Replacing a Triangular Stem on a Kriswill Bernadotte

Today’s estate pipe repair project features a Kriswill Bernadotte pipe, hand made in Denmark by the factory founded by Karl Robert Kris in 1947. The Kriswill factory became a chief rival of another Danish brand, Stanwell, especially in the export market, but was hit hard in the 1970s by the worldwide drop in demand for pipes. Kriswill closed in Denmark in 1975, with a short-lived re-introduction of the marque by a Spanish pipe factory, Iberica des Pipas, in the early 1980s, though these production pipes were not overly well received. For more on Kriswill, have a look at their entry on Pipedia.

The specific pipe in question today was sent in the the shop by a pipe collector in Toronto, Ontario. The pipe was, as this initial series of images shows, in good estate condition with the notable exception of the stem, which had somehow lost the entirety of the upper button from tooth damage.

The pipe is typical of Kriswill production, featuring elongated bowls and slender shanks and stems. The bowl showed some darkening of the briar around the middle third of the bowl; hopefully this was simply dirt on the exterior of the pipe and not indicative of heat damage from within the chamber.

The rim was clear of any carbon deposits, and the chamber showed a light amount of somewhat uneven carbon cake buildup.

As mentioned, the entire upper button was missing from the stem, exposing the V-slot. This couldn’t have been very comfortable to smoke like this!

The lower button was intact, but had deep tooth dents. Definitely time for a new stem!

The pipe is stamped on the left shank with “Kriswill” over “Bernadotte” over “Handmade Denmark”.

A shape number, “15”, was stamped on the underside of the shank near the shank face.

The broken stem was very likely original to the pipe, or at least a factory replacement, as it carried the Kriswill “Compass Rose” logo on the left flank.

This shot illustrates the triangular cross-sectional profile of the shank. The new stem would need to be shaped to match.

Before I got stuck into the stem fitting process, I spend a few minutes reaming and cleaning the stummel. I sanded the uneven cake out of the chamber, then used a few pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% isporopyl alcohol to clean out a modest amount of tars and other goodies from the shank and airway. An inspection of the chamber showed no major charring or other damage.

Now that the stummel was clean, I could look at fitting the new stem. The client had specifically requested an Acrylic stem for this pipe, so I selected an oversized Round Taper Acrylic stem blank from my supplies. As you can see in the pic, the new stem blank would need to be shortened and reshaped to match the original.

After some careful measurements, I cut the stem to length and turned it in the lathe to a diameter slightly larger than the distance measured across the widest portion of the shank face. This would allow me to reduce the round stem to fit the triangular shank without coming up short on the corners.

The shank mortise on this Kriswill pipe is on the smaller side, slightly larger than 1/4″ in diameter. Acrylic tenons can become quite brittle at smaller diameters, so I avoided this potential point of breakage by making up a new tenon from Delrin rod. Delrin is a bit tricky to glue up, but it is much stronger than Acrylic and has a bit of “give” to it that helps maintain a snug fit in the shank mortise.

These pics show the tenon turned to size on the lathe and the stummel test fit to the tenon. So far, so good!

Gluing the tenon into the stem face is a bit of a process, but one that you don’t want to get wrong lest it result in a tenon that simply pulls out of the stem down the road. I began by drilling a mortise into the stem face, sized to accept the stem end of the Delrin tenon.

Delrin is a slippery material, so it’s essential to rough up the exterior of the tenon and the interior of the mortise to allow the epoxy to grip both parts securely and form a permanent bond.

Any standard two-part epoxy will get the job done here. Once mixed properly, I applied epoxy both to the end of the tenon and the inside of the mortise, then slipped the parts together. I like to clamp the pipe upright by the bowl when gluing up stems. This allows gravity to help keep the stem tight against the shank face. I’d usually add a wrap of masking tape here as well, but the round profile of the stem and triangular shape of the shank made taping the joint impractical.

I allowed the pipe to sit in the vise overnight to give the epoxy time to cure completely before twisting the stem out of the shank and chasing the airway through the stem with a drill bit to clear the inevitable excess epoxy.

With the tenon work complete, I remounted the stem and began the process of shaping the round stem to match the triangular shank. Note the wrap of clear hockey tape on the shank, which helps protect the finished shank from errant file strokes.

Acrylic is a much harder material than Ebonite, so it takes about twice as long to shape. After removing the worst of the excess Acrylic, I could round off the corners while also reshaping the stem lengthwise to ensure a smooth flow of the pipe’s shape from bowl to button.

The thick hockey tape prevents the files from getting close to the final dimensions of the shank, so at a certain point, I switched to thinner masking tape and smaller files for the detail work. As you can see in this pic, I did remove a bit of the original finish during the shaping, but I’d touch this up later.

To finish off this restoration, I sanded the new Acrylic stem from 220 through 2000 grit, then touched up the shank end with a stain pen before taking the pipe to the buffer for final polishing and waxing. I buffed the entire pipe with both Red Tripoli and White Diamond compounds, followed by a few light coats of Carnauba wax to add shine and some UV protection. Acrylic stems don’t really need wax, but if I’m waxing the stummel the stem gets a quick shining at the same time.

The finished pipe is looking great after its time on the bench. The new stem, while not a perfect replica of the original, fits the shank well and preserves the overall look of this 60-ish year old Danish briar. More to the point, the pipe is now clean, fresh and whole; it should provide many years of smoking companionship to its steward.

I hope you enjoyed following along with this slightly more complicated stem replacement project. One of the joys of the pipe world is the never-ending array of shapes, sizes and designs available, from the basic to the fantastic, and a pipe repair shop needs to be able to confidently service them all.

Thanks for joining me for another estate pipe restoration. Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.