Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking sandblast black and brown Billiard with a thin silver band/adornment and an acrylic stem that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on a smooth patch on the underside of the shank reads Stanwell [over] Relief in script. The shape number 12 is on the right side of the stamp toward the top of the smooth panel. The thin silver band on the shank has stamping. The acrylic taper stem has a silver Stanwell Crown S inlaid. The pipe is a nice looking sandblast. It is light weight and comfortable to hold. The pipe came in a pipe sock stamped with a horse and carriage in an oval [over] Stanwell. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in good condition.This is what I saw when I took it out of the pipe sock.

1. The finish was very good with only some light dust in the grain around the bowl side. The dark brown/black stain is dull but the it really highlights the grain around the bowl sides and shank
2. The smooth rim top looked very good with some light darkening but not much. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
4. The band is silver and looks to be good condition. It is undamaged and clean. The thin band looks really good with the “Relief” finish and the smooth rim top.
5. The acrylic taper stem has a silver Crown S logo that identifies it as a Stanwell pipe. It is in excellent condition with just some light tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside ahead of the button.

To summarize what I saw – this Stanwell Relief Sandblast 12 Billiard is a well made pipe. It is a little dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. There does not appear to be any calcification on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The rim top is clean does not seem to have any damage to the smooth finish. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem to show the condition of each one. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping a smooth patch on the underside of the shank. It read as I have noted above. I took a photo of the logo on the left side of the stem as well. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion.Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and rings around bowl cap. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. The light sandblast finish looks very good and has a real touch of beauty.   I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. Though I know that it does not do much with the acrylic I find that it still adds depth to the final shine on the stem which grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I took the Stanwell Relief 12 Sandblast Billiard bowl to wax and polish. I don’t buff the sandblast bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the finis. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The contrast of the dark stain on the briar with the shine of the polished acrylic stem is quite stunning. The rich sandblast finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The Stanwell Relief 12 Sandblast Billiard is a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 46 grams/1.62 ounces. This is a great looking Stanwell Relief 12 Billiard. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section. If you want to add it to your rack let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.