Who Made Brewster Imported Briar Pipes or Who is the Unknown Italian Maker

Blog by Steve Laug

Robert M. Boughton in his recent blog on Brewster pipes quoted part of my earlier blog on the brand. Here is the link to Robert’s blog: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/01/13/another-brewster-that-looks-better-now-than-when-it-was-made/. In a personal email he suggested that I post the history of the brand in a separate blog to make access to the information accessible to those searching for information on the brand. So I have copied the pertinent material and edited it to read more clearly in the blog below. Thanks for reading.

In February, 2014 I cleaned and restemmed a bowl that was stamped with the stamping on the shank shown in the photo above. If you want to read the details of the restoration you can do so at the following link: https://rebornpipes.com/2014/02/14/giving-a-brewster-round-top-billiard-a-face-lift/ In the course of working on the pipe I did some research to see if I could find out information on the maker. To me everything about it seemed to point to some kind of Dr. Grabow connection. The metal mortise was threaded and Grabow stems fit perfectly. The mortise tenon system was identical. I had a hunch that there was some kind of connection but I wanted to verify what I was thinking.

I looked first in the books I had available here. In “Who Made that Pipe” all I learned that the brand was Italian made followed by the words unknown maker. That was not overly helpful. I suppose some of the pipes were stamped made in Italy. But unknown maker left too much out to me. There had to be more information. I turned to my online sources. I looked on Pipedia and there found much the same information – Italian made followed by question marks as to the maker. The pipephil website (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b7.html) called “Pipes: Logos and Stampings” had the same information but said that it was an export brand of an unknown Italian company. So far I was coming up empty handed but I was not going to give up on this one. I spent time searching the web with Google and other search engines and came up with no added insight.

Not to be daunted I decided to take a different tack. I found the Dr. Grabow Company website online and wrote an email to their information centre seeking information on the brand. I never received a reply from them. I wanted to follow-up on my hunch from the stamping and the metal insert in the shank that somehow this pipe was related to Dr. Grabow pipes. I had no clue how it was related but it certainly looked like it to meso I went to the Dr. Grabow forum on-line and posted my questions http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/index.php. While I waited for a response to my question I read some of the forum of back posts and found a series of posts regarding the brand. I read the following and immediately had more questions. The Grabow connection was not clear but I had found that the pipe may have been a promotional item during the course of one year – 1964. Here is the quote that gave me the information:

“A couple months back, I scored a Brewster off eBay for five bucks. Research on this forum and the wild, untamed internet tells me the Brewster pipes were all made in one batch in 1964 as a promotional item for Sir Walter Raleigh.”

Now I knew that the pipe came from that time period and had been a promo item for a pipe tobacco company.

Later that evening while relaxing, my iPhone vibrated notifying me of a new email. I picked up the phone and saw that I had a response to the questions that I had posted on the forum. Dave Whitney, author of the book on refurbishing called “Old Briar”, had responded to my request for information. What he sent me was extremely helpful and a true goldmine of information. His answer confirmed the Dr. Grabow connection and gave critical information that I had not been able to find anywhere. I have grouped the comments on the brand under three bullets that show three different individual’s comments on Brewster. It is interesting to note that all agree.

Dave Whitney: Here’s what I have from my accumulated notes on Brewster – much of it looks like it came off this forum, ted/td being one of the early ones to help build this forum and a former Sparta CEO.

• All the Brewsters were “made” in about 64’… Brewster… is probably from Fratelli Rossi from 64’… Ted, an older pipe smoker than me, suggested the Brewster pipes are comparable to the Willard pipes, and that Brewsters were often sold either with tobacco, or in a coupon offer. For example Brewster was sold as a redemption offer with Brown and Williamson for Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco.

• Further information came from Dr. B… I think (in my feeble state of mind, after today) that Brewster was sold as a redemption offer with Brown and Williamson for Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco. But, Mastercraft in 74 had a LOAD of them left. We (Mastercraft) sold them as closeouts along with several pipes in baskets of 4 dozen at $3.98. We also included a bunch of Mastercraft from F. Rossi at the same price……..Rossi pipes are another story……Remind me of the “sticky lacquer” and I’ll tell it…….ted
Mastercraft was founded by Bernard Hochstein, an Orthodox Jew. Old, White Haired, Santa Claus looking (still alive at 96, last time I knew), and he was REKNOWNED for his ability to “strong arm” the European pipe suppliers into selling pipes to M/C at a bargain. Probably the best (never say nothing) negotiator that I’ve ever met. He sold a business (Mastercraft) to UST for 6 million in STOCK. He’s probably worth 60 million today. Mr. Hochstein could negotiate a peace in the Middle East in a very few days, and talk all parties outta’ their pants in the process.

OK, so Mr H “rapes” the Italian suppliers even up till 1964 when the Surgeon General’s (SG) report comes out. As it turns out, “rape” worked both ways. A supplier, Fratelli Rossi, (still in business) took an order in 1963 for over 1 million pipes at 1/2 dollar (US) per pipe. When the SG’s report comes out, Rossi has filled a small part of the order for Hochstein, and had orders for a great many more pipes than Hochstein ordered. Rossi decided to experiment with his lacquer …Whose pipes did he experiment on? Hochsteins.

When I started at Mastercraft we had 1215 cartons of pipes from Rossi… Mastercraft Standard….72 dozen per carton, with lacquer so “tacky” that if you held the pipe as if you were smoking it, you’d have to “shake” it out of your hand. Rossi left out the curing agent. Ever touched wet paint?……..After 10 years they were still STICKY…..after 20 years, they were still STICKY.

We fought these SOB’s for years, when finally Luther Marlow (you’ll see topics about him) concluded that we could re-spray them with the Grabow lacquer and sell em’ (Ed. Note: Here is the Grabow Connection I smelled). We did, and we did. Through a “drive” by the UST salesforce, we sold every one. So if you have a Mastercraft Standard with what looks to be “heavy” lacquer, you are probably right.

• Hussar…..Rossi also made Brewster. Better lacquer job though… Brewster was sold as a redemption offer with Brown and Williamson for Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco. But, Mastercraft in 74 had a LOAD of them left. We (Mastercraft) sold them as closeouts along with several pipes in baskets of 4 dozen at $3.98.

When I started with Mastercraft in the early 70’s we had over 400 cartons of pipes from Hully. Each carton contained 60 to 80 dozen, most of which were stamped Brewster or Stetson and these had a base cost (from the 60’s or earlier) of $2.80 /dz. Some of the smaller pipes, called Southern Assortment were $1.90 / dz. May be partly to blame for them going out of business.

Dave had supplied some very helpful information on the brand. It gave a definitive date and origin to the pipe. The Italian connection and the Dr. Grabow link were clear in Dave’s answer. Now I wanted to know something about maker, Rossi. Fortunately Dave kindly included that information in his answer as well. It is as follows:

From approximately 1946 up to the end, Ferdinando Rossi II, a grandchild of the founder, headed the company. But after World War II the world of the pipe changed dramatically. Especially in Italy, where those big pipe factories mainly turned out pipes for the lower priced segments of the international mass markets. The demand for these pipes shrunk considerably as more and more smokers turned to cigarettes. Rossi got into this vortex as well. Little by little the number of pipes produced sank. This evolution was accelerated by the upcoming fame of pipes from Denmark. As well, new Italian brands established after the war like Castello, Brebbia or little later Savinelli operated cleverer and thus were more successful.

So the decline went on through the 1960’s and 1970’s, even though Rossi offered more than 800 possible shapes in dozens of lines and uncounted finishes. Besides the completely machine made pipes there were also some lines of semi-freehands and even quite considerable freehands were made. But all these efforts could not stop the fall anyway. Due to increasing financial difficulties Rossi closed down in 1985, just one year before the 100th anniversary.

In the years around 1870 and still later the bulk of Italian pipes was made by time taking and laboriously manual work. Mainly based on families who sold their pipes to travelling purchasers handing them on to some wholesaler. Most pipes were still made of box or olive wood.

Ferdinando Rossi from Milan was one of the most important wholesalers for tobacco related goods of northern Italy. When he attended one of his pipe suppliers in Saint-Claude in 1880 he got hooked on the idea to establish this manner of industrialised briar pipe production in Italy as well. Rossi went abroad several times to buy the hardware here and there because the special features of machines for pipemaking were secrets – well kept by the French in those days. Many machines and tools had to be modified on Rossi’s defaults.

[From the Catalogue “La Regina della Pipa” (1896)] He acquired a large area of land in Barasso in the province of Varese and founded the Fabbrica di Pipe di Radica Rossi in 1886. For sure there was no lack of skilled workers and Rossi personally recruited 30 craftsmen of different occupations from the environment to get started. After a few years the enterprise had developed well and entered into export trades. In 1892 e.g. the ledgers registered the first pipes shipped to Brazil.

One reason of success was the ultramodern conception of the factory and its equipment at the given time. To give an example: a system of canals invented by Rossi drove water to turbines propelling downstream generators, which supplied the entire machinery with electricity. Also lighting and heating were already electrically operated.

In the first years after 1900 Rossi grew steadily and became one of the ten biggest pipe manufacturers of the world. Rossi’s rapid ascent produced further foundations of pipemaking firms in the area.

I love hunting down as much of the old company histories I can find concerning the pipes that I refurbish. For me this information gives a colour and flavour to the pipe I hold in my hands and rework. It gives me the back story on the pipe and adds another dimension to the work of refurbishing. I have reposted the details of the history of Brewster Imported Briar here for those who like me enjoy this kind of thing.

Another Brewster That Looks Better Now Than When It Was Made

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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://www.roadrunnerpipesnm.biz (Coming Soon)
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
https://roadrunnerpipes.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/about-the-author/
Photos © the Author

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
― Kong Qui (Confucius), 551-479 BC, Chinese philosopher, teacher and political figure

INTRODUCTION
This Brewster Billiard arrived in one of the many pipe lots I bought online the year before last, at which time I apparently dismissed it as a common Dr. Grabow that could be put off until I had nothing better to clean or restore. Nevertheless, despite the oppressive grime and weariness that lay upon the wretched pipe like a veil of black magic – or maybe because of this gloomy aspect, as a good friend once remarked with acerbic nonchalance that I seem to be attracted to wounded things (his exact words, all the more angering because I knew he was right) – my eyes returned to it many times since it came in the mail. On every occasion except the last, a week or so ago, I made the mental Dr. G. connection and passed it by.

I’m not saying all Dr. G. pipes are worthless; I just seem to be happier when they’re not cluttering up my own collection. But the two I do own are excellent and exceptional, not counting three unusual beauties that were given to me by my friend and mentor, Chuck Richards and which I expect to sell.

There is a good reason for all of this talk about Dr. G. pipes, which might seem to some as nothing more than pointless rambling. As I already noted, all but the last time I considered this pipe, I was so certain it was a Dr. G. that I didn’t even bother with more than a glance. Then, not more than 10 days ago, for some reason I will never understand, I picked it up and squinted at the left side of the shank to check the brand. The pipe was so filthy and sticky (remember that last word) that it might have fallen out of a pig farmer’s bib overalls and smack into the trough. It was so bad, at any rate, that I had to take it into the living room where I keep my jeweler’s magnifier headset to begin to decipher the name, which I could see began with a B. Even then some hard rubbing with a thumb was necessary to break on through to the other side.

When I at last made out the word Brewster, all that came to mind was a great old movie, “Brewster’s Millions,” from 1945. Go figure! And so, of course, I took a seat on the couch and consulted my laptop, clicking the speed dial to pipephil.eu. There, sure enough, was Brewster. Made in Italy. Unknown maker. What kind of hogwash was this? I Googled “brewster tobacco pipes” and found only a few identical references. Well, I said to myself, I’m not about to let any lack of preliminary intel stop me from making this wounded or perhaps birth defected little thing better.

Only when I was gearing up for the restoration, and happened to visit my local tobacconist, did I chance to notice a new estate pipe put out by Chuck. You guessed it: a Brewster, made in Italy. What were the odds, I wondered, laughing so loudly that the young lady behind the counter, Candice, looked at me in surprise. I explained myself.

But the real shock came a few days later, when I was nearly done with the restoration and started wondering (worrying is more like it) how I was going to write a blog about a pipe with a clear name on it of which several experts in the pipe community had heard but still had no clue who made it. Being a somewhat persistent little bugger, however, I returned to Google, this time expanding my search to “brewster tobacco smoking pipes.” I will never cease to be amazed how sometimes the computer knows exactly where I’m going with a search and even comes up with the right suggestion, and others it’s a swing and a miss. This time it was out of the ballpark.

The very first link, at the top of the page, was to – where else? BREWSTER PIPES/ REBORN PIPES, https://rebornpipes.com/tag/brewster-pipes/. To say I was beside myself is an idiom that doesn’t begin to describe my sense of amazement. As I wrote to Steve in an email, the Brewster triangle was complete. And there, in the most vindicating black and white letters I have ever read, were the words, “The thread pattern and the look of the metal fitment looked exactly like a Dr. Grabow set up.”

Anyway, the bizarre connection between Brewster and Dr. G. is so thoroughly Italian (read “Machiavellian”) that I haven’t quite processed all of it yet. But it’s all there in Steve’s blog, blow by brutal blow, and as far as I can tell, it’s a Reborn Pipes exclusive. I’m sure those who are interested in the grizzly details will follow the link above. I am not about to try to paraphrase Steve’s incredibly detailed research. All I can say is that congratulations on an investigative job worthy of Woodward and Bernstein are in order. For once I will exercise the better part of valor in not going into details that already took up pages of Steve’s blog.

I will comment that Steve’s history of the Brewster includes one hilarious section on a blunder involving a large shipment of pipes to Mastercraft which were stained but not cured with a drying agent. Hence they remained sticky to the touch for years before they were eventually “fixed.”

RESTORATION

The first order of business, if only so that I could handle the clinging pieces of wood and Vulcanite, was to clean the outside. I did this with a couple of white cotton gun cleaner cloths and purified water, and while I was at it applied 1800 and 2400 micromesh. Wetting the micromesh pads, I was able to remove all of the char on the rim. The stummel had so many scratches and dings that I doubted the micromesh would be enough, but the immediate difference was striking.

Next I chose a fixed, 21mm reamer, 320-grit and 500-grit paper for the chamber, and seeing I was correct about the scratches on the stummel, I tried super fine steel wool, the same sandpaper and steel wool again to work away more of the blemishes. This was an ongoing process.

An OxiClean bath, for the first time in my experience, was enough to work out all of the mess inside the bit air hole, which, judging from the used, sudsy, murky water, had been somewhat bad. I used 320 paper followed by the full gamut of micromesh on the bit, and thought I was done. Now, I didn’t actually notice the problem at this stage, but for the sake of uniformity I’ll add it here. In fact, only after I had completed the remainder of the restoration did I notice the turn of the bit was off. Examining the tenon end of the bit, which should have been flat, I saw it had a chip that I hoped – notice I don’t say thought – I could remedy with a little sanding. Luckily I stopped that madness before it was too late. Yes, I’ve utterly destroyed a few bits in my short experience with the treacherous objects, and I’ve learned my lesson! Turning to Black Super Glue, I dabbed a little over the weak spot and let it sit overnight. Staining the stummel with Lincoln medium brown boot stain (which is really pretty dark), I flamed it, set it aside to cool, and buffed lightly with 4000 and 6000 micromesh.

The next day, with the stummel already buffed on the wheels, I had to re-do the entire bit to remove scratches left from my aborted attempt to sand down the lip, and to even out the Black Super Glue. I also heated the tenon, threw a cotton rag over it and clamped it with my grip pliers and turned. It was close, but no cigar, so I repeated the process with less force, and the bit was flush with the shank.

Well, now I looked the two pieces over and was happy with the bit, but there were still fine lines on the wood that I didn’t care for at all. And so, not liking the idea, I used 1800 micromesh to smooth it out, then had to re-buff with white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba, and the clean wheel between each. That did the trick.

CONCLUSION
The most difficult part of this task, surprisingly, was the bit, from which, after bringing it to a high shine the first time, I didn’t expect any further problems. It’s taken some time, but I’m finally getting the hang of bits. The easy part of the restore was making the sweet little billiard look better than I expect it ever did out of the factory in Italy, with everyone involved in its creation doing his best to hide the fact!

The When and Zen of Pipe Restoration

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Charles Lemon lives in Eastern Canada and Steve Laug lives in Western Canada. Connecting them across the distance is a common passion for restoring old pipes. Both men find beauty and pleasure in the work of restoration, and share their work on their respective blogs. Charles started and maintains DadsPipes – exploring the art of tobacco pipe restoration and Steve started and maintains rebornpipes – reclaiming old and worn estate pipes. The two restorers sat down recently over Skype for a discussion about their shared hobby. Here is an edited version of that conversation. We invite you into the conversation and to comment at the close of the blog. Let’s carry the dialogue beyond the borders of Canada!

“Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

“Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom. This is Zen. This is my motorcycle maintenance. ”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Steve Laug: When has a pipe reached the point that is not repairable or restorable in your opinion? In my experience the answer to that question changes all the time. In the past there were many pipes that I did not pick up because I thought they could not be brought back to life. One thing I have learned over the years is that the definition of no-return has changed as my skills have changed. I have learned new tricks that keep me even taking old bowls and broken shanks and recrafting a new pipe from them. So I would say that my definition of what is not repairable is in a state of flux all the time. How about you?

Charles Lemon: I agree – I’ve tackled some restorations lately that I wouldn’t have touched with a barge pole a year ago. I still ask myself if a restoration is worth it, or advisable, though, even if I know it’s possible. A few situations come to mind. A pipe with great sentimental value to its owner may sometimes be best approached as a preservation effort rather than a restoration. All pipes can benefit from a good cleaning, but I’ve left the pipes inherited from my father in otherwise original condition, tooth dents and all. I don’t smoke most of those pipes, so they’re more memorial items in my collection. On the other end of the stick, a highly collectible pipe can be devalued by an overzealous effort to return it to as-new condition.

SL: True enough Charles. To ask whether a restoration is worth it or even advisable though, is a very different kind of question as to whether it is possible. I think that the cases that you give are good testament to the fact that there are various layers of restoration. To me preservation is also restoration at some level. Think of a beautiful work of art that is cleaned and restored. It is not restored to new condition it is merely brought back to the creator’s intent plus the passage of time. I too have left special pipes from good friends as they came to me in honour of their memory and the gift they were to me. Somehow to remove the dents and dings on them reduces the impact of the gift to me. I smoke them but less frequently than others. The time of smoking is kind of a memorial in fire/smoke. For a moment I join with the person who gave the pipe to me and is no longer present. Those are special times. I leave them for times when there is nothing pressing in my life.

I think the other scenario you put forward is that of the highly collectible pipe. For that I agree with you. Nothing is worse than an overzealous restoration that leaves the stamping reduced and the beauty diminished. I sometimes have the feeling that the restorer who does that really removes the personality of the original. Maybe they should restamp it as their own! LOL.

When I look at a pipe I first ask the question, “Can I restore this?” From there I move to “Should I restore this?” To me once I know it is something that I can tackle then it is easier to choose not to do so.

“An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results. An experiment is a failure only when it also fails adequately to test the hypothesis in question, when the data it produces don’t prove anything one way or another.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

CL: Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is key. If a project is beyond my grasp I will pass it to someone else or put it away for a while and have another look in a few months or longer. Maybe my skills have caught up, maybe not. When IS a pipe no longer restorable? It seems every time I think I’ve found the limit, I see another refurb online where someone’s done something clever and raised the bar.

SL: I do find that I use junk pipes – those with no inherent value – as training ground for doing work on pipes that matter to me. If I screw up the junk pipe I can laugh and call it education. Far better to learn on those than on ones that matter. One of the first burn outs I tackled was on an absolutely worthless Tinderbox Monza. It was fire wood but it gave me the opportunity to practice cutting briar plugs and fitting them in the bowl. This adds another category to what or what not to refurb. I have learned to tackle even useless pipe as part of my pipe repair university course.

CL: There’s a reason I keep buying auction lots of estate pipes – they provide a fairly steady source of pipes with wide-ranging damage and thus repair needs that I can tinker with more or less risk-free.

SL: The trick is having the eye to know when to do what. That is the hard part to learn I have found. The learning is that old concept of “when less is more”.

CL: I was just thinking the same thing! I’ve had so many “firewood grade” pipes come out of the estate lots around here that I tend to forget that some pipes are actually well cared for and won’t need the Terminator approach to refinishing.

SL: Exactly! The restoration process often is like this conversation, back and forth, debating with yourself and the briar what is needed and then starting. Then more debate and then continuing. It is a dance with the wood. We have similar experience with the firewood grade pipes I think. But that is what builds the creativity for me and gets the juices flowing. What can be done with this piece of kindling.

“Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristic of quality.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

SL: The more I think about it, the longer I have been in the work of refurbishing the defining feature for me regarding the restorability of a pipe is whether I want to do it. Sounds persnickety but I think it’s really what I have come down to. There seems always to be a work around to bring a damaged pipe back to life. What do you think about the idea that the critical functional feature in restorability is not the ability of the repair person but the desire? Once you have the basic skills mastered the ability issue disappears from the equation for me. It rather becomes an issue of desire. Do I want to restore this? Either as a part of my ongoing education or as a piece of pipe history or beauty. What do you think?

CL: You’ve got something there, Steve. The basic skills are, well, basic – anyone with a will to learn can figure out how to use sandpaper, glue and stain to restore a pipe. Or a coffee table for that matter. Desire or drive is what keeps us doing what we do. I’ve spent more hours than I can count working on a restoration, knowing full well that the resulting pipe, even if functional and maybe even beautiful, will have no greater value than when I started. But I did it anyway because something about the pipe intrigued me – a shape, a maker, a different style of rustication, or just because I wanted to do it. I’ve also got a few pipes in my rack that I know would have turned out better if I had put a little more care, attention – or desire – into the work while it was on my bench.

I also find that restoring a pipe is an organic process. I sometimes have an idea of how the finished pipe will look going in, but usually the pipe decides on its own how the restoration will proceed. Just reaming the bowl of an old estate pipe can reroute a restoration drastically – hey look! A burnout! How’d that get there? And if you’re lucky, that PITA pipe repair is also the job in which you hit the magic and elusive perfect combination of stains that turns an ordinary pipe into a stunning piece of briar.

SL: I don’t know about you Charles, but I have gone back to the rack and redone those I did early in the learning curve. I have reworked them – some of them two or even three times before I am finely happy with them. To me it is like reading a favourite book – I go back to it again and again and there is always something more. Same with reworking a favourite pipe.

I agree the process of restoration is organic – it develops with each stem that you take along the way. I work on trying not to preset the outcome – other than clean and functional. The rest just happens. I think that is why I am willing to take on seeming disasters – the sheer joy of seeing what is reborn in the process – like finding treasure. I think that mysterious happening is part of the charm that keeps me hunting for pipes to refurbish.

“The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

CL: There is an undoubtedly spiritual/psychological aspect to restoration work. People talk about being in the groove when they are immersed in the work. Restoring a pipe is oddly restful for me – it’s both a tactile, physical activity and an intellectual pursuit that requires a high degree of focus. On a related note, I find it nearly impossible to be angry or agitated while smoking a pipe, so smoking a pipe while working on a pipe is cheaper than therapy!

SL: The act of restoration is definitely therapeutic. To restore a pipe after work gives me the space to decompress from my day and actually finish something. Sometimes the more complex the restoration is the better it is for me in terms of disconnecting me from the rest of the day. The act of restoration is spiritual at its core it seems to me. The very act of bringing life to a broken and abused thing is spiritual in nature. To me it takes our craft and lifts it to a deeper level. Maybe that is why I find it hard to neglect a sad old pipe that shows promise.

“To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow…..We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with the emphasis on “good” rather than on “time”….”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The conversation wrapped up at this point, but the collaboration will continue with a shared restoration project. Watch for that very special post, in which Steve and Charles put a LOT of miles on an old pipe, coming soon to both rebornpipes and DadsPipes!

Thanks for joining us for this discussion. If you’d like to share your own thoughts and opinions on the craft of pipe restoration, we invite you to continue the conversation through the comments section below.

Putting the pieces together and arriving at a Parker Super Bruyere Billiard

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Blog by Pam Otto

It is with pleasure that I introduce to you all the work of one of our readers, Pam Otto. I think as you read this first blog of hers posted here that you will join me in hoping we have not heard the last of her. She has done work on this Parker that rivals what an early writer, Gan Barber did with a Peterson. (If you did not read it or don’t remember here is the link: https://rebornpipes.com/2012/10/03/all-the-kings-horses-and-all-the-kings-men-a-petersen-adventure-gan-barber/). Pam has done the work a masterful job of rebuilding this old pipe. Its finished beauty is amazing. Thank you Pam for being willing to post here. It is a privilege to have you here. Without further ado, here is her post. — rebornpipes

I discovered the hobby of pipe restoration about a year and a half ago and jumped in with both feet. I soon discovered Reborn Pipes and Steve, let me tell you, my life hasn’t been the same since. Thanks so much for the information, techniques and methods you share, and for this opportunity to contribute to your blog.

Most of the pipes I’ve worked on, and learned on, have arrived through the “usual channels”–flea markets, estate sales and of course eBay. But this particular pipe, a Parker Super Bruyere, came via a more unusual route.

I was at work one recent Saturday (I manage a nature center when I’m not fiddling with pipes) when I received a text message from my friend Suzi. It contained this photo, along with the words, “Thought of you at Geneva Mothers Club bazaar!” One look at that pic and I knew work could wait. I jumped in the car and within minutes arrived at the craft show location.

I half walked, half jogged up to the building, paid my entrance fee and made my way through the throng—a well-dressed, Ladies Who Lunch crowd—in search of a sign that read Exit 22E. A subsequent text from Suzi had given this added detail, which turned out to be absolutely essential in navigating the cavalcade of vendors.

After a couple of wrong turns I at last found the booth, staffed by a pleasant woman peddling hand-crafted snowman décor. With sawdust and a little mud crumbling off my jacket, I reached for her basket of “Frosty’s Pipes” and began laying them out on the counter. We exchanged pleasantries—the woman and I—and she told me that the pipes were US$4.95 each. She also encouraged me to consider a snowman for my front door. But by then I wasn’t really listening.

I emptied the basket and studied what Frosty had to offer, eventually deciding on five Yello Boles of various vintages going back to Honey Cured Briar; a Medico Ventilator I want to try unventilating; and the Parker.

Clutching my prizes, swathed in tissue paper within a plastic Wal-Mart bag, I then faced the daunting task of navigating back through the crowded aisles. (Exit 22E, it turns out, was for emergencies only.) Along the way I bumped into Suzi and excitedly showed her the pipes—especially the Parker—while she in turn showed me the handmade greeting cards she’d found. Both happy with our purchases, we went our separate ways—she to peruse more holiday wares, I to head home and triage my treasures. Spread out on the dining room table, the pipes ran the gamut from barely touched to smoked nearly beyond recognition. Oddly enough, rather than dismiss pipes in poor condition, I find myself drawn to them. Clearly their previous owners found them quite delectable; there’s a good chance some of that former glory remains. And so it was that the Parker went to the front of the line.

Carbon clogged the bowl and had fractured the briar in three separate places, the cracks pervading the crusted rim and converging at the bottom of the bowl. The shank too was obstructed with decades of hardened goo, to the point where the mortise could accommodate only about half of the stem’s tenon. I turned up the lights and rubbed the shank a bit in an effort to remove some surface grime and get a better look at the shank’s stampings. The left side bore a faint PARKER SUPER BRUYERE, the SUPER inside a diamond; closer to the bowl was stamped the number 5. The right side read MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND and the number 18. Below this was PAT. NO. 116989/17 and, about 5mm toward the bowl, a capital letter T.

I did a quick check of Pipedia and PipePhil for Parker date codes and discovered that this old boy* dates to 1941. (*As a female, I find it funny that men tend to refer to pipes in the feminine, i.e. she/her. To me they’re clearly male. But to each his or her own, right?)

At any rate, I couldn’t wait to get started on the pipe’s revival. I started by gently pulling the stem from the shank and laying it aside. For all its years of service, its oxidation was minimal. There were some troubling dings, one nearly marring the P logo, but the delicate work they would require could wait.

Instead I turned my attention to the amazing carbon cake. I tried to picture the very last time the previous owner loaded up the bowl. Roughly half its original capacity remained and the draw, if there was one at all, probably caused some pulled lip and/or cheek muscles. I put the smallest head on my Pipnet and gently twisted it inside the cake. I expected the bowl to disintegrate immediately but, no, that took a good two or three turns more.

Moments later, with three distinct pieces in my hand and a lot more carbon to remove, I headed down to the garage and the Dremel. Even though this tool and its potential for destruction scares the bejeebers out of me, when equipped with a sanding barrel it does make quick work of hardened cake. A few minutes later I returned to my dining/work table blackened with carbon (thank goodness for dust masks and goggles) but with three much-cleaner pieces of briar to assess.

Parts of the bowl were not only caked but also charred, so I’d had to remove a considerable amount of material. Worse, due to the uneven nature of the char, the bowl innards were something less than round.

The good news tho was that all the breaks were clean, and the three pieces fit neatly back together. Before reassembly I scrubbed the outer surfaces with straight-up Murphy’s Oil Soap, then wiped them down with a damp towel. The grain that was hiding beneath the grunge made me smile. I mixed up some JB Weld and applied it to the breaks, placing more on the inner edges than the outer. I reunited the individual parts, pressed and held them together for a couple of minutes, smoothed the interior with a toothpick and then set the bowl aside to cure.

A combination of demands at work as well as home meant that it was another week before I returned to the Parker. I tried twisting and turning the bowl and thankfully the “welds” held. JB Weld is tough stuff. 🙂 I ran a needle along the external surfaces of the cracks to clean out any loose debris, then applied briar dust and super glue. While waiting for the glue mixture to cure, I began work on the stem. Starting with a small, folded bit of 220 grit paper, then 400 and 600, I gingerly worked on the small gouges near the base. If it weren’t for their location near the logo, I would have tried using a flame and then sanding. But I opted instead to make the raised edges flush with the stem, then mixed powdered charcoal with super glue and filled in the small cavities that remained. After curing, I sanded the patches smooth.

I also decided to experiment with the inside of a cigar box as background for picture taking. The next day I sanded the briar-dust crack repairs with a succession of 220, 400 and 600 grit sandpapers. I also topped the bowl with that same sequence to see how the cracks appeared from the top down. I put the stem back in the shank to size up how things were coming along and, when it only went in halfway, remembered that I still had a lot of internal cleaning to do.

I dipped a bristle pipe cleaner in 91% isopropyl alcohol and threaded it through the stem, then set it aside to soak. I attempted to do the same with the shank, but it was so clogged I had to first abrade away whatever gunk I could reach with a round needle file.

I dripped some alcohol down the shank and eventually was able to poke through to the bowl with a bristle cleaner—the first of many. I worked for about an hour, switching between bristle cleaners and cotton swabs, before finally finishing up with a few regular pipe cleaners.

The stem took a little less time, maybe 30 minutes, and a dozen bristle and regular pipe cleaners combined.

The P logo on the stem was a little worse for wear. The lower right side of the diamond, as viewed from the button end, was virtually nonexistent. Using an Exacto blade, I pushed on the faint outline that remained until there was a slight indent. It wasn’t quite as deep as the other three sides of the diamond, but I thought it prudent to stop before I went too far.

I tried using white nail polish to brighten up the logo but, perhaps because the bottle was 20 years old, the results weren’t quite what I was looking for. I wiped away the nail polish residue and applied Liquid Paper white correction fluid, which I’ve had success with in the past. I would say the results were “Meh,” except that, in looking up other Parkers online, it would appear that their stem stampings are not always super-crisp. Rather than waste more time on a detail that probably can’t improve a whole lot more, I decided to celebrate its unevenness and move along to the next step: resolving the bowl’s myriad issues.

Using 220 grit sandpaper, I moved along the inside of the bowl, sanding away excess JB Weld along with microns of briar. I eyeballed the progress as I went, hoping for a shape that approximated round. When I was satisfied it was as close as it could get, I mixed up a small batch of Steve’s sour cream-n-powdered-charcoal bowl coating and applied it, first with a dental spatula, then a folded pipe cleaner. I used my index finger for a final smoothing.
It was during this process that I noticed the left exterior of the bowl was itself somewhat flattened. Maybe a few too many whacks on a tabletop or boot heel?

Whatever the reason, I moistened a towel, heated a table knife and proceeded to steam the area. Maybe it worked, maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but the flatness did seem to raise up a bit. With that issue addressed, it was time to start staining.

When I’d cleaned up the briar with the Murphy’s Oil Soap, the grunge on the towel included a considerable amount of red pigment. Hoping to recreate the same hue, I swabbed the bowl with oxblood aniline stain, wiped it immediately with an absorbent cloth, then swabbed it with dark brown stain and wiped again. After a few touch-ups I was satisfied that the coverage was even, and flamed the stain with a lighter.

The seams where the bowl had been mended were still a little too visible for my taste, so I went at them with a black Sharpie marker. A quick dab with the marker followed by a quick wipe with my finger helped the cracks blend in a little more.

At this point I decided this Parker was about as reborn as he was going to get. Down to the garage workshop we went, one last time, to apply some carnauba. Only then did I realize just how cold our recent cold snap has been. I brought the wax bar inside to warm up a bit, then went back to the garage for a couple quick coats. More will come, after the next thaw.

If you look at the pipe up close, the cracks are still apparent. But like a bad memory, they fade with some distance. This is one pipe Frosty is going to have to do without.

Peterson System 314 Challenge

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By Al Jones

I was overdue for a challenge pipe as lately, most of my personal estate purchases have been in pretty decent shape. I was also looking for the right pipe to attempt Dave G’s stain stripping process (documented earlier on this blog). This one came from a forum buddy in India, who had it sent directly to me.

Taking the pipe out of the box, it looked pretty beat. The bowl top was damaged and it would surely need topped. The P-lip button had some teeth marks and the nickel band was corroded and dinged. It did appear to be a good candidate to test the new stripping process.

My smile turned to a frown as I attempted to remove the stem. It was impossibly stuck. To further complicate the stem removal, the stem was plugged shut as well, which didn’t allow me to get any alcohol into the bowl from that vantage point. I tried dribbling in some alcohol, but it didn’t appear much was going into the bowl (or any!). I put the pipe in the freezer for a few hours, but no dice on stem movement (recommendation: always tell your wife when you put a pipe in the freezer). Next, I tried soaking the entire pipe in alcohol, which also failed. Last last night, I sprayed in some PB Blaster, automotive penetrating fluid. This morning, it was still stuck fast. I used a piece of thin wire to work it into the stem, which was filled with some nasty looking crud. This did eventually allow me to get a bristle cleaner soaked in alcohol into the stem. I then inserted another alcohol soaked cleaner and dropped it onto the bowl of alcohol again. After an hour, I could detect some slight movement and a few moments later, I had success.

The system sump was filled with tobacco build-up, which took an hour to clean out with towels, bristle brushes and cleaners all dipped in alcohol. This pipe is a poster child for advocating the frequent cleaning of Peterson System pipes. The stem went into an Oxy-clean soak.

I topped the bowl using 150 grade paper on a flat work surface. Next it was sanded to a smoother finish using 320 grade paper and then wet sanded with 800 grade. The bowl was reamed and incredibly, in fantastic condition with no issues inside. I then soaked the bowl with sea salt and alcohol (might have been redundant by that point). Here is the bowl after topping.

Next up was to strip the factory finish. I used a heat gun to pull off the nickel cap. While it was hot and malleable, I used a dowel to push out a few of the dings. Using Dave G’s stripping method, I wiped the bowl down with Murphy’s Oil Soap (being sure to not get any into the bowl interior). I then wiped it down with alcohol. A solution was prepared using warm water and a generous helping of Oxy-Clean powder. I heated the bowl with a heat gun as Dave thinks that helps open the pores of the wood. Using some 0000 steel wool, I scrubbed the pipe down. I used a cloth around the nomenclature. Not surprisingly, the stripping process revealed some fills and actually pulled the putty. I applied a few drops of super glue to each spot and pressed in some briar dust. The spots were then sanded smooth with 800 grit wet paper. The nickel band was glued back in place. Below we see the bowl stripped and fills ready to sand smooth.

Now the pipe was ready to restain. I used some diluted Fieblings Medium Brown stain and set the stain with flame. The bowl was then buffed with White Diamond and waxed with Carnuba Wax.

I removed the stem from the Oxy-clean solution and filled the two tooth marks on top with black Superglue and accelerator. I used a file to reshape the button end then with 800 grit paper wrapped around the needle file. The oxidation on the stem was removed using 800 grit paper, than 1500 and 2000 grades. I followed that with 8,000 and 12,000 grade micromesh sheets. It was then buffed with White Diamond and Meguiars Plastic polish.

This one required most of the pipe restoration techniques and was a fun challenge. Here is the completed pipe.

Who Made Benson and Hedges Pipes – Reclaiming a B&H Acorn

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother sent me a little acorn shaped pipe that was stamped on the left side of the shank, Benson & Hedges and on the right side, Imported Briar over 84 and next to that in a smaller sized font 18. I have had several of these pipes on the work table over the years but this is a beautiful little pipe (5 inches long). The briar is nice and there are no fills or sandpits in it that I can see. The rim was dirty and had some cut marks in it. There was a cake in the bowl that was uneven – thick in some places and thin in others. The stem was badly oxidized and on the underside near the button there was a small tooth mark. Here is what it looked like when I brought it to the table to work on it.

I have included a close up photo of the rim to show the damage and the thickness of the cake. I was curious about the maker of the pipe so I did some searching. In Who Made that Pipe it says that the pipe is English Made. In Pipedia says that it was likely made by Comoy for the London Tobacco Company. Then it lists the following stamping “London Made”. http://pipedia.org/wiki/British_Pipe_Brands_%26_Makers_A_-_D There was one other note that Orlik made pipes that were stamped with the Benson and Hedges label. Nowhere in the listings that I could find did anyone mention the stamping on this one: Imported Briar. That stamping tells me that it was made for the American Market. The number stamp on the right side of the shank fits both Comoy and Orlik numbering systems and point to either as possible makers of the pipe. I guess this is one mystery that I can go no further in unraveling.

I reamed the bowl of the uneven cake with a PipNet reamer using the first two cutting heads. I took the cake back to bare briar. It was crumbly and soft so it was an easy reaming job.

I lightly topped the bowl on the topping board to take of the rim damage and clean it up.

Sometimes I think that my readers probably could tell me the next step but I write it anyway. I scrubbed down the bowl with alcohol and cotton pads to remove the grime and the light varnish coat that seemed to be on the bowl. I scrubbed the mortise with cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the grime. I used a shank brush and pipe cleaners to clean out the airway. I cleaned out the airway on the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol.

I could have let the stem sit in Oxyclean but did not feel like doing that this morning so I put a plastic washer between the shank and the stem and worked on the oxidation with 220 grit sandpaper. I also sanded and removed the tooth mark on the underside of the stem near the button. I sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge as well to remove the scratching in the rubber.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final rubdown of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and gave the entire pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise a shine and then again by hand with the microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a pretty little pipe that is lightweight and charming looking. Thanks for looking.

I Got the Kaywoodie-Delta Blues

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The Delta blues is a low-down, dirty shame blues. It’s a sad, big wide sound, something to make you think of people who are dead or the women who left you.
― David “Honeyboy” Edwards (1915-2011), U.S. Delta blues guitarist and singer

INTRODUCTION
I’ve been sitting on these two nice metal pipes, different brands but modeled after the original of their kind, designed by Frederick Kirsten, a U.S. professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington who was transferred to the aeronautics department and promptly changed the course of aviation history with the creation of the Kirsten Wind Tunnel for subsonic aerodynamic testing. He also upended the tobacco pipe industry and generally rocked the world of pipe enjoyers with his 1936 invention of a sleek aluminum radiator frame with interchangeable bowls. The patented revolution in a box was more or less a way to quit cigarettes by exercising his boundless creativity. He puffed cigars as well.

Maybe I’m just not as daring as the good professor. Whenever I find myself on the edge of pipe restoration territory I haven’t charted, I hesitate. I don’t panic or freeze in terror. I just pause to survey the terrain and get my bearings; to triangulate my coordinates, find my footing, and then one day, as if on an impulse but really because I’m good and ready, I take the next leap, with some faith.

And so it was last night that I looked at the Kaywoodie Smooth Billiard and Duncan Delta Rusticated Brandy with a dental lip – again – and without thinking grabbed them. The next thing I knew, I was looking around for the implements of cleaning and restoring I might need for the combined tasks and remembered another aluminum pipe I fixed up once, an Aristocob, and how I used a solution of white vinegar and baking soda to soak the metal. Although I had bought enough of each for a lifetime when I did the Aristocob, I discovered they were lost in my latest necessarily hasty move. The nearest Walmart would close in about a half-hour, at midnight. All of Sam Walton’s children here used to stay up round the clock, but now there are less than a handful that do, and only one within any kind of reasonable distance. They had too many problems with thievery and other shenanigans, you see, mostly through the dock doors, if you follow me. I armed myself against the natives, threw on a coat, petted my cats as they were curious about the sudden hullabaloo and hurried out the door. I was back before the witching hour.

As part of the map checking I did in comforting if only perceived preparation for these restorations, I noted that the Duncan Delta, of the English metal genre, as it were, came with a non-removable bit, as did the two Falcons in my personal collection. At this point I made that greatest of mistakes: I assumed there were no exceptions to the rule.

To be fair to myself, I showed the Kaywoodie and Duncan Delta to my friend and mentor, Chuck Richards, who is usually infallible, and asked how the bits come off for cleaning. In hindsight and an extended spirit of fairness, I’m not sure he looked all that closely at them.

“They don’t,” he said, with a certain amused grin he has. “You just have to work through them.” Or something to that effect. Taking a seat on the couch with the supplies I would need to proceed, I had no idea what I was in for. I can’t wait to show Chuck the mind-boggling discovery I tripped over, figuratively speaking – about halfway through the restorations. To those in the audience who know the astonishing secret of a certain rare Kaywoodie metal pipe made from 1955-1959, with this particular surprise only included during the first year or so of that period, Shhhh! Don’t spoil the revelation for others when it comes, in good time.

RESTORATIONS

I had prepared an empty macaroni salad tub, by cleaning it with scalding water and dish soap, for the vinegar-baking soda soak of the aluminum pipe bodies. It was the widest container I had but also deeper than it needed to be. Into the tub I measured about a tablespoon of baking soda, then added the vinegar and watched it fizz madly until the powder dissolved. I placed the two parts in the mix and added more vinegar until they were almost covered. Considering the possible effects on the bits, I spontaneously chose the bolder path and pushed down a little on each one until they were submerged. The bubble action was really something to see – much more active of an interaction than an OxiClean bath – but I had other things to do. The bowls needed cleaning in the worst way, the bases in particular. The moisture from tobacco creates steam, and Kirsten’s system, which is used in metal pipes still today, traps and cools the steam in the stem. Much of the resulting very sticky, cloying gunk ends up on the bottoms of the bowls and can be cleaned in seconds by anyone who enjoys these pipes. But as Steve put it perfectly in one of his blogs on a particularly messy Generation 1 Kirsten A, I’ll just quote him: “The cleaning in seconds must not have been something that the previous owner of this pipe ever read or understood.” https://rebornpipes.com/tag/kirsten-pipes/

Taking also from this great blog the idea that metal pipes are, for the most part, sturdy things that can outlive generations of a single family of pipe enjoyers, I launched a three-pronged assault on the bottoms of the bowls alone. First I swabbed them and the rest of the bowls’ exteriors with cotton gun cleaning squares soaked with purified water; then the same with Everclear swabs, and next superfine steel wool on the bases and rims. The Delta base, being metal and somewhat pocked with corrosion, needed a little more work with sandpaper before another round of steel wool.

An odd trick of sight makes the rusticated Duncan bowl, which indeed has a wider outer diameter than the smooth Kaywoodie (about 5” compared to 4-3/8), appear as if it would need a bigger reamer to clean out most of the excess cake. But the Duncan only took a 19mm fixed reamer while the Kaywoodie held a 21mm. I smoothed the chambers with 320-grit paper followed by 200, followed by long and careful consideration of the next step. While I started restoring pipes with the habit of stripping the old finish completely, I have taken to avoiding that step for the most part on different levels of thinking, primarily two. One, I never know for sure what I’ll find beneath the finish that might have been better left uncovered, and two, I have become more purist in my approach, liking the idea of imitating the original.

Nevertheless, I concluded I just didn’t care for the light brown shade of the Kaywoodie or the dark brown of the Duncan. As the former was of U.S. origin and the latter of British make, I reasoned, that would make them cousins, as some folks on either side of the Pond refer to each other. But I wanted them to be more like brothers. Therefore, “Off with their stains!” I heard a voice cry in my head, and dunked both bottoms up into an Everclear bath, careful to leave the bases above the alcohol level. While the 190-proof alcohol changed from clear to something else, I removed the frames from their long vinegar-baking soda soak, rinsed them thoroughly and began to “work through” the Duncan frame with pipe cleaners dipped in more Everclear, still shocked, as always, at the filth that came out. Seriously, how hard is it to run a cleaner through your pipe now and then? Are restorers the only people who do it? Deep breath; exhale. I suppose that’s a rant better left for my upcoming Encyclopedia of Pipe Trips. Still, seven bristly cleaners through the frame later, and three swabs soaked with alcohol to clean out most of the mess in the round bowl connector, not to mention having to use my wire cleaner to dig out the muck in the grooves of said connector, I thought I was finished with that part. But now, looking at the photo above, I see it needs a little more work. I’m going to soak the connector in Everclear and scrub it some more. Give me a few minutes to make it shine better, and I’ll be right back with another picture. There. That was easy, and I for one feel better. Plus the picture tells the whole story!

Anyway, enough time had passed to take the bowls out of the Everclear and scrub them cleaner and dry inside-out with more cotton swabs. I used the steel wool again on both, lightly on the Kaywoodie to make it shine before heightening the effect with a micromesh progression, and vigorously to take the finish of the rusticated Duncan down still more until it was actually reddish, for which I had hoped. Re-staining both with Lincoln Marine Cordovan (Burgundy) boot stain, I flamed them with my Bic and set them aside. Now, at last, I near the dramatic moment I know you have all been waiting for! Is that the faint fade-in of a drum roll I hear, or an auditory hallucination? Due to my slight deviation from following the restorations of each pipe part by part – starting when I cleaned the Duncan frame and instead of moving on to the Kaywoodie, continued to the bowls – I did not learn the wonderful nature of the Kaywoodie until I attempted to work through it with bristly cleaners as I had the Duncan…

…and the whole thing came apart in my lap! There were the bit that wasn’t supposed to come off and some bizarre, vile, noxious looking thingamabob that looked like a wire brush. I picked it up with distaste and tossed the whole dark, stained mess in the leftover Everclear from stripping the bowls. I knew that would clean it up somewhat, and it did. With the brush out of the Kaywoodie frame, by the way, the metal was quite easy to clean. That should have been a clue, but my first thought was that someone had stuck the brush inside the frame as a makeshift filter. (It is truly scary how close and yet so far from the truth I can be sometimes in my denser moments.) At least I had the sense to recognize that the resulting hole in the frame was gaping wide, and turned to pipephil.eu for help, which I found as I almost always do. It was the second metal “filter” pipe in the Kaywoodie models A-K section, the Filter Plus, made from 1955-1959. A convenient link to Smoking Metal led me to the rest of the story. http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=133

As it turns out, the brush is not a fluke, of course, but an original Kaywoodie nylon brush filter that was only included with the pipe during the first year or so of its four-year run. The filter brush has 5,000 fibers. Now, I want y’all to think on that fer a spell. Finding a pipe with one at all, much less intact, is a miracle. It’s no wonder Bill Feuerbach, president of S.M. Frank & Co. Inc., owner of Kaywoodie, is quoted at the link above as saying of the Filter Plus, “It is one of the most indestructible and durable pipes I have ever run across.”

Check out the advertisement below from the first year the Filter Plus was made. Considering how easy it was to clean the frame of the pipe itself, despite (or because of) the dirty condition of the filter brush, it’s a shame they stopped making them. As the ad shows, the pipe cost $4, or $35.42 in today’s money. http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/. Replacement or additional bowls were $1.50 ($13.28), and two-packs of the filter brushes were 35 cents ($3.10). Getting close to the finish line always makes my blood start to race! I buffed the two bowls with 4000 and 6000 micromesh. Then there was the Kaywoodie bit, which was looking a little rough. I sanded it with 200- and 320-grit paper before working my way up the micromesh trail, and moved on to putting a little Halcyon II wax on the Duncan. During a few of the 15 minutes or so it set in, I took the Kaywoodie Filter Plus billiard bowl and the bit (which indeed is removable) into my office. I buffed the bit with red and white Tripoli, then White Diamond, using the clean wheel between each; then the bowl with white Tripoli, White Diamond and a good coat of carnauba, again using the clean wheel in between.

Really only ten minutes more passed, at most, as I sat back on my couch, screwing the Kaywoodie bowl in and out of the frame threads and wiping it down, over and over, because it seemed like the minute hand on the clock was stuck there to spite me! Maybe that’s because I kept eyeballing it. But the time did pass, and I carried the Duncan bowl into the office for a quick spin on the clean wheel only. That was my reward for being so patient and all.

CONCLUSION
Well. Now that it’s all said and done, all I really have to add is that this pair of restorations was just plain fun. And full of surprises. And I learned a few new things I never imagined, too, and can’t wait to show Chuck!

ADDITIONAL SOURCE
https://www.reddit.com/r/PipeTobacco/comments/3a5hf9/info_on_falcon_pipe_markings/ Info on FD18 stamp

Cleaning up a WDC Milano Hesson 1925 Long stem Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

One of the pipes my brother sent me this past week was this long stemmed little billiard. The stem was over clocked almost ½ a turn in the shank and the stem was frozen in the shank. It was dark coloured and the finish was dingy. The rim was covered with an overflow of cake from the bowl but it did not look to be damaged either on the inside or outside edge. The bowl itself had a broken cake lining it – thicker in the middle and the back edge than at the top or the bottom fo the bowl. There was some small pin prick sized marks around the back side of the bowl near the top edge but they were not rough. The stem itself was quite clean – good rubber so it had hardly oxidized. There were two small tooth marks – one on each side of the stem. The WDC white triangle in the stem had lifted and would need to be repaired. The stamping on the shank of the pipe is what got my attention. On the left side it had the WDC in a triangle logo over MILANO. I have seen quite a few WDC Milano pipes over the years. On the other side it is stamped Hesson over Pat’d Dec 22, 1925 and the shape number 1527.

I was not sure what kind of connection I was dealing with on the tenon on this old Milano. Other ones I had worked on were push aluminum tenons and sat in the shank. The aluminum oxidized and the tenons often were bound to the shank when I got them. But there was something about this one that was different. I could not turn it either direction so I put it in the freezer overnight and let the different expansion/contraction rates of briar and metal do their work. In the morning I carefully worked it back and forth and it seemed to give a little. I decided to see if it was a threaded tenon so I held the shank tightly next to the stem and the turned the stem counter clockwise and it came free. Once it was out I could see that I was dealing with a slightly older Milano Hesson system than any of the previous ones I had worked on. This one had a threaded tenon with a long tube attached to the end. The tube extended right up to the entry of the airway in the bottom of the bowl. The shank was also was threaded but the threads had been cut into the briar. There was no mortise insert in the shank. I looked at the documents I had from the other WDC Milano Hesson pipes that I had restored. This one was slightly different. I have included the Patent drawing for your comparison. The differences are readily notable. The patent is from 1932 and the pipe is stamped 1925. The major difference that I see is the internal of the shank and the tube on the tenon in the 1925 edition. I decided to use my tried and true method for correcting over clocked stems. I heated the tenon with the flame of the lighter and tried to turn it. It did not work. No matter how long I held the lighter in place it did not heat the glue in the stem enough to allow me to align the stem with the shank. I set up a heat gun and heated the tenon on low heat. It did not take long and I was able to screw it into the shank and align the stem properly. I set it aside and let it cool with the stem in place while the glue hardened again. I took the following three photos to show the properly aligned stem.

I cleaned out the shank with cotton swabs and alcohol until it was clean. I ran a pipe cleaner through at the entry of the airway into the bowl. The end of the metal tube sat against the entry so it was pretty clean. Most of the grit and grime were in the threads on the walls of the mortise. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and the smallest cutting head to take the cake back to the briar.

With the inside clean I worked on the bowl finish. It was dirty but it also had a coat of varnish on the surface that had gone opaque. The grain was invisible underneath it. I lightly sanded the bowl and rim with 1500 grit micromesh to break up the surface of the varnish and then wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads until I had removed the grime and varnish coat and the grain was visible. The stain on the pipe was oxblood so it had a rich, deep red hue to it.

I scrubbed the metal tube with 1500 grit micromesh and used a brass tire brush on the threads to clean up the grime and oxidation that was present on it. I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I buffed the bowl with White Diamond (very lightly around the stamping on the shank) and gave it a coat of carnauba wax.

I took close up photos of the stamping on the shank. The left side shows in the first photo. The right side of the shank is shown in the second. It is sharp and very legible.

I worked on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the small tooth marks on the top and the bottom sides. I then sanded it with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratching.

I started to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I was just starting to sand with a 3200 grit pad when the edge of the pad hit the edge of the triangle (it sat high on the stem as it appeared to have lifted) and sent it flying. The white triangle was nowhere to be found so now I faced a new dilemma. I filled in the empty triangle in the stem with liquid paper. It is the same white as the previous triangle. It shrinks as it dries so once it was dry I put a drop of clear super glue on top of it to form a bubble. Once it dried I could sand it down to the surface of the stem and I would be good to go with the replacement triangle. Once the glue dried I sanded the fill down to match the surface of the stem and the new triangle looked pretty good. I cleaned out the threads on the tenon with alcohol and a cotton pad and then screwed it back into the mortise. I sanded the newly filled and area with 1500-2400 grit pads and then continued with 3200-4000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It does not look too bad for a pipe from Dec. 22, 1925. Thanks for looking.

Another Painful 70s Era E.A. Carey Magic Inch Apple Restored

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Blog by Steve Laug

Reading the title of this blog you might wonder why I called it another painful Carey pipe. As this refurb description unfolds I think it will become clear what I mean by the title. In the Montana pipes that my brother Jeff sent me there were four E.A. Carey Magic Inch Patent pipes. I worked on the first one in the photo below, the Freehand and found that the bowl was a piece of cake. Getting the plastic apparatus cleaned in the shank was a challenge that took a lot of pipe cleaner and patience to move through. Because of that I have honestly been avoiding working on any of the others in the foursome. I have worked on a lot of others that have been sitting just because the cleaning is a pain, but more importantly trying to clean up the chewed up stems and getting any kind of shine on them is painstaking. The plastic cleans up well enough and I am able to repair the bite marks. The dents will not raise with heat, the inside of the stem takes a lot of scrubbing and is cavernous so lots of cotton swabs are sacrificed and lots of pipe cleaners. The plastic does not take kindly to the boiling alcohol of a retort so I am left to do the work by hand. Then once cleaned polishing the stem feels like an impossible challenge. I don’t remember how many hours of sanding with micromesh pads and then carefully, lightly buffing with the buffer went into bringing the shine on the Freehand so the lot just sat taunting me in my refurb box.

Finally, a few days ago I went through the remaining threesome to see if I had any sudden urge to work on one of them. I looked them over one at a time, examining the internals, the condition of the rim and the briar and also the stem….argghh. The stems on all of them have identical chew and bite marks. All were a mess. One of them stood out to me though and I ventured into working on it. It is the second pipe down from the top in the photo below (I have circled it in red).
Before I jumped into working on it I figured I better take some of the advice noted in the photo to the left. These Carey’s are time consuming and I find myself frustrated often in the process of polishing the stem.

I knew without looking to deeply at this old pipe that it would be another one that drove me to the edge. The finish on the briar was dull and dirty. There was some interesting grain poking through – birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the back and front. The stamping was very clean and sharp. The rim was crowned and had a significant lava overflow build up on the top. The good thing was that there was no damage to either the inner or outer edge of the rim. The bowl still was half full of unsmoked tobacco but appeared to be heavily caked. It was hard and dense. The stem was a mess. Once I took it off the apparatus extending from the shank there was still a dirty papyrate filter in place on the tube. The inside of the stem was dark and oily. The outside was covered with deep tooth marks and also a generous case of tooth chatter. There was also a gummy substance on the clean top half of each stem that probably came from price tags that were in place at the antique shop where my brother found them.

I took the next two photos to show the set up of the apparatus with the papyrate filter in place and the state of the bowl and the rim.

The lava overflow on the rim took a lot of elbow grease to scrub it clean. I used Murphy’s Oil Soap and cotton pads to scrub it until I had it clean. I wiped down the rest of the bowl with the soap and then rinsed it with running water. I dried of the bowl and then cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners and alcohol.

With the briar clean and the internals of the bowl and shank clean I gave the bowl a light wipe down with olive oil so that I could see the grain more clearly. I took the next photos to show the beauty of this bowl.

The next photo shows the stamping on the left side of the shank. The right side is stamped Grecian. I set the bowl aside to work on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and a fine grit sanding sponge to clean off the tooth chatter and the grime. I wiped it down with alcohol on the outside to prepare it or the repairs on the deep tooth marks. I used black super glue and put drops into the dents, leaving a bubble so that when it dried and shrunk down the dents would be filled and could be sanded.

When the glue dried I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper once again to blend the patches into the surface of the stem.

Before going any further I decided it was time to clean out the inside of the stem. I used cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean out the internals. With the inside cleaned and the repairs smoothed out I sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. They removed many of the scratches and the stem was beginning to take shape. I was not getting too excited however as this was when the tedious work really started. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. It does not absorb into the stem material so I use it to give me more bite between the various grit pads of micromesh. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I buffed it lightly with White Diamond and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a last coat of oil to wipe down the dust and then hand buffed it.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond Polish on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff and then buffed it by hand with a microfibre cloth. I don’t know how many hours I have in this stem but it certainly seemed to take forever. The bowl cleaned up great and the briar is quite remarkable. The beauty of the grain comes through clearly and the finished pipe looks great. I have two more Carey’s to clean up but I think I will wait awhile to tackle them. This one gets me half way through the lot. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Thanks for looking.

The Rebirth of a GBD Pedigree Regent Billiard

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Charles and I are guest blogging on each others sites this weekend. If you haven’t yet, wander over the DadsPipes to read the full post!

Blog by Steve Laug

Charles Lemon of DadsPipes and I thought it would be cool to do a guest blog post on each other’s blog. Charles sent me his post yesterday and I posted it last evening. Now it was my turn to send one to him. I chose this little nondescript pipe bowl to restem and restore before I knew that I was working on something more than it appeared. As a bowl it epitomizes what I love doing with these tired, worn pipes at rebornpipes. Thank you Charles, for the opportunity of putting a post on your blog. Enjoy the rebirth. — Steve

Yet another mystery pipe from the Ebay purchase of bowls. I had no idea what the stamping was when I first received it and figured it must be one that had the finish so worn that I would never be able to tell. Today under…

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