Category Archives: Pipe Refurbishing Essays

Essays and pictorial essays on the art of refurbishing

NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 5 – Restoring an Orlik De Luxe L206 – an Inclined Bevelled Egg

Blog by Steve Laug

This is the fifth pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. Once again all funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal. It is stamped on the left side of the shank, Orlik De Luxe over London Made and on the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shape number L206. According to the page from the Orlik shape chart below, the L206 (the bottom pipe on the page) was called an Inclined Bevelled Egg. The next four photos show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to the worktable to clean it up. The finish was in very decent shape though soiled and would clean up very nicely. The stamping was clear, though toward the back of the shank it was stamped more lightly than the front half of the shank.

The next photos are close-up pictures of the outer edge of the rim. The outer edge was damaged around over half of the bowl. Someone along the path this pipe took during its life time had smoothed out the damage and in so doing had rounded the outer edge of the bowl.

From the Orlik shape chart and photos on the web I could see that the edge was supposed to be sharp and smooth rather than rounded. The rounding also hid some rough spots in the briar caused by knocking out the pipe against something hard. I decided to top the bowl with a topping board. I used 220 grit sandpaper on the board and sanded the top in a circular motion while pressing it into the sandpaper. I took it down until the damaged sections were gone and the outer edge was sharp once again.

I sanded the rim with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratching. I sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to further smooth it out. I buffed the bowl and rim with White Diamond. I used a light and a medium brown stain touch up pen mixed together to match the stain with the rest of the bowl. I used a sharp knife to ream cake the bowl, remove the crumbling cake from the bottom portion of the bowl and leave a thin cake on the walls of the bowl. My purpose was to facilitate forming a new cake on the walls.

I cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the cleaners came out white. With the inside clean I put the stem back in place with a plastic washer on the tenon so that when it was pushed in place it sat between the shank and the stem. This allows me to sand the stem and remove the oxidation without rounding the shoulders or damaging the stain and finish on the shank. I sanded it with a worn piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

With the oxidation removed from the stem I went on to sand it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads and then when I had finished the third set I did it again and set it aside to let the oil dry.

After the oil dried I buffed the pipe and the stem with Blue Diamond Plastic Polish on the wheel while carefully avoiding the stamping. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft, flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It merely waits for the right person to add it to their rack and enjoy a flavourful smoke in a very light weight pipe.

This beautifully shaped Danish looking Orlik L206 Inclined Bevelled Egg should make someone a great addition. If you are interested in this pipe email me with an offer at slaug@uniserve.com and we can discuss it. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

A Windy Perpetual Drysmoker Restored

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Blog by Steve Laug

One of the contributors to rebornpipes,Troy Wilburn gifted me with a couple of pipes not long ago. Today I worked on the first of them – an interestingly odd old pipe the likes of which I have never seen. It is stamped on the left side of the shank WINDY over PERPETUAL over DRYSMOKER and on the right side of the shank IMPORTED BRIAR. Around the end of the shank on what I assume is the bottom of the pipe it is stamped ITALY.

This odd pipe is a bit of a mystery to me in terms of how it is smoked. You may laugh at that and say, “Put the end in your mouth and fire it up.” However it is a little more complicated. This particular pipe has a screw on wooden cap that sits on the “top” of the bowl if looked at the way I took the photos above. Held this way the stamping is right side up. On the other end of the bowl is what is like a normal windcap with five airholes in it. It is screwed into the bowl. When held with the windcap as the “top” the stamping is upside down. I can find nothing online that gives a hint to how it is to be smoked. When I took it apart it was clear to me how the previous owner had smoked it. There was a cake on the walls of the bowl. There was a cake on the threaded five hole windcap. There was not any cake of darkening on the flat threaded cap. So the pipe had been smoked with the windcap facing downward and the stamping in the correct position. The bowl had been lit from the windcap end and then the cap put back in place and the bowl turned over and smoked with the coal on the bottom… I shall have to experiment with that to see what I can tell after smoking it myself.

The pipe was quite dirty. Tobacco shards were around the threads in both the top and the bottom of the bowl. There was a light cake that was crumbly in the bowl. The airway was reduced in size by the tars and cake. The stem was rough and the airway partially blocked. The finish on the briar was crackling and spotty. Before cleaning up the pipe I did a quick Google search to see if I could find out any information. I wanted to see if the brand was known and if there was anything on the Pipephil site regarding the stamping. I found just two links to the pipe. One was on the smokingmetal site. The other was a YouTube video that was about a fellow smoking his Windy Perpetual Drysmoker. I did not find it helpful in that it was just a running commentary on the experience rather than information about the brand. The link to the smokingmetal site is here: http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=508
I am quoting the article in full as it is really the only source of information I found.
WINDY – perpetual drysmoker
Appears to be a late 1940’s pipe, briar, which I thought initially should have had an internal bowl which did not appear to be present with this one. Some doubt as to how many parts there should be to this pipe, but see the following comments. The stamping is simply WINDY Perpetual Drysmoker one side of shank and Italy Imported Briar on the other

Sitter pipe. The pipe is just over 5 inches of the bowl to end of bit. Chamber diameter is just over 5/8 inch and depth is over 1 1/2 inch.

I have the following from Stan Wolcott, his are the images as well:

“WINDY PERPETUAL DRYSMOKER by Stan Wolcott”
In my travels I recently came across this intriguing pipe on which very little information appears online by Google search. The left side (?) is stamped “Windy Perpetual Drysmoker” and on the right side (?) “Imported Briar/Italy”. The stem has a small round gold medallion on the left side bearing a “R”. Although several similar pipes are pictured online here in the USA and UK, no explanatory information is included with those images. Floyd Norwood of Tennessee, who restored the pipe for me, also had no idea how the pipe was to be smoked. Tony Pringle of the UK, who has one pictured on his website, believes there may be other pieces which are missing from the four present in the images—flat cap, rounded cap with five vent holes (presumably the wind cap) and the pipe bowl and stem. As can be seen from the images, the flat cap has female threads and screws into the bottom (?) onto male threads on the bowl. The wind cap has male threads and screws into the top (?) of the bowl. I have placed the question marks in parentheses following the terms top, bottom, right and left, since I’m not even sure whether the flat cap is intended to be the bottom. Can someone out there enlighten me and the NASPC readership about this “mystery pipe”, its manufacturer and the proper way of smoking it?

This guy seems to have mastered it ..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Zk3qxuce0

The “Perpetual” part of the name seems to come from the ability to actually load more tobacco from the bottom of the pipe whilst still alight and of course the dottle etc. gets burnt as the smoking progresses. Rather ingenious. There are at least two possible for makers from the logo, REGIS and EMPIRE STATE and nothing seems to be known of these either.

Tony Pringle of smokingmetal then includes the following photos of the pipe. There is no doubt that it is the same pipe that I have. There are a few variations between the two but the overall design is the same. He shows photos of the pipe as a whole, taken apart and of the stamping.

The pipe that Troy gave me is in much better condition and also is stamped slightly different. The left side of the shank is the same but the right side only reads IMPORTED BRIAR on mine. The ITALY stamping runs around the shank at the junction of the shank and stem. It is stamped on what would be the bottom side if the cap is on the bottom. The stem on the one I have does not have the gold logo or seal. I used a cotton swab and alcohol to scrub the threads on the bowl and the two lids. There was a lot of debris in both sets of threads.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and the second cutting head as it was a perfect fit for the diameter of the bowl. I took the cake back to bare wood.

With the major debris cleaned away with the alcohol and cotton swabs I used a toothbrush to scrub the threads on both the top and bottom of the bowl and also on the two caps. With the interior cleaned out and the threads cleaned I put some Vaseline on the threads of the caps and put the pipe back together. I used some acetone on cotton pads to remove the spotty and broken finish on the bowl. I was amazed at the grain that was underneath the finish. There were no fills and just a few small sandpits.

With the finish removed the pipe was beginning to look like new. All that was left was to clean up the stem and then buff the two of them together. Look closely at the grain on the bowl and caps. I really find this a beautiful pipe.

I put a plastic washer on the tenon between the shank and the stem so I could sand the stem in place in the shank and keep the shoulders of the stem from rounding. I sanded the tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I went on to sand it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. One this that was very interesting about this stem was the quality of the vulcanite. The sanding dust was absolutely black rather than the usual brown. It left black streaks on the micromesh.

I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after the 4000 grit pad and the 12,000 grit pad.

I buffed the pipe and stem on the buffer using Blue Diamond Plastic Polish on the wheel to polish the bowl and the stem. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish and then buffed it with a clean, flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Thanks Troy for the strange yet beautiful pipe. I enjoyed working on this one and will also enjoy experimenting with how to smoke it!

Thanks Troy and thanks for looking!

DIY tenon expanders

NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 4 – Jobey 300 Bent Diamond Shank Brandy 9mm Meerschaum Filter Pipe

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

This is the fourth pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. Once again all funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal.

This one is a little Jobey pipe has the typical Jobey fitment system with the tenon in the shank and the stem sliding over that. However that is where the typical ends. It is open for a 9mm filter and in this case a 9mm meerschaum filter. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank on the left side with the words Jobey over Meerschaum over Filter and on the right side it is stamped 300.

The finish on the bowl was in great shape, just dirty. The bowl itself needed a light reaming. The stem was dirty, oxidized and had straightened over time. There was a small nick on the top of the stem about mid-point. The inside of the bowl, shank and stem were dirty with tars and oils. There was no filter moldering away inside the shank which I was glad to see.

I did some searching to find out about the filters that were used. I found some pictures of the meerschaum filters that were used. I checked and the shank easily holds a regular 9mm filter from Vauen should the new owner wish to use one.

I set up the heat gun and heated the stem to deal with the bend first. I wanted to bend enough to give it a proper look. Once it was flexible I bent it over a wooden rolling pin that I use for this purpose.

With that corrected I took it back to the work table to address the cleaning issues. I used a PipNet reamer to ream the cake from the bowl and clean up the inside of the bowl.

I cleaned the shank and the airway in the bowl and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol until it was clean. It did not take much to clean it out. A few pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and it was clean. I used a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to knock off the grime on the stem and work over the small nick on the top of the stem. Once I had it cleaned up I moved on to polishing the stem with the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. As is my practice, I rubbed the stem down between each set of three pads with my Obsidian Oil Sock to give me continued traction in polishing the stem.

When I finished with the micromesh sanding pads I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond Plastic polish on the wheel and then gave it several coats of carnauba wax to preserve and protect. I finished by giving it a final buff with a clean, soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It should make whoever picks it up a decent smoking pipe.

This Jobey 300 bent brandy should make someone a great addition. If you are interested in this pipe email me with an offer at slaug@uniserve.com and we can discuss it. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

Peterson’s Sterling Pre-Republic 80

1 Reply

Mark posted this on his blog. It is a timely post for me as I have an old Dunnie that I need to use the trick on…. now to practice that! Thanks Mark

Lone Star Briar Works Blog

I had this Pre-Republic Peterson’s Sterling bent bulldog 80 with a damaged rim. It is marked Made in Ireland in block format which I think places this pipe pre 1946.

As you can see the main problem was the missing ridge on the side of the bowl.

I used clear superglue mixed with briar chips, not dust. I’ve found that dust turns black when mixed with the glue. I got the chips which are slightly larger by grinding down a donor stummel with a dremel. I filled in the missing area, let dry and sanded and filed down the excess

I used a needle file to cut a groove and finished deepening the grooves with a serrated kitchen knife.

. When I was almost finished, a piece broke off.

So I mixed up more glue/briar chips and made a second patch.

Again sanded and filed and then touched up the…

View original post 58 more words

NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 11 – Restoring a LHS Certified Purex 97 Squashed Bulldog

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I decided to add this LHS Bulldog to the sale. It is thus the eleventh pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. Once again all funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal.

It is an old LHS (LH Stern) Bulldog. It is stamped on the left side of the shank with the shape number 97 and almost over the top of that stamp is the application of a white imprinted logo. The logo reads LHS in a flattened diamond. On the top of the diamond it reads Certified Purex and on the bottom of the diamond it read Imported Briar. I have had quite a few LHS pipes on my work table over the years but this is the first time I have seen this shape bulldog. It is squat and short but has a large bowl – the size of my thumb and the bowl is quite deep. There are two rings around the bowl and a bulldog cap. The rustication pattern is also quite unique – looking like a thatched pattern. There is an aluminum fitment in the shank of the pipe and an aluminum tenon with a separated stinger that screws into the fitment in the shank. The stem was slightly oxidized and underturned. There were no major tooth marks or chatter on the stem. The finish was in decent shape, just dirty and dusty. The rings around the cap were plugged with debris that would need to be cleaned out. The airway in the bottom of the bowl was very small looking. The bowl had been reamed recently and was clean that way.

If you look closely at the alignment of the metal band on the shank with the band on the stem you will see how it is underturned and how the band on the shank is slightly corroded next to the shank.

The close up of the bowl shows the constricted airway at the bottom of the bowl on the back side. Too me it looked to be almost plugged with tars and would not be too difficult to open. I unscrewed the stem from the shank to look at the internals. I have found that pipes with the metal fitment in the shank are generally quite dirty on the other side of the metal mortise and take some work to clean. This pipe was no exception. I tapped the metal end against my desk top and a lot of chunks of tar fell out on the desk top. The stinger was inserted into the threaded tenon and also was quite dirty and the slots in it were also restricted with buildup. I heated the tenon and stinger with the flame of the lighter hoping to loosen the tenon in the shank and straighten the fit in the shank. I heated it until the stem itself was warm and the metal tenon did not budge. I was able to remove the stinger for cleaning.

I examined the tenon insert in the stem (probably should have done this first). I found that the metal plate that acted as a stem adornment and the tenon were integrated into one piece and no amount of heating would ever loosen the tenon from the shank. I had to come up with another solution. I screwed the stem back on the pipe and set it aside to contemplate my course of action. I thought of adding a thin plate of Lucite or briar between the stem adornment and the shank adornment but decided against that. I let it sit for a while and worked on the stem.

Suddenly I figured out a potential fix. If I were to sand down the shank end enough to allow the stem to sit correctly I could possibly get the alignment correct. I measured the depth of the threads in the shank and then those on the tenon and found that the thread went deeper than the length of the tenon by about 1/8 of an inch. If I could remove some of the aluminum shank end plate I could get it to seat correctly. I used my topping board and pressed the end of the aluminum end plate flat against the board. I carefully worked it in a circular motion on the sandpaper. I checked frequently to make sure I did not take of too much or too little of the aluminum plate. The next photo shows the end plate after it had been topped sufficiently. The scratches from the sandpaper would easily be polished off with micromesh. I have also included four photos of the different angles on the stem to show how the underturn had been corrected. The fit was perfect.

With the stem fit corrected I then turned to cleaning out the inside of the stem and the shank. It took many pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I also used the drill bit from the KleenReem reamer to open the airway into the bowl. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl down with oil soap and a tooth brush. I picked out the debris in the twin rings around the cap. I sanded the stem down with 220 grit sandpaper and then followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

There were two small tooth marks in the vulcanite on the underside of the stem. I repaired those with a drop of clear super glue. I sanded the glue patch with 220 grit sandpaper and then repeated sanding it with the two sanding sponges. When finished I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. Between each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with an Obsidian Oil saturated sock that I use for this purpose. I let it sit for just a few moments before continuing with the next grit of pads. The oil gives traction for polishing the stem.

I used the micromesh pads to also polish the aluminum on the shank and the stem. I worked through all of the grits to polish it to a shine. I also used 0000 steel wool to polish the stinger and the tenon. Then I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond Plastic polish to further raise the shine. I put it back on the bowl and buffed the bowl and shank lightly with Blue Diamond. A light touch keeps the buffing compound from collecting in the grooves. I also carefully worked around the white stamping on the shank. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and then rubbed the bowl down with Halcyon II Wax and hand buffed the bowl and shank with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the shape and the rustication on this one. I am looking forward to loading a bowl and enjoying it on the weekend ahead. Thanks John.

This LHS Bulldog is a beautiful pipe and the rustication and stain gives it almost a multidimensional look. It should make someone a great addition. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

Peterson 999 Sterling (Pre-Republic) Restoration

4 Replies

Blog entry by Al Jones

The 999 is Peterson’s version of the Rhodesian pipe shape. Pre-Republic versions are slightly chubbier than a modern 999. A chubby shape 999 has been on my “Holy Grail” pipe list for a number of years. This one came to me via a member of the PipesMagazine forums. It was a piece in huge treasure trove of estate pipes he bought as a lot. The seller sent me good pictures of the pipe and disclosed the issues he observed. The biggest concern was the dark marks on the bowl side. The pipe arrived today and gratefully, as I suspected, they were indeed only scorch marks. Sometimes you don’t have to find a pipe, they find you.

The pipe is stamped “Made in Ireland” in the circle format, which I’ve learned was used for 1945 to 1947. While the band is stamped “Sterling” as is the finish, there are no date hallmarks on the pipe. This would indicate that the pipe was made for sale in the United States, where silver hallmarks weren’t required. The dimensions of this 999 are almost identical to those of my GBD 9438’s, including the weight of 54 grams.

The pipe had plenty of dings, including on the silver band. The nomenclature was legible with the naked eye, a detail that I needed to preserve

The stem had mild oxidation and a few tooth marks. The tooth marks lifted up nicely with some heat, a big restoration plus. I soaked the stem in a mild Oxy-Clean solution.

While the stem was soaking, I turned my attention to the bowl. I used a worn piece of 8000 and then 12000 grade micromesh sheet. I was able to diminish but not completely remove the scorch marks, but I’m satisfied with the result. I think using some lower grade wet paper, I could probably remove the marks. But, in doing so I might change the profile of the bowl and the pipe would certainly require a complete stain strip and restain. I then I didn’t want to risk the nomenclature to that process. I wiped on a very light coat of Medium Brown stain to blend in the lightened area with the existing color. I then buffed out that area with some Tripoli followed by White Diamond. After several coats of Carnuba wax, the effected area blends in well with the rest of the bowl. Here several bowl pictures showing the original marks, pipe after the micromesh treatment and one after the stain/buff and wax.

I removed the oxidation from the stem with 800 grit wet paper, and worked my way thru the 1500 and 2000 grade papers. Next up, 8000 and 12000 grade micromesh sheets were used. The stem was then buffed with White Diamond and Megiuars Plastic Polish. There was a stubborn burn mark on the stem that I was able to diminish but not remove completely. The large dent on the bottom of the stem finished off nicely and is almost invisible.

Below is the completed pipe. The pipe is far from “Mint” condition, but I think the patina earned after decades of use is fitting.

Update:
I went back and removed a little oxidation I observed around the P-lip button. I also was able to dimish the scorch mark on the stem.

Preserving a Early KBB Yello Bole Propeller Logo Premier Canadian

5 Replies

Blog by Troy Wilburn

I picked this early 30’s Yello Bole Canadian Premiere off EBay. When I saw this pipe I just knew I wanted it. It has original finish, lightly smoked with no teeth marks, with a large bowl and rusticated finish. The seller did clean out the bowl and such but left the finish and stem original. It was in just remarkable condition for its age to me.

Since it had only the markings of KBB and Yello Bole (No “Honey Cured Briar “) and a propeller logo it has to be a very early Yello Bole. Although it lacks a 4 digit stamp it’s the same size as the 2272 KBB YB Canadian I got from Steve, making it a shape 72.

Here are pictures of the pipe as it arrived in mail.

I decided not to do very much to it and just preserve it as it is. I cleaned the rustication with a tooth brush and mineral oil and then lightly sanded the bowl with 2500 grit and oil to knock down the rough edges of finish that was cracking and couple of very slight scratches.

Then I sanded stem with the same sandpaper and oil just to knock some of the rough surface down. You can still see the Yello Bole coating in the bottom of the bowl where it hasn’t been smoked enough to coat it with cake. I put a little bee’s wax on the tenon to keep it from getting to tight and snapping tenon. These old YBs can be bad about that. That’s it. Took me less than 30 minutes. Ready for some very slight buffing and wax.

Finished preservation of this old smoke pole.

Very nice crisp stampings on pipe.

I have been wanting a Large Bowl YB Propeller Canadian and was pleased as punch to find this one. It goes perfect with the 72 I got from Steve.

NEPAL PROJECT PIPE SALE 3 – Cleaning up and Restoring a GBD Bronze Velvet 548 Bulldog

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This is the third pipe from the box of pipes that I was gifted by a good friend of mine with the instructed purpose of cleaning them up and selling them with all of the proceeds going to the aid of earthquake victims in Nepal. The funds raised will all go to the SA Foundation, and organization that has worked in Nepal for over 15 years helping provide recovery, housing and job training for women who are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The ongoing earthquakes (over 300) that continue to shake Nepal have left much in ruins. The SA Foundation Project there was able to find new housing for the women and help with staff as well. Every dollar raised from the sale of these pipes will go to the work in Nepal.

The third pipe I decided to clean up from the box of donated pipes is an interesting GBD Shape 548 – a shape I call an elongated bulldog. It is a unique shape that GBD made for quite a number of years. It is stamped GBD in an oval over Bronze Velvet on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 548 and London over England. When it was introduced it had a natural finish and a swirled bronze acrylic bit. In a 1976 Catalogue it was billed by GBD as, “Our ultimate GBD! Only the choicest natural bowls are selected for this premium newcomer. The crowning touch is the handcut mottled Bronze Velvet mouthpiece blending in complementary contrast to the bowl.”

This one will also be sold and all the proceeds will go to the project in Kathmandu. It is a great looking piece of briar with no visible fills in the briar.

I examined the pipe before I went to work on cleaning it up and restoring it. The briar was very dirty and had sticky spots on the bowl and diamond shank sides. The double ring around the bowl was in excellent shape but had debris in the grooves. The rim was in rough shape. Not only was it caked with a lot of tars and oils but it had been knocked out on the front edge of the rim and there was roughening and damage to the front and the top of the rim. There were also notches in the top outer edge of the rim all the way around the rim. The inner bevel on the rim was also caked and hardly visible but appeared to be in pretty decent shape under the grime.

The stem was a marbled bronze as suggested in the catalogue. The sharp edge of the button had been worn down so that the button merely sloped into the end of the stem. The top side was clean and the underside had a well done repair to a bite through. It appeared to be made out of epoxy and was rock hard. There were slight dents in the surface of the repair but it was still solid.

I decided to work on the stem first. I used a flat edge needle file to sharpen the edge of the button and give it more definition from the rest of the stem surface. I worked on both sides of the stem to give it shape. I also used the file to scrape away some of the stem material in front of the edge to give depth to the button.

Once the button was cleaned up and defined I worked on the inside of the stem. I scrubbed the interior of the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I was surprised to find that the tenon had a metal tube that ran from the end into the stem to give the Lucite tenon more strength in an area where I have seen many of them snap off.

I also wiped down the surface of the stem and used a dental pick to clean up the epoxy repair on the underside. When I had the area cleaned up I used some clear super glue to fill the marks and dents in the epoxy repair and then sanded the stem in that area with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to blend it into the surface of the stem and smooth it out. Once that was done I set the stem aside and worked on the bowl.
I used the PipNet reamer to clean up the bowl and remove the bits of carbon that were left behind. I also cleaned the airway and the mortise with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean.

The damage to the rim needed to be addressed so I topped the bowl with the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper until the damaged portion was gone. I did the topping in several steps. I took the top down until the major damage was gone and then did a little more to minimize the damage on the front of the bowl.

I reworked the beveled inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper until it was the same angles it was before I topped it. When that was sanding was complete I worked on the damage to the outer rim with the same sandpaper and then sanded the entire rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I wiped the bowl and the rim down with alcohol on a cotton pad. When I had finished the bowl looked as it is shown in the next photo.

The next two photos show the bowl after I had scrubbed the surface of the briar with alcohol on a cotton pad. The natural briar looks clean and bears a slight patina of age. But is looking pretty decent at this point in the process – and I had not even buffed it yet.

I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I finished I gave it a light buff with White Diamond.

I buffed the entire pipe with Blue Diamond Plastic polish on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing the pipe with a clean, soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for its next pipeman to bring it home and bring it back into rotation.

This GBD Bronze Velvet should make someone a great addition. If you are interested in this pipe email me at slaug@uniserve.com and we can discuss it. The entirety of the sale price will go to the Nepal project. I will pay the postage so that does not get taken off the proceeds. If you are interested in reading about the SA Foundation you can look at their website at http://www.safoundation.com.

Thanks for looking.

Bringing a pre-1884 era CPF Bent Billiard Back to Life

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Blog by Steve Laug

My friend John gave me an old pipe that needed to be restored and it fits well into my collection of older CPF pipes. This one was a CPF bent billiard with the CPF logo in an oval and the word French arched above it and the word Briar arched below it. On the gold band around the shank were false hallmarks and the CPF logo in an oval. It was an old timer with the orific style button on a horn stem. The tenon on the end of the stem was bone and in excellent shape. The threads on the tenon were perfect and the tenon looked almost new. However, the threads in the shank were worn and would not hold the stem in place. It could be spun around and with a slight wiggle it came out of the shank. The threads on the tenon no longer aligned with the threads in the shank. The horn stem itself had some tooth chatter on both sides of the stem near the button and was dirty and tired looking. The finish on the bowl was in great shape. The bowl itself had been reamed but there was a light coat of ash in the bowl. The rim looked like it had been topped somewhere in its life but whoever did the work did it well.

I have written a blog about the history of the brand previously. You can read it for details at this link: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/04/14/some-reflection-on-the-historical-background-on-cpf-pipes/

For the sake of summary I include a portion of that blog here.

CPF stands for Colossus Pipe Factory. There is not much known about the Colossus Pipe Factory. I learned that by the mid 1890’s CPF was owned by Kaufman Brothers & Bondy (KB&B). They operated the factory at 129 Grand Street, in New York City, New York. I had a faint memory of some connection between CPF and Kaufmann Brothers & Bondy. But was unsure where I had heard or read that. In the process of reading information I came across this post by Bill Feuerbach on the Kaywoodie Forum it read as follows: “About 10 years ago I picked up two original invoices from KB&B. One is dated February 5, 1884 and the other December 9, 1898. Both have the address as 129-131 Grand Street, which is in Soho, adjacent to the Bowery in New York City. The 1898 invoice has in the upper left hand corner the initials CPF and Trademark. So by 1898 KB&B was making it known to the trade that they owned the CPF trademark. The 1884 invoice does not have CPF on it. Therefore I think we can assume KB&B acquired or started the CPF line sometime between 1884 and 1898.”

Thus we know that the brand was purchased by KB & B sometime between 1884 and 1898 and that it continued until 1915. That time frame gives help in dating some of the older CPF pipes you or I might find. It can be said that prior to the dual stamping it is fairly certain that the pipe is pre-1884 to 1898. After the dual stamping it can be placed post 1898 until the closure of the brand line in 1915. CPF made beautiful pipes. I believe Sam Goldberger was correct in his assertion of the potential carvers that made the pipes being of European training and the classic shapes and well aged briar. That coincides with all the CPF pipes that I have come across.

The pipe I got from John is one of the earlier pre-1884 as it only bears the CPF stamp in faded gold leaf on the shank. I took the stem off the shank to look over the connector in the shank. The threads were worn and there was a chunk of briar missing from the bottom side of the shank exterior inside the band. There also appeared to be a crack at the top of the shank but it turned out to not be a crack but rather an area where the end of the shank is stepped down. I filled in the hollow area with wood glue and used the dental pick to push it down in the divot area.

I tried several methods for dealing with the damaged threads in the shank. The first of these was to build up the tenon with wood glue and then also with super glue. Both methods failed. As soon as I twisted the tenon into the shank the threads were stripped of all of the glue buildup. Those two methods utterly failed. I cleaned off the tenon with alcohol on cotton pads and started over. I examined the threads in the shank and it suddenly dawned on me that I could build them up. I carefully used super glue on the threads keeping it totally out of the airway in shank. I filled in the threaded area with the glue and once it dried I was able to recut the threads with the bone tenon itself. The repair worked and the stem fit snugly in the shank.

I have learned over the years that using micromesh sanding pads on horn stems really raises a shine and brings out the grain in the horn. I started by wet sanding this one with 1500-2400 grit micromesh to take care of the tooth chatter and to reshape the oval button. It took some sanding but I finally got is shaped correctly. These first three grits of micromesh do the hard work in polishing the horn. When I finished I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. You can really begin to see the bands in the horn and the grain. This was one beautiful piece of horn. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-4000 grit pads and the grain began to really show and glow. I love the translucence of horn once it begins to really shine. This stem was truly a beauty to behold. I rubbed it down again with Obisidan Oil before moving on to the next grits of micromesh. I finished with the 6000-12,000 grit pads – dry sanding through each grit. I then buffed the stem lightly with the Blue Diamond Plastic Polish to give the final shine. I rubbed down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil and then cleaned up the band on the stem with silver polish and micromesh sanding pads. I finished the band by buffing it with a jeweler’s silver polishing cloth. The next photo shows the stamping with the gold leaf on the shank and also gives a clear photo of the stamping and faux hallmarks on the band. I buffed the pipe with multiple coats of carnauba wax and then gave it a final buff with a clean, soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. Note the glow of the horn stem and the contrast of the brass/gold band. This old timer is ready for many more years of service. If you have not smoked a horn stem pipe you have to give one a try. They are a totally different experience from vulcanite or Lucite. They are comfortable and light in the mouth. I am looking forward to breaking this one in again and enjoying smoking it.