Blog by Steve Laug

I have been slowly (and I mean really slowly) going through some of the pipes in my own collection and selling them. I have quite a few Falcons and to be honest I just do not smoke them enough to warrant keeping so many. The next pipes on my work table to clean up are two of these Falcons. Both of them are American made Falcons rather than British made ones. They have a smooth bowls. The bases have the number 1 in the indentation on the heel of the base. Both are stamped FALCON. The aluminum is in need of a good polish as are the bowls. The stems have some light tooth chatter. But overall they are in excellent condition.Before I started refreshing each of the pipes I decided to have a look at Pipephil to remind myself about he history of the brand (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-f1.html). I have included a screen capture of the information on the site below.I also include the brief sidebar history from the site below:

The Falcon Pipe is an American invention, patented by Kenley Bugg of Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1936.

1948: George L. Hunt of Diversey Machine Works (D.M.W) signed a contract with Falcon Industries as exclusive Falcon pipe distributor for U.S. and Canada.

1956: D.M.W purchased the patents and trademarks from Falcon Industries Inc. and took over the Falcon pipes manufacture.

1968: Falcon pipe production moved from the U.S to the U.K in its entirety. Falcon Pipes Ltd. (also known as Falcon House Group) was owned by David E. Morris.

Falcon Pipes Ltd later became Merton and Falcon Co.

1974: Falcon London had sold about 14 million pipes around the world outside the U.S.A.

The Falcon logo on the mouthpiece was discontinued in 1994.

There was also interesting information the particular stamping on the base of this pipe. It has the stamping that identifies it as an American made Falcon. Now I had the basic background information on the two pipes. I knew that the pipes were made after 1948 and prior to the move of production to the UK in 1968. So needless to say both are older American made pipes.

Now to work on the pipes. I decided to work on them one at a time and complete one before working on another. The first one I chose is the rounded top Dublin bowled one below. It was in good condition. The bowl and base were very clean. The rim top had a little darkening. The stem had some tooth chatter on both sides near the button. I took some photos of the pipe before I started. I took some photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition of them both. You can see that the bowl is very clean. The darkening will polish off. The stem chatter will polish out as well.Here is a photo of the stamping on the heel of the base. It reads as noted above.I removed the bowl from the base to show the inside of the base. It is quite clean. I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the bowl with a damp cloth down after each pad. It really began to shine. I rubbed down the bowl with Before & After Restoration Balm working it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. After 10 minutes I buffed it off with a soft cloth. The bowl looks quite beautiful with the grain shining through. I polished out the tooth marks on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. The first of them is finished. It turned out to be a real beauty. The dimension of the pipe are – Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 33 grams/1.16 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the Pipes from Various Makers – Czech, Belgian, German, Israeli, Spanish Pipemakers along with Metal Pipes section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. The second one I chose is the flat top Dublin bowled one below. It was in good condition. The bowl and base were very clean. The rim top had a little darkening. The stem had some tooth chatter on both sides near the button. I took some photos of the pipe before I started. I took some photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition of them both. You can see that the bowl is very clean. There were some nicks around the inner edge that would need to be dealt with as well as some on the rim top. The darkening will polish off. The stem chatter will polish out as well.Here is a photo of the stamping on the heel of the base. It reads as noted above.I removed the bowl from the base to show the inside of the base. It is quite clean.  I cleaned up the inner edge of the rim and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I gave the edge a slight bevel to minimize the damage on the right side. It looked a lot better.I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the bowl with a damp cloth down after each pad. It really began to shine. I rubbed down the bowl with Before & After Restoration Balm working it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. After 10 minutes I buffed it off with a soft cloth. The bowl looks quite beautiful with the grain shining through. I polished out the tooth marks on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. The second Falcon is finished. It also turned out to be a real beauty. The dimension of the pipe are – Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 26 grams/.88 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the Pipes from Various Makers – Czech, Belgian, German, Israeli, Spanish Pipemakers along with Metal Pipes section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.