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Cleaning up another Bellingham Pipe Hunt Find, a Sasieni Mayfair 52N Apple

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By Steve Laug

We met up at a local eatery and had a great breakfast together with our aunt. We took her to her residence afterwards and visited with her for most of the morning. Together we headed to Old Town Bellingham to begin our pipe hunt. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles of the shop looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. In the first shop there was a rack and in it were two pipes. The first was a Sasieni Royal Stuart Billiard and the second was a Sasieni Mayfair Apple. Both were great and were added to the hunt bag. Here is the link to the blog on the hunt and a photo of the pipes we added (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/). Both were dirty but both contained the Sasieni Magic – classic shapes and nice briar. The next pipe on the work table is the second Sasieni a Mayfair Apple which is the upper pipe in the photo below. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and has a rugby ball stamp Made in England next to the shank/bowl junction. That is followed by Sasieni [over] Mayfair. On the right side it has the shape number 52N next to the bowl/shank junction followed by London Made stamped mid shank. The stem has an M logo on the topside. The bowl had a thick cake and a thick lava overflow on the rim. It was hard to estimate the condition of the rim top with the cake and lava coat but I was hoping it had been protected from damage. It appeared that the outer edge was in decent condition. The finish was a classic Sasieni smooth. The finish was dusty and tired but had some nice grain under the grime and the finish appeared to be in good condition. There were a few nicks in the surface on the left side of the bowl. A lot would be revealed once I had cleaned it. The stem was dirty, oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and tooth marks near the button on both sides. I took photos of the pipe before I stated my cleanup work. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. The bowl had a thick cake in it and an overflow of lava on the top of the rim. The previous pipeman had left a mess for me to clean up. The stem was also is a mess. There was some tooth marks and dents on the top and underside ahead of the button. There was a thick coat of calcification and oxidation on the stem. M logo stamp on top of the stem was clear and readable.I took photos of the stamping on the right and left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts. It is a beautiful pipe. The stinger apparatus is missing and the airway in the tenon is the same as the Royal Stuart that I worked on (https://rebornpipes.com/2024/06/16/cleaning-up-another-bellingham-pipe-hunt-find-a-sasieni-royal-stuart-55-billiard/). As is my usual practice I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni2.html) to look for any information on the Mayfair line. It was not listed in the original Sasieni list but it did come up in the Sasieni Seconds list. It was listed there and I did a screen capture of the section and have included it below. The logo on the pipe stem I was working on is stamped like the third one below. The shank stamp was like the one in the third photo below. From that information I knew that I was dealing with a Family Era Sasieni with the white M logo that was used on these older ones. That placed the date before 1979 when the company was sold.

From there I turned to Pipedia and read through the history of the brand. It confirmed the date of manufacture as pre-1979. At the bottom of the Pipedia article there was a 1965 catalogue. I have included the link to the catalogue (https://pipedia.org/images/1/1b/Sasieni_1965.pdf). Page six of the catalogue had a listing of the Sasieni lines and on the top right column the Mayfair was shown.

Page seven below gives a great description of the Mayfair line. It reads: Mayfair – these handsome pipes are remarkable for their good looks and sweet smoking qualities. Men who know and enjoy good pipes appreciate their tailored appearance and the superior craftsmanship in these “Mayfair” bruyeres. Smooth Tawny Natural finish only. Excellent value for the smoker seeking a medium priced pipe. Now I knew that is was not a second at all at this point in time. It was rather a well made pipe selected for its tailored appearance and superior craftsmanship on a medium priced pipe. That also pushed the date back to at 1965. The catalogue also had a shape photo that matched the numbers on the pipe I am working on. The shape 52 was known as a Hurlingham and was used in quite a few of the Sasieni lines for that large Apple. I have included a screen capture of the shape photo in the catalogue.There was also a shape chart on Pipedia and I have saved the page that included the shape of the 52N (Hurlingham) (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Sasnieni_Shapes.jpg).Now I knew what I was working on. It was a pre-1965 Apple in the Hurlingham shape in an early version of the Mayfair and in Smooth Tawny Natural finish that had taken on some colour through smoking. Now it was time to start my work on it. I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and the third cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl internals by sanding the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good with no checking or cracking to the walls. I scraped the heavy lava on the rim top with the edge of the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I was able to remove the majority of the build up. The rest would come up after I scrubbed the bowl.I decided to scrub the bowl with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Briar Cleaner. He had sent me a sample to try out so this was the first pipe to try it out on. I shook the jar to make sure it was well mixed. I applied it to the surface of the briar bowl and the filthy rim top with my finger tips. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and wiped it off with a cotton pad to remove the grime and the residual product left on the briar.  It looked much better once I had cleaned it. I rinsed it off with warm water and dried the briar with a cotton cloth. There were still some flecks of paint and debris on the briar and the rim top still had some lava that I needed to remove. I wiped the bowl with a cotton pad and acetone and cleaned off the remainder of the debris and the briar looked very good. With the externals cleaned it was now time to work on the internals of the mortise, shank and airway in the stem. I scraped the walls of the shank with a dental spatula and took a lot of tars and oils out with the spatula. From there I cleaned up the debris with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the smell was gone. I cleaned the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used both bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners to clean out the oils and tars. I scoured out the open tenon with a cotton swab. It came out looking much better. I set the stem aside and went back to working on the bowl. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris that was left behind. By the time I finished the last pad the briar was very smooth and clean to the touch. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to really shine with the polishing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the briar with my finger tips. The product works well to clean, enliven and protect the briar and really brings it back to life. I have been using it for quite a few years now and really like the way it makes the briar come alive and makes the grain pop. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift them all. I blended the remaining marks into the surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I worked on the oxidation on the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads. I find that the product really cut through the deep oxidation and removes it well. I worked on both side of the stem and was pleased that it did no harm the “M” stamp on the topside of the stem.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to blend in the scratch marks from the 220 grit sandpaper and to remove the residual oxidation that still remained. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a more normal shine and the oxidation, tooth marks and chatter were gone.I decided to touch up the M stamp on the top of the stem at this point. I used an acrylic white fingernail polish and it dries hard and matches very well. I applied it with the brush in the cap and worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. Once it was cured I lightly sanded it off with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Sasieni Mayfair 52N Apple with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Natural Sasieni finish that has some great grain standing out. The polished vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Made in England Sasieni Mayfair 52N Apple is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.76 ounces/50 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Cleaning up another Bellingham Pipe Hunt Find – a Sasieni Royal Stuart 55 Billiard

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By Steve Laug

We met up at a local eatery and had a great breakfast together with our aunt. We took her to her residence afterwards and visited with her for most of the morning. Together we headed to Old Town Bellingham to begin our pipe hunt. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles of the shop looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. In the first shop there was a rack and in it were two pipes. The first was a Sasieni Royal Stuart Billiard and the second was a Sasieni Mayfair Apple. Both were great and were added to the hunt bag. Here is the link to the blog on the hunt and a photo of the pipes we added (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/). Both were dirty but both contained the Sasieni Magic – classic shapes and nice briar. The next pipe on the work table is the Sasieni Royal Stuart which is the lower pipe in the photo below. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and has a rugby ball stamp Made in England next to the shank/bowl junction. That is followed by Sasieni [over] Royal Stuart. On the right side it has the shape number 55 next to the bowl/shank junction followed by London Made stamped mid shank. The stem has an RS logo on the topside. The bowl had a thick cake and almost a half bowl of tobacco filling it. There was a thick lava overflow on the rim. It was hard to estimate the condition of the rim top with the cake and lava coat but I was hoping it had been protected from damage. It appeared that the outer edge was in decent condition. The finish was a classic Sasieni smooth. The finish was dusty and tired but had some nice grain under the grime and the finish appeared to be in good condition. A lot would be revealed once I had cleaned it. The stem was dirty, oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and tooth marks near the button on both sides. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. The bowl is over half full with burned tobacco and debris. It is unburned just below the surface of the ash. I always wonder when I find a bowl filled like this what happened to the pipeman who had the pipe before. Was he suddenly called out during a smoke? Did something happen to him after he laid the bowl down that kept him from coming back and finishing his smoke. I guess know one will ever know. It left a mess for me to clean up. The stem was also is a mess. There was some tooth marks and dents on the top and underside ahead of the button. There was a thick coat of calcification and oxidation on the stem. RS logo stamp on top of the stem was clear and readable.I took photos of the stamping on the right and left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts. It is a beautiful pipe. The stinger apparatus was filthy and clogged with tar and oils in the spear end and all the spirals. It is aluminum but you would never know that from looking at it.As is my usual practice I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni2.html) to look for any information on the Royal Stuart line. It was not listed in the original Sasieni list but it did come up in the Sasieni Seconds list. It was listed there and I did a screen capture of the section and have included it below. The logo on the pipe stem I was working on is stamped like the second one below. The shank stamp was like the one in the third photo below. While this was helpful it did not get me any closer to establishing a date for the pipe. I turned to Google and did a quick search there. It came up with a Worthpoint article that I have included along with the photos below (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sasieni-family-era-royal-stuart-139465999).This COLLECTIBLE BRIAR PIPE is an OLD “FAMILY-ERA” SASIENI in the CLASSIC CANADIAN Shape!!! It is a Dunhill Group 4 Size. Although like most non-dotted Sasieni’s it does not have a “Town Name” (which Sasieni used in lieu of Shape Numbers), Sasieni connoisseurs will recognize this as the ever-popular “Amesbury” Shape (#44 on the Sasieni Shape Charts)! It comes from one of Sasieni’s oldest and most popular lines – – – the “ROYAL STUART”!!! It is one of the OLDEST ROYAL STUART’s because it has the ORIGINAL “RS” OVERSTAMPED LOGO (with the “R” Stamped over the “S” or vice versa)! For those who have not experienced the quality of Sasieni Pipes, this is an outstanding opportunity that does not require the commitment of a substantial investment as do many higher graded Sasieni’s! In the early Sasieni History after the short reign of the One Dot, Sasieni Eight Dots, the Four Dots became the top-of-the-line throughout most of the “Family Era” (or the time during which the Sasieni Family continued in ownership and operated the company including the quality control). Pipes that were not quite good enough to receive a higher grade became Two Dots or “Claret” One Dots. At the same time and throughout the history of the Company, Sasieni also offered a wide variety of non-dotted pipes beginning with their earliest catalogs. Many of those early lines like “His Royal Highness,” “The Henley Club” and “The Friar” disappeared into the rich lore of Sasieni History. But the “ROYAL STUART” survived the test of time and continued throughout the Family Era. During the “FAMILY ERA,” the finish often became the distinguishing characteristic between lines of “non-dotted” Sasieni’s. Mayfair’s were “Smooth Tawny Natural finish,” and Old England’s started as rusticated pipes while Royal Stuart’s were natural smooth or “deep plum” colored . Their great popularity quickly caused Sasieni to expand the Royal Stuart line to include “carved rusticated finish” pipes, too! And, the Royal Stuart became one of the longest-running “workhorses” among all Sasieni lines! Royal Stuart’s were advertised as an “outstanding quality and rare value” pipe but it was the bowl selection process that separated this line from others. Sasieni explained: “These bowls are selected for their fine grain conformation.” And this Canadian is a good example! Much of the Bowl has BIRDSEYE on the sides with DIAGONAL CROSS GRAIN which is actually more like STRANDS OF FLAME GRAIN on the front and back!!! The FLAME GRAIN continues on both sides of the Shank where it becomes PERPENDICULAR, PARALLEL STRAIGHT GRAIN!!! The NATURAL SMOOTH Finish has mellowed into a LIGHT WALNUT BROWN PATINA and there are NO dents, chips or scratches which detract from the beauty of the finish! A few small sandpits or sandspots keep the Pipe from perfection (and undoubtedly kept it from becoming a “dotted” Sasieni)! NO varnish, lacquer or shellac has been added to improve the finish for the pictures and temporarily conceal scratches and toothmarks! And, NO coating has been applied to the inside of the bowl to hide cracks, heat fissures and even burn-outs! The Pipe shines as it did when it came from the factory! This Canadian is 6″ LONG with a Bowl just OVER 1 3/4″ TALL!!! The nomenclature is crisp and clear: “Sasieni [in script], ROYAL STUART, LONDON MADE, MADE IN ENGLAND [in the classic Sasieni “football” shape], 44N”. The very oldest White Sasieni “RS” Overstamped Logo used on Royal Stuart’s remains mostly visible on the original bit! This is an unusual and collectible old Sasieni that is in PRISTINE CONDITION!!! It is an excellent entry-level Sasieni collectible! If the CONDITION of your eBay purchase is of importance to you, you will not find a better Sasieni Royal Stuart on eBay. Particularly because of its condition, this Royal Stuart is a bargain priced collectible! This Sasieni Canadian has been refurbished and is ready to smoke. There are no toothmarks on the mouthpiece and no carbon build-up on the Rim of the bowl.

From that information I knew that I was dealing with a Family Era Sasieni with the white overstamped RS logo that was used on these older ones. That placed the date before 1979 when the company was sold.

From there I turned to Pipedia and read through the history of the brand. It confirmed the date of manufacture as pre-1979. At the bottom of the Pipedia article there was a 1965 catalogue. I have included the link to the catalogue (https://pipedia.org/images/1/1b/Sasieni_1965.pdf). Page six of the catalogue had a listing of the Sasieni lines and on the top left column the Royal Stuart was shown.

Page seven below gives a great description of the Royal Stuart line. It reads: Royal Stuart a sweet smoking pipe of fine smoking quality bruyere. Finished to a satin smoothness in both light natural and deep plum. These bowls are selected for their fine grain conformation.Now I knew that is was not a second at all at this point in time. It was rather a well made pipe selected for its fine grain conformation. That also pushed the date back to at 1965. The catalogue also had a shape photo that matched the numbers on the pipe I am working on. The shape 55 was known as a Buckingham and was used in quite a few of the Sasieni lines for that large Billiard. I have included a screen capture of the shape photo in the catalogue.There was also a shape chart on Pipedia and I have saved the page that included the shape of the 55 (Buckingham) (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Sasnieni_Shapes.jpg).Now I knew what I was working on. It was a pre-1965 Billiard in the Buckingham shape in an early version of the Royal Stuart and in the light Natural finish that had taken on some colour through smoking. Now it was time to start my work on it. I used a dental spatula to remove the dried tobacco in the bottom half of the bowl. It was too dry and to compromised to determine the type of tobacco but I could tell that it was not an aromatic as there was no smell in the tars and oils in the shank and on the stinger.I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and the third cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl internals by sanding the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good with no checking or cracking to the walls. I scraped the heavy lava on the rim top with the edge of the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I was able to remove the majority of the build up. The rest would come up after I scrubbed the bowl.I decided to scrub the bowl with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Briar Cleaner. He had sent me a sample to try out so this was the first pipe to try it out on. I shook the jar to make sure it was well mixed. I applied it to the surface of the briar bowl and the filthy rim top with my finger tips. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and wiped it off with a cotton pad to remove the grime and the residual product left on the briar.  It looked much better once I had cleaned it. I rinsed it off with warm water and dried the briar with a cotton cloth. There were still some flecks of paint and debris on the briar and the rim top still had some lava that I needed to remove. I wiped the bowl with a cotton pad and acetone and cleaned off the remainder of the debris and the briar looked very good. With the externals cleaned it was now time to work on the internals of the mortise, shank and airway in the stem. I scraped the walls of the shank with a dental spatula and took a lot of tars and oils out with the spatula. From there I cleaned up the debris with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the smell was gone. In order to clean out the shank I needed to remove the stinger apparatus from the tenon. I heated the stinger with a lighter and the goo softened enough to be able to remove the singer. I then cleaned the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used both bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners to clean out the oils and tars. I used a tooth brush and a brass bristle wire brush to clean off the stinger at the same time. I scoured out the open tenon with a cotton swab. It came out looking much better. I set the stem aside and went back to working on the bowl. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris that was left behind. By the time I finished the last pad the briar was very smooth and clean to the touch. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to really shine with the polishing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the briar with my finger tips. The product works well to clean, enliven and protect the briar and really brings it back to life. I have been using it for quite a few years now and really like the way it makes the briar come alive and makes the grain pop. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift them partially. I cleaned out the tooth marks with alcohol and q-tip then filled in the ones that remained with some rubberized, black CA glue. Once the glue cured I flattened out the repairs and recut the button edge with small files to start the process of blending them into the surface of the vulcanite. I further blended then with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the varnish coat that covered it. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a more normal shine and the varnish, tooth marks and chatter were gone. Once I finished with the sanding pads I reinserted the stinger apparatus in the tenon. I used a small blade to spread the gap in the end of the insertion part and pressed into the tenon. It is really a strange looking piece of aluminum. I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Sasieni Royal Stuart 55 Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Natural Sasieni Royal Stuart finish that has some great grain standing out. The polished vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Made in England Sasieni Royal Stuart 55 Billiard is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.73 ounces/49 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Fresh Life for a 1976 Dunhill Shell Briar 126 3S Billiard

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a lovely Dunhill small sandblast Billiard shaped briar pipe. We purchased it from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 01/22/2024. It is a classic Dunhill Sandblast Billiard shaped bowl. It has a sandblast, rich brown stained bowl that really highlights the grain in the briar. The bowl is dirty with grime in the finish. There also appears to be a shiny varnish coat over the grime in the sandblast. There appears to be a varnish coat on the stem as well. The bowl has a moderated cake and a light lava overflow on the sandblast rim top and edges. The stamping on the pipe is clear and readable and on the under side it reads 126 the shape number [followed by] Dunhill [over Shell Briar. That is followed by Made in England the superscript date number 16 is stamped after the D in England. There is a circle 3S following the date stamp that identifies the pipe as a group 3 sized pipe in a Shell finish. The stem had a white spot that is damaged and shrunken on the top side of the taper. It is lightly oxidized and has tooth chatter and deep tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. The sad thing is that once again the stem is covered with a varnish coat. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. You can see the shiny coat on top of the finish and the grime in the photos. He also took photos of the stem to capture the tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a sense of the sandblast finish on this one. Even under the grime and shiny varnish coat in the grooves the blast is quite beautiful. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable though it is faint in some spots. I wanted to unpack the Dunhill stamping on the shank and work to understand each element of the stamp. I generally use the Pipephil site to gather as much initial information as possible (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The number 126 is the shape number for a taper stem Billiard. The Shell Briar stamp refers to the finish. The underlined, superscript number 16 following the D of England would give the date the pipe. The circle 3S tells me that the pipe is a group 3 sized pipe and the S is for the Shell finish. The photo below is of the stamping on a Don shape but the stamping is similar on this one.Pipephil also has some helpful dating keys on the site that are basically flow charts that you can walk through to date your pipe (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1.html). I turned to Part 1 of the Dating Key and followed the chart. This pipe has 16 following the D in England. There was no patent number so that took me to the section on the chart below (column one) which instructed me that the pipe could be dated as being made “posterior to 1954”.I followed the link under “Your pipe is posterior to 1954. Narrow down your dating”. That took me to Page 2 of the dating key (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The second column – suffic [1…4] or [11…39] led me to the next section. Since the 16 after the D in England the date of the pipe spelled as 1960 + 16 making the date 1976.I then turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Shell Briar to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Shell

A deep craggy sandblast with a black stain finish (usually made using Algerian briar) – the color of the stain used has varied over the years. Although there is some doubt as to them being the first to sandblast pipes, Dunhill’s Shell pipes, and the sandblasting techniques developed to create them are considered one of Dunhill’s greatest and most lasting contributions to the art of pipe making.

The documented history of Dunhill’s inception of the Shell is largely limited to patent applications — there are no catalog pages or advertisements promoting blasted pipes at the time. The preliminary work on the English patent (No. 1484/17) was submitted on October 13, 1917. The patent submission was completed half a year later, on April 12, 1918, followed by the granting of the English patent on October 14, 1918. This was less than a month before the end of The Great War on November 11th.

In 1986 Dunhill released a line of premium Shell finish pipes – “RING GRAIN”. These are high-quality straight grain pipes which are sandblasted. Initially only Ring Grain, but now in two different finishes. In 1995 the “Shilling” was introduced with Cumberland finish – it is an extremely rare series. These pipes exhibit a deeper blast characteristic of that of the 1930’s – mid-1960’s (and the limited ‘deep blast’ pipes of the early 1980s) and show a fine graining pattern. These are considered the best new Dunhills by many enthusiasts today and are very rare. The finish is sometimes described as tasting like vanilla at first, with the taste becoming more normal or good as the pipe breaks in.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. His scrubbing removed the varnish on the bowl with just a few spots remaining. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The soak did not penetrate the varnish on the stem at all but it certainly looked better. Other than the shiny spots in the finish where the varnish remained, the pipe looked very good when I received it. You can also see the sunken state of the white spot on the stem surface. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. It looks good with the tars and oils removed from the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl was in excellent condition. The bowl itself was very clean. The stem came out clean but the varnish coat remained and discoloured the white spot. The photos clearly pick up the shrunken white spot on the stem top. The varnish coat gave the whole stem an artificial shine that hid the tooth marks and chatter underneath.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The photo shows the stamping and it is very readable other than the date stamp which is visible in person. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. I think once the varnish is removed the pipe will be a nicer looking piece.The briar was actually very clean and the varnish coat had been eliminated on the bowl so I had a bit of an easier job than on the previous 126 that had a heavy varnish coat. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes (it varies how long I leave it not for any specific reason but because I get preoccupied with other things). Once it has done its magic I buff it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe really comes alive with the balm. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the varnish coat that covered it. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a more normal shine and the varnish, tooth marks and chatter were gone. With that done I was ready to address the shrunken and discoloured white spot.Once I hard removed the varnish coat I cleaned up the sunken white spot with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. I was able to remove the staining on the spot and the grime that had built up in the hole. It was now ready for the patch. Mark Hoover has some small white acrylic dots that can be used to fill in the hole in the stem top.  I followed Mark’s direction and put one acrylic dot into a small amount of acetone for a couple of seconds. I then pushed it into the hole with some tweezers. Mark had said that if the drilled hole goes a bit deeper and is not to the level with the surface of the stem then wait a minute or two and put another on top. I let it harden and then I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This 1976 Dunhill Shell Briar 126 Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish that is very deep and craggy. The Shell Briar mixed brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a unique sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The removal of the varnish gave a clearness to the stem surface. The polished vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Dunhill Shell Briar 126 Billiard is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.13 ounces/32 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

New Life for a GBD Speciale Standard London England 788 D Bent Apple

4 Replies

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is an English made oval shank bent Apple with a classic brown finish. It is a combination reddish brown stains. The pipe came to us from a lot that we bought from a Facebook auction from Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, USA on 01/29/2024. The pipe is very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top. The rim edge looks good but it was hard to know what was under the lava coat on the top and edges. It is stamped on the top and the underside of the shank. On the topside it reads GBD in an oval [over] Speciale [over] Standard. On the underside it is stamped London, England [over] the shape number 788 followed by the letter D. The finish was dusty and there were oils and grime ground into the finish around the sides of the bowl. The stem is a vulcanite saddle stem with grime on the surface and tooth chatter and deep marks ahead of the button on both sides. There is an inlaid GBD oval medallion on the top of the saddle stem. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. Jeff took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of the pipe. There was a thick cake in the bowl and a build up of lava on the smooth rim top. It is also built up on the inner edge of the bowl. The stem photos show the grime and the deep tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the finish on the pipe. It is a unique stain on it that really shows the grain around the bowl sides. He took two photos to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted aboveI turned to PipePhil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-gbd.html) to see what I could find. The site had nothing particular on the GBD Speciale Standard line of pipes.

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD) to see if there was info the brand. It is a great read in terms of history but there was nothing giving details on a GBD Xtra Straight Grain.

The claims after the 1st World War demanded further distinctions. First of all was the London Made, which became the Standard London Made, followed by the New Era– in 1931 the top model asking 12½ Shilling. The Pedigree, although sketched around 1926, was not produced until the later 1930s. The New Standard was introduced in order to give the popular Standard of the 20s a higher rank in value. The Prehistoric, a deeply sandblasted black pipe, that still carried the small GBD Xtra stamp, was entirely new and unusual.

The French GBDs more or less followed the same developments, although Xtra and Speciale very longly used there. In the late 1920s a GBD with a metal filter system was introduced under the name Extra Dry. Also, from Paris came another important new feature: the introduction of the inserted metal plate with the GBD initials on the stems. That insert added a further “touch of class” to the pipes and in London it was attached immediately.

From that small note I knew that I was working on a post WW1 Pipe that carried the GBD Speciale Standard stamp.

I then followed a link at the end of the article to another article on Pipedia about model information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Model_Information). There I found a note to the Speciale stamp that stated Production in France.

Further on in the thread on the Speciale pipe I found this response by snagstangl that reads as follows:

I was re reading a Jacques Cole article concerning GBDs titled “Story of a Pipe Brand” it had this to say about this topic:

“We have seen that early Briar GBDs were made in only one, later two qualities and the need to mark the difference did not arise. There were few finishes but towards the end of the 19th century demand was changing, for instance the UK had a “penchant” for the darker finishes. Qualities were therefore sub-divided and we see the introduction of the GBD XTRA (note the spelling). The GBD Speciales were as the name implied, special models, finishes and fittings. GBD XTRAs were the cream, being mostly straight grains. The “ordinary* quality was simply
stamped GBD. Demand after the First World War called for further identification starting with GBD ‘London Made* which became ‘Standard London Made*, followed by GBD “New Era’, top of the range in 1931 at 12/6d! GBD ‘Pedigree’, although first thought of around 1926, was well established in the late 1930s. GBD “New Standard’ was created to give a boost to the “Standards’ of the 1920s and a newly introduced sandblast was called GBD ‘Prehistoric’, still bearing a small GBD ‘Xtra* stamp. French made GBDs followed more or less the same ideas, still however using ‘Xtra’ and ‘Speciale’ while in the late ’20s a metal system GBD was introduced under the name GBD ‘Extra Dry*. The 1920s also saw an important development with the introduction of the metal GBD inlay on mouthpieces which gave the pipes that extra ‘touch of class’. This inlay has been used on GBDs for nearly 60 years.”

That was followed by a response from osiris01:

I started with either this text or one using it as source and it does explain well the reason for creating, first the Xtras and Speciales, and later, the other graded lines like New Era, Pedigree etc. The problem is that the Xtra and Speciale were discontinued in 1937/8 (Pipedia et al) because the new lines provided a more refined grading system. And yet, the Xtra was listed in the catalogs until 1950.

My guess is that the French factory continued with the Xtra, for a reason unknown to me. The only evidence I have of this is a badly translated sentence from Pipedia that describes the process of creating additional lines. It reads “The French GBDs more or less followed the same developments, although Xtra and Speciale very longly used there.” What ‘Longly used there’ means I don’t know, but somewhere was still making them, and if you translate ‘longly’ as ‘longer’, it does imply that they continued making them for a longer period. It’s a far from perfect explanation but, as I said, they were still being made somewhere and it does imply that the French factory were responsible. However, they were different to the Xtras made in the 20s/30s since the later ones had a chamfered rim, different stems etc.

However, reading you text again, I wonder if the it is hinting at a COM. “Demand after the First World War called for further identification starting with GBD ‘London Made* which became ‘Standard London Made*,”. It doesn’t say that a COM was not used before then (that would be too easy), but you wouldn’t stamp a pipe “Xtra, London Made, London Made” or similar.

I just don’t have enough evidence, reference points, old models to compare against etc. Even describing it as an educated guess is still stretching it a bit. The best guess, perhaps.

However, what I do know is that the 1930s Xtras were fitted with a specific stem with an unusual button called the ‘curved wafer tip of comfort’ (just rolls off the tongue). The following images shows the detail from a 1938 catalogue and the button on my pipe, and to my eye, they are the same. Not in any way conclusive, but it’s the best I’ve been able to come up with.

Now I knew that I was dealing with a French made GBD Speciale Standard created in the 1950s.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish on the bowl looked really good when I got it. The rim top and edges looked very good. He soaked the twin bore stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer bath to remove the oxidation. The stem looked better and the deep tooth marks and chatter on the surface were also visible. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked much better than when he found it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it.  I took photos of the condition of the rim top and stem before I started working. The rim top looks very good and the bowl is spotless. The stem is much better but still shows some oxidation and tooth chatter and deep marks on both sides near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I took the bowl and stem apart and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe. Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. The bowl was in very good condition so I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift them partially. I cleaned out the tooth marks with alcohol and q-tip then filled in the ones that remained with some rubberized, black CA glue. Once the glue cured I flattened out the repairs and recut the button edge with small files to start the process of blending them into the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend in the repairs. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the grime and protect the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. I wiped it down again with some Obsidian Oil and let it sit and dry. I always look forward to the moment when all the pieces are put back together. The pipe makes a final trip to the buffing wheel and is met first with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. That is followed by multiple coats of carnauba wax over the whole pipe. Then I do a step that not everyone does but I learned from one of the old pipe men who no longer with us, I buff the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. Finish my buffing by hand with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with black vulcanite stem. This richly stained GBD Speciale Standard 788 Bent Apple is light weight and ready for you to load up a tobacco of preference and enjoy. Have a look at it in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 48 grams/1.69 ounces. This is one that will go on the British Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes online store shortly. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your rack. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next generation.

A Nice Break after a few complicated ones – a Comoy’s Classic 184 Bent Globe

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is an English made Bent Globe with a classic brown finish. It is a combination dark and medium brown stains. The pipe came to us from a lot that we bought from an estate in Spring Branch, Texas, USA on 02/29/2024. The pipe is very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top. The rim edge looks good but it was hard to know what was under the lava coat on the top and edges. It is stamped on the sides of the shank. On the left side it reads Comoy’s [over] Classic. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 184. Next to the shank/stem junction it has a circular COM stamp that reads Made London in a circle around “In” in the centre [over] England. The finish was dusty and there were oils and grime ground into the finish around the sides of the bowl. The stem is acrylic with grime on the surface and tooth chatter and marks ahead of the button on both sides. The is a single stamped C on the left side of the taper stem. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. Jeff took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of the pipe. There was a thick cake in the bowl and a build up of lava on the smooth rim top. It is also built up on the inner edge of the bowl. The stem photos show the grime and light tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the finish on the pipe. It is a unique stain on it that really shows the grain around the bowl sides. He took two photos to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I looked on both Pipedia and Pipephil’s sites for information on the Comoy’s Classic Line. Neither site had any information about that particular stamping. The name stamp obviously remains a bit of a mystery. The COM stamp on the shank was a Comoy’s style stamp as noted above. I would need to move ahead and do some work on the shape number to see if what I could learn of that.

I turned to Pipedia’s Comoy’s shape chart and sure enough the 184 shape was a Comoy’s shape. I have included the link (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Shape_Number_Chart). I did a screen capture of the section on the 184 shape. The shape is a Medium sized half bent pipe that was called a GLOBE.I now knew that the pipe I was working on was made by Comoy’s (thanks to the shape number and the COM stamp on the shank). It was a beauty for sure and one that would only become more beautiful as it was restored.

I really enjoy working on classic shaped pipes so I was glad to be working on this one. Jeff had reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks better but there is still some darkening on the rim top and edges of the bowl. Jeff scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the vulcanite. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the condition of the bowl. I also took photos of the top and the underside of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank to show the condition after the cleanup. This stamping is clearer than the photos show. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe to show the overall look of the pipe. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm.  I worked it into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the bite marks on both sides ahead of the button with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper remove the damage.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This Comoy’s Classic Made in London 184 Bent Globe is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The shape is elegant and flowing with a taper acrylic stem. I put the stem on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Comoy’s Classic 184 Bent Globe fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. I will be putting it on the British Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Reworking a newly acquired trade, a Barclay Rex Bent Billiard

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

A month or so ago I received an email from a fellow in Japan who had some pipes he wanted to sell. He sent me a few and one of them was this interesting older Barclay Rex Bent Billiard. The Pipe was faintly stamped and read Barclay Rex on the left side of the shank. The stamping was faint but readable. It looks as if it is stamped underneath very faintly and read New York. The rest of the stamping is unreadable and the stamping on the right side of the shank is buffed away. The bowl has been reamed and the pipe cleaned. The rim top is slightly out of round and there are scratches and debris on the rim top. The pipe has been polished and the junction between the shank end and the stem shows some rounding of the edges – something that I truly hate in a restoration. The stem itself is also rounded at the shank junction but is polished and there are light tooth marks on the top and the underside against the button. The shank is very clean inside and the pipe has a faint aroma of English tobacco. Overall, I am happy with it but I will need to deal with rounded joint of the stem and shank. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the top. You can see the lava on the rim top that had been left from the restoration previously done. The bowl is slightly out of round due to damage to the inner edge. The shank stem joint shows some rounding to the edges.I took a photo to show the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is readable and I think there is also some stamping underneath what is present.  I took a photo of the right side as well to see if anything showed up in the photo. It did not show anything on the right side. It has some great grain on the bowl and shank and the rounding at the shank and stem joint. I took the stem off and took a photo of the pipe to show its condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Barclay-Rex brand and particularly the sandblast one I was working on (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html). I have included a screen capture of the information that is shown there.I quote from the sidebar on the site below as it gives a good summary of information.

Brand created in 1910. The shop was situated on Maiden Lane. Three addresses now (2010): 75 Broad Street, 70 East 42nd Street, 570 Lexington Avenue. See also: André

I turned to Pipedia to try and place this pipe in the timeline of the brand and was able find some helpful information which I have included below (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_Rex). I quote the information below.

Barclay-Rex, a downtown Manhattan tobacconist, was founded in 1910 by Vincent Nastri, a pipemaker from Salerno, Italy. The store was originally located at Barclay and Church Street, and the name was taken from that location and Nastri’s beloved Great Dane, Rex. The business is still run by Vincent Nastri, III and owned by Vincent Nastri, Jr. They have several locations in New York City. The store has carried pipes from all fine makers, and the Barclay-Rex line of pipes is also much sought after, in that pipes were made in a range from the very inexpensive into the several hundreds of dollars. The pipes were, at least into the 1960’s, made of Algerian briar.

In addition to pipes made by Mr. Nastri over the years, Mr. Nastri, III, has been quoted as stating that a pipemaker just leaving Dunhill made pipes with a small off-white dot on the stem for a time for the shop. As was discovered by Steve Laug of Reborn Pipes, they were evidently made by a pipemaker whose initials were HGP, and stamped on the pipe as such. These pipes were made for a single run only, and then never made again.

In addition, Sasieni at least for a time made private label pipes stamped with the Barclay-Rex name, but with their own shapes and shape numbers.

Locations: (Flagship Store) 75 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004 Telephone: (212) 962-3355

70 East 42nd Street, New York, New York 10165 Telephone: (212) 692-9680

570 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022 Telephone: (212) 888-1015

Email: info@barclayrex.com Website: http://www.barclayrex.com Toll Free: (888) 278-6222 Fax: (212) 962-3372

With the information from Pipedia I knew that I was working on a pipe from the Barclay-Rex Tobacconist in New York City. The fellow I bought it from had no background information on the pipe. I was unable to pin down the date this pipe was made. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I started my work on the pipe by addressing the spots of lava on the rim top and the damage on the inner edges of the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work over the inner and outer edge to smooth out the damage. I polished the rim top with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pad – dray sanding to remove the darkening and remaining lava on the rim top as well. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I spent some time studying the shank/stem junction to see the edges looked. I could see them on both the stem edge and the shank edge. The internal of the shank There as no way to square the shank end to be a smooth transition because of the rounded edges. The top edge of the shank is quite thin so there is no room for smoothing it out. With those issues in mind I chose to band it with a thin brass band to square up the shank edge. The photos of the shank end show the rounding but it worse in person than shown in the photos. I heated the band and pressed it onto the shank end. I took photos of the shank end before and after the banding. I put the stem on the shank and took a photo of the pipe with the band in place. I like the look of it as it adds a nice touch of bling. I set the bowl aside and worked over the tooth marks against the button edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend them in the rest of the stem surface. Once it was finished the tooth marks were gone. I needed to polish the sanding marks out with micromesh sanding pads.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. With the bowl and the stem finished I put the beautiful Barclay-Rex New York Bent Billiard back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of this large pipe is 1.34 ounces /38 grams. This Barclay-Rex Bent Billiard is another great looking pipe and the brass brought the junction back to square. It is much more beautiful in person than these photos can capture. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. This is another pipe that has the possibility of transporting the pipe man or woman back to a slower paced time in history where you can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Argggh…sometimes the easiest restoration becomes a real nightmare

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is a Danish made pipe from the workshop W.O. Larsen. It is a combination of rustication and smooth portions and a horn shank extension. The bowl is a classic Danish looking Canadian with almost a Brandy shaped bowl. It came without a stem. The pipe came to us from eBay on 01/22/2024 from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA.  The pipe is very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top. The rim edge looks like it might be slightly out of round but it was hard to know what was under the lava coat on the top and edges. It is stamped on the underside of the bowl and shank on a smooth panel. It reads W.O. Larsen [over] Handmade [over] Made in Denmark. On the top side it is stamped Rustica. The finish was dusty and there were oils and grime ground into the rusticated and the smooth finish around the sides of the bowl. The horn shank extension had a metal insert to protect it from cracked but there were still two hairline cracks – one on the top and one on the underside. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. Jeff took a photo of the rim top to show the thick build up of lava in the sandblast of the rim top. It is also built up on the inner edge of the bowl. The thick cake in the bowl is very visible.He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the blast finish on the pipe. It is a unique blast that really shows the birdseye and other grain around the bowl sides. He took two photos to capture the stamping top and underside of the bowl. Each one moves down the shank to the horn shank extension. It is clear and readable as noted above. Jeff took a photo of the hairline crack on the underside of the horn extension. There is a matching one on the topside. The shank itself is lined with a metal insert that actually stabilized the extension to protect it from further cracking.I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l2.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I did a screen capture of the site’s information and have included that below. The pipe I am working on is a W.O. Larsen as it is stamped similarly to the ones in the photos. It is interestingly stamped with a lot more detail than any of the ones shown in the screen capture below. With the “Designed By W.O. Larsen” addition it is a bit unique.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/W.%C3%98._Larsen) for a quick read. The site is worth reading the history of the shop and the brand and its influence on Danish pipe carving. There was no additional information on the unique stamping on this pipe.

What I learned from the research is that the pipe is a W.O. Larsen made pipe that could have been designed by W.O Larsen himself or at least one of the shop carvers. It is a beauty though.

With that information I moved forward to work on the pipe itself and see what I had to do with it. Jeff had done an amazing job in removing all of the cake and the lava on the sand blast rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. The finish on the bowl and rim top looked very good showing a unique and beautiful combination of smooth and rusticated finishes. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration. I took some close up photos of the rim top showing the inner edge of the bowl – damages and nicks in the edge and some damage on the top itself. I took photos of the cracks in the top and underside of the horn shank extension.I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank to show the condition after the cleanup. This stamping is clearer than the photos show. I went through my can of stems and I found one that was the right shape and length. It has been shaped a little but I would need to reduce the shank end diameter and shape for a proper fit in the metal shank insert. NB: This is the reason I am always picking up stems where ever I can find them. I just know that one day I will need one and it might just be the one!I laid the stem aside to work on the shank repair first. I applied some clear super glue to the crack in the horn extension on the top and the underside and clamped the horn shank end with a small clamp. THEN DISASTER STRUCK! I was standing at my work table and was about to lay it down with the pipe shot out of the clamp. It literally shot across the room and hit the floor. I cannot tell you enough how many times I have dropped the pipe on the same floor with nothing happening to the pipe. I would pick it up and carry on. BUT THE TIME THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING TO HAPPEN WAS THIS TIME! THE BOWL SHOT OUT FURTHER & THE SHANK AND CLAMP WAS MUCH CLOSER.

Now I needed to add yet another project to the work on this pipe. I wrote Jeff and told him about the accident and his response was that he was okay with throwing it away. I told him that I still wanted to work on it. I cleaned up the cracks on the shank and added new glue to the repairs. I clamped the extension together with the clamp while it was laying on the table. You can see the snapped off bowl and shank in the photos below. The only good news was that it was a clean snap and everything fit together really well.Once the repair cured on the shank end it was time to address the broken shank. I found a metal piece of tubing in my collection of tubes and stingers that fit into the hole in the shank and in the airway into the bowl. I cut off a piece long enough to extend into the airway into the bowl and into the shank end almost a half inch each way. I glued the cut off tube into the bowl airway first with a clear CA glue. I coated the shank ends on both sides with clear CA glue and painted the tube with the same glue. I pushed the bowl and shank together. The tube went easily into the shank and the pieces of briar fit together with no sign of the damage other than the glue.Once the repair cured and the shank was stable I worked over the repaired area with a brass bristle brush to remove the excess glue. It was looking much better once I finished. I stained the repaired area with a Mahogany stain pen to match the colour on the rusticated portions of the bowl. It looked much better once it was finished. With the repair finished I turned to address the rim top and inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage and smooth out the edge. I used a wooden sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reshape the rim edge and give it a light bevel. It cleaned up the edge and the darkening to the rim top at the same time. I sanded the rim top and the horn shank repairs with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I sanded the horn shank extension at the same time. I wiped it down after each sanding pad to remove the dust and debris. I restained the rim top with a Cherry Stain pen to match the smooth finish around the bowl. The finish was spotty but it matched well. I knew that once I polished it with micromesh sanding pads and the stained top blended in very well.I polished the briar and the horn shank extension with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the smooth and the rusticated finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips and a shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain and the contrasting finish really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. The shank repair and the rim top reworking came out looking very good at this point. I started with the stem fitting. I needed to shape the flow of the stem from the shank upward. It needed some work to change the taper to incorporate and tenon that fit in the shank and still allowed the stem to fit well. I used a Dremel and sanding drum and files to shape the stem to fit. I fine tuned the shape of the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to give it the stem a proper fit in the shank.Now I needed to sand it to clean up the file marks and fine tune the shape. I sanded the newly shaped tenon with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I worked on the file marks and fine shaping of the stem fit against the shank. The pads worked to polish out the marks and the fit to the shank was very good. The stem began to take on a rich shine in the vulcanite by the time I sanded it with the 3500 grit pad. I set the bowl aside and polished it with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This W. O. Larsen Hand Made Rustica Canadian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The shape is elegant and flowing with a thin, fitted taper vulcanite stem. I put the new stem on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the rusticated parts of the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the smooth portions and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished W. O. Larsen Rustica Canadian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.55 ounces/44 grams. I will be putting it on the Danish Pipe Maker Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

A Wounded Warrior GBD Xtra Straight Grain Billiard with a Sterling Silver Repair Band

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is long and classic looking smooth finish straight grain Billiard. It is faintly stamped on the left side of the shank and clearly reads GBD in an oval [over] XTRA [over] Straight Grain. On the right side of the shank it is faintly stamped London England [over] an impossible to read shape number. It came from a lot we purchased on 03/21/2024 from an estate in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. It is a Billiard pipe with some great grain and having a replacement vulcanite taper stem. There is a Sterling Silver Band on the shank end showing a shank repair that was glued and banded. The bowl has a thick cake and some lava overflow in the finish on the rim top and inner edge. The rim top and inner and outer edge showed damage from being knocked against a hard surface. The finish looked quite good in terms of wear and tear but there was dirt and hand oils in the finish. Under the grime the finish looked very good and highlights some beautiful grain. The twin bore replacement stem was lightly oxidized and there was a Softee Bit on the stem end. Underneath the rubber Softee Bit there were some light tooth marks. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the condition of both. It was heavily caked with a light lava overflow on the rim top. The rim top and the outer edge show damage on the left front from being knocked against a hard surface. He took photos of the top and underside of the stem with the Softee Bit in place and then removed showing the light oxidation and tooth marks on the stem surface and button. The stem is not the original it is a twin bore bite proof stem that is a replacement. Jeff took photos of the heel and the sides of the bowl and shank to show the grain on the pipe. It is a beauty. He took photos of the side of the shank to show the faint stamping on the left side. His photos also show the repaired crack on the left side of the shank. The silver band is stamped Sterling Silver and is readable. I turned to PipePhil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-gbd.html) to see what I could find. The site had a photo and information on a GBD Xtra but not a lot of background on it. The photo shown was from the 1930s but it is also noted as a New Era Pipe. There was nothing on a pipe stamped as GBD Xtra Straight Grain.

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD) to see if there was info the brand. It is a great read in terms of history but there was nothing giving details on a GBD Xtra Straight Grain.

The claims after the 1st World War demanded further distinctions. First of all was the London Made, which became the Standard London Made, followed by the New Era– in 1931 the top model asking 12½ Shilling. The Pedigree, although sketched around 1926, was not produced until the later 1930s. The New Standard was introduced in order to give the popular Standard of the 20s a higher rank in value. The Prehistoric, a deeply sandblasted black pipe, that still carried the small GBD Xtra stamp, was entirely new and unusual.

From that small note I knew that I was working on a post WW1 Pipe that carried the GBD Xtra stamp.

I then followed a link at the end of the article to another article on Pipedia about model information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Model_Information). There I found a very brief listing on the Xtra stamping and the Straight Grain stamping. However there was nothing with the two combined.

Xtra — Factory unknown: Reddish smooth -PR: Introduced in 1930s?

Straight Grain — France and made in England too

https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/old-gbd-xtra-ive-hit-a-research-wall.64992/

A brief summary of what I think I know scavenged from Pipedia/forums etc. Back around the late 20s, GDB didn’t grade their briar, so they created two designations – the Xtra and the Special to denote pipes that have had addition features/finishes etc. These weren’t product/model lines, but more of a grade system that differentiated it from the standard GBD (which had just the ‘GBD’ stamp). By 1937, the Xtra/Special designations were dropped and the more tradition model lines were introduced (Pedigree/New Era etc). However, there were a couple of exception: some Prehistorics were also marked ‘Xtra’, and a 1950s catalogue I’ve seen also seems to carry the Xtra line (although they do look quite different). I’ve been trying to determine if this is one of the 1930s Xtras, with little luck.

That paragraph gave me a bit of a hint that the Xtra designation was used on pipes that had additional features not identifying product lines but more of a grade system. It also tells me that the stamping ended by 1937. There are also examples of it showing up in the 1950s. Below the next part is a quote from Jacques Cole and he notes that the XTRAs were the cream, being mostly with straight grains!

Further on in the thread on the above pipe I found this response by snagstangl that reads as follows:

I was re reading a Jacques Cole article concerning GBDs titled “Story of a Pipe Brand” it had this to say about this topic:

“We have seen that early Briar GBDs were made in only one, later two qualities and the need to mark the difference did not arise. There were few finishes but towards the end of the 19th century demand was changing, for instance the UK had a “penchant” for the darker finishes. Qualities were therefore sub-divided and we see the introduction of the GBD XTRA (note the spelling). The GBD Speciales were as the name implied, special models, finishes and fittings. GBD XTRAs were the cream, being mostly straight grains. The “ordinary* quality was simply
stamped GBD. Demand after the First World War called for further identification starting with GBD ‘London Made* which became ‘Standard London Made*, followed by GBD “New Era’, top of the range in 1931 at 12/6d! GBD ‘Pedigree’, although first thought of around 1926, was well established in the late 1930s. GBD “New Standard’ was created to give a boost to the “Standards’ of the 1920s and a newly introduced sandblast was called GBD ‘Prehistoric’, still bearing a small GBD ‘Xtra* stamp. French made GBDs followed more or less the same ideas, still however using ‘Xtra’ and ‘Speeiale’ while in the late ’20s a metal system GBD was introduced under the name GBD ‘Extra Dry*. The 1920s also saw an important development with the introduction of the metal GBD inlay on mouthpieces which gave the pipes that extra ‘touch of class’. This inlay has been used on GBDs for nearly 60 years.”

That was followed by a response from osiris01:

I started with either this text or one using it as source and it does explain well the reason for creating, first the Xtras and Speciales, and later, the other graded lines like New Era, Pedigree etc. The problem is that the Xtra and Speciale were discontinued in 1937/8 (Pipedia et al) because the new lines provided a more refined grading system. And yet, the Xtra was listed in the catalogs until 1950.

My guess is that the French factory continued with the Xtra, for a reason unknown to me. The only evidence I have of this is a badly translated sentence from Pipedia that describes the process of creating additional lines. It reads “The French GBDs more or less followed the same developments, although Xtra and Speciale very longly used there.” What ‘Longly used there’ means I don’t know, but somewhere was still making them, and if you translate ‘longly’ as ‘longer’, it does imply that they continued making them for a longer period. It’s a far from perfect explanation but, as I said, they were still being made somewhere and it does imply that the French factory were responsible. However, they were different to the Xtras made in the 20s/30s since the later ones had a chamfered rim, different stems etc.

However, reading you text again, I wonder if the it is hinting at a COM. “Demand after the First World War called for further identification starting with GBD ‘London Made* which became ‘Standard London Made*,”. It doesn’t say that a COM was not used before then (that would be too easy), but you wouldn’t stamp a pipe “Xtra, London Made, London Made” or similar.

I just don’t have enough evidence, reference points, old models to compare against etc. Even describing it as an educated guess is still stretching it a bit. The best guess, perhaps.

However, what I do know is that the 1930s Xtras were fitted with a specific stem with an unusual button called the ‘curved wafer tip of comfort’ (just rolls off the tongue). The following images shows the detail from a 1938 catalogue and the button on my pipe, and to my eye, they are the same. Not in any way conclusive, but it’s the best I’ve been able to come up with.

Now I knew that I was dealing with a French made GBD created in the 1950s. It did not have the original stem so the information on the stem did not help.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish on the bowl looked really good when I got it. The rim top and edges looked very good. He soaked the twin bore stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer bath to remove the oxidation. The stem looked better and the deep tooth marks and chatter on the surface were also visible. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked much better than when he found it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it.  I took photos of the condition of the rim top and stem before I started working. The rim top looks very good and the bowl is spotless. The stem is much better but still shows some tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was faint but still readable with a lens and light. It reads as noted above. I took the bowl and stem apart and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe. Now it was time to work on the rim top and bowl edge damage. I cleaned up the inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the burn damage and cuts from reaming with a knife. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden sphere to work on the edges to give it a slight bevel. I used a topping board to smooth out the damage on the top. It was looking better at this point. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift all of them. Those that remained I removed by sanding them out with 220 sandpaper to blend them into the surface.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the grime and protect the stem.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine.   Once again, I am the part of the restoration that I always look forward to – the moment when all the pieces are put back together. I put the pipe back together and buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the smooth finish and the black vulcanite stem. This richly stained GBD Xtra Straight Grain Billiard with a sterling silver repair band and a twin bore vulcanite stem is light weight and ready for you to load up a tobacco of preference and enjoy. Have a look at it in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 39 grams/1.38 ounces. This is one that will go on the British Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes online store shortly. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your rack. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next generation.

De Profundis: Rescuing a Peterson 301

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

If this pipe could talk, surely it would say, “Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord…”. This great pipe has truly come from the depths of … who knows where. It’s a handsome, rugged Peterson 301 System rusticated bent pot with a P-lip. As is often the case, this pipe (and the others in the photo below) came from an old gentleman, now deceased, who lived on Vancouver Island. The first two pipes below are both 301s and the third is perhaps/maybe a 317 (not sure yet). I have no idea what he did with these pipes (dropped them down the mines perhaps), but boy-oh-boy, these are pretty rough. No problem – it’s my job to sort things out.The only markings to be found on this pipe are the 301 found on the underside of the stummel, the K&P [over] Peterson on the nickel ferrule, and the double-stamped, stylized P on the stem. That’s annoying! Mark Irwin of Peterson Pipe Notes has written a few good articles about the 301s on his blog and I recommend reading one here and another one here. Of course, Steve has also written restoration blogs about the 301, including this one and it contained an important tidbit of information that I quote here:

I learned previously that the shape 301 was not introduced until 1975. Considering the Republic stamp, this one would likely date between 1975 and 2000.

This was significant because, due to the markings being almost entirely worn on this pipe, there was nothing on the wood other than the number 301 – and I couldn’t tell an age from that. Charles Lemon from Dad’s Pipes also has a post about a 301, which he describes as coming from the “1970’s era”. Now, what’s interesting about Steve and Charles’ pipes is that the patch of briar which shows the marks is quite different from mine. Below are Steve’s, Charles’, and my pipes, respectively. The first two are sort of freeform oval-ish shapes. Third (mine) is a rectangle and I wonder if that indicates a different era. I don’t know, but any of you reading this do, please let me know!  This pipe is filthy beyond description – but must have been smoked frequently and with great affection. The stem has dirt everywhere, severe toothmarks aplenty, and calcification as I have seldom seen. Meanwhile, the stummel looks as though oily dirt has been rubbed into the surfaces of the rustication. The rim is coated in lava, the front edge of the rim is bashed, and the bowl is clogged with cake. Some spots on the rustication are really worn – the old fellow must have really loved his pipes. I began by cleaning some of the calcification on the outside of the stem. I took a blade (an old butter knife, actually) and began gently scraping at all that build-up. Obviously, I took it easy, as I did not want to damage the stem’s vulcanite any further. The butter knife worked quite well and I got a good amount loose. I followed that up with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds to try and scrub the rest away. I broke out the isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners, and got to work on the inside of the stem. Predictably, it was unbelievably dirty and I went through a good number of pipe cleaners in order to clean it up.As I mentioned, there were quite a few dents in the stem. Some were obviously tooth marks, but other dents looked like blunt force trauma! Time to break out the BIC lighter to see if it could raise some of them. Quite frankly, it did not do much – this repair was going to require some considerable sanding etc. Before that, however, the stem went for an overnight soak in the deoxidizer. The following day, the oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed vigorously with SoftScrub to remove the leftover oxidation. At this point, I painted the accidentally-duplicated P on the stem, as it was pretty rough – just like everything about this pipe.

Once clean, I set about repairing the dents. Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dent damage on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let it fully cure. It turned out that this was not as straightforward as I had hoped. It took more than one application of adhesive to sort this problem out. I sanded the lumps down with my needle files and my grey pads, to make the stem look sort of normal. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each of the last five pads. On to the stummel – this is where the lion’s share of the work was. The insides (both bowl and shank) were overwhelmed with cake and tar and anything else you’d care to mention. The bowl really needed to be reamed, so I used the KleenReem to scrape off as much built-up cake as possible. Generally, I prefer to sand the chamber down to bare briar. When restoring, it is important to ensure that there is no damage to the briar under the cake. There are a few situations when I might leave some cake in the bowl, but not today. There were definitely some craze lines in the briar on this pipe. I’ll come back to that later. Just like the bowl, the shank was absolutely disgusting. It had never been cleaned – or, not for many decades. I started cleaning the inside with isopropyl alcohol, Q-tips, and pipe cleaners. This took a while. The inside was very dirty and required and extraordinary number of Q-tips and pipe cleaners. Eventually some cleanliness came to it.I threw the stummel in my alcohol bath in the hope that it would loosen some of the ground-in filth on the outside of the bowl. After 24 hours, this worked a bit, but not enough. I added some scrubbing with Murphy’s and a toothbrush. This made things much better, but it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back: sure, it’s clean, but lots of the stain in now gone too. I decided to de-ghost the pipe despite what I had just done with the alcohol bath. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused even more oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.On to the ferrule – which was bashed and discoloured from years of mistreatment. Somewhat to my surprise, the ferrule came off very easily and required no special effort. I began by cleaning the metal with some SoftScrub on cotton rounds. This was quite good at removing the unsightly bits. I used some of my MicroMesh pads (only 3,600-12,000) to eliminate some of the minor scratches on the metal. It also gave a nice shine which clearly hadn’t been seen for decades. I used a jewelry cloth to give the final polish to the nickel. This ferrule would always retain some small dents etc. from its hard life, but it looks much improved. And this is where I stopped for a looooong time. It occurred to me that the amount of work involved in this pipe was tremendous. I was torn about how invasive I wanted to be in my pipe surgery. What about the damage to the rim? What about rematching the stain? What about the heavily worn sections of the rustication? Perhaps my temperament didn’t suit this pipe too well. I freely admit that I set aside the pipe for nearly six months before coming back to it. That sounds absurd, I know, but it was either that or chucking it in the fireplace.

Back in the present day, I began by working the rim back into shape. I sanded it down on my topping board so that it was level (it wasn’t before). I used some tools, including my Dremel and some modified screwdrivers, and re-rusticated the rim. It looked great, but too sharp. So, I sanded the sharp bits to add some softness to the rim. At this point, six months on, I couldn’t remember what cleaning I had and had not done to the pipe. I dragged out some soap and some tube brushes and scrubbed the insides. I’m glad I did – it still needed it.I wanted to have another look at the underside of the stummel for any sign of markings. I used a piece of chalk and pretended this was an old gravestone rubbing. The 301 came out more clearly, but, sadly, nothing else was revealed. It was worth a shot.I knew I had to stain the stummel, but I wanted to address the heat crazes inside the bowl first. I prepared some heat-resistant epoxy and filled the cracks and gouges, ensuring that the epoxy was evenly spread throughout the bowl. Of course, I did plug the draught hole with a folded pipe cleaner (coated in petroleum jelly) to make sure none of the epoxy made its way up there. Once done, a good 24 hours was needed to ensure that the epoxy was properly set.Having completed that, it was time for staining. This would require more than one colour and some finessing to get right. I applied black leather dye with a cotton dauber to colour the recesses (or valleys, if you like) of the rustication. I flamed it with my BIC lighter and let it set. This dye is alcohol-based, so I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. This wasn’t sufficient, so I also used some 0000-grit steel wool. I coated it again with cordovan leather dye, flamed it again, and let that set too. As before, I wiped it down with alcohol to provide depth, nuance, and variation to the colour. I was pleased – and would be more pleased soon. At long last, I was off to my bench buffer to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough going-over with Red Tripoli. This may seem strange, but I needed to lighten the colour of the high points of the stummel. Then I used the White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of conservator’s wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe and moved closer to closure for this long and involved repair.At this point, I glued the ferrule back in place. Then I gently sanded the inside of the bowl to provide a rough surface for what was to come next. I thinly coated the entire inside of the bowl with a mixture of activated charcoal and my wife’s homemade yogurt. Once hardened, this provided a good, slightly rough surface for a new cake to build.This rugged and handsome Peterson 301 System rusticated bent pot has come out of the depths and is back to life. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “Ireland” pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5¾ in. (145 mm); height ¾ in. (45 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2 oz. (60 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a beautiful Bari Select Mandarin Made in Denmark 7824

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a beautifully grained Bari Oval Shank Acorn. It is stamped on the topside it reads Bari [over] Select [over] Mandarin. On the underside it reads Made in Denmark [over] the shape number 7824. It came from a lot we purchased from a seller on eBay on 01/22/2024 from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is very nicely shaped Danish style acorn shaped bowl with a vulcanite saddle stem. The bowl has a thick cake and some lava overflow on the crowned rim top and bevelled inner edge. It was hard to know for certain if there was any damage on the top or rim edges because of the debris covering them both. Only cleaning would make that very clear. The vulcanite saddle stem had a worn Bari logo stamp on the topside of the saddle. It is dirty and has tooth chatter and tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the condition of both. It was heavily caked with a lava overflow on the rim top. The inner and outer edges look very good. He took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the oxidation and tooth marks on the stem surface and button. Jeff took photos of the heel and the side of the bowl and shank to show the grain on the pipe. It is a beauty. Jeff took photos to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. He also took a photo of the faint Bari stamp on the topside of the stem. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html) to see if I could find a listing for the Bari Select Mandarin with this four digit number. There was nothing specifically listed for this line of Bari pipes. There was also good info on the brand as a whole and that it was founded by Viggo Nielsen in 1950 and he ran it until 1978 when Age Bogelund managed the production for them. In 1993 it was sold to Helmer Thomsen. I have included a screen capture of the section below.Pipedia gives a great history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bari) that is well worth reading. There were also photos of the Bari stamping on the Select Mandarin line of pipes.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish on the bowl looked really good when I got it. The rim top and edges looked very good. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer bath to remove the oxidation. The stem looked better and the deep tooth marks and chatter on the surface were also visible. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked much better than when he found it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took photos of the condition of the rim top and stem before I started working. The rim top looks very good and the bowl is spotless. The stem still shows some light oxidation remaining and some tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. The stamping was faint in spots but still readable. It reads as noted above. I took the bowl and stem apart and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift all of them other than the one deep one on the underside. I filled in the mark with clear super glue. Once the repairs cured I flattened them out with 220 sandpaper to blend them into the surface. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the grime and protect the stem.I touched up the Bari white logo on the stem with acrylic white fingernail polish. Once it dried I buffed off the excess with a cotton pad. The BA are too faintly stamped to take in the acrylic so the stamp is incomplete. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil once more.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. Once again, I am the part of the restoration that I always look forward to – the moment when all the pieces are put back together. I put the pipe back together and buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the smooth finish and the black vulcanite stem. This richly stained Bari Select Madarin 7824 Acorn is light weight and ready for you to load up a tobacco of preference and enjoy breaking it in. Have a look at it in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 50 grams/1.76 ounces. This is one that will go on the Danish Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes online store shortly. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your rack. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next generation.