Since all wood pipes should have been sized with a coating of glue, the first
question is, "Has the pipe been wet?"  If the answer is yes then the problem
may be serious.
 
If no, the best approach to removing a stuck stopper is to use a board
approximately the width of the pipe interior as a ram driven by a wood mallet.
The key to avoid disasterously breaking the stopper is to use a
torch/flashlight to determine the direction of the grain of the stopper wood.
Always start loosening on the end grain.  If you strike across the grain the
stopper will many times just break in two.  Because of the hole bored for the
handle the weakest part of the stopper is in the center and  across which the
break normally occurs.  By hitting on the end grain there is little chance of
damage, especially since the wide ramming board moves the force over a larger
area and reduces the concentration of stress.  A blow on each opposing side
should do the trick.
 
If the pipe has been wet, I go through a longer procedure.  I first try the
above method.  When that usually fails, I have a set of very thin Japanese
verneering saws that I use after I have forced a thin steel blade through the
packing leather on each side.  When the slit is large enough the Japanese saw
goes in and across and saws both ways (they have teeth on both sides of the
blade).  Once all four sides are sawn the stopper should just lift out.  The
area where the old leather is glued is then hand scraped back to flat and
lightly sanded with extra-fine paper.
 
As a note, it is always a good idea to tie a rope noose around the stopper
handle and secure the free end of the rope.  Should it give way suddenly you
don't have to retrieve the stopper from the middle of the pipe.
 
Many times the old stoppers were put into the pipe with beef tallow or some
other gawdawful material.  I prefer something simple like talcum powder.  It
never hardens or binds and if the pipe gets wet many times the stopper will
not stick to the pipe walls.
 
Rebuilding stoppers is another topic of some length.  My opinion is to use a
good quality leather over a hard dense felt.   The felt has some give but also
some amount of return pressure which pushes the leather out onto the pipe
walls for a good tight seal.  My grandfather used one extra step of putting a
small very thin leather punching at each of the square corners between the
felt and the leather to give the corners just a tad bit more of contact
pressure for a good seal.  I don't know the efficacy of that procedure but I
still do it myself.  I also like to put a large washer and screw up from the
bottom of the stopper through the handle when I have found dried out wood that
has shrunken to leave the handle insecure.  On particularly cheap stoppers a
cross-grain piece of wood is added for strength to keep them from cracking in
two.
 
Lastly, stoppers are easily reproduced in a few minutes so shattering one in
removal is not something to fret over.
 
Al Sefl
[log in to unmask]
 
Nullum Gratuitum Prandium
 
p.s.  There once was a tech who waited until the next rainstorm to go into the
church and move the wet and unstuck stopper!  Definitely NOT an approved
method.....  but I guess you go with what works for you!
 
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