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Last week I swapped for this large, Charatan After Hours bent billiard at Wingenroths in PA.
The bowl had some strange carvings, as it someone made a misguided attempt to clean it by carving off the dark wood. I knew it would need to be sanded smooth and restained. This was my first attempt at that task.
I sanded the bowl smooth starting with 320 up to 1500 grit paper and than the first few grades of micromesh. The curious marks came right out and the bowl is very smooth. Unfortunately the bowl stamping was mostly removed, there didn't seem to be a way around that. I used the Medium brown stain, setting it with flame. This caused a few interesting moments when my stain soaked tape around the After Hours acrylic extension also caught on fire, which happened to be what I was holding....
I than buffed the bowl lightly with white diamond and carnuba. I'm pleased with the finish. I need to learn how to mix the stain better as this came out a little darker than I had desired, but it looks too good to mess up again.
The stem rec'd the usual 1500/2000 grit wet paper than the final four grades of micromesh followed by a wheel buff with Blue Magic plastic polish. I was able to not damage the CP and Registration stampings (what is that REGd No 203573 ?)
I'm breaking it in with some MM965, which is good at ghost banishing, but so far no funky tastes. This is a rather large pipe, about 6" in length with a very open draw. I packed it pretty tightly and it is smoking very well
Before:
After:
The bowl had some strange carvings, as it someone made a misguided attempt to clean it by carving off the dark wood. I knew it would need to be sanded smooth and restained. This was my first attempt at that task.
I sanded the bowl smooth starting with 320 up to 1500 grit paper and than the first few grades of micromesh. The curious marks came right out and the bowl is very smooth. Unfortunately the bowl stamping was mostly removed, there didn't seem to be a way around that. I used the Medium brown stain, setting it with flame. This caused a few interesting moments when my stain soaked tape around the After Hours acrylic extension also caught on fire, which happened to be what I was holding....
I than buffed the bowl lightly with white diamond and carnuba. I'm pleased with the finish. I need to learn how to mix the stain better as this came out a little darker than I had desired, but it looks too good to mess up again.
The stem rec'd the usual 1500/2000 grit wet paper than the final four grades of micromesh followed by a wheel buff with Blue Magic plastic polish. I was able to not damage the CP and Registration stampings (what is that REGd No 203573 ?)
I'm breaking it in with some MM965, which is good at ghost banishing, but so far no funky tastes. This is a rather large pipe, about 6" in length with a very open draw. I packed it pretty tightly and it is smoking very well
Before:
After:
: