by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking heavily rusticated saddle stem Billiard. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank are deeply rusticated with deep coral like finish that still shows the colours of the briar beneath. The top of the bowl continues the rustication and is also very tactile. There is a thin brass band on the shank end between the acrylic stem and the briar. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the left side of the shank and reads Mauro Armellini [over] Naturale. Next to the shank end and brass band it is stamped Italy. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and oils ground into the rustication. The brass band is very loose. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a lava flow on the edge and the top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The variegate gold acrylic saddle stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface on both sides ahead of the button. On the top of the stem is that Armellini white dot in a brass circle logo. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and there was heavy lava in the rustication on the rim top and inner edge. I am hoping that once the lava is removed the edge will be okay. The stem looked good under the dirt and grime. It had some light tooth marks or chatter. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the details of the heavy rustication that was around this bowl even though the grime on the finish hides it some. The pipe had obviously been well loved and enjoyed by the previous pipeman. He took photos of the left side of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. The stem had a large Armellini white Dot surrounded by a brass circle on the topside. I decided to hunt down a bit of background on the brand before I started my clean up on the pipe. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a7.html). It had a great summary listing and photos. I did a screen capture of the section and the side notes and have included them below.After Mauro Armellini passed (1936 – † 2004), his daughter Vilma Armellini answered for the brand’s destiny. Seconds: Mauro, Converti

For more detail on the brand than the notes above gave me about Armellini, I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Armellini). I quote:

Mauro Armellini and Vilma Armellini. Courtesy of italianpipemakers.com

Mauro Armellini factory has born in 1960. When he was 24, my father decided to begin this business and after several difficult years, he was able to produce freehand pipes for foreign markets. Our factory has always been on the surf(?) because it has solid bases: quality and price.

I have always worked with my father and when I lost him, back in 2004, I had to learn to “walk on my own two legs”.

Someone called me “white fly” because I am probably the only women in Italy making pipes. I only work with briar which has been seasoned for at least one year; I think that after one year of seasoning the briar becomes old and dark. I prefer hand crafting, using only very few machines: in this way I am able to extol my predilection for freeforms.

Over the sale of pipes, I think that this work should transmit the genuineness and love for the pipe and for those who smoke it; The philosophy of the factory is the same that moves my work: quality and price

Mauro Armellini stands for the true meaning of self-made and self-taught pipe makers. He started his pipe making career back in the early 1960s, working at the famous Italian pipe factory “Rossi”. Years later, and when the Rossi factory shut its door, Armellini moved to Savinelli where he stood out immediately. He perfected the rustication technique and till today some of the most famous rusticated finishes, such as the “Roccia” and the “Corallo” exist only thanks to him. He worked for Savinelli for several years and till the day he realized that he decided to create his own workshop and make pipes under his own name. At those times, and in spite of the fact that the pipe market was huge, it was a big risk to start his own pipe brand, due to the costs involved and the difficulty of obtaining the right equipment and tools.

Once the name Armellini found its rightful place on a piece of briar, Armellini never looked back. Thanks to his friend and neighbor, Alberto Paronelli, he was able to attract foreign markets, such as the US one and that of other European countries. Armellini’s four daughters slowly and gradually became involved in the business by lending their dad a helping hand whenever possible. However, it was Wilma that became truly interested in the business and gradually became her father’s right hand, not only in the administrative aspect of the business, but also, and above all, the actual pipe making in all its various stages. Indeed, and many years later, Armellini retired from full-time pipe making, and it was Wilma who took over.

When Armellini passed away recently, it was natural, and yet very difficult, for Wilma to decide and continue the Armellini production, according to her father’s own standards and vision. What encouraged her is the fact that for over 20 years she had been making pipes, from A to Z, and so, she knew that the quality Armellini has always been known for could and would continue.

Today, in the small town Barasso, in northern Italy, Wilma and her 20-year-old son are running the workshop and producing all of the Armellini pipes. Matteo, Wilma’s son, is an enthusiastic young man with a love for pipes and pipe making that he could have only inherited from his grandfather. He’s determined to carry on and keep alive his grandfather’s pipe making tradition while creating new shapes and finishes that he is confident his grandfather would be proud of.

Today the name Armellini bears the dreams, the dedication, the passion, and the pipe making talent and expertise of three different generations, united by one objective: Offering the best pipes possible, out of the best material possible, at the lowest price possible. The legacy lives on …

Jeff did a great job cleaning off the debris and grime on this old pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet reamer and smoothed the walls of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the grime was removed the finish underneath was in stellar condition. The rich patina of the rusticated briar looked great. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub. He rinsed off the deoxidizer with warm water and wiped the bowl and stem down with a light coat of olive oil to rehydrate both. The pipe really was quite stunning. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and edges to show how well they had cleaned up. The rim top and sides look very good. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the parts to show the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty.I started my work by gluing the thin brass spacer on the end of the shank in the stepped down area. I used an all purpose glue to bind it to the shank. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoebrush to work it into the heavily rusticated briar. The product works 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 started my work by gluing the thin brass spacer on the end of the shank in the stepped down area. I used an all purpose glue to bind it to the shank. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoebrush to work it into the heavily rusticated briar. The product works 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 my attention to the stem. I sanded the tooth marks and chatter out with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2-inch sanding pads to smooth out the tooth chatter. The pipe stem was looking 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 Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the Mauro Armellini Naturale Italy Rusticated Billiard with a variegated golden saddle stem back together. I polished the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the acrylic. 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 pipe polished up pretty nicely. The rustication depths really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny acrylic golden saddle stem is a beautiful contrast to the various browns of the bowl. This Mauro Armellini Naturale Italy Rusticated Billiard was a great pipe to spruce up. It is a very comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ 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 38 grams/1.34 ounces. This pipe will be going on the Italian Pipe Maker section of the rebornpipes store if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.