four or six smokes.

PART TWO:
CHAMBER, AIRWAYS & HEEL

“Woe unto you, estate pipe smoker! Thy pipe is a noisome sepulcher beautiful on the outside but smokes like dead men’s bones.”
—Tabbakuk’s Estate Cleaning Handbook

(B) The Chamber: The Hiner Custom Reaming Tool

Like everyone else, my first reamer was a pocket knife, which I followed with a Butner Reamer, a Senior Pipe Reamer Tool, a PipNet set, and most recently sandpaper wrapped around a dowel rod and pencil. The Hiner Custom Reaming Tool is Babe Ruth compared compared to a bunch of Bill Bergens for you baseball geeks.

I need to back up. Because I’m using Fletch’s reaming tool, I’ve left off using the K&P pre-carb bowl coating. The taste of a pipe cleaned and smoked in a fresh, bare chamber is far superior than one with a bowl coating, at least in my opinion. While the bowl coating masks the previous ghosts and sourness lurking in whatever remains of the carbon in the chamber underneath, it doesn’t eliminate them entirely.

I don’t really do any kind of break-in, either, but just try to smoke the first bowl in a mindful way. I’ve done with about half a dozen pipes now, and never had a problem. In fact, I’ve never had estate pipes smoke so well.

Fletch told me two or three times that whenever possible he prefers to make his own tools. Professor John Schantz would second that, I know. All I can tell you is what you see here: the Hiner Custom Bowl Reamer is made out of a hardwood of some variety with a small slit which allows you insert a piece of emery cloth in it. It measures 81.4mm / 3.20 inches in length by 15.6mm x .63 inches in length. The handle is 25.7 mm /1.00 in in diameter, while the shank is 53 mm / 2.1 inches in length.

With the emery cloth inserted, it becomes what I now consider the world’s finest reamer. It doesn’t have blades to get dull or gouge the cake and does a far better job.

You can go lightly either by a less aggressive reaming or with a finer grade of emery cloth. A box with six grades of cloth ranging from 80 to 600 will accommodate every conceivable reaming job.

What I discovered by accident was that the Hiner Reamer takes all the carbon cake out. It will allow you to easily take the chamber down to bare wood. This may sound like heresy or lunacy to you, but now that I’ve done this about eight times, let me explain the advantages.

Getting all the carbon cake out means you can see if there’s any damage in the chamber walls. The worst I’ve found so far is a few places with a slightly concave area which can either been sanded a little flatter or simply ignored.

I wish I knew how to tell you to replicate this tool. Fletch said he wasn’t interested in going into business with it but didn’t mind me sharing photos of it here on the blog, and if you know how an amateur with no lathe can approximate something like this, I hope you’ll contact me or comment below.

After getting the chamber walls bare, you can then either remove some of the roughness with a finer grade of sandpaper or leave them as they are, depending on whether the emery cloth left any grooves. I’ve usually gone over it with 120 grit. By leaving the walls a little rough, I’m allowing a purchase for the new carbon cake to adhere.

(C) Bob Tot’s Airway “Saw” Cleaning Technique

Now Bob Tot’s Airway Saw Cleaning Technique won’t be anything new to you, probably, but I’ve never thought about how crucial it is to get the airway in the shank really, really clean. I remember back when Steve Laug used to clean up estate pipes and he’d show a pile of 200-300 dirty pipe cleaners before they began to appear clean. But there is a better way, and I’m sure he or his brother uses it now.

Bob said the first thing is to get the hardened tar in the shank soft. I’m anticipating something Gary Hamilton taught me here, but this is the place to say that I’ve used Isopropyl 92% for years. I know others who use various spirits—whiskey, bourbon, whatever. Both of these solutions have an odor and it takes a while for that odor evaporate. More importantly, neither does the job that Everclear 190 does.

Everclear 190 is a 95% pure alcohol by volume (ABV) a neutral grain spirit. It’s the limit. Distillation can go no higher physically. It’s used in a variety of culinary and cleaning applications and acts as an unequaled solvent for the tars and goo in the airway shank, chamber, and heel.

Bob says once you’ve softened the tars in the shank with a a few pipe cleaners dipped in E190, the next step is to use a pin vise with a long 3.5mm drill bit and hand twist it into the chamber. Be careful, of course, not to drill into the chamber wall once it emerges at the end of the airway.

(Mark: I have the 3.5mm and 4.0mm 8deco shank reamers that SPC and Vermont Freehand sell. My opinion is that they’re overpriced and don’t do a good job. The handles on both of mine have loosened, one completely coming off.)

Bob then says to twist the drill bit (shank reamer) in to and out of the airway clockwise and counterclockwise several times, removing whatever crud is caught up into the flutes (the spiral grooves along the body).

Now use the drill bit as a gentle saw, pushing it gently in and out of the shank draft channel before once again turning the bit counter clockwise to remove it and wipe out the flutes. When all the crud is out—and there can sometimes be quite a bit—then I use the shank brush, bristle, and fluffy cleaners a final time. The final pipe cleaner will be clean if you’ve done this correctly.

(D) Todd Becker’s Chamber Airway Heel Cleaning Technique

I’ve bought a few pipes from my friend Todd Becker of Deadmanpipes and I’m always impressed with the “as new” quality of the pipes I receive. The chamber in the last pipe—supposed to be an estate—looked unsmoked. By that I meant there was not only a perfect, uniform pre-carb but a shiny fresh wood smoke hole at the bottom of the chamber. As we talked, I asked him how that happened, and then why he did it.

Todd says, “A guy told me years ago that a lot of flavor, bad or good, prior ghosts and sourness comes from the heel and draft hole. Makes sense since that’s where the smoke is concentrating before being drawn!

“So, I now use a steel pick to clean the draft hole and make it look new as well like you’re seeing on the pipe I sent you. This is beneficial in two ways, as it removes any previous flavor but also slightly opens the draft hole, creating a better flow. I use two picks, one is sharper and one more dull, but these also work really well for removing gunk from shanks/mortises too which is also where a lot of bad flavor comes from.”

Now I wasn’t totally convinced of the efficacy of this procedure until, receiving back a 1976 Shape 9 STAR System from Gary Hamilton (where it had gone for a Super Condenser) I found the first smoke was … pretty awful. It wasn’t the condenser, so that got me to wondering if I’d ever cleaned the internals. It turned out I had not. While the chamber didn’t smell bad, there was a great deal of crud in the shank air channel and at the draft hole and heel. So I decided to give Todd’s picks a try. “Eureka!” is the word. The pipe is now an A++ member of my Shape 9 rotation. Extraordinarily so.

I found I used both hands to do this. One hand uses it like a pencil, directing the probe and pushing it gently into the briar. With the other hand, I used my thumb to apply torque, scraping the probe across the draught hole.

Before working on the chamber.

As you can see below, the draft hole has almost all the cake and oil removed.

N.b. Remember Todd says the heel can also be a place where your pipe also accumulates a lot of foulness. It makes sense, but having omitted this step in a DIY recently completed, I can avow its veracity: the pipe smoked sweet and clean until the very end, when the tobacco got near the heel. At that point, for the first time, I noticed an aromatic ghost.

So I went back and cleaned the heel, first by sanding it to bare wood with 80 grit paper taped on the end of a pencil, then letting some E190 soak into it via a cotton ball stuffed into the bottom of the chamber. As you can see, this cleared away whatever might have been lurking there on the surface.

(E) Gary Hamilton’s Mortise and Reservoir Cleaning Method

On to Gary’s Mortise Cleaning Method. I have never given a thought to the fact that there might be any sourness emanating from the mortise and reservoir. Then Gary sent me a photo of a recent project he’d done and the mortise was blonde. Like new blonde. WTF? He said it’s what Everclear 190 does. So I began to think that my wonderful tobacco vapor rises up into the mortise where it swirls around and collides with those dirty chamber walls. And then I thought about how I hate it when my iced tea jug (glass) begins to get a filmy, almost mold-like glaze. Or when I can see coffee stains on my TechniVorm carafe. Because I know I can taste those! So… why not give this a try? It’s quick, just an overnight thing. It’s simple. Here’s how Gary does it:

First, swab and scrub out the mortise with QTips dipped in E190, getting out as much grime as he can while being careful not to allow the E190 to spill onto the outer bowl finish.

Then twist some cotton ball fluff into the mortise—and I found that it’s better not to tightly pack it but really make a twist and loosely twist it into the mortise. Make sure you’ve packed the chamber tightly with cotton from pads or balls before proceeding, as you don’t want E190 to drip into the chamber and then out onto the outer finish.

Now use an eye dropper to fill the mortise with E190. Allow it to evaporate overnight. If the mortise isn’t blonde bare wood, repeat the process. It will look like the pipe’s never been smoked.

And here’s what you get:

One last word: As Gary has cautioned me, E190 is one of the world’s finest solvents. If you want to remove the finish of your pipe, by all means use E190. If you don’t—well, take care that it doesn’t get on the finish. ’Nuff said!

Jonathon Estes CPG has sent out a request for a 2020 POY 9BC. If you have one you want to part with, or know where one can be found, please email him at estesone91@gmail.com. Here’s his Bat Signal photo:

Jonathon also sends photos of his Kildare 444: “Fun fact is when I was in Ireland in April I saw that they were making a flock of 7 at the factory (mine is the top one in the stack). Six weeks later it hit SPC and I bought it immediately 😆.

Clint Stacey CPG sent at my request more photos of his awesome Patent silver cap that I want to share with everybody. As you can see, it’s got that fabulous “Facing Mount” that I wish I wish I wish I wish I wish I wish could be used on a future PPN Pipe of the Year. This style of mount wasn’t around for very long, but it’s really quite simple and I always do a double-take when I see it in the 1906 catalog–it has the normal band of a De Luxe and then the Army Mount of a Standard / Premier :

Jonathan Boldt CPG wrote recently. He’s a graduate student in Hamburg and visited Olsdorf Cemetery there to locate Charles Peterson’s grave. I thought I had a map of its location—as the last I heard it is still unmarked—but couldn’t find it. Jonathan did spend a few hours, however, smoking his System there. He writes, “I’ve taken hold of two new treasures, both have been somewhat neglected, but I’ll get that sorted! I thought you might be interested in the observation that my ’69 11S’s stem has the same thread gauge reamed as my newly acquired STAR.

“I also wanted to tell you that my skills as a pipe smoking novice are improving, I’ve coughed my way through, took my fair share of cold smoke puffs and became nic-sick a little too often as flavours started sweet-talking me into one or two puffs in repetition too quick. By now contemplation and insight and discovery accompanied by a pipe have settled themselves comfortably in my habitus, I would like to claim.

I don’t mean to be lofty when I say this, the contemplating ritual of pipe smoking has brought me closer to my faith again, I came to think of religion when I thought about how much life has actually given to me and concluded that I should be more humble at times. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!” (Romans 11:33). This used to be a verse I didn’t quite understand at 13 in pre-confirmation Sunday school, I can’t say I do fully now as per the very thing Paulus tried to convey. The ancient Greeks argued differently yet I find a similar spirit, in what Socrates concluded when he said: “I know that I know nothing”. Yet, comparatively, my faith gives me more confidence and a sense of warmth in the pursuit of knowledge.”

——————————————-

*My late dissertation director Nathan A. Scott, Jr. wrote a preface, actually, to Robert L. Short’s The Gospel According to Peanuts found in the earlier paperbacks seen on eBay. I like to think Dr. Scott is smoking a Peterson 264 here:

I can also recommend Short’s other Peanuts books and the Studs Turkel radio interview with Short from 1969.

Intellectual property of Kapp & Peterson
used by their gracious permission.

WINSTON’S CATCH & RELEASE
WORLD CUP FUND-RAISER

As a few of you know, Winston has been playing soccer since he was about 12 weeks old. It’s true one of his soccer balls has handles, but that’s to even up the odds when playing against the Old Codger. Winston wants to attend the FIFA World Cup Portugal vs. Spain (Match 93, Round of 16) on Monday at Dallas Stadium. I said there’s no way I was buying him a ticket. I did, however, condescend to donate a few pipes and told him he could try to sell them in today’s Catch & Release.

Additional photos available. Rims are clean, airways clean, but thin carbon cake is present in all chambers. If you’re interested, send an email to petegeek1896@gmail.com. Prices include priority mail postage. PayPal “friends and family” only, please.

I’m happy to ship outside the US. Inquire for price.

XL 02 CHRISTMAS 2024. $165. Includes box and sock.

The only way to get the Nickel Mount Marks these days, ironically, is on the copper clad Christmas pipes with ferrules. 2024 is a high watermark in the yearly release, in my opinion.

69 IRISH SECONDS (HARP). $110.

A really unusual blast “PSB” type blast, creating superb cheeking not seen the normal shape 69 production. There is a tiny rectangle on the shank stamp area that didn’t get the final shellac or whatever is used, which resulted in this being stamped an Irish Seconds.

221 PREMIER LATE REPUBLIC. $165.

I have never, before this one, seen a Premier sandblast. I’m guessing it’s from the 1960s, as it just has that feel about it. This one is very, very clean as I just restored it a few weeks back.

309 RUSTIC. $89. Includes box and sock.

56 (9BC) SANDBLAST EARLY REPUBLIC. $165.

Scarce version of the 9BC, Shape 56 is the Canadian market stamp number. It may actually be a tiny bit smaller than the US 9BC, but why that would’ve been the case beats me. It needs one more pass on the buffer, which it will get before I send it out.

Ephemera

What you see is what you get! I cleaned out triplicates and duplicates for the Texas Pipe Show last year only to find that the only people interested in Peterson ephemera are Pete Geeks, which were few and far between. Each lot will be shipped in a rigid box with tracking #.

EPHEMERA LOT #1. $30.

EPHEMERA LOT #2. SH / RATHBONE. $75. The “Baffled” magazine ad is one of at least two (the other shown below). I’m wondering if there were 6 ads in all, since the first ad featured the Original and Baskerville? The foldout was crucial in determining when each of the pipes in the Original set were released. I’ve seen in framed in two B&M shops. The “SH Discovers the System” is on heavy stock, and the Larry Gosser 4B SH is signed by the artist.

EPHEMERA LOT #3. $50. Dublin Era K&P released five issues of the Smoker’s Guild near the end of the print era of advertising. It was remarkable to open the mail box and find one in the mailbox. The catalog brochure in the middle was released in conjunction with the 2nd edition “Black” catalog.

EPHEMERA LOT #4. $50. I can’t tell you why, but I’ve run across a number of the first foldouts advertising the SH Original set, but only seen two of the final ad seen below. The three Larry Gosser pieces are all signed, “Victor” being the original I commissioned for our Pete Geek T-shirt for the PPN 309 Spigot pipe in 2024.