Crack Repair and Restoration of a Vintage Brigham 629 Author

The pipe on the bench today is a bit of a Canadian classic – a Brigham Shape 29 Author. Part of the Brigham lineup almost from the very beginning, the 29 shape is, in this age of larger pipes, rather a small version of the shape, especially when compared to contemporary cousins like the Savinelli 320.

You’ll note in the chart above that the Special Grains pipes during this time were stamped with a 600 shape number code. This was a bit of an odd decision on the part of Brigham, as there were no 6-Dot pipes yet in the lineup, but it did distinguish the Special Grains pipes from the Exclusive grade, pinned in the familiar 3-Dot triangle pattern.

The confusion is exacerbated when attempting to date a pipe from this era. Pipes made in 1953-1954 would have been stamped with the old Brigham logo and the CAN PAT number, but I’m guessing these were relatively few in number as I’ve never come across one in the wild. If you have one of these Patent era Special Grains pipes in your rack, lucky you!

From 1955 to 1969, Brigham stamped their pipes with a linear “MADE IN CANADA” COM stamp and a refreshed, thin script “Brigham” logo. What this means for the collector is that there is no easy way to determine whether pipes like the one on the bench today is a “Prestige” grade pipe (two steps down from Straight Grains grade) or an “Executive” grade pipe (four steps down from Straight Grains grade). If yours is a smooth finish, an examination of the grain in the briar may indicate the pipe’s quality, but with a rusticated pipe like today’s patient, your guess is as good as mine.

My apologies for the lengthy intro to this restoration, but I think it’s important to provide that context as the grading schemes changed quite a bit during the period. If you’d like to learn more about Brigham grading schemes through the years, you can find the above information and much more in my book, Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar.

Let’s now take our first look at the pipe as it appeared on arrival at the shop. This series of images show that the pipe was in reasonably good condition except for a noticeable crack down the left face of the bowl. The rst of the pipe needed a good cleaning and polishing, but the crack would need some serious intervention.

The stamps on the smooth underside of the shank were very worn and difficult to photograph, but legible under magnification and good lighting. They read “629”, stamped vertically at the left edge of the smooth patch, followed by the thin-script “Brigham logo” over the linear “MADE IN CANADA” stamp.

Twisting the stem from the shank revealed the original aluminum tenon/filter holder. These haven’t been made since 2001 when the company moved to its current composite tenon, so I was relieved to see that the aluminum had not corroded or otherwise degraded as finding a donor tenon to replace one of these old aluminum parts gets more difficult each year.

Here are some close-up pics of the crack in the bowl. As you can see, the crack extended about three quarters of the way down the bowl, but did not penetrate the chamber. My guess is that a naturally-occurring fault in the briar opened up like a fissure due to time, age and use. To prevent the crack from growing and ultimately splitting the bowl, it would need to be pinned.

I began the basic cleanup of the stummel as I usually do, by reaming the chamber back to briar.This helps remove any ghosts of tobaccos past from the pipe while allowing me to examine the briar for any damage.

The floor of the bowl was a bit roughed up from use, but the chamber was otherwise in good shape. The shank and airway were surprisingly clean, so much so that I forgot to take the obligatory photos. Whoops!

To prevent the crack from creeping any further down the bowl, I drilled a tiny “fire stop” hole at the far end of the fissure.

Then it was time to drill a couple of pin shafts to “sew” the crack back together. These shafts are drilled at opposing angles so that during use, the crack cannot flex open and closed. The shafts are also drilled blind (one hole only) such that the pin, when glued into the shaft, sits completely within the fabric of the chamber wall.

This top-down pic illustrates the point. The brass rod from which I would cut the pins enters the briar on the far side of the crack, leaps the gap and ends in the briar on the near side of the gap. The pin never penetrates the chamber wall.

After cutting the brass pins to length, they were rolled in thick CA glue and pushed into the pin shafts until they bottom out. This pic shows how the end of the pin sits down into the briar. When the shaft hole is filled, the pin will be completely encased so we won;t have a brass dot shining against the briar.

I installed a total of two pins in across the crack, then mixed up a filler of thick CA glue and briar dust which was applied liberally in and over the holes drilled in the previous steps.

I set the stummel aside carefully to give the patches time to cure completely. The pipe is structurally sound at this point, but looks like the proverbial dog’s breakfast.

When I came back to the stummel, I removed the excess filler material and blended the repairs into the original rustication using a small carving burr mounted in my rotary tool. This take a bit of practice, but produces an invisible repair after refinishing.

One of the pitfalls of my CA glue and briar dust filler is the tendency for the CA glue to cure with tiny air bubbles in the glue. Here I had to sand the rim flat, then colour the repair with a stain pen before flooding the tiny microbubbles with thin CA glue to get a smooth finish.

I also used the stain pen to dye the patched area. This is a temporary finish, intended to highlight any areas that might need reworking.

Now that the stummel was structurally sound, I set it up with an alcohol treatment to make sure it was as clean as it could be before I returned the pipe to its steward.

While the alcohol was working on the stummel, I turned my attention to the stem. It was lightly oxidized, with most of the discolouration contained to the tenon end of the stem, which can be hard to polish out without affecting the finish on the shank.

I spent a few minutes with wet sandpaper in 800 and 2000 grits to remove the oxidation and smooth out the tooth chatter.

When I came back to the stummel, the alcohol had done its work, leaving the once white cotton wool stained dark by the tars that had been lurking in the shank and airway. I removed and discarded the cotton and gave the internals a quick once-over with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in more alcohol to make sure I got the last of the stragglers.

Then it was time to finish up this restoration! I applied a coat of Fiebing’s Dark Brown leather dye to the briar to restore its original finish and push the crack repair further into the background. A little scrubbing with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol lightened the rim and the smooth stamping patch on the underside of the shank for a nice contrast.

A quick wipe with mineral oil helped set the new finish and inject some much needed moisture into the old briar.

Finally, I reassembled the pipe and took it to the buffer for a run on the Red Tripoli and While Diamond wheels to erase the last of the sanding marks and bring up the shine. A few light coats of Carnauba wax added more gloss and a modicum of UV protection to the freshly restored pipe.

This 1955-1969 Brigham 629 Author has really come back to life during its time on the bench. Clean, fresh, and most importantly, structurally sound, this pipe is ready to provide many more decades of smoking companionship to its steward.

I hope you enjoyed watching the transformation as much as I did. Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.