Blog by Al Jones

I’m a big fan of the pre-transition era Sasieni “Four Dot” pipes. This era was from 1946 to 1979 and while that makes a precise dating impossible, I’ve found them to be very well made and excellent smoking pipes. This Grosvenor Ruff Root Bulldog showed up on Ebay last week, complete with small and somewhat fuzzy photographs. From what I could see, the pipe looked solid and it pretty much flew under the radar. When the pipe arrived, it was easy to see that I had made a wise choice. The stem was only slightly oxidized with no teeth marks or other damage. The nomenclature was very clear and complete. The first picture was from the eBay ad.

I own a Sasieni Grosvenor Walnut, an “S” model, which indicates the tapered stem. But, my favorite pipes are Bulldog or Rhodesians with a tapered stem.

The bowl had only a slight cake and the shank was very clean. I carefully reamed the cake out and soaked the bowl with some alcohol and sea salt.

I polished the stem with 800 grit paper, then 1500 and 2000 grade wet paper. Then I moved to the 8000 and 12000 grade micromesh paper, also wet. The stem was lightly buffed with white diamond. I’ve learned that the light blue Sasieni stem dots can fade over time, but the color of these dots was perfect.

I polished the bowl by hand with some Halycon wax and the pipe was complete, a very easy restoration.