Blog by Steve Laug

I actually really like the flow and look of Celius pipes but often they are quite large. This one is more moderate. I am looking forward to working on it. I will take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This pipe was purchased from an auction on 06/07/2020 from a seller in Cape Coral, Florida, USA so it has been here for a while. I think it is also hepful for you to understand why we take the photos we do. If you have followed for a while then you will see the familiar pattern of the photos we include both in the before and midstream process of working on a pipe. You may even flip through them quickly after the first couple. But it is not accidental or chance that we include these photos. They have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. Over the past 10-12 years (or more) we have honed down what photos I need to look at. The photos also record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and help me assess what kind of work will need to be done on. This is what I see.

1. The first thing I see is a classic Danish freehand whose shape “chases the grain”. The angles and shape are servant to the grain and this one has great straight and flame grain around the bowl and shank sides.
2. The smooth finish is dirty with a lot of dust and debris ground into the finish. There is some darkening from hand oils on the sides of the bowl. From the exterior it does not appear that there are any cracks in the grain or in the flaws of the briar.
3. The angled plateau rim top had a thick lava overflow from the cake in the bowl. The inner edge is darkened and dirty with lava. It is hard to know if there is darkening or damage under the lava. Sometimes the lava protects the rim top and edges and sometime it hides issues. Its is very dirty looking and the lava is certainly heavier on the back side of the top and edges of the bowl..
4. The bowl has a thick cake that hides the bowl walls but once it is clean we will know what is going on. The outer edges look good and there does not appear to be any obvious burn damage to the bowl walls that is visible through the cake.
5. The fancy vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition – dirty, heavily oxidized and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. There are no logos on the stem sides or top.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is classic Celius as recognizable by the shape of the stem and the cut of the bowl. It will look very good once it is cleaned up. The grain, even in its dirty condition is very stunning. The pipe is a classic Danish Freehand with a shape that follows the grain really well. The photos below confirm the assessment above. The close up photos give a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and plateau top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The rim top and the inner edge of the rim are lava coated. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has lava and debris on it. While there is thick lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point. The bowl is still fairly round. The photos of the stem surface from various angles confirmed my assessment of its condition. You can see the dirty condition, the oxidation and the fit against the shank end. The surface has scattered scratching, tooth marks and chatter on both sides. The next photos show the grain around the heel and the sides of the bowl. Tell me what you see? Are there any visible problems that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? Do you see a pattern that stands out around the bowl and heel? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? Even the questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. You have read it a few times now in the previous blogs. What am I looking for when I look at the shank stamp? In this case it is stamped on the underside and reads CELIUS [over] ROOT [over] Denmark in three lines. On the right side near the shank bowl union it reads BISHOP 13. How does the stamping look to you? Is it clear and readable? Is it faint in spots or is it uniform? I know you are looking at photos but so do I at this point in the process. What is your assessment? The only thing I see that makes me wonder is the fill/flaw that goes vertically through the “O” in Bishop. That will need to be explored.An added part of pipe restoration for me is the opportunity to gather background information on a brand and maker to add depth to the restoration. I almost always turn to Pipephil’s site first for a summary. In this case it did not let me down (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c3.html). I have included a screen capture of the section below. I have also included a copy of the side bar information that gives a brief glimpse of the brand.Other markings on Celius pipes:

“Root” corresponds to plateau rim pipes. The numerical code on “Chess” pieces designates the shape. Some pipes are stamped “Zenia”. They occurred after his daughter’s birth and are named for her. “Randsborg” or “Randsborg crafted” is a crazy stamping having no special meaning.

Artisan: Svend Axel Celius († 1999) started learning his craft about 1960 at Suhr’s Pibemageri. He opened his own pipe manufacture in 1963 but closed down for unknown reasons in the middle of the 1970’s. Celius continued to realize pipes alone until the late 1980’s.

Two important pipe lines:

• The “Fantasy” (sometimes stamped “Fancy”) which are eccentric freehand shapes.
  “Fantasy” line grading (ascending): from 1 to 6
• The “Chess” line is the most important and their gading follow chess pieces.
  “Chess” line grading (ascending): Pawn (sand-blasted), Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen and King

I turned then to the listing on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Celius). The article there gave much more information on the brand and carver. I have included the information from there below.

Svend Axel Celius started around 1959/60 at Suhr’s Pibemageri in Copenhagen, where he learned the craft of pipemaking from Poul Rasmussen (†), but presumeably even more from Sven Knudsen, Rasmussen’s foreman. Young Celius was obviously a bright boy being one of the very first Danes who sensed the beginning boom for Danish fancy pipes looming first of all in the huge US market. And so he went off for self-employment founding a pipe manufacture in the former dairy building of Bogø By on the small island Bogø in 1963.

So he definitely improved the shining hour, because he was one of the first, who was able to supply these innovative Danish freehands in considerable large numbers to the States. Smaller quantities went to Germany. Here however he didn’t become as famous as in the USA, where especially his better pieces gained cult status. In other respects Celius’ business developed well, too. For instance he was contracted by W.Ø. Larsen of Copenhagen to supply pipes as Hans Jonny Nielsen (→ Former), at that time master of Larsen’s workshop, confirmed. Anyhow, in it’s best times Celius’ manufacture employed close to 20 co-workers.

But all the same, Celius wasn’t able to make this periodically big success an enduring success. If this depended on mercantilistic deficiencies or if the often claimed minor quality of the bulk of his pipes caused the decline, will presumeably remain an unanswered question. As well it mustn’t be disregarded that there were mighty – if not superior – concurrents in the field of mainly machine-made semi-freehands like the manufactures of Erik Nørding, Karl Erik (†), Preben Holm (†), Søren and others more. Celius moved away from Bogø around 1970 and sold his shop and the Celius name to a man named Jens Peter Ransborg, who continued with the business until 1975-76, when he closed the shop. During this period some of the Celius pipes were also stamped “Ransborg”.

Shortly after Ransborg closed the shop, Celius returned to see if he could make another go of it. One of Celius’s original employees was a pipemaker by the name of Henning Andersen who worked part time with Celius during his second run in the business. Andersen’s son, Stig related an account that his father helped with the Celius pipes as well as a small production of handmade pipes for Stanwell. Andersen also worked along side Celius from the beginning on Bogø and later for Ransborg, making many of the fantasy pipes and other handmades. Many thanks to Stig for his help with this information.

The second period was characterized by many ups and downs, and his success remained inconstant and changeable. He never managed to match the top quality of his teacher Rasmussen or the students of Rasmussen’s workshop like Sven Knudsen, Former Nielsen or Tom Eltang. Svend Axel Celius moved to Fyn in the late 1980’s and lived there until his death around 1999/2000

Essentially three lines of Celius pipes can be described:

• Fantasy line: these are those well-known “wild to slightly crazy” shaped fancy freehands. Predominantly stamped “Fantasy”, there are however also pipes Celius stamped “Fancy”. Today it is sheerly impossible to decide whether “Fantasy” and “Fancy” were temporarily made in coexistence, or whether the “Fancy” functioned more or less as a successor of the “Fantasy” in one of Celius’ new starts. “Fantasy” and “Fancy” both have a grading by number from 1 – 6 (although 5 is unconfirmed). Chip Fadeley, who has owned a grade 2 and 6 has recently acquired a grade 1. Chip reports the following: ” I own a Celius Fantasy stamped #6. I also own another which is a rusticated sitter, and it’s stamped #2. I’ve not met anyone who has heard of or seen a Celius rusticated pipe. The #6 is a smooth pipe with nothing fancy about the straight grain, and plateau briar top and partial on the shank’s end. The shape is somewhat unusual because it has a long pointed front; and it has two separate flat spots on one side to perfectly accommodate the pairs of fingers made next to the index finger and pinky finger of a right-handed person. The stamping Celius Fantasy Denmark appear exactly the same in slant and font style and height on both pipes… The #6 appears to have a rounded bottom when viewing it from the front and back; however, it appears pointed on either side. The index and ring finger can also be used singly with the thumb overtop the shank depending on how you want to hold this pipe…
• Zenia line: pipes in classical forms. They are named for his daughter Zenia, Celius delivered this line for a limited time only.
• Chess line: the most important group of Celius pipes. The grading of these typical Danish freehands is borrowed from the chess pieces: Pawn (sand-blasted), Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen to King. Pipes, where the natural bark of the briar was left at the rim of the bowl, were called and additionally stamped “Root”. Furthermore these pipes had numbers from 1 to 31 (as far as known today). The numbers, we can take that for certain, denominate the shape. But please note that they surely have not the same binding character as the shape numbers of other manufacturers– they rather stand for a basic form, that was modified often.

Remaining a mystery is why some Queen pipes are stamped with additional capital letters and why other (= few) pipes of the Chess line are stamped with “by hand”.

Result: The quality of Celius’ pipes is widely disputed. Lovers of the typical Danish Fancy pipes will however enjoy Celius’ shapes – many of them later appeared again elsewhere. In the Chess line, that is also credited with very independent forms, one may find pipes of partly excellent wood quality from the Knight grade upwards. What tempers delight is the fact that many nice Celius pipe is only good but surely far away from excellent concerning the overall craftsmanship.

That information gave me what I wanted to know on the Celius in hand. It is part of the Chess Line and is a Bishop. The natural bark on the rim top is what designated it as a Root. The pipes were also number from 1-31 and this one is a 13 so either way you count it is middle of the range.

I am sure many of you will shake your head and ask maybe even out loud, “Why is he including this again?” However, please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow your with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. Now that I have it in hand I am looking for confirmation of what I saw in the photos as well as any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

1. It really is a nice looking freehand who shape does “chase the grain” like I expected from the photos above. The grain is even better in person than in the photos.
2. The smooth finish is very clean dust and debris is gone. The oils came out of the sides of the bowl leaving behind the rich grain. The pipe was very smooth finish in the hand and looks great. There are no cracks showing up around the bowl and shank. It is sound on the outside. I will need to polish the briar and buff it to bring back the shine.
3. The angled plateau rim top is clean from lava and the cake is clear of the bowl. The inner edge is darkened and shows some damage once the lava is gone.
4. The bowl was very clean and smelled clean. The clean walls did not show evidence of checking or cracking. There were no hot spots or damage on the walls or around the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was clean and smooth which is great news for me. Both the shank and the bowl were very clean showing no debris on a clean pipe clean run through them. I would need to give it a final cleaning with pipe cleaners and alcohol once I had finished with the external work to remove the debris that may have collected there in the process.
5. The fancy vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition – it cleaned up very well. All oxidation is gone. It is a little rough to the touch and the light chatter and tooth marks are clearly not deep at all. The fit of the stem to the shank end is well done.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the lava was removed, darkening to the edge and top was revealed as well as some roughness on the inner edge. The rim top and edges otherwise look very good. I also go over the stem carefully. There were light tooth marks or dents in the stem surface or button. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. It looks very good still. I like to remove the stem from the shank to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape. By this time you should know that I almost always start with the bowl in my restoration because I truly do not like the tedious work of stem repairs and polishing. I always leave that until last even though I know that it needs to be done. For me the encouragement of seeing a rejuvenated bowl is the impetus I need to attack the stem work.

Today I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the darkening and burn damage on the rim edges and top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reshape and remove the rim top and damage. It took a little work but I was able to remove all of the darkening. It is a beautiful piece of briar with some great grain.Once rim top was reshaped and reworked I needed to blend it into the rest of the briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I also work over the plateau areas at the same time. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. For the past few years now I have been using a product called Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and into the plateau with a horse hair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes to do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the grain shone through. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in good nick other than the light tooth chatter on both sides. I like to try to lift the tooth marks as much as possible before doing further repairs on the surface. I “painted” the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the marks in the stem. It worked really well and sanding would take care of the rest. I sanded the remaining marks out with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and polished it with 600 grit sandpaper. I was happy with the results. Once finished removing the tooth chatter it is time to polish the stem. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. After the first three pads I touched up the stamping on the stem with White Acrylic Fingernail Polish. I scraped it off with my fingernail and repeated the 2400 grit sanding pad. It looked much better. I picked up where I left off with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. The briar and stem just shone! I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains and the dark brown stain of the plateau rim top looks perfect on this Celius Root Denmark Bishop 13 Freehand. The finished 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: 3 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 I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Maker section.

Hopefully the shape writing this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. As always I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. 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.