Blog by Steve Laug

This particular pipe came to us from our source in Copenhagen, Denmark on 01/26/2023. We have purchased a lot of good pipe from him over the past several years. The pipe was stamped on the topside of the shank and read Jensen [over] Made in Denmark. On the underside of the shank it is stamped either 08 or 80 depending on how you look at it. The rustication on the bowl and the smooth shank on the Canadian make it comfortable in the hand. It has some nice mixed grain on the shank sides and the sandblast on the bowl shows a lot depth. The finish was dirty with hand oils and grime ground into the finish. The blasted rim top had lava from the bowl and darkening in the rough finish. The inner edge of the rim also has thick lava and a thick cake lining the bowl walls. The stem has a short vulcanite taper stem. The stem has light tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The pipe is very dirty but you can see the beauty through the grime. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he worked his magic in the cleanup process. Jeff took some close up photos of the sandblast rim top and inner edge of the bowl to give an idea of the filthy condition the pipe was in when he received it. I am sure glad that this was another one that he worked on. The bowl has a thick cake and the blast on the rim top is almost filled in with the lava overflow at the back of the bowl. The stem was lightly oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides. Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl and heel to show the sandblast finish around pipe. You can see the grime and the oils in the finish that are ground into the bowl. You can also see the scratches and nicks in the finish. The next series of photos capture the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. The shape number on the underside of the shank can be read as either 08 or 80. The is a faint GJ stamp on the top side of the stem. When I brought the pipe to the worktable this is what I saw. Jeff had reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. The lava mess on the rim was thoroughly removed without harming the finish underneath it. Without the grime the finish looked really good. He soaked the stem in Before and After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it under running water and dried it off with a clean cloth. He cleaned out the airway with pipe cleaners and alcohol. When it arrived here in Vancouver it was very clean. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. It really is quite a beauty.  I took close up photos of both the rim top and the stem. Jeff had been able to get the grime and lava out of the plateau on the rim top and it looked pretty incredible. There was some darkening on the high spots on the sandblast rim top and edges. The stem looked very clean. The tooth marks and chatter were minimal and should be easy to remove.The stamping was still readable and curved around the underside of the shank. It reads as noted above. I also took a photo with the stem removed to give an idea of the perspective and design of the pipe. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the grooves and crevices of the sandblast finish of the bowl and shank with my fingers and a horsehair shoe brush. I want the product to go deep into the finish because it works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. Once I was confident that it was deeply worked into the blast I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth to polish it. The pipe really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The blast has depth and the grain really stands out on the shank in the photos below. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I sanded out the tooth chatter and marks on the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad.I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I polished the Georg Jensen 08/80 Canadian and the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The mix of brown stains worked really well with the black vulcanite stem. The darkened plateau really sets of the pipe and gives it a unique look. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The weight of the pipe is 34 grams/1.23 ounces. I will be putting this unique freehand on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection please let me know. Thanks for walking through this restoration with me as I worked over this beauty.

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 pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.