By Al Jones

This is the first restoration I’ve done since moving from Maryland to Louisiana. My work bench is setup again in my garage but my tools and supplies are still scattered about the garage. But, it was good to be able to work on a pipe again.

This Comoy’s 498 Extraordinaire showed up on eBay and the seller accepted my modest offer. The pipe had some serious cake and lava over the bowl top. The stem was lightly oxidized with only one bite mark under the button.

I date this pipe to the 1930’s due to:

• Arched “Comoy’s logo
• Multi-piece C stem logo
• Round “Made In England country of manufacture stamp (COM)

The nomenclature was in very legible condition.

Pictures of the pipe as received are below.

I used a worn piece of Scotch-Brite to remove the build-up on the bowl top. The cake was removed using my PIpenet reamer. At some point during its 90 years, some owner used a sharp tool and got the bowl out of round. I used some 320 sandpaper to slightly reshape the bowl. To restore it fully would require topping the bowl considerably, and I decided against that. The bead rings were in pretty good shape, just full of crud. There are some handling marks and dings around the bowl, but I left that earned character in place.

I plugged the shank end of the bowl and filled it with sea salt and alcohol to soak. Following the soak, I scrubbed the shank with a bristle brush dipped in alcohol.

The stem was mounted and I removed the oxidation with 800, 1,500 and 2,000 grade wet sandpaper. The stem was then buffed with White Diamond and several coats of Carnuba wax.

Below is the finished pipe, ready for another 90 plus years!