Comoys Pebble Grain Shape 42 Restoration

By Al Jones

This is the second Comoy’s Pebble Grain pipe that has crossed my bench in the past two years. This one has a thick layer of carbon build-up on the bowl top, but I’ve learned that sometimes can hide a nice bowl and even possibly protect it from further damage. The stem appeared to be in great shape, with just a little oxidation.

The 3 piece, drilled “C” stem logo indicates the pipe was made prior to 1981. Tony Soderman told me me that he believed Comoy’s introduced the Pebble Grain line in the 1970’s. Some while the straight line “Made In London, England” was used before WWII, this pipe was most likely made between he 1970’s to 1981.

Comoy’s “Sandblast” pipes have a sandblasted bowl top but the Pebble Grains seem to all have polished, beveled bowl tops. I couldn’t resist seeing what was under that thick coating of build-up. A few minutes with a cloth dipped in a mild Oxy-Clean solution removed all of the build-up on the bowl top. A piece of worn 1500 grit wet paper restored the finish. I buffed the top with some White Diamond and it will be waxed in a final step. I then reamed the bowl and soaked it with 91% isopropyl alcohol and sea salt.

I put a dab of grease on the drilled, “C” stem logo and gave it a short soak in a mild Oxy-Clean solution. The oxidation was removed with 800 grade wet paper, followed by 1500, 2000 and then 8000 and 12000 grade micromesh sheets. I buffed the stem lightly with White Diamond and then Meguiars Plastic Polish.

I wiped the grime from the briar with some mild Oxy-Clean and a cloth and then hand waxed the bowl with Halycon wax.

Below is the finished pipe.

Bringing new life to an old corn cob

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I was in Idaho for the funeral of my mother in law my brother and I took the day after the funeral and went on a pipe hunt. He has been attending auctions and going to antique shops on his travels and he picked up some nice pipes that he passed on to me. I will be working on them for a few months. He also had visited several of the antique malls in Idaho Falls where we were. On that day we visited three of them. In one of them there were a few pipes that caught my fancy one of them was an old corn cob bent with a diamond shank. It was in rough shape in that the glue that usually seals the shank into the bowl was gone and it was pretty loose. The bowl was well smoked and had a cake that I would need to clean up. The rim was also blackened. The bowl has a hardwood plug in the bottom which adds to the durability of the pipe. One unique feature of this pipe was that the shank was made of cob. It had some dings and nicks on it. The bottom of the diamond shank bore the Missouri Meerschaum label. There was a brass band that protected the end of the shank. The stem was Redmanol or Bakelite – a nice rich red coloured plastic that had some tooth chatter but no deep tooth marks or cracks. The orifice button on the stem and the material it was made of made me pretty certain that this was an old timer – possibly from the 30s.

Typical of what happens when I find old pipes like this I can’t wait until I get home to start working on them. In this case I figured I wanted to stabilize the shank in the bowl so that it would not get damaged when I carried it home in my luggage. I bought some Elmer’s Wood Glue and used it to fill in the gap around the entrance of the shank to the bowl. I used it to also repair some of the nicks on the sides of the bowl and the shank. I gave it multiple coats to build it up so that shank bowl union was smooth and the dings and marks were also smooth. Of course being in a rush to work on it I forgot to take pictures of the pipe before or during the early stages of the repair. When I left for Vancouver the bowl and the shank transition were smooth and the nicks and dings were also smooth on the surface of the bowl. I need to sand them and feather them into the surface and take off some of the glue shine.

I lightly sanded the rim to remove the blackening and clean up that surface. I reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to a very thin coat. The bowl is still round so that will not take further work to fix it.

I cleaned out the bowl and shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol until they were clean. Due to the shank being cob I was careful how much alcohol I ran through it as I did not want to soften the shank any further by making it wet. I cleaned out the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol again being careful to not damage the Redmanol material. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to remove the too chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it immediately with 3200-4000 grit pads so that the micromesh had some bite to it. The oil provided a surface that allowed the micromesh pads to polish the stem. I dry sanded further with 6000-12000 grit pads and then buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean flannel buff to give it a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to finish the polishing.

The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

Medico’s Answer to the Falcon – The Double-Dri

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This is one Medico I would like to add. I am on the lookout for things like this. Well done.

I pulled this Medico Double-Dri pipe out of my refurb box the other day. It had been rattling around in there for a while, and I decided it was time to do something about it.

There are several well-known brands of pipes designed with removable and interchangeable bowls – the Falcon and Kirsten pipes jump to mind. The Double-Dri was Medico’s foray into the field, though where the Falcon pipe used aluminium for its shank, the Double-Dri used another 1950’s Space Age material, Nylon, for both shank and stem. Press-fit bowls were available in briar or the more expensive meerschaum. I couldn’t find much information online when I set about researching the Double-Dri pipes, though I did come across this Medico advertisement in the March 1955 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine.

This ad is clearly from the period before truth-in-advertising laws took effect. I wouldn’t bet the farm on the existence…

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A Quick DIY Pipe Display

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Great idea Charles. I may have to adapt that to my collection… it sure is easier than the boxes and drawers I use now. Well done.

Hi everyone. Here’s a quick mid-week post to share a DIY solution to every piper’s perennial pipe storage shortage.

I made this 28-pipe storage/display rack in just a few hours. I was lucky enough to find a 24″ x 32″ piece of 5/8″ plywood in my garage, and a rummage through the fabric bin turned up a suitable remnant of black velvet fabric left over from another project. An old bath towel the Mrs had declared unfit for human use completed my scrounged materials.

I lay the velvet face down on my work table, then lay the towel on top of the velvet. The plywood was then laid on top of the towel. I trimmed excess fabric away, leaving just enough to wrap up over the edges of the plywood and about an inch more, where it was securely stapled to the back of the wood. This produced a nice…

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( EUGENE RICH ) Boxed Custombilt 1946-1952

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Yet another beautiful Custombilt. Great restoration of a wonderful boxed pipe. Well done.

PipesRevival

My wife and father through a joint effort picked this one up for me, it arrived today and I was blown away . I’ve been trying to get my hands on a boxed Custombilt for a few years but they were always just out of reach. This beautiful bulldog is a Eugene Rich era Custombilt very lightly smoked, amazing condition and it came with the original box, paperwork and guarantee. The box was a little rough around the edges not unlike the pipes themselves. This is my first Rich era Bilt and not an ounce of filler, I’m starting to think it’s time to broaden my horizons.

This is more of a standard clean up then a restoration. I decided to share this clean up because every collector/pipe smoker has there white whale. Whether it be a priceless one of a kind or an inexpensive hard to find piece.

Sometimes it’s the packaging that needs the work…

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A Pipe’s Journey – Big Ben Select Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I personally enjoy knowing the history or journey of a pipe before it arrives in my trust. So when I am gifted a pipe I record where it came from and if I keep it I have an idea of the path it took to come to me. If I gift it forward I pass on that information to the next owner if they are interested in knowing. I don’t know what it is about the story of a pipe that intrigues me but I have some idea that it is because of the connection it gives with pipe men behind me and those who will live beyond me. I know that a briar pipe will live long after I am gone. Because I buy estate pipes I know that it has had a long history before it came to me. When I know that history it adds a dimension to my enjoyment of the pipe. When I don’t know the history I can learn a lot about it from the previous pipe man who smoked it before me.

This pipe came to me in a gift box of six pipes that were in need for refurbishment from a friend in California on Smokers Forums. I believe he picked them up from Ebay in a lot of pipes he purchased. As many do, he bought the lot for one of the pipes and then set aside the others to either work on or to pass on to others. This particular pipe was a sandblasted Big Ben Bent Billiard. Underneath the wear and tear I could see that a gem still resided. It had a silver band and a nice looking blast. I could see from the use and condition of the pipe that it was obviously someone’s favourite pipe. I must have been a great smoking pipe because it was smoked into the condition it arrived at my work table.

The finish was rough but shape was classic. The feel of the pipe in my hand was perfect. It fit in the cup of my hand and was light weight and comfortable. The thin stem would clean up nicely and feel great in the mouth. There was some work to do before it would be ready to be smoked by me or by someone I gifted it to that was for sure. The bowl was dirty and thickly caked. The shank and stem were filled with tars and grime. The bowl was stamped on the underside of the shank – Big Ben Select under a B in a circle. The rim edges were worn and rough but as it was a blast this would not be a problem to clean up. Over the stain coat was also a shiny varnish or lacquer coat that I always find to be a pain to remove and deal with in a pipe that is worn like this one. The outside of the stem was oxidized but the circle B logo was still deeply stamped. There was also a slight tooth mark on the underside of the stem near the button. The button was very tight and small – so much so that a thin pipe cleaner was work to get through the slot. I described the process of refurbishing this old timer in a previous blog that can be found at the link below. https://rebornpipes.com/2013/01/20/new-life-for-a-big-ben-select-bent-billiard/

I don’t know anything about the original owner of the pipe as the gifter had no information on where it had come from. However, that being said I could tell a lot about the pipe man who had smoked it to this point in its life. From the condition of the pipe I knew that it had belonged to an old timer who smoked his pipes until they were worn out, threw them away and picked up another one. In terms of that scenario this pipe had a lot of life left in it. I could see that the pipe had never met a pipe cleaner in its long existence. I could tell that it was smoked almost continuously without a break to let it rest. I think it could easily fit into the category of rode hard and put away wet that accompanies many an old horse. All that being said it must have been a great smoking pipe to have been so “loved” that it never left the hand of the pipe man. The wear on the finish around the bowl where his hands rested showed how he held it. The small tooth mark on the underside of the stem near the button showed the way he clenched it in his mouth. As for the tobacco he smoked – well it was pretty oily and dark smelling so there is part of me that thinks that it was something like Erinmore. The cake was hard and dense.

Here are some photos of the pipe when I finished restoring it. I knew that one day I would find the right person to pass this one on to.

Not too long ago now I was talking to a good friend of mine, Dal who lives in Sofia, Bulgaria. He had recently taken up the pipe again. He had a few pipes that already had stories attached to them so we spoke of cleaning up and restoring his pipes. We talked about methods and tools used to clean them so that he could bring them back to a bit of their former glory. That got me thinking that I would like to pass a pipe from my collection on to him. Looking through my rack my eyes fell on the Big Ben Select bent billiard and I knew this was the one that I would gift to him. It had an interesting history and the idea of sending this Dutch pipe back to Europe just fit for me. I also knew that the thin stem, the tactile sandblast and the bend of the pipe would appeal to his liking.

The timing was perfect as one of his colleagues was here in Vancouver for training at our office so I could send it back to Bulgaria with her. It would be hand delivered in a timely way and much more likely to arrive in one piece than if I shipped it to him through the post from Canada. I took it from the rack and gave it a quick cleaning to remove any dust that had collected. I gave the pipe a light buff with carnauba wax and then with a clean buff to bring up a shine. I took it apart and wrapped the stem and the bowl separately in paper towels. I put a small bag of Stokkebye’s Balkan Supreme with the wrapped pipe and put the gift into a ziplock bag for easy delivery.

This past weekend she gave him the pipe. I was curious to find out what he thought of it so I fired him an email and asked him. Sometimes my curiosity cannot wait to just let things happen at their own pace I want to know sooner. I wanted to be able to finish my chapter of the life this pipe. I had after all delivered the trust to another pipe man and I wanted to discharge the trust for this old pipe to him. He wrote the following email in response:

Hey Steve,
Well, I named it ‘Vancouver’. It only seemed right. I really like it – the look, feel…very nice. Today I smoked my first bowl, recorded it for posterity with the photo attached. I’m not too practiced at doing selfies…. Very light weight and smoked well. I love the stem design too. Thanks. The tobacco was good too – starts with a sweet aroma and finishes with something really full – can’t quite put my finger on it. I look forward to hearing the back story on it.
Dal So my trust has been discharged. With one journey across the Atlantic under its belt and travel to the West Coast of the US from somewhere in the Eastern or Central US it now crossed the Atlantic once again. It had a stopover in Amsterdam and Budapest before it came to Sofia, Bulgaria. Its story can now continue in the rack of another pipe man a continent away from the original purchaser of the pipe. His first bowl was a Balkan Supreme on the balcony of his apartment in Sofia. I am sure that he will add his own unique elements to the story and will grow and expand over the years he enjoys this pipe. One day when he passes it on as a trust to another pipe man he can also pass on its history with his part of the tale added to the story.

Why You Need to Disassemble a Pipe

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It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do much restoration work but I did have this short video I cobbled together with an article and thought I’d share it here; I know this is something many of the regular readers here will identify with and have come in contact with. And for new folks that may be searching for information I figured they would find it here easier than where it was first posted.

Why You Need to Disassemble a Pipe – Tobacco University (Reblogged from Smoking Jacket Magazine.)

I know some folks aren’t big on regular, routine maintenance/cleaning of their pipes; I get a little lax at times, too. But for the best performance, enjoyment, and taste from you pipe it is very necessary to have a routine and actually do it. Being one who enjoys and has restored many old estate pipes […]

Briar, cleaning, featured, stuck stem, pipe, pipe smoking, maintenance

http://smokingjacketmagazine.com/2015/10/28/why-you-need-to-disassemble-a-pipe-tobacco-university/

Custombilt Compilation

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I love the old CB pipes so this is a natural for me to reblog. Nice work on these. I had never seen a CB Canadian like the one you posted. It is a beauty.

PipesRevival

I’m starting to realize the photos of my process on many of the pipes I’ve redone in the past are lost. Luckily I have before and after photos, please bare with me as new pipes are redone I will add more detailed photos of my process. I decided to put together a compilation of some of my favorites.

Custom-bilt pipes there will be quite a few of these. I’m a collector and I haven’t seen an end in sight. Each one has it’s own personality “As Individual As A Thumbprint“ stands true. The few below were redone in the past year. My process has remained the same for that time, I followed the same process as in my previous posts.

(1939 brochure)

Images & information courtesy of Bill Ungers As Individual As A Thumbprint-The Custombilt Pipe Story.

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First up a Custom-Bilt patiented filter system billiard from what I’ve read it was…

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Removing Stain from a Briar Pipe – Additional info added

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Blog by Dave Gossett

I’ve been working on a stain removal recipe/technique with some junker pipes and came up with this. It works pretty well. It will also strip the color out of any fills in the pipe and they will stand out afterwards. This is great for a fill free briar, but not recommended if it does, unless you plan on digging out the old fills and replacing them with briar dust. I always advise trying new repair and restoration tips on a test pipe before trying it on a keeper.

Step 1. Use Murphy’s wood soap to remove the wax. Take care not to get the Murphy’s soap inside the pipe!

Step 2. Wipe down with alcohol.

Step 3. Mix a heavy batch of Oxy Clean powder with hot water. 3 tablespoons give or take. Use just enough hot water to dilute the powder and then add a couple of shots of 91% alcohol. Heat the briar with a hair dryer before starting. This opens the pores and speeds up the removal process. (at least that’s my theory.)

0000 steel wool can be used with mix to gently scrub the briar. The steel wool is fine enough it will not scratch the briar. Use gently, let the wool do the work for you. A rag can be used but it will take a few runs to achieve the same results. When dipping the rag or wool don’t submerge to the bottom of the mix where the undissolved gritty powder is settled. You don’t want the grit on the briar when scrubbing. Stay clear of the stampings with the steel wool. Use a rag on those areas.

Rinse the stummel clean with tap water and towel off so the oxy residue doesn’t dry on the wood.

Let the stummel dry completely to see if you’re satisfied with the coloring. repeat the process again if it’s still dark.

Step 4. Depending on how much time and cleaning it took to remove the stain, it could raise the grain a bit. Don’t worry. Most of the time this isn’t the case. After the stain has been striped and the pipe has thoroughly dried, give the stummel a light dry sanding with 2000-3000 grit and this will take care of any raised grain concerns.

Step 5. Now your pipe is ready for your color change of choice or waxed up for a beautiful natural finish.

I tried to be as detailed as possible but may have forgotten something. This is why I recommend trying new techniques on a test pipe.

Here are the results of the stain removal on a very dark pipe.

Photos of the pipe before stripping the stain:

Photo of the pipe with the stain stripped: Photos of the finished pipe:

ADDENDUM

Dave took the time to measure all of the components in his recipe and has sent them to be added to this post. Here it is:
1 cup hot water (hotter the better)

3 spoons of Oxy Clean powder

After the Oxy is thoroughly dissolved then add the alcohol

1 spoon of 91% alcohol

The alcohol cuts the suds and stops the solution from becoming a foaming mess while you’re working on the pipe.

Thanks Dave

Fitting a Stem to an Old Ceramic/Porcelain Pipe Bowl

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Blog by Steve Laug

In a box of pipe parts I was given was a hexagonal shaped ceramic/porcelain pipe bowl with a thin pencil shank. It was cut off mid-shank at a slight angle. Looking at it I decided that it would be an interesting looking pipe to restem. The finished pipe would be unique and well worth the work to restem. I am guessing that the pipe originally had been longer and possibly had a bit on the end. There was a tiny chip cracked in the end of the shank. I reglued that and held it in place until it dried. Since the shank had been cut at an angle, I used a topping board to flatten the edge and square the end of the shank as much as possible. I then used a nickel band that I had in my box of bands and heated it and pressed it in place on the shank. I left a small portion of the band extending beyond the end of the shank to help square the fit of the stem to the shank. I went through my can of stems and found one that was the perfect diameter for a match to the shank. The tenon would need to be made smaller to fit in the shank and the mortise would need to be opened further with needle files for the stem to fit well. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and polished it with a microfibre cloth. There was a small hairline crack on the left side of the bowl coming from the rim downward about one half-inch. It was sealed so it was not currently a problem that I would need to deal with. I took some photos of the newly banded stem and the polished bowl to show the new look of the pipe. The bowl is quite thin so it will be a hot one to hold. It will need to be smoked slowly to keep it cool.

I used a coarse needle file to open up the mortise in the shank to accommodate the tenon. I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to reduce the tenon as much as possible. I worked on the mortise to file down the inside of the shank. It took some careful file work to keep the mortise round so that once the opening was sufficient the tenon would not be loose inside.

The next photo shows the finished mortise. The files worked well and the newly shaped tenon fit the shank perfectly. I put the stem in place on the bowl and took some photos to get a better look at the new pipe. The newly stemmed pipe actually looked very good. I loved the delicate look of it. The slight bend in the stem worked well with the bowl and allows the pipe to sit upright on a flat surface.

The stem was rough and lightly oxidized. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to loosen the oxidation and then used a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches on the stem. I then wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads, gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I buffed the stem and bowl lightly with Blue Diamond polish on the wheels and then gave the stem and bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax. I polished it with a clean flannel buff on the wheel making sure to hold the bowl tightly. To have the buffer grab this one and throw it would be a disaster that the pipe would not survive. Once I finished the buffing on the wheel I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to raise the final shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. There is some slight coloring forming on the sides of the bowl midway down from the top. I am wondering if the rest of the bowl will also colour with use. The pipe looks really good with the new stem and band. It will fit well in my collection of unique older pieces.