Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

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LatakiaLover
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Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by LatakiaLover »

Actually, the pipe isn't quite a true giant --- it's 7" long and 125 grams (5 ounces) --- but as we used to say back in the day, "It's close enough for government work."

How this specimen came to have a mis-matched but correct brand stem is anybody's guess. Maybe the original got lost or was damaged beyond repair and the owner did a swap from his own collection. Or sent it back to the maker who gave the owner the option of a quick fix since making a new fitted one would be expensive. We'll never know. It is certain that the odd match-up wasn't sold that way as some sort of "Art Statement", though, since the face of the shank had tool marks and was countersunk. Things that would have been properly dealt with if it was intended to see the light of day.

Anyhow, for those of you who like messing with this sort of thing, the gold plated pig bitch here is the "hooked" shank, a la Hawkbill. Not only does extending the lines of such a shank require actually carving/sculpting the stem into a bent shape instead of heat-bending it, but the lines created by the original maker were off. Meaning inconsistent in radius. (Grrrrrr...) Also, the bottom line of the shank has a bulge. (Double Grrrrrr...) So, I had to fudge here and there to make the best of things.

Also the airway had to be drilled considerably below center, the diameter of the necessary rod was quite large, and the pipe's owner wanted the new stem to be acrylic. (Acrylic is wonderful stuff for most pipes, but it is more difficult to work with than vulcanite as a general thing, and the larger the stem the more difficult it gets.)

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Ocelot55
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by Ocelot55 »

As usual, fantastic work, George. I'm curious about the duck head. How did you remove it and reattach it to the new stem?
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sethile
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by sethile »

Beautifully done, George! You're the master of making new stems for existing pipes!!
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LatakiaLover
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by LatakiaLover »

Ocelot55 wrote:I'm curious about the duck head. How did you remove it and reattach it to the new stem?
It was metal, so just heated it until it could be comfortably twisted out of the old stem with a pair of padded needle nose pliers. Then I cleaned up the little 3mm long post, added a few notches to it with a file, applied a touch of black epoxy, and pressed it into a just-snug .048" receiving hole on the new stem.

The only tricky part was drilling the hole squarely into a 90-degree near knife-edge. Those tiny bits are very flexy, and missing the exact center of the edge's .5 mm radius would have resulted in a mess.
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Ocelot55
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by Ocelot55 »

LatakiaLover wrote:The only tricky part was drilling the hole squarely into a 90-degree near knife-edge.
Yeah, that's sort of what I thought. I've done some pretty tricky stem matching myself, but when it comes to transferring metal logos or insets, I'm clueless.
pipedreamer
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by pipedreamer »

You have the masters touch. Beautiful work!!! :notworthy:
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timberwolfer21
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by timberwolfer21 »

That is amazing.


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Revelation
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by Revelation »

You are the master for sure! I hope I can one day make a stem half as good as you sir!
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by pipeguy »

George who would make those duck heads? A jeweler or a manufacturer I would love to try something like that
For a pipe.
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LatakiaLover
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Re: Another giant Italian straight grain re-stem

Post by LatakiaLover »

pipeguy wrote:George who would make those duck heads? A jeweler or a manufacturer I would love to try something like that
For a pipe.
Professional jewelers routinely make stuff like that by casting small amounts of molten metal. It's accessible at the hobby level, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrz9V_LuV2U
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