By Al Jones
I enjoy finding unusual Peterson shapes. This B2, a stylized straight Rhodesian shape, was a 2001 “4th of July” commemorative that was recently listed on Ebay. It didn’t gather much attention and I won the auction. It joins a B5 Supreme in my pipe cabinet.
I wasn’t aware that Peterson made a short run of “4th of July” commemorative pipes. Whenever I have a Peterson question, I turn to Mark Irwins blog, Peterson Pipe Notes. From the blog, I learned that this line ran from 1998 to 2004. Mark had a blog entry dedicated to the B shape line:
The B2 shape is described as below:
The hallmarks are a bit worn, but the distinctive Q for the year 2001 is easily recognized.
The pipe was in good condition, but the uneven and scorched bowl top was doing to need some work. The stem had a tiny pin prick below the button and in very good condition. Below is the pipe as received.
I reamed the mild cake and soaked the briar with sea salt and alcohol. I decided that the scorched bowl top would need to be removed. I only had to remove a small amount of material to reach un-scorched briar. I used a Medium brown stain to finish the bowl top and match the pipe.
The P stem logo was in good condition but missing the while paint. I filled it with white acrylic nail polish and let it dry overnight. I buffed off the excess with a Micro-Mesh pad. The lightly oxidized stem was restored using 800, 1,500 and 2,000 grade wet sandpaper. The stem was then buffed with White Diamond and Meguiars Plastic polish.
The bowl was buffed lightly with White Diamond and then several coats of carnuba wax. I used some cream silver polish applied by hand on the silver band.
Below is the finished pipe and it has joined my B5 Supreme in my collection.
rebornpipes 