1937 Patent Era Brigham Lovat

Blog by Steve Laug

I picked this little Lovat up in a trio of pipes from EBay. I refurbished the first two – the no name Sandblasted Poker and the Dr. Plumb Statesman already. I have written about them earlier on the blog. Today I worked on the Brigham Lovat. It is stamped Brigham over Can. Pat. 372982. The shape stamp in on the flattened bowl bottom and is stamped 199. The finish was pretty well worn off but there was some nice looking grain on the bowl and shank. The briar actually is flawless with no fills or sandpits. The rim was black and covered with what appeared to be a thin coat of hard tar. The stem was badly oxidized and the brass one dot logo was obscured. Once the stem was removed the Brigham patented filter system was a little hard to remove. The hard rock maple filter was clean but there was a white cobweb like substance in the bowl and in the shank and filter.

I did a patent search on the Canadian Patent site and found documentation filed with the number stamped on the pipe. I have copied that documentation in the following three pictures. The first picture is a drawing of the Brigham filter system signed by the designer Roy Brigham when it was filed. The next two pictures are the descriptive text of the patent. It is always fascinating to me to discover these pieces of history when I am working on a pipe. This old timer had a story to tell that is for sure. I am not sure when Brigham stopped stamping their pipes with the patent number but in the many that have crossed my desk I have not seen one with the numbers.

I put the bowl to soak in the Isopropyl alcohol bath with the other bowls while the stem soaked in an Oxyclean bath. Once I took the bowls out I wiped them down and went to work on them. The Brigham is the bowl at the top of the photo below. You can see the grain on it is actually quite beautiful.

The bowl when dried off is pictured below is quite clean. It has no fills or sand flaws in the briar. It is going to stain nicely and be a great looking pipe when finished.

In the picture above you can see the tars on the rim of the pipe. I dried it off and sanded the rim with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the tar build up on the rim. The next two photos below show the rim with the tars removed and the surface smooth. The beauty of this old pipe was that the rim was flawless. There were no dings or dents in it. The outer and inner rim edges were still quite sharp.

After sanding the rim I sanded the entire bowl of the pipe and also the first sanding on the stem. The picture below shows the sanded bowl. I used 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads, carefully sanding around the Brigham Patent Stamping.

When I finished sanding I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad. I use nail polish remover which is a solution of acetone and that is readily available at our local dollar store. It works well to lift any remaining stain in the briar and clean the surface of any leftover debris from the sanding process. The grain is really standing out nicely in the three photos below and will make a great looking finished pipe. I also continued to sand the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding pad to cut through the heavy oxidation.

After sanding with the sanding pads I moved on to wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I have a cup of water at hand to dip the sanding pad into and then sand the stem to remove the oxidation. These first three grits of micromesh do a great job in removing the remaining oxidation on the stem. The water begins to turn a brownish yellow as I dip the sanding pad and squeeze out the grit from the sanding. The stem begins to come back to black by the 2400 grit pad.

At this point in the process I have started to use Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 before going onto the higher grits of micromesh. I rub on the Mequiar’s with my finger and scrub it into the finish of the stem. Once it is applied I let it dry for a few moments and then scrub the stem with a cotton pad. The next three photos below show the stem after the rub down with the Mequiar’s and a hand buff with the cotton pad.

After polishing the stem I rub it down with Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. I find that it penetrates the vulcanite and the remaining oxidation seems to lift to the surface. Once it is dry I continue to sand the stem with the micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12,000 grit.

After the stem really begins to shine I remove it from the shank and place a dental pick into the mortise to provide a handle for me when I am staining the pipe. This allows me control as I turn it over in my hands. I stained this pipe with Dark Brown aniline stain (Feibing’s Leather Dye). The first photo below shows the pipe ready to be stained and the second is with its first coat of stain. While it is still wet I flame it by lighting it with a match and setting the stain.The flame sets the alcohol in the stain on fire and burns it off.

Once it is flamed I rub down the bowl with a piece of cotton terry cloth. It removes the surface stain and leaves the stain set in the softer grain. The next series of photos show the pipe after it has been wiped down but not buffed.

Once I have wiped it down I take it to the buffer to remove any more of the stain and to give it a shine. With this particular pipe the stain obscured the grain a bit so I decided to wipe it down with the acetone to lighten the stain. I wiped it until I got the effect that I desired. I then buffed it repeatedly to get a shine.

The stain was still a little dark to me and I wanted a bit more contrast in the stain. I wiped the bowl a final time with Isopropyl and then buffed it a final time. I also buffed the stem. I scrubbed the metal tenon with 0000 steel wool to polish the oxidation on the aluminum. It shined as well. I inserted a new Brigham Hard Rock Maple filter and put the pipe back together. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and then when it had dried I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on my buffing wheel. I finished with a quick buff with a soft flannel buffing wheel. The finished pipe can be seen in the pictures below.

Positives and Negatives of the PME Tenon Expander

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After reading about it online, I picked up a tenon expander from the Pipe Makers Emporium several years ago. It can be ordered online at http://www.pipemakers.org/tools02.html The website describes it as follows: Tenon Expander: (Three sizes-in-one: 1/25, 1/50, 1/60) “An absolute must for pipe repair! One tool that will do 99 percent of all loose tenons. Throw away that ice pick because this will do a much better job. Heat the Tenon with an alcohol lamp until it is soft. Insert the Expander to the next size. Place Tenon and Expander into cold water to set the Tenon to its new size. Remove the Expander and your Tenon will maintain its new size. .” The sell for $29.00 each

The concept of the tool is actually quite simple – heat the tenon with a heat gun/ hot water or heat the tenon expander tool with a flame or heat source. Once it is heated, push the expander into the tenon and twist it until the tenon expands. Cool the tenon under clean or cool water to set the expansion and then remove the tool. You will notice in the picture below that the tip is tapered and gets larger in diameter the farther you move up the tip toward the handle. By pushing the tool into the tenon you can expand it for a tighter fit in the shank. In my use of the tool I would heat and expand, then cool the tenon in water, remove the tool and try the stem on the pipe for a fit. If it needed more expansion I repeated the process until the fit was snug. The gradated slope on the tenon expander gives you a broad range of possibilities in accomplishing that task. After I had used it for a while I decided to evaluate the tool in terms of its positives and negatives. What about the tool did I like and what were its deficiencies?

The positives –

In thinking through the positives the obvious ones were those advertised on the PME website.

The ease of use is the first thing that stood out with the tenon expander. It is very simple to use even though it came with no instructions. It was not hard to figure out how to use it correctly.
The tapered end is also billed as a positive feature of at first glance as it works to open the tenon to varying degrees and you can repeat the fit until the stem is snug. I will explain in the negatives why I have come to believe that the tapered end is not as great a feature as it initially appears to be when you begin.
The grooves on the handle of the tool are cut to make it easy to hold on to as you work with it.

The negatives –

Over time and experience working with the tool I have found some of the features that I first thought were helpful have grown to irritate me and work as limitations of the tool.

The first thing I have learned is that the taper on the end of the expander, while being helpful, is also a negative feature. The expander does not expand the entire tenon but rather the end of the tenon. With use the tenon thus is no longer cylindrical but can flare at the end. The snug fit is thus only for the first 1/8 inch of the tenon. The rest of the tenon is not touching the walls of the mortise.
Heating the tenon to insert the expander makes the tenon very pliable and if you are not careful the tenon can be bent at an angle thus ruining the fit at the shank. I have found that if I heat the expander instead then the tenon does not soften as much and I avoid the potential of tilting the tenon.
A final negative for me is the handle of the expander. I use a pair of heat mitts to hold it as I heat it but if I were going to continue to use it regularly I would make a wooden handle and epoxy the expander into it. In my opinion it would make it more usable.

Other options: As I pushed the limitations of the tenon expander that I purchased I decided to look and see if I could find other tools that would address the negatives that I have spelled out above. I have been experimenting with various sizes of ice picks and awls to use for tenon expansion as they have a longer shank and less taper. This allows me to expand the tenon the entire length of the tenon rather than just the tip. So far they have worked very well. I can easily heat the shaft of the awl or ice pick while holding the wooden handle. They slide into the tenon and are easily twisted slowly to expand the tenon. The final verdict is still out on them as I continue to look for picks and awls with a variety of diameter shafts.

A Unique Attempt at a Cooler Smoker – An LHS System Pipe

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I picked this old pipe up in a lot of pipes that was given to me. The pipe is stamped LHS in a Diamond and next to that SEC on the left side of the shank. The right side of the shank is stamped US Patent 1908630 over Other Patent Applied For. I have hunted through the patent information site and could find the original LHS patent under the number above but the descriptions and diagram do not match the system in this pipe. The stem is Perspex I believe, and has the cross hatched metal end on it. That is threaded and connects to a threaded tenon that is connected to the bowl. When I got the pipe out of the box of pipes it was dirty and the rim had a lot of tar. The bowl was not badly caked but had remnants of tobacco left in it. The stem was dirty and opaque. The internal filtering system was black with tars. The stem also had some crazing in it – this happens when alcohol is used on Perspex stems.

I reamed and cleaned the bowl of the pipe and the rim and then scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap undiluted. I wanted to leave the original light finish without removing any of the stain so I carefully rubbed on the soap and wiped it off. The rim actually came clean very easily and the bowl was ready to go. I took apart the internal contraption and cleaned that with Isopropyl alcohol and also cleaned the shank with pipe cleaners, shank brush and Isopropyl. One the internals were clean I worked on the stem and cleaned it out with soapy water, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. The finished pipe was then waxed with multiple coats of carnauba wax on my buffer and then polished with a soft flannel buff.

Anyone have any information on this pipe? It is an unusual piece of pipe history and I continue to hunt down information. Thanks for your help and thanks for looking.

Reworking a Dr. Plumb Statesman

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The second pipe in the lot of three pipes I picked up on EBay was this long shanked billiard. The first one I refurbished and posted about was the no name poker that I wrote about here. This one was stamped Dr. Plumb over London Made over Statesman on the underside of the shank. The sand blast was very nice on it. In fact I like the deep grooves and flow of the blast on the briar. The rim was shot. It had been sanded smooth (may have been smooth originally to match the smooth portions of the bowl). It was also no longer flat. When the pipe was laid down on the rim it rocked in every direction. It was rough and pitted from tapping the pipe out. The bowl was a bit out of round and the previous owner had reamed the inner rim with a knife at an angle that really damaged the inside rim and the roundness of the bowl. The stem had the same white calcification on it as the poker. This one also had teeth marks and dents in it. The slot on the stem was closed with the white calcified material and there was no open airway in the stem. The shank was dirty and clogged and the bowl needed to be reamed in the lower portion. The first four picture show the pipe as it was when it came to me.

It had the same alcohol bath as the poker and I am including the same photos of that process I included in the previous post. It soaked for two hours and then I took it out and dried the bowls off with a soft cloth. I also soaked the stem in Oxyclean to soften the calcification on the button area.

In the photo below you can clearly see the flaw in the briar of the Dr. Plumb (the pipe on the right side of the photo). The alcohol bath softened the fill and it fell out of the crevice. It was quite large but not deep. It appears to me that it opened up larger as the pipe was blasted. You can also see in the second photo below the shape of the bowl and rim of the pipe.

The first thing that I decided to address with regard to this pipe was the rim. I set up my board for sanding the top. I anchored the sandpaper to it. I used a pretty heavy grit for this one because I needed to remove quite a bit of the top to smooth it out and remove the rockiness of the pipe. I used a medium grit emery paper. I hold the pipe flat against the board and sandpaper and sand it in a circular fashion clockwise. I don’t know what the point is of that but that has been my practice for as long as I remember. The next two photos show that process. Once I had the top level once again I sanded it in the same manner using 240 grit sandpaper and then 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper and water. I finished sanding the top with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500 – 12,000 grit.

The next photo shows the finished topping of the bowl. The grain is quite nice and will stain well in contrast to the roughness of the blast. The second and third photo below show the repaired fill in the shank. I used briar dust from the topping of the bowl and packed it into the crevice with a dental pick. When it was full I dripped super glue into the dust. Once it was dry I used a wire brush on the shank rather than sandpaper. I wanted to remove the signs of my repair without sanding the fill. The shank looked really good when that job was done. The pipe was basically ready for a coat of brown aniline stain.

I used my dental pick for a handle by inserting it into the mortise and then used Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye. I diluted it 2 to 1 with Isopropyl alcohol to get the colour I was aiming for. Once I coated it with the stain I flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I repeated this several times to make certain I had stained all the crevices and blast. The first picture below is of the wet pipe. The second is of the bowl after flaming the stain. I light wooden matches and ignite the stain. The alcohol burns off and the pipe then is dry to touch.

At this point in my refurbishing process I took the bowl to the buffer and buffed the bowl lightly with Tripoli and the repeated it with White Diamond. My goal was to buff of the high areas and make a bit of contrast. I also wanted to buff the rim to make it a bit lighter than the blast and have it match the smooth patch on the bottom of the shank.

I then went to work on the stem. I heated the dents to raise them as much as possible and then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining tooth chatter and also to remove the calcified area around the button. I cleaned out the stem with pipe cleaners and a shank brush to remove the tars and oils and to open the stem. I used the dental pick to clean out the slot in the button. Once that was done I sanded the stem with a fine grit sanding pad and then progressed through 1500, 1600, and 2400 grit micromesh before scrubbing the stem with Maguiar’s X2.0 scratch polish. I rub it on with a cotton pad and let it dry a bit before rubbing it off. I finished sanding the stem with 3200 – 12,000 grit micromesh pads and then buffed the stem with White Diamond. I coated it with Obsidian Oil and then when it dried I coated it with multiple coats of carnauba wax. I waxed the rim and the smooth part with carnauba and then used Halcyon II wax on the sandblast. I buffed the pipe with a light touch on the cotton buffing wheel to polish and then hand buffed it with a shoe brush. Here is the final product – ready to fire up!

Once I had posted the pictures of the pipe above when I blew them up to see them more clearly the top of the rim was full of scratches and obviously to me needed more work so I just finished reworking the rim and restaining it.

A No Name Sandblasted Poker Restored

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I picked up this threesome pictured below on EBay. The first photo is the one posted by the seller to show the pipes that were for sale. I bid and won the auction. The threesome arrived this week and I decided to tackle the refurb on the poker first. Something about it grabbed my interest.

When it arrived I unpacked the box to find that the three pipes were a bit worse for wear than the original picture above. The side shot of the photo obscured the tooth marks and oxidation of the stems. The poker had a white build up on the stem, almost a calcification that was rock hard and would need a soak to deal with. The finish was not too bad on the bowl – just a little spotty and dirty. The finish is a sandblast on the bowl that is quite deep and nicely done. The shank has a combination sandblast and rustication on it. The bottom of the bowl is smooth and there is a small ring of smooth briar next to the stem on the shank. The rim had originally been rusticated but appeared to have been sanded virtually smooth. It had a slight build up of tars and oils on it. There was a faint rustication pattern but the stain was gone under the grime. It looked as if the owner had sanded the rim clean and then left it to smoke it as it was.

I decided to ream the bowls on all three pipes. Once that was done I put all three in an alcohol bath – a jar with isopropyl alcohol. I leave the alcohol and replenish it as it evaporates or is used up. Once a month I pour it off and clean out the sediment in the bottom of the jar. The alcohol is dark and seems to give the briar a good patina as it soaks in it. It removes the stain a bit and also the grime and grit of the finish. I let all three bowls soak for several hours and then removed them and dried them off before setting them aside for the night. I also soaked the stems in a bath of Oxyclean while the bowls soaked. I find that this soak softens the calcification on the stems and also loosens the oxidation making it easier to deal with once I work on the stems. The picture below shows the bowls just after I removed them from the bath and had not dried them off.

The next four pictures show the bowls after they have been dried off and you can see the state of the finish on each of the pipes. The first one on the left side of the first picture is the little patent Brigham Lovat. The finish is clean and ready to work on. The middle pipe is the no name poker. The last pipe on the right is the Dr. Plumb Statesman long shanked billiard.

The poker came out very clean. The finish was ready to rework. The bowl had an undercoat of oxblood stain that is clearly visible and would pretty much determine the colour I would use in restaining it. In the photo below you can see the bowl rim of the poker in the middle. The faint rustication is visible and you can see that the rim had been sanded. In the second photo below you can see the smooth bottom on the poker and see the scratches in the briar that will need to be dealt with.

I used my rustication tool, the modified Philips screwdriver and reworked the rustication on the rim following the faint pattern that was visible. Once I had it way I wanted I worked on teh scratches on the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bottom with micromesh pads 1500, 1800 and 2400 as the scratches were not deep. When I was finished and they were smooth I decided to restain the bowl with oxblood coloured aniline stain. I applied the stain with the dauber that came with the stain, making sure to get the stain in all of the crevices of the blast and the rustication. Once it was applied I flamed the stain and then set it aside to dry. I took it to the buffer once it was dry and buffed the bowl with Tripoli and White Diamond to polish the stain and give some depth to the finish. At this point in the process the pipe bowl was laid aside and I worked on the stem.

The stem took quite a bit of work. Not only was it calcified at the bit end but it also had some fairly deep scratches on the top of the stem. These needed to be sanded out to remove them. The stem also had some of the bevel of what appears to be a replacement stem blank. It may not be but it has all the look of one. It fits well but the edge bevels on the sides of the stem rather than a smooth transition from top to edge show the lack of finish to me. I wanted to sand out the scratches and the bevels and smooth the transition to a smooth edge with no bevels. I used some 280 grit sandpaper to begin with and progress through a medium grit sanding pad, a fine grit sanding pad, 400 and 600 wet dry sandpaper and water. Once I had the finish smooth and the bevels removed I then worked on the stem with the micromesh sanding pads from 1500 – 12,000 grit. I used 1500 – 2400 grit with water and was able to remove the remaining scratches. After that I used the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0 polish on a cotton pad and rubbed the stem until it was smooth. I wiped off the polish and then proceeded to use the remainder of the micromesh pads. I gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I then used some Halcyon II wax on the bowl and hand polished it with a soft cotton buff. Once I finished that I wiped down the stem and gave it a buff with White Diamond and then gave the entire pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax until it glowed.

Wind caps – integrated and add on

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Blog by Steve Laug

Wind caps have always intrigued me. I have picked them up over the years more by accident than by design. They have come on pipes that I have picked up in EBay lots and those I have found in thrift shops and antique malls. I honestly don’t think I have ever purchased one new. At least that is how I remember it in the recesses of my aging memory. I know why they were designed and what their intention was from the start; but I suppose for me they are more of a way of keeping the tobacco in the bowl in my coat pocket and not all over the pocket than they are about protecting the pipe in blowing wind. I tend not to smoke my pipe in a windy area so I don’t use them for that. Probably as close as I come to using them for their original purpose is when I am smoking a pipe while walking in the rain here on the Wetcoast of Canada. They keep the errant rain drops out of my bowl and thus keep the pipe smouldering nicely while I walk outside on a rainy day.

When I look at the wind caps in my collection (I say collection because I have about six I think and any more than one makes a collection) I see that there are probably three basic designs. In the pictures below the two on the top are spring loaded. The first on the left has two small tags on each side that are compressed and the lid is put in place on the pipe. Once in place the tags are released and the cap is held in place. The multiple holes in the top aid the flow of air to the tobacco and do not restrict the burning of the tobacco. The second design, the one on the top row, right side is also spring loaded. But instead of tags the design has a cylinder across the middle of the cap and in that is a spring and two pistons that are compressed and the lid is place on the bowl. Once it on the bowl the pistons are released and the cap holds on to the sides of the bowl. This one has fewer and larger air holes and seems to work equally well. Both of these designs make relighting the pipe a bit of a chore as the cap needs to be removed, the pipe relit and then the cap put back in place. Because of this I rarely use these caps when going on my walks. They tend to be relegated to the task of keeping the tobacco in the bowl and not spilling around my jacket pocket while I am traveling to and from work or appointments.

The second row of wind caps is similar in design and function. Both of these are held in place by metal triangular tabs that extend into the bowl and rest against the sides of the bowl. They can be bent to fit different bowl diameters. Do not assume that just because they look like spikes they are to be driven into the briar of the bowl rim. I have to tell you that I have cleaned up several older estates that had these installed in that manner. It was almost as if the owner had put the cap in place with a hammer. I believe that the true use of them is to pressure fit the cap to the bowl and adjust the fit until it is tight. Both of these models have a centre portion to them that is like a coiled spring. In fact it flexes like a spring when touched. The airspace on both of these is quite generous and keeping the pipe lit is no trouble at all. I have a third one like this but it is missing the centre bead. It still works great though. These by far are my favourites in terms of wind caps. They are hinged so that to relight the pipe is no problem; the top is opened by the small handle on the cap. The top opens to allow access to the inside of the bowl. After relighting, the cap is pushed back into place and the smoke continues.

Besides these aftermarket wind caps I have several older pipes which incorporate them into the design of the pipe. In the first series of pictures below is an older Red Point with a silver cap attached to a silver rim that was original equipment for the pipe. The lid has a handle on the front and on the top that enables it to be opened for loading and relighting as necessary. The domed cap and the look of the pipe speak of a past generation of pipe smokers. The bling on the pipe makes it look rich and elegant.

A second pipe that I have with an integrated wind cap is what is commonly known as Hurricane pipes. This style of pipe was made by several English pipe makers. The one I have is an F&T Shipmate made for Abercrombie and Fitch. The wind cap on it is made of Bakelite and is pinned toward the bottom of the bowl on each side. It is hinged and tips backward toward the smoker for loading and relighting. The first photo below shows the cap from the sides and the top of the bowl. It has the appearance of a pepper shaker. The next two photos show the same pipe with the wind cap opened.

The third pipe in my collection with an integrated wind cap is a Wally Frank that I posted about earlier on the blog. It is pictured below in a series of photos. In this model the cap is made of a briar dome that swivels on a metal pin that holds the cap to the bowl. To load and relight the pipe the pipeman only has to swing the cap to either side. The workings of this wind cap are very simple and uncomplicated. The beauty of the design is that the cap can be removed and the pipe smoked sans cap. The cap is not integrated into the design of the bowl in a manner that makes removing it a major change to the pipe.

As can be seen from the various wind caps, both integrated and aftermarket, they are here to stay. The wind caps and pipes pictured come from different times and eras but they all incorporate the same basic design purpose. I rarely use the three pipes with the integrated cap. It just seems like one more thing to fuss with. The aftermarket add on caps work for me as described above – a means of keep a loaded bowl safe in my pocket for a later smoke. When I reach for a wind cap I reach for these. They work best for my purpose as when I have taken the bowl out to smoke I just remove the cap and put it in my pocket to reuse later. It typically does not see another use until the time I need to carry another bowl in my pocket.

A Unique BBB Tigergrain Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

This unique pipe has become a favourite of mine. I have not seen one like it since I picked this one up. It is stamped on the left side with the BBB logo (three B’s in a Diamond) and under that TIGERGRAIN. There is a small nick in the shank just below the stamping. On the right side it is stamped London England over the shape number 420. The stem is a translucent blue green almost like some of the glass pieces that my grandmother had in her sideboard. It has the brass BBB logo in a diamond inserted. When it came to me it was dirty. The bowl had a thick cake and needed to be reamed. The stem was darkened with brown stains in the airway. The rim was tarred and had some dents that were quite deep. The finish was in pretty good shape other than the deep set grit and grime. The bands around the bowl were filled in with grit as well. Underneath it all I knew there was a uniquely beautiful pipe.

I reamed the bowl back to the briar. I like to start with a clean pipe, as I find I can exorcise previous ghosts more easily that way. I wiped down the surface with Murphy’s Oil Soap, undiluted, and scrubbed the rim with a soft bristle tooth brush. Once I had the grime and grit removed I buffed it with White Diamond on the buffing wheel and then steamed out the dents on the bowl and rim. I do this with a damp cloth and a hot table knife. I heat the knife over the gas flame on my cook stove and then put the damp cloth on the dent and apply the hot knife. The hiss and the steam released seem to raise the dents in the briar. I then buffed the pipe yet again and polished it with carnauba. The grain has a striped look to it which is the reason for the tigergrain stamping I suppose. I love the look of the grain and the patina on the old pipe.

I then turned my attention to the stem. I used some goop hand cleaner on a pipe cleaner and scoured the airway on the stem. It took quite a few pipe cleaners and patience to get the brown stains and oils out of the translucent stem. Once that was done I also needed to deal with the tooth chatter on the stem. I used heat on the stem first – a quick pass over the heat gun did the trick. Care had to be exercised so as not to heat the stem too much and straighten the bend or melt it. I used micromesh pads 1500-6000 grits to polish the stem after that. Once I was satisfied that the marks were smooth I reinserted the stem on the bowl and gave the entirety a final buff with White Diamond and then several applications of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing the pipe with a clean flannel buff.

It is a comfortable pipe in hand and mouth. It measures just under 6 inches long. The bowl is ¾ inch in diameter. It smokes very well and has proved to be a great Virginia Flake pipe. I find the colour of the stem is a cool and relaxing bonus to the smoke.

A Review – The Masika made by JSEC Pipes

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James Gilliam from JESC Pipes http://www.jsecpipes.com/sold-pipes.html and I had been emailing back and forth regarding a refurb he was doing. We talked about different processes and he wrote a piece for the blog on a pipe maker’s look at refurbishing. In the process he showed some pictures of a nice little bamboo shanked pipe that he had made for himself. I really liked the looks of it and commented that should he make another I would be interested. Not long after that I received an email from James about a little bamboo pipe he was carving that would be rusticated. He sent me some pictures of the shape and later of the unstained bowl. Once it was done he sent some pictures and a simple note saying, “It is yours if you want it but there is no obligation.” When I saw the finished pipe it called my name and I sent James the payment via Paypal and the deal was completed. He named it Masika and the picture below gives its vitals.

In this review I want to look at the pipe from a more technical side and walk through its construction, feel and delivery of the smoke to me. I drew the pipe from the brown cloth pipe sock and here is what I found. Once it was in my hand I have to say that honestly I was not prepared for what awaited me when I opened the package. I had read the dimensions and saw the pictures but somehow they did not capture the beauty and patina of this pipe. The bamboo has a patina to it that makes the pipe look far older than it is. It is a darker brown tone that I have found only on older bamboo pipes. I don’t know how James accomplished the patina but it is virtually the same colour as some of my older Yello Bole Bamboos and Kaywoodie Mandarins that are over 50 years old. It was very lightweight. Somehow in my head I had not captured what 20 grams felt like very well. This thing is virtually weightless.

Looking at the externals of the pipe. James seems to have used several stains to give an undercoat that shows through the top coat and a contrasting top coat as well. Depending on the light and angle of the pipe the colour highlights look different. They are a variety of browns and blacks that come through with the light and the angles. The rustication is well done and tactile but not rustic or rough. The best descriptor I can use in speaking of it is to describe it as refined. The band of smooth around the shank ahead of the black band and bamboo and the smooth rim are a great contrast to the rustication and the stain variations on the bowl and shank. I have already spoken of the bamboo and its attraction for me. There is a twist and bend in the bamboo that gives it a feel of struggle and pulling back. I like the look of the twist and turn of the bamboo as it gives a character to the shank that a straight piece would not give in the same manner. The black band between the briar and the bamboo makes a great transition from the pipe to the shank. James also used a small band of black before the stem as well. The two bands serve to set off and bookend the bamboo shank of the pipe. The hand cut ebonite stem is very well done and comfortable in the mouth. It has a nicely shaped button that is sharply cut and catches well on the back of my teeth. The slot in the button is oval shaped and there is a smooth V slot that facilitates the movement of smoke across the mouth.

Moving from the externals of the pipe to the internal mechanics. James your workmanship on this pipe is stellar. The angle of the drilling is done in such a way that the bowl is of a uniform thickness throughout. The bowl bottom is relatively the same thickness as the walls of the pipe. The bowl is drilled at the same angle as the exterior of the pipe. The draught hole is precisely where it should be – centred at the back side bottom of the bowl. The bowl is coated with a neutral tasting bowl treatment. I don’t know the components but it did not add any flavour to the tobacco nor did it come off with the first smoke. I don’t usually like bowl coating but this one was not a problem to the smoke. I am confident that James is not covering flaws in the interior of the bowl. Holding light to the bowl revealed a clean and smooth airway with no impediments. Looking down the bamboo shank at the stem end it is clear that it is not lined with any material even in the mortise. I believe that James used a tenon to anchor the bowl shank and the bamboo but I am not clear as to the material. The tenon on the stem is crafted of stainless steel and is a good snug fit. The inside of the stem is also very smooth. There is no roughness or constriction where the stainless steel tenon ends and the stem material begins. This transition is smooth. The airway flattens out like a squeezed drinking straw so that the diameter does not change but is flattened and opened.

I have been smoking this pipe consistently since it arrived and it smokes very well. The bowl break in was quite easy from the first bowl. It smokes dry and clean with no moisture buildup or gurgle to the bowl. From the first I have been able to smoke it to a dry ash. With each smoke there is no damp dottle to deal with in the heel of the bowl. The draught on this pipe is very smooth – no whistling sound and no sense of having to suck or work to get the air to move through – it is effortless. It has been and will continue to be a pleasure to smoke, exactly what I look for in a pipe that keeps its place in my rotation.

I would highly recommend that you have a look at the pipes James sells. He is a pleasure to deal with and fine craftsman. I know others who have commissioned pipes from him and found the experience a pleasure. I cannot speak highly enough of the workmanship on this pipe and ease of the deal with James. Give him a call and order a pipe or at least check out the website that I noted above. Have a look at the beautiful work that he does.

This Refurb Makes Me Question, what makes a pipe a REJECT

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I have no idea who the maker of this pipe is. When I bid on it I thought it might be a Peterson Reject but once it got here I am not so sure. It has no stamping on it other than REJECT in big block letters on the left side of the shank. The briar is not too bad, in fact I can find only one or possibly two fills that are virtually invisible as they are blended into the stain very well. The stem is a cross between a Peterson and a Wellington. There is no p-lip on it – just a straight orific button with the airway on the end of the button not on top. There is a sump in the shank so it is a system pipe of sorts. It is well drilled and has a great draft on it. The band seems to be a stainless steel rather than the cheap reject band put on by Peterson rejects of time past. Sooo, I am not sure who the maker is, nor am I sure why it is a REJECT.

I took it from the box, reamed and cleaned the bowl and shank. The sump is surprisingly new looking. There is no stain or darkening in it, just clean untouched briar. The bowl is darkened but there was not much cake and what was there was only around the top half of the bowl. The stem was minimally oxidized and there was some tooth chatter on the top and the underside of the stem. I did not do much to the bowl finish, merely buffed it with Tripoli and then gave it several coats of carnauba. The stem took a little work as I sanded out the tooth chatter and then went through the list of micromesh sanding pads from 1500-12,000 grit. I also polished the stem with the Maguiar’s Scratch X2.0. I finished by buffing it with White Diamond and then wiped it down with some Obsidian Oil before giving it multiple coats of carnauba and a buff with a soft flannel buffing wheel.

I forgot to take the pictures beforehand but here are some photos of the finished pipe.

Refurbishing a horn stemmed Bruyere Garantie Beautiful Swan Necked Pipe

3 Replies

I picked this old timer up in an antique shop near Vancouver, quite a few years ago now. When I got it the bowl was almost black and dirty. The rim had a good 1/8 inch of grime and tar built up so that it looked like a plateau top. The finish was so opaque that you could not see the grain through it. The stem was dirty and to be honest with you all, when I got it I had no idea it was a horn stem. I worked hard to get the oxidation off it and all I got was more of the brown tones coming through. There was tooth chatter on the top and bottom of the stem. The chatter was kind of white coloured. I asked several guys about the stem and they also did not even think about a horn stem. I had the pipe in my collection for about 5 years or more before it dawned on me that it was a horn stem.

This is a big pipe and it is elegant. It is 8 inches long and the bowl is a little over 2 inches tall. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Bruyere in an arch over Garantie. On the right side it is stamped St. Claude in script over Bruyere. Once I stripped it down there are a few visible fills in the briar but they blend in quite well surprisingly – no pink putty on this one. I cleaned the rim meticulously by hand with warm soapy water on a damp paper towel. I scrubbed it until it was clean. I then sanded the bowl to remove the varnish coat and grime. I had not learned many of the tricks I use now so it was one of the first old timers that I refurbished. I wiped the bowl down with Isopropyl alcohol once I had sanded the majority of the finish coat off the pipe. It took quite a bit of time to carefully wipe away the finish around the stamping without damaging that. The bowl was finally cleaned and smooth – I remember sanding it with 1200 wet dry sandpaper to finish. Then I stained it with a medium brown wood stain – I have no idea if it was an alcohol stain, it well could have been Watco Danish Oil for all I know!

The stem took quite a bit of work to sand it smooth. I cleaned it up twice. Once when I first got it and then again when I figured out it was a horn stem. It is a big piece of horn and quite pretty in terms of the sheen and depth of colouration in it. I used the method I spelled out in a previous post on polishing horn stems and it is like new. I sanded it with wet dry sandpaper up to 2400 grit and then buffed it with lots of carnauba wax. Later I used the micromesh sanding pads on it and really gave it a depth of shine. The pipe is a great smoking pipe and is definitely a sitting pipe. It is a handful. The first picture shows the finished pipe. I wish I had some before photos but this was found in the days I never thought of doing that. So all I have is finished photos. The next series of photos show the size of the pipe in comparison to a nice little bent billiard that is about a group three sized pipe. The grain is quite nice. Nothing striking in terms of straight grain but there are several spots with nice birds eye and then the rest is swirling grain that almost seems to have movement to it. The stem is multicoloured and has the old orific (round) airhole in the button.

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Refurbishing a horn stemmed Bruyere Garantie Beautiful Swan Necked Pipe

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