Tag Archives: bite marks

What Great Bones on this nice Sandblast Straight Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

This interesting sandblast Bulldog pipe was purchased from an estate in Nampa, Idaho, USA on 11/09/2023. It is a natural sandblast briar with great grain around the bowl and shank. The stem is an acrylic taper stem. The sandblast finish had some oils and grime on the surface and in the grooves. It had begun to darken in spots around the bowl sides. The bowl was lightly smoked with raw briar on the lower half of the bowl. The rim top was quite clean and the inner and outer edge looked very good. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and has crossed bone and rabbit ears [over] BONES. The acrylic stem had no stamping on the sides. It had scratches, light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It was really an interesting sandblast with twists and turns in the briar. Jeff took photos of it before he worked his magic in the cleanup process. The exterior of the pipe was soiled with oils and dust but still looked very good. The rim top was in very good condition. The bowl itself had a was quite clean but there was a light cake on the sides of the top half. The lower half of the bowl was raw briar. The acrylic taper stem surface had some light scratches and marks on both sides. Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl and shank to give a better feel for the condition of the bowl. You can see the interesting grain on the bowl side and front. He took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is clear and reads as noted above.I took a few moments before working on the pipe to do a bit of research on the Bones pipes line. I knew they were made by Morgan Pipes so I started there. I looked up the Morgan Pipes site  (https://morganpipes.com/collections/bones) and quote from there:

Bones Pipes are pipes – Thats it – No fancy stuff… If you want a pipe to start with or just build your collection, Bones are the pipes for you. Toss it in a tackle box or a backpack and go. These pipes are, simply put, the absolute least expensive honest briar pipe on the market. A simple smoking machine.

I Googled and found a great link to Cupojoes tobacco shop (https://www.cupojoes.com/tobacco-pipes/morgan-bones/). They had a great description of the line from the perspective of the seller. I have included that below.

Chris Morgan began making pipes in 2006, and has since become renowned name within the pipe smoking community. The reason being: the world famous Bones Pipe. The Bones pipe is exactly what it sounds like, the bare naked skeleton of a pipe, that we often never get a chance to see. While other companies rely heavily on staining and sandblasting techniques, the Bones comes in a truly unfinished, natural beauty, making each one (even if the same shape) unique. Praised for their affordability, Bones pipes are the perfect pipe for travel & on the go, often small enough to fit into pockets. Chris offers other lines such as the impeccably built Black Jack series, and the famous patented cigar style pipe called the “Briar Cigar”.

Now it was time to do my work on the pipe. Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remaining cake in the bowl 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 bowl and on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. The finish is also a bit darker than when started. The rim top looked very good. He scrubbed the stem surface with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the acrylic. 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 a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. The top and the edges of the bowl are in very good condition. The stem had some light marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank and took the stem off the pipe to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is a nice one.I started the simple cleanup work by rubbing Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. The briar was in excellent condition so I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish with a shoe brush. I set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the acrylic stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside. I put the Chris Morgan made Bones ¼ Bent Bulldog back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the bowl and the acrylic stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the acrylic. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished the Bones Bulldog is shown in the photos below. The natural sandblast finish had taken on a patina and the Bulldog shaped bowl works well with the rich black acrylic stem. It looked quite amazing! The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¾ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 43 grams/1.48 ounces. This is an sandblast on the bowl and shank that reveals the grain underneath. I really like how the briar and the acrylic work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the American (US) Makers Section. If you are interested in adding this Bones pipe to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

What a beautiful Hans Original Hand Made UFO

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Blog by Steve Laug

This interesting UFO/Flying Saucer/Disc shaped pipe was purchased from a sell in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 06/05/2021. It is a darkly stained briar with great grain around the bowl and shank. There is a thin 14K gold band on the shank and a vulcanite saddle stem. The smooth finished bowl has some great grain on it under the heavy grime on the surface. The bowl was thickly caked with a light lava coat on the rim top. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edge and rim top underneath the lava but cleaning that up will tell the story. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads in script etching Hans Original [over] 6 [over] Hand Made. The “E” on Made is under the band. The gold band is stamped 14K on the topside. The vulcanite stem ha two brass dots side by side on the left side of the saddle. It had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It had a flattened heel on the bowl that allowed the pipe to sit on a desk top. Jeff took photos of it before he worked his magic in the cleanup process.The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening and lava on the rim top. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. The vulcanite saddle stem surface was dirty and had some tooth marks and chatter on both sides. Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl and shank to give a better feel for the condition of the bowl. You can see the interesting grain on the bowl side and front.The next photos show the stamping on the underside of the shank, the gold band and the twin brass dots on the left side of the stem. It is clear and is very readable as noted above. This pipe is a bit of a mystery in terms of the name of the maker. Han’s is not clear in terms of who it refers to. There is no identify COM stamp to point to a country of origin. It is a nice-looking Hand Made pipe that I know nothing about. If any of you who are reading this can help unravel the mystery please contact me. Thanks.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remaining cake in the bowl 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 very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. The rim top looked very good.  He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the grime on the acrylic. 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 a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. The top and the edges of the bowl are in very good condition. There does not seem to be any damage on either the inner or outer edges and the rim top. The stem had some tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the left side and underside of the shank. It is clear and readable.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo. I wanted to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe and I think the photos gives a sense of that. I wiped off the spotty shiny varnish coat on the briar with cotton pads and acetone. It took a bit of scrubbing but I was able to remove all of the shiny coat on the bowl and the grain really shone through once it was gone. I started my work on the pipe by polishing the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The surface began to take on a nice shine. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish. I set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the majority of the tooth marks. I filled in what remained with black CA glue. Once the repairs cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded the repairs and the rest of the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad. I was able to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the pads. The stem looked very good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside. I put the Han’s Original Hand Made Saucer back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the bowl and the acrylic stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the acrylic. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished the Han’s Original Hand Made Saucer is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the smooth Saucer shaped bowl works well with the rich bronze Italian acrylic stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 52 grams/1.83 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar, cross grain and birdseye on the bowl and shank. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the Pipes from Various Makers Section. If you are interested in adding this Han’s to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restoring an Amazingly Grained Kirsten Full Bent Sitter E

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Blog by Steve Laug

I bought my first Kirsten – a Mandarin in the early 80s from a pipe shop that specialized in them in Idaho Falls, Idaho. That shop is long since gone but there is still something about Kirsten pipes that attracts my attention. It may be the design look of the pipe and it may be the stubborn resolve that gave birth to it when Kirsten invented it after getting word from his doctor that he had to stop smoking. I don’t what it is but I like the boxy look of the base and shank, the grooves in the machined metal, the beautiful grain on the smooth bowls and the gentle curves of the stem. They always catch my eye. This one is no exception. We purchased it at an estate sale on 09/16/2023 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA. It has O rings on the stem and the end valve and a base on the bowl so I know that it is one of the more modern renditions. It also has the same kind of thick marbled acrylic stems that the one I purchased had. The pipe is a large one with a silver tone barrel. The smooth Mandarin style bowl has some great grain on it under the grime on the surface. The bowl was thickly caked with a light lava overflow pouring over the rim top. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edge and rim top underneath the lava but cleaning that up will tell the story. The acrylic stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The internals were heavily tarred and the metal tube and intake to the stem was also very dirty. The valve on the front of the bowl was tight but it was not frozen. It had a flattened base that allowed the stem to stand. Jeff took photos of it before he worked his magic in the cleanup process. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening and lava on the rim top. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. The acrylic stem surface was dirty and had some tooth marks and chatter on both sides. Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the bowl. You can see the interesting grain on the bowl side and front. He took photos of the pipe taken apart to show the constituent part s of the pipe. IT really was a well-made piece of engineering from the Kirsten factory. I was looking forward to working on it. The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the barrel shank and it is very readable. It reads Kirsten on the left side of the barrel and on the underside Made in USA E.Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I have several Kirsten catalogues on the site and turned to the 1993-94. Here is the link to that catalogue (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/11/17/1993-94-kirsten-pipe-catalogue/). I have included several of the pages below. The first shows the bowl shape and the Radiator barrel. The bowl is the Mandarin shape bowl below, the second from the top in the drawings of bowl shapes. The stem is shown in the second catalogue page below. It is a bronze coloured Italian Lucite with a bent. With that information in hand I went over the details of the stamping on a previous blog that I had posted by Dave Whitney who wrote Old Briar. He gave a helpful guide to dating a Kirsten pipe by the stamping and component parts. He separated them into generations – 1, 1.5, 2, 3. Going over the details I concluded that what I was dealing with a Generation 3 pipe that was made between 1985 and the present. Here is the link and a portion of the blog. I have italicized the portions that pertain to this particular pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2012/11/03/kirsten-generation-1-1-5-2-3/).

Generation 3 – 1985 to the present                                                                         

All current models stamped “Made in U.S.A.” and all have O rings on both the valve and stem. They come in the following models:

Straights

JX Jewel Brass

M Mariner

L Lancer

Quarter-Bents

RX Regent Brass

H Horizon

Full bents

Advertisement

EX Esquire Brass

DX Designer Brass

FOOTNOTE ON VARIATIONS IN LETTER DESIGNATIONS:  Generally speaking, the X added to a model letter like “S” stands for brass tone finish, i.e., “SX.” There is one exception to this: In the 1960s Kirsten made a brass tone model with an “Eternalum” finish that gave the brass tone an antiqued look. They were marked with a “X” designation following the model letter. The B added to a model letter like “M” stands for black finish, i.e., “MB.”

He ended his answer to the questions with this great note: “Now the fun part…. this is how they came from the factory. What people did to them after they got them is what makes it an inexact science. Parts for the different sizes are not interchangeable, except for the bowls. I have a Gen 1 – M and -S…nothing interchanges but the bowls. If you get a Gen 1 that has been badly abused, you can end up losing either the bit or metal insert, or both, no matter what you do or how long you try.”

References used:

Whitney, Dave (2009) Old Briar – Pipe smoking on a budget. Pipesbywhitney http://www.kirstenpipe.com/

I now knew that the pipe I was working on was a Generation 3 made between 1985 and the present. It was a Full-Bent and the E made it an Esquire Version. The E is for Esquire shape and it has a silver finished. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remaining cake in the bowl 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 very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. The rim top had some significant damage on the back part of the bowl. It had been burned from repeated lighting with a torch lighter. Jeff took the pipe apart and cleaned the barrel, the adjustable valve and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the grime on the acrylic. 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 a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. The top and the edges of the bowl are in very good condition. There does not seem to be any damage on either the inner or outer edges and the rim top. The stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the left side and underside of the shank. It is clear and readable.I remove the stem from the barrel and took a photo. I removed the bowl from the barrel and took another photo.I started my work on the pipe by polishing the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The surface began to take on a nice shine. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish. I set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl. I set the bowl aside and sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad. I was able to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the pads. The stem looked very good.I polished the acrylic stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside.I put the Kirsten Generation 3 Full Bent Mandarin E back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the bowl and the acrylic stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the acrylic. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished the Kirsten Gen 3 Full Bent Mandarin is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the smooth Bulldog shaped bowl works well with the rich bronze Italian acrylic stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 61 grams/2.15 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar, cross grain and birdseye on the bowl and shank. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding a Kirsten to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restoring a Lovely Generation 3 Kirsten RX Brass Tone ¼ Bent Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

I bought my first Kirsten – a Mandarin in the early 80s from a pipe shop that specialized in them in Idaho Falls, Idaho. That shop is long since gone but there is still something about Kirsten pipes that attracts my attention. It may be the design look of the pipe and it may be the stubborn resolve that gave birth to it when Kirsten invented it after getting word from his doctor that he had to stop smoking. I don’t what it is but I like the boxy look of the base and shank, the grooves in the machined metal, the beautiful grain on the smooth bowls and the gentle curves of the stem. They always catch my eye. This one is no exception. We purchased it at an estate sale on 09/16/2023 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA. It has O rings on the stem and the end valve and a base on the bowl so I know that it is one of the more modern renditions. It also has the same kind of thick marbled acrylic stems that the one I purchased had. The pipe is a large one with a brass tone barrel. The smooth Bulldog style bowl has some great grain on it under the grime on the surface. The bowl was thickly caked with a thick lava overflow pouring over the inwardly beveled rim top. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edge and rim top underneath the lava but cleaning that up will tell the story. The acrylic stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The internals were heavily tarred and the metal tube and intake to the stem was also very dirty. The valve on the front of the bowl was tight but it was not frozen.  Jeff took photos of it before he worked his magic in the cleanup process. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening and lava on the rim top. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. The acrylic stem surface was dirty and had some tooth marks and chatter on both sides. Jeff took a photo of the sides of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the bowl. You can see the interesting grain on the bowl sides and front.He took photos of the pipe taken apart to show the constituent part s of the pipe. It really was a well-made piece of engineering from the Kirsten factory. I was looking forward to working on it. The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the barrel shank and it is very readable. It reads Kirsten on the left side of the barrel and on the underside Made in USA RX.Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I have a catalogue for Kirsten pipes in my files and found this pipe in the catalogue. It is shown in the photo below in the bottom of the photo. The pipe I am working on is in the Regent Shape. I also have several Kirsten catalogues on the site and turned to the 1993-94. Here is the link to that catalogue (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/11/17/1993-94-kirsten-pipe-catalogue/). I have included several of the pages below. The first shows the bowl shape and the Radiator barrel. The bowl is the Bulldog shape bowl below at the bottom of the drawings of bowl shapes. The stem is shown in the second catalogue page below. It is a bronze coloured Italian Lucite with a ¼ bent. With that information in hand I went over the details of the stamping on a previous blog that I had posted by Dave Whitney who wrote Old Briar. He gave a helpful guide to dating a Kirsten pipe by the stamping and component parts. He separated them into generations – 1, 1.5, 2, 3. Going over the details I concluded that what I was dealing with a Generation 3 pipe that was made between 1958 and 1985. Here is the link and a portion of the blog. I have italicized the portions that pertain to this particular pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2012/11/03/kirsten-generation-1-1-5-2-3/).

Generation 3 – 1985 to the present                                                                         

All current models stamped “Made in U.S.A.” and all have O rings on both the valve and stem. They come in the following models:

Straights

JX Jewel Brass

M Mariner

L Lancer

Quarter-Bents

RX Regent Brass

H Horizon

Full bents

Advertisement

EX Esquire Brass

DX Designer Brass

FOOTNOTE ON VARIATIONS IN LETTER DESIGNATIONS:  Generally speaking, the X added to a model letter like “S” stands for brass tone finish, i.e., “SX.” There is one exception to this: In the 1960s Kirsten made a brass tone model with an “Eternalum” finish that gave the brass tone an antiqued look. They were marked with a “X” designation following the model letter. The B added to a model letter like “M” stands for black finish, i.e., “MB.”

He ended his answer to the questions with this great note: “Now the fun part….this is how they came from the factory. What people did to them after they got them is what makes it an inexact science. Parts for the different sizes are not interchangeable, except for the bowls. I have a Gen 1 – M and -S…nothing interchanges but the bowls. If you get a Gen 1 that has been badly abused, you can end up losing either the bit or metal insert, or both, no matter what you do or how long you try.”

References used:

Whitney, Dave (2009) Old Briar – Pipe smoking on a budget. Pipesbywhitney http://www.kirstenpipe.com/

I now knew that the pipe I was working on was a Generation 3 made between 1985 and the present. It was a Quarter-Bent and the RX made it a Regent Brass Version. The R is for the Regent shape and the X stamp refers to the Brass finish. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remaining cake in the bowl 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 very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. The rim top had some significant damage on the back part of the bowl. It had been burned from repeated lighting with a torch lighter. Jeff took the pipe apart and cleaned the barrel, the adjustable valve and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the grime on the acrylic. 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 a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. There is some rim damage on the back of the beveled rim top from the outer edge to the inner edge. It was burned from repeated lighting from a torch lighter and the charring seemed quite deep but sanding would make that clear. The rest of the rim top had some darkening but it was very clean. The stem tooth marks and chatter are very light.I remove the stem from the barrel and took a photo. I removed the bowl from the barrel and took another photo.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the burn damage on the beveled rim top, the inner edge of the rim and the general darkening on the rim top with a wooden bowl and some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around it.Once it was finished it looked very good. The burn damage was minimized and the darkening around the top and edges was mostly removed. I restained the rim top and edges with an oak stain pen to match the rest of the bowl.I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The surface began to take on a nice shine. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish and used the shoe brush to get in the twin rings. I set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl and the shank. I set the bowl aside and sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad. I was able to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the pads. The stem looked very good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside.I put the Kirsten Regent Brass (RX) Bulldog back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the bowl and the acrylic stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the acrylic. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished the Kirsten Regent Brass Bulldog is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the smooth Bulldog shaped bowl works well with the rich bronze Italian acrylic stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 59 grams/2.08 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar, cross grain and birdseye on the bowl and shank. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding a House of Robertson to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restoring an Old KBB Palmyra Horn Stem Bent Billiard with a Wind Cap

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is an older KBB Pipe with a horn stem that a friend, Rob sent me. It has a nickel band on the shank and a nickel rim and wind cap. The briar has been stained with a dark purple stain and is a great contrast to the polished nickel and the horn stem. The finish was dirty and there are scratches in the finish. The nickel rim cap is dirty on the underside with tars and darkening. The hinge holding it on the cap is missing one of the anchors holding it in place. I am quite amazed that the hinge pin is not missing. The bowl has a moderate cake in the bowl and around the metal inner edge of the rim. It is quite dirty on the inside. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads PALMYRA. On the polished nickel band it is stamped with KB&B in a cloverleaf over NICKEL PLATED on the left side. The horn stem is held in place by a threaded bone tenon that is excellent shape. The stem had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem. The horn stem was worn and dry looking. Rob wrote me an email about the pipe asking if I would work on it. I have included the email below.

Hi Steve! 

Greetings from Kamloops… hope you had a great holiday season. A while back, I picked up a KBB Palmyra on EBay (pictures attached) and I was looking into having it restored. It’s a cool little pipe with a horn stem… I think it’s 1920s era? I don’t mind fixing up estates now and again, but I’d like this one to be restored by someone with a little more know-how than me. It basically needs a thorough cleaning, minor repairs, and a repair to the hinge of the wind cap. Would you be interested in restoring it? And do you know what it might cost, offhand?

Have a great weekend, Rob

He sent the following photos which I have included below. They reveal the condition of the pipe and gave me a sense of what would be needed. When the pipe arrived yesterday I took it to the worktable. I took it out of the box and took photos of it before I started working on it. The pictures that Rob sent above told the story very clearly. The finish looked okay but there were some nicks and dents in the briar. The stain was a dark purple/oxblood colour that hid the grain but it is the classic stain that was on the bowl when it was made. The nickel on the band and rim edge were clean. The cap needed polishing and the inside of the cap was dirty with tars, oils and build up. The horn stem had tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. I took a photo of the rim top and cap to show the condition. You can see that part of the hinge material is missing at the bottom edge of the pin below. I have inserted a red arrow in the photo below showing the missing hinge piece. I opened the cap and took a photo of the inside. The top of the cap is dirty as noted above and quite rough. The rim cap is also dirty and will need to be cleaned. I also took photos of the stem to show the tooth marks in the surface. I took a photo of the stamp on the shank side. There is some gold leaf still in the stamp that I would touch up after the clean up. I took a photo of the stem and bowl to give a sense of the size and proportion of the pipe. I decided to start with the stem work. I sanded out the tooth marks on the stem surface with 320-35000 grit sanding pads to remove the tooth marks in the surface of the stem. Once I was able to remove the marks in the stem surface and started polishing the horn surface. It looked much better.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I removed the cap and the hinge pin from the one side of the cap to free it from the bowl so that I could work on it.  I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the metal lined inner edge of the bowl. I also cleaned up the rim cap top at the same time.I scraped the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I removed all of the cake on the bowl walls. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. The bowl was smooth and undamaged.I cleaned up the top of the wind cap with a worn 1200 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the grime on the top of the cap. I also worked on the build up on the inside of the cap with the same piece of 1200 grit micromesh. It removed the grime but did not damage the polished nickel.I cleaned out the internals in the shank and the airway in the stem and shank with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was surprisingly clean and it took very few cleaners to leave it clean.I touched up the light spots on the bowl sides and on the joint of the shank and the bowl with a Mahogany stain pen. The colour matched perfectly. Once it had cured I would polish it and blend it further. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish then set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl and the shank. I touched up the gold gilt in the stamping on the left side shank with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the stamping with a tooth pick and buffed off the excess with a cotton pad. It looked quite good with the retouched stamp.Now it was time to work on the broken hinge on the cap. The right side of the hinge cap was present as was the hinge pin. The right side had broken off somewhere in the life of the pipe. I used a soldering iron and some solder wired to build up a cap over the left side end of the hinge pin. I opened the lid and soldered the end over the pin on the inside of the cap first. I closed the lid and built it up on the outside of the hinge. I used a small flat file to flatten out the hinge end on the inside and the outside of the cap. I finished it up with a Dremel and a sanding drum to further flatten it out. I screwed the horn stem back on the KB&B Palmyra Bent Billiard and carefully worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished KB&B Palmyra Bent Billiard is shown in the photos below. The purple/oxblood stains on the smooth Billiard shaped bowl works well with the polished nickel band and the polished horn stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 4 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.38 ounces/39 grams. This is an interesting pipe with the dark stain on the bowl, the gold stamp on the left side of the shank and shank, the nickel wind cap and band all work with the polished horn stem. I really like how well the parts work together. This one will soon be on its way back to Rob. I think he will enjoy himself with this beautiful little old timer. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it once he sees it.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Bringing Back a Lovely Poul Hansen Bent Dublin

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

This charming pipe came across my workbench recently and, despite its rough appearance, I could tell there was a beautiful and well-made pipe in there. It was a very attractive shape and felt very good in my hand. Given the amount of abuse heaped on this pipe, it was clearly someone’s favourite. Let’s have a closer look. This pipe is a bent Dublin, made by Poul Hansen. It’s a lovely briar bowl and a white acrylic stem with a brass and wood band. That band is really attractive. The markings on the left side of the shank are Poul Hansen [over] Copenhagen. No other markings were found. I checked the usual sources for information about Poul Hansen. I knew that his pipes were mostly from the 1960s and 70s and commanded the same prices as Preben Holm, Rasmussen and other high-end Danish carvers. Pipephil offered this lovely little tidbit about the man:Over to Pipedia – they had a bit more information, and I include some, but not all, of it below:

Poul Hansen was a very skilled toolmaker and builder of machine tools. Around 1960 he got in contact with the workshops of Pibe-Dan, W.Ø. Larsen and others. So he began to make a lot of special tools and machines for a large number of the Danish pipemakers in the early 60’s. He was inspired by the many beautiful pipes he saw when he visited the pipemakers and soon he decided to try out the art himself. Poul Hansen was basically “self taught” and his early attempts suffered from kind of awkward shapes and finishing. Things turned for the better significantly when Sixten Ivarsson, appreciating the talent, began to tutor Hansen for a while and taught him the vital “tricks” of pipemaking. Soon after Hansen was in business fine. Right from the start he avoided the competition at home and concentrated on the American, Japanese and German markets. Hansen carved the bulk of his pipes during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Around the midst of the 1970’s he took over a small Copenhagen tobacconist’s shop from it’s retiring owner. Now, operating the shop took a lot of his time but vice versa secured a steady income, and Hansen reduced his output considerably. BTW In Denmark he only sold a very limited amount of pipes – but some of his very best. Poul Hansen is little known in today’s circles, those collectors (especially in the States) who have his pipes, tend not to sell them.

On to the pipe itself: it was very dirty and harshly treated. The bowl was filthy and had quite a bit of lava and plenty of cake – just look at the photos! The rim had been heavily bashed in – presumably from banging out dottle etc. The outside of the bowl had some small fills and some minor scratches. The stem was in better shape, but still needed help. It had some tooth dents and it was dirty on the inside – through the draught hole. To work! The stem was first on my list. I wiped the outside down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. These acrylic stems are so frustrating to clean and it took a lot of elbow grease. In fact, I also used my tube brushes and Castile soap to get out as much filth as I could. Fortunately, these acrylic stems don’t require deoxidizing, so I moved on. I built up the dents on the stem with clear cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them cure. I then sanded the adhesive down with 220- and 400-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to polish it and highlight the pearl-like colouring on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. Moving on to the stummel, I first decided to ream out the bowl. It was unbelievably occluded with cake. I used the PipNet Reamer to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a couple of dowels to eliminate as much as possible. I took the chamber down to bare briar to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none.The stummel’s insides were absolutely clogged with filth. The previous owner must not have been a fan of cleaning his pipe! I actually used two drill bits (by hand – not in a drill) to break into the encrusted gunk in the stem.Then, I started cleaning the inside with lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol, Q-tips, and pipe cleaners. This took a long while. The inside was terribly dirty and it took an awful lot of cotton. As usual, I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some Castile soap and tube brushes.I soaked the rim of the pipe in some Murphy’s Oil Soap to loosen up the hardened stuff and, after about ten minutes, used a toothbrush to help that process along. I then used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s to scrub the outside of the stummel. I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells of the past. 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 any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.Then I was able to address the small nicks on the rim and the bowl. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise the nicks. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. This worked very well and many of the scratches were corrected with this method. Now it was time to address the remaining fills on the bowl. I repaired them with a mixture of briar dust and cyanoacrylate adhesive. This ensures a strong repair and one that looks similar to the surrounding wood. I sanded the repairs down with 200- and 400-grit sandpaper until they were level with the surrounding briar. Now I could address the roughness on the rim. I “topped” the pipe – that is, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. But I didn’t go as far as I usually do – this rim originally had fillet edges on both the inside and outside of the rim. I wanted to keep this shape and so I did most of the shaping by hand.Then, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stummel to finish it off and make it lovely and smooth. At this point, I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and left it to sit for 20 minutes or so. I polished it with a microfibre cloth. The B&ARB does wonderful things to the wood, and I really like the natural colour of the briar. I also polished up the bit of brass on the stem’s band. Off to the bench polisher to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough going-over with White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of carnauba wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe.And that’s that! This Poul Hansen Bent Dublin looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. 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 “Danish” 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 5⅓ in. (135 mm); height 2⅛ in. (55 mm); bowl diameter 1¼ in. (32 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¼ oz. (37 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did 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.

A Beautifully Grained Saddle Stem Pot from the House of Robertson

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a change of pace for me. It was purchased as one of three pipes off eBay on 07/28/2023 from Niles, Michigan, USA. It was the third of three House of Robertson pipes – two billiards and a pot. This one is a nicely grained Pot shaped pipe. The name House of Robertson is roughly hand-etched on the left side of the shank with an engraving tool. The pipe is a well shaped saddle stem Pot with the bottom of the shank flat and the pipe sits nicely on the desk top like a sitter. The bowl has some interesting flame grain on it along with a mix of other grains. The bowl is thickly caked with some lava overflow on the rim top. The outer and inner edges of the rim look to be in good condition. The pipe was dirty but underneath all of the grime it appears to be in excellent condition. It is definitely an interesting pipe and should clean up very well. The fit of the stem to the shank was good. The taper stem was oxidized and calcified. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started the cleanup. Jeff took photos show the condition of the bowl and the stem. The photos of the bowl and rim show the cake in the bowl and the heavy lava overflowing onto the rim top. It was hard to know what the edges and top really looked like until we cleaned it. The saddle stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem near the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show some stunning and unique grain all around the pipe. The finish makes the grain really stand out on the bowl and shank. The next photo shows the etched name on the left side of shank on the shank. It reads House of Robertson.I am including the information that I found when I received my first of the House of Robertson Pipes. I found a link on Pipedia that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

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

Since then I have worked on a lot of House of Robertson pipes and have been able to track down more information. I am including a link to a Catalogue that I picked up on eBay. Click on the link and have a look at this interesting book of information on the brand and the pipe maker himself (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/12/11/a-house-of-robertson-catalogue-filled-with-great-examples-of-thayne-robertsons-work/).

I am also including a biography of Thayne Robertson that I found on Facebook from a fellow in Boise, Idaho. It is an interesting read into the mind of the pipe maker. Make sure to take time to read it (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/10/31/house-of-robertson-pipes-boise-pipe-carver-thayne-robertson/).

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. When it gets to Vancouver it my turn to contribute to its restoration. Jeff did a great job cleaning the pipe on the inside and outside. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the dust in the rustication on the bowl and shank as well as the smooth portions. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish was dull but appeared to be in excellent condition. He soaked the stem in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it under warm water to remove the deoxidizer gel solution. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it.  I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. There is some rim darkening but you can see the interesting grain on the top of the bowl. The stem tooth marks and chatter are very light.I took a photo of the engraving on the left side of the shank. It is clear and reads as noted above. I also took the stem off the pipe and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty.I worked on the darkening of the inner edge of the rim and the darkening on the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better when finished.I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The surface began to take on a nice shine. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish then set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl and the shank. I set the bowl aside and sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad. I was able to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the pads. The stem looked very good. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside. I put the House of Robertson Saddle Stem Pot back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished HOR Pot is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the smooth Billiard shaped bowl works well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 31 grams/1.09 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar, cross grain and birdseye on the bowl and shank. The patterns on the sides are almost circular. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Making Companies and Makers. If you are interested in adding a House of Robertson to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restoring a Handsome Tanganyika Meerschaum

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

My cousin sent me a very good-looking pipe that he found in his meanderings and send it to me for some repairs. Naturally, I was happy to help, but this one provided some tough work. I like the tough ones though – makes me feel like an old timer has truly been saved. This is a Tanganyika Genuine Block Meerschaum 290 Bent Dublin. As soon as I saw it, I liked it. It looked like a really good smoker. The stummel was very handsomely cut – thick and robust. The stem had a metal tenon that screwed into the mortise. There were a few markings on the pipe. On the underside of the shank was engraved Genuine Block [over] Meerschaum. To the left of this (and perpendicular), was the number 290, the shape number. On the left side of the stem was the logo: a charming little elephant. Underneath the stem was the word Tanganyika – this stamping was very faint and I was worried about it. Finally, I wonder if there was something else. On the very end of the shank, was engraved what looked like a capital T. If that’s what it is, then presumably it stands for Tanganyika. If anyone has further information, please post it in the comments below. I looked in the book, Pipes: Artisans and Trademarks by José Manuel Lopes, to learn more about Tanganyika pipes. It had the following entry for the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation:

Company formed in 1955 by Kenyan businessmen from Nairobi after the discovery of a meerschaum mine relatively close to the surface on Kilimanjaro. The meerschaum is tougher, less porous, and cheaper than the Turkish variety. Another mine was soon discovered in Sinya, in the famous Amboseli Game Park. The company, previously based in Arusha (Tanzania), became an associate of a Belgium firm, but closed some years after. It produced the Caveman, Countryman, Kiko, Killimanjaro, Sportsman, Townsman, and Wiga brands. It maintained a link with GBD for the making of the GBD Block Meerschaum series, and after its closure, the English firms, London Meerschaum and Manx Pipes (Manx Meerschaum) continued producing with African meerschaum.Pipedia also included the above information, but also referred me to the page on Amboseli Pipes.

Amboseli Pipes made calabash and meerschaum pipes in Tanganyika. They moved to Arusha, Tanzania, and later closed. Countryman is one of the brands Amboseli produced. Its symbol is an elephant. Other brands include Hillbilly, Kiko, Kilimanjaro, London Meerschaum, Merlin, Sportsman, Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation, and Tembo.Pipedia also seemed to direct all related pages to Kiko Pipes. This page did have the most information, but I wasn’t much closer to figuring out which brand of pipe this was. By comparing the descriptions from the Amboseli brochure below and various animal logos, I was able to eliminate some of the brands. I also looked at some previous articles here on rebornpipes. Therefore, this pipe is probably either a Caveman, Sportsman, or Townsman – without having that specific nomenclature on the pipe itself. But, truth be told, that is no more than an educated guess.Moving on. The stummel was in nice shape. The outside definitely had seem some wear and tear, but there were no major issues. Sure, it was dirty inside, but nothing more than what would be expected. I was pleased to see that the threaded mortise was in excellent condition. I had been concerned that the threads might have been damaged over the years, but no such damage was there. Meanwhile, the big problems lay with the stem. It was heavily oxidized, and thoroughly chewed. In fact, as the photos attest, the button was completely broken. A major rebuild would be required. Even though I would need to rebuild the stem, I wanted to save as much of the original as possible. So, I “painted” the stem with my BIC lighter in order to try and lift some of the bite marks all over the end of it. This worked reasonably well, but there was still a lot of damage.Next, I took some pipe cleaners and lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol, and cleaned the revolting insides of the stem. The photo only shows a few of the pipe cleaners needed. It was pretty darn dirty. I also wiped down the outside with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds. This removed some of the surface filth. As usual, I sent the stem for a swim in the deoxidizing fluid over night. I could tell even before this that the oxidation was deeply set into the vulcanite, but I needed to clean what I could. The following day, I wiped down the stem with SoftScrub cleanser and made sure to scrub hard. A lot of oxidation came off, but a lot of oxidation remained. I actually sent it for a second bath, and that helped, but not enough. Once it was a clean as I could get it, it was time to build up the damage. I brought out my black cyanoacrylate adhesive and I applied it to the bitemarks and such. The missing chunks would need far more work. I created a new button out of black cyanoacrylate, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I first plugged up the stem’s draught hole with a folded pipe cleaner, coated in petroleum jelly. This ensured that any of the glue would not accidentally plug up the air passage in the stem. This is always a tricky business and it took some patience to make it work. After I applied the cyanoacrylate, it looked pretty darn ugly, but I was expecting that. After the curing, I ended up sanding down the end of the stem to reduce some of the excess material. To carry this process on, I used some miniature files to further shape the button and make it suitable for sanding. I used another file on the inside to ensure there were no rough edges in the bore. I then sanded the stem down with sandpaper to keep the shape. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to smooth everything out. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. It is worth noting that a repair this big on a stem will never be completely invisible – especially on this pipe. Finally, I used some 0000-grit steel wool on the aluminum tenon to make it shiny.

On to the stummel. Normally, at this point, I would use a reamer to remove the built-up cake inside the bowl, but meerschaum has the potential to crack in those circumstances. Instead, I simply used some sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel to scrape the bowl down. Fortunately, everything looked sound on the inside of the bowl. I then proceeded to clean out the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was a lot of nastiness inside this stummel and – boy-oh-boy – it took a lot of cotton to get this thing clean! I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some cotton pads. I also cleaned the insides with some Castile soap and tube brushes. Now in this case, I did it especially carefully because too much soaking can cause meerschaum to soften. In this case, I moved quickly, nothing softened, and everything turned out well. After this, I used my Micromesh pads to sand down and minimize the scratches in the meerschaum and make everything smooth. I then applied some Clapham’s Beeswax Finish to the meerschaum and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. I repeated this process and left it – it sure was pretty! I took the stem (but not the stummel) to my buffing wheel and finished it with some White Diamond polish. Worked like a charm. This Tanganyika Genuine Block Meerschaum 290 Bent Dublin looks beautiful once again. I’m sure my cousin will love it. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅛ in. (131 mm); height 2¼ in. (58 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (39 mm); chamber diameter ⅞ in. (22 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (49 g). If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

I was not hoping for much with this poor Malaga Second Oval Shank Brandy

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Blog by Steve Laug

For the next little while I am working on some Malaga Pipes. I have several in queue to work on so I tend to pick them by what catches my eye. The next pipe is the last of the latest batch of Malaga Pipes. This one is a Oval Shank Brandy with a ¼ bent vulcanite stem. Jeff saw it on eBay and purchased it on 09/30/2023 from a seller in Cape Fair, Missouri, USA. The grain on this pipe is quite nice. Once again it was obviously someone’s favourite smoker. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads MALAGA [over] Second. The smooth briar bowl and shank were dirty and worn. There were tars and oils ground into the surface of the briar. The bowl had a very thick cake that flowed over the top of the inwardly bevelled rim in a thick lava coat. The cake in the bowl was thick right up to the top of the rim. It was hard to fully assess the condition of the inner edge. It looked like the rim top had some burn marks and chips on the back and the front side. The inner edge was also damaged. The condition of the rim edge and top would become clear in the cleaning process. The outer edge also had some damage. The saddle stem was vulcanite and had light tooth marks on the top and the underside of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipes before he started his clean up work. Jeff took photos of the rim and bowl to show the heavy cake and lava on the rim top and edges. You can also see the damage on the rim top. The back top and outer edges appear to have been knocked against some hard surface given the amount of damage. The inner edge of the rim showed thick cake coming up to the top and flowing over the edge. It was a dirty pipe but still a beauty. The vulcanite saddle stem had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show some stunning and unique grain all around the pipe. The oil curing/finish makes the grain really stand out on the bowl and shank. Jeff took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It read “Malaga” [over] Second. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above.Jeff took photos of the flaws in the briar on the underside of the shank. There are fills in place in the shank but they are shrunken and are quite tactile. I am sure that this is what made the pipe a Malaga Second.For those of you who are unfamiliar with the brand, I am also including the link to a blog that I wrote that gives some of the history of the Malaga brand and the Malaga Pipe Shop in Royal Oak, Michigan in the USA. Here is the link – https://rebornpipes.com/2013/02/09/george-khoubesser-and-malaga-pipes/. That blog also includes links to a catalogue and the history of the pipemaker George Khoubesser. If you are interested to learn more then I invite you to follow the link to get a feel for the brand and the pipemaker.

I am also am including a link to some printed material on the Malaga brand that came to me from the daughter of George Koch (we purchased George’s pipes from his daughter) to help identify the particular stamping on the pipe. The link takes you to the entire collection of materials that were sent to me (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/02/27/malaga-pipes-catalogue-of-pipes-and-tobaccos/).

This particular pipe was a second and it is not listed in the catalogue.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe using his usual procedure. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime from around the bowl sides. It looked much better. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The stem looked much better and the light tooth marks on both sides were still visible and would need a little work. I took photos of the pipe once I received it.  I took a photo of the rim top and the stem to show their condition. Jeff was able to clean up the cake and the lava overflow that was shown in the rim and bowl photos above. The rim top was clean but there were chips, nicks burned areas around the rim top and the edges of the bowl. There was also some darkening on the flat surface of the rim and the edges. It is visible in the first photo below. The stem looked better, though there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is quite readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of what the pipe looks like.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the damage to the rim top and outer edge of the bowl. I topped it with a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. I cleaned up the inward bevel on the bowl edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I brought it back to the same inward bevel that it had before I topped it. I turned my attention to the flaws and fills in the heel and the underside of the shank. I filled these in with clear CA glue. I smooth out the repairs with a folded pipe cleaner to smooth them out.I sanded the bowl top and the repaired fills on the shank and heel with a 320 grit sanding pad to blend them into the surrounding briar. They looked significantly better. From there I chose to sand the entire bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. This removed the darker areas and blended the repairs into the bowl and shank. It also took care of the roughness to the finish and some of the marks on the outside of the bowl and shank. The grain really began to stand out on the pipe. From there I went on to polish the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad. The pipe really began to have a rich shine and some beautiful grain that minimized the repaired fills. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers to get it into the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration, it is a beautiful bowl. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter and was able to lift them significantly. I filled in what remained with a black CA glue. Once it cured I used a small file to flatten the repairs and start the process of blending them into the surrounding vulcanite. Once the repairs cured I straightened out the stem a bit to give it a more gentle bend. To me the previous bend was to abrupt and made the stem hang from the mouth poorly. I adjusted it so that in the mouth it sits comfortably.Once the bend was corrected I sanded the repairs smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to further blend it into the surrounding vulcanite.I started the polishing of the stem with 2 x 2 inch sanding pads – dry sanding with 320-3500 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad. I was able to remove the light tooth marks and chatter on the stem surface on both sides. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil.  I did a final hand polish of the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. I put the pipe back together – the bowl with its new stem. This restored Malaga Second Long Shank Brandy turned out surprisingly to be a real beauty. I did not hold out much hope for it when I started on it but boy was I surprised. The grain on the bowl is quite beautiful came alive with the buffing. I used Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel on both the bowl and stem. I gave both multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel then buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The Malaga Second Brandy feels great in the hand. It is lightweight and the contrast in the browns of the briar and the polished vulcanite stem is quite amazing. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.90 ounces/54 grams. It really is a beauty. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American (US) Pipe Makers section shortly if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restemming and the restoration with me. Cheers.

This Rare and Beautiful “Malaga” Raskassa Cutty cleaned up extremely well

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Blog by Steve Laug

For the next little while I am working on some Malaga Pipes. I have several in queue to work on so I tend to pick them by what catches my eye. The next pipe on the table is an interesting Malaga Raskassa Large Cutty. Jeff saw it on eBay and purchased it on 10/05/2023 from a seller in Pomona, Missouri, USA. The grain on this pipe is very stunning. It was obviously someone’s favourite smoker. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads RASKASSA. The smooth bowl and shank were dirty and worn. There were tars and oils ground into the surface of the briar. The bowl had a very thick cake that flowed over the top of the smooth rim in a spotty lava coat. The cake in the bowl was thick right up to the top of the rim. It was hard to fully assess the condition of the inner edge. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl appeared to have some damage but more would become clear in the cleaning process. The outer edge had chips and dents from knocking the pipe against a hard surface. The taper stem appeared to be either vulcanite or hard rubber. There were tooth marks on the top and the underside ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipes before he started his clean up work.Jeff took photos of the rim and bowl to show the heavy cake and lava spots on the rim top and edges. The bevelled inner edge of the rim showed some darkening and had some cake on it. The grain on the rim top is quite stunning. It was a dirty pipe but still a beauty. The hard rubber stem had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show some stunning and unique grain all around the pipe. The oil curing/finish makes the grain really stand out on the bowl and shank. Jeff took a photo of the stamping on the left side it read Raskassa as noted above. It was clear and readable.For those of you who are unfamiliar with the brand, I am also including the link to a blog that I wrote that gives some of the history of the Malaga brand and the Malaga Pipe Shop in Royal Oak, Michigan in the USA. Here is the link – https://rebornpipes.com/2013/02/09/george-khoubesser-and-malaga-pipes/. That blog also includes links to a catalogue and the history of the pipemaker George Khoubesser. If you are interested to learn more then I invite you to follow the link to get a feel for the brand and the pipemaker.

I am also am including a link to some printed material on the Malaga brand that came to me from the daughter of George Koch (we purchased George’s pipes from his daughter) to help identify the particular stamping on the pipe. The link takes you to the entire collection of materials that were sent to me. I have included a screen capture of one particular page that helps identify the RAS KASSA stamping on the pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/02/27/malaga-pipes-catalogue-of-pipes-and-tobaccos/). I have enclosed the section on the brand in a red box in the picture above. To summarize, it basically says that the stamping is applied to pipes with special rare grain patterns in the briar. These appear to be straight grain, birdseye, swirled grains etc. that are tight patterns. They are rare – 1 or 2 in every hundred pipes. This pipe is one of those. You can read the description in the detailed explanation below.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe using his usual procedure. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The shank had an inset to take in the tenon and the end of the stem so I would need to fit a stem to sit in the shank. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took a photo of the rim top and the stem to show their condition. Jeff was able to clean up the cake and the lava overflow that was shown in the rim and bowl photos above. The rim top was clean but there were chips and nicks around the inner edge of the bowl and nicks on the outer edge. There was also some darkening on the flat surface of the rim. It is visible in the first photo below. The stem looked better, though there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button and on the button surface itself.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank to show that it was readable and undamaged by the cleanup work. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of what the pipe looks like.It was time to start my work on the pipe. I started with the rim top and edges of the bowl. I sanded the inner and the outer edge of the bowl. I used a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the rim top and darkening. Once I was finished with the light topping the grain on the rim top looked very good. I polished the smooth panels on the bowl sides and the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I touched up the clean rim top with a Maple Stain Pen. After the staining I continued sanding the rim top and bowl with 3200-12000 grit micromesh pads. I wiped it down after each pad. It really began to be beautiful. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers to get it into the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the tooth marks on both sides with black CA glue. I set it aside to cure. Once the repairs hardened I used a small needle file to flatten out the repairs. I smoothed them out with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the rest of the surrounding vulcanite. I set the finished bowl aside and we back to the stem. I started the polishing of the stem with 2 x 2 inch sanding pads – dry sanding with 320-3500 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I did a final hand polish of the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry.I put the stem back on the “Malaga” Beautifully Grained Raskassa Large Cutty and took it to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in both. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful “Malaga” Large Raskassa Cutty and the hard rubber taper stem and smooth finish combine to give the pipe a great look. I honestly have no idea why it is labeled a second as there are no fills or flaws in the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.98 ounces/56 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting on the rebornpipes online store in the American Pipe Makers and Pipemaking Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.