A New Stem and a Cleanup for a Bjarne Handmade

Bjarne Nielsen (1941-2008) left a promising career at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973 to launch his own pipe making company and enticed few other pipe makers away from Prebem Holm’s workshop in the process. Bjarne’s Danish Freehand pipes became popular in the USA while his more traditional shapes caught on in Germany. Unfortunately, the business and the brand died with Nielson in 2008 when none of his employees wished to take charge of the company.

While 35 years is a long career for an individual pipe maker, it is a relative flash in the pan for a pipe company. I couldn’t find any information on the number of pipes Bjarne produced annually, but it could not have been a very high number. I’m always happy to see one pass through the shop.

The pipe on the work table today is one of the marque’s entry level offerings, stamped simply “Bjarne” in block letters over “Handmade in Denmark” rather than “Bjarne Nielsen” signature stamp used on higher grades, but don’t let that fool you. This series of images shows the pipe as it looked on arrival at the shop; it is a lovely pipe, obviously crafted with care and attention, and well maintained to boot.

The pipe was in very good estate condition, with the major issue being a snapped tenon, followed closely by some deep tooth dents behind the button. The stummel, by comparison, simply needed a good cleaning and polishing to make it shine.

This shot shows the stub of the tenon lodged in the shank mortise.

The stem face held the broken end of the tenon, and showed quite a few tool marks left over from turning the tenon to size. I’d see if I couldn’t improve on that.

Removing a broken tenon can be a bit tricky, but I’ve worked out a system that seems to to the trick. I threaded a wood screw into the end of the tenon in the shank, then, using a set of pliers as a handle, pulled the tenon straight back and out of the shank.

It’s important to keep the pressure in line with the shank and airway lest you accidentally crack the shank by pulling the tenon sideways. A very stuck tenon can often be persuaded to let go of the shank with a judicious application of 99% isopropyl alcohol.

With the blockage removed, I could get on with the cleanup of the stummel. There was very little cake buildup in the chamber, so I passed on the reamer and went with a light sanding with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to remove the cake and smooth out the chamber walls.

A small handful of pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in more alcohol cleared out the shank and airway.

The stummel was now ready for the stem, and this is where I needed to have a conversation with the pipe’s steward. The tooth dents on the top and bottom bite surfaces of stem were quite deep. Even after a light filing and sanding, the dents stood out quite a bit.

There are many examples online of Vulcanite pipe stems patched with some variation of CA glue – clear CA, black CA, rubberized black CA, and CA mixed with charcoal powder or Vulcanite dust. I have tried many of these techniques over the years, but they all have one thing in common – they all fail eventually.

Vulcanite is the trade name for hard rubber, that is, rubber that has undergone a vulcanization process through the addition of sulphur to the natural rubber base. While it is quite hard, it is not nearly as hard as cured CA glue, which is more closely related to Acrylic (CA stands for CyanoAcrylate).

Due to this hardness mismatch, CA glue patches in Vulcanite stems can simply pop out if bitten down on the wrong way. CA glue patches also do not oxidize like Vulcanite does, so inevitably the stem ends up with a black (or black ringed with white) spot shining against the discoloured Vulcanite. For these reasons, I consider any patch job on Vulcanite stems to be a temporary measure at best.

On a practical level, it takes more shop time to apply, level and polish a patch than it does to simply fit a new stem. For me, as of the time of writing this post anyway, the cost of a patch job is only about five dollars off the cost of a new stem, so I no longer recommend stem patches to Vulcanite. The value for dollar math is simply not in its favour.

After explaining all of this to the client, he decided, unsurprisingly, to go with a new Vulcanite stem for his Bjarne pipe. I had a dig through my supplies, and came up with an Oval Taper stem that would do the trick. I didn’t have an Oval Saddle stem the right length, and due to the postal strike, I could not order in an Oval Saddle stem. Thankfully, the pipe’s steward liked the look of the Taper stem, which you can see mocked up below.

The pre-cast integral tenon on the stem blank was a bit cockeyed, leaving a sliver of light shining through the stem/shank junction, so I cut it off and prepared a new Delrin tenon to glue into the stem face.

This pic shows the tenon turned to diameter and drilled for the airway.

I flipped the tenon around in the lathe and cut the stem end down to just under 7mm. I also sanded the stem face flat and (mostly) smooth on the topping board, then drilled a 7mm mortise into the stem to accept the tenon. For those of you wondering about the scrap of tape on the stem, that is used to identify the top side of the stem so I don’t glue it in wrong way around.

I mixed up a small amount of JB-Kwik two-part epoxy , applied it to both the tenon and the mortise, then slid the two halves of the pipe together.

After aligning the stem properly on the shank, I added some tape to hold the stem in position, then clamped the pipe upright in a padded vise for the night. Clamping the pipe this way allows gravity to hold the stem against the shank face and lets the epoxy flow down the mortise inside the stem to fully encase the tenon.

I let the pipe sit overnight to give the epoxy time to cure. When I can back to the pipe, I twisted the stem out of the shank and ran a drill bit through the tenon and airway to clear out the inevitable epoxy blockage.

I remounted the stem to the shank, then added a wrap of clear hockey tape to the shank to protect it while I used files and sandpaper to shape the new stem blank to fit the contours of the shank.

Here is a pic of the new stem after shaping and sanding to 2000 grit. Nice!

Before taking the pipe to the buffers, I needed to bend the new stem to match the original. I slid a pipe cleaner through the stem to guard against kinking or collapsing the airway, then warmed the Vulcanite over the heat gun until it became pliable enough to introduce the required bend. A run under cold water set the new shape.

To finish off this project, I took the pipe to the buffing wheels and polished it with Red Tripoli followed by White Diamond compound. This erased any last sanding scratches and brought up the shine. I added more gloss and some UV protection with a few light coats of Carnauba wax.

This striking Bjarne Oval Shank Bent Apple is looking great after its time on the bench. While it had arrived in good condition other than the broken tenon, a cleaning and polishing has done wonders for the briar, while the new stem looks like it’s always been part of the pipe.

This lovely Danish hand made briar has been returned to its steward, where it should serve him well for decades to come.

Thanks for joining me for this estate pipe restoration. Until next time, Happy Piping!

Here’s the finished pipe.