Monthly Archives: March 2014

On Making a Comoy’s “C” Logo – Jacek A. Rochacki

Blog by Jacek A. Rochacki

It is a pleasure to present this third article by Jacek Rochacki. In this article he is responding to a request that came up from several articles here on the blog about restoring Comoy’s pipes. In several of those pipes, particularly the Lumberman pipes, the stems were replacements. Jacek asked about putting the C logo on them. In this piece he gives the step by step procedure for inserting the C logo on a stem. Thank you Jacek for a helpful and timely article. It is greatly appreciated.

Let us begin from excerpt from A HISTORY OF COMOY’S AND A GUIDE TOWARD DATING THE PIPES, by Derek Green. It is published in Pipedia, unfortunately Derek’s internet pages do not exist anymore http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=A_History_Of_Comoy%27s_and_A_Guide_Toward_Dating_the_Pipes&action=edit

Inlaid “C”
“C” was first inlaid in the side of the mouthpiece around 1919. This was a complex inlay needing three drillings. First, a round white inlay was inserted, then the centre of the white was drilled out, and a smaller round black inlay was inserted. Finally, another drilling was made to remove the open part of the “C,” and an even smaller black inlay was inserted. This inlaid “C,” known as the “three-piece C,” was continued until the Cadogan era in the 1980s. However, the “C” in the 1920s and early 30s was much thinner and more delicate than the one post-war. Cadogan first changed the “C” to a single drilling with an inlay that had the “C” in the centre, and more recently it became a laser imprint. I have a cased pair of early 1920’ “Par Excellence” where the “C” is on top of the mouthpiece.

“Three piece C” on one of my Comoy’s

“Three piece C” originally published at the late Derek Green’s pages (sadly no longer existing today), the three elements are better visible here. Cracks on the letter “C” may be a subject for more detailed discussion; we remember such cracks in some old enameled objects, or in inlays of bone or ivory.

In order to follow this procedure the following essential tools are necessary:
– drill bit with sharp cutting edges of diameter corresponding with outer diameter of our “C” to be. I call it drill bit No. 1.
– drill bit with sharp cutting edges of diameter corresponding with inner diameter of our “C” to be. Let it be drill bit No. 2.
– drill bit with sharp cutting edges of diameter corresponding with diameter of this smaller black inlay that will remove the open part of the “C”. Let it be drill bit No. 3.
And: a jeweler’s frame saw, files, sandpapers, needle point marker, a drilling device possibly with regulation of rotation speed. Other tools like cutters, scraper, drills of other length and diameters may be of use. An old fashioned hand drill may be helpful because some operations on some materials should be performed at a very low speed.

First mark centre of our “C” to be. I do this using an ordinary needle fixed in a wooden handle but with tip slightly rounded. I heat the tip evenly with an ordinary lighter (I have been pipe smoker for years) and with this hot tip I mark a tiny hole, not deep, say, 0.2 mm. This centre mark will “guide” drill bit no.1. Just a few comments regarding drill bits: instead of using drill bits with ordinary/universal cutting edges shape there are other options that work well. Drill bits used in woodworking with “pilot” tip on them (brad point bits or dowelling bits) and Forstner bits of the correct diameter will work.

Brad point bits

Forstner bit

Another method would be to drill “preliminary” hole with a thin drill bit (say 1.2 – 2.0 mm) and then continue drilling with a cutter like the one below used by jewelers/stone setters for setting precious stones.

Diamond setting cutter

Yet another way of drilling the holes would be to use cylindrically shaped cutter after drilling the “preliminary” hole. This “preliminary” hole should be just a little smaller than the outside diameter of the “C” we are making. The diameter of our cylindrical cutter must be exactly the same diameter as that of the outside of our “C”.

Cylindrical cutters

When we say “drilling” we have an understood association with a drilling machine. While that is true, let us stop here for a moment. What is a drill bit? It is just a cutter of specific shape, normally used for making holes. If we agree that it is some kind of cutter, then drilling is one of numerous processes within category of machining. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machining In our case we want to remove the material that we need in order to insert the “C” in a controlled way (subtractive manufacturing).

So the tool must be of proper shape and in best working condition = sharp! It would be going too far in this article to give a precise description on sharpening and maintenance of drills, but let us remember the necessity of using drill bits in best working condition. Basic information on drills including terminology is given on this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_bit#Twist_drill_bits

In some situations it is not necessary to operate drill bits or cutters with a drill/drilling device. If the bit is sharp and properly maintained etc., and we work with soft materials like vulcanite etc., it is sometimes OK to operate the drill bit with your fingers. The hole is created by drilling results from the sharpness and the right shape of cutting edges, not by using force. It is like carving with knife: the better and sharper the blade, the less force has to be employed.

When the hole is done/bored, we have to make the round white element to be inlaid. Ideally that would be a white vulcanite/material identical or well matching physical properties of the material of our stem, but I do not know if it is available today. Perhaps it might be found from this site: http://shop.hermanns.dk/group.asp?group=20

The best course would be to find a dealer who provides vulcanite in rods. If the diameter of the rod is bigger then what is needed, it is an easy job to thin it to our desired dimension by fixing a short piece in jaws of our drill (fixed in solid “horizontal stand) or in jaws that are fixed to our grinding/polishing machine, turn it on and while it turns use sandpaper to achieve required result. (I do not intend to convince all of us to begin learning simple turning – maybe we shall return to subject of turning vulcanite on another occasion, but a simple drill fixed in a horizontal stand, powered by electricity may serve as improvised lathe/turning machine!) .

When I had problems obtaining white vulcanite I remembered that it was available in acrylic. Acrylic is available in plates, rods, other forms. http://www.acrylite-shop.com/US/us/index.htm White opaque acrylic also works. If I had problems finding the required material in rods I use plates/sheets with a thickness of more than 3 mm. I cut the small disk of the required diameter with my trained, “sure” hand using a piercing saw or an even better idea would be to use a drill bit in the form of a short steel tube “crowned” with teeth, of inner diameter corresponding with diameter of the hole to be filled. It is the drill bit that reminds me of a hole saw bit without the “pilot” bit in the center.

Original hole saw bit with “pilot”

At that time I was working and in constant touch with tool maker so I had my special tools custom made. But later in a distant place, in an improvised workshop, when I was in need of using such tool, I went to metal scrap and found a short piece of tube of hard metal of right diameter for my purpose. Steel would be good, but I learned that brass will also do because vulcanite and acrylic are soft materials. Using a jeweler’s triangular shaped needle file I made teeth, filed them to proper sharp cutting profiles and I had the “tube drill bit” that I need. Using this tool I was able to cut regular round elements.

These pictures give a better orientation to the shape of cutting top/“crown” so please, do not pay attention to the “body” of this tubular cutting tool. Sorry, I am far away from my own workshop and tools so I don’t have exact photos of tools that I write about.

When I had finished making the disk/”peg”/round filling element I glued it in the hole and the first part of the work was done.

And one more thing: acrylic is also available in form of powder that is offered with hardener and creates solid material. This technique came to be popular in artistic silver jewelry during ’70s. So this provides another option. You would fill our hole with white acrylic powder, use the hardening liquid and precisely fill up our hole. Attention: some of these materials are of an “aggressive” nature. They sort of “melt in” the “walls” of places to be filled, thus the circle does not have a clean straight line/border but the line/border will look “shadowed”. Keeping this in mind I suggest that you get all the necessary information from the manufacturer or competent dealer on how the “border” between the filling and “mother” material will end up.

Continuing this idea: There are so called cold enamels used in contemporary cheap jewelry or sometimes in repairing objects that were enameled. And other colored artificial materials, some of them are hardened with ultra violet rays. Information on these products can be found here http://www.gesswein.com/p-896-colorit-set.aspx The site may give some orientation regarding this matter.

When our “white large spot” is ready (of course after the filling is hardened or, if glued the glue has created a solid “binding” we have to level it up with files and sanding and buffing etc.) we find and mark the precise center and make another hole by drill bit of proper diameter that I call drill bit No. 2. Then make a black ebonite (or other material the identical color of the stem) “peg”, mini disk or other element for filling using one of techniques mentioned above. This should give you a nice inlay of a white circle on the stem. Then again it involves sanding, buffing etc. to make the surface smooth.

Then mark precisely the place on the right side of the inlaid circle for using drill bit No. 3. Drill the hole and with another very small diameter pin or disk, using one of techniques described above, we “open” the circle giving it the shape of letter C. Then after the final sanding, buffing etc. voila – our inlaid C should be ready.

—

But it is possible to approach the subject in a slightly different way. Let us return to the beginning when we were drilling larger hole by drill bit No. 1. Remember what I said above on “tube”, or “tubular drill bits”. There may be a way to find the tube of hard metal of diameters exactly matching inside and outside diameters of our “C” and of walls of thickness corresponding with thickness of our “C”. In old metalsmithing/goldsmithing/silversmithing/coppersmithing etc. metal handicraft workshops we made short tubes ourselves using so called draw plates and draw tongs or a simple hand powered machine named draw bench. I say this as curiosity, I am far from trying to convince us all to become goldsmiths/metalsmiths, but perhaps a goldsmith performing old style handicraft – if such still exists – would make short piece of tube of brass of requested dimensions. When we have our improvised, but ideal dimensioned “tube drill bit” it should be not too difficult to bore/”carve” the approximately +2 mm deep (of depth) circle of dimensions of our “C” to be. The groove should be filled with powered acrylic or, perhaps better (I mentioned about some “aggressive” acrylics in form of powder) an element made of solid white material.

I would proceed as follows: I would cut/make this white strip of width larger than the depth of the groove taking into consideration the fact that our grooved “O” is carved on a concave surface. The thickness of this white strip should be of width of our groove – the final thickness of the letter “C”. Then I would “soften” this strip with hot water, steam or a heat gun, so that I could form it by using jeweler’s pliers with round conical tips or using as sort of mandrel piece of metal wire of proper diameter. Bicycle or motorcycle spokes of different diameters make very useful mandrels of small diameters. Using these tools I would shape the white strip in the form of circle/ring fitting the carved circle groove and I would glue it in place. After leveling operations such as filling, sanding, buffing etc., I would make the opening of this “O” to make required “C” out of it as I described above.

It would be easier to find a tube of white appropriate material (acrylite) of dimension that is set/determined by our circular groove – maybe something like a cocktail straw – but I am aware that chances are small, so I mention it just for completing indication /description of possible ways of proceeding.

—

All this is OK from the technical point of view, but there is another aspect to consider. This is the aspect of the authenticity of signature or logo. When making copy of an original there are ways of “marking” the final product so that it is clear that our work is a copy and not a falsification. One of ways of such “marking” is to make a small change of dimensions in comparison to original. Here our wish of having a “clear conscience” meets the eventual problems of finding drill bits and materials in rods of dimensions that correspond exactly with dimensions of original “C” on Comoy’s pipes. I believe that this is one of situations where these two aspects meet and stay together in harmony.

Giving New Life to an Old, Tired Unique

9 Replies

I am not sure who the maker of this pipe original was. It has some rustication patterns that remind me of Dr. Grabow. It has a metal screw mount mortise. The flat base that extends from the bottom of the bowl backward toward the stem also has similarities to a Grabow shape. But this one is only stamped Imported Briar on the bottom of the shank. When I received it the bowl was in rough shape. The finish was gone. The stem was gone, the rim was a beaten and worn down mess. I think originally the rim was probably straight across but it was worn and beaten to the point that it was now angled. If indeed it was originally angled then the rim was badly beaten. Either way it was rough. The cake in the bowl was quite thick. The internals of the shank and airway were quite clean – that was a surprise. The briar was solid and relatively thick and sound.

As I looked at it and studied it there was something about it that drew me to the shape. The wear and tear still did not hide the fact that there was some life still left in this old pipe. I went through my can of stems and found an old screw mount stem. The stinger apparatus on it was slightly different than the old Grabows that I had seen but it would work. The draw on the stem was very constricted anyway so I figured I would end up cutting the stinger off and drilling out the metal tenon. The stem has lots of tooth marks and chatter but was solid. It was a nylon stem and not vulcanite so it was a little trickier to work with. The diameter was also slightly off and the stem was overturned once it was on the shank.

I heated the metal tenon with a heat gun until the glue softened and then turned it in the shank until it lined up. This type of tenon is actually very easy to realign.

Once the stem was aligned I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and heads taking the bowl back to bare wood. I wanted to see what the shape of the bowl under the cake was like to assess whether I wanted to continue to put time into the pipe. The interior bowl was actually in excellent shape under the cake. This pipe must have been a good smoker – someone’s favourite pipe.

I set up a topping board and sanded the rim at the angle of the bowl to even out the top and to minimize the damage. The back edge was very ragged from tapping the pipe out, or using it as a hammer! It took some time to get the top flat and the angle correct from the back of the bowl to the front edge.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to clean up the grime in the grooves of the rustication and to even out the remaining stain coat. There was also some varnish left on the shank that I wanted to remove.

Once the finish was gone I experimented with a metal band. The shank was not cracked or broken. It was solid but I wanted to see what the shiny silver would look like against the rugged rustication. I also wanted to minimize the slight difference in the diameter of the shank and the stem. I decided I liked the look of the band so I heated it with the heat gun and pressed it into place on the shank. I liked the finished look of the nickel band. I feel it gives a bit of bling to a rough looking pipe.

I screwed the stem in place to have a look at the fit and finish of the pipe as a whole. I thought to myself that it would work well. I would need to give the stem a bend to make a correct fit to the sitter style of the bowl but it would work.

I decided to sand out the tooth marks and chatter as much as possible. I was hoping that the heat would lift the marks a bit. I heated the stem with a heat gun to do the bending. I bent it over a rolling pin. It took awhile for the nylon to be flexible enough to bend. Bending nylon stems is far trickier than vulcanite. It does not seem to have the memory of vulcanite so once bent it remains even if heated and has to be pressed back into shape. It also kinks very easily so you have to be very careful when bending it. I have also found that the wire in a pipe cleaner heats up and the pipe cleaner can stick to the inside of the stem. All of the above make it a pain to bend this type of stem.

I finished the bend and set it with cold water. I was not happy with the overall look and flow of the stem. The bend was correct in terms of allowing the pipe to sit flat on the bottom of the bowl with the tip of the button arching to touch as well but the flow/arch of the stem was not right. I reheated and tried it a second time and still it did not quite work. I decided to stop and revisit that later.

The draught on the pipe bowl was wide open and easy but the stem itself was very constricted. The stinger apparatus had a slotted entry into the stem. It was very narrow and seemed to extend quite a distance up the stem. A pipe cleaner would not pass through the stem and the stinger. I decided to sacrifice the stinger end so I sawed it off with a hack saw and then drilled out the airway in the metal tenon. As can be seen in the photo below the drill bit went a long ways into the stem before it broke through the slotted airway. Once I had opened the airway in the stem and removed the stinger the draught on the pipe was excellent – open all the way and passing a pipe cleaner with ease.

I stained the bowl with an oxblood aniline based stain. I flamed it and restained until it was well covered. I then buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the buffing wheel. The photos below show the bowl after the staining and buffing. The colour of the briar after the stain coat was workable. The black undertones that were deep in the grooves of the rustication worked well with the red of the oxblood stain. The rim colour matched the bowl and the birdseye grain showed nicely on the flat of the rim.

The stem being nylon required all handwork. I could not use the buffer on it as it would melt and make more work than I desired to do on this pipe. Before I sanded it I used the heat gun to rebend the stem and get the angles and bend correct. Once I had that done I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I then sanded the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I rubbed the nylon down with Obsidian Oil and once it was soaked in I hand buffed it with Paragon Wax. I gave it multiple coats of the wax to preserve it. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax with a light touch to keep the wax from building up deep in the grooves of the rustication. The next series of photos show the finished pipe. The side profile photos show the pipe in the sitter position and also from an angle. The top and bottom view photos show the new finish on the rim and the shape of the bottom of the pipe. This old worn pipe is now freshly reworked and ready to give many more years of service.

Giving a Contrasting Look to a Hilson Viva 272 Sandblast Dublin – John Williams (aka Coastie)

7 Replies

I like contrast, and I like smooth rims. Contrast is just so much more attractive to my eye, and smooth rims are so much easier to clean. So when my good friend Holymolar, from the Pipe Smoker Unlimited Forum gifted this Hilson Viva 272 Sandblast Dublin in black, with a sandblast rim, the gears starting turning in my head. Every time I would smoke this pipe I would find myself staring at it and pondering what I was going to do.

Then one evening I came up with a plan and set that plan into motion. Obviously the first thing that had to go was the sandblast on the bowl rim. So I pulled out the sanding board and a sheet of 320 grit and starting sanding away. Slowly and steadily the sandblast disappeared and left me with a nice smooth rim. Just what I like. If you use this technique make sure you keep your bowl rim completely flat on the sandpaper, sand in the same direction throughout and keep a check on your progress. No sense in taking off more than you need to. This technique also works very good when removing char from the rim.

Now that the bowl rim was smooth and tidy, time to add some contrast. This is pretty easy to do on a sandblast finish. I took some 320 grit sandpaper and simply gave the pipe a good rub down until I had the degree of contrast I was looking for. Once the 320 took the finish off in the appropriate places I finished prepping the finish with 400, 500, 1000, then 1200 grit. Then switched to micromesh pads and went through the series; 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, and finally 12000. Make sure you wipe down the surface well with a microfiber towel between each grit. What you will have when done is a very smooth surface that is ready for application of a finish.

I decided that instead of applying a dye I would make the grain in the bare areas pop with an application of olive oil. A good olive oil rub down will reveal grain that you never would have seen any other way, and it adds an amazing color to the briar. After applying the olive oil and rubbing it in good, thoroughly wipe off the excess and let the pipe rest overnight. Then rub the pipe down good with a microfiber towel and remove any left over oil. When you are done you should not be able to feel any oily residue. If you follow this strictly then there is no danger of your pipe getting sticky or gooey when exposed to heat from smoking. I have used this technique on a lot of my pipes, that I smoke daily, and have never had an issue. Try it, you’ll like it.
In this first pic you can see the change in briar color where I applied the oil as compared to the shank that has not been oiled yet. And the bowl rim is so much better smooth with a good color to the briar.

And of the course the final step to the process is a good buffing. Since this pipe is a sandblast I decided not to use White Diamond or carnauba on the body of the pipe as it would simply build up in the sandblast texture and look bad. So I applied a couple of light coats of Halcyon II wax, by hand, let it dry between coats and buffed it out with a clean microfiber towel. The bowl rim, since it is nice and smooth got treated to a buffing with White Diamond to bring out the shine, the 3 coats of carnauba wax.

Now it is all done and I can smoke it and enjoy the beauty of the briar.

One Man’s Trash….. by John Williams (Coastie)

7 Replies

I have been reading about John’s work of rustication and restoration on pipe forums online for some time now. Recently he came to Pipe Smokers Unlimited and began to post some of his work there. I was taken by the beauty of his restorations and his rustication. He does great work. I decided to write him a note and ask if he would like to share some of his work with us on rebornpipes. What appears below is a piece John has written about his love of the hobby and his methodology for gathering pipes to work on. I thought that a before and after photo of one of John’s rustications would give an idea regarding the caliber of his work.

Before rustication

The process of rustication.

The finished pipe.

Welcome to rebornpipes, John it is a pleasure to be able to feature some of your writing and your work. Thank you for taking the time to send this to me.

Before I begin this let me tell you a little about myself, as it relates to the wonderful world of piping. After 40 years of smoking cigarettes, 20 of which were spent trying to find ways to quit smoking cigarettes, with no success, I stumbled into the wonderful world of pipe smoking. I had tried a pipe when I was in my 20’s and just didn’t find it satisfying or convenient. I decided to try it again, at the age of 58 so went to a local tobacco shop, picked up a basket pipe for $20.00, some Sir Walter Raleigh, and never picked up a cigarette again. I was smitten by the entire experience and quickly found myself lusting for more and more pipes.

After shopping on line and major on-line B&Ms I quickly realized that this new found love could get expensive, very quickly. So I turned to eBay, and starting amassing a pretty good size collection, but they were mostly oddball pipes that just caught my fancy and really were not enjoyable smokes. I started looking at higher end pipes on eBay and realized that again, this was going to get expensive. But I had this fascination with collecting pipes, and lacked the resources or desire to spend huge amounts of money. I had been cruising the net and stumbled upon Reborn Pipes and reading about Steve’s work breathing new life into old pipes. So I dove in and bought the few materials that I would need and started using my eBay acquisitions as practice material. In the process I found a new love, pipe restoration and rustification. It has been a fun journey since, and through the help of friends from forums I acquired more and more briar to work on, both mine and theirs, and just kept trying new techniques. There were highs and lows, and thankfully the lows were on my own pipes, and the highs were from seeing the reaction from pipe owners to my work on their pipes.

But alas, things took a turn. Suddenly this hobby of piping has gotten popular again, and with popularity came the inevitable increase in the cost of pipes on eBay. No more could I bid on nicely taken care of, quality briar, and win multiples to feed my new hobby, so activity on the workbench slowed down. Then one day I saw a beat up old pipe on eBay that was ugly, not taken care of, never cleaned, and appeared to have been used as a hammer or golf tee at one time. But it was cheap, no one wanted it due to the condition, and I won it for cheap, cheap. Before that day I would have never looked twice at this monstrosity. I would have immediately dismissed it, as I am sure many did.

Once I got it in the mail I applied the few skills I had learned about pipe rustification and produced a pipe that is now beautiful and serves me well, and will for years. I still buy a lot of pipes on eBay, but I now look for those pipes that appear to be structurally sound, but do not care about their cosmetic appearance. I learned to look past the ugly and envision what it could be with some work. And through this process I have continued to develop my hobby and abilities. I am always looking for new techniques, developing my own, and constantly striving to expand my abilities. And I am still managing to do it for less than I was spending on cigarettes when I was a cig smoker. That makes the wife happy, and therefore I am happy.

So what’s my point? If you are new to the world of pipes, or you wish you could expand your current collection, but just do not have the disposable income to buy those beautiful pipes that you often see, don’t fret, you can still have them. Simply lower your standards when shopping on eBay or in junktique stores. Learn to recognize those pipes that have beauty buried underneath neglect and abuse. Recognize those pipes that fall under “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. They are abundant on eBay and in junktique/antique stores, if you look. I will say however that you need to do some research. Teach yourself what is a desirable make, what is not; what is a good smoker, what may not be. Learn what to watch out for, what to avoid. I never buy pipes on eBay that only have one picture. I want to see both sides, the bowl, inside and the bottom, and the stem and tenon. Learn to recognize burn out, cracks in the shank or bowl, or other stem or briar damage that may be beyond your abilities to fix. If it is just ugly, dirty, dinged up, etc., and it catches your fancy….buy it and bring it back to beauty yourself. We are lucky enough that we have the internet and therefore a world of resources available to us as we develop our hobbies. Dive in my friend, dive in.

Join a forum, or multiple forums. There is a world of experience on those forums just waiting for your question or your plea for help. I have yet to encounter a pipe enthusiast on a forum who would not offer advice or help. There are a lot of us there whose passion is the restoration and/or rustification of pipes. Seek us out. And if you get a pipe that you feel is just beyond your ability to restore, many of us will gladly take care of it for you. I know I would, as working with briar is my passion. All you have to do is ask.

One other shopping technique that I use. I always have a pipe with me. Anytime I am talking with a stranger, outside, at a business, a yard sale, in the park, etc., I pull out the pipe and light it. More times than not it sparks a conversation, and many times you find that you are talking to a gentleman who will say “I used to smoke a pipe…..” but for one reason or another they quit. I will always follow up with “What did you do with your pipes?”, and a lot of times they will reply that they are in a box in the garage. You know where I go from there. I will just say that I have over the span of 1 year been gifted over 30 pipes from ex-pipers as a result of these conversations. Some pipes were beyond help, others were beautiful, and some just needed my attention. Ex-pipers are happy to give them to a fellow piper; you just have to let people know you smoke a pipe. It’s a brotherhood after all.

So happy hunting, happy cleaning/restoring, and happy piping. Now I am going to go hunt for old soldiers on eBay that need some attention.

Sasieni “Viscount Lascelles” XS Restoration

4 Replies

Blog by Al Jones

I picked up this Sasieni Four Dot Natural at the NYC show yesterday. It looked to be in very good condition, requiring only a mild clean-up. I knew from the “Four Dot” “London Made” stamping that it was made between 1946 and 1979. The pipe has the football shaped “Made In London” stamp on the other side and “XS”. Curiously, it was missing the name of a London town. At home, I could see some additional stamping and with a magnifying glass, I could read “Viscount Lascelles”. I googled that name and discovered that according to the Stephen Smith article, the Viscount Lascelles was the model name and a rare model.

http://murderofravens.org/my-sasieni-pipe-article/

The bowl had some build-up on the top which I thought might be some scorching. The stem had the faintest of teeth marks and was in overall excellent shape and only lightly oxidized.

I reamed the cake from the bowl and I could see despite the thick cake, the bowl was in very good condition. Most of the build-up on the bowl top rubbed off with some distilled water and a soft cloth. I soaked the bowl with some 91 proof alcohol and sea salt. The shank was cleaned with a bristle brush and alcohol.

The bowl didn’t need much else and was buffed lightly with White Diamond and then carnuba wax. I stayed away from the nomenclature to preserve it.

The stem was sanded with 1500 and 2000 grit paper, then 8000 and 12,000 grade micromesh sheets. I buffed it lightly with white diamond and then a plastic polish.

I hand waxed the briar with some Paragon wax.

Here is the finished pipe.

Reworking a No Name Pipe Bowl – Adding Rustication and Bling

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

Andrew is turning out to be a great source of older pipe bowls in need of stemming. I received this old bowl in the mail from him not to long ago. It had a look to it that was interesting to me. The shank had been reworked somewhere along the way. I think that originally it may have had a diamond shank. Someone had carved it by hand into an almost round end and flattening as it moved toward the bowl. They had added three bands of coloured tape to the shank to dress it up. The first two bands were thin gold tape and the third was a wide swath of dark brown tape. The bowl was clean and reamed and the inside of the shank was also clean. The underside of the shank and bowl were rough. I think that the person who had reworked this bowl had used a knife to work on it and had not sanded it smooth after his work. There were also some pretty deep dents and grooves on the bottom of the bowl.

This old pipe bowl provided a challenge to me. The tape had to go but I had no idea what was underneath and hidden by it. The funky shape of the shank also needed to be reworked to give it a more artistic and shapely appearance. The restemming would also be a challenge in that the shank was not round at this point but very oddly shaped with all sides being unequal. I found an old saddle stem in my box of stems and tried that first – to me it was too long and gave the pipe an unbalanced look so I dug through my can of stems and found a saddle stem that was shorter that would look nice on the pipe.

I peeled off the tape and underneath the two gold tape bands was a small crack in the shank. Underneath the brown tape was a huge fill on the top and underside of the shank. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reshape the shank and bowl union and also to reshape the end of the shank. I had a nice sterling silver wedding ring band that would work well on this pipe bowl so I reshaped the end of the shank with 220 grit sandpaper after the Dremel work and then applied all purpose white glue on the shank and pressed the silver band into place. Once it was in place I could see that the end of the shank was not straight but had been cut off at an angle. With the band in place I used the Dremel and sanding drum to straighten up the end of the shank. I finished that work by using the same sanding board set up I use for topping bowls. With all that finished I put the stem in place and sanded the bowl and shank until it was a clean smooth shape. I wiped the surface down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the urethane finish that the previous person put over all the bowl and tape. In the next four photos below the size of the large fill is obvious.

With the shaping of the bowl and shank finished and looking more balanced I had to make a decision on how to deal with the large fills on the shank. There were also several sand pits on the bottom of the bowl that needed to be addressed. I weighed my options and decided to rusticate the shank. I used the modified Philips screwdriver to rusticate the shank first. At this point I left the bottom of the bowl smooth and just worked on the shank. Once I had rusticated it I used a small brass tire brush to smooth out the roughness of the rustication. I find that the brush knocks off the loose pieces of briar and gives the finish a contrast of highs and lows. The rustication looked good against the wedding band and the smoothness of the vulcanite. I also liked the look of the rustication against the smoothness of the bowl.

I stained the shank with a black aniline stain. I applied it heavily with a cotton swab and flamed and repeated the process until I had a good matte black finish on the shank. At that point I decided to carry the rustication to the bottom of the bowl and slightly up the sides and curve it into the top of the shank bowl union.

I stained the bottom of the bowl to match the shank colour. I applied a black aniline stain to the bottom and restained the shank at the same time. I flamed the stain and repeated the process until I had the coverage that I wanted on the bottom of the bowl. I then sanded the rest of the bowl with 200 grit sandpaper and then a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I finished by sanding it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wanted to have the briar clean and smooth on the upper portion of the bowl. The grain on that part of the bowl was quite nice. I wiped down the bowl with isopropyl on a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust. The state of the bowl at this point is shown in the next four photos below.

It was time to bend the stem so I heated the stem until it was pliable with a heat gun set on the lowest setting. I bent is over a rolling pin to the angle that I wanted and set the angle with cold water. This particular stem evidently was good quality vulcanite as it did not have any oxidation and the water did not bring any to the surface. That was a real gift in this process as I would have had to work out the oxidation on the stem as well. The next series of photos shows the process and the finished look of the bend.

At this point I reflected on what I wanted to do with the upper part of the bowl. I could stain it with a variety of colours to contrast with the rusticated black portion of the shank and bowl bottom but I was not certain I wanted to do that. I finally decided to rub down the bowl with olive oil to bring out the grain. I rubbed it in by hand and repeated that until it was finished. I gave the bowl a light buff with White Diamond to give it a shine. I will still need to give it several coats of carnauba wax but the look works for me. The grain pops with the oil finish. The next series of four photos show the bowl finish at this point in the process.

I liked the overall appearance of the pipe. It was certainly significantly different from the bowl that it was before I started. The old bowl had a more elegant look to it now and felt great in the hand. The chunky wedding band contrasts well with the shape and the finish of the bowl. Now it was time to work on the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the casting marks on the sides of the saddled and blade of the stem. I followed that by sanding with medium and fine grit sanding sponges to further remove the scratches to the vulcanite. I finished the sanding with my usual list of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak in to the stem material.

I buffed the finished pipe and stem with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I was careful to not get wax on the rusticated portion of the bowl and shank. The finished pipe is pictured below. It seems to me to have a much more dignified appearance than what it started with. I like the tactile feel of the bowl in my hand while at the same time maintaining the beautiful straight and flame grain on the bowl. I think this one will stay in my collection for quite awhile.

An Older Comoy’s Brochure

1 Reply

This morning I awoke to find that Jacek Rochacki had sent me an email with this lovely old Comoy’s brochure attached. I truly love these old pipe and tobacco leaflets and brochures. They are a tool that I use regularly when I am trying figure out a particular brand or shape. In my mind I can never have enough of these old pieces around. Thank you Jacek for sending this one to me to post on the blog. I have included his email to me as it has several links that are helpful.

With regard to nice conversation on Comoy’s I realized that the folder published by Chris Keene here http://pipepages.com/dancomoy2.htm is missing it’s back part/side with information and pictures of St. James, Guildhall and Academy Award edition from Comoy’s.

So I am enclosing scans of mine copy of the same folder that I acquired in Copenhagen in Summer 1969. Both sides.

And:
Guildhall is also mentioned here:
http://www.chriskeene.com/75comoycat5.htm

With my best

Jacek, returning to text on “C” markings in Comoy’s pipes

Restoring a Briarmeer Rhodesian 175 ED that was Made in Canada

8 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I received an email from Andrew saying that he had a pipe he wanted to send my way. It was my kind of shape – a Rhodesian. He said that it was an odd pipe in that on the bottom of the bowl it had a slightly inset circular divot. The round inset was almost like a poorly made plug on the bottom of the bowl, or one that had shrunken with time. He thought that it would be a great challenge for me to do a repair on it. The stamping on the pipe shank was Briarmeer 175 ED Canada.

The brand was one I had not heard of before. And since I am in Canada I wanted to try to figure out where the pipe was made and what the plug was about. The name seemed to suggest that it was a meerlined pipe or at least included meerschaum in some form or fashion. Yet when I emailed Andrew about it he replied that there was no meerschaum lining present in the bowl. Instead it was just a nice looking briar pipe with the strange, misfit looking round plug on the bottom of the bowl.

This would require some research to see what I could find out. I went online and searched for any information that I could find regarding the brand. I wrote to the trademark attorney who was listed as the representative of the brand and received a very cryptic answer that was not helpful at all. I did learn however that Briarmeer pipes were made by Briarmeer Pipes Limited, 226 Park Street, Brockville, Ontario. The business was no longer present at that address and did not show up in any Brockville Business Directories available online or through the Yellow Pages .I searched the Canadian, American and British patent sites hoping to find a patent registration for the pipe but was not able to find one. I found a trademark registration document from the US patent office that showed that the brand or trademark was registered in the US in 1973. The document pictured below gives that information as well as the Canadian Registration Number 180,805 and that it was registered in Canada on January 21, 1972.

Using these registration numbers I searched both the Canadian and US patent records but could find no patent information available. From the public records it appears that the Briarmeer Company went out of business sometime in the late1980’s or early 1990’s and the name became public domain.

I was able to find out through further digging that the pipe is a variation on what Kaywoodiedid with its famous Carburetor.Kaywoodie had drilled a hole in the bottom of the bowl and inserted a metal airhole to introduce air into the bottom of the bowl to enhance burning of the tobacco. In the Briarmeer the drilled out area in the bottom of the bowl was significantly larger.It had been drilled out and a meerschaum disk inserted in the resultant hole. The draw hole was to be perfectly centered at the bottom of the bowl. From what I could find out the idea of using the meerschaum insert came to a Canadian engineer about 30+ years ago. He reasoned that the meerschaum bottom of the bowl would allow for a drier and cooler smoke while the briar would be sturdier than the meerschaum for the walls of the bowl.Now I knew what the inset on the bottom of the bowl was and where the Meer portion of the Briarmeer name came from.

I decided to see if I could hunt down some photos of the pipe. I had not noticed them before and did not figure I would find many available. I was wrong. I found quite a few clear photos online that showed the novel meerschaum insert with clarity. In all of the photos it was clear that the insert sits inset into the bottom of the bowl and there is a variance in the external bowl bottom and the depth of the inset meerschaum disk. I have included four of the photos I found to show the insert in the exterior bowl bottom. Some of the photos show a new and unsmoked pipe and other show an estate pipe. All have the pipes show the same variation in the depth of the bottom of the bowl and the depth of the meerschaum disk.

I also learned that the American Company, Briarcraft who made the Smokemaster pipe also made a pipe with called the Briarmeer Acadian. The Briarcraft version of the pipe was a meerschaum lined pipe and was stamped with the Briarcraft logo, a B in a diamond on the shank and on the stem.However, the pipe I was gifted was not a meerschaum lined briar and it did not have the B stamp on either the shank or the stem. The stem appears to be original and the stamping on the shank clearly says that the pipe is Canadian made.

The pipe from Andrew arrived and it was indeed one of my favourite shapes. The finish was a little dirty and the rim had some carbon build up. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth marks on the underside of the stem near the button. There was also a darkened spot like a burn mark on the underside of the shank near the insert. There were several fills in the grooves of the rustication but I was fairly certain that when I restained the pipe they would be hidden. The meerschaum insert looked to be in very good shape from the outside of the bowl. Inside was caked with a fair amount of carbon and the insert was not visible looking into the bowl.

Upon closer examination it was evident that there was a crack in the shank on the right side that ran at an angle from mid-shank toward the back of the bowl shank union. The crack did not start on the bottom of the shank but rather started midway up on the right side of the shank and ended near the top middle of the shank. It was very clear under a lens that it was present. The next two photos, though slightly out of focus show the crack. It runs across the rustication pattern mid-shank.

I cleaned out the crack with a dental pick to remove the buildup of grime that filled it. The grime was evident through the lens. Once I had it clean when I viewed it through the lens I used superglue to repair the crack. Fortunately the crack did not go all the way into the airway. I checked the inside of the airway with a penlight and it was smooth and flawless. The repair externally would remove the visible damage.

I left the superglue to cure overnight and in the morning used the dental pick to clean out the grooves of the rustication and sanded the smooth portions of the briar surface with 220 grit sandpaper and then medium and fine grit sanding sponges. The photo below shows the repair after sanding and shaping.

I wiped the surface of the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the damaged finish and enable me to blend in the patch when I restained the pipe. I scrubbed the rusticated rim of the bowl with the pads as well and was able to remove the carbon build up.

I sanded the darkened area (burn?) on the bottom of the bowl to lighten it in preparation for staining. I wiped that area down with acetone on cotton pads afterward.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the oxidation. I sanded the tooth marks on the underside of the stem near the button and was able to remove them.

I wiped the bowl down a final time with acetone, being careful not to scrub the insert with it. Once it was cleaned off I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain applied with a cotton swab. I avoided the meerschaum insert as I did not want to have the stain penetrate the meerschaum. I flamed the stain and reapplied it. I flamed it again and reapplied it again. After the final flaming of the bowl I set it aside to dry.

When the stain had dried I buffed it with White Diamond on the buffer to even out the stain and give it a shine. I also applied a coat of Halcyon II wax to the rusticated surface and hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush. The next four photos show the bowl after the buffing and waxing.

I worked on the stem with my usual group of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I then buffed the stem with red Tripoli and White Diamond before going back to the work table and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak into the vulcanite.

I buffed the finished pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The meerschaum disk inset into the bottom of the bowl is an interesting touch. I look forward to loading up a bowl and giving it a test run very soon. At the very least this is a great piece of tobacciana that still leaves a bit of mystery unsolved.

Restoring a Second Lumberman Deluxe Canadian by Comoys

13 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Andrew had a second LUMBERMAN DELUXE that he mentioned to me in a previous email when he sent me the other Lumberman to restem. He graciously gave the second one to me. In the photo below it is the one with the stem. It is slightly larger than the first one and also slightly longer as can be seen from the photo. It is stamped LUMBERMAN over DELUXE on top of the shank and on the underside there is no Made and London circle stamp. It is only stamped 309S. The pipe was in very good shape. There were no cracks in the long shank. There was one small sand pit in the top near the stamping. The bowl was slightly caked and the rim had some carbon buildup and many tiny pin pricks in the surface of the rim. The finish was dirty and had several sticky spots on the sides of the bowl. It was a gummy spot that seemed like the residue left behind by a price sticker. The stem was larger in diameter that the shank. It extended beyond the edge of the shank on both sides of the stem and also slightly on the bottom edge. The top edge fit well. There were also two tooth marks – one on top and on matching on the bottom of the stem near the button.

Before seeing these two pipes I had not heard of the Lumberman brand so Andrew had sent along some information that he had found on the web regarding the brand. He had gleaned the information from a Mr. Can EBay listing. In the previous blog post on the first LUMBERMAN I included Andrew’s information. I am also including it now as a quick reminder of the provenance of the brand. That posting read as follows:

“This Collectible Briar pipe is unique, extremely rare Comoy’s 309XL – a classic Canadian Shape. It has the arched Comoy’s nomenclature stamped over Deluxe (just as it appeared in the early 1930’s) both of which were stamped over Lumberman. For anyone already familiar with the stamping of Comoy Canadians that is enough to recognize that this is a rare and collectible Comoy.”

“During its history, Comoy’s has had three distinct sets of nomenclature, though they became somewhat blended in later years. The earliest Comoy nomenclature either had no Comoy stamping or a scripted, signature like forward leaning Comoy’s beneath which were featured names instead of shape numbers. Few of those names (Like Leman, Naval, Adelaide, and so on) are recognized even by the most ardent collectors. Then after World War I when Comoy began introducing what is sometimes called their Old Nomenclature (featuring the Prima, as the Top of the line with other lines like the Old Bruyere, Grand Slam, Lions Head, Lumberman, Lumberman Special and so forth) and arched Comoy’s stamping was used. In the 1930’s the Prima gave way to the Deluxe as the top of the line Comoy. Then just before World War II newer nomenclature started to appear (like Blue Riband, Specimen Straight Grain, and so on) and the Deluxe was replaced by the Royal Comoy. That New Nomenclature expanded dramatically after the War and blended with the modern nomenclature today.”

“The use of the arched Comoy’s ended with World War II and was replaced after the War with a straight line Comoy’s (along with the now famous country of origin stamping of a circular “Made In London” over a straight line “England”.”

“Prior to World War II with manufacturing facilities in both France and England, Comoy had pipes made in both locations. Most were easily identifiable by their country of origin stamping. There were several versions of Comoy’s Lumberman made in France and/or England. (They might have been the dame pipe but with different nomenclature.) “The Lumberman” and “The Lumberman Special were made in both factories. But none had the arched Comoy’s stamping.”

“After WWII Comoy’s reintroduced the Deluxe, discontinued the arched Comoy’s and continued various versions of the Lumberman. Perhaps Comoy’s best graded Lumberman was stamped Lumberman Deluxe – but it had no Comoy stamping. Lumberman was always stamped over Deluxe.”

“Normally Comoy offered to Canadian sizes designated by shape numbers 296 and 309. The difference was in the length of the Canadians. The 309 shape was Comoy’s longest Canadian and the 296 was shorter. However, the extra long Canadians were upgraded with the additional stamping of XL and the very longest were sometimes stamped XXL. Either upgrade was rare.” – The above was taken from correspondence Andrew included when he sent the pipe to me.

The previous blog post can be found at this link: https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/repairing-and-restoring-a-lumberman-deluxe-canadian-by-comoys/

The difference between this pipe and the previous one was that the stamping on the underside of the pipe lacked the Comoy’s circle Made in London stamp and also bore the shape designation of 309 but instead of X or XL it is stamped “S”. It is larger than the previous LUMBERMAN but the stamping appears to be a bit of an anomaly.

The next series of photos show the pipe as it appeared when I received it from Andrew. There was slight oxidation on the stem and the stem was larger as noted above.

I took several close-up photos to show the fit of the stem and how the sides and the bottom edge of the stem was larger than the diameter of the shank.

I refit the stem and sanded the sides of the stem until it matched the shank. I also sanded the shank lightly in order to make a smooth transition between the two. I used 220 grit sandpaper to take off the excess vulcanite and bring the stem in line with the shank. At the same time I sanded the tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem at the button and was able to remove them.

I sanded the stem and shank with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge and then a fine grit sanding block. The refit stem is shown in the next series of four photos.

I wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone and clean the stem and shank with isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to take the slight cake back to the wood and even the buildup on the walls. It seemed to have a slight ridge of cake mid-bowl and I wanted the walls clean so that I could build up my own cake.

I sanded the stem down with medium and fine grit sanding sponges and then used my usual array of micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with the 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and the stem down with Obsidian Oil. Once it had been absorbed in both places I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond on the wheel. I gave bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff to give it a finish shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The fit of the stem matches the lines of the pipe and the oiled finish gives the pipe a look that is fresh and new. It is ready for its new maiden voyage.

ADDENDUM – I am copying this from the responses below so that it gets more readership.

Here is the info from the link Jacek supplied. Very helpful additional information. Thanks Jacek.
As many realize, Comoy is one of the oldest London Pipemakers with production started in France in 1825. Francois Comoy started making smoking pipes with his brothers in St. Claude, France in 1825. His son, Louis, took over the company and in 1848 helped guide it into the era of power-driven machines beginning what Comoy called a “Century of Progress.” His son, Henri, followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and moved Comoy’s to Clerkenwell in the City of London in 1879, and thus began “Comoy’s of London.” And his son, Louis, was the last family member to run the company.

During its’ history, Comoy’s has had three distinct sets of nomenclature, though they became somewhat blended in later years. The earliest Comoy Nomenclature either had no ”Comoy” stamping or a scripted, signature-like (forward leaning) “Comoy’s” beneath which were featured names instead of shape numbers. Few of those names (like the “Leman”, “Naval”, “Adelaide” and so on) are recognized even by the most ardent Comoy collectors. Then after World War I when Comoy began introducing what is sometimes called their “Old Nomenclature” (featuring the “Prima” as “Top-of-the-Line” with other lines like the “Old Bruyere,” “Grand Slam,” “Lions Head,” “LUMBERMAN,” “LUMBERMAN SPECIAL,” and so forth) an ARCHED “COMOY’S” stamping was used. In the 1930s the Prima gave way to the “DE LUXE” as the “Top-of-the-Line” Comoy. Then, just before World War II newer nomenclature started to appear (like “Blue Riband,” “Specimen Straight Grain,” and so on) and the “DE LUXE” was replaced by the “Royal Comoy”. That “New Nomenclature” expanded dramatically after the War and blended with the modern nomenclature of today.

The use of the ARCHED “COMOY’S” ended with World War II and was replaced after the War with a straight line “Comoy’s” (along with the now famous Country of Origin stamping of a circular “Made in London” over a straight line “England”).

Prior to World War II with manufacturing facilities in both France and England, Comoy had pipes made in both locations. Most were easily identifiable by their Country of Origin stamping. There were several versions of Comoy’s “LUMBERMAN” made in France and/or England. (They might have been the same Pipe but with different nomenclature.) “THE LUMBERMAN,” and “THE LUMBERMAN SPECIAL” were made in both factories. But NONE had the ARCHED “COMOY’S” stamping!

After World War II, Comoy reintroduced the “DE LUXE,” discontinued the ARCHED “COMOY’S” and continued various versions of the “LUMBERMAN”! Perhaps Comoy’s” best” graded “LUMBERMAN” was stamped “LUMBERMAN DE LUXE” – – – but it had no “Comoy” stamping. ”LUMBERMAN” was always stamped over “DE LUXE”!!!

Now look at the stamping on this Comoy Canadian – – – the ARCHED “COMOY’S” is stamped OVER “DE LUXE” (just as it would have been on a “Top-of-the-Line” Comoy’s De Luxe” in the early 1930s! In addition, that stamping is OVER “LUMBERMAN”!!! This Canadian is the only one I have ever seen with such stamping(s)!!!

Comoy offered truly elegant Canadians that were always perfectly shaped, light weight and fitted with “wafer thin” mouthpieces that are easy to hold in the mouth. Of course, they came in different lengths and finishes.

Normally, Comoy offered two Canadian sizes designated by Shape Numbers 296 and 309. The difference in the length of the Canadians. The “309” Shape was Comoy’s LONGEST CANADIAN, and the “296” was shorter. However, EXTRA LONG Canadians were ”upgraded” with the additional stamping of “XL” (creating a “309 XL”) and the very longest were sometimes stamped “XXL”!!! Either upgrade was rare, and this exceptional Canadian is stamped “309 XL”!!!

So looking at the title of this description one would expect to see a long, sleek Canadian of special length. It is not! It is a mere 6 3/8” LONG which is barely longer than average for most pipe makers!

The grain is not exceptional nor is the size (although the Bowl is a large Dunhill Group 4/5 Size which is larger than most “average” Canadians). But the Pipe has a HAND RUSTICATED RING around the Rim as well as a small HAND RUSTICATED “ARROWHEAD” or “TRIANGLE” on the bottom of the Shank! Both are unusual for any Comoy and ensure that this Canadian is UNIQUE (if only because no two rustications are identical).

Combining these features, you are looking at an EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, UNIQUE COMOY “LUMBERMAN”!!!

We cannot be certain of a date for this Comoy. It is an ARCHED “COMOY’S” over “DE LUXE” which dates it from the early 1930s. It is also a “LUMBERMAN” with a COMOY’s 3-PIECE “C” LOGO in the Mouthpiece dating it to the post-World War II timeframe; and it has the newer Country of Origin stamping which did not exist before World War II. So it would seem that this Comoy Lumberman/Canadian most likelydates from the late 1940’s which would seem to be the most reasonable time for such a Pipe to appear.

As the pictures reflect, this Canadian remains in PRISTINE CONDITION! The STRONG NOMENCLATURE confirms that! There are NO chips, dents or scratches to detract from the exterior finish. NO varnish, lacquer or shellac has been used to improve the appearance of the Pipe for the pictures (and temporarily fill scratches and toothmarks). And, NO coating has been applied to the inside of the Bowl to hide cracks, heat fissures or even burnouts. The Pipe shines as it did when it left the factory in London over 60 Years Ago!!!

This Canadian measures 6 3/8″ LONG with a Bowl 2″ TALL!!! The nomenclature is crisp and clear: “COMOY’S [arched and over] DE LUXE, LUMBERMAN, MADE IN LONDON [in a circle and over] ENGLAND, 309 XL”. The Famous Comoy’s 3-Piece White “C” Logo is inlaid in the Bit. So what you are viewing is an EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, and COLLECTIBLE COMOY CANADIAN!!! The fact that it is in PRISTINE CONDITION with particularly STRONG NOMENCLATURE makes it worthy of consideration by those desirous of accumulating a special Comoy collection!

House of Bewlay Pipes & Tobacco Leaflets

21 Replies

Blog by Jacek A. Rochacki

Jacek A. Rochacki, who has written several helpful pieces for the blog, emailed me with the attached photos of two older leaflets from the House of Bewlay. The first one presents their pipes and the second one their tobaccos. I am including the information here that Jacek sent in his email.

Let me turn our attention to the House of Bewlay.

Pipedia does not say much http://www.pipedia.org/wiki/Bewlay
“Bewlay House was a chain of English pipe stores whose pipes were made by Barling, Charatan, and Loewe, so the English considered the Bewlay pipes a quality pipe in its own right. The English brand of Bewlay & Co. Ltd. (formerly Salmon & Gluckstein Ltd.), was in business from the early 20th century until the 1950’s. The brand ended up being sold and taken over by Imperial Tobacco Co. The shop chain closed in the 1980’s but there seems to be one shop still in business on Carr Lane in the city of Hull.”

In 1969 I acquired in Copenhagen two Bewlay leaflets. The one on the Bewlay pipes dates establishing of the House of Bewlay in London to the year 1780. The other leaflet, also bearing date of establishing – 1780 – presents Bewlay’s offer of pipe tobaccos, and short history of the House of Bewlay.
There is not much on Bewlay in famous pipe markings repository “pipephil” http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b4.html#bewlay

And I cannot find any information in Pipepages. In December 2011 I contacted Chris Keene, and he answered me as follows:
“…Unfortunately, I am not currently adding any new images. It’s been almost a year since I’ve added anything as my last computer crashed, along with my web-building software. Between the necessity to acquire new software and new demands in my work, I find that I need to let the site sit “as is” for the indefinite future…”

Considering above I taken the liberty of attach pictures/photos of these two Bewlay leaflets and emailing them to you. As they are “heavy”, I attach the pictures of leaflet with pipes here, the tobacco leaflet I’ll send by next email. I do this under inspiration by what you have done already publishing unknown materials, completing in a way the Chris Keene’s pages.

Thank you Jacek for sending this information to me. I am always on the hunt for pipe and tobacco leaflets, brochures and books that help give historical data to a hobby that I have come to love. Whenever I find them I photograph them and post them here on rebornpipes. Your contribution will join the others here on the blog. The first leaflet is below – Bewlay’s Pipe Chart.

The leaflet below entitled Bewlay Pipe Tobaccos gives a list of the locations of the shops and also includes a brief history of the House of Bewlay.