Tag Archives: bite marks

Restoring an Orlik Double Bore Long Shank Saddle Stem Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is an interesting Orlik Long Shank Billiard with a saddle stem. It is stamped Orlik Double Bore over Made in England on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number W36. The pipe was very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and some tobacco remnants from the last bowl smoked. There was some darkening and light lava around the rim top and beveled inner edge of the bowl. The long shank and bowl has some great grain on it. There are a few dark fills in the bowl sides but they are pretty small and blend well. The twin bore/double bore vulcanite saddle stem has some light oxidation and tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. It is billed as a bite proof stem designed for chompers. Jeff took some great photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he started his cleanup. Jeff took a photo of the rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl and the lava overflow all over the rim top. It is hard to know what the inner edge of the rim looks like until we remove the cake and the lava. There also appears to be some burn damage on the rear left side.He took photos around the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition. You can see the grime in the finish and the crackling of the varnish coat. He took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number W36. The top of the saddle stem has a brass O inset in the vulcanite.The next two photos show the condition of the stem. You can see that it is lightly oxidized and has some tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button. There is also some wear on the button surfaces on both sides.I turned to the listing on Pipephil on Orlik pipes hoping to find a similar pipe to the one I am working on (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-o2.html). Unfortunately there was not a pipe like the Double Bore I am working on. It is also not listed in the section I included below.I turned next to Pipedia to gather a more detailed history of the brand and see if I could find any information on this particular pipe (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Orlik). Once again there was nothing on the particular line. The history of the brand is concise and pointed. I quote that below.

In 1899, a pipe manufacturer was founded in London, Bond Street, by Louis Orlik. L. Orlik Ltd. started to produce high quality pipes for a relatively low price but high service and soon became quite popular. By 1907 they used the name L & A Orlik, which apparently added Louis’s brother, Alfred to the company name. In the first quarter of 1900 they also established in Birmingham. This can be verified by silver hallmarks. In 1980 the company was acquired by Cadogan. Like many of London’s other pipe manufacturers they moved to a new built factory in Southend-on-Sea. As all current brands in the Cadogan group, Orlik was being produced in those factories.

Orlik used the slogan “Smoked by all shrewd judges” “(who are also loved by his hard judge)” with a portrait of a judge wearing a wig. The picture is still used in Denmark for manufacturing of Orlik cigarettes.

The article also had a catalogue of the various pages. I am including a copy of the page that shows the shape 36. I think that the W on the shape number of the one I am working on may refer to the Double Bore Bit.There was also some helpful information on the dating of the brand. The pipe I am working on is Pre-Cadogan era as is proven by the stamping on the shank as below.

In the Pre-Cadogan era of the Orlik, the name is ORLIK in a straight line, capital block letters. Also the MADE IN ENGLAND is in a straight line, capital block letters. However, there are a konwn model (ORLIK NATURAL T 1155) stamped with MADE IN ENGLAND in a straight line, capital serif letters. Date is unknown. The mouthpieces have the Orlik logo, a circular O as a brass inlay. After joining Cadogan the same origin stamp as other Cadogan brands like Comoy´s etc. was used, MADE IN LONDON in circular an below ENGLAND in straight.

I also am including a list of the various lines of Orlik pipes sold. I have included a screen capture of the list below. I have drawn a red box around the Double Bore Pipes. Interestingly my assumption about the W being a notation for the Double Bore stem turned out to be correct.It is definitely an interesting piece of pipe history. This Pre-Cadogan Orlik was made before 1980 when Cadogan bought the brand.  Armed with the brand information and some parameters for the age of the pipe I turned to work on it. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cake from the walls of the bowl. He cleaned up any remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He was not able to remove the bowl from the base so a thorough cleaning of the base was not possible. He worked on the rim edge lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and washed it off with warm water to remove the cleanser. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it.  I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem to show how clean they were. You can the roughness on the top and the inner edge of the rim on the front right side of the bowl. The bowl and rim looks much better without the thick lava and cake. The stem looked better. There are tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem near the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. The stamping is very readable and it reads as noted above. The right side of the shank is smooth and the shape number is near the bowl shank junction (no photo). I took a photo of the Double Bore stem.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. I decided to start my work on the pipe by dealing with what looked like checking and damage on the inner walls of the bowl on the back side above the entrance of the airway into the bowl. I poked at it with dental pick and was pretty sure I was dealing with cracks in the cake rather than deep into the walls. I sanded the walls smooth with a dowel wrapped in 220 grit sandpaper. Once I sanded it the damage was a lot less. I sanded the inside of the rim edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out and also minimize the burn damage to the beveled inner rim edge. I wiped off the finish on the bowl with alcohol to remove the remnants of finish on the bowl sides and shank. It really cleaned off a lot of the dirty finish. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I worked over the rim top and edge of the bowl with the pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris.  I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the even that material. The balm is absorbed by the briar and gives it real life. I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and tooth chatter on both sides of the stem. I started the polishing of the surface with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the 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 polish the stem.  With both parts of this Orlik Double Bore Long Shank Billiard finished, I polished the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. 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. This older Orlik Double Bore W36 Billiard polished up pretty nicely. The rich browns of the finish and the grain came alive with the buffing. The finish on the briar works well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. The finished pipe is a well-proportioned, well-made Orlik long shank billiard. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This Orlik Double Bore is a great looking pipe and it will be going on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers section shortly. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this older British Made pipe.

New Life for a Peterson’s Republic Era “Donegal” Rocky 407 Prince

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from one of Jeff’s pipe hunts or auctions. It is a smaller nicely grained and I would say classic Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 407 Prince with a bent P-lip stem. The rusticated finish is quite rugged and has an instantly recognizable Peterson’s look. The pipe was dirty, with grime and dust ground into the finish. The bowl had a thick cake in the bowl and a lava overflow on the inner edge of the rim and spilling onto the rim top and filling in the rustication there. The pipe is stamped on underside of the shank and reads Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky. It is stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland followed by the shape number 407. The silver band is stamped K&P over Sterling Silver. There are also silver hallmarks. The first is the mark for the city of Dublin (woman on a throne). The second mark is the mark for the quality of silver (Irish harp). The third mark looks like an “I” (the date stamp). The stamping is clear and readable on the pipe and ferrule. The stem was dirty, oxidized and calcified. There were light tooth marks and chatter on the stem near the button on both sides and some on the surface of the button as well. There was a Peterson’s “P” on the left side of the taper stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. Jeff took photos of the rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the overflow of lava onto the rim top and filling in the rustication. The photos show the rim top and bowl from various angles.He took some photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the tight rustication pattern that was on this bowl. It is a dirty but quite beautifully crafted pipe. The stamping on the underside of the shank read as noted above. It took a few photos to show the entirety of the stamping. The stamping is faint but readable. He also took photos of the Sterling Silver band on the shank. The P on the left side of the stem is clear and the stamping on the stem side is in good condition. The stem was a poor fit to the shank. It was oxidized, calcified and had debris stuck to the surface of the vulcanite. There were tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem. I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era  – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Kapp & Peterson company was still in the ownership of the Kapp family. However 1964 saw the retiral of the company Managing Director Frederick Henry(Harry) Kapp.

I turned to the Peterson’s pipe notes site to have a look at the hallmark chart and see if I can identify the stamping (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/peterson-pipe-hallmarks/). I have included the chart below. It looks to me like it is stamped with the letter I that looks like the letter stamp for 1976.With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I knew from the information that the pipe was made during the Republic Era between 1950 and 1989. Pipedia then qualifies the dating as follows: From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland”. The date stamp on the Sterling Silver cued it to 1976. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing job cleaning up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He cleaned the oxidized silver with Soft Scrub and buffed it off with a soft pad. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show how clean it was. The rustication on the rim top is very clean and there is darkening that will be hidden by the contrast stains. The stem looks clean of oxidation and there are some deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem.The stamping on the underside of the shank was faint but readable as noted above. The second photo shows the P stamp on the left side of stem.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. It is a great looking pipe.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the rustication with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it into the deep briar. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The rustication came alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I heated the vulcanite to lift the dents but they had sharp edges so they did not lift at all. I filled in the deeper tooth marks with clear super glue and set it aside to cure.Once the repairs cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I usually file them first with a needle file but last night my daughters were using my desk top and that is where the files were so I just sanded them smooth. I started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I touched up the P stamp on the left side of the stem with Paper Mate Liquid Paper and once it dried I scraped off the excess. The P stamp is far from perfect but it definitely looks better.This stem was in great condition so I polished it 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. This Republic Era Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 407 Prince is a nice looking rusticated pipe. The combination of brown stains really makes the rustication almost sparkle around the bowl sides and shank. They begin to really stand out with the polishing. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well to give some contrast to the pipe. The polished black vulcanite P-lip taper stem and the Sterling Silver band just add to the mix. With the grime and debris gone from the finish and the bowl it is really is eye-catching. I put the stem back on the bowl and lightly buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel, carefully avoiding the stamping on the shank. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky Prince is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another interesting pipe. This Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky will be added to the Irish Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Restoring an Old England London Made Squat 95 Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a well smoked Old England London Made Bulldog arrived here almost a year ago now. The previous pipeman had enjoyed smoking this pipe and it was obviously a favourite. It is a nice looking rusticated squat Bulldog with a saddle stem. It is stamped England in an arc at the left side of the smooth panel. That is followed Old England 95 over London Made. The pipe was very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and some tobacco remnants from the last bowl smoked. There was some darkening and lava around the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The rustication around the bowl has a lot of grime and debris ground into it but should clean up nicely. The finish looks good under the grime. The saddle vulcanite stem is in good shape with some small tooth marks and chatter on both sides. It has a crossed shield on the left top side of the saddle.  It is lightly oxidized and calcified as well. Jeff took some great photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. Jeff took photos of the rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl and the lava overflow all over the rim top. It is quite thick toward the back of the bowl. It is hard to know what the inner edge of the rim looks like until we remove the cake and the lava.He took photos around the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition. You can see the grime in the finish rustication all over the bowl sides. He took photos of the stamping on the left underside of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable as noted above. The stamp on the stem is mostly on the surface of the stem rather than deeply embossed. The next two photos show the condition of the stem. You can see that it is oxidized and calcified. It has some tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button. There is also some wear on the button surfaces on both sides.I turned to Pipephil on the Old England pipes (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-o1.html) and actually found a very similar rustication on one of the pipes there to the one that I am working on. According to the listing there I found that the pipe was made by Sasieni. I did a screen capture of the section and the stamping on the shank side. I have included it below.There was also a series of photos of a bent Bulldog pipe that had a similar rustication as the one that I am working on now. There are similarities in the stamping as well as some differences. The Made in England stamp on the photo below is only half there on the pipe I am working on. Both are stamped Old England London Made. The shape number stamps are also similar. The logo on the stem side is different.I turned next to Pipedia to gather a more detailed history of the brand and see if I could find any information on this particular pipe (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Sasieni). The link there took me directly to the page on Sasieni pipes.  There was a chart listing the various lines of seconds made by Sasieni. I have included that below. I have drawn a red box around the column labeled Old England.Working through the two sites above I learned that the Old English Line is a line of seconds made by Sasieni in both dark and natural finishes. The shape 95 is a straight squat Bulldog with the dark finish and a classic Sasieni rusticated pattern. Armed with the above brand information, I turned to work on the pipe. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cake from the walls of the bowl. He cleaned up any remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He was not able to remove the bowl from the base so a thorough cleaning of the base was not possible. He worked on the rim edge lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and washed it off with warm water to remove the cleanser. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem to show how clean they were. The inner edge looks very good as well. The bowl and rim looks much better without the thick lava and cake. The stem looked better. There was tooth chatter and marks were very visible on both sides of the stem near the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. The stamping is faint but very readable and it reads as noted above. The shield logo on the left side of the saddle stem is faint but visible.I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean off the remaining debris in the rustication of the rim top and edges. I worked it over until it was clean.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the even that material. The balm is absorbed by the briar and gives it real life. I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I used a tooth pick to rub some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold into the stem logo. I let it sit for a little while then buffed it off with a cotton pad. You can see that the stamping was not very deep and the logo repair did not cover too well.I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and tooth chatter on both sides of the stem. I started the polishing of the surface with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. 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.  With both parts of the pipe finished, I polished the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. 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 Sasieni Made Old English London Made Bulldog polished up pretty nicely. The rich dark finish and the rustication came alive with the buffing. The finish on the briar works well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. The finished pipe is a well-proportioned, well-made squat Bulldog. 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: 2 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This Old English London Made 95 Squat Bulldog made by Sasieni will be going on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers section shortly. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this British Made pipe.

Restoring a KBB Yello-Bole Premier Liverpool

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Blog by Steve Laug

With this post I am celebrating notification from WordPress that rebornpipes is 8 years old. It does not seem possible that 8 years ago in May I posted the first blog on rebornpipes and wrote about my dream of the blog being a gathering spot for information and individuals who enjoy working on rehabilitation and restoration of pipes. I continue to do the work or restoration and rehabilitation of pipes because it is something I enjoy. It is a pleasure to take pipes that are a bit of a wreck and with some effort and careful work bring them back to life. The next pipe on the table is a great one to work on as a part of that celebration. It is a well smoked KBB Yello-Bole Premier Liverpool. The pipe was very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and some tobacco remnants from the last bowl smoked. There was some darkening and lava around the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. There are a few visible fills around the bowl and the varnish coat is crackling. The taper yellow stem has tooth marks and chatter on both sides. Jeff took some great photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he started his cleanup. Jeff took a photo of the rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl and the lava overflow all over the rim top. It is hard to know what the inner edge of the rim looks like until we remove the cake and the lava.He took photos around the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition. You can see the grime in the finish and the crackling of the varnish coat. He took a photo of the stamping on the left topside of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable. It reads KBB in a Cloverleaf followed by Yello-Bole over Cured with Real Honey followed by R in a circle. Underneath that it reads Premier over Imported Briar. Normally there would be stamping on the right side but in this case there does not appear to be any stamping visible.The next two photos show the condition of the stem. You can see that it is lightly oxidized and has some tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button. There is also some wear on the button surfaces on both sides. I turned to the listing on Pipephil on the KBB Yello-Bole pipes and actually found a very similar pipe to the one I am working on (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-y.html). It is a KBB in a cloverleaf Yello-Bole that also bears the Cured with Real Honey, circle R stamp over Premier over Imported Briar. I did a screen capture of the section and the stamping on the shank side. I have included it below.I turned next to Pipedia to gather a more detailed history of the brand and see if I could find any information on this particular pipe (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole). I quote a portion of that article on tips for dating Yello-Bole pipes below.

Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes

  • KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
  • Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
  • Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
  • Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
  • Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
  • Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
  • Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.

Following the tips above I learned that the KBB Stamped in a Cloverleaf indicates that the pipe I have was 1955 or earlier. The fact that it is stamped Cured with Real Honey puts it post 1936. The field is narrowing down for a date. The fact that the stem has the propeller logo puts it between the 30s and 40s. So now I have it narrowed down to between 1936 and 1949. That is as close as I am going to get with this one as the numbers are worn off the shank.

It is definitely an interesting piece of pipe history. Armed with the brand information and some parameters for the age of the pipe I turned to work on it. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cake from the walls of the bowl. He cleaned up any remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He was not able to remove the bowl from the base so a thorough cleaning of the base was not possible. He worked on the rim edge lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and washed it off with warm water to remove the cleanser. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem to show how clean they were. You can the roughness on the top and the inner edge of the rim on the front right side of the bowl. The bowl and rim looks much better without the thick lava and cake. The stem looked better. There was tooth chatter and marks were very visible on both sides of the stem near the button. I have included a photo of the propeller logo on the left side of the stem.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. The stamping is faint but very readable and it reads as noted above. The right side of the shank is smooth- if there was any stamping it is long gone.I took a photo of the large fill on the underside and up the left side of the shank. It was hard but it had shrunk and left a divot.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. I noted that there was a small stinger apparatus that is removable in the tenon. I heated the stinger with a Bic lighter flame and was able to very easily remove it for more thorough cleaning of the tenon and airway in the stem.I decided to start my work on the pipe by dealing with the damaged rim top and inner edge of the bowl. I lightly topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the damage on the top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damaged bevel on the rim edge. It is far from perfect but it is better. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I worked over the rim top and edge of the bowl with the pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris.  I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the even that material. The balm is absorbed by the briar and gives it real life. I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem material is an early acrylic product (perhaps Bakelite) and does not respond like vulcanite when heated. I filled in the deep tooth marks with clear super glue. Once the repairs cured I used a needle file to smooth them out and to reshape the button edge. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and tooth chatter on both sides of the stem. I started the polishing of the surface with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the 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 polish the stem.  With both parts of the pipe finished, I polished the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. 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 old KBB Yello-Bole Premier Liverpool polished up pretty nicely. The rich browns of the finish and the grain came alive with the buffing. The finish on the briar works well with the polished yellow Bakelite stem. The finished pipe is a well-proportioned, well-made KBB Yello-Bole Liverpool. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This KBB Yello-Bole Premier Liverpool will be going on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers shortly. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this older American Made pipe.

Renewed Life for a Comoy’s Tradition 496 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a Comoy’s pipe from Alex’s collection. It is a pot shaped pipe with a saddle stem. It is a Cadogan period Comoy’s and has a single inlaid C on the left side of the saddle rather than the three circle version. It is a pretty pipe with a nice looking shape. The condition is another of those pipes that is shiny and polished on the outside and very dirty on the inside. It had been reamed but the shank and mortise were filthy with tars and oils. The pipe is stamped on both sides of the shank and reads Comoy’s over Tradition on the left side and on the right it has the Made in London England COM stamp circle followed by the shape number 496 near the bowl. The vulcanite saddle stem looks good at first glance but has tooth marks on both sides at the button. It has a stamped C on the left side of the saddle. I took photos of the pipe before I started my clean up work on the pipe. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of the bowl, rim top and edges and stem. The bowl looks clean and the rim top and beveled inner edge look very good. I was hopeful that the pipe was actually as clean as it was shiny! The next photos show the condition of the stem. It is also clean and has no remaining oxidation. There are tooth marks and chatter under the shine on both sides near the button.I took photos of the stamping on both sides of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable on the left side and a little more blurry on the right side. There is also the inset C on the saddle stem – a new one piece inlaid C rather than the earlier version with the circles.I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the pipe.The “C” stem logo on Comoy’s pipes was the “three-piece C” insert until the Cadogan era in the 1980s. That helped me with a potential date on this pipe – 1980s or later. Knowing that this was a newer Comoy’s pipe from the Cadogan time period did not deter me as the shape on this one fascinated me. I turned to work on the pipe on my work table. The pipe was externally quite clean and I wanted to make sure that the internals were also clean. I scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. I scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. The shank was very dirty and appeared to not have been cleaned. The stem was much better.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm.  I worked over the light tooth marks and blended them into the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. At this point it is starting to look much better.  I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem.   This Comoy’s Tradition 496 Pot turned out to be a great looking pipe. The mix of brown stains highlights the mix of grain around the bowl sides, top and bottom. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. 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 and 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 Comoy’s Tradition 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 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This pipe will be going back into the box of finished pipes that I have done for Alex so he can pick them up when COVID-19 allows. Looking forward to hearing what Alex thinks of this one. Thanks for your time.

Rebirthing a Schoenleber Hand Made – #4 Opera Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe in the queue is another one that Alex dropped off for me to work on for him – another Schoenleber Hand Made. This one is a straight shank Opera pipe with an oval bowl and a mix of different grain around the sides and shank. Someone had given the dirty pipe a coat of varnish or shellac to give it a shine but in doing so put the coating over the grim on the rim and the bowl sides. The carver once again did a great job utilizing the block of briar to maximize the grain. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Schoenleber over Hand Made. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with a number 4 which is either a shape number or size designation. The taper stem is vulcanite and has a single small coral dot on the top side. I think that this will be another nice looking piece once it is cleaned up. The bowl is thickly caked with a thick overflow of lava on the rim top. The top and edges of the bowl are damaged and chipped and what was once a bevel has been almost ruined. The exterior of the briar was dirty with grime and dust. The stem has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. It is lightly oxidized and dirty. I took photos of the pipe before my cleanup work They tell the story and give a glimpse of the promise that I see in this pipe. I took a photo of the rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl, the damage to the rim top and inner edge.  The stem was a very good fit to the shank. It was oxidized, calcified and had debris stuck to the surface of the vulcanite. It also shows the tooth marks on the stem and on the button surface.  I took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is faint but readable in the photos below and is as noted above – on the left side it reads Schoenleber Hand Made and on the right side it is stamped with the number 4 at the shank/bowl junction. The stem has a coral dot on the top of the taper.When I worked on a Schoenleber pipe for Alex in the past I had done the research on the brand. I knew that the pipe had been made for a shop in New Jersey but went back and reread the previous blog I had written on the brand. I have included the information from Pipedia that I included before. I quote the article in full (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Schoenleber).

Louis Schoenleber lived in North Arlington N.J. and was an Austrian immigrant and skilled artisan in pipe making. His hand carved pipes were available in his shop, ‘Schoenleber’s Newark Pipe Shop’, at 26 Branford Pl., Newark NJ, thought to open in the 1920’s. Schoenleber’s carried a full line of tobaccos as well as related pipe smoking accessories. It’s thought the shop operated until the late 1960’s, and Louis Schoenleber died in 1976. It’s also fairly certain they may have sold to other brands such as Jelling, also in Newark and are very similar in design and finish.

There was also an advertising card on the site that I have included below. It speaks to my assumptions about the curing process and the finishing process on the pipe. It also connects the pipe to Schoenleber’s Newark Pipe Shop in Newark, N.J. It also has a comment on the fact that pipes were made to order.I have to tell you I am spoiled with having Jeff do all the heavy clean up work on pipes. I almost forgot that on this one and started to work on the finish. I stopped myself when I realized I was working with a dirty pipe. I reamed the pipe with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife because of the oval bowl. It is a difficult reaming because of that so it takes more time to take the cake back to bare briar.I wiped the bowl exterior down with alcohol on paper towels to remove the grime and then scrubbed the interior of the bowl shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils.I turned my attention to the deep gouges on the heel of the bowl. I filled them in with clear super glue and when that repairs cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the areas with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I dealt with the damage to the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the damages and reshape the top and inner edge bevel. I forgot to take a photo of it after the clean up so I have included a photo from after I polished it with micromesh.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I worked over the rim top and edge of the bowl with the pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. I used a Maple Stain pen to touch up the area around the repair on the left side, heel and the inner edge of the rim.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface 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. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and tooth chatter on both sides of the stem. I started the polishing of the surface with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I rubbed the stem down with Denicare Mouthpiece Polish – a red, gritty Tripoli like substance that is a paste. I rubbed it into the surface of the stem and polished it off with a cotton pad. I have found that is a great intermediary step before polishing with micromesh pads. I am not sure what I will use once the final tin I have is gone! 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.   With both parts of the Schoenleber Opera Pipe finished, I polished the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. 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 rich oil cured finish and the grain came alive with the buffing. The finish on the briar works well with the polished black vulcanite stem. The finished pipe is a well-proportioned, nicely grained Schoenleber Opera. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch wide x 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 5/8 of an inch wide x 1inch long. This Schoenleber Hand Made Straight Opera will be going back to Alex shortly. I cannot wait to hear what he thinks of it. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this older American Made pipe.

A Pipe from the Illusive Hunt for the Perfect Smoke – A Ken Patent Applied For Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a small but growing sub-collection of Patent and Patent Applied For pipes. All of them have the same purpose – to provide a perfect smoke. All of them have a variety of internal plumbing to filter and cool a smoke. The concept was that the moisture and heat of the smoke was collected on various surfaces and contraptions in the stem or shank and a cooler smoke flows through the mouthpiece to the smoker. This is yet another of those interesting pieces that came out made a small splash and soon disappeared into the shadows of the past. This pipe is stamped KEN on the top of the hexagon shaped stem (which in this case is an opaque red plastic). There is a smooth panel on the left side of the shank that read Ken in script over PAT. APLD. On the underside of the shank it is stamped with a large upper case hollow point A. The finish on the pipe is rusticated with a tight rustication pattern that covers the bowl, rim and shank. There is a black ring at the shank end. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava had overflowed onto the rim top filling in the rustication. The mouthpiece was oxidized and had a lot of tooth chatter and marks on both sides that showed that the stem itself was made of red acrylic. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it. He took a photo of the rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top filling in the rustication.         He took some photos of the stamping on the left side of the shank and the underside. He also took a photo of the stamp on the topside of the stem – KEN. Jeff removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the end of the stem. The photo shows the build up of grime on the stem end and inside. The metal plumbing on the end of the shank is filthy with tars and oils. There is a cap and a tube inside of it. There is a small elastic holding the end of the cap closed. There is a rubber grommet on the shank end that holds the stem in place on the shank. The next two photos of the stem show the tooth marks and chatter on both sides in front of the button. There is also some wear on the edge of the button as well.I turned to Pipephils’ site to see if there was any information on the site that could give me the background on the brand. I knew I was dealing with an early version of the design because of the Patent Applied for stamp on the shank (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k1.html). I did a screen capture of the section of the page.The section on Pipephil had some additional pages that gave more information on the brand. The first of these shows the system after the modification of the patent. There are now screws holding parts together rather than the pipe I was working on that was pre-patent.The other additional pages showed the Patent drawings. They were filed on December 30, 1939 and the patent granted on May 20, 1941. The last page that came up was the one below showing the pipe with a blue acrylic or Bakelite stem and a different rustication pattern.From there I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/KEN) and looked up the brand. I was surprised to find the following short description of the pipe and the maker. I quote in full below. I also included the advertisement that was in the article as well as another photo of the system.

KEN Brand Pipes are made by Prim Associates of America out of Chicago, Ill. The design is unique and somewhat complex and has a patent by Otto Turinsky. This patent was applied for in Dec. 1939 and granted in May 1941, Pat No 2,242,805. An ad in Popular Mechanics from 1946 shows the pipe costing $3.50 and shows Six Key features of the Ken Pipe along with a Money Back Guarantee! Stem is Lucite and the interior chamber contains various technical features to remove tar, moisture, burnt tongue and remove impurities. Armed with the information above I was excited to work on this system pipe that fascinated me. I turned to work on the pipe on my work table. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim edge lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub. He washed it off with warm water to remove the cleaner. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem to show how clean they were. The bowl top and rim are absolutely clean and there is no damage to the edges of the bowl. The stem looks clean and there are light tooth marks and heavy tooth chatter. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. They are clean and readable and read as noted above.   I took photos of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and the system plumbing. They also give a clear picture of the pipe.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm.   I took the cap off the end of the tube and took photos of the pipe to show this part of the system. It is truly quite a contraption.I set the bowl aside and worked over the tooth marks and blended them into the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. At this point it is starting to look much better.  I touched up the Ken stamp on the topside of the stem with some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold and a toothpick. It was not too deeply stamped so the coverage was uneven.I polished the acrylic with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem.    This Ken System Pipe was an interesting pipe to work on. The mix of brown stains on the rustication around the bowl sides, top and bottom made the rusticated patterns sparkle. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well with the polished red acrylic taper hexagonal stem. 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 by hand 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 Ken System pipe 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 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This pipe will be added to my collection of odd and unusual system pipes. It is a great addition. Thanks for your time.

 

Renewed Life for a Comoy’s Silver Shadow 745 Tulip

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is an interestingly shaped Comoy’s pipe. It is almost a tulip shape – at least to me. It is a Cadogan period Comoy’s as the “C” is stamped and painted on the acrylic stem. It is a pretty pipe with a nice looking shape. The condition is very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and some darkening around the beveled inner edge of the rim. It is well smoked and the finish is dusty and grimy. There are some deep scratches in the briar around the bowl sides and top. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Comoy’s over Silver Shadow followed by the shape number 745 and the Made in London England COM stamp circle. The variegated silver acrylic bent saddle stem has a stamped C on the left side of the saddle. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on the pipe. He took photos of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl, rim top and edges. The cake is quite thick and there are a few spots of grime on the edges and around the cap on the bowl. He took photos around the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition. You can see the grime in the finish and the scratches in the briar around the bowl. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable.The next photos show the condition of the stem. The first though blurry gives an idea of the flow of the stem. The remaining photos show that the stem is in good condition other than some tooth chatter on both sides near the button. The “C” stem logo on Comoy’s pipes was the “three-piece C” insert until the Cadogan era in the 1980s. That helped me with a potential date on this pipe – 1980s or later. Knowing that this was a newer Comoy’s pipe from the Cadogan time period did not deter me as the shape on this one fascinated me. I turned to work on the pipe on my work table. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim edge lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub. He washed it off with warm water to remove the cleaner. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. (Note the deep scratch on the left side of the bowl.) I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem to show how clean they were. You can see the darkening on the top and inner edges of the bowl. Otherwise the rim and edges look very good. The stem looks clean and the tooth marks and chatter are fairly light. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. They are clean and readable and read as noted above.    I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. Jeff had scoured the tenon but it was heavily stained with the tars of use.I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the deep gouge in the left side of the bowl. It extended from the heel to mid bowl. I tried steaming it out and had very limited success. I decided to fill in the damaged area with clear super glue. Once the repairs cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and also began the polishing with 40o grit wet dry sandpaper. I used a Walnut Coloured stain pen to blend the repaired area on the side of the bowl into the colour of the rest of the bowl. The match worked very well. Once I sanded it with the micromesh pads in the polishing process it would look even better.I polished the bowl and rim with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I worked over the rim top and edge of the bowl with the pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. The repair on the right side of the bowl all but disappeared. The pipe looks very good. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm.  I touched up the C stamp in the side of the stem with a Paper Mate Liquid Paper and a toothpick. It was not too deeply stamped so the coverage was uneven.I worked over the light tooth marks and blended them into the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. At this point it is starting to look much better.   I polished the acrylic with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem.   This Comoy’s Silver Shadow 745 Tulip turned out to be a great looking pipe. The mix of brown stains highlights the mix of grain around the bowl sides, top and bottom. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well with the polished variegated silver acrylic saddle stem. 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 and 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 Comoy’s Silver Shadow fits nicely in the hand and feels great. There is something about the shape that provides a great curve for the thumb on the back of the bowl. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This pipe will be added to the English Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Restoring another Jobey Dansk 3 Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff picked up another Jobey Dansk 3 freehand pipe on one of his adventures pipe hunting. It had really nice grain and plateau on the top of the rim and on the end of the shank. It came with a Jobey Dansk Pipe Sock. There were rusticated spots on the right side and back of the bowl and top of the shank as well as the heel of the bowl. There was something familiar about the style of carving that reminded me of other Danish Freehand pipes I have worked on. I seemed to remember that Jobey Dansk pipes were carved by Karl Erik. The finish on this pipe was dirty with dust and lava on the plateau top. The bowl was lined with a thick cake. There was thick dust in the rustication around the bowl and shank as well as the plateau on the shank end. The smooth finish was also dirty and dull looking. The stem is a turned fancy turned vulcanite stem. The fit of the stem to the shank was snug. There were tooth marks on both sides of the stem at the button and on the smooth parts of the button on both sides. Otherwise it was a very clean stem. Jeff took of the pipe to show the overall condition of the bowl and stem. He took close up photos of the bowl and rim top from different angles to show the condition of the plateau finish. You can see the lava and build up on the rim top and the lava flowing over the inner edge of the bowl onto the plateau. It is hard to know if there is damage or if the lava protected it. The bowl has a thick cake that lining the walls and overflowing into lava.He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the lay of the grain and the rustication around the pipe. It is a nice piece of briar. The top of the bowl is craggy and rugged looking. Unique!Jeff took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank to capture it. It was clear and read Jobey Dansk at the top. Under that it read Handmade in Denmark followed by a large number 3.The next photos show the condition of the vulcanite stem. The first photo shows flow of the stem as a whole. You can see the tooth marks and damage both on the surface of both sides. I wanted to look at who had carved the Jobey Dansk line to confirm some suspicions I had about it. I had a feeling that the pipes were carved by a Danish carver known as Karl Erik. I looked up the Jobey listing on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jobey) and found the following information. I quote a portion of the article that is pertinent as follows.

English – American – Danish – French… Information about the brand Jobey are only to be found in form of smithereens…

Probably established in England around 1920(?) the brand hiked into the USA later. In the course of time owner, distributor and manufacturer changed repeatedly. As far as known:

George Yale Pipes & Tobacco, New York (1942)

Norwalk Pipe Co., New York (1949)

Arlington Briar Pipes Corp., Brooklyn (when?)

Hollco International, New York (1969).

Weber Pipe Co., Jersey City, NJ (1970’s)

The Tinder Box, (1970’s – 80’s).

Throughout decades Jobey pipes were mainly sold in the USA, Canada and England but remained almost unknown in continental Europe. The bulk of Jobeys was predominantly made according to classical patterns and mainly in the lower to middle price range. The predominant judgment of the pipe smokers reads: “A well-made pipe for the price.” So there is hardly anything very special or exciting about Jobey pipes although a flyer from ca. 1970 assures: “The briar root Jobey insists upon for its peer of pipes is left untouched to grow, harden and sweeten for 100 years. […]Jobey uses only the heart of this century old briar and only one out of 500 bowls turned measures up to the rigid Jobey specifications.” 99.80% of cull… that makes the layman marveling!

From that information, my suspicions were confirmed. The pipe that I was working on was carved by Karl Erik Ottendahl. There were some similarities to the Karl Erik pipes that I have worked on in the past. The dating of the pipe line in the 70s fits well with the pipe I have in hand. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration.

Now that I was reminded about the Karl Erik Ottendahl connection it was time to work on the pipe on my end. When I received it Jeff had once again done an amazing job cleaning the pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. He cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. The stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub and soaked in Before & After Deoxidizer. It came out looking very good. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up nicely. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I unpacked it. I took some photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of them both when the pipe arrived. Overall it looked good. There is some darkening and damage to the inner edge of the bowl. The stem had some deep tooth marks ahead of the button and on the button surface on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is readable and in great condition.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe.I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad with a damp cloth. The bowl is starting to look very good. With the polishing finished I used a Black stain pen to fill in the crevices of the plateau top and give some contrast to the smooth high spots. I like this look as it give the pipe a sense of dimensionality. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and into the plateau rim top and shank end with a horsehair shoe brush 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 photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was very clean so I filled in the tooth marks and built up the button with clear super glue and set it aside to cure. The second photo is blurry but still is clear enough to see the filled in area. Once it had cured I flattened out the repairs and sharpened the edge of the button with a needle file. I sanded out the tooth chatter and blended in the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and started to polish it with a folded piece of 400 wet dry sandpaper. Once it was finished it began to shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This is a beautiful Jobey Dansk Hand Made by Karl Erik with a fancy, turned, black vulcanite stem. It has a great look and feel. The shape fits well in the hand with the curve of the bowl and shank junction a perfect fit for the thumb around the bowl when held. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the plateau on the rim top and shank end multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. 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 rich combination of browns and black in the smooth finishes and the plateau areas took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished vulcanite stem. I like the grain and finished look of this Jobey Dansk pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ wide, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This Danish Freehand is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Making Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

My Final Restoration from Bulgaria – A Find in Athens: Refreshing a Fun Lorenzo Carnevale San Remo Italy 8672 Apple

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Blog by Dal Stanton

A personal note:  After living over 25 years in Europe and the past 14 in Sofia, Bulgaria, this restoration marks my final offering from Bulgaria as my wife and I transition to the US and will be basing in Denver, Colorado.  We will miss Bulgaria deeply and the work we have devoted our lives to.  Yet, after a hiatus for the move, I will continue to collect and restore pipes benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.   

While living in Bulgaria, I’ve had the opportunity on several occasions to visit our neighbor to the south, Greece.  I was in Athens, Greece, a few years ago, and this story unfolded which I repeat here.  I was tooling through the Monastirski Market area at the foot of the Acropolis, next door to the Forum.  As I explored, I found one shop nestled on a tree-covered side street with a table set on the front sidewalk with all kinds of paraphernalia. It drew me like a bee to pollen!  Two congenial men were sitting behind the table conversing in Greek. I assumed they chatted about all manner of life, family, politics…, and what is usually the case, as I drew near, their conversation stopped, and the English began.  As I perused the table with strategic disinterest, I saw one pipe on the table that did not grab me too much.  The shop owner asked me if I was interested in pipes?  I said yes, and he said that he had many more that he didn’t know what to do with…. “Oh, my…” – my heart skipped a beat!  In his wonderfully, friendly, thick Greek accent and manner of hospitality, he said, ‘Come with me.”  As he pulled a chain out of this pocket a full ring of keys followed. He led me down a narrow, alley walkway along the side of the shop.  We stopped and he unlocked a side door that led immediately up the stairs to an ‘upper room’ where, as he explained with a subdued, secretive flourish, he seldom brought customers.  When we entered the room, I saw why.  It was his special place – family pictures were arrayed everywhere; icons of the Greek Orthodox Church were given special deference as they hung from places of honor. Many shelves full of his collections.  He pulled my attention away from the array to a slew of pipes displayed in a case hanging on the wall and arranged beneath on a cluttered table.

I took it all in.  He explained that his good friend, from Armenia, asked him to sell off his collection of pipes and he gave me a price for everything, including the wall-hanging display case.  With gratitude to him for his generous offer, I had to decline as I was flying back to Sofia and would have no room in my luggage for all of it.  I suggested to him that his friend could possibly make more money if he sold the pipes and case separately and he confided that he knew little about pricing pipes individually.  As we talked, I discovered that he was a board member of a foundation that assisted orphaned children Armenia – the home of his friend.  That opened the door for me to share that I too, was a board member of the Daughters of Bulgaria Foundation and I shared with him why I collected pipes – to restore and sell them to benefit the Daughters and their children.  He encouraged me to go through the collection and pull out pipes that interested me and make him an offer.  In Mediterranean culture, very much like Bulgarian culture – relationship is supreme, and we had talked of things near and dear to our hearts.  Pipes became the doorway to a deeper fellowship that we both understood and appreciated.   I left the shop owner with a firm handshake, a parting picture, and an appreciation for him and his journey.

I also left his shop with some special pipes and friendly prices 😊.  The Lorenzo Carnevale Sanremo of Italy (above), now on my worktable, a Savinelli Roley Pocket Pipe (below), and a sorry looking Bent Billiard (center) that appeared to have no name – at least in the dim light of the upper room, I could not see any, but later I discovered it was a Savinelli Oscar.

The Lorenzo Carnevale along with the other pipes, traveled back to Sofia with me and were posted in the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! online collection where Nathan saw it and commissioned it along with 3 other pipes – Comoy’s Sunrise Volcano, Savinelli Dry System 3621 Blasted, and a French Pipstar Standard 06 026 Dublin Sitter.

The ‘fun’ Lorenzo Carnevale is the last of the four pipes commissioned by Nathan benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria.  I call it ‘fun’ because it shows some entertaining attitude!  And here are pictures that got Nathan’s attention. The nomenclature is stamped on the underside of the shank amid the rusticated surface.  It is stamped with a fancy cursive ‘Lorenzo’ [over] CARNEVALE [over] SANREMO with ITALY offset to the right below.  The Lorenzo stem stamp is a classic cursive ‘L’ which appears to be gold lettering.“Carnevale” is the obvious Italian word for ‘carnival’ which sets the tempo for this rusticated Apple shaped pipe with a festive split two-toned slightly bent acrylic stem showing blues and reds. The pipe challenges you to smile!  Its diminutive size is length: 5 1/4 inches, height 1 1/4 inches, bowl width: 1 1/4 inches, chamber width: 7/8 inches, and chamber depth: 1 1/8 inches.

Not as familiar with Lorenzo as I am with other prominent Italian pipe makers, I was interested to read Pipedia’s Lorenzo article:

Following Rossi (1886 in Barasso) and Ceresa (1897 in Cassano Magnano) the third pipe manufacture in the Lombardian province of Varese was established in 1900 in the picturesque city of Gallarate by two brothers. Fratelli Lana (Lana Bros.) produced briar pipes for the Italian market under their own brand name.

In 1922 Fratelli Lana went into a close co-operation with the merchant’s family Tagliabue from Milano. Sales outside of Italy began immediately and the demand throughout Europe steadily increased. By 1939 the manufacture had grown to factory size with 120 persons employed – a considerable number for the time. The program remained unchanged for decades: cheap, unpretentious budget pipes for the mass markets. Most of them didn’t even have any stampings besides “Genuine Bruyere” or similar. A large share of the production emerged as fabrications for other firms so that an own style of the Lana pipes was hardly recognizable.

From 1969 on Lorenzo Tagliabue changed the brand’s name to Lorenzo Pipes. The reason currently qouted is another pipemaking firm named Tagliabue.

This next excerpt I found especially interesting because I had known that Lorenzo pipes tended to be on the ‘edgy’ side of things:

Lorenzo Pipes became cult throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In order to strive another cliche than the gentleman with the stronger statue: the pipesmoking university student of these years, clothed in turtleneck pullover and NATO-parka, can actually not be conceived without a Lorenzo! Well, to be sure he had to select his Lorenzo very carefully from the show-cases in order to find one with less than six blinking fills. Lorenzo dealt very generously with putty. All the same, the pipes smoked very good-natured, they were considered to be hypermodern and flamboyant and, perhaps best of all, they gave you the indispensable highbrow touch!

the Pipedia article describes also that after a family crisis in 1983, Lorenzo Tagliabue lost all interest in the company and it was acquired for a time by Comoy’s of London, but today it is under the ownership of the Aliverti family when in 1988 all rights were purchased to the Lorenzo trademark from the Tagliabue family and production of the renown Lorenzo Pipes resumed.

The nomenclature of the Carnevale mentions a city: Sanremo.  Not sure why a city was mentioned whether it had to do with the history of Lorenzo pipes or some other reason, but I did a quick search on the internet to find out.  It didn’t take long to understand the Carnevale name.  Sanremo is known in Italy for its annual ‘Carnival of Flowers’.    The Wikipedia article was very helpful.  This history of this annual festival in March goes back to 1904.  As a celebration of flowers, the main event is a parade made up primarily of ‘floral carriages’ or floats very reminiscent to me of California’s Rose Parade. (Picture: LINK)

With a better understanding of the pipe now on my worktable, the pipe itself seems to be in good shape.  It needs cleaning.  There is a shelf of cake in the upper chamber but then it seems to widen out going toward the floor.  The aft side of the rim is darkened from lighting the chamber.  The acrylic stem has little chatter but is rough.  Sanding should smooth it out.  Here are few pictures of the issues. I begin the refreshing by giving the pipe a general cleaning.  Starting with the stem, I clean the acrylic stem’s airway using pipe cleaners wetted with isopropyl 95%.  It takes one pipe cleaner to confirm a clean airway.Next, the chamber is cleaned using the Pipnet Reaming Kit.  I use 2 of the 4 blades available.  The cake is light.  I transition to the Savinelli Fitsall Tool to give the chamber walls a quick scraping.  Finally, the chamber is sanded with 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen.  After wiping out the chamber, an inspection confirms no heating problems. To begin the cleaning of the external rusticated surface of the Apple shaped bowl, undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap is used with a cotton pad.  A bristled toothbrush also helps to clean the rusticated surface.  The brass bristled brush helps also to clean the darkened area on the rim. After a time of scrubbing, the stummel is transferred to the kitchen sink to start cleaning the internals. Using the shank brushes and anti-oil liquid dish soap I scrub the internal mortise and airway.  After a thorough rinsing, the stummel is back on the worktable.Next, to continue the internal cleaning, one cotton bud and one pipe cleaner wetted with isopropyl 95% confirm the internals are clean!  Nice for a change.With the rusticated surface, to clean the internal rim edge I use a roll 240 grade paper to address the darker area on the backside of the rim.  That is much better. Next, with the surface cleaned and the rim freshened, I apply Mark Hoover’s product, Before & After Restoration Balm to the rusticated Apple bowl.  I put a little on my fingers and I work it into the briar surface well.  It starts as a cream and then thickens to a wax-like consistency as it’s worked into the briar.  After applying the Balm, I put the stummel aside for 15 or so minutes for the Balm to be absorbed.  The picture shows this period.  Afterwards, I buff the bowl with a microfiber cloth to clear the excess and raise the buffed shine of the stummel.  I like what the Balm does.  The style of the rustication, more of a pitting, does not show a lot of grain but the Balm deepens the entire surface presentation. Turning to the stem, there is little tooth chatter but more of a roughness on the bit where there has been gentle use.I use 240 grade paper to sand out the bit. A flat needle file also refreshes the lines of the button.  The sanding is expanded with 240 paper to the edge of the saddle to address random scratches and to have a uniform treatment of the lower stem. From the 240 sanding paper, I now wet sand with 600 grade paper up to the saddle and then follow with an application of 000 steel wool.Moving now to the full regimen of micromesh pads, I wet sand the entire stem with pads 1500 to 2400.  Following this, I dry sand with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian Oil is applied.  I’m not sure it does anything for the acrylic, but I apply it anyway.  The micromesh process does a great job bringing out the acrylic ‘pop’! Now on the home stretch.  After reuniting the stem and stummel, a cotton cloth buffing wheel is mounted to the Dremel with the speed set at the lowest speed, Blue Diamond compound is applied to the stem only.  I set the Dremel to the lowest speed because I don’t want to risk overheating and having melted the acrylic with too much friction with the abrasive compound.  I keep the wheel rotating and don’t sit on one spot for long. I also don’t apply the compound to the rusticated stummel because I don’t want to fill all the rustication pits with compound dust!  That would not be easy to clean.After the compound, another cotton cloth wheel is mounted on the Dremel with the speed set at 40% full power.  Carnauba wax is then applied to both stem and stummel.  I’m not concerned about the wax on the stummel.  I keep the application light and I’m careful to spread and dissolve the wax into the briar with the buffing action of the Dremel.  After applying the wax, the pipe receives a hearty hand buffing to dispense wax that wasn’t assimilated and to raise the shine.This was an easy but fun restoration.  The Lorenzo Carnevale Sanremo Apple lives up to the Lorenzo reputation of producing pipes that are ‘edgy’.  The saddle tan rusticated Apple bowl is expressive and when tied to the two-toned red and blue acrylic stem, the pipe truly expresses the carnival theme of colors and flowers commemorating the well-known festival in Sanremo, Italy.  This fun pipe was a good conclusion to the 4 pipes Nathan commissioned from the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only offerings.  Nathan has the first opportunity to acquire the Lorenzo Carnavale Sanremo Apple from The Pipe Steward Store benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Thanks for joining me!