Daily Archives: May 4, 2025

Restoring an il Ceppo Billiard E3702 Grade 3 Fancy Billiard Made by Hand in Italy

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is a beautifully grained and smooth finished Billiard with a slightly bent acrylic taper stem. It came to us on August 22, 2024 from a friend in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA. The contrast of the brown stains makes the grain stand out. It was stamped left side of the shank and read il ceppo. On the underside it is stamped E3702 [over] Made in Italy [arched over] In Italy (underlined). Next to the shank/stem junction it reads 3 in a triangle. The pipe was quite clean with some slight darkening inside the bowl. It had obviously been reamed recently. The bowl was clean and the smooth rim top was dirty but free of lava. The black acrylic saddle stem was in good condition other than being a bit dirty. The stem surface was free of chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. The il ceppo “C” logo on the top of the stem was in good shape. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work. They tell the story and give a glimpse of the pipe. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl quite clean, perhaps freshly reamed and edges and rim top looked good. The stem was very clean and smooth. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain and around this bowl. Underneath all the light grime it is a nice looking pipe. The rustication or sandblasted portions of the bowl at the bottom really highlight the uniqueness of the finish. 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. You can see that there is some shrinkage on the spacer on the stem end and the acrylic one on the shank end. This is puzzling at the moment to me.To remind myself about the brand I turned to Pipephil’ sites to read what he had written there in the side bar (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-i.html). I quote below and also include a screen capture of the pertinent section.

Brand founded by Giorgio Imperatori in 1977 (first period) and bought by Franco Corinaldesi Rossi (second period, about 1996) when Giorgio retired. Franco and his sister Nadia are the current (2011) Il Ceppo pipe makers.From the information above I knew that the pipe was from the first period of il ceppo pipe making (1977 until the second period began in 1996 when the pipe maker Giorgio Imperatori retired). It is confirmed first period by the notes on the grading system. It had the il ceppo stamping slightly curved, an E3702 (letter and 4-5 digit number), and a Group number in a triangle – in this case a 3.

I turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Il_Ceppo).  I quote below:

Il Ceppo by Giuseppe Cambioli – Courtesy of italianpipemakers.com

My passion was born casually and it moved me to consider and love the world of artisanship. Casually and overall luckily, I ran across the emblematic person of Franco Rossi, pipemaker and owner of the “Il Ceppo” factory. He gave me the useful key to opening the doors of the fascinating world of pipes.

“Il Ceppo” boasts of thirty years of history with successive and great satisfaction which helped to keep high the name of the Marchigiane factories. The most famous as Pesareses factories have always had reciprocal respect and admiration and this have and will take cooperations and sharing of their own art, to confirm the distinctive seriousness and high quality.

“Il Ceppo” factory focuses its manufacture into products which vaunt accurate processings and an excellent yield with prices kept amazingly convenient.

Process is completely handmade except for some passages made with the aid of machines to obtain perfect results. The briar used to make the pipes has been left resting and seasoning for at least two years before the sapient hands of the pipemakers could start their work. Our working politic is centred on the care for details, to obtain the best product as possible.

Our prices keep a high balance with the quality of the offered product; they reflect totally our careful and eager work. We’ve never forgotten that what we make could only be obtained if moved by an unconditional love for this work of the good old days.

(Editor’s note: I have tried to correct most grammar & spelling, but in some instances I do not have the vaguest clue what the author is trying to say)

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 undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He rinsed it with warm running water and dried it off with a soft cloth. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft. He rinsed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. It looked very good when I brought it to the worktable other than the briar ring around the metal dot had darkened in the process. I took photos of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. You can see that the spacer is gone but forget that! The briar is really very stunning!  I took close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim top and edges looked very good. The bowl itself was very smooth and clean. I took photos of the stem to show the condition it was in. It looked very good and the C logo was clean and in good condition.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. The stem is stamped on the underside Own Made. It is clear and readable. I took the pipe apart and took a photo of the pipe. It is a good looking pipe with incredible grain. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. By the end of the process they looked very good. 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 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. This Hand Made il ceppo E3703 Grade 3 Billiard was another fun pipe to work on and I was glad to be finishing it. I put the acrylic stem back on the bowl and polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish 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. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The smooth grain and the sandblast patches give the pipe a great look. The pipe polished up really well. The polished acrylic stem seemed to truly come alive with the buffing. This pipe feels great in my hand and I am sure that the sandblast portions will feel even better radiating the heat of a good smoke. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 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 2.05 ounces/58 grams. This is one beauty that is eye catching. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding it to your collection email or message me.

Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next pipeman or woman.

Refreshing a NOS Unsmoked Manx Meerschaum Bronze Elite 2 Rhodesian

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Refreshing a NOS Unsmoked Manx Meerschaum Bronze Elite 03 Rhodesian

by Steve Laug

I wanted to work on something a little different before getting back to more briar. I chose a Manx Meerschaum pipe that I purchased from a seller in England. It was unsmoked and came in its original box with the plastic bag still holding the unsmoked pipes. Being a Manx pipe, it was made on the Isle of Man by the Laxey Pipe Factory which closed in 2002. This NOS ¼ Bent Rhodesian was in excellent unsmoked condition. It has a flume finish – darkened at the top of the rim and partway down the bowl sides. The bowl is light tan/white in colour on the rest of the bowl. The bowl is very clean other than the dust of sitting so long in the box and plastic. There is a Delrin insert in the shank for strengthening of the meer. The stem is in unused condition with no oxidation and no tooth marks or chatter on the stem surface. The seller sent me photos of the pipe before we closed out deal on the pipe. It is quite nice and the box is undamaged. I did some research on the Laxey Pipe Ltd. who made the Manx Meerschaum pipe. I have included that information below.

My research on the origins of the Manx Bronze Elite 2 Block Meerschaum name can be summarized like this: It was made with African Meerschaum from the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporartion (Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation – Pipedia) and produced by Laxey Pipe Ltd. on the Isle of Man. 

Here is the Pipedia information on Laxey Pipes Ltd.:

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

Tanganyika Meerschaum that was used by the Laxey production is described as tougher, less porous, and cheaper than Meerschaum mined in Turkey (Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation – Pipedia).

Now it is time to work on the pipe itself. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. The first photo shows the pipe outside of its box. It is unused and very clean other than the dust of sitting for years. The pipe is flumed at the top of the bowl with a dark stain – either black or brown. The rest of the bowl is a white/tan that will colour over time. I took photos of the sides and the top and heel of the bowl to show the condition. You can see some nicks in the surface of the bowl but nothing to stunning. There is an area on the underside of the shank where it is worn or chipped and reshaped. That may very well be original and came out of the factory that way. It is hard to know for certain. The interior is dusty but unused. The bowl was pretty clean though you can see some spots on the rim top where the darkened portion is dull or worn looking. I took some photos that give a clear picture. The first is a close up that shows the bowl and the rim. I also took photos chatter on the surface.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is faint but still readable and reads 2. I also removed the stem from the shank and took photos of the pipe to show the look of the parts.The bowl was in such good condition I did not need to do any work on it. I waxed the bowl with some Clapham’s Beeswax and buffed it to a rich shine. I set the bowl aside and polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each pad. It is a beautiful saddle stem. This unsmoked NOS Manx Meerschaum Bronze Elite 2 Rhodesian with a vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe. The shape of the bowl reminds me of a GBD 9438 Rhodesian in some ways. The stem fit and shank all say Manx or Laxley Pipes. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Manx Meerschaum Rhodesian is another pipe that 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 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 58 grams/2.08 ounces. I will be holding onto this one at least for a while as it ticks all the boxes for me and I have wanted to try a Manx Meer like this for a long time. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Restoring a Hefty Jarl Chieftain Oil Hardened Billiard 02 with a 9mm vulcanite Filter Stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a beautiful shaped thick shanked Billiard. We recently purchased it from a seller in Wilkes Barr, Pennsylvania, USA on Facebook Auction on Facebook on 09/12/2021. It is a nicely grained large Billiard with mixed grain on the sides and birdseye on the front and the back of the bowl. The inwardly bevelled rim top is in great condition and had mixed grain across the top. It is stamped on the left underside of the shank and reads Jarl Chieftain [over] Made in Denmark. On the right side it is stamped with the shape Oil Hardened. On the underside next to the stem/shank junction it bears the shape number 02. There was a heavy cake in the bowl and some darkening around the top and inner edge and light lava spots on the rim top. The mortise smelled of oils and had a dirty 9mm filter in the tenon. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and there were some light tooth marks or chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. They tell the story and give a glimpse of the promise that we see in this pipe. He took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the current condition. The inner edge and the rim top showed darkening and spots of lava as mentioned above. The photos of the bowl walls show the moderate cake on the walls. The stem photos show the oxidation and light marks on the rim top on both sides. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a sense of the condition of the bowl and the grain around the bowl. It is a beauty. He took photos of the shank sides to capture the stamping on the shank sides. They were clear and readable as noted above. Jeff did not capture the shape number on the underside of the shank which was also clear. Before I started working on it I did a bit of research on the brand to remind myself of what I knew of the maker. I turned to Pipephil’s site first (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-j1.html#jarl). I did a screen capture of the information on the site. I did a screen capture of the pertinent information and have included it below.I then turned to Pipedia and found that a very short article that confirmed that the pipes were made by Niels Mogens Jorgensen (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jarl). I have included the article in its entirety below.

In December of 2010 Ellen Jarl wrote that Jarl pipes were made by her grandfather, Niels Mogens Jørgensen in a little factory in the town of Bramdrupdam, just outside Kolding, Denmark. We have no reason to doubt that Niels Mogens Jørgensen is the maker of these pipes.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. Since Jeff always follows the same pattern of work in his cleanup we do not include photos but rather just a simple summary. Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He was able to remove the spotty lava build up on the rim top and you could see the marks on the top and edges of the rim. He soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it with warm water to rinse off the residue. The stem was clean and the oxidation was gone. I took photos of what the pipe looked like when I brought to my worktable. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim top and stem to show how clean the pipe was. The bowl was clean and the rim top and the inner edge looked good. The stem was clean and there were light tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is faint in spots but still readable and read as noted above. I also removed the stem from the shank and took photos of the pipe to show the look of the parts. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl surface down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding dust. Once I finished the exterior of the briar was clean and the grain really stood out. 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 turned to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the filter tenon with a clean Dr. Perl Junior 9mm filter. It easily slips into the tenon and the pipe is ready to smoke.I am excited to finish this Jarl Chieftan Made in Denmark Thick Shank Billiard 02 with a 9mm Filter vulcanite saddle stem. 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 the mix of grain on the sides of the bowl. Added to that the black vulcanite saddle stem was beautiful. This smooth Jarl Chieftan Thick Shank 02 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 ¾ 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 57 grams /2.05 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers section. If you are interested in adding it to your rack let me know by message or by email to slaug@uniserve.com. Thanks for your time reading the blog. I appreciate it.