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Well, I was putting the finishing touches on a pipe today, and working with the buffer, when I lost my grip on the pipe and WHAM!!!

Now I have a couple of dents in the pipe. I was wondering if there is a good method of raising the grain enough so I can remove the dents? I have heard of steam, but I wanted to check here before I tried something that was going to do more damage than good. I'm not worried about the finish, as I figure anything I do will require sanding and restaining the whole pipe anyway.

Or, would it just be easier just to rusticate the pipe?

Thanks for your help!

Rusticate or sand the whole thing over again. Trying to raise the grain with steam could result in that spot acting very differently than the rest of the pipe when it comes time to put carnuba on it.

Today was not a good day for pipes it seems. I lost my grip on a pipe I had just finished and was making for myself (an experiement) and it landed right on a 36-grit sanding belt. **scuff** The worst part was it was perfect - not a surface flaw or blemish on the thing. *sigh* Since it's for me, I left the scrape, but if I was going to sell it, I would have been forced to rusticate it.

Thanks Kurt. I was kind of figuring that rustication was the way I was going to have to go with this pipe.

Since slinging finished pipes with the buffer seems to be a regular occurance with me, I think I will put up some padding before I finish my next one.

BTW, my aim is getting pretty good, as I seem to hit the hardest thing on the workbench with the pipes.

Dent removal (and to some degree pit removal!) can be accomplished safely with an iron (soldering iron, wood burner) and damp rag. Hold the damp rag over the depression and touch the tip of the hit iron to the rag at the spot of the depression. This will cause the cause the wood to swell an minimize the depression. Obviously you will need to do a little sanding to even things out, but the depression will be shrunk if not completely eliminated.

It should have no effect on the ability of the wood to be finished.

Tyler

Thanks Tyler (and thanks again Kurt). I think I will try the hot iron steam method, and if I can't get the depression out, or if I do and the finish looks terrible, then I will rusticate. Anyway, won't hurt to try, I guess. Either way, I should end up with a pretty good pipe out of the deal.

Tyler, that's the best thing I have heard since Mother told me about Blue Bell Ice Cream.

Tyler wrote:Dent removal (and to some degree pit removal!) can be accomplished safely with an iron (soldering iron, wood burner) and damp rag. Hold the damp rag over the depression and touch the tip of the hit iron to the rag at the spot of the depression. This will cause the cause the wood to swell an minimize the depression. Obviously you will need to do a little sanding to even things out, but the depression will be shrunk if not completely eliminated.

It should have no effect on the ability of the wood to be finished.

Tyler

I'm working on an old Kaywoodie that has a "dent" which is somewhere between a dent and a cut. In other words, the wood fibers are not cut but the dent is very sharply defined, almost as if the pipe was dropped on something with an edge. I've heard of a technique where you place a drop of water on the dent and then touch a red-hot pin to the drop of water, boiling it off and raising the dent. Anyone tried this? Any/all suggestions gladly accepted!

I have used a similar technique to what Tyler described - but on rifle stocks. In that context it works very well - however you're finishing those things with stuff that shouldn't come within several feet of a stummel. The one time I tried it on a pipe I ended up with a spot that didn't take a finish well at all. However, this is just one instance of one pipemaker's (limited) experience.

I decided to try the steaming after all, as if it does not work, I can always rusticate later.

Anyway, I got out my wife's iron, turned it on to the highest setting, applied a damp terrycloth scrap, then set the pipe against the terrycloth. After moving the cloth several times to get to freshly damp areas of the cloth, the dents almost disappeared. What little dents were left were easily taken care of through the sanding process.

I am in the process of refinishing the entire pipe, as I think it could be very difficult to blend stain into about three sections (at least for me it could be). So far I sanded the entire pipe at 600 grit, stained, sanded at 800, stained, sanded at 1000, stained. I now have to sand at 1200, then see if I need to apply one more coat of stain prior to buffing (depending on color). The briar appears to be absorbing the stain evenly. This is my first time trying this method. I will report back when I have buffed and waxed the pipe.

Mitch, I would personally be hesitant to try the method you described because if your hand slips with the hot pin, you could burn the wood and have more problems (that would be just my luck to do this). With the method I used, at least I had a buffer between the pipe and the heat source.

Kurt, was the pipe you tried this on new, or had it been smoked? Just curious.

It was a new pipe. I could have been any number of factors - the finishing technique I used at the time, the condition of the briar, the alignment of the planets....

To put it in total context, this was a couple years ago, and I was new to pipemaking a the time. A lot has changed since then, and I probably don't recall all of the factors surrounding the situation.

I hear ya, Marks! That's my biggest concern about the technique I described. The problem is that I need to apply heat/moisture to a very small and "focussed" area on the pipe. I don't want to raise the grain or expand the wood in the area surrounding the dent. Since this is basically a "knock-around" pipe, I think I'll give it a try and let y'all know how it works out......

Good Luck Mitch, let us know how it went.

I just finished waxing and buffing my pipe, and the dents are gone.

WHEW!

This was my P&T contest pipe (second attempt, and I would hate to have to make a third, although I was considering rusticating it). Going up to my parents this weekend to let my father take pictures of it for me so I can mail them to P&T. He is a good photographer.

Kurt, maybe I just got lucky this time. Maybe the planets were lined up properly... Who knows? (I think it has something to do with luck).

Thanks for all the advice guys, and maybe next time I can hang onto the pipe. I put lots of padding around the buffer this time, just in case.