Monthly Archives: April 2022

Restoring a Beautifully Grained Amphora X-tra 725 Bent Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

For the next pipe, I chose a unique looking pipe that we picked up back in March of 2018 from a friend in St. Leonard, Maryland, USA. It has been here for a while and I am just now getting to it. This one is an Amphora Bent Billiard. It has a really nice mix of flame and straight grain around the bowl and shank. It was stamped on the sides of the shank. On the left side it reads Amphora [over] X-tra [followed by] the shape number 725. On the right side it reads Genuine Briar [over] AMPHORA, Holland. The pipe was dirty with grime ground into the finish. The grain really shined through the grime. There was a thick cake in the bowl and a light lava overflow and darkening on the thin rim top. The inner edge of the rim looked very good. The vulcanite saddle stem was heavily oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. There is an A in a circle inset on the left side of the saddle stem that is faded and worn looking. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up. He took photos of the bowl, rim top and stem to show the condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and you can see the light lava and darkening on the rim top around the bowl. The stem is very oxidized and there are some light tooth mark on the top and underside of the button.Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl to show the grain on the sides. It is really quite a pretty looking piece of briar.He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable with some faint stamping on the edges.I knew from past work that there was a connection between Amphora and the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory. The Amphora – Holland stamped pointed to that for me. I turned to Pipephil’s site to remind myself of the connection (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a5.html). I have included a screen capture of the section on the site that give some photos of the stamping. The pipe I am working on is stamped like the first photo below.There was also some information in the side bar that I have included below:

A brand of Elbert Gubbels & Sons – Royal Dutch Pipe Factory who has gone bankrupt on March 2012. See also: Big-Ben, Humbry, IRC, Roermond, Royal Dutch, Thompson and Porsche Design.

Now that I was reminded about the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory connection it was time to work on the pipe on my end.

Jeff had done a great clean up of the pipe. He had reamed it with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. He cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He cleaned the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and the lava on the rim top. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the debris that had accumulated on it. The pipe looked clean and ready for the next step in the process. Here are some photos of it when I finally got around to working on it 4 years later. I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim top and the stem surface. It looked amazingly good. The stem looks good with a little oxidation at the button end. There were also some light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It was readable though faint on both sides of the shank and stem side.I removed the stem from the shank to show the components of the pipe. It is a great shape and is a beauty.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It really began to take on a shine. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed off the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleanser to remove the residual oxidation on the shank end of the pipe. It looked much better.I used 220 grit sandpaper to sand out the tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to further blend in the sanded areas.I polished the stem on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This is another pipe I am excited to finish. It is a Amphora X-tra 725 Bent Billiard with some beautiful grain. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. 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 and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really was a beautiful pipe. The mix of flame and straight grain shining through the rich browns/black stain on this Amphora X-tra Bent Billiard is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.48 ounces/42 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Pipe From Various Makers section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Bari Special Handcut Danish 01 Bent Brandy

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Blog by Steve Laug

For the next pipe, I chose a unique looking pipe that we picked up off EBay back in December of 2016 from a seller in Marlboro, New Jersey, USA. It has been here for a while and I am just now getting to it. This one is a Bari Special Handcut Bent Brandy. It has a really mix of flame and straight grain around the bowl and shank. It was stamped on the sides of the shank. On the left side it reads Bari [over] Special [over] Handcut. On the right side it reads Made in Denmark [over] 01 which is probably the shape number. The pipe was dirty with grime ground into the finish. The bowl had a thin coat of varnish on the bowl and shank that was spotty and worn. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow and darkening on the thin rim top. The inner edge of the rim was covered so thickly in lava it was hard to know what was underneath. The vulcanite stem was lightly oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. HANDCUT was faintly stamped on the left side of the taper stem and coloured white. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up. He took photos of the bowl, rim top and stem to show the condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and you can see the lava and darkening on the rim top around the bowl. The stem looks good other than the tooth mark on the underside of the button. Before I started working on it I did a bit of research on the brand to remind myself of the maker. I have worked on quite a few Bari’s in the past so rather than rework all of that I am including the information I found while working on a Bari Special Handcut Made in Denmark Dublin Freehand (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/07/22/cleaning-up-a-danish-made-bari-special-handcut-b-dublin-freehand/). I quote below from that blog.

I quoted a section from Pipedia on Bari pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bari). It is good to be reminded of the fact that Viggo Nielsen was the pipe maker.

Pipedia states that Bari Piber was founded by Viggo Nielsen in Kolding, Denmark around the turn of 1950/51. His sons Kai and Jørgen both grew into their father’s business from a very young age and worked there till 1975. Both have become successful pipe makers.

Bari successfully adapted the new Danish design that had been started mainly by Stanwell for its own models. Bari was sold in 1978 to Van Eicken Tobaccos in Hamburg, Germany though the pipes were still made in Denmark. From 1978 to 1993 Åge Bogelund and Helmer Thomsen headed Bari’s pipe production.

Helmer Thomson bought the company in 1993 re-naming it to “Bari Piber Helmer Thomsen”. The workshop moved to more convenient buildings in Vejen. Bogelund, who created very respectable freehands of his own during the time at Bari got lost somehow after 1993. Bari’s basic conception fundamentally stayed the same for decades: series pipes pre-worked by machines and carefully finished by hand – thus no spectacular highgrades but solid, reliable every day’s companions were what they turned out. The most famous series are the smooth “Classic Diamond” and the blasted “Wiking”.

I did a quick look at Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html) and did a screen capture of the section on Bari pipes.Now that I was reminded about the Viggo Nielsen connection it was time to work on the pipe on my end.

Jeff had done a great clean up of the pipe. He had reamed it with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. He cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He cleaned the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and the lava on the rim top. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the debris that had accumulated on it. The pipe looked clean and ready for the next step in the process. Here are some photos of it when I finally got around to working on it 5 years later. I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim top and the stem surface. It looked amazingly good. There was still some darkening on the rim edges. The varnish coat on the bowl and shank would also need to be removed. The stem looks good with a little oxidation at the shank end. There were also some tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It was readable though faint on both sides of the shank and stem side.I removed the stem from the shank to show the components of the pipe. It is a great shape and is a beauty.I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the spotty varnish coat. It really looked better without the varnish. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It really began to take on a shine. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed off the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleanser to remove the residual oxidation on the shank end of the pipe. It looked much better.I used 220 grit sandpaper to sand out the tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to further blend in the sanded areas.I touched up the faint stamping on the left side of the taper stem. It read HANDCUT the H and the UT were deep enough to take the touch up. The rest of the stamping was not as deep and did not hold the Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I polished the excess off and took photos of the stem at this point.I polished the stem on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This is another pipe I am excited to finish. It is a Bari Special Handcut Danish 01 Bent Brandy. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. 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 and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem with the golden acrylic spacer. It really was a beautiful pipe. The sandblasted grain shining through the rich browns/black stain on this Bari Special Handcut is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.12 ounces/60 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Ben Wade Hand Model London Made Large Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

After a long week of dealing with insurance issues on flood damage to my basement office and now waiting for a plumber to come and give his report on Monday I decided it was time to take a break and just work on a pipe that interested me. I chose a unique looking pipe that we picked up off EBay back in December of 2016 from a seller in Marlboro, New Jersey, USA. It is a long shank Pot with a craggy and deep sandblast and an unusual shape to the bottom of the bowl. The yellow spacer on the pipe is a part of the stem. The pipe is stamped on the underside and reads Ben Wade in script [over] Hand Model [over] London Made. There are no shape numbers on the pipe. I have worked on quite a few English made Ben Wade pipes but never one that was stamped like this. It would be interesting to learn more about it. The pipe was dirty with a moderate cake in the bowl and some lava overflow in the sandblast on the rim. The edges of the bowl were in good condition. The saddle stem (vulcanite with a yellow acrylic spacer attached) was shiny but had tooth damage to the button on the underside. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up. He took photos of the bowl, rim top and stem to show the condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and you can see the lava in the sandblast of the rim top toward the back of the bowl. The stem looks good other than the tooth mark on the underside of the button. Jeff took photos of the bowl and sides to give a sense of the sandblast and the depth of that finish. It is really a beautifully blasted pipe and well executed. You can also see the slight slope to the bottom of the bowl on the front. He took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank which was clear and readable as noted above. It is the source of the mystery for me – what and when was the Hand Model made.Now it was time to try and figure out the stamping on this pipe. I remembered chatting with Dal Stanton, the Pipe Steward about a pipe he was working on that had this stamping. At least I thought I had. I knew it was a while ago so I did a quick search on the blog for Ben Wade Hand Model London Made pipes and found what I was looking for. Here is the link to the blog Dal wrote and his research on it (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/02/13/rejuvenating-a-ben-wade-hand-model-london-made-billiard/). I am quoting extensively from what he wrote as there is no need to go back through the same sources he did.

I’ve discovered through the reading I’ve done about the name ‘Ben Wade’ that it has an up and down history. The Pipedia article is helpful in simplifying the history in four helpful ‘eras’ which I’ve summarized from the Pipedia:

The Family era (1860 to 1962) – the heydays of the English name when the pipes were stamped Made in Leeds, England.

Charatan / Lane second (1962 to 1988) – When Herman G. Lane purchased the name, the transition from a higher quality pipe during the long Family Era transitioned exclusively to the fabrication of machine-made pipes. Lane moved the production from the Leeds factory (closed in 1965) to Charatan’s Prescott Street factory. Ben Wade became essentially lower quality series pipes produced in standard shapes. The pipes during this period were stamped, “Made in London, England” or dropping the “London” and stamped with “England” alone. After Lane died, in 1978 his heirs sold the Charatan and Ben Wade names to Dunhill, which left the production of Charatan/Ben wade at the Prescott Street factor. In 1988 production came to an end for Ben Wade when the Charatan’s Prescott Street factory closed.

Ben Wade turns Danish (1971-1989) – During this era Preben Holm, from Denmark, was in financial difficulties and Herman Lane and he went into partnership producing the Handmade and fancy pipes. These pipes were marked “Ben Wade Made in Denmark”. These pipes gained great popularity, especially as the were marketed in the US. After Lane’s death, Preben Holm, not the businessman, was in financial difficulties and reduced his workforce and production, but at his death in 1989, production of the Danish Preben Holm pipes came to an end.

Resurrection – (1998 to present) – Duncan Briars bought the Ben Wade name from Dunhill in 1998 and production of Ben Wade pipes restarted at the Walthamstow plant, sharing the same space where Dunhill pipes are produced and reportedly benefiting from the same quality of production. During this present era, the stamping on the pipes is: “Ben Wade, Made in London, England”

The reason I went through this summary of Ben Wade’s morphing history is because in nothing I’ve read about Ben Wade (and I’m sure there’s more out there), I found no reference to a Ben Wade Hand Model with the COM, London Made. The stamping on the pipe before me is ‘Ben Wade’ [over] HAND MODEL [over] LONDON MADE. The saddle stem has the Ben Wade stamped on the upper side of the stem saddle. My first glance at the blasted finish made me wonder whether this Ben Wade came out during the ‘mystery’ Resurrection period in the Pipedia article. Here is the full text that made me wonder:

As said before Preben Holm’s death marked the third end of Ben Wade and for long years there were no Ben Wade pipes in the shops anymore. But then, all of a sudden they were back in the USA some years ago! Who made these pipes? A concrete manufacturer was not known at first.

The rumors spreading were considerable. Especially because these Ben Wades – originally all blasted and in deep black color – featured so perfect straight and / or ring-grain that they were almost suspicious in view of the prices. The supposition that “Mother Nature” had been given a leg up by means of rustication combined with subsequent blasting was evident as different sources confirmed.

Dal also posted the following with some anecdotal information that linked the pipe he was working to Charatan. I quote:

I sent out pictures of some pictures and the nomenclature to various pipe Facebook groups and the responses I did get, though they were anecdotal, pointed to an earlier period. Paul, from Pipe Smoker of America FB Group, said that he believed it was a Pre-78 and made in Charatan factory. He also said that these were some of his best smokers are London BWs. It sounds good to me!

Following Dal’s lead I posted pictures of the stamping and the pipe on Facebook groups I am part of and hope to learn some more. Tom Myron, a good friend replied on the Gentlemen’s Pipe Smoking Society and wrote as follows:

Yeah, Steve, that’s absolutely a Charatan shape in their ‘After Hours’ style – 60s / 70s.

Jeff had done a great clean up of the pipe. He had reamed it with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. He cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He cleaned the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and the lava on the rim top. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the debris that had accumulated on it. The pipe looked clean and ready for the next step in the process. Here are some photos of it when I finally got around to working on it 5 years later. Look at the craggy sandblast on this pipe! Wow. I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim top and the stem surface. It looked amazingly good. The damage on the underside of the stem button is not as bad as I expected.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank to show the spacer and tenon on the pipe as it is quite unique. I also wanted to get a clear picture of the components of the pipe. It is a beauty.The pipe bowl was in such great condition that I did not need to do a lot of work on it. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. The depth of the blast is quite stunning. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I built up the tooth mark in the button surface with Medium Thick Black Super Glue. I sprayed it with a shot of accelerator to harden the surface and set the stem aside to cure overnight. In the morning I reshaped the button edge and surface with a small file.I sanded and reshaped the repaired area on the underside of the stem and the tooth chatter on the top side with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This is another pipe I am excited to finish. It is a Ben Wade Hand Model London Made Long Pot. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem with the golden acrylic spacer. It really was a beautiful pipe. The sandblasted grain shining through the rich browns/black stain on this Ben Wade Hand Model is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.08 ounces/59 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

An Easy Restore – Big Ben Presidential Imperial 188 Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago my wife and I had dinner with some good friends here in Vancouver – first time since COVID-19 so it was good to see them. At the beginning of the meal he handed me a box that he said was for me. In it were some pipes that he was giving to me and a bunch of cigars. The pipes included a very nice, lightly smoked Big Ben Canadian that I have included photos of below. It came in a black vinyl bag with the Big-Ben logo and name embossed on it. I took the pipe out and it was a well carved hefty Canadian with a smooth finish. It is stamped on the underside and reads Big-Ben [over] Presidential [over] Imperial. On the end of the underside of shank next to the stem it read 188 [over] Made in Holland. There was an inlaid cursive “B” on the top of the acrylic stem and there was light chatter on both sides near the button. The stem was quite shiny and included a silver spacer. It was going to be a beauty once cleaned up. I took photos of the pipe when I took it to the work table. There was a light cake in the bowl and the rim top had some dirty spots. The edges of the bowl – internal and external were in excellent condition. The shank and airways were lightly dirty with tars and oils. The finish was clean with a light dust on the surface. The stem was shiny with some light tooth chatter on the top and the underside near the button. The button itself was undamaged. Overall the pipe looked good even in its lightly used condition. It really was a stocky looking pipe with its thick oval Canadian shank and taper acrylic stem. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was smooth and other than some grime and debris it was in great shape. It is hard to see the light cake in the bowl but it is present (some is visible on the back side of the bowl in the photo below). I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the light tooth chatter. Over all the pipe was in great condition. I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-bigben.html). There were not any pictures of the series but the introductory information was helpful so I am including that.

Big-Ben is a brand of the Elbert Gubbels & Sons – Royal Dutch Pipe Factory. The company has gone bankrupt on March 2012. Production (2009): 250000 pipes/year See also: Amphora, Humbry, IRC, Roermond, Royal Dutch, Thompson and Porsche Design

I then turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben). I quote below:

The brand name Big Ben was originally owned by a small trade company in Amsterdam which was already well established in several countries selling pipes among other goods. The firm was bought by Elbert Gubbels & Zonen B.V. – see Gubbels – who were in search for a suitable brand name to further expansion on international markets. Big Ben became Gubbels’ mainstay brand with it’s own website

There was a further link to the Gubbels listing on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Gubbels).

With the help of his family the father of Elbert Gubbels Sr. started a retail shop for tobacco pipes and other smoker’s equipment in 1870.

In 1924 Elbert Gubbels Sr., now father/grandfather of the present owners, transformed it into a wholesale trade business. The company grew steadily and imported pipes from various countries as there were no factories producing briar pipes in the Netherlands. The most important suppliers came from France and England.

When German troops occupied the Netherlands in May of 1940, a period of almost five years began in which the Gubbels family could hardly operate their business at all. During this years of forced rest Elbert Gubbels had a notion to become independent of foreign suppliers and he drew up plans to start his own production of tobacco pipes after World War II.

Immediately succeeding the war it was very difficult to obtain good pipes for the import of foreign pipes was limited and so the time was right to go for something new. In 1946 he launched pipe production at Godsweerdersingel No. 20 in Roermond with a couple of new machines and some workers, a couple of them being foreign specialists and considered himself to commence. Yet the cramped accomodations and the needy equipment of the workshop showed the limits all too soon. It was obvious that the workshop was inadequate and Mr. Gubbels invested in another building covering an area of 900m² that also offered a sufficient warehouse. Now the production could be increased going hand in hand with developing new models and improving the quality of the pipes being produced.

The production grew steadily but it showed now that an “international” brand name was required for further expansion on international markets – obviously no one cared too much for pipes made in the Netherlands. Feeling that the time involved to get a new brand established was too lengthy, Mr. Gubbels bought a small trade company in Amsterdam which owned all the rights to the brand Big Ben and was already well established in other countries selling pipes among other goods. A real happenstance – Gubbels products could be marketed now in all European countries, the USA, Canada and many other countries, and nowadays they can be found in almost every country world-wide.

In December 1972 the company opened new and very modern factory in Roermond at Keulsebaan 505. With the official opening by the Governor of the Province of Limburg, the Gubbels company was, on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, granted the title “Royal” so that the official name became: Elbert Gubbels & Zonen – Koninklijke Fabriek van Tabakspijpen (Elbert Gubbels & Sons – Royal Dutch Pipe Factory).

Armed with that history and having a sense of the brand it was now time to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

Restoring a Brigham Made in Canada (1Dot) 189 Bent Acorn

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago my wife and I had dinner with some good friends here in Vancouver – first time since COVID-19 so it was good to see them. At the beginning of the meal he handed me a box that he said was for me. In it were some pipes that he was giving to me and a bunch of cigars. The pipes included two Brigham rusticated pipes that I have included photos of below. The two pipes in the photo were clean but well smoked. The bowls had light cake and some lava and darkening on the rim top. The stems were lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I decided I would work on them next. I finished the Sportsman Dublin first and now turned my attention to the second pipe. It is a classic Brigham Shape I call an acorn. It is well carved with a rusticated finish and a smooth rim top. It is stamped on the underside and reads 189 followed by Brigham [over] Made in Canada. There was one dot on the stem side and tooth chatter and oxidation. It was going to be a beauty once cleaned up. I took photos of the pipe when it brought it to the desk top. There was a moderate cake in the bowl in the bowl with lava overflowing into the rim top. There were some dark spots on the top of the rim on the front and the back sides. There was also some damage on the inner edge of the rim that would need to be dealt with. The shank and airways were dirty with tars and oil. The finish was dirty and would need scrubbing. I was hoping to bring it back to the natural finish. There was no Hard Rock Maple filter in the tenon and the pipe smelled of stale tobacco. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was some light tooth chatter to the top or underside of the stem. The button had no damage. Overall the pipe looked good even though it was a dirty one. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was smooth with some nicks and dents in the surface. It also had some darkening around the top and damage to the inner edges. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter. Over all the pipe was in okay condition.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and t it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Roy Brigham, after serving an apprenticeship under an Austrian pipesmith, started his own pipe repair shop in Toronto, in 1906. By 1918 the business had grown to include five other craftsmen and had developed a reputation across Canada for the high quality of workmanship. After repairing many different brands of pipes over the years, Roy noted certain recurring complaints by pipe smokers, the most common referred to as “tongue bite”. Tongue bite is a burning sensation on the smoker’s tongue, previously thought to be due to the heat of the smoke (i.e. a “hot smoking pipe”).

He soon began manufacturing his own pipes, which were lightweight, yet featured a more rugged construction, strengthening the weak points observed in other pipes. The problem of tongue bite intrigued him, and he decided to make overcoming it a future goal.

About 1938, Roy’s son Herb joined him to assist in the business. The business barely survived the great depression because pipes were considered to be a luxury, not a necessity, and selling pipes was difficult indeed. In approximately 1937 [1], after some experimentation, Roy and Herb discovered that tongue bite was in fact a form of mild chemical burn to the tongue, caused by tars and acids in the smoke. They found that by filtering the smoke, it was possible to retain the flavour of the tobacco and yet remove these impurities and thereby stop the tongue bite.

Just as Thomas Edison had searched far and wide for the perfect material from which to make the first electric light bulb filaments, Roy & Herb began experimenting with many materials, both common and exotic, in the quest for the perfect pipe filter. Results varied wildly. Most of the materials didn’t work at all and some actually imparted their own flavour into the smoke. They eventually found just two materials that were satisfactory in pipes: bamboo and rock maple. As bamboo was obviously not as readily available, rock maple then became the logical choice.

They were able to manufacture a replaceable hollow wooden tube made from rock maple dowelling, which when inserted into a specially made pipe, caused absolutely no restriction to the draw of the pipe, yet extracted many of the impurities which had caused tongue bite. The result was indeed a truly better smoking pipe…

Interestingly the pipe I have in hand is a 1 Dot grade but very well done. It is stamped with the shape number 189 followed by Brigham [over] Made in Canada.

Charles Lemon has also written a great article on the stampings and marking on the Brigham pipes that fit into a time line that he has drafted. It is well worth a read and is fascinating. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes_%E2%80%93_A_Closer_Look_at_Dots,_Dates_and_Markings). I quote from the pertinent section on the time frame for this pipe.

Around the late 1960s or early 1970s, at the beginning of what I’ve called the Canadian Era (roughly 1970 – 1980), the stampings changed again as Brigham moved to modernize its logo. Pipes are stamped with the 3-digit shape number and “Brigham” over “Made in Canada”. Note these two variants of this stamping.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Canadian Era (1969/70-1980). It is a great looking pipe with the classic rusticated style of finish.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Brigham pipes are renown in the pipe world for their famous “Brigham Dots”, a system of brass pins inset in the stem to denote the grade of each pipe. The original 8-grade pinning system, used for 42 years between 1938 and 1978 (spanning the Patent, Post-Patent and Canadian Eras) looked like this:I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1969-1980 from Canadian Era. It sports 1 dot making it Brigham Standard pipe. There is a 189 shape number on the pipe. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the light cake from the bowl walls. It was uneven and needed to be removed so I took it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls. I worked on the damage to the rim top and the inner edge of the rim with 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better.I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with a tooth brush with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it to remove the build up on the rim top. I rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl.I polished the darkening on the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads to remove as much of the darkening as I could. Once it was complete I stained the rim top with an Oak stain pen to match the smooth portions of the finish on the shank end and underside. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed it with Soft Scrub All Purpose cleaner to remove the oxidation as much as possible. It needed to be clean before I could address the tooth marks.Once it was clean I “painted” the tooth marks and chatter with the flame of a lighter. I was able to raise all of the damage on the underside of the stem and the majority on the topside. I lightly sanded the topside with 220 grit sandpaper to prepare for the repair. I filled in the tooth marks that remained with black superglue and set the stem aside to cure. Once it cured I flattened out the repaired area with a small file to start the process of blending it into the surrounding briar. I sanded the surface with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining oxidation and also finish blending in the repair. I started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. It is beginning to look quite good. I polished the surface of the stem on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this 1969-1980 Brigham Made in Canada Acorn 189 – 1 Dot from the Canadian Era. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham Standard 1 Dot 189 Acorn is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Made in Canada Brigham (2 Dot) Sportsman Bent Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago my wife and I had dinner with some good friends here in Vancouver – first time since COVID-19 so it was good to see them. At the beginning of the meal he handed me a box that he said was for me. In it were some pipes that he was giving to me and a bunch of cigars. The pipes included to Brigham rusticated pipes that I have included photos of below. The two pipes in the photo were clean but well smoked. The bowls had light cake and some lava and darkening on the rim top. The stems were lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I decided I would work on them next. I turned to the first of them, a Brigham 2 Dot Sportsman Dublin from Brigham’s unfinished line. It is well carved but the finish is partially unfinished and there is no stain or topping coat on it. It is stamped on the underside and reads Made in Canada followed by the Brigham logo. There were two dots on the stem side and tooth chatter and oxidation. It was going to be a beauty once cleaned up. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived. There was a light cake in the bowl in the bowl with lava overflowing into the rim top. The shank and airways seem to be dirty with tars and oil. The finish was dirty and would need scrubbing. I was hoping to bring it back to the natural finish. It had a clean Hard Rock Maple filter in the tenon and the pipe smelled surprisingly clean. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was some light tooth chatter to the top or underside of the stem. The button had no damage. Overall the pipe looked good even though it was a dirty one. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was smooth and covered in lava at the back of the bowl. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked very good. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter. Over all the pipe was in okay condition.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

I remembered that Charles had done a blog on a pair of Brigham Sportsman pipes for his Dadspipes Blog. I looked that up to get a bit of background on this series of pipes so I could understand it better (https://dadspipes.com/2017/05/04/a-bevy-of-brighams-part-iii-a-pair-of-unsmoked-3-dot-sportsman-pipes/). I quote a section of the blog below:

For those unfamiliar with this series, the Sportsman pipes were roughly shaped, semi-finished and sold each year at the Toronto Sportsman’s Show as rugged, rough-and-ready pipes suitable for bringing along to the cottage, hunt camp, fishing lodge or campground. The briar blocks were factory drilled, had the top half or so of the bowl machine-turned, and were fitted with a stem containing the Brigham filter system. The bottom half of the bowl and the shank were left roughly carved. Many of the Sportsman pipes were graded at a 3 Dot level, though I believe they were available in 3, 4 and 5 Dot grades.

Interestingly the pipe I have in hand is a 2 Dot grade but very well done. It is stamped Made in Canada followed by the Brigham logo.

The patent on the Brigham filter system expired in 1955, ushering in the Post-Patent Era (1956 – roughly 1969). The “CAN PAT” stamp was replaced by a “Made in Canada” stamp in block letters. The 1960s saw the introduction of new product lines, including the Norsemen and Valhalla series of rusticated and smooth (respectively) freehand-style pipes created to capitalize on the growing demand for Danish pipe shapes.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Post-Patent Era (1956-1969). It is a great looking pipe with the Sportsman style of finish.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Brigham pipes are reknown in the pipe world for their famous “Brigham Dots”, a system of brass pins inset in the stem to denote the grade of each pipe. The original 8-grade pinning system, used for 42 years between 1938 and 1978 (spanning the Patent, Post-Patent and Canadian Eras) looked like this:I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1956-1969 from the Post-Patent Era. It sports 2 dot making it Brigham Select pipe but the fact that it is a Sportsman Series pipe I am not sure that the dot information applies. There is not a shape number on the pipe. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the light cake from the bowl walls. It was uneven and needed to be removed so I took it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls. I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with a tooth brush with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it to remove the build up on the rim top. I rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth.I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with 220 and then started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished out the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this 1956-1969 Post-Patent Era Brigham Sportsman 2 Dot Dublin. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. 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 and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rustic finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rustic Brigham Sportsman 2 Dot Dublin is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.90 ounces/54 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Brigham (1 Dot) Rusticated 184 Bent Volcano

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago a fellow in Eastern Canada was selling a foursome of Brigham rusticated pipes on Facebook. Jeff contacted him and we became the new owners of the pipes. He sent us some photos of the pipes that I have included below. It did not take long for them to arrive here in Vancouver. When they did I was amazed at how good they looked. Two of them were relatively clean and two were used. The top two pipes in the photo were clean and the bottom two were still dirty with cake and debris in the bowls. I decided I would work on them next. I turned to the final pipe of the lot a Bent Volcano shape – the second from the bottom in the photos below as marked by the red box outlining it. It is stamped on the underside with the shape number 184 on the shank followed further down the shank by Brigham. It was by far the most used of the four pipes. It had the thickest cake in the bowl, lava on the rim top and some damage to the end of the metal tenon/keeper for the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator. It was also probably the newest of the lot of four but I would figure that out as I worked on it. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived. There was some damage on the inner edge with the bowl being out of round. There was a moderate cake in the bowl in the bowl with lava overflowing into the rustication of the rim top. The shank and airways seem to be dirty with tars and oil. It did not have the Hard Rock Maple filter in the shank but the interior smelled strongly of tobacco. The stem was very clean and shiny without any tooth damage to the top or underside of the stem. The button was clean with no damage. Overall the pipe looked good even though it was a dirty one. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was rusticated and covered in lava heavily at the back of the bowl. You can see the damage on the inner edge of the bowl making it out of round and the thick cake that is present. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the lack of tooth marks and chatter. Over all the pipe was in okay condition.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.I took a photo of the rim top to show how out of round the bowl was and of the damage on the end of the aluminum Distillator holder/tenon. I have included them below. The red arrow shows one of the spots where the damage is visible.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

I have dubbed the decades between 1980 and 2000 the Late Canadian Era, a period that saw several changes at Brigham that are of note to the collector. First, the traditional 8-grade pinning system (the famous Brigham “Dots” which denoted the quality of the pipe) was changed to a 7-grade system to simplify pinning (more on this below), and the Norsemen and Valhalla series were merged to form the President Series, which represented the very finest pipes coming out of the Toronto factory. Early pipes from this era (left, below) are stamped with a shape number and “Brigham” over “Canada”; later pipes (late 1980s+, on right below) are stamped simply with a shape number and the Brigham logo.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Late Canadian Era (1980-2000). It is a great looking pipe with an older style rustication pattern than the later Brighams that I have worked on.

Charles also put together a chart that helps the restorer to understand the Brigham dot system. I quote from the same link on Pipedia as noted above.

Revised Dot System 1980

Brigham changed the Dot system in 1980, adding a 7 Dot at the top of the line, dropping the names of each series and eliminating the confusing vertical and horizontal 3 Dot configurations. The Norsemen and Valhalla series were combined to form the President series of freehand pipes, which adopted a 3 Dot pattern with a larger dot on the right as shown below. The 7- grade pinning system stayed in place from 1980 to 2001. I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1980-2000 from the Late Canadian Era. It sports 1 dot making it Brigham Series 100 pipe with a 3 digit shape number 184. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the light cake from the bowl walls. It was uneven and needed to be removed so I took it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls. I cleaned up the damage to the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and made the bowl edge both smooth and round.I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with a brass bristle wire brush and a tooth brush with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it to remove the build up on the rim top. I rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. I touched up the stain on the rim top and edges with a Maple Stain Pen to match the surrounding colour of the briar. Once it is buffed and polished I think it will look good.I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished out the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I also polished out the damaged end of the aluminum tube. I was not perfect but it was smooth and held the filter in place. I dry sanded the stem and tenon with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this Late Canadian Era Made in Canada Brigham 184 Bent Volcano. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pin was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham 184 Volcano is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.55 ounces/44 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Post-Patent Era Made in Canada Brigham Rusticated 217 Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago a fellow in Eastern Canada was selling a foursome of Brigham rusticated pipes on Facebook. Jeff contacted him and we became the new owners of the pipes. He sent us some photos of the pipes that I have included below. It did not take long for them to arrive here in Vancouver. When they did I was amazed at how good they looked. Two of them were relatively clean and two were used. The top two pipes in the photo were clean and the bottom two were still dirty with cake and debris in the bowls. I decided I would work on them next. I started with the Straight Rhodesian shaped pipe – the first one in the photos below as marked by the red box outlining it. It is stamped on the underside with the shape number 217 on the heel of the bowl followed further down the shank by Made in Canada followed by Brigham. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived. It was clean other than some ash in the bowl and in the airway. The finish was quite clean and the aluminum tenon also is clean. It did not have the Hard Rock Maple filter in the shank but it appeared to be very clean. The stem was very clean and shiny with no tooth marks on the top or underside of the stem. The button was very clean as well with no damage. Overall the pipe looked very good. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was smooth. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show how clean it looked. Over all the pipe was in good condition. I would need to run pipe cleaners through to remove the carbon in the bowl. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Post-Patent Era (1956-1969). It is a great looking pipe with an older style rustication pattern than the later Brighams that I have worked on.

Charles also put together a chart that helps the restorer to understand the Brigham dot system. I quote from the same link on Pipedia as noted above.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Brigham pipes are renown in the pipe world for their famous “Brigham Dots”, a system of brass pins inset in the stem to denote the grade of each pipe. The original 8-grade pinning system, used for 42 years between 1938 and 1978 (spanning the Patent, Post-Patent and Canadian Eras) looked like this: I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1956-1969 from the Post-Patent Era. It sports 2 dots making it Brigham Select pipe with a 3 digit shape number 217. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl. I also wiped down the inside of the bowl with a paper towel. to remove the carbon dust that was there.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped rim top down with a damp cloth to wipe off the dust and debris. It started to look very good. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. There were tooth marks (light but present) on both sides ahead of the button. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the marks. I polished out the scratches remaining in the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem and them wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this Post-Patent Era Made in Canada Brigham 217 Rhodesian. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham 217 Rhodesian (Bulldog) is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.34 ounces/38 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Post-Patent Era, Made in Canada Brigham Select Rusticated 202 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago a fellow in Eastern Canada was selling a foursome of Brigham rusticated pipes on Facebook. Jeff contacted him and we became the new owners of the pipes. He sent us some photos of the pipes that I have included below. It did not take long for them to arrive here in Vancouver. When they did I was amazed at how good they looked. Two of them were relatively clean and two were used. The top two pipes in the photo were clean and the bottom two were still dirty with cake and debris in the bowls. I decided I would work on them next. I chose the Straight Billiard shaped pipe next – the bottom one in the photos below as marked by the red box outlining it. It is stamped on the underside with the shape number 202 on the heel of the bowl followed further down the shank by Made in Canada followed by Brigham. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived. There was some damage on the inner edge and a light cake in the bowl. The shank and airways seem to be dirty with tars and oil. It did not have the Hard Rock Maple filter in the shank but it smelled dirty. The stem was very clean with light tooth marks on the top or underside of the stem. The button was clean with no damage. Overall the pipe looked very good. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was smooth but you can see the damage on the inner edge of the bowl and the cake that is present. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter. Over all the pipe was in good condition. I would need to run pipe cleaners through to remove the carbon in the bowl.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Charles also put together a chart that helps the restorer to understand the Brigham dot system. I quote from the same link on Pipedia as noted above.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Brigham pipes are renown in the pipe world for their famous “Brigham Dots”, a system of brass pins inset in the stem to denote the grade of each pipe. The original 8-grade pinning system, used for 42 years between 1938 and 1978 (spanning the Patent, Post-Patent and Canadian Eras) looked like this: I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1956-1969 from the Post-Patent Era. It sports 2 dots making it Brigham Select pipe with a 3 digit shape number 202. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the light cake from the bowl walls. It was uneven and needed to be removed so I took it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls. I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl. I cleaned up the damage to the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and made the bowl edge both smooth and round.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped rim top down with a damp cloth to wipe off the dust and debris. It started to look very good. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. There were tooth marks (light but present) on both sides ahead of the button. I “painted” the surface of both sides with the flame of a Bic lighter and was able to lift the marks. I sanded the remnants smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the marks. I polished out the scratches remaining in the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem and them wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this Post-Patent Era Made in Canada Brigham Select 202 Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham 202 Billiard is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.16 ounces/33 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Refreshing a Late Canadian Era Brigham Canada Rusticated 2 Dot Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago a fellow in Eastern Canada was selling a foursome of Brigham rusticated pipes on Facebook. Jeff contacted him and we became the new owners of the pipes. It did not take long for them to arrive here in Vancouver. When they did I was amazed at how good they looked. Two of them were relatively clean and two were used. The top two pipes in the photo were clean and the bottom two were still dirty with cake and debris in the bowls. I decided I would work on them next. I started with the Bent Billiard – the second one down in the photos below as marked by the red box outlining it. Stamped on the underside with the number 2 on the heel of the bowl followed further down the shank by Brigham [over] Canada. He sent us photos of the pipes we bought. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived. It was clean other than some ash in the bowl and in the airway. The finish was quite clean and the aluminum tenon also is clean. It did not have the Hard Rock Maple filter in the shank but it appeared to be very clean. The stem was very clean and shiny with no tooth marks on the top or underside of the stem. The button was very clean as well with no damage. Overall the pipe looked very good. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show how clean it looked. Over all the pipe was in good condition. I would need to run pipe cleaners through to remove the carbon in the bowl.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but it reads as noted above in the photos.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Late Canadian Era (1980-2000). It is a great looking pipe with a slightly different rustication pattern than some of the early Brighams I have worked on.

Charles also put together a chart that helps the restorer to understand the Brigham dot system. I quote from the same link on Pipedia as noted above.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Revised Dot System 1980 — Brigham changed the Dot system in 1980, adding a 7 Dot at the top of the line, dropping the names of each series and eliminating the confusing vertical and horizontal 3 Dot configurations. The Norsemen and Valhalla series were combined to form the President series of freehand pipes, which adopted a 3 Dot pattern with a larger dot on the right as shown below. The 7- grade pinning system stayed in place from 1980 to 2001. I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1980 and 2000 from the Late Canadian Era. It sports 2 dots making it a Series 200 pipe. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl. I also wiped down the inside of the bowl with a paper towel. to remove the carbon dust that was there.I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I polished out the light tooth scratches in the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem and them wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this Brigham 2 Bent Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham 2 Dot Bent Billiard is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.66 ounces/47 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.