Tag Archives: Bertram 55 Lovat

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.

The 8th of a collection of Bertrams – a Bertram 55 Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

If you have been reading the blogs on the restoration of the Bertram pipe lot that Jeff and I purchased you already know the story of the find. If you have not you can read more about it on the earlier blogs in this series. Just for a quick reminder I will include the photo that Jeff took the collection when it arrived in Idaho. He unwrapped each of the 200+ pipes and filled the three boxes that they were mailed in to show the size of the collection we had purchased. To be honest it was a bit overwhelming to see all of the collection in boxes. We were looking at a lot of work to bring these back to life.I am sure glad that Jeff is working through the clean up on this lot as they are really quite dirty and there are so many! I am leaving it to him to choose which pipes to work on. So far he is choosing the higher grade pipes and the more interesting shaped ones. As he finishes a batch of them he boxes them up and sends them to me. From the first box he sent, I chose another one of the Bertrams to be the eighth pipe that I would work on. As with the rest of the collection this one was dirty! The smooth finish was grimy and dusty but some interesting grain shone through showing me that this was a beautiful pipe. It was a Lovat shaped pipe with a short saddle stem. There was a thick cake in the bowl and heavy lava overflowing on to the rim top. It was hard to know the condition of the edges due to the cake and lava. The stem showed some light oxidation and some chatter on the top and some deep tooth marks on the underside. The photos below tell the story and give a glimpse of the pipe. Jeff took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim to capture the condition of the pipe when it arrived. The rim top had a thick coat of lava and the bowl had a thick cake.Jeff took 2 photos to capture the stamping on the left and underside of the shank. The first photo shows stamping on the left side which read Bertram over Washington, D.C. The stamping on this pipe is clear and readable. The second photo shows the grade number stamping on the underside at the shank stem junction. It read number 55 which shows the quality of the pipe.The next two photos show the stem surface. They show the oxidation and the chatter on both sides near the button. The deep tooth marks are visible on the underside next to the button. There is also some wear on the underside button edge.If you have read the previous five blogs I have posted on the Bertram pipes that I have cleaned up so far you can skip the next bit. But if you have not, then I include the link to Bertram history and information. I would recommend that if you don’t know much about them do some research on them. I include a link to the write up on Pipedia (http://pipedia.org/wiki/Bertram). Bertram pipes were based out of Washington DC. They were popular among famous politicians and celebrities of the time. They made many products for them from FDR’s cigarette holders to Joseph Stalin’s favorite pipe. They were considered some of the best America had to offer till they finally closed their doors in the 70s. They graded their pipes by 10s, the higher the grade the better. Above 60s are uncommon and 80-90s are quite rare. I’ve never heard of or seen a 100 grade. I have several blogs that I have written on rebornpipes that give some history and background to Bertram pipes. (https://rebornpipes.com/2015/06/16/an-easy-restoration-of-a-bertram-grade-60-217-poker/).

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#

I am also including this photo of the shop in Washington D.C. and a post card of the shop. From this information I have learned that the shape and grade Bertram I have in front of me now was made before the closure of the shop in the 1970s. This Bertram Lovat is one of the more usual shapes in terms of the Bertram pipes I have worked on. With a grade 55 stamp it is just above the mid-range mark.

Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He was able to remove lava build up on the rim top and you could see the great condition of the bowl top and edges of the rim. There was still some darkening to the rim top toward the back of the bowl. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and rim after Jeff had cleaned up the grime and lava but the rim top had some light damage and darkening all the way around. Both the inner edge and the outer edge of the rim look good. The stem photos show that the oxidation is gone. The light tooth chatter is hard to see but I should be able to sand it out quite easily. The tooth marks on the underside will take a little more work to remove.I also took a photo of the stamping on the left side and the underside of the shank showing how the stamping was laid out.I sanded the top of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage and the darkening. I polished the top with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. The photo shows how the rim looked at this point.I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. After the final sanding pad I hand buffed it with a cotton cloth to raise a shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into finish of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Restoration Balm really makes the grain stands out beautifully. I set the bowl aside and filled in the deep tooth marks with clear super glue and set the stem aside to let the repair cure. Once it had cured I used a needle file to flatten it into the surface of the stem.I used a folded piece of 240 grit sandpaper to address the tooth chatter and blend the repair into the surface of the stem. Once the surface was smooth I sanded out the scratch marks and started the polishing of the stem with a folded piece of 400 grit sandpaper. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and gave it a final coat and set it aside to dry. I put the stem and bowl back together and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I polished the briar and the minute scratches still in 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. Once I 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. Since I am traveling for a bit for the next three weeks this one will go on the store once I return. If you are interested let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as it was a pleasure to work on.