Over the years, many pipe retailers commissioned established makers to produce pipes marked with the retailer’s own brand, in much the same way that grocery chains today contract existing producers to make their house brand merchandise. For pipe lovers, buying a house brand can be a more accessible ( read “less expensive”) route to acquiring a high quality pipe.
The Tinder Box, established in California in 1928, had pipes made by several well known pipe houses, as this quote from Pipedia illustrates.
The Tinder Box was the chain of tobacco stores started by Edward Kolpin, Sr., who carved Ed’s Hand Made pipes. The store, eventually sold to a Canadian conglomerate, eventually reached 200 retail outlets by 2007, and in the 40 years it operated on a large scale a great number of pipes were made for The Tinder Box by well respected makers. A few include the Tinder Box Unique, made by Charatan, Christmas Pipes by Ascorti, and the Tinder Box Noble and Exotica, made by Shalom Pipe Factory, Mauro Armellini did make the Verona and Napoli lines.
– Pipedia.org
I received this Tinder Box Unique Bent Billiard from a fellow Canadian pipe lover. As noted above, the Unique line was made by Charatan in England, and the workmanship was plain to see. As this initial series of images shows, the pipe was a stouter version of the classic Bent Billiard shape, with a large bowl, substantial chamber walls and an equally substantial shank that flows into a round taper stem.
As you can see, the pipe was in fairly good estate condition when it arrived on the bench. It needed a good cleaning and polishing, but had obviously been cared for. The chamber showed a light cake layer, and there was a smear of carbon “lava” on the rim, but otherwise the stummel was looking good. The original Vulcanite stem had oxidized to a sickly yellow-brown colour and the bite zone near the button was peppered with tooth chatter on both upper and lower surfaces.
The pipe is stamped “The Tinder Box” over “Unique” over “Made in England”.
The pipe’s steward was aware of the Charatan connection and wished to preserve this heritage, but at the same time had a preference for Acrylic stems. He asked that the original stem be rehabilitated as part of the pipe’s restoration but also wanted to have a new acrylic stem made for the pipe for regular use.
This is not an uncommon request, especially for older pipes, but the plan hit a snag right out of the gate – the pipe’s shank measured 22mm in diameter, too large for any of the available acrylic stem blanks, the largest of which was about 16mm in diameter. This pushed the new stem into Hand Cut territory, but again the availability of supplies put the project on pause as the largest available Acrylic rod was 20mm.
This left only two possible options, short of scrapping the plan altogether – both Ebonite rod and Eldritch Resin rod come in larger sizes. After a bit of back and forth, the pipe’s steward decided on the resin option, a material that is softer and easier to work than Acrylic but does not oxidize like Ebonite.
With the plan finalized, I got to work on the basic cleanup of the pipe, starting with the rim. Using the least invasive process, I removed the carbon crust from the rim of the bowl with cotton swabs wetted with saliva. The natural enzymes in human saliva are quite effective and, unlike harsher solvents, don’t strip the finish during cleanup.
I followed up by reaming out the old cake from the bowl and clearing the airway of any tar deposits with a few pipe cleaners dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. As you can see below, the shank was not very dirty, requiring only a few pipe cleaners. To complete the initial cleanup, I wiped the exterior of the stummel with isopropyl on a cotton pad. This lifted away the light layer of dust and old wax from the briar, though I was careful not to also strip off the original stain.
Now clean and sanitized, the stummel was ready to go. Setting it aside for the moment, I popped the oxidized stem into a bath of Oxyclean and water to soak. The Oxyclean softens the oxidized surface layer on the stem, which can then be easily removed with a bit of Magic Eraser.
Now back to its original black colour, I sanded away the tooth chatter on the stem and buffed it to a shine before setting it aside to work on the new Eldritch Resin stem.
Using the original stem as a template, I cut a section of resin rod to length before mounting it in the lathe to drill the airway. This is a multi-step process, which unfortunately I forgot to photograph. The end result, though, is a section of rod with a 9/64″ airway that tapers to 1/16″ at the button end. The photo below shows the next step in the process, drilling a mortise in the shank end of the stem to accept a Delrin tenon.
Delrin tenons are available commercially in several standard sizes, but it is less expensive to make your own from rod stock if you can. This pic shows the stummel test fit to the Delrin tenon, still mounted in the lathe.
After the successful test fit, I turned the tenon around in the lathe chuck and turned the stem end down to fit the mortise drilled into the stem face. After roughing up both the exterior of the tenon and the interior of the mortise, I used a bit of two-part epoxy to bond the Delrin tenon into place on the stem. The lathe makes a great glue-up jig, keeping the tenon square with the stem face.
The epoxy sets fairly quickly but needs time to cure completely so I left the stem clamped in the lathe overnight. When I came back to it the next day, I chased the airway with a drill bit to clear out any excess epoxy, then took the stem to the drill press to cut the slot in the button end.
For this job, I use a small round cutting wheel made by Dremel, along with a very basic jig held in a vise. As this pic shows, the jig is made up of two pieces of hardwood board with a gap between them. This forms a cradle for the round rod stock that helps hold the proto-stem in place while cutting into the end of the rod.
The goal here is to cut a slot across the 1/16″ hole in the button end of the stem. My drill press isn’t the most accurate piece of gear, but it gets the job done.
With the drilling and slotting complete, I laid out some guide lines on the outside of the stem using masking tape. The thin strips are cut to 9/64″ to match the airway diameter, and run from the slot to the tenon. The thin line at the end of the stem marks out the button (oversized on purpose), while the wider tape at the stem face marks out where I will begin cutting the taper.
There is quite a bit of excess material than must be removed to begin shaping the stem. I use a 1″ belt sander for this, hogging out the majority of the waste material before moving to hand tools.
Starting with large, fairly coarse files, I refined the contours of the stem taper, using the tape lines as guides to keep top and bottom even and straight.
A wrap of clear hockey tape protects the pipe’s shank from errant file strokes. This is especially important here as both the new stem and the original stem must fit perfectly to the shank. Here you can see the stem after sizing it flush with the hockey tape. It is starting to look like a pipe stem!
Smaller, finer files are used as the stem gets closer to its final dimensions. Here you can see that I’ve got the bite zone thinned down to about 6mm. I like to finish my hand cut stems at about 5 – 5.5mm at the button for a comfortable fit in the teeth. Hand sanding and final buffing will remove the last half millimeter.
Then it was time to shape the button, cutting the round flange down to a football shape to match the curvature of the stem. I’m aiming for a final button height of about 1.5mm here, so I check progress regularly using calipers.
You’ll also note that I’ve moved from hockey tape to thinner masking tape on the shank. This allows final sizing of the stem using sandpapers in 220 through 2000 grit.
I use a couple different slot files to open the shallow slot to a V shape. This spreads the smoke into a wide, flat fan shape and completes the internal geometry of the stem.
When I was happy with the contours of the new stem, I finished the hand work by sanding to 2000 grit to prepare the stem for buffing on the wheel.
Before final polishing, however, I needed to introduce a bend into the stem. Here again I used the original stem as a template. A pipe cleaner in the stem’s airway helps prevent it from kinking or collapsing while the stem is heated and bent. Here the new stem is shown with the original Vulcanite stem after bending.
Finally, I took the finished pipe to the buffer for a run on both the Red Tripoli and White Diamond wheels to remove the last of the sanding marks and bring up the shine. A few light coats of Carnauba wax completed this restoration project.
The refreshed pipe is looking good after its time on the bench. Cleaned, sanitized and polished, the briar shines, showing off some attractive Birdseye and cross-grain. The new Eldritch Resin stem looks like it has always been there and should provide many years of trouble-free service to its pipe steward, who now has the option of swapping between the resin stem and the original Vulcanite.
Thanks for joining me on this hand cut stem adventure. Pipe smokers assign great importance to the craftsmanship of the pipe’s stummel, and in doing so often relegate the stem to the lesser position of a simple “wear & tear” item akin to the brake pads on your car, to be swapped out when worn. I hope this post encourages you to think of the stem as an equal partner in the success or failure of a pipe’s design and construction. It is, after all, that part of the pipe where, to continue the automotive analogy, the rubber meets the road, the critical interface between pipe and pipe smoker that can make the difference between a favourite pipe and one that gathers dust in the rack.
Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.
dadspipes.com 