Blog by Steve Laug

I was gifted a tiny little Dr. Plumb Bulldog a few weeks ago by a friend and that reminded me that I also had a tiny little Dr. Plumb Billiard as well. I have no idea if these were salesmen pipes but they have the same size as many of those that I have seen over the years. Both were smoked and had a cake in the bowl. The billiard has the original stinger apparatus in it but the little bulldog is sans stinger. They are only about 4.5 inches long and incredibly delicate looking. All briar and vulcanite stems and very smokable. The next two pictures below show the little dog next to the Dr. Grabow I cleaned up earlier for comparison and to give an idea of the size.

The little bulldog is stamped Dr. Plumb Extra on the left top side of the diamond shank and is stamped France on the right bottom side of the shank. The pipe was in pretty good shape. The finish was slightly worn and the rim had a buildup of tars. The inner and outer edge of the rim was undamaged. The bowl had a light cake in it and it and in the bottom of the bowl there was a groove where the original stinger apparatus extended from the tenon the length of the shank. The stem was oxidized and there was tooth chatter on the top and the bottom of the stem next to the button. I took the next four photos to show what the pipe looked like when I started working on it. There is an understated elegance to this little bulldog.

To give another view of the smallness of the pipe I took a photo of it with my little finger inserted in the bowl. It was a tight fit for even the tip of my little finger. The bowl was so small that none of my reamers fit in the bowl. I used a pen knife letter opener to scrape the cake back to the briar.

I scrubbed out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean. I took out the tiny billiard that I also have and took a picture of the two pipes together. In the billiard’s bowl you can see the end of the stinger in the bottom of the bowl. While both pipes are tiny the bulldog appears to be a little bit smaller. I compare it to the size variation between bulldogs and billiards in general. The diameter of bowl bowls is identical. Both are ½ inch in diameter. The depth of the billiard is deeper than that of the bulldog.

I scrubbed the tars on the rim with cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove most of the buildup. I followed that by lightly sanding the stem with 1500 grit micromesh sanding pads. I sanded the stem lightly with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to break up the oxidation. I followed that by sanding with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and then gave it a final rub down with the oil once I had finished.

I was able to remove the oxidation and the tooth chatter with little effort. The stem has a deep glow to the vulcanite. The finished pipe is shown below. One day I will fire them both up with a nice Virginia flake for a quick and flavourful smoke.