Tag Archives: bite marks

Cleaning up a Uniquely Shaped Savinelli Oscar Aged Briar 316KS

Blog by Steve Laug

Two pipes left to clean up from the estate sale pipe lot that my brother picked up. The first of them is a beautiful Savinelli. It is stamped on a smooth spot on the bottom of the bowl with the words – Oscar in script over Aged Briar. Next to that is the Savinelli S shield followed by 316KS over Italy. Looking at the pipe I am not quite sure what to call it in terms of the shape. It is an incredibly unique shape to Savinelli. The walls are flared like a Dublin, bowl short like a Pot and highly beveled and polished rim, this shape is beautiful. The rusticated finish on the Aged Briar is a lot like it is sandblasted over the top of the rustication. I looked up a similar pipe on smokingpipe.com and found the description there helpful. I quote it in full: “Somewhere in between a Pear, Dublin, and a Pot, there’s Savinelli’s signature “316” shape. It features a wide chamber perfect for enjoying the intricacies of more complex blends. Presented here in the rugged rustication of the Oscar Aged Briar line, it’s a handsome composition for a price that simply can’t be beat.” http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/italy/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=183082 I looked up the Savinelli Shape Chart and copied it below. I circled the shape in red in the chart below. You can see it in the second column.Jeff took the first photo and the remaining ones on the black background. They show the condition of the pipe before my brother cleaned it.The top of the rim was in rough shape. The cake in the bowl had overflowed in lava on the rim top. It was thick and hard. It would be interesting to see what would be underneath once the bowl was reamed the rim top cleaned. The finish on the rest of the bowl was in excellent condition as can be seen in the second photo below. The next photos show the stamping on the bowl bottom as noted in the opening paragraph of the blog. The stamping was sharp and readable. The third photo shows the stamping on the top of the stem. It is the classic Savinelli Oscar shooting star. The stem showed the now familiar tooth chatter and marks that were on each of the pipes in this estate lot. There was some light oxidation on the surface of the stem as well.My brother did a stellar job of cleaning up the pipe. He reamed the bowl with the PipNet pipe reamer and took the cake back to briar. He scrubbed the rim top and the finish with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean out the debris and dust in the grooves of the finish. He was able to remove the buildup on the rim top and leave the finish intact. The stem was soaked in Oxyclean and the oxidation came to the surface. He cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. When I got the pipe it was clean. I took the following photos to show the condition of the pipe before I restored it. The next photo shows the crowned rim top. It was amazingly clean with no residue left behind from the lava build up that had been present before he cleaned it.I took close up photos of the stem surface on both sides. The tooth chatter and marks are more distinct on the underside of the stem at the button than those on the topside.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth marks and chatter. It did not take too much sanding to remove all the damage and oxidation. I worked on it until it was clean. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak in. I wiped down the area around the shooting star stamp with alcohol on a cotton pad and touched up the stamp with white acrylic paint. Once the paint dried I rubbed off the excess paint and left only the paint in the stamp itself.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads. I rubbed it down with oil between each of the pads. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and rubbed it down with oil after each pad. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel and then finished polishing it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil after the 12000 grit pad and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back in place in the shank and buffed the bowl and stem lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed the pipe and stem with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush and then with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. This contrast between the smooth, crowned bowl rim and the patch on the underside of the bowl are reddish brown and the contrast of the dark brown/black top coat over the reddish brown showing through give the pipe an intriguing contrast look. The bowl has been cleaned and the entire pipe is ready to smoke. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Refurbishing an Iwan Ries Savinelli Made Black Knight 207

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe from the estate sale that I chose to work on is a sandblast apple with a contrast black and brown stain. It is stamped on the underside of the shank in a smooth portion starting at the bottom of the bowl. It reads Iwan Ries over Black Knight. Next to that is the shape number 207 over Italy. Lastly there is a capital C. It is a Savinelli shape number. The finish was very dirty with dust and grime in the grooves and it seemed to be sticky. The cake in the bowl was quite thick and the lava had flowed over the rim top. The stem had a light IRC stamped on the left side of the taper and was lightly oxidized. The now characteristic tooth marks and chatter were on the top and underside of the stem near the button and the button surface itself had chatter and wear. The next four photos show the condition of the pipe when my brother Jeff brought it home from the sale and before he started to work on cleaning it up.He took a photo of the bowl from the top to show the cake in the bowl and the tarry build up on the rim top. The second photo below shows the sandblast on the left side of the bowl which is birdseye. The right side shows more of the ring grain but it will show up in later photos. The next photos show the clear and sharp stamping on the bottom of the bowl and the IRC stamp on the left side of the stem. It looks more deeply stamped than it appeared once it arrived in Vancouver.The stem shows the now characteristic tooth marks and chatter on both sides and the wear on the button surface as well, just as the rest of the pipes in the lot did.My brother scrubbed the bowl exterior with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the sticky buildup and the grime in the grooves. He rinsed it with warm water to remove the soap and the dust. He reamed the bowl and scrubbed the rim top with the soap and tooth brush. He cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem. He cleaned the stem with a short soak in Oxyclean. The soak brought the oxidation to the surface. I took the next four photos of the pipe when it arrived in Vancouver. The grain shows through the blast – birdseye on the left side and ring grain on the right side. I took a photo of the rim top and the inside of the bowl to show the condition. Like several other pipes in the estate lot this one still had raw briar at the bottom third of the bowl.The next two photos show the condition of the stem. The tooth marks and chatter are visible in the photo. The ones on the underside of the stem were deeper than the ones on the top side.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and chatter. I worked over the entire stem to break up the oxidation.I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil on a soft towel. I took the following photos of the pipe after I had wiped it down. The shine on the sandblast revealed the contrast stains that had been used on the bowl – both a dark brown and black. I touched up the rim top with a dark brown stain pen to blend the rim into the rest of the bowl colour. The dark brown stain worked well on the high area and the black filled in the grooves of the blast.I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a rub down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I let the oil dry and then buffed the stem with red Tripoli and Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I brought it back to the work table and finished polishing it with 6000-12000 grit micromesh pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the bowl lightly with Blue Diamond and more intently on the stem. The Blue Diamond polishes out the minute scratches in the vulcanite and gives the material more shine. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and hand waxed the bowl with Conservator’s Wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 1/8 inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The pipe is the kind of shape that feels great in the hand, it is light weight and comfortable. The look of the finished pipe is quite attractive and the contrast between the brown of the high spots on the briar and black in the crevices contrast well with the polished vulcanite stem. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding it to your rack email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Wow, what birdseye – a Savinelli Pantera 614 OomPaul

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I am getting very close to finishing up the lot from the estate sale that my brother Jeff sent me for restoration. Because he had done a great job on the clean up the restoration of the lot has been a pretty easy process. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to work on clean pipes. Once I finish up this one I have only three left to complete. It is a good feeling when I get toward the end of a package of pipes. It feels like I actually am making some progress in the box of pipes to be restored sitting in my shop. This particular pipe is a beautiful Oom Paul with stunning grain all around the bowl. It is stamped Iwan Ries over Pantera on the left side of the shank with a faint IRC stamped on the left side of the saddle stem. It is stamped with the traditional Savinelli “S” shield with the shape number 614 over Italy on the right side of the shank. The underside has an upper case “C” next to the shank/stem junction.My brother took quite a few photos of the pipe from a variety of angles to show both the condition of the pipe and the beautiful grain around the bowl sides, top and bottom. The photos show the pipe before he started his clean up. The bowl was lightly cake and there was a light coat of lava overflowing on to the top of the rim. It appeared to be in excellent condition under the lava and both the inner and outer edges of the bowl were undamaged.The next three photos show the stamping that I noted above. It is readable and very clean and sharp. The IRC stamp on the stem was deep on the lower half and fainter as it moves toward the top. The next photos of the grain around the bowl show the cross grain and birdseye around the bowl sides, top and bottom. It really shows some spectacular grain. The stem was in very good condition in comparison to the other pipes in the estate. Even so, there were still some light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem near the button and flowing onto the top and bottom of the button as well.My brother did his usual stellar job of cleaning up the pipe. The inside and outside were spotless when the pipe arrives. The stem was lightly oxidized as the Oxyclean treatment he gave it brought that to the surface. The next photos show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to my work table. The briar is beautiful with great grain. The stamping on the side of the saddle stem is faint and worn. The top of the rim and the bowl were very clean. Jeff had been able to remove the lava on the rim and had reamed the bowl back to bare briar. The bottom 1/3 of the bowl was undarkened and revealed that the bowl had not been smoked to the bottom.The oxidized stem shows the light tooth marks and chatter on both sides next to and on top of the button. They were the same characteristic marks that were on every other pipe in this estate lot.I sanded the stem surface and the top and underside of the button with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth marks and chatter. It did not take too much work to remove the tooth chatter and marks as they were not deep in the vulcanite stem surface. The oxidation had come to the surface of the stem so it came off quite easily.With the tooth marks and chatter removed, I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I worked over the stem with each of the grits of micromesh and between each one I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to enliven the rubber. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel after I had finished sanding it with the 4000 grit pad. I brought it back to the work table and finished polishing it with the 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I worked it over until the minute scratches that were visible on the stem in the photos above were gone. The briar also began to shine with the buffing. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This one has some remarkable grain and look. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly. It is available to add to your pipe collection if you want it. Just email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook.

The Easiest Restoration in the Recent Estate Lot – A Savinelli Oscar 701 Lovat

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

This little Savinelli Lovat is by far the easiest pipe I have cleaned up from the recent estate lot pipes that my brother purchased. It is a beautifully rusticated Lovat with an almost sandblast finish over the rustication. It is a oxblood stained pipe with a vulcanite stem. I wonder if it was not the last pipe that the pipeman purchased before his demise. The bowl had a light cake in it and the rim already had some overflow of lava on the top but the bowl had not been smoked to the bottom. The bottom of the bowl was raw briar. It had very few tooth marks and chatter. The stem was lightly oxidized and the finish was in great shape. It is stamped on the smooth portion on the underside of the shank with the words Oscar over Aged Briar on the heel of the bowl. Next to that it was stamped with the Savinelli S in a shield next to the shape number 701 over Italy. My brother took the following photos of the pipe when he brought it home from the sale.

I looked the shape up on the Savinelli Shape Chart and found it there in the right hand column. It is the second pipe circled in red below.

Jeff also took a photo of the rim top and the cake in the bowl. There is a light cake in the bowl and a lava overflow on the top of the rim and the bevel. It was not too thick so it would easily come off the surface. He took two photos of the underside of the shank. The first shows the 701 shape number and the second shows the remainder of the stamping. The contrast stain on the rustication pattern looks very good.The next two photos show the side and bottom of the bowl. The random pattern of the rustication almost looks like a sandblast pattern.On the left side of the saddle portion of the stem there is the characteristic Savinelli Oscar shooting star stamp. It is in excellent condition.The next two photos show the condition of the stem. The tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem near the button are not too deep in the surface of the vulcanite. They should be relatively easy to remove.

Jeff thoroughly cleaned out the internals of the pipe, reaming it with a PipNet reamer and removing all of the cake. He scrubbed the externals with Murphy’s Oil Soap and was able to remove all of the lava on the top of the rim. He rinsed the bowl in water to remove the debris of the cleaning. The stem soaked in Oxyclean to lift the light oxidation that was present. It came to the surface and would be easily remedied. The next four photos show the pipe when it arrived in Vancouver. It really was a delicate looking Lovat that showed real promise.

I had to have a picture of the cleaned up rim top. It was amazing how he had been able to get all of the lava off on the top and the bevel as well.The next two photos show the oxidation that I would have to deal with to get the stem back to its polished black glory.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation and remove the tooth chatter and marks.I ran a pipe cleaner with alcohol through the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem. It was very clean so nothing more needed to be done. The mortise was very clean.I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush to raise a shine. The next photos show the buffed bowl. It is really a nice looking pipe. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and then rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads, gave it another coat of oil then buffed it with red Tripoli. I brought it back to the work table and finished polishing with 6000-12000 grit micromesh pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the bowl lightly with Blue Diamond to raise a shine. When buffing a rusticated bowl with Blue Diamond a soft touch is imperative or you will fill in the divots of the rustication with the polishing compound. I buffed the stem with the Blue Diamond as well, being careful around the shooting star logo so as not to damage it. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and hand waxed the bowl with Conservator’s Wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and by hand with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outer diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It will soon be available on the rebornpipes store. If you wish to add it to your collection you can email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a private message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Second Fiammata – A 127 Saddle Stem Billiard

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came from the recent estate sale my brother attended. The pipeman whose pipes were being sold had good taste as can be seen from the pipes I have posted recently from my workbench. This one is no exception. It is a match to the other FIAMMATA that I posted (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/05/20/why-is-it-a-second-a-fiammata-128-billiard/) It has stunning straight grain around the bowl and a few small well-hidden fills on the bowl. There is a large fill on the left side of the shank underneath the stamping. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the name FIAMMATA and on the right side it is stamped 127 over Italy and to the left of those stamps is the familiar Savinelli S in a shield. On the underside of the shank it is stamped Savinelli Product. The stem is lightly oxidized and has the now familiar tooth marks as the other pipes in this estate.The shape number, the Italy stamp and the overall look of the pipe told me that it was a Savinelli pipe. The stamp on the underside as well as the S in a shield confirmed that it was indeed a Savinelli product. When I worked on the previous Fiammata 128 pipe I did a bit of research to find out information about it. Pipedia gave me information that I included in the previous post. I am including it here in case you happened to miss the other one. Here is the link to the section of the Pipedia article on Savinelli Sub-brands: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli#Savinelli_made_sub-brands.2C_seconds_.26_order_productions

On the Sub-brands list you will see the name Fiammata. Next to the name it says that the sub-brand is a “Rejected “Giubileo D’Oro” – Straight Grain”. That matches the look of this pipe as well as the previous one. As before I have included an advertisement on Giubileo D’Oro pipes to see what I could learn about the destiny of this pipe before the flaws were noted and the pipe was rejected. The grain on this second Fiammata has grain on it that is better than the one in the photo below.I have included a copy of the Savinelli Shape Chart once again so that you can see the shape of the pipe in hand. It is stamped 127 and can be seen on the first column of the chart. It is a saddle stem billiard. I circled the shape in red on the chart below.My brother Jeff took some close up photos of the rim and the bowl to show the cake in the bowl and the tarry buildup on the rim top. It looked to be in very good shape under the grime.He took photos of the bowl from various angles to show the quality of grain that covered the sides and bottom of the bowl. He took photos of the stamping on the sides and bottom of the shank. The stamping is in excellent condition and is very readable. In the first photo you can see the large fill under the second M of FIAMMATA on the left side of the shank.The stem also has an IRC stamped on the left side of the saddle portion. IRC is the store stamp of Iwan Ries & Company pipe shop in Chicago, Illinois, USA. I would assume that the store stamp was added when the pipe arrived in Chicago from the Savinelli factory in Italy.The next two photos show the condition of the stem. The stem has the now familiar tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button.My brother did a great job cleaning the pipe and preparing it for me. He reamed and cleaned the mortise and the airways in the shank and stem. He scrubbed them with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until they were clean. He scrubbed the surface with Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed it with water. The pipe was clean once it arrived. The next four photos show what the pipe looked like when it arrived in Vancouver. The grain on this bowl is outstanding but the fills are much more obvious than those on the previous Fiammata. I took a close up photo of the bowl and rim to show the condition. The bowl was clean and the lava on the surface was gone. There were some deep nicks on the rim surface that would need to be addressed but it looked really good.Jeff had soaked the stem in Oxyclean for a several hours and the oxidation rose to the surface of the vulcanite. The worn areas on the button and the tooth chatter and marks showed up clearly as well.I sanded the stem and reshaped the button with 220 and 320 grit sandpaper to remove the damage, tooth chatter and tooth marks. I sanded the rest of the stem to remove the oxidation that was on the surface.To remove the rim top damage I lightly topped the bowl on the topping board using 220 grit sandpaper. I removed the damaged part of the rim top and then polished the bowl and rim with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down between pads to remove the sanding dust. I painted the IRC on the left side of the saddle with white acrylic paint and a fine bristle brush. Once the paint dried I would scrape the excess off leaving only the letters filled in.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and rubbed it down with the oil. I buffed the stem vigorously with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel followed by Blue Diamond. I finished polishing it with 6000-12000 grit pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each of the grits. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I worked on the stem to remove any final oxidation that was showing, particularly around the stamping on the left side of the saddle. I buffed the bowl carefully avoiding the stamping on the shank sides and bottom. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. Even with the obvious fills around the bowl and shank this is a beautiful piece of briar. The straight grain is stunning and certainly testimony to the kind of briar that was used on Savinelli Giubileo D’Oro pipes. This is another pipe that will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding it to your collection you can email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a private message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Why is it a Second? A Fiammata 128 Billiard

5 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came from the recent estate sale my brother attended. The pipeman whose pipes were being sold had good taste as can be seen from the pipes I have posted recently from my workbench. This one is no exception. It has stunning straight grain around the bowl and a few small well-hidden fills. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the name FIAMMATA and on the right side it is stamped 128 over Italy. There are no other markings on the pipe. The stem is lightly oxidized and has the now familiar tooth marks as the other pipes in this estate.The shape number, the Italy stamp and the overall look of the pipe told me that it was a Savinelli pipe but I was not sure. You know how when you are handling a pipe of unknown make you just have a feeling about its origin? That is what happened as I turned this one over in my hands to examine it. I did some digging on Pipedia and found the information to confirm my suspicions about the pipe being a Savinelli made produce. Here is the link to the section of the Pipedia article on Savinelli Sub-brands: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli#Savinelli_made_sub-brands.2C_seconds_.26_order_productions

On the Sub-brands list you will see the name Fiammata. Next to the name it says that the sub-brand is a “Rejected “Giubileo D’Oro” – Straight Grain”. That matches the look of this pipe. I have to say though that the quality control people were very good on the day this pipe was made as the tiny sandpits and fills that I can see on the bowl were hard to identify as they followed the grain on the pipe so well. I thought it might be interesting to check out the Giubileo D’Oro pipes to see what I could learn about the destiny of this pipe before the flaws were noted and the pipe was rejected. The next photo of an advertisement for the brand gives information that I found extremely helpful when looking at this pipe in terms of shape, colour and finish. The top pipe in the photo is the 128 which is the same shape I am working on at the moment. The grain on my pipe is far better than the one in the photo.I have included a copy of the Savinelli Shape Chart so that you can see the shape of the pipe in hand. It is stamped 128 and can be seen on the first column of the chart. It is a tapered stem billiard. I circled the shape in red on the chart below.Jeff took some close up photos of the rim top to show the condition of the cake in the bowl and the overflow of lava on the top of the rim. From the photos it is hard to know if the inner rim edge is damaged because of the buildup of lava.Jeff took the next series of photos to show the grain on the bottom and both sides of the bowl. It is really quite beautiful grain. Look closely and see if you can see the small fills. The next two photos show the stamping on the shank of the pipe. The first photo is the right side of the shank and the second is the left side.The final two photos that Jeff sent to me show the familiar tooth marks on the top and the underside of the stem at the button.My brother did his usual amazing clean up of the pipe. He reamed the bowl and scrubbed the lava off the rim. He scrubbed the finish with Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed it with water. He cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The next four photos show the condition of the pipe when it arrived in Vancouver. Jeff was able to get the lava off the rim and leave the rim looking almost new. The inner beveled edge of the rim is flawless as well. It looks undamaged and there are no burn marks on the bevel or on the rim top. There is slight darkening on the back of the top but it is minimal.He soaked the stem in Oxyclean for a few hours and scrubbed it clean. The oxidation came to the surface and looked speckled in the next two photos. The photos also show the tooth marks and chatter clearly.I sanded the stem with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the surface oxidation and smooth out the tooth chatter and tooth marks.I cleaned the top and bottom edge of the button with alcohol and used black super glue to fill in the deeper spots on both sides of the button. I filled them in and set the stem aside to dry.I sanded the bowl rim and sides with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cotton pad to remove the dust. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and repeated wiping down the bowl with the damp cotton pad. The photos below tell the story of the polishing. Look closely and see if you can see some of the small fills. I sanded the repaired area on the stem with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the excess hardened super glue and blend it into the surface of the button. I ran a pipe cleaner through the shank and the airway in the stem to remove any of the sanding debris from the airways. They came out very clean.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem with Obsidian Oil and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I repeated wiping down the stem with the oil. After sanding it with the 12000 grit pad I wiped it down a final time with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem on the shank and buffed it with red Tripoli to work out the rest of the oxidation that still remained on the stem near the shank end. It took some careful buffing to work it out but it finally came out. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish the stem even more. I buffed the entire pipe with the Blue Diamond on the wheel to polish out the minute scratches in the rubber and the briar. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax with the wax buffing pad. I polished it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The shape and condition of the pipe is very nice and the grain stands out much like it would have if the pipe had made the grade for a Giubileo D’Oro pipe. There is a faint stamp of triangles on the side of the stem. The dimensions of the pipe are as follows Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 7/8 inches, Outer bowl diameter: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The pipe is a made in such a way that it follows the stunningly grained piece of briar perfectly. The shape of the stem works with the flow of the pipe. The black of the stem and natural finish of the briar work well together. This pipe will soon be available on the rebornpipes store. If you want to add it to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a private message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Bringing a Stanwell Jubilee Sixten Ivarsson Design 10M back to life

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe in the lot that my brother brought back from the recent estate sale was a beautiful little Stanwell Acorn with a vulcanite shank extension. The pipe had some nice birdseye on the left side of the bowl and shank and a mix of grain around the rest of the bowl. The point at the bottom of the bowl has a ring of grain with a centre at the bottom and turning around the bowl up the front and back of the underside of the shank. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank Stanwell over Regd. No. (an illegible number) over Jubilee. On the right side it is stamped 10M which is the shape number. The shape is a design by Sixten Ivarsson that was done for Stanwell. It has a military mount stem. The Stanwell Crown S in on the shank extension rather than on the stem. The photos that follow are one that Jeff took of the pipe before he cleaned up to send to me.Jeff took close up photos of the rim and the bowl to show the condition. There was a light cake in the bowl with an overflow of lava on the crowned rim top. The next two photos show the grain on the sides of the bowl. The third photo shows the ring at the bottom of the bowl radiating up the bowl sides. It is a beautifully grain piece of briar that the shape fits very well. The next two photos show the stamping on the sides of the shank. The left side shows the Stanwell stamp clearly as well as the Jubilee stamp. It also shows the Crown S on the shank extension. There is a Regd. No. that is very faint and unreadable.The stem had the now familiar tooth chatter and marks the top and underside near the stem. The dents/marks on the underside were worse than those on the top side.My brother cleaned up the pipe as he usually does before he sends it to me. He did an amazing job cleaning up the interior and the exterior. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it was absolutely clean on the inside. He had cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until it was spotless. He had scrubbed exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap and removed all of the grime on the bowl sides and the lava build up on the rim. I took the next four photos to show what the pipe looked like when it arrived here. The finish looked really good. The shank extension and stem were lightly oxidized. I took a close up photo of the rim to show how well it cleaned up. There was some darkening on the rim top. The grain really stood out well on the crowned rim. The inner edge of the rim was in excellent condition.I took some photos of the stem top and underside to show the oxidation and the tooth chatter and marks on the surface near the button.I sanded the shank extension with micromesh sanding pads to remove the oxidation. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. I buffed the shank extension and the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish the vulcanite. I use an acrylic paint to fill in the Crown S on the left side of the shank extension. Once the paint dried I buffed it off with Blue Diamond to remove the excess paint and leave some in the stamped impression in the vulcanite. There is still some oxidation in the vulcanite of the extension that needed to be polished out but the buffing would take care of that. The photos tell the story.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation on the surface. I followed that by sanding with 320 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches. I polished the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and gave it a rub down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I buffed it with Blue Diamond between the 2400 and 3200 grit pads and between the 4000 and the 6000 grit pads. I gave it a final buff after the 12000 grit pad and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to dry. I put the stem back in the shank extension and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I buffed it until the remaining scratches and oxidation were gone. The grain really began to stand out as I buffed the pipe. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the briar and the vulcanite. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beautifully grained pipe that is laid out well with the piece of briar. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. It is a pipe that I would normally hang on to for my own collection but I have a similar one already so I am going to put it on the rebornpipes store. It is available to anyone who wants to add it to their collection, their pipe rack. Just let me know if you are interested. Email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a private message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

New Life for a Lorenzo Lara Smooth (For Tinderbox) Unique 113

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

As I looked through the box of pipes that my brother had picked up from the estate sale he went to recently I was looking for the next pipe to bring to my work table. I picked through a variety of apple shapes, bent billiards, Lovats and authors but none of them grabbed my attention. I wanted to work on something a little different. I picked up this interesting take on a poker – with a little bit of a Dublin look to it. I wrote my brother a message and asked about the before pictures. He sent them and wrote back that this pipe his favourite from the lot. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank The Tinder Box in an arc over a script text Lara with the curl of the L underlining the entire word and swirling up along the letter a. The right side of the stem is stamped Italy over 113 (shape number) and next to that it reads Styled By Lorenzo. My brother took the following photos to show the condition of the pipe when he brought it home from the estate sale. I have worked on a lot of Lorenzo pipes over the years and have always found them to be large and bulky. None of them did anything for me so I generally passed them on as either gifts or sold them on the store. This one however looked different from the others I have seen. Tinder Box seems to have ordered a line of pipes from Lorenzo to bear their store stamp. As I looked through photos on the web I found that the Lorenzo Lara pipes made for Tinder Box all had the same unique stem shape. I saved some of the photos below to show the variety of shapes that bear this unique stem shape. Jeff also took some close up photos to show the condition of the bowl and the rim top before he cleaned them up. There was a thick cake in the bowl that had overflowed on to the top of the rim and around the beveled inner edge of the bowl.The grain on the bowl sides was beautiful – a combination of swirls and birdseye that was captivating to look at. The finish was very clean on the rest of the bowl in comparison to the rim top.The stamping on the shank side was very readable and sharp on the left side and less so on the right. The next two photos show the stamping.The stem was in decent shape but had the by now familiar tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button and on the button edge itself. They were a little deeper on the underside than the top but still very repairable. There was also some light oxidation on the vulcanite.My brother did a thorough cleaning of the pipe inside and out. He reamed the bowl and scrubbed out the mortise and airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the rim top with Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed it with water. The finish really was in great shape and the soap took the rim build up off and left the pipe remarkably clean. When I received it and brought it to the worktable I took the next four photos to show what it looked like after cleaning. I took a close up photo of the rim top to show the amazing job that Jeff did in cleaning off the lava. The rim looked pristine and the inner edge bevel of the bowl was flawless. The rim top was beautiful and it had the same glossy look as the rest of the bowl.I took some photos of the stem to show the tooth marks. They came out more clearly after cleaning. The oxidation came to the surface and the tooth marks on the top and underside near the button are very visible in the photos.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and chatter and also to break up the oxidation on the stem surface.I sanded the stem with 320 grit sandpaper to minimize the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12000 grit sanding pads and giving a coat of Obsidian Oil between each pad. I gave it a final coat of oil after the 12000 grit pad. The following photos tell the story. The bowl was in such great shape that I only needed to polish it and wax it. I put the stem back in place on the pipe and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I find that Blue Diamond does a great job in polishing out the minute scratches in vulcanite and briar. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. A lot of people leave out this buff. To me it is critical to get a good shine on the pipe to use a clean pad. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. The shape and the grain on the bowl make it a unique and attractive pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer bowl diameter: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. This pipe is available if you hear it calling your name. I will be posting it on the rebornpipes store shortly. You can email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a private message on Facebook if you want to add it to your rack. Thanks for looking.

Breathing New Life into an Iwan Ries Jacques 169 Apple

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table from the estate sale to be refurbished is a small apple that is stamped JACQUES on the left side of the shank and Iwan Ries & Co on the right side. It is also stamped 169 (Shape Number) on the underside of the shank at the stem/shank junction. The piece of briar is really a beauty with a mix of grains. The right side of the bowl has some beautiful birdseye grain that just pops. The combination of the yellow, cream coloured Lucite stem with the medium brown stain on the bowl works well and brings out the reds in the briar. Jeff took some photos of the pipe when he brought it home and before he worked his magic cleaning it up. He took some photos of the pipe to show the condition. The first of these shows the cake in the bowl and the lava overflow on the rim top. The rounded rim top looked like it was also darkened but I would know for sure once he had cleaned the top of the bowl.The next three photos show the stamping on the bowl. It is sharp and readable. There are also three stars on the left side of the taper stem as well. On the underside of the stem it is also stamped France. I am not sure if that is in reference to the entire pipe or just the stem being made in France. The next series of close up photos of the bowl show the overall condition of the pipe. The first photo shows the damaged fills on the left front of the bowl. These will need to be picked out and repaired to take care of the crumbling putty. The following photos show the now familiar tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. Unfortunately they are a bit hard to see as the colour of the Lucite obscures them. The top has tooth chatter and the underside has both chatter and a few deeper tooth marks.My brother worked his cleanup magic on the pipe and when it came to me the bowl had been reamed and cleaned. The airway in the shank and stem had been scrubbed with alcohol and pipe cleaners and the mortise cleaned with cotton swabs and alcohol. The pipe was in pristine condition internally. All I had to do was rework the fills and sand out the tooth marks on the stem. The next four photos show the pipe upon arrival in Vancouver. Jeff had been able to remove the cake in the bowl and all of the lava from the rim top. There was indeed some rim darkening that would need to be taken care of but it was very clean. The second photo shows the ugly, damaged fills on the left front of the bowl.The stem looked really good and the tooth marks and chatter are even harder to see than in the previous photos but they are there.I picked out the damaged putty fills with a dental pick until they were clean. I wiped down the area with an alcohol dampened cloth to remove any remaining debris. I filled the areas with briar dust and clear super glue. It dries dark but that will work in these fills that follow the grain pattern of the bowl.Once the patch had dried I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the excess fill and then with 320 sandpaper to smooth that out a bit. I polished the repair with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads to smooth out all the scratches. I touched up the repaired area with a dark brown stain pen. The colour of the stain matched the bowl perfectly and the fills blended in better than they were before.I hand buffed the bowl with a microfibre cloth to have a look at the rest of it and get a feel for the finished look. I ran a pipe cleaner through the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem to check for any debris that might have collected from my sanding. They were still very clean.Now it was time to take care of the tooth marks on the stem. I sanded them out with 220 grit sandpaper and smooth that out with 320 grit paper. 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 between each pad with a water dampened cotton pad to remove the sanding debris. I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I am skittish about buffing Lucite as it can heat up quickly and then make a mess of the work that has been done. I used a gentle touch to buff the stem and powered through buffing the bowl and shank. I took care not to damage the stamping on the shank. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 5/8 inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe and the repaired fills look better than when it left the factory. This one is available if you want to add it to your rack. Email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send a private message via Facebook if you are interested. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a beautiful Barling Vintage 6279 Pot

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe from the estate lot my brother found and sent to me was a Barling Pot. It is stamped on the left side of the shank Barling over London England there is a thin line and under that it reads Vintage. On the underside of the shank it is stamped 6279 which is the shape number. My brother took the following photos of the pipe when he got home from the estate sale. These document the state of the pipe before he started his cleanup.Jeff took some photos of the rim top and the condition of the bowl. The bowl had a thick cake in it and it had overflowed onto the beveled rim top with a thick coat of lava.The next two photos show the grain on the pipe. There was one small sandpit on the bottom front of the bowl and another on the right side of the bowl. Both have been filled with tan putty that blends in really well with the stain on the briar.The next two photos show the stamping on the pipe. The first shows the left side and the second shows the underside of the shank. My brother had also turned the stem over to show the Barling cross on the stem. It had faded and the white paint that is usually in it was gone.The last two photos showed the now familiar tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem next to the button. Fortunately these were not too deep in the vulcanite either and should be able to be cleaned up quite easily.Dating Barling pipes always proves interesting to me. I get all of the eras confused and find that pinning down some dates is difficult if not nigh on impossible (at least for me). The four digit shape number was the first thing I checked out. I found a catalogue page from a 1962 Barling Catalogue on Pipedia’s post on Barling Pipes that gave me a listing of shape numbers. The 6279 shape is a Pot Bevel with a flat stem according to the chart. The pipe I have indeed a Pot shape with a beveled rim top. However, it did not have a flat stem. It had a taper stem. That was the first anomaly I found regarding this pipe. I like the taper stem on this one. It works well with the shape. (I have outlined the shape of this pipe with a blue box in the photo below.)I did some more work on the internet to try to figure out when the Vintage finish pipes were made and sold. I read several articles but found nothing specific until I found another article on Pipedia under the following heading. I quote that section of the article in full.

Lines and Nomenclature (https://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Barling)

During the late 1970’s additional lines of pipes were introduced and the Company was restyled as Barling of England. In the late 1970’s production of Barling pipes was shifted to Denmark where Eric Nording manufactured Barling pipes for Imperial. There may have been other factories, but as of this writing, none has been identified. Nording stated that he made approximately 100.000 pipes for Imperial.

It was at this point that Ronald Harden, general manager of Barling, stepped in to attempt to save the brand from extinction. Through the efforts of Mr. Harden, Bucktrout and Company bought the rights to the Barling name and at this point operations were moved to the Isle of Man with Mr. Harden as chairman. The company was renamed Barling Pipes Ltd. From that point on, the goal was to restore the old tradition of pipemaking from the family era. New equipment was installed and pipes were made following the Pre-Transition patterns. In 1980, rather than becoming a footnote in pipemaking history, the new line of Barling pipes was introduced.

Some of the Pre-Transition nomenclature was restored, such as the old SS thru EXEXEL size system even though the pipes continued to be stamped with a 4-digit number that also included a size designation. The use of a “Barling’s Make” block letter logo was reintroduced on the 1978 series of pipes, though the logo is on one line with no arched lettering. And both the “Ye Olde Wood” and “TVF” stamping was brought back.

Barling was established as a mid market level pipe and remained such through a portion of the 1990’s. Most recently inexpensive pipes bearing the Barling name, but made by Peterson have been available for sale in the US.

The first highlighted box above gives the information on the Vintage finish Barling in the part of the quoted article that notes the four ranges. The one I had was found in Number 2 above. The information included there gave me a starting date of the late 1970’s for the manufacture of the Barling that I was working on. In the second highlighted box I found a date of 1980 when Imperial closed down Barling operations entirely. This gives a 5-7 year window when the pipe could have been made. So I am working on either a 40-42 year old pipe or a 30-32 year old pipe. I was actually successful in finding the information on the little Barling Vintage Pot that was on my work table. Better informed than when I began, I could turn my attention to working on the pipe itself.

I took the next four photos of the pipe when it arrived in Vancouver. My brother had done an exceptional job cleaning it up. The pipe looked really good. The finish was clean and the rim was spotless. I took a close up photo of the rim to show the condition it was in when it came. Jeff had reamed it really well and had cleaned off all of the lava on the rim. Somehow the lava had protected the beveled rim from damage or burn marks. It was in excellent shape.The stem showed oxidation as well as tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. The Barling cross on the stem was faded but it was well stamped and could be repainted.I ran a pipe cleaner and alcohol through the airway in the stem and the shank and cleaned out the mortise with a cotton swab and alcohol to remove any remaining tars or oils in those areas. The pipe was really clean as I expected.I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and wiped it down with a damp cotton pad to remove the dust and grit that remained in the Barling Cross. I painted that area on the stem with white acrylic paint to fill in the vertical and horizontal Barling name that was crossed on the top side of the stem near the tenon end. I pushed the paint into the letters and wiped off the excess with a soft, dry cotton pad.I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish the briar. You can see the three small filled sandpits in the first photo and the one toward the bottom of the bowl in the second photo. The fourth photo shows three small fills on the bottom of the bowl. I circled the fills in red in the photos. These fills showed me what I was expecting in a pipe from this era. In the second highlighted portion of the Pipedia article that spoke of closing the pipe, it noted that:“Despite these attempts to diversify the line, Barling lost its market. These pipes just weren’t equivalent to the family era pipes.” I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to working on the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to further remove the oxidation on the stem. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad to enliven the vulcanite. I gave it a final coat after the 12000 grit pad and set it aside to dry. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads as well. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and wiped it down with a damp cotton pad. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down after each set of three sanding pads. The more I polished the briar the more the fills on the right side and the front began to blend into the briar. Notice how they are disappearing in the following photos. After polishing with the final three pads (6000-12000 grit) the briar really shined and the fills though still present did not stick out so much. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave both multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beautiful pipe. Even the small fills that are around the sides and bottom of the bowl do not detract from the great shape and look of the pipe. This Barling Vintage pipe will soon be on sale on the rebornpipes store. It will make a great addition to someone’s rack and should be a good smoker as the mechanics are really well done. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. Check it out there and if you are interested email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook and the pipe can be yours. Thanks for looking.