Experiments with Pipe Mud

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Welcome to another exciting episode of Kenneth Provides Solutions to Problems That Don’t Exist! In other words, it’s another installment of my Pipe Incident Reports. The idea, in general, is to provide a brief write-up – focusing on a particular pipe-restoration-related issue – rather than an entire restoration story. Today I’m conducting a detailed examination of the issue of pipe mud (aka pipe mortar, pipe plaster, pipe cement, etc.). Heretofore, the standard for pipe mud has simply been cigar ash mixed with a bit of water. This is what Steve uses and, undoubtedly, many, many other pipe men have used it over the years. Here is a link to an article Steve wrote about it and here is a link to an article Fred Hanna wrote about pipe mud, back when Adam was a boy.

The pipe ash mud is useful and simple, but could there be better mixtures? Maybe. The Pipes Magazine forums have a very interesting discussion on the use of ash in pipe mud and I recommend reading it here. What I have written below is absolutely not the first word on pipe mud (and it certainly won’t be the last). I am delving into only a small part of the world of mud.

Before we go any further, let’s answer this question for the uninitiated: what is pipe mud used for? There are several uses, but the most common for me include (1) filling in micro-fissures from heat damage in the walls of a pipe bowl, and (2) lifting the heel of a bowl in order to ensure that it’s more closely in line with the draught hole. For these purposes, we need a material that is simple to make, easy to manipulate, and – once it has dried and set – inert, safe, and hard.

I’ve set myself the challenge of testing several different mixes of pipe mud – in this case, only based on plaster of Paris. I also made a batch with cigar ash, as a control. For the engineers and other scientists reading this article, please know that I have no scientific background and I am not equipped to conduct scientifically accurate tests of compressive (or tensile) strength at my home. However, I’ve done my best to eliminate as many variables in the tests as is reasonable, and I’ve attempted to test the compressive strength of the muds by comparison (and without having access to methods of testing through numbers). Given the disparity in results (and, quite frankly, the frivolity of the project), this proved to be quite sufficient for my needs. The idea for testing mud came to my mind after watching a YouTube video with a particular recipe for what the creator called ‘pipe mortar’. I’ve used it once or twice — it was fine, but nothing special. I’ll discuss its contents in a moment, but as soon as I mentioned it to Steve, he had some issues with it. I also chatted with John Young of NebraskaPeteGeek about it and he also had issues.I first set about making the control mud with cigar ash. I burned a small cigar by Schimmelpenninck until it was fully ashen. I then mixed it with a few drops of water to make a paste and let it set. For reference, I used distilled water in all of the muds – not because I think distilled water is required in any way to make this stuff, but just to eliminate a variable in my production. It’s important to know that ‘hardened’ pipe mud (made with cigar ash) is NOT very hard until the pipe has been smoked several times. It is the oils and tars from the tobacco that actually harden this type of mud.I’m not going to belabour my description of the recipes or the results. The first recipe below comes from the YouTube video I mentioned above. I’m giving all recipes a letter name for ease of reference.

A: cigar ash, drops of water (sorry I don’t have precise amounts for this one)
B: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, 0.5g of salt, 0.6g of activated charcoal, 12 drops of water.Recipe B is the one that Steve and John talked to me about. The creator says that the salt helps in strengthening his ‘mortar’. Steve’s concern is that salt isn’t great for the wood. It can cause tiny fissures, etc. to expand – this is also one of the reasons why Steve and I do not use salt in de-ghosting pipes. Anyway, the amount of salt involved is very small, so I don’t know if this has any effect or not. John, who has a background in chemistry, added that the salt wouldn’t be doing much in the hydrated calcium sulfate reaction. His view was that the salt is unnecessary.

Here are the other recipes:

C: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, 8 drops of water.
D: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, one drop of white glue, 8 drops of water.
E: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, one drop of wood glue, 8 drops of water.
F: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, 0.5g of salt (pulverized), 9 drops of water. In case you’re wondering why I tested both white glue and wood glue, it is because I didn’t realize that they were both polyvinyl acetates. Anyway, in producing the four muds above, I didn’t do a great job of keeping the shape of the samples similar to each other. However, I don’t think this had an overly negative effect on the results at this stage. Definitely the worst of the four in compressive strength was F (similar to B). The middling mixture was C. The best were D and E. I’m giving the edge to E overall, but the difference between the two might just be in my head. They both had good hardness and compressive strength. I have some fine results, but there is an aesthetic problem: the best mud is white! It’s not the end of the world, but it doesn’t look great on the inside of a pipe one has just restored. A new test was in order. I made two new batches of E – but I added activated charcoal to one of them. These recipes look like this:

E: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, one drop of wood glue, 8 drops of water.
G: 1.0g of plaster of Paris, 0.6g of activated charcoal, one drop of wood glue, 9 drops of water.
For this test, I made a much better attempt to have the same shape of mud – a sort of cylinder. The result of the compressive strength test here was definitive: E was notably better. This was no surprise to John. He commented that the charcoal would weaken the structure of the plaster, as it would interfere with (rather than adhere to) the crystalline structure.One thing that I did not test – but probably should have – is mixing pipe ash with plaster of Paris and water. However, given the above results, I expect that it would also be inferior to E.

Here is my (slightly strange) conclusion: although E (perhaps along with D) was hardest and strongest, I am not advocating for YOU to use any particular pipe mud. I have my own thoughts on which mud is best for my work, but my opinion isn’t worth a hill of beans. My goal here is to present my amateurish results, hopefully for your benefit – and that’s it. It is your task now to take the results and do with them as you wish. Special thanks to Steve Laug and John Young for their words of wisdom.

If you make use of these results in your pipe work, please let me know how it goes. I would also be interested to know if you have a different pipe mud recipe you recommend. I hope you enjoyed reading this installment of the Pipe Incident Report – I look forward to writing more. If you are interested in my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Life for a Savinelli Italy Coral Finished Bing Billiard with a Specialty Sterling Band

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table has one of my favourite finishes – a deeply rusticated one with what appears to have originally been a natural finished. We purchased this one from an estate on 03/21/2024 from a fellow in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. It is a Savinelli rustication that really looks like a classic Capri Root Briar. The coral like rustication around the bowl and shank was filled in with dust and debris. The natural finish was dirty and the high spots are darkened by hand oils and grime ground into briar. The pipe was stamped on underside of the shank. It is stamped Savinelli followed by Italy. There is no shape number on the shank but the style is much like a Bing Crosby Pipe. The Sterling Silver Band on the shank has 925 in an oval followed by SA113. On the topside it is etched Le Mie Pipe over AS underlined in script. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the inner edges and the rim top. The vulcanite stem was oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. As I mentioned above the exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a thin coat of lava that overflowed from the thick cake in the bowl. The rim edges looked quite good with no damage. The stem was dirty, calcified and oxidized with tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem at the button. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the briar around the bowl. It is a great looking piece of briar with a deep coral style rustication. The next photo shows the stamping on the heel of the bowl and the underside of the shank. It is very readable and reads as noted above.Jeff also took photos of the stamping on the Sterling Silver band. The top of the band on the shank reads as noted above – Le Mie Pipe over AS signature line. The underside of the is stamped 925 in an oval followed by SA113. I wrote my brother Jeff to see if I had spelled what I read on the stamping correctly. He sent me a response to my question affirming that I had spelled it correctly and also included a link that he had found while Googling for Le Mei pipes. It took him to a listing on Smokingpipes.com that defined the stamping and gave some context for it pipes made by Savinelli (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/italy/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=370851). I quote below from Jeff’s email with the info he found on the site:

Le Mie means “mine” in Italian. On smoking pipes.com, it talks about Savinelli Le Mie pipes. According to this, it says that the favorite finish of Achille Savinelli was said to be a rugged, coral-like rustication, but his preferred pipe to wear such a finish was an understated, long-stemmed, straight billiard. That being the case, when the marque made a series of briars in his honor, Le Mie, meaning “mine” in Italian, that’s precisely what was made. This piece also wears a handsome, silver accent band that displays the founder’s signature. — Angela Robertson

Now I knew what the stamping on the band meant – it is a pipe made in honour of Achille Savinelli. It was made in his preferred shape and with his favourite coral finish and a silver band with his signature. Hence, it is stamped MY PIPE (Le Mie). Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl were in excellent condition. The top of the bowl was in good condition. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. I took a photo\s of the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. The remaining oxidation is very visible.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I touched up the golf club and ball logo stamp on the left side of the taper stem with a white acrylic fingernail polish. Once it cured I scraped off the excess polish and polished around it with a worn micromesh 1500 grit sanding pad. I took a photo of the whitened stamp.    I wiped down the stem with some Soft Scrub to remove the remaining oxidation on the stem. I worked very well to remove what remained.The stem was in good condition to I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. The stem was a filter stem drilled for 6mm filters. I fitted the tenon with a new Vauen 6mm filter so it is ready for the next owner to load and enjoy.This Savinelli Le Mie Pipe (My Pipe) Achilles Savinelli signed Crosby Billiard cleaned up really well and looks very good. The Before & After Restoration Balm brought the colours and grain out in the rusticated finish on the pipe. It works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Savinellil Le Mie Pipe Crosby Billiard fits nicely in the hand and I think it will feel great as it heats up with a good tobacco. The tactile finish will add to the experience. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.16 ounces/33 grams. If you are interested in carrying the previous pipeman’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Breathing New Life into a Large Dunhill Group 6 Shell Briar 6401 Bent Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a large sandblast Dunhill ¼ Bent Apple. It had a taper, vulcanite stem with a white spot. We purchased it from a seller who was selling an estate in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024. The seller said that the pipe came from his father in Indiana, a long-time pipe dealer who had retired many years earlier. His father had originally purchased it from a friend of his who also was also a pipe dealer. The pipe is stamped on the heel of the bowl and on the underside of the shank. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped with the shape number 6401. That is followed with stamping on the shank that clearly reads Dunhill in an oval. Next to that it is stamped Shell Briar [over] Made in England30. The rim was in good condition other than lava overflowing from the thick cake in the bowl onto the sandblast rim top. It is hard to assess the condition of the inner edge of the rim due to the cake and lava overflow. There were oils and grime ground into the bowl sides gives the finish a flat look. The vulcanite stem is oxidized, calcified, and dirty with grime and grit on the surface. There was a Softee Bit on the stem when we got it. Once it was removed, there were also scratches and tooth marks on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. He also took photos to capture the tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the sand blast around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and very readable as noted above. I wanted to unpack the Dunhill stamping on the shank and work to understand each element of the stamp. I generally use the Pipephil site to gather as much initial information as possible (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The number 6401 is the shape number that unpacks as follows: the 6 is the bowl size, 4 is the identifier for a taper stem, 01 is the shape designation – an Apple. The Shell Briar stamp refers to the finish. The superscript 30 following the D of England would give the date the pipe. Pipephil also has some helpful dating keys on the site that are basically flow charts that you can walk through to date your pipe (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1.html). I turned to Part 1 of the Dating Key and followed the chart. This pipe has a superscript 30 following the D in England. There was no patent number so that took me to the section on the chart below (column one) which instructed me that the pipe could be dated as being made “posterior to 1954”.I followed the link under “Your pipe is posterior to 1954. Narrow down your dating”. That took me to Page 2 of the dating key (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The second column (suffix 1…4) or (11…39) led me to the section with a 30 after the D in England. There was a directive for dating the pipe spelled out as follows: 1960 + suffix which gives the pipe a date of 1990. From that I knew that the pipe was made in the 1990.I then turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Shell Briar to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Shell

A deep craggy sandblast with a black stain finish (usually made using Algerian briar) – the color of the stain used has varied over the years. Although there is some doubt as to them being the first to sandblast pipes, Dunhill’s Shell pipes, and the sandblasting techniques developed to create them are considered one of Dunhill’s greatest and most lasting contributions to the art of pipe making.

The documented history of Dunhill’s inception of the Shell is largely limited to patent applications — there are no catalog pages or advertisements promoting blasted pipes at the time. The preliminary work on the English patent (No. 1484/17) was submitted on October 13, 1917. The patent submission was completed half a year later, on April 12, 1918, followed by the granting of the English patent on October 14, 1918. This was less than a month before the end of The Great War on November 11th.

In 1986 Dunhill released a line of premium Shell finish pipes – “RING GRAIN”. These are high-quality straight grain pipes which are sandblasted. Initially only Ring Grain, but now in two different finishes. In 1995 the “Shilling” was introduced with Cumberland finish – it is an extremely rare series. These pipes exhibit a deeper blast characteristic of that of the 1930’s – mid-1960’s (and the limited ‘deep blast’ pipes of the early 1980s) and show a fine graining pattern. These are considered the best new Dunhills by many enthusiasts today and are very rare. The finish is sometimes described as tasting like vanilla at first, with the taste becoming more normal or good as the pipe breaks in.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. It looks pretty good with the tars and oils removed from the rim top. You can see the flat finish on the rim top and the debris in the sandblast. The bowl itself was very clean. The stem came out looking quite good with some slight remaining oxidation. There are some scratches, light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The photo shows the stamping and is actually more readable in person. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. It is a nice looking pipe.I sanded the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the debris in the sandblast finish. It looked much better at this point.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem issues. To address the scratches and marks in the surface of the vulcanite as well as some residual oxidation. I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the rim top had a shine.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This 1990 Dunhill Shell Briar 6401 Apple with a ¼ Bent Vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish that is very deep and craggy. The Shell Briar dark brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a unique sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The polished vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Dunhill Shell Briar 6401 Apple is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 3.03 ounces/86 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Restoring a Danish Mystery Panel Plateau Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a Danish looking Plateau Panel. We purchased it from fellow in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, USA on 03/20/2024. He said that as far as he could tell it appeared to be unstamped. To me it looked like a Danish pipe but I could not identify it from the photos he sent me nor could he. There was a thick cake in the bowl with a heavy lava coat around the inner edge and deep in the valleys and crevices on the plateau top. There was grime ground into the rusticated finish around the bowl and shank. The plateau end on the shank end was also dirty. The pipe had been smoked heavily and was someone’s obvious favourite. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edge for certain because of the lava. The stamping on the shank is not visible in the photos and the seller could not read anything. The fancy turned saddle stem is oxidized and calcified. There appears to be some deep tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below.Jeff took photos of the rim top, bowl and the surfaces of the stem to give a sense of the condition of the pipe. The walls of the bowl had a thick cake which overflowed over the rim edges and onto the rim top. The stem is oxidized, calcified and dirty. There are tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a clear picture of the way the shape follows the grain. The grain is really beautiful even showing through the grime filling in the valleys and low spots. The plateau on the rim top and shank end is beautiful but dirty. He took photos of the stamping on the smooth underside of the shank. It is faint but is partial readable. This finally is a lead for the brand on the pipe that was a mystery until this moment. It looks like it says Holtorp [over] Denmark.I did some digging to see what I could learn about the holtorp brand. I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-h3.html). There was a listing and a photo of the stamping on the stamping on the shank. It matches the one I am working on. I have also included the side bar information below the screen capture.Artisan: P. Holtorp was one of the regular pipe carver at Pipe-Dan in Copenhagen during the 1960’s. Rather massive (sometimes heavy) and well grained flawless pipes.

I turned to Pipedia and found more information that was helpful. It gave some history of the carver and the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Holtorp). I have included it below.

H. Dan-Christensen’s shop Pipe-Dan at Vestergade 13 – just off Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square – was one of the most important turntables for upcoming as well as established pipemakers and pipe enthusiasts from all over the world from the 1960’s to the 1980’s.

P. Holtorp was one of the many artisanal carvers who worked in the periphery of Pipe-Dan. In the 1960’s – maybe up to the early 1970’s – he was one of the in-house pipemakers working together with Sven Knudsen, Gert Holbek, Axel Svend Celius, Tom Eltang – just to name a few. Later he worked from his own shop but still sold most of his pipes via Pipe-Dan.

Holtorp never became as famous as some of the names mentioned. Most probably, because the majority of his pipes was a bit different from the Danish “fancy freehands” and more striving for elegance. The typical Holtorp features bold lines and forms. Some are very manly pipes, so to say, rather made for stronger built pipesters. Accordingly the weight tended to be considerable – e.g. 118g the pipe shown below. Many were versions of earlier Holbek or Pipe-Dan designs. His “Bird” shape pipes for Pipe-Dan are clean simple shapes that have become Danish classics.

Holtorp’s craftsmanship and execution match very high standards. Straight grains from his hands are more than a rarity but the dense and flawless graining of his pipes is remarkable.

Estates by Holtorp don’t ask the prices of some other contemporaneous Danes by far – Thus an excellent buy for those who love a quality pipe if they can find them.

It also included a photo of the stamping and I can definitely confirm that my mystery on the brand is solved. The pipe is a Holtorp.

Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. There were a couple of spots on the front panel of the bowl that looked like flaws and the briar was concave a bit around them. I would need to see what the cause was for that. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took photos of the bowl and the rim top as well as both sides of the stem to show the condition of the pipe before I started my work. The rim top was very clean and the inner edge and plateau top look much better. The stem showed tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. I took the stem off the bowl and took a photo of the parts. It is an interesting pipe. I sanded the inside of the bowl to smooth out the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I was able to remove smooth the residual carbon on the front inner wall of the bowl. There was one small pit mid bowl in the wall at the front that I would need to fill in and repair.I sanded off the stain on the high points on the plateau with 220 grit sandpaper so there would be some contrast between the dark stain in the valleys and matching stain on the high points that is like the rest of the exterior. I did the same on the plateau shank end. It looks very good. I finished working over the plateau with a brass bristle wire brush to further clean it up. There was a divot or dent on the front of the bowl mid-bowl with two small flaws in it. I filled it in with clear CA glue. Once it cured I used the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to flatten the repair and start the process of blending it into the surface. I further smoothed it out with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. It was looking much better. I sanded the entire bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth between each sanding pad. It really began to take on a shine. I heated the briar and stained it with a Cordovan stain. I fired it with a lighter to set the stain and burn off the alcohol. I repeated the process until I was happy with the coverage on the pipe. I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to remove the excess stain on the briar. It began to look very good. I sanded the bowl with 600-3500 grit sanding pads to even out the stain and smooth the surface of the briar. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the plateau rim top surface with my fingertips and a shoebrush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I repaired the damaged area on the inside of the bowl with a thin coating of JB Weld. I applied it in the bowl with a pipe cleaner and pushed it into the area with a tooth pick. Once it cured I sanded it smooth with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel leaving only the burned area with the repair. It looked much better and was very smooth. I mixed a batch of bowl coating made of sour cream and activated charcoal powder. I used a pipe cleaner to stir it up and also to apply it to the bowl walls. I wanted to give a coat to protect it until a new cake could be formed. It also covered the repair with the JB Weld and protected it. I set the bowl aside for the bowl coating to cure and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” it with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift the majority of them. What remained I filled in with clear CA glue and set it aside to cure. I used a small file to flatten out the repair on the stem and recut the sharp edge of the stem. I sanded out the roughness and smoothed out repaired tooth damage with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I was able to remove the roughness and damage and the stem looked better.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This nice looking Holtorp Panel Plateau with a taper vulcanite stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The briar is clean and the grain really came alive. The rich brown stains gave the finish a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. The grain really popped. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Holtrop Panel Plateau really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches x 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 62 grams/ 2.19 ounces. This beautiful Freehand pipe will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Secton. It should make a great smoker for the next trustee. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on.

A Pipe Den Zulu Restoration

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Nicely done John. You may be right on the Jobey identification. Looks great

Photographed and written by John M. Young The Pipe Den, the name harkens back to a day of local pipe and tobacco shops which our world appears to …

A Pipe Den Zulu Restoration

Cleaning an El-Is Ferit Orersoy Black Meerschaum Rhodesian with a Yellow Acrylic Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

We purchased two of these El-Is Ferit Orersoy Black Meerschaum pipes from a seller in Vilas, North Carolina, USA on 12/01/23. The 2 pipes were both straight Rhodesian style pipes – one with black stem and one with yellow stem. One was smoked and one was clean and unsmoked. Both were boxed in their original cardboard box that is stamped on the top and reads El-Is [over] Ferit Orersoy [over] 1, Kordon 1382 So – 2/8 [over] Izmir. The boxes are light weight and include the original cotton piece the pipe sat on as well as a leaflet on the care of the black meerschaum. The unsmoked pipe will be looked at in the next blog but this one was smoked. It had a light cake in the bowl and some lava overflow on the rim top. The finish was a little spotty where the fingers held it. It would lessen when I cleaned and waxed it. The shank was very dirty as was the bone tenon that held the stem in place. The tenon was threaded into the shank of the pipe first and then the stem screwed onto it to allow for proper alignment. The tenon was lightly stained with tobacco as was the airway in the stem. There was some blackening at the airway’s entrance to the button slot. The pipe smelled dirty and would need to be cleaned up. When I examined it, I noticed a light build up of lava on the rim top. Because of the colour of the meer it is more noticeable to touch than sight. It is a dullness to site. When I was touching it I also felt the inner edge and noticed there was a light cake in the bowl and some tobacco debris. The stem had some darkening in the button area and in the first inch of the airway. There were light tooth marks and chatter on the stem surface. But I knew I would need to give this pipe a good cleaning. I removed the stem to give a sense of the parts and to showing the staining on the bone tenon.I thought I would include the information from the leaflet that is in each box. It is helpful information on the brand and the meerschaum.  I have left out the address on the leaflet as I have included it above. I quote:

THIS PIPE IS MADE FROM PURE BLOCK MEERSCHAUM

Meerschaum is a stone or block mostly found in the Asia Minor. It is imbedded in red clay and usually found 40 to 150 feet under the surface of the ground. Meerschaum is not a clay or mineral but is organic in origin, being fossilized remains of minute sea animals like coral. These little animals died many millions of years ago and the remains of their shells were compressed by earthquakes, washed over repeatedly by the ocean and by floods which deposited earth and rock on top of them, and were moved and shifted by floods and successive glacial movements.

Today, the meerschaum is found only in Asia Minor in sufficient quantity and of quality suitable for commercial use. Meerschaum is very light in weight and is one of the most porous substances found in nature. Consequently, it absorbs nicotine and tobacco is thus filtered in the meerschaum pipe. During the millions of years the outside part of the meerschaum stones or blocks has deteriorated so far that only the kernel of sound meerschaum is left in the middle. The decompose outer parts are 10 to 20 times as much as the sound kernel which is used for pipes.

HAND CARVED

Each pipe is deftly cut by hand and has its own character, and colours gradually as it is smoked, taking on a rich brown colour with the years. The meerschaum is impregnated with wax which helps to give it the beautiful velvety finish for which meerschaum pipes are famous. Each pipe has its own individual character given to it by the artisan who made it.

HOW TO BREAK IN YOUR PIPE

Meerschaum pipes should be broken in much in the same manner as a briar pipe. For the first few smoked, the pipe should be filled only half full and the tobacco packed lightly. This way the outside of the bowl will colour gradually from the bottom up taking on an even, rich brown tone with the years of smoking pleasure. The smoker is cautioned not to touch the warm bowl with his fingers as the moisture left there will affect the eventual colouring.

BLACK MEERSCHAUM PIPES

Not all of us may like a white pipe or some may have preference for the colour of black, so quite rightly they may like to have a black meerschaum pipe. El-Is proudly present black meerschaum pipes. An El-Is specialty, in order to meet its customers demands. These pipes are not painted but given their colour by way of pyrography and then polished. This way, the pipe does not lose its characteristics and retain its colour even after extended usage.

Now it was time to clean up the pipe itself. I carefully scraped the cake out of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I took all the cake out then sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. Once I finished the bowl was clean and all cake was a thing of history.I cleaned out the dirty internals in the airway in the shank, the mortise and the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It took a few to get it cleaned but eventually the cleaners came out clean. I also wiped down the top of the rim with a cotton pad dampened with alcohol and was able to remove the lava coat.I lightly polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-1200 grit pads and lightly wiping the rim top down with a damp cloth after each pad. It cleaned up very well. I rubbed down the surface of the meerschaum with Before & After Restoration balm. I worked it into the surface of the meer to clean, polish and preserve the pipe. It looks good and the spottiness of the black finish looked much better. I applied several coats of Clapham’s Beeswax/Carnauba mix to the surface of the meerschaum. I set it aside to dry between coats and gave it a brisk buff with a soft cloth after each one dried. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. There was a deep tooth divot on the underside of the stem ahead of the button. I filled it in with clear CA glue. Once it cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper.I polished the acrylic stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with some Before & After Pipe Stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil. The stem took on a rich glow. This nice looking El–Is Black Meerschaum Bent Rhodesian with a yellow acrylic bent taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The black meerschaum is clean and the light weight bowl has a rich glow to it. I put the bone tenon in the shank and then attached the stem to align correctly. If the tenon is in the stem first it does not align with the shank correctly but in the shank it aligns correctly. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully/lightly buffed the pipe with clean buffing wheel using a light touch on the meer. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of Claphams Beeswax mixed with Carnauba and hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished El-Is Black Meerschaum Bent Rhodesian really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 33 grams/21.16 ounces. This beautiful pipe will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the Ceramic & Meerschaum Pipes Section. It should make a great smoker for the next trustee. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on.

Restoring a Ferndown Bark Antique *** Hand Made in England Les Wood Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a beautiful rusticated Dublin with a silver band. We purchased it from an estate sale in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024.The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank and reads *** followed by Ferndown [arched over] Bark [over] Antique followed by Hand Made In [over] England [over] Les Wood. There was a thick cake in the bowl with a lava coat around the inner edge and lightly on the top. There was grime ground into the rusticated finish around the bowl and shank. The pipe had been smoked heavily and was someone’s obvious favourite. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edge for certain because of the lava. The oxidized band on the shank is Sterling Silver and bears the stamp L&JS followed by 925 on the left side. There is an LJS logo stamped in gold on the left side of the taper stem. The stem is oxidized and calcified. With a mark left behind on the stem end from a Softee Bit. There appears to be some light tooth chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below. Jeff took photos of the rim top, bowl and the surfaces of the stem to give a sense of the condition of the pipe. The walls of the bowl had a thick cake which overflowed over the rim edges and onto the rim top. The stem is oxidized, calcified and dirty. There are light tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a clear picture of the way the shape follows the grain. The rustication is really beautiful even showing through the grime filling in the valleys and low spots. The depth and randomness of the rustication is very well done. He took photos of the stamping on the smooth panel on the underside the heel and the shank. It is clear and readable and read as noted above. The silver band and the left side of the taper both have clear stamping under the oxidation that reads as noted above. To gather backgound on the brand I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what was included in the listing there (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-f1.html). I have included both the screen capture and also the side bar below the photo I have included.Artisan: Leslie (Les) Wood. He was the master silver smith at Alfred Dunhill Ltd. before starting L. & J.S. Briars. Pipes for the European market are stamped “L. Wood” while those for US are stamped “Ferndown”. Production: ~ 2000 pipes/year (Ferndown + L.Wood) See also Elwood

The first pipe pictured in the screen capture above is stamped similarly to mine. From that listing I learned that the 3 stars was the designation for the size of the pipe. This is largest pipe. The Bark finish is a designation used for both sandblasted and rusticated. I still need to unpack the Antique stamp but it is becoming very clear. The stem on this one is also not Cumberland but rather black vulcanite.

I turned to Pipedia next (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ferndown). There is a great article there on the carver, the pipes and the workshop. It is worth the time to give it a read. I am quoting the section on the pipes below for the information included.

Due to the vagaries of international trademark law, he sold his earlier pipes as ” L.&J.S Briars”, “Ellwood”, “Les Wood” or “L. Wood”. Until recently, an average of 1500 – 2000 pipes a year were sold as “Ferndown” — named for the mansion he lives in — in the UK and US, but as “L. Wood” pipes in Germany…

…To many pipe smokers, Les Wood’s pipes embody the revival of great English pipe making initiated by Ashton in the early 1980s. The high-grade Italian and Spanish plateau he prefers is oil-cured in the tradition of both Dunhill and Ashton. The pipes are renowned for their pleasant, slightly nutty flavor and remarkable smoking characteristics. They feature impeccable craftsmanship extending to very good stem/bit work, though many pipes are often a bit heavier. The hallmark of his work, of course, is the excellent silver work. Almost all of his pipes feature rings or ferules for spigot stems. Grading is by finish: “Bark” (ca. 90%, rusticated, dark brown and black), “Antique Bark” (tan rusticated), “Reo” (brown and red, smooth), “Root” (orange, smooth), and “Tudor Root” (orange and brown smooth) and by size (one to four stars). He also designates straight grains with SG.

The pipe I am working on is as noted above a Ferndown which identifies it as a pipe named after his mansion and as a pipe made for the UK and the US. It is also as noted in red above stamped Antique Bark which identifies it as a tan rusticated pipe.

Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took photos of the bowl and the rim top as well as both sides of the stem to show the condition of the pipe before I started my work. The rim top was very clean but there were scratches on the flat surface and the inner edge showed some nicks, roughness and darkening. The Sterling Silver band looked much better without the oxidation and darkening. The stem showed light tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. There was a light mark on the top right of the button edge.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The photo of the stamping is clear and readable. I took a photo of the logo on the silver band and on the left side of the taper stem. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the darkening to the inner edge of the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 sandpaper to smooth out the rim edge. Once I was finished it looked much better.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the final pads the briar really had a shine. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the smooth rim top surface with my fingertips and into the heavy rustication with a shoebrush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I polished the silver band with a jeweller’s cloth to clean up and prevent further oxidation in the future. The contrast between the silver and the heavy rustication is very nice. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the roughness and light tooth damage with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I was able to remove the roughness and damage and the stem looked better.I touched up the LJS stamp on the left side of the taper stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I rubbed it on and worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. I buffed it off with a Obsidian Oil cloth. It looks very good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This nice looking Les Wood Ferndown Bark Antique *** Rusticated Dublin with a taper vulcanite stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The briar is clean and the grain really came alive. The rich brown stains gave the finish a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. The grain really popped. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Ferndown Bark Antique *** Dublin really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 66 grams/2.33 ounces. This beautiful rusticated pipe will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Secton. It should make a great smoker for the next trustee. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on.

Restoring a Comoy’s Consort 1057 Rhodesian with an Acrylic Saddle Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking Bent Rhodesian with great grain around the bowl. It has a well shaped variegated acrylic stem. We purchased it from an estate sale in Spring Branch. Texas, USA on 02/29/2024. I have included the photos below that the seller sent to me so I could see what the pipe looked like. When the pipe arrived Jeff took photos of it before cleaning it up. Here is what we saw. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Comoy’s [over] Consort. On the right side it is stamped Made in London in a circle [over] England. Underneath the COM stamp is the shape number 1057. To the left of that next to the stem shank junction it is stamped with a letter M. The acrylic stem has the newer Comoy’s C logo worn decal on the left side of the saddle. The bowl had been reamed recently and the inner edge of the bowl looked very good. The rim top has some grime and some lava on the surface. There were oils and grime ground into the bowl sides gives the finish a flat look though there is some great grain. The shank has a slight curve to it giving the pipe a Bent Rhodesian shape. The bend of the saddle stem matches the curves of the bowl and shank. The variegated rose acrylic stem is a dirty and has some light tooth chatter on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button.He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the reamed bowl and the spotty lava coat overflowing onto the top. He also took photos of the stem to capture its condition before clean up. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the rich grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar.   He took photos of the stamping on the sided of the shank. It is clear and quite readable. It reads as noted above. You can also see the decal of the Comoy’s logo on the side of the stem. It is worn off in places but still identifiable. I knew the pipe was probably newer and a Cadogan period pipe by the style of the stamping, the line and the acrylic stem but I wanted to see if I could get a cleared date on the pipe. I turned to Pipedia’s guide for dating Comoy’s pipes and have included what I found below (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide#%E2%80%9CMade_In%E2%80%9D_Stamp). I quote the pertinent section –

Made in London England

Appears in two versions. This is again stamped in a circle with “MADE” at the top, “IN” in the middle, and “LONDON” at the bottom, with “ENGLAND” in a straight line beneath. It can be assumed that this stamp was first used in the export drive in the early 1950s. On a Bulldog Sandblast from the early 50s the Comoy name no. 2 above was used together with “MADE IN LONDON” over “ENGLAND”. There are no known examples of pre-WW II Comoy’s stamped in this way. The second version is the same as above but in a “rugby ball ” shape…

I was correct in assuming it is Cadogan produced the English line. The Rhodesian I am working is a Comoy’s shape 1057. It is a real beauty and the variegated stem looks very good with it. Now it was time to work on it.

 Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a PipNet reamer and a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. The bowl walls looked very good. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and rinsed it with warm water to remove the soap and debris. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show how clean it was. The top and the inner edge of the rim look quite good with just some small scratches. The stem looks clean of debris and grime. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of shank. The stamping is clear and readable (much clearer in person than the photos show). I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. I started polishing the bowl by sanding it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding dust. It looked better and the scratches disappeared. I polished the briar bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The bowl took on a rich glow. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the chatter on the surface of the stem.I polished the acrylic with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the stem back on the Comoy’s Consort 1057 Rhodesian and took it to the buffer. I worked over the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up really well and the rim top and edge looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. The rich reddish, brown bent Rhodesian is a beautiful take on a classic shape. The polished acrylic saddle stem looks really good with the rich reds of the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.76 ounces/50 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers and Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. This Bent Rhodesian looks and feels great in the hand. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

A Brand-New Jima Pipe

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Welcome to the wonderful world of Jima! Are you interested in metal pipes? Are you interested in strange system pipes? Are you interested in French pipes? Are you interested in futuristic designs? Well, have I got a pipe for you! One sees Jima pipes from time to time, but it’s particularly nice to see an unsmoked one. Today, I’m putting this new Jima up for sale. Let me tell you a bit about them. The following information is from Pipedia:

French brand created in the 1960s by Mayeux (editor MAHIEUX) , which had a very modern look. This modern look was emphasized by the manufacturer in the promotion material. The slogan speaks of “La pipe de l’an 2000” or “The pipe of the year 2000”. The factory was sold to Chapel Frères & Cie, which became part of the Berrod-Regad group in 1987. The Jima pipe is no longer made.   Although Pipedia says “created in the 1960s”, I can provide the more exact date of 1963. It was marketed until the mid-1970s. The pipe shown in the above ad is actually a much rarer version of the Jima – it has its metal bars wrapped around the outside of the plastic case.Much of what is written in the Pipedia article is, in fact, blatantly ripped off from the website of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. The original article from which this is taken was in Dutch, but here is their English translation:

A special product of French origin is the Jima pipe, for export also known under the name Garland. It concerns a pipe having a different shape provided with a silver-plated or gold-plated steel metal frame, connecting a plastic mouthpiece with a plastic outer shell that houses the pipe bowl. This plastic pipe comes in different colours, with black and ivory as the most popular. More modern versions are mottled in pastel shades, whose sales stay far below any level. The inner bowl looks like meerschaum but is actually made of pressed white clay. The stem has a specific filter system which consists of a wound spiral, the so-called “filtres serpentins helicoidaux”, which according to the product information is electrostatic. To access the filter the stem can be unscrewed, although in other instances a user-friendly spring system is applied. At the top of the mouthpiece we often read “Breveté France & Etranger” or “Modèle Deposé Made in France”.

Jima was certainly futuristic looking and, by all accounts, they smoke very well. The Smoking Metal website has also has an entry on Jima pipes, which is worth looking at. Additionally, Elie’s Freehand Pipes has several photos – with this particularly useful photo of a partially disassembled Jima:Even more helpfully, there is a French website called PBMI. This stands for Pipes en Métal à Bol Interchangeable, which, in English, means Metal Pipes with Interchangeable Bowls. They have some interesting information for those who read French and many photos for those who don’t. Most interesting of all, however, is a brief article in the French edition of Popular Mechanics in March 1963. I have translated the article for you all here below:

All new in its shape, its technique and the materials that make it, this pipe is like a pocket hookah. The bowl is made of a permeable silica-alumina clay and has no taste. The bowl is cooled during smoking because it is mounted with a radiation ring and housed in a special plastic case. As a result, the air circulates easily, through holes in the bottom and by an annular slit located under the radiation ring.

The pipe is very light and the bowl can be easily replaced, if necessary. It is connected to the tip by two fixed side rods and a removable condenser-radiation tube that can be emptied instantly. This radiation tube contains a newly-developed, electrostatic spiral filter which has many surfaces to trap tobacco tar and condensation. This coil, coated with an insulating aluminum oxide film, suspended by two insulating joints, causes an electrostatic effect, resulting in the quick condensation of nicotine and other alkaloids. The smoke is cooled, to the satisfaction of the smoker and those around him. This newly designed and produced pipe is very healthy.Anyway, all in all, a fascinating piece of pipe history and design. It is bound to be a great smoker and it is available now. If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the French pipe Section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅔ in. (144 mm); height 1⅝ in. (40 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¼ oz. (39 g). If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Replacing a Broken Tenon on one of my own – a Svendborg Full Bent Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is one that I had restored previously and had really enjoyed smoking. This older Svendborg Bent Apple was a great smoking pipe that is light weight and enjoyable. I had reamed, cleaned, restored and reclaimed a worn bowl and tired vulcanite stem (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/03/04/refurbished-svendborg-full-bent-apple/). It is stamped on the underside of the shank ahead of the vulcanite shank extension. It reads Svendborg [over] Denmark [over] Hand Made. It has a nice looking dark sandblast finish on the bowl culminating in a thin rim top. The fancy turned saddle stem has a Svendborg logo stamped on the left side. About a year ago we had a flood in our basement and the restoration folks packed my pipes and tobacco storage up and took it away. When they brought it back and unpacked it I found that the tenon was snapped off in the shank extension. Fast forward to a year later – today, and you will find it on my work table. After lunch today, I decided to replace the tenon and re-restore the pipe once again. I decided to record the process once more so you can see the steps. Here is what it looked like when I started. I took a photo of the snapped tenon before trying to remove it. I used a drywall screw and tried to pull the broken tenon out of the shank. It was too tight and did not move at all. I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes and once I took it out I tried again to remove the broken tenon. I turned the screw in the airway and it came free of the shank extension without any trouble. It was now ready for a tenon replacement.From the previous restoration I have inserted the following information on the brand. I quote it below:

From http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s8.html I learned the following information: The Svendborg brand founded in 1970s by Henrik Jørgensen, Poul Ilsted and Tao Nielsen. They bought an old factory (Nordisc Pibefabriker) in Svendborg on Funen Island. Poul and Tao gradually bowed out from machine manufactured pipes (1982) and Henrik Jørgensen managed the brand until it was taken over by Design Berlin (D) in the late 90’s. Kaj C. Rasmussen joined the firm for several years. 17 employees worked for this brand under Henrik Jørgensen direction. I was given this pipe by a good friend last weekend when I visited him on Vancouver Island. The bowl was in great shape and the stem merely oxidized. There were no bite marks and some minimal tooth chatter on the underside of the stem near the button. The pipe is stamped on the underside Svendborg over Danish over Hand Made and on the left side of the shank is stamped Bark. The stem has the squashed S logo on the left side. The stem is a chairleg type saddle near the shank. The shank has a vulcanite shank extension.

I started the work on the new tenon by flattening the end of the chairleg stem. It was rough from where the tenon had snapped. I used a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the jagged pieces of vulcanite from the stem end.I went through my tenons and found one that had a similar diameter to the broken tenon piece that I had kept. I would need to be shaped and deduces in diameter to get a snug fit but it was close.I used a sanding drum on my Dremel to start the process and finished up with a rasp. I took off the necessary amount and smoothed out the files marks to make sure it was round. I cleaned up the tenon a bit more and put the tenon in the shank. It fit the shank very well at this point. I set the bowl aside with the tenon and worked on the stem end. I started opening the airway in the tenon with a pen knife. I have found that doing this gives a good guide for the drilling of the opening. Once finished with the knife I started with a drill bit in my cordless drill that was slightly larger than the airway and slowly turned it into the airway. I changed the bits until I used the 11/64 drill bit. I sanded down the threaded portion of the new tenon until the fit was perfect. I painted the threaded end of the tenon with medium thick black CA. I spread it on the tenon with a dental spatula. I pressed it into the stem end and aligned it with a pipe cleaner. I set the stem aside to allow the glue to cure.Once the glue cured and the tenon was solidly anchored in the stem I put it in the shank extension and took photos. The pipe was back to normal and looked great. I took a photo of the bowl and the shank/stem fit. It looked very good and the fit in the shank was snug.I took the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts. You can clearly see the new tenon in the photo. The bend of the stem matches the curves of the bowl and shank. It is a great looking pipe.I would soon be able to enjoy it once again. I set the pipe aside until the morning. I generally leave a repair like this cure overnight before smoking a bowl. Thanks for following along with the blog. I hope that at least some of the process is helpful to you in your own restoration work. Enjoy your pipes!