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Restoring Barry’s Dad’s Pipes #5 – a French GBD Speciale Canadian

Blog by Steve Laug

I have been including some of the back story in each of the restorations of these pipes because to me the story gives colour to the pipe as I work on it. I am including it once again. Skip over it if you want to. Late in the summer of 2017 I received an email on rebornpipes blog from Barry in Portland, Oregon. He wanted to know if I would be interested in purchasing his Dad’s pipes. I have finished three of them so far, a 1939 Dunhill Patent Shell Bulldog, a Comoy’s Grand Slam Zulu and a Comoy’s London Pride Liverpool. After I finished the second pipe Barry wrote me an email that gave me a little more information on his Dad and incidentally on himself as this pipe was one of his own. Here is what he wrote me.

Steve, — Another great restoration and writing to go with it. I appreciate these pipes more watching the work it takes to get them in good condition.

Your (mine?) floral words about my father are perhaps a little deceptive. Inside that man was a lifelong Bolshevik. Who yearned for the revolution and settled for the party of Roosevelt. His parents were born in the Russian Empire (Ukraine), his father having escaped after brief detention during the 1905 failed uprising and to avoid conscription. His father was gruff, a bit crude and all politics. Given those origins he made the best of himself, had tons of friends and would have been a great social worker.

I misled you on the origin of his pipe conversion. It seems clear based on the 1939 pipe that he smoked a pipe in college, returning to them after the 1964 Surgeon General ‘s report on the danger of cigarettes. After that he only reverted to cigarettes at moments of great stress, a death, business setback or a fight with his wife.

He gave me two pipes in college – the GBD bulldog and a “Parker”. The latter I used to smoke a few times but found I was allergic to it, fortunately. The GBD was to get girls with an MGB, a Harris Tweed sport coat with leather elbow patches and jug wine. Didn’t work. Stanford women were in revolt and saw through the pretense. I put both pipes away for nearly fifty years and now they are in your good hands. — Barry

Barry and I corresponded back and forth and concluded our deal. I became the proud owner of his Dad’s pipes. The inventory of the pipes he would be sending included some real beauties – Comoy’s, Parkers, Dunhills and some no name brands. They were beautiful and I could not wait to see them. I had him send them to Jeff where he would clean them up before I received them. Jeff took some photos of the lot as he opened the box. Each pipe was individually wrapped with bubble wrap and taped to protect them. There were 25 bubble wrapped packages and a lot of pipe accessories included – pipe racks, reamers, scrapers and Comoy’s filters and washers. There were pipe pouches and a wooden cigar box that held all of the accessories and reamers. There was a boxed KleenReem pipe reamer that was virtually unused. Jeff unwrapped the pipes and took pictures of the estate showing both the pipes and the accessories. Barry had labeled each pipe with a sticky note. It was an amazing addition to my pipe and tool collection. The next pipe I chose to work on from the collection was GBD Canadian with a cracked shank. The shank had been repaired with a piece of tape. In the photo above it is the pipe on the bottom of the three GBD pipes. I have no idea once again if this is an original stem. I do not think it is as there is no rondel on the stem top. It was stamped on the top side of the shank vertically near the shank bowl union and reads GBD in an oval over Speciale. On the underside of the shank it reads Paris over France. There is no shape number present on this pipe. I was unfamiliar with the Speciale line and had never seen a GBD stamped in this manner. I looked it up on Pipedia to check out the various GBD Lines and found that it was not listed on the charts that I could access on the web.

This petite Canadian was interesting to me in that it was a GBD line that I had not seen before and because it had some beautiful grain on the bowl and shank. The shank had two cracks on the underside and the cracks met and a small piece of briar was loose. The classic Canadian shape has an oval shank. The finish was dirty and filled with the detritus of years of use followed by sitting unused. The bowl was thickly caked and had an overflow of lava on the rim top. The outer edges of the rim were rough from knocking the pipe against something hard. There was some burning on the top front of the rim. Even through the grime and grit the amazing birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl. The crack in the shank has been glued and taped back together with a piece of black electrical tape. The stem is a short oval shape and fits in the shank very well. It is most likely not the original stem as it does not have a brass rondel on the top side. It could certainly be a well-made replacement stem that his father had paid a great craftsman to make for the pipe as he had for several of his other pipes. It was lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter and deep tooth marks on both sides of the stem at the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. As usual the photos tell the story better than my words can. He took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and the condition. The outer edges of the rim show damage. The top of the rim had some lava build up and had scratches and nicks in the surface. He also took a photo of the underside of the bowl to show the grain. It is a really nice piece of briar and should clean up well. He also photographed the stamping on both sides of the shank to show what it read and the condition of the stamping. The topside of the shank is stamped with the GBD oval over Speciale and on the underside it is stamped Paris over France. Someone had taped the cracked shank and stem together with black electrical tape. Jeff removed the tape and took photos of the shank repair. The stem was made of hard rubber and was oxidized as mentioned above and had tooth chatter and marks. There was also some calcification on the stem surfaces. Jeff took photos of both sides of the stem to capture their condition before he cleaned the pipe.Jeff once again did his usual great job on cleaning this pipe, leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime of the smooth finish on the bowl and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. He soaked the stem in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the light oxidation, rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim top and damaged areas around the outer edge of the bowl. The front edge was rounded over. The bowl was very clean and the rim top had some nicks on both the inner and outer, some scorching and general darkening. Jeff had been able to remove the lava from the finish. The inner edge was in good condition and the roughness of the outer edge was visible. The stem is lightly oxidized as can be seen in the photos and has small tooth marks near the button on both sides.I took some photos of the cracked shank to show the damage. I put the stem back in place to show how the crack opened when the stem was present.I took out the broken chip of briar and glued the edges and pressed in place in the shank. I held it in place until it dried. Once the glue had dried I took a band out of the box that would work on the shank. I pressed it into an oval. I heated it and pressed it onto the shank by pressing it against the desk pad. The photos show the process of banding the shank. I put the stem back in the shank and took photos of the pipe with the stem in place. The band actually looks really good on the pipe and works well with the briar and vulcanite. I took close up photos of the fit of the stem against the band.I started working on the stem next. The photos show the process of the stem work. I used a Bic lighter to “paint” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem to raise the dents in the vulcanite. I was able to raise them quite a bit. I sanded out the tooth chatter and the lighter tooth marks next to the button on both sides with 220 grit sandpaper. I wiped the stem surface clean with a damp cloth. I dried if off and filled in the dents with clear super glue. Once the glue had cured I sanded it with 220 and 400 grit sandpaper to blend the repairs into the surface of the vulcanite. I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. To remove the damage on the rim I decided to top the bowl. I used 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to remove the damage. I worked on it until the top was smooth and the damage on the outer edge of the bowl was minimized. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damages along the outer rim. I used it to also work on the inner edge of the bowl. I gave the inner edge a slight bevel like it original had before I started.I polished the rim with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad to check on the progress. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the briar on the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect it. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed. This GBD Speciale Canadian is a beauty. The grain on the bowl and shank is really stunning. The rim top looks much better. The nickel band works well with the briar and the black vulcanite. I am not sure the stem is original or a replacement but it is definitely older. Once again I would guess that Barry’s Dad replaced the stem somewhere along the journey of its life. I suppose we will never know. The vulcanite is high quality and shined up well. I buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I was careful to not buff the stamping and damage it. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rich brown stain allows the grain to really stand out on this little pipe and it works well with the polished nickel band and the rich black of the vulcanite stem. This GBD Speciale Canadian, Paris, France is a beautiful looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 5/8 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/4 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. This old pipe will fit really well in someone’s collection. The richness of the grain, the band and the polished will stand out as a nice smaller Canadian. There is something about these older GBDs that add a touch of real class to a collection. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring Barry’s Dad’s Pipes #4 – a very old GBD Squat Bulldog R9019

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Blog by Steve Laug

Late in the summer of 2017 I received an email on rebornpipes blog from Barry in Portland, Oregon. He wanted to know if I would be interested in purchasing his Dad’s pipes. I have finished three of them so far, a 1939 Dunhill Patent Shell Bulldog, a Comoy’s Grand Slam Zulu and a Comoy’s London Pride Liverpool. After I finished the second pipe Barry wrote me an email that gave me a little more information on his Dad and incidentally on himself as this pipe was one of his own. Here is what he wrote me.

Steve, — Another great restoration and writing to go with it. I appreciate these pipes more watching the work it takes to get them in good condition.

Barry and I corresponded back and forth and concluded our deal. I became the proud owner of his Dad’s pipes. The inventory of the pipes he would be sending included some real beauties – Comoy’s, Parkers, Dunhills and some no name brands. They were beautiful and I could not wait to see them. I had him send them to Jeff where he would clean them up before I received them. Jeff took some photos of the lot as he opened the box. Each pipe was individually wrapped with bubble wrap and taped to protect them. There were 25 bubble wrapped packages and a lot of pipe accessories included – pipe racks, reamers, scrapers and Comoy’s filters and washers. There were pipe pouches and a wooden cigar box that held all of the accessories and reamers. There was a boxed KleenReem pipe reamer that was virtually unused. Jeff unwrapped the pipes and took pictures of the estate showing both the pipes and the accessories. Barry had labeled each pipe with a sticky note. It was an amazing addition to my pipe and tool collection. The next pipe I chose to work on from the collection was GBD Squat Bulldog, the first of three GBD pipes. This pipe had the original stem and was in good condition. It was stamped on the left side of the shank GBD in an oval. On the right side of the shank it read London over England with shape number R9019. I was unfamiliar with the / shape number designation so I looked it up on a GBD Shape Number Chart and found that it was not listed on the charts that I could access on the web. I would call it a squat Bulldog.

I wrote an email to Al Jones (upshallfan) to see if he could throw any light on the shape number on the pipe. Al loves GBD pipes as much as I do and is compiling a shape chart so I thought he might give some insight on the R shape and potentially on the 9019. Here is what he wrote back.

…The R code pipes are oddballs with shape numbers I’ve never seen duplicated elsewhere. Like my 1937 R9249. It’s clearly the 9242 shape, who knows what the R code means. I’ve never seen R code shapes in any literature, so they may have been one-off’s. They all seem to have silver hallmarked bands. I speculate that perhaps the R shapes were given to special pipes pulled from the production line for silver work. Sadly, that is all lost to time… – Al

It seems that the information on the shape and R code is not to be found at this time so I decided to move ahead with the shank band. It was a Sterling Silver Band with the GBD oval logo over three hallmarks over MR&Cie. I looked up the history of GBD pipes on Pipedia and found this (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD) information.

In 1850 three gentlemen got together in Paris to establish a firm dedicated to the fabrication of Meerschaum pipes – a courageous step in politically restless times. Ganneval probably came from the area of Saint-Claude where he had learned making wooden pipes. Bondier’s family obviously came from Paris and had immigrated in 1789 to Geneva. He himself had worked as a wood turner in the clay and china pipe industry in and around Saint-Claude making stem extensions etc. Donninger was an Austrian or Swiss and had worked in Vienna, the world’s center of the Meerschaum pipe. They agreed on the acronym GBD selecting the initials of their surnames. Bondier survived his partners for nearly 30 years. Their places were taken by others. Hence the property of GBD and therewith the company’s official name changed several times.

Ganneval, Bondier & Donninger

Bondier, Ulrich & Cie.

Bine, Marechal & Cie. and finally

A. Marechal, Ruchon & Cie.

Meanwhile the GBD name was well established and thus retained. August Marechal and Ferdinand Ruchon led the firm into the 20th century. They were in charge of the company for more than 50 years…

GBD became a British company soon after the turn of the century! In 1902 Marechal and Ruchon sold GBD to A. Oppenheimer & Co. in London. Charles Oppenheimer had founded this successful trade business in 1860 as an import-/export house. His brothers David and Adolphe and brother-in-law Louis Adler soon joined him. Adolphe took over when Charles went to Germany as British ambassador. Briar pipes were among the first products traded. The business relation to GBD in Paris began as early as 1870. Being the most important customer in the English speaking world, Oppenheimer & Co. were designated as sole distributor for Great Britain, the USA and Canada in 1897. Especially Adolphe Oppenheimer had a burning interest in the pipe business, and Louis’ son James Adler shared that. He should play the most important role in the amicable merger of GBD. A. Marechal, Ruchon and Cie. in Paris was now Marechal, Ruchon & Co. Ltd. (see Marechal Ruchon & Cie. page) – a British firm with four directors: Adolphe Oppenheimer and James Adler had their seat in the head office in London while Auguste Marechal and Ferdinand Ruchon went on leading the GBD factory in the Rue des Balkan in Paris, which was considerably extended and modernised. Ruchon acted as CEO.

I knew from the above history that the pipe was made before 1902 in that Marechal and Ruchon sold GBD to Oppenheimer & Co. in London at that time (I have marked that part of the text in bold Red above). Now I needed to see if I could narrow down the date on the pipe. Since there was a Sterling Silver Band on the shank I figured that close examination would give me clues in the form of hallmarks in the silver. This particular band had three hallmarks that helped to identify the city of manufacture, the composition of the band and the date of the pipe. From left to right the hallmarks are as follows: the first is an “A”, followed by a prancing Lion, and the final one is what looks like the head of leopard. Here is a closeup photo of the hallmarks.

I did some research on the British Silver Hallmarks website to see if I could pin down a date and information on the meaning of the hallmarks (http://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html). The first thing I learned was that the Lion (the second hallmark) indicated that the band was .925 Sterling Silver (See A in the photo below).The last hallmark is a city mark and in this case is identical to the second leopard’s head in the photo below. That told me that the band was made in London and since it was the crownless leopard’s head I knew that the pipe was made between 1822- and the present.Now I knew that the band identified the pipe as made in London and the band was .925 Sterling Silver. I still needed to identify the date from the first hallmark – the letter “A”. I clicked on the link in the above photo that took me to a chart with the date letters. I have included that here for your use. It appears that the year that the pipe was made was 1876 as the letter “A” looks the most like that particular hallmark. I have put a red box around the date and hallmark in the photo below.So Barry’s Dad had given him this little 1876 Squat Bulldog to take to college with him. That is pretty remarkable. This beautiful little Bulldog has a double ring below the cap. There is a small piece missing between the rings on the front of the bowl. The pipe has a diamond shaped shank. The finish was dirty and filled with the detritus of years of use followed by sitting unused. The bowl was thickly caked and had an overflow of lava on the rounded rim top. Even through the grime and grit you can still see the amazing birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl. The Sterling Silver was oxidized and almost black but the marking was readable. The stem is a diamond shanked saddle with an older style button and slot. It is most likely the original stem but does not have a brass rondel on the side. (Although it could also certainly be a well-made replacement stem that his father had paid a great craftsman to make for the pipe as he had for several of the Comoy’s pipes.) It was lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem at the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. The photos tell the story better than my words can. He took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and the condition. He also took photos to show the grain on the side, front and underside of the bowl. There was a fairly large piece of briar missing on the ring between the two bands toward the front of the bowl (seen in the second photo below). The third photo shows some road rash on the cap at the front of the bowl above the missing piece of briar. I would need to make a decision about how far to go in restoring this one. Did I remove the marks on the rim cap? Did I repair the chip out of the spacer between the two rings? That would need to be decided. He also photographed the stamping on both sides of the shank to show what it read and the condition of the stamping. The left side of the shank is stamped with the GBD oval and on the silver band the same oval is over the three hallmarks as spoken of above and underneath that is stamped MR&Cie. On the right side it is stamped London over England with the shape number R9019. The stem was made of hard rubber and was oxidized as mentioned above and had tooth chatter and marks. Jeff took photos of both sides of the stem to capture their condition before he cleaned the pipe.Jeff once again did his usual great job on cleaning this pipe, leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime of the smooth finish on the bowl and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. He soaked the stem in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the light oxidation, rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim top and damaged area on the front as well as both sides of the stem to show their condition. The bowl was very clean and the rim top had some nicks on both the inner and outer, some scorching and general darkening. He had been able to remove the lava from the finish. The inner edge was in excellent condition and the roughness of the outer edge was visible. I also took a photo of the damaged area between the double rings toward the front right side of the bowl. The stem is lightly oxidized as can be seen in the photos and has small tooth marks near the button on both sides. I started with the stem on this one. I sanded out the tooth chatter and the tooth marks next to the button on both sides and the repair on the top of the button with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I worked on the damaged rim top, edges, bevel and the small marks and nicks on it 200 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage and blend it with the rest of the rim. The rounded edges of the rim cap needed to be cleaned up. I polished the rim with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad to check on the progress. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the briar on the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect it. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed. This is one of the oldest GBD pipes that I have worked on. I am not sure the stem is original or a replacement but it is definitely older. I wonder if Barry’s Dad did not have a replace done for this old pipe the same time he did for the 1939 Dunhill Patent Shell. I suppose we will never know. The vulcanite is high quality and shined up well. I decided to leave the small nicks and the damage to the ring as it tells the story of this old timer. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and the stem to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I was careful to not buff the stamping and damage it. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rich brown stain allows the grain to really stand out on this little pipe and it works well with the rich black of the polished vulcanite stem. This GBD Squat Bulldog is a beautiful looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 3/4 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. This 1876 GBD is one that fits well in my collection of older pipes. There is something about these older GBDs that add a touch of real class. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring another of Barry’s Dad’s Pipes – a Comoy’s London Pride Extraordinaire 127/2

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Blog by Steve Laug

I could not remember where the London Pride fit in the ranks of Comoy’s pipe lines. I Googled the line and found a pipe on rebornpipes that I had previously worked on. In the blog I had written that Comoy’s had introduced the London Pride as the second grade to the Blue Riband around the same time to meet the American demand for a lighter finish. It was priced in 1943 at $25 and in 1965 at $25, then in 1979 at $95. It was described as having a natural amber coloring and tending to be Birdseye/Cross-Grained pattern pipes. At the time this pipe was made it was the next-to-top-of-the-line. The original stem had a three-piece “C” logo as did the one that I was working on.

I also wanted to have some idea of the date on this old pipe so I did a bit of digging on Pipedia. I found a helpful dating guide there. I found that the Comoy’s London Pride stamp on the shank dated it to the 1950s. At that time there were four variants to the stamping.

A simple block-letter style without serifs but with the C larger than the other letters and the apostrophe before the “S”.
A return to the slightly more fancy block letters with serifs and the apostrophe. (It seems that some grades carried different stamps, or at least that the stamping changed in different years for some grades.)
A simple block-letter style without serifs and without the apostrophe and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters. This stamp was probably not used very long.
A simple block-letter style without serifs but with the apostrophe before the “S” and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters.

Variant number 1 fits the style of stamping on this pipe. It is stamped with capital letters, block style without serifs and having an apostrophe between the Y and the S of Comoy’s. The C of Comoy’s was larger than the other letters. That helped me identify the pipe as coming from the 1950s.
The COM stamp (Country of Manufacture) is like the one in the picture to the left. The picture shows exactly what is stamped on the shank of this pipe. It is stamped in a circle with “MADE” at the top, “IN” in the middle, and “LONDON” at the bottom, with “ENGLAND” in a straight line beneath. According to the Pipedia article it can be assumed that this stamp was first used in the export drive in the early 1950s. Here is the link to the article: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide

Here are some links that I have used in identifying and dating this pipe. https://rebornpipes.com/2014/01/06/refinishing-and-reworking-the-rim-on-a-comoys-london-pride/; https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_History_Of_Comoy%27s_and_A_Guide_Toward_Dating_the_Pipes;http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-comoy.html

The finish on the pipe was dirty and filled with the detritus of years of use followed by sitting unused. The bowl was thickly caked and had an overflow of lava on the rim top. Even through the grime and grit you can still see the amazing birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl and the top and underside of the shank. The stem was well made and fit the shank perfectly. It was lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem at the button. The surface edges of the button also had tooth marks that were present. The stem also bore the original Comoy’s three part “C” logo on the stem. The stem also had some calcification around the button as well that made me think that perhaps the stem had once sported a softee bit. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. The photos tell the story better than my words can. He took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and the condition. He also took photos to show the grain on the side, front and underside of the bowl. There was a fairly large nick in the side of the bowl shown in the last photo. He also photographed the stamping on both sides of the shank to show what it read and the condition of the stamping. The left side is stamped Comoy’s over London Pride over Extraordinaire. The Extraordinaire stamp was used on large pipes. On the right side it is stamped with the Comoy’s Com stamp Made in London in a circle over England. Next to that is the shape number 127/2. The original stem has the three part Comoy’s C insert on the left side. The stem was oxidized as mentioned above and had tooth chatter and marks. Jeff took photos of both sides of the stem to capture their condition before he cleaned the pipe.Jeff did his usual great job on cleaning this pipe, leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime of the smooth finish on the bowl and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top as well as both sides of the stem to show their condition. The bowl was very clean and the rim top looked good other thank some light nicks and darkening. He had been able to remove the lava from the finish. The inner edge was in excellent condition and the roughness of the outer edge in the early pictures above actually blended into the sandblast finish of the bowl. The stem is lightly oxidized as can be seen in the photos and has small tooth marks near the button on both sides and on top and the bottom of the button.I removed the stem and was surprised by the unique tenon with almost a nipple on the end of it. It is an integral part of the tenon. The inside airway on the tenon and stem have an inner tube that is inset in the stem and tenon to give strength to both.I started with the stem on this one. The next series of photos show the restoration process on the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a Bic lighter and was able raise most of them even with the surface of the stem. I used some clear super glue to fill in the tooth marks on the top and underside of the button surface and on the stem just ahead of the button that did not rise with the heat. Once the glue dried I sanded out the tooth chatter and the tooth marks next to the button on both sides and the repair on the top of the button with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I worked on the darkened rim, inner edge bevel and the small marks and nicks on it with micromesh sanding pads. I lightly sanded it first with 220 grit sandpaper and followed it up with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad to check on the progress. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the briar on the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect it. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I was careful to not buff the stamping and damage it. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rich brown stain allows the grain to really stand out on this little pipe and it works well with the rich black of the polished vulcanite stem. This Comoy’s London Pride Liverpool is a beautiful looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/2 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. This 1950s era Comoy’s is another one that will fit well in any pipeman’s collection and add a touch of real class. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Farida’s Dad’s Pipes #4 – Restoring a Dunhill Red Bark Pot 43061

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next collection of pipes that I am working on comes from the estate of an elderly gentleman here in Vancouver. I met with his daughter Farida last summer and we looked at his pipes and talked about them then. Over the Christmas holiday she brought them by for me to work on, restore and then sell for her. There are 10 pipes in all – 7 Dunhills (one of them, a Shell Bulldog, has a burned out bowl), 2 Charatans, and a Savinelli Autograph. His pipes are worn and dirty and for some folks they have a lot of damage and wear that reduce their value. To me each one tells a story. I only wish they could speak and talk about the travels they have had with Farida’s Dad.

When I wrote the blog on the Classic Series Dunhill and thinking about its travels, Farida sent me an email with a short write up on her Dad. She remembered that I had asked her for it so that I could have a sense of the stories of her Dad’s pipes. Here is what she wrote: My dad, John Barber, loved his pipes. He was a huge fan of Dunhill and his favourite smoke was St. Bruno. No one ever complained of the smell of St. Bruno, we all loved it. I see the bowls and they’re large because he had big hands. When he was finished with his couple of puffs, he would grasp the bowl in the palm of his hand, holding the warmth as the embers faded. The rough bowled pipes were for daytime and especially if he was fixing something. The smooth bowled pipes were for an evening with a glass of brandy and a good movie. In his 20s, he was an adventurer travelling the world on ships as their radio operator. He spent a year in the Antarctic, a year in the Arctic and stopped in most ports in all the other continents. He immigrated to Canada in the mid-fifties, working on the BC Ferries earning money to pay for his education. He graduated from UBC as an engineer and spent the rest of his working life as a consultant, mostly to the mining companies. Whatever he was doing though, his pipe was always close by.

She sent along this photo of him with his sled dogs in the Antarctic sometime in 1953-1954. It is a fascinating photo showing him with a pipe in his mouth. He is happily rough housing with his dogs. As a true pipeman the cold does not seem to bother him at all.Thank you Farida for sending the photo and the background story on your Dad for me to use on the blog. I find that it really explains a lot about their condition and gives me a sense of who Dad was. If your Dad was rarely without a pipe I can certainly tell which pipes were his favourites. As I looked over the pipes I noted that each of them had extensive rim damage and some had deeply burned gouges in the rim tops. The bowls seemed to have been reamed not too long ago because they did not show the amount of cake I would have expected. The stems were all covered with deep tooth marks and chatter and were oxidized and dirty. The internals of the mortise, the airway in the shank and stem were filled with tars and oils. These were nice looking pipes when her Dad bought them and they would be nice looking one more when I finished.

I finished two of the pipes and have written a blog on each of them. The first one was the Dunhill Shell with the oval shank pot (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/02/04/restoring-a-1983-dunhill-shell-41009-oval-shank-pot/) and the second was the Dunhill Classic Series Shell Billiard (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/02/08/faridas-dads-pipes-2-restoring-a-1990-lbs-classic-series-dunhill-shell-billiard/). The third pipe I restored from the estate was a Savinelli Autograph (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/02/15/faridas-dads-pipes-3-restoring-a-savinelli-autograph-4/).

I went back to the Dunhills today so I chose to work on a Dunhill Red Bark 43061 pot. It was so dirty it was hard to tell what it looked like under the thick grime. The blast itself was almost filled in with thick, oily grime. I wiped the grime off the underside of the shank to be able to read the stamping. It was worn but readable. On the bottom of the bowl is the 43061 shape number. Next to that it is stamped Dunhill Red Bark over Made in England ¹⁷. Dating this pipe is a fairly easy proposition. You take the two digits following the D in England and add them to 1960. In this case it is 1960+17= 1977. (Pipephil’s site has a helpful dating tool for Dunhill pipes that I use regularly http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/redbark1.html). The bowl was thickly caked and the cake had flowed over onto the light sandblast finish on the rim top forming a hard lava that made the top almost smooth. The inner and outer edges of the rim were damaged. On the front of the bowl the rim had been scraped and damaged and then burned. On the back edge there was the same kind of damage that was on the other Dunhill pipes in this estate. This one however was not quite as deep so it would need to be dealt with a bit differently when I got to that point. The stem was oxidized and calcified at the button end. There were tooth marks and chatter on both sides in front of the button. The Dunhill white spot was intact on the top of the stem. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started the cleanup work. I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem. You can see the condition of the rim top and bowl in the first photo. The stem has tooth chatter and some deep bite marks on the top edge of the button and a deep tooth mark on the underside of the stem just ahead of the button. There is a lot of calcification and wear on the rest of the stem as well.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and I had to use three of the four cutting heads to clean out the cake. The bowl thickly caked so I started with the smallest of the three and worked my way up to the third which was about the same size as the bowl diameter. I took back the cake to bare briar. I took a photo of the cleaned bowl. I scrubbed the surface of the sandblast with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean out all of the dust. I worked on the top of the rim with a brass bristle wire brush and a brass bristle polishing brush to remove the lava on the rim. I scrubbed the stem with the tooth brush as well to remove the calcification and grime. I rinsed the pipe under warm running water to remove the dirt, grime and soap. I dried off the bowl with a soft rag. The cleaned and scrubbed pipe really made the rim top damage very clear. It looked to me that I would need to top the bowl. I cleaned up the reaming of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to remove the remaining cake that was on the walls around the airway and the lower part of the bowl.I topped the bowl to remove the damage to the top surface of the rim and clean up the damage to the edges. I did not have to remove a lot and repeatedly checked it to make sure that I had removed enough but not too much.I used a series of dental burrs on the Dremel to etch a pattern into the top of the rim to blend it into the sandblast around the bowl sides. It was not a deep sandblast so the pattern on the rim needed to be random looking and not deep. I wanted it to blend in the damaged area on the back side of the rim. The photo below shows the rusticated rim top and the three burrs that I used to create it.I restained the bowl and rim with a Mahogany stain pen. I wanted to match the colour of the Red Bark shown in the photo below. After I stained the pipe with the Mahogany and I used a red oil based stain. I rubbed it onto the finish and buffed it off with a soft cloth. I rubbed down the briar with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish to clean, enliven and protect the new finish. It also evened out the stain coat and gave the stain a dimensional feel. I let the balm sit for a little wall and then buffed it with a horsehair shoe brush. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Once again I have gotten so used to Jeff cleaning the pipes before I got them I just I realized that I had not worked on the internals of the pipe. I looked down the shank and it was filthy as was to be expected. Arghhh. Went back to clean out the shank and airway in the stem and shank. I scraped the hardened tars on the walls of the mortise with a pen knife. I cleaned the mortise and the airway in the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until it was clean. I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth dents in the underside of the stem. It took a few swaths of the lighter and the dents lifted. There was only one small pin prick left next to the button that would need to be repaired. I repaired the remaining deep tooth marks on both sides of the stem with black super glue. Once it dried I sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repaired tooth marks and chatter and removing the remnants of calcification and oxidation on the stem until the oxidation was removed.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish, using both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes to further protect and polish out the scratches. When I finished with those I gave it a final rub down with the oil and set it aside to dry. With the stem polished I put it back on the pipe and lightly buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond. I buffed the stem with a more aggressive buff of Blue Diamond. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is the fourth of Farida’s Dad’s pipes that I am restoring from his collection. I am looking forward to hearing what Farida thinks once she sees the finished pipe on the blog. I will be posting it on the rebornpipes store very soon. It should make a nice addition to your pipe rack if you have been looking for a reasonably priced Dunhill. When you add it to your collection you carry on the trust from her father. The dimensions are Length: 5 3/4 inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/2 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this estate Autograph. More of his pipes will follow including some Charatans and more Dunhills.

Restoring a Smooth House of Robertson Zulu

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff found an assortment of House of Robertson pipes at an auction in Wilder, Idaho which is an area in the greater Boise, Idaho area. He picked them up for us to restore. I had forgotten that I had mentioned the brand in passing in a blog on Leonard’s Pipe Shop in Portland, Oregon. Here is the link to that blog where I mention it as one of the brands that Leonard’s sold: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/06/06/leonards-pipe-shop-portland-oregon/. It is a fascinating brand that really I had never had the privilege of seeing first hand. He cleaned them all up and on a recent trip to Idaho, I picked them up and brought them back to Canada. I took pictures of the lot of them to show the wide variety of pipes that they made in terms of both size and style. The craftsmanship is very good with the fit of the stem and shank well done and the finish both rusticated and smooth exemplary. Jeff picked up three more of the brand in Pocatello, Idaho so I will be working on more of these pipes in the future. They all have the name House of Robertson roughly hand etched on the side or underside of the shank with an engraving tool.I have posted this information on the brand on the previous House of Robertson pipes that I have worked on but I thought I would add it on this blog as well. There is very little information available and what I found on Pipedia pretty well summarizes all I could find. I include that here.

“House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson.

The fourth of the five pipes in this lot that I chose to work on was a smooth Zulu or Yachtsman shaped pipe. It is the pipe on the lower right in all of the above photos. It still has raw briar in the bottom third of the bowl and appears to never have been smoked to the bottom of the bowl. It is engraved with the House of Robertson signature on a smooth panel on the left side of the oval shank. The smooth finish on the pipe was dirty but showed some real promise through the grime. There was a light coat of lava that had overflowed from the cake in the bowl over the top of the rim. The cake was quite thick and was hard. Overall the pipe was in excellent condition and had some interesting grain around the bowl. The bottom of the bowl and shank has a flat panel that allows the bowl to sit upright on the desk or table. The stem was lightly oxidized but clean. The oxidation had caused some pitting on the surface. The fit of the stem to the shank was good. The vulcanite appeared to have been a pre-formed stem that was shaped to fit this pipe. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started the cleanup. The next close-up photos show the finish on the top and the underside of the bowl. The first photo shows the lava on the rim top and the cake in the bowl. The grain on the top of the bowl and the inner and outer edge of the rim looks really good. The next three photos show the sides and underside of the pipe. The next photo shows the etched name on the left side of shank on the oval side of the shank. It reads House of Robertson. The tapered stem was oxidized and pitted from the oxidation. It was otherwise very clean and unsmoked. Jeff once again performed his usual stellar clean up job on the pipe leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime of the smooth finish on the bowl and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of the pipe. The bowl was quite clean in the bottom third of the bowl – the briar was not darkened but was still raw briar. The rim itself was very clean with none of the dark lava and very little darkening along the edges. The inner and outer edge of the rim was very clean. The photos of the stem show that it was clean but oxidized on both sides and pitted in the surface of the vulcanite.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers, worked it into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a horsehair shoe brush to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The birdseye grain stands out on the two sides and the cross grain stands out on the rim top, the front and back of the bowl and the top and underside of the shank. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation on both sides of the tapered stem.I polished out the sanding scratches and marks in the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I brought it back to the table and sanded it with the final three 6000-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish –using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the shine on the briar and on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stain on the smooth finish of the Zulu shaped bowl works well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The polishing of the stem left this a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 3/8 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store shortly if you want to add it to your collection. Why not take this opportunity to add a House of Robertson pipe to your rack. Thanks for looking.

Restoring another of Barry’s Dad’s Pipes – a Comoy’s Grand Slam Pipe 202

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Blog by Steve Laug

Late in the summer of 2017 I received an email on rebornpipes blog from Barry in Portland, Oregon. He wanted to know if I would be interested in purchasing his father’s pipes. He wrote that his Dad was a gracious, dignified and dedicated father, businessman and community leader for many years in Fresno, California where he was raised. He acquired his pipes when he gave up smoking cigarettes in the 1960s. There wasn’t an ounce of pretense in the man and he smoked his pipes for pleasure and as a pass-time while reading, enjoying company or watching sports on TV. Barry and I corresponded back and forth and concluded our deal. I became the proud owner of his Dad’s pipes. The inventory of the pipes he would be sending included some real beauties – Comoy’s, Parkers, Dunhills and some no name brands. They were beautiful and I could not wait to see them. I had him send them to Jeff where he would clean them up before I received them. Jeff took some photos of the lot as he opened the box. Each pipe was individually wrapped with bubble wrap and taped to protect them. There were 25 bubble wrapped packages and a lot of pipe accessories included – pipe racks, reamers, scrapers and Comoy’s filters and washers. There were pipe pouches and a wooden cigar box that held all of the accessories and reamers. There was a boxed KleenReem pipe reamer that was virtually unused. Jeff unwrapped the pipes and took pictures of the estate showing both the pipes and the accessories. Barry had labeled each pipe with a sticky note. It was an amazing addition to my pipe and tool collection. The next pipe I chose to work on from the collection was a Comoy’s Grand Slam Pipe, one of four Comoy’s pipes. It was also was missing the original stem but the shape of the bowl and shank were elegant. The shape was a classic Yachtsman or Zulu. The bottom of the shank was flattened and the pipe could stand on the desktop. The finish was dirty and filled with the detritus of years of use followed by sitting unused. The bowl was thickly caked and had an overflow of lava on the rim top. Even through the grime and grit you can still see the amazing birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl and the top and underside of the shank. Once more the presence of the replacement stem told me that the pipe had been a favourite and that the original stem had been either gnawed or broken and replaced. The new stem was well made and fit the shank perfectly. The pipe repairman had done a great job on the stem. I also had some use and was lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem at the button. The surface edges of the button also had tooth marks that were present. This stem also had some calcification around the button as well that made me think that perhaps the stem had once sported a softee bit. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. The photos tell the story better than my words can. He took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and their condition. He also took photos to show the grain on the side, front and underside of the bowl. He also photographed the stamping on both sides of the shank to show what it read and the condition of the stamping. The left side is stamped Comoy’s over Grand Slam over Pipe. On the right side it is stamped with the Comoy’s Com stamp Made in London in a circle over England. Next to that is the shape number 202. There is no patent number on the shank and the markings of the leather washer size *5 on the underside of the shank at the shank/stem union. The replacement stem was oxidized as mentioned above and had tooth chatter and marks. Jeff took photos of both sides of the stem to capture their condition before he cleaned the pipe.I wanted to learn a bit more about the Grand Slam line. The pipe had originally come with a special stinger/filter apparatus screwed into the tenon. I found the following photos and info on the pipephil website. I include both the link and the following photos for your information. http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/comoy1.html The next photo shows the original metal filter system that was made to force “the air stream through a go-between space before entering the stem and the smokers mouth.” The stem that I have does not have the threaded tenon and thus cannot hold the apparatus. The photos below show the stem and the diagram of the system.I also wanted to have some idea of the date on this old pipe so I did a bit of digging on Pipedia. I found a helpful dating guide there. I found that the Comoy’s Grand Slam stamp on the shank dated it to the 1950s. At that time there were four variants to the stamping.

A simple block-letter style without serifs but with the C larger than the other letters and the apostrophe before the “S”.
A return to the slightly more fancy block letters with serifs and the apostrophe. (It seems that some grades carried different stamps, or at least that the stamping changed in different years for some grades.)
A simple block-letter style without serifs and without the apostrophe and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters. This stamp was probably not used very long.
A simple block-letter style without serifs but with the apostrophe before the “S” and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters.

Variant number 4 fits the style of stamping on this pipe. It is stamped with capital letters, block style without serifs and having an apostrophe between the Y and the S of Comoy’s. That helped me identify the pipe as coming from the 1950s.

The COM stamp (Country of Manufacture) is like the one in the picture to the left. The picture shows exactly what is stamped on the shank of this pipe. It is stamped in a circle with “MADE” at the top, “IN” in the middle, and “LONDON” at the bottom, with “ENGLAND” in a straight line beneath. According to the Pipedia article it can be assumed that this stamp was first used in the export drive in the early 1950s. Here is the link to the article: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide

Jeff did his usual stellar clean up job on the pipe leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime of the smooth finish on the bowl and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top as well as both sides of the stem to show their condition. The bowl was very clean and the rim top looked good other thank some light nicks and darkening. He had been able to remove the lava from the finish. The inner edge was in excellent condition and there was some slight roughness on the outer edge. The stem is lightly oxidized as can be seen in the photos and has small tooth marks near the button on both sides.I started with the stem on this one. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a Bic lighter and was able raise most of them even with the surface of the stem. I used some clear super glue to fill in the tooth mark on the top of the button that did not rise with the heat. Once the glue dried I sanded out the tooth chatter and the tooth marks next to the button on both sides and the repair on the top of the button with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I worked on the darkened rim and the small marks and nicks on it with micromesh sanding pads. I lightly sanded it first with 220 grit sandpaper and followed it up with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad to check on the progress. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the briar on the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect it. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I was careful to not buff the stamping and damage it. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rich brown stain allows the grain to really stand out on this little pipe and it works well with the rich black of the polished vulcanite stem. This Comoy’s Grand Slam is a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/8 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. This 1950s era Comoy’s is one that will fit well in any pipeman’s collection and add a touch of real class. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring Barry’s Dad’s Patent Era Dunhill Shell Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

Late in the summer of 2017 I received an email on rebornpipes blog from Barry in Portland, Oregon. He wanted to know if I would be interested in purchasing his father’s pipes. He wrote that his Dad was a gracious, dignified and dedicated father, businessman and community leader for many years in Fresno, California where he was raised. He acquired his pipes when he gave up smoking cigarettes in the 1960s. There wasn’t an ounce of pretense in the man and he smoked his pipes for pleasure and as a pass-time while reading, enjoying company or watching sports on TV. Barry and I corresponded back and forth and concluded our deal. I became the proud owner of his Dad’s pipes. The inventory of the pipes he would be sending included some real beauties – Comoy’s, Parkers, Dunhills and some no name brands. They were beautiful and I could not wait to see them. I had him send them to Jeff where he would clean them up before I received them. Jeff took some photos of the lot as he opened the box. Each pipe was individually wrapped with bubble wrap and taped to protect them. There were 25 bubble wrapped packages and a lot of pipe accessories included – pipe racks, reamers, scrapers and Comoy’s filters and washers. There were pipe pouches and a wooden cigar box that held all of the accessories and reamers. There was a boxed KleenReem pipe reamer that was virtually unused. Jeff unwrapped the pipes and took pictures of the estate showing both the pipes and the accessories. Barry had labeled each pipe with a sticky note. It was an amazing addition to my pipe and tool collection. The first pipe I chose to work on from the collection was a small Dunhill Shell Patent Straight Bulldog. It was missing the original stem but the sandblast on the bowl and shank was deep and tactile. The shape was a classic straight Bulldog that was elegant and graceful. The bottom of the shank had been flattened making it a sitter. The sandblast was dirty and filled with the detritus of years of use followed by sitting. The bowl was thickly caked and had an overflow of lava on the rim top. Even through the grime and grit you can see that this was a beautiful pipe. The replacement stem told me that the pipe had been a favourite and that the original stem had been either gnawed or broken and replaced. The new stem had some use and was both oxidized and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem at the button. The surface edges of the button also had tooth marks that were present. There as some calcification around the button as well that made me think that perhaps the stem had once sported a softee bit. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. The photos tell the story better than my words can. He took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and their condition. He also photographed the stamping on the underside of the shank to show what it read and the condition of the stamping. The first one shows the words Dunhill Shell and next to that Made in England. Under that it reads Patent No. 417574¹⁹. I would need to look that up to date the pipe but the patent number told me that it was made prior to 1954 which was the last year the patent number was stamped on the shank. The second photo shows the shape number of the pipe and the size – 48/4. The shape number 48 designates a straight shank Bulldog with a diamond shank. The /4 is the group size of the pipe which to my mind is strange as the pipe is small. (https://rebornpipes.com/2012/11/01/dunhill-pipe-shapes-collated-by-eric-w-boehm/)The replacement stem was oxidized as mentioned above and had tooth chatter and marks. Jeff took photos of both sides of the stem to capture their condition before he cleaned the pipe. Jeff did his usual stellar clean up job on the pipe leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the dust in the sandblast on the bowl and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top as well as both sides of the stem to show their condition. The bowl was very clean and the rim top looked good. He had been able to remove the lava from the finish. The inner edge was in excellent condition and the roughness of the outer edge in the early pictures above actually blended into the sandblast finish of the bowl. The stem is lightly oxidized as can be seen in the photos and has small tooth marks near the button on both sides.Before I did and restoration work on the bowl or stem I decided to pin down the date a bit more. I knew that it was pre-1954 but I wanted to narrow that down more. One of the beauties of Dunhill pipes is that the stamping can give you a precise date of manufacture. In this case I wanted to work on the stamping Dunhill Shell Made in England over Patent No. 417574¹⁹. I looked up the brand on the Pipephil website as he has very helpful photos and information in dating and interpreting the stamping on Dunhill pipes. On one of the supplemental pages associated with Dunhill pipes he has a page on the Patent era pipes. I find that this page is particularly helpful when I am trying to properly identify a pipe. Here is the link to the page: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/patent2.html#shell417574.

I looked under the section on Patent Shell pipes as that is what I had in hand. I found a photo of a pipe from 1937 that was stamped in the same manner as the one that I was working on. I took a screen capture of the photo and the information. The shape number 60/3 is in the same style and location as the 48/4 on my Dunhill. The Patent Number is identical to the number on my Dunhill. The suffix though in the same location and stamped in the same manner is different from mine. This one is the suffix ¹⁷ while mine is the suffix ¹⁹. The helpful part in the photo is the formula for determining the date from the suffix shown in the photo. In essence you add the date of the first patent 1920 to the suffix number and you arrive at the date. In my case Patent No. 417574(without “…/34) + suffix ¹⁹ = 1920+19 makes this a 1939 pipe. The next photo includes both the screen capture and the underside of the shank of the Bulldog I am working on.I started with the stem on this one. I sanded out the tooth chatter and the tooth marks next to the button on both sides with 220 grit sandpaper.I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The deep grooves in the sandblast and the rugged look gave the pipe a very gnarly feel in the hand. The mix of black and dark brown stain worked well with the sandblast finish. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in nooks and crannies of the sandblast. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The black and brown stains on the sandblast Dunhill Shell works well with the rich black of the polished vulcanite stem. This little Patent Shell is a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 5/8 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/8 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 5/8 inches. This 1939 Dunhill is one that I am going to put in my own rack while I look for an original stem. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring a Large Rusticated House of Robertson Panel Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

After my brother Jeff found an assortment of House of Robertson pipes at an auction in Wilder, Idaho which is an area in the greater Boise, Idaho area. He kept an eye out for more of the brand on his weekly pipe hunts. He found several others that are quite unique in an antique mall near where he lives. There were two large long shanked pipes – one round shanked and one square shanked. The third of the batch that he finds is a nice little classic apple shape. It looks tiny with the size of the other two. The two larger pipes are a combination of smooth and rusticated. They both have smooth panels on the sides or front of the pipes. Both of the large ones are banded with a sterling silver band. It seems to me that the bands on both the square shank and the round shank are decorative rather than a repair for a cracked shank. I finished the restoration of the square shanked sitter, the bottom pipe in the above photos and did the blog write up on it (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/02/28/restoring-a-rusticated-house-of-robertson-war-club/). It is soon on its way to a fellow who was a regular of the House of Robertson Pipe Shop in Boise, Idaho. He is excited to be adding it to his collection. Each of these pipes has the name House of Robertson roughly hand-etched on the side or underside of the shank with an engraving tool. I am also including the information that I found when I received my first of the House of Robertson Pipes. “House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson

The second pipe, the next House of Robertson pipe I chose to work on is a large rusticated billiard with smooth panels on the sides and front of the bowl and a hexagonal shaped bowl. It is another very different pipe than the others pipes from this Boise based store. It is large and similar to the previous larger pipe in this threesome – 7 long with a bowl that is 2 1/8 inches tall. It is engraved with the House of Robertson signature on the smooth portion of the shank on the left side just ahead of the band. There is a smooth panel on the right, left and front sides of the bowl. The rim top was rusticated. The pipe was dirty but underneath all of the grime it appears to be in excellent condition. The rustication on the bowl and shank was nicely done and was made to look like a sandblast finish. The bottom of the bowl and shank also appeared to be sandblasted. It is definitely an interesting pipe and should clean up very well. The band on the shank is decorative as the shank is undamaged. It has the look of a repurposed band from an older pipe. There are some worn hallmarks on the oxidized Sterling Silver band. The fit of the stem to the shank was good. The stem was oxidized and had some small tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started the cleanup. The next close-up photos show the finish on the top and the sides of the bowl. The first photo shows cake in the bowl and the lava overflowing onto the rim top. The inner and outer edge of the rim looks really good. The finish on the rim top was appeared to be in great condition but the lava coat as pretty thick. The next two photos show sides of the pipe. It was a different rustication from any of the other Robertsons that I have done and it was interesting. The next photo shows the etched name on the left side of shank on a smooth panel of briar. It reads House of Robertson. The second photo shows the stamping on the band. You can also see the general condition of the grime in the rustication of the briar.The tapered stem was oxidized and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem near the button. The edge of the button had some dents in it as well.This unique pipe was really dirty with a thick cake, overflow of lava on top the rim and dust and debris in the heavy rustication on the sides of the bowl. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the dust in the rustication on the bowl and shank as well as the smooth portions. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish was dull but appeared to be in excellent condition. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition it was in once it was cleaned off. It has an interesting rustication on the rim top – it has the look of almost a faux plateau. Normally I would include photos of the stem at this point as well to show its condition. Sadly while I was chatting with my brother on Facetime I dropped the pipe on the floor next to my worktable and the stem snapped off leaving the tenon in the shank… Arghhh I hate that. It is not enough to have to clean up and restore an old timer now I have to replace the tenon on the stem and get the fit in the shank correct… oh well these things happen. I am attaching photos of the stem after the “accident” to show what it looked like.Normally my habit at this point in the restoration is to work on the bowl. However, with the broken tenon I decided to address that first before even touching the bowl. I used a long drywall screw to pull the broken tenon out of the shank. I screw it into the airway on the broken tenon and wiggle it out of the shank.I have a small container of threaded replacement tenons that I have on hand for just this kind of “accident”. I went through the tenons and found one that was the same size as broken one. I flattened the broken edges remaining on the stem end with a Dremel and sanding drum to make the face smooth. I started drilling it with a bit slightly larger than the airway to begin to open it up to receive the threaded tenon end. I worked my way up to a bit the same size as the tenon end. The critical part when you are doing this by hand is to keep everything straight or you can end up with a crooked tenon. I finished the drilling and cleaned up the opening in the stem with a needle file to ensure that everything was smooth. Once it was clean and ready I checked out the fit of the tenon and then glued it in place in the stem. The photos show the process. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the nooks and crannies of the rusticated finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the smooth panels on the sides of the bowl stands out, while the grooves of the rustication look almost undulating. It is another unique and strangely beautiful House of Robertson pipe. Once the glue on the tenon was set I put the stem in the shank and took the following photos to show the fit of the repaired stem to the shank. Finally, after the “accidental” extra steps I am back to where I was when the pipe arrived. It is ready to be cleaned up and restored. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation on both sides of the tapered stem and remove the tooth marks and chatter on the top and bottom sides at the button.I polished out the sanding scratches and marks in the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I brought it back to the table and sanded it with the final three 6000-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish –using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The medium brown and dark brown stains on the rusticated billiard shaped bowl with a smooth panels and bands works well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The polishing of the stem material left this a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 1/8 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/2 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. I will be putting this pipe on the rebornpipes store shortly. It is another big pipe and will make a great addition to someone’s collection. If you are interested in adding this unique pipe let me know. Thanks for looking.

Kathy’s Dad’s Pipes #9– Restemming & Restoring George Koch’s “Malaga” Banker

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the ninth of the “Malaga” pipes that I am working on from Kathy’s Dad’s pipes. I will retell the story of the estate. Last fall I received a contact email on rebornpipes from Kathy asking if I would be interested in purchasing her late Father, George Koch’s estate pipes. He was a lover of “Malaga” pipes – all shapes and sizes and she wanted to move them out as she cleaned up the estate. We emailed back and forth and I had my brother Jeff follow up with her as he also lives in the US and would make it simpler to carry out this transaction. The long and short of it is that we purchased her Dad’s “Malaga” pipes. There are some beautiful pipes in that lot. I have never seen this many “Malagas” together in one place in all of my years of pipe restoring and refurbishing. They varied from having almost pristine to gnawed and damaged stems that will need to be replaced. These were some well used and obviously well loved pipes. Cleaning and restoring them will be a tribute to this pipeman. (Here is a link to some history of the Malaga Brand if you are interested: https://rebornpipes.com/tag/malaga-pipes/. There are also links there to a catalogue and the maker George Khoubesser.)Knowing about the pipeman who held the pipes in trust before me gives another dimension to the restoration work. This is certainly true with this lot of pipes. I can almost imagine George picking out each pipe in his assortment at the Malaga shop in Michigan. I may well be alone in this, but when I know about the person it is almost as if he is with me work on his pipes. In this case Kathy sent us not only information but also a photo of her Dad enjoying his “Malagas”. Once again, I am including that information so you can know a bit about the pipeman who held these pipes in trust before they are passed on to some of you. I include part of Kathy’s correspondence with my brother as well…

Jeff…Here is a little about my dad, George P. Koch…I am sending a picture of him with a pipe also in a separate email.

Dad was born in 1926 and lived almost all his life in Springfield, Illinois. He was the youngest son of German immigrants and started grade school knowing no English. His father was a coal miner who died when Dad was about seven and his sixteen year old brother quit school to go to work to support the family. There was not much money, but that doesn’t ruin a good childhood, and dad had a good one, working many odd jobs, as a newspaper carrier, at a dairy, and at the newspaper printing press among others. He learned to fly even before he got his automobile driver’s license and carried his love of flying with him through life, recertifying his license in retirement and getting his instrumental license in his seventies and flying until he was grounded by the FAA in his early eighties due to their strict health requirements. (He was never happy with them about that.) He was in the Army Air Corps during World War II, trained to be a bomber, but the war ended before he was sent overseas. He ended service with them as a photographer and then earned his engineering degree from University of Illinois. He worked for Allis Chalmers manufacturing in Springfield until the early sixties, when he took a job at Massey Ferguson in Detroit, Michigan. We lived in Livonia, and that’s where his love for Malaga pipes began. After a few years he returned to Allis Chalmers and we moved back to Springfield. I remember that when we went back to Michigan to visit friends, Dad had to go to the Malaga store and acquire a few new pipes. Many a year I wrote to Malaga and they picked out a pipe for me to purchase that I could give Dad for a Christmas or birthday present. He was always pleased. His favorites were the straight stemmed medium sized bowl pipes, but he liked them all. He had some other pipes, but the Malagas were his favorites. I remember him smoking them sitting in his easy chair after work, with feet up on the ledge by the fire burning in the fireplace. Growing up it was my job to clean them and he liked the inner bowl and stem coated with Watkins vanilla, leaving a little of that liquid in the bowl to soak in when I put them back on the rack. Dad quit smoking later in life and so they’ve sat on the racks for many years unattended, a part of his area by his easy chair and fireplace. Dad passed when he was 89 years old and it finally is time for the pipes to move on. I’m very happy they are being restored by you and your brother and hope they find homes who enjoy them as much as Dad did. Thank-you for your care and interest. — Kathy, the oldest daughter

Kathy, once again I thank you for providing this beautiful tribute to your Dad. We will appreciate your trust in allowing us to clean and restore these pipes. I am also trusting that those of you who are reading this might carry on the legacy of her Dad’s pipes as they will be added to the rebornpipes store once they are finished.

The ninth of the pipes that I chose to work on is another “Malaga” Banker (Author??). This one is a mixed finish smooth and rusticated pipe with same mixed finish on the rim top. I really like the shape and the mix of rustication and smooth straight grain on this pipe. The vulcanite stem had lots of tooth chatter and some tooth marks. Some great grain peeks through the grime around the bowl. The warm brown finish on the bowl appeared to be good condition under the dust and tars of time. I am certain that Malaga pipes were oil cured. The uniform finish and the light weight lead me to think that is the case. Once more there are no fills in the bowl or long shank. I have yet to find a fill in any of the bowls I have worked on in this lot and looking through what remains I think it is fair to say I won’t find any in them either.

The mixture of rustication and smooth on the rim top of this Baker was originally covered and the rustication was almost filled in with an overflow of lava from the thick cake in the bowl. The rim top was in good condition and the inner edge of the bowl had some light damage and was out of round. The outer edge of the bowl was in good condition. The stamping was on the underside of the shank and was clear and read “Malaga” on a smooth panel near the shank/stem junction. The black vulcanite stem had tooth dents and chatter on the top and the underside of the stem. The interior of the pipe was dirty. I could see that George thoroughly enjoyed this pipe along with the others as is evidenced by the wear that all of them show. Jeff took these photos before he started the cleanup work on the pipe. Jeff took close up photos of the bowl and rim to show the condition of the pipe before he started to work his magic on it. The exterior of the bowl and shank were dirty. You can see the lava on the rim top, the cake and remnants of tobacco in the bowl and the nicks on the rim top and bowl around the outer edge of the rim. The second rim top photo shows the thick cake and debris in the bowl. It is dirty but in otherwise good condition. He also took photos of the backside and of the side to show the condition of the finish. He also took a photo of the shank to show the stamping on the panel on the underside of the shank. You can see the dust and grime in the rustication on the shank before cleanup.The next photos show the tooth chatter and dents on both surfaces of the stem near the button. There were also some dents in the top and underside of the button edge itself.Working on this ninth pipe followed the same pattern as all of these pipes. Jeff had 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 bowl, rim and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. The lava mess on the rim was thoroughly removed without harming the finish underneath it. Without the grime the finish looked really good. As noted above the stem would need to be worked on. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition it was in after the cleanup. Jeff was able to remove all of the lava on the rim top and edges. You can see the contrast between the rusticated portion of the rim and the smooth. The inner edge of the bowl is chipped and damaged slightly but a little sanding would smooth that out. It is a nice looking finish. The stem was clean and you can see the tooth chatter and marks on the surface of the stem and on the edges of the button.I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame from a Bic lighter to heat and lift the dents in the vulcanite. This is one of those times that I am glad vulcanite has memory. The marks lifted to the surface and a bit of sanding would smooth things out.I repaired the small dips in the top surface of the stem with clear super glue. When it had cured I sanded the surface of the stem smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the rest of the stem at the same time and removed some of the oxidation on the surface.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the briar and particularly the reshaped areas. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a horsehair shoe brush to polish it. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I got a little ahead of myself in using the balm. I had not cleaned up the damage to the rim edge. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inner edge of the rim. I worked on it and gave it a slight bevel to cover for the damage and the burn marks. Once it was finished I reworked the balm into the rim top and edges.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I used the Before & After Pipe Polish to remove the small minute scratches left in the vulcanite. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I the polished stem and bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is the eighth of the many “Malaga” pipes that I am restoring from Kathy’s Dad’s collection. I am looking forward once again to hearing what Kathy thinks once she sees the finished pipe on the blog. This one is staying with me. I look forward to carrying on the trust from her father. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 inches. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this Malaga from George’s estate. More will follow in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Restoring the last of three Jobey Gourd Calabashes with a Briar Shank Extension

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Blog by Steve Laug

As I have mentioned before my brother Jeff has really gotten good at finding Gourd Calabash pipes when he is pipe hunting. He picked up this batch recently. I posted about the large calabash in the middle of the right hand column recently and it is available on the rebornpipes store. It is by far the largest of the five calabash pipes that he found. The second one I am working on is the pipe at the bottom right of the photo. It is another unique looking Calabash to me in that it is a nicely shaped gourd with a briar shank extension on the end of the gourd. It bears the Jobey brass oval logo on the side of the briar extension. The third of the calabash pipes that I worked on was a second Jobey calabash. It is the one on the bottom left of the photo below. As I mentioned before, when I first looked these Jobey calabashes I wondered if any of them had the Jobey system tenon that I have come to expect on Jobey pipes. However, this was not the case on any of the three Jobey Gourd Calabashes in the bunch. All of them have the mortise drilled in the briar extension and is made for a push stem. Once again, I had never seen Jobey Gourd Calabashes before learned that they were probably made by Wally Frank. Here is the link to the first of the pipes I worked on – the one circled in red in the photos below: https://rebornpipes.com/2018/01/09/restoring-a-full-bent-jobey-gourd-calabash-with-a-briar-shank-extension/. Here is the link to the second of the three circled in blue: https://rebornpipes.com/2018/01/28/restoring-the-second-of-three-jobey-gourd-calabashes-with-a-briar-shank-extension/. Today I am working on the third of the Jobey Calabash pipes and the fourth of the lot. It is the pipe on the top left of the photo below.

Once again Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he did his cleanup work on it. The photos below show it in the condition he found it in on one of his hunts. The gourd was dull looking and generally dirty. It had spots of sticky label material on the sides of the bowl. The briar shank extension was also dull and lifeless looking and there was a gummy substance in the brass logo on the shank extension. The meerschaum bowl on this pipe was light weight and appeared to be block meerschaum. There was a thick cake in the bowl and the rim had a coat of lava that went almost all the way around the inner edge of the chamber onto the rim top. The chair leg style stem was oxidized and dirty. There were tooth marks and tooth chatter on both sides of the stem at the button. The next photo shows the condition of the meerschaum cup. The cup of the meer was had some lava overflow from the bowl on the inner edge and top. There is also darkening around the inner edge of the bowl and cake in the bowl.The next two pictures show the condition of the underside of the bowl and the tars and oils on the walls of the gourd. The underside of the meerschaum cup was dirty but in good condition. The cork gasket on the inside edges of the gourd was in good condition but dried out. It needed some grease to liven it up.The briar shank extension was dirty and there was debris around the outside of the oval and in the letters stamped in the brass.The stem had light oxidation and tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. It also had the same price tag glue on the top and underside of the stem.Jeff did a thorough cleanup on the meerschaum bowl, the inside of the gourd and the stem. He carefully scraped the cake in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He cleaned the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs – scrubbing out the mortise as it was dirty. He scrubbed the exterior of the meerschaum cup and the gourd with Murphy’s Oil soap and a tooth brush and was able to remove all of the oils and dust ground into the gourd. He was able to remove all of the lava and overflow from the top of the meerschaum bowl and left it looking very clean. Once he had removed the lava on the rim top and inner edge they were cleaner than I expected. The scratches in the meerschaum were quite shallow and would be easy to polish out. He cleaned internals of the stem with alcohol. When it arrived I took some photos of it to show how it looked before I did the restoration. He did a great job of cleaning up the rim top including the tars and lava. The bowl is clean and smooth with all cake removed. The photo below shows the condition of the bowl and rim at this point. The inner edge of the bowl is clean but there is some wear and damage to the edge. The stem had cleaned up nicely with relatively little oxidation. The tooth marks on the top and underside along with the chatter were still present.I took the bowl off the gourd to have a look at the inside of the pipe. The gourd was very clean. The cork gasket was dry but that could be remedied easily enough. The mottled appearance carried through to the inside of the meerschaum bowl and can be seen in the photos.I used my fingers to rub the gourd and briar extension down with Before & After Restoration Balm to bring life to both and to remove any residual dust or dirt in the surface of the calabash. I wiped it off with a cotton cloth and buffed it with a shoe brush. The next few photos show the gourd at this point in the process. I used some Vaseline petroleum jelly to lubricate the cork gasket and soften it. I have done this for years and I really like the effect of the jelly on the cork. I used 1500 grit micromesh sanded off the spots along the surface of the meerschaum cup where it sat against the cork and the top of the gourd to ensure a smooth fit.I checked the pliability of the cork gasket, rubbed a little more Vaseline into it and put the bowl back on the gourd. The fit of the cup against the gasket was snug but not hard to insert. It was perfect. The pipe was beginning to look finished. The shine on the gourd and the rim looked good. The briar extension had its own shine as well. I took the cup off the gourd and polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I buffed the cup with a microfiber cloth to polish it. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button. The rest of the stem was in decent condition. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil at this point and let it sit for a little while.I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol to remove any residual bath and also the sanding dust from the work on the stem surface and tooth chatter.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each sanding pad. After using the 12000 grit pad I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to give a deep and rich shine. I polished the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish using both the fine and the extra fine product. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. Normally at this point I put the stem back on the bowl and take the pipe to the buffing wheel to work it over. This time I took the parts to the buffing wheel. I gently buffed the meerschaum cup and rim with Blue Diamond to lightly polish the meer. I carefully buffed the gourd base and briar shank extension with Blue Diamond being cautious about the pressure I put on the gourd. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I took the pipe back to the work table and gave the gourd multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I gave the stem several coats carnauba wax. I buffed the parts of the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are, Length: 9 inches, Height: 3 ½ inches, Diameter of the cup: 2 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 7/8 inches. I will be adding this one to the rebornpipes store shortly if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for looking.