Repairing a Seriously Cracked 1960 Dunhill W59 Whangee Bamboo Apple

Dunhill began using Bamboo for some of their pipes near the end of, or just after, the Second World War as an alternative to hard-to-source briar. Details on the first use of bamboo shanks by the English marque are a bit hazy, but the series is included at least as far back as the 1951 catalog, which you can find on Pipedia here. Dubbed “Whangee” pipes based on the Mandarin word for bamboo, the pipes caught on and have become one of Dunhill’s iconic offerings to the pipe community.

The particular pipe on the bench this week had definitely seen better days. As this initial series of images illustrates, the pipe arrived at the shop missing its stem and sporting a very evident crack that ran vertically down the rear right flank of the bowl, from rim to shank.

I somehow missed taking picture of the stamps on the smooth underside of the bowl during my initial assessment, so this image is from the final pictures. The stamps read “W59” over “4” in a Circle followed by a “T ^F/T“, then the elongated Dunhill logo over “Made in England” in block letters and finally a “0”.

If I’m interpreting the stamps correctly, this pipe is identified as a Whangee Shape 59 in a Group 4 size, Tanshell finish, with Fishtail stem. The “0” after Made in England dates the pipe to 1960.

To my eye, at least, the damage to the briar bowl of this Dunhill Whangee was likely caused by an excess build-up of carbon cake in the chamber and perhaps a bit of hot smoking on the part of its former steward. Cake expands and contracts at a different rate than briar, so if the cake layer gets too thick it can expand and exert a fair amount of outward pressure on the chamber walls. If there is a weak spot in the briar, this outward pressure can literally tear the bowl in half. Pipe smokers take note – keep on top of your pipe maintenance!

In order to assess the full extend of the damage, I first had to clean the pipe, starting with reaming the cracked chamber of all traces of carbon cake. This can be a dicey proposition with a damaged bowl – I’ve had bowls with less obvious damage shatter in my hand under the torque of the reamer – so I clamped one hand firmly around the bowl and held it securely while I carefully removed the old cake form the chamber using my reamer followed by sandpaper wrapped around a dowel.

This pic shows a small blob of hard cake remaining above the draft hole. Apart from the large crack, though, the chamber was in decent shape.

I worked on the cake a bit more until the chamber was as clear of carbon as possible, then completed the basic cleanup by running a few pipe cleaners dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol through the shank and airway.

As I would need to make repairs to the exterior of the pipe as well as the interior, I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove years of dust, dirt and old wax from the sandblasted finish.

After rinsing the cleaned bowl with fresh water, I dried the briar with a towel and took this pic. The full extent of the crack was now evident, and it was a doozy!

Now it was time to plan out the crack repair. Back in 2016, I developed my crack pinning method and posted a tutorial for other aspiring pipe restorers. The technique has been tried and tested many times since then, and I’m happy to report that, to date, I have had no reports of the repair failing over time.

The first step was to trace the extent of the crack and drill a tiny “fire stop” hole at the very end of the crack. This releases the pressure in the briar and prevents the crack from creeping further down the bowl.

The basic idea with pinning a crack is to “stitch” the briar back together using metal pins while using the least invasive approach possible. To that end, I employ a 1.4mm drill bit held in a pin vise and turned by hand to drill a thin pin shaft that starts on one side of the crack, jumps the gap and ends on the other side of the crack, within the fabric of the chamber wall. This blind drilling leaves only one hole per pin, making the subsequent cosmetic repairs that much easier.

The next three images shows the process of drilling the first pin shaft. Note the compound angle of drilling and the fact that at no point do I want to drill through the chamber wall into the chamber or out through the exterior of the bowl.

Here I’ve test fit a length of 1.3mm brass rod into the drilled pin shaft.

For subsequent pins, the shafts are purposely drilled at opposing angles. If I simply installed the pins parallel to each other down the length of the crack, they could well pull out of the briar due to the expansion and contraction of the wood during a smoke session. Inserting the pins at opposing angles means that any attempt at movement in one direction is blocked by the other pins, keeping the crack immobile.

In the end, I drilled a total of five pin shafts across the crack in this bowl – a personal record, by the way. With the drilling complete, I moved on to installing the pins. This image shows the supplies laid out and ready – the pipe itself, some CA glue, a length of brass rod, a pair of wire cutters and a bit of card stock.

I squeezed a blob of CA glue onto the card and cut each pin slightly shorter than the shafts. This ensures that, when installed in the shaft, each pin sits below the surface of the briar. Leaving the pins long would result in a constellation of brass dots shining against the briar surface.

Each pin was cut to length, rolled in a bit of CA glue, then fully seated in its respective shaft.

This pic shows one of the pins installed across the widest part of the crack. It is clearly visible from inside the chamber, but the pin sits fully within the fabric of the chamber wall. Once filled and smoothed, the pins will be fully enclosed within the briar.

While I was working on the repair, I felt a slight bit of movement between the bowl and shank. After investigating, I realized that the briar and bamboo were joined by a short section of threaded tubing. Handling the bowl without the shank attached would make the upcoming work a bit easier, so I unscrewed the bamboo shank and set it aside for now.

After the last pin had been installed, I mixed up a roughly 50/50 mixture of thick CA glue and briar dust and applied it to the exterior of the bowl, pushing the patch mixture into and over the damaged areas. A bit of deliberate over-filling helps here, as gravity and capillary action pull the briar dust and glue mixture into the cracks and surrounding dips and hollows.

I set the bowl aside briefly to allow the CA glue to harden. When I could safely handle the bowl without gluing it to my hand, I mixed up a second filler, this time for the interior of the chamber. CA glue vaporizes at high temperatures, so it is unsuitable for chamber repairs that will be exposed to the heat of smoldering tobacco. Instead, I use Original Formula JB-Weld high-heat epoxy, which can withstand temperatures of 600F and is completely inert when cured. For those wondering about the longevity of an epoxy repair like this, I am still smoking a pipe I repaired with JB Weld about 11 years ago. It has yet to show any sign of degradation.

After mixing the epoxy according to the directions, I used a gloved finger to push the glue deep into the cracks on the inside of the chamber walls. As you can see, I was again quite liberal in my application of epoxy, smearing it into and over the damaged areas and filling as many of the smaller depressions and voids and possible.

With the epoxy in place, I set it carefully aside to cure. Original JB Weld take a good 12 hour to set and about 24 hours to cure completely, so it would be a while before I came back to it.

Luckily, I had other work I could accomplish in the meantime, notably the fitting of a new Vulcanite Round Saddle stem to the bamboo shank. Here is a look at the parts – the bamboo shank, drilled with a factory mortise, and a short Saddle stem blank from my supplies.

This end-on shot shows the irregularities of the natural bamboo shank. While round-ish, bamboo is never perfectly round, nor does the main capillary running up the middle of the bamboo truly sit in the center of the rod. This is simply one of the challenges of using bamboo for a pipe shank.

A few minutes on the lathe reduced the stem tenon to the correct diameter for a snug-but-not-too-snug fit in the shank mortise and a nice light-tight fit of stem face against the end of the shank. So far, so good! Preferring to end my day on a high note, I set the pipe aside and left the shop for the evening.

When I came back to the pipe the following day, the interior and exterior patches on the bowl had cured and were ready for the next step.

I once again used my reamer and sandpaper to remove the excess JB Weld epoxy from the chamber, leaving it only in the cracks. I sanded the chamber walls until they were smooth and even.

Technically speaking, the briar bowl was now structurally sound and could be smoked again, but it was terribly ugly, which would never do.

The task at hand now was to remove the excess CA and briar dust patch on the outside of the bowl and blend the repaired area into the surrounding sandblasted finish. For this rather delicate job, I mounted a small round carving burr in my rotary tool and began carefully shaving down the patch.

My goal was to expose the original finish as much as possible and texture the patch to continue the sandblast pattern across the repair. A rotary burr can get away from the operator very quickly, so this is not the time to get distracted. It’s also a very good idea to practice this technique on a few junk pipe bowls before jumping into a repair on a more valuable piece.

The carving burr leaves tiny peaks and jagged edges which stand out texturally against the worn sandblast finish of the rest of the bowl. To smooth these out and help the repair blend in better I scrubbed the freshly textured patch with a tire brush. The difference between the images above and below are subtle but noticeable.

I did the same texturing and brushing work on the rim repair, to similar effect.

The proof of any external repair, on either a textured or smooth finish, come when the dye is applied. I took some creative liberty here, applying a classic Shell Briar black over red finish to the briar instead of the lighter Tanshell finish. The darker stain would push the repairs even further into the background.

A wipe of mineral oil helped to set the new finish and introduce some moisture into the dry briar .The bowl looks quite uniformly black at the moment, but final buffing and polishing would remove the black layer from the high points of the sandblasted briar, revealing the red stain below.

The last job I had planned for this Dunhill Bamboo was to complete the stem work, reducing the diameter of the new stem to match the profile of the bamboo shank before installing the iconic Dunhill White Spot.

After taping off the end of the shank to protect it from errant file strokes, I used a series of increasingly finer files to remove the excess Vulcanite and move the stem closer to its final shape.

Final fitting of the new stem required a bit of patience to match the contours of the stem to the irregular bamboo. There are also small indentations at the knuckles with which one must contend.

One such mark extended from the knuckle closest to the stem to the shank face. To smooth the transition from shank to stem, I carefully carved a tiny V-shaped notch in the Vulcanite stem, continuing the natural depression in the bamboo up into the stem.

Once sanded and polished, this small detail will make it appear as if the stem has grown out of the bamboo shank.

Before sanding and polishing, however, I needed to install the White Spot in the top of the stem. Again working with hand tools, and after some careful measuring and marking, I drilled a 1/16″ hole in the top centre of the saddle portion of the stem and used a drop of CA glue to hold a section of white rod in place.

It was during this process that I noticed a tiny amount of movement at the opposite end of the pipe, between the bowl and shank. The bowl was wobbling ever so slightly on its threaded tenon. A closer inspection showed that the bamboo shank had split where the brass pins held the threaded tenon in the end of the shank. “Oh, bother!”, said Pooh.

Putting the stem work on hold for a moment, I carefully disassembled the bowl and shank and removed the brass pins holding the threaded tenon in the shank face. After cleaning the parts with a bit of isopropyl alcohol, I flowed some thin CA glue into the cracks on either side of the bamboo shank and pinched the cracks shut with my fingers while I waited for the glue to harden.

When I could handle the shank again, I mixed up a small amount of JB Weld epoxy and used it as thread locker, applying the glue to both the male threads of the tenon and the female threads inside the mortices in bowl and shank. I then reassembled the pipe, taking care to align the shank properly with the bowl before setting the pipe aside to allow the epoxy to cure.

The following day, I sanded the repairs smooth and installed new brass pins on either side of the shank to replicate the original look. These pins were now completely cosmetic as the epoxy was doing the work of retaining the threaded tenon, but the holes needed filling.

When I was happy with the bowl to shank junction, I finished sanding the new stem with 220 through 2000-grit sandpapers in preparation for final buffing and polishing.

Before taking the pipe to the wheel, however, I needed to complete the cosmetic repairs by applying a bowl coating over the repaired chamber walls. This is not strictly speaking necessary as the epoxy repairs do not need a coating to protect them from heat, but it adds immeasurably to the finished look of the repairs. Those concerned about “hiding” evidence of the repair can safely skip this step.

My bowl coating process is very simple – just a bit of pure maple syrup and some activated charcoal powder. After blocking the draft hole with a pipe cleaner, I wiped a few drops of maple syrup around the interior of the bowl, being careful to cover the chamber walls and floor evenly. Then I filled the bowl with charcoal powder and let the pipe sit overnight.

The charcoal powder filling the bowl prevents the syrup from dripping or sagging, and the overnight rest time ensures that the syrup absorbs as much charcoal powder as possible. The result is a thin, even bowl coating that provides a slightly grippy surface on which a new cake layer can build. The coating should be allowed to cure for a couple of days before smoking the pipe.

Finally, I brought the complete pipe to the buffer. The stem was buffed first on the Red Tripoli wheel to remove the last of the sanding scratches before the whole pipe was polished lightly on the White Diamond wheel. A few light coats of Carnauba wax completed this rather involved restoration.

I’m very pleased with the final results. This Dunhill Whangee is once again structurally sound, complete and looking its best. It is ready to resume active duty in a piper’s rack and rotation. With a modicum of care and feeding, there is no reason to think that this pipe could not serve faithfully for another 65 years or more.

This restoration project was also a personal milestone of sorts for me. While not the first bamboo shanked pipe to cross my bench, this project was my first time rebuilding a bamboo shank to this extent. As previously mention, the bowl repair is also a personal best, taking a total of five pins to stitch the crack back together. Fitting a new stem was almost incidental to the project.

Though a few scars remain from its travails, I’m very glad to have been able to rescue this 1960 Dunhill Whangee from the scrap heap. I hope it smokes sweetly for its new steward for a long, long time.

Thanks for following along with me on this restoration project. I hope you enjoyed watching the pipe come back to life as much as I did.

Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.

Just for fun, here is a side by side comparison of the bowl before and after repairs. Click on the slider and pull it left and right to reveal each image in turn.