Author Archives: rebornpipes

Redemption of a Mayfair 1005 Bent Tree Stump Pipe

Blog by Steve Laug

I can see what attracted Jeff to this pipe right away because it also grabs my attention. It has a rugged looking rustication that is somewhere between an aged piece of leather and a gnarled tree stump. There is something very charming about the appearance of the pipe that is for certain. The briar by and large appears to be in decent shape. The stamping on the shank reads MAYFAIR over 1005 with Italy stamped next to the stem shank junction. First thought was it may be a Sasieni or Charatan but I do not think it is. There is something almost Lorenzo like in terms of the look of the carving and the shape. The way the stamping is done and the Italy stamp makes me think that it is a basket pipe made for a pipe shop called the Mayfair Shop. In my I found that there is a shop in Edmonton, Alberta Canada called Mayfair Smoke & Gift Shop. There is also an area on London called Mayfair that at one time housed many pipe and tobacco shops. My own feeling is that the pipe probably came from the shop in Edmonton – the Italy stamp on the shank makes me think that rather than and English shop. The next close up photos show more of the carving on the bowl close up and the condition of the rim and cake in the bowl. In the first photo below there is a small chip out of the rim edge that shows up but should be easy to hide in the rustication. The rim top is quite dirty with the overflow of cake from the bowl. It is hard to see under the thick cake on it but there are curved strokes around the rim top that go clockwise. They include larger deeper strokes and fine hairlike strokes that are also in the grooves of the rustication on the bowl sides.The next photo shows the stamping on a smooth portion on the bottom of the shank. Does anyone know who made the Mayfair brand of pipe that was stamped like this?Other than being deeply oxidized the stem was in decent shape. There were not any tooth marks or deep tooth chatter on the stem surfaces. There was a cursive stylized T on the left side of the saddle portion of the stem.My brother cleaned up the pipe and sent it my way in Vancouver. As usual he did a thorough job of reaming and cleaning the inside of the shank, mortise and airway in the stem. They were spotless. I took the next four photos to show what the pipe looked like when it arrived.His cleanup of the rim revealed the curved clockwise strokes around the top surface.I took a close up picture of the rim top and if you look into the bowl a serious issue that would need further exploring.Even after the cleanup the stem looked in decent shape.I used a dental pick to probe the serious spidering cracks and crevices on the inside of the bowl. These were far worse than the recent ones that I addressed in the bowl of The Tobacconist Inc. Rhodesian recently using pipe mud (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/12/22/a-reclamation-project-the-tobacconist-inc-made-in-england-rhodesian/). These were deep and intricately burned gouges in the surface of the bowl. I used the Savinelli Fitsall Knife to scrape out as much damage on the walls as possible and without gouging out more and further damaging the surface. The next series of photos show the bowl as I turned it around examining the damage. I have to tell you at this point I was seriously considering throwing the pipe into the discard box and not bothering working any further on it. The stem could be salvaged and parts of the briar may be salvageable for repairs. It really was a desperate looking situation. It appeared to be a bowl on the very edge of being burned out all around – one of the worst messes on the inside of a bowl I had seen. But… and this is where I took a chance. I really like the rustication pattern on the briar and the shape also grabbed me so I decided to try a remedy that Charles Lemon of Dadspipes has used far more than me. I thought it might just work on this old bowl and provide a possible redemption to ongoing service.

I picked at the wood with a dental pick to remove any loose chips or chunks of briar to get the wood back to as solid a base as possible. I cleaned out the interior of the bowl with a cotton swab and alcohol until I removed all of the dust and debris from the cracks.I wanted a clean surface to work with. I set the bowl aside to dry and went to the hardware liquidation store down the street. I picked up some JB Weld (or rather a brand called Steel Weld which was made by JB Weld). I mixed the base and the hardener on a patch of paper with a wire until I had it well blended. Using a dental spatula I pressed the mixture into all of the cracks on the inside of the bowl. I slathered on (technical term) the coat of the mixture until all the inside walls of the bowl were smoothly covered. I dampened a cotton pad with alcohol and wiped off the JB Weld that had gotten on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. I did not want it to harden as then it would be impossible to remove from the strokes on the surface. I set the bowl aside to let the bowl repair harden. Once it was cured overnight I would sand the surface clean leaving the repair only in the cracks themselves.

Being impatient by nature and by choice, I wanted to keep working on the pipe. I know that I have many more to work on but I wanted to see what the exterior of this old timer looked like once it was restained. So when the internal repair had hardened to touch (about an hour later) I decided to stain the briar. I used a Dark Brown aniline stain and applied it to the briar with a folded pipe cleaner. I flamed the stain to set it in the grooves and grain. I repeated the process until the coverage was what I wanted. With the stain coat done I took two photos to show the rim and interior of the bowl to show how the repairs looked before I sanded them down. The JB Weld still needed to cure but you can see how the walls looked at this point.I wanted to protect the bowl from the dust and the debris that would fly when I sanded out the bowl so I gave it a first coat of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed it with a shoe brush. I set the bowl aside until the afternoon to let the repair cure and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation on the surface and smooth out the pitting.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. After each set of three pads I gave the stem a rub down with Obsidian Oil. After the final rub down I set the stem aside to dry until I had finished the bowl. When I came back to the bowl in the afternoon I took some photos of the interior before I sanded it to show what the dried JB Weld looked like. The surface is rough to the touch and hard. The cracks however are completely filled in.I used the Dremel and sanding drum to remove much of the excess fill/repair material. I set the Dremel at the lowest speed and slowly worked it over the inside of the bowl walls. I was able to remove much of the overage that way but I could not get all of the material off. My goal was to leave the JB Weld only in the crevices and cracks in the walls and not on the walls themselves. I wrapped a piece of 220 grit sandpaper around a wine cork, roughened the end to give some leverage on it and sanded the inside of the bowl. This further took back the JB Weld. I finished sanding the inside with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around my index finger. When I was finished the cracks were filled and the bowl was smooth to touch. I wiped down the inside walls of the bowl with cotton swabs and clean water and the shank with pipe cleaners and clean water to remove all of the sanding dust and debris left behind by my work in the bowl. The next photos show the repairs on the walls of the bowl. The bowl is solid and feels undamaged. My next step in the repair is to coat the walls with a mixture of sour cream and charcoal powder – a bowl coating. This will further protect the walls and provide insulation until a cake can be formed.I walked down to the local supermarket and purchase a small package of sour cream. I put a spoonful of sour cream into a small bowl and broke open the last of my activated charcoal capsules into it. I mixed it with a spoon until the mixture was a dark grey colour and well blended.I know at this point many of you are thinking “sour cream in a pipe”. But that is exactly what I used. I mixed it well and put it on the walls of the pipe with a dental spatula and spread it evenly across the walls with a folded pipe cleaner. I had inserted a pipe cleaner in the shank to keep the airway clear of the bowl coating. I can assure you after many years of using this mixture – one by the way that is used by many pipe makers – that the mixture dries and has no residual smell or tasted. It is absolutely neutral. It provides a good insulator for the bowl while cake is formed. In this case it also covers the lines of JB Weld in the cracks of the bowl interior so it serves a dual purpose. I put the bowl aside to let the bowl coating cure and harden. I let it sit overnight to cure. I knew that once it had hardened it would be completely neutral in smell and taste. This morning the bowl coating had dried to a solid black colour with a little grit from the charcoal. The sour cream smell was gone and the bowl was smooth and black to the bottom. This morning I gave the bowl several more coats of Conservator’s Wax, buffed it with a shoe brush and finished by buffing it with a clean buffing pad to bring a shine to the smooth and rusticated portions of the bowl. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond Polish on the buffing wheel and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the whole pipe with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine and give the pipe a sense of warmth that this last step gives it. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It may seem like a lot of work to redeem this old pipe but the look of the finished pipe says it all to me. This one will be a pleasure to fire up and hold. The tactile nature of the rustication is complex and interesting to hold and study. Would you have done this work on one you have on the table? The only way that you will be able to answer that question is when you lay eyes on one that grabs a hold of your attention. Until then you may wonder at my madness. Thanks for walking with me through this exercise.

A Sterling Hall Pamphlet

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I included this in a blog that I just posted on a New Old Stock (NOS) WDC Wellington that my brother found (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/12/23/when-he-opened-the-sterling-hall-hand-made-pipe-box-i-did-not-see-what-i-expected/). It came in a cream coloured Sterling Hall Hand Made Pipe Box that had the Briarcraft B logo in a shield in the left corner over Aged Imported Briar Root in the lower left corner. In the lower right corner it read Inlaid Sterling Silver. On the silver coloured inside cover of the box it read Sterling Hall over Hand Made. In the bottom of the box was a pipe sock with the same stamping as the cover of the box other than it also read A Product of Briarcraft.

I took photos of the pamphlet that was included with the original Sterling Hall pipe. It gives directions on breaking in your new briar as well as a small shape chart in case you are tempted to order another pipe. It is a good read and I had to chuckle when I saw the prices. I wanted to share it with you all! Enjoy.

When he opened the Sterling Hall Hand Made Pipe box I did not see what I expected

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Sometimes you are hunting for pipes in antique shops, antique malls or even thrift shops when you come on a box like the one below. I don’t know about you but my first reaction when I see a box like this one is to walk away. I have found that they are often empty or at best holding worn out pipe that is cracked, chewed or both and certainly one I don’t want. Well I have tried to instill that habit in my brother but he is a better hunter than me! He opens the boxes to see what is in them. Now, understand, I used to do that but I have gotten jaded over the years of finding next to nothing or worse in these old pipe boxes. He opened this one and found something he was not expecting. When he showed me the box on Facetime I fully expected it to be useless even though he assured me I would be surprised.He opened the box and showed me what was inside – well it was not a Sterling Hall Hand Made nor was it a useless worn out pipe. Instead it was a WDC Wellington that through the camera looked remarkably good. The finish looked good, the stem looked good, the nickel ferrule looked good. I was hooked. Okay so it is a Wellington I said – we have cleaned up quite a few of these system style pipes so I was still not that impressed. It so far appeared to be a nice looking old pipe in the wrong box. Heck, there was even a Sterling Hall pipe sock in the box along with the pamphlet included with every Sterling Hall pipe. He just laughed and held the pipe up to the camera and rotated it from side to side so I could see the grain and the stem. It looked really good. The grain on both sides was nice and from the front and the back it also looked good. The stem was shiny black and bore the WDC in a triangle under the Wellington logo on the topside. In fact it appeared to be almost flawless but I still felt that there was something that he was not telling me. What was it with this Wellington pipe he had found in the Sterling Hall box?Finally he turned the pipe bowl toward me. The bowl was unsmoked! It was unsmoked and clean! It was not worn or damaged or…. You know that feeling when you are looking at a New Old Stock (NOS) pipe? Yes he had found a new unsmoked old stock WDC Wellington in flawless condition. The fact that it had been kept in the wrong box had probably preserved it. There was no oxidation on the stem and it was like the day it had left the WDC factory.I honestly could not believe my eyes. I don’t think I have ever seen a unsmoked new Wellington in my life. It was a first for me and I have to guess that it will probably be the only one that I ever see. He shipped it to me in the last shipment of pipes and I took the pictures above to let you see what I saw when it arrived. I have also included photos of the brochure that was in the Sterling Hall box for your reading enjoyment. Look at the prices of the pipes and quaint descriptions of how to break in and care for a pipe. Look also at the variety of shapes that were available in the Sterling Hall line. These pipes were made by Briarcraft in New York and were one of their higher grade lines. Enjoy the read and thanks for walking with me in the unveiling of this pipe hunt find!

Reclamation Project: The Tobacconist Inc. Rhodesian

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

In the last box of pipe that my brother sent there was a pipe that is of course one of my favourite shapes – a 9438/9242 GBD style Rhodesian though the taper stem makes me think of a 9242 shape. It is not stamped with a shape number or a make but the Made in England stamping on the underside of the shank matches that found on GBD pipes. From first glance at the pictures of the pipe that my brother sent me it looked to be in decent shape. This was to be proved wrong once my brother started to clean it and I received it in Vancouver. But from the photos the contrast finish of blacks and browns looked really good. The rustication on the bowl is a combination of worm trails and “squiggles” that is reminiscent of Custombilt pipes. From the front there is a worm trail that divides the bowl into two hemispheres like a brain (photo 5). Strange humour of the original pipe maker, I think. The close up photos of the rim and bowl give a bit of a foretaste of the hidden issues in the bowl and on the rim. It is hard to see the inside of the bowl from this photo but there was a light cake in the bowl and it had run over the top edge of the bowl filling in some of the grooves and crevices in the rustication. The second photo below shows the worm trail on the front and underside of the bowl that divides the bowl into two hemispheres.The stamping on the underside of the shank on a smooth portion of briar was faint but could still be read. It said The Tobacconist Inc. over Made in England.The stem was lightly oxidized around the shank end and the button end, though the middle was strangely clean. There were tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. The top edge of the button on both sides had tooth marks as well.I have restored a Liverpool shaped pipe with The Tobacconist Inc. stamping and written a blog on it – (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/07/16/a-liverpool-stamped-tobacconist-inc/). I remember hunting to no avail on information on the brand and finding nothing. I checked once again with my usual sources – the book Who Made that Pipe and the online sites Pipedia and Pipephil. None of the sources had any new information. For that blog, I searched for the name of the shop – The Tobacconist Inc. to see if I could find any information on it and possibly see if they had shop pipes made for them. The name Tobacconist Inc. came up shop a tobacco shop in Chicago. It is called The Tobacconist Inc. and is located at 3524 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago, Illinois. The phone number is 773-463-8468. I have included two photos from that blog – one of the sign and the other of the shop. The sign says the shop has “Everything for the Smoker” and has been in existence since 1946. Sounds like a place I need to visit one day. Now that I have worked on a second pipe with the name stamped on it I really need to call them and see if they have any information about the pipe. My brother wrote that cleaning out the inside of the pipe was a pain. It took a lot of work to get the buildup of tars and grime out of the bowl and the shank. The rim top also had some damage under the thick tars. When it arrived in Vancouver I could see that the pipe was in pretty rough shape with a poorly fitting stem. The diameter of the stem and the shank don’t match. Not sure if it was because the stem was poorly fitting to start with or if it is a replacement stem. It looks to be original so I am opting for a poor fit. I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it (well almost – I had done a little sanding at the shank stem union before I remembered to take the photos). I took a close up photo of the rim and bowl. The rim inner edge had some chips and nicks that would need to blended in to make the rim more balances looking. It is hard to see from the photos but the walls of the bowl are in damaged condition.The tooth dents in the top and underside of the stem near the button were quite deep. I heated the dents with a Bic lighter to raise them as much as possible. I painted them with the flame of the lighter and when I was finished they were not as deep as before. It would not take too much now to sand them out to match the surface of the rest of the stem.I cleaned out the inside of the shank with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the last of the debris on the walls. The bevel on the edge of the mortise was rough and needed to be cleaned up and smoothed out but the wood was solid with no cracks.I used a Dremel and sanding drum to remove the excess briar and vulcanite and get the shank and the bowl to match in diameter. It took some work but it certainly was a better fit once I was finished. I sanded the bevel in the shank end until it was smooth but the stem still did not fit tightly against the shank. I heated the tenon to soften the vulcanite and make it flexible. I pushed the stem carefully into the shank and held it against the shank end to align it until the tenon cooled.I sanded the stem/shank union with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out and make the transition clean. I took the following photos to show the restoration at this point. I used a brass bristle tire brush to work over the rim top. It took some work but I was able to get the grime and grit out of the grooves of the rim.I scrubbed off the finish on the bowl and rim to remove the stain and the remaining varnish coat on the briar. When I finished cleaning the surface the pipe was ready for the stain coat. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until the stain coverage was even across the bowl. I used the Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to scrape out the walls of the bowl. I examined the interior and saw a lot of spidering cracks on the walls of the bowl. While the briar around them was still solid and the briar was not too badly damaged. This would need to be addressed to assure that the briar would be protected until a new cake had formed.I decided to mix up a batch of pipe mud with some tap water and a dental spatula. I applied the mud mixture to the inside of the bowl pressing it into the cracks in the bowl walls. I coated the inside of the bowl with the mud until there was a solid bowl coating. I set the bowl aside to dry overnight. I took the following photos to show what the inside looked like after the mud had cured.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the last remnants of the tooth dents and reshape the button on both sides. It also removed the surface oxidation.I used a black Sharpie Pen to touch up the grooves in briar on the sides and the rim top. I gave briar a touch up coat of dark brown stain. I waxed the rusticated briar with multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and once it had dried buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. I gave it the final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and put another coat of Conservator’s Wax on the briar. I buffed the bowl and stem with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The fit of the stem against the shank is far better than it was when I started the cleanup. I like the way the flow is now between the stem and the shank. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It had a great feel in hand and I think the rustication will heat up nicely with the next first smoke. I think that the pipe mud will protect the bowl until a new cake is built. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Family Heirloom Comes in From the Cold

Leave a reply

Really nicely done reclamation by Charles! Thought I would share what can be done! Great work Charles.

It’s officially Winter, and as the cold takes hold here in Southern Ontario, here is a pipe story that is sure to warm the heart. It involves a long-lost pipe, a walk in the pasture and a clever fellow who recognized a unique opportunity to secure the perfect gift for a hard-to-buy-for family member.

I was contacted by a DadsPipes reader with a restoration request. It would be, he said, a “full overhaul” job, and included this picture of the pipe – well, really half a pipe.

As you can see, the pipe was just a stummel and an old-style threaded reverse tenon. There were no obvious cracks or other major structural damage, and I was fairly certain I could find a suitable stem, so I asked the owner to send the pipe to me. In due time, a parcel arrived at the door. Here are a few pics of…

View original post 1,357 more words

I wonder how old this Sasieni Ruff Root Light 4 Dot Dublin is?

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Not being too knowledgeable about the ebb and flow of Sasieni pipe history leaves me with a lot of questions about the latest pipe that my brother sent my way. It is stamped on the underside of the shank Sasieni 4 Dot over Ruff Root Light. There is a 4 stamped at the end of the name stamping next to the stem/shank junction. The stem itself is stamped France. There are four blue dots on the left side of the saddle portion of the stem. He picked it up in a thrift shop in Boise, Idaho along with the Dunhill Shell 5113 I wrote about restoring in an earlier blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/12/18/an-unsullied-once-the-paint-was-removed-dunhill-5113-bent-apple/). When my brother first sent the following photos before his cleanup work I was intrigued but the finish looked very spotty. The stem appeared to be in overall good condition with no bite marks or tooth chatter on either side. Can any of you help me regarding the age of the pipe? Any help would be much appreciated.We discussed this a bit and he sent me a photo of the front of the bowl from the bottom side that showed the spotty finish that I noted. There was also a lot of grime in the sandblast grooves on the bowl leaving it with a muddy appearance.The bowl had a thick cake that overflowed over the top of the rim obscuring the blast features on the top side. They also made it hard to tell if there was any damage to the inner or outer edges of the rim.The stamping on the smooth underside of the shank was really quite clear and sharp. The bowl and stem had not been over buffed which were good omens for what it would look like when it was cleaned up.The close up photos of the stem told a little different story than the overall photos. There was light oxidation on the surface and what appeared to be some sticky glue left behind by a price tag from the shop the pipe came from. Just and aside; if you sell pipes in an antique shop or have a booth in an antique mall do not used gummed labels to price your merchandise. It leaves behind residue that is a pain to remove.I was curious to see what the pipe would look like once my brother had worked his cleaning magic on it. I was sure I would be surprised at what it came out looking like. I wondered if the mottled finish would survive the cleanup and whether the stem would be oxidized further as well in the process. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver I took some photos of it to show what it looked like before I worked on it. He had been able to remove much of the mottled finish and the grime in the grooves of the sandblast. The gummy substance on the stem was gone and the stem was not too badly oxidized. There were no tooth marks or chatter on the stem. The reaming job on the bowl had taken care of the cake and the scrubbing had removed most of the buildup on the rim. What remained was a little darkening and some grime deep in the grooves. I took a close up photo of the rim and bowl. The bowl was reamed clean. The rim needed some more work with a brass bristle brush to clean out the remaining debris deep in the grooves of the blast.I took some photos of the stem to show the overall condition it was in before I started working on it. I was glad to see that there were no deep bite marks or tooth chatter that I would need to deal with on this one. It would be a pleasant change.I scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle tire brush and was able to remove more of the grime in the grooves. I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl and shank with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the shiny spots of varnish on the finish and even out the mottled appearance. I used a black Sharpie Pen to add some dark to the rim and to some of the spots on the bowl that appeared to be lighter. I put a cork in the bowl to use as a handle while I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain cut 50/50 with isopropyl alcohol. I was aiming for the brown colour with darker highlights that I had seen on other Ruff Root Light pipes. I flamed the stain and repeat the process until the coverage was even. Since the oxidation was on the surface and I was not dealing with any tooth marks on the stem I started right away with polishing the stem. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and gave it a coat of oil after each set of three pads. After the final set of pads I gave it a final coat of oil and set the stem aside to dry. I gave the bowl and shank several coats of Conservator’s Wax, let it dry and buffed it with a shoe brush. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the bowl and stem with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I think the look of the finished pipe is pretty close to the original look it must have had when it left the Sasieni factory. The depth of the shine, the multifaceted colours that come through with the browns and black on the sandblast add another dimension to the look of the pipe. The blue four dots on the stem stand out nicely against the shiny and polished vulcanite stem. Overall it is a pleasant looking pipe and one that was a pleasure to restore. Thanks for looking.

An Aristocob Brochure

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

In the recent Aristocob restoration I finished I showed some pictures of the brochure that was included in the box. I wanted to post it here and give all of you a chance to read it. The description is on one side and the catalogue list on the other side of the brochure. Enjoy your read.

I have always wanted to see one up close – an Aristocob

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Over the years I have spent quite a bit of quiet time scanning through the smokingmetal.co.uk website reading over all of the various metal pipes that have been made. I love reading and looking at the inventive creations made to capture that illusive grand smoke. One of the pipes that stood out to me on the site was the Aristocob metal bowl that came with two corn cobs that fit inside the bowl, held in place by the screw on metal cap. I wanted to see one of those but somehow always missed them on eBay at the last minute or at an antique shop by a matter of minutes. I included two of the photos from the website. The first one showed a plastic box with a form fitted purple velvet nest for the pipe and the pair of cob inserts that came with it. The pipe had a black nylon stem that held a Medico paper filter in place in the metal shank of the pipe. The second photo showed the pipe taken apart with a pretty good descriptive view of the metal bowl and cap, the cob insert, the filter and the stem with an O-ring on the tenon to keep it in the metal shank.I remember first reading this description years ago when I looked up the pipe on the site. I was struck then as I am now that I could not have described it any better. I have included it here in full with a link for you to look it up should you desire to do so:

The ARISTOCOB is an American made system pipe with corn cob bowl inserts. Originally the AL-COB CORPORATION out of Grand Haven, Michigan, which later became ARISTOCOB INCORPORATED from Caledonia, Michigan. Later still they were bought out by Missouri Meerschaum Company

Apparently available in the first place in a plastic case containing one pipe, 2 replacement corn cob bowl inserts and instructions for use. The cob inserts were made for some time by The Missouri Meerschaum Company, manufacturer of corn cob pipes in Washington, MO. The box shown is their box. They made the inserts from the early 1970’s until 1983. They are no longer available from that source but do appear on eBay at times

The top of the vaned outer bowl unscrews to enable easy replacement of the bowl insert. An inline filter can be used in the stem. The mouthpiece has been seen in two version, with and without an ‘O’ ring. The patent was filed on 20 Dec 1966 with the US patent # 3,292,639. The inventor was Joesph W. Zarikta of Grand Haven, Michigan USA – the assignor was the Al Cobb Corp. (http://smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=56).

I mentioned to my brother to keep an eye open for one of these never expecting him to find what he did. I have not seen a cased version of the pipe in my hunts but have only found the pipe with the inserted cob bowl if I was lucky. He happened to find a boxed set and bought it. He sent me the following photos of the pipe. The next set of photos are the ones that the seller posted on the eBay sale. When the pipe arrived in Idaho my brother took some photos before he cleaned it up. I have included a few of those photos next. The pipe was quite dirty. The rim cap had a buildup of tars and oils on the top. The cob insert was dirty and crumbling on the top edge. The aluminum pipe body was oxidized and dirty as well.When he took it apart, the inside of the aluminum body had also built up tars in the bottom and on the inside walls.The inner edge of the insert was in rough condition. The rest of the bowl appears to be solid. The aluminum disk on the bottom of the bowl was dirty but undamaged.The stem was darkened on the tenon end. The O-ring was still in good condition. The paper Medico Filter in the tenon was dirty and would need to be replaced. The top and undersides of the nylon stem had some tooth chatter on the surface near the button. The inside of the shank was dirty and there was some tarry buildup on the walls of the aluminum. My brother cleaned up the cap and the interior of the aluminum bowl holder and shank. He cleaned the aluminum with Murphy’s Oil Soap inside and out. He scrubbed out the airway in the shank and stem. He cleaned up the damaged edge of the cob insert. When it arrived in Vancouver, I brought it to the work table and took some photos of the condition it was in before I started. Inside the plastic box there was a pamphlet that explained the function of the pipe and all of its parts. The description of the pipe and how to use it was a marketing document that sold the pipe and all of its design as the best smoking pipe available. I polished the aluminum with micromesh sanding pads. I started polishing with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiped it down with a damp cotton pad. I continued to polish it with 3200-12000 pads and the finish began to shine. I sanded the stem to remove the tooth marks and chatter from the top and bottom sides of the stem. I ran a pair of bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol through the airway in the stem to remove the residue that still remained in the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cotton pad after each set of three pads. Because the stem was nylon I decided not to use the buffing wheel. I gave it several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. I lightly buffed the aluminum on the Blue Diamond wheel and then with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It makes a great piece of pipe history in the ongoing search for the illusive perfect smoke. It will hold a place in my collection of tobacciana. Thanks for walking through this restoration with me.

Breathing Life into a Comoy’s Spectrum Boxed Bent Billiard

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

My brother picked an interesting Comoy’s pipe. It is from a line of Comoy’s that I was unfamiliar with. I could not find much information in my online searches either. It was a nicely made Comoy’s with a single drilled letter C on the stem side. It came in a black velvet lined presentation box with the Comoy’s of London logo and Pipemakers since 1825 in gold on black felt on the inside of the lid. The well-made box with dovetailed corners is mahogany that is stained with a rich cherry stain. The gold latches and hinges look very good with the red stain of the wood. On the underside the box is stamped Made in England. Once the box was opened and the pipe visible it clear to see it is a beautiful pipe. I am actually surprised that there is not more information on the line available. It is stamped Comoy’s over Spectrum on the left side of the shank and the COM stamp on the right shank is the expected Made in London circle over England. Next to that the shape number 42 is stamped. Looking that up on Comoy’s Shape Charts shows that it is the number for a medium sized ½ bent billiard. This is exactly what I have here. There is also an H stamped on the underside of the shank next to the brass and blue band.The pipe appears to have some nice grain in the photos that my brother sent to me. The front, underside and back and top of the shank are beautiful cross grain. The sides of the bowl are full of birds-eye grain. The pipe has a brass band that had a wipe enameled strip of royal blue in between two ridges of polished brass. The stem was oxidized in the early photos but the single drilled C stamp is very clean. My brother took some close up photos of the bowl and rim to give me a clear picture of the pipe. It appeared that the bowl had been reamed and well care for. The rim looked very good – a little bit of lava overflow from the bowl but the inner beveled edges and the outer edges of the rim were both very clean. The rim itself was also undamaged. The underside of the bowl and shank showed beautiful cross grain.The stamping on the pipe was deep and sharp. It had not been over buffed or damaged. It was readable and clean. The finish was dirty and the buildup of grime and grit on the surface of the bowl and band seemed to be the only major issue on the pipe. You can also see the single drilled C logo on the stem in the photo below.From the next photos you can see the deep oxidation on the stem. What is not visible at this point is if there was any tooth chatter or damage to the stem. That would have to wait until the pipe arrived in Vancouver.While I was waiting for the pipe to arrive in Vancouver I did some hunting for information on the Spectrum line of Comoy’s pipes on the internet. Sadly I was unable to find much that was definitive. There was a similar pipe for sale on smokingpipes.com that had a brief write up. From that I learned that the pipe dates after 1980 because of the single drilled C. Evidently that was when Comoy’s no longer used the three-part inlaid C on the stem. I wrote to a friend of mine and writer on rebornpipes, Al Jones and asked what he knew about the line. He wrote back that “they are early post-merger, with the single drill C logo. They usually have an adornment of some kind and box. It was the go-go 80’s, right! They’re most likely made with good stock leftover from pre-merger, so she should be a good smoker. As an added bonus, this pipe comes in wooden box complete with matching tamper.”

This confirmed what I had gleaned online so far. I Googled and found a question and short discussion on alt.smokers.pipes community regarding the line and found some more information from friend, Mike Stanley. He wrote: “The only thing I can pass along is what R.C. hacker wrote in his Ultimate Pipe Book. The Spectrum came with a wooden box and matching tamper with the same brass and enameled ring as the pipe. They were, I suppose, “firsts and fairly pricey. I had one I picked up from ebay. It had no tamp or box. It was a fine enough looking pipe. No putty or sand pits. It was too big for my taste. I re sold it. I would guess that they were made up until the late seventies or early eighties. Just a guess though.” (http://alt.smokers.pipes.narkive.com/yA8KASQj/comoy-s-spectrum)

When the pipe arrived in Vancouver and I unpacked it I was amazed at how clean my brother Jeff had gotten the rim and the bowl. The finish was very clean. The enameled band was also clean an undamaged. The oxidation had really come to the surface on the stem. However, all that being said, the briar on the pipe is very stunning. I took some photos of the pipe before I began to work on it to try to capture what it looked like when it arrived. The next picture is a bit out of focus. It will teach me to have a look at the photos before moving on with the cleanup. However, you can see that the rim is spotless. He was able to get all of the darkening and debris off the rim and also ream the bowl clean.I took photos of the stamping on both sides of the shank. You can see in the first photo the stamping on the left side of the shank. The second shows the COM stamp and shape number on the right side.I took photos of the stem to show the oxidation and to try to capture the tooth chatter and tooth marks on both sides of the stem near the button. They are hard to see through the oxidation. The ones on the topside of the stem are not too bad. The ones on the underside are a little deeper. Once I clean off the oxidation a bit I will be able to assess how bad they are.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation on the surface and also to sand out the tooth chatter and tooth marks on the stem. I was able to remove all of them as they proved to be fairly shallow and superficial.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After rubbing it down with the final coat of oil I set the stem aside and let it dry. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I avoided buffing the enameled band on the shank. I gave the stem and bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to shine it. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It is a beautiful pipe with stunning grain. The contrast of the black vulcanite, the blue and brass enameled band and the cross grain and birds-eye grain formed a great contrast. It comes with the velvet lined mahogany case with brass clasps and hinges. The only thing lacking was the tamper that originally came with the pipe. Thanks for walking through this restoration with me.

Cleaning a Turkish SMS Meerschaum Churchwarden

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

This long stemmed Meerschaum Churchwarden is another one of my brother’s finds at the estate sale in the Boise, Idaho area. He found the case sitting on the table of pipes and pipe racks and has been hunting long enough that I think he must have expected it to be empty when he picked it up to have a look.Those of you who have gone pipe hunting enough know the rush that goes with opening an old leather covered pipe case like this and finding the Churchwarden that the case was made for still resident inside. There are a lot of empty pipe cases selling on eBay daily that give witness to the fact that the case and the pipe that should be inside often have parted company. In this case though when he opened the case I think he was surprised. I certainly was when he sent me a text with the photo. Inside was a smooth block meerschaum pipe with a long stem that was in relatively decent shape. The stem was intact and there were no large nicks or bumps on the bowl sides or shank. The stem aligned correctly with the shank and the whole thing appeared to be functional. These are the kinds of finds right up there with finding that illusive $10 Dunhill that keep me always looking inside cans, boxes and even pipe cases to see if something has been overlooked. You never know what kind of treasure might be hidden awaiting your discovery.

The next photos show what the pipe looked like when he found it and before he cleaned it up a bit to send my way. It is an elegant looking pipe in the photos and even more so in hand.The leather (probably a leather like vinyl) covered case was in great shape. The exterior was not even worn. The polished brass hinges and clasps looked good with the shiny leather. The front of the case had two clasps and next to the left one is the tag reading Made in Turkey. On the back side there are two hinges that are hidden beneath the leather. Four small brass brads hold each hinge in place. The hinges are not sprung or damaged in any way.My brother took a few photos of the pipe in the case to give an idea of what he saw when he opened the lid. The inside was lined with a rich golden coloured soft fabric that protected the meerschaum and held the pipe firmly in place. In the inside top cover there was the SMS logo that reads Handcarved Block Meerschaum Turkey around the stylised SMS. On the left side of the stem is the same logo inset in clear acrylic in the vulcanite. He removed the pipe from the case and you can see the beauty and simplicity of the shape. The shank and the rim edge are starting show some colour with a faint brown hue.He took some close up photos to show the condition of the rim. The bowl had a cake developing in it that went about half way down the bowl sides. The tars had darkened the rim on the back side and the outer edges of the rim had a few nicks and scratches. It would be interesting to see how much of this was surface damage once I had the pipe in hand in Vancouver.He took photos of the underside of the bowl and the sides as well to show some of the spotty dirt and debris that were there. It was hard to tell from the photos if these were merely on the surface or had penetrated the surface and left scratches on the bowl sides and bottom. I would see once I had it in hand. The stem appeared to be in pretty decent shape but the first inch on both sides of the stem at the button had some tooth marks, chatter and calcification. It appeared that the previous owner had smoked the pipe with a Softee Bit to protect the stem from his bite but even that had not kept all the tooth marks off the stem. Perhaps he or she had smoked it, seen the damage and put the rubber Softee on to protect it from further damage.My brother did a great clean up on the stem and shank internals and cleaned out the cake in the bowl with his Savinelli Fitsall Knife. He had removed some of the tars and oils on the top of the bowl and scrubbed the exterior with a soft cloth and Murphy’s Oil Soap. When it arrived in Vancouver it looked far better than it had in the earlier photos. I took the next five photos to record my first look at the pipe as I opened the case and removed it from its nest. I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim and stem to show what it looked like after my brother’s work on it. He had been able to get a lot of the tars and oils off the rim top and had cleaned the sides of the bowl. The second photo shows the SMS logo in acrylic on the left side. The stem showed some oxidation spots and a spot where obviously a label had been glued. He had been able to get the calcification off the stem at the button and also had managed to lift out some of the tooth chatter. The top edge of the button on both sides showed some wear. I started cleaning the exterior of bowl and stem with a green nylon scrubber. It is a great tool that I learned the use of through Troy (one of the contributors to the blog). I scrubbed the exterior of the stem and was able to remove much of the oxidation. I also used it to scrub the rim. I wet the scrubber with tap water to help with the scrubbing and it did a great job on the rim and stem.I continued to scrub the rim with the pad and then shifted to polishing the bowl and rim with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the entirety of the pipe with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. The finished bowl and rim are shown in the next four photos. I was able to remove the tars and the scratches from the bowl and rim and leave behind a polished bowl that still maintained the patina that had begun to develop. I ran a pipe cleaner with alcohol through the stem and the shank of the pipe and as usual my brother had done a thorough job removing the oils and tars from those places.I sanded the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem at the button with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damaged areas. I was fortunate that none of the tooth marks were deep enough to warrant repairs. I removed all of them by sanding the stem.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After the final rub down I set the stem aside to dry. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl a few coats of Clapham’s Beeswax Polish (a white beeswax polish) and buffed bowl and stem with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth to put the final touches on it. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It really is a nicely made meerschaum and the fact that it is a Churchwarden is bonus. The weight of the pipe and the feel of it in the hand will make this pipe a winner. Thanks for looking.