Daily Archives: May 13, 2024

Breathing Fresh Life into a Peterson’s System Standard 307 Rusticated

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is Rusticated Peterson’s System pipe that we purchased from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 01/08/2024. It was stamped Peterson’s System Standard on the underside side of the shank in a smooth panel. It was stamped Peterson’s [arched over] System [over] Standard. That is followed by Made in the Republic of Ireland (in three lines). After that stamping is the shape number 307. It has a rugged, tactile rustication around the bowl and shank that is filled with a lot of oils, debris and grime. There was a thick cake in the bowl with remnants of tobacco stuck on the walls. There was a lava overflow on the rim top that was heavier toward the back side. The top and edges of the rim were well hidden under the tars and lava. There was a very beautiful pipe underneath all of the buildup of years of use. The nickel ferrule on the shank end was oxidized and is stamped on the left side K&P [over] three faux hallmarks. That is followed by Peterson’s. It is not dented or damaged. The stem was oxidized and calcified toward the end with some tooth chatter and marks ahead of the button on both sides. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thick, hard cake in the bowl with remnants of tobacco stuck on the walls of the bowl. There was a lava build up on the top of the rim and the edges of the bowl. The rim top looked pretty good but it was hard to know for sure if there was damage under the thick lava. Only clean up would tell the full story. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter, scratching and oxidation on the stem surface and wear on the edges of the button. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see the grime in the rustication around the sides of the bowl and shank. Even under the dirt and debris of the years it looked very good. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the bowl and shank. The stamping was faint but readable as you can see from the photos. It read as noted above. The nickel ferrule on the shank end is stamped on the left side K&P Peterson’s over three Peterson marks used on nickel ferrules.I have included the information on the shape number on this pipe that I picked up on researching the previous pipes with the 307 shape number. I have included a page from a Petersons Catalogue that I have on rebornpipes (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/peterson-hallmark-chart/). I have put a red box around the 307 shown in the catalogue page shown below. That should give a clear picture of the size and shape of the pipe.I am also including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Kapp & Peterson company was still in the ownership of the Kapp family. However 1964 saw the retiral of the company Managing Director Frederick Henry(Harry) Kapp.

Pipedia also included a section of information on the System pipes including a diagram of the systems look (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson#Republic_Era_Pipes). I quote a section of the article in part and include a link to another article on Pipedia on the System pipe.

The Peterson System pipes are the standard bearers of the Peterson pipe family, famous for the excellent smoking pleasure they provide. Often imitated but never equaled, the Peterson System smokes dry, cool and sweet, thanks to the scientiﬁc effectiveness of the original design. The heart of the System is the unique graduated bore in the mouthpiece. This makes the suction applied by the smoker 15 times weaker by the time it reaches the tobacco chamber. The result is that all the moisture ﬂows into the reservoir and, thus cannot reach the smoker’s mouth. The Peterson Lip further enhances the effectiveness of the graduated bore by directing the ﬂow of smoke upwards and away from the tongue. This achieves a uniquely even distribution of smoke and virtually eliminates any chance of tonguebite or bitterness. Furthermore, the shape is contoured so that the tongue rests comfortably in the depression under the opening. Each “PLip” mouthpiece is made from Vulcanite. For the Peterson System pipes to work properly, the stem/tenon has to have an extension, the tip of which will pass by the draft hole from the bowl and into the sump. Upon the smoker drawing in smoke, this extension then directs the smoke down and around the sump to dispense a lot of the moisture before the smoke enters the extension and stem. On the System Standards and other less expensive systems, this extension with be made of Vulcanite turned integrally with the stem. On the more expensive System pipes this extension will be made of metal which screws into the Vulcanite stem. This extension on the earlier pipes will be of brass and the newer pipes will be of aluminium. Most smokers not knowing this function of the metal extension, assumes that it is a condenser/stinger and will remove it as they do with the metal condensers of Kaywoodie, etc. Should you have a System pipe with this metal extension, do not remove it for it will make the System function properly and give you a dryer smoke (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_closer_look_at_the_famous_Peterson_Standard_System_Pipe).

With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I knew from the information that the pipe was made during the Republic Era between 1950 and 1989. My guess is that the pipes is a 1960s era System pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff cleaned this filthy pipe with his usual clean up process. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners, shank brushes and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with great looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the vulcanite. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour I was amazed it looked so good. I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. I wanted to show what an amazing job Jeff did in the cleanup of the rim top. The rim top was and inner edge were in excellent condition. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the condition of the vulcanite. It was quite clean other than some slight oxidation at the edges of the button. There were tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button.One of the things I appreciate about Jeff’s cleanup is that he works to protect and preserve the nomenclature on the shank of the pipes that he works on. The stamping on this one was faint to start with so I was worried that it would disappear altogether with the cleanup. He was not only able to preserve and maintain its condition in the process. I took some photos to show the clarity of the stamping. I have noticed that many restorers are not careful to protect the stamping in their cleaning process and often by the end of the restoration the nomenclature is almost destroyed. I would like to encourage all of us to be careful in our work to preserve this as it is a critical piece of pipe restoration! I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the pipe.I decided to start my work on the pipe by cleaning up the debris left in the rustication on the rim top. I worked it over with a brass bristle wire brush to remove the crud in the finish. The photo shows the progress.I rubbed the bowl and rim down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the rusticated surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I really like watching the Balm do its magic and bring the briar alive. With briar polished with the Restoration Balm I moved onto the metal. I polished the nickel ferrule with a jeweller’s cloth to raise the shine and to protect the ferrule from further oxidation. I set the bowl aside to address the issues with the stem. I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter to lift them. I was able to lift them quite a bit. I filled in the remaining tooth marks with clear CA glue. Once it had cured I used a file to smooth out the repairs and blend them into the surface. I sanded repairs with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the oxidation that remained in the vulcanite and also the light tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. It looked much better once I finished it.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. Once again at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when the Republic Era Rusticated Peterson System 307 is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together. I lightly polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. 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. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The depths of the rustication really pop with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and thick shank and nickel ferrule. This Peterson’s System Standard 307 Bent Billiard was another fun pipe to work on. It really is a quite stunning piece of briar whose shape follows the flow of the briar. The pipe is tactile in the hand and should feel great as it is warmed up when smoking. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.19 ounces/62 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your rack and carry on the previous pipeman’s legacy. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

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.

Restoring a Beautiful Danish Freehand

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

From time to time, I come across a pipe that seems to embody everything one wants a pipe to be: aesthetically pleasing, well proportioned, skilfully carved, forcefully present. This is one of those pipes. It is a Granhill Select Freehand. The grain on this pipe is absolutely beautiful. There is precious little information on the Granhill name. Yonks ago, Steve did a blog post on a Granhill pipe and it contained all the available information at the time. The maker was either a carver named Michael Kabik or a tobacconist named Lonnie Fay. Now, Fay may well have produced pipes under this name, but I think we can say with certainty that this pipe is by Kabik, based on the similarity of design and logo. I will reproduce here some of what is written is Pipedia:

Michael Victor Kabik or Michael J. Kabik, now retired artisan and pipe repairman, was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1950. As a student he was fascinated by science, but finally turned to the arts. In the early 1970s he started working as an artisan and designer for Hollyday Pipes Ltd., and when the company closed he set up in his own right.

Kabik writes as follows:

…In the 1960s, I had helped Jay build Jay’s Smoke Shop and was his first employee. Since that time, he had set up one of the very first freehand pipe-making operations in the U.S. along with his partner, Chuck Holiday, called CHP-X Pipes. The staff consisted of four full-timers actually making the pipes and perhaps another four in sales and office work. Chuck, who did the actual design and carving, had long since had serious disagreements with Jay and split. Chuck’s replacement from the staff was quitting, and Jay was in a bind. Jay offered me the job, and I gladly accepted. The fellow quitting was supposed to train me for two months but left after two weeks, leaving me with an awesome responsibility. I felt as though the future employment of all these people depended on me as the designer and cutter…and it did.

…Sadly, CHP-X closed its doors two years after my arrival, due primarily to distribution, sales force problems, and other issues to which I was not privy…In love with a medium that satisfied my creative impulses while, pretty much, paying the bills, I bought up the essential equipment and produced pipes on my own. I did this from a farm house my wife and I rented in Phoenix, Maryland. I produced pipes under the name KANE, Gran Hill and others I can’t remember as well as a private label line for a store in, I believe, South Dakota.

…In 1973, I was approached by Mel Baker, the owner of a chain in Virginia Beach called Tobak Ltd. Mel was interested in producing a freehand pipe line and was alerted to my product by Al Saxon, one of his managers and a former CHP-X employee. Mel wanted to relocate me to Virginia Beach, give me carte blanche, and recreate the CHP-X studio with, of course, a new name for the product. I’m sure my answer came very quickly.

…We decided on the name Sven-Lar. Why? Well, when I bought out CHP-X, I also got a small drawer full of metal stamps that were created for private-label work. The Sven-Lar name was conceived but never realized. Aside from having the stamp already made, there were other reasons we chose Sven-Lar. First, we were making a line of pipes in the Danish freehand tradition and also, sadly, we knew the difficulty American pipe makers had breaking the foreign market mystique barrier. The latter certainly played a big part in the demise of CHP-X.

You can read the entire Pipedia article on Kabik here. Just to close the loop on this, I also found Kabik on Facebook. I haven’t contacted him yet, but I may to see if we can get some more historical information. Here is a relatively recent photo of him:

The markings on the pipe are as follows. On the shank, there is a large letter Z [over] Danmark [over] Granhill [over] Select. Mysteries abound! I don’t know what the “Z” refers to, I don’t know why he uses the Danish spelling of Denmark rather than the English (given that he’s American), I don’t know if Granhill is the same as Gran-Hill, etc., and, finally, I don’t know where “Select” ranks in the pantheon of Kabik pipes. Frustrating.

Let’s have a closer look at the pipe itself. It really is an attractive piece. Overall, it is in good condition – no major issues to resolve. Just a few minor ones – particularly on the stem. It had some significant tooth marks in the button and, as the photo shows, debris clogging the bore. I started with the BIC lighter and “painted” the stem with its flame, in the hopes of raising some of the dents in the vulcanite. Although they did not disappear altogether, they were substantially improved and I was pleased with the results.I wiped down the stem with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. Once that was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Before & After Hard Rubber Deoxidizer. After soaking, I cleaned off the de-oxidizing fluid with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and I used SoftScrub to work it off. I built up the tooth damage on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let it fully cure. I used my miniature files to take down the majority of the dried glue. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. I used the PipNet Reamer (and some sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel) to take the bowl down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. It took a fair amount of cotton to get this thing clean!A de-ghosting session seemed like a good idea. This de-ghosting consisted of thrusting cotton balls in the bowl and the shank, and saturating them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused the oils, tars and smells to leech out into the cotton. Finally, a relatively clean and fresh-smelling bowl emerged. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some cotton pads. I also scrubbed the plateau with a toothbrush. What a difference that made! I then cleaned the insides with some Castile soap and tube brushes. After this, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to smooth out everything in the briar. Then a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s grain. The grain on this pipe is pretty fantastic! Off to the bench polisher to put the final touches on this pipe. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax were just what this pipe needed. The lovely shine made the wood look absolutely beautiful.

All done! This Granhill Select Freehand looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “American” section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (155 mm); height 2½ in. (64 mm); bowl diameter 1⅞ in. (47 mm); chamber diameter 1 in. (24 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¾ oz. (52 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.