So as I enjoy the occasional pipe as well as woodwork, I decided to combine the two and try my hand at restoring an estate pipe (estate pipe is the fancy name for old, used pipe). After some Ebay hunting I found my target. A Savinelli #4003 that I scored for $20.00. I was excited on a few different fronts. For starters, I just got a solid brand antique pipe for $20, and I could try my hand at restoration. The 4 digit Savinelli models were all made prior to 1965-age beyond that is a guess, but an oldie for sure.
So here is the ebay photo. It's dingy, doesn't look too bad, has a space problem at the stem, but all good. Well, on arrival it was a little rougher than expected.
Pretty dull finish as advertised. One minor chip, but it's almost 50 years old. Not bad.
Ok, bowl needs cleaning was the understatement of the year. This was the best photo I could get, but the bowl was SOLID tar cake to about 2mm below the rim. The very scorched rim.
Surprise! This model has a stinger! My understanding is it is a metal flow tube in the draft hole that is supposed to cool the smoke. This one was 100% immobile. Tar caked in like cement.
This pipe was smoked until air could no longer pass through it. It deserved better.
Best shot I could get of the stem. I put a dab of cream over the logo and into a bleach bath it went! I've never seen a stem chewed like this one. I think a honey badger owned this pipe. That would explained why the pipe was never cleaned though as honey badgers don't have thumbs.
Oh the stem, so gummed with tar a pipe cleaner couldn't get past the lip. Rum soaked stiff bristle cleaners, and determination finally cleared it.
This is the only restore process pic I got, and now I'm kicking myself. After an hour with a reamer tool I made it to the bottom! From here I reassembled, packed the bowl with sea salt, and saturated the salt with rum. Everclear is the suggested spirit for this, but rum's what I had. Little for the pipe, little for me. After an overnight packed with salt and soaked in rum I attacked it with pipe cleaners dunked in rum till I had full airflow and cleaners came out clean.
Kid you not, took a good 15 cleaners. And remember our stinger? It came out looking like something you'd fish out of your drain.
So once it was cleaned, had air moving and everything fit it was off to the buffing station! Tripoli, white diamond, and carnuba wax. Buff buff buff. I still didn't have the finish where I would have liked, so it got several coats of Renaissance wax with some serious soft cloth buffing. So here she is, my first antique pipe restore! The last step in the process is to pack it and let it start a new lease on life....one that has regular cleanings!
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