Tag Archives: Bertam the Nations Pipemaker

Let’s Try This Again – Re-cleaning the Bowl of a Bertram 55 Lovat and Giving it a Bowl Coating

Blog by Steve Laug

A while ago I sold this Bertram Grade 55 Lovat to a fellow who was excited to get it. When it arrived he examined it and sent me a message that it had a lot of carbon in the bowl and had a crack as well. I am pretty sure we left a thin coat of cake in the bowl but we generally clean the pipes we work on very well. I knew that I had gone over it with a fine tooth comb and was not sure what he meant about a crack. It did not matter though as he was not happy with the purchase. I refunded his payment and postage and had him send the pipe back to me. It took a while to arrive but I really wanted to see what was going on. Before I talk about what I found though, here is the link to the restoration of the pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/04/13/the-8th-of-a-collection-of-bertrams-a-bertram-55-lovat/). It really was a beautiful piece of briar.

It is a Bertram Grade 55 in a classic Lovat shape and some amazing grain on a proportionally well carved pipe. Once it was buffed the pipe the briar came alive and the mixture of grain – cross, swirled and birdseye – popped with polishing. The black vulcanite stem had a rich glow. The finished pipe is a beautiful grained Lovat shaped pipe. Like the other Bertrams I have worked on this one fits well in the hand and sits right in the mouth. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 1/4 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 33 grams/1.16 oz. I have included photos of the pipe after the first restoration to show the beauty of the pipe. When it arrived in its shipping box I actually let it sit here for a few days. I was quite discouraged that somehow I had missed a crack in the bowl. To my mind I expected to open the box and find some horizontal crack around the bowl somewhere. I just could not figure it out or even imagine how I had missed that.

When I finally opened the box and unpacked it I went over it even more thoroughly than before. I worked my way around the rim, bowl sides and bottom with a bright light and a lens. There were no cracks in the exterior of the briar that I could find. I breathed a sigh of relief about that. The bowl was not cracked externally! Whew. Then I went over the interior of the bowl using a light and a dental pick. The front, back and left side of the bowl were solid. There was however a large area on the right side of the bowl that had some significant checking. I picked it clean and it definitely had what looked like a crack. I have learned that sometimes these are surface fissures so I would need to reclean and ream the bowl again and then re-examine it. I set it aside for awhile and worked on some other pipes.

I finally got around to dealing with the issue this evening. I started by scraping all of the cake off the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I took it back to bare briar and remove all possible cake. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a dowel and smoothed out the bowl surface. I was able to remove almost all of the offending checking. There was a small spot of it left midbowl on the right side so I decided to mix up a bowl coating of activated charcoal and sour cream. I applied it to the inside of the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner and painted the walls. I let the first coat dry for 30 minutes and then gave it a second coat. Once it was coated I set the bowl aside to let the coating cure over night. I set it aside for an overnight cure that eventually ended up being two days. The coating dried black and smooth on the bowl sides. There really is no smell in the bowl which always surprises most folks. I used a flashlight to illuminate the walls of the bowl and took some photos to show what it looks like now. You can see the small ridges in the bowl coating but it is smooth to touch. I put the stem and bowl of this lovely Bertram Lovat Grade 55 back together. It really is a beautiful little pipe. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I polished the briar and the vulcanite of the stem until there was a rich shine. This Bertram has a classic Lovat shape and some amazing grain on a proportionally well carved pipe. The briar came alive and the mixture of grain – cross, swirled and birdseye – popped with polishing. The black vulcanite stem had a rich glow. The finished pipe is a beautiful grained Lovat shaped pipe. The neutral bowl coating should take care of the checking issues on the bowl walls and give the pipe a long life. The dimensions are Length: 5 1/4 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 32 grams/1.13 ounces. This one will be going back on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers section soon. I will be pricing it as a bargain for someone to add to their rack. If you are interested let me know.

Restoring an Apple from Bertam, the Nation’s Pipemaker

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Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe from the foursome I bought on Ebay was a shapely apple and of all the foursome it was in the best shape. It was dirty and lightly caked but the stem was lightly oxidized and very clean. The shank was quite clean and fresh and took very little to clean out. It is stamped Bertram in script on the shank over Washington DC. It appears to also have a number on the shank to the left of the script. The first number is unreadable but the second is a 0. These numbers on the Bertrams told the price of the pipe and where it fit in the hierarchy of the line.

I have included the following link to give a bit of historical information on the pipe company. It is a well written article that gives a glimpse of the heart of the company. http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/01/bertrams-pipe-shop-on-14th-street.html#!

In the photo below the Bertram is the pipe at the top of the picture. And in the second photo provided by the seller it is out of focus but the shape is clear.

The next four photos show the overall state of the pipe when I brought it to the worktable last evening. The stem is lightly oxidized and appears to be high quality vulcanite. Unlike many of the Bertram stem I have had in the past this one does not have clunky sharp edges of a vulcanite blank. They had been sanded down (at the factory) to make the stem more tapered and finished looking. Bertrams did not typically have a stain or finish. They were polished briar in a natural finish. This one was dirty and had some ground in oils on the shank and sides of the bowl. The grain was a nice cross grain on the right side and mixed on the left. The bowl had a cake in the first 1/3 from the top. The rim was dirty with oils and tar and had a few dents and dings from being knocked about. The slot in the button was very tight – as I have found true of my other Bertram pipes and would need to be opened up to facilitate cleaning with a pipe cleaner. In examining the bowl there were several fills but they had been done well – the putty that was used was not the pink or white putty and had coloured along with the briar as the pipe was smoked.

The close up photo of the bowl shows the rim and the buildup of cake at the top of the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer, matching the cutting head to the diameter of the bowl. I wiped down the briar with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the ground in oils and dirt. I scrubbed with the pad and was able to remove most of the dirt and grime. To address the dents and dings on the rim I decided to lightly top the bowl. I would not be staining the pipe so I would not need to try to match the stain from the bowl and rim. I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I wiped it down a second time using isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads. I cleaned out the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It was not too dirty and cleaned up quickly. I decided to work on the slot so that I could more easily clean out the inside. I used needle files to open the slot. I used three different files – a flat oval, a rounded oval and a round to reshape the slot into an oval.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove some of the buildup and roughness on surface of the stem. I also sanded the end of the stem and the inside of the newly shaped slot. I followed that up with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I followed that with my usual micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

The inside of the bowl had some cracking so I mixed up some pipe mud – cigar ash and water – and coated the inside of the bowl with it. I painted it on with a pipe cleaner and covered the cracks. I also used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the rim and make it crisper. The last three photos show the stem and the bowl after the complete reworking.