Restoring a Mastercraft Handmade

[BryGuySC]

Hi guys!

The pipe forum is feeling pretty dead!
I admit, I've not been contributing what I used to. So, I decided to change that!
I recently restored a Mastercraft Handmade.
I don't have a lot of fancy equipment. I use an old Swiss Army knife, easy to find cleaning supplies, cordless drill, and elbow grease. If I can do it, you can too!
So, here we go!

This is the pipe, as I bought it.



Inside the bowl.



It looked pretty rough, but there was no real damage to the wood and the stem. A nice restoration candidate.

First I carefully reamed out the old cake with a dull short spear blade of a Swiss Army knife. I know. I know. I really need to get a good reamer.



I then used 90% isopropyl alcohol, and maybe some spit, to clean off the tar, gunk, crud, and hopefully any varnish etc. that is left.



Next, I worked a bit more on the stem. I used first, a Magic Eraser; then Bar Keepers Friend soft cleanser with a paper towel.



About 10 minutes with a Magic Eraser.



After about 10 minutes with Barkeepers Friend.



A few more minutes. Notice there are still a lot of small scratches, etc. so I later put more time into polishing it more with Bar Keepers Friend. Maybe another 10-15 minutes.



I then hit the briar with the Bar Keepers friend to give it a bit of a micro sanding to get it completely clean - Basically down to the briar.
It was pretty light and uninteresting, and I forgot to take a photo!

I wanted more grain contrast, so I mixed up a stain with black in and alcohol. Notice how purple it was! EEK! But I pushed forward and coated the briar. I then set it aside to dry for a while.





After it sat for 30 minutes to an hour, I soaked a paper towel in regular 50% isopropyl alcohol and wiped it down. Notice how purple the paper towel is. And look at that grain!



I then scrubbed it down with Bar Keepers Friend again, to knock off the stain in the highlights. Followed by a wash down with hot water in the sink. No. It won't hurt your pipe.

Here is how it looked still wet, after washing.



Here it is after it dried. Seems pretty dull again. But wait! There's more!



After leaving it a couple days to fully dry out, I needed to add a protective layer of wax.
I don't have a pic of my polishing "set up," but it is just a cordless drill with a cotton buffer wheel chucked in it.
I bought some carnauba wax chips, melted them into a block and used that.

Here is the finished product. It looks better in person.






It would be even better with good tools and a bench buffer, etc., but not too bad.

Now you try it!