Tag Archives: Ascorti Business Bent

This Ascorti 01 Business Hand Made Must Be a Great Smoking Pipe

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is an interesting Ascorti Business Bent Bulldog. I had passed over this one a few times in the past weeks but this morning I decided it would join the days queue. It is a great looking and obviously well-loved pipe from the previous pipeman. It was a really filthy and had some damage on the rim top and edges when we received it. The bowl had a thick cake and the lava overflow on the rim made it impossible to see in the inner edge of the bowl. The outer edge had damage and burns on the right side of the rim cap. The bowl was rusticated in the typical Ascorti Business rustication but the camp and shank were smooth. The finish had a lot of dust and debris in the deep pockets of the finish and some stains as well on the surface. The twin rings around base of the cap were also filled in with debris and dust. The smooth portions had some nice grain on them under the grime and the finish appeared to be in good condition. A lot would be revealed once Jeff had worked his magic on it. The stem was very dirty and had heavy tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. The button surface appeared to be unharmed. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. Jeff tried to capture the condition of the bowl and rim top with the next series of photos. You can see the work that is ahead of us in the photos. It was obviously a well-loved and oft enjoyed pipe! Jeff took some great photos of the sides of the bowl and heel showing what is underneath the grime and debris of time and use. He captured the stamping on the sides of the shank and the left side of the tapered stem. They are clear and readable. The left side reads Ascorti over Business. On the right side it reads Hand Made over Italy. On the underside of the shank it is stamped 01 next to the shank/stem junction. The last photo below shows the Ascorti logo “A” on the left side of the saddle stem. The photos of the stem show the thick grime on the stem surface as well as the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It was probably one of the filthiest stems I have seen in a very long time. I have worked on a few Ascorti Business pipes in the recent months – two straight billiards so I turned to a blog on one of them to refresh the background information before I started my part of the work (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/03/18/repairing-banding-and-restoring-a-damaged-hand-made-ascorti-business-billiard/). I quote from that blog:

Before I started my part of the repair and restoration I wanted to have a clear picture of what the stem logo looked like on the Ascorti Business pipe. I turned to Pipephil as he often has some photos that give me the information that I am looking for (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a8.html). Sure enough he had a photo showing the rough stamped A on the stem. It is white and it is rough which is exactly how this one looks. Hopefully in the restoration process I can get it back a bit. I did a screen capture of the picture on the site and include it below.With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I knew from the information from the section above that the pipe came out after 1980 when the company started. I could not get the date more focused so it was time to work on the pipe.

I was seriously wondering how this beast would clean up as it was such a mess. I was not sure Jeff would be able to get all of the grime out of the rustication and the rings. It really was in bad shape. But I should not have even worried about it. Jeff cleaned the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. When I took it out of the box I was amazed at how good it looked it really looked like a different pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks far better than I expected and the rim top/cap damage was less than I thought it would be. Jeff scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and it came out looking far better. There was definitely tooth damage to address but nothing otherwise. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked very good. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took some photos of the rim top and stem. The inner edge shows some damage on the back right side and on the outer edge and top on the right side. The close up photos of the stem shows that is it very clean but you can see the tooth chatter and marks in the acrylic.I took photos of the stamping because they also cleaned up very well.I took the stem off the shank and took a picture of the pipe. It really is a nice looking pipe with great lines.The major issue with this pipe was the burn damage on the rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl. I started my restoration work on the pipe by addressing that damage. I topped the bowl to remove the burn damage on the top of the cap and to try and minimize the damage to the inner edge. I then used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inner edge and bring the bowl back to round. I gave the inner edge of the rim a slight bevel to further mask the damage. The rim top looks much better and will polish out pretty well with the micromesh. I polished the smooth briar of the rim cap and the shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. The grain really began to stand out and the finish took on a shine by the last sanding pad. The photos tell the story! I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the smooth and rusticated briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for about twenty minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I laid the bowl aside and turned to deal with the stem. I sanded the tooth marks and chatter on the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem and started polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with some Denicare Mouthpiece polish – a red gritty paste that feels a lot like the texture of red Tripoli. It works well to polish out some of the scratches. I find that it does a great job preparing the stem for polishing with micromesh sanding pads.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This Ascorti Business Bulldog was a pipe I was looking forward to seeing what it looked like when I put it back together. The change in condition and appearance of the pipe was remarkable. With the grime and debris gone from the finish and the bowl it was a beauty and the grain and rustication just pop at this point. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I carefully avoided the stamping on the shank and stem during the process. 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 on the buffer. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is quite beautiful and is a lovely bent Bulldog shaped pipe. The variegated finish on the bowl combines various stains to give it depth. It is very well done. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. I can only tell you that it is much prettier in person than the photos capture. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. I really like the way that Ascorti combines the rusticated finish with the smooth shank and rim cap. This is a great looking pipe in great condition. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Restoring and Restemming a Large Edward’s Bent Billiard with a Vulcanite Ferrule

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Blog by Steve Laug

The last of the foursome of Edward’s pipes that I cleaned up for the fund raiser on Smoker’s Forums is a large Billiard with a vulcanite ferrule. It came to me without a stem so I would need to go through my stem can and see if I had any stem that would work with this bowl. The pipe is stamped Edward’s in script on the right side of the shank. On the left side it is stamped Algerian Briar in block letters. On the underside of the stem there is a large + sign and the shape number 42 near the ferrule. The bowl was in rough shape. The finish was dirty and there are some large and small fills along the shank from the bowl shank union to the ferrule. The ferrule was oxidized. The internals of the bowl and shank were dirty. The bowl was caked with the same heavy soft cake as the other Edward’s pipes. The tars had flowed over the beveled inner rim of the pipe and hardened into a dark hard cake. The briar itself was quite beautiful under the grime so a good cleaning would reveal some excellent grain as it had in the other three pipes.

I found a stem in my stem can that fit the shank well and looked pretty decent. It would need to be bent slightly and the roughness of the stem would need to be sanded down to make the fit right but I took photos of the pipe with this stem to get an idea of how it would look. At this point the pipe has not been cleaned up or reamed.

I took one close-up photo of the bowl to show the state of the rim and the cake in the bowl. It would take some work to clean off the lava and bring the finish back to pristine. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer and took it back to bare wood to remove the crumbling, soft cake in the bowl.

Once I had the bowl reamed I took a photo of the stem and then took it to the heat gun to soften and rebend it to fit the bend of the pipe. There was a slight wave in the top of the stem that needed to be straightened as a part of the new bend.

I heated it until the vulcanite was pliable and then straightened it before rebending it to match the curve of the bowl and when held in the mouth was horizontal with the top of the bowl.

I liked the look of the stem with the new bend so I set it aside and went to work on the bowl. I used 0000 steel wool on the rim to remove the lava overflow and repolish the rim. I am finding that this works really well as Troy shared in various blog posts he has done here and on his own site. There is always something new to learn and add to the refurbishing skill set. With the rim cleaned up I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the grime in the finish and refresh the briar.

I cleaned out the bowl, shank and the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was pretty clean which is amazing when you consider the condition of the rim and the cake.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the shape and smooth out the angles and make the sides proportionally the same when the stem was in the mortise. I finished by sanding it with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratch marks left behind by the sandpaper.

I lightly sanded the bowl and the rim with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 and dry sanding with 3200-4000. I also sanded the vulcanite ferrule at the same time to remove the oxidation. I sanded the stem with the micromesh sanding pads as well – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I also used the oil on the ferrule. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and rubbed it down again with the oil.

I buffed the stem with Tripoli and White Diamond before sanding it with the final grits of micromesh pads. I finished with 6000-12000 grit pads and then gave the stem and ferrule a final rub down with the Obsidian Oil. I let it soak in and dry before taking it to the buffer. I gave the bowl a light coat of olive oil to bring life back into the briar and then gave it a buff with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean flannel buff. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth to bring depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. The first photo is of the pipe with the Edward’s large apple to give a sense of the size of the pipe. It is a large piece of briar.

Restoring an Ascorti Business KS Bent Brandy with a broken stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe that I have on my work table was an Ardor Business KS Bent Brandy with severe damage to the end of the stem. The bowl still had some unsmoked tobacco in the bottom half and the cake was crumbly and concentrated around the middle of the bowl. The top portion of the bowl had a light cake. The bottom portion was fairly clean. The shank and stem were dirty with a lot of black tars and oils. The mortise was black and the airway from the bowl entered the mortise quite high. Part of it was actually above the mortise – very different angle of drilling. The tenon was flared on the end so that the smoke was funneled into the stem. The finish was in excellent shape – the rustication had a reddish top coat over a dark brown/black undercoat. Even the rim was clean and undamaged.

The stem has the same stepped look as the Caminetto Business pipe that I just completed. The saddle portion of the stem was flawless. The top of the stem and the underside were damaged near the button. There was a large chunk of the Lucite missing on the underside and there were some deep tooth marks on the top side. The button itself was gnawed on as well on the top side. I had some choices to make with regard to this stem. Should I try a patch on the large missing chunk from the stem or should I cut of the stem and reshape a new button? That was the big question on this stem. I took the next two close-up photos to give a clear idea of how badly the stem was damaged.

I measured the length and took pictures to get a feel for the look of the pipe with the present stem length and with the shortened length. When I had a good picture in my mind of how it would look I used my Dremel and sanding drum to remove the damaged portion of the stem and cut it back to where the undamaged stem material would allow me to shape a new button and slot.

I took the next photos of the pipe with the shortened stem to see what it looked like with 1/2 of an inch cut off the length.

I took the next two photos of the cut off end to show how I had worked the Dremel to give it a straight edge. Once I took it back to the work table I would work on cutting in the edge of the button and start giving it shape.

I used some black super glue to fill in the deep tooth marks that remained on the stem and also ran a small band of super glue along the area where the button would eventually be cut.

When the glue dried I used a flat blade needle file to cut the sharp edge of the button on the end of the cut back stem.

I used a knife edged needle file to carve back the thickness of the stem to the newly cut straight edge. I wanted a taper from the bend back toward the sharp edge. It takes some work to carve back Lucite, as it is significantly harder than vulcanite.

As I examined the end of the stem I realised that I did not have enough thickness to the material on the top and bottom of the airway. It would not allow me to go deep enough to have a good edge on the button. I decided to build it up and created the button thickness I needed. I used a mix of activated charcoal dust mixed with black super glue to make a putty like substance that would stick to the stem. Using a suggestion from Andrew Selking, I wrapped the end of the stem with scotch tape to create a straight edge to work against when I put the putty on the stem. I then gave the stem a light coat of black super glue and then used the dental pick to press the charcoal and super glue mix on the stem end against the scotch tape. I used a flat dental trowel to flatten the material in place and save some sanding for myself. When the repair was hard to the touch I removed the scotch tape and found that I had a fairly thick button built up on the stem end and that it had a pretty sharp edge to it.

I sanded the newly built button with 220 grit sandpaper to begin shaping it. I would have to use the needle files to sharpen the edge of the button and then sand the new button to shape it more like the one on the Caminetto stem that I had worked on previously. I was using it as the pattern for the shape and look of this one.

When I had it shaped as much as I could without damaging it I set it aside to cure over night and then worked on the bowl. I used the dental pick to remove the remaining third of a bowl of tobacco that was in the pipe. Once that was gone the bowl needed a good reaming. The shape and detail of the cake in the bowl can be seen in the next photo. I used the PipNet Reamer with the smallest cutting head to start reaming the bowl and worked my way up to the third cutting head which was the closest I had to the diameter of the bowl. It was a deep bowl and took time to remove all of the cake. The middle portion of the bowl had a hard cake. I worked it with the second cutting head until I finally was able to cut through it. I used the third head to work the cake back to bare briar. I also used a sharp pen knife to clean out the area in the bottom third of the bowl where the cutting head left behind a ridge of cake.

The next day I did not get to work on the stem as it was a heavy day at work and we had meetings into the late evening so the stem sat for two days. When I finally got the time to work on it I decided to start with shaping the slot and the button from the end view. I started by sanding the end of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the end and give me a flat canvas for cutting the slot with needle files. I began to work on the airway with an oval shaped needle file to begin to open the airway and create a flare in the slot. I also used and fatter oval needle file and a round file to further open the lot and the flare in the end. It took a lot of file work to get it to the place that is shown below. You can begin to see the Y shaped slot taking form. There is still a lot of filing and sanding to do at this point. I worked on the slot area with the needle files for probably 1 hour at this point and the photo below shows the result of the methodical filing and shaping. It is coming along but needs to be more open and the top and bottom edges of the slot need to be smoothed out around the air hole. I folded a piece of 220 grit sandpaper when I was able to insert it in the newly cut slot and worked on the shape and smoothness of the Y. I also sanded the face of the button to remove the scratches and marks that were there. The second photo below shows the shape of the slot and the button. It is very close to the one I was copying on the Caminetto.

I finished the end of the stem and the slot with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the end of the stem with White Diamond. The finished slot is shown below. After I finished shaping the button and the slot from the end view it was time to work on the top and bottom edges and the overall look of the new button from both points of view. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to shape and flatten them and then used a flat needle file to sharpen the edges on both sides. I really wanted the new button to look seamlessly part of the stem. It took a bit of work to sculpt it to the right shape. I then sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. When I was finished with the shaping and sanding I began to work on it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads concentrating on the flat surfaces and the sharp edges first and finishing with the end of the button and slot. The wet sanding revealed more scratches and a bit more shaping that was needed to the edge of the button so I worked it over again with the medium and fine grit sanding sponges before going back and repeating the wet sanding with the first three grits of micromesh pads. I rubbed the stem down with some Obsidian Oil and when it dried, I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh. I dry sanded with the last three grits of micromesh – 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry before taking it to the buffer. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond plastic polish on the wheel and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a soft, clean flannel buff to raise the shine. I gave the bowl a light buff with the carnauba and also with the soft flannel buff. The finished pipe and reshaped button is shown in the photos below.