Daily Archives: February 27, 2026

What a Great Looking Peterson’s Dublin Made in the Republic of Ireland 999

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was purchased on 03/08/2025 from a seller in Macon, Georgia, USA. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Peterson’s [arched over] Dublin. On the right side it is stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland (three lines) followed by the shape number 999. It was another pipe that was someone’s favourite. The bowl had been reamed and cleaned and there was no lava build up on the rim top. The finish looked good underneath all of the grime and oils that were ground into the bowl sides and heel. The vulcanite taper stem P-lip had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the P-lip and on the underside edge of the button. The “P” stamp on the left side of the stem was clear and just needed to be touched up otherwise it looked good. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. It is another pretty pipe! The next photos show the bowl and rim top as well as the stem condition. The bowl was quite clean and had been lightly smoked. The rim top and edges were also very clean in terms of tar. The stem looked good with some light tooth chatter and marks on both sides and the button. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl and shank to show the grain around the briar. It is unique and quite beautiful. I can’t wait to see it once it is cleaned and polished. The stamping on the shank sides was clear and very readable. It read as noted above.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 Dublin 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 as 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 catalogue show a random dispersion of the stamp Peterson’s over Of Dublin together with the ordinary Peterson’s over Dublin on every model offered. Specimens of the former will either bear an Irish COM or London Made over England COM and almost certainly date from 1945-62. It was first mentioned in print as part of a model name in ’68 price list, as K&P Dublin, in ’92 for a Danish market line and in 2017.

With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping on the pipe. It is a Republic era pipe. The three line Made in the Republic of Ireland stamp on the right side of the shank tell me it was made in 1981. It is a beautiful pipe in a popular shape – 999.

Now, on to the restoration of this beautifully grained Republic Era Peterson’s Dublin 999 Rhodesian. With that information at hand I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He cleaned up the remnants of debris with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation and calcification as possible. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I started to work on it. I took close up photos of the bowl and the stem. You can see the bowl and it was lightly smoked and clean. The stem surface was clean but there is light tooth marks and chatter on both sides on and ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. There is also a “P” stamp on the right side of the stem. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is really quite nice looking. I sanded the briar – bowl and rim top – with 320-3500 grit 2 x 2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It was looking much better.I polished the briar and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. You can see the grain around the bowl and shank in the photos below. The bowl looks great and took on a shine as I finished the polishing. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes, then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine.I touched up the stamped P on the left side of the tapered stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I applied it to the stem with the applicator and scraped off the excess material with a 1000 grit sanding pad. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil Cloth. It came out looking very good.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2 inch x 2 inch sanding pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad. It looked very good.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 a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem 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 don’t know how many times I have said this but I love it when I come to the end of a restoration. All of the parts come together and the pipe looks better than when we started the cleanup process. I put the stem back on the Peterson’s Dublin 999 Rhodesian and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I carefully avoided the stamping on the shank sides during the process. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad on the buffer. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is a real stunning example of a Republic Era Peterson’s Dublin 999 Rhodesian. Once again, the grain and the way the shape follows the grain is amazing. Give the finish pipe a look in the photos below. I can only tell you that it is much prettier in person than the photos capture. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ 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 1.59 ounces/45 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will be putting this one on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipemakers Section. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

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.

Fresh Life for a Karl Erik Hand Made in Denmark Freehand Sitter

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is an elegantly shaped Dublin/Freehand. It came to us from a seller in Downey, California, USA on 08/12/2025. The finish had a combination of smooth and rusticated spots on the heel of the bowl and the shank – as well as two on the front mid bowl. Otherwise it has some great straight grain around the bowl and shank. It acts as a sitter on base as well as the forward angle of the bowl bottom. The rim top is unstained plateau while the shank end is smooth. The shank underside is stamped Karl Erik over Handmade in Denmark. The bowl had grime and oils ground into the sides. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and a light lava overflow and darkening on the inner edge and rim top. The fancy, turned saddle stem was lightly oxidized and there was tooth chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up. The next photo shows the rim top and the bowl. You can see the cake in the bowl and the light overflow of lava on the inner edge of the rim along with some darkening. The photos of the stem show the oxidation and calcification with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took pictures of the bowl from various angles to show the condition and the overall look of the pipe. You can see the small rusticated patches in the photos. It was a beauty and elegant underneath the grime. The underside of the shank is stamped Karl Erik over Handmade in Denmark. It is clear and readable.I reread a blog that Robert M. Boughton wrote on rebornpipes on his “Grade O” Karl Erik to refresh my memory on the brand and the grading system (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/07/28/a-three-card-draw-for-an-inside-straight-with-an-old-karl-erik-hand-made-grade-o-freehand/). It was enlightening and from there I went on and looked up the brand on both Pipephil’s site and Pipedia to add some details to my knowledge.

Photo from Pipedia

From the Pipephil site I got a quick overview of the brand. (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k1.html). I quote:

Brand created in 1965-66 by Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942–2004 †). In the best years he employed up to 15 craftsmen among which Bent Nielsen (see Benner) and Peder Christian Jeppesen. Former grading (ascending): from 4 to 1, and “Ekstravagant” (entirely handmade

From Pipedia here is a bit more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Erik). I quote from there below.

Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942–2004) was born in Aalborg (Jutland), just a few miles from the very northernmost tip of Denmark. He began smoking a pipe when he was 14 and upon leaving school he started an apprenticeship…as a lithographer at the age of 16.

While working as an apprentice he began hand carving pipes as a hobby. Many were given as gifts to his more senior colleagues. Upon completion of his apprenticeship he moved to Nairobi, Kenya to work as a lithographer during the 1962 war. While in that war torn country, he was unable to procure pipes for himself. In the face of such a predicament, he chose to continue to make pipes for his own use rather than go without.

Returning to Denmark after three years he couldn’t find a well paid… job, and so he began making a few pipes on the side to boost his income choosing his prenames “Karl Erik” – logo “KE” – for his label. When he managed to find some major Copenhagen pipe stores willing to sell his pieces his reputation grew little by little and he was finally able to purchase more and better machinery and began working full time as a pipe maker.

Pipedia also included a short description of the grading system that was used. From what I can discern the numbers ascended (6-1) and the letters ascended as well. There is no grade stamp on this pipe however.

KE’s new grading used numbers ascending from D to A. The unique “Ekstravagant” pipes C, B, A, AA to AAA. These superb pieces of remarkable quality were, almost certainly, the least expensive high- quality hand made pipes coming from Denmark today!

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation and calcification as possible. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I started to work on it.

I took some photos of the rim top and stem. The rim top and bowl looked good. The cake and lava overflow were gone but the rim top and the inner edge looked clean. The closeup photos of the stem shows that it is a much cleaner and looks good. The very light tooth marks and chatter were still present on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank to show the condition after the cleanup. It was very readable and undamaged. I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. I started my restoration work on this pipe by sanding the bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit 2 x 2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad. It began to look very good. I started my polishing regimen on the bowl. I used nine micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded the bowl with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. The bowl really shines by the final three pads. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while 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 sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the scratching and light tooth marks. I wiped the stem with Obsidian Oil down after each sanding pad to remove the debris. It looked much better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped them down after each sanding pad with a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. 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 don’t know how many times I have said this but I love it when I come to the end of a restoration and all of the parts come together and the pipe looks better than when we started the cleanup process. I put the stem back on the Karl Erik Handmade in Denmark Freehand Sitter and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I carefully avoided the stamping on the shank sides during the process. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad on the buffer. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is a real stunning example of a Danish Karl Erik Handmade Freehand Sitter. Once again, the grain and the way the shape follows the grain is amazing. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. I can only tell you that it is much prettier in person than the photos capture. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches wide x 1 ¾ inches long, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.72 ounces/78 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will be putting this one on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for your time.