Back in September, I documented the restoration of two pipes in a four pipe set belonging to a friend in Ohio.  (Charatan Shape 44 and London Billiard)  Steve reminded me that I hadn’t submitted the final two pipes of that group.

The third pipe was this lovely Savinelli Autograph.  To this point, I had never seen an Autograph model in person and I was very impressed with the pipe.  As with the others in my friends group, this was also a very large pipe.

Here is the pipe as it was delivered to me.

This one definitely felt like a hand-made pipe.  The stem is wonderful and feels good in the hand, so I bet she’s a wonderful smoker.  In this group of pipes, this Autograph was the one least abused. The finish was a little grimy.  Removing the tar build up on the bowl top took some rubbing with first isopropyl  alcohol on a rag.  But, once removed, a beautiful birdseye top was revealed.  The bowl was buffed lightly with Tripoli, than white diamond and finished with several coats of carnuba

The stem took the usual steps and was deeply oxidized with some teeth chatter. I soaked the stem in an oxyclean solution for several hours with a dab of grease over the logo. I was able to preserve Gincarlo Savinelli’s stamp nicely. I sanded the stem (on the pipe) first with 1500 grit and then 2000 grit wet paper.  Next I buffed the stem with the final two grades of micromesh (8000 and 12000).  The stem was then polished on the buffer, with white diamond and then plastic polish.

I learned that Savinelli used vulcanite for the Autograph stem prior to 1982, when they switched to acrylic and 6 mm filters. I believe these pipes came from Smokers Haven in Ohio in the mid 70’s as my friends father lived in this area.

I didn’t weigh the pipe, but estimate it was approximately 90 grams.

Here is the finished pipe.  After handling this pipe, I would one day love to add a vulcanite stemmed Autograph to my collection.

The last pipe in the group was another large pipe, stamped simply “Sherlock”and “Made in Italy”. This one had a perspex stem, that had some stubborn staining but no teeth chatter. I removed a good bit but not all of the stain in the perspex. I use a bristle cleaner soaked in 90% isopropyl alcohol.  You must run a dry cleaner thru the perspex next to remove the alcohol which could fog the clear plastic.  The briar has a lovely golden glow with some faceted features on the bowl (ala Willmer?). I’m not familiar with this brand, but the briar is beautiful. The tars on top came off, just leaving a light scorch mark on the inner bowl rim.   I estimated this pipe weighed approximately 80 grams.

Here is a shot of all four finished pipes.

I also add pictures of these two GBD pipes, both Colossus models as they came from this estate and were gifted to me by this gentleman.  Both are treasured and enjoyed pipes in my collection and I was very happy to restore these other four for my friend.

GBD Seventy-Six Colossus, Shape 9676.

Prehistoric Oom-Paul Colossus:

As you can see, the gentleman who owned all six of these pipes had an affinity for large briar pipes!