428. “Steal with Pride” (or Tales of a Tinkerer)
“Steal with Pride” (or, Tales of a Tinkerer)
by Ken Sigel CPG
Be forewarned. What follows is not a very technical discussion of an aspect of pipe refurbishment. Rather, it is about the wealth of knowledge in our Pete Geek community and how willing its members are to share that knowledge. “I get by with a little help from my friends,” to borrow a line from Ringo Starr.
One aspect of my Peterson addiction is refurbishing tired Petersons and selling them on eBay. I pretend it offsets the cost of buying pipes. In reality, I think I simply move money from one pocket to another as I work for $1 per hour. At any rate, I find it really enjoyable. Collecting, smoking, and refurbishing make up the “three-legged stool” that is the basis for my involvement (addiction?).
The more I work on pipes and the more I read about how the masters do their amazing work, the more I realize in I definitely fit in the tinkerer class. As a tinkerer, I continually bump into walls as I try and refurbish pipes. There seem to be an infinite number of obstacles to refurbishing. They don’t occur on every pipe, but they pop up enough to keep me humble.
As I rose through the ranks in my 40+ years in the trades of boats and buildings, I adopted an approach that one of my mentors called “Steal with Pride”: try the techniques of others; insofar as you can use them outright—do it. Or, as often is the case, adapt them to your particular task. However, absolutely give full credit to the those from who you have learned and thank them for your learning.
I would like to share with you the story of a repair to a damaged DeLuxe stem and replacing the tenon extension. But in keeping with the Steal with Pride ethos let me acknowledge those who provided me the knowledge to get this done.
First, there is my original pipe refurbishing mentor Steve Laug. He has patiently guided me along, critiqued my efforts, and in the process become a good friend. Then there’s Charles Lemon of Dads Pipes. He has done some amazing work on some of my very early Patent Pipes, all the while explaining the process and filling my head with explanations of his great techniques. For me, some of them remain aspirational, while others I have used. Lest I not forget, let me also thank Gary Hamilton, the Pete Geek Master of tenon extensions and lathe work. I hope each of them feel that I have effectively channeled some parts of their knowledge into this fairly simple task.
I acquired a 1984 11S. To say the least, it was filthy. A quarter inch of cake and an airway that was gummed up from bowl to P-Lip. The outside of the stummel itself, followed in kind. Dull wood and heavily tarnished band. That said, all that was required to refurbish this pipe was essentially a very deep clean and polishing. It was well within my skill set. My basic knowledge: apply alcohol, cotton, pipe cleaners, Micromesh, and elbow grease. So be it. Then I came to kicker. The tenon extension was not only missing but the 6mil threads were simply nonexistent. That end of the airway, though abuse and neglect, had a +/- 8-9mm opening with not a thread to be found. What to do?
Time to steal with pride. I knew from Steve that most any pipe can be “reborn.” But how? In my discussions with Charles I have come to learn that black CA glue is a glue. Not a filler, nor a structural medium. I settled on cleaning the hole out with a 9mm bit used on a pin drill. Slowly, by hand, I made a clean 9mm hole in the stem.
But now I needed to fill that hole in order to drill and tap it for the tenon extension. On my Taig Micro Lathe, I turned a vulcanite rod to fit snugly in the hole (and thanks to Paul Combs for turning me on to that handy piece of equipment).
The rod glued in quite snuggly. Once dry, I cut off the excess and sanded it smooth.
On my way. I thought all that remained was to find the center and drill a 7mm hole, tap it, thread in the condenser and call it a day. WRONG! I used a center finder to find the center. When I tried to punch a dimple onto the center, I realized this was not a job for hand work.
I needed a hole on absolute dead center. So how to do it? This all happened before the 2024 Chicago Pipe Show. So I set the project aside and figured I would go to the show and get advice from some experts.
The first advice I got had me straightening the stem. This was from an experienced artisan pipe maker. He suggested chucking the straightened stem in the lathe and drilling the hole. At first blush this seemed simple enough. Yet, aside from having to straighten and rebend the stem this approach presented two obstacles.
Even straightened the stem was too big for the microlathe and way too small for my big wood lathe, at least with the chucks and centers I have. Far worse though was that both the tenon and the saddle have a slight taper, making a truly centered grip in the chuck tricky if not impossible. Most importantly, it required skills and experience I don’t have.
Late one evening, over a bowl in the smoking tent at the Chicago show, I presented the problem to Gary Hamilton. Gary may not remember his answer, especially as he came up with it so quickly and we moved on to other topics. Gary’s idea was simple: find a way to hold the stem dead centered on the head stock collet. Then with the spinning drill bit in the head stock move the stem up to the spinning drill bit and drill the hole. Typically, this is done in reverse. The piece to be drilled is spun in the headstock and the drill bit is held in a drill chuck mounted on a tail piece that can be advanced against the work.
After some serious thinking over an adult beverage and some Full Virginia Flake, I had a plan.
I needed a fixture on the bed of my Taig Lathe that would hole the stem with its center aligned with the collet on the head stock. It had to keep the stem from spinning while being advanced against the spinning drill bit.
I have a Steady rest from Taig which fits on the bed. It steadies a piece of work, as seen in the picture below. As designed it would not hold the stem as I needed. Its jaws were designed to allow a piece to roll within them.
However, by removing the three jaws, I could mount a blank piece of hardboard to the fixture. I then used a 1/8″ bit in the collet to drill a pilot hole aligned with the center of the collet (not shown).
With the pilot hole in place, I selected a larger bit that would fit the tenon. This was sized to fit the narrow end of the tenon. I drilled the hardboard using the 1/8″ hole as a pilot hole. Since the taper on the tenon is slight and the Masonie hardboard Masonite has a soft core, I was able to insert the tenon up to the saddle by gently twisting while pressing until it snugged up
Two miniclamps allowed me to gently slide the fixture toward the bit while at the same time keeping it at 90 degrees to the bed. I secured the clamps in a way that kept the stem from spinning. With more than a little trepidation and the 7mm bit in place, I began to drill.
And, as you can see, there’s now a nice 7mm hole dead center in the tenon. Things then got simpler. By hand I simply tapped the new hole to take the condenser (tenon extension).
I used Obsidian oil instead of cutting fluid. No real reason except that I knew it would not damage the vulcanite stem.
With the hole threaded, I blew some compressed air through the P Lip to get rid of tearaway. A little blue tape holding a small blow gun against the opening seemed to do the trick. Threaded the condenser in and called it mission accomplished.
Yes, I took some pride in my problem solving and the result. However, I really wrote this up to highlight the wealth of knowledge in our CPG community and the willingness of those knowledge holders to share with us tinkerers. That makes all of this about more than just acquiring pipes. As Mark Irwin often says, “Happy Smokes.” I would add, “Happy Learning and Tinkering”!
Martin Schwarz CPG: “When I smoked this pipe recently, my son said, “Lord of the Rings pipe!” I asked him which character and he answered, “Thorin Oakenshield.”
HALLOWEEN / ALL HALLOW’S EVE
I hope everyone had a good “October Country” (Ray Bradbury) month leading up to All Hallow’s Eve / Halloween. I received photos this past week from two celebrants, Clint Stacey CPG and Gianluigi Fiori at the Peterson shop on Nassau Street, and had to share:
Clint Stacey CPG.
Gianluigi Fiori, Peterson:
Gianluigi, as you may have read in Post #362, is an extraordinarily talented artist, sculptor and photographer as well as being a Pipe Sommelier at the Nassau Street Peterson shop. When he told me that the craftsmen found this fellow with a Peterson apple clenched between his teeth in their move a few years ago, at first I didn’t believe him.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH: US ELECTIONS
Members of the Irish Citizen Army outside Liberty Halll under the slogan “We serve neither King nor Kaiser, but Ireland” (1914). A noble, heroic sentiment. When I read this, I recalled reading recently that while history doesn’t repeat itself, it often rhymes.
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
–Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody”
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
–Rush, “Freewill”