Restoring a Tom Howard Rhodesian Scoop

Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe is stamped Tom Howard on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar on the right side. A friend of mine emailed me and asked if I would clean it up for him and bring it back to life. He said the stem tasted awful. He said he had tried to clean it up a bit but was not happy with the results. He dropped it by the house before he left on a short trip. Here is what it looked like when it arrived. There was a pretty thick cake in the bowl and the rim had overflow on the top. The grooves and worm trails were pretty much filled in with grime. The stem was badly oxidized and there were some deep scratches in the surface. There was tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem near the button.I reamed the bowl in stages. I began with a Savinelli Pipe Knife to take back the inner edge of the bowl.I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean off the top of the rim and get rid of the buildup.I scrubbed the bowl with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the buildup of tars and oils that darkened the bowl and shank. It did not take too much to get the briar clean. I rinsed the bowl with running water and dried it off with a towel. The cleaned exterior is shown in the photos below. I did the second stage of reaming the bowl with a PipNet Reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up that reaming with the Pipe Knife again.I used the dental spatula to scrape out the mortise and then scrubbed it with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until it was clean.I decided to scrub the surface some more with a cotton pad and acetone. I was able to remove more of the finish on the bowl and lighten it even more. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the rim and smooth out some of the damage that was there.I cleaned out the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation that was on the surface of the saddle, the groove where the saddle joined the bowl and the area around the button.Before continuing on the stem I stuffed a cotton ball in the bowl of the pipe and also the bowl of a second one I was working on and filled it with alcohol. The alcohol pulled the tars and residue from the bowl and shank into cotton ball.I let it sit in the bowl for several hours while I worked on the stem. You can see the oils and tars that are being drawn into the cotton ball in the next photo.The underside of the stem near the button had one deep tooth mark in the surface that I was unable to sand out. I cleaned it up and then filled it with some black super glue. Once the glue had dried I sanded the patch back to blend it into the surface of the stem.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I sanded and polished the stem. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set it aside to dry. I stained the bowl with some medium walnut Danish Oil and then buffed it with Blue Diamond on the wheel. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The pipe is clean, the smell and bad taste are gone and to me the pipe looks better than when I started the process. The bowl smelled clean. The pipe is ready to go back to its owner once I get the second pipe finished. Thanks for looking. Theo if you see this – your first pipe is ready for you when you return.

A Clean and Restore of a Viggo Nielsen Handmade Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff is developing quite an eye for beautiful pipes. He came across this freehand on eBay and sent me the photos. He bid on it and soon received it in the mail. It is a stunning piece that Viggo made in such a way that the shape absolutely maximizes the grain. It is stamped with Viggo’s normal stamp Viggo Nielsen in a circle over Handmade in Denmark on the left side of the shank.Its finish is a combination of smooth and what looks like sandblast but I am not sure it is not just a well done rustication made to look that way. The colours of the stains are a rich medium brown on the smooth portions that accentuate the grain. The colour on the rustication shows both a medium and dark brown stain that is repeated on the plateau on the rim of the pipe and small bit of plateau that peeks out on the top edge of the shank. The stem is a custom cut square piece of vulcanite that is carved with a square ring and a round one just before the tapered tenon. The finish was dirty with thick wax and grime from years of use. The bowl had a light cake. The rim edges were in perfect condition and the plateau top look new under the grime. The rustication/blast on the front of the bowl also looked to be in great shape. There were no dings or nicks in the finish. The stem was oxidized and had tooth marks on the top and bottom sides near the button.

I turned to Pipedia to learn about Viggo Nielsen. I had memory about him being somehow connected to Kai Nielsen but I was not sure of the relationship of the two. In Pipedia I learned that Viggo, now deceased, was born in 1927. I believe that during World War II he worked for Stanwell making pipes out of birch due to a shortage of briar. In 1948 he opened the Bari pipe factory and in 1951 began to make briar pipes. He carved both classic and freehand pipes.

In 1978 Bari was sold to a company in Germany and he and his two sons, Jorgen and Kai started making Faaborg pipes. Now I knew the connection between the two names that I remembered. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen,_Viggo

I scrubbed the surface of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap on cotton pads to remove the old wax and accumulated grime. Once the pipe was cleaned I rinsed it under running water and dried it off. The grain just stood out and showed how well Viggo laid out the shape to the grain. I cleaned out the internals of the mortise and airways in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the pipe was clean.I reamed the light cake back to bare briar with a Savinelli Pipe Knife – a tool that I am using more and more often since I purchased it. It works exceptionally well to pare back light cake and clean up remnants in a bowl after I have used my other reamers.The oxidation on the stem was stubborn so I soaked it in an Oxyclean solution for a day and a half to soften the oxidation. After I removed it from the solution I scrubbed it dry with a coarse towel to remove as much of the softened oxidation as possible. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks on both the top and bottom sides at the button. There were tooth deep tooth marks on the top edge of the button that needed attention. I cleaned off the stem surface and then used clear super glue to repair the two deep tooth marks. I sanded them back to the surface with 220 grit sandpaper and later with the micromesh sanding pads.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. In the photo below you can still see the battle I am having with the oxidation on the turned stem. It was a bear to get it off.I repeated sanding with 220 grit sandpaper and repeated the wet sanding with the 1500-2400 grit pads. I was beginning to conquer the issue. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads to bring out the shine and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and worked on the tight areas on the stem – the grooves in the stem. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond – lightly on the rusticated/blast and plateau portions and more heavily on the smooth portions. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to finish polishing the finish. I have found that this last step adds some depth to the shine. I am pleased with the finished look of the pipe. Thanks for looking.

An Everyman London Pipe Un-dinged

A Collection of Methods for Cleaning Clear Perspex Stems

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Blog by Steve Laug

GBD4

When I posted a blog on work I had done on the GBD Prestige Billiard recently Dave wrote and asked that I share tips that I may have on cleaning clear Perspex stems. These stems are distinct from clear Lucite or acrylic stems which are treated exactly like other acrylic stems. Perspex stems are typically found on GBD Prehistoric and Prestige as well as periodically on other GBD pipes. Over the years I have struggled with removing the tobacco stains in the airways of these stems. There seems to always be a brown line that fills the airway and looks lousy when viewing an otherwise clean and restored pipe. I have tried many methods that others have recommended with varying degrees of success and sometime no success. I have combined methods and had better success but always I have been seeking a better way of cleaning this part of the Perspex stem. If you have one of these pipes you know the struggle I am talking about. It generally is an issue of the airway and the funnel slot in the button. I thought I would share with you the variety of methods that I have tried, modified and then end with the one I am currently using and a potential new method on the docket.

I think there is a common reason for the issue with these stems. I have worked on a lot of them over the last 20 years so I see some similarities in the stems that are the worst to clean up. I have had some that were relatively easy to clean and others that I never been able to remove all of the stain. In looking them over I believe that the difficult stems share a common issue – the drilled airways in the stem are rough and porous. You can see it when you look at the stem as they are more opaque than the rest of the clear stem material. When the drill bit passed through to create the airway it left a rougher surface in some of them than others. What I have found is that the rougher the surface the more likely it is that the stains will be more difficult or even impossible to remove with the standard methods that I will enumerate below.

When I started cleaning these stems I used the usually my universal airway cleaning method – a pipe cleaner and alcohol pushed through the stem. I immediately regretted doing so because of what happened. I was able to remove some of the stain but the Perspex tended to craze into lots of tiny little spidering cracks. None of them caused the stem to break or fall apart but they all went throughout the material. Later I read on the forums that you are never to use alcohol on Perspex! I bear witness to the damage alcohol does to Perspex. I know others here use it sparingly on the stems with no issues. However, due to my previous experience I will not use it at all no matter how sparingly. Needless to say that left me with a dilemma. How was I going to remove the stain in the stems? I wrote to various restorers and refurbishers to see if they had any tricks up their sleeves that they would be willing to share and I tried them all.

One friend wrote me back and explained his method. He uses lemon juice to clean the inside of the stem. His rationale was that the juice is acidic enough that it should work to loosen the stains in the airway. He said he had experienced good success using it. So I thought why not give it a try. I scrubbed the airway repeatedly and inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway and let the lemon juice work on the stem overnight. When I removed the pipe cleaner and scrubbed the internals of the airway with water I could see that the colour of the stain was lighter and believed that I had removed a portion of the stain. I repeated the process half a dozen times with the lemon juice expecting further stain removal. It did lighten the stain but no matter how many times I scrubbed and soaked the airway with the lemon juice I could never completely remove the stain from the stem.

Another friend wrote about using Bar Keepers Friend scouring powder. He applied it to a wet pipe cleaner and it worked well for him. So with nothing to lose and potential a method that would give better results than the lemon juice I decided to give it a try. I wet a pipe cleaner and dipped it in the powder to coat the pipe cleaner. I pushed it through the airway repeatedly and then coated it again with more powder and repeated the process. With this method I was able to remove more of the stain than with the lemon juice but I could not remove all of it. I had the brilliant idea of combining the two methods to see if together they would do better. I soaked the airway with lemon juice and then scoured it with the powder. The results were the same as I got with either one alone a stain – still remained. As far as I was concerned I had not found a method that gave me the results I wanted.

I read about another method on one of the forums and decided to try it. I dipped a pipe cleaner in a Soft Scrub Cleanser and worked over the inside of the stem repeatedly, recharging the pipe cleaner regularly. I scrubbed it and rinsed it with running water. After I rinsed it I found that it had done a much better job than either of the previous methods I had tried. I repeated the process and found that the stem was about 80% better than when I started. Things went better but still a stain remained in the airway.

I decided to approach the issue from a different starting place. I wanted to test my hypothesis regarding the relation of the roughness of the material in the airway to the presence of stain there. The stem I chose to these this on had a rough airway that was visible in the opacity of its colour through the stem. I used a variety of needle files to smooth out the internals of the funneled slot in the button and a round micro needle file to sand out the inside of the airway in the stem. My intention was to smooth out the rough surface. It took a bit of patience to enter the stem from both ends to reach the length of the stem and smooth out the airway. As I worked on the airway That process removed 90% of the stain in the stem and then I followed it up with the soft scrub cleanser to finish the last 10%. My goal was to make the inside airway as smooth as possible to minimize the surfaces that held the stain. I think I had finally found the method.

There is one other addition to the methodology that I intend to experiment with. If it works well it may be a way to polish the inside of the stem. I read that you can chuck the pipe cleaner in a cordless drill, dip it soft scrub and spin it in the airway. I want to see if I can achieve the same results with less hand work. I would also like to try to spin a bristle pipe cleaner through the stem and see if that works as well. I have gotten emails and had conversations with folks who swear by this method for cleaning out these stems so I want to try it out and see for myself. I will keep you posted on this addition to the process.
Cleaning the externals of the Perspex stems is relatively easy in comparison to what I have just explained. I sand out tooth marks or repair those that need it with clear super glue and sand the surface smooth. I polish the stem by wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I lightly buff the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I give the finished stem several coats of carnauba wax and buff with a clean buffing pad and hand buff with a microfibre cloth to give it a deep shine.

If any of you have tried other methods of cleaning these stems and had success post your additional tricks in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

A Beautifully Grained Jobey Designer Cauldron Lay Under Thick Varnish

8 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I was visiting in Idaho my brother Jeff pulled out this Jobey box and handed it to me to look at. I had no idea what to expect once I opened the box. I have cleaned up a lot of Jobey pipes over the years and have really liked the rusticated Jobey Stromboli pipes with their colourful stems and deep rough surfaces. I have seen others that were pretty but nothing spectacular. I turned the box over in my hands to see if there were any hints on the outside what was hidden under the lid but there was nothing – just the classic red box with the Jobey Pipe logo on the lid.I opened the box to have a look and was surprised. What was inside was actually a really nice looking pipe at first glance. It was stamped on the left side of the shank Jobey over DESIGNER and on the right side of the shank D80 over HANDMADE. The stem was Lucite with a variety of brown tones that ran at an angle across the stem. The finish looked funny to me in that for a handmade pipe it was rough textured. I expected it to be silky smooth but it was rough to the touch and there were brush marks all over the surface. It looked to me like someone had brushed on a thick coat of varnish to give the pipe a perma-shine. The box also had the red pipe sleeve and a Jobey Polishing Cloth in the lid.Inside the polishing cloth package there was also a cloth for treating the stem. Both were Jobey specialty products. The Jobey sock is slightly worn.I took the leaflet out of the top of the box to have a look and it was a fun read. It reads: “The Jobey Pipe Guarantee, Limited Warranty. Should any Jobey pipe burn out within 90 days of normal usage, a new bowl will be furnished by us without charge. Shanks and mouthpieces are not guaranteed, but may be repaired for a moderate charge. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which may vary from state to state. Return the burned out bowl with a request for bowl replacement to: – Hollco International Repair Department, 37 Warren St., New York, NY 10007.”

The other side reads: “This Pipe has the “Jobey Link” U.S. Pat.No. 3537462. The unique “Jobey Link” is the first big breakthrough in high quality pipe mounting. There is no metal. Easy to repair – just ask your dealer for an economical replacement “Jobey Link” it keeps your pipe permanently mounted without loosening up. The “Jobey Link” is precision threaded into the briar, but is still adjustable within the stem so that it always lines up straight. If the “Jobey Link” becomes difficult to unscrew use a coin in the convenient unscrewing slot (X). The “Jobey Link” comes in 4 sizes, small, medium short, medium long and large.”I took some photos of the pipe to show how the varnish coat had muddied the finish and hid the grain as well as hopefully captured some of the brush strokes. Under the varnish on the rim on the back inner edge of the bowl there was also some tar that had been painted over. I took some close-up photos of the rim and the stamping on the shank. In those photos you can clearly see the tar on the rim, the clear stamping on the shank and the brush strokes of the varnish on the pipe. I was hopeful that the shiny coat on the bowl was not urethane but merely varnish. The muddiness of the finish and the way it felt in the hand made me hopeful. I scrubbed the bowl with acetone on cotton pads and was amazed at how easily it came off. I was really happy that I was not dealing with a plastic coat. I scrubbed it repeatedly until the grain clearly showed. The bowl was still rough under the varnish so I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I scrubbed the internals of the mortise and airway in the shank to clean out any build up in the threads and airway. I used cotton swabs and alcohol and found that it was really quite clean. I remove the Jobey Link from the end of the stem and cleaned out the airway in the link and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol.I threaded the Jobey Link into the end of the shank and set it then pushed the stem in place on the other end of the link.I reamed the bowl back to bare briar with the Savinelli Pipe Knife.I wet sanded the Lucite stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down with a cotton pad. I sanded 3200-4000 and wiped it down again. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads to finish polishing it. I gave the bowl a light coat of olive oil and then buffed it and the stem with Blue Diamond. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Personally I have never seen a Jobey quite like this one. The carver who did the work captured the lay of the grain extremely well with it flowing up the shank. The new oil and wax finish really went well with the brown striated Lucite stem. Thanks for looking.

A Stellar Find – A GBD Prestige 1451 Oval Shank Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was looking through the box of pipes I brought home from my brother’s when I visited recently and came across a beautiful example of a GBD Prestige pipe. It is stamped GBD in the oval and Prestige below that on the top of the shank. It sports an oxidized silver band stamped Sterling in an arch across the top. It has some stunning grain and is an oval shank. On the bottom side of the shank it is stamped 1451 which according to the GBD shape charts is an oval shank Canadian. This one however does not look like a Canadian to me. It is a nice looking billiard. The stem is clear Perspex and was in decent shape. It has the brass GBD roundel on top of the stem. I took some close-up photos of the pipe. The first shows the stamping on top of the shank. It is very legible and sharp. The second shows the build up on the rim and the cake in the bowl. The inner and outer edges of the rim are sharp and show no damage.The Perspex stem is actually surprisingly clean. Often the airway and slot on these older stems is stained a deep brown from the tobacco smoke and it is a bear to get out. This one however had minimal staining and most of that is in the slot on the end of the button and on the tenon itself. There was also some light tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem at the button.I was hoping that the build up on the rim could be scrubbed off so that is where I started. I used cotton pads and saliva and was able to remove most of the tars and lava. I used 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to clean it up further. Other than some slight darkening of the beveled rim it came out clean.I polished the silver band with some silver polish and a jeweler’s polishing cloth and was able to remove all of the tarnish without scratching or damaging the band.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. It was slightly bigger than the second cutting head so I used the Savinelli Pipe Knife to remove the remainder of the cake. I finished by sanding the inside of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper.I scrubbed out the airway and mortise in the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until all of the tars and oils were gone. Fortunately this pipe was well cared for and it did not take too many cleaners before they came out clean.The stem was another story. Never use alcohol on Perspex stems as it causes them to craze and crack. I scrubbed out the airway and slot with pipe cleaners dipped in Soft Scrub cleanser until the airway was once again clear. The slot took a little more work. When the pipe was made the slot work was rough and sloppy so the dark stains filled in grooves and scratches internally that no amount of scrubbing would remove. I used a round, oval and a flat oval needle file to clean up the roughness of the slot and remove the stains from those spots. I rinsed the inside of the stem with cool water to remove the scrubbing compound. The stem came out reasonably well in my opinion. There were a few brown stains that I was not able to remove but they are minimal. They will show up in the final photos of the pipe.I wet sanded the tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem at the button using 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads. I sanded with those until the tooth chatter was gone. I was fortunate that none of the tooth marks were very deep. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads and finished by wiping the stem down with a damp cotton pad to remove the dust. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and was amazed at how the grain popped and the stem began to shine. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. While there are some small brown stains in the button area it is clean. I think you will agree that it is a stunning example of a GBD Prestige. The grain and the stem work really well together and the factory installed silver band sets off the pipe with a touch of class. Thanks for looking.

Quick Clean Up of 2 Petersons

Peterson.

Donegal Rocky XL90 & Standard XL315

Its always nice to add a couple more Petes to the collection and in decent condition to boot. I enjoy a challenge as much as the next guy but its also nice to do a leisurely standard cleaning.

The Clean Up.

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For the price they were both in great lightly smoked condition. A little oxidation , chatter and the silver band on the Donegal was tarnished.

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I started with my PipNet reamer and reamed back the cake to a suitable thickness. The Donegal chamber was perfect, still had the bowl coating. The 315 was a little different the bowl coating was still there but there was an indentation on the side of the chamber that was caused by careless reaming in the past. I sanded the area to smooth out the damage as much as possible, in the long run it will not…

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Is it really a plastic smoking pipe? What is a Hilson Fantasia?

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a Hilson Fantasia. It is a butterscotch coloured bowl and shank with swirls of black that are scattered throughout the pipe. When I saw the pictures in the eBay seller’s listing I was not sure it was worth the effort. Over the years I have seen some beautiful swirled patterns in bright yellows, puce and lime greens, reds and oranges that were quite stunning. This one fell short of those previously seen pipes in terms of colour (at least in the photos). The following photos are from the seller’s ad.The resin external bowl was in excellent shape with no cuts, marks or dents in the surface. The meerschaum insert was barely smoked. The rim had some darkening and overflow on the back edge but it was not too bad. The rest of the rim looked rough but would easily polish up and look good. The bottom half of the bowl was not darkened by tobacco burning and looked almost pristine. The fact that Hilson used block meerschaum and not pressed meerschaum for their bowls makes the quality of the lining far better and I have rarely seen a Hilson meerschaum lining cracked or broken. The stem was quite heavily oxidized and the tenon would not fit in the shank due to some residue in the mortise. The stamping “Hilson Fantasia” on the stem was a decal and it was almost worn off. With the heavy oxidation I would have to sacrifice that faint stamping to get the stem back to black. There was some light tooth chatter on the top and underside of the stem near the button. The slot in the button was very small and tight. That made it hard to push a pipe cleaner through the stem from the button end. When I received the pipe from my brother I was pleasantly surprised at the colours. It was significantly brighter than the photos. The swirls of black against the amber colour looked much more appealing than I would have guessed. The bowl was stamped on the underside of the shank with the word BELGIUM and on the right side of the shank with the shape number 205. From my research on the web I found that the Hilson Fantasia, made in Belgium originally came out as a meerschaum lined pipe with an outer bowl made of a new material that they called pipenite. In 1962 it came out in what they called ivory white and in a colour they called tortoise. In 1963 they seemed to have added the option of a black pipenite bowl. From what I can find out about the material they call pipenite, it was a specially designed polyester resin. It was light weight and fairly indestructible. The block meerschaum insert was something that Hilson turned into a specialty. (I have restored some beautiful briar pipe with the Double Ecume or meerschaum liners as well.) These colourful resin pipes look like a product of the 60’s and in my research on Chris’ Pipe pages, http://pipepages.com/hilson.htm I found them in catalogues from that era. The swirled materials of the bowl gave the pipe a 60’s psychedelic look. I have included a catalogue page from a 1962 Wally Frank Catalogue that was on the pipepages site. The write up on the Hilson Fantasia is entertaining to read in terms of the sales pitch that is delivered. I have written about some of the history of the brand on a previous blog on Hilson Double Ecume pipes. If you are interested in reading about the history of the brand click on the following link: https://wordpress.com/post/rebornpipes.com/40547. In addition the following link on the Estervals Pipe House website gives a good summary of the history of the brand for those of you who want to read more: http://www.tecon-gmbh.de/info_pages.php?pages_id=70.

I took some close up photos of the rim to show the white bowl bottom and the tars and darkening on the top of the rim. The inner edge of the bowl is rough to touch as is the surface of the rim. I also took a photo of the front and the back of the bowl to show the swirls in amber base colour. There is something stunning about this pipe. The next two photos show the tooth chatter and the oxidation on the stem – top and bottom as well as the faded and worn decal that reads Hilson Fantasia.I scrubbed the surface of the rim with saliva on a cotton pad and then used the 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the surface and the inner edge of the rim.I carefully scraped the meerschaum lining of the bowl with a Savinelli Pipe Knife to remove the slight cake build up on the inside of the bowl.I scrubbed out the mortise and airway to the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. I used pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean out the airway in the stem as well.I sanded the stem to remove the oxidation on the surface. It took quite a bit of sanding to get through the oxidation on the surface. Once I had it removed I scrubbed it with soft scrub cleanser to clean off the remnant. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads, gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the meerschaum rim lightly with Blue Diamond on the wheel and the stem as well. I gave the stem and the rim several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to give it a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine on the stem and the rim. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am quite taken by the overall look of the pipe once it has been cleaned up. There is more to it than meets the eye. The light weight the swirls in the amber like resin and the patina on the rim give it a touch of class. This one will also probably be on the store for sale in the days ahead. If you are interested send me a message or leave a comment.

The Scintillating Antique KB&B Redmanol Pipe

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Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton

Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author except as noted

When life was like a summer day,
And I was under twenty,
Three loves were scattered in my way –
And three at once are plenty.
Three hearts, if offered him with grace,
One thinks not of refusing.
The task in this special case
Was only that of choosing.
I knew not which to make my pet –
My pipe, cigar or cigarette!

— Henry S. Leigh (1837-1883), British writer, playwright and lesser poet, “My Three Loves,” 1875

INTRODUCTION

As a writer, I make it a habit to look words up in the dictionary before committing to print, even when I am confident they are the best to convey my true messages. In the process, I have often been surprised to learn how many words come nowhere close to their common usage. I have stopped using fantastic (related to a fantasy or other such literary, delusional or wishful thinking, when I want to suggest excellent; I’ve dropped mesmerizing (named for the Australian physician/showman F.A. Mesmer, which deals with the alleged ability to place someone in a trance so deep the subject cannot feel pain, as opposed to something considered fascinating, and of course I have my pet peeve: unique, or existing as one, sole, solitary, alone. Therefore, there can be no higher degree than unique, such as more, very or, God help us, totally unique, dude. Thomas Jefferson’s unique literary and diplomatic exception to the same rule applied to another word, in penning the “Declaration of Independence” and referring to a more perfect Union, was a brilliant misuse of the language directed to good old King George V, whom the masterful wordsmith, diplomat and statesman knew would not miss the Colonial revolutionary’s attempt to play nice.

Somewhat of a language purist, therefore, I was disappointed upon checking the past participial adjective scintillating in the OED. I hoped to find a meaning with common uses I have heard indicating something more alluring in a sensuous sense. I suffer from chronic migraines and was struck by the sole usage referenced, to scintillating scotoma, the technical name for auras we who live with the often blinding, nauseating, debilitating torture of these attacks call the event that precedes the onset of the pure anguish that can last 12 hours, 24 or for days before running out of air, if you will, burning out (or more descriptive of their quality, terminating with a thermonuclear-like reaction) – and then returning, as they come in cycles of three or so for me. Thanks to my dear Dad, however, who taught me the value of a good double meaning in any title, I moved to the verb scintillate and found more general references to sparks, flecks, twinkles and flashes of light, without the negative but illustrative connection of scintillating scotoma.

The story behind Bakelite and two of its competitors, and the Machiavellian way the three in time merged into a single Bakelite incarnation, is one for the annals of business law. The basic original resin used to make Bakelite, a phenol formaldehyde based synthesis, was patented as such in 1900 by Leo H. Baekeland, a Belgian-American chemist. Baekeland’s synthetic plastic, the first formulated in the world, was named in honor of its inventor and began production in 1907. See below for the 1900 patent.

The first of many Bakelite satellite companies worldwide, the Bakelite Gessellschaft gmbH, was founded in Berlin in 1910 by Baekeland and two German companies. Late the same year, the General Bakelite Co. was established in the U.S. by Baekeland.

Two independent chemical research and production companies in the same time period, Redmanol Chemical Co. founded by Lawrence V. Redman after whom the harder, more durable and amber-colored synthetic was called, and the Condensite Co. established by A.J. Aylesworth, developed and sold their products which included substantial differences from Bakelite although they employed the same heat process. The hard, durable synthetic plastic redmanol was called thus after its developer and is made from the action of formin on carbolic acid. On the other hand, condensite is formed from the action of chlorine on naphthalene. In other words, all three have fundamental differences that make them viable as separate synthetic plastic products.

Perhaps seeing the only way to maintain ultimate proprietary control over his original Bakelite idea and not miss out on the opportunity to use newer, better variations on his theme, in 1922 Baekeland sued a distributor of Redmanol, which had a controlling interest in Condensite, for patent infringement. Baekeland must have known the other companies could not fight the complaint in court and maintain production. His civil action ending in success, he “arranged” for the two smaller chemical concerns to be consolidated with the formation of the Bakelite Corp. From then on, Redmanol and Condensite products, including pipes, were stamped Bakelite – but all anyone needed to do was look at the quality of the product to know the difference. Bakelite Corp. was consumed by Union Carbide and Carbon Corp. in 1939.

Redmanol so approximated the appearance of amber – which, remember, was prized in meerschaum and other pipes before and after the turn of the 20^th century – for which Redmanol Chemical Products in its own name took out ads like one in the June 1919 issue of “The Scientific American.” High-minded and overblown, as was the custom of the day, the ads were headed, “In Search of the Man Made Amber.” This amazing combination of all that one could hope to find in a pipe – artistry, elegance, refinement, style, class and functionality, to name a few attributes – alas does not belong to me, and I will neither hesitate nor pretend not to be jealous of the fact. Instead, my fellow piper and friend, Darryl Loomis, is the very lucky new owner. He loves it so much that he was willing to tolerate a somewhat bad taste he detected rather than trust it to someone to restore. I am honored to clean it up for him. Shocked to find I have no photo of Darryl, I suspect he will not be unhappy.

Darryl asked me to clean it up. Well, the fact is, I got one look at it and could almost not keep my voice under control when I said I would love to do it for him if he had no plans for the project. I admit I was jazzed to be able to take it home with me from Friday night’s local pipe get-together at the tobacconist. But there’s one important thing I should now note about any pipe “cleaning” job I undertake, unless the owner makes it clear that’s all he wants done, period. I don’t half-ass anything. Even when my business site was up (and it will be again this week), I included basic refurbishing with cleaning jobs and the full works with refurbs/restores (any necessary replacement parts not included in the base price). So that’s what’s happening here.

While we talked about the pipe, Darryl mentioned something peculiar. He said he noticed a somewhat bad taste but seemed willing to tolerate it as he did not expect to rotate this pipe very often. I unscrewed the bowl from the shank and saw right away where some of the unpleasant effect may have originated, but mentioning it to him, he was emphatic that he had heard the metal plate inside the shank (just as with any standard system metal, interchangeable bowl pipe such as a Kirsten) was coated with an unknown substance to keep it from overheating.

Being somewhat more curious than usual, after I was home with the pipe, I ran a cleaner through it, loaded a half-bowl of MacBaren 7 Seas Red cherry and lit up. Very soon the nastiness Daryl had understated rose in full force, ending with such awful dottle I spat it into a handy cup. My tentative conclusion, until I can query Daryl more, is that he trusted the person who sold it to him and didn’t considered it might never have been cleaned.

Now, for the before photos of this gorgeous, unique Kaufman Brothers & Bondy work of art – a pipe with a screw-in bowl that predates Kirstens by more than two decades. RESTORATION

I removed the bowl and began there. Having come across a couple of Reborn Pipes blogs, one by Troy Wilburn a year ago about a KB&B Blue Line Poker c. 1909-1914 and the other by Steve Laug concerning Redmanol bits from almost four years back, I was prepared for how to deal with the briar bowl as well as cleaning the deep red quality synthetic plastic, the cubic zirconia of the phenol formaldehyde resin world.

Steve had used nail polish remover (acetone) as a less invasive way of stripping the stain, and it worked quite well of course. Not having any of the stuff on me, however, and being short on cash and time to do this job for gratis, I compromised. Instead of a long, thorough soak in Everclear, I dunked the bowl in a tiny Tupperware container for a minute, removed it and scrubbed it dry inside and out with a soft cotton rifle cleaning cloth. I did have to repeat that process, but still, the combined soak time was minimal. Again I regretted not being able to follow Steve’s lead using a Pipnet reamer because I saw the good reasoning behind it…BUT, my handle broke some time ago, rendering it useless. You get what you pay for. Next time, I’ll invest a little more for a lot better. But just a couple of turns of the Senior followed by 500-grit and 320 paper made the chamber baby smooth and clear of char. I also used the 320-grit on the rim to remove some scrapes, and both papers on the bottom side which was rougher from after wear from repeated turning into the grooves of the shank. I ran a few cleaners dipped in freshener through the bit’s air hole, the first of which came out filthy, but the end result was clean.Next, I used wet micro mesh from 1500-12000 on the entire surface of the Redmanol shank and bowl cup. The minimal blemishes there made that fast work. Cleaning out the draught hole was trickier with more cleaners dipped in freshener, but the accreted gunk and juice all came out. I tested it again later to be sure, but it was clean. I really don’t like not being able to retort any pipe. Near the end, I stained the pipe bowl with Fiebing’s Brown, flamed it and after it cooled gave it a gentle 3200 micro mesh buff. I was very pleased with the color I got from the wood.The bell tolled the time to do that which I had put off and Steve graciously reminded me needed doing. He suggested a little Super Glue around the sharp edges of the Redmanol ledge where the bowl was to fit would fill in the cracks. That followed by micro mesh or light sandpaper would do the rest. Here is the best before shot I could get with my failing flash system, but the cuts on the right side of the synthetic plastic show up well enough. There was a matching pair on the left side, suggesting the pipe’s enjoyer was screwy in his habits or the bowl never quite fit right.Here’s a shot I admit is horrible with the Super Glue applied, and one after it dried. I opted for super fine “0000” steel wool to even off the ledge. I really can’t say what those apparent white flecks are other than that I took it in a hurry outside.

Not touching the bit with any kind of wax, I buffed the briar bowl with white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba.

CONCLUSION

For this special pipe, instead of my usual last photo being the left side full shot, after a detail picture of the band’s KB&B stamp, I chose the close-up of the wonderful red translucence of the bit held up to the light by a friend. The old I would have tried to take it myself despite having to hold down the flash pop-up at the same time, and the probable end would have been, well, unthinkable. But I love those flashes, sparkles and twinkles that make the lovely amber-like bit, which is often called Bakelite because of its more famous owner, so scintillating.

HOLD THE PRESSES! At the exact moment I was about to hit SEND and dispatch the blog to Steve, I made a connection between Redmanol and a meerschaum-lined art-deco style bulldog Chuck sold me some time back with a bottom he described as what I thought was “red menaul,” or something to that effect. Now I understand what it was.

Redmanol Art Deco style socket bulldog

Here I’ve had this great, smooth and cool smoking pipe in my collection for several years and never knew what to call it. All mysteries come to an end in time.

SOURCES

http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-r3.html

“Phenolic Resins Technology Handbook,” p. 6, at https://books.google.com/books?id=oYZGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=redmanol+chemical+products+founder&source=bl&ots=juthNFh-rW&sig=b9qO8plogjv6fj_u2TBjkdpIfCM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-gNj4h9nNAhUM9YMKHXKjBwMQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=redmanol%20chemical%20products%20founder&f=false

https://rebornpipes.com/2015/06/06/spiffing-up-a-kbb-blue-line-bakelite-poker-1908-1914/comment-page-1/#comment-18773

https://rebornpipes.com/tag/redmanol-stems/

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakelite.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

“Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol. 2,” pp. 813-816, at https://books.google.com/books?id=11FHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA816&dq=in+search+of+the+man+made+amber+redmanol&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwis5OvgmNvNAhVk0oMKHYveA6sQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=in%20search%20of%20the%20man%20made%20amber%20redmanol&f=false

“Factory and Industrial Management,” Vol. 64, p. 167, at https://books.google.com/books?id=nTs8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=redmanol+bakelite+infringement+judgment&source=bl&ots=TCel6fmccJ&sig=ehZijKCRrQSs-RnL6xiDbVA5aKM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi39veundvNAhUT32MKHbeiCJwQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=redmanol%20bakelite%20infringement%20judgment&f=false