By Al Jones

Steve’s recent blog entry on the his 7-pipe Kaywoodie Matched Grain set reminded me to get off my duff and write up the story on this set. My buddy Dave picked this up at the 2017 Kansas City show.

I found no other four pipe Kaywoodie sets for comparison. There are numerous five and seven pipe sets that I found. The only reference that I can find is a 1955 price listing of $50.00, from the Pipepedia site. Unfortunately, there are no pictures to accompany that price listing.

The set came in a fitted, triangular shaped case with these four shape models:

86B – Large Apple
11 – Extra Large Billiard
69 – Pot
12B – Saddle Bulldog

Unfortunately when I was working on this set in December, I was in a rush to get it done before the holiday and accidentally deleted my “before” pictures. The pipes were in very good shape, with two exceptions. The stem on the 86B was damaged, on the button and sides, almost like it was filed down to be more narrow. The shape 69 Pot also had some minor damage to the bottom of the button.

The other pipes only had mile oxidation. The briar didn’t need any attention, but I gave them a light buff with White Diamond and several coats of Carnuba wax. The stems were all polished using 800, 1500 and 2000 grade paper, followed by Micromesh sheets of 8,000 and 12,000 grades. The stems were then buffed with White Diamond and Meguiars Plastic Polish.

The two pipes with damaged stems were repaired with the Stew-Mac Black superglue and accelerator. Getting the shape back to the 86B was very challenging and I’m not completely satisfied with the result.

All four pipes had a “Drinkless” stamped, four-hole stingers. Dating via the nomenclature and stinger isn’t an exact science, so the following is my assumption. The details are:
– smaller, four hole ball
– “Drinkless” only stamp, no Patent or Reg. info

From just after WWII, Kaywoodie transitioned to four hole, smaller ball stinger, which was used into the mid 1950’s.

The finished set and case.

The individual pipes are shown below.

86B – This one had the strange damage to the stem, as shown in these two “before” photos. Getting the shape back on the sides was quite challenging.

And the finished pipe.

69 Pot – this one had minor damage to the bottom of the button, with the repair shown below.

11 – Extra Large Billiard

And finally, my favorite of the set, the 12B – Bulldog.