Daily Archives: April 10, 2026

Restoring a Jeantet Bon-Cout Billiard with an acrylic taper stem

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking rusticated Billiard with a smooth rim topo and band on the top and shank end. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank are tightly rusticated. The top of the bowl and the end of the shank band are smooth. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Jeantet [over] Bon-Cout. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and grit ground into the rustication and the smooth portions. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a light 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 stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface. It had the Jeantet J logo on the left side, Hand [over] Cut on the right side, and France on the underside. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge of the top. The lava is quite thick on the inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter on the oxidized stem. He took photos of the bowl and heel to show the condition of the finish. The combination of rustication – tight pattern – and smooth portions look very good and are a great contrast to the marble, almost tortoise stem. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the shank and the logo on the stem. They read as noted above and were in excellent condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Bon-Cout line of Jeantet pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-jeantet.html). There was nothing specific about that line though was a brief summary of the history. I quote from the top bar below:

The company joined the Cuty-Fort Entreprises group (Chacom, Ropp, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1992. In 2010 it dropped out and the brand isn’t part of the group any more. The label is owned by the Jeantet family (Dominique Jeantet) again. The pipe production is discontinued. Dominique Jeantet retired in 2000. See also: Antidote, Duke of Kent, Grand Duke, Hermes, Sir Bruce, Sir Duke

I turned to Pipedia to get a more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jeantet). There as a short history there that I have reproduced below.

The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.

The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependant family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)

Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.

The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.

The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirty five thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continuously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Even though, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.

Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.

Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.

Jeff carefully cleaned up this Jeantet Bon-Cout Billiard with a variegated brown/orange acrylic taper stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the debris on the surface. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty looking pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better but there was burn damage on the inner edge on the front and the back side of the bowl. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank and stem. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. The stamping on the shank is faint but readable. I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions. I worked on the damage from burning on the inner edge of the bowl on the front and the back side. It was damaged but not too deeply burned. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up and reshape the edge. It looked significantly better.I worked over the rim top and edges with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the rim top down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. It looked significantly better. I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl after each sanding pad. 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 a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. Because it was quite clean I decided to touch up the Jeantet J stamp on the left side of the saddle. I filled in the stamp with Antique Gold Rub’n Buff. I did the same with the Hand Cut stamp on the right and France on the underside of the stem. I buffed off the excess material and the markings looked very good. The stem was in good condition and the light marks and chatter should polish out easily. 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. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the parts of the Jeantet Bon-Cout Billiard back together and I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave several coats of Carnauba Wax to seal and protect it. I polished it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really looked good with the wax highlighting the grain around the panels on the bowl. The thin shank and saddle stem gave additional beauty to the petite looking pipe. It was an interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches x 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is is 53 grams/1.87 ounces. The photos below show the finished pipe. If you would like to add it to your collection I will be adding it to the French Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading the blog. It was an interesting restoration.

Comet Resurrection!

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by Kenneth Lieblich

It’s Eastertide and so, only too fitting that a veritable pipe resurrection is next up. Friends and family often accuse me of taking on some crazy pipe projects. Well, if ever there was a quixotic pipe restoration, it is this one. I found this pipe at an antique shop in our local Fraser Valley and it was in sorry shape. Honestly, I probably should have left it – but then I wouldn’t have this crazy blog to post. This was a very challenging restoration – showing, once again, that any pipe can be restored. Whether any pipe should be restored is quite a different question. This is an uncommon pipe and it deserves respect. But this may be a pipe for your collection, rather than for your regular rotation. So, what on earth is this thing? Good news! It’s not from earth – it’s called the Comet. This pipe has no markings, but I already knew the general family this pipe was from. It is related to the Thoro-Kleen, made by the Greenwich House Corporation of New York. When Steve last restored one of these, he described it as reminding him of the Jetsons from Saturday morning cartoons! It certainly does have a futuristic, out-of-this-world look. To me, it is a good example of mid-twentieth-century design.

Our friends at Pipedia have a brief writeup on the Thoro-Kleen, which I copy here in its entirety:

The Greenwich House Thoro-Kleen was a metal pipe system sold with both a metal outer bowl with a briar insert and a full briar bowl. They are from the same family as the Roybrooke, Comet, and Original Gridiron pipes, and parts from all are believed to be interchangeable. The pipes were sold by the Greenwich House Corporation, located in 1947 at 939-M 8th Avenue, N.Y. 19, N.Y. The pipe set sold for $2.50 in 1947.

Similarly, Smoking Metal (a website dedicated to metal pipes) also has a short writeup:

This family of pipes have been seen as Knowles Air Lite (believed to be Canadian version), Roybrooke, Comet, Original Gridiron and the Greenwich House Thorokleen. Seemingly sold in sets that comprised a normal briar bowl as well as the metal outer with a briar insert. The body of the pipe can be hexagonal, square (Thoro Kleen only seen this shape) or circular in cross section. Regardless of variant all parts are interchangeable. The unmarked version tends to be regarded as the COMET, all the others being stamped with a name.

Some instances of this pipe appeared with an entirely briar bowl, and some came with a metal bowl and briar insert. Some sources indicate that the pipes came with both bowls, and you could take your pick, but the one I have has only the metal bowl and briar insert. Here’s a photo of an original:This pipe was a mess from every perspective. The vulcanite stem had some dents in it and was oxidized. The briar bowl insert was broken in half (literally) The metal components were dirty, dull, and scratched. The insides were filthy. There were nicks in the metal and – most significantly – the end of the shank had tiny cracks. This was going to be a tall order. The first thing I did was glue the two halves of the bowl insert back together. I liberally applied some wood glue and let it set overnight in a bar clamp.While the wood glue was drying, I moved on to the stem. I used isopropyl alcohol on a few cotton rounds and wiped down the stem to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning came next. I disinfected the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was very clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result was a hideous mess – but better off the stem than on it.As the stem was now clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This was done by filling those divots with black cyanoacrylate adhesive, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I left this to cure and moved on.The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduced the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I removed the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I used all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even out the vulcanite, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done.Since most of the pipe was made of aluminum, the cleaning procedures were different than usual. The inside of the shank was much more ‘cavernous’ than normal, too. I started with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs for the inside, but that only worked so well. I ended up using both acetone and isopropyl alcohol (separately) to clean the metal shank, especially the interior – and I made extensive use of some metal tube brushes because the gunk was really tough. The metal bowl was also cleaned with acetone and isopropyl alcohol, but it wasn’t so bad, as it hadn’t been in contact with the burning tobacco. I also soaked the smaller components overnight in acetone. It took a very long time, but I eventually got all of the metal clean. Back to the briar bowl insert. I scraped and sanded off the excess wood glue. I then reamed out the bowl – that is to say, removed all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplished a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleaned the bowl and provided a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake was removed, I could inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there was damage or not. I used a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel and got the thing clean.To tidy up the briar, I wiped down the outside, using a solution of a pH-neutral detergent and some distilled water, with cotton rounds. This did a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The damage to the rim was significant. In order to lessen the burns and nicks on the rim, I ‘topped’ the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 400-grit sandpaper. This effectively minimized the damage, without altering the look of the pipe.

Given the state of the inside of the briar bowl insert, I used an epoxy adhesive that is extremely hard, resistant to high temperatures, and completely inert when cured. It worked superbly. I lined the affected area with the epoxy and let it cure for a full 24 hours. The next day, I roughened up the epoxy’s surface with my rotary tool for the next step. I thinly coated the inside of the bowl with a mixture of my wife’s homemade yogurt and activated charcoal. Once hardened, this provided a good, faintly rough surface for a new cake to build. I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand the outside of the bowl insert and finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the briar and provides a beautiful smoothness to the wood. This piece was never going to be easy on the eyes, but I did manage to make it look so much better.Back to the shank – the main body of the pipe. The end of the pipe had tiny cracks, as I mentioned, but was also slightly out of round. So, I gently adjusted it with pliers to close the gap in the cracks and return the circular shape. To repair the cracks, I decided to try something new: a different kind of epoxy, one specifically formulated for metal repairs and impregnated with steel. For the first step, I applied it on the inside of the shank and held everything tight with a hose clamp lined with duct tape. I used duct tape to protect the metal from scratches and in case the epoxy oozed out. This worked well and I let it cure overnight.I then moved on to applying the same epoxy to the outside of the shank. Same formulation, just different location. However, a problem then manifested itself. When the epoxy had cured, and I started sanding the metal, a couple of other micro-cracks also appeared. These were not visible before the sanding. Giant sigh. So, I had to repeat the metal epoxy procedure from the beginning to factor in these new, incredibly small marks. Eventually, I got it done. Once the epoxy had cured again, I sanded it again with my micromesh pads. This time everything looked good. The gleam on the metal was very satisfying. I polished the grooves in the bowl with some pipe cleaners that had been rubbed with red Tripoli compound, then cleaned it up. In preparation for final buffing, I filled those grooves with new, clean pipe cleaners so that compound didn’t get stuck in there. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench polisher and carefully buffed it. The stem was done with a blue diamond compound. The metal bowl and shank were done, first, with red Tripoli and then with the blue diamond too. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the metal really shines and the stem glows.

This Greenwich House Comet metal pipe looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘American’ section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅓ in. (136 mm); height 1½ in. (38 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (48 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.