by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking rusticated Bent Dublin Sitter with a carved/plateau black vulcanite stem. We picked it up from a seller in Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada on 01/31/2023. The stamping on the underside of the shank reads Brigham in script [over] MADE IN CANADA. The fancy, turned vulcanite stem has two brass dots inserted on the left side of the saddle. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with rusticated finish with carved lines and a medium brown finish that highlights the grain under the rustication. The finish is very dirty with oils and grime ground into the finish. The rustication/plateau on the rim top is filled in with lava and grime. There is a thick cake in the bowl and on the inner edge of the rim. The turned bent vulcanite stem works very well with the bowl. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat and has some darkening on the inner edge and is heavier toward the back of the bowl. The inner edge looks like it might be damaged. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work. Jeff removed the stem from the shank and took photos of the distillator aluminum tenon. There was no maple filter in the tenon so the tube was filled up with tars and oils. The outside of the tube is also covered with tars as well. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in rusticated finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It reads Brigham [over] Made in Canada. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside. The stem show two brass dots on the left side of the saddle. For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (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…

I remembered that Charles had done a blog on a pair of Brigham Sportsman pipes for his Dadspipes Blog. I looked that up to get a bit of background on this series of pipes so I could understand it better (https://dadspipes.com/2017/05/04/a-bevy-of-brighams-part-iii-a-pair-of-unsmoked-3-dot-sportsman-pipes/).  I quote a section of the blog below:

For those unfamiliar with this series, the Sportsman pipes were roughly shaped, semi-finished and sold each year at the Toronto Sportsman’s Show as rugged, rough-and-ready pipes suitable for bringing along to the cottage, hunt camp, fishing lodge or campground. The briar blocks were factory drilled, had the top half or so of the bowl machine-turned, and were fitted with a stem containing the Brigham filter system. The bottom half of the bowl and the shank were left roughly carved. Many of the Sportsman pipes were graded at a 3 Dot level, though I believe they were available in 3, 4 and 5 Dot grades.

Interestingly, the pipe I have in hand is another 2 Dot grade but very well done. It is stamped Made in Canada under the Brigham logo.

Charles Lemon has also written a great article on the stampings and marking on the Brigham pipes that fit into a time line that he has drafted. It is well worth a read and is fascinating. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes_%E2%80%93_A_Closer_Look_at_Dots,_Dates_and_Markings). I quote from the pertinent section on the time frame for this pipe.     The patent on the Brigham filter system expired in 1955, ushering in the Post-Patent Era (1956 – roughly 1969). The “CAN PAT” stamp was replaced by a “Made in Canada” stamp in block letters. The 1960s saw the introduction of new product lines, including the Norsemen and Valhalla series of rusticated and smooth (respectively) freehand-style pipes created to capitalize on the growing demand for Danish pipe shapes.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Post-Patent Era (1956-1969). It is a great looking pipe with the Sportsman style of finish.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Brigham pipes are reknown in the pipe world for their famous “Brigham Dots”, a system of brass pins inset in the stem to denote the grade of each pipe. The original 8-grade pinning system, used for 42 years between 1938 and 1978 (spanning the Patent, Post-Patent and Canadian Eras) looked like this:I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1956-1969 from the Post-Patent Era. It sports 2 dot making it Brigham Select pipe but the fact that it is a Sportsman Series pipe I am not sure that the dot information applies. There is not a shape number on the pipe. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl. The bowl is in excellent condition and the rim top looks very good. There is a little darkening on the back topside of the rim but otherwise it is excellent. The stem came out looking quite good. It only needed to be polished. I took a photo of the underside and the right side of the shank to show the stamping. The photos clearly show the stamping and is actually more readable in person. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. I also took photos of the tenon end to show the 9MM filter tenon. It is a nice looking pipe.I worked over the rustication and plateau on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush. I was able to knock off any remaining debris.The pipe had cleaned up so well that I turned to polish the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the final pads the briar really had a shine. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and into the rugged rim top with a shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the light tooth marks and chatter on both sides with 32903599 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads and wiped it down between pads with an Obsidian Oil cloth. The shine really came alive.I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke.I polished out the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I am excited to finish this 1956-1969 Post-Patent Era Brigham Sportsman 2 Dot Freehand Sitter. 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 buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rustic finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rustic Brigham Sportsman 2 Dot Freehand 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: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.22 ounces/63 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. 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 those who follow us.