The grain is incredible and the bulldog is steadily becoming one of my favorite shapes. I’m getting down to the last few from the lot my wife gifted me for Christmas, this is the last Pete from the lot and just as beautiful as the other two. The Emerald line is one I’ll keep an eye out for going forward. The rusticated Emerald 53 I did a couple of posts back is unlike any  other rusticated Pete in my collection the Emerald’s rustication is deep and craggy reminiscent of a weathering coastline, beautiful.

The Emerald 150’s Revival

The nomenclature is crisp- Peterson’s over Emerald on the left of the shank and made in the Republic of Ireland 150 on the right. The Emerald band still has a tint of green left, the stem is oxidized and shallow chatter. The rim has a little build up, I counted two small fills and the chambers old cake and leftover tobacco.

I started with the chamber and the PipNet reamer and reamed the cake back using the first two attachments, the chamber was free of cracks or charring.

Next the rim build up, it was heavy towards the back of the rim. I applied Method Good For Wood polish to the rim and left it to soften the build up. Once the build up softens I scrubbed the area with Q-Tips, I had to repeat this a few times to remove all the build up. I gave the stummel a wipe down with a rag and Method.

I cleaned the internals of the stem and stummel using EverClear , shank/mortise brushes, stiff/soft pipe cleaners and Q-Tips, cleaning until my final pipe cleaner came out as it went in. The internals were surprisingly clean, well maintained by the previous owner.

 The bead was intact but stuffed with old carnauba, using an X-Acto knife I carefully removed the old wax then cleaning the area with Method polish.

There were a few dings in the briar that I steamed out using an iron set to medium heat and a damp rag. I covered the area to be steamed with the damp rag and placed the heated iron on the blemish, it took a few applications to get each ding flush with the existing briar.

The two fills in the briar to be honest blended fairly well and I was going to leave them be but in the process of steaming out the dings I inadvertently popped out the filler. I applied a drip of Method polish to each fill and left it to soften and once soft I removed the fill with an X-Acto knife and pick. I lightly cleaned the area with EverClear and a Q-Tip. Using a toothpick I applied a small amount of gorilla Glue to the pit and packed with briar dust and left to dry a few minutes.

With the patch dry I lightly sanded the area first with an emery-board, then 800, 1000 and 1500 grit sandpaper and finishing with a worn 3200 micro-mesh pad. I didn’t re-stain the area the natural finish of the pipe blended with the area of repair, just handling the stummel while working helped blend it further.

The stubborn Peterson oxidation, I applied non-bleach Soft Scrub to the stem and left it to penetrate the oxidation, once the Soft Scrub turns from white to a brownish color I scrub with a rag adding more Soft Scrub as needed until all oxidation is removed (Holding the stem under natural light will help to see if all oxidation has been removed) I worked on this stem on and off for an hour to remove all oxidation.

There was a couple of deeper tooth impressions that would need sanding but the bulk of the stem looked good. I taped off the bit so my more abrasive sanding would remain in one area. I sanded the impressions with 400, 800, 1000 and 1500 sandpaper wet until the impressions were flush with the rest of the stem. I then sanded with micro-mesh pads 1500-2400 wet and finished with 3200-6000 dry, I removed the tape for the final two pads and polished the whole stem with 8000 and 12000 dry.

Complete 

I buffed the stummel with white diamond, a few coats of carnauba and a round on a nude wheel, buffing the stem with white diamond and carnauba. A final Hand buffing with a microfiber cloth before photos.

Happy Hunting, Refurbishing and Puffing.

Tim.