Tag Archives: Bamboo Briar Pipes from Spain

Another Spanish Carved Bamboo Like Pipe – this time a Rhodesian

Blog by Steve Laug

Earlier this year I restored an old briar oval shank billiard that was carved to look like bamboo. It came out beautifully and showed the skill of the Spanish carver who had shaped and crafted it. He carved in the nodules, the cracks and patina of a piece of bamboo.Here is the link to the blog on that old pipe. https://rebornpipes.com/2016/04/10/introduced-to-a-bamboo-briar-of-spain-oval-shank-billiard/. Today I pulled another pipe out of the box my brother sent – another Spanish carved Bamboo looking pipe. This one is a Rhodesian shaped pipe with a saddle stem. The carving was really well done. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the bowl with the words BAMBOO BRIAR over Made in Spain. On the underside of the shank next to the shank stem union it is stamped with the shape number 900.

Once again the carver did a marvelous job of replicating the look of bamboo in the briar. The nodules, lines and grooves that he/she put in the briar really look like bamboo. Instead of being left unfinished like the previous one this one was stained with a contrast of medium and dark brown stain. The grain of the briar came through the smooth areas of the bamboo and the carved nicks in the surface. It is really beautiful.

Fortunately my brother cleaned up this pipe for me. He reamed back the cake and scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap. He cleaned the internals with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. There was a small part of the rim top that had a remnant of the lava that must have overflowed the bowl. The stem was in great shape with no oxidation. Someone had repaired a tooth mark on the underside of the stem near the button with what looked like a grey epoxy. It was significantly lighter than the rest of the black stem. It was sanded smooth but it stuck out.

I reread the blog I had written on the previous pipe I restored. I reread the information that I had found on the brand on the pipephil website, Logos and Stampings: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html#bamboobriar.

The description said that the bamboo like decorative carving on these pipes was typical of Valencia’s manufacturers since the early 20th century. The carvers did a great job of replicating a chunk of bamboo on both the shank and the bowl sides. The site also said that even though the Valencia connection it is easy to make it’s difficult to say who exactly the maker was.

When I took it out of the last box my brother sent me it was in far better shape than the previous Bamboo Briar that I had cleaned up. My brother sent along this photo of the pipe. Look at the nodules and grooves that have been carved in the bowl and shank. It is really well done carving.

I took the following photos of the pipe before I started cleaning and restoring it. It was in great shape with just a few small touch ups that needed to be done. I took a close up photo of the rim top showing the remnant of lava that was stuck on the back topside of the rim. The bowl was in great shape though and my brother had taken the cake back.The next two photos show the stem in close up. The top side of stem looked good at the button. The underside of the stem shows the repaired area next to the button. It is lighter in colour than the black of the stem.I worked on the lava build up on the back side rim top. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads. I started with 2400-4000 grit pads and was able to remove all of the tars. I continued to sand it with 6000-12000 grit pads to polish the rim top.I sanded the repaired area of the stem until I had a small dip sanded out the surface of the stem. I filled it in with black super glue.I sanded the repaired area back with 220 grit sandpaper until it was smooth. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed it down with oil after each set of three pads. After the last rubdown fowling the 12000 grit pad I set the stem aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. The polishing compound brought a shine to the bowl and stem and also made the grain stand out. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. The bowl and stem took on a shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth. I have found that the extra step gives some depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beautiful example of the Spanish Valencia carved Bamboo Briar Pipes. Thanks for looking.

Introduced to a Bamboo Briar of Spain Oval Shank Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I don’t know why but I keep taking out some unique pipes from the box my brother Jeff sent me. He has an uncanny ability to find the unusual and interesting pipes for me to restore. This one is one I had never heard of before. I have seen other bamboo rusticated pipes but not one that had the stamping that this one does. It is stamped on the underside of the bowl with the words BAMBOO BRIAR in an arch over the word Spain. The carver did a marvelous job of replicating the look of bamboo in the briar. The nodules, lines and grooves that he/she put in the briar really look like bamboo. To give it even more of an interesting look they left the briar natural to highlight the subdued grain of the briar coming through the smooth areas of the bamboo and the carved nicks in the surface. It is really beautiful.

When I took it out of the box the bowl had a thick cake of carbon built up in the bowl. The rim was thickly caked as well with lava. The outer edges of the bowl had some nicks in it and there was a small burn mark on the front right inner edge of the bowl. The stem did not fully seat in the mortise because of the tars and oils there. The exposed portion of the tenon and the stem were badly oxidized. There was some light tooth chatter on the stem but overall it was in decent shape underneath the oxidation. I took some close up photos of the rim and the bottom of the bowl. The picture of the rim shows the thickness of the cake and the state of the top of the rim. This old pipe was pretty clogged up with cake and tars. The picture of the bottom of the bowl shows the stamping. It reads Bamboo Briar over Spain. I removed the stem and dropped in a jar of Oxyclean to soak the heavy oxidation for several hours. Before working on the bowl I did a little research on the brand and found that on my go to site, Logos and Stampings, or pipephil there was a notation. Here is the link: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html#bamboobriar.

On that site the pipe is described as follows: The bamboo like decorative carving was typical of Valencia’s manufacturers since the early 20th century. However it’s difficult to say who exactly the maker was.

With that information in hand I went to work on the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head and working up to one that was the same diameter as the bowl. I removed the cake and took it back to bare wood. I finished the reaming and cleaned up the bowl walls with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. The outer edge of the rim was rough and the top had some nicks in the briar that made topping the bowl necessary. I topped it to remove the damaged areas of the rim using a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone (fingernail polish remover) on cotton pads to clean up the dirt and oils from the natural finish of the briar. I sanded the topped rim with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then used a light brown stain pen to stain it to match the patina on the bowl. I used a black Sharpie pen to touch the “root nodules” of the simulated bamboo. I hand applied some Conservators Wax to the bowl and once it dried hand buffed it with a shoe brush.I took photos of the pipe after buffing it. The colour of the rim and the patina that came out on the bowl with the wax gives it an aged bamboo look that I really like. I cleaned out the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the tars and oils. I was quite surprised by how little came out of the shank with the cleaning. I expected it to be far worse.The stem had been soaking in Oxyclean for about four hours so it was time to work on that. I set the bowl aside and removed the stem from the Oxy soak. The soak had softened and removed much of the oxidation from the surface. It had also brought the deeper oxidation to the surface.I rubbed the stem down to remove the softened oxidation and then used needle files to clean up and define the edges of the button.I used pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean out the inside of the stem and again was surprised by the lack of real oils and tars.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the file marks and to remove the oxidation on the surface. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the stem on the buffer with Blue Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used a light touch on the bowl and shank so as not to clog up the nodules or grooves in the bamboo carving with too much wax. I raised the shine with a clean flannel buff on the buffer and then gave it a hand buff with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the patina of the briar and the carvings on the bowl and shank give the pipe a look of aged bamboo. The unknown Spanish carver did a great job on this one in my opinion. Now I have to decide whether to keep this one or not. It is so unique that I think it deserves a place in my collection. Thanks for looking.