02x05 - Antique Tobacco Pipe

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop,

where cherished family heirlooms are
brought back to life...

This is the workshop of dreams.

..home to furniture restorer
Jay Blades.

Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune
on stuff that, once it's broken,

they just bin it. But everybody has
something that means too much to be

thrown away,
and that's where we come in.

Working alongside Jay will be some
of the country's leading

craftspeople...
Every piece has its own story.

It's amazing to think that some of
my work becomes part of that story.

I've always played with things.
I've always repaired things.

And I just love it. There is a real
pleasure in bringing people's pieces

back to life again.

..each with their own
unique set of skills.

The right tool for the right job.

They will resurrect...

revive... I'm warm, man!
..and rejuvenate

treasured possessions and
irreplaceable pieces of family

history... Wow, she's fantastic!

..bringing both the objects...

Oh! This is what I remember!

..and the memories that they hold...
Wow! ..back to life.

Oh, my God!

In The Repair Shop today, clockmaker
Steve is set a unique challenge...

Do you know what, I've never seen a
pipe like this.

I've never repaired a pipe. Yeah.

I've repaired a lot of things, but
not a pipe.

..while Kirsten pieces together a
historical artefact with a dark

story to tell.

Three legions of Roman soldiers were
actually massacred.

It was a turning point in history.

But first, Corrie Evans has turned
to The Repair Shop for help with a

faded relic from her childhood.

She's hoping that Jay and
gramophone guru Tim Weeks can

jump-start it back to life. Hello.
You must be Corrie. Hello.

You all right? Yeah. Hi, Corrie.
I'm Tim. Pleased to meet you.

And you. So this is your baby, yeah?
Yeah. Can I have a look? Yeah.

So, what is it, then? It's a Dalek.

It's a Dalek? It's a
Dalek and a record player.
LAUGHTER

A Dalek in a record player.
Ah, yes... And a broken old radio.

So, hold on, why do you call it a
Dalek? Well, it looked like a Dalek
when I was little.

I wanted a Dalek,
and I couldn't have one.
LAUGHTER

It had records in here, but they've
gone. Ah, yes. Yeah.

I had The Laughing Policeman and
fairy tales.

The Laughing Policeman! It was the
only one I liked.

OK. How long have you had this?

I bought it when I was five, in an
auction.

Five years old, in an auction?
Yeah, yeah. Well, I bought it,
but my dad paid for it.

At five years old?! I was in the
auction, I was having it. OK, OK.
LAUGHTER

What you've got here, actually, it's
quite interesting,

it's the changeover period between
the wind-up gramophone,

that you had to put needles in, and

the beginning of electronic
reproduction. Oh?

This sort of thing only lasted for a
short time, because,

quite soon afterwards, of course,
they went over to 33s and 45s.

It's a curious historical anomaly,
this.

Oh. Which will need mending.

Yeah, it's a bit battered.
LAUGHTER

This, by the way, I've just found
inside there, I know what that is.

That is... It's actually what they
call the cursor. Oh, yeah.

It's the thing that's supposed to be
inside there, sliding up and down,

to tell you what station it's on.

So, when was the last time this was
working, then?

I think it was just before I left
home, so when I was about 15 or 16.

And I love it. My sister and me,
just lying on the floor,

listening to The Laughing Policeman,
over and over and over again.

She's not with us any more, so just
to have this,

with my kids laughing at it,
would be great. Oh, brilliant.

Well, we can definitely get it
going, can't we, Tim?

Talk to me.

We can do it, yeah.
Thank you. The simpleness of it!

We're going to get it working,
so thank you for bringing it.

Short answer is, we're going to get
it working. Right. Nice to meet you.

Thank you, and you. Thank you. Bye.
You take care.

Let's get this over to your bench,
then. Righty h*.

Tim will need to draw on all of his
50 years of gramophone experience to

get this one up and running again.

I think what we need to do first
here is get the electric motor

running, and the electric motor is,
of course, this bit here.

What I'll have to do first is

take the main winding out of there,

see if we can get it to turn
smoothly,

re-lubricate it, and then, bit of
luck and a following wind,

we'll have the thing spinning.

The Repair Shop has seen some

unusual items pass through its
doors,

and the next arrival is no
exception.

It's been brought here by
85-year-old Lisken Jellings

and her granddaughter, Katie.

Hello, ladies. How are we doing?

So what have we got here, then? My
great-grandfather's pipe.

OK. Well, this looks like a job for
Steve.

Steve, if you don't mind joining me?

Hello. Hi. Do you know what?

I've never seen a pipe like this.
I've never repaired a pipe.

Yeah. I've repaired a lot of things,
but not a pipe.

So how long has it been in the
family, then?

Oh, it's been in the family since...

Well, we estimated something like
140 years. Oh, really? Yes. Gosh.

It depends when he bought it, we
don't know when he bought the pipe.

The meerschaum pipe, it is blocked.
I can't blow through it. OK.
LAUGHTER

But... Ornate pipes like this first
came into use in the 18th century.

The bowl is carved from a porous
white mineral called meerschaum,

or sepiolite, found in abundance in
the Black Sea region.

The more they are smoked, the more
the white bowls are stained a golden

brown by the tobacco.

Have you ever seen this pipe being
used? No, I haven't.

But my mother says,
when she was five,

she used to be with
her grandfather a lot,

she told me that he used to sit in
his rocking chair...

..this bowl was resting on a stool
by his feet,

and he just sat and
the smoke coiled around him.

He had been a very busy businessman,

he'd been mayor of the town,

he had done a lot of good work.

And I would like to do it, in his
honour, too,

that it isn't
just a wreck in a drawer. Yes.

If we got this fully working and
unblocked again, down there,

what would it mean? What would we
do? We'd have a party!

We'd have a party.
LAUGHTER

A meerschaum pipe party. I'll get it
over to my bench, then. Yeah.

This is a really nice pipe.

Some lovely, lovely silver mounts to
it.

These are beautiful.

It is really well blocked.

I'm not sure how I'm going to get to
the blockage, actually,

because I can see down both ends.

So the blockage is in the part I
can't see.

I mean, this is the
real difficult part.

There's a spring that's in pretty
poor condition here.

I'll probably have to make a new
spring.

The leather-work on the pipe is
also in a sorry state...

Hello. Hiya. What are you doing?

..so Steve's roped in his sister
and master saddle maker Suzie

for some assistance.
That's connected to that.

Like that. Yeah? OK.

And then, at this top end,

it's got this flexible piece that
goes in there,

like that. Right.

And then that goes in there
like that. OK.

The part connecting the mouthpiece
to the stem is a flexible hose,

constructed from a
leather-bound spring.

The spring goes in the middle.

Right. And then there's three layers
of leather. That is leather,

isn't it? Yes. OK. Yeah.

This spring is so old and rusty, and
the leather so worn,

that the only solution is to build a
new section from scratch.

Leather's a lovely material to
show... Yeah. ..and we can certainly

stain it to this colour.

I think the leather on the outside
would look very pretty,

cos it'll be pigskin that I'll use.
Oh, right, OK.

So it has a grain to it. So, there's
your texture, and you can do the

spring, you can remake the spring.

Yeah, I've got some piano
wire on the way,

then it shouldn't be too difficult,
should it? No, piece of cake.

Oh, really? Oh, good.
LAUGHTER

Next into The Repair Shop,
Brenda and Norman Jenner have

brought a much-loved family
heirloom

which has met with an unfortunate
accident.

That's a big pot in there.
It is a big pot, it is a big pot.

Oh, right, OK.

Oh, wow! Oh, wow!

Absolutely fabulous, isn't it?

How long have you had it?
Where did it come from?
LAUGHTER

My earliest memory of it was that
I'm probably about three years old.

Oh, golly. And it was...

it sat in my Nana Norfolk's house.

It took pride of place in her house.
When Nana died,

Mum inherited the vase, and that's
sat in various rooms in her house.

So this has been with you all your
life?

It... Yes, I've known it all my
life. And it made, obviously, a big

impression when you were very, very
young.

It was one of those things, it's...
I don't have any photos of it,

and unfortunately we don't have any
photos of Nana,

so the memories that this jug
brings back is of us as children,

and, you know, just... Wonderful.

It brings back lots and lots of
happy memories.

What have we got here?
Presumably the...

These are the broken bits.

Right. How did it break?

Unfortunately, one Christmas, we
were taking down the

Christmas decorations, and poor
Norman stepped off the ladder...
Oh, no!

..knocked the speaker, which knocked
into the vase, which went...

Oh, no! ..on the floor.
LAUGHTER

That's just... Yeah, I feel for you.
LAUGHTER

How long ago was that?
How many Christmases? Oh, it must be
going on for about 15-odd years ago.

Oh, really?! Yeah. I think it's a
really lovely, interesting piece,

and I would certainly

love to restore it, if you're happy
to leave it with us,

and I'll get on with it. Lovely.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

I think my initial concern, really,
is whether all the pieces are here.

And I'm just trying to
sort of, like a jigsaw,

just get a rough sort of outline
of what's actually here,

and what I'm going to have
to make up.

For me, the worst-case scenario is
if there's going to be an area

missing with a lot of detail in it,

that I'm then going to have to
model up. As you can see,

it's absolutely covered in
decoration, so I'm hoping

that everything's here,
but if it's not, I'll just have to

deal with it!
SHE LAUGHS

Meanwhile, Tim's fixed the turntable
on the gramophone.

You beauty! You beauty!

Next, he's turning his attention to
the radio.

What's interesting is that it gives
one of the stations here

as "BBC Light Programme". What that
tells us is that this is, in fact,

made after the w*r,
rather than before it.

I'd assumed this was prewar, about
1937, '38. I would say now

this must be post-w*r, and I'll tell
you how we know that,

because the Light Programme didn't
come into being until 1946,

I think it was.

Pre- or post-w*r, reattaching the

straight tuning cursor is going to
be a bit of a battle.

Fortunately Tim's armed with a
secret weapon.

I've been able to find the
instructions,

and the diagram for how it's done,
on this particular set.

This was published in a
trade magazine in 1949.

And the instructions, in case you
want to try this yourselves,

go like this... "Pass one end into
the drive wheels through the hole K.

"Make a small loop into it,

"wind it clockwise around the fixing
boss inside and fix the loop to

"the screw D. Drop pulley N, and
with the free wire, wind three and

"three quarters turns anticlockwise
into the large outer channel,

"winding towards the rear of the
channel, running off at T

"to the pulley M."
Following that, are we?

It's great fun!

Absolutely great fun.

Any suggestion that one might use
bad language at a time like this is

totally not the case...!

Steve and Suzie are steaming ahead
with the restoration of the elderly

meerschaum pipe. I'm just about to
make a new spring for the pipe.

I'm not sure how much length I need,

but I've got three metres of

hard wire. It's always surprising
how much wire you need to make a

small spring.

And that's the spring.

Right. Here we go.

Made the spring. Oh, look at that!

That's very impressive.
Thank you very much.

Cool. OK, I look forward to seeing
it. Yeah, OK.

All right, thanks so much.

Suzie's first job is to wrap and
glue layers of leather around the

spring, ready to be stitched.

I've got three layers of pigskin on
here.

So I'm sewing the seam to lock all
the leathers together.

Next, some staining.

I've just done a test spot on a
leftover piece of pigskin,

just to see how
it's going to come out.

It looks really nice.

Suzie's leather-work is done.

Now it's back over to Steve to
reassemble the pipe.

Oh, that looks fantastic!
Thank you. Yeah, that's great.

We'll have to get it
all together then,

and then get you to smoke it!
LAUGHTER

All right. All right, thanks.

Over in the ceramics section of
the workshop, Kirsten is discovering

some more hidden secrets within the
19th-century German pitcher.

So, how is my ceramic queen doing?
Hello, you. You all right?

Yeah, good, actually, thank you.
What's...what's happening there?

Look at that! Oh, yeah, OK, that's
quite interesting.

I think it's probably a crack that
appeared, a firing crack.

So it's actually in the manufacture
of the piece.

It's a really big piece, and it's
got so much stuff sort of added to

it, that it probably happened
in the manufacturing. Yeah.

And you can hear, when you tap it,
it sounds good.

It's got a really nice sort of
ring to it, and that means that,

actually, it's... It's not busted?
No. So what are you going to do with
this now, then?

You're going to... So I'm taking off
the old restoration,

and I'm going to give this a really
good clean using the steam cleaner

that I've got there. Actually,
that's the sort of thing you quite
like doing, isn't it?

I would love to do that, actually...
Yeah, I know.

..but I know you won't let me.
No, no, I won't.
LAUGHTER

It's really satisfying, this.

I know, it would be. So I'm just
going to try and remove any...

..excess dirt.

It's great for getting in all these
sort of nooks and crannies
and detail. Yeah.

It's lifting the dirt, you can see
it, compared to there. Yeah, it's
great, isn't it? Wow!

Tim has his hands full with a
dilapidated gramophone.

He's reattached the cursor
for the radio,

now it's time to find out if the
whole system will come back to life.

We've now got all the major
component parts sorted, I think,

and ready to go. Now for the really
interesting bit.

We plug it in,

and see if it all goes.

So, they're both plugged in,
like so.

Well, that wasn't supposed to
happen! Not quite sure what's wrong

there. I'll just check...
Are you all right?

Um, I seem to have plunged the place
into darkness.

I think you have. Yes. All right.

Sorry about that. So, what have you
done? You've just plugged that in?

Well, I've plugged the radio,
plugged the tuner amplifier part of

it in, that was fine.
Plugged the deck in... OK.

..and suddenly all the lights went
out. Yeah.

So is it unplugged?
Everything's unplugged?

Everything's unplugged now.
OK. So if we can reset the fuses...

..there's a reasonable chance we
could work out what's actually gone
wrong.

I think maybe there's a little
short-out going on inside here.

And they're staying on.
That's a good sign.

That is a good sign.
That is a good sign.

Yeah. I don't quite know what's
happening there.

I'll just take this apart and see if
we've got a short in there,

before we risk it again.

We've taken the turntable off. Yeah.
I've had the cover off of there.

OK. The wiring in there
seems to be OK.

It's only two wires, just come to a
couple of terminals. Yeah.

So I can't, for the life of me, see
anything, wiring-wise, wrong with
it.

OK. So, are you ready for this?

Yeah, I am.

That's it. That's the bit I'd just
plugged in when all the lights went

out. Oh, right.

Now, the other bit, of course, is to
turn the tuner on and see if it
all...

..see what happens when we do that.

There we are. That's good. And the
valve's lighting up.

We've got it all going. So you've
got it all sorted, you blew the

fuse, but I'm happy.

Yeah? Yeah. I'm never going to
forget about blowing that fuse.

Neither am I, all right?
Righto. OK, Tim.
LAUGHTER

Here we go.

Power restored, the workshop is back
in full swing.

Steve's managed to remove the
blockage from the meerschaum pipe,

and after a thorough polish, he

can put the ancient puffer
back together.

There we are. All finished.

Ready to...

HE COUGHS

Ugh! To smoke. Yeah, it's a bit
dusty.

Lisken and Kate are back at
The Repair Shop,

ready to be reunited with their
precious family heirloom.

Hi. Hello. How are you?

Come and have a seat. Look, Nanny.

Oh...

Thank you. Now, then... Are you
looking forward to this moment?

Yes. Very much.
LAUGHTER

I didn't sleep last night!
Oh, really? OK.
LAUGHTER

Abracadabra. Take this off...

Oh, my gosh! Oh, yes!

How marvellous!
Oh, my gosh, that's amazing!

Look at that!

Beautiful. OK? Look how shiny it is.

It hasn't been like that for years!

Now, wait a minute, I'm going
to blow.
LAUGHTER

AIR RUSHES THROUGH PIPE

Oh, you can hear it!

That's marvellous. Marvellous.

Oh! It's so good, you've done an
amazing job. Thank you.

It's beautiful.

You said that this piece had fallen
off of this main wooden pipe... Yes.

It had. Now, it's actually
meant to come off.

Is it? Oh! So it pushes on really
tight,

and stays on. Oh, really? That's so
you can clean it out. Oh, that's
interesting. When do you think it

was last in this condition?
Oh, gosh.

I reckon over 100 years it probably
hasn't looked like this.

Mmm, that's true, yes. When it was
brand-new, I should think!
LAUGHTER

Better than new, this is.
I can't believe it.

You have been marvellous, thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

I was quite moved, actually,
but I'm good at hiding it.
LAUGHTER

It is better than I ever thought it
could be.

He's done a wonderful job,
really wonderful.

Yeah. Yeah. It looks amazing.

The whole family, they've got
strict instructions that I'll haunt

them if they sell it.
LAUGHTER

Ceramics expert Kirsten has cleaned
the 19th-century German pitcher,

and removed all the old glue from
the broken pieces.

Now she can focus on putting it all
back together again.

But several smaller pieces were lost
when the pitcher was knocked over.

Fortunately, Kirsten is a dab hand
with modelling clays.

So, how are you doing, Kirst?
Oh, you've come along, haven't you?
LAUGHTER

Thank you. I'm glad you can see the
difference.

Do you know what, I'm actually
really, really pleased with this.

I was just working on it a few
moments ago and thinking, you know,

this was just in pieces, and
actually, it's stable, it's solid,

it's... Yeah. I'm really delighted
with the way it's come back
together. You sound happy. Yeah.

We've done a little bit of research
on this, and in fact,

it is depicting a m*ssacre
in the Teutoburg Forest,

in Germany. OK. So this piece is
from north-west Germany.

The m*ssacre itself is actually
quite interesting.

It was a point in history where the
Romans were actually sort of

coming up through Europe... OK.

..and they had a leader,
who was called Herman the German.

LAUGHTER
Was he? Yeah.

You're not joking? No, I'm not
joking. Herman the German.

Herman the German! OK. And the
Romans thought that he was, you

know, loyal to them,
and they were coming

up through Germany, and he led the

Roman legions into a m*ssacre in
the Teutoburg Forest.

It was actually sort of a turning
point in history, because

up until that point, the Romans had
been, you know,

everyone thought that they were
invincible. Right.

And at this point, where three
legions of Roman soldiers were

actually massacred, you know,
it's sort of...

Because of what Herman the German
did? Herman the German!

Now she's successfully reassembled
all of the broken pieces,

Kirsten can start the delicate

process of repairing
the firing crack.

I'm going to make up a coloured
fill, just out of a two-parts

adhesive, adding some pigment,

and I'm just going to run
that in here to actually try

and mimic the glaze that's there.

It's quite handy, really, this is so
incredibly busy,

that the eye isn't naturally drawn
to this crack at all.

But I think the colour filling is
blending in quite nicely,

and supporting and hiding

the firing crack.

With the firing crack fixed,

Kirsten can put the finishing
touches to the paintwork.

And just in the nick of time,

as Brenda and Norman have returned

to see what magic she's been able to
work.

Hi, hello. Hi, lovely to see you.
Lovely to see you. Come in.

LAUGHTER

Right, well, I won't keep you
waiting any longer.

I shall reveal your piece.

That's incredible.
That is just how I remember it.

It's brought back my childhood, I'm
three years old again.

Oh, really? Yeah. Seeing it...

Oh, gosh, that is so good.

And the handle's
all in one piece, too.

Lovely.

We never saw that like that, did we,
because that was in two pieces,

and there was a bit missing, wasn't
there?

There was, yes, I made up a part of
that.

Was that always missing,
then, that bit?

No, I don't think so.
I think that probably...

Went up the Hoover! Possibly, yes.
LAUGHTER

Quite a few bits went up the
Hoover, but we kept the biggest
bits, yeah.

Oh, just feeling over the moon.

It's just beyond how I would have
imagined that it would be.

It's a lot of history that's just
come back to life, isn't it?

It's a nice piece of the family,
coming back home, basically.

Yes, it is, yes.

Tim's huge undertaking with the
antique gramophone is almost over.

All of the separate parts are back
in working order.

Time to put this piece of audio
history back together again.

And there we are.

The last time Corrie saw her dear

old gramophone it was in a sorry
state,

without a record to its name.

It's accompanied her throughout most
of her life,

and for over 30 of those years, it's
been silent.

Hello. How are you? You all right?
Yes, thank you. How are you?

Good to see you again.

Are you ready, Tim?
Yeah, let's do...do the thing.

Oh, it's shiny! There we are.

Oh, it looks so much better.
It does, doesn't it?

Yes. Oh, look, it's lit up and
everything.

It's never lit up! Yeah?

Oh, it's got the thing. And what's
more, it goes up and down... Oh, my
gosh! ..like it's supposed to.

So, seeing it in this state, does it
bring back any childhood memories?

Oh, yeah, this is how it was. It was
shiny, and I don't think I've

listened to it
since I was about ten.
LAUGHTER

Well, we can rectify that. Sounds to
me like a cue to put a record on.

And here's one I prepared earlier.

And for Corrie and her late sister,

there was one track that was always
a firm favourite.

MUSIC: The Laughing Policeman
by Charles Jolly

That's it now. I'm just going to
laugh forever.

Oh, it's lovely. He's done such a
lovely job.

It just took me straight back to
when my sister and I were on the

floor, laughing, and it's so lovely

to have those memories of when we
were kids.

We had an amazing childhood,

and just to be taken back there was
so special.

And that record is so funny, I think
it's going to be worn out!

Join us next time as more treasured
possessions are revived,

and their precious memories restored
in...

..The Repair Shop.