Hot on the heels of the launch of Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar, it seems appropriate that today’s pipe is a Brigham Klondike Bent Billiard sent in as part of a group lot by the Edmonton Pipe Club. For those unfamiliar with the current Brigham lineup, the Klondike is the successor to the classic 6-Dot grade, although the new series has dispensed with the brass Dots in favour of the now-ubiquitous circular “B” logo inset in the stem.
As this initial series of images shows, the pipe arrived in in two pieces. The glue securing the composite tenon/filter holder into the acrylic stem had failed, leaving the tenon in the shank and the stem loose. The stummel was also in need of some TLC, with a crust of carbon “lava” across the entire rim, an uneven cake layer in the chamber, and a somewhat disreputable looking patchy, worn finish.
I had half expected some difficulty removing the tenon from the pipe’s shank, but it came out easily under light pressure. Turning it around, I found the tenon has suffered some damage, leaving the end ragged and chipped.
Luckily, I had received a shipment of new tenons from Brigham just before this lot of estates arrived. This pic shows the old tenon above the new replacement part.
Before I could install the new tenon, the pipe needed a good cleaning. The stem proved to be remarkably clean, needing only a single pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol to chase the airway.
The stummel, in contrast, was packed with old tars and bits of tobacco debris. I spent some time with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, a shank brush and a scraper before the shank and airway were clear. I also reamed the chamber of the old cake and tidied it up with some sandpaper wrapped around a dowel.
With the internals clean, I went to work on the exterior of the briar. The original high gloss top coat had worn away in the usual places where the pipe is held in the hand, but clung stubbornly in the crease between bowl and shank. It took several cotton pads dipped in acetone to remove the last bits of gloss coat.
A scrub with Murphy’s Oil Soap removed any remaining surface dirt.
Now that the entire pipe was clean, I completed the tenon repair, using a bit of two-part epoxy to bond the new tenon into place in the stem face. To ensure a good fit to the shank, I clamped the pipe upright in a padded vise and used a few bits of masking tape to hold the stem in position while the glue cured overnight.
The following morning, I chased the stem’s airway with a drill bit to clear the inevitable excess epoxy before wet sanding both stem and stummel with 800 and 2000-grit sandpapers. This smoothed out a myriad of small handling marks the pipe had collected over the years while leaving a few larger dents on the rim that were outside the scope of the work this time. To bring back the depth of the original finish without a gloss top coat, I wiped the briar with mineral oil, buffing away the excess by hand after a few minutes.
Then it was time to take the finished pipe to the buffer where it was given a run on both the Red Tripoli and White Diamond wheels to erase the fine sanding marks and bring up the shine. A few coats of Carnauba wax restored the high gloss look and would be much easier to maintain in the future.
The finished pipe is looking great after its time on the bench. Not only is it structurally whole again but the pipe is also cleaned, refreshed and ready to be put back into its steward’s rack and rotation where it will serve for many years to come.
Thanks for joining me for this estate pipe repair. I hope you enjoyed watching this Brigham Klondike come back to life as much as I did.
Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.
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