A Falcon Dual Pipe Reamer – A Great Addition to my Reamer Collection

Blog by Steve Laug

For a long time now I have had an eye out for a Falcon Dual Pipe Reamer. I have bid on several and lost every time in the last seconds to a sniper. This time I avoided the auction and bought it on Facebook from pipesmoker in England. I paid for it and promptly forgot about – things have been so busy around here that I did not think about it again. This afternoon when I got home from work Bob’s package was waiting for me. I cut the tape on the envelope and a small cardboard shipping tube was inside. I turned the top of the tube off and took out the bubble wrapped piece that was inside. I removed the bubble wrap and the reamer was in my hands. The photo below shows the reamer as it was when I removed it from its packaging.I twisted the top or cap on the clear plastic case and looked at the end cap of the reamer. It was really clear and readable. There was the end of a spring poking through the top on the insert of the cap.The cutting blades of the reamer were spring-loaded and as I removed the tool from the plastic cover the blades expanded. The next two photos show the blades expanded to the shape of a Falcon bowl. This was a unique reamer that I had read about but I had never seen up close. Now I had one in hand. I wanted to understand how it worked and get some idea if there were originally instructions that came with the reamer. So I did a bit of hunting on the internet to see if I could find any packaging or leaflets. I was not surprised to find a lot of photos of reamers that came in a variety of colours from cream to black. There were no photos of the battle ship grey one that I had in hand. I did find a few photos of the box the reamer came in. The reamer in the photo differs from mine only in colour. But the box is what intrigued me. On the cover was a picture of the reamer with cutting blades on the lower nose of the tool that fit in the hole in the bottom of the Falcon or Alco bowl. The upper blades angle the same way that the inner walls of the bowl do. With both sets of blades the bowl and airway are reamed simultaneously. The left side reads Falcon Dual Pipe Reamer and under that it says Made Specially For Falcon & Alco Pipes. The lower line reads The Falcon Pipe Group LTD – Commerce Road – Brentford – Middlesex. The end of the box reads Falcon Dual Reamer Made in England. The end of the reamer in the photo below has the same insert as the one I received. It reads Falcon Dual Reamer arced over Patent & Regd. Design Pending Made in England. On another side of the box there are instructions for using the reamer. I know that you can probably read it for yourself but I could not help myself from wanting to include the text here. It reads:

Instructions
To remove surplus carbon from inside your Falcon or Alco pipe, remove the bowl from the stem and place the Dual Reamer in the bowl, turning gently until the base aperture is clear of carbon. The spring-loaded cutting edges of the Reamer will then be in contact with the carbon deposit inside the bowl. Turn gently but firmly until approximately one-sixteenth of an inch of carbon cake remains on the inside of the bowl.Now I not only have a Falcon Dual Pipe Reamer but I have photos of the box with instructions for proper used of the tool. Thanks Bob for this addition to my collection of reamers. It makes a great looking piece in the centre of all of my other reamers.

KB&B Yello-Bole Four Pipe Lot

Restemming and Restoring a Potpouri Author

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a growing box of bowls that came to me without stems. It seems each time I clean it out and restem the pipes I inherit more of them. This is not a complaint as I actually enjoy restemming pipe bowls. It is always a challenge to get a new stem to align properly with the shank and to deal with cracks or damages to the bowl or the shank. This bowl came to me and I immediately fell for the rustic rocklike features of the rustication. It was gnarled and rough looking and felt great in the hand. The bowl was dirty and the deep grooves of the rustication had a lot of dirt and grime build up in them. The rim was caked and the rustication pretty much filled in the grooves making the rim surface smooth. The bowl had a rough cake in it and looked as if someone had started reaming the bowl but did not finish. There were some small fissures like cracks in the sides of the bowl near the entrance of the airway and on the bottom and the top of the airway. Someone had cleaned out the shank so it was not too dirty. There was a small crack on the top of the shank that was about 1/8 long. I could open it slightly with a wedge so it would need to be glued and banded. The pipe showed a lot of promise though and I could see it come alive if I had the correct stem for it. In the photo below there is a small crack barely visible in the middle of the shank end between my fingers. I have circled it with red to focus your eye on it. The tip of the red arrow is on top of the crack in the shank. It extends about 1/8 to ¼ inch. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim to give you an idea of the state of things when I started. It is hard to see but at this point I could see some small cracks around the entrance of the airway to the bowl.I went through my can of stems and found a green acrylic stem that would do the trick on this pipe. It would go well with the rustication and the length and width of the stem would carry through the thickness of the bowl. I sanded the tenon with the Dremel and sanding drum until it was a close fit to the shank. I finished sanding by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. It fit well in terms of the width of the shank but it was slightly thicker on the top and the bottom where it met the shank. I was careful inserting it as I did not want to crack the shank further. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to remove much of the excess thickness on the top and the bottom of the stem at the shank junction. I do this carefully with the stem in place in the shank so that I can get it as close as possible without damaging the finish on the shank. You can see in the next two photos that the junction is pretty smooth now and the thickness is almost a match. I finished the fit with a file and took off the remaining thickness that had to go. I also used the file to remove the tooth indentations on both sides of the stem near the button. With the fit nearly perfect it was time to sand out the filing marks and smooth out the stem. I have a medium grit sanding stick that works perfect for this application and I sanded with it until all of the file marks were gone and the transition between the shank and the stem was smooth. With the stem fit roughed in I turned my attention to the bowl and shank. I wanted to have the shank and bowl clean so I could deal with the repairs to the airway in the bowl and the crack on the top of the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the largest cutting head. I cleaned up the remaining cake with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush on the sides, shank and the bowl of the bowl. I scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle brush until all of the lava that filled the rustication was gone.I rinsed off the soap with warm water and dried the bowl with a soft towel. The cleaned and reamed pipe is shown in the photo below.With the bowl reamed and the finish clean I turned to the internals. I cleaned out the mortise and airway into the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It did not take too much to clean out the pipe. I cleaned the stem the same way and used a dental pick to clean up the slot in the end of the button. I lightly sanded the crack on the top of the shank and spread it open with a dental pick. I used a tooth pick to push super glue into the crack and then held the crack together until the glue set. Once it was dry I found a round band that had the right circumference to fit the shank and heated it with a lighter and pressed it onto the shank of the pipe. With shank repair complete and the bowl cleaned and ready I put the stem in place in the shank and took some photos of the pipe. I really liked the look of the band breaking up the rustic bowl and the smooth green stem. The band fit perfectly and did not cover the stamping on the underside of the shank. I still needed to sand the stem some more to get a shine but you can see what the pipe will look like at this point. I mixed a batch of pipe mud (cigar ash and water) and used a dental spatula to apply it to the bottom of the bowl. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway and used the spatula to apply the mud to the small cracks and fissures around the airway. Once the mud cured the pipe bowl would be in good shape until a new cake was built.I heated the stem in a cup of water in the microwave until it was pliable and then put a gentle bend in it to give it a more elegant look and comfortable feel. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then finished with 6000-12000 grit pads. I rubbed away the sanding dust with a damp cloth. I gave the pipe a light buff with Blue Diamond on the wheel to bring some deep shine to the stem. I then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The green acrylic stem works well with the rough finish on the bowl. I like the finished look. What do think? Thanks for looking.

Quick Cleanup of a Mastercraft Cigar Pipe Sparkless

Bulgarian Leather Pipe and Tobacco Pouch from Sofia

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Blog by Steve Laug

I wrote a blog about the restoration the Butz Choquin 1635 pipe that was inside of this pouch last week (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/04/08/unzipped-an-old-pouch-and-found-a-butz-choquin-oval-shank-capitan-1635/). I have no idea how old the pouch is or who the original owner was but it still had some charm. The pouch was worn but salvageable so I cleaned it up as well. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how the old pouch turned out. Here are a few pictures of the pouch from the eBay seller. What was interesting to me is that the pipe, pouch and tool came to me from Sofia, Bulgaria via the US. Why is that interesting you might ask? Good question. You see, I have a friend who is a pipeman who lives there and is starting on the hobby of pipe restoration. It is great to have a pipe and pouch that came from there. He has one of my pipes that he lovingly calls Vancouver. I took the following photos before I started to clean up the pouch. The pouch exterior was made of suede leather. The brass zippers were dirty but in working order. The inside of the top zipped area held a waxed canvas liner that still had remnants of tobacco in it. The inside of the underside which held the pipe had a leather insert that was loose as it had come unglued. I began by spraying the zippers with WD40 to lubricate them and worked them back and forth to clean out the teeth. I glued the leather insert in the underside of the pouch with an all-purpose white glue and inserted a bottle to keep the insert in place while the glue dried. I brush out the inside of the canvas insert on the top of the pouch and wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove the dust.

When the glue had dried on the interior of the pouch I brushed the suede exterior with a leather brush and then gave it a coat of Obenauf’s Leather Treatment. It is a deodorized grease like substance that restores and preserves the leather. I rubbed the grease into the leather by hand until the entire pouch was covered and then set the pouch aside to dry. As it dries the Obenauf’s is absorbed into the leather darkening it slightly but also giving the leather a soft pliable feel. I laid the pouch aside on my desk top for a few days and let the product do its work. The photos below show the pouch as it looks after four days of sitting in a warm spot. While it is not beautiful it is greatly improved. I have taken photos of both sides and the inside of both compartments. There are still some worn spots in the leather and some nicks that give it character but it is clean and functional. The pouch is useable once again. Thanks for looking.

An Amazing Find – A Corsica Cavalier with a Horn Stem and End Cap

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Blog Steve Laug

This is yet one more of my brother’s amazing finds. It is a beautiful Cavalier with a horn stem and end cap. It is stamped in classic late 19th Century fashion with gold leaf on the left side of the shank. It reads CORSICA in and arch over two stars around a capital V with what looks like an elongated 0 in the middle of the V. Underneath the *V* is VIEILLE RACINE stamped in a reverse arch. The words form and oval. It is my understanding that the Vielle Racine stamp translates literally as Old Root. The band is stamped 14K and is almost a rose gold. It is fitted to the shank and also is beveled inward covering the shank end. The horn end cap has a threaded short bone tenon that screws into the briar. It has a large bowl.

When the pipe came to me it was dirty but the bowl had been reamed. The rim had a slight build up and the inner edge had been slightly damaged when it had been reamed. The gold band was tarnished. The finish was dirty and spotted with sticky dark spots on the end cap and in the bend at the top of the shank bowl junction. The bowl had been coated with shellac that was spotty and cloudy in places. The stem looked really good at first glance but I would have to examine it more closely once I started cleaning it up. The grain on the briar was beautiful and I could not wait to clean it up and see what lay beneath the grime and the shellac. I took several close-up photos to highlight different aspects of the pipe. The first of these is the state of the rim and bowl. The rim photo is a bit blurry but gives a pretty good idea nonetheless of the state of the bowl and the tars on the rim. The second photo is of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It still had the gold leaf in the stamping to highlight it. I took the pipe apart and photographed the parts. I also took a photo of the end cap so that the bone tenon in visible. The horn stem looked really good but looking at it up close I could see a crack along the top of the stem following the curve and a small group of them on the right side of the stem. There were also a few chips missing on the underside of the stem near the shank junction. The tenon had a unique look to it – almost a nipple on the end of it. It was coated with a little varnish as well so it much have someone’s attempt to tighten it as it was currently quite loose in the shank. Before I started to work on it I decided to do a bit of research to fill in the gaps on another pipe brand that had not heard of before seeing this one. I was familiar with briar coming from Corsica but had not run across the pipe brand of that name. I resorted to the pipephil site to see if he had any information on the pipe and who may have made it. The site did have the brand listed. It turns out that Corsica is a brand of Henri Vuillard of Saint Claude, France. This Vuillard was not to be confused with E. Vuillard & Cie also of Saint Claude. Reading that information helped me to make sense of the large *V* in the centre of the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. Here is the link to the information: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/hvuillard-en.html. The site included the following photos of several pipes in this line. The cursive form of the Corsica stamp is very similar to the stamping on my pipe.The link also included a sub link to a secondary page on the history of the brand. The following is an abstract of the information that I found regarding the maker of this pipe. At the end of the 19th century the Vuillard house managed by Paul Vuillard and established at Chemin de la Coupe (Saint Claude) produced match boxes and cases for spectacles. At the beginning of the 20th century on Henri’s (son of Paul Vuillard) initiative the factory is converted to the production of briar pipes which were marketed under the “Corsica” brand.

From that information along with the materials and the design of the pipe I am pretty confident in saying that it was made in the early 20th century when the company was managed by Paul Vuillard who took the initiative to start making pipes. An interesting note is that from 1914-1918 The Henri Vuillard Factory produced pipes for the French Army. The article says that at that time they had between 170-180 employees.

Armed with this new knowledge and an estimate of the age of the pipe I began to clean it up. The cake had been reamed already so I just cleaned up the walls of the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I had removed the stem and the end cap so it was easy to hold the bowl and ream it.I cleaned the shank from the mortise to the end cap with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The oils and tars that came out were not very dark and they did not smell like tobacco. It was almost as if they were the stain from the outside of the bowl. It did not matter though it took quite a few before the shank was clean all the way through.I cleaned the airway in the stem as well. It also was dirty. But as I cleaned off the exterior the cracks became more noticeable, particularly the one on the topside.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the shellac coat. I was careful around the gold leaf in the stamping as I did not want to damage that area of the bowl. I put Vaseline on the threads of the bone tenon on the end cap and carefully turned it into the end of the shank. I polished the bone of the end cap with 1500-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out. I rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil and let it dry. In the photo below you can see the fine cracks in the stem near the tenon end. This is also where the chips were. I drilled a tiny hole at each end of the crack on the top of the stem with a micro drill bit. I filled the holes and the crack with clear super glue. I used the clear super glue to also stabilize the other cracks on the sides of the stem and to build up the chipped areas on the underside of the stem. When the glue dried I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs and to begin to polish the stem. Once the repairs were smooth I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I know the oil is made for vulcanite but I wanted to bring a little life to the horn. I finished sanding the stem with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I polished the gold band on the shank end with a jeweler’s cloth until it shone. I gave the briar several coats of Conservators Wax and hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush when it dried. I decided not to buff this pipe on the wheel because I did not want to damage the gold leaf or the horn. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth and polished it until it shone. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It truly is a beautiful old pipe. I only wish that the horn was more perfect. The stem glows but I see the repaired cracks. Ah well it is better than having the stem splinter apart while using it. It should be good for another hundred plus years now. Thanks for looking.

Introduced to a Bamboo Briar of Spain Oval Shank Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I don’t know why but I keep taking out some unique pipes from the box my brother Jeff sent me. He has an uncanny ability to find the unusual and interesting pipes for me to restore. This one is one I had never heard of before. I have seen other bamboo rusticated pipes but not one that had the stamping that this one does. It is stamped on the underside of the bowl with the words BAMBOO BRIAR in an arch over the word Spain. The carver did a marvelous job of replicating the look of bamboo in the briar. The nodules, lines and grooves that he/she put in the briar really look like bamboo. To give it even more of an interesting look they left the briar natural to highlight the subdued grain of the briar coming through the smooth areas of the bamboo and the carved nicks in the surface. It is really beautiful.

When I took it out of the box the bowl had a thick cake of carbon built up in the bowl. The rim was thickly caked as well with lava. The outer edges of the bowl had some nicks in it and there was a small burn mark on the front right inner edge of the bowl. The stem did not fully seat in the mortise because of the tars and oils there. The exposed portion of the tenon and the stem were badly oxidized. There was some light tooth chatter on the stem but overall it was in decent shape underneath the oxidation. I took some close up photos of the rim and the bottom of the bowl. The picture of the rim shows the thickness of the cake and the state of the top of the rim. This old pipe was pretty clogged up with cake and tars. The picture of the bottom of the bowl shows the stamping. It reads Bamboo Briar over Spain. I removed the stem and dropped in a jar of Oxyclean to soak the heavy oxidation for several hours. Before working on the bowl I did a little research on the brand and found that on my go to site, Logos and Stampings, or pipephil there was a notation. Here is the link: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html#bamboobriar.

On that site the pipe is described as follows: The bamboo like decorative carving was typical of Valencia’s manufacturers since the early 20th century. However it’s difficult to say who exactly the maker was.

With that information in hand I went to work on the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head and working up to one that was the same diameter as the bowl. I removed the cake and took it back to bare wood. I finished the reaming and cleaned up the bowl walls with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. The outer edge of the rim was rough and the top had some nicks in the briar that made topping the bowl necessary. I topped it to remove the damaged areas of the rim using a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone (fingernail polish remover) on cotton pads to clean up the dirt and oils from the natural finish of the briar. I sanded the topped rim with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then used a light brown stain pen to stain it to match the patina on the bowl. I used a black Sharpie pen to touch the “root nodules” of the simulated bamboo. I hand applied some Conservators Wax to the bowl and once it dried hand buffed it with a shoe brush.I took photos of the pipe after buffing it. The colour of the rim and the patina that came out on the bowl with the wax gives it an aged bamboo look that I really like. I cleaned out the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the tars and oils. I was quite surprised by how little came out of the shank with the cleaning. I expected it to be far worse.The stem had been soaking in Oxyclean for about four hours so it was time to work on that. I set the bowl aside and removed the stem from the Oxy soak. The soak had softened and removed much of the oxidation from the surface. It had also brought the deeper oxidation to the surface.I rubbed the stem down to remove the softened oxidation and then used needle files to clean up and define the edges of the button.I used pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean out the inside of the stem and again was surprised by the lack of real oils and tars.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the file marks and to remove the oxidation on the surface. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the stem on the buffer with Blue Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used a light touch on the bowl and shank so as not to clog up the nodules or grooves in the bamboo carving with too much wax. I raised the shine with a clean flannel buff on the buffer and then gave it a hand buff with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the patina of the briar and the carvings on the bowl and shank give the pipe a look of aged bamboo. The unknown Spanish carver did a great job on this one in my opinion. Now I have to decide whether to keep this one or not. It is so unique that I think it deserves a place in my collection. Thanks for looking.

A New Look for an Unknown Billiard

A Challenging Yello-Bole Chesterfield

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Blog by Aaron Henson

Although this is a standalone write up, it is also part 2 of an adventure I started with the rustication of a bent billiard about a month ago.

I found this Yello-Bole Chesterfield at a local flea market in town. It was part of a large estate collection, most of which were unsmoked uniquely carved pipes. My eye, however, was immediately attracted to the Peterson-like shape with military bit and P-lip stem and I was surprised to see that it was a Yello-Bole. The pipe was a bit grimy and oxidized with burn marks but after some talking we agreed on a price and I took it home.The stampings on the bowl were very clear and deep, some of the nicest I have seen on an estate pipe that is as well used as this one. The left side shank read YELLO-BOLE over HONEY CURED BRIAR over CHESTERFIELD with the KBB inside the clover leaf on the left. The band was stamped with KB&B inside the clover leaf over NICKEL PLATED. The right side shank was stamped with shape number 2816C. The stem had the Yello-Bole yellow circle inset in the top and SOLID RUBBER stamped deep into the underside of the stem.

A quick search online and I was able to use the markings to date the pipe to the 1933-1936 time manufacturing period.

The briar was in great shape with beautiful bird’s eye pattern. The pipe was dusty and grimy and after wiping down with an alcohol soaked cotton pad I continued with my assessment. The rim was coated with a heavy crust of tar and there was a deep burn mark on the outside of the rim (major issue number 1). The bowl did not have a large amount of cake so I had to assume that the previous owner had reamed out at some point. And perhaps it had been over reamed, because the air hole entered the bowl about 2/3 the way down the chamber wall. This would lead to a mouth full of hot ash when you were half way through the bowl (major issue number 2). There were some minor bumps and scratches in the surface of the bowl but nothing that could not be buffed out. The stem was in great shape. It was heavily oxidized with some minor tooth chatter but the airway was clear and the stinger was intact and in great condition.I set the stem to soak in a Oxiclean solution and turned to the stummel. First I reamed the chamber back to bare wood. Next, I tried to clean the rim with Oxiclean on a wet green pad but the tar was just too stubborn so I resorted to a topping board and lightly sand away the tar build up. This is where I made my first mistake: I scuffed off a bit of the nickel plating when topping the bowl (I still don’t have a fix for this!). I have thought about taking the ring off and having it re-plated but several attempts to remove the ring with heat have not been successful.

To address the burn mark on the rim I used a worn piece of 220 grit sand paper I removed the burned wood trying not to remove any of the sound briar under the burn. I was surprised to see how deep the burn went and was at a bit of a loss on how to address it. As you can see below, a significant amount of wood as damaged.I figured I had two options: 1) replace the burned material with glue/briar dust or 2) sand the rest of the rim to match and change the shape of the pipe. In either case I was going to need to refinish the briar so I wiped it down with acetone to remove as much of the finish as I could while I decided what I was going to do.

Looking into the chamber again, I listed out my options for addressing the air way issue. Again I came up with two options; 1) fill in the bottom 1/3 of the bowl with pipe mud, or 2) drill a new airway that comes out at the bottom of the chamber. I didn’t like either option. The first would have been a very large fill and volume change for the pipe and the second was fraught with potential problems – chiefly aligning the drill bit to come out at just the right point in the bottom of the bowl

So I figured it was time for some consultation. I outlined the issue in an email and included some picture and sent them off to Steve – our worthy “Professor of Pipe-ology” and blog host.

While I waited for Steve’s response I cleaned the inside of the shank and with alcohol soaked cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until then came out as clean as they went in. I also took the stem from the Oxiclean bath and removed the loose oxidation with a magic eraser. I cleaned the internals of the stem then polished it with micromesh pads 1500 – 12000. I used mineral oil every three pads to freshen the vulcanite and give the pads some traction. There was only one minor tooth mark that didn’t raise with heat and I filled it with a dab of black super glue and sanded it smooth with the 1500 mirco-mesh pad. Steve responded with the recommendation of building up the burn spot with super glue and briar dust confirmed that I had the right idea. I was hoping that he had another trick up his sleeve because I knew that the repair would have to be covered up with either a very dark stain or rusticated. I applied three separate layers of clear super glue and briar dust to build up the rim then carefully sanded the repair to blend it into the shape of the rim. I came across and older post where Kirk Fitzgerald rusticated a Peterson that looked very similar to my Chesterfield. Taking some note, I decided to try a similar type rustication. I lightly mark a ½” band around the top of the bowl with a pencil and corresponding area on the bottom of the bowl to balance the appearance. Using the 1/8” carving tool on a Dremel I added a dimpled texture in offset rows. I was glad I had tried using this tool on the previous project because the carving tool did have a tendency to skip on the harder grain. The final texture hid the repair and was not so extensive as to hide the grain. I sanded the outside of the bowl with micro mesh pads 1500 – 3600 to smooth out the scratches.

Instead of drilling a new airway, which posed the risk of additional misalignment, Steve recommended using a needle file to elongate the opening so it extended to the bottom of the bowl. The excess space could then be filled with plaster creating a new airway. This proved to be tedious work. Below are two rough cross-section of the pipe. On the left is the airway as it was and on the right is the revised airway (in theory).Filing was a slow process and it took some effort to keep the elongated hole from drifting off course. I went slow and checked the progress often. Once the hole was about where I thought it should be I used the stick of a cotton swab as the place holder for the new airway. It was the rolled paper type stick that could be bent to match the curve of the bowl. Holding stick in place with a rubber band around the rim I mixed a batch of thick plaster and pushed it into the elongated hole with my finger. When plaster came out the top of the hole I removed the excess from inside the bowl and set it aside to dry for 24 hours. In my first attempt at this repair, I did not have plaster so I used pipe mud (a slurry of cigar ash and water). This did not work at all. It is great for filling in the bottom of a bowl but it was too loose to stand on its own as a fill/patch. I removed the pipe mud and started over with the plaster.

The next evening, I used 100 grit sand paper wrapped around a ¼” dowel to remove the excess plaster and smooth out the repair. I carefully twisted the swab stick and it came free without damage to the patch. The next time I do this I will coat the stick with wax before securing it in place. The wax should help the stick pull free without bonding to the plaster.

It was time to finish the bowl. I chose to use straight Fiebing’s dark brown stain on the rusticated areas and then wiped it down with alcohol pad. Next I applied straight light brown to the rest of the bowl. After setting the color with heat I wiped the entire bowl with an alcohol pad to blend the colors. Happy with the results I took the pipe to the buffing station. I buffed the stem and stummel separately so I could get to all the area a little more easily. I started with white buffing compound then finished with multiple coats of carnauba wax.

With the outside of the pipe complete I wanted to cover up the plaster patch inside the bowl so I applied a bowl coating. Using my finger I spread a thin coat of maple syrup evenly over the inside of the bowl then poured in the contents of a dietary charcoal capsule. I put my palm over the top of the pipe and shook the pipe so the charcoal powder covered the inside of the bowl. I set the pipe aside to dry for 5 days before emptying out the loose powder.

I want to say “Thank you” to Steve for his advice on this one… and thank you for reading.

Refreshing a Beautiful and Unusual Clairmont Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

Once again my brother Jeff scored a beautiful and unusual pipe. It is stamped Clairmont on the left side of the shank. On the underside it is stamped MY PIPE and Handmade Italy. On the right side it bears the stamping 810 (it appears to be double stamped). The briar is naturally finished with no stain. There are some small fills on the shank extension and one on the left side of the bowl on the underside of the outer rim lip. They are small but visible at this point. The bowl had a slight cake in it that was uneven and there were some tobacco remnants on the bottom of the bowl. The top of the rim was dirty as was the rest of the finish. The Cumberland stem was in good shape but there were some light tooth marks on the top and underside next to the button edge. The slot in the end of the stem was rough and uneven. There was some red (maybe Tripoli) in the edges of the slot. I took the pipe apart and photographed the parts. The shank insert is pressure fit in the mortise of the bowl. It is a good snug fit with no looseness. The stem fit in the other end is also very snug and clean. The green dot on the Cumberland stem looks good. The tenon on the stem is integral to the stem. The finish on the stem is dull. While I really liked the looks of the pipe and knew it was Italian handmade I had no idea who made the brand. The stamping MY PIPE on the underside still has me mystified. I don’t know if the maker stamped it that way or if the first owner had it stamped that way. I will probably never know that but I wanted to know who made this pip as I had never seen this brand. Like always I begin the hunt for information at one of my favourite websites Pipephil’s Logos and Stamping site. It did not take long and I found the information at this link: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c5.html.

The site showed a nice looking full bent pipe with a Lucite stem that had the green dot on the top side just as the stem I had did. The stamping was the same in terms of the script Clairmont. The Sardinian Briar * stamp was not present on mine. I found out that the brand was created by Alberto Paronelli in the 1970’s. I found that the pipes were usually crafted by Tom Spanu. Both of those names were familiar to me so that help. I have one of Tom’s Olivewood pipes and love it. The link gave information on the name. It turns out that “Clairmont” is a Francization of “Chiaramonti” which is the birthplace of Tom Spanu.Now I knew that I was dealing with a 1970’s era pipe made by Tom Spanu and named after his birthplace. For me this solidified the connection to Spanu. It was time to work on his pipe. As I worked on it I wondered if the MY PIPE stamp on the bottom was stamped by Tom and this was one of his own pipes. I cleaned up the internals of the pipe, reaming the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and scrubbing out the airways from button to bowl with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and oils that were dirtying the natural finish of the bowl and shank extension. I was able to get quite a bit of the rim darkening off this way. The crowned rim top is beautiful. I thought it was fitting to rub down an Italian natural finish pipe with a light coat of olive oil. I rubbed down each of the briar parts of the pipe and put it back together. The olive oil brought life back to the briar and the grain began to shine through. This is a beautiful piece of briar. I set the bowl and shank aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and smooth out the flat surfaces. I sanded the end of the button to clean up some of the nicks and damage there. I also used a needle file to clean up the inside of the slot and smooth out the lines.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the scratches. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit micromesh pads to progressively polish the stem and bring the depth of the Cumberland back to life. I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I like this one a lot so I think it will probably stay in my collection. Thanks for looking!