Daily Archives: January 11, 2019

Rebirthing a Barling Manx Made Meerschaum Bent Apple

Blog by Steve Laug

I wanted to work on something a little different before getting back to more briar. I chose a Barling Meerschaum pipe that I have had in the “to do” box for a while now. My brother picked this one up in an online auction or sale somewhere along the way in his hunting. It is an interesting pipe. There is no stamping on the pipe or the “gold” band but the stem has the Barling cross logo on top of the saddle. It is also stamped England on the underside of the stem. Many of the pipe companies in Great Britain seemed to have meerschaum pipes somewhere in their history. I have seen GBD and Peterson’s and Barlings. I believe they are all made on the Isle of Man by the Laxey Pipe Factory which closed in 2002. This bent apple with the Barling cross is in decent condition. It has a flume finish – darkened at the top of the rim and partway down the bowl sides. This one is a brownish/red in colour on the rest of the bowl. The band on the shank is Gold in colour. The bowl is very clean – in fact I wonder if it has been smoked more than a few times. There is a Delrin insert in the shank for strengthening of the meer. The stem is in decent condition with oxidation on the top surfaces of the saddle and stem and on the underside of the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. The bowl was pretty clean, though the top portion had some cake and there was light lava on the surface of the rim top. Jeff took some photos that give a clear picture. The first is a close up that shows the lava on the rim. The second gives a feel for the colour of the rim and the flumed edge of the bowl. He also took a photo of the underside and side of the bowl. The finish on the meer is in excellent condition. The stem was oxidized on both the top and underside but otherwise clean. There was no tooth chatter or bite marks in the rubber.The stamping on the top and underside of the saddle stem were very clear and readable. The Barling cross was clear and there was a remnant of white in the stamp. The England on the underside also was very clear. The gold band was dirty and showed grime.Jeff follows his cleaning regime to a letter each time he works on the pipes. This pipe was no exception. He cleaned out the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. He cleaned the top of the rim and the bowl with a tooth brush and mild soap. The stem was in decent condition so he put it in a bath of Before & After Deoxidizer and let it soak for an hour or so and it did the work on removing the oxidation. The band looked pretty good when he polished it. It looked like some of the dust had rubbed off of the band on the top side of the saddle stem as it had a gold dusting to the surface of the rubber that I first took to be oxidation. I took some photos of the pipe when it arrived to show the condition. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem to show how good the condition was on this pipe. It is really quite amazing. The rim top and bowl looked really good. There was some scratching and marks on the rim that should be able to be buffed out. The stem was in great condition. The dusting on the top of the saddle looks like oxidation but it was not and came off really easily.I took a photo of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. It was very sharp and readable. The photos also show the gold dusting on the top side and in the Barling cross. The England stamp on the underside was perfect.The bowl was in such good condition I did not need to do any work on it. Jeff had done all that needed to be done on the bowl. I decided to polish the rim top and see if I could remove some of the scratches and light build up there. I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The pictures tell the story and show the increasing shine of the briar after each set of pads. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. My hope was that it would remove the gold dust on the top of the saddle. I rubbed it onto the stem with my finger and buffed it off with a cotton pad. The polish removed the gold tint and left the stem shiny. I would need to polish it a bit with the micromesh sanding pads and touch up the stamping but it looked very good.I polished the rest of the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil. When the oil dried I touched up the stamping on the saddle with a white correction pen. I cleaned off the excess white correction pen with a 2400 grit micromesh sanding pad. I continued to polish the stem with 3200-1200 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I once again polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. When I finished I gave it another wipe down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished the bowl by hand and gave it several coats of Conservator’s wax to protect it. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the vulcanite and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The flume finish with the dark rim top and edges of the bowl and the reddish brown colour of the meerschaum works well with the gold band and the polished vulcanite stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. I will be putting this one on the rebornpipes store shortly if you are interested in adding it to your collection.Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Renewing a “Malaga” Algerian Briar Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

I seem to have passed on my love of Malaga pipes to my friend Alex here in Vancouver. He is moving out a lot of his previous rotation and adding more Malagas to his pipe rack. He has been scouring eBay and has found some real beauties. The fun part of his hunts is that I get to see them and restore many of them. On the work table today is a beautifully grained Malaga Apple with a straight shank. (Here is a link to some history of the Malaga Brand for those of you who may be interested in learning more: https://rebornpipes.com/tag/malaga-pipes/ and another link to the maker George Khoubesser and an old catalogue that I have scanned: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/02/09/george-khoubesser-and-malaga-pipes/.)

Malaga Briar Pipe Company was in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA. They billed themselves as “devoted to the greater and true enjoyment of pipe smoking”. There pipes have a unique curing process that makes them a sweet smoking, light weight smoking machine. They are beautifully carved and shaped and quite unique as an American made pipe. They were made in both classic and freehand shapes. I am including a couple of photos of George Khoubesser the pipe maker to give some colour to the pipe that I am working on.

With the image of George puffing his pipe and standing at his lathe crafting a Malaga pipe I turned my attention to this interesting Malaga Apple shaped pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank “MALAGA” and on the right side of the shank Algerian Briar. The grain on the pipe is quite stunning and is a mix of straight, flame and birdseye. The round shank flows into a vulcanite tapered stem that is oxidized and has light tooth marks and chatter near the button. The stem is spotted and speckled from sitting in a display case or on a pipe rack somewhere. The smooth finished briar is dirty but even under the grime there is something quite beautiful about the pipe. There is grime and tars on the surface of the bowl and shank. The bowl had a thick cake part way down the bowl and some lava overflowed onto the back of the rim top. The bottom part of the bowl still showed raw briar so it had not been smoked too much. I took pictures of the pipe before I started working on it. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem to show what I was dealing with. This Malaga Apple was in decent shape all things considered. The cake in the bowl was thick on the top half of the bowl while the bottom of the bowl was raw briar. There was lava on backside of the rim top. You can see the cake in the bowl in the first photo below. The stem was dirty, oxidized, almost mottled looking. There was some light tooth chatter on the top and underside for about an inch ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left and right side of the shank. It was very sharp and readable. The photos also show some of the dark spots of sticky grime on the shank and bowl.I reamed the bowl to remove the cake on the walls and the debris that still remained in the bowl. I used a PipNet pipe reamer to start the process. I followed that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the remaining cake in the conical bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. It smooths out the walls and also helps bring the inner edges back to round. I cleaned up the rim top and removed the thick lava coat on the back top side of the rim. I used the Savinelli Fitsall knife to scrape away the high spots of lava and sanded it lightly with a well-used piece of 220 grit sandpaper.I polished the rim top and the rest of the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The pictures tell the story and show the increasing shine of the briar after each set of pads. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl, shank and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until they came out clean. It was dirtier than I expected in the shank and stem but now it not only looks clean but smells clean.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the smooth finish of the bowl, rim top and shank. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I let the balm sit for about 20 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth to polish the bowl. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the vulcanite with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I followed the 220 grit sandpaper with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to minimize the scratching. The two papers combined did a pretty decent job of getting rid of the tooth marks and chatter as well as the oxidation.I polished the stem with Denicare Mouthpiece Polish to take out the oxidation at the button edge and on the end of the mouthpiece. I also worked hard to scrub it from the surface of the stem at the tenon end. I polished out the scratches with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I put the bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain really stands out on this beautiful Malaga. The contrast of swirling grain looked good with the polished black vulcanite. This Malaga Apple is one of three pipes that I am working on for Alex. Once I am finished with the other two it go back to him to enjoy. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. Alex, I am looking forward to your thoughts on this one! Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.