Daily Archives: November 24, 2025

What a Lovely Republic Era Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” 68 Brandy

by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is smooth finished Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” pipe. The pipe came to us from a Facebook seller in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. This one is a Peterson’s Brandy shaped pipe with a taper P-lip stem. It has a rich brown coloured finish with interesting grain around the bowl sides and shank. It is very dirty. This Brandy has a silver band on the shank that was badly oxidized. The grime on the finish was ground into the finish on the bowl sides. The brown stains make the grain really pop. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and reads K&P in shields [over] “Sterling [over] Silver”. To the right of that it is stamped with the three line Made in the Republic of Ireland stamp followed by the shape number 68. The heavily tarnished band is stamped with K&P in shields [over] Sterling [over] Silver. To the right that it has three hallmarks – Hibernia seated arm on a harp (signifies country of manufacture), a crowned harp designating Sterling quality and finally a Date Letter mark – in this case an italic upper-case italic “I” (1994). It was in filthy condition when Jeff brought it to the table. There was a thick cake in the bowl and spots of lava on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work before he started on the pipe. 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 very good. The stem is oxidized and has light tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. Jeff took some photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain that was around this bowl. 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. The stamping on the Sterling Silver band is also readable through the oxidation. I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Sterling Pipe. On page 314 it had the following information on the line.

Sterling (1949-c1957; 1978-) – Higher grade line with sterling band. Early example, 1949-57, with COM of Made in Ireland forming a circle, were offered to the US market through Rogers Imports and have no hallmark, although until recent years the line carried Peterson’s maker’s mark, the K&P is in separate shields. Models beginning in ’78 with hallmarked dates and a COM stamp of Made in [over] the Republic [over] of Ireland.

I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1949-1957 as shown by the Made in the Republic of Ireland three-line format stamp. 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, shank brushes, 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 worked on the rim top lava with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the deoxidizer. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here. I took some close-up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. The rim top and the inner edge looked very good. The silver cleaned up well on the band. The stem was clean and the tooth marks and chatter were minimal.I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint and readable. I took the pipe apart and took a photo of the pipe. It is a good looking pipe and has some nice looking grain around the bowl. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the remainder of the varnish coat that the acetone did not remove. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It really looks much better. I polished the briar with 1500-12000 grit micromesh pads – dry sanding it with each pad and wiped down the bowl after each pad. I gave it a final wiped with a Briar Wipe cloth to polish the finish. The briar looked very good at this point. I began my work on it by working 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 Sterling Silver band on the shank with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and polish it. I scrubbed the oxidized stem surface with Soft Scrub cleanser on cotton pads. I was able to remove a major portion of the oxidation. It began to look much better.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads and wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad. The stem began to take on a shine.I touched up the P stamp on the left side of the stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I worked it into the P stamp with a tooth pick. Once it dried I scraped off the excess of the acrylic with my fingernail. I sanded the stem area with a worn 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. It looked very good.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 am excited to finish this smooth Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” 68 Brandy. I put the pipe back together and lightly 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 depths of the sandblast taking on a rich glow. Added to that the polished Sterling Silver band and the black vulcanite taper P-lip stem was beautiful. This smooth Classic Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” 68 Brandy is nice 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: 2 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.

Restoring a K&P Dublin Made in Ireland 207 Pot

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from one of our pipe hunts or a trade but neither Jeff or I remember when and where we picked it up. It is a classically smooth Peterson’s Dublin 207 Pot. The finish is quite nice with at that classic Peterson’s smooth finish. The pipe pretty clean with the exterior polished and dust free. The bowl had been reamed somewhere along the way and then lightly smoked long enough to have a thin cake develop. The rim top was in good condition and the inner edge looked quite good. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads K & P [over] Dublin. The right side had a circular Made in Ireland followed by the shape number 207. On the oxidized Sterling Silver band, it is stamped K&P in shields [over] Sterling Silver. The stamping is clear and readable on both the pipe and band. The fishtail stem is clean – no tooth marks and chatter. It looks like there is a spot of repair on the underside of the stem against the button. I took photos of the pipe before I starting work on it. I took photos of the rim top to show the lack of cake in the clean bowl and rim top and edges. The stem was also in decent condition other than scratches and nick marks.The stamping on the sides of the shank read as noted above. The photo shows that they are faint but clear and readable. The stamping on the silver is also readable though heavily oxidized. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. It is a great looking pipe. 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).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s London Made England line. On page 298 it had the following information.

“Dublin” (1906-2003) Although DUBLIN appears under PETERSON’s on many pipes over the decades, it has served mostly to part of the brand name. The word first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1906-11, stamped PETERSON’S over PATENT over DUBLIN. The simpler PETERSON’S over DUBLIN first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1912 after the expiration of the patent. Illustrations of pipes in the’37 catalog show a random dispersion of the stamp PETERSON’S over OF DUBLIN together with the ordinary PETERSON’S over DUBLIN on ever model offered. Specimens of the former will bear either an Irish COM and almost certainly date from 1945-62. It was first mentioned in print as pat of the model name in the’68 price list, as K&P DUBLIN, in ’92 for a Danish market line.

I knew the date for the pipe I was working on from the stamping on the silver– 1978. Since the one I was working on did not have a D shape it is not provable that it was made for the Danish market. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I scrubbed the briar with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I worked over the grime on the bowl and shank as well as the debris inside the bowl and then rinsed the pipe with warm running water. I dried it off with a clean soft towel. I polished the Sterling Silver band on the shank with a silver polish on cotton pads to remove the tarnish and polish it. I polished the briar with 1500-12000 grit micromesh pads – dry sanding it with each pad and wiped down the bowl after each pad. I gave it a final wiped with a Briar Wipe cloth to polish the finish. The bowl was clean the briar looked very good, so I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The grain came alive with the balm. I sanded out the scratches in the stem at the shank end. There marks, almost small cuts in the vulcanite that I sanded out with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch pads. I was able to remove the marks and give the stem a rich shine. There was some glue from a previous repair on the tenon and face of the stem to expand the tenon. I scraped off the excess glue and sanded the tenon and the stem surface at the same time.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This K & P Dublin 207 Smooth Pot is a nice-looking pipe. The grain around the bowl sides and shank really stand out with the polishing. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well to give some depth to the grain. The polished silver band and the black vulcanite, fish tail taper stem add to the mix. The pipe is really quite eye-catching. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel, carefully avoiding the stamping on the shank. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished K & P Dublin 207 Pot is quite nice and feels great in the hand. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ 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 45 grams/1.59 ounces. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another interesting pipe. I will be adding it to the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.