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Restoring a No Name Natural Finished Oom Paul

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a Natural Finish smooth Oom Paul with a bent saddle stem that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. This is the final pipe of the 10 so it has been a fun journey to clean them up. There is no stamping on the shank on either side. It is unmarked and a no name. The saddle stem has a no stamping either. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with some mixed grain around the bowl and shank. There are some small fills in the briar but not to ugly. It has a natural finish. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. I brought it to the work table and turned it over in my hands. This is what I saw when I over the pipe.

  1. The natural finish was okay with some hand oils on the sides of the bowl and grime ground into the finish around the bowl sides. The finish is rough and unfinished. It looks dull but the it really highlights the grain around the bowl sides and shank. There are some fills on the bowl – right side toward the top front, back of the rim top and one on the top of the full bent shank.
  2. The smooth rim top was okay and the inner and outer edges looked good. There was no lava build on the top and the beveled inner edge. There was some grime on the rim top and a burn mark on the top front of the rim and the bevel.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
  4. The vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition with just some oxidation and light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button.
  5. The heel of the bowl has a sanded spot that is flat and has not been sanded or smoothed out. It was made to be a sitter but it had not been finished out.

To summarize what I saw – this no name Oom Paul is a well made pipe. It is a dirty but otherwise in good condition. The stem is lightly tooth marked but otherwise undamaged. There does not appear to be any calcification, only some light oxidation on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up.   The bowl of the pipe looked good. The rim top is clean but there is some darkening on the beveled inner edge of the bowl on the back right side. There was a burn mark on the rim top at the front of the bowl. There does not seem to be any damage to the smooth finish. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem to show the condition of it. Though hard to see there are light tooth chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with polishing. The next photo captures the flattened heel of the bowl. It is still roughly finished and will need some sanding. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean.  I scrubbed the bowl with acetone and a cotton pad to remove the oils on the sides of the bowl and spottiness from the bowl and shank. It looked much better once it dried off.  I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish on the bowl and shank. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. It is really a beauty. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. Though I know that it does not do much with the acrylic I find that it still adds depth to the final shine on the stem which grew deeper with each sanding pad.  I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I took the No Name Oom Paul to the buffer to wax and polish. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel to polish out the scratches in the vulcanite. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and then 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 Natural finish used on the briar brings out the grain and the bowl looks excellent with the shine and the bent saddle stem. The rich finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe a great look. The No Name Oom Paul is a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 55 grams/1.94 ounces. This is a great looking Natural Finish Oom Paul. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers Section. If you want to add it to your rack let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Fixing Up a Hardcastle Apple

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a handsome and gently-bent Hardcastle Lightweight apple, acquired from a local gentleman who’d sadly given up the hobby. It was well used, but it had a certain charm and I felt I could tease out its beauty from under the grime. The markings read as follows. On the left side of the shank: Hardcastle’s [over] British Made [over] Lightweight. On the left of the stem is the stylized “H”, of the Hardcastle company.The Hardcastle name has been around for 120 years and has an interesting history. As usual, I went to Pipedia and Pipephil to see more. Pipepedia has a good article, which I recommend you read here. Meanwhile, Pipephil provided the following information:On to the pipe. There was plenty of cake and lava on the stummel, and the opening of the bowl was slightly out of round, possibly due to bad reaming. The outside of the bowl had a couple of fills, and numerous scratches and nicks. It’s clearly been roughly manhandled during its life. The stem was in far worse shape than the photographs show – the mouthpiece had calcification and some oxidation, and there were many tooth marks and scratches, a deep tooth dent on the underside, and the bit was also badly dented. Time to get this pipe cleaned up. The stem was first on my list. I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was fairly dirty but didn’t take too long to clean out. Then I wiped the outside down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and “painted” the stem with its flame to lift the few bite marks and dents. This was moderately successful in raising some of the damage. I then wiped down the stem with SoftScrub cleaner to remove surface oxidation. Once this process was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The next day, I used SoftScrub again with some cotton rounds. After this, I used some nail polish to restore the logo on the stem. I painted the area carefully and let it fully set before proceeding. I also built up the dents on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure. Forgot to snap a picture of that.I then sanded the adhesive down with 220- and 400-grit sandpapers and used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. This stem has had a hard life, and the result was not perfect – but it is a vast improvement on its condition when I got it.Now for the stummel. Firstly, I decided to ream out the bowl. I used the PipNet Reamer and the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much as I could. I took the chamber down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. There was a bit of filth inside this stummel and it took a fair amount of cotton to get it clean. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. I used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the rim of the pipe. Having completed that, I was able to address the small nicks on the rim and the bowl. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise the nicks. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. This worked very well and many of the scratches were corrected with this method.Now I could tackle the burn on the rim. I used a piece of tool steel to gently scrape away the burn residue, but the burns were more serious than I’d hoped. So, I “topped” the pipe – that is, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This effectively removed the damage without altering the look of the pipe.Due to the burning on the rim of the pipe, I used my wood sphere, wrapped in 220-grit sandpaper, to create a beautiful, chamfered edge on the rim. This also helped return the opening of the bowl to round.  I think the results turned out very nicely. Unaccountably, I ran out of cotton balls with which to ghost the pipe. So, in a pinch, I used the old trick of replacing it with salt (in this case, pickling salt). Long ago, Steve had told me that he much preferred cotton balls to salt, and I simply took him at his word, not knowing any better. Having now used salt myself, I am wholeheartedly in agreement with Steve. What a pain in the gluteus maximus! Oh, it works just fine, but it’s a mess and the salt can (potentially) damage the wood. Now it was time to repair the tiny fills on the bowl. I repaired them with a mixture of briar dust and cyanoacrylate adhesive. This ensures a strong repair and one that looks similar to the surrounding wood. As you can see, I made a mess, to begin with, but I sanded the repair down with 200- and 400-grit sandpaper until it was level with the surrounding briar. Then, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stummel to finish it off. Much improved. I applied some Before & After Restoration Balm to moisturize the wood and draw out its beauty. Finally, I took it to my bench buffer. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax were just what this pipe needed. This Hardcastle much improved and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the British pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅜ in. (137 mm); height 1⅜ in. (35 mm); bowl diameter 1¼ in. (32 mm); chamber diameter ⅝ in. (16 mm). The weight of the pipe is ⅝ oz. (20 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restemming and Restoring a Brigham Voyageur 165 Bent Acorn

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another that the Vancouver pipe man dropped off for me to work on for him. It was stamped Brigham Voyageur 165 and had a mixed finish of smooth top and rusticated bowl and shank. It is a Bent Acorn that was finished in a brown stain. It needed restoration on the bowl which was moderately caked and the shank was dirty. It also needed new stem as the current push stem was chewed and broken at the button. It was another pipe that I had previously repaired for him back in 2017. At that point it needed had done a complete restoration and fitted a regular push stem as requested. It had a thick cake at that point as well and was well used. The original stem had nylon Brigham system tenon that was broken as well. Here is the link to that restoration. (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/04/02/restemming-and-reconditioning-a-brigham-voyageur-165/). Here are some photos of the pipe when he picked it up in 2017 to give a bit for context for my work. When I took the pipe out of the bag of pipes he brought for me to work on it last evening this is what I saw. The finish on the briar looked very good. It was dirty but the colour had stayed true. It had a bit of patina on the bowl but it was beautiful. The bowl had a moderate cake and the airway in the shank was dirty. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had a large chunk of vulcanite missing on the underside. I took photos of the rim top and the thick cake in the bowl to show how it looked. There was also tobacco debris on the walls. The rim top had some darkening and there were nicks around the inner edge of the bowl. It will clean up pretty well. The photos of the stem show the condition of the stem. You can see the tooth marks and chatter under the calcification on the stem surface.I took a photo of the stamping on the smooth panel on the left side of the shank. You can see it is clear and readable and reads as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank to give a sense of the flow of the pipe.Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning and reaming the bowl The cake was quite thick but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer to cut cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I worked over the shank and the airway in the stem. It took some work but once finished it was clean and smelled fresh.I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It took on a real shine by the time I finished with the last sanding pad. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the smooth rim and the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. Now it was time to deal with the replacement stem. I went through my can of stems and found an interesting bent taper vulcanite stem that was a perfect fit. It was a 6 dot Brigham stem that someone had cut off to be a push stem. It would not hold a filter so it was relegated to my can. Since the pipeman wanted a replacement push stem I would be able to modify it to work perfectly. Because the modified Brigham stem was made for the Hardrock Maple filter it was a wide open draw. I used a piece of Delrin tubing to make a converter to fit in the tenon and change it to a regular bore. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the Delrin so that it would fit into the tenon. It worked well as can be seen in the second photo below. It is longer than necessary in the photos below but I cut it and shaped the end like other converters that have been used on Savinelli pipes.I build up the damage to the button edge on the top and the marks in the top and underside of the stem with black CA rubberized glue. Once it had cured I used a small file to recut the button edged and flattened the repairs. I smoothed out the repairs and worked on the stem diameter at the shank with 220 grit sandpaper to get a good seat. I started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sand paper. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine Polish. I finished the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.I took the Brigham Voyageur 165 Bent Acorn bowl to wax and polish. I don’t buff the rusticated bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the finis. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. 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 contrast of the dark stain on the briar with the shine of the polished acrylic stem is quite stunning. The rich sandblast finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The Brigham Voyageur Bent Acorn is a nice looking pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 51 grams/1.80 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and the fourth of the five pipes left with me for work. Once I am finished with the lot he will get them back to enjoy once more. 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 pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Beautiful Stanwell Relief 12 Sandblast Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking sandblast black and brown Billiard with a thin silver band/adornment and an acrylic stem that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on a smooth patch on the underside of the shank reads Stanwell [over] Relief in script. The shape number 12 is on the right side of the stamp toward the top of the smooth panel. The thin silver band on the shank has stamping. The acrylic taper stem has a silver Stanwell Crown S inlaid. The pipe is a nice looking sandblast. It is light weight and comfortable to hold. The pipe came in a pipe sock stamped with a horse and carriage in an oval [over] Stanwell. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in good condition.This is what I saw when I took it out of the pipe sock.

  1. The finish was very good with only some light dust in the grain around the bowl side. The dark brown/black stain is dull but the it really highlights the grain around the bowl sides and shank
  2. The smooth rim top looked very good with some light darkening but not much. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
  4. The band is silver and looks to be good condition. It is undamaged and clean. The thin band looks really good with the “Relief” finish and the smooth rim top.
  5. The acrylic taper stem has a silver Crown S logo that identifies it as a Stanwell pipe. It is in excellent condition with just some light tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside ahead of the button.

To summarize what I saw – this Stanwell Relief Sandblast 12 Billiard is a well made pipe. It is a little dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. There does not appear to be any calcification on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The rim top is clean does not seem to have any damage to the smooth finish. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem to show the condition of each one. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping a smooth patch on the underside of the shank. It read as I have noted above. I took a photo of the logo on the left side of the stem as well. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion.Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and rings around bowl cap. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. The light sandblast finish looks very good and has a real touch of beauty.   I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. Though I know that it does not do much with the acrylic I find that it still adds depth to the final shine on the stem which grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I took the Stanwell Relief 12 Sandblast Billiard bowl to wax and polish. I don’t buff the sandblast bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the finis. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. 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 contrast of the dark stain on the briar with the shine of the polished acrylic stem is quite stunning. The rich sandblast finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The Stanwell Relief 12 Sandblast Billiard is a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 46 grams/1.62 ounces. This is a great looking Stanwell Relief 12 Billiard. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section. If you want to add it to your rack let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Restoring a Lightly Smoked Peterson’s Donegal Rocky 150 Straight Bulldog with 2 stems

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking rusticated reddish brown straight Bulldog with a silver band/adornment and a P-lip and a Standard vulcanite stem that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on a smooth patch on the underside of the shank reads Peterson’s [arched over] of Dublin [over] Donegal [over] Rocky [over] the shape number 150. The silver band on the shank is stamped Peterson [arched over] P [over] of Dublin. The pair of vulcanite saddle stems have no stamping or marks. The pipe is a nice looking rusticated one. It is light weight and comfortable to hold. The pipe came in a pipe sock stamped Peterson of Dublin. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in good condition.This is what I saw when I took it out of the pipe sock.

  1. The finish was dusty in the grooves and valleys of the rustication. Otherwise it looked very good.
  2. The rusticated rim top looked very good other than the grime in the sandblast. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
  4. The band is silver coloured and the stamping is very clear. I don’t think that it is silver more probably nickel. It is undamaged and clean.
  5. The two vulcanite saddle stem had no identifying logos or stamping. There was light tooth chatter and marks on both sides of both stems.
  6. The P-lip stem does not fit correctly in the shank. The tenon is too large to fit into the shank of the pipe clearly.

To summarize what I saw – this Peterson’s of Dublin Donegal Rocky 150 Bulldog is a well made pipe. It is dusty but otherwise in good condition. The two stems are lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. There does not appear to be any oxidation or calcification on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. The first four photos show it with the standard fishtail stem. I took a photo of the pipe with the P-Lip style stem and the way it fit in the shank. The tenon was large at the back half of the tenon at the stem junction. I sanded the tenon with so a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reduce it for a snug fit.I put the stem on the shank and took photos of the pipe with the P-Lip stem. I like the way it looks better with this stem! The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The rusticated rim top is clean does not seem to have any debris in the rustication. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stems to show the condition of each one. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on both pipes on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper. The next photo captures the stamping on the left underside of the diamond shank. They read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean.I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and rings around bowl cap. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. The Donegal Rocky finish looks very good and has a real touch of beauty. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stems. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. The stems certainly looked much better. I dry sanded both sides of the stems with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped them down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. The shine grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I put the Peterson’s Donegal Rocky 150 Straight Bulldog back together. I don’t buff the rusticated bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the finis. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine.I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. 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 contrast of the browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stems is quite stunning. The rich rusticated finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. 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 contrast of the browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stems is quite stunning. The rich rusticated finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The Peterson’s Donegal Rocky 150 Bulldog is a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe with the P-Lip stem are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 45 grams/1.62 ounces. The dimensions of the pipe with the fishtail stem are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 47 grams/1.66 ounces. This is a great looking Peterson’s Donnegal Rocky pipe. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section. If you want to add it to your rack let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Repairing a Cracked Shank and Banding a Jost’s Supreme Diamond Shank Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another that the Vancouver pipe man dropped off for me to work on for him. It was stamped Jost’s Supreme and had a natural finish around the bowl. It is a bent diamond shank Billiard with some interesting grain. It needed restoration on the bowl which was heavily caked and the shank had the remnants of a paper wrap that had been used to hold the stem in place due to the crack in the shank. It also needed a repair to the crack on a pipe that I had originally worked on back in 2016. When I originally had worked on it the pipe had a thick cake and was well used. Here is the link to that restoration that I did back when I first picked it up (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/11/11/restoring-the-fourth-classic-find-a-josts-supreme-diamond-shank-bent-billiard/).The stem had tooth marks, tooth chatter and a lot of oxidation and calcification on the stem. Here are some photos of the pipe when he picked it up in 2016 to give a bit for context for my work. When I took the pipe out of the bag to work on this morning this is what I saw. The finish on the briar looked very good. It was dirty and the natural finish looked dried out. There was a crack on the lower right side of the diamond shank. The stem was very loose in the shank and the tenon appeared to have been wrapped in paper to tighten it. The bowl had a very thick cake and the airway in the shank was dirty. I would need to be cleaned up before I worked on the shank repair and the fit of the stem in the shank. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took photos of the rim top and the thick cake in the bowl to show how it looked. The rim top had some darkening around the inner edge of the bowl. It will clean up pretty well. The photos of the stem show the condition of the stem. You can see the tooth marks and chatter under the calcification on the stem surface.I took a photo of the stamping on both sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the shank and photographed the look of the pipe as a whole. It is a nice looking Diamond Shank Bent Billiard. I went back and reread the previous restoration blog that I written on the restoration the previous time I had worked on the pipe. I also was very interested to read the back story and history on the brand. I quote from the blog below.

In earlier blogs I have written about restoring another Jost’s pipe that I found. When I restored that pipe it was a brand I had heard of but was unfamiliar with. I researched the web to find some information about the brand. Here is a link to the blog I wrote on the Jost’s Olde English Deluxe: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/03/josts-olde-english-de-luxesupreme-overstamped-j214-bent-billiard/. I am quoting several of the paragraphs that summarize what I learned about the brand.

“I looked up Jost’s pipes on the Pipephil site and found a pipe that had the same stamping on the left side of the shank as the one I was working on. The right side had slightly different stamping in that it had the classic COM stamp circle where the one I had was two lines Made in over England. It also had a picture of the circle J stamp on the stem. There was a note there the tobacco shop proprietor was Mrs. Henry A. Jost. Her resident carver was Harvey Raspberry.”

I also found a blog that is called ClassicPipeShop that even had a catalogue of the pipes made by the Jost’s Shop or were imported by them for their store. I quote that blog once more as it places the new pipe that I am working on now.

“I did some more hunting online and I found a blog that did a great write up on Jost’s Pipe Shop and gave some definitive information on the brand and grades of the pipes. Here is the link if you wish to read a well written history of the brand and also some interesting details about shop blends of tobacco. http://classicpipeshop.blogspot.ca/2015/03/josts-pipe-shop-201-north-6th-street-st.html”

 “I have included the section of the blog on the pipes. It covers a lot of information regarding the source of the pipes and the levels/grades of pipes. Remember that the one I am working on is a De Luxe/Supreme. I quote:”

“Jost’s Pipes are closely tied to Comoy’s. Many of Jost’s pipes have the standard Comoy’s shape number and the “Made in England” in a circle. If the Jost’s pipe doesn’t have the “Made in England” it is probably made by Harvey Raspberry.”

“If the pipe has a shape number that is preceded by a “J” that is a Comoy’s product without question.  Typically these will have the words “Made in London England” on the reverse side of the shank from where the Jost stamp is made.  There are always exceptions to the rule but 95% of the time, this is accurate.”

“Many different levels of pipes were offered by Jost’s Pipe Shop.  From a 1950s catalog I have the following available:”

Jost Old English De Luxe: $85.00

These were typically of the highest… Grain is stunning and the briar is flawless.  These are the grade you should look out for as they are great smokers.

*Jost Old English Supreme: (no pricing available)

The majority of the Old English version pipes you see are marked Supreme.  These are stained in a darker color and are presumably from the same Algerian aged Briar as the De Luxe brothers.  These are also of the highest quality available. *(The current pipe I am working on is stamped Jost’s Supreme on the left side of the shank with no shape number and no Made in London England stamp.  If I read the information correctly it was one that was made by Harvey Raspberry, who was the shop pipe maker.)

Jost Virgin Briar Supreme: $35.00

Don’t see too many marked as Virgin Briar Supreme but you will often find “Supreme” Jost pipes on the second hand market (see above).  Excellent quality briar and displays the lighter toned finish of the De Luxe above.  Grain is not as flashy or desirable as the De Luxe model.

Jost Thames Briars: $25.00

I’ve seen these offered as blasted / rusticated pipes and look quite nice.  Most of the smooth finish Thames pipes are riddled with fills.  Good smokers but not much to look at (smooth).

Jost Sandblast Briars: $25.00

These are a great value.  The shop made sand-blasted pipes are usually quite large and snapped up very quickly by collectors.  The Comoy’s versions (with J shape #s) are of excellent quality and typically rather small compared to the shop-made variety.

Dukes Briars: $15.00

These come up very rarely.  The two I’ve seen in recent years are rather small in size.  Smooth finish with light / honey stain color.  Not sure what the story is behind these.

Now I knew the background on the pipe. I knew that the Supreme pipe was one of the higher end Jost’s in the Old English line. It was time to work on the pipe!

I decided clean up the pipe before I repaired the cracked shank. I reamed the bowl back to bare briar with a Pipenet Pipe Reamer using the third cutting head. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl clean up with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were smooth and there was no sign of burning or checking. It looked very good.   I cleaned out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I worked over the shank and the airway in the stem. It took some work but once finished it was clean and smelled fresh. With the internals clean it was time to work on the cracked shank. I drilled a small pinhole at the end of the crack on the right underside of the shank. I do this to stop the crack from further spreading. I fill in the pinhole with clear CA glue and built up the surface of the crack at the same time. I squeezed the crack together and held it until the glue set. I spread the glue with a dental spatula and pressed into the shank crack. Once the repair cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I went through my bands and found a shank band/ferrule in nickel that was a snug fit on the shank. It was crowned and slightly dome so that would need to be flattened. I put the band a piece of dowel and used a ball peen hammer to flatten the top of the dome for a better fit with the stem.I heated the band with a lighter and pressed it onto the shank end. The fit of the ferrule to the shank was tight and it pulled the crack together even more than my clamping. It covered much of the stamping but the crack was quite long and I wanted some strong coverage. I put the stem on the shank and took photos of the new look of the pipe. I sanded the damage on the rim top and edges with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove the majority of it with the sanding. There was some remaining darkening on the back inner edge of the bowl. I polished the bowl rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It took on a real shine by the time I finished with the last sanding pad. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the smooth rim and the sandblast finish on the bowl and shank. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I used a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to try and flatten the remaining crown on the shank band/ferrule.Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep grooves in the tenon to build it up and make it even. Once the repair cured I sanded it smooth to make it round and even once more. Once finished it looked better and the fit in the shank was very good. I wanted to adjust the bent in the stem as it had straightened a bit over time. I heated the blade with the flame of a Bic lighter. Once the vulcanite had softened I bent it to the correct angle and set the bend with cool water. It looks much better. I took the newly bent stem off the shank and worked on the stem surface to deal with the tooth marks and chatter. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and calcification off the surface of the stem. I build up the damage to the top of the button edge with black CA rubberized glue. Once it had cured I recut the button edge and flattened the repairs. I smoothed out the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sand paper. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine Polish. I finished the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. The briar and stem just shone!   I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the shows the grain shining through the buffed natural finish of this Jost’s Supreme Diamond Shank Bent Billiard. The finished 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 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.62 ounces/46 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and the third of the five pipes for repair that I have ahead of me. Once I am finished with the lot he will get them back to enjoy once more. 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 pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Lightly Smoked ICARUS Sandblast Apple with an Amber Acrylic Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking sandblast reddish brown apple with a vegetable ivory shank band/adornment that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on a smooth patch on the underside of the shank reads ICARUS [over] U.S.A. The amber coloured saddle stem has no stamping or marks. The pipe is a nice looking sandblast and I wonder if it is not made of  Strawberry bush or Arbutus. It is very light weight and comfortable to hold. The pipe came in a pipe sock stamped Icarus Pipes. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in pretty good condition. This is what I saw when I took it out of the pipe sock.

  1. The finish was dusty in the grooves and valleys of the sandblast finish. Otherwise it looked very good.
  2. The sandblast rim top showed some slight darkening on back and some grime in the sandblast. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
  4. The amber acrylic saddle stem had no identifying logos or stamping. There was light tooth chatter and marks on both sides.

To summarize what I saw – this Icarus Sandblast Apple is a well made pipe. It is dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up.  The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The sandblast rim top is clean other than a little darkening on the top and in the blast toward the back of the bowl. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the acrylic stem to show its condition. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping on the underside of the shank. They read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion.For me, as you know, the background information on a brand and line of pipes is an important part of the restoration. I Googled the brand and found a large variety of sellers who were selling the pipes. The first of these was a seller called Cigarworld and they had a great description of the pipe and the background on the brand (https://www.cigarworld.de/en/pfeifen/pfeifen/briarworks-icarus-90015964). I quote in full below:

Briar Works pipes from the USA in Europe? How does that happen? Sometimes you are lucky and find such beautiful pipes as “bycatch” from a cigar deal on an inventory list. Of course, you have to take action, not only for us, but also for you. Because with a probability bordering on certainty we will not be able to get any new “Briarworks” anytime soon.

The pipes are well made, all without a filter and with an acrylic mouthpiece.

The sandblasted pipes have an incredibly deep relief and are made from strawberry bushes (arbutus). The material has the same properties as briar, but is a little lighter.

The surfaces of the “CS models” are natural and thus contribute to the excellent smoking behavior. Every now and then, however, there is an untreated spot. But no putty!

The “N5” models are incredibly well made, have a great finish and are wax-polished.

Only while supplies last!

The site included a sandblast apple that was identical in shape, shank band and stem. The one I have is reddish in colour rather than black and the shank band is more yellowed and aged looking. The stem is also amber rather than black acrylic.From this listing I could see that pipes were made in limited numbers and that they were made by Briarworks – a company that I have bought a pipe from in the past. It was a company run by Todd Johnson and Pete Provost. I have several of Todd’s earlier pipes and really enjoy them and I have a nice Briarworks pipe that I also enjoy.

I followed some of the other links and found a listing on Pipes and Cigars that also listed the brand and gave some background information (https://www.pipesandcigars.com/shop/icarus-pipes-brand/1702038/). I quote:

Icarus pipes are the brain child of Todd Johnson and Pete Prevost. They have spent over a year building their pipe factory in Nashville, TN and are now ready to show the world what their hard work has achieved, an affordable pipe that smokes as good if not better then pipes costing hundreds of dollars. Their shapes are innovative and their engineering is precise. We love these pipes at P&C.

The was also information on smokingpipes.com. Some of the same information is given but there is also additional information (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/Icarus/). I quote

Icarus is the brain-child of Todd Johnson, master pipe artisan and President/CEO of BriarWorks International, and was conceived with the simple goal of creating a brand of pipes which would deliver a combination of exacting engineering and superlative smoking qualities heretofore unseen in factory produced briars. In order to realize this lofty ambition, Johnson, along with the talents of Pete Prevost, brought to bear new methods of tenon adhesion, bits which are cut thinner than many produced by some of the most famous artisans of today, as well as continuously tapered, 18-22mm tobacco chambers. Not satisfied with merely having perfect interiors, Icarus features shapes which were designed by some of the world’s most famous and talented pipemakers, and are often accompanied by beautiful and well thought out accent materials.

The elfumador.com site has a great description that summarizes all the information that I have found on the various sites (http://elfumador.com/Icarus.html). I quote:

BriarWorks’ goal with Icarus Pipes was to create a serially produced pipe containing all of the elements present in a handmade pipe, but at a price point attainable by nearly every pipe smoker. Each pipe is precisely engineered and finished by hand. All of the pipes in the Icarus line are fitted with a custom designed, acrylic mouthpiece and often feature silver or acrylic embellishments.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked the soap into the grooves and valleys in the finish. I rinsed it off with warm running water. I dried it with a soft cotton towel. The bowl looks much better at this point in the process of recovery. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the smooth rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. It has a Delrin tenon in the stem that is in perfect condition and has a chamfered entrance to the airway in the tenon/stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The shine grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with a damp cotton pad afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I put the Icarus Apple back together. I don’t buff the sandblast bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the finis. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. 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 contrast of the browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stem is quite stunning. The rich sandblast around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The Icarus Sandblast Apple beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 4 ½ 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 a light and comfortable, 39 grams/1.38 ounces. This is the first Icarus pipe that I have worked on but not my first BriarWorks pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Restoring a Lightly Smoked Joe Case 2013 Hand Made Poker

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking rusticated Joe Case Poker that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on the smooth heel of the bowl reads JC interlocked [over] the signature of Joe Case [over] 2013 followed by USA. The variegated silver acrylic saddle stem has no stamping or marks. There is a silver coloured (Stainless?) band on the shank that is decorative. It has four thin silver bands with the space between the final two painted black. The heel of the bowl and the rim top were smooth while the rest of the pipe is rusticated. The pipe came in a no name pipe sock. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in pretty good condition. This is what I saw

  1. The finish was dusty and dirty in the grooves and valleys of the bark like rusticated finish. Otherwise the finish looked very good.
  2. The smooth rim top showed some light darkening on the crowned top. There was no lava build on the rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it but fortunately they were not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I would know more about that.
  4. The variegated grey/black acrylic saddle stem had no identifying logos or stamping. There was light tooth chatter and marks on both sides but nothing deep.

To summarize what I saw – this Joe Case Poker is a well made pipe as to be expected. It is dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. The look and feel of the pipe is great in the hand and the rustication is well done. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. What do you see when you examine it?  The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The crowned rim top is clean other than a little darkening toward the back of the bowl. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the acrylic stem to show its condition. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping on the heel of the bowl. They read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of proportion.Joe Case made some of the most sought after, hand-crafted, custom pipes in America. They are truly works of art if you can find them. Joe died 12/22/21 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. It is fascinating to me that he was not only a pipe maker but also a pastor who specialized in planting new churches (some thing we have in common as that is what I did for many years). He made beautiful pipes that are all on the larger size. The one I am working on is a large one – both tall and big. His pipes still come up now and again on eBay and other online sales sites and command a good price as they are limited in number since his death.

I found and interesting interview with Joe Case on Tobaccopipes.com that gives a great introduction to Joe and his philosophy of pipe carving. It also gives a good clue to the influences that moved him as a pipemaker. Here is the link – take time to give it a read (https://www.tobaccopipes.com/blog/joe-case-leads-a-wave-of-exciting-southern-pipe-makers-interview/).

I have also included a YouTube video that I found on the sight with Joe himself speaking with regard to his pipe making design and concepts. Give it a watch.

Armed with that information and renewing my knowledge of the brand it was time to work on the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean.I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean.  I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked the soap into the grooves and valleys in the finish. I rinsed it off with warm running water. I dried it with a soft cotton towel. The bowl looks much better at this point in the process of recovery. The band was loose on the shank so I gave the shank end a few drops of Weld Bond all purpose glue. I pressed it into place wiped off the excess.I polished the smooth crowned rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit  pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The rim top began to take on a rich shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the smooth rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I polished the silver band with a jewelers cloth. It is impregnated with an anti-tarnishing compound and polish. I rubbed the shank end band down with the cloth to polish and protect the band. It came out with a rich glow and shine. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The shine grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with a damp cotton pad afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I put the bowl and stem back together. I don’t buff the rusticated bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the rustication. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on rusticated and sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the vulcanite. 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 contrast of the blacks, dark browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stem is quite stunning. The dark and shallow rustication around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The smooth rim top is a great addition. This is truly a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is a light and comfortable pipe for its size: 78 grams/2.75 ounces. This is the first Joe Case pipe that I have worked on. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe makers Section of the store. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Restemming a Radford Ravel Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another that the Vancouver pipe man dropped off for me to work on for him. It was stamped Radford Ravel and had a mixed finish of smooth top and sandblasted shank and bottom part of the bowl. It is a Rhodesian and the cap is smooth and the rest is a light sandblast. It was finished in a brown stain. It needed restoration on the bowl which was heavily caked and the shank was almost clogged. It also needed some work on the fit of the stem to shank. It was a pipe that I had previously repaired for him back in 2017. At that point it needed banding and repair on a cracked shank. It had a thick cake at that point as well and was well used. Here is the link to that restoration (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/03/19/banding-and-restoring-a-radford-ravel-rhodesian/).The stem had a brass washer on the tenon and glued against the shank. When I received the pipe back from him the stem did not fit tightly. There were tooth marks, tooth chatter and a lot of oxidation on the stem. Here are some photos of the pipe when he picked it up in 2017 to give a bit for context for my work. When I took the pipe out of the bag to work on it last evening this is what I saw. The finish on the briar looked very good. It was dirty but the colour had stayed true. It had a bit of patina on the bowl but it was beautiful. The shank band was damaged along the edge where it had been bent and dented. The stem was very loose in the shank and the brass spacer on the stem was very loose. The bowl had a very thick cake and the airway in the shank was almost clogged with tars and oils. I would need to be cleaned up before I worked on tightening the fit in the shank. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took photos of the rim top and the thick cake in the bowl to show how it looked. There was also tobacco debris on the walls. The rim top had some darkening and there were nicks around the inner edge of the bowl. It will clean up pretty well. The photos of the stem show the condition of the stem. You can see the tooth marks and chatter under the calcification on the stem surface.I took a photo of the band and how much of the stamping it covered on the shank. You can also see the damage to the band between the shank and the stem. You can see the poor fit of the stem to the shank. I took the stem off the shank and photographed the look of the pipe as a whole. It is a nice looking Rhodesian that has a definite Chacom look to it. I went back and reread the previous restoration blog that I written on the restoration the previous time I had worked on the pipe. I also was very interested to read the back story and history on the brand. I quote from the blog below.

There was something about the brand on the pipe that rang a bell for me. I have a tin of their Sunday’s Fantasy Tobacco in my cellar and I wondered if they might have made pipes as well.

I did a bit of digging and found the picture on the left that showed some of the tobaccos made by the company and also a great figurine with the name Thomas Radford mild premium pipe tobacco on the base. On Pipedia I found that Radford’s Private Label Pipes were crafted by Chacom for the Pöschl Tabak GmbH & Co. in Germany. This information was from “Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks”, by José Manuel Lopes. The pipes were mass produced with ebonite and acrylic stems and were introduced by Butz-Choquin, Chacom, and Nording. On the stem there is generally an embossed logo that was a stylized R. The pipes were made to use 9mm filters and are moderately priced and very attractive. The following three links were the sources I used for this information.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Radford%27s

http://www.poeschl-tobacco.com/en/products/

http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-r1.html

I also looked on another website (http://cigar.supersmokers.biz/radfords/) and got a little more information on the brand.

The Radford’s pipe appears in 6 models in 3 variations 1x time a year in autumn. The so called Radford’s Depot contains a minimum of 1 dozen pipes of the actual running collection. Connected to the Depot is a listing of the Depot holder in Radford’s News.

This particular brand RADFORD’S SERIE RAVEL was a series of 6 elegant models within Radford’s Collection. They are made from good briar wood, sandblast, black/brown with a polished head’s border in dark-red shade. Very nice rich-in-contrast ring at the shaft’s finish. Mouthpiece from Acrylic for 9 mm filter.

Now I knew the background on the pipe. I knew that the stem was a replacement and that the original 9MM filter stem had long since disappeared. It was time to work on the pipe!

I decided to examine the fit of the stem to the shank first. I removed the stem and could see that it was loose. The brass spacer was also loose and seem to take space on the tenon that could otherwise be used in the shank. Once the brass spacer was gone I could also see that the tenon was no longer straight from the end to the saddle portion. There were dips in the surface of the vulcanite just ahead of where the band had been sitting. The photos below show the condition of the tenon at this point. I tried the stem with the spacer removed and it fit snug in the shank. The thickness of the tenon at the saddle portion was perfect so I would need to build up the rest of it to match that portion.The band was bent at the shank end in various places around the diameter. I used a tool I have here with a sharp end and a rounded end. I worked it around the inner edge of the band to smooth it out as much as possible. I used my topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to top off the damage on the shank end edge. It looked considerably better once I had finished and the stem fit more snug against the shank end. I turned my attention to the internals at this point. I reamed the bowl back to bare briar with a Pipenet Pipe Reamer using the second cutting head. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl clean up with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were smooth and there was no sign of burning or checking. It looked very good.   I cleaned out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I worked over the shank and the airway in the stem. It took some work but once finished it was clean and smelled fresh.I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It took on a real shine by the time I finished with the last sanding pad. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the smooth rim and the sandblast finish on the bowl and shank. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep grooves in the tenon to build it up and make it even. Once the repair cured I sanded it smooth to make it round and even once more. Once finished it looked better and the fit in the shank was very good. I also sanded the stem surface to smooth out the tooth marks and chatter. I also sanded it to remove the oxidation and calcification off the surface of the stem. I build up the damage to the button edge on the top and the marks in the underside of the stem with black CA rubberized glue. Once it had cured I recut the button edge and flattened the repairs. I smoothed out the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sand paper. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine Polish. I finished the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. The briar and stem just shone! I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite and acrylic combination stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this Radford Ravel Rhodesian. The finished 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 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.90 ounces/53 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and the second of the five pipes for restemming I have ahead of me. Once I am finished with the lot he will get them back to enjoy once more. 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 pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Beautiful Rusticated Ferndown Bark 2 Star Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking rusticated Ferndown Lovat that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on the underside of the shank and reads Ferndown [arched over] 2 *s and Bark. That is followed by Hand Made In [over] England [over] Les Wood. The silver band on the shank is stamped L&JS in a rectangle [over] 925. The vulcanite saddle stem is stamped LJS in gold on the left side of the saddle. The pipe came in a no name pipe sock. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in pretty good condition. This is what I saw

  1. The finish was dusty and dirty in the grooves and valleys of the shallow, tight rusticated finish. Otherwise the finish looked very good.
  2. The smooth rim top showed some darkening and scratches in the finish. There was some light lava build on the rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it but fortunately they were not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I reamed it I would know more about that.
  4. The vulcanite saddle stem had the LJS Logo on the left side in gold. The vulcanite stem is lightly oxidized on the left side but otherwise clean. There are light tooth chatter and marks on both sides but nothing deep.

To summarize what I saw – this Ferndown is a well made pipe as to be expected. It is dusty but otherwise in good condition. The vulcanite stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. The look and feel of the pipe is great in the hand and the rustication is shallow but very beautiful. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. What do you see when you examine it? The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The rim top is clean other than a light lava build up and some scratching. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the acrylic stem to show its condition. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper. The next photo captures the stamping on the underside of the shank. They read as I have noted above. The second photo shows the stamp on the silver band and on the left side of the saddle stem. It is also clear and readable.  I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to capture the economy of this nice pipe.It has been awhile since I had cleaned up a Les Wood pipe and in this case a Ferndown rusticated Lovat stamp that left me with some questions that I need to answer before I began to work on the pipe. I turned first to the Pipephil site to help me interpret the stamping on the pipe and gain some background information on the brand and line (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-f1.html). The photo to the left shows Les Wood and the information below came from the side bar. I have also done a screen capture of the information on the site.

Artisan: Leslie (Les) Wood. He was the master silver smith at Alfred Dunhill Ltd. before starting L. & J.S. Briars. Pipes for the European market are stamped “L. Wood” while those for US are stamped “Ferndown”. Production: ~ 2000 pipes/year (Ferndown + L.Wood) See also Elwood.From the information on Pipephil I learned that I was working on a pipe made for the US and that it was a large 2 star pipe in terms of size. I also learned that the Bark finish was a sandblasted or rusticated. The one I had in hand was a tightly rusticated finish with a smooth strip on the underside of the shank for the stamping. All of which helped to understand the pipe I was going to work on.

I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ferndown) to find a more detailed history and description of the brand and was amazed to find that the majority of it was either quotes or written by Les Wood himself. I am quoting some pertinent parts of the article below. You can turn to the site to read it in full.

Leslie “Les” John Wood worked for Dunhill for 19 years. His last position was as master silversmith. Following his tenure with Dunhill, Les formed his own brand, L. & J.S. Briars together with his wife Dolly in 1978. Les Wood follows Sasieni, the first ex Dunhill worker to start their own enterprise, and he was followed by William John “Ashton”-Taylor.

“I started working at Dunhill’s in March 1963, in the silver mounting department working under Jack Spriggs he left the firm after I had been there for 2 years, and I took over the department, at that time I worked alone it was only when the department was relocated to the top floor that the increase of pipes that needed mounting that we took on trainees. After 19 years I was asked if I would buy the machinery and move out of the factory and set up on my own, so off I went. With me I took the staff that worked with me at that time, Robert Morris was the best, he could mount anything, he now has his own jewellery retail shop and makes some really nice handmade jewellery from his shop at Whitstable in Kent.”

“I worked on Dunhill’s pipes from 1980/81 and soon built up a reputation as the firm to send your mounting to. As time went on and Dolly left Dunhill’s we decided to start to turn our own bowls and make our own pipes under the name of my house.” Les Wood. Jan, 2020…”

Due to the vagaries of international trademark law, he sold his earlier pipes as ” L.&J.S Briars”, “Ellwood”, “Les Wood” or “L. Wood”. Until recently, an average of 1500 – 2000 pipes a year were sold as “Ferndown” — named for the mansion he lives in — in the UK and US, but as “L. Wood” pipes in Germany…

To many pipe smokers, Les Wood’s pipes embody the revival of great English pipe making initiated by Ashton in the early 1980s. The high-grade Italian and Spanish plateau he prefers is oil-cured in the tradition of both Dunhill and Ashton. The pipes are renowned for their pleasant, slightly nutty flavor and remarkable smoking characteristics. They feature impeccable craftsmanship extending to very good stem/bit work, though many pipes are often a bit heavier. The hallmark of his work, of course, is the excellent silver work. Almost all of his pipes feature rings or ferules for spigot stems. Grading is by finish: “Bark” (ca. 90%, rusticated, dark brown and black), “Antique Bark” (tan rusticated), “Reo” (brown and red, smooth), “Root” (orange, smooth), and “Tudor Root” (orange and brown smooth) and by size (one to four stars). He also designates straight grains with SG…

“We bought the briar from Italy and Spain, one is mush denser that the other I like the Spanish briar it is lighter and Dolly would make the Roots look like glass with only a natural vanish, all the pipes were finished with the same varnish, the bark finish on the bowl is put on by Dolly by hand, one slip and you have a problem. That’s one job that needs to be seen to see how it’s done.”

There also was a great paragraph on the oil curing process that Les and Dolly developed. I am including that below as the pipe I am working on was definitely oil cured.

“We had our method of Oil-Curing. We applied Oil to the outside and the inside of the bowl, that was because when Dolly was at Dunhill’s factory, she worked in the finishing department and got such a high finish on the pipes they wanted to know how she did it. The bowls had already gone through Dunhills’ oven oil curing system, but to her, it was not enough, because it could not get the shine that she wanted, then, she oiled the bowl on the outside and the inside to get a better finished. She left Dunhill and came to work with me. Because of this process, we found out the smokers liked the taste when light up their pipe – they said there was no aftertaste and it had a sweet taste doesn’t matter what tobacco they used. We have carried it on from there.”

Armed with that information and renewing my knowledge of the brand it was time to work on the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean.I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked the soap into the grooves and valleys in the finish. I rinsed it off with warm running water. I dried it with a soft cotton towel. The bowl looks much better at this point in the process of recovery. I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit  pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The rim top began to take on a rich shine.  I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the smooth rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I polished the silver band with a jewelers cloth. It is impregnated with an anti-tarnishing compound and polish. I rubbed the shank end band down with the cloth to polish and protect the band. It came out with a rich glow and shine. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded out the chatter and tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove the marks from the surface very well, leaving behind no sign of the tooth damage. I started polishing the stem surface with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The shine grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with a damp cotton pad afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I put the bowl and stem back together. I don’t buff the rusticated bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the rustication. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on rusticated and sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the vulcanite. 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 contrast of the blacks, dark browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stem is quite stunning. The dark and shallow rustication around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The smooth rim top is a great addition. This is truly a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is a light and comfortable 56 grams/1.94 ounces. This is the first Ferndown Bark in my collection and I have been hunting for one for a while. This is a little larger than I was hoping for but it is a great looking pipe. I will be putting it on the holding onto it for awhile and enjoying it. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.