By Al Jones

“Faders” was a storied Baltimore, Maryland area tobacconist. They opened in 1891 and closed in 2018, another classic shop felled by the Maryland tobacco tax increase. They had three locations, one of which was the meeting space for the Chesapeake PIpe Club. I was a fan of their “Maharaja” English blend and was sorry to see them close their doors. Like many larger metropolitan shops, they had some of the classic British makes, create their stamped shop pipes. This one was made by GBD and is their unmistakable 9438 Rhodesian shape. If you read this blog, you know I’m a big fan of GBD’s and in particular the 9438. So, I was thrilled to see this “English Rough” pipe show up on eBay. Below is a collage of Faders photos (copied from Pipedia) and pictures of the pipe as it was delivered.

The pipe had some old cake and a heavily oxidized stem. The stem also had several deep teeth indentions on both sides. There was a remnant of an “F” stem stamp. There is no 9438 stamp, but the COM is definitely GBD.

I believe that the slight damage to the bowl rings were made during manufacture and I suspect that is what kept the pipe from being stamped a first line GBD Prehistoric.

I used my reamer set to remove the cake, and found the bowl to be in very good condition. A lighter and heat gun was used to lift some of the teeth indention’s. I couldn’t remove them all.

The bowl was soaked with sea salt and alcohol. After the soak, I used a bristle brush to thoroughly clean the shank and draft hole. I mounted the stem and used 600, 800, 1,500 and 2,000 grade wet paper to remove the oxidation. I didn’t try to save the faded and shallow “F” stamp. I then used 8,000 and 12,000 grade micromesh on the stem. The stem was buffed with White Diamond and Meguiars Plastic polish. The bowl was hand polished with Halycon wax.

Below is the finished pipe. I’ll keep this one down in Louisiana at my daughters home, where we frequently travel.