Tag Archives: BBB pipes

Restoring a Traded BBB 1986 Christmas Special Make Lovat

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is one that I took in on a trade from a fellow who purchased some other pipes. It is a smooth Lovat with some significant damage to the rim top and also the stem. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and read Christmas [followed by] BBB in a Diamond [followed by] 1986 [over] Special Make. On the right side it is stamped London England. The pipe is shaped to highlight the grain around the bowl. The finish is quite clean with just a bit of grime and oil in bowl sides. The inwardly bevelled rim top is worn and has burn damage on the front top and inner edge of the bowl. The inner edge and the top and outer edge showed a lot of darkening. The bowl had been reamed quite recently and the shank and stem were clean. There is the BBB in a diamond logo on the topside of stem. The stem is quite clean but it is covered with heavy tooth damage on the top and underside ahead of the button. The stem was otherwise polished and did no show oxidation. I took photos of the rim top and the stem surfaces to give a sense of the condition of the pipe. You can see the burn damage on the front rim edge and darkening all the way around the rim edges both inner and outer. The bowl was very clean and there was no cake in the bowl. The stem photos show the deep tooth marks and the chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank, both the left and the right sides. It reads as noted above. There is also a brass inlaid BBB diamond logo on the top of the stem. I removed the stem and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe.I started my work on this pipe by addressing the damage to the stem first. I wiped off the stem surface with a cotton pad and alcohol. I filled in the deep tooth marks on the surface on both sides with black CA glue. I set it aside to cure. Once the repairs had hardened I flattened them with a small file to begin blending them into the surface. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch pads. I wiped the stem down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.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. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden sphere to clean up the bevel on the rim top. The front portion was burned and damaged so the sanding cleaned up the damage and gave it a new bevel. It looked better once restored.I worked on the finish on the bowl and the rim top removing scratches in the sides of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each pad. It is beginning to look very good.I polished the smooth briar rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl surface down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. Once I finished the exterior of the briar looked much better and had taken on a shine. I gave the rim top a touch up with a Maple Stain Pen. It looked much better. 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 15 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. As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the BBB 1986 Christmas Special Lovat back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I 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 pretty nicely. The grain really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the reddish, browns of the bowl. This BBB 1986 Christmas Special Lovat was a great pipe to spruce up. It is a very comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 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 29 grams/1.02 ounces. This pipe will be going on the British Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Restoring and Restemming a BBB Own Make Thorneycroft Sand blast Canadian 506

Leave a reply

by Steve Laug

The next pipe I decided to work on is one from a Dan in South Carolina. He contacted me several weeks ago now about a pipe that he had come across in his things that was on that his mom had picked up for him. Now 16 or 17 years later he decided it is time to work on it. He wrote me the email below regarding this pipe and how he came upon. It piqued my interest because to be honest with you I love all things BBB.

Hello,
I recently stumbled on an old billiard pipe that my mom had bought me at an antique store while I packing up for a move. I was 16 or 17 at the time so I couldn’t use it and basically forgot about it until now, at 33, I’m starting to get into pipe tobacco more and more. The pipe has the “BBB” inside a diamond with “OWN MAKE” underneath that on the top of the shank, and “THORNEYCROFT Made In ENGLAND” with “506” just below it on the underside of the shank.

The problem is it has no stem, and the end of the shank where the stem would fit into, has many marks that I can’t tell whether they are chew marks or if they are just a part of the grain etc. To my very untrained eye the pipe seems to be in OK condition otherwise.

Being very new to this hobby and not knowing many resources yet or really what to do, and seeing your restorative work, I’d like to ask if you restore pipes for people or if you might be able to point me in the right direction on how I should go about making this pipe smokeable once again, or if it might not be worth it except for sentimentality sake. I’m able to provide pictures of the pipe if needed as well.

Thank you,
Dan

I wrote Dan back and asked him to send me some photos of the pipe so that I could see what I was dealing with in this pipe. He sent some amazing photos of various angles of the pipe and I was hooked. I asked him to send it up and I would restore and restem it for him. Here are the photos that he included for me. The first four photos are overall views of the pipe as a whole. The craggy sandblast, the typical rustication on the shank end that I have seen on most of these Thorneycroft pipes, and the delicate but classic look of a Canadian are all well captured. Dan sent photos of the bowl and rim top as well as photos of the sides of the bowl. I appreciate the detail in these photos. The bowl shot shows the tar and cake on the sides and heel of the bowl and the lava build up in the sandblast of the rim top. It should clean up fairly easy. He also notes with a red circle what appears to be a chip on the left side of the bowl on the outer edge of the rim. The more I examine it the more I think it is probably a part of the blast. But I will know more once I have it in hand. His close up photos of the shank show the rustication and the washed out stain on the shank end. I think it is the typical BBB rustication that I have seen on the shank end of the Canadians and long shank pipes in the Thorneycroft line. Dan did a great job capturing the stamping on the shank top and underside. It reads as he noted in his opening email.He took close up photos of the rustication as well. It is rugged and I have to say that I like it. Once it is restained it will look quite nice. The photo of the shank end shows that there are no crack in the shank. There is a nick on the lower right side that is probably a flaw in the briar.I did a search on Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-bbb.html) and looked for the specific Thorneycroft line. The second pipe in the list is stamped the same way as the one that I am working on and the stamping on the stem is the same. The Made in England stamp is identical to the second one. I looked on Pipedia and found several references to the BBB Own Make Thorneycroft pipe but nothing specific (https://pipedia.org/wiki/BBB). I also found an advertisement courtesy of Doug Valitchka from 1957 that had a great description of the Thorneycroft that I include below. It reads as follows:

Beautifully balanced, superbly lightweight and mellow smoking… these qualities have made the BBB Own Make Thorneycroft famous. First tough, age-old Algerian briar is carefully selected and cured then the bowls are carefully hand-turned. Now comes the special process of sand- erosion. The soft parts of the briar are literally blasted away leaving a hard bowl of unusual beauty, durability and sweetness. A mouthpiece of finest English Ebionite, inlaid with the famed metal emblem, and a specia dry smoking condenser tube complete the picture. Available in all 24 BBB shapes…I took some photos of the bowl as it was when I unpacked it. It was stamped as Dan noted above and was clear and readable. The rough shank end of the pipe was not damaged but had lost the stain that had originally coloured it. The little nick in the shank end does not damage the airway in the shank. The nicks that were noted on the edge of left side of the bowl appeared to me to be part of the blast and should be left as is. The bowl had a light cake on the walls and there was a light lava coat on the rim top where it had filled in some of the blast. The inner edge of the rim was in excellent condition with no damage. The outer edge had no damage either but there was some roughness to it due to the sand blast finish on the edge. It looked very good however. I took photos of the bowl to show the condition when I received it from Dan. I have included them below. I was hoping I had a BBB stem for the Canadian but I did not have one with the brass insert. I did have one that was a pretty decent fit. It would need to be adjusted in terms of the top, bottom and sides of the stem to fit the shank dimensions but it was the right length and shape for the pipe. It had a great shape on the slot that would give a good spread to the smoke.Now it was time to clean up the bowl. Since the cake was thin I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape out the cake that was in the bowl. I took it back to bare briar and then sanded the walls with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. The bowl walls were in very good condition with no checking or burn damage.I wiped off the bowl with a damp cloth and was amazed at how little dust came off the finish. Dan had obviously wiped it down before he sent it. I also wiped down the rim top and it was quite clean as well. I used a black and a walnut stain pen to stain the shank end rustication to match the rest of the briar. It looked very good. Once it was buffed and polished it would be a perfect match. I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the remaining debris in the sandblast on the rim top. It looks very good with some deep blast sections on the top right and left. Beautiful blast in all ways.I cleaned out the internals of the shank, mortise and the airway in both the shank and the new stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The pipe smells fresh and ready to smoke again.Now that it was clean it was time to do a few minor surface repairs. The first of these was a small repair to a flaw on the shank end on the inner edge of the mortise on the lower left side. I used a tooth pick to put a drop of CA glue in the flaw and smooth it out on the surface. I did the same to the pit on the outer edge of the rim on the right side toward the back. Both were cosmetic rather than structural but it improved the look of the bowl in those spots. I smoothed out the repair on the shank end with a folded piece of sandpaper and touched the paper to the repair on the rim edge as well. I stained both with a Walnut stain pen and blended them into the surface. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to work it into the 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 depths of the blast in the briar really comes alive with the balm. I worked on the fit of the stem to the shank with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I needed to reduce the diameter of the stem from top to bottom and from right to left. I worked on it for quite a bit of time sanding, sanding and more sanding until the fit to the shank was good and the transition between the shank and stem was smooth.I polished the stem once it fit with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. By the end the stem took on a good shine and the fit was 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 the stem. The photos below show the polished stem. I am pretty happy with the restoration and restemming of this BBB Own Make Thorneycroft Sandblast Canadian. There is a sandblast finish to the bowl that is rugged and rich looking. The newly fit stem is clean and smooth and looks good on the shank. 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 and 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 BBB Own Make Thorneycroft Canadian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe was 30grams/1.02ounces. I will be sending it back to Dan shortly. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It is a privilege to be a part of the restoration and preservation of these old timers with a back story!

Restoring a 1914 BBB Pencil-Shank Billiard

Leave a reply

Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

For those of us who hunt for lost pipes, there are always peculiar tales of acquisition – but this one might be my most peculiar location of acquisition. A couple of weeks ago, my wife was out shopping with one of my daughters and they decided to go into an old-time ice cream parlour. While there, my wife spotted a jar for sale on the counter that read ‘Jar with parts + pipes’. That seemed quite odd for an ice cream joint, so she texted me the photo below and asked if I wanted it. It was very inexpensive, so I said, ‘Sure’. What an unusual spot for a jar of pipe parts!Well, there were some interesting bits and bobs in the jar – including a couple of items that particularly caught my eye. This lithe and comely pipe is one of them – and it will enter my pipe collection. As the title says, it is a 1914 BBB pencil-shank billiard with a sterling silver band and vulcanite, tapered, orific stem. How do I know it is from 1914? Well, let us take a closer look at that sterling silver band.Amidst the heavy tarnish, we can see three distinct marks. From left to right, they are an anchor, a lion passant, and a letter ‘P’. What do these marks mean? The anchor is the city mark and indicates the English city of Birmingham. The lion passant is the silver standard mark and indicates sterling – that is to say, 92.5% pure silver. The letter ‘P’ is the date letter and, as shown in the chart below, indicates the year 1914.That information was definitive in establishing a time period for the pipe. The other marks are perhaps slightly less helpful. The left side of the shank, the left side of the stem, and the silver band each have the recognizable logo of BBB inside a diamond shape. There are no other markings – although the absence of a model name etc. tells its own story. Read on. Let’s learn a bit about BBB. The article on Pipedia is bizarre insofar as the vast majority of the text is an egregious translation (from the French) of a good history of BBB on the Fumeurs de Pipe website. I speak French and the Babelfish translation that Pipedia uses is not helpful to anyone. I intend to make my own translation of that history one day. In the meantime, here is the non-translated text at the start of that article:

The initials once stood for Blumfeld’s Best Briars after Louis Blumfeld, who took over the management of the Adolph Frankau Company in 1856. After his death, the BBB gradually became known as Britain’s Best Briars. Soon to be the oldest English trademark in current use and the first pipe ever to have a registered trade mark. “Britain’s Best Briars”, often called BBB, is one of the oldest brands still in production and has always been the most popular foreign brand in Denmark. Earlier pipes included a metal rondel with a diamond shape including BBB imbedded in the stem top, and later post-Cadogan went to a stamped on logo, similar to the GBD pipes.

One detail that is of note from this time period of BBB pipes is that they only had two grades/models of pipe. One was ‘BBB Own Make’ (which later became BBB Best Make) and the other being simply ‘BBB’. This pipe is clearly in the latter category. Below is a page from a 1910 Harrods catalogue, showing some BBB pipes for sale. I have circled the one that most closely resembles the pipe I have and showed a close-up of it. Let us move on to the restoration. This pipe is 110 years old and I suppose it has fared well in that time. Certainly, I have seen much newer pipes in much worse condition. As I mentioned earlier, this stem is tapered, made of vulcanite, and concludes with an orific button. For more information on the orific button, please take the time to read Steve’s interesting article on the subject. As you can see, the stem is coated with calcification and oxidation. It has a few tooth marks, but nothing too serious. Sadly, however, the stem’s tenon has broken off inside the stummel’s mortise. More about the tenon in a bit. The stummel is in rougher shape. The wood shows wear and tear, including the odd nick and a significant gouge at the rim edge. The bowl is pretty thoroughly coated with cake and lava has erupted on to the rim. There is also some evidence of burned wood under that lava. I will have to excavate to learn more. Fortunately, this stummel does not look over-smoked (which was a real possibility), despite it clearly being a favourite of the previous owner. The sterling silver band (as you have already seen) is in fairly good physical condition, although it clearly has been heavily tarnished.I began my restoration of this pipe by cleaning the stem. I wiped it down with some oil soap on some cotton rounds in order to remove some calcification. I then cleaned the insides with pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol. Although it was a bit dirty, it was much cleaner than I had expected after all these years.In order to address the oxidation, I dropped the stem in an oxidation removing fluid and left it to sit overnight. This mixture tends to draw the stem’s oxidation to the surface, where it can be more easily removed. When the stem was done soaking, I scrubbed the stem with some surface cleanser squirted on cotton rounds. This worked very well at removing the unsightly oxidation.I took a closer look at the diamond-shaped logo – it had been heavily worn over the past century or so. I hemmed and hawed about adding gold paint back to the logo on the stem. In the end I did it and figured that I can always remove later if I so desire.In my desire to keep original components wherever possible, I perfunctorily decided to not replace the tenon at this time. I knew that I could superglue it back in place – but I also knew that that would not hold in the long term, due to its poor shear strength. This would only be a cosmetic solution. Ultimately, however, I will replace the tenon at a later date. For now, I just want to see this thing restored!

In order to smooth and shine the beautiful black surface of the stem, I used my nine Micromesh pads to sand everything down gradually and delicately. For the last five of these pads, I also use some oil, both as a lubricant and as a method of inhibiting the return of oxidation. It is a lovely stem and it complements the stummel perfectly. On to the stummel – and my first task was reaming the cake out of the bowl. This was surprisingly challenging work, as the cake had become very hard over the years. There was a lot of debris and the narrowness of the bowl made it all the more tricky. I was also conscious of not wanting to crack the briar as I was doing this. In the end, a lot of carbonized material came out and the bowl remained perfectly intact. Next, I wanted to address the thick layer of lava on the rim. I put some oil soap in a shallow, plastic lid and soaked the rim in it for about a dozen minutes. This softened things up and I attacked it with a toothbrush. This allowed me to clean the rim very well, also using a piece of machine metal as a gentle scraping device. There was still damage, but it was much improved. As with the stem, I cleaned the insides of the stummel with pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It was among the dirtiest pipes I have ever dealt with. Wow. The filth seemed as though it would never end. Obviously, it did at some point and I put the pipe down for a while – I was sick of seeing it!Of course, I came back to it and used some cleaner and tube brushes to scrub the insides clean. My efforts had not been in vain however, as the pipe looked so much better when I was done. I removed some of the burn marks on the rim with an aqueous solution of oxalic acid. I took some cotton swabs and rubbed and rubbed. The burns did improve but never fully disappeared. I took solace from the fact that the burns were superficial and did not affect the structural integrity of the wood. Alas, I neglected to take photographs of this step.

I also opted to leave the large wounds in the briar without filling them. They are part of this pipe’s long life and I am happy for them to remain as they are. The sanding will soften the edges of these wounds and that is sufficient. With that in mind, I set about sanding the stummel with my Micromesh pads. With each pad, the wood got smoother and the pipe got prettier. One product that always makes things better is the restoration balm that I use on the wood. It provides protection and revivification to the wood grain. I applied the stuff lightly but thoroughly, and then let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth and set it aside. What a beauty! After the Micromesh pads, but before the restoration balm, I cleaned up the sterling silver band. I worked very hard and very gingerly to remove the tarnish without damaging the antique silver. I reglued it in place, back on the shank, and finally buffed with my jewellery cloth.

Last step: off to my bench polisher! Here, I gave both the stem and stummel a thorough going over with the White Diamond compound and followed that up with a coat (only one this time) of carnauba wax. The pipe is absolutely beautiful and is truly reminiscent of an earlier time.All finished! This is a wonderfully crafted pipe and has a very jaunty feel to it. It took some work, but I am proud of it. It retains some wounds from battle, but, as Steve would say, they are part of this pipe’s story. This is one pipe that I am keeping for myself and adding to the ‘Lieblich Collection’. I am sure that I will be enjoying this one for many years to come. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (153 mm); height 1½ in. (37 mm); bowl diameter 1 in. (27 mm); chamber diameter ⅔ in. (17 mm). The weight of the pipe is ⅝ oz. (18 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of 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.

Cleaning up a Trade – a BBB *** Three Star 602 Billiard with a Fancy Vulcanite Stem

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is another one that I took in on a trade from a fellow in the Netherlands. It is a great looking smooth Billiard. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and read BBB in a Diamond [over] *** [over] Three Star. On the right side it is stamped London England [over] the shape number 602. The pipe is shaped to highlight the grain around the bowl. The finish is quite clean with just a bit of grime and oil in bowl sides. The smooth rim top is worn and shows scratches and lava on the top and the inner edge. The inner edge shows some damage and roughening from previous reaming. The bowl has a moderate cake that I will ream out but otherwise looks very good. The vulcanite taper stem has two turned rings against the shank end. There is the BBB in a diamond logo on the topside of stem. There is light oxidation and calcification on the stem surface and there are tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took photos of the rim top and the stem surfaces to give a sense of the condition of the pipe. You can see the light lava on the rim top and other than that top is in good condition. There is a light cake in the bowl that I will ream to make sure the walls are in good condition. The stem photos show the oxidation, calcification, tooth marks and the chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank, both the left and the right sides. It is faint in spots but still readable. It reads as noted above. There is also a faint BBB diamond logo on the top of the stem. I removed the stem and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe.I knew that the pipe was probably a newer one as it did not have the brass logo on the stem and the fancy turned stem was used much later. I am fairly certain that the pipe is a Cadogan made one.

Now, on to the restoration of this pretty BBB *** Three Star Billiard. I began the work by reaming the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. I scraped out what remained with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the out. The walls looked to be in excellent condition with no checking or heat damage. I scrubbed the inside of the mortise and shank along with the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The pipe was looking better than when it arrived. I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. I worked on the rim top and edge to try to remove the grime and was able to remove it. I worked on the finish on the bowl and the rim top removing scratches in the sides of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each pad. It is beginning to look very good. I polished the smooth briar rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl surface down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. Once I finished the exterior of the briar looked much better and had taken on a shine. 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 15 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 the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wiped the stem down with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove the oxidation and the calcification on the stem. It really did a great job removing the oxidation and the stem is starting to look very good.I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift some of them and filled in the rest with clear CA glue. I set it side to let the repairs cure. I sanded the repairs flat with a small file to begin to blend them into the surface. I used the sanding pads I purchased recently – 320-3500 grit regular pads to smooth out the finish and remove the light tooth and chatter marks in the stem. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil to finish the preliminary work after the 3500 grit pad. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the BBB *** Three Star London England 602 Billiard back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I 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 pretty nicely. The grain really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the reddish, browns of the bowl. This BBB *** Three Star 602 Billiard was a great pipe to spruce up. It is a very comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 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 27 grams/.95 ounces. This pipe will be going on the British Pipe Maker Section of the rebornpipes store if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Restoring a 1911 BBB Glokar Rhodesian with Fraternity Silver Sigma Delta inlaid on the front.

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I decided I needed a change of pace in my restoration/clean up work. I went through my pipes waiting in the queue and chose pone from a group of four pipes that were given to us by a woman in Columbus, Ohio, USA. It had belonged to her Grandfather who lived from 1882 to 1977. There were four pipes that she sent us from his estate – the metal bowled apple, a cased meerschaum with a broken shank and an amber stem, a Whitehall rusticated apple and a BBB Glokar Fraternity Pipe.If you have followed rebornpipes for a while now you know that I really have a passion for BBB pipes. I have one BBB GLOKAR already that is a pleasure so when I saw this one I knew it would be one I would like to work on. Also, the fact that it is a taper stem Rhodesian also adds to its charm for me. I could see that it was an old timer but I would have to decode the silver hallmarks on the stem to pin down a date. It was well smoked, reamed with a knife. The stamp on the left side of the shank had BBB in a Diamond and on the underside of the shank it read ENGLAND next to the silver band. The oxidized and tarnished silver band was stamped with a BBB Diamond [over] L-B. That was followed by the word GLOKAR [over] Trademark. Underneath that were three silver hallmarks. The first mark was a cartouche with an anchor in it that was the mark for Birmingham, England. The second mark was a cartouche with a rampant lion – the symbol for Sterling Silver. The final mark was a cartouche with a lower case “m” in it that would give me the date for the pipe. The pipe was dirty and well used. The finish had deep grime ground into the smooth briar around the bowl. The bowl had tobacco debris in it and a very thick cake overflowing as lava onto the rim top. The rim top and edges were hard to assess because of the lava coat and the cake flowing out of the bowl onto the rim top. It was also hard to assess the outer edge of the rim. There were two Greek letters in Silver inlaid into the front of the bowl – a Sigma and a Delta which are attached to a Fraternity. The stem was hard rubber had a slight bend to it and fit the shank well. It had oxidation, calcification and light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The button was the patented GLOKAR slot and airway through the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. Jeff took photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava coat on the top of the rim. The condition of the inner edge of the bowl is a hard to assess but the outer edge appears to have some damage on the front outer edge. It was obviously another of her grandfather’s favourite pipes. The hard rubber taper stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It was nice but will take some work. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the grain and the bowl and shank and shape of the pipe. The twin rings around the bowl cap are in good condition and are very clean and undamaged. The shape of the bowl makes it quite nice looking. Jeff captured the inlaid Greek letters Sigma Delta on the front of the bowl. There were tarnished but looked very good. He took a photo of the stamping on the smooth panel on the left side of the shank. You can see that it is readable as noted above. The name of the brand is stamped on the top of the silver band. It reads as noted above. The stamp on the underside of the shank is ENGLAND and it is readable. Since the hallmarks were so clear, I turned to one of the numerous silver hallmark charts on line for the city of Birmingham, England to see what I could find out about the “m” date stamp and pin down and age for the pipe (https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/Birmingham.html). I clicked on the section that applied to the date stamp on this pipe. The first chart below is the chart from 1773-2024.I am also including screen capture of the enlarged section on the Birmingham dates for the letter M. This chart covers pipes made in 1778-1986. I have drawn a read box around the hallmark pattern that matches the one on the BBB Silver ferrule. You can see that it dates the pipe to 1911. That means that this little pipe is roughly 112 years old.

With the information from the hallmark site I had a clear date for the manufacture of the pipe. It was definitely an old timer and really was another stellar acquisition.

I wanted know more about the GLOKAR stamp and what it signified. I had an inkling that I was dealing with a BBB system pipe not unlike the Peterson’s System pipes but I wanted to see what I could find out about that. I have a facsimile of a 1912 BBB Catalogue No. 20 that has a section dedicated to the Glokar. On page 107-110 there is information about the pipe and the various versions available. Interestingly it does not include a picture/drawing of my Poker. I quote the description of the Trademarked Glokar below.

The “Glokar” Mouthpiece does away with the great drawback of all ordinary pipes, viz., the unpleasant and possibly injurious, effect of the smoke upon the tongue, as the end of the stem has a smooth, concave surface, which while forming a pleasant rest for the tongue, acts as a barrier between it and the smoke. Instead of pressing through an ordinary round bore, the smoke leaves the mouthpiece through a fan-shaped slot, which is drilled in and upward direction – thus preventing saliva from entering the bore of the pipe.

Advantages:

The bore, being kept dry, requires less cleaning than that of an ordinary pipe.
As no saliva can reach the bowl, the tobacco can be consumed to the last particle.
The shape of the mouthpiece affords the perfection of comfort for the mouth, tongue ad lips.

I took a photo of the picture that was included in the catalogue for the “GLOKAR” and have included it below. The cutaway diagram shows the system in the bowl and shank as well a the patented lip design. It is remarkably like a Peterson’s system pipe. One of the differences is the shape of the exit of the air way in the button. This one is a slot rather than a round hole.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. Jeff carefully cleaned the pipe from top to stern. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank, stem and shank extension 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 stem. The finish looks much better and has a deep richness in the colour that highlights grain of the briar. The rim top looked good with some darkening and damage on the top and inner and outer edge of the bowl. Jeff worked it over with Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleaner to remove any remnants of oxidation. He then soaked the stem in bath of Briarville Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver I was amazed it looked so good. Here are some photos of what I saw.

Now time for a confession… when Jeff was cleaning it a pipe cleaner broke off in the stem just inside the Glokar style slot. He had tried many ways to remove it but could not. It was up to me to remove the blockage. Last evening, I got in a hurry to work on it so I used a heat gun to straighten the stem so I could work the offending piece of wire out. It dawned on my once I finished straightening it that I had forgotten to take any photos of the pipe when it arrived. Once finished, I took the following photos… sorry for my haste! I took photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It is clean and the damage is very clear. The bowl is very clean and there were nicks, burn damage and cuts all around the inner edge and top. The bowl was out of round due to the damage. The vulcanite stem is clean and the damage on the Glokar slot is very visible. The rest stem surface ahead of the button is clean and undamaged.I took a photo of the top of the shank and the silver band to capture the stamping on the silver. I took a photo of the BBB diamond on the left side of the shank. It is faint but it is still readable. I took a photo of the bowl and shank separated to show the condition of the pipe. It really is a great looking pipe. I started my work on the rim top by addressing the issues with the rim top and edge. I started by smoothing out the damage on the edge and smoothed out the top of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I lightly topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to flatten on the damage on the rim top. It looked much better! Once I started polishing it with the micromesh sanding pads you can see the rim top.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I dry sanded the briar and then progressively brought a shine to the pipe. It looked really amazing – the combination of rustic and smooth portions of the briar. It is a beauty! I set aside the sanding pads to stain the rim top to match the rest of the bowl and shank on the pipe. I looked pretty good but I think with the rest of the micromesh sanding pads it would look very good. I went back to the sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingertips and into the twin rings with a shoe brush. The product works to clean, preserve and protect the briar. I let it sit and absorb for 10 minutes. I buffed it off with a soft cloth and then gave it a rigorous buff to raise the shine. It looks good at this point. I polished the silver band and silver inlaid letters on the front of the bowl with a jeweler’s cloth to remove any residual tarnish and also to protect it from future tarnish (at least for a while). With that done the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to unplugging the broken pipe cleaner in the stem. I started by heating the stem with a heat gun and straightening it out. I took a photo of it once I had it straightened. I carefully straightened a paper clip and used it to probe the plugged area. It took time and patience to carefully work around the clog. I continued to pull out bits of pipe cleaners as I worked on it. I used two different paper clips that I worked with. I used a fine round file to push the clog out. I worked on it from both end of the stem. Finally, I blew through the stem and the clog of pipe cleaner piece flew out. In the photo below, it is the brown piece at the bottom of the photo. There was a chip out of the top side of the button. It had chipped away when Jeff was working on removing the broken piece. It was not big but it needed to be repaired. I greased a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it in the airway below the chipped area. I filled in the chipped area with black KMS CA rubberized glue. I removed the pipe cleaner and set it aside to let the glue cure. Once the repair cured I flattened out the repair with a flat file to smooth out the excess and flatten the surface of the button. I sanded the stem surface and shaped the repair to blend the repairs into the surrounding rubber. It looked quite good at this point in the process. With the repairs and reshaping of the button finished it was time to rebend the stem. I heated it with a heat gun to soften the rubber and once it softened bent it back to what was there previously.I bent the heated stem once it was flexible to match the previous bend it had before I straightened it. I put it back on the pipe and took the following photos. I polished out the chatter and marks on the stem surface with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil on a cloth after the sanding pads. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry. With the bowl and the stem finished I put the pipe back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and then buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is an amazing little pipe. The dimensions of this part of the pipe are – Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of this pipe is 2.15 ounces /62 grams. This unique find – a 1911 BBB Glokar Rhodesian System pipe with a silver band is joining the other pipes in my collection of BBB pipes and will hold a place of honour while it is in my trust. This is another pipe that one day soon I will enjoy a special bowl of tobacco in it and be transported to a slower paced time in history where I can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

New Life for a BBB 100 Years – Made in England 560 Bent Bulldog

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a nice looking smooth Bent Bulldog with a vulcanite saddle stem. We picked it up on 11/10/2022 from a seller in Copenhagen, Denmark. The stamping on the left side of the shank is readable. It read BBB in a diamond [over] 100 Years. On the right side the stamping reads Made In England [over] the shape number 560. The black vulcanite saddle stem stamped with a faint BBB in a diamond logo the left side. The pipe has a medium reddish brown stained finish that shows the grain on the bowl sides and shank. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it. This is what I saw when I looked over the pipe.

The smooth finish had grime ground into briar and hand oils around the sides. The stain is dull and the grain patterns though visible under the grime are obscured around the bowl sides and shank.
The rim top was very dirty with a heavy lava coat on it. It is heavier on the back side. The inner edge of the bowl and top show potential damage, though it is hard to see the extent through the thick build up of cake that has overflown the rim top.
There was a thick cake in the bowl. The bowl itself was very dark and dirty. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl walls.
The vulcanite saddle stem was filthy, oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides and on the button surface.
There is a BBB in a diamond logo on the left side of the stem. It is white and I am uncertain if it is a stamp or if it is a decal of some sort. The common BBB brass inset is not present on this pipe.

To summarize what I saw – this BBB 100 Year Bent Bulldog is a well-made pipe. The bowl and stem are very dirty which says to me that the pipe was once again someone’s favourite pipe. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It should clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat overflowing and covering the inner edge. It is heavier toward the back of the bowl. It is hard to know the condition of the inner edge in this condition. There appeared to be some damage on the top and inner edge toward the back but I would not know for sure until it was reamed. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work.The vulcanite taper stem is dirty, oxidized and calcified. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button and on the button surface itself. Once again instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are there cracks or scratches in smooth finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the left and right side of the shank. It is stamped as noted above. The vulcanite stem shows a BBB diamond logo stamp on the top left side of the diamond shank. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar? Before I started my work on the pipe I turned to a blog I posted on the history of the BBB brand (https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2204&action=edit). It is a translated piece on the history that I have found quite helpful. It gives a good survey or overview of the brand from its inception to the end as an independent brand.

I also remembered that a few years ago Briar Books Press reprinted a small booklet entitled 100 Years in the Service of Smokers. The subtitle on the bottom of the cover read Adolph Frankau of London Celebrate their Centenary. At the top is the classic BBB in a Diamond logo with a banner below it with the dates 1847 on the left of the Diamond and 1947 on the right of the Diamond. I took it out and gave it a read to get a sense of the 100 years of history. I did a screen capture of the cover and have included it below.
Quoting from page 5 of the book in a section entitled: Through Five Reigns to the Present Day

And so throughout the five reigns the house of Aldoph Frankau ministered faithfully and famously to the needs of smokers in every land and clime right up until the outbreak of World War II. Through the vicissitudes of this period, and absence of staff on war service, the Company was ably steered by Mr. Fryd a Director and the Company’s Secretary, Mr. Howles, now also a director.

On the last page of the booklet there is a poster for the BBB 1847-1947 Centenary Pipe. The pipe in the poster has a similar stamping to the one I am working on and the logo on the side of the stem is the same white decal style logo – BBB in a Diamond.

Armed with that information it appears that the pipe I am working on is one that could have been issued in 1947 as a Centenary Pipe or perhaps it is a later copy of that period pipe. My guess is the former. It has the look of an older BBB rather than a Cadogan era pipe. Now it was time to work on it.

I am sure many of you will shake your head and ask maybe even out loud, “Why is he including this again?” However, please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow you with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

The finish is clean and the oils and grime in the finish shows the beautiful grain around the sides. The medium brown stain highlights the grain.
The rim top was clean and amazingly there was no edge damage. There was only some darkening around the inner edge of the bowl.
The cake in the bowl has been removed and the bowl is very clean. The walls of the bowl are smooth and appear to be undamaged and show no checking or burn damage.
The vulcanite saddle stem looks better and there is only light tooth chatter on both sides visible.
The white painted/decal BBB logo on the top left side of the diamond stem is gone leaving only a faint ghost of the original decal that is readable in bright light.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the inner edge had some darkening all the way around. I also went over the stem carefully. The fit of the stem is snug and the transitions are smooth. There was light tooth chatter on the surface of the stem on both sides. The vulcanite stem surface was clean and looked better. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. As is my habit check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank sides in any way. They are in excellent condition and are very clear and readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape. You can see the faint ghost of the BBB Diamond logo on the left side of the saddle stem. I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the damage on the inner edge and top of the rim. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the darkening on the inner edge and the damage on the top. I gave the rim a slight bevel to minimize the damage. It took a little work but I was able to remove the damage. It looks much better after I worked it over.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and into the twin rings with a shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the grain shines through. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. It was in great condition and the majority of the tooth marks and chatter were shallow enough that most would disappear by polishing with micromesh and buffing. There was one deep mark against the button edge on the top of the stem. I filled it in with clear CA glue and set it aside to cure. Once cured I flattened the repair with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. It looked much better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it gives the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great. The oval vulcanite taper stem works well with the pipe. The BBB 100 Year Bent Bulldog 560 feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.34 ounces/38 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.

As always I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Is this BBB a Football Pipe? Cleaning a BBB Arsenal 746 Billiard with an acrylic stem

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I thought I would take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 01/26/2023 in a group of pipes from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

The finish is shiny but dirty with dust ground into the finish around the bowl. There are some tars and lava on the inner edge. Underneath there appears to be some excellent grain.
The rim top is dirty. There is some lava overflow from the cake in the bowl on the rim top though it is light. There is also some darkening on the inward rim top.
The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl.
The stem is acrylic and has a BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the taper stem. It has been painted with a white coloured paint that fills in the stamp.
The acrylic stem had no oxidation but was dirty. There was tooth chatter ahead of the button visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this pretty little Billiard was that it was in solid shape with no significant damage to the briar on the bowl sides and rim. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has a light coat of lava and debris on it that will need to come off. You can also see the lava on the inner edge of the rim. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim and down the outside of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reamings has not left damage either. The bowl is still round. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see that the stem is good condition and that other than light scratches and tooth chatter on the surface. From the photos of the stamp on the top of the saddle stem have the appearance of a decal but I know that it is a stamp like the Chelsea Bulldog that I did earlier. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. I look at the finish around the twin rings to make sure there are no nicks and damage. The stain on the bowl highlights the grain.There were no cracks or splits following the grain or coming down from the rim edges. There were no cracks in the shank. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the flame and straight grain patterns. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the left and underside of the shank are clear and readable in the pictures below. On the left it reads BBB [over] Arsenal. The stamping on the underside reads 746 which is the shape number for a Billiard. Jeff also included a photo of the stamped stem logo – BBB in a Diamond. Not too long ago I finished restoring a newer BBB Chelsea 403S Bulldog and wrote about it on the blog. It is a great looking pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2023/04/08/refreshing-a-newer-bbb-chelsea-403s-bulldog/). When I picked up this one a thought crossed my mind. I can’t find any proof of the thought but it appears that both of these newer BBB pipes are name for Football (soccer) Clubs in the UK. The first one was Chelsea and this one is Arsenal. Is it a coincidence? I have a hard time believing that is the case here when I have two pipes stamped with Football Club names. I did a bit of searching on the Football Clubs on Google and found this link the Club names.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_Premier_League). I have included the following chart below.I also looked up the Arsenal Football Club and read about them. Here is the link to that site for you to have a read (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_F.C.).

I did not take time to do work on the brand as it is a well known brand. If you would like to do some reading on it you can check both Pipephil’s site and Pipedia for a great write up on the history of the brand. I decided instead to just get to work on the pipe.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here in my many blogs but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. I am looking for any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

The finish cleaned up really well and the dust and grime in the finish were gone. It was very clean and was undamaged. With all the grime removed there was some excellent grain.
The rim top is very clean and there was no damage or darkening on the top.
The bowl was very clean and the top and inner edge of the bowl show no damage. The bowl walls are also very clean and smooth with no checking or burn marks on the inside or out of the bowl. The walls were undamaged.
The acrylic stem with the BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the top side of the taper looks much better. I wonder if it is gold instead of white. It is definitely stamped and is clean and undamaged.
The acrylic stem had a rich shine. There was light tooth chatter ahead of the button that is visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Knowing that about me you can guess that I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge and smooth out the damage to the edges and rim top.From there I moved to polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads. I include the many photos of various angles of the bowl so you can see the change. Pay attention to the changes in the briar in these photos as you work through them. When I get the bowl to this point in the process I use Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I work it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. Once the time has passed I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buff it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way the grain just pops. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in quite good shape. I polish the stem to remove the light chatter and scratches. Over the years I have developed my own process for this. It is all preparation for the buffing that will come last. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the stem and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I always rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem by wiping it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil dissipate. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection for the stem surface.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and acrylic I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this BBB Arsenal 746 Billiard and the polished acrylic stem is a great addition. The finished pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 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 1.13 ounces/32 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker section.

Hopefully this tack of writing this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe has been helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process. As always I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Silver Banded BBB Own Make 722 Diplomat

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I thought with this blog that I would take a different tack in the write up and take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 01/26/2023 from Copenhagen, Denmark from a seller we buy a lot of pipes from. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

The finish is dirty and there are nicks in the sides of the bowl from being dropped it looks like. There appeared to be some nice grain under the grime. The shank is fairly short with the factory silver band on the end.
The slightly crowned rim top had a thick lava overflow from the cake in the bowl. It was thicker on the back half of the rim top. There was also some darkening around the top and edges as well. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked to be in good condition though covered with thick lava. Its overall appearance is very dirty looking.
The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. You would be surprised (though maybe not) in how many pipes we pick up that have major issues in this area.
The stem is an oddity to me. The first inch of the stem from the silver band back down the stem is lighter in colour than the rest of the stem. It appears to combine vulcanite and acrylic bound together somehow. I want to try to understand how the two materials are bound together.
The stem had some oxidation on the top portion around the logo. The acrylic portion was clean and there were no tooth marks and chatter visible in the photos below.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a beauty that once cleaned up will look pretty amazing. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. The pipe is very English looking and is a classic Diplomat shape. It has a lot of BBB stylistic touches that I have come to expect as I have worked on a lot of them over the years. The photos below confirm the assessment above.Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has lava and debris on it. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reaming has not left damage either. The bowl is still fairly round. There are some scratches in the surface of the crowned rim top. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the oxidation (particularly around the top inch of the stem from the shank end back) and a different appearance to the second part of the stem. It really does appear that they are two separate materials – vulcanite around the brass logo and acrylic on the back two thirds. The stem is quite dirty but otherwise undamaged. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. In this case I look at the nicks and scratches around the bowl sides to see if there are any cracks or splits radiating from the pits in the centre of each one. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the grain patterns and the way the play off the silver band on the shank end. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the underside of the shank is actually undecipherable for the most part. It appears to have a BBB diamond logo at the top of the photo (left side). Underneath that is seems to read Own Make (very faint) [over] Made in [over] London England [over] 722. There is also an odd symbol next to the shape number. Jeff also took photos of the stamping on the silver band and the brass inset logo on the top of the stem. The stamp on the band is hallmarked with three silver hallmarks – a rampant lion, a lion’s head and the letter C. The first one tells us that it is sterling silver. The second one tells us that it is a London assay mark. The third one – the C – is a date stamp. I will work on the date of the pipe once I have it in hand. The brass logo is slightly damaged on the lower side of the inset. I love working on background history of the pipes I restore as they add a depth to my ongoing understanding of the pipe. Being able to put it in a specific date on the pipe puts it in a time frame. I turned to a British Silver Makers Hallmarks site that I use all the time. I narrowed down my search to the London pipes. The first two marks as noted above – the rampant lion and the lion’s head were simple to decipher. The Rampant Lion is the symbol for Sterling silver. The The Lion’s Head is the symbol for London Silver makers. I turned to the dates list on the site. I have included it below (https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/London.html).I clicked on the section that had a C stamp like the one on the band and it expanded to a size that I could easily read. I have included the link below as well as a screen capture of the section of the list (https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/London/Cycle%201975-1999.html).

I knew that the pipe I had was made in London by BBB and the silver assay stamp dates the pipe as 1977 in terms of the shape of the C. The band I am working on does not have a Queen’s Stamp so it is a little different. But I am convinced that the pipe was made in 1977.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

The finish is very clean and the grain stands out on the surface of the clean briar. The scratches in the briar swelled up a bit so that they were not as deep as originally assumed in the first photos. There are no cracks showing up in the grain lines or in the flaws under the leaf carvings. It is sound on the outside. I will need to polish the briar and buff it to bring back the shine.
The slightly crowned rim top is clean of the lava but there is still some darkening on the top and edges of the bowl. The good news for me is that there are no cracks showing up in the rim top. The bowl was sound.
The bowl was very clean and smelled clean. The clean walls did not show evidence of checking or cracking. There were no hot spots or damage on the walls or around the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was clean and smooth which is great news for me. The inner edge of the bowl was undamaged and did not show any sign of burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. Both the shank and the bowl were very clean showing no debris on a clean pipe clean run through them. I would need to give it a final cleaning with pipe cleaners and alcohol once I had finished with the external work to remove the debris that may have collected there in the process.
The oddity I saw in the stem was even more evident now – the vulcanite stem end and the acrylic bit were bound together in a well done manner. It was going to be interesting to examine more closely and possibly remove some of the oxidation on the vulcanite portion.
The oxidation was much less on the front portion of the stem after Jeff’s work on it. The acrylic portion did not show any tooth marks or chatter. It was in great condition.

For me then I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the darkening to the rim edges and top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reshape and remove the rim top and damage. It took a little work but I was able to remove all of the darkening. It is a beautiful piece of briar with some great grain.When I have to deal with scratch marks like those on the left side of the bowl I generally use a butter knife and a damp cloth to steam them out of the finish as much as possible. I know others use steam irons with great success but I generally use the butter knife and damp cloth to lift them as it allows me to pin point the tip of the knife on the marks. I was able to lift some of them nicely but some still remained when I finished. I used a small bit of CA glue to fill in the three marks that remained (it looks like more glue than it actually is – it is quite thin). I sanded the repairs smooth with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I started the polishing with micromesh sanding pads – working it over with 1500 grit pads.Once I have the repair sanded smooth I blend them into the surface of the briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I also work over the plateau areas at the same time. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. Once I have a bowl at this point in the process I go over it to see the coverage on the bowl. In this case the finish was very spotty. I chose to restain the bowl with a Light Brown aniline wash. I mixed some brown pigment with some isopropyl alcohol to mix a wash. I used a cotton dauber to cover the surface of the briar with the stain wash. I lit the finish with a lighter and set the stain in the briar. I repeated the process a second time to make sure it was a smooth finish. I took a few photos of the stained bowl. It appears significantly darker than I expected but I knew that buffing it would lighten the finish and perhaps make it match. Buffing would tell the tale. When I stain a bowl like the one above I take it to the buffer after the stain has dried. I buffed it first with Red Tripoli to remove the “crust” of the new stain. The Tripoli took off the opacity of the stain on the bowl and gave me more of the colour I was hoping for under the stain coat. I buffed it a second time with Blue Diamond and was able to remove more. The bowl also began to take on a deep shine. I took photos of the bowl after buffing and have included them below. For the past few years now I have been using a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar and the plateau. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and let it sit for 10 minutes to do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the grain shone through. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. This one was a unique stem so I was not as slow to start because of damage to the stem it was more to try to put together why the stem has two materials and how they were joined. The junction was flawlessly done and the transition was very smooth. It made me wonder who had done this work and why. I have never seen any other BBB pipe with the compound material stem. Here are a couple of thoughts I have as I have been working on it. There are several possibilities.

The first is that this stem is kind of a Frankenpipe rebuild.

Somewhere in the life of the pipe the original vulcanite stem was ruined from the button forward. The original owner wanted to keep the front portion next to the shank intact so that original brass logo would not have to be moved.
A possibility is that the old stem was cut off and an acrylic end was made for it. They were joined together with a tenon and glue that bound the parts together seamlessly.
The stem was then sanded to make the transition between the two materials seamless.

The second is that it originally came out that way as a means of protecting the stem from bite through. It may well have been a BBB innovation – just one that I have never seen or read about.

I suppose at one level I will never really know for sure but whatever the reason for the mixed material of the stem it is a beauty. Now it was time to work on it.

At this point in the process I chose to polish the stem and bring back a shine. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. The briar and stem just shone! I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite and acrylic combination stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this BBB Own Make 722 Diplomat. The finished pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.59 ounces/44 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker section.

Refreshing a Newer BBB Chelsea 403S Bulldog

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I thought I would continue with the same tack I took on the Wenhall and Comoy’s Christmas 1990 pipes and take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 01/26/2023 in a group of pipes from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

The finish is dirty with dust in the twin rings around the bowl. There are some tars and lava flowing down the edges of the rim cap. Underneath there appears to be some excellent grain. The finish is also dull and quite lifeless looking.
The beveled rim top is dirty. There is some lava overflow from the cake in the bowl and some darkening on the inwardly beveled rim top.
The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl.
The stem is acrylic and has a BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the left side of the saddle portion. It has been painted with a white coloured paint that fills in the stamp.
The acrylic stem had no oxidation but was dirty. There were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this pretty little Bulldog was that it was in solid shape with no significant damage to the briar on the bowl sides and rim. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. There appears to be a slight flare to the shank, widening at the end where it joins the stem. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has heavy lava and debris on it that will need to come off. You can also see the lava on the inner bevel of the rim. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim and down the outside of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reamings has not left damage either. The bowl is still round. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the scratches in the middle top of the stem surface. Note also the tooth marks on the stem surface ahead of the button on both sides. From the photos of the stamp on the saddle portion of the stem have the appearance of a decal but I am hoping that I am wrong and that it is stamped and painted. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. I look at the finish around the twin rings to make sure there are no nicks and damage to the rings. The stain on the bowl highlights the grain. There was some dark grime on the surface but the cleaning easily remove that. There were no cracks or splits following the grain or coming down from the rim edges. There were no cracks in the shank. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the grain patterns that appear to have birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the left and underside of the shank are clear and readable in the pictures below. On the left it reads BBB [over] Chelsea. The stamping on the underside reads 403S which is the shape number for a Bulldog. Jeff also included a photo of the stamped stem logo – BBB in a Diamond. I was concerned that the logo on the stem may have been a decal rather than a stamp but it appears to be a stamp in the first photo below.I did not take time to do work on the brand as it is a well known brand. If you would like to do some reading on it you can check both Pipephil’s site and Pipedia for a great write up on the history of the brand. I decided instead to just get to work on the pipe.

The finish cleaned up really well and the dust and grime in the finish and the twin rings around the bowl were gone. It was very clean and was undamaged. The rim top and the beveled inner edge looked very good. With all the grime removed there was some excellent grain. The finish is also dull but should polish up nicely.
The beveled edge and the rim top is very clean and there was no damage or darkening.
The bowl was very clean and the top and inner edge of the bowl show no damage. The bowl walls are also very clean and smooth with no checking or burn marks on the inside or out of the bowl. The walls were undamaged.
The acrylic stem with the BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the left side of the saddle portion looks much better. I wonder if it is gold instead of white. It is definitely stamped and is clean and undamaged.
The acrylic stem had a rich shine. There were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Knowing that about me you can guess that I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. The bowl was in great condition I decided to move immediately to polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I chose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads. I include the many photos of various angles of the bowl so you can see the change. Pay attention to the changes in the briar in these photos as you work through them. When I get the bowl to this point in the process I use a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. Once the time has passed I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way the grain just pops. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in quite good shape. Jeff had been able to remove the oxidation so that when it came it looked pretty good. It was time to address the tooth marks. When the damage is quite shallow and not imposing I flatten it out with 220 grit sandpaper and start polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. This process makes the repairs almost invisible when polished and also takes care of scratching in the surface of the acrylic. That is what I did in this case and it worked well. This stem was quite painless so I guess I could have started with it but ah well old habits are hard to change. Here are photos of the stem after the sandpaper work.It was the time now to polish the stem and bring back a shine. Over the years I have developed my own process for this. It is all preparation for the buffing that will come last. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the stem (even though it is acrylic it still helps preserve it from the grime) and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I always rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem by wiping it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this BBB Chelsea 403S Straight Bulldog and the polished acrylic stem is a great addition. The finished pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 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 1.52 ounces/43 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker section.

Restoring an Unusual BBB Trafalgar 1752 Square Dublin Sitter

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is a BBB in a shape I had not seen before. It is kind of a Panel Dublin Sitter with a square shank. We bought it on eBay from Frederiksberg, Denmark on 06/05/2016 so it has been sitting here for a long time. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads BBB in a diamond (logo) followed by R. Underneath it reads Trafalgar [over] Square. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Made in England [over] 1752. On the underside of the shank it also was stamped 7R next to the shank/stem logo. On the left side of the saddle stem is a BBB diamond logo stamped in white. The bowl had a thick cake and there was a light lava overflow on the rim top and inner edge of the rim. The unique saddle stem fits the square shank perfectly and is oxidized. The tenon is drilled for a 6mm filter. There are light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. The grain around this unique pipe is quite beautiful under the grime on the finish. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top to show the condition the rim top – darkening and lava build up on the rim and edges. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show its general condition. It is oxidized and shows some tooth marks on both sides near the button.He took a photo of the pipe looking down on the length of it both on the top and on the underside. It is an interesting and unique pipe. He took photos of the stamping on the left, right and underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. While there is a lot of information on the BBB brand there is nothing on the Trafalgar Square line. It has a simple Made in England stamp and a painted stamp on the left side of the stem. I would assume that it is one that was made during the Cadogan era.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and a tooth brush and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. There were still spots varnish on the bowl sides that would need to be removed. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. The rim top looked very good and the inner edge had some darkening and wear that would need to be addressed. The outer edge of the bowl look very good. The stem surface still showed oxidation and had a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on sides of the shank is clear and readable. I took photos of the stamping on the each side of the shank and it is stamped as noted above. The logo on the stem could well be a decal but I will know more once I am working on it.I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. It is an unusually shaped pipe.I started my work on the pipe by wiping the bowl down with acetone to remove the remaining varnish around the bowl and shank. It lifted some of the red stain in the process. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the damage and darkening there. I also smoothed out the damage on the rim top. It worked amazingly well and the finished edge and top looked much better. I polished the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar to enliven, clean and preserve it. I rubbed it in with my fingertips working it into the briar. I set it aside for 15 minutes to let the balm do its work. I buffed it off with a cotton cloth and then buffed it with a microfiber cloth. The photos below show the pipe at this point in the restoration process. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub on cotton pads to remove the deep oxidation that was still on the stem. It worked quite well and I was able to remove the majority of it. I then used some Meguiar’s Scratch X 2.0 Fine Polish and scratch remover and was able to remove even more of the oxidation. I polished the stem using micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads to further polish it. After each pad I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil to protect and enliven the stem. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. When I finished with the polish I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I tried to redo the BBB triangle on the stem side. It was faint and the stamping was not very deep. I used some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold but it did not work so I wiped it off and buffed it with some Obsidian Oil to clean up the stamping. This BBB Trafalgar Square 1752 Panel Dublin Sitter is an interesting and unusual piece. It has a classic English looking Billiard shape. The smooth finish around the bowl and shank has some nice straight and flame grain around the sides. The rim top and heel have some nice looking birdseye grain. The reddish brown of the bowl and the black of taper vulcanite stem contrast well together. I buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I lightly buffed the rim top and shank end as well. I was careful to not buff the stamping and damage it. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ½ x 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.62 ounces/46 grams. It is an interesting old pipe and should make a great collectible piece for lovers of old Americana Pipe Making Companies. I will be adding it to the American Pipemakers Section on the rebornpipes store very soon if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.