BBB pipes are a pillar of old English pipe making, started in 1856 as “Blumfeld’s Best Briars” (later “Britain’s Best Briars”) when an 18-year-old Louis Blumfeld took over the management of the Adolph Frankau Company. The pipe on the bench today, a BBB Ultonia 442 Rhodesian, screams “classic English pipe”, and shares a lot of its overall shape with another great British pipe, the GBD 9438. Both are “chubby” versions of the Rhodesian shape, featuring stout shanks and similarly chunky stems.
As you can see from this initial series of images, the pipe arrived on the bench in two pieces, the stem tenon having been broken in an accident. The pipe’s steward had managed to extract the tenon from the shank before sending the pipe in for repair.
Though worn and faded, the pipe’s stamps are still legible. The left shank is stamped with the BBB diamond logo over “Ultonia”, while the right shank is marked with a shape number, “442”.
A look down the shank from the mortise reveals there is some cleaning in my future.
The stem, though a bit grimy and discoloured, was in pretty good estate condition, despite missing its tenon, with just some light tooth chatter to deal with. The brass BBB logo is prominently displayed on top of the stem near the tenon end.
This shot of the stem face shows where the original integral tenon had broken off.
With the initial assessment complete, I began cleaning the pipe, starting with a quick reaming of the chamber using sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. The carbon cake there was very light, but had spilled over onto the rim.
To remove this crust, I used cotton swabs wetted with saliva. It sounds a bit icky, but the enzymes in saliva are really good at cutting through the carbon. And don’t worry – the stummel would be fully cleaned and sanitized later in the process.
As I suspected from the earlier pics, the shank was really quite dirty, with some significant tarry deposits. It took a fair pile of cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol, along with a bit of scraping, to get the shank and airway clean.
The stem itself proved to be surprisingly clean, given the state of the shank. A few passes with pipe cleaners and alcohol cleared out a very light amount of tars.
While I had the stem in hand, I began preparations for the replacement tenon. First up was flattening the stem face to remove the remnants of the old, broken tenon and ensure a nice light-tight fit against the shank face.
Here you can see the results of the facing. You’ll also note that I’ve drilled a mortise into the stem face, enlarging the airway to create a pocket into which the new Delrin tenon would be glued.
I wanted to be sure that the stummel’s internals were as clean as possible before fitting the new tenon, so I packed some cotton wool into the bowl and shank and filled the pipe with 99% isopropyl alcohol and left it to sit overnight.
The alcohol breaks down the deep-seated tars inside the stummel, which are then trapped in the cotton wool. Here is a pic of the stummel after sitting overnight. As you can see, the cotton is quite discoloured, especially in the shank.
After removing and discarding the cotton wool, I Used another small handful of cotton swabs to ferret out any remaining tars. Now softened by the alcohol treatment, these came out with relative ease, leaving the pipe smelling much fresher.
I finished the cleaning by wiping the stummel down with alcohol on a cotton pad. This needs to be done with some care, as alcohol can easily strip the dyes from the briar. You can see in this pic how much dust, oils and old wax came off on the pad.
With the stummel finally spic and span, I could turn my attention to making the new Delrin tenon. I mounted a short length of Delrin rod in the lathe and drilled a 1/8″ airway through the centre. A small countersink at the end of the tenon creates a funnel to ease the airflow through the shank/stem junction.
Turned to diameter, the new tenon passed the test fit, with a snug but not too snug fit in the shank mortise.
The stem end of the tenon needs to be roughed up before gluing. Delrin is naturally a bit slippery, which can make it hard for the glue to find purchase. A series of small notches cut into the tenon provides a good mechanical bond that will hold the tenon in the stem solidly.
This pic shows the stem dry fit over the new tenon. Looking good! The stem is centred on the shank and sits flat against the shank face.
I use a two-part epoxy and some epoxy coloring to create a nice black glue to bind the tenon to the stem. Here I’ve used JB- Kwik epoxy, but any standard epoxy will do the job.
After applying epoxy to both the tenon and the mortise, I slipped the stem into place on the shank and lined up the edges for a nice smooth transition. A padded vise and some masking tape held the pipe securely while the epoxy cured overnight.
When I came back to the pipe the following morning, I removed the masking tape and twisted the stem out of the shank. I chased the airway through the tenon to remove any blobs of excess epoxy that might block airflow, then remounted the stem and spent just a few minutes wet sanding the Vulcanite with 800 and 2000-grit papers to remove the surface grime and smooth out the tooth chatter.
Then it was off to the buffer for a run on the Red Tripoli and White Diamond wheels to smooth out any stray sanding scratches and bring up the shine. A few light coats of Carnauba wax added more shine and some UV protection for the freshly restored pipe.
This well cared for and much loved BBB Ultonia Rhodesian is looking much better after its time on the bench. Cleaned, freshened and once again in one piece, this lovely English briar is on its way back to its steward, where it should serve faithfully for many years to come.
I hope you enjoyed following along on this relatively simple restoration project. A broken tenon is a very common and economical repair that saves an original stem from the bin – a win for any pipe, but especially significant when dealing with older, out of production pipes.
Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.
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