Repairing a Broken Shank and Crafting a New System Stem for a Patent Era Brigham 105 Dublin

A broken pipe is always a tragedy to a pipe smoker, and all the more so when the pipe is out of production. Such was the case of this Patent Era Brigham 105, the smallest of the marque’s classic Dublin shapes.

A touch of misadventure on a backpacking trip had snapped the shank off just behind the bowl and broken the button end of the stem – double ouch! This image shows the pipe as it looked on arrival at DadsPipes. Despite the extensive damage, it was immediately clear that this lowly Brigham Standard grade pipe was made from some very nice briar, with some stunning Birdseye and Cross-grain.

The shank is stamped on the left side with the Brigham logo with long tail on the “m”, over “CAN PAT 372982”, while the underside of the shank carries a 3-digit shape code, “105”. The stem carries a single brass pin, or Dot, as Brigham called them. These marks tell us that this pipe, a Brigham Standard (1-Dot) grade shape 05 (Small Dublin) was made by Brigham between 1938-1955

As this image shows, a Brigham Rock Maple filter had been left in the pipe. This was removed and discarded. Thankfully, the original aluminum tenon was in excellent condition. This would make crafting a replacement stem much easier, as the aluminum tenons have been out of production since 2001 when the modern composite tenon was introduced.

To extract the tenon from the remains of the original stem, I warmed the Vulcanite over the heat gun until it became pliable, then twisted the tenon out of the stem face.

A quick scrub with cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol cleaned up the tenon, ready to install in the new stem.

But before I could work on a replacement stem, I had to address the condition of the stummel. The shank had cracked in a very inconvenient, though common, location. Luckily, there was just enough room on the bowl side of the break to secure a splint across the entire crack.

Normally, I’d make up a hollow tube splint from briar or Delrin for splicing a shank back together. Here. however, the job was complicated by the presence of the Brigham System. I needed to find a way to splint the shank while maintaining an open pocket for the filter system. While I considered my options, I cleaned up the stummel to prepare it for glue.

I ran a bead of CA glue across both surfaces of the break and carefully lined up the two halves to minimize scarring. I held the parts tightly together for a few minutes until the glue took hold, after which I set the stummel aside overnight to give the glue ample time to cure.

While the glue was doing its thing, I rummaged around the shop and came up with a length of brass tubing that matched the outer diameter of the tenon portion of the aluminum fitment.

A test fit showed that the filter and filter holder portion of the aluminum slid easily inside the tubing without too much wiggle room. Excellent!

After carefully measuring the length of the aluminum tenon with a filter in place, I cut a corresponding section of the brass tubing to use as my splint.

The filter pocket in the shank had to be opened up to match the outer diameter of the splint. This pic shows the stummel and the selected drill bit, marked for depth with some masking tape. As I only needed to remove a very small amount of briar, I passed on the power tools and turned the drill bit by hand.

After a bit of tweaking and a dry fit of the splint, I roughed up the exterior of the brass tube and applied some epoxy to both the inside of the shank and the outside of the splint before using the original tenon to push the splint home at the bottom of the pocket.

This pic shows the splint glued into place. Nice!

While the poxy cured, I took a few minutes to file off the excess CA glue that had squeezed out of the crack during the first glue-up. The bits of masking tape you see in these pics cover the stamps to protect them from errant file strokes.

A light sanding got the repaired shank nice and smooth and really helped blend in the repair. A wipe of mineral oil after the wet sanding injected some moisture into the dry briar and brough back the pop of that lovely briar grain.

Now that the stummel was once again whole, I could move on to putting together the new stem. I jotted down 2 measurements – the length of the knurled portion of the tenon that would glue into the stem face, and the length of the filter extending into the stem. Unlike modern Brigham pipes that all use the same tenon length, these vintage Canadian-made pipes were fitted with aluminum tenons sized to each pipe’s shank.

This pic shows the assembled bits and bobs required for a Brigham System stem – a Vulcanite stem blank of the required diameter and length, the aluminum tenon/filter holder, and two drill bits – one for the filter pocket inside the stem and the other, larger, bit for drilling the mortise for the aluminum fitment.

Both drill bits are marked for depth base don the measurements taken earlier. I typically drill these freehand, using the airway in the stem blank as a guide. A test fit, shown below, tells me very quickly if I’ve drilled the stem properly.

The aluminum tenon can conduct quite a bit of heat during a smoke, so I like to use JB Weld epoxy to glue the tenon into the stem face. JB is much more tolerant of high temperatures than regular epoxy or CA glue.

Gravity is a great helper when gluing up stems. Clamped stem-upwards in a small vise, gravity holds the stem face flush with the end of the shank while the epoxy cures. A wrap of masking tape (not shown) ensured nothing moved while I left the pipe overnight.

When I cam back to the pipe the next day, I chased the stem’s airway with a drill bit to remove any excess epoxy that would interfere with the free movement of a filter, then set about adding the Dot to this Brigham System stem. A spring-loaded punch creates a small dimple in the Vulcanite at the centre line of the stem along the left flank.

The dimple is then drilled to 1/16″ and a short section of brass rod is glued into place with a drop of CA glue .

This pic shows everything used in the pinning process – the punch, a 1/16″ drill bit, some CA glue and a length of 1/16″ brass rod.

I let the glue cure completely, then filed the brass rod flush to the stem. A wrap of clear hockey tape on the shank protected the briar while I shaped the replacement stem to match the diameter and contour of the shank.

As I got close to final dimensions, I replaced the hockey tape with thinner masking tape. This allows me to get closer to the briar with the files and sandpapers. These images shows the stem sanded to 320 grit, and again west sanded to 2000 grit.

When I was happy with the shape and fit of the new stem, I removed the masking tape and took the pipe to the buffer for a run on both the Red Tripoli and White Diamond buffing wheels, followed by several light coats of Carnauba wax to add shine and some UV protection for the freshly restored pipe.

This Patent Era Dublin is ready to serve its steward for many more years, the trauma of breakage all but forgotten. With a modicum of care and feeding, this Brigham 105 should easily last for another 80 years.

I hope you enjoyed watching this vintage briar come back to life as much as I did. The end results, and that stunning grain, were well worth the effort.

Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe. (Please excuse the bit of lint hanging off the shank in the first image – whoops!)