Monthly Archives: December 2024

Breathing New Life into a Well Seasoned Peterson’s Meerschaum Bent Pipe

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a smooth finished, well patinaed Peterson’s African Block Meerschaum pipe. This one is a Bent Meerschaum pipe in a classic Peterson’s Bent Billiard shape. The rim top is flumed in the style of the 60s and 70s. Jeff and I are unclear where we picked this one up. Our best guess was we found it during a pipe hunt in November, 2024 somewhere along the Oregon Coast.  This rich butterscotch and golden coloured patina on the bowl and shank adds a touch of depth to the pipe. The pipe was dirty with grime ground into the finish on the pipe. It was thick and oily feeling to touch. The contrast on the meer of the rich colouration/patina on the bowl and shank with the flumed top made a beautiful pipe. It had nicks and chips in the outer edge of the bowl. The inner edge looked very good. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was lava on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The Sterling Silver ferrule is oxidized and dirty. It is stamped Peterson’s [over] Dublin followed by Sterling [over] Silver. On the underside are three hallmark stamps – 1. Seated Hibernia (Ireland) 2. The Harp (symbol for the silver quality) 3. The upper-case italic letter “E” for the date of the pipe. The stem was in quite good condition with minimal oxidation, minor debris in the edge of the button and light tooth chatter on the top and underside on and near the button. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work. They tell the story and give a glimpse of the pipe. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and the rim top and edges have lava overflowing on to them. The stem is dirty, lightly oxidized and has light tooth marks on the top and underside near the button.I took photos of the Sterling Silver ferrule to show the stamping around it. You can see that it reads as noted above. I did not capture the hallmarks on the underside. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe. I took some time to remind myself of the provenance of these Peterson’s Dublin Meerschaum pipes. I am pretty sure the pipe was made by the Laxey Pipe Ltd. on the Isle of Man for Peterson’s in Ireland (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Laxey_Pipes_Ltd). I quote from the Pipedia article in full:

Laxey Pipe Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved. The company specialized in the production of Meerschaum Pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania). Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!

Laxey Pipe Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.

Furthermore Laxey Pipe Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distributed by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.

Supply of meer from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipe Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.

As noted above the silver is stamped Peterson’s [over] Dublin followed by Sterling [over] Silver. On the underside are three hallmark stamps – 1. Seated Hibernia (Ireland) 2. The Harp (symbol for the silver quality) 3. The upper case letter “E” for the date of the pipe. I have included the Peterson’s Hallmark chart below as it is a very helpful tool that I have used repeatedly to date my Peterson pipes.I found a larger photo of the letter section of the above chart. The letter stamp is a upper case italic “E” which dates the pipe to 1990. I know that the pipe was made on the Isle of Man by Laxey Pipe Ltd. out of African Meerschaum. It was made for export for Peterson’s of Dublin. From the hallmarks on the silver I know that the pipe (or at least the silver) was made in 1990. The flumed top on the bowl seems to make it older and maybe it is but the silver is definitely from 1990. That was as much as I could figure out.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cleaned the reaming up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls smooth with some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. It looked much better. It was smooth to touch. I scraped the rim top with the edge of the Savinelli Fitsall to remove the lava build up. I cleaned out the stinky smelling tobacco oils and tars in the shank and the airway in the stem. I used 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and was able to remove the debris and the stench.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed the inside of the bowl as well to remove more of the oils and build up there. I rinsed it off with warm running water and dried it with a soft towel. When I dried it off it was dull and a bit lifeless looking. The finish was spotty so I gave it a quick buff with a cotton cloth. It looked much better and the rim top looked clean. I touched up the nicks on the rim top and outer edge with a black stain pen. I had decided to leave them and not sand or remove them. It blended them in much better.I gave the meer a quick buff and then polished the Sterling Silver ferrule with a jeweller’s cloth to shine and slow down the process of oxidation. The ferrule really looks good even with a few small dents in the surface remaining. It has quite a nice sheen. I polished the bowl on the buffer with Blue Diamond polish and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to further polish it. I gave it multiple coats of Clapham’s Beeswax/Carnauba Wax and once it dried I had buffed it once again and gave it a quick buff with a clean buffing pad. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. It really began to take on a shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped the stem down a final time with Obsidian Oil once again and set it aside to dry. As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem of this Peterson’s Meerschaum back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the meerschaum and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Clapham’s Beeswax/Carnauba Wax mixture 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 meerschaum has a rich glow with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the rich patina of the bowl and the polished silver ferrule. This Peterson’s meerschaum was made by the Laxey Pipe Ltd. on the Isle of Mann. The heavily patinaed finish on this pipe made it another fun pipe to work. It really is a quite stunning pipe whose shape and finish make it stand out. The thick/chubby shank makes it a very comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 59 grams/2.08 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Peterson’s Kapruf Made in the Republic of Ireland 120 Dublin

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

Today is rainy, chilly day in Vancouver. I know in comparison to where many of you live it is not cold but to us it is. The next pipe I have chosen is another Peterson’s Dublin. It is a sandblast pipe that came to us from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark. There was grime ground into the sandblast finish on the bowl sides. I love the way the contrast of the brown and black stains gave the blast a sense of depth. The stain is almost tiger striped. It was stamped on the flat underside in the centre of the shank and read Made in the Republic of Ireland (three lines). To the right of that it is stamped Peterson’s [over] Kapruf. To the left of the Republic stamp, on the heel was the shape number 120. This pipe must have been another favourite of pipe man as it had been well smoked. There was a well-maintained cake in the bowl and some darkening on the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl looked good. The stem was in good condition and there were light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside on and near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is lightly caked and the rim top and edges look to be in good condition despite a little darkening. The photos of the stem show the light tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. Jeff took a photo of the bowl sides and heel to show the blast that was around this bowl. It is a great sandblast and the choice of stain adds depth to the appearance of the bowl. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable and reads as noted above. I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Kapruf line. On page 306 it had the following information.

Kapruf and “Kapruf” (c.1922-87) Sandblast (hence the name, Kapp-rough) P-lip or fishtail mouthpiece, in catalogs from 1940-87. Early documented specimens stamped IRISH over FREE STATE, no Eire specimens documented. Mid-century specimens may be stamped LONDON MADE [over] ENGLAND or MADE IN ENGLAND forming a circle or MADE IN [over] IRELAND, all dating no later than 1970. Those of recent vintage stamped MADE IN THE[over] REPUBLIC [over]OF IRELAND.

I knew that I was working on a KAPRUF that was made between 1970-1987 as it is stamped MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND as noted above. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived.     I took some close-up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim top looks very good. There is a little darkening on the top at the back of the bowl but is not too bad. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the oxidation that remained and the light chatter and marks on the surface near the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint but readable. I took the pipe apart and took a photo of the pipe. It is a good looking pipe and has an interesting sandblast on the bowl.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I touched up the P stamp on the left side of the saddle stem with some acrylic fingernail polish. I worked it into the stamp with a toothpick and then scraped off the excess once it had dried. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  I  am always excited to finish working on a pipe. This Peterson’s Kapruf 120 Dublin, Made in the Republic of Ireland is no exception. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. 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 and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished sandblast bowl looks like with the black vulcanite taper stem. This Classic looking Peterson’s Kapruf Sandblast Dublin 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: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 29 grams/.99 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly in the Irish Pipe Makers section if you are interested in it. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Handsome Portland Pipe Co. “Falcon Briar”

Leave a reply

by Kenneth Lieblich

This is the next pipe that I restored for a local family. One of the gentlemen selected this fine Canadian shape for his own. It’s a good-looking pipe and worthy of restoration. This pipe comes from the Portland Pipe Co., which I’ve written about before. This specific pipe has some interesting markings – let’s take a look. On the top of the shank, it reads Portland Pipe Co [over] B.B& S Ltd. [over] London made – England. On the left side of the shank, it reads Falcon Briar. On the right side of the shank, it reads P2 – presumably a shape code. Two things puzzled me: the term “Falcon Briar” and the code “P2”. They didn’t conform to anything I already knew about Portland. Here is a review of my digging for information on Portland Pipe Co.I began my research with José Manuel Lopes’ book, Pipes: Artisans and Trademarks. As the photo shows, there was a little information, but not a lot.The connection with Barling was interesting, so I also checked Wilczak and Colwell’s book, Who Made That Pipe? From the photos below, you can see that the Portland Pipe Co. is connected to Barling too.Time to check online. Pipephil had a similarly brief write-up (included here).Pipedia was a bit more informative. Their page on the Portland Pipe Co. includes the following information (the typos are in the original and are NOT mine):

Portland Pipe Company was an English pipe maker, and appears to have started in the 1930’s, and went out of business in 1962. It’s though they had ties to Barling pipes from the 1930’s. They might have been a sub-brand or “second” which was separate from, but fully owned by Barling’s all along. It also thought that after Portland closed down, and during Barling’s corporate era (BB&S), Barling picked up some of the Portland brand (Londoner, Cragmoor and Portland) and made them for a while. WILCZAK & COLWELL in their book “Who Made That Pipe?” acknowledge the brand as from England, though some have been made in Italy as well (see Pipephil.eu). The Brand John Peel is a pipe which has the stamping: JOHN PEEL, A PORTLAND PIPE, MADE WHOLLY IN ENGLAND. I have a model with is also stamped SPECIAL, it’s a stack design with shape number 801. This pipe might have been made either by Portland or Barling. According to a 1940 price sheet, the following models were offered, along with the correlating prices:

 Vintage (10/6)
Exchange (7/6)
Londoner (7/6)
Mosaic (7/6)
Portland Super (7/6)
Crustor (5/6)
Diploma (5/6)
Port Royal (5/6)
Port-de-Luxe (5/6)
Portland Patent (5/6)
Souk-el-Arba (5/6)
Times (4/6)
British Sovereign (3/6)
John Peel (3/6)
Jubilee (3/6)
Sirdar (3/6)
Campaigner (2/6)
Dandy (2/6)
First Call (2/6)
Knobby (2/6)
Topsall (2/6)
Topsall Comfort (2/6)
Portman (2/-)
British National (1/6)
Ruf Kut (1/6)

This doesn’t mention anything about “Falcon Briar”. However, there are a few other tidbits of information. The PipesMagazine.com forums include an interesting comment from Barling expert Jonathan Guss:Finally, over at the Very Keen on Pipes website, a reader commented on one of their posts by saying:

“… Portland pipes make up one of the great mysteries of London pipe making. No one knows when Barling bought Portland but most of us barling guys believe it was mid to late 30’s. I saw a reference once online using the year 1936 but this cannot be confirmed. Next, John Peel was for a long time thought to have been a shop but there is no evidence proving that. However, John Peel pipes were almost certainly made by Portland. What most of use want in a pipe of this type is a pipe made before 1962, when the barling family was let go by the new owners and the brand went into a downward spiral quality wise. Re Portland, a number of them have recently turned up as a result of a “garage find” of a batch of pipes from the Toronto Canada area and they were mixed in with other wood from the 50’s and that seems to indicate a 50’s date of manufacture. Note: in those days several of the larger pipe makers made pipes or just bowls for other brands and these were mostly Charatan, Comoy and other makers such as Orlick. What is almost certain is that never did barling make / sell any pipes that were not carved by barling carvers untill after 1970. So, Portland and Peel were never actually barling made, these pipes were either made by Portland in house or, in later years past 1962, by Charatan and others. Also, if one looks at the style of the bits it evident that Portland and Peel pipes were not made that long ago, probably 50’s and 60’s unless there is a BB&S stamp which indicates post 1970 age (the & symbol being the give away since B.B.S was used in the older pre 1962 era.) Just some info for you to keep in mind… “

This is interesting stuff and then Steve gave me another possible detail. Apparently, Comoy’s used to make a line of pipes called ‘Falcon’ and another called ‘Royal Falcon’. Perhaps this bowl was made by Comoy, but later picked up by Portland. This could explain why the pipe contains the ‘Falcon Briar’ line. Pipephil has this tidbit:By inference (and some educated guesswork), this pipe was made in England, probably in the 1970s (or, at least, post 1970), by the Portland Pipe Co. However, there may be a Comoy connection too. I am happy to be educated by someone who knows more.

The pipe was in good condition and didn’t require any major surgery. The bowl was a bit dirty and banged up, but nothing serious. Similarly, the stem had some tooth marks and scrapes, nothing to worry about.To start, I used a disposable lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame. The gentle heat of the flame can cause the dents in the vulcanite of the stem to expand back into shape. This helped a little bit.I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning comes next. I cleaned the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result is a hideous brownish mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some de-oxidation fluid. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface. This is a major aid and important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew the stem out from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.Once clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This is done by filling those divots with black cyanoacrylate adhesive, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I left this to cure and moved on.The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduce the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I want to remove the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I use all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even out the vulcanite, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also apply pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There is a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I am done.Now that the stem is (nearly) complete, I can move on to the stummel. The first step for me is to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplishes a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleans the bowl and provides a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake is removed, I can inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there is damage or not. Everything looked good inside the bowl. My next step was to remove the lava on the rim. For this, I took a piece of machine steel and gently scraped the lava away. The metal’s edge is sharp enough to remove what I need, but not so sharp that it damages the rim. This worked well. Similar to the stem, I then cleaned the insides of the stummel with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. The pipe turned out to be a bit dirtier than I expected.I then decided to ‘de-ghost’ the pipe – that is to say, exorcize the remaining filth from the briar. I filled the bowl and the shank with cotton balls, then saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I also wiped down the outside with some oil soap on cotton rounds (and a toothbrush). This does a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process is to scour the inside of the stummel with some soap and tube brushes. This is the culmination of a lot of work in getting the pipe clean.In order to lessen the nicks on the rim, I ‘topped’ the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This effectively minimizes the damage, without altering the look of the pipe.I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the outside of the stummel to finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the briar and provides a beautiful smoothness to the wood. I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench buffer and carefully polished it – first with a white diamond compound, then with three coats of carnauba wax. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the stummel sings and stem glows.This Portland Canadian is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (153 mm); height 1⅞ in. (48 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ⅔ in. (17 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅜ oz. (40 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.

Restoring a Lovely Peterson’s “Kapp-Royal” X105 Billiard with a Cumberland 9mm Filter Stem

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

The next pipe was a mess and one that obviously had been the previous pipe smoker’s favourite pipe. The finish and condition were abysmal. It was definitely a stranger to any cleaning! This one is a smooth Billiard that has a rich coloured finish around the bowl sides and shank under the grit and grime of years. The shank end had a double brass band separating it from the stem. This pipe was purchased on 12/09/2023 from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark. The finish is shiny but is also so dirty it was hard to know what to expect once it was cleaned. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [over] “Kapp-Royal”. It was stamped to the right of the shank and reads MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (three lines) with the shape number X105 next to the bowl. The underside of the shank was stamped Huber over Munchen. It was filthy when Jeff brought it to the table. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the back of the rim top and the inner edge of the bowl. The outer edge looked good. The Cumberland stem was oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside on and near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and there was a light lava overflow on the back of the rim top and the inner edge. The stem is oxidized and grimy. It has some light tooth marks on the top and underside near and on the surface of the button itself. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain that was around this bowl. The grain is quite beautiful around the sides of the bowl and shank. It is a nice looking pipe.He took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is readable in the photos below and is as noted above. There is a golden “P” inlaid logo on the left side of the taper stem. I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). There was a short note toward the bottom of the page about the series. It is definitely referring to the newer line that came out later. I quote:

Kapp Royal Series: The Kapp Royal series is a relatively new one, but has a well establish history in Europe. They are a handsome colourful series with a good quality natural stain briar and bright orange Lucite stems and occasionally Cumberland.

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s Kapp-Royal Pipe. On page 306 it had the following information.

Kapp-Royal (1969, 1976-79, c1988, 2004) First appearance as a line introduced 1969. In 1976-79 Iwan Ries catalog offering identical with non-System Dunmore line. Second appearance in the late eighties as a high-grade Italian market line with briar band inset into the mouthpiece. From c.2004, Italian line available in US as high grade, orange finish, sterling band, amber-colored acrylic fishtail stem or sometimes vulcanite, embedded aluminum P.

Judging from the description above, the pipe I am working on is probably one of the first appearing series that came out in 1969. As noted in Red above it came with an occasional Cumberland stem. The Made in the Republic of Ireland stamp on the right side of the stamp puts it in the Republic Era 1950-1989.

On the underside of the shank it is stamped Huber [over] Munchen. From a past restoration (I have included the link) [https://rebornpipes.com/2023/10/14/petersons-kildare-special-hg-republic-of-ireland-10-canadian/]. I turned to page 300 of “The Peterson’s Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as noted by him in the previous blog and found a great paragraph on the stamping. I quote in full.

GH Retailer’s Monogram (c. 1960s) George Huber of Munich, Germany, a Peterson distributor and retailer for decades, stamped their monogram on pipes sold in their store, G overlaid on H. Peterson shared in the 1988 commemoration of Huber’s 125th year in business by producing a special pipe with a sterling rim cap, stamped HUBER over CELEBRATION.

The pipe I have is one that does not bear that monogram and does not appear to have ever had the sterling rim cap and was not stamped HUBER over CELEBRATION. It was however, stamped Huber and Munchen – the city where the shop was located. With that information I turned my attention to working on the pipe.

I was utterly surprised when I took this pipe out of the box and compared it to the before photos. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. The cleaned up rim top looked very good around the edges and the top. I took a closeup photo of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks on the surface near and on the button itself.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and reads as noted above. I also captured the gold insert P on the left side of the Cumberland stem. It looked great. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. I started my work on this pipe polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. The stem was clean and the light tooth marks were minimal. There was pitting on the topside of the stem that left it feeling rough. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the pitting and marks in the Cumberland. Once finished it was greatly improved.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped it down with another coat of Obsidian Oil. I put a new 9mm filter in the tenon on the stem. It fit well and looked great. I used Vauen filters as they are easily accessible here and on Amazon.com.I am excited to finish this beautifully grained Peterson’s Kapp-Royal X105 Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it. I polished the twin golden bands on the shank with a jeweller’s cloth. This smooth Classic Peterson’s Kapp-Royal X105 Billiard is great looking and the 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: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 45 grams/1.59 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for walking with me through this restoration.

Really, is this a new Peterson’s Sherlock Holmes Deerstalker?

4 Replies

by Steve Laug

I received a call from a fellow yesterday who was sent to me by our local pipe shop. He had been given a pipe by his girlfriend for Christmas. She had purchased it somewhere other than the shop he went to and they assured her that it was brand new and unsmoked. It was a rusticated Peterson’s Sherlock Holmes Pipe with a silver band. When he opened the pipe sock he took out this gift in expectation. When it came out the pipe was dirty, the silver was tarnish and the stem was yellowed with oxidation. He had put it in his mouth and the oxidation gave a foul taste that almost put him off the pipe. He had taken it to my local shop to have them look at it. The clerk there looked it over and declared that it was a beauty and was definitely used. He cleaned off the silver with some silver cleaner and it shone. He recommended that he bring it to me for a restoration. He called and we chatted for a bit. It turned out he had this pipe and one of his Dad’s pipes that he wanted me to work on as well. He came over late afternoon with the pipes and I looked them over.

The Peterson’s was indeed quite a beauty under the grime. It was stamped on the heel of the bowl and read Peterson’s [over] of Dublin [over] Sherlock [over] Holmes [over] Deerstalker. The silver band was stamped on the topside with the profile of Sherlock Holmes with Peterson’s arched over the top and Sterling Silver arched underneath. On the underside it is stamped Peterson [over] three silver hallmarks. The first is Hibernia seated with an arm on a harp signifying the country of manufacture – Ireland. The second stamp is .925 designating the sterling quality from 2003 on. The third is the date letter mark – in this case an italic uppercase I which designates it as being made in 2019. The finish was dirty with dust and grime, perhaps from sitting and perhaps from use. The bowl reeked of English tobacco and was rough to the touch when I ran a finger down the walls. The silver looked good. The stem was badly oxidized but the silver P on the left side of the taper still shone. As I examined it I was pretty sure that there was a light cake in the bowl over the top of a bowl coating. When I took the stem off the inside of the mortise was stained with a purple stain showing that the pipe had been dip stained. Not unusual, but certainly a pain as it also adds a sour taste to the smoke. He left the pipe for me to work on and I started it last evening. I took these photos before I started my work. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to give you an idea of what I see. You can see inside of the bowl in the photos and the thin cake and perhaps some residue of a bowl lining in the heel of the bowl. The photos of the stem show that it is oxidized and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as spelled out above. I captured the stamping on the underside of the silver band in the photo as well. I took a photo of stamp on the topside of the silver band as well. It is clear and readable as noted above.I wanted to know more about the Peterson’s Sherlock Holmes Line so I turned to the Pipedia article on the line and read it carefully to see where this pipe fit in the line of pipes making up the line. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson#1950_-_1989_The_Republic_Era). I quote what I found out below.

1987 saw the introduction and Issue of the first Sherlock Holmes ‘Original’ Series of pipes. The Sherlock Holmes series is probably the most successful series of pipes ever introduced by Peterson in terms of numbers. It was first issued to honour Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictitious detective character, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is perhaps the most famous pipe smoking character in fiction…

The Sherlock Holmes Series: Probably the most popular and successful series of pipes ever produced by Peterson. Including the Meerschaum version of the seven day sets. Both briar and Meers can be purchased either as individual pipes or complete seven day sets and stands. Expect to pay around $250 for briars and $300 for individual Meerschaums. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes runs around $1000 for a 4 pipe boxed set. Complete 7 day sets and stands can be up to $1500 – $2000.

At this point I knew that the original line was introduced in 1987. I did not know the sequence of pipes after the Original first pipe. More work was necessary. So, I followed the links included to another article call the Pete Sherlockiana Group. There was photo there of the full collection of various Sherlock Holmes lines that were issue. I have included the link and the information include with the group photo that shown of the collection below.

Here is the link (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Pete_SherlockianaGroup.JPG). The description under the photo read as found below:

Sherlockiana Group, which includes: The ‘Original’ 7 day set w/stand, The ‘Return’ 7day set w/stand, The Meerschaum 7 day set w/stand, The ‘Adventures of’ 4 pipe collection, and Various ‘Silver Specials’. I still wanted to know where it fit in the order of release so I did a bit more digging into the pipe. I wanted to know the name of the pipe and what line of the Sherlock Holmes series it was in when it was released. I Googled and came across a link to an advertising brochure on Smokingpipes.com. (https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/closer-look-petersons-sherlock-holmes-pipes-infographic). I have included it below. From that I knew that I was dealing with a Pipe Design from the Original release of the line from 1987, 1989-1991. Interestingly that dating does not match the date stamp of 2019.  Could it be a reissue? It was called a Deerstalker after cap that Sherlock Holmes wore. It was basically a tall, ¼ bent Rhodesian.

I also found a link to a chart on Tobaccopipes.com that was an exploration of the Sherlock Series. Here is the link (https://www.tobaccopipes.com/blog/exploring-the-peterson-sherlock-holmes-series/). Each name on the original list on the site can be clicked on for a description of the pipe that is named.I clicked on the Baker Street name in the chart above and it took me to the following link and information (https://www.tobaccopipes.com/blog/exploring-the-peterson-sherlock-holmes-series/#deerstalker). It states that the pipe was in the Original Collection and came out between 1989-1991. But there is still no explanation for the later date on the one in my hands.The text below the photos reads as follows:

Of course, one of these shapes had to be named for Sherlock’s iconic cap. The double billed, ear flapped headwear originally associated with hunting garb (hence the name) has become so tied to Sherlock, its image is essentially a visual metonym for detective. 

I can see why this shape is apt for the Deerstalker name. The round bowl pulling in above the bead lines gives that cap atop the head image, and the stem with its languid dip of a slight bend calls to mind the subtle downward slant of the deerstalker bill. 

Personally, I place Deerstalker among my favorites in this line. Again, we see the English classic Rhodesian given a twist, not too eccentric but certainly creating an identity of its own. It brings a strong forward weight, the bowl catching the eye and the shank and stem not quite as bold as we get from some of the other Sherlock shapes. Additionally, where much of the Sherlock line has a stoic briskness about the aesthetic, the light wave of the Deerstalker, following from heel to bit, adds a lithe, playful touch to the range.

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. The Deerstalker pipe originally came out as part of the Original Sherlock Holmes Series and was specifically made between 1989 and 1991. The anomaly for me is that this one is dated 2019! Now, it was time to work on the pipe.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting heads to remove the cake and what turned out to also include a rubbery bowl coating that stank. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to remove the remnants of cake and bowl coating, only to find that the inside of the bowl was stained with a purple stain. I sanded the walls smooth with some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were clean but there were still patches of purple stain on them so I would need to do a bit more to remove that along with the purple stain in the airway and the mortise area. I cleaned out the stinky tobacco oils and tars in the shank and the airway in the stem. I used 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and was able to remove the oils, tars, and purple stain and some of the stench. I scrubbed the externals of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I was able to remove the debris from the finish of the bowl. I also scrubbed the inside of the bowl out with the soap. I rinsed the pipe with warm water to rinse off the debris and soap. It looked and smelled much cleaner once dried off. I needed to “deghost” the bowl and try to exorcize the smell. I stuffed bowl with cotton bolls and used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I set it aside to let the alcohol do its work and wick the oils into the cotton. I let it sit over night. The next morning when I came back to it the cotton and alcohol had wicked out the oils and tars. The cotton was purple and brown and the bowl smelled much better. Once the bowl dried out, I sanded it once more with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. The bowl was clean but before I sanded it the walls were covered in purple stain. The sanding of the bowl removed the stain. I wiped the bowl down with a cotton pad and isopropyl alcohol. I rubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the rustication looked clean and showed real depth in the depths. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed it down with Soft Scrub cleanser. I worked over it with cotton pads and the product and was able to remove the oxidation in totality. There was also some purple stain that came off the tenon that is visible on the cotton pads on the photo below. The stem looked very good at this point and only needed to be polished. I cleaned out the inside of the stem once again with alcohol. It looked very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I wiped it down once again with the Obsidian Oil cloth. I am excited to be on the homestretch and look forward to seeing the Republic Era Sherlock Holmes Deerstalker Rhodesian put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together and lightly polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish them. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe on the wheel with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The depths of the rustication really pop with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the red and browns of the bowl, thick shank and Sterling Silver Band. This Peterson’s Sherlock Holmes Deerstalker Rhodesian was a fun pipe to work on. 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 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.50 ounces/ 70 grams. I am sure that the fellow who dropped this off will now enjoy smoking this beauty. It is a lovely gift to be given on Christmas and now looks the part.

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.

Best of the Lot an Unsmoked Manuel Shaabi Handcut Scorpion with a Cumberland Saddle Stem

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

I was recently contacted by a fellow here in Vancouver about some pipes he had. He was referred to me by a local pipe shop. I was unclear if he wanted them cleaned or exactly what. When he came on the weekend he brought six pipes in two pipe boxes for me to have a look at. I spoke with him about the cost of restoring them. It finally became clear to me (I guess I am slow) that he wanted to sell the pipes. He was tasked with the job by his sister in law as the pipes were from her late husband’s collection. As I unpacked them it was clear that they were some nice pipes and some were higher grade. All but one was smoked and had the heavy smell of fruity aromatics to them. Some had cake in the bowl and lava on the rim. Of the six, four of them had significant rim damage – bowls out of round, burn marks, cut marks. The saddest part is that the damage was most significant on the higher end pipes. Most of them had tooth marks in the stems. Obviously, they had been his late brother in laws favourites and he had enjoyed them. He left them with me and I went over them, researched the brands and wrote up an offer for him to present to his sister in law. By the end of the day we had a deal. The six pipes now have a new home and five of them had fruity smell needs to be exorcised! The Curled looking one is unsmoked.I turn my attention to the last of the six pipes I purchased. The bottom right pipe of the six is unsmoked. It is another beautiful looking pipe that is the most unique of the lot. It is a Scorpion shaped Bent pipe stamped on the underside of the shank and has a Mouse logo with an MS as part of the stamp [over] Manuel Shaabi [over] Handcut [over] Germany. To the left of the stamping moving up the bowl are three lines like waves. The bowl had beautiful birdseye grain around sides and cross grain on the eye shaped rim top and underside of the shank. The shape is impeccably done. The finish was absolutely beautiful and unblemished. The bowl was unsmoked and there was no cake or lava to worry about anywhere around the bowl. The inner edge of the bowl was flawless and round. The inside of the bowl was polished smooth. The fancy turned saddle stem was Cumberland and no tooth marks or chatter on the stem. The tenon was Delrin and the fit was perfect. The shank had been drilled and the stem was inset in the shank. There was no stamping on the stem. The pipe came with the original Shaabi box and soft felt pipe sock with the Shaabi logo on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to give you an idea of what I see. This is a uniquely carved and beautiful looking Scorpion pipe. The unsmoked condition and the pristine Cumberland stem on the pipe make a gorgeous pipe!I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe. To help me understand the pipe and its maker a bit more I turned to Pipephil’s site and read what it said about Shaabi’s Handcut pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s6.html). I have included a screen capture of the section below as well as the side bar information below the capture. Artisan: Manuel Shaabi (born 1950 in Lebanon) was a cabinet maker when he decided in 1993 to learn pipe carving. He started as professional pipemaker in 1998.

Next, I turned to Pipedia for more information and detail (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Shaabi_Pipes). I find that the articles there often fill in some more information on the relationships and history of a given brand. In this case I found that also true. I quote it in full below.

Manuel Shaabi was born in Lebanon in 1950. He apprenticed as a wood sculptor and cabinet maker. In 1979, he left, because of the Lebanese civil war, for Bavaria, Germany. There he worked making one a kind furnishings and restoring old sculptures and figurines in churches and cathedrals.

In 1984 he moved to Hamburg, Northern Germany because of his daughter’s asthmatic condition. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find enough work, so he went back to school and completed his professional training. His final test was to make a trunk. He made such a fine trunk that he was offered a position at the school as an instructor.

In 1993, having won numerous awards for his cabinet making, he gave it up as it didn’t satisfy his creative needs. He started over at Dan Pipe learning to repair pipes. He quickly mastered the art of pipe making and in 1998 left to start his own studio.

Shaabi’s’ pipes have an unheard of degree of hand craftsmanship. He feels a drill doesn’t cut true for the tobacco chamber so he uses a special knife. His draft holes are 4mm. “The draft hole should meet the tobacco chamber just a little bit above the the bottom”. He believes this prevents tobacco residue coming up through the air hole and stem.

Manuel Shaabi is probably the only pipemaker who combines the skills of a wood carver, cabinetmaker and pipe smith. His pipes combine the best of European design with a Middle Eastern aesthetic. He has secured some of the best wood on the planet and they smoke as good as they look. Each pipe has an individually hand cut Lucite stem…

I did a Google search for the Manuel Shaabi Nautilus as that is what I thought it was in terms of the shape. Instead of a Nautilus it came up with quite a few pipes that were very similar in shape. One of them was the same style pipe as this one on Esterval’s Pipe House (https://www.tecon-gmbh.de/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=50&products_id=10834). That link gave me the name of the pipe shape that Shaabi called a Scorpion. I have included a photo of the pipe that was on the site.

Now I knew what I had in hand – a Handcut Manuel Shaabi Scorpion that was a real beauty. Knowing that it was new and unsmoked was a bonus. In terms of the six pipes I had purchased in the lot this unsmoked beauty was very high end.

I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wanted to remove the light oxidation on the stem surface and bring back the shine. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the German Made Manuel Shaabi Handcut Scorpion and its fancy Cumberland saddle stem back together. The rich browns and blacks of the contrasting stain makes the grain come alive with the polishing and waxing. I carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Manuel Shaabi Handcut Scorpion really is a beauty and fits nicely in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 3 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches wide x 2 ¼ inches long, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.93 ounces/83 grams. This pipe will soon be on the Pipes From Various Makers Section of the rebornpipes store if you would like to add it to your collection. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a Collectible JULS Freehand Straight Brandy with a Taper Stem with an Ebony Inlay

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

I was recently contacted by a fellow here in Vancouver about some pipes he had. He was referred to me by a local pipe shop. I was unclear if he wanted them cleaned or exactly what. When he came on the weekend he brought six pipes in two pipe boxes for me to have a look at. I spoke with him about the cost of restoring them. It finally became clear to me (I guess I am slow) that he wanted to sell the pipes. He was tasked with the job by his sister in law as the pipes were from her late husband’s collection. As I unpacked them it was clear that they were some nice pipes and some were higher grade. All but one was smoked and had the heavy smell of fruity aromatics to them. Some had cake in the bowl and lava on the rim. Of the six, four of them had significant rim damage – bowls out of round, burn marks, cut marks. The saddest part is that the damage was most significant on the higher end pipes. Most of them had tooth marks in the stems. Obviously, they had been his late brother in laws favourites and he had enjoyed them. He left them with me and I went over them, researched the brands and wrote up an offer for him to present to his sister in law. By the end of the day we had a deal. The six pipes now have a new home and the fruity smell needs to be exorcised!I am turning my attention to the fifth of the six pipes I purchased. The bottom right pipe of the six is unsmoked. The last of the five that needed work is just above the unsmoked one. It is another beautiful looking pipe that looks to be Danish Made. It is a straight Brandy stamped on the underside of the shank and reads JULS [over] Freehand. The bowl had beautiful straight grain around sides. The shape is impeccably done. The finish was dirty but otherwise all was good it appeared. The rim top was clean of cake and lava. The inner edge of the bowl was damaged all the way around and was slightly out of round. The bowl had been recently reamed and it was clean. Like the others, there was a pipe cleaner trough from the entrance of the airway into the bowl but much less prominent. It could have been caused by an overzealous reaming that left the bottom damaged. The stem was slightly oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. The stem had what looked like an Ebony wood inlay toward the shank end of the stem spaced between vulcanite at the tenon and the rest of the blade. The transition between the wood and the vulcanite was not smooth on either end. The JS engraving on the topside of the stem was faded but still readable. It also came with a soft felt pipe sock that had a Johs stamp on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to give you an idea of what I see. Once again it is too bad that Word does now allow for the inclusion of smells because this sweet vanilla is filling my work area. I have a candle going to mask the smell a bit. You can see the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The bowl is lightly caked. The stem is lightly oxidized and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There is also a faint stamp on the top of the stamp.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but readable with a lens as noted above. The stamp on the top of the stem is a JS etched on the top by hand. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe. To help me understand the stamping a bit more I turned to Pipephil’s site and read what it said about Svendborg Hand Carved pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-j4.html). I have included a screen capture of the section below as well as the side bar information below the capture. Artisan: Julian Schäffer. He began carving pipes in 1982 and almost stopped the job in the early 90s. His 2001 collection brought 14 high grade pipes together.

From the information I found that the pipe was carved by Julian Schäffer during the 8 years that he carved pipes – 1982-1990. He was known to carve high grade pipes.

Next, I turned to Pipedia for more information and detail (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Juls). I find that the articles there often fill in some more information on the relationships and history of a given brand. In this case I found that also true. The article is very brief and quotes Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by José Manuel Lopes I quote it in full below.

JULS pipes are by the German artisan Julian Schäffer, who began carving pipes in 1982, and worked with Former and Rainer Barbi. Influenced by Danish design, his pieces are both with and without 9mm filters, and have ebonite stems. They are collectors’ items today. The brand ran from 1982 to the beginning of the 1990s, when Julian ceased production, and moved on to other activities. Stamp: JULS

I turned to Google and found several listings for JULS pipes that were selling on the estate portion of smokingpipes.com. There was a brief description of a Billiard for sale there that gave more information as well that was further confirmation concerning the brand. Here is the link (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/germany/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=612079). I quote:

Crafted by German artisan Julian Schäffer, Juls pipes were heavily influenced by Danish design sensibilities, with Schäffer having worked with carvers such as Former and Rainer Barbi. Juls pipes began production in 1982, with Schäffer ending his production around the early 1990s. This Billiard from the German carver illustrates his deft understanding of Danish design, its composition replete with soft, sleek line work. The bowl stands tall with an upright posture, formed by smooth, supple walls rising high from the rounded heel toward the flat rim. From a defined transition, a sturdy shank emerges from the bowl, punctuated by a broad accent of dark wood at the shank end as its meets a slender stem with a trim expansion ring at its base. A warm, hazelnut stain dresses the stummel, showcasing whorls of birdseye across the bowl’s left flank. – Joshua Carroll

Now I knew that the carver was Julian Schaffer and that his pipes had an obvious Danish design look to them. He had trained with Hans Former and Rainier Barbi in Germany, both who were master carvers. I also knew that the pipe was made in the short period between 1982-1990 when he stopped carving.

I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to take back the cake to bare briar. I sanded the walls smooth with some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I have to say that I was spooked by what I found on the S. Bang Brandy I just finished. I ran my fingers over the sides of the bowl and gladly they were smooth. As mentioned above the bottom of the bowl showed a trough carved in the bottom of the bowl. It was certainly not as deep as the other two pipes but appeared to be carved by zealous use of pipe cleaners. I was able to ream out the ridge with the Pipe Knife. It looked much better. I took a photo of it as best as I could but it is hard to see. I sanded the walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. It was smooth to touch.I cleaned out the stinky, fruity smelling tobacco oils and tars in the shank and the airway in the stem. I used 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and was able to remove the debris and some of the stench. I needed to “deghost” the bowl and try to exorcise the smell. I stuffed bowl with cotton bolls and used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I set it aside to let the alcohol do its work and wick the oils into the cotton. While it sat for the afternoon, I did some other work. The next morning when I came back to it the cotton and alcohol had wicked out the oils and tars. The cotton was brown and the bowl smelled much better. The damages demanded some restoration and repair. I started with the rough inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the damage on the inner edge of the rim and smooth it a bit. I was careful to not change the profile of the rim top and edges. I mixed up a batch of bowl coating – sour cream and activated charcoal powder to give a top coat  on the bottom of the bowl and the walls to facilitate the build up of a cake in the bowl. I applied it to the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner and painted it on the sides and pressed it into the trough marks on the bottom. Once finished I set it aside to cure. I love this recipe for a bowl coating as it leaves no residual taste once the coating cures. It is black and provides perfect protection. I rubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I touched up the J.S. Logo stamp on the topside of the taper stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I robbed it into the stamping with a tooth pick. Once it had cured I buffed it off with a cotton cloth then wiped it down with some Obsidian Oil. It looked very good.The transitions between the ebony and the vulcanite had a slight ridge and the bite marks and chatter were not too deep. I was able to smooth out the transitions between the ebony inset and the vulcanite and the tooth chatter and remove the light oxidation with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the cleaned and restored Julian Schäffer JULS Freehand Straight Brandy and its vulcanite taper stem with a Ebony Insert back together. The rich browns and blacks of the contrasting stain makes the grain come alive with the polishing and waxing. I carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Julian Schäffer JULS Freehand Straight Brandy really is a beauty and fits nicely in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.79 ounces/79 grams. This pipe will soon be on the Pipes From Various Makers Section of the rebornpipes store if you would like to add it to your collection. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

A Mistreated Jan Hansen Svendborg C Hand Carved Bent Brandy with 9MM Filter Stem

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

I was recently contacted by a fellow here in Vancouver about some pipes he had. He was referred to me by a local pipe shop. I was unclear if he wanted them cleaned or exactly what. When he came on the weekend he brought six pipes in two pipe boxes for me to have a look at. I spoke with him about the cost of restoring them. It finally became clear to me (I guess I am slow) that he wanted to sell the pipes. He was tasked with the job by his sister in law as the pipes were from her late husband’s collection. As I unpacked them it was clear that they were some nice pipes and some were higher grade. All but one was smoked and had the heavy smell of fruity aromatics to them. Some had cake in the bowl and lava on the rim. Of the six, four of them had significant rim damage – bowls out of round, burn marks, cut marks. The saddest part is that the damage was most significant on the higher end pipes. Most of them had tooth marks in the stems. Obviously, they had been his late brother in laws favourites and he had enjoyed them. He left them with me and I went over them, researched the brands and wrote up an offer for him to present to his sister in law. By the end of the day we had a deal. The six pipes now have a new home and the fruity smell needs to be exorcised!I finished the last of the repairs that I had in my queue yesterday and returned to work on the lot above. I chose to work on the third of these pipes. It is a beautiful looking but another sadly abused pipe that is readily recognizable as Danish Made. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads C (grade stamp) [over] Svendborg [over] Danish [over] Hand Carved [over] Jan Hansen. The bowl had beautiful straight grain around sides. The shape is impeccably done. The finish was dirty but otherwise all was good it appeared. The rim top was clean of cake and lava. The inner edge of the bowl was damaged all the way around and was slightly out of round. The bowl had been recently reamed and it was clean. There was a pipe cleaner trough from the entrance of the airway into the bowl and the opening was widened into the trough. It was definitely damaged and my guess would be an overzealous reaming that widened the trough and left the bottom damaged. The filter stem was slightly oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. There is a horn like acrylic spacer on the shank end of the stem. The J.H. stamp on the left side of the stem was faded but still readable. It also came with a soft felt pipe sock. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to give you an idea of what I see. Once again it is too bad that Word does now allow for the inclusion of smells because this sweet vanilla is filling my work area. I have a candle going to mask the smell a bit. You can see the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The bowl is clean. The stem is lightly oxidized and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe.To help me understand the stamping a bit more I turned to Pipephil’s site and read what it said about Svendborg Hand Carved pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s14.html). I have included a screen capture of the section below as well as the side bar information below the capture. Brand founded in 1970s by Henrik Jørgensen, Poul Ilsted and Tao Nielsen. They bought an old factory (Nordisc Pibefabriker) in Svendborg on Funen island. Poul and Tao gradually bow out from machine manufactured pipes (1982) and Henrik Jørgensen manages the brand until its take over by Design Berlin (D) in the late 90ies. Kaj C. Rasmussen jointed the firm for several years. 17 employees worked for this brand under Henrik Jørgensen direction

From the information I found there the Jan Hansen stamping was clear for me. It is a pseudonym used by Henrik Jorgensen. His own initials would not have been used as they could easily be misunderstood. HJ was used for Hitler Jugend. That helps me understand a bit more. I know that the pipe is like the third pipe in the above photo and bears the same stamping and shape. My assumption is that the pipe was made after Ilsted and Nielsen bowed out which would put the date of the carving between 1982 and the late 90’s when Design Berlin took over. The Danish Hand Made stamping also confirms that assumption.

Next I turned to Pipedia for more information and detail (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Svendborg). I find that the articles there fill in some interesting information on the relationships and history of a given brand. In this case I found that also true. I quote pertinent pieces of the article. If you would like more information follow the above link.

Jens Tao Nielsen and Poul Ilsted Bech met each other when working together for Erik Nørding and soon became close friends. Both felt a bit tired to make nothing but bizarre fancy shapes and agreed they wanted to produce pipes of more style and more classicism. They decided to establish their own brand “Tao & Ilsted” – But how to do it?

A good fortune brought them in contact with Henrik Jørgensen, a passionate pipe lover and a wealthy Copenhagen banker who was willing to retire from bank business and change his career to become a pipemaker. The trio joined in 1969 and decided to start a new pipe brand together. Nielsen and Ilsted started to search for a suitable workshop while Jørgensen took care of the finances. In early 1970 the partners found an old, closed down pipe factory in Svendborg on Funen, and bought it shortly after for a mere 16.500 Danish Kroner. It was the earlier Nordic Pipe Factory – Nordisc Pibefabriker – maybe the oldest Danish pipe factory. And now it became the home of Svendborg Piber…

…But in spite of it’s magnificent success the trio fell apart after less than two years, when wilful Poul Ilsted stepped out declaring he didn’t want to make serial pipes anymore, but wanted to make individual specimens… Strange enough, he approached this aim returning to Nørding!

Ilsted’s argumentation doesn’t seem to be absolutely fair: even though Svendborg turned to produce mainly serial pipes under Seiffert’s influence each of the three partners was free to work on his very own one of a kind pieces as well! Since it was Seiffert’s basic idea to profit from – especially – Tao ‘s and Ilsted’s creativity to design new shapes. There are many knowledgeable collectors who confirm that these early Svendsborg pipes class among the most individual, innovating and exciting designs Danish pipecrafters created at that time…

The firm developed well and prospered throughout the 1970’s but around 1980 dissensions between Tao and Jørgensen occured. Tao: “Most pipes were delivered to the United States and whereby the Americans tried to dictate us the conditions. It was not only so that their taste and their view on aesthetics were simply horrible – no, moreover they wanted that the pipes should be as cheap as possible. That did not suit my plans at all, for I strove for high quality and artistic freedom in the end.”

Tao and Jørgensen, who tended to accommodate the US customers’ wishes, could not find a compromise on their different opinions, and so Tao left the firm in 1981 and opened his own pipe workshop near the harbour of Svendborg.

…Henrik Jørgensen continued Svendborg Piber bravely for more than a decade on his own until he finally sold the brand to Seiffert around the midst of the 1990’s. Seiffert, focusing on their mainstay brand Sillem’s, sold Svendborg – a ghost brand now – again before 2000 and the current owner is Planta’s Design Berlin.

The article also included this set of pages from a catalogue that were interesting as they included the Handcarved line. The philosophy that drove the brand is also there to read.

Catalog page, courtesy Doug Valitchka

That gives a good picture of the history and development of the Svendborg brand and the connection to some of the great carvers of Danish pipe history. It also confirmed the identification of Jan Hansen as a pseudonym used by Henrik Jorgensen. Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe in hand.

I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to take back the cake to bare briar. I sanded the walls smooth with some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I have to say that I was spooked by what I found on the S. Bang Brandy I just finished. I ran my fingers over the sides of the bowl and gladly they were smooth. As mentioned above the bottom of the bowl showed a trough carved in the bottom of the bowl. It appeared to be carved by zealous use of pipe cleaners. There was a ridge around the bottom of the bowl around the trough. I was able to ream out the ridge with the Pipe Knife. It looked much better. I took a photo of it as best as I could but it is hard to see. I cleaned out the stinky, fruity smelling tobacco oils and tars in the shank and the airway in the stem. I used 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and was able to remove the debris and some of the stench.I needed to “deghost” the bowl and try to exorcise the smell. I stuffed bowl with cotton bolls and used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I set it aside to let the alcohol do its work and wick the oils into the cotton. While it sat for the afternoon, I did some other work. The next morning when I came back to it the cotton and alcohol had wicked out the oils and tars. The cotton was brown and the bowl smelled much better. The damages demanded some restoration and repair. I started with the rough inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the damage on the inner edge of the rim and smooth it a bit. I was careful to not change the profile of the rim top and edges. There was what looks like a pipe cleaner cut trough on the bottom of the bowl and some over zealous reaming that took the bowl bottom below the entry of the airway into the bowl. This is another mess that is actually sad when you consider the quality of the pipe. It is another high-end pipe that was badly abused. I mixed up a batch of JB Weld and put a pipe cleaner in the shank to keep the airway from plugging. I pressed the mixture into the bottom of the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner. I pressed it into the heel with a pipe nail. Unlike the S. Bang, this one was  pretty clean of damage on the bowl sides. I put the bowl upright to allow the repair to cure. Once it cured I would need to sand it smooth and clean up the repairs. The first photo shows the overreamed and gouged spot in the heel of the bowl. The next photos show the repair process and tools. Once the repair cured (the next morning) I sanded the bottom with 220 grit sandpaper on a dowel and small needle files to smooth them out and minimize the amount of JB Weld in the bowl. Once the Weld has hardened it takes some time. Once finished I wiped the walls and heel of the bowl down with some isopropyl to remove the debris.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I mixed up a batch of bowl coating – sour cream and activated charcoal powder to give a top coat and to facilitate the build up of a cake in the bowl. I applied it to the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner and painted it on the bottom and the sides. Once finished I set it aside to cure over night. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I touched up the J.H. Logo stamp on the left side of the saddle stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I rubbed it into the stamping with a tooth pick. Once it had cured I scraped it off with a pen knife and then lightly sanded it off with a 320 grit sanding pad. It looked very good. The bite marks and chatter were not too deep and I was able to polish them out and remove the light oxidation with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I fitted the stem with a Dr. Perl Junior 9MM filter made by Vauen. The pictures below show the brand, the filter and the fit of the filter in the tenon.I put the repaired and reworked Jan Hansen Svendborg Danish Hand Carved C Grade Bent Brandy and its vulcanite saddle filter stem back together. The rich browns and blacks of the contrasting stain makes the grain come alive with the polishing and waxing. I carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Svendborg Danish Hand Carved Bent Brandy really is a beauty and fits nicely in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.50 ounces/70 grams. This pipe will soon be on the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store if you would like to add it to your collection. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

A Sadly Mistreated S Bang Copenhagen Made in Denmark Grade “A” Bent Brandy

4 Replies

by Steve Laug

I was recently contacted by a fellow here in Vancouver about some pipes he had. He was referred to me by a local pipe shop. I was unclear if he wanted them cleaned or exactly what. When he came on the weekend he brought six pipes in two pipe boxes for me to have a look at. I spoke with him about the cost of restoring them. It finally became clear to me (I guess I am slow) that he wanted to sell the pipes. He was tasked with the job by his sister in law as the pipes were from her late husband’s collection. As I unpacked them it was clear that they were some nice pipes and some were higher grade. All but one was smoked and had the heavy smell of fruity aromatics to them. Some had cake in the bowl and lava on the rim. Of the six, four of them had significant rim damage – bowls out of round, burn marks, cut marks. The saddest part is that the damage was most significant on the higher end pipes. Most of them had tooth marks in the stems. Obviously, they had been his late brother in laws favourites and he had enjoyed them. He left them with me and I went over them, researched the brands and wrote up an offer for him to present to his sister in law. By the end of the day we had a deal. The six pipes now have a new home and the fruity smell needs to be exorcised!I finished the last of the repairs that I had in my queue yesterday and turned to work on the third of these pipes. It is a beautiful looking but sadly abused S. Bang Bent Brandy that is readily recognizable. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads S. Bang [arched over] Copenhagen [reverse arch and over] Handmade [over] in Denmark [over] the Grade Stamp “A”. The bowl had beautiful straight grain around sides. The shape is impeccably done. The finish was dirty but otherwise all was good it appeared. The rim top was clean of cake and lava. The inner edge of the bowl was damaged all the way around with burn damage on the right front edge of the bowl that had been sanded out. It appeared as if someone had given the damaged area a poorly done bevel to clean up that damage. The bowl is out of round. There is a light cake in the bowl. The stem was clean but and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button.More damage would come to light soon enough. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to give you an idea of what I see. It is too bad that Word does now allow for the inclusion of smells because this is filling my work area. I have a candle going to mask the smell a bit. You can see the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. There is a light cake in the bowl. The stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took photos of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe. To help me understand the stamping a bit more I turned to Pipephil’s site and read what it said about S. Bang pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s1.html). I have included a screen capture of the section below as well as the side bar information below the capture. Sven Bang opened his tobacco and pipe shop in 1968 in Copenhagen. He was more a business man than a pipe carver and began to hire pipemakers. About half a dozen succeeded each other in his workshop during the 1970’s (Ivan Holst Nielsen, Jan Wideløv, Phil Vigen…). At least Per Hansen and Ulf Noltensmeier stayed and when Sven retired in 1983 they took over the company (in 1984) keeping its name.

To close my understanding of the pipe I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/S._Bang). I quote the section from the article where the company changed hands from S. Bang to Hansen and Noltensmeier in 1984. It is a great read so I have included it below.

Svend Bang retired in 1984. Evidently, he felt a great deal of pride in the product that he initiated throughout his career and retirement and until his death in 1993.

Once Hansen and Noltensmeier took over the company (in 1984) they knew it was best to retain the S. Bang name – the two carvers always shared the same philosophy about that. Noltensmeier and Hansen were determined to maintain top quality at the expense of increased numbers. The only change they made concerns the stamping on the pipes changing from the English version “COPENHAGEN” to the Danish “KOBENHAVN”.

Still, they are two separate carvers, with their own styles and preferences. Each makes his own pipes – there is no “assembly line” construction at S. Bang. They bounce ideas off of each other, of course, and admit that when problems arise in a pipe, it is nice to have a partner to discuss them with.

Though they carve pipes as individuals, there are similarities in their work. All Bang pipes are made with black, hand-cut vulcanite stems.

The same engineering is used by both carvers as well. The shape and size of the tobacco chambers vary according to size and design of the pipe, but each carver follows the same design guidelines for choosing the proper chamber dimensions. The smoke channel is always engineered for optimum performance.

Bang pipes are noted for the high definition and fine contrast in the grain. They undergo a double staining process to achieve that effect. The technique makes the grain leap from the bowl of the pipe, making well-grained wood become extra ordinary. The same colouring, however, will produce different results in different pieces of briar, making each pipe truly individual.

I knew from what I had read the pipe I have was made for the European market and bore an “A” grading which is quite high. I also knew that it was made before 1984 when the stamping Copenhagen was replaced by Kobenhavn. Ulf and Per worked there before they took over in 1984. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to take back the cake to bare briar. I sanded the walls smooth with some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. This is when all the internal damages were revealed. It was a sad moment. I ran my fingers over the sides of the bowl and felt some nicks and flaws on the walls. The bottom of the bowl also had an odd bump in it. I shone a light in the bowl and it seems that there was repair on the bottom of the bowl. The hard material filling in part of the heel was probably JB Weld. It was rock hard but it appeared that half of the repair was missing. I could see that there was a trough carved in the bottom of the bowl and that the repair had been made to cover that. It would need to be redone. I took a photo of it as best as I could but it is hard to see. I cleaned out the stinky, fruity smelling tobacco oils and tars in the shank and the airway in the stem. I used 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and was able to remove the debris and some of the stench. I needed to “deghost” the bowl and try to exorcise the smell. I stuffed bowl with cotton bolls and used an ear syringe to fill it with alcohol. I set it aside to let the alcohol do its work and wick the oils into the cotton. While it sat for the afternoon, I did some other work. When I came back to it the cotton and alcohol had wicked out the oils and tars. The cotton was brown and the bowl smelled much better. The damages demanded some restoration and repair. I started with the badly bevelled rim top and inner edge. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the damage on the inner edge of the rim and smooth it a bit. I was careful to not change the profile of the rim top and edges. This pipe will be staying with me so I wanted the rim top cleaned up and smooth. The condition of the bowl and rim top when I received it really took away from the amazing work that always characterizes an S. Bang pipe. (The second photo was taken after I had put the JB Weld in the bottom of the bowl. The point though of the photo is to show the repaired rim.)Under the damaged repair to the bowl bottom there is what looks like a pipe cleaner cut trough. It had been repaired but half of the repair fell out of the bowl. There are also a few pits on the inside walls once I removed the cotton pads. This is actually sad when consider the quality of the pipe. It is a high-end pipe that was badly abused. I mixed up a batch of JB Weld and put a pipe cleaner in the shank to keep the airway from plugging. I pressed the mixture into the half of the repair that was missing in the bottom of the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner. I applied it to the gouges in the sides of the bowl to smooth them out and protect the bowl walls from possible burnout. I put the bowl upright in a pipe rest to allow the repairs to cure over night. Once it cured I would need to sand it smooth and clean up the repairs.This morning I sanded the bowl walls and bottom with 220 grit sandpaper and small needle files to smooth them out and minimize the amount of JB Weld in the bowl. Once the Weld has hardened it takes some time. Once finished I wiped the bowl down with some isopropyl to remove the debris. I polished the repaired rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped it down the bowl after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I mixed up a batch of bowl coating – sour cream and activated charcoal powder to give a top coat and to facilitate the build up of a cake in the bowl. I applied it to the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner and painted it on the bottom and the sides. Once finished I set it aside to cure over night. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the damage on the stem. I painted the stem surface with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks. I lifted them some. I filled in what remained of the marks on the top side with black CA glue. I set it aside to cure. Once the repairs cured I flattened them out with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the stem surface. I was able to polish out the repairs with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the repaired and reworked S. Bang Copenhagen Grade A Bent Brandy back together and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in both. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Considering the mess the pipe was in when I started working on it I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful S. Bang Grade A Bent Brandy – the vulcanite saddle stem and rim top and smooth finish combine to give the pipe a great look. The polished straight grain briar and the polished black, vulcanite stem looks really good. The rich grain stands out on the bowl and shank. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.83 ounces/51 grams. This beautiful, restored S. Bang will be staying with me for awhile. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Restoring and Repairing a Tinsky American Sandblast Dublin Reg No C 486/*S 5

2 Replies

by Steve Laug

Just before the Postal Strike here in Canada I received an email from Baker regarding a Tinsky American Smoking Pipe that he had purchased that needed some attention. He sent me a link in the email to a series of photos showing the issues with the pipe.

Hey Steve…

I got an American Smoking Pipe bent Dublin from the 80’s several months ago and just noticed a big crack opening up in the bottom of the bowl….

This pipe also has a dry, desiccated look and feel to it — almost like a piece of driftwood. What do you think? Is this something you can help with? I’m not in a rush but it’s too good a pipe to let fade away.

Best regards, Baker

I have included the photos that Baker sent me below. It truly is a dry looking sandblast pipe with some issues of cracks and flaws in the briar. The first photo gives a profile of the pipe.He also took photos of the rim top and bowl. You can see from the photos that the bowl has a moderate cake. It does not appear that there are cracks on the inside of the bowl in the photos. There is some darkening around the inner edge. The rim top has some beautiful and rich grain. He took several photos of the crack in the bowl radiating from a flaw in the briar. It is on the front of the heel. There was also a large flaw on the lower front of the bowl. He included a photo of that as well.He also included a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It reads American in an oval [over] REG. NO. [over] C 486/*S 5. It is clear and readable. I have collected and smoked Mark Tinsky’s pipes for over 30 years now and thoroughly enjoy them. I cannot speak highly enough about the quality and craftsmanship of his pipes. I have pipes made by Mark and by Curt Rollar in my collection and both are great smokers and pipes that reach for regularly in my choice of pipes. I turned to his website for a quick summary of the history of the brand (http://www.amsmoke.com/Index%20Folder/PipeHist.html). I quote from the site as it is a short, concise history.

The American Smoking Pipe Co. was formed in 1978 by Mark Tinsky and Curt Rollar. Both started making pipes for Jack Weinberger (JHW Pipes) while in high school and throughout college. Determined to blaze their own path, they formed their own company- its goal to create unique pipes, lightweight and comfortable, where attention to detail was the rule not the exception. Exulting in their new freedom, they carved out new shapes that were balanced between the radical freehand era of the 70’s and the board pipe look of other conservative companies. Hungry for recognition, they stormed the Eastern and Southern shops looking for markets to sell their pipes. Many hidebound retailers refused to try something new, preferring to sell, well, what has always sold before. However, their pipes did take root in many shops and the business thrived.

They continued expanding their pipe making capabilities, adding employees to help finish the pipes. In 1990, over a disagreement over how much to expand, Curt Rollar left the company. This put a break on expansion and coupled with a U.S. recession and rising anti-smoking fervour served to limit production to supplying existing retailers, thus ending a decade of growth. With pipes sales in decline, we turned to pipe repair as a way to supplement revenues. Finding that we liked fixing things, American concentrated on pipe repair. While working hard at repair and manufacture American is ready once again to expand its markets through its existing network of shops serviced by pipe repair.

The pipe I am working on is stamped American in an oval with a Reg. No. [over] C 486/*S 5 as noted above. The stamp tells me that the pipe was made in April of 1986. The S stamp could signify that the pipe is a sandblast but I am not sure. The 5 is the size of the pipe.

We chatted and he prepared to send the pipe to me. THEN THE CANADA POSTAL STRIKE HAPPENED. I had an idea of shipping it to a mailbox in the US and then I could get it from there rather than wait for the strike to end. Baker shipped it and it arrived quite quickly. Sadly, I was ill as was Kenneth so we were not able to head south to pick up the pipe. Kenneth picked it up and dropped it off Friday.

I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. It was dry and desiccated on the outside as Baker noted. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and some darkening on the rim edge. The crack and flaws are very visible in the photos. The blast seemed almost worn and tired. The variegated brown acrylic stem looked good with a few tooth marks and chatter on both the top and underside of the pipe. Have a look. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of both. The rim top is smooth and has some beautiful birdseye grain. You can see the debris in the bowl and darkening on the inner edge. I also took photos of the acrylic stem showing the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem.I took some photos of the crack and flaws in the bowl. The photos show the one in the heel and on the front of the bowl. Now it was time to start working on the pipe itself. The bowl was slightly conical so I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife taking it back to bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner.I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock of the debris on the briar of the sandblast. Once I did that I decided to address the crack and fills in the heel of the bowl. I used my lens and light to magnify the crack and drill a small microdrill hole at each end of it with my Dremel.I filled in the drill holes in the briar and the track of the crack with clear CA glue. I used a dental spatula to press briar dust into the superglue over the crack and the drill holes. At the same time, I repaired the flaw on the front of the bowl. I went over the repaired areas with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the excess glue and briar dust. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed the smooth rim top and the sandblast walls with the toothbrush. I rinsed it off with warm running water and dried it with a soft towel. It looked much better and the rim top looked clean. The grain under the sandblast stood out clearly. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the buildup tars and oils. It smelled significantly better.I sanded the smooth rim top and edge with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I was able to remove the darkening and really begin to see the grain.I polished the rim top with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with each pad and wiping it down with a damp cloth between pads. It took on a rich shine. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it in the grooves. It works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep marks in the acrylic stem with black rubberized CA glue. Once it hardened I flattened the repairs out with a small file. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the rest of the acrylic stem and started the polishing them with 600 wet dry sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. This American Reg. No. C 486/*S 5 Sandblast Dublin is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The brown stains really highlight the grain and the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished American Mark Tinsky Dublin fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 52 grams / 1.83 ounces. I will be packing this up and sending it back to Baker this week. I am looking forward to hearing what he thinks of it. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. 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.