Author Archives: rebornpipes

Cleaning up a Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard

By Steve Laug

This is another of the four pipes that Sonny in Salmon Arm, BC sent to me for refurbishing. He put them in the mail and I received them on Monday this week. I took a photo of the box of four pipes once I unwrapped them. There were 4 interesting and very unique pipes – a Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand Filter Pipe that is huge, an older cased meerschaum with an overclocked stem, a Dunhill Wanghee Sandblast Dublin with a Bamboo shank and short saddle stem and finally an Anima wax drip sand blast Billiard carved by Brian McNulty. All needed varying degrees of restoration. I chose to work on the Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard next. It is faintly stamped on the underside of the bowl with a single cross in a circle or what is known as a Medicine Circle. There were other faint stamps on the shank and heel of the bowl but they were not readable even with a lens. My guess is that they read Anima and possibly the date the pipe was made. There is a wax drip finish around the rim top and down the sides of the bowl. The wax drip and the bowl have a sandblast finish was dirty but had some nice grain showing through the blast. The bowl was quite clean and if it had been smoked at all it was minimal as there was no real darkening on the lower half. The precast freehand style stem was oxidized and there were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. I took these photos before I started my work on the pipe. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. There is a light cake in the bowl and it is clean. The rim top is very clean with a light sandblast. There is no damage on the top or the inner edge. The photos of the stem show the oxidation and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the bowl and shank. The stamping was faint and hard to read as noted above. You can see the Medicine Circle (single one) stamped near the bowl shank transition in the photo below. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the beauty of the pipe.Before I started my clean up work on the pipe I turned to my usual sources to see what I could learn about the brand. I turned first to PipePhil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a6.html). I did a screen capture of the section on Anima Pipes. From that I reexamined the underside of the bowl and shank to see fi I could clarify some of the faint stamps. There was a small C on the shank that tells me the briar is from Calabria. It also seems to bear a 04 03 stamp that tells me that the pipe was made in April of 2003 from the information below. That was information that I did not have until I read this on PipePhil.The site also had a small photo of Brian McNulty. The side bar identified him as the artisan that made the pipes. It also noted that the dot inlaid in the stem is of red clay (Catlinite) used by Indians for their pipes. The clay is the soul (Anima) of the pipe.

Sonny had told me that Brian is a Cherokee and all of this information was quite interesting to note.

From there I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Anima_Pipes). Generally, I find more information on the site that fills in the blanks a bit for me on the maker and the company. That was the case this time as well. I am including the information below.

Anima Pipes are all handmade in the USA by carver Brian McNulty utilizing the highest quality, well aged briar from many regions to bring out the free flowing forms which lie in each ebacheon. Cut to maximize the beautiful grain of the wood, these pipes provide a beautiful aesthetic and a cool and satisfying smoke to all whom have had the pleasure of packing up and lighting one of these “smokable works of art” which is undeniably Anima. With a basis in traditional styling, accentuated by artistic expression, these extremely fine smoking articles each come with an exact matching tamper to compliment each pipe. Carver Brian McNulty’s sharp eye and flair for form, symmetry, sleek lines, fine attention to detail, and uniquely inspired shapes coupled with “soul” within the craftsmanship are what set Anima pipes apart from many others. Know that smoking an Anima pipe will provide you with a dry and satisfying smoke every time as you view a truly one-of-a-kind work of art! You might also enjoy listening to Brian Levine’s interview of Brian McNulty on the Pipes Magazine Radio Show

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls of the bowl are undamaged and smooth.

I scrubbed internals of the shank and airway in both the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. The pipe began to look much better. To remove the grime from the sandblast ridges and valleys I scrubbed the surface with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed the briar with warm water to remove the soap and debris. I dried it off with a soft towel. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the tooth marks and chatter in the stem surface. I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks significantly. I filled in what remained with black rubberized CA glue. Once the repairs had cured I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I dry sanded with each pad and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth.I polished the vulcanite 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. Once I finished with the 2003 Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard I put the stem back on the shank and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish using a lightly loaded pad and a soft touch. I wanted the shine but not the grit filling in the crevices of the sandblast bowl. I buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond so as not to get it in the grooves and crevices of the blast. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a great piece of pipe history and looks better than when I began the process. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Bowl Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber Diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/ 41grams. One more of Sonny’s pipes to work on before I send them all back to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. 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 pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Cleaning up a Dunhill Whangee Dublin

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

This is another of the four pipes that Sonny in Salmon Arm, BC sent to me for refurbishing. He put them in the mail and I received them on Monday this week. I took a photo of the box of four pipes once I unwrapped them. There were 4 interesting and very unique pipes – a Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand Filter Pipe that is huge, an older case meerschaum with an overclocked stem, a Dunhill Wanghee Sandblast Dublin with a Bamboo shank and short saddle stem and finally an Anima wax drip sand blast Billiard carved by Brian McNulty. All needed varying degrees of restoration.I chose to work on the Dunhill Shell with the Bamboo Shank and short saddle stem. It is stamped on the underside and reads 41051 [over] Dunhill Shell [over] Made in England21. There was a vulcanite spacer between the bamboo shank and the short briar shank on the bowl. It was oxidized. The bamboo shank had some crackling and a rich patina on the surface that would continue to deepen with age. The sandblast finish was dirty but had some nice grain showing through. The bowl was slightly out of round with a moderate cake in the bowl. There was some light lava on the rim top. The short saddle stem was oxidized, calcified and there were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. The top of the saddle also bore the Dunhill white. I took these photos before I started my work on the pipe. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. There is a moderate cake in the bowl. The rim top has some light lava and some damage on the right side of the inner edge. The photos of the stem show the oxidation and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the beauty of the pipe.This morning I went back to the original blog describing the restoration of the previous Whangee pipe. I am including the link to the blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/08/refreshing-a-dunhill-tanshell-w60-t-1962bamboo-lovat-for-alex/). Give it a read. I am quoting my introductory comments in that blog below because they capture well the feelings I had when I first saw this bamboo shank pipe in Sonny’s box.

I carefully took it in my hands and examined it. While I have several Stanwell Bamboo pipes and older KBB Yello Bole Bamboos this is the first Dunhill that I had seen up close and personal. Alex told me that these bamboo-adorned pieces were referred to as “Whangee” pipes. I learned later that the term comes from the Mandarin word for bamboo, huáng lí and was used to describe canes and umbrellas with bamboo handles throughout the early to mid-1900s before being attributed to pipes — Dunhill’s in particular. I learned from reading on line that bamboo came to into use in pipemaking during the briar shortage that accompanied and followed WWII. As a means of saving on briar, pipemakers would extend the shank with bamboo.

The pipe was stamped on the heel of the bowl with the following nomenclature: 45051 over Dunhill Shell over Made in England. Next to that is an underlined 21which I believe designates the year of manufacture – 1981. So now I knew the date on this interesting Bamboo it is a newer Bamboo than others I have worked on.

One of the first things I like to do is to unpack the stamping and understand each element in it. I turned to Pipephil’s helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shapes-l.html). I am using the illustration below to interpret the stamping.The 45051 stamp includes the shape code 05 for a Dublin. The 4 is the bowl size the other digits 5 and 1 are a bit harder to interpret. The fifth digit 1 is not needed. The 5 may refer to the shape of the stem (in this case a saddle stem) but I ma not sure. Pipephil also has some helpful dating keys on the site that are basically flow charts that you can walk through to date your pipe (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1.html). I turned to Part 1 of the Dating Key and followed the chart. This pipe has a 21 following the England stamp. That took me to the section on the chart below (column one) which instructed me that the pipe could be dated as being made posterior to 1954.I followed the link following the “Your pipe is posterior to 1954. Narrow down your dating”. That took me to Page 2 of the dating key (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The second column (suffix [1…4] or [11…39]) led me to the section with a 2 after the D in England. There was a directive for dating the pipe spelled out as follows: 1960 + suffix 21 which gives the pipe a date of 1981. Even though this bamboo shank Dunhill was not stamped Whangee it had all the parts that make up a Whangee. So, I googled Dunhill Bamboo Wanghee to get a bit of background on the that brand and found a link on Smoking Pipes that had some helpful information that I will quote below the link (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=235695).

It’s not everyday you come across a Dunhill Whangee, the marque’s classic bamboo-shanked pipe. Though originally incorporated into Dunhill’s lineup several decades back, when briar was in short supply, these eccentric designs caught on, and many collectors have even built entire rotations around them. You will occasionally find one on the estate market, as we do here, but they tend to sell quickly, especially if it is an older example like this ’62 edition — in part due to their general rarity, but also because of their overall unique aesthetic. You can’t find classic English designs fitted with oversized bamboo extensions everywhere, after all…

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the cake with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second cutting head to cut back the cake to bare briar. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the remnants on the bowl walls. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls of the bowl are undamaged and smooth. The shank was clogged and I could not get air to flow well through it. I pushed a wire through the shank to open it up. Then I scrubbed the inside of the bamboo shank and the mortise with alcohol and pipe cleaners. I also cleaned out the airway in the stem the same way.I cleaned up the inner edge of the rim and brought the bowl back to round with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better once I had finished the reshaping.I scrubbed externals of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed off the grime and debris that came off in the scrubbing with warm water. I dried it off once it was clean. It looks very good! I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar and the bamboo with my fingertips and a shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the tooth marks and chatter in the stem surface. I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks to the place where I could sand out what remained. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I dry sanded with each pad and wiped the stem down after each pad with a Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth.I polished the vulcanite 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 another coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside. Once I finished with the 1981 Dunhill Shell Bamboo 41051 I put the stem back on the shank and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish using a lightly loaded pad and a soft touch. I wanted the shine but not the grit filling in the crevices of the sandblast bowl. I used even a gentler touch on the bamboo. I gave the stem a vigorous polish being careful around the white spot. I gave the bowl and bamboo several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a great piece of pipe history and looks better than when I began the process. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outer Bowl Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber Diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.16 ounces/ 33grams. Two more of Sonny’s pipes to work on before I send them all back to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. 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 pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

A Needham Restoration

Leave a reply

I have very rustic one these I have not worked yet. Thanks for all the research on it. Very helpful. Great restoration John

Photographed and written by John M. Young This is a pipe I read about in 2023 and have been searching the auctions for since. One showed up in Italy…
A Needham Restoration

Restoring a Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

When I sent back his pipes, Sonny in Salmon Arm, BC contacted me and said he had four more he wanted me to work on. He put them in the mail and I received them on Monday this week. I took a photo of the box of four pipes once I unwrapped them. There were 4 interesting and very unique pipes – a Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand Filter Pipe that is huge, an older case meerschaum with an overclocked stem, a Dunhill Wanghee Sandblast Dublin with a Bamboo shank and short saddle stem and finally an Anima wax drip sand blast Billiard carved by Brian McNulty. All needed varying degrees of restoration.I chose to work on the big Vauen Solitaire Freehand. It is stamped on the left side and reads Solitaire. On the left side it is stamped Vauen and on the underside it is stamped with the shape number 148 followed by a pair of crossed bent pipes. The finish was shiny but there was also a dullness to the amazing grain around the bowl. There were some small nicks on the bowl where it looked like it had been dropped. A moderate cake in the bowl was in the bowl and some light lava on the rim top and some darkening on the inner edge. The fancy filter saddle stem was lightly oxidized and there was tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. The top of the saddle also bore the Vauen white dot. I took these photos before I started my work on the pipe. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. There is a moderate cake in the bowl. The plateau rim top has some lava and rim darkening around the top and inner edge. The plateau on the shank end is dusty as well. The photos of the stem show the oxidation, stickiness from a price tag and some light tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the beauty of the pipe. Once again, I am including the background on the Vauen brand that I have used before. I think it is an important part of the restoration process for me. I always read over it before I start my work on a pipe. It always personalizes and adds colour to the pipe I am working on. As usual, I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-v1.html). I did a screen capture of the information on the site. There was a great sidebar that gave some history of the brand. I include both of them below. In 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener establish a pipe factory in Nuremberg. In 1901 they merge with Gebhard Ott an other factory in town and they create a firm named Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nürnberg (abbreviated : VPFN*). Shortly after Ernst Eckert, a member of the Ott family became manager of the society. During the 20th century Adolf, Ernst (jr) and Alexander Eckert (CEO in 2012) followed one another at Vauen’s head.* VPFN : “V” is said VAU in German (pronounce faou) and “N” becomes EN. Hence VAUEN.

Dal Stanton (Pipesteward.com) wrote a great piece on the history of the brand on a Vauen pipe that he worked on. I reread that and quote a section from the blog below that gives a great sense of the story of this interesting German brand and some photos from the website (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/04/27/breathing-new-life-into-a-german-vauen-6294-p-lip-saddle-billiard-for-a-special-young-lady/).

… I turn to the question of the history of the VAUEN name? I look to the History section of the VAUEN website and again, I am impressed with the presentation. Whenever I work on a pipe, and especially when a pipe name is new to me, I enjoy looking at its history to appreciate the pipe more fully now on my worktable. From VAUEN’s website:Quality and a wealth of ideas have a long tradition at VAUEN. 160 years of VAUEN: that means 160 years of skilled workmanship and modern technology and 160 years of experience in fulfilling the individual wishes of today’s pipe lovers, and those of tomorrow.

In Nuremberg in 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener turned an idea into reality: Germany’s first pipe manufacturer produced tobacco pipes for connoisseurs around the world using a selection of the best wood. In an amalgamation with the Gebhard Ott pipe factory, which was founded in 1866 in Nuremberg, the Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nuremberg (United Pipe Factories Nuremberg, or VPFN) was born in 1901. Under the management of Ernst Eckert, a descendent of the founding Ott family, a company was born whose products and services would shape the tobacco and smoking culture in Europe and overseas for the next 160 years and counting.

The question about the name, VAUEN, not being a name of a person and why it is capitalized throughout is explained:

In his search for a name that would be easily remembered by all pipe lovers, Ernst Eckert’s son, Adolf Eckert, coined a new name for the company in 1909: VAUEN – a composition of the first letters V (pronounced vow) of Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken and N (pronounced en) of Nuremberg. A brand for the future was born.

Reminded once again of the colours of the brand, I turned my attention to the pipe itself. I wiped the bowl down with some acetone on cotton pads to remove the shiny coat on the bowl and the plateau on the rim top and shank end. It came out looking better. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the second and third cutting head to remove the cake. I cleaned up what remained of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl to remove any remnants with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. Once finished the inside of the bowl was smooth and the briar was bare. Once the pipe was reamed and the rim top cleaned I worked on the internals – the mortise and airway in the shank and airway in the stem. It appeared that this pipe has been smoked with the filter so the inside of the shank was not as bad as I expected. The stem was more of the same. I cleaned them both with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol and the results are very good.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the plateau portions on the rim top and shank end with the soap and brush. I rinsed off the grime and grit from the cleaning with warm water and dried it with a soft cloth. It looked much better without the grime. I polished the briar by dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. By the last three pads the briar really took on a rich shine. When I get the bowl to this point in the process I use Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I work it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I used a shoe brush on the plateau to get the product into the grooves. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. Once the time has passed I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed the oxidized surface with cotton pads and Soft Scrub and was able to remove the majority of the oxidation on the vulcanite.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look good.I took out my box of Vauen 9mm filters and put a new filter in the tenon of the stem. It fit perfectly and sat in the stem and shank as expected. I also found a new adapter that converts the tenon from a 9mm to a regular non-filter pipe.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. 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 I put a pipe back together, polished and waxed. I polished the bowl and stem on the Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This Vauen Solitair 148 Saddle Stem Freehand was another fun pipe to work on. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 3 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/4 inches x 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 3.46 ounces/98 grams. Four more of Sonny’s pipes to work on before I send them all back to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. 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 pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

The last of the threesome – an older Comoy’ Grand Slam 126 Pot

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one of three that was dropped off at my house on Saturday for clean up and restoration. Robert stopped by with a bag of pipes that his brother had picked up for him while hunting for pipes in New York. The lot included a Medico Ventilator, a couple of Grabows, a small salesman’s pipe, a Smokemaster, an unmarked sandblast pot, an Oom Paul Natural Grain Algerian Briar France, a Comoy’s Grand Slam Patent Pot, and an interesting KBB Yello-Bole Zulu/Yacht with a unique biteproof stem. We went through the lot and chose the three pipes that he wanted to work on. I have circled them in the photo below.All I had left to work on was the Comoy’s and I was looking forward to it. The finish was very dirty but the amazing grain could not be hidden by the grime. The pipe is stamped on the left side and reads Comoy’s [over] Grand Slam [over] Patent. On the right side of the shank it is stamped US Pat. [over] 2001612 followed by the shape number 126. On the underside of the shank was the Made in England in a Rugby ball shape. Above that the number *2 was stamped which gave the size of the leather washers on the metal apparatus in the shank. The bowl had a moderate cake on the walls with a light lava overflow and darkening on the rim top and edges. The finish was dirty but there was no varnish coat on the pipe. It had a vulcanite push stem with the Grand Slam metal apparatus in the tenon. The stem was oxidized but otherwise quite clean. The top of the taper stem had an inset white line – white on each end of the line and a turquoise space between them. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my clean up work. The photos of the rim top show the cake in the bowl, the light lava build up and the darkening on the bevelled inner edge of the bowl. The photos of the stem show the deep oxidation on both sides. It is an older narrow style straight stem with no flair at the button end.The next series of photos show the stamping on the shank sides. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe. There Comoy’s Grand Slam apparatus is shown in the third photo. The pipe looks quite beautiful. I have worked on quite a few Comoy’s Grand Slam pipes in the past and knew they had a unique stinger apparatus. Some came with and some without the leather washers in place on the apparatus. Some of them have been Patent pipes like this one. I turned to a link to one of the Grand Slams I had restored and reread it (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/09/05/a-tale-of-the-rebirth-of-3-pipes-pipe-3-a-comoys-grand-slam-pipe-484b-billiard/). Parts of the history I included there were really helpful. I have included some of the information here as well as some new information.

Pipephil’s site had a section on the Comoy’s Grand Slam Pipe and the information was quite helpful (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-comoy.html). I have included a screen capture of the section on the Grand Slam. The pipe I am working on now is like the first one in the screen capture below. It has the original stem with the single bar logo on the stem top like the one in the first photo below. The stamping on the shank is the same as the one I am working on. The US Patent Number in the photo is identical to the one in hand.From that read I learned that because the stem has a Bar Logo – white, turquoise, white it is an older pipe made between 1933 and 1945. After WWII the bar logo was replaced with the 3 part inlaid C. The mark on the underside above the COM stamp is a “2” indicating the size of the leather washer on the end of the metal stinger.

There was a box in the first photo to the right of the photo that took me to another page with the patent information (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/comoy1.html) and some advertising and photos that made the apparatus and washers very clear. I am including those below.

I have included a copy of the Comoy’s 1936 Ad that describes the Grand Slam and the Patented stinger apparatus. The metal filter system forces the air stream through a go-between space before entering the stem and the smokers mouth.I also included the drawings from the original patent document that were on the site. They have been re-colored for Pipephil to illustrate the intention. Numbers 8 and 6 are also shown.

8 (red): hollow screw

6 (yellow): leather washerI also am including the Patent information for the US and Canada. It also includes the name of the inventor Marcel CH Jacquemin.

Patent Number 2001612 (USA)

Patent Number 341422 (Canada)

Inventor: Marcel C. H. Jacquemin (see also: Newhaven)

System patent granted in 1933 (Montreal, Canada)

I have also included some photos of the pipe taken apart so you can see the clean and unused apparatus and the stamping of the leather washer size below.Grand Slam pipes have a “*” followed by a number on the underside (*5 in the picture opposite).

The number refers to the size of the leather washer that fits on the end of the stinger.

The pipe I am working on has a *2 that tells me the leather washer size on the pipe is a size 2.

I turned to the article on Pipedia about dating Comoy’s pipes but the style of the stamping (https://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide#1917_to_the_end_of_the_1930.27s_.28at_least_1938.29). I have included the section and the screen capture below that date this pipe to the 1950s. I have highlighted the pertinent portions in red.

Now the Comoy’s stamp can be found in three variants in the 1950s

A simple block-letter style without serifs but with the C larger than the other letters and the apostrophe before the “S”.
A return to the slightly more fancy block letters with serifs and the apostrophe. (It seems that some grades carried different stamps, or at least that the stamping changed in different years for some grades.)
A simple block-letter style without serifs and without the apostrophe and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters. This stamp was probably not used very long.
A simple block-letter style without serifs but with the apostrophe before the “S” and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters.

Made in London England

Appears in two versions. This is again stamped in a circle with “MADE” at the top, “IN” in the middle, and “LONDON” at the bottom, with “ENGLAND” in a straight line beneath. It can be assumed that this stamp was first used in the export drive in the early 1950s. On a Bulldog Sandblast from the early 50s the Comoy name no. 2 above was used together with “MADE IN LONDON” over “ENGLAND”. There are no known examples of pre-WW II Comoy’s stamped in this way. The second version is the same as above but in a “rugby ball ” shape. This shape is verified on Comoy´s “Extraordinaire” pipes.

That article gave me some helpful information regarding the pipe that I was working on. I knew that the stamping and logos identified the pipe as having been made in following WW2 and from what I can see from the above information it is a 1950s era pipe.

Now to work on the pipe itself. I started by reaming it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer. The bowl was large enough that I used the second and third cutting heads. I took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I also scraped off the lava build up on the rim top with the knife. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I took it back to smooth walls. The walls looked very good with no sign of checking or burning. I worked on the rim top with spit and a cotton pad to remove the lava and darkening around the rim top and the bevelled edge of the bowl. It cleaned up quite nicely.I cleaned out the shank, mortise and the airway in the bowl with pipe cleaners (both smooth and bristle), cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol. I was quite surprised how clean the shank was. While I worked on the bowl and shank I let the stem and apparatus sit in a bath of alcohol to clean up the tars and oils and try to loosen it in the tenon. I removed it and cleaned out the airway in the stem and the stinger with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I wiped down the stinger with a cotton pad and alcohol to remove the tars. The pipe looks much cleaner and also smells fresh now! I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. With the grime removed from the briar – both the top and sides of the bowl, it is truly a beautiful piece of briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it 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 and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good. Following my usual process in restoration 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 further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. I rubbed down the leather washer at the end of the aluminum stinger apparatus with a coat of Vaseline. I worked it into the leather and repeated the process. The Comoy’s Grand Slam Patent 126 Pot is finished other than the final waxing and buffing. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and gave it several coats of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad on the buffer to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 39 grams/1.38 ounces. It is a great looking pipe now that it is restored. It feels great in the hand and as it warms up it as smoked it should be even better. This is the last of Robert’s pipes that I needed to work on so they are ready for him to pick them up. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it once he has them in hand. If the condition was any indicator it is a good smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this Comoy’s Grand Slam 126 Pot.

Restoring a French Made Oom Paul Natural Grain Algerian Briar

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

Now to work on the pipe itself. I started by reaming it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer. The bowl was large enough that I used the second and third cutting heads. I took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I also scraped off the lava build up on the rim top with the knife. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I took it back to smooth walls. The walls looked very good with no sign of checking or burning. I cleaned out the shank, mortise and the airway in the bowl and the stem with pipe cleaners (both smooth and bristle), cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol. I was quite surprised how clean both the shank and the stem were. It did not take too much to clean them out. The pipe smells clean and fresh now! I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. With the grime removed from the briar – both the top and sides of the bowl it is truly a beautiful piece of briar. I sanded the bowl with sanding pads – 320-3500 grit pads. I dry sanded it and wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. I was able to remove all of the shiny coat and the bowl began to take on a natural shine. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it 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 and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good. Following my usual process in restoration 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 further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. The Oom Paul Natural Grain Algerian Briar France is finished other than the final waxing and buffing. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and gave it several coats of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad on the buffer to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 62 grams/2.19 ounces. It is a great looking pipe now that it is restored. It feels great in the hand and as it warms up it as smoked it should be even better. I have one more of Robert’s pipes that I need to work on and then will call him to pick them up. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it once he has them in hand. If the condition was any indicator it is a good smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this Oom Paul Natural Grain French Made.

KBB Yello-Bole Stembiter Cured with Real Honey 4261B Yacht

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one of three that was dropped off at my house on Saturday for clean up and restoration. Robert stopped by with a bag of pipes that his brother had picked up for him while hunting for pipes in New York. The lot included a Medico Ventilator, a couple of Grabows, a small salesman’s pipe, a Smokemaster, an unmarked sandblast pot, an Oom Paul Natural Grain Algerian Briar France, a Comoy’s Grand Slam Patent Pot, and an interesting KBB Yello-Bole Zulu/Yacht with a unique biteproof stem. We went through the lot and chose the three pipes that he wanted to work on. I have circled them in the photo below.I chose to work on the Yello-Bole Zulu/Yacht first as it was unique and just called out to me. The finish was very dirty but the grain was quite beautiful around the bowl and the shank. The pipe is stamped on the left side and reads KBB in a cloverleaf next to the bowl/shank union. To the right of that it is stamped Stembiter [over] Yello-Bole [over] Cured with Real Honey. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shape number 4261B. The bowl had a thick cake but underneath there was remnants of the yellow Honey Coating that Yello-Bole draw their name from. The finish was dirty and had some peeling varnish around the bowl. The base of the bowl and shank had been flattened to make the pipe a sitter. It had a vulcanite push stem with the classic Yello-Bole Spade style stinger apparatus in the tenon. The stem was oxidized. The aluminum spacer on the shank end of the stem was oxidized and pitted. It was rough to touch. There were very light bite marks on the surface ahead of the button. The Stembiter system was unique on the stem end – a scooped out divot on both sides and then a twin bore button end. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my clean up work. The photos of the rim top show the lava build up and marks on the top and the darkening on the inner edge of the bowl. You can also see the yellow bowl coating on front side near the bottom of the bowl surrounded by the cake. The photos of the stem show the deep oxidation on both sides. They do show the yellow O logo on the stem top. The stem end shows the Stembiter system.The next series of photos show the stamping on the shank sides. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe. It looks quite beautiful.Before I started my work on the pipe I decided to do a bit of work on the Patent Number and the shape number on the heel of the bowl. I remembered that Troy Wilburn, one of our blog writers and good friend of rebornpipes sent me a shape number list for old Kaywoodie and Yello-Bole pipes that is on the blog. I found it very useful and typed it into a chart format. Troy said that he got the data for this from the Kaywoodie Forums. I decided to post the chart on the blog for easy access. Thank you to the KW forum for the information. Here is the link to the full shape chart information that I have on the site (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/05/07/kaywoodie-yello-bole-shape-numbers/). The pipe I am working on has a push tenon, vulcanite stem as noted in the expanded Kaywoodie/YB charts on the above link. While there is not a listing for a 61 the numbers around that on the chart all include that the pipes had a vulcanite push stem. The good news is that I have the original stem.Troy also included the following information on the first two digits of the shape number. I quote in full regarding that below.

2-digit prefixes for 4-digit pipes – you might find an odd ball or a rare one that is not on the list.
From the time of the first Kaywoodie until 1938 for Kaywoodie and for Yello-Bole, Kaufmann Brothers & Bondy used a 4-digit number system (plus a letter sometimes) to identify the line and shape number. The 4-digits were not used after 1938. The first two, which we’ll call the prefix, referred to the finish and the second two, the suffix numbers referred to the shape number.

The 42B is the Yacht Freshman shape and the L identifies it as a large version of the pipe. Note also that the pipe was only made between 1936-1937 so it is an old timer.

Now to work on the pipe itself. I started by reaming it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer. The bowl was large enough that I used the second and third cutting heads. I took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I also scraped off the lava build up on the rim top with the knife. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I took it back to smooth walls. The walls looked very good with no sign of checking or burning. I heated the spade style stinger with a lighter flame and once it heated the tars that held it in place let loose and I was able to remove it. I cleaned up the aluminum stinger with alcohol and a 320 grit sanding pad to remove the debris. I set the stinger aside and then I cleaned out the shank, mortise and the airway in the bowl and the stem with pipe cleaners (both smooth and bristle), cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It took a lot of cleaners but I got the grime and oils out of the shank and stem. The pipe smelled of tobacco it was much cleaner smelling than previous to that. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I wiped it down with some 100% acetone to remove the varnish coat and clean up the remnants of that finish around the bowl and shank. It came off quite quickly and looked nice. I touched up the spotty rim top and inner edges with a Cherry stain pen. It matched the colour of the rest of the bowl and shank. Once it was buffed and polished it would blend in perfectly.I sanded the bowl with sanding pads – 320-3500 grit pads. I dry sanded it and wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. I was able to remove all of the shiny coat and the bowl began to take on a natural shine. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it 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 and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wiped down the stem surface with Soft Scrub. I used cotton pads to remove the oxidation and it was amazing how much came off with the scrubbing.I cleaned out the oxidation in the Stembiter with cotton swabs and Soft Scrub. I was able to remove all of the oxidation and the stem is looking much better at this point.I polished the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good. Following my usual process in restoration 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 further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. The KBB Yello-Bole Stembiter Cured with Real Honey 4261B Yacht Freshman is finished other than the final waxing and buffing. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and gave it several coats of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad on the buffer to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 26 grams/.92 ounces. It is a great looking pipe now that it is restored. It feels great in the hand and as it warms up it as smoked it should be even better. I have two more of Robert’s pipes that I need to work on and then will call him to pick them up. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it once he has them in hand. If the condition was any indicator it is a good smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this KBB Yello-Bole Stembiter Yacht Freshman.

Renewing an UNSMOKED Briarcraft Smokemaster Custom Made Patent Apple

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

The next pipe is one that has been sitting here for quite awhile in a box of unsmoked/new old stock pipes that I have here. I went through them yesterday and sorted the out. I put all of them on the rebornpipes store but this one. There was just something about it that grabbed my eye. It is a classic apple shaped pipe that is stamped on the left side of the shank and has a white hollow star next to the shank followed by the Briarcraft logo – a B in a diamond. Next to that it is stamped Custom [over] SMOKEMASTER [over] Made. On the right side of the shank it was stamped Pat. 2.166.537. The was a white letter B on the left side of the shank – the Briarcraft logo. We picked up the pipe on 11/09/2023 from a seller in Nampa, Idaho, USA. The pipe is unsmoked and the bowl is fresh. The finish on the bowl and shank is very shiny with varnish or possibly shellac but it is peeling and cracking in places. The grain on the pipe was quite stunning and would really shine through once the finish was gone. It was an incredibly lightweight pipe to hold. The stem is dirty with some sticky stuff from possibly a price tag and some nicks and scratches from laying around a long time somewhere. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started working on it. It was going to be a pretty simple cleanup. I took closeup photos of the unsmoked, new briar bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The condition matches what I described above. I also took photos of the stem to show the sticky spots and scratches on the stem surface ahead of the button on each side. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. The varnish around the stamping and the white star is peeling and crackled. The B logo on the left side of the stem is clear and in good condition. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. I tried to capture the three holes in the end of the tenon. I laid the stem on the shank to try to capture it and I held it and took a photo of the tenon end. It is an interesting drilling that almost looks like a mouse head with the two ears.I had cleaned up a Smokemaster Bard Billiard in the past but it did no have the original stem like this one. I went back and reread the blog to remind myself of what I had learned in the process of working on that pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/12/23/giving-a-smokemaster-bard-billiard-a-facelift/). I have included a bit of the information that I had included on that blog below:

I knew nothing about Smokemaster pipes and had no idea who made them. The finish and shape reminded me a lot of Dr. Grabow pipes that I have reworked but that was not enough for me. As has become my habit with pipes I don’t know about, I did a bit of research on the web and found out that the pipe was made by the Briarcraft Pipe Company. The Company was very prosperous between 1920 and 1940. They produced both Briarcraft pipes and a line of seconds under the following names: Airo, Arcadian, Briarmeer, Smokemaster, Cavalcade, Hallmark, Sterling Hall, Filter Kleen and Wimbledon. They closed their doors in 1950.

The pipe that I was working on currently was definitely made pre-1950 and the stamping was clearly made by Briarcraft. The beauty of that is that the pipe was clearly made between between 1920-1950 when they closed their doors. Perhaps when I check the patent information I will learn more and be able to pin down the date a bit more.

I turned to the article on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Smokemaster) to see what I could learn there. I was expecting a bit of info on both Briarcraft and Dr.Grabow. So it would take a bit of filtering.

Smokemaster pipes are unusual in that they had two different makers in different time periods, and in the style of their tenon.

The tenon had a single aluminum inner tube and two holes which were meant to hold a pipe cleaner folded in half, one end in each hole. The pipes were first made by Briarcraft, in lines including the Custom-made, Standard, and Bard. That company went out of business in the 1950s. In 1967 Dr. Grabow bought the rights to the name and the system, and began producing Smokemasters in three lines, stamped 100, 200 and 300. These pipes had a red diamond logo on the stem.

In addition, both Briarcraft and Dr. Grabow made Smokecraft pipes which were not stamped with that name, but with L. L. Bean. The pipes continued to be produced into the 1990s in Sparta, North Carolina, and were offered as a mail order pipe on packets of Dill Pipe Cleaners at one point. They are no longer produced.

I have included two advertisements from the site that had helpful information on the special filter system using pipe cleaners. Read over the first advertisement below. It has the same patent number as the pipe I am working on. It also has a clear explanation of the unique pipe cleaner filter system in the stem. The second advertisement show the same pipe with the specifics of an L.L. Bean pipe that has the same pipe cleaner filtration system. I then turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s9.html) to have a look at the information included there. I have included a screen shot of the information there. The logo on the stem of the shank of the pipe I am working on is identical to the one shown in the first photos below. I have included only the section on the Briarcraft version of the pipe made prior to the buyout by Dr. Grabow.I found out that the Smokemaster had a very unique filter system and was distinct from other filter systems in that it did not include a stinger apparatus. Rather it used a slotted tenon/tube that had two special holes in it (shown in red in the drawing below of the tenon end). A folded pipe cleaner was inserted into the two holes and extended the length of the shank. It collected the tars and moisture of the smoke and could be easily changed and replaced by the pipe smoker. The diagram below shows the design from the end of the tenon.I did a patent search and it gave me the following information. This includes both the original description by the inventor and also a diagram submitted at the time of the patent application. I found it at this site:

https://www.google.com/patents/US2166537?dq=2166537&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r2u4UtPOHI_ZoAT9moHYCg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ

I have included that information below on the same patent number:

Description
1939 – B. M. SHOEMAKER 2,166,537
TOBACCO PIPE Filed Oct. 12, 1934 crnar B.M. Shoemaker INVENTOR v ATTORNEY Patented July 18, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

1 Claim.

My invention relates to tobacco pipes and more particularly to the type in which the bit and bowl portions are separately united to each other.

The principal object of my invention is to maintain the smoke passage in the pipe substantially free of solid deposits, making for general cleanliness in the interior of the pipe and sweet, cool smoking qualities.

I accomplish this object by arranging within the pipe a readily replaceable absorptive member which is designed to receive condensate and solid matter from the smoke as it passes through the pipe. The preferred form of such absorptive member is an ordinary pipe cleaner which, as is well known in the art, comprises a highly flexible metallic core portion carrying a large number of bristles extending there from.

One embodiment of the invention is illustratively exemplified in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a pipe; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a broken elevation view of a metallic tube or liner constituting one of the pipe elements; Fig. 5 is an elevation view broken intermediate its ends, of the form of absorptive member used in the present construction.

Referring to the drawing, and more specifically to Figs. 1 to 3, denotes the pipe bowl, 1 the bowl stem, 2 the bit and 3 the tenon by which the bit and bowl stem are separately united. The bowl stem has the usual well l4 and the bit the usual smoke or draft passage 15. The bit 12 is further provided with three bores, 15b, c, d, and forming a continuation of the smoke passage 16. A metal tube 16 is provided which is longitudinally slotted at its lower portion and through the slot l8 the products of well be omitted. The tube l6 lies in the bore 15b. The pipe cleaner is doubled upon itself and the two legs or branches of the pipe cleaner enter the bores 15c and l5d and rest there during use of the pipe. The bores 15c and l5d parallel the bore 15b at opposite sides of its longitudinal centre. The embodiment of the invention described is a very desirable construction inasmuch as it receives a standard length pipe cleaner, which in its folded position in the passage 14 is offset from the axis thereof, and which when rotated or twisted with the tenon to seat the same the folded strands of the cleaner engage and brush or clean the wall of the bore.
The operation of the device is very simple. The pipe is sold complete with the pipe cleaner in position. After the pipe has been used for a length of time it will be found that the pipe cleaner is practically saturated with deposited matter. Thereupon the pipe cleaner is simply removed from the pipe and a new one inserted in its place. If desired, the cleaner may also be used in the ordinary manner, naturally before it has become fouled, by moving it back and forth once or twice through the draft passage l5 and/or tube.

What I claim is: In a tobacco pipe, a bowl portion having a stem provided with a central bore, and a bit portion for said stem, the bit having a centrally disposed smoke passage and grooves arranged in the bottom of said passage, a tubular liner mounted in the smoke passage and adapted to project into the bore of the stem, said liner having its underside provided with a longitudinal slot opening into the grooves and bottom of the central bore of the stem beyond the bit, and an absorptive member mounted in said grooves and arranged under the liner throughout its length to receive condensate from the liner and to wipe the wall of said bore when the bit is turned.

BERNARD M. SHOEMAKER.
Classifications

U.S. Classification 131/184.1, 131/203

International Classification A24F1/00

Cooperative Classification A24F1/00, A24F2700/03

European Classification A24F1/00
I find that kind of information fascinating and am always intrigued by the ongoing urge of pipe designers to provide a cooler and cleaner smoke for the pipeman who uses their inventions. The patent information helped me to also pin down the date of manufacture. In this case I now knew that the pipe I had in hand was made between 1939 and 1950, a nice 11 year window. It was a real beauty and with the clean up it would only look better. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself.

I began by removing the peeling and spotty varnish coat with acetone on a cotton pad. What made this a bit tricky was the white stamped star outline on the left side of the briar next to the bowl. It had been painted and I did not want to damage that colour. Once the varnish coat was removed I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the end of the process it looked quite good. 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. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I polished the vulcanite 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 rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. With the stem cleaned up it was time to fit the tenon with the folded pipe cleaner filter as shown in the photos of the advertisements and also patent information. I took photos of the process. This Unsmoked Briarcraft Smokemaster Custom Made Pat. 2.166.537 is quite a stunning pipe now that it has been stripped and restored. The beautiful grain around the bowl works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Briarcraft Smokemaster Custom Made Apple fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 22 grams/.78 ounces. I will be putting this interesting old timer in my own collection of unique pipes. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Restoring a LJ Perretti Algerian Briar Billiard

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was one we purchased on 01/22/24 off eBay from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is large billiard that is stamped L.J. PERRETTI on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped ALGERIAN BRIAR. The stamping is clear and readable. The grain is quite nice and there are no fills in the briar that are visible. It was a dirty pipe – the finish was darkened and grit and oils were ground into the outside of the bowl. The rim top had a serious cake of lava on it, heavier on the back side. There was some damage on the outer edge of the bowl at the back where it had been knocked about. The bowl had a moderate cake, heavier toward the bottom of the bowl. The stem was oxidized there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There were no marks or logo stamps on the stem. From my own work on Peretti pipes in the past I knew that this one a shop pipe from the Boston store. I did not know however when it was made or who made it. It is a well-proportioned tall billiard. It has a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his clean up. Jeff took closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The condition matches what I described above. He also took photos of the stem to show the oxidation and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. The grain around the bowl and shank is quite beautiful under the grime. The stamping on the sides of the shank is clear and readable and read as noted above. My guess is that it is probably American Made as there is no other stamping on the shank.I remembered that Dal Stanton had worked on several L.J. Peretti pipes over the years. In a blog written in 2017 wrote a great introduction to the L.J. Peretto brand (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/01/28/a-christmas-gift-in-need-of-a-stem-splice-l-j-peretti-squared-shank-billiard/). I am including portions of his write up below.

“When I began my research on L J Peretti, I was surprised to discover that it is not an Italian pipe as one might expect with such a name! In fact, I discovered the genesis of a significant story of Americana pipe history with the establishment of the L. J. Peretti Company of Boston in 1870 (Pipedia citing: Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by José Manuel Lopes), the second oldest tobacco shop in the US, second only to Iwan Ries & Co. of Chicago established in 1857 (See: Link).””Going directly to L J Peretti’s website, now president, Stephen L. Willett provides this historical summary of this Boston icon (Link: http://www.ljperetti.com):

In 1870, Libero Joseph Peretti arrived in Boston from Lugano, Switzerland. Filled with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love for fine tobacco, L.J. established the “Peretti Cuban Cigar Co.” in Boston’s historic North End. In the first two decades of business, the company provided a number of contributions to the tobacco industry and began to blend “house cigars”.

1892 marks the establishment of the Peretti Cigar Factory in Park Square, Boston. For over forty years, the company employed fifty rollers who produced some of the finest cigars in New England. Not only did Peretti’s manufacture blended cigars, but they also created Clear Havana Vitolas such as the legendary La Mirendella.

L.J.’s son, Joseph, aka “The Major”, followed his father into the family business. His primary love was pipes and pipe tobacco. Among his notable accomplishments was the creation of the first “English” blend, called British, in the United States; as well as securing the exclusive import rights to Peterson pipes and Sullivan & Powell tobaccos.

After World War II the third generation Peretti’s, Robert, entered the firm. The original store had moved from the North End to the centre of Boston on Massachusetts Avenue and there were additional stores throughout the financial district of Boston. Robert became a tobacco legend in United States and throughout the world. Most of the more than eighty house blends of pipe tobacco were created by Robert Peretti. His reputation as a blender led politicians, actors, celebrities and gentlemen of all callings to seek his tobacco advice.”

Dal’s article continues with a lot more information from various sources and is worth the time to read and enjoy.

For me I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Perettito), one of my usual sites, to see what was there. I quote:

Peretti is the brand of Robert A. Peretti, then owner of the L.J. Peretti Co., a tobacconist founded in Boston by his grandfather, L. Joseph Peretti in 1870. The first pipes made there date from the 1920s, and Robert began producing them in 1938.

The customers of this well known tobacco and pipe shop included the former British prime minister, Ramsey MacDonald, and also Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Edward G. Robinson, and Walter Matthau.

L.J. Peretti Co. Established 1870…

Our own line of pipes are famous the world over for their outstanding value. The photos here represent a small sampling of our immense selection of shapes, sizes, and finishes.

Pick a price range, a shape, and a finish. We’ll pick you out a pipe that will be sure to satisfy for years to come.

The majority of our smooth pipes are natural or unfinished and will darken over time bringing out their beautiful grain naturally.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it 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 and shank brushes. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl look good. There was some darkening on the inner edge and light damage on the edges. The outer edge has some damage on the backside of the bowl. It looked like it had been knocked repeatedly against a hard surface. There was also some darkening on the back of the rim top. The stem surface looked much better though there were remnants of oxidation near the shank end. Overall it looked very good with a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on shank sides is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. I cleaned up the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage. I then used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden ½ sphere to give the inner edge of the bowl a light bevel and to clean up the darkening around the top and outer edge. I decided to leave the bowl outer edge in the same condition it came. I lightly smoothed out the damage on the back outer edge without changing the profile of the bowl. Once finished it looks much better even with the damage and the darkening on the edge. I sanded the rim top and the bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to blend in the sanding I had done on the top with sides and shank. Each pad gave it more of a shine. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. I stained the rim top and lightened area on the shank end with a Cherry stain pen. It matched well. You can still see the damaged area on the back outer edge of the bowl. It looks black.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the end of the process it looked quite good. 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. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks on both sides with the flame. It worked well enough that I sanded out the remaining marks with 220 grit sandpaper and it was smooth. I polished the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.I polished the vulcanite 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 rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This LJ Peretti Algerian Briar Billiard is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful grain around the bowl is quite stunning and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite taper stem. The damage I left on the back outer edge of the rim top is part the pipe’s story and remains to show its travels. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished LJ Peretti Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 50 grams/1.80 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Restoring a Custombilt Imported Briar taper stem Rhodesian

Leave a reply

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was one we purchased on 01/22/24 off eBay from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is a uniquely rusticated Custombilt Rhodesian that really looks good. I have worked on a lot of Custombillt rusticated pipes and enjoy working on them. The stem is a vulcanite taper stem with no markings on the sides. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the left side of the shank. The left side reads Custombilt [over] Imported Briar. The stamping is clear and readable. The finish is quite dirty with grime and dust in the deep rustication where the hand held the bowl on both sides. The rim top is also dirty with darkening and also lava on the smooth surface on the edges as well. There is a thick cake in the bowl with some tobacco debris stuck on the walls and in the heel. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button that are a bit deep and will need to be addressed. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It is unique and certainly one that we are looking forward to seeing once it is cleaned up. Jeff took closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The condition matches what I described above. He also took photos of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It also appears that the stem had a Softee Bit at some time in the past. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. The rustication pattern around the bowl is instantly recognizable as done by Custombilt. The stamping on the left side of the shank is clear and readable and read as noted above.I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I quote from the side bar in the above screen capture and have highlighted in red the pertinent part of the article.

Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

I turned to Pipedia and found the following advertisement for the Custombilt line that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Custombilt_Shapes.jpg). The logo on the advertisement is the same and the shape I have circled in red in the advert below is the same shape number as the one that I am working on. The majority of the information on the rest of the site was two book reviews of the Custom-Bilt Story by Bill Unger. I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. The stamping on the one I have might be example of Stamp #2 of the Wally Frank Era pipes (shown in the screen capture below). This stamp has the top arch of “C” extend to the top of “t”. The bottom arch of the “C” also curves into the leg of the “u” as in a cursive signature. I have also included the information on Stamp 3 as it mentions two stamps from this Wally Frank Era.In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it 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 soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and outer edge of the bowl look very good. The inner edge has some damage on the front of the bowl. The stem surface was rough but the oxidation and calcification was gone. Overall it looked very good with a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on top left of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The wide saddle stem is nice and the photo shows the step down tenon.I cleaned up the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage. Once I had smoothed out the edge the bowl was ready. I polished the smooth briar around outside of the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. 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 and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the rings and rustication. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain and the rustication came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the roughness, scratch marks and smoothed the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.I polished the vulcanite 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 rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Custombilt Imported Briar Bent Rhodesian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The style of rustication that is used around the bowl is quite beautiful and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Custombilt Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 47 grams/1.66 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!