Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table has one of my favourite finishes – a deeply rusticated one with what appears to have originally been a natural finished. We purchased this one from an estate on 03/21/2024 from a fellow in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. It is a Savinelli rustication that really looks like a classic Capri Root Briar. The coral like rustication around the bowl and shank was filled in with dust and debris. The natural finish was dirty and the high spots are darkened by hand oils and grime ground into briar. The pipe was stamped on underside of the shank. It is stamped Savinelli followed by Italy. There is no shape number on the shank but the style is much like a Bing Crosby Pipe. The Sterling Silver Band on the shank has 925 in an oval followed by SA113. On the topside it is etched Le Mie Pipe over AS underlined in script. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the inner edges and the rim top. The vulcanite stem was oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. As I mentioned above the exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a thin coat of lava that overflowed from the thick cake in the bowl. The rim edges looked quite good with no damage. The stem was dirty, calcified and oxidized with tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem at the button. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the briar around the bowl. It is a great looking piece of briar with a deep coral style rustication. The next photo shows the stamping on the heel of the bowl and the underside of the shank. It is very readable and reads as noted above.Jeff also took photos of the stamping on the Sterling Silver band. The top of the band on the shank reads as noted above – Le Mie Pipe over AS signature line. The underside of the is stamped 925 in an oval followed by SA113. I wrote my brother Jeff to see if I had spelled what I read on the stamping correctly. He sent me a response to my question affirming that I had spelled it correctly and also included a link that he had found while Googling for Le Mei pipes. It took him to a listing on Smokingpipes.com that defined the stamping and gave some context for it pipes made by Savinelli (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/italy/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=370851). I quote below from Jeff’s email with the info he found on the site:

Le Mie means “mine” in Italian. On smoking pipes.com, it talks about Savinelli Le Mie pipes. According to this, it says that the favorite finish of Achille Savinelli was said to be a rugged, coral-like rustication, but his preferred pipe to wear such a finish was an understated, long-stemmed, straight billiard. That being the case, when the marque made a series of briars in his honor, Le Mie, meaning “mine” in Italian, that’s precisely what was made. This piece also wears a handsome, silver accent band that displays the founder’s signature. — Angela Robertson

Now I knew what the stamping on the band meant – it is a pipe made in honour of Achille Savinelli. It was made in his preferred shape and with his favourite coral finish and a silver band with his signature. Hence, it is stamped MY PIPE (Le Mie). Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl were in excellent condition. The top of the bowl was in good condition. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. I took a photo\s of the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. The remaining oxidation is very visible.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I touched up the golf club and ball logo stamp on the left side of the taper stem with a white acrylic fingernail polish. Once it cured I scraped off the excess polish and polished around it with a worn micromesh 1500 grit sanding pad. I took a photo of the whitened stamp.    I wiped down the stem with some Soft Scrub to remove the remaining oxidation on the stem. I worked very well to remove what remained.The stem was in good condition to I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. The stem was a filter stem drilled for 6mm filters. I fitted the tenon with a new Vauen 6mm filter so it is ready for the next owner to load and enjoy.This Savinelli Le Mie Pipe (My Pipe) Achilles Savinelli signed Crosby Billiard cleaned up really well and looks very good. The Before & After Restoration Balm brought the colours and grain out in the rusticated finish on the pipe. It works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Savinellil Le Mie Pipe Crosby Billiard fits nicely in the hand and I think it will feel great as it heats up with a good tobacco. The tactile finish will add to the experience. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.16 ounces/33 grams. If you are interested in carrying the previous pipeman’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.