Tag Archives: bite marks

Bringing a Peterson’s Rhodesian Shaped Meerschaum back from the brink

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on my “to do list” from the fellow in Dawson Creek is a Peterson Meerschaum that has some great colour to it. It is made of African Meerschaum which is denser than Turkish meerschaum and usually unevenly colour to the extent that they are stained to give the pipe a better look. This one is a mottled brown and cream coloured block. I am not sure how much of it is the aging patina and how much is the stain but I love the look of the pipe.

I did a bit of hunting on the internet to try to find a photo of the pipe. It was hard to find a Meerschaum Rhodesian picture and found one that is the close to same shape. It has a flumed dark top edge or cap. The shape of the stem is a little different at the shank union than the one I am working on. The one in the photo is more pinched at the shank. The one I am working on has a band of cream coloured meer that is rounded over and the stem sits against it.

I have been watching eBay for the Pete’s and have not found one this shape. I have read that African Block Meerschaums Peterson’s are getting harder to find since the Laxey meerschaum mines shut down in 2006. I have a few of the pipes in my collection and I have found that they are heavier than Turkish meerschaum due to the inclusion of minerals and aggregate material in the Block and the fact that they were ‘Calcinated’ after being carved, to give them greater strength and durability. They will color with smoking and the use of beeswax, but it will be more of a gradual process than high-grade Turkish meerschaums.

The pipe from Dawson Creek was heavily caked which bodes well for it being a great smoking pipe. The rustication on the rim was thickly cake with the overflow from the bowl. The rusticated finish on the bowl and shank was dirty. The stem was heavily oxidized and there was some tooth chatter on the top and underside near the button. The P stamp was faded though it still was deep enough for a touch up job. I was looking forward to seeing what the finished pipe would look like after the cleanup. I took a close up photo of the rim and the bowl. It shows the thick cake that is slightly sticky and has picked up a lot of dust and debris. The rustication on the rim is filled in with tars and oils to the point you cannot really see the grooves and ridges.The Delrin tenon is glued into the vulcanite stem and mortise is lined with a Delrin tube. The tenon was surprisingly small in diameter for a stem this large when I took the pipe apart. The photo below shows the pipe taken apart.I took some close up photos of the stem to show the oxidation and tooth chatter on the stem. There was large tooth mark on the top of the stem. It is hard to see in the photos below but after the first cleaning it would be visible.I used a brass bristle brush to scour the top of the rim to remove the thick cake and reveal the crevices and ridges below the grime. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to take out the majority of the cake. I would need to clean it further later.I scrubbed the externals with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and oils in the grooves of the bow and shank. I rinsed the bowl off with warm running water to remove the soap and dirt. I scrubbed it more under the running water using the tooth brush.I dried off the bowl and used Savinelli Pipe Knife to clean up the inside of the bowl and remove the last of the cake.I cleaned the mortise and the airways in the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the internals were clean.I put the stem in an Oxyclean bath and let it sit overnight. In the morning I took it out of the bath and rubbed it down with a coarse cloth to remove the loosened oxidation. I took the following photos to show the stem at this point. The second photo shows the deep tooth marks.Because the dent was round and smooth I decided to try to lift it with heat. I used a Bic lighter and “painted” the dent with the heat. It took a couple of passes of the lighter before it was smooth. The dent rose up to meet the surface of the stem. I did not need to do a fill or repair on the stem.I touched up the P stamp with white acrylic and a fine brush. I overfilled the P and let the paint dry. Once it was dry I carefully scraped it off with a sharp knife and sanded it smooth. The second photo shows the stem stamping.I took photos of the bowl at this point to show how it looked after cleaning. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I set the stem aside to dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I avoided buffing the bowl with the Blue Diamond because it would collect in the grooves and ridges of the meerschaum. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe and stem with a clean buffing pad to polish the wax on the stem. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I think this one will be a good smoking pipe for Steve once I send it back to Dawson Creek. Thanks for looking.

Back in Flight – A Pair of Mastercraft Sparkless Cigar-Pipe Zeppelins

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother sent me two Zeppelin pipes – a rusticated and a smooth one. He included the following photos of the two pipes that he took when they arrived in Idaho before he cleaned them up. The first one is a rusticated Sparkless Cigar Pipe. It has an interesting rustication pattern on the briar parts. I always want to know how a pipe is stamped as it is part of the restoration process for me. This one has quite a bit of stamping on it. Along the tip of the briar where the polished aluminum nose cone screws into the briar it is stamped PERFECTED on one side and Reg. No. MU3840 on the other. The stamping runs along the briar just below the nose cone. On the other end of the pipe, on what are the sides when the mouthpiece is in place it is stamped CENTURY OLD BRIAR ITALY on what would be the left side and on the right side it reads CIGAR-PIPE over SPARKLESS. The first two photos below show the pipe as it looks when put together.The next four photos show the stamping on the pipe and the M on the stem which told me I was dealing with a Mastercraft pipe. The last two photos show what the pipe looks like when it is taken apart.The second Cigar Pipe that my brother sent to me was a smooth one that is identical in size and shape to the rusticated one. It even bears the same stamping on the pipe. It is stamped along the briar just below the polished aluminum nose cone. On one side it reads PERFECTED and on the other side is reads Reg. No. MU3840. Like the rusticated version is stamped on what would be the sides of the shank when the stem is in place. On the left side it reads CIGAR-PIPE over SPARKLESS and on the right side it reads CENTURY OLD BRIAR ITALY. The first photo is of the pipe put together.The next three photos show the stamping on the nose cone and the shank of the pipe. The next photo shows the M stamp on this stem as well exactly like the one on the rusticated pipe above. It is thus also a Mastercraft pipe.The next photo shows what appears to be a crack on the upper portion of the cigar pipe. It would need to be checked out once I had it in hand. My brother was pretty sure that it was a fill in the briar as it did not go all the way through the piece.The next three photos show the pipe after it has been taken apart. Each of the pipes was made of four pieces. I have seen a lot of these pipes for sale in shops and on eBay but I had never had one in my hand so I had never done any research into them or what “sparked” their invention. So now that I had two of them I figure it was time to look up some information. I looked on the pipephil website and found that they were made by Mastercraft and that there were some further articles in the odd pipes section of the site. Here is the link to that part of the site. http://www.pipephil.eu/oddpipes/pipcig/sparkless2.html. The trouble is that the articles were in French. I used Google Translator to translate them into English and then did some serious editing to the translations. I am including both articles in full here. The first one is written about the smooth briar versions and the second is about the rusticated versions.

Overseas manufacturers of pipes are not deprived of market of cigar pipes based on the mythical model of the 1920s. The best-known is called Sparkless [1] and comes from the Mastercraft House which was issued in several finishes. Two of them will allow you to judge fully of these strange pipes (The article included two photos of two different smooth finishes on the pipes – a stained and an unstained version).

It should be noted on at the outset that it is stockier than its Germanic Zeppelin cousin. When the pipe is disassembled we note that the two wooden parts screw into another – one side is threaded wood on the interior of the piece and the other side has a metal threaded end that turns into the wooden threads. There may be some doubts about how well this type of connection will hold up under use. There is no place for a filter in the Sparkless pipes unlike the Zeppelin. This pipe is adapted to the tastes of American smokers.

You should know that Mastercraft had a long standing near-monopoly of imports of European briar and particularly Italian briar. This explains the stamping ITALY on the side of the pipe.

The stamping is as follows:

On one side it is stamped Cigar Pipe, Sparkless and on the other side it is stamped Century Old, Briar Italy. On the nose of the pipe it is stamped Perfected on one side and Reg. No. M.U. 3840 on the other side.

The measurements of the pipe are as follows: The length is 13.9 cm and the height is 3.2 cm.

Where the German maker, Vauen offers one model of the Zeppelin pipe, the American Mastercraft diversifies its range. To the two versions of the Sparkless model mentioned above we add here two other variations in the form of pipe, rusticated in natural finish.

These variations to this atypical pipe probably spoke to a limited audience. Let’s face it the quality of the woodwork on the two models rusticated models isn’t the most refined in the light of the criteria of the XXI century. But don’t lose sight of the variety that was offered when these pipes were made was radically new.

My preference is usually saddle bit pipes. But I confess that by comparing the Zeppelin to the Pipe-Cigar Mastercraft models, the Zeppelin has more elegance due to the continuity of the shape to the tip compared to the general shape of the Cigar-Pipe. The German made Zeppelin pipe appears as a whole very consistent where each part (tip – stove – metallic cap) is the continuation of the other. This consistency and flow is less noticeable for this North American pipe.

The complete disassembly of the pipe shows that the stem in ebonite has a condensation system reduced to its simplest expression here: a small aluminum tube. It should be noted that these systems don’t bring great benefits for smoking and on the contrary can add moisture and condensation. They are often the origin of disturbances in the draw of the pipe and cause of particularly unpleasant gurgle. But it should not hurt.

The details of the stamping nomenclature reflects that the origin of the pipes is Italian and are potentially made by Lorenzo.

The measurements of the pipe are as follows: The length is 13.9 cm and the height is 3.2 cm.

Armed with the interesting information I went to work on the two Cigar-Pipes that I had. One was the darker coloured rusticated pipe and the second was the natural coloured smooth one. I thus had two of the finishes that are mentioned in the above information.

I started with the rusticated pipe. My brother had done the lion’s share of cleanup work on both of these pipes. Judging from the internals and the externals he did a great job cleaning out all of the gunk and grime. The rusticated briar was cleaned with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap and in doing so he was able to remove the majority of the finish. The next four photos show the exterior of the pipe. The stem was oxidized and the letter M on the stem was faint. The finish was dull. The aluminum nose cone was dull. There was a fill on one side of the pipe that stood out as it was smooth and the rest of the bowl was rusticated. I took the pipe apart and took pictures of all of the parts. In the second photo below you can see the fill on the briar piece on the right side of the photo. It is silver/grey in colour so it really stands out. I circled it in red. The aluminum internals are clean. The inner tube on the stem is clean as well. I was able to slide it out of the stem and clean behind it. There was no grime there.After I took apart the rusticated one and took the photos I did the same with the smooth pipe. The smooth pipe would be the one I worked on next. Once again my brother had done the lion’s share of cleanup work. Judging from the internals and the externals he did a great job cleaning out all of the gunk and grime. The smooth briar was cleaned with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap and in doing so he was able to remove the majority of the finish. There still was a varnish coat on the briar. That would need to be wiped with acetone and sanded. The next four photos show the exterior of the pipe. The stem was oxidized and the letter M on the stem was faint. The finish was dull. The aluminum nose cone was dull. There was a fill on one side of the pipe that stood out as it was smooth and the rest of the bowl was rusticated. I took the pipe apart and took pictures of all of the parts. In the second photo below you can see what looks like a crack on the side of the briar piece on the left of the photo. It is a thin line that runs horizontal across the briar and there is a second divot next to it just out of the photo. I circled it in red. The aluminum internals are clean. The inner tube on the stem is clean as well. I was able to slide it out of the stem and clean behind it. There was no grime there.I started working on the parts on the rusticated cigar-pipe first. I decided to start with the silver grey fill and try to get it blend into the briar. I used the Dremel with a round head burr to carve lines in the fill that matched the pattern on the bowl sides. I figured if I could make the pattern match I could hide it.I stained the briar parts with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 50/50 with isopropyl alcohol. I applied the stain with a folded pipe cleaner and then flamed it. I stained both parts of the bowl with the stain and flamed them. I repeated the process until the coverage was even.I took some photos of the newly stained parts of the pipe. The first photo shows the coverage of the stain on the fill. I had used a black Sharpie Pen to fill in the newly cut grooves from the Dremel and then put the brown stain over the top.I polished the aluminum nose cone with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-2400 grit. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth.I put the pipe back together and took photos of the newly finished pipe. I set the rusticated one aside and turned to work on the smooth one. I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads to try to penetrate the varnish coat. Parts of it came off and parts stubbornly refused to move. I sanded the briar with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge and was able to get the entire varnish coat off. I wiped it down with acetone again to remove the dust.I picked out the fill that looked like a crack and filled it in with briar dust and clear super glue. Once it dried I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and the sanding sponge. Since the original Mastercraft smooth Cigar-Pipe came in a natural finish and this one appeared to have that rather than a Bruyere finish I rubbed it down with a light coat of olive oil and then gave it a coat of carnauba wax. I put the pipe back together so that I could see the finished briar portion. I put the rusticated and smooth pipes together and took some photos of the stain and finished briar parts with the polished nose cones. The pipes are looking great at this point in the process. I still had to sand both stems at this point but the briar was done and the pipes were clean. Now it was time to work on the stems. The stem on the rusticated pipe was cleaner and took less work so I did it first. I sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down with Obsidian Oil. I touched up the M stamp on the left side of the saddle with acrylic paint and a fine bristle brush. I sanded off the excess paint with the 1500-2400 grit pads. (I forgot to take a photo of that part of the process.) I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12000 grit pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. I set it aside to dry. While I worked on the stem from the rusticated pipe I had the stem from the smooth one soaking in an Oxyclean bath. It soaked for about six hours. I took it out of the soak and took the next two photos.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation that had been softened by the oxy bath.I touched up the stamping on the stem with white acrylic paint and a small fine brush. Once it dried I scraped off the excess and then polished it.The stem was a bear to clean up and remove the oxidation even after soaking in an Oxyclean soak. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down between each set of three pads with Obsidian Oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and worked over the stem quite a bit to remove the oxidation that remained. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to protect and give it a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pair of Zeppelin style Cigar-Pipes by Mastercraft is shown below. There is something about the oddness and shapes of the pipes that attract me to them. I don’t know when they will be used but when they are it should be an interesting experience. Thanks for looking.

I don’t know who made it but this LS Handmade Danish Freehand is a beauty.

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Blog by Steve Laug

The brand is unknown to me but many things about it look like a Preben Holm or Ben Wade pipe to me. The flow and lines of the bowl and stem, the well done sandblast, the smooth internal rim top all point that way to me. But I have not heard of nor have I been able to find information on the LS. The pipe is stamped Hand Made in Denmark over LS on the underside of the shank. The pipe was in great condition in terms of the finish of the bowl. It had dust in the grooves of the deep lines of the sandblast. The stain was in good shape. The smooth underside of the shank was very clean and did not have scratches. The plateau in the shank end was dirty but in good condition. The interior surface of the smooth rim top was covered in a very thick and dirty cake that flowed up from the bowl and over top. The next photo shows the flaking cake on the top of the rim and in the plateau areas around the outer edge.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the first three cutting heads to trim back the cake into the heel of the bowl. I followed that up with a Savinelli Pipe Knife to smooth out the transitions between the various cutting heads. I remove the cake back to bare briar. I also used the pipe knife to cut back the cake on the inner edges of the rim.I sanded the inner smooth portion of the rim with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tars and lava that I could not get off otherwise. I picked at the grooves, nooks and crannies in the plateau portion with a dental pick. I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol and sanded some more until the surface was smooth.I scraped the last remaining edges of cake with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I cleaned out the mortise and the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.The stem had been sitting in an Oxyclean soak overnight. Once I had the bowl cleaned I took the stem out of the bath to begin working on it. I ran a pipe cleaner through the airway in the stem to clean out any remaining debris and the oxy solution.I scrubbed it once more with the oxy solution and then rubbed the stem dry with a coarse cotton cloth. It removed a lot of the oxidation from the grooves in the stem and the surface of the stem.There was a deep, troublesome tooth mark on the top of the stem. It looks like it goes through to the airway but it does not. I probed it with a dental pick to clean out the debris in the mark and then cleaned it with some alcohol on cotton swabs to get rid of any oxy solution that might be in the hole.I waxed the sandblasted bowl and the plateau on the shank and the rim edges with Conservator’s Wax. I also waxed the smooth inner edge of the rim top with the wax. I buffed it with a shoe brush and then with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. Once the glue cured on the stem I filed it with a needle file to smooth out the patch to match the surface of the stem.I sanded it with 220 grit sand paper to remove the scratches and smooth out the surface of the patch and the tooth chatter on the underside of the stem.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wetsanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. After the final set of three I rubbed it down one last time and set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the stem and bowl with a clean buffing pad to bring a shine to the pipe. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth and deepened the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The look of the internal smooth rim with the plateau edges and the deep sandblast finish make this a beautiful pipe. I think Steve in Dawson Creek will like the way this one turned out as well. It should serve him for many more years to come. Thanks for looking. ee

Restoring a Long Diamond Shank Aldo Velani Grande 39

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe came to me through my brother. I am not sure if it was one of his eBay finds or his pipe hunting adventures. Either way it is a unique and unusual pipe. It has a long diamond shaped shank ending in a tapered diamond shaped stem with a slash of briar inserted into the Lucite. The bowl is a variation on a Dublin shape with the diamond shape of the underside of the shank carrying through to the bottom of the bowl. The rim had been obviously tapped out on some hard surface and the top and the outer edges of the rim had nicks and dents. Somewhere along the way someone had cracked the shank and put on a poorly installed Sterling silver band. The stem had some slight tooth chatter on the top and the bottom near the button and there were several small tooth marks on the underside.It is stamped Aldo Velani Grande on the left side of the shank. The centre portion of the top line of the stamp is faint. It is stamped on the right underside of the shank with the shape number 39. There was no other stamping on the shank. The stem bore an AV stamp that had originally been gold in colour but had faded. In the second photo below you can see the glue from the band oozing out onto the shank. It was that way all the way around. Someone had carelessly used the glue and not cleaned up the overflow. You can also see that the stem does not fit properly against the shank end.The stem listed to downward and to the left side of the shank and was crooked. Once I pulled the stem out I could see that the tenon was no longer straight.The next two photos show the top of the rim and the bottom of the bowl respectively. You can see the light cake and the rounding of the outer edges of the rim in the first photo. The underside of the pipe looked pristine. The finish was dirty and a bit spotty.

My brother, Jeff cleaned up the pipe. He scrubbed out the internals and the external of the pipe. When it arrived in Canada it was very clean and the finish had basically been removed. I am really growing to like having these pipes arrive cleaned and ready to restore. Thanks Jeff! The next photo shows the rim after he had cleaned up the surface. There was a burn mark on the front edge of the rim that would need to be addressed. You can clearly see all the nicks and chips in the rim edges in this photo.Once I removed the stem the band fell off in my hands. I could see the band covered a sloppy crack repair. Though the repair held and the crack was sealed there was a lot of glue. I am not sure whether it was for the crack or for the band. Either way it was over kill. The glue had hardened and somewhere along the way the silver band had picked up the ridges and valleys of the hard glue underneath.I sanded the glue until it was smooth on the shank end. I squared up the band and made the angular corner of the diamond shape more sharp. I smoothed out the dents in the band as much as possible from the inside of the band. I slid band on the shank and used a small ball-peen hammer to carefully tap the band flatter from the outside. I was able to remove much of the damage to the silver band with this process. I used a small bit of glue to hold the band snug on the shank.To take care of the rim damage and to reduce the damage to the outer edge of the rim I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded until the edge was clean and then worked on the outer edge of the rim with sandpaper. In the second photo below you can see the area where the burn has affected the outer edge at the front of the bowl.I wrapped a KleenReem pipe reamer with 220 grit sandpaper and used it to sand the interior of the bowl and clean up the inner edge of the rim.On the right side of the bowl there were two larger chips in the outer edge. I used crazy glue and briar dust to fill in the divots. Once the repair dried I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to reshape it.I heated the tenon with a Bic lighter until the tenon was flexible and then carefully inserted it into the mortise and aligned it with the shank. I held it in place until the tenon cooled. That repaired the fit of the stem to the shank.Since I was working on the stem I decided to finish polishing it. I sanded out the tooth marks and tooth chatter with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished it by wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth. Once the pipe was finished I would buff the stem and pipe together. I used European Gold Rub n’ Buff to touch up the AV stamp on the side of the stem and hand buffed the stem.I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain cut by 50% with isopropyl alcohol. I flamed it and repeated the process until I got an even coverage.I took the next set of photos to show the bowl after the stain had dried. It was too opaque for me and hid the grain on the pipe but I would deal with that in the morning. I set the pipe aside of the night and let the stain dry. In the morning I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to thin the stain coat and make the grain stand out. With the stain looking good and the stem finished I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the pictures below. It is a beautiful pipe. It is ready for whoever wants to add it to their rack. Send me a message or an email at slaug@uniserve.com if you are interested in this beauty. Thanks for looking.

Charatan Made Knudsen’s Pipe Dream Oval Shank Banker brought back to life

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Blog by Steve Laug

This great looking Banker shaped pipe is another one from the pipe man up in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. I am not sure if it was also one of his Grand dad’s pipes but it definitely has some age. It is stamped Knudsen’s Pipe Dream on top of the shank and Made in London England on the underside. From my research I am pretty confident that the pipe was made by Charatan as the shape is on their shape charts. However, it does not have the Banker shape number. I took the photos below to give an idea of the shape and the condition of the pipe when it arrived at my work table. The first thing that stood out to me is that there is a lot of promise under the grime – the birdseye grain and cross grain are peaking through. There was one fill on the underside of the bowl that was chipped but otherwise tight in the sandpit. The finish appears to be really good under the grime with no dings or dents in the briar. There was a thick cake in the bowl that runs like lava runs over the rim of the bowl. It is hard to know for sure if there is damage to the rim underneath the thick cake. The stamping is readable and the Made in London England stamp on the underside of the shank appears to have been done twice though one of them is quite faint and slightly above the other. The stem is worn and has deep tooth marks on the top and bottom sides and the button is worn. I was looking forward to working on this pipe.

I did some digging to see if I could find anything out about the brand stamp on the top of the shank. I found that there is a Knudsen’s Pipe Dream Pipe Shop in Regina, Saskatchewan. The address and phone number is as follows: 4621 Rae St, Regina SK S4S 6K6, Phone: 306-585-1616. There was also a Knudsen’s Pipe Dream sandblasted Dublin that had sold on the smokingpipes.com website. The web address and link to the pipe is https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=132697. They list it as an English made pipe. To me it also looks like a Charatan shape. I found this page from a Charatan Catalogue online. The link said that it was Charatan even though the page does not say so. I have circled the Banker shape in red in the picture below. It is in the middle column at the top of the page. The shape would thus be a 2651.I took a close up photo of the rim top to show the thickness of the cake on the rim and in the bowl. You can see why it is hard to assess what is going on with the inside of the bowl and the rim from this photo. A lot of work will need to be done before I can actually know the condition of the bowl and the rim.I also took close up photos of the stem showing the bite and tooth marks on the top and bottom near the button.I wanted to photograph the stamping as well. You can see the faint double stamping of Made in London England in the first photo and you can clearly see the name Knudsen’s Pipe Dream in the second photo.I scraped the rim with a sharp pen knife to scrape off the thick buildup. I generally do this to try to preserve the stain coat on the rim. In this case I also wanted to see if there was damage under the cake on the rim top before I topped the bowl. Once I had it scraped off I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton pad.I reamed the bowl with the PipeNet reamer and the Savinelli Pipe Knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I wanted to assess damage to the interior wall of the bowl. Thankfully there was none this time around.I repaired the chipped fill and the deep nick on the underside of the bowl with clear superglue. I did not use briar dust this time as neither repair was deep. I lightly sanded the spot with 220 grit sandpaper and then with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I cleaned out the mortise and airways in the bowl and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they were clean.I needed to repair the small groove (looks like a crack but does not go through the surface) in the button and on the surface of the stem as well as the tooth marks but before I could do that I needed to redefine the button edges. I used a needle file to recut the sharp edge and smooth out the ridges and bumps on the stem. With the file I was able to smooth out the groove on the button surface and the stem. With this done it was clear that there was not a crack. I wiped the stem down with alcohol and then built up the damaged areas with black super glue. I also repaired the spots on the underside of the stem with the black super glue. When the glue had cured I filed the repairs back until they were even with the surface of the stem. I also recut the edge following the path I had previously cut.I sanded the repaired areas and the entire stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface and to remove the oxidation.I wiped down the bowl with a light coat of olive oil to make the grain stand out and to see if there was any glaring light spots that needed to be touched up with a stain pen. It looked good. Once I polished and waxed the bowl I think it would be good to go. The photos below show the bowl at this point in the process. It really is a beautiful piece of briar. I polished the repaired stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I tried something new this time to try to defeat the frustrating oxidation on the stem. Instead of wet sanding with water I wet the stem with a light coat of olive oil and sanded it with the pads. It worked really well to cut through the oxidation. I wiped the stem dry after wet sanding and dry sanded without the oil. The finished shine is deep. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to raise the shine. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing wheel. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. I am hoping Steve enjoys this one. It is one beautiful old pipe. It helps that it carries a family story with it. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Well-Aged Double Walled Ceramic Baronite Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

Steve, a pipe man in Northern British Columbia who sent me this old Baronite pipe said it belonged to his grandfather. That makes sense to me looking at the patina on this old double walled ceramic pipe. It is darkened with age like a well cured meerschaum. I have cleaned up quite a few of these but I have not seen one darkened to this degree. It is basically a bent apple shaped pipe with a windmill and canal scene on the front of the bowl wrapping slightly onto each side. On the left side of the shank it reads Holland and on the right side Baronite. I had a memory of the Baronite stamping referring to a line of pipes from a Dutch company called GoedeWaagen. I looked it up on Pipedia: https://pipedia.org/wiki/GoedeWaagen. I found the following information that confirms that the Baronite was a line of Double Walled Ceramic pipes produced by GoedeWaagen. I quote the short article in full:

Dirck GoedeWaagen became a master pipemaker on January 1, 1779 and took on his first assistant the following month. Soon after Dirck’s grandson fell in love with and married a girl from the illustrious De Jong family, legendary in the ceramic pipemakers guild in Gouda. He built a workshop in the Keizerstraat in Gouda, which continued for two generations until his grandsom Abraham GoedeWaagen moved the company to a new location.

In 1853, Pieter Goedewaagen purchased his father-in-law’s factory “De Star”, which becomes the basis of the modern GoedeWaagen company. In approximately 1880, Abraham’s grandson Aart GoedeWaagen persuaded his father Pieter to expand the business with an eye towards more models of pipes, and P. GoedeWaagen & Sons was founded in response. Within ten years the firm had hundreds of models and P. GoedeWaagen & Son was exporting pipes around the globe.

GoedeWaagen continued to make pipes, but also began acquiring other ceramics firms, including ‘De Distel’ in 1923, and in so doing acquiring the expertise to make decorated ceramics other than clay pipes. It is at this time that the company is granted a Royal charter and by the 1930’s Royal Goedewaagen is one of the top names in dutch ceramics.

While Goedewaagen pipes were originally traditional and figural clays, after the invention of the double walled clay pipe by Zenith, also a Gouda company, Goedewaagen began producing pipes in that commonly seen style, which they marketed as The Baronite Pipe, advertised for its clean smoking and health benefits. Since the company’s bankruptcy in 1982, however, they have made only the occasional souvenir pipe, including a line commemorating Holland’s monarchs.

I have no idea when this pipe was made but at least we now know who made it and where it was made. The stem is yellow Bakelite with a threaded metal tenon. I don’t know if that is original but it is in excellent shape. It is screwed into a cork insert in the shank of the pipe. It had deep tooth marks on the top and bottom sides near the button and into the top of the button edges. The bowl in this case had a fairly thick cake of carbon built up inside. The exterior of the bowl had a lot of dirt and debris stuck to the surface of the bowl and shank. The pipe reeked of strong tobacco. The rim seemed to have some spots of either damage or flaws from the original manufacture. There was also some tar buildup on the rim top. The brass band on the shank was oxidized and dull. Overall it was a dirty pipe in need of TLC. I took this close up photo of the interior of the bowl and the rim. Note the airway at the bottom of the bowl that drops into the inner space between the two ceramic walls. The rim is also dirty with tar. In the second photo I removed the stem and you can see the crumbling cork insert. I sanded the top of the bowl with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the tar and buildup without damaging the glaze on the ceramic. I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Pipe Knife to scrape the cake back to the bare ceramic walls. Just a note – ceramic bowls like meerschaum bowls should be wiped out after each smoke to make sure that a cake does not build up in the bowl. I pulled the cork insert out of the shank and it was dry and deteriorated. I wanted to try to rejuvenate the cork but it was too far gone and crumbled in my hands. A new cork could have been purchased from a pharmaceutical supply but I have always cut and shaped my own cork inserts for these from old wine corks. I cut a piece of cork the same thickness as the insert.I traced the diameter of the old insert on the new piece of cork and cut off the excess with a sharp pen knife. I shaped it with a Dremel and sanding drum until it was round. I twisted the cork onto a drill bit the sized of the tenon.I sanded the diameter of the insert with the Dremel and sanding drum until the diameter was the same as the old insert and could be compressed into the shank of the pipe. In the photo below you can still see a slight ridge in the middle of the cork. I would need to smooth that out before I inserted it in the shank.I scrubbed out the shank and the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I was able to get a lot of the grime and grit out of the shank. I was not able to clean in the airspace between the walls using this method.I remembered reading somewhere that you could rinse out the inside of the shank and the airspace with water. I ran warm water in the shank and plugged the bowl with my thumb and vigorously shook the bowl. The warm water loosened the buildup in the airspace and soon chunks of dark tar fell out of the shank. I continued to shake and rinse the bowl until the water came out clean. The pipe began to smell fresh again.Before I left for work this morning I repaired the deep tooth marks on the stem with clear super glue and let the stem cure all day. When I got home I cleaned the threads on the metal tenon with a brass bristle brush to remove the rust and oils that had accumulated there as well.I filed the patches on the stem and recut the edges of the button and took the repairs down until they were even with the surface of the Bakelite stem.I sanded the patched areas of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and reshaped the button as well. The surface of the patch blended in on both sides of the stem. There is a slight problem in sanding the yellow Bakelite stem in that the sanded areas are lighter than the rest of the stem. Polishing the stem will minimize this but it is definitely lighter. To me a smooth stem is far better than a rough, tooth marked stem so I am willing to live with the slightly lighter stem at that point. I have also found that as the pipe is used the colour eventually blends in.I polished the stem with 1500-12000 grit 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 set of three pads. I am pretty sure that it does nothing for the Bakelite but it does give the micromesh pads more bite and add to the quality of the polishing. With the stem polished it was time to twist the cork insert onto the tenon. I have inserted them directly into the shank before but find that this method works easier and keeps the cork from breaking in the process of inserting it.Before I inserted it into the shank I rubbed the cork down with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly to soften the cork and make it easier to slip into the shank. Once the cork was greased I carefully pushed it into the shank.I hand buffed the bowl and stem with Conservator’s Wax and a soft microfibre cloth to polish it and give it a shine. I was able to clean off the grime and leave behind the rich reddish-brown patina on the bowl. I polished the brass band with 6000-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I waxed it as well. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is ready for another long life of enjoyment. It looks and smells great. The polishing of the stem minimised the lightning of the yellow so that it almost is unnoticeable. I am hoping that Steve enjoys his grand dad’s pipe and lets his mind travel to the times he remembers him smoking it. Cheers. Thanks for looking.

Underneath the Grime lay a beautiful Royal Guard 504

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a box of pipes from a friend in Dawson Creek to clean up. In trade for a few restorations he was the one who gave me the Preben Holm Pair. I asked him to prioritize which pipes he wanted me to tackle first. Number one on his list was a Stanwell made Royal Guard 504 that combines smooth and sandblast areas into the finish. It was in rough shape. The finish was dirty and worn with the brown top coat worn down. The vulcanite shank extension was oxidized and the RG stamp on the left side was faded. The bowl was thickly caked and the lava overflow on the top of the bowl was also very thick. I was a bit concerned that underneath the cake I would find burn. You can never tell – sometimes a thick cake protects the rim top and sometimes it hides a lot of rim damage. Once I got into the cleanup I would be able to tell better with this one. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was tooth chatter and bite marks on the top and the bottom sides near the button. The top edge of the button had a small dent as well. The deepest tooth mark was on the topside of the stem and would need to be repaired. But even under all the grime I could see that this pipe would be a thing of beauty once it was finished. I took a closeup photo of the rim to show how thick the cake was in the bowl and the extent of the overflow on the rim. It was very thick and quite hard.I reamed the bowl with the first three cutting heads on the PipNet reamer and then cleaned it up more with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. The amount of carbon that came out of the bowl was amazing.I used a pen knife with a thin stiff blade to carefully scrape off the buildup on the rim. It was pretty thick and hard so I slowly and carefully flaked it off with the knife.I scrubbed the bowl and rim with acetone on a cotton pad and was able to remove the grime and the buildup of wax and oils in the grooves of the sandblast.There were some scratches and nicks in the curved top of the rim that needed to be sanded out. I also sanded the inner bevel on the rim. I used 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to remove most of the damaged areas. The photo below shows the rim after quite a bit of work. There was still more sanding to do at this point.I did some more work on the rim with sandpaper and on the inner edge of the rim with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and was able to smooth out some more of the damage.I wiped down the inner edge of the bowl and the rim with alcohol to see where I stood with the rim resurfacing. It was starting to look really good.I used black super glue to repair the deep tooth mark on the top side of the stem. When it dried I sanded it and filed it smooth the surface of the stem.I sanded the shank extension with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-6000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I used some European Gold Rub n’ Buff on the stamping on the stem to refresh it.I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain cut by 50% with alcohol. I applied the stain and flamed it with a lighter. I repeated the process until I was satisfied with the coverage.I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol to even the stain coat and make it more transparent. The combination of grains in the sandblast and underneath is beautiful. I scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the airways in the shank and the stem and the mortise in the shank were clean.I buffed bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. Once I had the repair smoothed out and blended into the surface of the stem top I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. Once I had finished I set the stem aside to dry. I forgot to take a photo of the stem after sanding it with the 6000-12000 grit pads. I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am hoping the pipe man in Dawson Creek likes the new look to this old pipe. It is truly a beauty. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Pair of Preben Holm Deluxe Walnut Pipes

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked up this pair in a trade for a pipe I was selling plus some restoration work credit. They are really an interesting pair of Preben Holm pipes. I have no idea of the age or where they fall in the line of Preben’s pipes but I liked the look of the two of them. Both of them are stamped Preben Holm over Deluxe Walnut over Hand Made in Denmark on the underside of the shank. Both had a matte finish dark reddish-brown stain with identical stems. Both pipes were sitters.

The first of them was a square long shanked Dublin freehand with rounded outer edges to the bowl. The grain looked quite good on the briar but it was dirty. The rim had some heavy cake buildup on it and the bowl was thickly caked. The stamping on the underside of the shank was very sharp and clear. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was lots of tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and bottom sides near the button. The crown logo with the PH below it on the stem was faint but legible. Here are some pictures of the first pipe when it arrived. I took a close up photo of the bowl rim to give you a clear picture of what the rim and the cake looked like. It would take some careful scrubbing to remove the build up without damaging the finish.The second of the pair had a more rounded edge semi-square shank and was also a more squat Dublin freehand with rounded outer edges to the bowl. The grain on the briar looked just as good as that on the first and was just as dirty. The rim on this one also had some heavy cake buildup on it and the bowl was thickly caked. The stamping on the underside of the shank was very sharp and clear. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was lots of tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and bottom sides near the button. The crown logo on the stem was faint but legible. Here are some pictures of the second pipe when it arrived. I took a close up photo of the bowl rim to give you a clear picture of what the rim and the cake looked like. It would take some careful scrubbing to remove the build up without damaging the finish.I reamed both pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to the third head. I cleaned up the transitions with a Savinelli Pipe Knife.I scraped the tarry build up on the rims of the pipes with a pen knife I used for that. It is sharp and thin so with it I can carefully scrape the cake off the rim. I wiped the rims down with alcohol on cotton pads.I sanded the inside of the bowls with a rolled piece of sandpaper around my index finger. I was able to smooth out the inside of both of the bowls.I scrubbed out the mortises and airways in the bowls and stems with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks on both sides of both stems. All the marks were identical on both pipe stems so I am guessing that they belonged to the same smoker. The first two photos are of the first pipe’s stem and the next two are from the second pipe. I used a small brush and some white acrylic paint to touch up the crowns on the top of each stem.I waxed both bowls and buffed them on the buffing wheel. The photos below show the bowls after the cleanup and buffing. I polished the stem on the first pipe with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I got through with the 12000 grit pads I gave it another coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I repeated the polishing practice spelled out above on the second stem. The photos below show the progress of the work. I buffed the pipes with Blue Diamond on the wheel and gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipes are shown in the photos below. These two came out looking really nice. The shape and the finish of both are eye catching. Thanks for looking.

Breathing new life into a Chippendale 276 Cauldron made by Charatan

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother sent me this interesting old pipe to clean up and restore. He included some photos of what it looked like when he received it from the eBay seller. The stain colour was really nice and showed the contrast to highlight the grain. There were some nicks and dents in the briar on the bowl sides and bottom. The rim had a thin lava coat on the top. The inner and outer edges were in excellent condition. The bowl was darkened with a light cake on the bowl sides. The bottom quarter of the bowl was still light unsmoked, undarkened briar. The bowl seems to have never been smoked to the bottom. The stem was lightly oxidized with tooth marks and chatter on both the top and the bottom sides near the button. The stamping on the side of the stem was readable but looked like it was worn. This unusual old pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the block letters CHIPPENDALE. On the right side it is stamped Made in over London England and a shape number 276. On the saddle portion on the left side of the stem it bears a CD stamp. I looked for the brand on the pipephil site and found that the brand was listed there with photos of stamping identical to the one that I had. I have included the photo of the stampings courtesy of pipephil’s site.

I did some more research at the pipephil site did not give any information regarding the maker. I looked in one of my go to references, Who Made That Pipe and found that the Chippendale brand was made by Ben Wade in London. I use WMTP regularly and one of the limitations of the book is that it gives no other information. In the back of my head I had a memory of a link between Ben Wade and Charatan. That sent me on a further hunt.Further research lead me to an article on Pipedia entitled Dating of Charatans by Fabio Ferrara. The article definitively links the Chippendale pipes to Charatan. I quote from the section on Pipedia entitled Identification of Fifth Era Pipes in full with the information the Chippendale stamping highlighted in bold and underlined. Here is the link: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dating_of_Charatans

Identification of a fifth era pipe (First Dunhill era, 1977-1981)

Dunhill finally acquired Lane Ltd. in April 1976. To be honest this era should begin that year, however to clarify matters, knowing that during the first months everything changed in the production, I assume the beginning of this era to be 1977.

The characteristics of this era are close to the previous one, except for the absence of the LANE symbol (approx. ending of 1980).

In this very first period Dunhill didn’t change the production site and the original methods, making plans for the future, and the real revolution took place in 1982.

You may come across a pipe of the ‘old generation’, it is important to note that if the DC has been added later, it is often out of line with the shape code.

The Belvedere series is sold as a special, named the Chippendale brand, exclusively for Tinderbox.

1) The mouthpiece is frequently double comfort, rarely saddle without the double comfort, never tapered. If the stem is not a double comfort but a saddle one, it is characterized by the letter X on the right of the shape code (e.g. 2502X), naturally in this case the letters DC are not displayed.

2) In the CP logo, the C enters the P (until approx. 1980).

3) Absence of £ on the shank (from the end of 1980 approx., this is because during the first period Dunhill kept the £, as Lane Ltd was property of Dunhill that could use its trademark).

4) Presence of the letter DC just after the shape number (e.g. 2502 DC) or of the letter X only if the stem is not a double comfort one.

5) Presence of the writing “Made by Hand – In – City of London” (until 1979).

6) The pipes marked Chippendale are just a Belevedere series, On the mouthpiece, instead of the CP they display CD.

From the above information it appears that the Chippendale stamping was put on pipes that were made Charatan and sold by Tinderbox in the US. They are essentially Charatan Belvedere series pipes. Now that I knew that it was time to work on the pipe. I took the next four photos to show what the pipe looked like after my brother cleaned it up with his usual thoroughness and I received it here in Vancouver. I took some close up photos of the rim and the stem to show the condition of both. The rim is very clean except for a light build up on the front and the back side of the rim top. The photos of the stem show the tooth chatter on both sides and a deep tooth mark on the top side and underside of the stem. I also took a close up photo of the stamping on the stem. The logo is a CD instead of the CP for Charatan just as was noted in the research. It was faint so it would need to be touched up after the stem was cleaned.I ran some cotton swabs and alcohol through the shank and the mortise. It was very clean as my brother had done a great job cleaning it. I ran some pipe cleaners through the stem. The slot in the button had some hardened tars in it. I picked the slot open with a dental pick before cleaning the inside of the stem.There were some deep nicks and divots in the surface of the briar on the front and the left side of the bowl. I filled them with drops of clear super glue.Once it dried I sanded the repairs even with the surface of the briar using 220 grit sandpaper. I then sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.I touched up the sanded repairs with a dark brown stain touch up pen. I gave the bowl two coats of Conservator’s Wax. When it dried I buffed the bowl by hand.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove the tooth chatter and the tooth mark on the underside of the stem. I also sanded the rest of the underside to remove the oxidation. I sanded the topside tooth marks. I was able to remove the tooth chatter but the deep tooth mark needed to be repaired. I cleaned the tooth mark with a cotton swab and alcohol and then filled it with black super glue.I painted the logo on the stem with a white acrylic paint and a small paint brush. I sanded the excess paint off the side of the stem and left the paint in the stamping.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and hand polished it. I polished the stem after sanding it with 220 grit sandpaper with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. When I finished sanding with the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish it. I gave the bowl and the stem 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. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. To me it has the look of a Charatan and with the history I found it turns out it is one. The pipe was made for Tinderbox to be sold in the US. This one is available to anyone who wants to add it to their rack. Send me a message or an email to slaug@uniserve.com. Thanks for looking.

Revitalizing a Savinelli de luxe Milano 118KS

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe came to me from my brother. I am not sure if he found it in one of his antique shop forays between Idaho and Nebraska or on a recent trip to California or even if he found it on eBay. It really doesn’t matter in the long run where it came from. Though sometimes I wish that the pipes I cleaned up could talk and tell their stories. It was obviously a favourite of the pipeman who owned it. It was well smoked but not broken down. The pipe is stamped on the smooth underside of the bowl and the shank with clear and distinct markings. On the bottom of the bowl it reads Savinelli over de luxe over Milano. Next to that it was stamped with the Savinelli Shield logo and the shape number 118KS. Under that is stamped Italy. It is a standard Pot shaped pipe with a large bowl that is one inch in diameter.

The sandblast shown on the pipe in these photos is stunning. Even under the tar, oils and dirt the pipe is quite beautiful. The bowl had a fairly thick cake that had overflowed onto the rim and filled in the grooves. The dust and dirt had filled many of the grooves of the blast on the sides of the bowl and the shank. The stem was oxidized but was high quality vulcanite. In the photos below it is inserted upside down with the brass/gold bar that generally was on the left side of the saddle was turned to the right side. There was some tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem. On the top side of the stem (which was turned upside down) there was a deep tooth mark.

My brother took these three photos before he cleaned up the pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet reamer to rid the bowl of the cake and scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the tars and grime. He cleaned out the airway in the shank, the mortise and the stem airway and removed all of the tar that had collected there.When the pipe arrived it was spotless. The sandblast really stood out with clarity as can be seen in the next set of four photos. The ring grain, the birdseye and even the flame grain showed but there was also an under grain that shown through that was beautiful as well. I took some close up photos of the pipe. The first shows the stamping on the bottom of the bowl. You can see the clear markings on the pipe and how they stand out on the flat smooth bottom of the bowl and the shank. The second photo shows the rim. There was still light dust and grit in the grooves of the rim.I also took some close up photos of the stem. I turned it right side up and the tooth mark on the topside near the button is visible in the first photo below. The underside of the stem showed some tooth chatter. Both sides are oxidized.I used a brass bristle brush to clean out the debris from the grooves in the rim top. It did not take much but once finished the rim was not as dark. I ran a couple of cotton swabs and alcohol through the shank and it was very clean.I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove dust from the bowl surface in preparation for staining the bowl. I applied some dark brown stain thinned by 50% with isopropyl alcohol using a folded pipe cleaner. I flamed the stain and then repeated the process.I hand buffed the bowl with a microfibre cloth to raise a shine. The next four photos show the bowl after the initial hand buffing. The grain really stands out clearly in these photos. I sanded out the bite marks with 220 grit sandpaper. Thankfully they were not as deep as I thought and were easily removed. I sanded the oxidation as well and gave the stem a general workover.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. I gave the stem a final rubdown with the oil after sanding with the 12000 grit pad and set it aside to dry.

I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish it. I used a light touch on the bowl so as not to get the polish stuck in the grooves of the sandblast. The stem took some work to polish off some of the stubborn oxidation at the shank stem union. I polished the stem with multiple coats of carnauba wax a buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand waxed the bowl with Conservator’s Wax and buffed the bowl with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe and stem with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It is a great looking pipe with an amazing sandblast finish that is worth taking the time to look at. Thanks for looking.