by Steve Laug

Last week I received an email from Steffen regarding a few more pipe projects that he had for me to work on. He dropped them off here yesterday for me to work on. There were six pipes in the lot. Two were his that I had worked on a few years ago – a Mayfair 1005 rusticated tree stump and a Jost Supreme. Both were favourite pipes of his. One was a Savinelli Bent Billiard that he purchased on a trip to Italy. The final three were pipes that belonged to his father who would soon be visiting him in Vancouver – a Brigham full bent four dot 4244, a Savinelli Portofino Bent Pot and a Bent Rhodesian with no name stamped on the shank sides. Steffen texted me this photo of the pipes before he sent them.I decided to work on the two pipes at the bottom before addressing the final pipe of Stephen’s Dad’s pipes. This involved stem tightening on two of Stephen’s pipes that are really straight forward. I did not write a blog on them. It is now time to work on the final one of Steffen’s father’s pipes. It is a rusticated Full Bent Pipe. It is a beautiful rusticated piece of briar that I fully appreciate why his Dad chose it. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank. It reads P 4244 M followed by Brigham. There is no Canada stamp on it. The stem bears 4 dots on the left side of the saddle. The briar is dirty from use with a moderate cake in the bowl and some chipping and dents in the rim top on the outer edge of the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of a hand carved button that his father carved in the stem end. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work and included them below. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in bowl and the lava overflow and the heavy nicking and denting on the edges and rim top of the bowl. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There is also a paper wash inserted in the mortise of the pipe to tighten the fit of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank to show its clarity. It read as noted above. I also removed the stem from the shank of the pipe and took a photo of the parts to show the flow of the pipe. It has some great grain. For the needed background I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Roy Brigham, after serving an apprenticeship under an Austrian pipesmith, started his own pipe repair shop in Toronto, in 1906. By 1918 the business had grown to include five other craftsmen and had developed a reputation across Canada for the high quality of workmanship. After repairing many different brands of pipes over the years, Roy noted certain recurring complaints by pipe smokers, the most common referred to as “tongue bite”. Tongue bite is a burning sensation on the smoker’s tongue, previously thought to be due to the heat of the smoke (i.e. a “hot smoking pipe”).

He soon began manufacturing his own pipes, which were lightweight, yet featured a more rugged construction, strengthening the weak points observed in other pipes. The problem of tongue bite intrigued him, and he decided to make overcoming it a future goal.

About 1938, Roy’s son Herb joined him to assist in the business. The business barely survived the great depression because pipes were considered to be a luxury, not a necessity, and selling pipes was difficult indeed. In approximately 1937 [1], after some experimentation, Roy and Herb discovered that tongue bite was in fact a form of mild chemical burn to the tongue, caused by tars and acids in the smoke. They found that by filtering the smoke, it was possible to retain the flavour of the tobacco and yet remove these impurities and thereby stop the tongue bite.

Just as Thomas Edison had searched far and wide for the perfect material from which to make the first electric light bulb filaments, Roy & Herb began experimenting with many materials, both common and exotic, in the quest for the perfect pipe filter. Results varied wildly. Most of the materials didn’t work at all and some actually imparted their own flavour into the smoke. They eventually found just two materials that were satisfactory in pipes: bamboo and rock maple. As bamboo was obviously not as readily available, rock maple then became the logical choice.

They were able to manufacture a replaceable hollow wooden tube made from rock maple dowelling, which when inserted into a specially made pipe, caused absolutely no restriction to the draw of the pipe, yet extracted many of the impurities which had caused tongue bite. The result was indeed a truly better smoking pipe…With the information from Charles’ article and the chart above that he included I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I learned that this 4244 (the 4XX shape number) is a Brigham Director (4-Dot) Full Bent. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the debris on the bowl top. The small rusticated patterns were quite filled in with lava and dirt. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was undamaged under the cake and was now significantly cleaner. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was dirty but it cleaned up very well. I scrubbed the surface of the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with warm running water and repeated the process until the pipe was clean. It looked much better. I sanded the smooth panel on the right side of the bowl and the smooth ring around the rim top and shank end with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. I polished the smooth portions of the briar with 1500-12000 micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding the bowl with the pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It is looking much better. I left the nicks on the outer edge as they are a part of the pipe’s journey. 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 work it into the rustication. The product 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 very good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite saddle stem. I cleaned the stem area around where Stephen’s father had cut off the damaged button and notched the side of the stem. I used alcohol and cotton swabs. I rebuilt the button on both sides of the stem with black CA glue. I also filled in the notches with the glue. I layered it on multiple times to build up the button surface. The glue I use has both rubber and carbon in the mix that harden as it dries but does not become brittle. Once it cured I flattened the repairs and reshaped the button edge with a flat needle file. I gave the button top and bottom as well as the notches another layer or two of black CA glue. Once it cured I continued the process of reshaping and then sanded the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit 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 polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil 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. I fitted the tenon system with a Brigham Hard Rock Maple Filter. It fit well and the pipe is ready to smoke with it in place. This Brigham 4244 Full Bent Four Dot Director is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of brown stains really highlight the grain and the polished finish has depth. The nicks on the outer edge give a bit of character and history to the pipe. I put the vulcanite stem with the rebuilt button 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 Brigham 4244 Full Bent Four Dot Director 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 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 66 grams /2.33 ounces. I had finished the stem tightening on two of Stephen’s personal pipes and cleaned them up. This is the last of the other four of Stephen’s pipes that needed to be worked on and restored. I will give him a call in the week ahead and get them back to him to enjoy with his father.

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.