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Restoring a Republic Era Peterson’s Straight Grain 337 Bent Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is a Peterson’s pipe that came to us from our connection in Copenhagen, Denmark on 04/11/2023. It is a nice, beautifully grained Bent Billiard. This pipe was obviously a favourite of the previous trustee. It had been well smoked and there was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflowing onto the rim top. The rim top had darkening around the inner edge of the bowl and some nicks on the outer edge of the bowl. The well grained briar was dirty with grime and dirt ground into the finish and some small dents and scratches on the bowl sides and heel. There was straight grain all around the bowl and shank with birdseye on the rim top and heel of the bowl and top and underside of the shank. The stamping on the shank is clear and readable. The left side is stamped Peterson’s [over] Straight Grain. On the right side it was stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland (3 lines) and near the bowl it is stamped with the shape number 337. The “P” stamp on the left side of the saddle stem is readable and faded. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff captured the thick cake in the bowl and the lava overflow onto the rim top and inner edge in his photos. You can also see the damage to the outer edge of the rim in the photos. The heavily oxidized and calcified stem surface had a lot of light tooth chatter and marks on the stem ahead of the button. He took photos of the heel and sides of the bowl to show birds eye grain on the heel and shank and the straight grain on the sides. It was quite beautiful. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. It is readable and clear as noted above.I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Kapp & Peterson Company was still in the ownership of the Kapp family. However 1964 saw the retiral of the company Managing Director Frederick Henry(Harry) Kapp.

There was also a section on the Straight Grains on the site:

Straight grains: Peterson’s catalogue states that these pipes have Briars which are carefully examined for imperfections and have selected Briars of exceptional grain, known as Straight Grains, they are carefully selected, hand crafted and the increasingly rare skill required to make them is unique. Craftsmen shape, turn, sand and polish 150 year old roots of the Erica arborea tree/shrub. Only a very limited quantity of Straight Grains are available in any twelve month period. To my mind the sight of a beautiful natural straight grain bowl is truly a sight to behold. Pure class, they can be spotted a mile off! When coupled to the traditional high class Peterson gold or silverwork, these pipes are in a different quality league. Considering that such quality pipes when available, can be bought for prices starting at around $400 and upwards, they are to my mind a real bargain.

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s Straight Grain. On page 314 it had the following information.

Straight Grain Scarce premium grade stamp on models with exceptional Straight Grain, P-lip or fishtail mouthpiece as a line, appears in 1997, 2000 and ’05 catalogs. Specimen documented with bone-tenon extension indicating availability of such pipes before 1963, indeed, the ’40 catalog notes that ‘Hundreds of grosses of pipes may be made before even one STRAIGHT GRAIN bowl comes to hand.

A further reference to the line is found on Page 240 of the above book. I quote:

Grain – But what if the first choice a pipeman makes has to do with grain, if, for example he is only interested in pipes stamped STRAIGHT GRAIN? This is the top category in Peterson’s grading system, where availability is wholly dependent upon chance, with fewer than 2 percent of all bowls being so graded and stamped. While Peterson was stamping pipes STRAIGHT GRAIN as far back as the 1940s, so few of them have been made that they didn’t appear in the catalogs until 1997. Finding a Straight Grain in a desired shape can thus take years. If, however, the smoker is willing to bump his expectations down a notch to A-quality bowls, he can still find some spectacular grain choices, but his other choices are now much wider, since all current De Luxe and Natural finish pipes are made from A grade bowls, which are always free of fills.

Judging from the description above I believe that I am working on a rare Republic Era (1950 – 1989) Straight Grain Bent Billiard with beautiful grain and a matte-finish and a P-lip stem. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

With that information at hand I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants 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 in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation and calcification as possible. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I started to work on it. I took close up photos of the bowl and the stem. You can see the reamed bowl and the darkening on the rim top and the edges. The stem surface was clean but there are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides on and ahead of the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. There is also a “P” stamp on the right side of the saddle stem. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is really quite nice looking. You can also see the white spot on the top of the stem that I think is a repair. I decided to address the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl first. I cleaned up the inner edge and the rim top. The rim looks much better at this point. I polished the rim top and the rest of the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The briar began to come alive. The bowl looked very good. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth and raised the shine. The bowl looks great at this point. I touched up the “P” stamp on the stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I pushed it into the stamp with a tooth pick to get it deep in the stamp. I scraped off the excess acrylic and polished the stamped area with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. The curve of the “P” is weak but the stamp looks much better.I sanded out the tooth marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad.I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry.I am excited to finish this Republic Era Peterson’s Straight Grain 337 Bent Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful straight and birdseye grain all around it. Added to that the black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This Peterson’s Straight Grain 337 Bent Billiard is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 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 38 grams/1.34 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and a rare one that I will be adding to the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipemakers Section soon. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

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.

Restemming a Lightly Smoked Ropp De Luxe 804 Cherrywood

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Blog by Steve Laug

Two of my daughters and I enjoy visiting our local Flea Market. They look for a lot of different things and I keep an eye out for pipes. Not long ago we were there and the girls found their things and I found these two Cherrywood Pipes – one is marked Royal Cherry [over] Made in France (top pipe in the photo below) and the other is marked Ropp in an oval [over] Deluxe [over] France [over] 804. Both are in good condition and both are without their stems. Here is what the pipes looked like when I brought them home. After finishing the Royal Cherry Cherrywood I turned my attention to the Ropp bowl. The octagonal bowl had strips of bark on four of the panels and smooth cherry stripped of the bark on the other four panels. The rim top and the heel of the bowl were stripped of bark and were smooth cherry wood. The shank is a cherry wood branch that has been threaded and screwed into the back side of the bowl. The bark on the shank is undamaged and looks good. The bowl and shank have been given a coat of varnish or shellac as it is smooth and shiny. The bowl has been smoked and there is a light cake in the bowl with some darkening and light lava on the bevelled inner edge of the bowl. The heel of the bowl is also smooth. It is stamped Ropp in an oval [over] De Luxe [over] France [over] 804. There was no stem that came with the pipe so one would need to be fit to the shank. I took a photo of the rim top to show the darkening and lava on the bevel and the light cake in the bowl. The shape of the bowl is well done and looks very good.I took a photo of the stamping on the heel of the bowl. It is clear and readable as noted above.I found a stem in my collection that would fit the shank but it would need to be bent to follow the flow of the shank and bowl. It was used and had some tooth marks in both sides of the stem ahead of the button.I reamed the bowl to take the cake back to bare walls. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and scraped it clean. I sanded the walls of the bowl smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls of the bowl were smooth and undamaged.I cleaned out the shank airway and mortise with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I did the same with the airway in the new stem. The pipe was clean when I was finished.I cleaned up the bevelled rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the light lava and the darkening. It came off very well and looked much better.I polished the smooth portions of the cherry with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I dry sanded the wood and then wiped it down with a damp cloth. The polishing work progressively brought a shine to the pipe. It looked really amazing – the combination of bark and smooth portions of the cherrywood. It is a beauty! I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingertips. The product works to clean, preserve and protect the wood. I let it sit and absorb for 10 minutes. I buffed it off with a soft cloth and then gave it a rigorous buff to raise the shine. It looks good at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem. I heated the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to soften the vulcanite and bend it to match the curves of the bowl and shank. Once it was soft I bent it and it looks much better. I took photos of the stem surface to show the deep tooth marks on the surface of the stem. I painted the surface of the tooth marks with a lighter flame. I was able to lift them considerably. I filled in what remained with black CA glue. I set it aside to allow them to cure. Once the repair had cured I flattened out the repair with small file to blend it into the stem surface. I sanded it smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I started the polishing on the stem with a piece of 600 grit sandpaper. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside. I polished the stem with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads – I dry sanded the chatter on the stem surfaces on both sides and the diameter of the saddle portion of the stem. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil on a cloth after the sanding pads. Once finished it looked very good. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry. I am really happy with the way that this restemmed Ropp De Luxe 804 Cherrywood Pipe turned out. It is a nice looking pipe with a great shape and finished with bark on the bowl sides and shank and the rim top and heel of the bowl are smooth. The vulcanite saddle stem turned out very nice. The polished stem works well with the Cherrywood finish. The wood really came alive with the buffing. The bark finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the wood. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Ropp De Luxe 804 Bent Cherrywood really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. 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 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 64 grams/ 2.26 ounces. I will be putting the pipe on the rebornpipes store in the French Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Restemming and Restoring a Barling’s Make Ye Olde Wood Fossil 1553 Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe is one that I have avoided working on for over a year. Not because it was particularly hard to work on but because of the fact that it is a Barling with a thin Dunhill Stem. The stem needed to be replaced and I was hoping I could replace it with a Barling stem that would match. I looked through all the stems that I have here and also have looked other places but no luck on the stem. So, I decided to shape a replacement stem for the pipe and finish the cleanup work on the bowl. It has only been sitting here for a year and a half. We purchased the Barling 04/09/2022 from an estate in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It is stamped on the heel of the bowl and shank and reads Barling’s[arched over] Make [over] Ye Olde Wood [over] 1533. That is followed by Made in [over] England followed by Fossil in script. The letters TVF are at the end of the shank near the shank stem junction. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he did his cleanup work on the pipe.Jeff took a closeup photo of the bowl and rim to capture the condition of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. The rim top had a thick lava overflow and darkening on the back of the bowl. There was some burn and reaming damage on the inside edge of the bowl at the front of the bowl. The Dunhill stem is oxidized and dirty and there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surfaces ahead of the button. He also took photos of the sides and bottom of the bowl and shank to show the beautiful grain in the sandblast around the bowl. The photos show the general condition of the bowl and wear on the finish. It is very dirty but this is another beautiful pipe. Jeff took a photo to capture the stamping on the shank. The photos show the stamping is clear and readable as noted above.I turned to Pipedia to refresh the details for a Family Era Pipe made between 1812-and late 1962 (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Barling). I am including portions of the article that are pertinent to this pipe. I have highlighted them in bold.

Family Era – 1812 – late 1962 Details

The Barling family-controlled production up till this point. Quality was excellent, however some sources indicate a marked inconsistency in quality starting as early as 1954. As stated earlier, Jonathan Guss suggests that the Algerian War for Independence played a role in the change in quality due to the lack of Algerian briar, which the company supplemented with briar sourced from other countries. (Guss)

Prior to 1954 Barling pipes were made from old growth “extra extra” grade Algerian briar, of a quality no longer available. Barling conducted their own harvesting operations, looking for roots that ranged from 80 – 150 years of age. Jonathan Guss indicates that Barling had a commercial investment in Algeria as far back as 1928, though the nature and extent of this investment is not currently known.

We do know that Barling conducted its own harvesting operations, as well as cutting and seasoning of their selected briar. These images from the 1920’s brochure, Romance Of The Barling Pipe, shows images of their Algerian ventures. Also, the copy states that Barling looked for briarroot that was about 50 years old.

While many find the grain to be beautiful, this was not the aim of the Barling Company, and many of their pipes have rather unremarkable grain. The Barling Company’s intent was simple, to create the finest smoking instruments in the history of the world. Many connoisseurs believe that they achieved that goal admirably.

In addition to the smoking qualities of their air-cured wood, the Barling Company outfitted their bowls with hand made stems that many consider to be the most comfortable ever created. Their engineering is beyond reproach. Their silver work remains unsurpassed.

As an interesting side note, the soft Algerian Briar was not initially prized, as it was prone to burnout. But Barlng took the time to properly age and season this carefully selected wood for between 3 and 5 years, before finishing. They also made pipes with thicker walls, which helped defend against burnout. The porous mature of this briar resulted in excellent heat dispersion and provided a cool smoke.

Family Era Nomenclature:

Before discussing the nomenclature of the Family Era pipes it is important to note that there are no absolutes. Barling pipes from this period show a remarkable degree of variation when it comes to nomenclature. The following information can be applied in a general fashion.

According to Tad Gage, Pre-1946 stampings are minimal. Pre WW2 pipes rarely have size, shape or grading. But pipes have surfaced, hallmarked as early as 1925 with size marks, and as early as 1926 with model numbers. There may be earlier examples, and when we see them we will revise the dates.

Examples with silver hallmarks illustrate that a distinct change in nomenclature occurred around 1938-40, although clearly the war and London bombings impacted production of silver-mounted and of all English pipes. A George Yale Pipes & Tobacco catalog from 1941 features the familiar stampings such as “YE OLDE WOOD”, “TVF”, and style names like “Fossil”, and these were not generally found on pre-1940 pipes, although “YE OLDE WOOD” did inconsistently appear on some earlier examples. (Gage)

Sandblasts:

Until recently it was believed that Barling didn’t produce sandblasts until the late 1930’s and didn’t list them formally as part of the product line prior to 1943. It’s possible that Barling may have been producing sandblasts much earlier, possibly as early as 1917, the same year Dunhill is credited with inventing the sandblast. More on that possibility in a moment.

Logo Nomenclature:

…Barling also provided sterling work for BBB until BBB established their own silver working capabilities in Birmingham England, and started crafting its own silver fitments circa 1910. (Gage) By the time that Barling was making sterling fitments for BBB the Barling makers’ mark had been changed to “EB” over “WB” for Edward and William Barling. Many Barling briar pipes made prior to 1906 lack any company markings except for the name of the shop that sold them. As was common practice at the time, the majority of bowls Barling used prior to 1906 were imported from Saint-Claude or Jura to be finished in the Barling factories. If there was anything to identify Barling as the maker it was their maker’s mark, EB over WB, stamped into a sterling fitment. During the late 1800’s the BARLING’S MAKE stamp appears on some pipes, evidence that Barling was manufacturing some of their product completely in-house. The “BARLING’S MAKE” has the word “BARLING’S” arched over the word “MAKE” in capital block letters. Barling used this block letter logo until late 1962.

In addition to the block letter logo, Barling used a script logo for special pipes as well as for advertising, and packaging art…

…During the 1930’s and early 1940’s the BARLING’S MAKE logo appeared in a small version with a simpler letter style. Following the War, the small “BARLING’S MAKE” logo was discontinued and a larger logo was used. The larger logo would continue to be in use until 1962, when the 1930’s style logo was reintroduced along with the new numbering system.
Over the years there were a number of changes and adjustments to the nomenclature, though the company logo stamps remained a constant….

Ye Olde Wood Stamp:

Sometime around 1913, the “Ye Olde Wood” stamp made its appearance on selected pipes. An example exists stamped on a 1913 date hallmarked pipe.

This logo will continue to be used in the decades to come. Initially it was used to designate a higher grade than the average, much as the “Special” grade would after the Second World War. Price lists show the “Ye Olde Wood” pipes as a separate grade from the basic BARLING’S MAKE pipe. Eventually, “Ye Olde Wood” came to represent the company to the world. The use of “YE OLD WOOD” as a stamp prior to 1940 was haphazard, at best, although the company used the slogan in advertising materials from the early teens onward. (Gage)…

Model Numbers:

Also according to Tad Gage, the only four-digit number that denotes a Pre-Transition piece begins with “1,” which was used for pipes sold in England. Any other four-digit Barling pipe is a Transitional piece– (Tad Gage in P & T magazine)…

Now I knew I was dealing with a Pre-Transition, Family Era pipe bowl as shown by the stamping and the four digit shape number. I also knew from the 1 preceding 553 shape designates that it was made for pipes sold in England. As best as I can tell it was made in the 1940s and no later than 1962.

When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it was very clean. The briar and stem were spotless. The long Dunhill stem fit well to the shank. It appears that when it was fitted the shank was sanded slightly and smoothed out some of the sandblast but as I work on it I will know with more certainty. The shank end had been tapered to the stem. Jeff had reamed the bowl with a Pipenet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the bowl walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the airway in the stem and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank with Murphy’s Oil Soap (undiluted) and a tooth brush. He rinsed the exterior with warm running water and dried. He polished the briar and stem with a small drop of olive oil. The pipe really looked very good. It was going to be a fun one to work on for my part. I took photos of the pipe when I brought it to the table for my work. This is what I saw. I took a photo of the rim and bowl to show the condition of the cleaned pipe. You can see the darkening and the damage on the front inner edge and the left side inner edge. The Dunhill stem is quite clean and I will be putting it in my can of stems for use on a Dunhill pipe in the future.I took a photo of the stamping on the heel of the bowl and the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the look of the bowl with the Dunhill stem. It looked interesting but was significantly longer than necessary.I went through my stems and found a nice saddle stem that was the right length in my mind and with some work would look great with the pipe.I set the Dunhill stem aside and turned my attention to the new stem. The tenon fit the shank perfectly so nothing needed to be done with that. The diameter of the saddle stem was larger than that of the modified shank. I used a file and 180 grit sandpaper to shape the stem. I put a plastic spacer between the shank and the stem so I could proceed without further damage to the shank. It worked well to shape the diameter of the stem to match the shank. I tried to match the diameter to the undamaged part of the shank. With the stem fit close I moved on to clean up the rim top and edge of the bowl to bring it back into round. I gave the rim a slight bevel to reduce the damage on the front inner edge of the bowl.I put the stem on the shank and took a photo to have a look at the sanded portion of the shank. It went from the end inward about ½ inches. The sandblast had been smoothed out to the point that it was virtually gone on the end. It is slightly tapered rather than the straight angle that should have been there along the top of the shank. I thought it might be worth put a small band on it to cover the damaged area and provide a straight angle. It would be cosmetic as there were no cracks to the shank end. I found a nice decorative band in my collection of bands that had some beading along the shank end. I took a photo of the band alongside the bowl to show what it looked like.I pressed the band on to the shank end and took photos of how it looked. It covered the damaged area well and took care of the tapered end of the shank. I like the way it looked.I took a photo of the pipe without the band and with the band in place. To me the band really helped with the tapered shank end. It gave a touch of bling to the pipe and cleaned up the flow from the bowl to the end of the stem. I like how it looked.I touched up the inner edge of the bowl with a Maple stain pen to blend the rim edges and top into the stain on the rest of the bowl. It really helped with blending the bevelled edge and giving the bowl a better sense of round.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into finish of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Restoration Balm really makes the sandblast grain stand out beautifully. I sanded out the file and 180 sanding marks on the stem surface and saddle portion with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. It was starting to look much better. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry.The Barling’s Make Ye Olde Wood 1553 Fossil Pot restemming and restoration was finished. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I used a very light touch so as not to damage the stamping on the shank. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The depths of the sandblast came alive with the buffing and works well with the decorative brass band and the polished black vulcanite saddle stem. Altogether this Barling’s Make Ye Olde Wood Fossil Pot has a rich look. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and new stem work very well. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .99 ounces/28 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me. I have one of these and they are a cool dry smoke. Thanks for walking through the restoration of this fine old Barling’s Make pipe. It was a pleasure to work on.

Restoring a Unique “Malaga” Custom Carved Fluted Bent Egg

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Blog by Steve Laug

Jeff and I have been picking up Malaga pipes for a very long time. It does not seem that long ago that we picked them up for $4 – $5USD each. We purchased an estate of more than 30+ Malaga pipes. It was not long before the brand had our attention. The pipes are very well made and all are oil cured with a “secret” recipe and process.

The next pipe on the table is a “Malaga” pipe that is made in a shape that I would define as a Twisted Bent Egg. We picked it up from a seller on eBay in Bristol, Indiana, USA. It has some great cross and birdseye grain and a tapered vulcanite bent stem. The grain around the bowl and shank combined with the stem make it a stunning pipe. The carver did a great job of uniquely shaping the pipe to follow the grain on the briar. The twists and turns in the bowl are well done and almost seem to be carved for fingers to fit against the bowl either left or right handed. The bowl had a thick cake that overflowed with lava onto the rim and there were scratches and nicks on the top and edges under the grime. The sides of the bowl and shank are very dirty with grime and oils from prolonged use. The stamping on the left side of the shank read “MALAGA” in quotations. On the right side it is stamped in script and reads CUSTOM CARVED. The vulcanite stem had light tooth dents and chatter on the top and the underside of the stem. The button was worn on both sides. Jeff took these photos before he started the cleanup work on the pipe.Jeff took a closeup photo of the bowl and rim to capture the condition of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. The rim top had some lava overflow and darkening on the back of the bowl. There are nicks around the inner outer edges of the bowl and rim top. The stem is oxidized and dirty and there is tooth marks (dents) and chatter on the button edges and surfaces ahead of the button. The shank was too dirty for the stem to fit snugly and it looks like it is poorly fit. I will know more once I have it in hand. He also took photos of the sides and bottom of the bowl and shank to show the beautiful grain around the bowl. The photos show the general condition of the bowl and wear on the finish. It is very dirty but this is another beautiful pipe. Jeff took a photo to capture the stamping on the shank. The photos show the stamping “MALAGA” on the left side of the shank and CUSTOM CARVED on the right side. The stamping is very readable.I am 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. I have written an earlier blog to give a little history of the Malaga Brand and the pipemaker, George Khoubesser. Here is the link – (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/02/09/george-khoubesser-and-malaga-pipes/). That blog also includes a catalogue and the history of the pipemaker George Khoubesser. Follow the link to get a feel for the brand and the pipemaker.

Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He was able to remove the lava build up on the rim top and the flat surface of the rim looked very good. The inner edge of the rim has some serious burn damage on the front inner edge. The outer edge looked very good. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it with hot water. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. Note that I will need to bend the stem slightly to fit the bend of the shank. I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem. You can see the condition of the rim top and bowl in the first photo. Jeff was able to remove all of the tar and oils but you can now see the on the rim top and edges. The vulcanite stem had tooth chatter on both sides near and on the button surface.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank to show how good the condition is. It shows the “MALAGA” stamp on the left side and CUSTOM CARVED on the right side. The stamping is very legible. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give a clear picture of the character of the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the darkening on the inner edge of the bowl and the scratching and nicks on the rim top. It looked much better than when I started.I polished the rim top and the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads to prepare the rim top for staining. 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 surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The following photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I am very happy with the results. I turned to the stem to address the issues on the surface of both sides at the button. I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks from the surface. I was able to lift them to some degree but they would need to be repaired. I also heated the stem with the flame to soften the vulcanite and bend the stem to match the angles on the bowl. I filled in the tooth marks in the top and underside of the stem with black rubberized CA glue. I set it aside to cure. Once it cured I use a small file to flatten the repairs and blend them into the stem surface. I sanded the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper to flatten the repairs and blend them into the surface. I started the polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I also cleaned up the tenon for a better fit to the shank. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry.This Malaga Custom Carved Twisted Fluted/twisted Bent Egg with a vulcanite tapered stem turned out to be a real beauty. It has great grain around the bowl and the carver really maximized that with the shape of the pipe. Everything about the pipe – the shape of the bowl, the thin flat rim top and the cut of the briar work well to highlight the grain around the bowl sides. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel and the grain just popped and came alive. 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. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain took on life with the buffing. The rich oil cured colour works well with the polished vulcanite stem. The finished Malaga Custom Carved Fluted Bent Egg has a rich look that is quite catching. Have a look at it with the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. I will be adding the pipe to the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your rack send me an email or message on Facebook. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another estate pipe.

Restoring and Repairing a stem on The Everyman London Pipe 332 Sandblast Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

This next pipe is another that has been here for a very long time. I have no idea where I purchased it or whether it came to me in a trade for labour. I don’t remember. I have worked on quite a few of these Comoy’s made The Everyman Pipes over the years and find that they are well made and quite nice. The pipe is stamped on the underside and reads The [over] Everyman [over] London Pipe. That is followed by Made in London [over] England followed by the shape number 332. This particular pipe has a rugged and deep sandblast around the bowl and shank. It has been stained with a cordovan or dark brown stain. The bowl had been well reamed but there was some lava on the rim top blast. Internally it smelled quite clean with no residual aromatic smell in it. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth chatter and marks on the top and a chip out of underside in the stem and button. It was not large but it was very present. I took some photos of the pipe to give a sense of what I saw before I started my cleanup work. I took photos of the rim top and inner edge of the bowl to show the lava coat in the sandblast rim top and darkening on the inner edge of the bowl. The photos of the stem show the oxidation, calcification and the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. You can also see the chip out of the button on the underside of the stem.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but still readable as noted above. I took a photo of the three bars inserted on the left side of the stem. I also took a photo of the bowl and shank separated to show the condition of the pipe. It really is a great looking pipe. Before starting my cleanup work on the pipe I turned my favourite go to sites on background of brands. The first is Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-e4.html). There I looked up The Everyman brand and confirmed what I remembered about it being made by Comoy’s. From there I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s). I went directly to the section on Comoy’s pipes. This advertisement on the various lines of Comoy’s of London pipes as present. I copied the graphic and have included it here.There was also a shape chart that showed the 332 Large Billiard. I have drawn a red box around it for simplicity.With that done I started my restoration of the pipe. I worked on the lava build up on the rim top and the burn damage and darkening on the inner edge of the rim. I worked over the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush. I was able to clean up the debris that filled in the sandblast finish on the rim and remove the tars. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed the soap and debris off the bowl with running water. I repeated the process until the rim top and the externals were very clean. It looked very good at this point. Somewhere along the journey the pipe had been reamed and the bowl was smooth. There was nothing to do in terms of reaming the bowl or sanding the bowl. The bowl itself was clean of cake or debris. Just to check on the cleaning of the rest of the pipe I turned to clean the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem. It was quite dirty and needed a thorough cleaning. I scrubbed the out with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and Isopropyl 99% alcohol. Many pipe cleaners and much time passed and the draught was clean and open in both the stem and the shank. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into finish of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Restoration Balm really makes the grain stands out beautifully. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I cleaned up the oxidation on the stem surface around the button with 220 grit sandpaper to prepare for the repair to the button. I wanted a clean and non-oxidized surface to work with so that the glue would stick. I wiped it down with alcohol after each sanding until the surface was clean and has some slight roughening from the sanding.I coated the end of a folded pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it into the slot below chipped section. The Vaseline would prevent the black CA glue from sticking to it in the stem when I put it on the stem. I filled in the chipped area with KMS rubberized super glue and repeated the layers of glue until it was built up.I removed the pipe cleaner from the slot and set the stem aside to cure. I took a photo of the repair on the button and a photo from the slot end. I would need to build the slot up a bit but it was starting to look very good.Once the repairs cured on the underside of the stem I filed them flat and recut the button edge with a small file. I used a small slot cutting tool to smooth out the slot in the button. I sanded and reshaped the button with a folded piece of 220 sandpaper and also worked over the oxidation that remained on the stem. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I took photos of the repaired stem after I had shaped it and it looked very good at this point. I need to polish it more but I like the looks of the repaired button and slot.I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove the deep oxidation in the stem. It was a lot of oxidation but it came out with repeated scrubbing with the pads. It looked much better when finished.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry.The Everyman London Pipe 332 Sandblast Billiard was finished. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I used a very light touch so as not to damage the stamping on the shank. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The depths of the sandblast came alive with the buffing and works well with the polished black vulcanite saddle stem. Altogether this The Everyman London Pipe 332 Billiard pipe has a rich look. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ 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 1.48 ounces/42 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me. I have one of these and they are a cool dry smoke. Thanks for walking through the restoration of this fine old Comoy’s made pipe. It was a pleasure to work on.

Replacing a broken tenon and restoring a Stanwell de Luxe

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Blog by Steve Laug

Earlier in July I received an email from Peter, a fellow in California regarding a pipe repair he needed. He wrote as follows.

Hi, I’m just wondering if you can repair a Stanwell pipe for me? The stem broke off inside the pipe. Thanks for your time, Peter.

I wrote him back asking for photos so I could have a look at it. I figured he meant that the tenon snapped off inside the shank but I wanted to be certain. He replied

Thanks so much for your very fast response. Pictures are below. Best wishes, Peter We chatted back and forth a bit and Peter decided to send the pipe to me. I received it yesterday and here is what I saw once I unwrapped it. The photos tell the story but here is my review of it. The finish was dirty and worn. The bowl had a thick cake and there was lava buildup flowing along the inner edge and into the plateau on the rim top. The stem was snapped off leaving the tenon in the shank. Fortunately, there was no damage to the shank itself. It did not have any cracks in the sides. The shank end showed a lot of tar buildup. The tenon was still in the shank. The snap at the stem was fairly clean and would just need to be flattened. The stem itself showed a lot of oxidation, calcification and light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The pipe was stamped on the left side and read Stanwell [over] de Luxe. I could not see any other stamping on the shank. There was a gold crown S on the left side of the saddle stem. This was going to be fun to bring back to life. I decided to begin working on the pipe by trying to pull the broken tenon with my usual methods. I put the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes, then inserted a screw into the airway in the shank. I wiggled the screw and tried to break it free. It was no use. I used a qtip to dribble alcohol around the edges of the broken tenon in the shank. I repeated that several times and let it sit. I was still unable to remove the broken tenon in the shank. It was stuck and nothing seemed to loosen it. With the tenon being stuck in the shank I stepped up the process and drilled it out. I started with a drill bit slightly larger than the airway. I have had good success in drilling and in the process having the tenon come out on the drill bit. In this case I worked through four drill bits until I used one that was slightly small than the mortise. I then scraped out the remainder of the bits of vulcanite in the shank with a small pen knife until the walls were clear. I took a photo of the pipe at this point in the process – the tenon drilled out, a replacement tenon and the stem. Now it is ready for the next part of my work. I set the stem and tenon aside so that I could work on the bowl and shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer. I took the cake back to bare walls so I could check out the walls for damage or checking. It looked very good. I scraped out the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded it with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel to smooth out the walls of the bowl. I worked on the buildup in the plateau surface of the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush. I was able to remove the heaviest part of the lava in the grooves of the plateau surface. It looked better but would need to be scrubbed. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scoured the surface of the briar and rinsed and repeated the process until the bowl was clean and the rim top looking very good. I cleaned up the darkening on the smooth bevelled portion of the inner rim edge next. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage and also smooth it out. I touched up the deep grooves in the plateau with a black Sharpie pen. The rim top and edge look very good.I polished the smooth rim top portions and the exterior of the pipe with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. By the last pad it was looking very good with a shine in the briar that highlights the grain. I cleaned out the shank and mortise with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I wanted to remove the oils and tars so that I would have a clean surface for the new tenon that I was fitting in the shank. It cleaned up and certainly smelled better once cleaned.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to get into the plateau top. The product works to clean, preserve and protect the briar. I let it sit and work into the briar for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a cotton cloth. I buffed the briar with a clean cloth. The bowl is starting to look beautiful and there is a shine developing. At this point the bowl was finished until I finished with the new tenon insertion. I set the bowl aside and took a photo of the new tenon and the tools for reducing the diameter to fit in the shank. I used the Dremel and a sanding drum to reduce the diameter. I cleaned up the work with a file and then 220 grit sandpaper to get it to a point where the tenon fit in the shank.I put the stem in a bath of Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and set it aside while I worked on the tenon fit. I left it in the bath for three hours and then removed it and rubbed off the bath with a paper towel. The surface of the stem looked significantly better at this point. The oxidation was greatly reduced, the calcification was gone and the stem showed improvement. The tooth marks would still need to be worked on but there was progress.I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol the drilled the airway to match the diameter of the new tenon insertion. I started with a drill bit the same size as the airway and gradually increased the bit size until it matched the outside diameter of the tenon. I took a photo of the newly drilled end of the stem. I cleaned up the airway once again in preparation for gluing the new tenon in place. I wiped the tenon end down with black CA glue and then aligned the tenon and the mortise. I pressed the tenon in place in the stem and set it aside to cure. Once it cured I took a photo of the stem and new tenon with the bowl before putting them back together. Once the glue cured I fit the stem in the shank. As seems to be very usual when I do this kind of thing the fit against the shank was not perfect. I would need to shape the stem and shank to make the fit and flow perfect. I took photos of the pipe at this point. The fit is not far off but just enough to be noticeable in the photos on the top and underside and slightly on the right and left sides. I sanded the shank and the stem to match and make the transition smooth all the way around the junction. I used 220 grit sandpaper and sanded it in place on the shank. I had to remove briar and vulcanite on the sides of the shank according to the transition. When finished it looked much better. I polished the sanded areas with micromesh sanding pads to make them smooth. I used an Oak stain pen to touch up the sanded areas and blend them into the rest of the bowl and shank. It blends in very well.I rubbed it down once again with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar and let it sit for 10 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. I polished the bowl with a cotton cloth and set it aside. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to finishing the work on the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift them significantly. I filled in what remained with black CA glue. Once the repair cured I used files to smooth out the surface of the repair. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I started the polishing of the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. 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 finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed it into the surface of the stem and buffed it off with a cloth and buffed it to a shine. I am really happy with the way that this Stanwell Danish Made de Luxe Freehand turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a great shape and smooth finished bowl and plateau on the rim top. The original vulcanite saddle stem is cleaned up nicely. The polished black of the stem works well with the briar and the plateau portions. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back 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. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Stanwell de Luxe really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 56 grams/1.98 oz. The pipe will be going back to Peter very soon. I look forward to hearing what he thinks about it. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Cleaning up the worst used of the lot a Ben Wade Martinique Made in Denmark Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

A few weeks ago I was contacted from a fellow in Montana who was selling his pipes as they had not been used for quite a few years. I asked him for a picture and he sent me the one to the left. It included the following brands (from the top to the bottom of the photo): Savinelli Autograph 5 Freehand, Mastro de Paja Ciocco 0C Bulldog, Mastro de Paja Media 1B Bent Billiard, Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard, Caminetto Business KS 118 Canadian, Radici Rind Rhodesian, Dunhill Bruyere ODA 836 Panel Billiard, Barontini Straight Grain B3 Freehand and a Ben Wade Martinique Hand Made in Denmark Freehand.

Almost all of them were higher end pipes and all were hand made pipes. They were a mix of finishes – smooth, sandblast and also rusticated. They were a mix of shapes as well and the majority of them were Italian Made other than the Dunhill and the Ben Wade Martinique. They were beautiful pipes and after exchanging quite a few photos of the pipes from various angles to get a sense of what was there we struck a deal. We sent him the payment and the pipes arrived in Idaho a few days after I left for Vancouver. They were certainly more dirty than we were led to believe but that is not an issue.

Jeff cleaned them all and this week I received them in Vancouver. I am impressed with the way they cleaned up and the beauty of the brands. They truly are some beautiful pipes. I just need to put the final touches on each of them and address issues on the bowl tops, rims and stems and they should be good to go. I am really looking forward to working on each of them in the days ahead.

Today I am working on the last of the lot. It is another warm, late afternoon so after work I descended to the basement to continue working on the lot. The last pipe left to work on was the smooth Ben Wade Freehand. This one is a bit different than any of the other in this lot. It is very nice looking piece of briar and has fancy saddle stem. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank. It was clear and readable. It reads Ben Wade [over] Martinique [over] Hand Made in Denmark. The medium brown stained finish was very dirty with grime ground in the finish all over the whole bowl and shank. The plateau rim top and shank end are dirty with lava and darkening in the grooves of the plateau. The bowl had a thick cake and the rim top/inner edge had thick lava flowing up from the bowl. It was hard to know its full condition of the inner edge with certainty until it was cleaned. The acrylic saddle stem is was dirty and had deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There was a BW Crown logo on the top of the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the darkening and lava overflow in the plateau rim top. The photos of the stem show the dirty condition of the stem and the tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the great grain on the pipe. It is a beauty under the grime and dust. The stamping on the underside of the shank is shown in the photos below. It is faint in spots but still readable. It read as noted and explained above. The third photo shows the Crown BW logo on the stem top. I remembered a bit of history on the brand that Preben Holm pipes were marketed under the Ben Wade label in the US and imported through Lane Ltd. I turned to Pipedia and read the listing on the brand to refresh my memory and flesh out the knowledge of the brand and would encourage you to do the same (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wade). I have included a photo from that site that was taken from a Tinderbox advertisement. (Ben Wade Ad in a Tinder Box catalog, courtesy Doug Valitchka.)I quote the portion of the article that summarizes the Danish period of the history of the brand:

Young Copenhagen master pipemaker Preben Holm had made a meteoric career heading a pipe manufacture employing 45 people at the age of 22! But around the turn of 1970/71 he was in major financial difficulties. His US distributor, Snug Harbour Ltd. in New York City, left him in the lurch. Holm had three unpaid invoices on his desk and another large shipment was ready for the USA, when Snug Harbour’s manager told him on the phone that there was no money at all on the account to pay him.

So the Dane went to New York for an almost desperate search for a new distribution partner. He made contacts with Lane Ltd. and met Herman G. Lane in February 1971. Lane Ltd. had no interest in Holm’s serial pipes produced at that time but so much the more in the hand-carved freehands because the hype for Danish freehands and fancies in the States was still on its way to the climax then. The meeting resulted in an agreement to start a cooperation. Lane insisted to improve the quality considerably and in return he assured to be able to sell essentially larger quantities.

Holm went back home to work on new samples with all-new designs and altered finishes for Lane. Both, Lane and Holm, agreed that it would be unwise to sell the pipes under Preben Holm’s name as long as Snug Harbour had a considerable stock of Preben Holm pipes and might sell them pipes at very low prices just to bring in some money.

So on Mr. Lane’s proposal it was determined to use the name Ben Wade belonging to Lane Ltd. Lane spent considerable amounts of money for advertising the new brand in the big magazines– the centerpiece being whole-page ads showing a very exclusive Seven Day’s Set.

The cooperation with Lane Ltd. proved to be an eminent business success for both partners. Within a very short time Ben Wade Handmade Denmark sold in much larger quantities and at higher prices than they had ever dreamed of. And the hype these freehands and fancy pipes caused went on unbroken long after Herman G. Lane deceased. Preben Holm – obviously much more brilliant in pipe making than in pipe business – was in major troubles again in 1986 and had to sack most of his staff. The Ben Wade production was significantly lowered but continued until his untimely death in June of 1989.

Up to now Preben Holm made Ben Wade pipes are cult and highly sought for on the estate markets.

With that information my initial thoughts were confirmed. This pipe was a Preben Holm made Freehand distributed in the US by Lane Ltd under the name Ben Wade. The freehand rage occurred in the late 70s and the pipes were made until Preben’s death in 1989. My guess would be that this pipe was made sometime during that time period and potentially in the late 70s.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants 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 in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove the debris and oils on the stem. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took a photo of the rim top. Jeff had been able to remove the thick lava coat from the plateau rim top and inner edge. It looks very good at this point. A work over with a brass bristle wire brush will remove the remaining darkening in the grooves. The plateau on the shank end is clean and looks very good. The stem is clean but has some the tooth marks on both side are deep and obvious. I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but still readable as noted above. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to get a sense of what the pipe looked like.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the debris still in the plateau rim top. I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the plateau on the top and shank end. It worked very well and the plateau looked significantly better once finished.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the dust and debris from the surface of the briar. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips. The product works to clean, preserve and protect the briar. I let it sit and work into the briar for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a cotton cloth. I buffed the briar with a clean cloth. The bowl is starting to look beautiful and there is a shine developing. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the tooth marks on both sides of the stem ahead of the button with a black CA glue. Once the glue cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the Crown BW logo on the top of the stem with Antique Gold Rub’n Buff. I worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. I buffed it off with a soft cloth and rubbed the stem down with some Obsidian Oil.I polished the stem surface 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with each pad and then wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.I am really happy with the way that this Preben Holm made Ben Wade Martinique Danish Made Freehand turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a great shape and smooth finished bowl and plateau on the rim top and shank end. The fancy original acrylic saddle stem is really nice. The polished black of the stem works well with the briar and the plateau portions. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back 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. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Ben Wade Martinique really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches long x 1 ¾ inches wide, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 6 grams/2.29 oz. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the section on Danish Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Restoring a large Savinelli Autograph 5 Freehand Sitter

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Blog by Steve Laug

Jeff cleaned them all and this week I received them in Vancouver. I am impressed with the way they cleaned up and the beauty of the brands. They truly are some beautiful pipes. I just need to put the final touches on each of them and address minor issues on the bowl rims and the stems and they should be good to go. I am really looking forward to working on each of them in the days ahead.

This afternoon after work I decided to continue working on the lot. I chose to work on the sandblast Savinelli Autograph Freehand. To me Savinelli Autographs have an easily recognizable look to them. This one had a great sandblast finish and a smooth rim top and bowl base so it functioned as a sitter. The pipe is stamped on heel of the bowl. It was clear and readable and says Savinelli [over] Autograph [over] 5. There is an autograph on the left side of the stem. The stamping is clear and readable. The medium brown stained finish was very dirty with grime ground into the valleys of the sandblast briar. The bowl had a thick cake and the rim top/inner edge had thick lava flowing up from the bowl. It was heavier on the back side of the bowl and rim than the rest. The inner edge of the bowl was covered enough with lava that it was hard to know its condition with certainty. The taper stem is black vulcanite and was dirty, oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before the clean up. You can see the thick cake in the bowl overflowing as lava on the inner edge and rim top. He also took some photos of the stem to show the condition of both sides. You can see the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside next to the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the beautiful sandblast finish around the bowl and shank. The stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. The stamping on the heel of the bowl is shown in the photos below. It is clear and readable as noted above. The second photo shows the autograph on the side of the stem. I wanted to remind myself a bit about the Autograph line from Savinelli so I reread a blog I had written on a previous Autograph restoration (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/01/05/restoring-a-savinelli-autograph-3-rhodesian-dublin-long-shank/). I quote a portion of the blog now:

I turned first to the Pipephil website (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-savinelli1.html) to get a brief overview of the Autograph line. There I found out that the Autographs were hand made and unique. The Autograph Grading system is ascending: 3, 4, … 8, 0, 00, 000.

I turned then to Pipedia to get a more background on the Autograph line. I had the outline I needed from pipephil for the pipe but wanted more (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli). I quote in part from the article on that site.

While Savinelli’s serially produced pipes account for around 98% of annual production, the marque also creates a number of artisanal, handmade pieces as well. The Autographs, the Creativity line, and the Mr. A. line are all the result of Savinelli’s unique handmade process, with the Autographs reflecting the larger Freehand aesthetic, the Creativity line delving into more complex hand carving, and the Mr. A. line sidestepping the standard shape chart for remarkable and unusual pipes.

All of the briar for Savinelli’s Autographs and other freehand pipes is sourced specifically for those pieces. While the majority of the marque’s serial production is made from extra grade ebauchon blocks, Savinelli keeps a separate supply of Extra Extra plateau blocks for Freehands. This variety of briar is much larger, and of a higher quality, which explains why so many Autographs and Savinelli handmades are naturally larger designs.

These handmade pieces are shaped much like traditional Danish Freehands: they are shaped first and drilled second. Using this method, Savinelli’s team of artisans is able to showcase their own creativity, as it maximizes flexibility and facilitates a more grain-centric approach to shaping. The resulting Freehand designs are at once both a departure from the marque’s classical standard shapes, yet very much still “Savinelli” in their nature—i.e. proportioned so that the bowl is the visual focus when viewed from the profile, juxtaposed by the comparatively trim lines of the shank and stem. To provide a little more insight into the differences between Savinelli’s standard production and freehand lines, Luisa Bozzetti comments:

“When we choose to make Freehand pipes we must stop production on the standard shapes. The process for Freehands is much more involved and takes much more time. Finding the best people from the production line and pulling them to make Freehands is challenging since it’s not an assembly line, but rather a one or two man operation.

After the rough shaping of the stummel, we must get together and brainstorm which style of stem will be paired before the pipe can be finished since we do not use pre-shaped stems. All accents and stems for the Freehands are cut from rod here in the factory. A lot of care goes into the few pieces lucky enough to make the cut; to end up with a certain number of Autographs, for instance, means that many, many more will be made, and only the few will be selected.”

The quality control process for Savinelli handmades is even more rigorous than that employed in the standard lineup. Many blocks are started and later discarded because of pits or defects. While Savinelli’s briar sourcing is a constant process, working with some of Italy’s top cutters to ensure only the finest and most suitable blocks make their way to the factory, it’s impossible to source plateau briar that’s completely free from flaws. That’s just nature. Savinelli creates the standard for quality by working through the rough (a very high-quality rough, mind you) to find that shining diamond with the potential to become a Savinelli handmade.

It looks like the Autograph 5 I am working is pretty high in the hierarchy of the line. Like other autographs I have worked on in the past this one has a signature on the left side of the vulcanite stem. Jeff once again did an amazing job cleaning the pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the bowl walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He got rid of the cake so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to get into the grooves and valleys of the rustication. He rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. The stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub and then soaked in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. It came out looking pretty good with a light coat of oxidation still present. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up pretty good. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I unpacked it. I took close up photos of both the rim top and the stem. Jeff had been able to get the grime and lava off of the rim top and it looked very clean. The stem looked very clean. The tooth marks and chatter were predominantly near the button. The stamping on the sides of the shank was readable as noted above. I took photos of the stamping on the heel of the bowl to show the condition and readability. I also took a photo of the autograph on the left side of the stem. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an idea of the perspective and design of the pipe. I polished the smooth heel of the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads using 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl and shank with my fingers and a horsehair shoe brush. I want the product to go deep into the finish because it works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. Once I was confident that it was deeply worked into the finish I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth to polish it. The pipe really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain really stands out on the pipe in the photos below. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I painted the surface of the vulcanite with the flame of a lighter to lift the bite marks. I was able to lift them significantly. What remained I filled in with black CA glue. Once the repairs cured I flattened the repairs with a small file. I sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with a folded piece of 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the autograph stamp on the left side of the stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick and cleaned off the excess with a worn 1500 micromesh sanding pad.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.I put the Savinelli Autograph 5 bowl and stem back together. I polished the smooth part of the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the sandblasted bowl and shank several coats of Conservator’s Wax 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. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The medium brown stains and the smooth and sandblast finish worked amazingly well with the polished black vulcanite stem. The sandblast was deep and craggy on the bowl and shank and looks quite remarkable. This is truly a beautiful Freehand pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.89 ounces/82 grams. I have restored quite a few Autographs over the years and this estate is another rare beauty. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly in the Italian Pipemakers Section. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

New Life for a Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard with a Black Acrylic Saddle Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

Jeff cleaned them all and this week I received them in Vancouver. I am impressed with the way they cleaned up and the beauty of the brands. They truly are some beautiful pipes. I just need to put the final touches on each of them and address minor issues on the bowl rims and the stems and they should be good to go. I am really looking forward to working on each of them in the days ahead.

This evening after work I decided to continue working on the lot. I chose to work on the smooth octagonal bent Billiard with a silver ferrule and tip on the stem. It has a classic Large Bent Octagonal Billiard shape with an Italian twist. The is smooth and well shaped. There is a silver ferrule round the shank end as well as a silver band around the tenon end of the stem. The pipe is stamped on three sides of the shank. On the left side it Ser Jacopo [over] Fatta A Mano (made by hand). On the underside of the shank it is stamped Delecta. The stamping on the right side of the shank it read Per Aspera [over] Ad Astra. The silver ferrule is stamped on the top left side and reads Ser [over] Jacopo [over] Delecta. On the underside it is stamped 925 in an oval as the silver quality designation. There is a coral dot logo is on top side of the stem. The stamping is clear and readable. The reddish stained finish was very dirty with grime ground into the smooth briar. The bowl had a moderate cake and the rim top/inner edge had some lava flowing up from the bowl. The inner edge of the bowl was covered with some lava so it was hard to know its condition with certainty. The stem is black acrylic fancy saddle stem and was dirty with tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The silver ferrule and tenon end were oxidized and dirty. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before the clean up. You can see the cake in the bowl overflowing on the inner edge rim top. He also took some photos of the stem to show the condition of both sides. You can see the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside next to the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the grain around the bowl and shank. The stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. The stamping on the sides of the shank and on the silver ferrule is shown in the photos below. It is clear and readable as noted above. I turned to Pipephil (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s5.html) to remind myself of the background of the brand. I also wanted to see what the single Coral dot meant on the stem. I knew that the Coral dot was on the older pipes but that was all I knew. I include a screen capture of the section on the brand below. The third photo below shows a similar Coral dot on the stem.I am also including the information that I found there in the sidebar on PipePhil. I quote that below. I have highlighted the R2 designation below in red.

Founder of the brand in 1982: Giancarlo Guidi (1943 – †2012). Production (2006): ~ 6000 pipes/year. Ser Jacopo seconds: Gepetto.

Finish mark: Rusticated pipes: R1 (dark brown) R2 (light brown); Sandblasted pipes: S (black), S1 (dark brown), S2 (light brown), S3 (tanshell); Smooth pipes: L (red), L1 (acceptable grain), L2 (nice grain), L3 (exceptional grain).

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ser_Jacopo) to read some more about the brand and see if there were more details regarding the single Coral dot. I quote below.

Ser Jacopo (provided by Marble Arch Ltd., US importer and distributor of Ser Jacopo)

Smokingpipes.com has an excellent concise history available on their website Ser Jacopo History at Smoking Pipes.com

Ser Jacopo, better to say Ser Jacopo dalla Gemma, was started by Giancarlo Guidi in 1982 upon leaving Mastro de Paja.

Giancarlo Guidi and Bruto Sordini broke away from Mastro de Paja in 1981 in pursuit of their own company. Ser Jacopo was named after an Italian nobleman. Guidi and Sordini, having taken part in creating the now infamous Pesaro “school” of pipe making, wanted to expand further. To accomplish this, Ser Jacopo focused their efforts on the pairing of the briar with a seemingly endless variety of mounts. Through the use of precious metals and stones, horn, and exotic woods Ser Jacopo pipes are given unique characters that many collectors find quite aesthetically pleasing. Although Ser Jacopo pipes borrow heavily from classical shapes, they are indeed quite unique in style.

In addition to creative mountings, Ser Jacopo is also well known for making themed pipes, and the most famous of these themes is perhaps the Picta Series, where pipes are modeled after pipes seen in pictures by and of famous artists, such as Vincent Van Gough.

Ser Jacopo makes multiple grades of pipes, with the “entry” level being the Geppetto brand, and the highest grade being the “Gem” series.

The small Ser Jacopo shop produces approximately 6000 pipes per year. The pipes are known for using outstanding Italian briar, which is well seasoned. The pipes have earned a well-deserved reputation for having excellent smoking qualities, equal or better than any other fine Italian pipe maker (or, for that matter, any other pipe maker in the world).

Giancarlo Guidi passed away on August 6, 2012, leaving behind a great legacy. He was 64 years old.

Nomenclature – the section on the nomenclature helps understand the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is helpful and really quite interesting.

The standard nomenclature found on Ser Jacopo pipes is as follows:

Ser Jacopo Fatta A Mano In Italia Per Aspera Ad Astra – Fatta A Mano translates to “Made By Hand”. Per Aspera Ad Astra is a Latin phrase found on Ser Jacopo pipes and is the Ser Jacopo motto. It translates to “To the Stars Through Travails”, meaning that success comes through hard work. In the Summer 1997 Pipes and Tobaccos article Giancarlo Guidi translated this as “through a difficult way until the stars are reached”.

Ser Jacopo Pipes are generally found in one of three finishes (rusticated, sandblast, smooth) designated by a letter and number code:

R1: Rusticated, dark brown or plum finish.

R2: Rusticated, light brown finish.

S: Sandblast, black

S1: Sandblast, dark brown

S2: Sandblast, light brown

S3: Sandblast, tanshell

L: Smooth, red, usually with silver trim

L1: Smooth, flame grain, various finishes

L2: Smooth, straight grain, various finishes

L3: Smooth, straight grain extra, discontinued

Dating Pipes

In the photo to the left you can see the development of the stem inserts on the pipes.

Top: Early Red Coral Logo Middle: Coral Logo with Silver Ring Bottom: Modern Day Silver J Logo – Courtesy of Mike Ahmadi

Ser Jacopo pipes is somewhat difficult, because Ser Jacopo does not generally use date codes (the exception being the Diamond Gemma series pipes, which are dated coded). Early pipes (from 1983 to 1997) featured a red coral dot on the mouthpiece, sometimes found encircled in a silver ring. This was discontinued and changed to a sterling silver letter “J”. On the Gemma series of pipes, the mouthpiece logo is a precious stone surrounded by an 18k gold ring.

The pipe I am working on is one of the early pipes (1983-1997) with a coral dot in the top of the saddle stem. It is a lovely pipe with an L Red finish and silver trim. Now it is time to work on the pipe and bring it back to life.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Before he sent it to me, Jeff had done an amazing job cleaning the pipe. It almost looked like a different pipe after his work. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. The finish looked very good and the rugged finish felt good in the hand. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and then rinsed it off with warm water. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and a tooth brush and rinsed it off with warm water. It looked good when I took it out of the package of pipes he shipped me. There were some shiny spots on the finish where the shellac coat had not all come off. It would need to be removed to even it out. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. I took close up photos of both the rim top and the stem. Jeff had been able to get the grime and lava off of the rim top and it looked very clean. You can see the spotty shellac coat that still remains on the bowl and rim top. The stem looked very clean. The tooth marks and chatter were much less than on the previous pipes in this collection and they were predominantly near the button. They should be easy to remove. The stamping on the sides of the shank was readable as noted above. I took photos of the stamping on each side to show the condition and readability. I also took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an idea of the perspective and design of the pipe. To deal with the spotty coat of shellac on the bowl and shank I used a cotton pad and alcohol to wipe down the briar. I was able to remove the shellac coat completely and the grain really showed through. Here is what it looks like at this point in the process. I polished the smooth bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads using 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl and shank with my fingers. I want the product to go deep into the finish because it works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. Once I was confident that it was deeply worked into the finish I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth to polish it. The pipe really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain really stands out on the pipe in the photos below. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks in the acrylic surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with a folded piece of 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad.I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. This Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard with Silver Ferrule and an acrylic saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful finish really highlights the grain and the polished finish is stunning. The Silver Ferrule and Silver tenon space is also a great addition. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. 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 Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard 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 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 87 grams /3.03 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Italian Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

New Life for a “Giant” Maestro de Paja Pesaro Ciocco Gigante Bent Bulldog Rusticated

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Blog Steve Laug

Jeff cleaned them all and this week I received them in Vancouver. I am impressed with the way they cleaned up and the beauty of the brands. They truly are some beautiful pipes. I just need to put the final touches on each of them and address minor issues on the bowl rims and the stems and they should be good to go. I am really looking forward to working on each of them in the days ahead.

This evening after work I decided to continue working on the lot. I chose to work on the rusticated Mastro de Paja Pesaro Ciocco Gigante 0C Large Bulldog. It has a classic Large Bent Bulldog shape with an Italian twist. The rustication is extremely rugged and tactile. The crowned rim top, the briar around the twin rings on the cap are smooth. There is also a smooth band around the shank end just ahead of a silver ferrule. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the left underside of the diamond shank. It has a sun logo that is followed by Mastro de Paja [over] Fatta A Mano (made by hand). Under that it is Persaro [over] Ciocco. Next that just in front of the ferrule is stamped with a 0C in a circle [over] Gigante. The silver ferrule is stamped on the top left side and reads Mastro [over] De Paja [over] Ciocco. There is a Mastro de Paja metal circular disc logo is on top left side of the stem and on the left underside it is stamped with the sun logo. The stamping is clear and readable. The finish was very dirty with grime ground into the grooves of the rustication. The bowl had a thick cake and the crowned rim top/inner edge had a thick coat of lava flowing up from the bowl. The inner edge of the bowl was covered with a thick cake so it was hard to know its condition with certainty. The stem is black acrylic fancy saddle stem and was dirty with tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before the clean up. You can see the thick cake in the bowl overflowing on the inner edge/crowned rim top. He also took some photos of the stem to show the condition of both sides. You can see the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside next to the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the deep rusticated finish around the bowl and shank. The stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty.The stamping on the underside of the shank and on the silver ferrule is shown in the photos below. It is clear and readable as noted above. There is also a stamping reading Italia on the lower right side on the smooth band on the shank end ahead of the silver. Before moving on to the clean up I wanted to build my knowledge of background on the brand. I have looked at them quite often and perhaps worked on a few in past years but I have no memory of the brand. I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-m3.html). I have included a screen capture of the information on the site as well as some side bars notes below the photo. The last pipe pictured shows the circle 1B stamp as well as the one Sun logo which is noted as the grading stamp. That was information it did not have before.Brand founded in 1972 by Giancarlo Guidi. He left it for Ser Jacopo in 1982. Alberto Montini became the owner of the brand in 1995. Production (2010): ~ 5000 pipes/year. Seconds: Calibano, Montini,

That led me to the Mastro de Paja website (https://www.mastrodepaja.it/en/pipes-and-accessories.html). There was a lot of information on the brand and the quality of the briar and craftsmanship of the pipes. I quote below:

Mastro de Paja are formed by the expert and highly capable hands of craftsmen – famous pipes with the unmistakable sun brand, known and appreciated by connoisseurs throughout the world. Unique and inimitable because they are unrepeatable encounter of precious Mediterranean briars, with the sensitivity of the craftsman who, using art and inspiration, models them individually. And, in the modelling process, brings to light the most concealed and valuable qualities of the briar. Varied designs, original lines and a deriberately (sic) limited productions make Mastro de Paja pipes objects destined for the most demanding and refined collectionists. Beautiful and loved, they are also excellent pipes because they are worked with care by those who know them: a successful synthesis of formal beauty and functionality. Rigorous controls and selections give Mastro de Paja pipes, right from the first smoke, that rounded taste which is then maintained intact for the whole of its long and extraordinary life.

The site also had a video entitled “How to make a Smoking Pipe by Hand – Mastro de Paja”. I have included the youtube link as well as the code for embedding.

https://youtu.be/xx24a-NpljM

I turned to Pipedia for more information on the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Mastro_de_Paja). The site is full of information on the brand and the philosophy behind the carving of the hand made pipes. I am including the information on the site listed as the Elite Collection that listed the stamping information. I have highlighted pertinent information on this particular pipe in red in the list below.

Mastro de Paja “ELITE COLLECTION”

It is the production of pipes made entirely by hand, even they are unique but of regular production.

On all “Mastro de Paja” pipes you can see fire stamped all the information for tracing the value of each creation.

RUSTICATED

0B: Completely rusticated
0B Unica: Completely rusticated with some smooth sections

SANDBLASTED

1B: Dark brown or black sandblasted
1B + 1 Sun: Light brown sandblasted

PARTIALLY RUSTICATED

2D: Smooth with small sections rusticated
2D + 1 Sun: Smooth straight grain with small sections rusticated

SMOOTH WITH COLORED FINISH

Ruber: Smooth with red stain
Castanea: Smooth with brown stain
3A: Smooth with brown-orange stain
3A + 1 Sun: Smooth good grain with brown-orange stain
3A + 2 Sun: Smooth straight grain with brown-orange stain

SMOOTH WITH NATURAL FINISH

3B: Smooth with a good grain and a natural finish
3B + 1 Sun: Smooth excellent grain with natural finish
3B + 2 Sun: Perfect grain
3C: Good grain
3C + 1 Sun: Excellent grain
3C + 2 Sun: Perfect grain
F: Straight grain
F + 1 Sun: Good straight grain
F + 2 Sun: Excellent straight grain
F + 3 Sun: Perfect straight grain

Sometimes “Mastro de Paja Pipes” are enhanched with sterling silver, gold, precious stones and/or fine wood and are further classified and fire stamped on each pipe.

Stamp “P” : “Personal” with fine ornamentation.
Stamp “N” : “Normal” with basic sterling silver.
Stamp “L” : “Lavorata” with more complex sterling silver.
Stamp “S” : “Special” with elaborate sterling silver and specially worked.
Stamp “G” : “Gold” with special gold ornamentation.
Media : Medium size pipe
Gigante: Giant pipe

From that information I knew that the pipe I was working on was a Rusticated Pipe and a Sun which made it a completely rusticated. It also is stamped Gigante which makes it a Giant pipe. It is a beauty and now it is time to look at it up close and personal.

Jeff had done an amazing job in removing all of the cake and the lava on the 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. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior and cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration. I took close up photos of both the rim top and the stem. Jeff had been able to get the grime and lava off of the rim top and it looked good. There was some burn damage and darkening on the right front of the crowned rim top and beveled inner edge. The stem looked very clean. The tooth marks and chatter were predominantly near the button. They should be easy to remove. The stamping on the left underside of the diamond shank was readable as noted above. The stamping on the silver ferrule is also very readable as noted. I also took a photo with the stem removed to give an idea of the perspective and design of the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the burn damage and darkening on the right front of the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Fortunately the burn damage was not deep but mainly surface. I was ale to remove and minimize it without changing the shape of the rim top. I also worked on the darkening on the inner bevel and removed it as well. I polished it with 1200-3200 micromesh sanding pads and then restained the rim top and edge with a Oak Stain Pen to match the rest of the bowl. Over all the rim top and edges looked much better. The bowl and shank were very clean and the rim top finished. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl and shank with my fingers and a horsehair shoe brush. I want the product to go deep into the finish because it works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. Once I was confident that it was deeply worked into the finish I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth to polish it. The pipe really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The rusticated finish on the pipe is beautiful and shows depth in the photos below. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I filled in the deep tooth marks with black CA glue and set it aside to cure. Once cured I flattened them out with a small file and then sanded the smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the Sun logo on the left underside of the diamond shaped stem with some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. It picks up the Sun shaped stamp very well. I polished the acrylic stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad because I find that the oil provides a great surface for polishing with the micromesh pads. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. This Mastro de Paja Pesaro Ciocco Gigante Rusticated 0C Bent Bulldog is a real beauty with a deep and tactile rustication and a silver ferrule. I put the bowl and stem back together again and buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I used a soft touch on the bowl so as not to fill it in with the polishing product. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I carefully buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I polished the silver ferrule with a jewelers cloth to protect and shine. I finished buffing with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe looks very good. It is comfortable and light weight. The finished Mastro de Paja Ciocco Gigante Bent Bulldog is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 78 grams/2.75 ounces. This great looking rusticated Bulldog turned out very well. It should be a great pipe. It will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipemakers Section shortly if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Email me at slaug@uniserve.com